I’ve been a big Danzig fan since the first time I heard the Misfits. Keep in mind that I’m an old bastard, so that was a long time ago. Anyway, I was really excited about checking out this live album. But, as with more or less all live recordings, there is just too much history to sort through, even if you only consider the band Danzig and not Misfits and Samhain, and I’m always a little disappointed that some songs weren’t included. However, this two-disc set, recorded at three distinct times in the band’s career (‘92, ‘94, and various times during 2000), covers most of the bases (including a nice rendition of “Halloween II”), probably better than most live albums do. It is somewhat strange to me that this isn’t all one show - even the second disc (all from the 2000 Satan’s Child tour) has songs recorded from three different gigs. But the most strange things about this set are, first that sometimes the guys sound sort of exhausted, especially Glenn at the beginning of the first show form ‘94, and second the quality of the recording itself is sometimes lacking. It never sounds as bad as some bootlegs I’ve heard, but then again, I have a couple bootlegs that sound better. If they were going to takes songs from different shows anyway, and had a decade of live recordings to choose from, I’m surprised that this collection was the best they could come up with, both sonically and performance-wise. I guess that might make you think that I don’t like this album, but that’s not true. I do like it quite a lot, and think it’s obviously a must-buy situation for any fans. But, I do think that it could have been better. Maybe after the machine-like (and disappointing) Blackacidevil and somewhat “modern” sounding not-quite-return-to-form Satan’s Child, Glenn decided that a “raw” sounding live album would be a good idea. I agree with that conceptually, but this is a little too far in the other direction to be the flawless masterpiece that I was expecting.

This album was actually released in 2001 but due to the fact that it really isn’t all that Metal, it was rather hard for me to track down until almost a year later. This band is actually a Goth Rock project that was started by Ancient Rites frontman, Gunther Theys. Unlike Ancient Rites, this isn’t at all brutal or evil in the slightest. Yes, there is some darkness in the lyrics but for the most part, this is solid Goth to the core. That being said, the lyrics (and music) try for a more sad or melancholic sound rather than the brutal or Satan obsessed stylings of Black Metal. Musically, this sounds a lot like Sisters of Mercy, Love Like Blood or maybe Bauhaus. Metalheads who cross over into the Goth scene (fans of Moonspell, Tiamat or Lucyfire in particular) will enjoy the fact that this has some heavier guitar work than your average Goth Rock band but still captures the feeling and emotion of good Gothic music.

When I was younger I really liked this wailing-vocals Power Metal style more than I do now. But as is usually the case, it’s just impossible to deny this band’s technical abilities, and at least I don’t have to deal with the usual Dungeons and Dragons lyrics, although they are somewhat suspect, still.

This lone wolf band hails from Iceland, a country with not just a small number of Metal bands but a small number of bands period. The only other band of note that I can think of is Solstafir (I believe they did a split CD with Chorus of Ruin some years back) and I’m not even sure that they’re still around. Musically, I was expecting something more in the vein of Burzum, but this MCD sounds more like old Emperor or Satyricon, though not as well executed. The three tracks on display here were recorded between the years 1999 and 2001 and though they don’t suck, they just don’t kick ass like you’d expect a song to after being worked on for so many years. With so many other great bands out there, this comes off as being mediocre. I’ll hail Eldur for trying to stick Iceland on the Black Metal map, but Cursed Be Thy Name is going to end up as a novelty for collectors of obscure albums by obscure bands.

In addition to being on the short list of stunningly awesome Metalcore bands, and just completely exploding my intensity meter, the Curl Up and Die fellows also have the absolutely most badass song titles I’ve ever seen. For example, “100 MPH Vomit Dedicated to Jon.” I checked into it and they don’t even know our very own vomit-loving Jon “Dear Death” Konrath! How many sick fucks named Jon are out there who have puke fetishes? But even cooler yet is the inspirational “Doctor Doom, a Man of Science, Doesn’t Believe in Jesus, Why the Fuck do You.” And, of course, the name of their previous EP (which I really need to track down, so if anyone can help with that… [update: I found a copy!]), The Only Good Bug Is a Dead Bug. I couldn’t agree more, and I couldn’t recommend Curl Up and Die much more!

Oh boy… Yet another “Grim” Black Metal band that pushes the boundaries of bad production, bad music or in this case, both. Cult of Daath sounds like they heard Satanic Blood by Von and said, “Hey, this one-riff Black Metal thing is kind of cool! We don’t have to come up with more than one set of three chords!” Unfortunately, the result is one-dimensional and the production makes this sound like a badly recorded rehearsal tape. Add slightly distorted Cookie Monster vocals over the top and you get a good idea of what this band sounds like. Judging by their choice of covers, one of their main influences was Beherit and if that’s the case, they’ve done a good job of trying to recreate the style but not the originality. Beherit did this almost 10 years ago! Bestial Summoning, Von, Profanatica and Blasphemy did this sort of thing and at the time, it was cool because it was all about feeling over polished sound and nobody else was doing it. Today, we have bands like Cult of Daath who don’t have the feeling or the originality. It’s okay to borrow an idea but do something with it! Copying something a decade old might get you some nostalgia but ultimately, if I wanted to listen to The Oath of Black Blood, I’d listen to The Oath of Black Blood - not something like this.

This is perhaps the ugliest band on Breath of Night. I don’t mean by looks, but by sound. This sounds like a Panzer assault most of the time. If the harshness of getting your body shredded by artillery and the feeling of what remains of your shattered corpse getting run over by a tank could be set to music, that would pretty much describe the bulk of what is on this album. This shit is just fucking harsh! It has a lot in common with Australian scene’s War Metal style assault - particularly that of Bestial Warlust or Abominator - with the raw chaos and brutality of old **Blasphemy. The whole thing is loud, intense and flat out fucking evil. Even when there are interludes of acoustic guitar, you know that things will explode into chaos and mayhem any second afterward. This has all the hallmarks of being an underground classic. I’m not surprised at all that Breath of Night picked these guys up, because while they may not sound like other bands on the label, the quality is there.

This MCD sort of reinforces the notion that Cruachan isn’t really very much of a Metal band anymore. Ride On has much more in common with a band like Wolfstone than with Iron Maiden, and if you look at their albums it is pretty clear which way they were headed. The main focus of this MCD is the song “Ride On.” This is the only new track on this release and though it is a cover song, it also features Irish Folk demigod, Shane Mac Gowan on guest vocals. The feeling and atmosphere on this track are much more in line with a Folk tune, though it has enough Metal in it to lay down a solid foundation of power and intensity. The rest of the tracks are just re-recordings of older songs. The re-recordings sound good too, but though they have improved sound, we’ve heard them all before. I know that the band probably didn’t feel that one song was enough to release by itself so they added all the other material that they recorded during this session - and they’re right. The one new song might be great, but fans want a little more than that (not to mention the record label needed to recoup the cost of recording and pressing the CDs). When you just consider the material by itself, it fucking rules. If you’re a fan of that Celtic sound, this is the shit. However, with only one new track, I’ll wager that most folks will probably download it as an MP3 instead of shelling out any money for the CD. Musically, this is great, economically, this one will probably be for hardcore fans of Cruachan only.

Here we have a live / greatest hits / rare tracks 2-disc set to showcase the long-running career of these German Goth Metallers. The first disc is entirely live, and the second is comprised of the rarities, singles, and my personal favorites, tracks from their 1992 demo when they were a much more extreme band. Obviously any big fan of Crematory will need this, but I’ve always been pretty middle-of-the-road on these guys. They can write the coolest, most haunting riff ever, and then go completely gay pride all in the same song. I suppose the demo tracks are worth the cheddar.