Mini-reviews

Here are some older CDs that I picked up recently.


Every Mother's Nightmare-s/t (1990)
I have had their second release for some time and just thought it was very average although it was hurt by poor production. I found there debut recently for $6.99 which I think is way less than what it normally goes for. They sound sort of like a heavier version of Poison in some ways and yes I realize that still doesn't mean they are very heavy at all. It's a little more rockin' than the bulk of the hard rock stuff that was spewing out all over the place in 1990. Yet I think the arrangements and okay vocals kept them from being that memorable.

Soul Kitchen-s/t (1992)
This one always shows up cheap on eBay and I normally skipped it because I knew nothing about. Finally I took a chance on copy that was under $2.00. The good news is it's a little like early Black Crowes, but the bad news is that it sounds even more like rotten popular hard rock of the time complete with mandatory sappy ballads. They have some groove here and there, but it's normally too subdued and too far below a few layers of lame, almost generic hard rock. Decent vocals and good production help it to be worth what I paid for it.

Metalium-Hero Nation and As One (Double disc set)
This two disc set cost $9.99 used which I thought was a decent deal. Hero Nation is the band's third disc and it's standard Euro power metal in the Helloween/Gamma Ray mold. The vocals seem to be the major focus and it just felt the music was pushed too far back. Also the music never really flowed as much as I was hoping, it came out and went yet it never truly that dynamic. A decent album, but all a little too tame. As One was the band's fourth disc and fares quite a bit better. The music soars and it's overall and more vibrant, it actually feels like there is some direction to what they are doing. The vocals are good although the lyrics are the same old cliches although the band doesn't try to pretend it's anything else. As a package it was worth what I paid.