Slander-Careless Talk Costs Lives

Stormspell Records
2011

Wait just a second here. Didn't Metal Mark just cover this one at the beginning of the month in our Forgotten Gems section? Why yes he did. And it was his excellent review that made me hit Amazon looking to snag a copy of "Careless Talk Costs Lives". And you know what? A funny thing happened when this arrived in the mail later on. In addition to Slander's old demo recordings was a second disc of 2010 material! So, cheating a little here since it was released at the start of 2011 and all (at least officially) I thought I'd do a quick write-up so I could get it included in my year end best-of. Why? Well, for one thing this re-recorded material is some of the best heavy metal to come out this year that's why! For the record the track listing is different for the second disc as Slander choose to add in so cuts that didn't get released the first time around. Actually about half the tracks are different here. You have newer numbers like "Shadows","Land of Darkness", "Midnight Train", "This Time You Lose" and "Ends of the Circle". Tracks like "Hangman" offer up more of Slander's NWOBHM worship only with a modern slant. Metal Mark was right on with his list of influences (I'll tack on his original review at the end of this one) although from the sound of this second disc I'd say there was some Diamondhead, Satan and even Witchfinder General running through Slander's veins. Seems a crying shame these guys didn't get their proper due the first go round as this second disc kicks serious heavy metal ass. This 2-disc set includes the original demo material, the 2011 re-recorded material and a nice booklet with the band's history. Stormspell Records has done a nice job with this one. Man I hope Slander keeps at it this time as music like this never grows old.

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