FAMOUS METAL COMPILATIONS
METAL MASSACRE (USA, Metal Blade Records)
The METAL MASSACRE serie was the start of the careeres of a lot of metal bands and the beginning of the company METAL BLADE. Here are a few words about the first seven METAL MASSACRES.
1982: Brian Slagel had an small record shop and he seemed to be very interested in the local metal scene. So he decided to make a compilation with his favourite bands. He called his label "Metal Blade" and released the first "Metal Massacre"-LP. It included METALLICA with "Hit The Lights" (the old line-up!), CIRITH UNGOL ("Death of the Sun" later appears on the King of the Dead - LP), BLACK`N`BLUE, BITCH, MALICE and the other bands who never got "famous": AVATAR, DEMON FLIGHT and PANDEMONIUM. It was the start of the carrere for most of the bands, other never released a LP.
METAL MASSACRE 2 has also some bands, who released records after appearing on METAL MASSACRE: ARMORED SAINT with singer John Bush who is now with ANTHRAX, SAVAGE GRACE who released three records, WARLORD and OBSESSION. But there are also famous people in unknown bands on this issue of MM: The bassplayer of the band TRAUMA is CLIFF BURTON who later joined METALLICA. The band ALOHA feauteres MARTY FRIEDMANN who later made HAWAII and who is now with MEGADETH. There is a band with the name OVERKILL on it, but it is not the group you may think...
On MM 3 you´ll find WARLORD and BITCH again, but also songs of SLAYER (Aggressive Perfector), TYRANT, VIRGIN STEELE and SNOWHITE (aka ZNÖWHITE). The other groups stayed unknown even SEXIST was produced by DON DOKKEN.
MM 4 is one of the best issues with early recordings of SACRED BLADE, TROUBLE, ZOETROPE, ABATTOIR (with John Syriis on vocals, later AGENT STEEL), WITCHSLAYER, LIZZY BORDEN and THRUST (on the record they wrote TRUST, but that´s obviously wrong...). But you can also find great unknown bands like AUGUST REDMOON with the killer-track "Fear No Evil", a heavy-metal sing-a-long-hit! Very strange is also the band MEDIEVAL, two brothers playing a kind of doom-metal...
MM 5 shows the talents of OMEN, VOIVOD, OVERKILL (this time THE Overkill!), FATES WARNING, METAL CHURCH, HELLHAMMER (one and only European band on a MM!!) who are all still famous today! MACE and JESTERS OF DESTINY also released records after MM which were available here in Europe. The rest on this MM was also good but...stayed unknown.
The heaviest METAL MASSACRE is number 6! It starts with one the first Death Metal bands POSSESSED and after this you get "XXX" from NASTY SAVAGE (a double-bass attack which was unbelievable in those days...1985!!). You have HALLOW´S EVE on it and HIRAX with the ultra-fast "Bombs of Death". No time to breathe because this tune is followed by DARK ANGEL´s "Welcome to the Slaughterhouse". Not as hard but also great was HADES and OBSESSED.
Number 7 is the last MM I have. I really don´t know if more MM´s are released here in Germany. But 7 has also great stuff!! SENTINEL BEAST and DETENTE were two thrash metal bands with female vocals, FLOTSAM & JETSAM had Jason Newsted on bass ("I live you die") and JUGERNAUT showed the world what "really sick" is (I mean this in positive way-great band!!!). CRYPTIC SLAUGHTER were bad musicians...but the fastest in these days! A great but unknown band was TITANIC with the song "The awakening". HERETIC´s singer was MIKE TORRE, known as singer of METAL CHURCH from Blessing The Disguise to Hanging In The Balance.
Info for Germany: All the mentioned releases are available through SPV here in Germany. Maybe you have to order them in your record shop. They cost about 20 to 25 DM.