A+ "Bargain Bin" Bands

Some of my favorite bargain bin bands... what's that mean? Well, if you haven't gathered what it means, it just is "obscure" stuff most people listen to and say "yeah, that's pretty good.", but I love it. Here is my first installment of the soon to be small series. I will be writing an article about a few of these bands themselves in the future. Possibly all of them for their own reasons they are special and remain strong in my collection to this day.

Rage

This... now THIS I have listened to countless times, and was one of the first bands I got into when i started my metal journey what seems like many a year ago. They are a German power/speed metal band I grew fond of by hearing this song. I hadn't seen this video then, not sure it was on youtube then, but I did listen to their other albums such as Execution Guaranteed, Perfect Man, and Reflections of a Shadow. I haven't heard their latest stuff, although they're still active, and just recently released a new album that looks like I probably wouldn't be too interested in it, but you never know, I'll give it a shot. Either way, their classic stuff has a hard hitting punch that still keeps me coming back for more to this day. I've even got it on cassette!

Proud Existence

When my husband and I went to see the band Cauldron back in October Satan was with them, and Ian Chains asked if we had ever seen them live, to which we replied no, but I said I used to listen to them a lot and had a short time in high school when I listened to Court in the Act along with this here album back to back for some reason. I couldn't remember the name of the band, but described the album cover, and he knew what I was talking about. I hadn't tried to look them up in years, but the day after the Cauldron/Satan show I looked them up somehow, and found this, and it brought me back to that time of playing PS2 for hours, cheeze-it's, coca-cola, and sleeping a lot.... Those were the days... sort of. This album definitely still draws me in and holds me til the end, and if I can ever find it on vinyl or something, that'd be great. Ian said he heard of them from a CD they got in Greece from a street shop or something along those lines. Go listen to Cauldron if you haven't. Great music, and true metal dudes, and very nice ones, at that. That aside, this band from Holland came to form in 1980 as Pre-Existence, and then changed their name to Proud Existence, and only had this release in 1988. They split shortly after that. This album art is crap, but the music is choice.

Scanner

Yet another German power/speed metal band that is top notch, and among the first few bands I came across while heavily getting into metal. I remember seeing this cover and thinking it looked cool, and for some reason reminded me of one of the Darkness album covers, who are ANOTHER German metal band, a thrash one, at that who I am also a big fan of. Looking at the album covers now, I don't know what the hell 13 year old me was thinking their album covers looked like, but at any rate.... I Heard this album first, then looked into more of their stuff and listened to Hypertrace, which was their first album. They've been around since 1986, and are still going around playing today. Mainly at festivals, like most long time going on again off again bands. Classic power/speed metal, give them a listen if you haven't, they might be one of your favorites if you're into that type of metal.

Meliah Rage

This next band is from Boston, and has been active since 1987. They're classified as thrash metal, but I don't know if I'd consider them a specific metal genre. A lot of people seem to quarrel over that, but I never really went to deep into that conversation. When it's easy to categorize bands, sure, I'll identify them as that genre, but when the band tends to go between sounds, or just has a sound all their own, I don't like to dispute that much, and just think of them as their own thing in the heavy metal world. Which is what I think of Meliah Rage. Between this first album they had and the other powerhouse of an album Solitary Solitude, they have their own sound that'll knock you on your feet, and still leave me nodding my head today. I just recently bought a Kill To Survive shirt they released. Not sure if there's any left. And yes, Meliah Rage themselves did sell these. I don't buy bootleg shit.

Mysto Dysto

Now more people Probably know the other band this turned into Called Mandator that formed after the 1986 release of this album, which was the only thing they had released under the Name Mysto Dysto. I remember the name of the band sticking in my head, and would look them up whenever I didn't know what I wanted to listen to that day. I still listen to this gem... I probably don't need to keep mentioning that, I already said in the intro that the reason I'm listing these bands is because they've held up strong through the years for me. When I first started getting into metal I would write down bands from this youtube channel Wolfgangvonposerkila, or TheBurningOfSodom that made videos called "Thrash Metal Gems", and this was on one of them. I would write down all the bands on the list, then cross them out when I could remember several songs from the band, name of the album, and some info on the band. Yeah, that's stupid, so what? I loved it, and it helped me find so many great bands, and I wouldn't know these bands, or remember them, for that matter, if I hadn't done that. So here they are: Mysto Dysto. Check out Mandator if you like this stuff, too. They're a bit different, but still really good.

Powerlord

Maaaaan, this production quality sounds like ass, but it's the great kinda low budget sound that just adds to the sound! But what really matter is this slice of molten metal dripping with... well, awesomeness. The scream in this intro is ear shattering! I love the singer's voice whose name is unfortunately Dane Cook.... Yep. That shitass comedian wishes he had the talent this guy did. The band has since split up, and were (probably are, they didn't get shot off the earth upon disbanding)  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The only release they had was the album this song is off of "The Awakening" in 1986 (good year, eh?). I wonder what those dudes are up to now? Probably have day jobs at some office with short hair and 5 kids or something. Either way, this is a great tune, off a great album in my opinion. That riff in this song is almost hypnotic...

Mezzrow

 These dudes don't mess around when it comes to thrash metal. A lot of great metal has come out of Sweden, and this is certainly among them for me. I think they definitely deserve more people hearing this than the amount that have heard it. This whole album "Then Came The Killing" is great from start to finish. Great guitar tone, I might add, and pretty good production sound for a small band with only one release. They have since split, and have a brief reunion in 2005 for a festival, which there apparently was a DVD of that only the band distributed directly. I feel like they should have used the picture they used on the back of the album instead of the picture they used on the front. i remember seeing the music video and thinking they were cool, then looked them up and saw the name of the album, and looked it up to see a bland-ass picture on the front, but, hey, a lot of kinda obscure stuff has lame covers, and great music. It's better to be more concerned with the content itself, instead of the cover and looking cool and all that jazz. I need to get this on vinyl, still. Very powerful, full sounding thrash with whit and force. Check 'em out! That's it for this one, stayed tuned for more, and thank you for reading, and listening! If you get this far, let me know what you think on the facebook fanpage for Thrashdance Fanzine!