CD Swap Discussion

Following on from yesterday's CD Swap, here is a thread for the discussion of what you returned home with. Did you pick up a disc full of great tunes, or did you end up with the aural equivalent of the morning after a bad night at Kelsey's?

Feel free to comment in whichever style you like, be it a track-by-track commentary or a summary of your impression of the CD as a whole.

While you by no means have to like all (or any) of the songs you received, do try to motivate your dismissal of their artistic value (that is, "it's shite", while possessing the virtue of brevity, is probably not enough of an argument for anyone to take you seriously).

If the recipient of my Ascending Scale of Prog sees this: you're welcome/I'm sorry. Delete as appropriate.

Ah I'm kinda pissed off I missed this but I was at Nightwish in Birmingham.

@Giles what was on your disc? On the lookout for something new to listen to at the moment.

OK, so I have Andy's. I think him for not providing a tracklisting so I had to Shazam all the songs... Ha.

1. Edguy - Mysteria. A complete rip of Priest, Maiden, Dio, but faster. A pretty bloody decent rip off to be fair, and sped up, which is always fun.

2. Amon Amarth - War of the Gods. Andddd now we're in death metal territory. Never been the biggest DM fan but not a bad track.

3. Furyon - Disappear Again. Wasn't expecting this after the last track. Sounds a bit Alter Bridge/Shinedown esque. Not overly but listenable and has a rhythm to it.

4. Periphery - Muramasa. Heard this one before - solid intro to a solid (sort of) progressive metal album. Periphery are gonna be big.

5. Evile - Thrasher. Another one I've heard before. Metal upon metal. So few British bands making heavy music like this anymore; or at least well.

6. Dark Angel - Dethroned. Pretty good old school trash track. Not much more to say, really.

7. Kreator - Under A Total Blackened Sky. Never really liked Kreator, though I don't really know why - think it might be the way the vocals fit with the rest of it. This song isn't really changing my mind.

8. Gama Bomb - Bullet Belt. They sound like Municipal Waste. A lot. Don't know who got there first.

9. Annihilator - The Fun Palace. Another good, if not overly different from the pack, old school thrash track.

10. Anthrax - Metal Thrashing Mad. Anthrax are boss - fact. This is them when they were more obviously influenced by NWOBHM. And yeah, I know it's the re-recording (is it? Ha).

11. Attrition (song has no idea who it's by). Interesting this one - almost generic proggy music, but has a djent guitar tone underneath it.

Overall, pretty solid, and very metal, of course.

@Tom, mine was:

Porcupine Tree - Trains
Vanden Plas - Somewhere Alone in the Dark
Amplifier - The Consultancy
Devin Townsend Project - Grace
Beardfish - South of the Border
Opeth - I Feel the Dark
Frost* - Black Light Machine
Tool - Vicarious
Yes - Roundabout
Leprous - Waste of Air
Shining - Exit Sun, Pt. 1

Coincidentally I got Joes CD. Haven't got round to listening to it yet as my knackered disk drive means I'll have to dust off my Hi-fi. A couple of notes on my CD Attrition is by Shattered Skies a relatively unknown Djent band and Dethroned was by Death Angel ( easy to confuse the two as they're both Thrash bands from the 80s).

I received Bex's CD. It came in a lovingly hand-crafted sleeve of finest printer paper, and thankfully included a tracklist. I think my thoughts on the disc as a whole can be summarised by a (slightly butchered) classic film title: 'The Good, the Bad, and the Silly'.


The Good

The opener by Alter Bridge and later tracks by Clutch and The Darkness are solid rocking tunes (though I can't say I'm particularly wooed by the parody rapping in the Clutch track). I don't know these bands all too well, and hearing them here is not likely to encourage me to change that state of affairs, but the songs are good fun.

There are two blues artists on here, B. B. King and Seasick Steve; in my view, the former is superior. I feel that I've not yet invested enough time in this the forefather of the hard rock and metal genres. If anyone knows a bit about blues and feels like bestowing their wisdom upon me, I'd love to get more recommendations.

I can't tell a lie, I cringed a bit when I saw Avenged Sevenfold was on here (Alternatively 'A7X', I gather. Cute.). This track was a pleasant surprise, however. Despite being unforgivably overlong, it is undoubtedly ambitious and interesting.

I was already familiar with a number of the bands on here. The tracks by Black Sabbath, Queen and Focus are legendary pieces of rock history, and any further comment I could make would be superfluous. Just go and listen to them. I also know the more recent offerings by Kamikaze Test Pilots and Diablo Swing Orchestra. The former has been described by an ex-exec member as ‘an African SOAD’, and the latter I shall take the liberty to describe as Scandinavian madness with a brass section. Both are worthwhile.

The Motörhead song could really fall under any of my three headings. I’ll stick it on the end of ‘The Good’, as the song of which this is an acoustic version is great. It is a fitting segue into ‘The Bad’, however, because this adds nothing of interest to the original.


The Bad

This CD was made by Bex. From this premise, my logical faculties led me to conjecture that there would be ska on here, and I was right. I like ska. Or rather: I like some ska. The song by Capdown is more than decent, but The JB Conspiracy and Random Hand (which Wikipedia tells me are ska) are too polished to rouse any sort of wildly-skanking sentiments.

Chiodos and Enter Shikari try so hard, and they really want to be original, but fall flat on their faces due to one novice mistake: sloppily forcing together two different genres does not make interesting, worthwhile, or experimental music. Chiodos is a fusion of bad ‘classical’ and bad ‘metal’, Enter Shikari one of bad ‘electronica’ and bad ‘metal’. The end result is an inadvertent, atrocious parody of all genres involved.

On a less vitriolic note, The Puppini Sisters are just not my thing. Neither is Voltaire (though I appreciate the intriguing cabaret-style instrumentation).


The Silly

There are several covers on this disc (Apocalyptica, Mr. Cheese, and Vika). I have little time for covers. These musicians are clearly skilled, and to my knowledge also compose original music, but I have nothing further to say about their tracks on this CD.

The disc closes with that prince of poetry, Big Booty Bitches. I, for one, feel this is the definitive version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlMpt4ucH2U


On the whole, more good than bad for sure. The number of tracks made it seem slightly overlong (even though it only amounts to around 90 minutes).

Here's the tracklist for those interested:
1. Alter Bridge - White Knuckles
2. Avenged Sevenfold - A Little Piece of Heaven
3. Apocalyptica - Enter Sandman
4. B.B. King - B.B. Blues
5. Black Sabbath - Fairies Wear Boots
6. Capdown - Ska Wars
7. Chiodos - Two Birds Stoned at Once
8. Clutch - Careful with that Mic...
9. The Darkness - Black Shuck
10. Enter Shikari - The Jester
11. Richard Cheese - Down with the Sickness
12. Focus - Hocus Pocus
13. The JB Conspiracy - 1989
14. Kamikaze Test Pilots - Chikken
15. Motörhead - Ace of Spades (acoustic)
16. The Puppini Sisters - In the Mood
17. Queen - The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke
18. Random Hand - A Spider in the Sink
19. Seasick Steve - Dog House Boogie
20. Vika - Toxicity
21. Voltaire - Reggae Mortis
22. Diablo Swing Orchestra - Black Box Messiah
23. TSpoon DJ Squad - Big Booty Bitches

Oh, Eric!

I will reply when I get my CD next social cos I'm a massive derp and forgot.

Also, Eric you have way too much time on your hands! I do have a lot of B.B. King, think I got a 4 CD collection called "100 Hits Legend" if you want any more? Love blues, but not got too much in my music library, apart from a lot of Seasick Steve, so can't help with much else. x

And I appreciate that someone actually listens to and likes the older Queen, rather than just hopping on the band wagon whenever "We Will Rock You" or "Bohemian Rhapsody" comes on =) x

Oh, Bex!

I figured that as I originally posted the thread, I might as well put some effort into reviewing the CD I got. I don't think I'll be reviewing anything else anytime soon though, as writing that up made me realise (or, rather, remember) how inept I am at commenting on music in a structured manner (and, frankly, how much I dislike doing so). It got to the point where I felt I was dissecting the music, and I really felt uncomfortable writing that I didn't like a particular song and why. For this reason, I wouldn't take my criticisms too seriously.

I am looking forward to seeing what the recipient of my CD thought of it, though. I have a feeling the 'overlong' criticism which I used so frivolously will come back to bite me in the bum (and, perhaps, not unjustifiably so).

Since this is a brilliant idea that I wish our Social Sec had thought of when I was around, I'm going to throw in my review of Emma's CD from 2 years ago (I'd post one up of Stanfield's too, but I don't have that on this laptop for some reason... maybe when I find it!). There were 20 tracks on this but many of them got deleted when I was tidying my collection up and getting rid of duplicate tracks on iTunes and have no memory of what they were. I already had them though so clearly they were awesome! Needed some help from SoundHound for the rest!

1. Tetris - 2pm
Did not expect this as an opener for a RockSoc CD Swap... but hey, it's Tetris, and everybody likes Tetris! From what I remember upon first listening to this I picked up my guitar and played along so I guess thats a good sign!
2. Deleted
3. Inside the Fire - Disturbed
YES! YES! YES! I love Disturbed! I think I had only got into them a couple of months ago at the time. An epic with some serious rhythm and riffs.
4. Deleted
5. Deleted
6. Shut Me Up - Mindless Self Indulgence
I'd never heard of MSI until I heard this track and I'll be honest, when I first heard this I just didn't get it. On second listen, I thought it was ok. By the third time I was won over. That opening riff is brilliant. Still not a fan of the vocals though, the huge varying in pitch every 3 seconds just crosses the line of ridiculous. Overall, not a bad track at all!
7. Deleted
8. Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot
Somehow, I'd only heard the Slade version of this song until listening to this... How this happened I don't know because this tune is awesome! Glam Rock as it should be. And that solo... is SO.DAMN.FUN!
9. Deleted
10. Deleted
11. Evolution - Korn
An interesting one this, a fist pumping chorus that (to me) is ruined by some lacklustre verses. Just when it felt like it was going somewhere after the first chorus it seems to just hang around a bit too long before picking itself back up again. That said, the rhythm section in this has a lot going on to keep me interested. Not a bad track but not one I'd really listen to. Might go and check out more Korn though as they're a band I've completely ignored before.
12. Breaking the Habit - Linkin Park
12 year old me will tell present me that I'm an idiot for what I'm about to say and that I have crap taste in music. But 12 year old me also liked Nickelback (Something I am still ashamed of and can only now admit after leaving the university and handing over presidency) and so his arguments are invalid. GOD I HATE THIS BAND! I'll let it slide at Crash when its surrounded by decent songs, but I can't bring myself to finish this track when I'm sat in my room. Nothing about this band speaks to me in the way it did when I was a kid. I can't decide where to start with the constructive criticism... So I wont. (sorry I know that goes against the idea of this whole thing but... yeah...) (Track now deleted)
13. Deleted
14. Lying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off - Panic at the disco
Take what I said about Linkin Park, make it 20 times worse and add the fact that I've always hated this awful style of 'rock'. Plus, what the hell is with that song name? (Track now torn out from the heart of my laptop, torn in to tiny pieces, spat on, fed to ravenous slugs, and deleted)
15. Getting away with murder - Papa Roach
With the exception of 'Last Resort' I'd never listened to Papa Roach, and well... it's not bad. I kinda like it, definitely one I'd be really enjoying while drunk at Crash. Since this CD was made I've listened to more Papa Roach thanks to it so it's done it's job. Not as awesome as some of the earlier tracks on here but better than some of the others by a long stretch!
16. Sonne - Rammstein
Now this is more like it!! I've heard this one many times before but didn't have it in my collection. A seriously massive chorus with some great vocals and some angry verses. As with most Rammstein, a brilliant rhythm and a great listen.
17. Deleted
18. Breaking me down - Soil
One of the heavier and faster songs on the list and a band I never really listened to before. It grabbed my attention the first time I heard it but it quite quickly lost it after repeated listens. Still not bad at all. Still haven't checked out much of this band and probably should as I wouldn't be surprised to find some stuff a little bit more towards my taste.
19. Breathe - The Prodigy
Whilst I never listen to the Prodigy, they're a fun band and always reliable for a good bit of electronic/hardcore dance. And whilst that genre has no appeal to me whatsoever, this is a great track from a great band.
20. Craig Christ - Stephen Lynch
Always good to end on a laugh, and this had me in stitches the first time I heard it! Brilliantly funny. FUCKING CRAIG!!

From what I remember, those deleted tracks included Iron Maiden & AC/DC, no idea what else!

Overall, a decent CD with some cracking songs on there, some of which I foolishly deleted, not realising I would one day review it! A couple of completely awful tracks, and a fair few wtf moments... If Emma did a CD this year and the person who got it sees this. Review it so we can see what 3 years of RockSoc does to your taste in music!

I can't imagine ANY of those tracks making it on to a CD I made now (except MSI of course) which just goes to show where my music taste stood at the end of sixth form! Sadly I did not make one this year, but rest assured it'd follow the likes of Future of the Left, AC/DC, Shania Twain...probably another equal mix of good, bad and wtf

I got James’ RockSoc CD and I think all of it is made up of bands I’ve heard of, but just never properly listened to, which is good as I now have a whole load of new songs for my music collection =) I won’t be as dedicated as Eric with the review, firstly because I can’t always put my finger on what makes me like/hate a song and, secondly, I really can’t be bothered! (Having said that, I’m a master in procrastination and this has turned out pretty long).

Mirrors – Between the Buried and Me
Just not my thing, not necessarily a bad song, I just found it pretty dreary; a bit boring and slow for my liking. I remember a band in Battle of the Bands 2012 that just sent me to sleep listening to them and yeah, this was a bit like that. Sorry!

Jungleland – Bruce Springsteen
Strangely enough I’ve never listened to much Springsteen and, I feel like I’ve sinned to criticise The Boss, but again, not my sort of thing. I mainly like the older, classic rock, but this just doesn’t do it for me somehow. It’s nearly 10 minutes long too and I’m not impatient, I do like a lot of songs that are longer than the bog standard 3 minutes, but those are interesting and keep my entertained, this did not. Not saying it’s bad, I just think he’s a bit overrated and I’d just probably skip past it if it came up on shuffle :/

Just Like Heaven – The Cure
It’s not bad, definitely prefer it to the previous tracks. I just probably won’t go out my way to download any more of their songs based on this one song. Can’t really decide what it is, maybe drums are a bit monotonous? Yeah, I don’t know.

Holy Wars…The Punishment Due - Megadeth
Really like this, love the guitars, especially the Spanish acoustic section near the beginning and back into the heavy riffs again. His voice is maybe a little bit annoying, but I feel I need to be nice seeing as I’ve slated nearly all of your album so far =) Lots of interesting sections, definitely need to download more!

The Moor – Opeth
James said I wouldn’t like this but he’s underestimated me! Love it! Not usually keen on too much “roar roar roar I’m so angry!” but this is done well and the guitars are awesome. It’s integrated really nicely with the softer, more classically bits and it’s a really interesting arrangement. It’s longer than the Springsteen song but it kept me entertained!

Trains – Porcupine Tree
The word “train” has been ruined because of my flatmates so I can’t help but smile when I see the word, putting that aside though, they’re musically quite good, but I find the vocals quite weak. I was also expecting more when the full band came in, but it still stayed quite dull for bit. It did get a lot better nearer the end of the song (last 2-3 minutes), and they’d probably grow on me with more listens.

Bloodmeat – Protest the Hero
Fast (typing this really quickly to the beat), right amount of singing to screaming ratio, rhythmically and melodically very good. Another band I need to download more of.

Red Barchetta – Rush
Some good riffs and the bass is good, probably won’t be “Rush”ing to downloading any more though. TROLL-LOL-LOL.

Cemetery Gates – The Smiths
My guitar teacher always expressed his hatred of The Smiths as the guy who had lessons before me only wanted to learn their songs, so I gave them a wide berth. Not sure if the hatred was completely justifiable, guitar is a bit boring, so I can imagine it’s just as boring to teach, alright song though, I guess.

26 is Dancier than 4 – This Town Needs Guns
This is the only band I’ve not heard of before, and I like all parts of this song, but I don’t like them together. The vocals are good and there’s a couple of guitars layering over each other, both have good riffs, but it just seems a bit messy when all put together. The last minute of the song is all instrumental and that sounds a lot better, so I think I’ll look them up just to see what else they’ve got to offer.

Running to Stand Still – U2
I’ve always thought U2 were overrated and I’ve been proved correct. They’re just a bit boring and Bono’s a twat.

I’m really sorry, James, it seems I didn’t reckon much to most of your CD judging by the review, please don’t be offended! It’s not that it’s bad, there isn’t anything that’s total bullshit on the CD, it’s just most of it isn’t my thing and I wouldn’t look then up (which I still probably should, as I can’t really judge a band on just one song). Megabeth, Protest the Hero and Opeth are awesome though and I need more!

Bex, if that was the first time you'd heard BTBAM, I feel I should point out that they don't normally write songs like that. Take this, for example.

Now, on to my review. Once Happy Tom finally remembered to bring it to campus with him, I ended up with Vince's CD, titled "An Unfortunate Journey, Vol. 4". For brevity's sake, I simply renamed it "DOOM", which was itself unfortunate given that it's almost all black metal.

Before I start my track-by-track breakdown, I have to admit that I didn't actually know any of the songs beforehand, and used Sound Hound to identify them.

Endless Nauseous Days - Gallhammer
This follows a fairly standard pattern for an intro track, starting with a slow (by regular standards) lightly distorted riff and building up to eventually include some impressively guttural grunts and growls given that the band is all female. While I respect any woman's ability to get that deep (giggity), this particular style of vocals doesn't appeal to me so I doubt I'll pursue this band further.

Mental Central Dialog - Lifelover
Track two is a predictably depressive (note, not depressing affair from a most improbably-named band. The transitions between a couple of sections don't gel particularly well and break the flow of the song, but on the whole it's not bad. Would slit my wrists to this.

Awaiting the Inevitable - Woods of Ypres
Now we're delving more into the realms of black metal, complete with poorly-performed (in my opinion) screams, but with more passable cleans redeeming them somewhat. The music is entirely up-to-scratch with some interesting passages and (almost) ending with a nice clean section.

Ex Cathedra - Wolves in the Throne Room
At 11:01, this is the second longest song on the disc. The first half is fairly typical black metal fare, and made me wonder exactly why some people in black metal circles consider this band so revolutionary. A particularly soothing atmospheric interlude about 6 minutes in countered this somewhat, before everything returned to (slightly better than average) black metal. Not bad for black metal at all, though I may have been let down somewhat by its lack of fulfilment of the hype.


Not sure what this track is - Sound Hound finally failed me. This track initially showed some promise, featuring a standard black metal riff but with synth added over the top. This promise waned after the music failed to vary in the slightest for over 3 minutes, with the exception of adding possibly the least comprehensible vocals I've ever heard (or at least tied with Torsofuck). Eventually a different synth pattern came in for a while, before being replaced by the original one and the return of the vocals.

Tortured by Solitude - Coldworld
Something a bit different, opening with a violin intro before resolving into an ambient-ish black metal format. The whisper-like vocals here make a nice contrast to previous tracks. Again, not a great deal of variety in the music save the occasional re-appearance of the violin, but the song isn't long enough to suffer greatly from this. I'd certainly consider looking into this band if I decide to take my musical tastes in a more blackened direction.

Only the Wind Remembers - Austere
And now we reach Vince's lengthiest offering, at 13:29. Another track from the more ambient end of black metal, though with more traditional screams than its predecessor. Its (moderate) ambience makes it hard to focus on specific details, but my overall impression was distinctly positive.

Only the Wind Remembers my Name - Drudkh
Yet another song which starts of with familiar black metal themes, but about two-thirds of the way in, what's this I hear? A solo!? Not a bad one (both the solo and song) by any means, making Drudkh another possibility for further investigation.


Another band whose identity Sound Hound refuses to divulge. This one combines the speed of doom with black metal - I'm sure there's a name for this genre, if anyone knows it feel free to enlighten me. While not being ambient, it possessed the same quality that allows the music to wash over me, making its 9 minutes go by pretty quickly. This is a good thing, since paying attention to the entire song would've undoubtedly led to boredom. Still, if I find out what the song is I may look into their other stuff. Possibly.


And finally, ending the album is another anonymous track. It starts with a slow black metal riff/beat which gradually increases in tempo, with vocals that remind me exclusively of Stalaggh, in a bad way - too chaotic to feel like part of music, but not quite psychotic enough to be truly haunting.


Eric, I trust you won't judge me too harshly for clearly not having a clue what I'm talking about when it comes to black metal.

I believe the 2 missing tracks were "Lustre -Welcome Winter part 2" and "Hypothermia -Del 3" both of which are a mix of black metal with drone/dark ambient. I can't remember what the 2nd to last track was but suspect abyssmmal sorrow -bound in lifeless affliction which black metal/funeral doom.