morriscroy

On this vinyl reissue of Live Undead, do they state which version they are using?

Is it the original mix, where there was a long drum solo before the song "Show No Mercy" ?

cultshock

Good question, Metal Blade really hasn't provided much details on the releases themselves, other than the hype sticker declaring "Original Packaging".

Are you referring to the song on Live Undead or the Show No Mercy LP?

I listened to these last night, nice flat, quiet vinyl, and they sound pretty good (I'm usually happy with the quality of Metal Blade vinyl pressings). I'm afraid I can't really compare how they sound though, I've never owned these two albums on vinyl, just the 80's CD releases (Metal Blade CD of SNM w/ Haunting the Chapel tracks added, and Combat CD of Hell Awaits, and the new vinyl sounds better than these to my ears).

morriscroy

This is the original mix of "Show No Mercy" live with the long drum solo, on the first picture disc pressings of Live Undead from 1985.




This 1985 picture disc of Live Undead has 3 live tracks on side A, and three studio tracks on side B.

https://www.discogs.com/release/1483...er-Live-Undead


This 1985 mix sounds very different than the later 1987 remixed version of the Live Undead ep.

morriscroy

Initially I was disappointed after I first purchased the 1987 vinyl version of Live Undead, where I noticed it was a very different cleaned up mix than the old 1985 versions of the same live tracks.

Back in the day, these 1985 live tracks were released piecemeal on various releases such as:

- the first 1985 picture disc pressings of Live Undead which had the 1985 live mix of "Show No Mercy"

- the Banzai version of "Hanting The Chapel" which had the 1985 live mixes of "Black Magic", "Die By The Sword", and "Agressive Protector"

https://www.discogs.com/release/7349...U6NDgzODA4MTc=

- the Banzai 1986 compilation "Force of the Blade" had the 1985 live mix of "Evil Has No Boundaries"

https://www.discogs.com/master/68266...e-Of-The-Blade



I don't know if the 1985 live mixes of "The Antichrist" and "Captor of Sin' were ever released.

morriscroy

Nevertheless, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a bootleg raw mix version of that entire live recording which the Slayer "Live Undead" ep came from, floating around somewhere online.

Similar to how there are bootleg versions of the entire concerts which Iron Maiden's "Maiden Japan" ep came from.

stvn1974

I am digging the new Mastodon.

morriscroy

Did "Show No Mercy" and "Hell Awaits" include their original inner sleeves, which both had giant photo collages ?

morriscroy

IIRC in the original Hell Awaits inner sleeve photo collage, there was a photo which showed someone holding an axe (or stick/bat) to a Michael Jackson poster.

In the Show No Mercy inner sleeve photo collage, it had several photos of them with black eye makeup. IIRC another photo showed the drum kit from the front of the stage, where there was only ONE bass drum. (Dave Lombardo was famously known for extensively using TWO bass drums, such as the chorus of Angel of Death and the beginning few minutes of Hell Awaits).

Josh-da-man

Here's what you get...



Haven't opened my copy yet. Wonder if it's "Side 6" and "Side 66" like my old LP?

(I got "Show No Mercy" with black splatter on red, "Haunting the Chapel" white splatter on black, "Live Undead" blue/black split, and "Hell Awaits" orange/black split.)

I already have original pressings of all of these on vinyl except for "Live Undead," for which this is my first copy ever. I always heard that it wasn't very good (and not even an actual live album, more like a live studio session) so I never bothered picking it up.

As I said, I haven't opened my copies of any of these yet, so I can't say what, exactly, is on "Live Undead." It's seven tracks with no times listed on the back, so I would assume that it's not the picture disc version with the extended drum solo.

morriscroy

The biggest difference with the live songs on Live Undead, was that it sounded like the guitars were tuned lower to E-flat I think.

In contrast, the same songs on Show No Mercy sounded like the guitars were tuned to the standard E. Correspondingly, Tom Araya sounded like he was singing at a slightly higher pitch on the first album.

morriscroy

Some versions of Live Undead also had a remixed studio version of Chemical Warfare.

I have two different cd copies of Live Undead, where one had this Chemical Warfare remix and the other didn't.

cultshock

Yep, the new ones reproduce those as inserts on heavy paper (the albums themselves are in nice poly-lined sleeves}.

The back of SNM sleeve lists sides "6" and "66", I forget if those are also on the labels. I went for plain black vinyl for both (European imports from Metal Blade's website).

I've only owned Live Undead as a Banzai cassette back in the day (with Haunting the Chapel on the other side). Didn't feel like paying the $26.99 for the new one of this.

Josh-da-man

I have a "Show No Mercy" LP I got in the 1980s, and it has "6" and "66" on the back of the jacket, too. The record itself is just labeled "Side One" and "Side Two," though. It does have "Satan Laughs As You Eternally Rot" etched into the runout, though.

I was under the impression that early releases of the LP had the actual sides of the records labeled as "Side 6" and "Side 66," but that might not be the case. I have seen a cassette of SNM that had "6" and "66" printed on the actual cassette.

cultshock

I only owned this on CD in the 80's, but if I had the LP it would have likely been the Canadian Banzai pressing (which apparently sounds really good) labeled "This Side" and "That Side". According to Discogs, the original Metal Blade pressing does not have the record labels themselves labeled "6" and "66", assuming that the entry has the correct photos for that pressing. It would have been a cool touch though.

morriscroy

I picked up the banzai version when I noticed it had an extra song on it, which was not on the original metal blade version. (Aggressive Protector).

cultshock

Cool, I didn't know that, but it makes sense as the album the song was originally released on, Metal Massacre III, didn't receive a Canadian release. I'd love to pick up the Banzai pressing, but along with many Banzai pressings these days, the prices are going through the roof as collectors outside of Canada are realizing that Banzai pressings are usually among the best sounding of the era, and they had much smaller press runs than the US counterparts.

BTW, I checked the labels of my Show No Mercy last night, and no side "6" or "66" mentioned. One thing I did notice that while the sleeve has a copyright date of 2021, the label has a 2015 copyright date, so these must be the same remasters as the 2015 ones (which I had never heard).

morriscroy

The only semi-plausible reason I can think of as to why this might possibly be the case, is that it appears almost all the banzai releases were manufactured and distributed by Polygram Records' operation in canada. So it was likely that all these banzai pressings, were manufactured at the same record plants which manufactured the canadian pressings of records by Def Leppard, Scorpions, KISS, Bon Jovi, The Bee Gees, etc ....

morriscroy

Listening to past several Epica albums, such as "holographic principle", "quantum enigma", "divine conspiracy", solace system, etc ....

I don't quite know how to describe it in metal categorization terminology, but these Epica albums sound a lot like what I would imagine a modern day "Richard Wagner" would write.

Listening to EPICA's recent album "Omega" a third time, I noticed it sounds slightly different than their previous albums. I thought Omega sounds like a "Jim Steinman" trying to write a non-parody version of "Richard Wagner" music. (Jim Steinman of the Meatloaf "Bat Out of Hell" fame). Almost like a heavier version of music written for a play on broadway or a musical film.

wishbone

Torn Arteries by metal pioneers Carcass is solid!

morriscroy

Listening to Serenity's past few albums, such as "Lionheart", "The Last Knight", "Codex Atlanticus", etc ....

These past three Serenity albums sound almost like "Jim Steinman" writing symphonic power metal songs. Imagining a really heavy version of Pandora's Box, Bat Out of Hell, or early-mid 80s era Bonnie Tyler.

cultshock

I'm a big fan of Helltrain frontman Pierre Tornkvist's solo project, blackened speed metal band Devil's Force. He finally released a physical CD of all the digital singles this year on Bandcamp, and it's good fun metal with black metal vocals (including a cool cover of Bathory's "War"). Hoping for an actual full length album one day. His main gig Helltrain is a really fun death 'n' roll band too.

morriscroy

Heh .... bathory.

I remember picking up the first two bathory albums as complete impulse "blind buys". (IIRC, it was on Combat Records).

Initially I thought it was a very "unmusical" sounding Motorhead, with too much reverb on the vocals.

morriscroy

I thought "Under The Sign of the Black Mark" was much better in terms of writing. (IIRC, it was New Renaissance Records pressing).

morriscroy

For reasons I never quite understood back in the day, the "Under The Sign of the Black Mark" vinyl was easier to find than "The Return" and the debut albums. Even the Banzai vinyl versions of the debut and The Return were almost impossible to find.

cultshock

Yeah, Bathory's "Under the Sign of the Black Mark" was my introduction to the "band" back in 1987. Abysmal production (but it was the best that Quorthon could do with his available resources at the time) but great songs that really kicked off the black metal genre. I think I had the New Renaissance pressing as well. I like Blood Fire Death a bit better (had the Under One Flag pressing of that one) but it's really close for me as to which one is the best Bathory album. I had a hard time finding the first two releases as well, didn't get them until years later. The original vinyl pressings are gold now, worth thousands of dollars (especially the "Yellow Goat" version of the debut), due to the huge cult following Bathory has developed over the years. Practically every black metal musician worships at the throne of Quorthon (not Satan ) his influence on the development of extreme metal is huge. Back in the pre-internet days, Quorthon and Bathory were complete mysteries, no one new much about who they were, and they never played live as far as I'm aware. But that mystery just added to the whole thing. May he rest in peace.