Skull_Kollektor

Last saturday I stumbled upon this Italian/Slovakian thrash band. A cross between Megadeth and Testament. Really enjoyed their live show, so I bought both their albums straight away. The drummer is the singer/guitarist's son. Dunno how that's possible, but it's the way it is.

Saturday I went to our local extreme metal shop called SOUNDCAVE. I bought this stuff: Incubus st demo (early death metal Morbid Angel style) Autopsy Severed Survival 20th anniversary 2 CD Hexx Morbid Reality Sacred Reich Independent Hawaii One Nation Underground I'm in a proper death metal mood. A friend of mine said Autopsy were like death metal's Motorhead. In a way I think he has a point.

Been buying shitloads of stuff over the last few months. The most relevant things were: - a Defenders of the Faith T Shirt by Amplified which is plain awesome, like dude totally awesome! It brings the Cartman out of me every time I wear it. I look in the mirror and go "cooooool"; - the Krautrock boxes vol. 1, 2 and 3 by Warner. There is some CRAZY proto metal shit in there. The best discovery is a band called GIFT who sounded like a cross between Bloodrock, Blue Oyster Cult, early Scorpions (but very rarely) and random kraut madness! Another great one featured is ASTERIX, which then morphed into Lucifer's Friend we all know and love. - finishing Lita Ford's discographt from 1983 up to 1994 and reading her biography in a day! I absolutely love all her records. I only had the platinum seller LITA and the "grunge" album called black (her last before coming back to the scenes 15 years later... I actually saw her play in Italy in 2009 while she was still married to Jim "stuffed crotch" Gillette), but I finally bought myself the other 4 albums and they ROCK big time! The first two are sheer heavy metal records. There's a track on the second one called "Lady Killer" that goes "a man'o'war brings you to your knees" and then she strums something that totally sounds like the "Defender" arpeggio by ManOwaR. First time I heard it I was like "FUCK ME! That can't be no coincidence". 1984. She's my fave female guitarist/singer right after my own lady.

Yeah actually I do that all the time, but the thing is that this time I'm flying to Germany by myself to go to a concert by myself, it's kinda the next step for me ahah I'm very committed, I can't stand the thought of never being able to see ManOwaR. What if they never come to Italy?

Up until recently I would have answered BAY AREA without hesitation! Now I would still say BAY AREA but I would feel very guilty towards Canadian excellences such as INFERNAL MAJESTY (put an Umlaut somewhere) and German born but Oakland sounding musos VENDETTA! The second lp by Vendetta and the first one by Infernal Majesty are the best thrash records I picked up in a very long time! Did I tell you that in July I went to a (mostly thrash) metal fest in Brescia called Colony Open Air that featured Death Angel, Exciter, Kreator, Demolition Hammer, Asphyx, Loudness, Hell and Wintersun (dunno why they threw them in the lot). Italian heavy metal band Skanners was also in the bill, but I came too late to see them. Very good festival overall. Demolition Hammer were the best, I'd say.

I am! And, matter of fact, I bought meself a ticket to a ManOwaR show in KOLN (Germany)! Gonna go there by all myself. It's also gonna be some sort of social experiment. Wanna see if this brothers of metal thing works in some kind of way. Will the guy beside me give me a beer? (quote from "DIE FOR METAL", though it sounds rather gay)

I wish the real thing was coming to Italy as well. It's their farewell tour

Ciao people! Was away for a while! Holidays, girlfriend, recording bs, work, gym, usual stuff! Hope all is well, or maybe HELL, down here! Oh I went to a serious concert last week: DEATH SS + MOONSPELL + SAMAEL + GOBLIN + MORTUARY DRAPE. Death SS rocked the shit out of me. I actually enjoyed Moonspell too, though I was not familiar at all with their materiale.

I use Discogs a lot! Sometimes I get disappointed, though. Like the one time a dude listed a UK version of Great White's "Recovery Live" as the US version... I bought it and when I got it I was devastated ahah Got a partial refund, though.

A metal hearted man... Mr. Wolf Hoffman, ACCEPT lead guitarist and musical mastermind. SK: "Hi Wolf, I wanna thank you for all the incredible riffs, solos and melodies that you've created. Your music has been a part of my life for 15 years and I'm deeply grateful". WH: "Thank you, I appreciate". SK: "You're from Solingen (German city), right?" WH: "Yes indeed". SK: "Now let me tell you this. Solingen is very famous for its blades, but the sharpest thing that ever came out of Solingen is YOUR MUSIC. Sharp as steel!". WH: "Ahah thank you, but that is not true. NOTHING IS SHARPER THAN THE BLADES OF SOLINGEN". He's a great guy! Very polite and humble. He smiled all the time and took time to sign and take pics with every metalhead around. He asked me what my name was and shook my hands twice. Being the cheesy defender of the faith I have always been and always will be, I was starstruck and in awe of him. I mean, he is the man that threw Beethoven's "FUR ELISE" in the middle of the "Metal Heart" solo. THE STUFF OF LEGEND.

Today I went to the local Heavy Metal record store (called Mariposa Duomo) in the underground here in Milan and the guy on the right insisted on taking a picture with me. Too bad our respective HAIR metal days are behind us...

I have "Subhuman Race" and for some reason I also have a limited edition promo single CD from that periodo. The songs in that record never stuck with me. It's quite abrasive, but not in the same groovy way of "Slave to the Grind". I have this recollection of a punkier record. I'll give it another spin today, maybe I overlooked it! Say hello to Baz!

THank you! When I have the time I'm gonna save the tracks as separate files and zip them somewhere

So cool! Thanx for sharing the memory! Skid Row created two incredibly good records. "Slave to the Grind" is very metalhead friendly. And it got to number one on Billboard!

I have it too! Got it for 25 euros back in 2007! It's a bit on the butcher side of remasters.