Bonus tracks

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adaher

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Apr 18, 2004
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Is it just me, or are bonus tracks often awesome songs that should have been on the regular album?

I'd thought that bonus tracks were just a throwaway, something artists had to add for contract reasons or something to make a Japan edition worth buying or something. And sometimes they are, like an acoustic version of a song already on the album, but often they are original songs and one of the best songs on the album.

Anyone agree or disagree? And does anyone know the reasoning behind why bonus tracks are added in some markets and how they decide what should be a bonus track?
 
Agree completely. Just look at Dream Evil. On "In The Night" I got the european digibook and it has two awesome bonus tracks. On United the previous album they released it with a second cd including no less than 5 bonus tracks and they were all awesome. Mind you I hat ebonus tracks which are versions of songs already released or acoustic versions. That's just a waste of time and I hate acoustic version normally. The only exception i can make is the Eden's Curse acoustic cd which I got free when buying the debut cd. That acoustic cd contained 7 versions of songs on the debut and was really well done. Overall bonus tracks can be hit or miss but I noticed that in general with power metal bands they are normally pretty good. Dragonforce normally has great ones for a start though of course you have to like them in the first place!
 
Fire breath said:
Agree completely. Just look at Dream Evil. On "In The Night" I got the european digibook and it has two awesome bonus tracks. On United the previous album they released it with a second cd including no less than 5 bonus tracks and they were all awesome. Mind you I hat ebonus tracks which are versions of songs already released or acoustic versions. That's just a waste of time and I hate acoustic version normally. The only exception i can make is the Eden's Curse acoustic cd which I got free when buying the debut cd. That acoustic cd contained 7 versions of songs on the debut and was really well done. Overall bonus tracks can be hit or miss but I noticed that in general with power metal bands they are normally pretty good. Dragonforce normally has great ones for a start though of course you have to like them in the first place!
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I agree as well. Case in point Edguys "Rocket Ride" album. They put 2 KILLER songs on the "Superheroes" EP that should have been on the album. They could have easily put something else on the EP. One was "Spooks In The Attic" and the other being my favorite listed below.

 
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Dragonforce normally has great ones for a start though of course you have to like them in the first place!

Yeah, Dragonforce is the gold standard in bonus tracks if you like Dragonforce. Although even people who don't like Dragonforce but do like power metal should sample the bonus tracks because they tend to be a little more adventurous and unpredictable compared to the standard tracks.

Now Edguy, their EP songs are awesome. New World Messiah and Holy Water off the King of Fools EP are also incredible. But bonus tracks, well, Tobias seems to have said what he thinks of bonus tracks in the song Life and Times of a Bonus Track. Edguy bonus tracks tend to be silly and throwaways. Fucking With Fire? Terrible. Aren't You a Little Pervert? An abomination.
 
Slightly disappointed that on Sabaton's Coat of Arms the two bonus tracks are instrumental versions of songs already on the album. The album is already very short and I'm surprised they couldn't come up with another song proper. The instrumentals still sound cool though.

 
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Don't bands always record a lot more songs than make it to the album? Maybe they just didn't feel the songs were strong enough that they'd want anyone to hear them.

Some albums already have a lot of filler on them. I've noticed the bonus tracks only tend to rule when the album is all good songs. I figure some bands' 12th best songs are better than other bands' best songs. But if an album contains mostly filler, the bonus tracks will tend to also be filler.

In Sabaton's case, they write about a very specific subject and they research for their songs, so they probably don't record 20 songs and only put 10 on the album like many bands do. A band like Dream Evil, they can just write off the top of their heads, so they can produce a ton of extra songs, but Sabaton probably doesn't feel like researching for songs that won't be released. Plus I'd imagine putting those metal tribute songs they do takes some time.
 
I usually feel ripped off about them. I had read somewhere that Japanese released are required to have extra tracks for some reason, I never bothered to look into it to see if it held any truth.

The Nevermore album will have 2 killer bonus tracks. But I won't spend the $25 - $30 in some cases to get that release for 2 songs. I'll buy the US version for $9-12 and download the extra tracks. Wrong? Yes. But I can't justify spending almost double an album's cost for 1-2 songs when the CDs obviously will hold said songs on the original release. It's not like bands are releasing 80 minutes of music and throwing you an extra disc just because there wasn't enough room.

I'm sure some people won't agree with me, but ah well, it's my money.

Now on another note, if these bands would release these bonus tracks digitially, I'd be MORE THAN HAPPY to pay $0.99 for each additional track like you can on Amazon or Itunes.
 
Three in particular come to mind for me.

Nightwish : "Live to tell the Tale"

Nightwish : "Where were you Last Night"

Myrath ; "Hard Times"




[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bARtwOYHHrg&feature=related[/ame]
 
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Bryant said:
Up until "The Seraphic Clockwork" I have always really enjoyed the bonus track Vanden Plas has offered on their releases.

Bryant
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I always skip that song. I don't know why they even put it on the album. Different mix and horrible fake crowd noise in the beginning!
 
Creeps said:
I usually feel ripped off about them. I had read somewhere that Japanese released are required to have extra tracks for some reason, I never bothered to look into it to see if it held any truth.

The Nevermore album will have 2 killer bonus tracks. But I won't spend the $25 - $30 in some cases to get that release for 2 songs. I'll buy the US version for $9-12 and download the extra tracks. Wrong? Yes. But I can't justify spending almost double an album's cost for 1-2 songs when the CDs obviously will hold said songs on the original release. It's not like bands are releasing 80 minutes of music and throwing you an extra disc just because there wasn't enough room.

I'm sure some people won't agree with me, but ah well, it's my money.

Now on another note, if these bands would release these bonus tracks digitially, I'd be MORE THAN HAPPY to pay $0.99 for each additional track like you can on Amazon or Itunes.
Click to expand...

The whole thing with bonus tracks in Japan if I'm not wrong, is simple. In Japan, the price of an import (European, American, etc) version of any album really, costs about the same as their local, Japanese release. Just as imports are considered "cool" to some of us, the same thing applies to the Japanese fans. Therefore, the record labels use the "bonus tracks" as a way to make the fans buy the domestic version instead of the import.

I hear you on not wanting to buy import just to get the bonus tracks. It makes sense for the Japanese, since for them it's about the same price. It sucks for us. I would not buy a Japanese copy and pay over $30 just go get one or two bonus tracks. Fuck that. If I already bought the album, I'm sorry but chances are I'll be downloading those songs.
 
adaher said:
Dragonforce normally has great ones for a start though of course you have to like them in the first place!

Yeah, Dragonforce is the gold standard in bonus tracks if you like Dragonforce. Although even people who don't like Dragonforce but do like power metal should sample the bonus tracks because they tend to be a little more adventurous and unpredictable compared to the standard tracks.

Now Edguy, their EP songs are awesome. New World Messiah and Holy Water off the King of Fools EP are also incredible. But bonus tracks, well, Tobias seems to have said what he thinks of bonus tracks in the song Life and Times of a Bonus Track. Edguy bonus tracks tend to be silly and throwaways. Fucking With Fire? Terrible. Aren't You a Little Pervert? An abomination.
Click to expand...

Umm..."Fucking With Fire" isn't a bonus track, dude. It's a regular song on the album. They've even played it live and titled their dvd after it. "Aren't you a little pervert?" is a complete abomination though. Good to know about those Edguy Eps, I had no clue they put decent extra tracks on those.

Anyways, for me it honestly depends. If it's an import that has bonus tracks, I usually don't like buying it if it's hugely overpriced, unless I know I'll like it, i.e. a decent cover tune. I personally hate live bonus tracks. I find it pretty lazy and usually the live tracks they pick are nothing special. Then again, I don't like listening to live tracks unless it's part of a live album.

The best bonus track in my opinion is Priest's "Heart of a Lion". One of the most underrated Priest songs ever, which will never be played live due to it being a bonus track off of Turbo. Actually, a lot of the bonus tracks, sans the live tracks, on the Priest remasters are pretty decent.
 
Unfortunately, record labels make it necessary to have bonus tracks on albums in order to boost their own sales (or, at the very least, to keep other labels from taking away their sales). Most bands don't have worldwide deals with one label. For instance, Katagory V's last album was released domestically through Nightmare, but it was distributed in Europe through a Greek label called Burning Star (now defunct). There were eleven songs written for the album, but neither label wanted the album released through both labels if they were each going to have the same exact track listing. Hence, each version of the album had ten original songs, but one of those ten songs on each version would only be available on that version. To further appease the labels, the band re-recorded two of their older songs and gave each label one of those recordings as an additional bonus track. It may sound silly, but that's the harsh (and somewhat understandable) reality of the music business.

Personally, I enjoy finding albums with bonus tracks if they're brand new original songs. You'd be surprised at the number of great songs that exist this way. I just wish that more bands would perform those songs live. It seems that they think that nobody listens to them.


Stay metal. Never rust.
Albert
 
I still don't like bonus tracks. It's the principle.

Makes sense. Tobias Sammet probably did us all a public service by writing a song on the subject.

Artists makes an album absolutely perfect, then a record label comes and says, "Hey, we need another song or two."
 
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