You know what I miss...

MetalAges

Purveyor of the Unique & Distinct
Staff member
Sep 30, 2001
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Virginia, USA
www.ultimatemetal.com
Going to the friggin CD store and shopping for new bands based on cool band names and album cover art. I remember discovering bands like Fifth Angel, Malice, Sword, Flotsam and Jetsam, TNT, Dream Theater, sigh....those were the days! I actually did this semi-recently with the band Becoming the Archetype and Falling Up. BtA was actually a pretty cool album. Falling Up is cool if you appreciate some of the modern day metal elements (I know, I know). You can't really do this much any more as you never know if you'll end up with a 'core band or something.

Anyone picked up any cool bands using the ol cover/name method recently?
 
Deron, I still do that 1-2x per month. It's a running joke in the RC forum that all it takes is a) a viking longship, b) men in chainmail on horseback or wielding a battle axe, or c) a gigantic "Braveheart"-sized battle for me to buy an album blind.

:D
 
I've bought quite a few albums blind.. Seems to work out fine most of the time. Haven't done this in a while, though, so don't exactly recall which ones.

Oh yeah, Devastation - Violent Termination not too long ago.
 
I rarely do blind purchasing with the exception of one of this label promotional CDs. I usually stick to bands I like and know well.
 
I did that with Ensiferum. Worked out well.
 
Spirit In Black said:
i never buy stuff i haven't heard first...unless it's in the used cd rack...i've really never had any luck doing that

I'm curious how old you are?

I should have clarified slightly on my post, I'm almost 35 now so the "good ol days" when I refer to them is like mid-late 80s, a little into the early 90s (pre-Nirvana). Back then you only had the chance to really hear it before buying if a buddy of yours had a CD/tape, you heard it in store or on a sampler or if you read about it in a Metal mag or something.
 
I tried doing that "couple of second mp3 thing" but in the end I got pulled back into downloading full albums...
 
The Subjugator said:
I tried doing that "couple of second mp3 thing" but in the end I got pulled back into downloading full albums...

I stopped doing this for the most part. I found myself just losing the whole "experience" (my definition of "experience" anyways) of getting into a band/CD. It became overkill in that I would download tons of albums, never really get to listen to them all and when I did it wasn't a GOOD listen. I recall the days of being into a CD so much you knew all the lyrics, song titles, member names etc. I found I didn't really even know song names any more of all these albums I was listening to. Pretty sad! Occasionally I will download something but for the most part, I only check out bands sites for download tracks then decide.
 
MetalAges said:
I stopped doing this for the most part. I found myself just losing the whole "experience" (my definition of "experience" anyways) of getting into a band/CD. It became overkill in that I would download tons of albums, never really get to listen to them all and when I did it wasn't a GOOD listen. I recall the days of being into a CD so much you knew all the lyrics, song titles, member names etc. I found I didn't really even know song names any more of all these albums I was listening to. Pretty sad!

No shit, now I'm lucky if I know which track # I like(d). :lol:

Occasionally I will download something but for the most part, I only check out bands sites for download tracks then decide.

I'm the same way. Download a couple full tracks if I can find them, then make a decision and go buy the album if I liked it enough.
 
Most of my blind purchases have come from the " hear one song from the band, then by the album" method. I did that with Goatwhore, Finntroll, and Katatonia. The only other blind purchases I can think of right now were Mr. Bungle and Electric Wizard..

As for downloading, that's how I got into Pig Destroyer. My friend and I downloaded the entire " Prowler in the Yard" album off of Lime Wire, which convinced me to buy Terrifyer
 
The only album I can remember doing that with was a Savatage one. I did not like it very much, nor did I like them... I would sell it, but I know no one would buy it.
 
MetalAges said:
I'm curious how old you are?

I should have clarified slightly on my post, I'm almost 35 now so the "good ol days" when I refer to them is like mid-late 80s, a little into the early 90s (pre-Nirvana). Back then you only had the chance to really hear it before buying if a buddy of yours had a CD/tape, you heard it in store or on a sampler or if you read about it in a Metal mag or something.

i'm 25...i didn't start listening to metal until the late 90's though
 
Last album i did that with was The Black Dahlia's Murder Unhallowed album... unless you count Dark Funeral's newest one.. which i know the group and heard some samples of Secrets of the Black Arts.. but i never heard anything of this new one album.. and bought it blind based on the album art cover and because i been curious about the band.. love their website... Reason i bought Dahlia album is because i liked the band name ... from reading about the actual murder case and thought it is a cool name for a metal band.. loved the album. didnt backfire on me and like their new one though i liked Unhallowed better...
 
I'll definitely buy stuff based on a good reputation even if I've not heard anything by them. I don't think I've bought anything I haven't at least heard of or read about. I suppose if I know I want to get a certain band, I'll sometimes pick an album based on which title or cover is cooler. That sometimes backfires.