CD REVIEW: PURE… METAL – Various Artists

CD REVIEW: PURE… METAL – Various Artists
Sony Music
August 2014
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8/10

There will always be compilation albums – even hugely sprawling four-disc compilation box sets – because there will always be young-uns without the luxury of a big brother or uncle or Dad’s music collection to raid for a history lesson.

Most of them though, are rubbish – inappropriately collating a couple of big hits (which we’ve usually heard a zillion times before) with a handful of cheap and nasty knock-offs that most of us would rather not be there at all.

This one, compiled by the folks at Sony, is a good one. The usual suspects all feature – Motorhead, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Alice Cooper, Scorpions head up the classic rock/metal contingent – but thankfully not with their ‘one song’ that the compilers usually feature. For instance, in Motorheads case it would be Ace Of Spades, which must feature on 30 million compilation albums spanning the past 30-something years. Here the powers that be have plumped for Bad Religion and Voices In The Sky from Lemmy’s crew. Bravo.

There’s also a good cross section of these A-listers and some second tier bands of the classic era such as Krokus, Fastway, Warrant, and they’re standing side-by-side with a lot more contemporary acts such as Mudvayne, Corrosion Of Conformity, Pink Cream 69, Velvet Revolver, Coheed & Cambria, Zebrahead, Bullet For My Valentine and more.

All up, it’s a great starter kit for a kid who wants to explore heavy music and decide which direction to head out in.

Category: CD Reviews