Top 5 Rarest Albums I Own

Welcome to the end of September fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

Okay, so it’s not quite the end of the month. It’s just that I wanted to get something out before October, and I needed at least a little bit of time to play out what I wanted to do for spooky season. However, I didn’t want to just put out some random piece of trash, and wanted something a little special. So, to have a little fun, I wanted to show off some of the rarer albums in my collection. 5 of them, to be exact. The records I’ll be talking about here I’ve talked about in the past in some way, but never talked about how hard it is to find these (As far as I know). Also, if you happen to like this post, I may bring it up again as a new series if anyone is interested, so there’s that. Anyways, here are 5 of the rarest albums I own. Let’s begin!

5) Septicflesh - Revolution DNA (1999 Release)(Song)

So, I’m kinda cheating with this on.

Septicflesh’s only Goth-Industrial album got a re-release back in 2016, and it ended up being my least favorite out of all the re-releases the band put out. I may have mentioned this that year, but it was basically a re-release of a re-release. The funny thing about it was that I bought the original 1999 release a few months prior to that, and it was through sheer dumb luck that a copy wound up on Amazon for sale. It was rather expensive ($66.66.....make your own Satan joke), but was in shockingly good condition for being close to 2 decades old at the time. Unfortunately, this edition is incredibly difficult to locate. I’ll probably be repeating this throughout this list, but you best bet will be a 3rd-party music store, yet it’s still not a guarantee given how old it is.

4) Korn - Untitled 2007 (Deluxe Edition)(Song)

I lost the CD for this one.

I’m so mad that I did, and it was for a stupid reason also. I was borrowing my Mom’s CD player at home, was listening to the album in question, and had set it down someplace. I don’t know what happened, but the player went missing with the CD, and I haven’t seen it yet. In the decade+ since then, I kept looking for it, until finally I gave up. I probably should have found another Deluxe Edition, because it’s almost impossible to find now. Outside of a few used copies on Amazon, it’s practically impossible to locate unless you go to 3rd-party music stores. It’s a shame, since the band’s 2007 release wasn’t half bad looking at it in hindsight. In comparison to their 2002 & 2005 releases, it’s one of the most Nu Metal records of Korn's time in the 2000s, with Take A Look In The Mirror not that far behind.

3) Devin Townsend - Infinity ~ Christeen + 4 Demos (Song)

True story.....I got this one by accident.

Well, sort of by accident. I did request my Dad to grab this for me thanks to some housework I did all the way back in 2015. It took a odd amount of time to arrive, and once I opened the package I understood why, as my pops somehow got the Japanese Edition of it. There’s no real different between it and the original version as far as I know, but it’s home of origin is the first reason why. The other reason is availability, and while it was more likely to be found in May of 2015, there are only 3 used copies of it on Amazon as of me typing this up. Once again, 3rd-party music stores are you best bet to get the original North American edition, and it’s worth it if you somehow find the thing!

2) W.A.S.P. - Still Not Black Enough (Song)

Once again, this was a case of sheer dumb luck.

I had almost given up looking for this when I first discovered it back in 2018, and was going to save up money to import it from Japan for an exceptional price. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, some guy out in California I think had put up a used copy on Amazon for sale. It was fairly priced, coming in at $29.99 without factoring in shipping & tax, and was in great condition when it got here. Sadly, Still Not Black Enough is an example of being rare for the sake of not being popular enough. Unlike the rest of 90s W.A.S.P., this release didn’t catch on quite as well as it’s brethren from that decade. Not only that, but the few remaining used copies you can find are over in Japan, but even the least expensive copies can still hurt your wallet. 3rd-party music stores will be your best bet in the United States to get it, but given how it wasn’t as popular as everything else from the 1990s, don’t get your hopes up a ton.

1) Rammstein - Reise Reise (Japanese Edition)(Song)

You can’t find this one anymore. At all.

Okay, maybe that’s not true. Kinda like Revolution DNA, this one got a re-release as well. This iteration was originally released in Japan in March of 2005 if I recall correctly, and it was certainly something special. Thanks to certain....controversies (Read here for details), the band changed the album artwork, took out any offending audio, and put in 2 remixes. The end result was an experience that was new to Japanese listeners, but oddly familiar to those outside of the country. In 2009 it would be re-released in Japan with the original album artwork & audio (Along with a DVD), and as such it would leave the 2005 Japanese Edition in the dust. I got this back in December of 2010 as a Christmas Gift, and back then you could find it fairly frequently on Amazon. Nowadays is basically impossible to locate. Even CDJapan doesn’t have the 2005 edition available for purchase, and that website has a lot of Japanese Editions of western albums to buy. At this point, downloading is the only way to get your hands on this exceptionally rare release.

And those were the 5 rarest albums I own. Like I said above, if any of you read this & liked it, let me know and I might keep it going in the future. Well everyone, I got the last week of the month to plan out what I want to do in October.....but there might be a particularly unique band making their first ever appearance. See you soon!

Album Review: Ministry's From Beer To Eternity

So this is an interesting birthday fellow Otaku & Metalheads.

Today’s album review concerns a record that just happened to turn a decade old the 6th of this month. It is a record that, for a few short years, seemed to mark the true end of one of the most iconic Industrial Metal bands of all time. Though things have changed since the 10 years that this release was put out there, it was for a little bit the last thing that Ministry would ever create. So, walk over to the fridge, crack open a cold one, and take a look at my review for From Beer To Eternity. Let’s begin.

Background
After the release of Relapse back on March 23, 2012, Uncle Al & the rest of Ministry would embark on the "Defibrillatour", which was later in the year from June to August. After that tour, the band would go back into the studio, and just have some guitar riffs from longtime band member Mike Scaccia for a potential album. However, tragedy would strike on the 23rd of December, 2012, when Mike would tragically pass on stage playing with his other band Rigor Mortis due to an undiagnosed heart condition. The news of his friend’s passing hit Al Jourgensen pretty hard, as he stated in a March 2013 interview with Noisey:

“Mikey was my best friend in the world and there's no Ministry without him. But I know the music we recorded together during the last weeks of his life had to be released to honor him. So after his funeral, I locked myself in my studio and turned the songs we had recorded into the best and last Ministry record anyone will ever hear. I can't do it without Mikey and I don't want to. So yes, this will be Ministry's last album.”

So, he and the rest of the band went back into the studio again to make something with what Mike recorded the year prior, and on the 6th of September, 2013, what would (and what wouldn’t) become their final album, From Beer To Eternity, was released. Al Jourgenson said that the band would go on tour to support the record, but afterwards they were done as a band.

Basic Description
Haunting.

Even with the fact that the band would regroup a few years afterwards, at the time of it’s release back in 2013, this record felt strangely chilling that year, and even now to a certain extent. While I don’t think From Beer To Eternity doesn’t feel as tragic as Made In Heaven, there’s still quite a bit of sadness across the whole album. Mike Scaccia was an incredibly close friend to Uncle Al, and to hear how he was feeling at the time & not wanting to keep Ministry going was rather heartbreaking at the time. Thankfully they would come back, but I didn’t know that at the time, and as such I still get some kind of chill when I even remotely think about this album.

Best Track
Change Of Luck is the living embodiment of the “Slow Burn” kind of song. For the first half you’re treated to more of a Hard Rock like drums, guitars, and bass. Accompanying the instrumentation are a lot of bleeps & bloops with some word repetition thrown in. Once it reaches the second half the metal aspect finally kicks in with more intense instrumentation, but even then the more atmospheric first half is still present & accounted for. That being said, the instrumentation once things get nice & heavy are very well done, and definitely show off the stronger effort that everybody in the band was putting into the album. If I was to say why the track sticks with me so much over a decade later, I direct your attention to these lyrics:

“Your luck is gonna change
It's gonna go from bad to strange
'Cause life is so deranged
We're only here to feel the pain”

Change Of Luck

Worst Track
From Beer To Eternity’s only big flaw is it still has some of Relapse’s faults. Out of balance when it comes to instrumentation vs message, lyrics that don’t always work, etc. That being said, Al Jourgensen & the rest of the band definitely put in a bit more effort this time around, as the issues with this album do come across as more smoothed out, thanks in part to the death of Mike Scallia amping everybody up & pushing them to do their best. Despite this increased effort, these issues do crop up from time to time, but not as strongly as they did the album prior.

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, then click on the link below:

From Beer To Eternity

Overall Impression
From Beer To Eternity honestly felt at the time like the band’s career was truly done. As faulty as the album was, it felt like Ministry’s swan song, with Uncle Al bowing out as only he can. I recall being genuinely devastated at the time that Ministry was calling it quits, and while that would ultimately not be the case in recent years, there’s an alternate timeline where this release was the last thing they ever released. It’s not without flaws, but From Beer To Eternity isn’t the worst way to supposedly hang it up.

From Beer To Eternity gets a 7.5 out of 10.

And that was my review for, at the time of it’s release, the final album from Ministry. Though From Beer To Eternity did carry some of the previous record’s faults, they are somewhat negated by the greater effort that Uncle AL & the rest of the band put in for their departed friend. So, October is half a month away, but beforehand I got 1 last post for September. See you soon!

Top 5 Lowest Viewed Posts (No. 2)

Happy 9 year anniversary fellow Otaku & Metalheads!

It hard to believe that it’s been almost a decade since I started up this little corner of the internet for myself. Hard to believe that I’ve been releasing content for 9 years at this point in my life. While I admit that my content hasn’t always been consistent in terms of quality or release time, I’d like to say that I tend to stick to a plan as much as possible. Regardless, to welcome 9 years of this blog, I decided to adventure back into the realm of my lowest viewed posts, and this year was a little strange. When I did this list the first time, I was able to find reviews & other releases with relative ease, but not so much this year. This time around, I was only able to find articles & such from only the most recent years I’ve been putting stuff out, so expect to see things from this year, 2022, and maybe a hint of 2021. In any case, here are my top 5 lowest viewed posts.....number 2!

5) 5 Albums From The 90s You Should Own (2022)(Currently at 10 Views)
Considering all of the 90s nostalgia that’s been going on in recent memory, I was a little surprise that this didn’t get more views than it did. All of the records on this list were 90s staples upon their release, and even today they still have a lot of name recognition & people listening to them. Maybe it’s because they’ve been around for so long, music listeners knew their staying power, and as such this only got 10 views at the time of me making this list. Either way, the spirit of the last great decade will never fade!

4) Album Review: Megadeth's Capitol Punishment - The Megadeth Years (2021)(Currently at 9 Views)

For starters, I do want to make one apology on this list. Because I was looking at all of last year’s top 5 albums (Apart from the 2 I save for November), I didn’t do a Compilation Month this year. Sure, it’s a little bit difficult finding metal compilations that stand out from the rest, but I always enjoy talking about special collections of metallic songs that just have.....something to them. Megadeth have a few compilations to their name, but Megadeth's Capitol Punishment - The Megadeth Years is possibly their most iconic. I say possibly because it’s got a bit of a reputation, if Metal Archives is anything to go by. There are issues with this compilation, especially when it comes to the odd ordering of the tracks, and with only 9 views, it seems like it probably won’t get a tone of people looking at it.

3) Album Review: Kontrust's Time To Tango (2023)(Currently at 5 Views)

To play Devil’s Advocate, Kontrust isn’t quite as well known here in the states as they are in their native Europe. They certain have a presence here to be sure, but it’s more than likely in the “Cult” status. It’s ironic, since the band is putting out a new album this year after almost a decade of not doing so. Still, given that the band isn’t as well known in America as they are across the Atlantic, I’m not surprised that this review from a few weeks ago hasn’t got a lot of views. Speaking of Devil’s Advocate.....

2) Metal Overview: Anthem (Part 1)(2023)(Currently at 4 Views)
Another band that sadly only has cult status outside their native country (But one that at least had a brief foothold in the United States in the late 1980s), the Judas Priest of Japan has finally gained some real international acknowledgment in recent years thanks to being signed by Nuclear Blast Records, and earlier this year they released a new record! I took a look at these guys back in February, and while part 2 & 3 only had a slimmer increase in views, it’s part 1 that got the least. It’s a bit of a surprise, since their releases in the 80s to early 90s are some of the best out of their entire library. If you happen to read this, then perhaps you might go over to check part 1 out!

1) Album Review - Devin Townsend's Epicloud (10 Years Later)(2022)(Currently at 3 Views)

Now this one......this one surprised me.

Devin Townsend has been a mainstay in the real of Heavy Metal since the early 1990s when he first sang for Steve Vai, in the decades since he has become one of the biggest names in modern day Progressive Metal. It has been about over a decade since I was finally pulled into his weird world, and it’s all thanks to Epicloud. For almost 11 years (The 18th of September is when this record gets a year older) fans of HevyDevy have continued to hold this release as one of his best releases he’s ever done. So colored me surprised when I was looking through previous posts, and come to find out that this one only got 3 views. 3! Maybe it’s because Lucky Animals became a musical earworm that absolutely reviews to leave some people, but it’s insane to me that one of Devin’s most iconic records hasn’t gotten that many view on her. Hopefully, and I mean hopefully, any of you who read this list take a look at that review. Also.....

Lucky Animals

Love Tonight

So those were 5 more of my lowest viewed posts. Some of these surprised me, and others didn’t surprise me at all. In any case, I hope that you might take a look at these posts, and see if you can raise their numbers up. In any case, September will march on, so see you all around this month for a bunch of goodies. Take care!





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If you’d like to see what the lowest viewed posts were last year, click on the link below:

Top 5 Lowest Viewed Posts