Litmus - You Are Here (2004 England). Blazing out of the gates with a monolithic guitar riff, twee-twee-twee Moog knob twiddles, and a neanderthal 4/4 rhythm, I was immediately reminded of those 90s aggressive festival rockers Omnia Opera, minus any of their Floydian cosmic buildups. Or, of course, I could’ve mentioned the real inspiration at work here - which would be primo early 70s era Hawkwind, if Lemmy ran the band that is. They put the “B” in subtle, and pulverize most of the songs right through the wall. The keyboardist is the same gentleman who runs the excellent Planet Mellotron site, and so no surprise the mellotron gets more than its share of studio time. Though good luck in hearing it over the racket. I like my space rock a bit more cosmic and trippy me-self, but OK, that’s not their bag. Interesting to note that even Mr. Planet Mellotron didn’t care too much for their second album “Planetfall”, and it would seem this dissatisfaction lead to his departure from the band just as they are now on the somewhat big time label Rise Above Records.

Leitkegel - s/t (1998 England). Certainly the noisiest and least focused of the 99-count release Drug Series albums. Neu! seems to be one of the primary influences, as would be the 1980s industrial scene. An interesting record, and quite good, but probably my least favorite of the series (a series that includes Quad, Mother Yod, Ohr Musik and others).

Artillery - Fear of Tomorrow (1985 Denmark). It’s been at least two years since I sat down and listened to a good old fashioned headbanging thrash metal album. There was a time in the 1980s when not a day would go by without a fix of thrash. Surprisingly I never did get around to picking up the Artillery albums in their heyday. They had received glorious reviews in Kerrangg, and even more importantly for those of us who lived in the underground, Metal Forces! They were one of the few bands that could go the distance with Metallica in those days, critically speaking. The reason I didn’t buy them then was for the usual college budget reasons, and their albums were only available as UK imports (Neat Records if I remember right). Listening with 2008 ears, Artillery’s debut is certainly not anything that hasn’t been done hundreds of times before. But Artillery were one of the first, and for that they get credit. All these years and thousands of crazy albums later, and I still like a good, solid thrash metal album…