Better with age?

Winger - Winger

Blech! Winger deserved every single moment of abuse and ridicule flung at them by Beavis and Butthead! This is just dreadful. It doesn't even qualify for an ironic/nostalgic trip back to the 80s.

I bought it with a handful of other old tapes - 10 for $10 I think. I think there's Trixter, Kingdom Come, Poison, and something else awful I can't quite remember in that lot. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Jesus Martyr - Sudamerican Porno

This one brings back some memories. I got this in a tape trade with an Argentinian guy called Nikarsh, who I used to chat with on ICQ way back in the late 90s. Anyway, it's a good mix of groove, thrash and industrial metal. There's some absolutely ripping songs on this.

M.O.D. - U.S.A. for M.O.D.

Offensive as fuck? Yeah, but it was supposed to be. Still OK in the modern world? Probably not. But hey, Varg apologists still listen to Burzum and justify it by saying they just like the music and don't agree with the lyrics, so I'm doing the same. The difference? Billy Milano has apologised for a lot of his most offensive lyrics (Aren't You Hungry? and A.I.D.S.) while Varg is still a right wing extremist nutjob.

Anyway, hadn't listened to this for years because I only have it on cassette, and no longer have a player. It's also not on Spotify. When you get past the most offensive stuff, there are a couple of absolute gems on here, and then some total clunkers. Still not an album for polite company...

Machine Head - The Burning Red

I may have judged this too harshly. Yes, it's got a few nu-metal turds floating in the bath, but in between, there are some fucking powerful bangers, which I haven't heard in years. Just listened to a bit of a podcast about the recording of this album, and the song "Five" sounds like it was quite traumatic to record. Oh yeah, and Robb Flynn hates that "Message In A Bottle" is the most popular song here, because it was just meant to be a bonus track.

In Flames - The Jester Race

Better than I remembered, but it's still probably not gonna get a lot of listens.

Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos

I remember there being a bit of a buzz around the time this was released. I was living in South Korea at the time and went and bought it soon after it's release. At the time I thought it was OK, but nothing super-impressive. I still don't think it's super-impressive. It's mildly interesting background music. It really doesn't do it for me.

KISS - Hot In The Shade

I literally listened to this only once, so I wasn't expecting much at all, but fuck me, it's actually listenable. There's a couple of half decent songs, the percentage of filler is smaller than usual, and even those filler songs are better than usual. Love the cover too.

Death - Spiritual Healing

I'm never going to love this album like I do with the two before it, but I think I've made my peace with it. It's good, solid old school death metal, but just sounds a bit dry compared to Leprosy. There's some fucking amazing passages in some of the songs, but then other times it sounds like scraps from the Leprosy sessions. The move away from gore based lyrics was a risky move at the time when a lot of bands were going for maximum splatter, which might be part of the problem I had with it when it first came out, because I loved the carnage. However, listening now the lyrics are pretty smart and more thoughtful than I'd considered. Glad I gave it another listen. It'll get a few more spins in the future.

I have a lot of older albums which I'm less interested in now due to over-listening, like the first five Metallicas, the early Megadeths, Appetite For Destruction, Hysteria etc., but I really want to stick to albums I haven't revisited much for various reasons. I'm trying to mix up the genres a bit, but they are mostly gonna be old thrash albums, because that's what I have lots of.