VA - Roadrunner United: The All-Star Sessions
- Released: 2005
- Label: Roadrunner
- Rating:
Roadrunner owns a special spot in my heart, since I have followed that label from day one more or less. The label started out as a simple Dutch import company in the early 80s, then called Roadracer, and have since evolved to be one of the biggest independent labels in the world. Many of my favorite bands and artists has been, or is still to be found, on the label. One of my all time favorite albums is a classic Rroadrunner Release, King Diamond’s Fatal Portrait (1986). It really made me realize that there was not only Music for Nations that released good stuff over here in Europe at that time.
Anno 2005, the label has been releasing both good and bad albums for 25 years. The highlight period was the later 80s to mid 90s when releases from bands like Sadus, Pestilence, Suffocation, Xentrix, Annihilator and Heathen were the shit in my world. It was because of the aforementioned bands, and their connecttion to Roadrunner, that I got to know bands that are favorites of mine these days (Machine Head, Sepultura, Deicide and Fear Factory, to name a few). So what about The All-Star Sessions…
First of all, this is not a traditional compliation since none of the songs have ever been released by any Roadrunner band before; they are all new songs. What Roadrunner’s A&R Monte Connor did was gather four guys that he knew wrote songs in their bands, and that he felt had the ability to keep the shit together since he understood that there would be a lot of stuff and staff to keep control of. So he asked Dino Cazares (ex-Fear Factory, Brujeria, Asesino) to be in charge of the L.A. team, Rob Flynn (ex-Violence, Machine Head) took on the Oakland team, Joey Jordison (Slipknot) took charge of the Iowa team, and Matthew Heafy (Trivium) took charge of the Florida based workgroup. Enough of the crap, let´s get down to it!
This album is a little special since every song has different line-ups, and shit I guess I have to do it song by song…na, fuck that. I´ll pick out five songs from the album that I think make it worth buying.
“The Dagger”
In my opinion one of the better tracks on the album, this sounds a lot like Machine Head, if you think in terms of a crossbreed between their first two albums and their latest. Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage on vocals sounds almost like Rob Flynn here, which gives it a even stronger Machine Head vibe. This song also contain a pretty cool solo from Annihilator’s Jeff Waters.
“The Enemy”
The song starts of with some acoustic stuff from Andreas Kisser of Sepultura. The rest of the song is more or less what you could expect from a guy like Dino Cazares, I guess this is how Fear Factory might have sounded if he had been given free hands in that band. Mark from Chimaira deliever some decent singing on this track.
“Annihilation by the Hands of God”
A blend of Glenn Benton, James Murphy, Joey Jordison and Steve DiGiorgio…how good could that be? Personally I like it, but if you are a hardcore Decide fan, and therefore don´t have any interest in Slipknot and the other guys bands, well, then forget about it and buy some of the newer Deicide stuff instead. But if you like Death Metal in general this song might be worth checking out. Nothing for the old school Deicide fans.
“In the Fire”
I wonder how come that Danish dude seems to make anything he touches sounds so evil and grim. The song is written by Matt from Trivium and would probably never caught my attention if it wasn’t for King Diamond, but since the King is there on his throne it works and it works damn well. Strange how one person can make a whole song good that otherwise had been pretty boring.
“Constitution Down”
James Murphy and Andy LaRocque on fatass twin-lead guitars, and once more Steve DiGiorgio on bass. DiGiorgio is the dude that pops up almost everywhere, be it in Sadus, Death, Testament, Quo Vadis, Dragonlord, or even in Sebastian Bach’s solo shit…the dude is everywhere. Anyway, this song is pretty much overall metal, Joey Jordison shows once again that he should drop Slipknot and write music on his own. Kyle Thomas from Exhorder does the vocals.
That sums it up pretty good, some goodies are left out together with some really shitty songs. This album might not show respect to the sound of the late 80s and early 90s since most of the songs have a late 90s or later date vibe to them, but it’s more fun to listen to than another label best of album.
Pils | 06/30/2006