Undercover - "Devotion"

Undercover - Devotion
1992/2018, LoFidelity

1. Work It Out
2. Man, Oh Man
3. Sea of Tranquility
4. Purple Flower
5. Devotion
6. Promenade
7. Where I Should Be
8. Dark Night
9. All That I Am
10. So Wonderful
Bonus Tracks
11. Cry Myself To Sleep (Live)
12. Witch Hunt (Live)
13. Devotion (Live)
14. Promenade (Acoustic Live)
15. Devotion (Live)
16. So Wonderful (Live)

A long, long time ago...back when the world was new, Undercover's Devotion inspired my youth group's logo. See, there's a song called "Purple Flower" on here and along with the mention of a purple flower in The Choir's "If I Had a Yard" we thought there was some sort of something going on. So a purple flower was our logo for "The Hippy Youth Group." Named that because a bunch of other kids from another district were like, "look at those hippies over there." Yes, I know Circle Slide pre-dated Devotion by two years so there couldn't have possibly been any correlation. No need to send letters.

Anyway, this was my first introduction to Undercover. I saw the previous album, Balance of Power, in my local bookstore but chose something else over it. I came into the scene way too late to have ever heard their more punk stuff. Devotion rocks pretty hard and while I didn't love it originally, I've grown quite fond of it lately. Quite a familiar refrain I've been singing in reviews these days. I blame it on trying to reclaim my lost youth. The original is really hard to find but the band has completed a Kickstarted a reissue and that's where my copy came from. The extra tracks are all right, mostly live stuff. I also appreciate that they recreated the liner notes of the original album. I know it's kind of a weird, small thing but sometimes when these reissues come out they redo the liner notes and often they don't look as good.

Useless Fact: As far as I know Ojo Taylor is no longer a Christian and is a college professor somewhere.

Iced Earth - "Incorruptible"

Iced Earth - Incorruptible
2017, Century Media

1. Great Heathen Army
2. Black Flag
3. Raven Wing
4. The Veil
5. Seven Headed Whore
6. The Relic (Part 1)
7. Ghost Dance (Awaken the Ancestors)
8. Brothers
9. Defiance
10. Clear the Way (December 13th, 1862)

I've got kind of a weird relationship with Iced Earth. If you'll recall I wasn't wild about their last two albums and only bought them because I was on vacation and bored (though I have re-evaluated Dystopia and really like it now). In fact, I wasn't even going to bother with Incorruptible because I'd figure I'd just get it a year later on whilst on vacation. However, I'd been hearing some really good buzz about this one with some fans saying it was their best since Something Wicked. Which is super high praise. So obviously I didn't wait until I was on vacation and I'm glad I didn't. I don't know what got into Jon Schaeffer and the boys, but man... this album rocks. There's definitely an energy and vibrancy that wasn't there on Plagues of Babylon. Everyone is at the top of their game and not one track could be considered "filler." I especially like the finale, "Clear the Way (December 13th, 1862) - a song about an army in the Civil War. I'm actually considering this as one of my picks for 2017 if that's any indication.

Useless Fact: "Seven Headed Whore" is marked as "explicit"... for the word "whore" I guess because there's no actual vulgarity in the song.

P.I.D. - "The Chosen Ones"

P.I.D. - The Chosen Ones
1991, Frontline

1. The Chosen Ones (Part 1)
2. Grace
3. Hey Oh
4. The Book
5. Abstruction
6. Authority
7. The Hour of Strong Delusions
8. Victim of the System
9. Yours Truly
10. Get You a Bible (D-Boy Re-mix)
11. Get Under the Blood Stream
12. License 2 Kill
13. 15 Degrees in Detroit
14. Joy Like a River
15. Progression
16. K-Mack the Knife (Soul Fingers)
17. The Chosen Ones (Part 2)
18. Roots
19. 3rd Degree Burns
20. The Chosen Ones (Inst.)

I remember when I originally bought this on tape. I wasn't very impressed. Couldn't tell you why, though. I just didn't like it as much as Back to Back. However, I must report that this is another one of those albums where I just scratch my head and think, "What the heck was wrong with me?!" This album is awesome - better than Back to Back in just about every respect. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this the second time around. The sound on this one is just a touch harder (as with a lot of groups at the time) and a little more mature. They really dig into the social issues on this one. Not that they were every really shy about that, but there's a lot more here about black culture and the struggle African-Americans face in society - definitely messages that need to be heard. I will say the album kind of peters out toward the end with a few instrumental/remix-type tracks (again, quite common for the time). I am so glad I picked this up again!

Useless Fact: The group is now three people with K-Mack who was the DJ, I think. Also, one of the members when to convert to Islam if I didn't say that already.

Minier - "Minier (Retroarchives Edition)"

Minier - Minier (Retroarchives Edition)
1990/2017, Retroactive

1. Do Not Be Deceived
2. The Skeptic
3. Price
4. Killing of the Innocent
5. Prophecy
6. Philosophy of Man
7. The Secret Song
Bonus Tracks:
8. Do Not Be Deceived (Bedroom Demo)
9. Foolish State (Bedroom Demo)
10. Mulligan Barf (Bedroom Demo)
11. Philosophy of Man (Bedroom Demo)
12. Prophecy (Bedroom Demo)
13. Sowing Life (Bedroom Demo)
14. Interview w/ Tempered Steel Radio Show, Part 1
15. Interview w/ Tempered Steel Radio Show, Part 2

I've long wanted a copy of Minier for the vault but it seemed like the original REX edition was too pricey. Especially for only seven songs. Retroactive once again stepped up and released this little gem and gave it a proper reissue. It's got six demo tracks from the bedroom of Greg Minier himself. The quality is rough as is befitting a four-track recording but not unlistenable. They've also included a couple of interviews for posterity's sake. Greg even writes some liner notes to give a little insight into the recording. All in all a pretty good package and definitely recommended if you liked the raw and thrashy original.

Useless Fact: Apparently there was supposed to be a full length "Minier" album, but The Crucified and Applehead both got in the way.