A few statistics for the year, should you be curious...
Total news items: 3880
Reviews: 77
Mp3s: 235
Top downloads (for tracks posted in 2009):
01. Florence Valentin - Spring Ricco
02. Ison & Fille - Jag skratter idag
03. King Diamond - No presents for Christmas (slightly cheating since I also posted it last year)
04. The Scrags - Psycho cyclone
05. Mercy - Heavy metal warriors
Top search terms:
01. Porno (no surprise, though I suspect most people aren't actually looking for the Swedish rapper)
02. Darkthrone
03. King Diamond
04. Melody Club
05. Black Uniforms
Remember, the mailorder goes on hibernation tomorrow so get your orders in now. Otherwise, I'm hard at work on revamping the site for 2010 and will be back with regular updates next week. Take care and happy New Year!
I went out record shopping last weekend and scored myself a nice short stack of classic early/mid-80s metal, including a few Swedish titles. Not exactly the sort of thing I usually expect to stumble across, so I extra stoked, especially since the records were actually pretty darn good (thank goodness for listening stations). One such title: Mercy's 1984 self-titled debut on Fingerprint Records. They've got a definite NWOBHM thing going on, but it's also has a nice bluesy swagger which shows a strong Black Sabbath/Deep Purple influence. Another thing it's got going for it: a pre-Candlemass Eddy "Messiah" Marcolin, already displaying his vocal talents at a very young age. With a lead-off track like "Heavy metal warriors" (hilarious billed as "Heavy metal worriors" on the sleeve), you know they're not aiming for a cerebral audience, but I don't care. Back in 1984 it was perfectly acceptable to sing about how awesome metal is and how awesome you were at playing it without ironic detachment or any other negative connotations. Those days are gone, but the music (and somehow, Manowar's career) lives on and I'm happy to celebrate it.
Mercy - Heavy metal warriors