Metal Box Public

Issued just a few years shy of their 40th year in existence, the massive 35-song compilation Warheads on Foreheads draws from every era of Megadeth's twisting but always menacing tenure. The tracks were hand-selected by bandleader Dave Mustaine, cherrypicking stand-out selections from each of their 15 studio albums (as well as a few outlier tracks) and presenting them in chronological order. Beginning with three of the stronger songs from 1985's Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good, Mustaine charts Megadeth's progression through their string of classic thrashy '80s albums into the more accessible sounds and heightened production of their early-'90s work. Things taper off after that, with only one or two picks from most of the band's 2000s and 2010s albums like The System Has Failed, Endgame, and Super Collider.

Being "The World’s Most Notorious Rock Band" (according to the band itself) is not easy. One of the most notorious and successful bands of the glam metal era, Los Angeles rockers Mötley Crüe burned through the '80s in a blaze of drugs, debauchery, and platinum hits. Their glammed-out image, hard-partying reputation, and a knack for melding pop hooks to heavy metal theatrics took the band to the top of the charts repeatedly throughout the '80s. Albums like 1985's Theatre of Pain and 1989's Dr. Feelgood bringing them to sold-out arenas around the world. In The Many Faces of Mötley Crüe, we will explore the band's inner world, including collaborations, side projects, their hits-filled catalog and the rest of the "hair-metal" generation where they raised from.

Call Death Magnetic Kirk Hammett's revenge. Famously browbeaten into accepting Lars Ulrich and producers Bob Rock's dictum that guitar solos were "dated" and thereby verboten for 2003's St. Anger – a fraught recording chronicled on the 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster – Metallica's lead guitarist dominates this 2008 sequel, playing with an euphoric fury not heard in years, if not decades…

This exemplary four-disc box takes the high road, attempting nothing less than an honest reconstruction of the Who's stormy, adventurous, uneven pilgrimage. While offering an evenhanded cross-section of single hits and classic album tracks, 30 Years garnishes the expected high points with B-sides, alternate and live versions of familiar tracks, and the quartet's earliest singles as the High Numbers…

Original Album Classics contains five albums by Cypress Hill: Cypress Hill (1991), Black Sunday (1993), Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom (1995), Cypress Hill IV (1998), and Stoned Raiders (2001). That's the group's first four albums, plus its sixth – 2000's Skull & Bones was presumably left out because it's a two-disc album. For most casual fans, 2005's Greatest Hits from the Bong will be adequate, but this is a rather affordable way to obtain a major chunk of the group's catalog. The discs are presented as they were originally released, within standard jewel cases that slide inside a basic cardboard sleeve.

Van Halen formed in 1974, but emerged in public view with the 1978 release of their self-titled debut album, which quickly established them as the hottest American hard-rock band since Aerosmith. The band reinvigorated hard rock during a period of doldrums by bringing youthful, West Coast bravado and blistering virtuosity to the genre. They delivered their music with an unrelenting intensity and musicality that audiences devoured, launching them to superstardom and restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene. After 30 years and 11 studio releases —four of which reached Number One—, Van Halen has sold more than 56 million records in the U.S., which places them among the top 20 best-selling artists of all time…

Alice Cooper - The Studio Albums 1969-1983 (2015) {15 Disc Box Set Rhino-Warner 081227953744}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.51 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.31 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 311 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1969-83, 2015 Rhino / Warner | 081227953744
Rock / Hard Rock / Shock Rock / Glam Rock

Weighing in at 15 CDs, The Studio Albums 1969-1983 is a hefty box set but, at $85, it is relatively affordable considering that it contains everything Alice Cooper – both the band and the man – recorded at Straight and Warner. Whatever bonus material attached to CD reissues over the years has been stripped away – nothing from the 2001 deluxe edition of Billion Dollar Babies, then – and there are no new remasters of the albums, but this set isn't bare bones. The mini-LP replicas contain a few inserts carried over from the vinyl and, more importantly, those early Straight Records are present, which is good because they were out of print for a while. Not everything here is great – he did have a rough patch in the late '70s and early '80s – but it's all interesting, and it's especially nice to be able to get the entire catalog so easily and cheaply.