The Decline of Western Civilization, Pt. 2: The Metal Years

1. Under My Wheels

2. Bathroom Wall - Taime Downe

3. Cradle to the Grave - Motörhead

4. You Can Run But You Can't Hide - Armored Saint

5. Born to Be Wild - Mars Bonfire

6. In My Darkest Hour - Megadeth

7. Prophecy

8. Brave

9. Foaming at the Mouth

10. Colleen - Andrews, Black,

Tracks:

Under My Wheels
Bathroom Wall - Taime Downe
Cradle to the Grave - Motad
You Can Run But You Can't Hide - Armored Saint
Born to Be Wild - Mars Bonfire
In My Darkest Hour - Megadeth
Prophecy
Brave
Foaming at the Mouth
Colleen - Andrews, Black,

Product Description

Soundtrack to the 1988 film. Track listing: Alice Cooper w/Axl Rose, Slash and Izzy of Guns N' Roses - Under My Wheels Faster Pussycat - The Bathroom Wall Motorhead - Cradle To The Grave Armored Saint - You Can Run But You Can't Hide Lizzy Borden - Born To Be Wild Megadeth - In My Darkest Hour Queensryche - The Prophecy Metal Church - The Brave Rigor Mortis - Foaming At The Mouth Seduce - Colleen

Customer Reviews:

Additional Track .......2006-11-04

On the original soundtrack (I had the cassette years ago) there was a cover of Anarchy in the UK originally done by the Sex Pistols, redone here by Megadeth. Track was decent - I guess you have to find an original printing to get that track. There was also a tune by Accept - dont remember which.

Good material, but ill-conceived and now mostly obsolete..........2005-06-22

"The Decline of Western Civilization Part II" was less a decent documentary than proof that Penelope Spheeris should leave "metal" alone and stick to punk. I fail to understand where "The Metal Years" tag comes into play when the majority of screen-time is wasted with members of the L.A. glam rock scene (sweet irony considering most of them are washed-up musically, yet a lot of the heavier bands on the soundtrack who received no screen time are still trundling along musically). All of the heavier/metal acts who actually were in the film such as Lizzy Borden, Seduce, Odin, and W.A.S.P. still had aesthetics rooted heavily in glam or shock rock. Megadeth and Ozzy are hardly representatives of underground metal, or quality metal at all, for that matter; while it is funny to see members of most bands involved display rock-star arrogance, get wasted, or act like jackasses, you'd get the same entertainment value out of the movie by excising 75% of the vapid content.

The content of the film's "soundtrack" is far superior to the original movie, but it's sort of a strange concoction with an odd mix of several bands that are geniunely heavy (I suspect the result of some lamebrained licensing deals). While some of the tracks were rarities when the soundtrack was originally released, a lot of them have seen become more widely available, making it largely obsolete. A track by track rundown:

Tracks 1 & 2: I'm not even going to acknowledge the titles, as these fit with the context of the movie, but not with the rest of the soundtrack. I guess compared to other Alice Cooper/G'N'R/Faster Pussycat material it's somewhat heavy, but it's not metal, so who cares?

Track 3: Motörhead "Cradle to the Grave" - An about-average Motörhead tune, not as strong as a lot of their staple songs, but far above the quality of their worst stuff. Available elsewhere, so now obsolete.

Track 4: Armored Saint "You Can Run But You Can't Hide" - Strangely, the songwriting seems to be similar to their older stuff, but the actual song execution doesn't have the "galloping" feel a lot of the material from and before their first LP. Still, far, far superior to most post-"March of the Saint" material. Made obsolete by inclusion on the "Nod to the Old School" collection.

Track 5: Lizzy Borden "Born to Be Wild" (Live) - As with their cover of "Live and Let Die," the main negative is that the lead vocals are quite warbly--throughout the whole thing. Lizzy has a tendency to do that when doing high notes in his original stuff, but "Give 'Em the Axe" this is not. Not up to par with original Lizzy Borden material, and done far better by other metal bands. This is a live recording done on Halloween (I'm unsure of the year); I believe footage of this tune from the same gig is available on a Metal Blade anniversary DVD, but I'm unsure if the audio is available elsewhere.

Track 6: Megadeth "In My Darkest Hour" - Anyone into quality of material/catchiness/heavniess over fame factor/production should really only like the first 2 Megadeth albums, and some individual tracks on the third. No sincere heavy metal fanatic wants to hear your emotional "Oh woe is me" crap, Mustaine. If you're so sad and depressed, shoot up some more. All that said, the second half of this song with the speeded up tempo is quite okay. Not a rarity.

Track 7: Queensrÿche "The Prophecy" - Surprisingly, from the first EP! Not the best song from that release, but the bass-heavy mix and vocal harmonies are sort of neat. Not a rarity.

Track 8: Metal Church "The Brave" - Musically very good song, although since this predates the first album (I'm still not sure whether it's just an early studio track or a demo), David Wayne's vocals aren't as strong as on the full albums he did. Appeared on Metal Massacre V, so not a rarity.

Track 9: Rigor Mortis "Foaming at the Mouth" - For many, once the sole reason for seeking this compilation; not only the best song on here, but the best Rigor Mortis song, period. One of their faster songs, but still remains coherent and avoids wall-of-noise syndrome. The soloing is at an even faster tempo than the rest of the song, yet remains dazzingly harmonic and still fits the song nicely instead of becoming lame fretboard showmanship. The level of musical skill here is high, but rather than being used in empty displays of technical prowess, it's harnessed to make some superb thrash. Even the backing gang vocals are cool, albeit they're far from the typical annoying Bay Area thrash style. Like all of early material of this band, a highly commendable job at combining fast thrash with subtle pro-death metal influences. The band were signed to Capitol at time, which explains their appearance here. Once highly coveted, now totally obsolete since it appears on both the bootleg and official re-releases of their first album.

Track 10: Seduce "Colleen" - Many mistakenly assume this band mostly did Dokken-type stuff which was essentially hard rock but with heavy guitars. They're clearly more of a heavy metal band that utilizes some more commercial sounding melodies for choruses and so on. They certainly had big hair and a glammish look for their second album, though. As disappointing as the balladish song title sounds, it's actually one of their heaviest tunes. Ironically, this song isn't as good as "Crash Landing," the song they actually performed in the film. As far as I know "Colleen" was unreleased elsewhere."

Overall, this feels like one of those cheap "heavy metal" compilations that combines songs by more famous geniune heavy metal bands and tunes by radio-friendly hard rock acts who are commonly mislabeled as metal. The only difference is that this soundtrack has short snippets of dialogue from the film between the songs.

The first two tracks seem out of place here and really just waste space. As stated earlier, two tracks on here may or may not be available digitally elsewhere--the best case scenario is that they do make it to CD soon (although I don't think "Born to Be Wild" was included on any of the remastered Lizzy Borden discs, so it's doubtful) and this ill-fated compilation dies an agonizing death in cut-out/clearance bins everywhere. Especially if you're a fan enough of the other material to get it elsewhere, the Seduce and Lizzy Borden tracks aren't much of a draw, but in the end, the price of this compilation will probably dictate how compelling it is to get.

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