Soldier - Babylon And Beyond

I did not order this, but I was wondering how it compared to the previous Soldier release several years ago.  Does it sound better?  Are those of you ordering it due to the bonus tracks?  Are there a bunch of the same songs again and again like on the Malachia release?

I haven't had a chance to listen to it entirely yet.  There are some tracks reapeated a few times, but not quite to the extent that the Malachia album was (close though). 
The first disc (20 tracks), is the bands first two albums followed by their two tracks from the California Metal comp (I believe all of this was previously available).  The second album features 4 unreleased tracks, and the live Metal Mardigras show.

So among 34 tracks 14 of them are live.  With the exception of "Boderline" it looks like none of the studio tracks are repeated as studio tracks (but several of them are obviously repeated live).  The demo material sounds like demo material recorded in the 80's but the master sounded alright to me (but you have a much better ear than I do when it comes to that).

Not exactly sure how it compares to their rerelease from several years back as I don't think I ever had that.

I'm not a big fan of live music, and the few tracks I've heard hear didn't do anything to change that opinion.  Although if you like live recordings the second album tracks 5-14 are from the Metal Mardigras show and aren't horrible...actually pretty decent for 80's live stuff that hasn't been overdubbed (but the snare drum sound drives me batty.....but that doesn't seem to be uncommon in live recordings).

Oh yeah, and a couple of the live tracks are only available as their live versions (no studio version)

It's pretty cool hearing Babylon on vinyl.

So nobody but me and TTDR got this ablum?

I didn't.  In fact this year I'm way down on my CD purchasing list!  The ONLY one I've bought so far this year is Omega Highway's new (2012!) album.

Staybrite wrote:

So nobody but me and TTDR got this ablum?

We're the cool kids, Gary 

Fundy wrote:

I didn't.  In fact this year I'm way down on my CD purchasing list!  The ONLY one I've bought so far this year is Omega Highway's new (2012!) album.

Don't you usually average at least one CD a month?  That is down.

I only have five albums myself and that's counting the LordChain EP that Kelly gave away for free (great album too).  Three of them are reissues from Roxx Records.

Through The Dark Radio wrote:

Staybrite wrote:

So nobody but me and TTDR got this ablum?

We're the cool kids, Gary 

Golly jeepers, I always wanted to be one of the cool kids! 

I got mine yesterday and listened to it today.  I don't hear anything much different than the M8 version that came out many years ago.  On the tracks I already had, I really didn't gain anything.

With the live tracks, I found those to be too noisy to really listen to.  While they were cleaned up some, they were still not great live recordings.  I won't play those ever.

The four tracks that this band did but never released until now are what I bought this for.  I was not disappointed!  So, when I ripped the CD to MP3, I added those four tracks the first 13 on disc one for one super long record. 

While demo tracks and live recordings might be cool to some, I just really wish they'd stick to releasing either the remastered album only or adding only near studio quality songs.  I could do without all the filler tracks that are simply repeats of the same songs but often in descending quality.  With this album, though, you do gain 4 songs that are definitely high quality.  So, all in all, I would have to say that this anthology is much better than the Eternal Ryte and Malachia albums just in that respect.

I bought my copy... this was completely remastered ... the prior version was a sweep master where this version each track was done individually... I hear a lot more bass drum and the guitars are crunchier to my ears... More beefy...

Honestly the four "new tracks"... arent that great... there I said it...

Babylon isnt as boomy as it was before and the Cal Metal version of TEARS is 1000xs better, much heavier...

Just my own two cents and observations...