Various - _21st Century Media Blitz Vol. 2_
(Century Media, 1999)
by: Paul Schwarz (8 out of 10)
As compilations go, in terms of value and overall quality, it doesn't come much better than _21st Century Media Blitz_. Sure, it's not perfect, but to expect compilations, by their very definition a collection of various bands, to perfectly represent your own -personal- taste in music, is both unreasonable and misses the point. Compilations are not made to suit one person, they are made to give a random listener a variety of bands to check out and the opportunity to find something, or hopefully many things, that they like and were never previously exposed to. This two-disc set, which I believe is being marketed at a very reasonable mid-price, is cleverly split into two distinct sections. The first disc is a twenty track pick of the prime meat off Century Media's current bone, while the second is a twenty track pick of some of the finest of new UK talent from other labels and the realms of the unsigned. The first disc has personal favourites of mine like Arch Enemy and Cryptopsy along with the talented likes of Samael, Rotting Christ, Acrimony, Stampin' Ground, Turmoil and Iced Earth, among many others, of course. It certainly exemplifies why Century Media has respect amongst both the underground and the more popular oriented metalheads and provides a good range to sample, along with a few tracks which, at the time of release, have not had their respective long-players unleashed into the wide world. The second disc is a good part of the reason why this gets a good mark and respect from me, as it features the likes of Akercocke, Kill II This, Earthton9, Orange Goblin, Raging Speedhorn, Solstice (who are however represented by a track rather unrepresentative of their typical style, so to speak) and Medulla Nocte, who are all UK bands deserving the chance to be exposed to a wider audience. Despite a lack of unreleased material, and thus little incentive to pick this up for any but sampling purposes, _21stCMBV2_ is still a very worthy and highly listenable compilation which should offer the best value for money of any compilation out there right now.
(article published 9/12/1999)