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Jag Panzer > Decade of the Nail-Spiked Bat > Reviews > Xeogred
Jag Panzer - Decade of the Nail-Spiked Bat

A collectors item, nothing else - 70%

Xeogred, May 7th, 2007

As the former review by ElectricEye notes, this album was basically created because for some odd reason Jag Panzer's old record company will not let them re-release "Ample Destruction". Atrocious, huh? So Jag Panzer and co went ahead and remade the majority of their oldest material here and sadly lose most of the magic those classics had in the process. Simply put, Ample Destruction can be found out there. Try theomegaorder.com, Amazon, eBay or something. We all know they're bootlegs, but some of them are pretty damn good. The "No Posers" bootleg also includes the "Tyrants EP" at the end, which is another chunk of old stuff they redid here. These remakes just turned out for the worst though. Its almost like they purposely made these remakes bad.

There is so much wrong with this compilation its downright annoying at times. The biggest issue here has got to be hands down the rotten production. Its utterly claustrophobic, it feels like they're trapped in a garage or something. The drums sound pretty horrible at times, and ruin great numbers like General Hostile or most noticeably Licensed to Kill. Just compare them to the original versions. This also seems to limit Harry Conklin's vocals, on top of the fact that he doesn't seem like he really wants to be here, believe it or not. His vocals seem held back and because of the strict production none of his vocals soar or overpower you like they do on the original albums. Its pretty a well known fact that Conklin is an amazing vocalist, so obviously that alone hurts this release a lot. He's missing that destructive -punch-. The guitars feel very drowned out at times, usually with the riffs. The solo's and harmonies hardly stand out like they did on the originals. The production seriously almost destroys this.

I'm actually a fan of their old "Tyrants EP". As odd as it was, it was very enjoyable. Interestingly enough I thought those remakes here were some of the better and enjoyable tracks on this. In the end though I'd still never prefer those remakes here over the originals, and I can say that for every single track here. "Dissident Alliance" is their only album I still haven't heard yet, possibly because of the extremely low reviews given here at the archives. But really, those songs here aren't too bad, so at times I do feel a little inclined to check out the real album to see what its all about myself. But again, there isn't a single track here I prefer over an original.

In final, as much as I loved "Ample Destruction" (could very well be my favorite album of all time), their EP, and whatnot, this compilation just falls flat on its face. The idea behind this just seemed too nice for its own good. I can't really give this a recommendation of any kind, but for those who think they just simply have to own everything Jag Panzer's ever released, go for it. 'Not being able to hear their old material' is hardly an excuse though, because as I mentioned earlier, "Ample Destruction" and their other stuff can be found when you search hard enough.