CD Review: Escape to Weird Mountain Volume 2 (Forbidden Place Records)

$8.99 //
https://forbiddenplacerecords.bandcamp.com/album/escape-to-weird-mountain-volume-2-compact-disc //

They say the sequel is never as good as the original, but as we attempt to Escape to Weird Mountain for the second time I am already hooked by the number of artists I know, which oddly all have songs which fall in the same order.   Missiles of October, Nostromo and Sex Funeral are all in a row at least but I also recognize ARU by name (and I've reviewed all of those four artists before as well)

Up until the sax noise of Sex Funeral, these songs are pretty rocking.   Burn the Ailment has this "Search and Destroy" Metallica feel to it while Yellow Color Tester brings out the video game rock.   Fox Medicine could be my favorite new band as they cross between Metric and Great Grandpa has me looking them up on Bandcamp right away.   Though, that isn't to discredit Buzz Rodeo in any way as they have this great rock sound which could be something from the Replacements era.

Kepones remind me of Voodoo Glow Skulls but a little less skacore and a little more hardcore.   The second half of the Sex Funeral song "When the Hassle Hits the Hustle" does come out quite loud though, keeping this whole vibe intact.  I don't think I mentioned this in my first review but if I did it can be repeated: I thought the idea of this being Weird Mountain wouldn't just be weird (which I do recall typing) but also more slower, ambient and instrumental jams.    This is definitely surprising again and I'm just digging the hell out of these artists.

Woress is more great metal-- like something you'd find on one of those compilations from the 1990's with Ted Nugent on it only, you know, not as bad as Ted Nugent.    Sludgeburner is also as loud and heavy as you would expect based on their name.    There is a more metal sounding blues in the song "Black Pizza" by Succuba than Clapton's "Cocaine" as it also takes a nod from Fozzy.    The electronic sounds of ARU collide with audio samples before we meet the surf rock of Wood Chickens.    Musician begins with an audio clip and then goes into that harsh static noise which I expected to hear at some point on this CD I just didn't know it was going to wait until the end. 

These are sixteen songs by sixteen incredible artists.   There isn't a track on here I want to skip over and all of these songs make me want to learn more about the artists I am not already familiar with.    This basically does exactly what it should in that sense but it also takes me back to when I was in my younger years and compilations seemed to matter more.   Too much these days there is little to no effort put into them and it just seems to be songs grouped together for some unknown reason (Sometimes I've even seen the artists appear in alphabetical order.  Ewwww)   This is just superb from start to finish and you should have it in your own personal music library.