Illegal Rarities vol. I

Weren't all those lyrics found on the old crashdiet site via wayback machine.
I'm not that excited. I'm often not too fond of remasters. Often they sound worse, with few exceptions to prove the rule. Like Watain - Casus Luciferi and Godflesh - Streetcleaner.
I really loved the old Queen Obscene. With the raw guitar sound.

It is a bit of a struggle for me.. I think it is great for fans that may have never heard these songs before! Which I think there are quite a bit out there. (probably not on this forum, but surely some) For myself I think the sound quality and remastering is awesome and makes these demos fresh for 2014, but at the same time I've grown used to the original sound and the original demo bootlegs. Those old downloads that I scoured the web for shortly after discovering and falling in love with Crashdiet mean a whole lot to me. They were not easy to find when I originally searched for them. Now they are much easier to find with many different versions and compilations of them. The raw and rough sound are part of the charm and party of the mystique of the original Crashdiet demo.

Now this doesn't mean I don't want to pick one of these limited presses up because after all it is a cool collectors item and a really awesome chance to have a piece of Crashdiet history. It also doesnt mean that I'm against the remastering of the tracks cuz I think they sound amazing now.. or at least from what I've heard. And as I said above, I know there are lots of newer fans that may have never heard or even knew about this demo, so this is a great opportunity for those fans to experience some good old fashion Crashdiet.

(Sorry to be long winded)

And as far as this being volume 1 and the thought of being more volumes coming in the future is great. There are so many demos out there with some amazing song writing on them that deserve to have a proper release and deserve to be heard by many many fans new and old.

To be honest, I probably won't buy this one. I'm sorry but 22€ are too much for 8 songs which I already have and listened to for years...

What is happening? I see too much business behind Diet's music these days...

I'm sure lots of people won't agree with me but I feel a bit disapointed.

Just my two cents... Cheers guyz!

GunsNCrüeSWE wrote: I'm not that excited. I'm often not too fond of remasters.

Same here, not a fan of reissues either or releasing too much stuff from the past, what takes time that could be used on writing new music for example. Don't get me wrong, this surely is a cool thing for many fans, especially that it is a limited edition CD, but I'd rather hear snippets of new songs and see pictures of the boys working on new material (perhaps they're doing it but we don't know) instead . Compilations like that are good when bands have nothing new to offer and are close to finishing career (being sentimental about good early days), what is obviously not the case with CRASHDÏET. I still hope they will release a DVD from Savage era nonetheless, as they keep doing after every tour .

Edit: agree with you julius leopard too.

Marmetal wrote:

GunsNCrüeSWE wrote: I'm not that excited. I'm often not too fond of remasters.

Same here, not a fan of reissues either or releasing too much stuff from the past, what takes time that could be used on writing new music for example. Don't get me wrong, this surely is a cool thing for many fans, especially that it is a limited edition CD, but I'd rather hear snippets of new songs and see pictures of the boys working on new material (perhaps they're doing it but we don't know) instead . Compilations like that are good when bands have nothing new to offer and are close to finishing career (being sentimental about good early days), what is obviously not the case with CRASHDÏET. I still hope they will release a DVD from Savage era nonetheless, as they keep doing after every tour .

Edit: agree with you julius leopard too.

I don't know. I would have loved if they reissued the first demo. But with Out of line and Riot in Everyone. And of course with the original artwork. This one looks like a photoshop mess to me.
And vinyl.... Please vinyl.....

I look forward to get it. I've heard all the songs before, but its gonna be cool to hear them in a better quality as well. I absolutely hope that the vol. 1 thing means that there will be more volumes. And the collector in me (it just kicks in sometimes, its not to stuctured) likes this very much. I love having things that may be hard to get later, and just to have lots of things.

I get your point Viper. But I'm a bit scared because I see an unofficial release for sale every now.

How much time has passed since the last "hey buy this now"?

I'm not totally against this kind of stuff... I mean, nobody is forced nor bound to buy it. But sometimes it seems like Crashdiet has lost the way and got attracted by the market thing. And this isn't Crashdiet!

Do you remember the line "be yourself not a puppet in their freak show"? And the one that say "I can't stand be in the spotlight?"

I know that fans kept asking for the old demos to be re-released. So why sell only 8 tracks?

Don't get me wrong. I still love these guys but I'm just scared by those fancy banners.

GunsNCrüeSWE wrote: And of course with the original artwork. This one looks like a photoshop mess to me.

It doesn't look the best to me either, if you ask me.

mrs v. viper wrote:

Marmetal wrote: when bands have nothing new to offer and are close to finishing career (being sentimental about good early days),

I'd agree with any other band. But Dave Lepard sadly has nothing new to offer, doesn't he...

I thought that's obvious enough, so I didn't even point it out. What I mean is - in my opinion the best time to revisit the past and release old things is when a band feels "burned out", and I believe guys in CRASHDÏET still have a lot of hunger to write new music .

mrs v. viper wrote: underground music scene can be fucking strict. You can't do this, you can't do that or you're a "sell out". You can become a puppet to those rules aswell.

Yeah, I agree here. You can't please everyone, there always will be someone complaining. When certain band becomes succesful, people tend to say "they sold out", what's ridiculous and annoys me a lot. After all, real fans support their heroes so they can achieve their goals, unless the band does things only for commercial benefits instead of creating honest art.

Just listened to the remastered Too Hot To Stop. Sounds freaking terrible. The original mix was much better. In this version the raw treble edge on the guitar is gone, and the solo guitar stands out too much.

And the clean guitar is almost inaudible.

All that stuff about "too much business" etc.... seriously, I don't get it. From what I have read at the facebook page, boys released it on their own, which means no promotion etc., making the whole thing even more fan friendly from my point of view. I'm a fan only for one year and I've never heard the most of the songs before so bet you I'm glad there is an opportunity for me to get them. Of course I'd rather watch or listen to some sneak peak from the new stuff but hey, this is cool enough! I just wish I wasn't completely broke right now, I'm afraid it will be all gone before I get my payment

mrs v. viper wrote: even more nostalgic now, really can't understand why peopel don't get what's happening with this release

Exactly couldn't agree more.. It all started with saying hey it is has been 10 years since Crashdiet has been a band. It is a great reflection of what this band is, has been, and will be. People used to clamor about these songs and the unreleased demos, but now that they are out in this format it seems like people are being so negative about it. Kind of confusing?!

mrs v. viper wrote: even more nostalgic now, really can't understand why peopel don't get what's happening with this release

Don't worry Anna, I'm pretty sure there is tons of people who have more exited view on this release, me included, but they haven't voiced their opinion yet.

I must admit that I'm one of the people who has heard all those songs before, but I still bought the CD. From my point of view, buying the CD is only right thing to do (I must stop my tought there, and mention that it's extremely difficult to write when there is a kid trying to climb on top of your head.) OK, so most bands are trying to make their living out of their music, so my reasoning is, that in order to hear more stuff from them, I have to support them by buying their music rather than go for the illegal download sites. I just want to make my contribution, so that the bands I like don't quit because they can't affor to live out of their music and choose to do something else instead.

I'm also happy to hear the remastered versions of the songs. I guess I'm a bit of a succer for hearing all the different versions of all the songs I've heard.

And for those people who think that the 17.51 Euros is too much, hands up, how many of you put more money down your throats when you are having a night out, and is it too much money then? Come on, CD is a CD after all, and it will be with you for much longer time than the beer and won't give your a hangover the next day.

And for the sell out part, selling only 999 copies won't make anyone millionare. In fact, it makes only 17 492.49 Euros profit, but the net profit will be only a fraction of that, because of production costs, taxes, etc. My prediction is that you can calculate it in only months in which this release will keep the band financially sound. And besides, you can be "a non sell out band" if it's only a hobby, or if you are in the age group you can ask your parents the money for rent, but neither of those relly applies for the guys in Crashdiet. And here we are coming back to the fact, that you need money so that you can eat and have a roof over your head. I don't think too many of us would do our jobs for free...

I've been a Crash fan for quite a long time (much longer than my forum involvement) and I remember back when I first discovered that there was this long list of demos out there for those who looked hard enough. The memories of first listening to songs like "California White" and "Crazy Nites" still stick in my head as I can remember thinking "why haven't these been released yet?!?!" Now that the day has come that they are finally being released people seem a bit mixed on the subject.

Why should we spend our hard earned money on something that we've been able to get for free for almost a decade?
As much as I understand where people are coming from here we must understand that as fans we have been extremely fortunate when it comes to things like this. There is enough demos from the Dave Lepard era alone for the band to have released another album (with no filler mind you) after his death and still had songs left over. We have been living off of how many free demos for the past years? More than most bands would ever allow. I feel that after this long the band deserves to collect on this, and as fans, we should support that. They're not "selling out," just cashing in on something that is long over due.

When I first started collecting these demos I remember thinking "why doesn't the band just release them all and be done with it?" But now that I've had the experience of finding these old demos, I'm afraid that if they had released them years ago we would have taken them for granted. When I would find a few songs that I hadn't heard I would listen to them non stop because they were a part of history of this band that we all love. I still look for demos today, and on the rare occasion that I find something that I don't already have, I get this childish smile on my face when I first hear it. The experience of digging for these demos was extremely fun but it's time they see a proper release.

As for the mastering of these tracks I have mixed feelings. "Too Hot To Stop" has changed from this sleazy little song to this massive anthem with huge vocals. In the original demo, Peters bass was very prominent (especially in the intro) and that was always something that liked about that song, now it is almost lost in the mix. Dave's vocals were so much rawer in the demo than they are in this reissue, and I feel like some of his nuances are lost in the remastering. All that being said, I can't wait to get this in my hands and hope that "Illegal Rarities Volume 2 -?" are released sooner rather than later.

In the end would I have liked for some old Dave songs that we've never hear of before be released on this? Sure! But it seems appropriate for the first release of this kind to be a re-release of their first EP.

Would I have loved to see the ORIGINAL demos (with Mace, Tom, and Mary) be released? Never going to happen, but yes!

Am I glad that these songs are finally being made available to those that might not have the time or energy to search for them on countless sites? You bet your ass I am!

Just my opinion.

//Dakota

As it seems that only the guys are complaining about the remasterings of the songs, it just made me wondering if guys listen music differently than girls, because even if I hear the difference between the original Too Hot To Stop and the remastered version of it, I can't really say that I would like one version better than the other. For me it feels like I have acquired just a new song to my collection, like they are 2 differnet songs, and I can keep them separate from each other.

I have also always felt that guys are much more aware of the little details in the songs. For example, my husband is into very technical bands, and he can hear if someone plays even a one note wrong. I on the other had don't like if bands get too technical, because in my opinion it makes the music more mechanical and less human. I like to listen music that has some emotional value to me.

Starting to get really out of topic, so better stop here. Sorry!

Not at all. To me the feeling of the songwriting is much more important. I listen to some very lo-fi music so I'm not just out to complain.
But if I am going to pay for an album that I know can sound splendid but instead sounds kinda crappy I feel fooled.
Why would I buy this when just burning an mp3 onto a CD-R but with the original mix would sound better?
I generally don't care. But re-issues should be done right.

@GunsNCrüeSWE
OK, even though I'm not agreeing with you, I can kind of see why you are so upset about the release Illegal Rarities vol.1. I hope you don't lose your faith on the band though, because I'm pretty sure their intention wasn't to piss off anyone with the release of these old songs. They must have some kind of reason (other than greed, I hope) for why they are doing the things the way they are doing them.