All customer reviews by Graham R.

Eagles, Dragons and Five Stars

This is a beautifully-conceived box set with nine excellent albums re-issued on heavyweight vinyl. The box, poster and lyric inners are exclusive to this set. Their are no bonus tracks or anything like that but this is no loss really and there's plenty of cheap CD's out there with bonus tracks, most of which are live versions anyway -and Saxon are hardly known for starving their fans of live albums! The albums mainly contain the odd track which might be described as "filler" but every one has some stone-cold classics on it too and, as the quality of manufacture and packaging is absolutely top drawer from start to finish, you get real value for your money. I used a 10% voucher so this box worked out to a tenner per LP. Bargain. Hats off to Saxon and EMP for making this beautiful box set available at a great price.

A Long Overdue Revival Of "Iron Fist"

"Iron Fist" was not Motorhead's greatest album by a long way and suffers from both "Fast Eddie" Clarke's inexperienced and rather inadequate production and the feeling that the album was rushed from start to finish, there are some good songs on it but some of them just feel like fillers. Motorhead were at the peak of their success in 1982 and the "Iron Fist Tour" was still a great success -even if we all missed the Bomber lighting rig, the shock of seeing the band descend from the ceiling on a special suspended stage whilst playing the first song ("Iron Fist") was something never to be forgotten. I saw this tour at Hammersmith Odeon in May 1982 at the tender age of 13 (it was the first of many, many Motorhead gigs for me) and I bought the t-shirt. I remember at the time thinking that I preferred the bolder white-on-black design of the classic "Motorhead England" t-shirts but it's still an interesting design. Of course, my original tour t-shirt has long ago faded and is now a bit tatty looking -plus it doesn't fit me any more anyway! So when I saw that this design was being revived, I had to have one -even if it doesn't have the tour dates on the back. A great t-shirt from a great band, particularly if you were there back in 1982. Motorhead for life!

Naglfar and Yggdrasil In Beautiful Harmony

This rather excellent t-shirt from Toxic Angel has an iconic front print with Naglfar, the ship which ferries the dead to Hel in Nordic mythology, cleaving the waves as it leaves the fjords to bear its cargo of the recently departed out to sea and over the edge of the world disc. Above it all rises Yggdrasil, The World Tree, whose trunk, roots and branches connect the realms of the living with the realms of the gods and of the dead. On the back, Yggdrasil is depicted again, this time with a mythic sword thrust deep into the earth (obviously a very phallic symbol of fertility), from which roots are growing. Although this is a "fantasy" t-shirt, the design is very good and combines various elements of Norse mythology in interesting and harmonious ways. Toxic Angel have various ranges of clothing for rockers, bikers, pagans, etc. which all look like the very highest quality tattoos and this is one of the finest examples of their art. I bought this rather splendid t-shirt for the missus when EMP were having a lightning sale, so it was a real bargain but it is still very good for the regular price.

"Naglfar" Is Coming For You!

Another awesome Amon Amarth t-shirt with a design exclusive to EMP. This one features "Naglfar", the ship of the dead of Norse mythology -an evil-looking "drakar" (Dragon ship) crewed by ferocious Viking zombies. A nice touch is the skulls impaled on the ship's dragon prow! The iconic Amon Amarth logo is rendered in white and grey over the top of a design in white, grey and sombre shades of brown. My missus is nuts for Amon Amarth (as am I) and this is yet another great t-shirt for her ever-growing collection. Raise your drinking horns to Amon Amarth and to EMP for another epic shirt!

Nordic Mjolnir!

Of course, this t-shirt features Mjolnir, the famous hammer of Thor, the Norse god of thunder -there's nothing at all Celtic about it! The knotwork in both the depiction of Mjolnir and the triskel behind it is common to both Celtic and Viking cultures. This beautiful t-shirt has what looks like a double print, a white Mjolnir on top of a grey triskel. The whole design is fantastic and the quality of manufacture is as high as anything from EMP -i.e. very good indeed. I got this great t-shirt for myself at a reduced price as part of a lightning sale, so I'm now a very happy little Viking!

An Awesome Shirt For Those In The Know

This is a truly awesome t-shirt for those in the know. The design is a large and faithful reproduction of the excellent cover artwork for Mastodon's classic album, "Crack The Skye" -and nothing else! No Mastodon logo, no album title, no words at all. Mastodon fans will recognize the design immediately and everyone else will just think it's a nice picture. Super cool!

A Good Compilation At An Excellent Price

Lynyrd Skynyrd should need no introduction, so let's start with what you actually get for your money. This is a "no-frills" boxed set of 3 CD's from Germany -there are no lavish inserts. Each of the three CD's comes in its own jewel case with a single page insert that duplicates the (fairly unimaginative) slipcase artwork on the outside and inside has the tracks listed with details of the length of each song, the line-up, the composers, the producer and the year. It would be nice if the album on which each track originally appeared was listed too but this is a minor quibble. There are 36 tracks, twelve on each disc (nearly three hours of music in total) -and the good news is that there's no filler, no live recordings or demos, no later recordings -everything is from their first five studio albums prior to that infamous plane crash. If, like me, you have a stack of original but well-worn vinyl LP's and you don't want to replace everything on expensive LP or CD re-issues, this compilation actually gives you most of the songs from those classic albums. If you only know "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama" and just want an introduction to the band, this compilation is an excellent way to start. The good people at EMP have this box set at a fantastic price -better even than anything you could find in a supermarket, a petrol station or those market stalls full of CD box sets like this. So, why have I only given this set four stars? Leaving aside the "no-frills" aspect of it, it's because I think it's a shame that it doesn't include the anthem, "Gimme Back My Bullets" or the well-loved ballad, "Tuesday's Gone". If you can live without those two songs (or you have them on another compilation CD, as I do!) then this is worth five stars because Lynyrd Skynyrd truly were a great band in their 1970's heyday.

A Cut Above With "Moon Above"

Just as Opeth's latest magnum opus, "Pale Communion" is a cut above most progressive rock bands' output, so is this gorgeous t-shirt a cut above most band shirts. An enigmatic maiden beckons to us and, with the moon above and the sun below, the design is loaded with occult significance. Scrolling throughout the artwork are the song titles from the album and, on the back, the band's logo and a scroll with the album title. This is one of the best t-shirt designs I have seen from Opeth and EMP have it at a good price too. Treat yourself to a cut above.

So Good I Bought Two!

EMP are really rather good at exclusive designs, particularly for bands that they seem to understand well -a good example of this being Amon Amarth. Ensiferum are another band of Nordic metal gods for whom EMP do good exclusives. We already have the screaming zombie skull atop crossed swords t-shirt and the fantastic raven with spread wings which was exclusively available with the 2CD version of "One Man Army". When we saw this incredible design with a flaming sword, it was instant love and we knew we were going to have to make another order... So that's one "S" for 'Er Indoors and one "XL" for me. Job done. Now we're waiting for the chance to go and see Ensiferum again. What are you waiting for? Seriously, these ace tees aren't gonna hang about and once they're gone, they're gone...

I Don't Know What It Is But I Like It!

What on earth is a "Mongo Goat"??? A quick search on the net leads only to this t-shirt. A wicked-looking horned goat skull atop two swords, a pentagram and spattered blood make up the front design in a red and white all over print. On the back is an even cooler print of a close-up of the goat skull done in red. I got this cool t-shirt for the missus (a big Slayer fan) and she loves it. Exclusive to EMP means it's extra cool too. So, I don't know what it is but I still like it!