Ripping this CD turned out to be a real ordeal and seriously tested my patience.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s rewind a bit and start from the beginning.
As far as concerts are concerned, this summer was marked by two names: Lynyrd Skynyrd and Ozzy – Those were the two main events.
One of the opening acts for Skynyrd were these guys here, SoundtrucK.
Rock fans who had already seen them performing, spoke of a band whose style would fit perfectly in a Southern Rock show and thus should not be missed.
How can you argue with that?

And so when the big day arrived, we left in time to catch them on stage.
In the meantime however, the order of the support bands had been switched – without informing the public that is.
Although mildly annoyed, that wasn’t reason enough to ruin my mood. I had decided to let it slip and enjoy the rest of the evening.
But then my buddy George -who had been in the venue from very early and was waiting for us-, appears and says:
“Oh, you have no idea what you’ve missed. These guys were absolutely brilliant”
adding that he was going to get their CD right after the show.
And so he did.
A couple of hours later and after witnessing some true musical history [another name crossed off the “Bands you MUST see at least once before you kick the bucket” list – On second thought, Lynyrd Skynyrd isn’t a band, it’s an Institution], we head to the benches to check the merchandise and possibly buy a T-shirt.
Believe or not they had sold out! I don’t know the exact number they’d brought or what their expectations were, but we literally got the last copy.
Apparently, the rest of the audience -or more correctly, those who actually got to see SountrucK- felt the same way.

2 or 3 days later, I get a call from the lucky owner. He was supposed to drop by my place and bring the CD.
After listening the album carefully though, he seemed to have had a change of heart.
In his own words, “much of the initial enthusiasm was due to the extraordinary atmosphere aka *Southern Spirit*”.
You know, Confederate flags waving, the smell of joints in the air, couples making out, alcohol flowing, chopper bikes – should I go on?
Bottom line, the band was impressive live but left some to be desired on studio. Not uncommon.

Naturally, I needed to judge for myself – don’t we all?
I’m afraid in this case, our opinions are not too far apart. The album is decent, I’ll give them that, but lacks that special something which would make the listener go “Woo-hoo!”
On the other hand, I’m definitely NOT an expert of the genre. Perhaps fans with extensive Southern Rock collections (I only have the major names) will disagree.
I would very much like to hear what people from Southern States have to say.
Is this first effort convincing? How about genuine? Authentic Bourbon Whiskey or random Asian brand? 😛
 
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
 
Now here comes the ugly part.
I put the CD in the CD/DVD±RW drive. Based on the fact that the were no prior results in the AccurateRip dB, I was expecting the whole procedure to last about 20 minutes – 25 at worst.
If only I knew…
For some reason Exact Audio Copy is unable to detect gaps. It spins and it spins, I see the LED blinking but there’s no progress.
After several unsuccessful attempts, I’m forced to change the Gap Detection setting from Accurate (or Secure) to Inaccurate just to get it to create the *.cue sheet.
Needless to say, the gaps are completely arbitrary.

Then I run dBpoweramp to actually rip the disc. I fill in all the details and metadata, press the Rip button and leave it on.
5 minutes later, the programme is still on track #1 re-ripping a number of frames.
That is usually an indication of a CD in poor condition, this one however is brand new and doesn’t have a speck of dust let alone a scratch!
I abort and retry. The same [all audio extraction logs are included in case anyone would like to have a look]
 

 
Time for Plan B. I decide to use EAC instead. It may be slower, but perhaps will get the job done.
Yeah, right! Reading speed plummets to a level you wouldn’t think even existed [0.2x]
It’s sluggishly slow. Painfully slow. I want to poke my eyes out then set myself on fire slow!
I cooked, ate dinner, drank some coffee, rolled up a joint, smoked the joint, had a slice of chocolate cake, took a shower and guess what.
The damn thing still hadn’t finished! MOTHERFUCKER!
End results/Elapsed time: 2 hours, 12 minutes and 41 seconds! – not counting the time spent trying to create the cue sheet and the dBpoweramp failures.
 

 
Whichever factory pressed this, has -accidentally- invented the ultimate *copy protection*
It’s either that, or someone is sending me a message:
“Thou shall not post a CD you haven’t paid for”
Karma, is that you?
Is this how it works? You stray off the right path once and all Hell turns loose?
What happened to the exception justifying the rule, doesn’t that count?
Apparently not.
Alright, alright, I’ve learned my lesson.
Now, can someone direct me to the nearest incinerator please? I have some waste to dispose of!

“SoundtrucK” at RateYourMusic
“SoundtrucK” at Discogs

Record Label: n/a
Catalogue Number: n/a
UPC: 885767107205
Mastering SID Code: IFPI LD33
Matrix/Runout: SOUNDTRUCK
Mould SID Code: n/a

Tracklist:
01. Straight to Hell [5:11]
02. God damned [3:37]
03. High [3:44]
04. On the run [4:16]
05. Take it easy [4:26]
06. Sweet little babe [3:59]
07. Ride on [4:56]
08. Feels like home [4:40]
09. Goliath [3:02]
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
*Legal Disclaimer* Courtesy of… Click and see 😉

FLAC CD-rip nfo
Mirrors:
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Filecloud.io]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Firedrive.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Gamefront.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Mega.co.nz]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Netkups.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Putlocker.com]
FLAC level 8 | v1.2.1 [Solidfiles.com] ✔ [03/08/2015]

Show Checksums »

 
mp3 CD-rip nfo
Mirrors:
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.99.5 [Filecloud.io]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.99.5 [Gamefront.com]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.99.5 [Mega.co.nz]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.99.5 [Solidfiles.com] ✔ [06/01/2013]
mp3 VBR V0 | LAME v3.99.5 [Zippyshare.com]

Show Checksums »