Episode 4 – On Your Knees! (right click to download)

After a trip to the graves of the 60s and 70s we get right back to mining the not-so-delicate precious metals of the 80s and beyond. Not much of a theme on this one, but if you’re a sucker for demo quality stuff and overall raw sound our guess is that you’ll love it.

Initially we wished to dedicate the entire episode to old school death metal, but things started to go down south early on and the end result is pretty much indescribable haha this is all but an elegant episode… which is all the more reason to listen to it LOUD!

Get on your knees and bend before our horny lord!

Click for show notes and a complete tracklist.

Episode 4 – On Your Knees!

Hear that? It’s Darkthrone, believe it or not. Our favorite Norwegian music freaks didn’t just sprout out from the underground and out of nowhere released “A Blaze in the Northern Sky”, oh no sir! They actually recorded a whole bunch of stuff before that. Thrash metal as “Black Death”, then death metal, then black metal and the rest is history. These guys just don’t give a fuck and will play whatever they feel like playing. Just not live haha ANYWAY! We chose to open up the gates of hell to the sound of 1988’s “Land of Frost”. It’s ugly as sin and we love it.

Land of frost… “a land beyond for sure”. At least that’s what Dead said. Out of all the great tracks from Morbid’s “December Moon” demo we went with “My Dark Subconscious”. But this right here is 80s metal 101, so if you never heard the other three tracks fucking get to it or die!

And here we are. Death becomes us. While it’s debatable to this day if “Scream Bloody Gore” was in fact death metal’s first full-length ever, it’s indisputable that it’s a groundbreaking work for metal as whole. For this episode we picked “Sacrificial”, which probably is not even the best of the bunch, but still displays so much compressed power it will knock your eyes out.

Now, barely known Vectom are not on the same league as fellow German speed/thrash bands Kreator or Destruction, and their black-metal tinged debut album is not quite as revolutionary as the titles suggests, but we remember listening to this back in the 80s (one of us at least) and feel blown away by how frantic everything sounded. We quite like the demonic howling and shouting by Christian Bucker also. Overall, it’s still a joy listening to them breaking speed limits. The album cover is classic weirdness.

Let’s give the 80s a rest, while playing something equally archaic haha Power From Hell completely gets how metal sounded before we all started obsessing with labels and templates. Does this seem like it was recorded in 2007? No, it does not. And we are not just talking about the production. The vocals are actually nasty and the riffs are 100% old school. Learn, worship and while we are at it fuck your favorite kiddie black metal band. Shouts to Brazil!

We fly all the way to Australia now and bang our heads to the sound of the great Vomitor! Death metal has been on a roll for the last couple of years and “The Escalation” is one of the great examples of that. Well, it’s not like all the other Vomitor albums aren’t TOTALLY FUCKING AMAZING. Because they are. Sodom (“Obsessed by Cruelty”-era) would be proud. And will you listen to that bass drum sound…

1981’s gore fest movie “Bloody Moon”, by the late master Jess Franco, provides this episode with a moment of dementia through its soundtrack by Gerhard Heinze, before we move to “Out of the Body”, from Dutch Pestilence, with that contagiously powerful riff right from the get go. Nice performance by singer Martin van Drunen (but let’s get it straight, Patrick Mameli is a pretentious douche though).

From absolute classic to absolute strangers. We found out about Finnish unsigned band (as far as we know) Sadokist. This track belongs to a 2012 demo, so don’t expect high value production. Expect nothing more nothing less than honesty and passion. They sound a bit sloppy don’t they? A bit like a 15 year old kid having sex for the first time, rushing in and wanting to put his hands everywhere at the same time but not knowing exactly how. Hey, but the love is there, so let’s appreciate that. And they sure know how to name a song: “Sadistrike”, “Panzergoat”, “Nekrorgy”, “Cunt Crusher”, “Hellfucker”, “Pentagram Penetration”… talk about romance, right?

Back to the 80s. Again! And we’re sure you all like this one. Destruction truly are the kings of cool guitar riffs (and amusing English pronunciation). Last thrash metal song of the episode belongs to the legendary Sabbat from Japan. We just went with the one we are constantly going back to time and time again. Deathhammer actually covered “Black Metal Volcano” some years ago for the first vinyl release of the “Forever Ripping Fast” LP/EP/compilation or whatever you want to call it. It’s pretty cool, so check that out as well.

Just before we say goodbye, we transition for the final credits with Butthole Surfer’s “Weber”, from “Locust Abortion Technician”, just one of the best albums of all time. And for the end… what’s this devilry? Sound like Black Sabbath’s “Electric Funeral”, but it’s not! Well, this is library music from Italy. Basically, back in the 70s, people from the television, advertising and film industries needed music scores, but they were not willing to pay full copyrights for the songs, so they used work for hire to get “stock versions” they could buy much cheaper (google or wikipedia it to know more!)… and sometimes they were really cool on their own merit. Like this previously unreleased rendering from Daniela Casa.

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Tracklist

1. Land of Frost | Darkthrone (NOR) | Land of Frost, 1988 http://www.darkthrone.no/
2. My Dark Subconscious | Morbid (SWE) | December Moon http://www.discogs.com/Morbid-December-Moon/release/1440113
3. Sacrificial | Death (USA) | Scream Bloody Gore, 1987 http://www.emptywords.org/
4. Speed Revolution | Vectom (GER) | Speed Revolution, 1985 http://www.discogs.com/artist/1704536-Vectom
5. Suicide Metal | Power From Hell (BRZ) | Sadismo, 2007 https://www.facebook.com/pages/POWER-FROM-HELL/118053128270317?fref=ts
6. Hellburst to Fight | Vomitor (AUS) | The Escalation, 2012 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vomitor/170920829616359
7. Shock | Gerhard Heinz (GER) | Erotic and Painful Obsessions of Jess Franco, 2009 http://www.discogs.com/Gerhard-Heinz-The-Erotic-Painful-Obsessions-Of-Jess-Franco-3-Scores-By-Gerhard-Heinz/release/1785008
8. Out of the Body | Pestilence (HOL) | Consuming Impulse, 1989 http://www.pestilence.nl/
9. Bestial Speedslaughter | Sadokist (FIN) | Imperator of Evil, 2012 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sadokist/133840790114620
10. Curse the Gods | Destruction (GER) | Eternal Devastation, 1986 http://www.destruction.de/
11. Black Metal Volcano | Sabbat (JAP) | Icelandic & Greenlandic Demonslaught, 2006 https://www.facebook.com/sabbatofficial
12. Weber | Butthole Surfers (USA) | Locust Abortion Technician, 1987 http://www.buttholesurfers.com/
13. Black Sabbath | Daniela Casa (ITA) | Criminale Vol. 2 V/A Ossessione, 2013 http://www.discogs.com/Various-Criminale-Vol2-Ossessione/release/4360804