Episode 27 – Unsound Methods (right click to download)

It’s been a year last week since SATAN MADE ME DO IT are, well… doing it.

How has it come to this? When we started this we thought having the motivation to do it for a year would be a bold enough goal. Week in, week out inflicting as much pain and pleasure as sonically possible by giving you the metal that deserves to be listened to. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. And we knew it was not going to be easy.

SATAN MADE ME DO IT is a challenge. To you first and foremost, dear minion. Not everyone can deal with it. Only some of you will come back. Just a few will “share” it and “like” it. We understand. Take this episode, for instance: it’s a collection of some of the most twisted, rawest, sickest, defying, ear splitting and mental health disregarding songs ever produced by some of the vilest human beings on earth.

So why? Why keep on doing it? Well, because we like it. Because Satan is down there listening, saying us to do it, judging us. So we will keep doing it. Some say our methods are unsound. We say we don’t have a method at all, sirs. So again we say: PLAY IT LOUD!

Click for show notes and a complete tracklist.

Episode 27 – Unsound Methods

We start this episode by flexing muscles with death metal godfathers Possessed. “The Exorcist” is a nice song to get things going. You’ll recognize the intro. It’s “Seven Churches” producer Randy Burns’ haunting version of the main theme song for “The Exorcist” movie from 1973 (a theme song which, in turn, was based on the opening piano solo from Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells”).

From here on this episode will almost exclusively journey through some of the most grotesque sounds of metal’s underworld.

So we proceed with Sweden’s Nihilist. These guys didn’t even get an album recorded on the two year period they existed, but it’s only fair to point out that Nihilist’s demise only meant that Entombed got to live. “Carnal Leftovers”, from their first demo, is an amazing example of hardcore fueled old school death metal. LOUD AS FUCK too. Also remarkable: these guys were on average 15 year old kids at the time of the demo recording.

Today, the day we publish this episode, is Friday the 13^th. Plus, it’s been 19 years since Lucio Fulci sadly passed away. Add all that up and we’re left with two great fucking reasons to play some Italian music. First there’s Death SS with “Terror” from their first demo “The Horned God of the Witches”. Norwegian black metal owns a lot these guys and Tom G. himself was a fan back in the early days of Hellhammer. When it comes to occult metal it’s hard to top this. Mercyful Fate worshippers should bow in awe. Mortuary Drape too meddled with the occult in quite interesting ways in the late 80s and early 90s. “Into the Drape” is still our favorite release as it sounds straight out of a horror movie soundtrack. The Death SS influence is evident, but academics wishing to explore other sides of 90s black metal outside of Norway will also find plenty to enjoy. No Bulldozer this time, sorry!

Next comes up a song which is probably the most obscure theme from a mainstream metal band we will ever feature. So obscure in fact that even its name is subject to discussion. SO obscure that even the original demo where it’s coming from is also debatable. We credit it as “Satan’s Wheels” from Neil Turbin’s era Anthrax, no less. Probably from a 1982 demo called precisely “The Neil Turbin Demo” (the “Howling Furies” demo is another possibility). NOT debatable is the fact that this is clearly part of a blueprint of what the world would recognize as speed/thrash metal gods.

Voor come up with as raw, as primitive and as ferocious metal as you could imagine from a death/thrash demo from 1985’s Canada. They call it “Evil Metal” and make no mistake: it’s evil alright. Slayer kind of evil. And boy, we want one of their t-shirts, we want!

Deathhammer is no stranger to SATAN MADE ME DO IT listeners. There’s no one in thrash today making it happen like this duo and Cato’s “Black Magic” is metaphysically perfect. All right, so this time we played “Evil” from the 2007 demo “Wrath of the Antichrist” (there’s a pretty fucking clear Morbid reference there if you know your metal), followed by Sabbat’s “Black Fire” from the self-titled 1985 EP. Gezol & Co. have directly influenced Deathhammer’s brand of deathrash so we thought it was a fitting way to move forward.

Sabbat is hard to top, but forward we move! DesExult is occult as it is infamous. Metalheads in the know will be aware that these were the Danes behind “Blackthorn” fanzine, the same from which Darkthrone took their name from. But what’s important to understand is how influential their demos (no records here) were on the european death metal scene. For a 1986 demo, “S.O.D.F.O.A.D.”’s production is amazing. WHAT A SHAME, then, this stuff is not available on vinyl.

If you follow SATAN MADE ME DO IT for some time, you know that we’re the kind of guys who swoon over the sound of a crushing, pounding, punishing, heavy beat of a bass drum. Well, that’s EXACTLY what you get from Asphyx’s “Mutilating Process”. The drum work is definitely the centerpiece in the mix, almost like the beating of a big rotten heart, but this is amazing death/doom metal. Great structure, great atmosphere and we like how it’s almost entirely instrumental.

“Recognize No Authority” by Détente is heaven if you care at all about amazing vocals in the context of speed/thrash metal. Dawn Crosby (who also passed away 19 years ago) sings it with unmatched ferocity. The production is also quite raw, perhaps highlighting the band’s hardcore influences.

Harry Nilsson? Yep.

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Tracklist

1. The Exorcist | Possessed (USA) | Seven Churches, 1985 https://www.facebook.com/666possessed
2. Carnal Leftovers | Nihilist (SWE) | Premature Autopsy [demo], 1988 http://www.discogs.com/artist/385140-Nihilist-2
3. Terror | Death SS (ITA) | The Horned God of the Witches [Demo], 1981 https://www.facebook.com/DeathSSofficial
4. Zombie | Mortuary Drape (ITA) | Into the Drape [EP], 1992 https://www.facebook.com/mortuarydrape
5. Satans Wheels | Anthrax (USA) | The Neil Turbin Demo aka unofficial Demo  [demo], 1982 http://www.anthrax.com/
6. Creatures Of War | Voor (CAN) | Evil Metal [demo], 1985 http://voor.ifmerch.com/en/
7. Evil | Deathhammer (NOR) |Wrath of the Antichrist [Demo], 2007 https://www.facebook.com/deathhammerofficial
8. Black Fire | Sabbat (JAP) | Sabbat [EP], 1985 https://www.facebook.com/sabbatofficial
9. Fateful Day | DesExult (DEN) | S.O.D.F.O.A.D. [demo], 1986 http://www.discogs.com/artist/2461906-Desexult
10. Mutilating Process | Asphyx (NLD) | Mutilating Process [7” single], 1989 https://www.facebook.com/officialasphyx
11. Losers | Détente (USA) | Recognize no Authority [LP], 1986 http://www.discogs.com/artist/974329-D%C3%A9tente
12. Fill | Harry Nilsson (USA) | Aerial Pandemonium Ballet, 1971 http://www.harrynilsson.com/