Episode 30 – Circus Freak (right click to download)

A crash course in general nuttiness. Yeah, that sums it up pretty well.

This is a pretty Frankenstein’s monster of an episode. The stiches are of high quality if we can say so ourselves, but we used a lot of different bodies to shape this one up. This could be more grotesque than some will be able to handle. That’s ok. You can close your eyes.

Break your chains!

Click for show notes and a complete tracklist.

Episode 30 – Circus Freak

For 1983, Antichrist’s “Slaughter in Hell” is fucking bonkers. The lead work alone doesn’t belong to that year. Also, they are from Germany, so of course they play a brand of very evil thrash, with extra NWOBHM flavors. The vocals too are quite uncommon for their time in metal. He goes from singing to shouting in a manner not too unlike death or black metal vocals. It’s very much ahead of its time. You won’t notice that here though. We went with the instrumental title track. But we beg you: hunt for this. It’s worth 20 minutes of your life. By the way, Antichrist got back together in the early 200x. No idea how they sound nowadays.

Where would we be without South America? We have posed the question before. Hadez from Peru gets so many things right it’s a wonder this demo isn’t more widely exposed. Experienced listeners will recognize Hellhammer and Sarcófago in their sound. But really, there’s a lot of shit going on there. 1988’s “Guerreros de la Muerte” is essential if you live by metal’s more brutal sounds. Also, Euronymous was a big fan and if that dude didn’t have great taste in metal no one does.

Texan black/death metal trio Nyoghtaeblisz are not exactly the kind of people we would recommend you as good mates to drink a couple of pints and have deep philosophical debates about the state of the world. We’re talking about dudes who published via Satanic Skinhead Propaganda, so you can understand the general mistrust and the anti-Semitic and white supremacy accusations thrown at them. Only for the sake of debate, we should bring up three arguments. One, they’re not even Caucasian. Two, they’re crazy: according to a band statement that made no sense at all, Nyoghtaeblisz came into existence after engaging in contact with a ‘daemonic’ entity via meditation. Three, they’re not just anti-Semitic: they hate all religions alike. So now the good news: last year they signed to Hell’s Headbangers, a proper satanic record label. The track we’re sharing with you is the first one released by H.H. and will most likely feature on their debut album.  What can we say? It’s fucking brutal and the in-the-red malignant intensity here is truly out of this world (especially if Nyoghtaeblisz claims about encounters of the third kind with demons are to be believed).

Completely out of the box but still with one foot on the noise scene, we give you the extreme left winged, short lived and little known World Domination Enterprises. “Asbestos Lead Asbestos” was first recorded but their previous band, The 012, and it became probably the only “hit” in their career. It’s noise, post-punk, with a bit of dub and industrial and a totally cool shredding guitar work.

If you’re even a little attached to 70s heavy rock gems, Módulo 1000 from Brazil is probably no stranger to you. What we have here is one of the best examples of South American psychadelia with a very broad splash of the tropical – and in retrospective a complete proto-doom heavy hitter. To achieve this sound the band did everything, from recording keys in the bathroom, to inserting echos and exploring new kinds of reverberation. The Brazilian vibraphonist Zé Bola, who helped the band with their sound for a while, called it a “shit” album soon after release. Dude was all about pop and pop, well, pop this is not! We follow it up with the mixed-race proto-punk of Sardonicus, from the London of 1973, and Cream’s “We’re Going Wrong” with those delicious psychedelic guitar sounds by Clapton, thus ending what we can call the weirdly freestyle chapter of this episode. So buckle up. We’re going on an express elevator down to hell now.

Satan had one of the greatest comebacks in the history of metal with 2013’s “Life Sentence”. We still prefer their early 80s tunes, but write this down: not all old bands have ran out of ideas. Age has nothing to do with it.

Witchtower from Spain gets it. It’s supposed to be organic. It’s supposed to sound like there are real human beings playing the instruments. This is 100% old metal with simply fantastic production for the fans of Satan, Maiden, Angel Witch, etc. If that bass doesn’t get to you it only means you are already dead inside. Moving right along, Destroyers from Poland is the author of one the most cult thrash albums of all time. Seriously, these guys were just doing whatever the hell they felt like doing. There’s Sarcófago, Mercyful Fate, Mefisto, NWOBHM… complete freestyle assault. What’s extra cool about it is that the 1989 album has a similar appeal to Sodom’s ITSOE in the sense that while they are lacking on the technical side of things there’s plenty of attitude. That’s what matters anyway.

Here’s some familiarity now. Doesn’t that riff sound like 84 Bathory? We’re not crazy, right? One of us listened to Megadeth’s first album again recently (it’s been a while haha) and couldn’t help but notice that. Curious indeed! There’s a lot of hard rock/ Motörhead all over “Killing Is My Business”. That might explain it. Anyway, we follow it up with (you guessed it) Bathory!

This has been a wild trip. Again, a crash course in general nuttiness. We hope you had fun. Let’s finish this with another high note, with Trauma’s “Such a Shame” from the Metal Massacre II comp.

— Tracklist

1. Slaughter in Hell | Antichrist (GER) | Slaughter in Hell [Demo], 1983 https://www.facebook.com/antichristmetal
2. Angel Exterminador | Hadez (PER) | Guerreros de la Muerte [Demo], 1988 https://www.facebook.com/HADEZPERU
3. Daemonic Singularity | Nyoghtaeblisz (USA) | Hell’s Headbangers Compilation Vol. 8 [compilation], 2015 http://hellsheadbangers.bandcamp.com/album/free-compilation-vol-8
4. Asbestos Lead Asbestos | World Domination Enterprise (UK) | Asbestos Lead Asbestos [7” single], 1985 http://www.discogs.com/World-Domination-Enterprises-Asbestos-Lead-Asbestos/release/442350
5. Não Fale Com Paredes | Módulo 1000 (BRA) | Não Fale Com Paredes [LP], 1972 http://www.discogs.com/artist/955128-M%C3%B3dulo-1000
6. Nymph | Sardonicus (UK) | Evaporated Brain [Single], 1973 http://www.discogs.com/artist/3103490-Sardonicus-2
7. We’re Going Wrong | Cream (UK) | Disraeli Gears [LP], 1967 https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cream-Band/634339296602375
8. Kiss of Death | Satan (UK) | Kiss of Death (Single), 1982 https://www.facebook.com/officialsatanpage
9. Heavy Metal Sign | Witchtower (SPA) | Witchtower [LP], 2014 https://www.facebook.com/witchtowerESP
10. Królestwo Zła | Destroyers (POL) | Noc królowej żądzy [LP], 1989 http://www.discogs.com/artist/2255248-Destroyers-6
11. Loved to Death | Megadeth (USA) | Killing Is My Business… and Business Is Good! [LP], 1985 https://www.facebook.com/Megadeth
12. In Conspiracy With Satan | Bathory (SWE) | Bathory [LP], 1984 http://www.discogs.com/artist/252018-Bathory
13. Such a Shame | Trauma (USA) | Metal Massacre II [Compilation], 1982