The "orient yourself" wordplay is clever, but of course they have to ruin it a moment later by calling this the debut album. Despite the huge step down in quality from Law of Devil's Land and Disillusion, it's not as bad as a lot of their later material. But let's face it, by 1985 they were easily outclassed by the Anthem and Reaction debuts as well as scores of smaller bands. It's unfortunate--but not any surprise--that their shift to a cornier hair band-esque aesthetic coincided with their big commercial push in America. Still, it's commendable such a heavy album got a TV spot at all.
I've long been curious about this album, since ages ago I read it was purported to be an example of Christian crossover thrash, and really, who wouldn't be interested in an evangelical version of D.R.I. or Cryptic Slaughter? Plus, every picture of the band made them look like gang member extras from the set of Death Wish III (I'm really hoping the one fellow fully committed to an actual nose-to-ear piercing chain like Jane Child or the Skid Row guy, but I suspect it's a clip-on).
Sadly, aside from "Kill the Dead," closer "The Ultimate Finale," and a few other spots here and there, nothing really maintains crossover energy or velocity consistently--they're clearly quite a punkish band, but it comes off more like a thrash band that listened to too much Fear. Despite not being all that fast or vicious or even possessing exceptional metal songwriting skills, just as punky thrash, there's a somewhat pleasant genericness to the music. But then there's the issue of the vocals, one of the strangest stylistic choices I've heard in metal. They're done in a very affected gruff voice which sounds like a cross between a Trey Parker character (I hear mostly Mr. Garrison) and a toned down, less macho version of the vocals on Dead Serios' "Who's Your Buddy?" album. The vocalist typically tries to cram as many words into as compact of a space as possible, often sounding like an irate middle aged man rambling incoherently over the music. Even when he's not as motormouthed, the vocals are belted out with little regard to how their timing or cadence fits the music. Unique, yes, but it makes it hard to listen to this conventionally and not just as a quirky novelty spin.
Not going to dwell on the lyrics too much--I appreciate the straightforwardness despite it being Christian stuff and there being some dorky examples of metaphorical lyrics. Fundamentally it's not more preachy than some Sacred Reich or Nuclear Assault songs. Besides, if you're on this blog, you should be wearing your adult pants (unless you happened to be perusing the Lee Aaron post, in which case they might be off). The opening verse to "Innocent Eyes" is pretty hilarious though (lyrics include "Happy baby is being spoon-fed/Patted on the back and placed into bed"), especially since the underlying music sounds like something off of Anal Cunt's Picnic of Love. Oddly, they chose to put "(Time to mosh)" in the lyrics sheet at the end of a song dealing (rather mildly) with child exploitation (in the actual song, it's a rather un-rageworthy instrumental reprise).
From what I understand the band was formed by youth ministry members as a reaction against secular music, which isn't a big surprise. Compared to the other Christian crossover albums released in 1989, this is less aggressive and feels more contrived than The Lead (to be fair, the opening riff to "Kill the Dead" is by itself better than anything The Lead ever did) or The Crucified. Doesn't seem like those odd vocals did much good for them, although would things have been much different had they been swapped out? Who knows...just another weird tale of metal.
Recently found a copy of The Return...... for $2. It's a particularly cheap-looking later CD version with uncrisp layout graphics, although I was happy that it had the original LP cover on the back, since my older disc only has a plain tracklist. I don't dislike it, but it's certainly my least favorite out of the first 3 Bathory albums, and even out of the first 5 depending on whether I'm in a Blood Fire Death mood or not.
A few vintage magazine reviews (mostly UK reviews, one of which I'm almost certain was from Metal Forces) referred to this as death metal. Certainly some of this had to do with the unfamiliar waters and nebulous boundaries of the embryonic extreme metal scene, so new as to lack much codification. But since the album is very bestial and even brutal in its approach, I wonder if it partially had to do with trying to describe them in a way that somewhat differentiated them from Venom (ironically, I think "Bestial Lust" is one of the purest examples of Venom worship ever done--if the English in the lyrics was cleaned up a bit and it had the Black Metal production, it would be a Venom track).
I'm far from the first to suggest the idea, but I don't really see The Return...... mentioned much as a foundational influence for all of the bestial black/death and war metal stuff. I remember immediately thinking of aspects of the album's aura and production choices when I heard Bestial Warlust and Blasphemy for the first time, and even some in the Conqueror demo too. At the same time, I also hear production aspects and the relentless approach as an influence in a lot of the faster blastbeat ridden Scandinavian styled black metal (think all the Panzer Division Marduk and Pure Holocaust type stuff), only taken to an unfortunately monotonous extreme (also makes me wonder how much of an influence the second Bathory was on Von's Satanic Blood, since there's a certain trance-like monotony to the simplistic, compact songs, although there it's a positive aspect).
Coincidentally, one of my pet peeves with the album is the weak rerecording of "The Return of the Darkness and Evil." Yes, it has a faster tempo and more "brutal" approach, yet it lacks all the wonderful charismatic touches of the original like the drum intro and the ultra evil reverb drenched vocals. Applied on a much larger scale, these are the same reasons why a lot of the extreme metal scene kind of disinterested me after the late '80s and early '90s--like that new version of "The Return of the Darkness and Evil," it seemed more sterile. And less metal.
Maybe it's unwelcoming because you're kind of a dum dum?
It seems like the, uh, research for this article was done by playing a game of telephone. Why not just copy/paste from the Wikipedia article on Mayhem?
Also, if anyone is aware of any NSBM bands who actually wore SS uniforms and the like, please let me know so I can check them out! I'm only aware of bands either following fairly standard BM aesthetic tropes, or looking like football hooligans.
Thankfully, her "music" and "journalism" endeavors seem to have ended a while ago.
I will add I have no particularly strong opinions about Pink Mass. I remember before actually hearing them, they were often presented as some sort of war metal parody band, but in reality they primarily seem to be middling grindcore. Just throw on some Naked Whipper instead (or for superior aesthetics coupled with better music, Tsatthoggua or Shitfucker).
I've been aware of Savage Grace's reactivation, and while I don't really have any particular expectations, I do think it has the potential to be more interesting than the 2010 gigs considering Chris Logue will be on guitar again. I was web surfing earlier and what I was unfortunately not aware of is that THE SAVAGE GRACE WEBSITE IS FUCKING INSANE.
As a huge Savage Grace fan (well, at least of their '80s stuff*), I don't mean that in a smarmy SJW-esque way either. Despite me being terribly late on this, as soon as I saw some of the crazy shit on there, I knew I had to make a blog post.
Eh, as much as I love Master of Disguise--it's almost (but not quite**) neck and neck with Skeptics Apocalypse as my favorite US speed metal album--this is some terribly overzealous embellishment at best. I subscribe to what I think is a pretty standard view: Priest, Accept, and Anvil having early examples of individual speed metal tracks, and the Exciter debut being the first overall speed metal album. As for the US? Never really thought about it too much. I consider The Dominatress and the early SG stuff to be far more USPM than speed metal anyway. Perhaps the '82 Exodus demo, or the Abattoir or Sceptre demo stuff?
Then there's the book:
This is a bit confusing, as the book is marketed for "men of honor and conviction"--isn't that kind of contradictory with that Ian Astbury looking cover? The "reviews" are fantastic and made me laugh in much the same way as I did when hearing the vocals in a certain Countess song for the first time. Alas, I doubt I'll be joining the affiliate program. The $19.95 price for a .pdf is a bit too steep, particularly since the site doesn't specifically mention if there's anything in there about Peter Knutson or Logue's illustrious medical career. For that price I want several hundred pages of how the Master of Disguise cover was conceived and executed (and why they didn't get a, uh, perkier gal for the cover).
Be sure to check out the photo gallery, lots of classic (and other) stuff. Considering anything semi-recent, probably the best classic metal bandsite photo gallery after Nasty Savage's.
I love it.
*"Crazy Saturday Night" is musically decent, but most of that lame early '90s hard rock shit they did makes me want to sing "HE'S THE JUDAS OF US ALL...BE-TRAYAAAAAAAH! BE-TRAYAAAAAAAH!"
**Don't feel bad. Cyriis was clearly a gift to metal from extraterrestrial forces.
I suspect the majority of Priest fans worked backwards to the Rocka Rolla era from whatever their JP initiation was. Anachronistically, I started with it, as "Dying to Meet You" was the first track on The Best of Judas Priest with their Gull material. It was the first time I had ever really sat down and seriously listened to metal, let alone Priest. My young self had a very nebulous idea of metal based almost solely on aesthetics and mid '80s pop culture portrayals, and of course, like a dork, I had christened myself a fan before I had even really heard any actual music.
Initially, I found "Dying to Meet You" very disappointing--it lacked the sizzle, the power, and the excitement I was expecting. It was very morose and lethargic compared to my preconceptions. I recall making some vague associations with whatever mental concept I had of old progressive rock at the time, but I'm sure that I had such limited grasp of genres and musical styles, the term really wouldn't have meant much to me. Were someone to tell me that's what heavy metal was, I would have moved on to something else. Then the galloping "hero, hero" part kicked in, everything clicked, and my destiny was set. And while I won't claim to have taken any particular notice of the drumming back then, John Hinch was still involved, in some small way, in things that set my life trajectory.
The post title and audio clip* come from the John Hinch interview responses from the "Insight Series" versions of The Best of Judas Priest.** They're available to hear on YouTube. While Mr. Tipton is sadly not a fan, anyone interested in Gull-era Priest or the state of pre-NWOBHM British hard rock should give them a listen.
*UPDATE: Apparently it doesn't work, and I have even less interest in fixing technical issues with this blog than I do in technical death metal. Listen to the interview stuff and you'll figure out the clip.
**The expanded edition of the CD with the Hinch tracks holds the distinction of being one of only two CDs I've ever bought at a Wal-Mart (and which are the only times I've ever gotten music at a regular department store, in fact). Wondering what the other was, aren't you? The Eternal Masters Black Sabbath tribute with Cadaver and Cannibal Corpse.
The visuals are obviously entertaining, but the music, not so much. This could use some overdubbing with something more thematically appropriate like Holocausto (speaking of which, I have yet to hear Diário de Guerra yet and don't have very high hopes for it, but the artwork is FUCKING KILLER. Reminds me of a Ghanaian movie poster version of the Persecution Mania cover).
In fact, there are a slew of high budget vids (I'm not going to bother linking them all):
The corpsepainted Tommy Wiseau/Pete Sandoval hybrid is the father of the younger fellow, which makes total sense in context. Offhand I can't think of any examples of metal nepotism resulting in anything great, only things like a garbage Omen album. In addition to this, there are also vids for the duo's punk project and some extremely cheap looking short film stuff, which all seemingly exist to showcase the son's production, edting, and CG, uh, skills.
While I wholeheartedly support the impalement of Fenriz, of course the great irony here is that pointlessly generic lo-fi black metal and dorky corpsepaint are themselves metal fads that desperately need to be summarily executed. This almost reminds me of how Beelzeebubth from Mystifier seemed staunchly traditionalist and against stereotypical Norwegian BM trends--very sensibly so--in past interviews, but rather than the nighttime Christ-abusing maniacs of the debut, his current bandmates look like a laughable appropriation of '90s Scandinavian BM aesthetics by middle-aged men.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of the older songs posted on YouTube are more listenable, with less ridiculous vocals and the semblance of something like actual drums. Sadly, the associated videos are far less visually exciting.
There's also a track which Metal-Archives claims is from 1991, long before the son was involved:
I don't think they should have expected a phone call from Cogumelo based on this, but as dismal black/death (with that endearingly sloppy soloing), it sounds right in line with the old Brazilian demo scene and is fairly enjoyable.
