Torn Flesh - Crux of the Mosh

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.

Bestial Lust (random metal musings)

 

I can't wait for my sweet AliExpress t-shirt.

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.