Never Heard, No Not a Sound

I’ve been listening to a lot of Diamond Head and NWOBHM singles lately, maybe that’s why this molten metal 1985 demo from Connecticut’s Demonax sounds so crisp and nuanced. Demonax play innocent metal for metal’s sake, driven by the joyful guitars of future Fates Warning axeman Frank Aresti, a confident double-bass drum rumble, and killer snotty low-octave singing by one Keith Bycholski. It’s rare to hear American vocalists from this Maiden/Priest/Saxon continuum that didn’t try piercing the stratosphere in honor of Halford and Dickinson, but Bycholski barks it out through bared teeth, sorta like the dude from Razor.

On “Underground,” this well-produced tape speaks for all metal demos everywhere, decrying how nobody gives unknown bands a chance, nobody wants to listen, the bands are kicking ass without a care of being paid, just getting on stage and playing that metal mean, and so on… But behold this prophecy! “There will be a day, all across the land, we’ll be together, hand in hand.” Yes, it’s true, independent labels soon formed in the States, quality bands like Demonax were signed, and the rest is history–but unfortunately not part of their story.

DEMONAX – “Play That Metal Mean” demo 1985 [29.3MB .rar]

A full-length Demonax retrospective was released in 2001 by the sadly-defunct OPM Records, as part of a retrospective campaign that also included likeminded acts Deuce, Tension, and Commandment. There’s one copy on eBay right now if you’re hungry enough!

Reign in Pap

Look who’s gross now! Las Vegas sleazers Papsmear were the go-to local band for crossover acts touring across the desert during the key year of 1986. I don’t think anybody took these guys too seriously, but along the way they played seminal shows opening for Hirax, C.O.C., and Dark Angel, paving the way for more mass mayhemic destruction in Vegas by Goatlord and more importantly Righteous Pigs a year or two later. Papsmear released five demos between 1987-1992 of comically disgusting Slayer/Kreator thrash that showed they were paying attention. Then, because they hailed from Nevada where nobody could figure out how to give them a record deal, they split. Original vocalist Tony Costanza went on to play drums in Machine Head and Crowbar, and more recently the Dave Chandler/Ron Holzner project Debris Inc.

Fortunately, I can move these demos off my short list to post here on BazillionPoints.info because the first two tapes, a pair of 1986 and 1988 live shows, and a historically precious trio of 1986 live camcorder videos have just been released on a CD/DVD set called Music to Kill By. It’s taken a while, for fortunately for the Paps one of their early fans, Marco Barbieri, recently returned to Vegas after a lengthy, and I mean lengthy spell working at Century Media Records.

The tapes are out of the closet, the liner notes by Barbieri are installed, the bonus DVD is authored, and the fold-out collage of LVNV thrasher kids in Wehrmacht and Life Sentence shirts drinking beer in the desert is choice. Here’s what they sounded like:

PAPSMEAR – “Die Killing” from “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas” demo [6.7MB MP3]

The Music to Kill By CD/DVD is $12 direct from Metal War Productions. Why they don’t have any teaser videos on YouTube yet is beyond me!

Programmed to Kill, Slaughter at Will

Here’s a rare treat, the solitary known demo by Noxious, a band that rose from Redwood, MI, and so inhaled the same oily garage stain vapors as Genocide/Repulsion at pretty much the same time. Noxious guitarist Gary Chechak was one of my regular tape-trading pals, and in with the Jag Panzer demos, Megadeth live shows, and Fleer Dubble Bubble wrappers starring “Pud,” he started dubbing me Noxious songs. Finally, the demo was done, and it came packaged with a 28″ fax paper scroll containing a lyrics collage–the scan is included in this download.

As a snapshot of metal in 1986, this demo has it all–except power. With ruefully off-key guitar overdubs and relentless boppy drumming, the band comes off like some incredibly sparse, Romper Room version of Morbid Angel. On the plus side, they’re super-tight, addicted to Bonded by Blood, and possess one of the sickest, scab-pulling vocal treatments this side of Exorcist II. I don’t care how many colored vinyl split single reissues are pressed this year, very few ultra-cult bands have riffs anywhere near as catchy as Noxious’ unheard music.

NOXIOUS – “The Morbid, The Merrier” demo [39MB .rar]

Looking at Chechak’s trading list again for the first time in…let’s say it’s been a while…I hope he’s holding tightly to his Kuda Buxx, Nadsat Rebel, Orions Sword, Shylock, Black Ghost, and Rude Girl tapes. In retrospect, I was super lucky to have him sending me constant recordings and updates from the very earliest formative days of Genocide/Repulsion. Like every non-comatose denizen of Michigan, I’m sure Gary Chechak now plays in rock ‘n’ roll garage bands, but I’m ready for the Noxious reunion. Why the hell not?

UPDATE: I know, my stupid fucking iPhone causes interference during the acoustic intro song “Premonitions.” Well, I’m willing to repair it by popular demand.

What Do You Know About Rad Behavior?

Here’s a painfully sweet metal/hardcore crossover blast from 1985 by the ultra-obscure white sneakers crew Radical Behavior. I got this on a tape with Lethal Aggression’s demo from Terror Ken Thunders (the prolific rock animal now known as Ken Sleazegrinder), and he sent me a flyer for the band picturing a bunch of dudes in denim vests. I just wrote him for help, and got a couple hints. “Tom…Tom somebody,” Ken says. “He also had a fanzine called Mutilator. From New York, I think. skate-metal foolishness, from what I remember.”

I could find no mention of this band anywhere on the entire Internets, which is crazy because they definitely hold a zany feedback-dipped candle to Lethal Agression. So while I go dig, please stab yourself in the thigh with this chaotic, goofy six-minute demo. Since only one of the songs is over a minute long, I didn’t even bother slicing apart the songs. “No God, No Devil” is epic! Shades of Napalm Death’s Scum, for sure. “Dirty Laundry” is even stupider and shorter than S.O.D.’s “Milk.”

RADICAL BEHAVIOR 8-song demo 1985 [8.7MB MP3]

1. Radical Behavior
2. You Suck
3. Unknown #1
4. No God, No Devil
5. Car Crash
6. Unknown #2
7. Dirty Laundry
8. Jealous Loser

Maybe you know more? Fill us in! What’s the deal with Rad Behavior, and where can I get a shirt?

Beyond Possession, Princess!

Beyond Possession from Calgary, Canada, have at least one molecule of a legacy, thanks to a legendary punk 7″, an album on Death/Metal Blade, and a smattering of mid-1980s compilation appearances. But in the opinion of me and the impulse that makes me jump seven feet in the air every time I hear it, the band’s 1985 demo rips the rest of their catalog and most other attempts at punk/metal thrash to shreds. Short and to the point, here are three songs in five minutes that stand alongside Seattle’s The Accüsed and Oxnard’s Dr. Know as some of the coolest, sickest music of its day. There’s even a kind of hectic early Voïvod psychosis going on here–yes, Beyond Possession are that good. No Ed Repka artwork, no bullet belts, no colored vinyl, no puffy white sneakers, this is just horror, speed, and great songs; everything that made frantic thrash metal work on a gut level.

BEYOND POSSESSION – 3-song demo 1985 [7.3MB rar]

Thanks to Punkhistorycanada.ca for scanning the band history included in this download from the Beyond Possession – Repossessed 1985-1989 CD, which is itself impossible to find and does not contain these songs. Lots of funny facts there, including a mention of a Beyond Possession poster hanging in the bedroom of former Melvins roadie Kurt Cobain.

What do you think? See you back here in five minutes.

Who Are You? #6: Audio Edition

A few weeks ago, I put together a fast thrash metal episode of my weekly Bloody Roots radio show on Sirius Hard Attack, featuring Sacrifice, Fueled by Fire, Whiplash, Exumer, and others. A listener got in touch to say thanks for playing Holy Terror, and began a strange and intriguing story:

“You might be able to solve a metal mystery that has vexed me for 16 years. It was October 1992. I was 17, in my first year of college. A high school buddy had come down to LA from the Bay Area so we could catch Metallica/Guns N’ Roses at the Rose Bowl. I hopped in his truck out in front of my dorm room, and he said “dude, you gotta hear this,” and he played me a tasty bit of technical, somewhat melodic speed thrash metal. I asked who it was, and that’s where the mystery begins. “We don’t know,” he said. Seems a friend of my friend’s friend had found this scuffed CD on the side of the road. No case, no cover, just a disc. On the cover, goes their story, was ’some kind of a face.’ No band name. No song titles. And since then I’ve been trying to find out who this goddamn band is.”

I racked my brain, and tried a few tricks, but I can’t help the guy. It does sound like Invocator, as he goes on to mention in his email, but I don’t think so. There are many clues pointing to this being a band from the Bay Area: the Death Angelic vocals, the Alex Skolnik-style sweeping leads, and the Violence gang backing vocals. But half the thrashers on Earth nicked those stylistic attributes. So once again I ask: Who Are You? And this time I don’t know the answer!

MYSTERY THRASHERS – “Track 2 From Mysterious Thrash Album” [6.9MB MP3]

Upload the Hammers!

By 1988, thrash metal was already at peak cruising altitude. Reign in Blood and Master of Puppets were widespread, all the ragers had signed to majors, and every old school metal band from AC/DC to Judas Priest rushed to squeeze moshpits into their videos. Though the underground had already started to turn towards death metal and grindcore, you could argue that some of the finest thrash metal bands were just surfacing. Bands like Coroner, Pestilence, and Demolition Hammer would go to the elaborate lengths in the early 1990s to elevate thrash–just as the floor was about to fall out from under them.

On Demolition Hammer’s first demo, the trio already controlled a deathly mish-mash of speed and constant change-ups, nodding to nearby New York-area notables like Nuclear Assault, Whiplash, and a whole host of metallic hardcore bands. They wanted to match Slayer’s aggression, but they had their own ideas about how to get there. For sure, these guys sound way advanced compared to the East Coast thrash demo bands of 1985 or 1986, and it’s cool to hear some death metal riffs and vocals creeping into the maelstrom.

I dug up my original mail from the band, so this download includes a lyric sheet:

DEMOLITION HAMMER * “Skull Fracturing Nightmare” demo 1988 [24.3MB .rar]

Demolition Hammer flew the thrash flag late enough to have shared bills with Sweden’s Grave around New York, and I heard somewhere that they managed a tour of Mexico, which makes them serious pioneers. Gone but not forgotten, this band is a prime candidate for a thrash reunion, but I haven’t heard a peep about any such adventure. There is a MySpace page, though, and YouTube is still hammering out their evidence.

The Gear of Satan

Demolition Hammer’s excellent “Skull Fracturing Nightmare” sits here ready for rescue, but I’ve been battling my infernal analog-digital converter for over a month now. Stupid Yamaha. The box is outstanding, but the software completely sucks. New firewire card on the way, for no logical reason it’s supposed to restore stability. So then we will rage.

UPDATE [7/26]: Okay, enough whining, problem sorta solved by routing the Yamaha inputs through a second firewire box. Let the hammers ring!

Cut off head! Cut off head! Cut off Head!

Here’s a juicy bone plucked from the death/thrash/black metal cauldron of 1985. Toronto quartet Sacrifice were nearly as fast and lethal as any other band on the planet when they spewed forth this highly impressive debut demo. They had quickly absorbed all the nuances of Slayer’s Hell Awaits, and pressed the accelerator pedal to climb to D.R.I. Dealing With It speeds. The panic and energy never relent. The hyper instrumental title track makes Death Angel’s “The Ultraviolence” sound as old-school as Iron Maiden’s “Phantom of the Opera.” This demo version of the cut “Decapitation” is still one of the craziest thrash outbursts I’ve ever heard–intense as hell, and sick with evil. While thrashing with insane abandon, the band’s shared lineage with early death metal is undeniable. The semi-epic “Beyond Death” sounds like a matched pair to “Blood Runs From the Altar” by Tomas Lindberg’s old Swedish death metal band Grotesque — but that was years later.

This demo is Diabolic Force 002, the second release on the label best known for unleashing the Canadian band Slaughter on the world. In fact, I bought my copy of the tape on that basis, snatching it from the small demo rack at the legendary Record Peddler in Toronto during a family trip there in late 1985. (My mom found us cheap lodging on the top floor of some kind of insane asylum/hospice where they locked us in at night!) For a little historical perspective on the environment that spawned Sacrifice: every bootleg T-shirt stall on the main strip Yonge St. — and there were dozens — sold Venom and Metallica jerseys, along with a bizarre design popular with Canadian punks that read “Destroy!” above a crucified Jesus with a giant red swastika in the background. Venom’s Possessed and C.O.C.’s Animosity were in every record store window. And the Record Peddler had the Mentors’ You Axed for It and Oral Sex hanging on the wall. For Anvil, Slaughter, Razor, nearby Exciter, and Sacrifice, Toronto deserves a lot of credit for forming underground metal as we know it today.

If you’ve never heard this early Sacrifice stuff, it’s like watching Cannibal Ferox for the first time.

SACRIFICE * “The Exorcism” 8-song demo 1985 [40.2MB .rar]

Thanks to Sacrifice frontman Rob Urbinati for giving thumbs up to this post. By the way, I asked him what they thought about “Decapitation” after laying it down, and he said: “Hmmm, “Decapitation”? I just remember we thought it was the fastest ever!”

The band reunited for shows in 2006 and 2008, following a massive high-quality reissue campaign by Brazilian label Marquee Records. Those South American lunatics have repackaged Sacrifice’s classic Metal Blade albums Torment in Fire, Soldiers of Misfortune, and Forward to Termination, adding tons of bonus tracks including this demo and others. Visit the official Sacrifice site built by Marquee for info, along with extensive band history, videos, vintage photos, and yes — guitar tabs, to help you thrash with real diabolic force.

LINK

Unharvested Midwestern Thrash

In the heat of the late 1980s thrash demo trading fever, yes, it was possible to have a super-group of members from bands that were little more than demo acts themselves. Chicago area deathly thrashers Sindrome arrived with much fanfare in 1987, boasting formidable studio sound that rivaled most thrash vinyl of the day, a swanky color cassette cover, and a laundry list of resume credits that included legendary underground names like Master, Deathstrike, and Devastation (IL). That first demo “Into the Halls of Extermination” launched an impressive underground career — most bands today would love to sell 10,000 of anything — on the basis of tough, Dark Angel-style thrash with a corroded Venom influence and even some touches of Terrorizer. (And why not? Terrorizer were highly indebted to Master, Deathstrike, and Devastation.)

Though Sindrome were in touch with the times commercially and musically, nothing more happened. They sat out the first wave of small potato record label offerings, but failed to land an expected plum spot on the Combat or Roadrunner roster. Four years later, there was another demo, “Vault of Inner Conscience.” They were still better than lots of signed thrash acts, and a little more interesting, but for whatever reason — inflated expectations, poor timing, geography — they never managed to release a full album.

Fortunately, in 2002 someone from the band registered the Sindrome domain and uploaded full MP3s of Sindrome’s “Into the Halls of Extermination” and “Vault of Inner Conscience” demo tapes. The first demo was remixed in 1992 at Morrisound and re-released with a new cover — this is that version.

SINDROME * Complete 1987 and 1991 demos [EXTERNAL MP3 LINK]

Since 1992 there isn’t much to report. Bassist Shaun Glass went on to death metal stalwarts Broken Hope, then formed the alterna-metal act Soil in 1997, and recently left Soil for the more aggressive Dirge. Farther from the bright lights, Sindrome drummer Tony Ochoa plays in an aggressive modern rock-type band called Servitude.