Daniel's Forum Replies

By its definition, I once again think "War Pigs" is closer to the modern stoner metal sound than it is to what we now know as your classic heavy metal one.  This description of stoner metal from RYM seems like the perfect way to describe this song as far as I can see:

"Combines elements of Doom Metal with elements of Psychedelic Rock and Blues Rock to create a melodic yet heavy sound."

So "Mentally Murdered" didn't end up living up to my nostalgic feelings to be honest. It's very much a grindcore record with the death metal component being mainly in the vocals & production. I love the blast beat sections but many of the thrashier hardcore riffs sound pretty generic. I like it but I don't love it. It's a 3.5/5 from me.

Here's my adjusted Top Ten Deathgrind Releases of All Time list:

01. Cattle Decapitation - "Monolith of Inhumanity" (2012)

02. Brutal Truth - "Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses" (1992)

03. Napalm Death - "Utopia Banished" (1992)

04. Napalm Death - "Mass Appeal Madness" E.P. (1991)

05. Full of Hell - "Weeping Choirs" (2019)

06. Lock Up - "Necropolis Transparent" (2011)

07. Cephalic Carnage - "Misled by Certainty" (2010)

08. Damaged - "Passive Backseat Demon Engines" E.P. (1995)

09. Napalm Death - "Mentally Murdered" E.P. (1989)

10. Misery Index - "Heirs to Slavery" (2010)

Thanks for that Shezma. Please let the conversation continue around the "Deep Purple in Rock" topic but at the same time let's start to look at the next significant metal-related record to have been released in Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". So... "War Pigs" then. Metal or not? If so, what specific subgenre?

Naked City - "Torture Garden" (1990)

I find this John Zorn project's sophomore album to be genuinely unpleasant. I've only ever enjoyed one Naked City album which is the very solid 1992 drone metal piece "凌遲 (Leng tch'e)" but the rest 0f their back catalogue does absolutely nothing for me . I'd suggest that 1992's "Heretic: Jeux des Dames Cruelles" soundtrack is probably their least appealing release overall but "Torture Garden" would come in a clear second. I've never been able to get my head around the use of general silliness to create art & this is as prime an example as you'll find. You can expect 42 songs & 25 minutes of insignificant & insubstantial noise that utilizes avant-garde jazz as much as it does grindcore.

2.5/5

The answer is that this forum thread does not override the parameters we've put in place for the site. These are the things that need to be taken into account:

1. "Deep Purple in Rock" was added to the site as "Non-Metal" due to that being the consensus at RYM which currently has 385 votes on the matter with 199 of those being negative votes. Now, I don't have any faith much in RYM's genre-tagging but we've gotta have some sort of guideline & that's the one we've chosen so it is what it is.

2. There is currently a Hall of Judgement entry to overturn that position which only has two positive votes from the two members that have nominated the release for consideration on this thread. The only other vote was a no.

3. There are only four members contributing to this thread which is obviously less than I was hoping for. Two of those members are the ones that nominated "Deep Purple in Rock" for consideration which meant that there was never any chance of the average outcome leaning towards the negative.

4. If the final list is incorrect then it reflects poorly on the brand that Ben & I have built up over the last decade. I haven't spoken to Ben about what we might do with this list as yet but if it turned out well then I was thinking we could attach it to the relevant clan/subgenre as a guide for new players so it's important that it's accurate.

At the end of the day, I've penciled "Deep Purple in Rock" in for inclusion but that's subject to the Hall of Judgement outcome as it just makes no sense whatsoever to have a release show as Non-Metal on the site database but to be in a list of the earliest genuine metal releases on the same site so I want that resolved before moving ahead. It would be exactly the same if I had nominated a Non-Metal release for inclusion myself.

Absolutely Rex. This track is the only track that fully indulges in metal in my opinion. It's much faster & more aggressive than the remainder of the tracklisting. It's where the Iron Maiden gallop originated & that could never be mistaken for hard rock.

After having given every track a detailed investigation though, this exercise has only once again proven to me that "Deep Purple in Rock" falls well short of the mark required for metal qualification. I know that Rex, Morpheus & Andi disagree with me on this but in my view it's only really one & a half tracks that have any reference to metal with the remainder being so clearly centered around hard rock that it seems absurd to be claiming it as metal. I'll be surprised if the Hall of Judgement vote ends in a YES to enable this release to qualify for The Guardians & our chronological list.

To our The Guardians clan members, it'd be greatly appreciated if you could give this release an unbiased listen over the next week or so & then contribute your vote in the below Hall of Judgement poll so that we can see how you feel as a group on this matter.

https://metal.academy/hall/394

Tomorrow we'll start on Black Sabbath's "Paranoid". I'd imagine it will be a little more straight-forward but it'd be great if everyone can keep an open mind on which subgenre & clan you feel each track should rightfully sit under. As with the debut, we've always accepted "Paranoid" as a "heavy metal" record but could it possibly qualify for another or an additional genre at the Academy? Who knows? Let's find out though.

So what about "Hard Lovin' Man" then? What are we thinking' there?

I ended up being offered that new job & accepted it. I start on Tuesday 31st October. I'll have plenty of metal time on the drive there & back every day.

Cuby + Blizzards - "Desolation" (1966)

If you wanna find out where Led Zeppelin stole (& I mean stole) their early sound from then look no further. Quality blues rock & traditional blues from The Netherlands.

It's only just heavy enough to be classed as hard rock in my opinion.

Cannibal Corpse - "Cannibal Corpse" demo (1989)

It's interesting how time can change your opinion on a release & Buffalo death metal legends Cannibal Corpse's initial studio effort is one such release for me. When I picked it up through the tape trading scene off the back of their first couple of albums back in the day I was largely disappointed. In hindsight I would suggest that a lot of that can be put down to the sound quality of the dubbed cassette version I received because the version that's included on 2003's "15 Year Killing Spree" actually sounds really clear, bright & vibrant. The music is admittedly not the same brand of death metal we've come to know Cannibal Corpse for though. Their 1990 "Eaten Back To Life" debut album was inherently thrashy but this demo is even more so, despite all five songs having been re-recorded for the album in largely the same format. A lot of that comes down to the vocal delivery of Chris Barnes who doesn't come close to a death grunt here, instead offering something very similar to that of your grimy & excitable crossover thrash front man. With the vocals providing a little more of a thrash context, the music actually sounds a little more thrash metal than it does death metal too although it admittedly sits on the more brutal end of the genre with bands like Demolition Hammer. The production & performances are very good which certainly helps the band's cause but you know what? This is actually a really decent demo tape & I think I've treated it a little unfairly over the years.

3.5/5

Our sample size in this thread is far too small to be making any firm conclusions based the outcomes of the discussion to be honest. If anything, the exercise is just proving that people have very different understandings of what metal music is so they aren't using the same criteria when forming their opinions. There were several senior members of our community that didn't feel comfortable taking part in the conversation simply because they felt it would prove to be divisive & they certainly weren't wrong. I thought it would be a bit of fun though & it's delivered in that regard. It's very clear to me that the Hall of Judgement needs to remain the overarching source of truth for genre/clan assignment though as it allows for a) a larger sample size & b) a level of anonymity. For the record, the Hall of Judgement votes from The Guardians members to date are not unanimous on the metal credentials of "Deep Purple In Rock" so we'll have to wait & see how that pans out.

Anyway, "Living Wreck" then. Metal or not?

To be clear Andi, this thread is just healthy discussion. The Hall of Judgement is the vessel for clan change requests as it’s not up to people like you or me to make decisions for The Guardians clan members. It’s gotta be a unanimous clan position.

Rexorcist has asked to be re-added to the monthly feature release roster so it'll look like this moving forwards with the bold names being the nominating members for the November feature releases:

THE FALLEN: Morpheus Kitami, Ben, Daniel

THE GATEWAY: Andi, Saxy

THE GUARDIANS: Xephyr, Shezma, Morpheus Kitami, Rexorcist

THE HORDE: Daniel, Ben

THE INFINITE: Xephyr, Rexorcist, Saxy, Shezma, Andi

THE NORTH: Ben, Daniel, Shezma, Xephyr

THE PIT: Morpheus Kitami, Rexorcist, Daniel, Ben

THE REVOLUTION: Daniel, Andi

THE SPHERE: Andi, Daniel

Just listening to "Speed King" again now. I could be wrong but the verse riff sounds very much like a variation on the verse riff from Jimi Hendrix's "Fire" only with crunchy open-string guitar chords that wouldn't sound out of place on an AC/DC song layered over the top. The way the bassline goes into double-time was a technique that AC/DC used quite a bit to build tension too. Seems like Hendrix was a major influence on that song after the raucous intro's guitar histrionics which pay homage to Jimi's take on the "Star Spangled Banner". The chorus riff is a classic example of blues rock.

Nihilist - "1987-1989" (2005)

When I first started tape trading back in the very early 1990’s, I remember being somewhat dazzled by the rare demos & live sets that so many of my trading partners had gotten their hands on. I was completely infatuated with the scene & the proper releases that it contained at the time but the idea of discovering hidden gems that only a select few had experienced was enough to see me gorging myself on demo tapes from so many of the great extreme metal bands of the day. You’ve probably seen me revisiting a few of these over the last couple of weeks but one of the more consistent ones comes from Swedish death metal legend Entombed (or Nihilist as they were known in their early days). I vividly remember getting enjoyment out of all four of their demo tapes so the idea of a modern-day reassessment has seemed quite attractive for a while now, particularly given that there’s a compilation that not only draws them all together with superior sound quality but also includes a few unreleased tracks.

The ”1987-1989” compilation (or “Carnal Leftovers” as it’s more recently been retitled) contains fourteen tracks from the period specified & showcases the development of not only the classic Entombed sound but also the Swedish death metal sound in general with each successive release seeing them getting closer & closer to the filthy wall of noise they’d blow the metal world away with via 1990’s “Left Hand Path” debut album. It takes a chronological approach to its programming with Nihilist’s earliest demo tape “Premature Autopsy” from March 1988 kicking proceedings off. “Premature Autopsy” showcases a band that was still clearly searching for their sound with obvious thrash metal & hardcore punk influences infiltrating the death metal we’d come to expect from Entombed. Vocalist LG Petrov (who had been borrowed from his regular position as the drummer in fellow Swedish death/black metal outfit Morbid for the recording sessions along with band mate & guitarist Ulf Cederland) hadn’t quite developed a true death growl yet, instead sounding similar to a Teutonic thrash front man. Opener “Sentenced To Death” is very much a death/thrash hybrid too with a foot in both the early Death & the Slayer/Dark Angel/Kreator camps. “Supposed To Rot” is much more in line with the sound we associate with Entombed & is pure Swedish death metal while the title track is more like thrashy hardcore than it is death metal & is one of the weaker inclusions on the compilation overall. “Premature Autopsy” was certainly the least impressive of the four demos but I still quite like it nonetheless.

Nihilist second demo “Only Shreds Remain” was released early the following year & would bring with it some lineup changes. Petrov had now joined the band on a permanent basis while bassist Leffe Cuzner had switched to guitar which had allowed future Unleashed front man Johnny Hedlund to enter the fold. The sessions were also conducted at the now legendary Sunlight Studios which has become synonymous with the Swedish death metal sound & the result is a slightly more consistent three-song effort that now sits firmly in the death metal camp. Petrov’s vocals are now deeper & more deathly although there has always been some speculation as to whether these were actually performed by Hedlund given how similar they sound to the earliest Unleashed recordings. The guitar tone is much deeper, thicker & filthier too & is starting to resemble the signature Entombed sound. All three songs are worth hearing & I find “Only Shreds Remain” to be a pretty good release overall.

My personal favourite of the four demos though is definitely the two-song “Drowned” which saw the light of day in August 1989, this time recorded at Kuben Studio. It contains one of my favourite Entombed songs in “Severe Burns” which appeared on 1991’s classic “Clandestine” album & is probably my favourite track on the compilation overall. The other track “When Life Has Ceased” isn’t of the same quality but is carried by the quality of the opener to an extent. The production quality shows a step up in professionalism from the two previous demos & Nihilist seem to be becoming serious players in the death metal scene by this stage. This was probably helped by Ulf Cederland becoming a permanent member in place of Cuzner who had now departed.

The three unreleased Nihilist tracks appear before Entombed’s “But Life Goes On” demo in the tracklisting & are a real drawcard for the compilation in my opinion. Unlike so many similar releases, there’s some serious quality here with “Morbid Devourment” & Repulsion cover version “Radiation Sickness” being amongst my favourite tracks on the whole CD. Two of these were recorded as a part of the sessions for “Drowned” which I guess makes sense given that it’s my pick of the demos. “Morbid Devourment” in particular sports a super-thick guitar tone that’s now getting closer to the final product Entombed would go to market with on “Left Hand Path”.

Nihilist split up following the “Drowned” demo, only to be reformed under a new moniker with all but Hedlund. This was clearly a play to remove Hedlund from the band without having to formally sack him but he’d land on his feet & enjoy a long & rewarding career fronting Unleashed. Petrov, Cederland & band leader/drummer Nicke Andersson would record the “But Life Goes On” demo as a trio at Sunlight Studios with legendary Swedish death metal producer Tomas Skogsberg behind the desk & it’d be released in late 1989. Bassist David Blomquist & Nihilist guitarist Alex Hellid would join the fold after the recordings but were credited on the demo nonetheless. "But Life Goes On" is where that classic Boss Heavy Metal pedal guitar tone finally eventuates in all its glory & it gives this demo a slightly different feel & identity to the Nihilist tapes. It’s a very consistent three-song affair but I’m not sure I’d say that any of the three compete with the stronger material I mentioned in the previous paragraph. I’d probably place “But Life Goes On” on par with “Only Shreds Remain” in terms of appeal to be honest.

Overall, “1987-1989” is an interesting & engaging experience but perhaps not an essential one for me personally. The vast majority of these tracks appear on either of the first two Entombed albums & I’ve never rated the Swedish death metal model as highly as the US one either. I prefer a slightly more sophisticated & less punky style of death metal so the Nihilist & Entombed demos were never likely to be as life-changing for me as they were for others. The only essential Entombed release for me personally remains 1991’s “Clandestine”. Don’t mind me though, if you go absolutely nuts for those early Entombed, Carnage & Dismember records then you could do a lot worse than this compilation which is a stronger, classier offering than the Sarcofago & Darkthrone compilations I’ve explored over the last week or so.

3.5/5

It could easily have been taken from a Beatles record in my opinion but has a slightly more muscular blues rock vibe. There's no metal there as far as I can see.

I would suggest that these records were influential on the early European power metal scene Andi:

Warlord - "Deliver Us" E.P. (1983)

Warlord - "And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun..." (1984)

Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - "Marching Out" (1985)

Warlord are American but their sound was still influential on the European sound. For the record though, I consider "Walls of Jericho" to be the earliest true example of the genre.

Thoughts on "Into The Fire"? Metal or not?

Andi, by its very definition power metal is a combination of the melodicism of heavy metal & the fast tempos & techniques found in speed metal. Do you hear a speed metal component in “Rising”?

Nihilist - "Premature Autopsy" demo (1988)

Another band whose early demos I'd pick up early on in my tape trading days was Entombed under their previous moniker of Nihilist. Their earliest demo "Premature Autopsy" sees them still searching for their signature sound. The production quality is pretty reasonable for a first-up demo & so is the musicianship. Opening track "Sentenced To Death" is a death/thrash hybrid that combines the early death metal of Death with the more aggressive thrash of Slayer, Dark Angel & Kreator. "Supposed To Rot" comes the closest to Entombed's classic Swedish death metal sound & is also the best inclusion. Closer "Carnal Leftovers" is more of a thrashy hardcore effort with not much death metal on offer & sounds a little flat in comparison to the other two. L.G. Petrov's vocals are yet to acquire that deathly growl & sound closer to Teutonic thrash at this point but they're pretty effective nonetheless. It's actually a pretty decent first-up effort overall but I wouldn't say that it's essential listening.

3.5/5

David Allan Coe - "Penitentiary Blues" (1970)

Electric blues from Ohio, USA.

Darkthrone - "Frostland Tapes" (2008)

The early Darkthrone albums were so pivotal in my childhood that it’s kinda hard to explain their impact looking back now. I placed their “unholy trinity” on a pedestal that very few extreme metal artists can touch & also have a lot more time for 1995’s “Panzerfaust” than many people do too. This general passion for the band saw me hungrily seeking out Darkthrone’s demo tapes very quickly after hitting the tape trading scene & I found that it wasn’t very hard to secure them given their rapidly growing notoriety. I recall having mixed reactions to them at the time but are a little vague on the details so I thought I’d refresh my memory once I discovered this double CD compilation that includes all of Darkthrone’s demo recordings along with some unreleased live & rehearsal material.

“Frostland Tapes” begins with a chronological journey through Darkthrone’s four demo tapes, starting with 1988’s “Land of Frost”. The level of production & musicianship on “Land of Frost” is very ordinary but thankfully the youngsters seemed to have a decent pedigree in underground metal even at such an early stage in their development. This tape is generally regarded as being a death metal release but there’s definitely more to it than that with a strong traditional doom metal influence perpetuating all five songs & giving the cassette a doom/death feel overall. Unfortunately the song-writing isn’t anything to write home about so I was left feeling pretty flat about Darkthrone’s initial effort. The “A New Dimension” demo from later the same year isn’t much better to be honest. It begins with an effective dark ambient intro piece but the bulk of this cassette is made up on a nine minute instrumental piece called “Snowfall” that’s much closer to thrash than it is to death metal. It doesn’t make much sense from a structural point of view & I found myself getting a bit bored so it’s another fail for “A New Dimension”.

Darkthrone’s 1989 third demo tape “Thulcandra” sees the death metal sound they’d champion on 1991’s “Soulside Journey” debut album starting to take shape. It’s still a bit clunky to be honest but I have to say that closer “Archipelago” showcased the potential that the band had pretty well & is the earliest Darkthrone track that I find to be genuinely enjoyable. That potential would ultimately be fulfilled on 1989’s fourth & final demo tape “Cromlech” which is a good representation of the fully-developed product. Darkthrone’s brand of death metal possesses an eerie quality that differentiates it from the Swedes & it’s well & truly on display here, particularly on the very solid instrumental “Accumulation of Generalization” which was a new career high point for the band.

The second disk includes a crude recording of a 1990 live show in Denmark & an instrumental version of 1996’s “Goatlord” album as well as a couple of additional rehearsal recordings. The live show may be pretty rough in terms of both production & performances but it’s my pick of the releases brought together here. The material is very consistent indeed with every track simply oozing of death metal atmosphere, particularly the final track “Neptune Towers” which stands out from the rest due to its particularly dark & doomy atmosphere. The instrumental version of “Goatlord” is a little less consistent & suffers from the flat rehearsal-tape recording quality more than the live stuff did. I still get quite a bit out of it though, mainly because it saw Darkthrone returning to the traditional doom metal influence of “Land of Frost” only in a slightly more sophisticated & adventurous way. I can’t remember a lot about the “Goatlord” album now as I haven’t heard it since the mid-90’s but I do remember finding it to be a little tough going. Perhaps the lack of vocals has actually been beneficial here? I’m not sure but it comes across as a decent enough doom/death record in the purely instrumental format with only “Rex” & “In His Lovely Kingdom” falling a little flat. The two bonus tracks included are very mixed indeed with the instrumental rehearsal version of the title track from “A Blaze In The Northern Sky” being (perhaps unsurprisingly) one of the best numbers on the whole compilation & Fenriz’ drum solo being a complete waste of everyone’s time & space.

Despite what some may have you believe, there’s little to no actual black metal on offer here & I’d probably tag “Frostland Tapes” as sitting somewhere between your classic old-school death metal sound & a doom/death hybrid one. There’s some decent shit here but I can’t say that I find much of it to be essential listening. The first three demo tapes that kick off the release are a little tough-going & bring down my overall impression of the rest of the compilation, despite the rest of the tracklisting being pretty good. When taken in holistically though, I’d recommend that “Frostland Tapes” is only likely to interest the Darkthrone tragics out there.

3/5

Scorpions has had metal aggression as early as their 1975 album In Trance, which they've barely had any of after the second half of the 1970s:

I'd suggest that 1982's "Blackout" album is more metal than anything Scorpions released in the second half of the 1970's. In fact, it's the only Scorpions album I've heard that I'd tag as a metal record. It's still kinda 50/50 though.

I think the driving, double-time bass work of Roger Glover & the general intensity in the production & performances gives these songs the illusion of being faster than they are. Neither track are actually that fast, certainly not verging on speed metal tempos (i.e. "Speed King" is only 100 bpm & "Flight of the Rat" is around 115 bpm). The lack of tremolo-picked guitar work & double-kick drumming is also a notable omission from the speed metal kit bag here. The former is absolutely essential in speed metal in my opinion & wouldn't eventuate until the back half of the decade.

Heaviness is certainly a common element of metal but it’s not exclusive to metal. Rock songs can be heavy too (as your “Speed King” example proves) while metal tracks can be comparatively not as heavy. The defining characteristics of metal need to be there for it to be metal though & there’s nothing in “Flight of the Rat” that falls outside of the scope of hard rock in my opinion. I find it to be about as heavy as a wet kiss from mum too.

Let’s not go down the Motorhead path or we’ll have a similar conundrum on our hands. I don’t think we’re gonna agree here so let’s move on.

But that’s a defining characteristic of European power metal Rex. Are you claiming this as power metal? 

If we’re gonna class a track like this one as metal then you might as well ditch the concept of hard rock altogether because it’s about as pure an example of hard rock as you’re gonna find really.

"Flight of the Rat" has nothing to do with metal whatsoever in my opinion. It's about as hard rock as hard rock gets with those strummy open-string chords, the jovial atmosphere & a bouncy rock beat.

A few from the last week:

Ry Cooder - "Chicken Skin Music" (1976)

C.W. Stoneking - "Jungle Blues" (2008)

Bonnie Raitt - "Bonnie Raitt" (1971)

Right, let's move on to "Flight of the Rat" then. Metal or not?

I'd find it hard to split Deftones' "Around Ther Fur" & Linkin Park's "Meteora" for my nu metal fave.

Note: I don't actually consider "Around The Fur" to be a nu metal record but that seems to be the common consensus these days

You're right Andi. That's certainly an interesting position. I'm across the entire Rainbow discography & would suggest that there isn't more than a couple of tracks that would qualify as metal across the whole lot to be honest.

"Sad Wings of Destiny" certainly isn't a total metalfest. It's still a band in transition but I've always thought there was comfortably enough metal to qualify. Perhaps I'll get a chance to review that position a little later in this exercise.

Darkthrone - "Cromlech" demo (1989)

Ok, so Darkthrone's final demo tape saw them finally coming of age as they approached the recording of the "Soulside Journey". The production & musicianship is much stronger & the material possesses that gloomy atmosphere that their early death metal material is known for. I could have done without the live version of "Iconoclasm Sweeps Cappadocia" that's tacked onto the end but the other three tracks are all enjoyable, particularly the very solid instrumental "Accumulation of Generalization" which was arguably the best thing they'd done to the time.

3.5/5

Sarcófago - "Die... Hard!!!" (2015)

The underground tape trading scene of the early-to-mid 1990’s was very kind to me. The feeling of excitement I’d have every time a package of new music would arrive from some foreign part of the world is something that the youth of today probably can’t understand given the ready access everyone has to literally every piece of music ever recorded but it was seriously addictive for a young, fresh-faced me who was still relatively new to this whole extreme metal thing. A South American kid I was trading with used to keep me up to speed with all of the cool underground stuff that his continent had to offer & I'd return the favour with the better Aussie bands like diSEMBOWELMENT, Armoured Angel & Sadistik Exekution. One particular package I received from this trader included the 1987 “INRI” debut album from Brazilian black/thrash metal legends Sarcófago, a band that I’d heard a little bit about but had never had the pleasure of experiencing. Upon listening to it though, I discovered that these South Americans knew a thing or two about raw extremity, a gift that I valued very highly at the time & still do. I’d subsequently request copies of any other Sarcófago releases I could get my hands on, including their three seminal mid-80’s demo tapes.

You may have noticed that I’ve recently been reliving those times by revisiting many of the releases I flogged in my early-to-mid teenage years, an exercise that’s ended up being much more significant than initially I thought it might be. As a part of that I’ve been spinning quite a number of demo-quality releases for the first time in many decades too which has brought back some quite vivid memories. When I went to look for the old Sarcófago material I found that there was a 2015 compilation album called “Die… Hard!!!” which apparently brings together all of the band’s demos & unreleased material on the one disk which was handy. This seemed to serve my purpose brilliantly so I’ve been giving the compilation a fair bit of time over the last few days. The results have been… well…. pretty mixed though if I’m being honest.

“Die… Hard!!!” kicks off with three rounds of the same four song run, only they’ve been recorded in different sessions. Tracks one to eight are previously unreleased recordings from 1985 while tracks nine through twelve are taken from the 1986 “Satanic Lust” demo. Strangely, the unreleased & apparently much earlier versions are significantly better than those released on the demo which was admittedly always the one that I found to be the weakest of the three Sarcófago tapes. “Satanic Lust” is marred by an awful production which includes a diabolically poor drum sound which goes a long way to ruining the faster material like “Satanas” & the heavily Hellhammer influenced “Third Slaughter”. The slower “Nightmare” is left largely unharmed but it was enough to spoil the cassette for me so I appreciated the alternate versions. I’d just question the need to have TWO of them because I really don’t think too many people will want to sit through three versions of the same thing.

1987’s “Christ’s Death” demo (the third & last of the three) fares much better, championing a sound that I’ve always thought was close enough to genuine war metal, only a good two years before Blasphemy’s seminal “Blood Upon The Altar” demo first saw the light of day. This stuff would have to have been the most brutal & evil material to ever see the light of day at the time, out-savaging even Bathory’s highly influential “Under The Sign Of The Black Mark” album from the same year. It still sounds pretty good too just quietly, although admittedly not essential. That just leaves Sarcófago’s first demo “The Black Vomit” (my personal favourite) then, doesn’t it? Soooo…. uuuummm… where is it then? I can’t seem to find it. Apparently it hasn’t been included for one reason or another which is a little frustrating. Perhaps due to the poor sound quality of the recordings? I dunno but it’s a strange omission, especially given that the remainder of “Die… Hard!!!” is made up of inessential rehearsal recordings & unreleased outtakes, most of which don’t exactly set the world on fire with a previously unreleased version of “Black Vomit” from the sessions for the “Warfare Noise I” compilation being the best of them.

If you give “Die… Hard!!!” some dedicated attention then you’ll no doubt come to the realization that Sarcófago have never gotten the full credit they were due. Some of this stuff sits amongst the earliest examples of authentic black metal material ever recorded & it still stands up today in terms of intensity. It’s just that you have to sit through a fair bit of inconsistency to reach the gold in his 20-song tracklisting, particularly towards the back end with some of the more recent tracks like the awful “Alcoholic Coma” & the flat “Secrets of a Window” being closer to traditional thrash than black metal. If you’re a total Sarcófago tragic or an obsessive fan of bands like Vulcano, Blasphemy & early Sepultura then I probably don’t need to tell you that “Die… Hard!!!” is a bit of a no-brainer but I can’t see the necessity for more casual listener. I mean, do I really need a drum machine-driven version of “Satanic Lust” in my life when the original wasn’t that great to begin with? I’d suggest that the better value option might be to hunt down the three demo tapes on YouTube actually, especially considering that the best of them isn’t even included on this compilation.

3/5

I'm not hearing any metal in "Child in Time". It's predominantly a progressive rock track with some building hard rock crescendos. The stripped back proggy sections are similar to Pink Floyd's more atmospheric moments while the guitar solo section in the middle is nothing more than a take on the bluesy Status Quo rock 'n' roll shuffle. I think a dual prog rock/hard rock tag is appropriate here. 

And yes, it's by far my favourite track on the album & possibly of Deep Purple's career.

Darkthrone - "Thulcandra" demo (1989)

The Norwegian legends started to develop the death metal sound that they'd champion on their debut album here with their third demo tape. It's still in its infancy though so still isn't well executed enough to be particularly interesting. Still, it was their most promising effort to the time.

3/5

Excellent Shezma. I've added you to the roster below. The highlighted people are the ones who are currently up to nominate the November feature releases so your first allocation is for The Guardians next month. I'll remind you by private message late in November if I don't hear from you prior. Feel free to contribute to as many of as few of each month's feature release discussions as you'd like.

THE FALLEN: Morpheus Kitami, Ben, Daniel, Sonny

THE GATEWAY: Andi, Saxy

THE GUARDIANS: Xephyr, Shezma, Morpheus Kitami

THE HORDE: Sonny, Daniel, Ben

THE INFINITE: Xephyr, Saxy, Shezma, Andi

THE NORTH: Ben, Sonny, Daniel, Shezma, Xephyr

THE PIT: Morpheus Kitami, Sonny, Daniel, Ben

THE REVOLUTION: Daniel, Andi

THE SPHERE: Andi, Daniel

How about "Child in Time" guys? Metal or not?

I actually love "Rocka Rolla" & think it's massively underrated. In fact, I'd take it over some of Judas Priest's most widely celebrated albums if I'm being honest. Interestingly, I've scored it the same as you have though Andi.

Darkthrone - "A New Dimension" demo (1988)

Darkthrone's second demo tape was a two-track affair that included a short, atmospheric & fairly effective dark ambient intro piece followed by a single nine-minute instrumental called "Snowfall". It was a pretty ambitious undertaking & I'm not sure that it makes all that much structural sense to be honest. I'd suggest that "Snowfall" is more of a thrash metal track than anything else & it's got very little to do with the doom/death of their "Land of Frost" demo from earlier in 1988. The production & musicianship is significantly better though. I slightly prefer "Land of Frost" over "A New Dimension" but there's very little in it & neither are worthy of your hard-earned time.

2.5/5

You’ve clearly never pulled a cone to “Planet Caravan” Andi. That track is life-changing & one of the highlights for mine.

Unlike "Speed King" which simply amped hard rock riffs up to eleven, "Bloodsucker" is built on a riff that I'd describe as being the prototype for heavy metal & was enormously influential on bands like Judas Priest. In fact, check out the main riff from Priest's "Victim of Changes" which would appear to simply be a variation on the "Bloodsucker" riff. The rest of this track sits more in the hard rock space but that main riff is the basis for the song so I'm happy for "Bloodsucker" to qualify as heavy metal.

Darkthrone - "Land of Frost" demo (1988)

I picked up all four of Darkthrone's demo tapes very early on in my tape trading days back in the early 1990's. This one was their first & it shows in the dodgy performances as everything is pretty loose. "Land of Frost" is generally regarded as being death metal but there's easily as much doom metal as there is death metal here with the slower stuff being some of the stronger parts of the cassette. Some people seem to have a problem with Fenriz' psychotic vocal delivery which is smothered in delay but I don't mind it at all. There's enough decent material for this to be a much better demo actually. It just needed a bit of quality control & some more developed chops.

2.5/5

Ok, let's move on to "Bloodsucker" then, shall we?

On the contrary, that 40% rule is the rule I have afforded to literally every metal album on the site.

Sarcófago - "Christ's Death" demo (1987)

The Brazilian extreme metal legends pick things back up after the disappointing "Satanic Lust" demo from earlier that year with a release that was more savage than anything we'd heard from them previously. In fact, I'd argue that this demo represents perhaps the earliest example of genuine war metal. The intensity blew my socks off back in the very early 1990's & it's still something to behold even today. I still prefer Sarcófago's first demo "The Black Vomit" overall though.

3.5/5

Sarcófago - "Satanic Lust" demo (1987)

The Brazilians second demo tape was a couple of steps down from the first in my opinion, mainly because it was ruined by a pretty awful production job that featured a piss-weak drum sound. It was a bit of a shame as there's a fair amount of potential in the song-writing (as seen in the alternate versions on the "Die... Hard" compilation). Once again, this demo is predominantly black metal with a little blackened thrash appearing on the heavily Hellhammer influenced final track "Third Slaughter".

3/5

Oh really? Great minds think alike. I shall make a point of reading your review today.