Stay True Or Die!!!

THIS BLOG IS NOT DEAD!!! Okay with that out of the way allow me to introduce you to a band I recently stumbled across who just blew me away with a youthful vigor and unyielding love for real Heavy Metal. No retro cool, no ironic facial hair, no tattoos, just five baby faced bangers from Daly City calling themselves Hell Fire. These duders are just barely out of high school and already outplaying many of the seasoned Shreddy Roosevelts out there, and doing it on some right crappy gear no less. Kind of sounding like the classic German bands Grave Digger and Helloween, Hell Fire also inject a bit of Bay Area dirt head thrash in their trip. They were cool enough to flow me this cool CDR demo with a the humble caveat that this is a bit outdated and may not be the best representation of the band. I tend to agree, the drums are a bit "suspicious" sounding and this piece of plastic can in no way truly convey the sheer joy of playing and charm Hell Fire overflow with in the live setting. Seriously, support these kids, they absolutely deserve it. 

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The Legacy

Testament, some people call them "thrash for girls," but duuuuude, the first two albums kill, okay? Much of the magic of The Legacy is the solo work of Alex Skolnick, the guy writes songs within the songs. Testament were slick and technically proficient from the get go (having cut their teeth under the name of Legacy) and The Legacy is about a strong as a debut album can be. Seriously, even if you thought you didn't care for thrash before, The Legacy could change your mind. Mandatory!!!

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Apocryphon

I may be a bit biased on Apocryphon, Peter and Shelby are amazingly friendly, funny people but they probably don't want that to be known. Not to mention that Shelby does one of the best blogs on the Interweb. But I think Apocryphon's extremely aggressive demo debut stands on its own merit. Already the band show an adeptness and skill that could easily put them toe to toe with some of the giants of the genre. Apocryphon sort of meld the earlier works of Immolation with a very Dave Vincent circa Domination vocal approach. If this is the demo I shudder to think what the album will be like. Another fantastic new Death Metal band to watch for.

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Illusions

One of the most perplexing album covers in Bay Area thrash metal history, and one of the more interesting releases to come from that fertile scene. Sadus hailed from Antioch, a bullshit town about a half hour's drive north of the bullshit town I call home. Antioch was a gold rush town, settled in 1850, it is one of the oldest cities in California. As well as Sadus, the town can boast notable natives like The Mitchell Brothers, and a bunch of stupid football players that I could' t give a rat's ass about. Anyways, the four disenfranchised bangers of Sadus combatted the dusty ennui of Antioch life with lots and lots of weed, sci-fi novels, horror movies, and the proto-death metal thrash of Possessed, Kreator, Slayer, and Death. Darren, Rob, Steve, and Jon, formed Sadus and took their time honing their sound and chops with a few demos, but waiting almost four years after their inception to cut a proper album. Their patience and commitment paid off, Illusions is an astonishing achievement of breakneck tempos, precision playing, and unhinged mania. On their first album Sadus were already faster, tighter, and more inspired than any of their peers or influences. Why Illusions isn't hailed as a classic, a milestone, and a thrashterpiece of unparalleled aggression is completely unbeknownst to me. The cover art perhaps?

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Bruxers

Okay, so after losing eight years worth of files, and seriously considering ending the blog, I have decided to forge on. Things may be a bit rickety here for a while, but I want to stress that doing this doesn't get me laid, doesn't get me paid, and often is a headache. Anyways, here's Bruxers' demo. Bruxers are a fairly new band from Oakland. On their first demo they display a fondness and a skill for playing Crusty Death Metally Grindcore. You download it, you listen to it, you leave a nice comment, and when they have something out, you buy it.

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Haus Music

As far as all these new fangled bands looking to Siouxsie and The Banshees, Bauhaus, and Joy Division, please consider The Vanishing. The San Francisco/Berlin band churned out creepy cantos of Deathrock's dusty past over a decade ago, and I think they were one of the best at it. In the Bathaus was the band's follow up to their strong debut titled Songs for Psychotic Children, and while I love that album, this EP feels deeper and darker. Absolutely mandatory.

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Lycus

The Bay Area scene is interesting. It seems that every so often a whole crop of great new bands spring up but then a year later, maybe only one or two still exist. Lately we have been lucky enough to see the formation of such bands as Owl, Hell Ship, Badr Vogu, Pale Chalice, Lady of the Lake, Pins of Light, and one of my personal favorites, Lycus from Oakland. Lycus plays expansive doom with melodic flourishes. There is enough quality material to make this a regular listen. I imagine that Lycus, if they managed to stick it out, could potentially make an album that dominates and eclipses all other bands doing this sort of doom. Watch for them. And you can secure a copy of this tape here.

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Too $hort: The 75 Girls Tapes

PLAYERS

DON'T STOP RAPPIN'

RAW, UNCUT, AND X-RATED

Chartreuse Toulouse

When I moved to San Francisco twenty-three years ago Tragic Mulatto were one of the most interesting and challenging bands on the scene. They had the mongolid tribal backbeat of the Butthole Surfers but everything else was purely their own Mission District drug fuck bad acid sweaty thigh gut punch. Rolling and thunderous and sometimes peppered with tuba, Tragic Mulatto's songs were chaotic leviathans lumbering through the city streets like a procession of absurd death. Their lyrics were the bleak autobiographical tales of ribald lust, desperation, addiction, poverty, and bike messengering belted forth by a mighty woman named Flatula Lee Roth. They speak as much of her own psyche as they do of the city she loves and hates (much like BOMB.) Tragic Mulatto could have only come from San Francisco in the late '80s, no other place at no other time. I think Chartreuse Toulouse was the band's finest (and final) release.

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Cold Hearted

Heart of Snow were a short lived Bay Area band that wore their Siouxsie influence on their sleeves. The played a few shows, released this phenomenal EP called Endure or More, and disappeared. The drummer, Scott, is now bashing buckets in Oakland dude rockers The Saviours, while the singer, Cynthia, keeps it dour in Swann Danger. This record is just too good to let slip into obscurity.

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Dead As Dreams

Weird to think that the last truly great Black Metal album of the 1990s was made by a San Francisco band that nobody gave a fuck about when they were around.

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Eternal Nightmare

Could we really spend a week on Bay Area related posts without some bonafide puffy sneaker thrash? Okay, so here is Vio-lence's 1988 debut Eternal Nightmare, a record, that for me, is somewhat marred by the rather choppy, one-dimensional performance of vocal dude, Sean Killian. However, Eternal Nightmare packs so much chunky wallop and delicious riffery that I can live with whatever Mr. Killian is arbitrarily shouting at me in lilting staccato. Vio-lence often sounded like a less skilled Slayer meets a more skilled Kreator, seriously, not a bad thing at all.

Mosh!

Verbal Abuse

Thanks for all the anniversary accolades, but we have work to do. I think we're going to keep this Bay Area theme going for a few more posts, and with that in mind, here is the debut from Verbal Abuse. Just an American Band introduced the world to VA's furious thrashing hardcore made even better by the nihilist lyrics and snot-on vocals of ex-Sick Pleasure dude, Nikki Sikki. This was released in 1983.

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VON Haiku

Nineteen-Ninety-One

VON spills the Satanic Blood

Black San Francisco

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Sea Hags

The Sea Hags story is pretty typical of the heartbreak of a million bands in the '80s who struggled to land that most elusive record deal, only to have it all go up in a poof of drug smoke and poor decisions. The Sea Hags were meant to be huge, San Francisco's hat in the ring of sleazy streetwise chick metal ala Guns n Roses, in 1989 the fucking world was their cocaine oyster. Their Kirk Hammett-produced demo earned them the attention of the blood-sucking vampires over at Chrysalis Records. Ian Astbury of the Cult was so smitten by these hard-working/hard living young lads that he offered to produce their debut, however the job went to Mike Clink who was, at the time, having his balls washed hard based on the success of Appetite For Destruction. Before the sessions even started management stepped in and pressured the dudes into replacing great drummer, Greg Langston, with better known drummer, Adam Maples, as well as adding Frank Wilsey on guitar (maybe not a bad idea.) Despite the well known and advanced drug problems of frontman Ron Yocom and bassist Chris Schlosshardt, the band managed to eke out a pretty decent album that is as much the first Lords of The New Church album as it is GnR. Didn't really matter much to Chrysalis though, they sat on the album and subsequent tour support in hopes that Ron and Chris might get their shit together long enough to dazzle the waiting world. Well that didn't happen. Schlosshardt died of either an pneumonia or a heroin overdose, depending on who you believe. Wilson quit after a short tour of the UK, Maples joined GnR for a minute only to be replaced by Matt Sorum and his perm, and Yocom could be seen around San Francisco's Mission district in bad fucking shape, until a few years ago, when apparently the former Sea Hag pulled himself up by the cowboy bootstraps and DID get his shit together. He now fronts the band The Power of 3. Right on Ron. And this record still is lots of fun. Frisco!!!

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Crossover

So enamored with the trend of mixing metal and hardcore in the late '80s was D.R.I. that they even titled their second album Crossover, and while it may not be Dealing With It, if all thrash was this good in 1987, I too may have invested in some stretch jeans and some huge puffy white sneakers. Funny, but I think this album informed 99.9% of Municipal Waste's aesthetic and sound, and MW influenced a veritable onslaught of teenage Civil War Reenactment style retro thrash bands, thus making Crossover a highly influential album. When it was released people fucking hated it. Way better than most of the other hardcore band's forrays into metal at the time.

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Cast Iron Canaries

The Cast Iron Canaries were an exceptional band from Santa Cruz (and later San Francisco.) They sounded a lot like The Damned, had a charismatic frontman named Tony, were great guys and super fun to hang out with. Sometime around 1992ish they managed to record this fantastic 4 song demo. If it would have fell into the right mits I am certain these guys would have gotten rich and famous and done a lot of choice blow with famous assholes.

One night I was drunk and ambling through the tenderloin and I saw Tony and Jim waiting in line to see the Jesus Lizard. They asked if I was going to the show and I replied that I was way too drunk and broke to go. Tony insisted I see The Jesus Lizard and bought me a ticket. It was really nice of him to do and I think I repaid the gesture by getting even drunker and getting kicked out after throwing up on some girl's hair. She had nice hair.

Anyways, Tony, Jim, and/or Dave, if you should stumble upon this post, I love you guys, and hope you are all well, and safe, and happy.

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Or watch the video here

Skate For The Devil

These portly Berkeley Skate Hessians wanted to profess their love for skating and Satan, and thus The Boneless Ones Skate For The Devil was born. This is some burly metallic punker sludge that reminds me of when Thrasher still had the Pus Zone. I haven't skated or worshipped Satan much since this came out in '86, but I still enjoy this album. 

Skate!

Isolation

For those of you paying attention, Lascowiec is an extremely mysterious and amazingly talented Black Metal band based out of San Francisco. They released two brilliant cassettes through my former label The Funeral Agency. The few copies of Gesamkunstwerk and Gunshots Ring Out Over Vinland Streets were scooped up fast, and were both extremely well-received when they were featured here on The Hearse. This is Lascowiec's third demo, the as of yet unreleased Isolation, and it is perhaps their most compelling work yet. Fuck, I love this band.

Isolate