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Heard it all in one relaxing rest with headphones. Mind, the volume was turned to a pleasing level. Very well worth the two dollars I spent on it. I don't plan to sit through it all very soon, but it was an experience.

The Batlord

Ian Dury: New Boots and Panties!!

I woke up today with the express intent of listening to Ian Dury's "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". It's awesome along with being hilarious and historic (it's where the term comes from if you didn't know). Then I figured I'd review his debut album, only to find that "Sex..." was only a single. Balls. Oh, well.




So this is pub rock. The only other pub rock I was familiar with was Dr. Feelgood and I got the impression that they weren't really representative of the genre. This is much more middle-of-the-road, but it's still got that simple, R&B worship quality that comes with at least some energy like a Big Mac comes with fries. If you've grown up on punk then this certainly won't be setting off your pacemaker, but if you're an early Stones fan then you could do a lot worse.

Ian Dury certainly has an...interesting singing voice. Usually when I hear such a heavy, lower class British accent I expect the band to be chasing itself to the end of the song while the "singer" shouts about communism or poop or something. I hear that Johnny Rotten actually took a lot of his act from Ian, and that's kinda what he sounds like. Like Johnny Rotten if Johnny Rotten wasn't pissed off about everything and would rather just sing a little tune in a ridiculous accent. Alright so maybe that doesn't sound like such a great selling point, but he has more than enough charisma to make up for any possible vocal shortcomings and keeps things entertaining even when the music is kind of "meh".

What the? Third song from the end and they went punk. Ian's yelling, the band's going all Clash. I'm not saying it's terrible, but it's just completely out of place. I guess we're seeing the point where the bottom of pub rock fell out and punk rock took over.

All in all it was about what I was expecting, except for the end: fun, catchy R&B that was just waiting for punk to make it irrelevant. It's not the kind of thing I'd feel compelled to listen to everyday, but at some infrequent intervals when I'm in the mood for some simple rock'n'roll, I must just think of Ian Dury.

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The Batlord

Demo Today Gone Tomorrow: I Couldn't Think of Anything More Clever - Part I

Well, I rather enjoyed the pre-Electric Wizard demo bits, and I felt like listening to a bunch of old demo only metal bands today, so I'm gonna try to talk about/find some that don't suck...

Necrovore: Divus de Mortuus - 1987

This is probably one of the most famous demo only bands in the history of metal, if not the most famous. A good place to start this shindig.




Around the mid to late eighties the line between black, death, and thrash metal could be pretty thin. I'd say that Necrovore were poster boys for this, except that a lot of these kinds of bands back then all pretty much sounded the same. Necrovore could probably fall into any of these three categories, but I imagine they would fall more onto the death metal side of the spectrum. They remind me of the vicious attack of Kreator's Pleasure to Kill, and the chaos and noise of Possessed's Seven Churches. I imagine that these probably were some of their main influences considering that these two albums both dropped within two years of this band's only demo.

Divus de Mortuus is pretty much what I just described. It's pretty fucking noisy first of all. This band doesn't really go in for subltey. So long as asses are kicked and amps are destroyed I imagine they are pretty happy. The demo quality production only makes it more so. Given that this is ugly, sloppy pre-death metal, that isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world. What makes this more than just an exercise in brainless noise though is the sheer energy on display that demands that your head bang. Listening to this I can really imagine these guys just destroying some shitty hole-in-the-wall bar with twenty denim and mullet-clad neanderthals beating the shit out of each other in front of them. It's not going to be to everyone's taste, but to those who dig this kinda thing, it's pretty cool.

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Unknown Soldier

A good take on London pub rock, I never liked it at all and bands like Dr.Feelgood and Ian Dury and the Blockheads were quite representative of it. "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" was a fantastic song for its time and a song that everybody still knows. Ian Dury suffered from polio from a young age and had quite a tragic life.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

You don't like Dr. Feelgood? Shame on you you douchetool. Dr. Feelgood are ****ing fantastic.

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The Batlord

Demo Today Gone Tomorrow: I Couldn't Think of Anything More Clever - Part II

Eructation: Demo '92 - 1992 (duh!)

No idea who these guys are. Saw them mentioned on a thread in the Metal Archives forum after a quick Google search. And no, I would never descend into that pit of elitist douchebags that I'm assuming the Metal Archives forum to be.




Holy fuck nuts! This is just bitchin'. Hold on. Take a breath. Hoo. That's me releasing the breath in case you didn't know. Alright, let's get down to business.

I couldn't quite place the influences at first, and unfortunately I am far more versed with eighties thrash than I am with nineties death metal, so I still can't quite place them. It kinda made some sense when I saw that they were from Sweden though. This would explain why they still had such an old school sound in 1992. It doesn't really sound like the kind of Entombed worship you'd expect though. It's definitely not tech death or brutal death metal, but it's still got a more Florida death metal influence than Entombed. Or at least they know how to play their instruments better than Entombed and can put some actual complexity into their music. It straddles that line between old school viciousness and new school brutality that can just be the bee's knees when done right. I mean, just listen to those riffs. The riffs! Brutal as fuck but still catchy and delightful as hell. Seriously, demo or not, this is one of the most fantastic death metal albums I've ever heard. No wheels are being reinvented, but asses are most assuredly being smote. The vocals likewise are closer to late eighties style hoarse growling rather than nineties style gutteral, cookie monster growling. Think David Vincent from Morbid Angel vocals versus Frank Mullen from Suffocation vocals I guess. I love, love, love this and highly recommend it to death metal fans.

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Unknown Soldier

Not really, but I do remember this song though.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

Demo Today Gone Tomorrow: I Couldn't Think of Anything More Clever - Part III

Embalmed: Pieces Remain - 1991

Alright, so I'm a huge fan of Embalmed's second demo. It's just awesome. So now I'm gonna listen to their first one.




Damn that is some ugly production. I can already tell that this is gonna be a filthy piece of nastiness. After a two minute intro we get to the meat of the demo, which is primitive death grind that owes much to Carcass. To be honest, it's not leaving too big an impression on me. To be fair though, I've never been a big fan of grindcore since it usually just ends up flying past me in a haze of noise.

One thing that I love about Emblamed is their ability to drop a simple, ridiculously kick ass death metal riff that is heavier and catchier than a skyscraper/Superman metaphor. No matter how noisy they might get, they always know when to ground themselves with a brutal riff or five.

I'm on my second listen and I'm enjoying this much more than the first. Embalmed aren't the most polished band, but they more than make up for it (as if you would need to make up for it) with pure savagery. This band knows how to fuck your shit up and they take no prisoners in their pursuit of your mangled ear drums. I'm still probably gonna prefer their second demo, but this is definitely growing on me more and more with each passing second.

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The Batlord

Demo Today Gone Tomorrow: I Couldn't Think of Anything More Clever - Part IV

Embalmed: Boiling Humans - 1993

I love this demo, so I'm doing this one too. Embalmed fucking rule.




The death grind is definitely still there, but there seems to be a bigger emphasis on the death metal aspect of their sound. The slower riffs abound and just make this absolutely destroy. If anything the riffs are even more devastating than on Pieces Remain. The production is different from the first demo too. It's still ugly and primitive sounding (along with the music) but there's more of an emphasis on heaviness that really makes every riff hit with the power of a freight train.

One possible sticking point is that with less of a focus on grindcore, and with the different production, there isn't quite the same savagery as on Pieces Remain. This is more accessible and just plain catchy. It would probably depend on my mood as to which one I preferred. Still, all things considered Embalmed are one of my favorite death metal bands and kick the collective asses of 95% of death metal bands that actually have an album out. They may not be particularly original, but damn do they slay.

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The Batlord

Demo Today Gone Tomorrow: I Couldn't Think of Anything More Clever - Part V

Morbid: December Moon - 1987

If you don't know who Morbid are then you are stupid.




Another band that played the death/black/thrash game. This band is mostly distinguished by having been Dead from Mayhem's first band. I'd only listened to this once and didn't really remember anything about it, and frankly I was all set to say, "Pah, this blows. If it weren't for Dead nobody would give half a shit about these losers." This band is actually infinitely better than Mayhem. That isn't necessarily saying much. As far as I'm concerned all that you have to do to be better than Mayhem is not suck for all but two or three songs on your album.

These guys aren't nearly as savage as some of the death/black/thrash bands of this time period. They even manage to be rather melodic at times. For all I know, them being from Sweden, they might actually have been influential on Gothenburg melodic death metal. To make up for any lack of meathead brutality they have some truly catchy, kickass riffs that would make any band of their ilk sick with envy. So don't think that these are a bunch of pussies.

Dead is really an amazing vocalist on here. If you remember that this was released in 1987 when Norwegian black metal was just a gleam in Euronymous' eye, and the now stereotypical "necro" vocals hadn't been heard before (so far as I know) they are even ground breaking. There is no death metal growl here. Dead's vocals are the same horrid rasp you would imagine they would have been on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas had he lived. On a death thrash demo from the mid-to-late eighties they really make it sound unique and cool.

One last thing that I have to point out is that though I might prefer Morbid to Mayhem they do not have the dark, creepy atmosphere of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. This is death/thrash after all and all the creepy vocals in the world aren't gonna change that. 'Tis what 'tis, but I still prefer consistent quality over moments of brilliance.

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