Bonded by Brandy - grindcore and thrash night

     Hail metal breathren! Welcome to the realm of TOTAL DESTRUCTION. That’s right it’s time for another installment of METAL NIGHT at Jenkabala palace. This week we were cursed with a visit from two of Satan’s most evil warriors, Shawn “hellmaster” Avery, and the dark princess of insane clowns, Juliet “deathcrush” Bennet-Rylah.  It was a night of terror and mayhem. An inky black tribute to the power of El Presedente  brandy with beer chasers, and a reminder that the altar of madness is wherever we are gathered. Let us not, however, dwell excessively on the cosmic secrets of our hidden congress. Some things are best left in the shadows lest they cause a wave of terror and panic in the uninitiated hordes wallowing in their dreary “reality”. We have come together to discuss three metallic classics and I will now set fourth our findings.

     Blood Mace and I first sampled the delights of Exodus’ live video “Double Live Dynamo” and while this was not part of our investigation proper we had to await the arrival of our third warrior (and eat meat-filled sandwiches.) It’s really no wonder (lead singer) Paul Baloff was known as “the John Beluchi of thrash” . Strutting around the stage, mimicking guitar solos on the mic stand, and keeping up an incredible amount of (methamphetamine fueled?) energy for the entire hour  and a half (!) set. An indisputably great thrash band at the height of their powers, ‘nuff said.  During the middle of this molten madness, our man of the hour arrived, carrying in his hands the decapitated heads of some posers who tried to challenge him on his journey. Bloodstained and weary from having to waste so many wimps, Hellmaster sated himself on some delicious soup he brewed from their eyes and other soft parts while we prepared him for the next quest with liquor.

   Our travels into the wasteland began with the unbelievable 1985 debut from Hirax, Raging Violence.  This was Blood Mace’s pick of the night and has been in near constant rotation at the palace since that night. Back in ’85 this really stood out from the rest of the Metal Blade fare. Defiantly not an Iron Maiden clone (like 80% of Metal Blade’s early catalog) but with a much more concise, hardcore punk songwriting style than the bay area thrash bands they played shows with. I would say they were like a more polished Repulsion, with only a single song breaking the three minute mark. Also central to their sound was lead singer Katon DePena’s  high-range vocal styling. Puntuating every line with a wide, histrionic vibrato, DePenna’s voice rips through the middle of each hyperkinetic song-shard. Blood Mace pointed out that Hirax was an influence on the short-lived “powerviolence” scene of the late 90’s, releasing a split 7” with Spazz in ’97. This album is the real shit people. DO NOT FUCK WITH HIRAX.

  
 Just as the last note of this album was fading into the darkening twilight, we heard the call of the wolf, and knew another grueling test lie ahead of us. Cries of the undead were all around us and our bones were chilled by the blasting wind of ancient suffering. Undaunted, our fearless triumvirate cooled some warm beers in the squalling tempest and used the easily-crushed skulls of some undead geeks to quaff our foaming brew. We knew the next album to be dense and wild, a maelstrom of guttural cries and sludgy guitars. That’s right; I could only be speaking of the titanic Napalm Death and the brutal orgy that is their Peel Sessions. This compilation collects the Lee Dorian session, a wild collection of tracks from “Scum” and “From Enslavement to Obliteration” played as 8 medleys, and two sessions with Barney Greenway. I do like Greenway’s vocals but we were after the Lee Dorian material and this collection did not disappoint. The band seems to have sped up the songs even more (!) for this amazing collection. Not a single tune clocks in longer than 1:05. This band somehow managed to absorb the exuberance of early German thrash (Sodom, Destruction, etc.) and fuse it with one of the most brutal fucking rhythm sections ever. They then yoke this mighty beast to the carriage of their socially progressive message and deliver the word to dirty, violent, and drunken youth around the globe. Amazing.  Years later every high school in America had a death metal/ grindcore band playing basement parties for beer. Speaking of beer, this was the part of the night when we finally reached the point of no return. I inform Blood Mace that I cannot drive him home. Violence breaks out.

 
    Broken glass. Smashed pillars, leaking dust and dropping splinters of what was once the ceiling of our secret chambers. Blood Mace’s rage at last spent, we repair to the secondary chambers and call for the druids to rebuild the blasted battlements of Jenkabala palace. As we ready ourselves with liquor for another brutal foray into dimensions unknown, the magic portal opens and a queen of evil appears before us. Lady Deathcrush, with her tiny robe has come to collect her prince! There is much rejoicing as she offers to transport Blood Mace to his underground lair then produces a bottle of fermented blood collected from the infraworld’s most brutal battlegrounds. We drink. On the platter is our final task, Heathen’s “Breaking the Silence”. This was Hellmaster’s pick of the night and I wasted no time in seconding that. This is a hell of a wicked slab of thrash, one I missed during the glory days. Heathen comes off as much more of a throwback to the hard rock days then the other bands of the night and the smooth riffs are a balm to ears recently shredded by the harsh, brutal sounds of straight grindcore. This album has everything you need in a classic metal style. Here we have harmonized twin guitar melodies, sweet vocals, a barbarian fantasy epic, and a singer who can hit those upper octave notes so popular in the day. By the time we got to the acoustic guitar intro of the doomsday thrasher “Worlds End” it was over for this metal warrior. I almost didn’t notice the other lords and ladies of chaos departing into a misty void. That mystical blood really did me in.

Now, looking back, it seems like such a clear cut story. It seems to happen in such a linear way on the screen but we travel always in this endless continuum, ever searching, ever learning. The galaxy of metal is endless and expanding every day. We roam it’s starways and ancient planets, unearthing dark treasures new and old. This is our mission and no matter how much we have to drink or how many posers we have to destroy, we will continue.  Until next time brothers and sisters...

HAIL TO TRUE FUCKING METAL!!!