Ketch-up Night Part Duex - Mosh Down Babylon

 

Once again, Demon Scourge and myself found ourselves on the vodka train to Hammersmith with Atomic Stief, we we really didn't have much time to bother writing the blog. So here is another catch up post; a reminisce through alcoholic haze of Metal Night's past. Demon Scourge takes some time out from his chronicle to review the last three albums, since I was way too drunk that night to even remember what they sounded like. 

Swedish Death Metal night
Dismember- Indecent and Obscene-This album is one of the classics of Swedish Death, if not one of the founding documents of the scene, then one of the quintessential. Brutal riffery, many twists and turns, but not without a bit of melody. Fucking classic. Winner

Amon Amarth - Versus the World - Workmanlike melodic death. Actually, the only thing about this band that is death metal are the vocals, otherwise, this is pretty traditional. Not to say that it doesn't have its moments. This band has a set formula, and when it works, it's crushing. When it doesn't, it's boring.

Hypocrisy - Abducted - Another Swede death classic; an expansive, rather experimental album, space rock meets death metal. They throw some clean but psychedelic vocals on some of the more subdued, experimental songs at the end of the album, finishing on a darkly trippy vibe. One of my favorites, but the Dismember album wins by one single charred ember.

 Mayhem Related Band Night

Mayhem-Wolf Lair Abyss-This Ep was the first release of new material by Mayhem after the famous stabbing that made the Norwegian black metal scene infamous around the world. The band is as dark and evil as ever, but sounding not so different than 1000 other black metal bands from the time. This is a band coasting on their reputation.

Merciless-The Awakening-The winner of the evening is this little blackened thrash ditty from Sweden. It's pretty uncomplicated but very unrelenting. It just kicks into high gear and blazes a trail of glory through the hinterlands. This album was the first release by Deathlike Silence Records, which was the label owned by Euronymous, and was very influential on the Scandinavian scene in general. Ok, no one in this band was ever actually in Mayhem, so maybe they are only spuriously related to that band, but blazing riffs and furious speed win the night!

Tormentor-The Seventh Day of Doom-Attila Csihar's first band is one of the most influential thrash bands to influence Mayhem. You can definitely hear the black metal riffs, but this is thrash, first and foremost, with lots of trad metal influence. It's just that the band was possessed by Satan, and listening to this demo will send you straight to hell. 

European Trad Metal Obscurities 
Aria - Meglomania - The first album by the long lived Russian metal stalwarts, Aria was most defiantly in the NWOBHM tradition, almost hard rock in parts. By 1985, when Meglomania came out, this kind of music was already being supplanted by the more extreme forms of metal  that were beginning to dominate tape decks everywhere (Slayer, Sodom, Bathory, Etc.) Everything you would expect is here, the galloping, maidenesque bass lines, harmonized twin guitars, crowd whoring sing-along choruses and of course the shitty Scorpions-style power ballad. They are, by all reports, revered in Russia and with good reason. These guys are pro, real pro. They play with conviction and though it’s easy to see this as an album that offers less to the average metal fan than their ’87 LP “Hero of Asphalt,” (I definitely prefer that one), This had to be the greatest Halloween gift ever to Russian Metalheads who never had a band to call their own.

Cobra-Warriors of the Dead-Again we encounter a band playing a more traditional style of metal in the mid eighties. Some of Warriors of the Dead is awesome, the title track, the cleverly named “Cobra” and the nuke-obsessed “China Syndrome” all display the band as an ass-kicking riff machine. The balance of this graveyard, however, is filled with stiffs that can barely open the coffin lid, much less go into battle and almost all of the songs have lyrics that fly like a ten pound brick. Vocalist Paul Edmonson doesn’t help the case with his Alice Cooper worship, but hell, you could do much worse. Defiantly a third-tier act, they still manage to eke out a few good neck snappers before the bonehead who wrote the lyrics drags the whole proceeding through the mud. I got some laughs out of their erotic jam, “Wildest Dreams” where Paul asserts that he will “make you feel”, again and again during the fadeout.

Axe Witch-Visions of the Past-Well, here’s our requisite Swedish band. Why the crap do the Swedes get all the good metal bands? Seriously though, even though this album has its flaws, it dominated the night (well what I can remember of it anyways.) As we have already seen, in the mid 80’s Maiden and Priest worship was the order of the day and Axe Witch oblige their audience with gusto, serving up riff after riff. Like the other albums we listened to these guys seem a little too eager to please, like they saw the success of the big acts of the day and were trying to ride the gravy train. This strategy worked out for Aria but not so much for Cobra and Axewitch. So even though Aria was more successful and Cobra was funnier, Axe Witch were winners simply for being harder than the competition.