Sunday, July 18, 2010

Arrowz

Holy fuck!!! This has to be one of the greatest obscure bits of early Swedish metal of all time, Arrowz (not to be confused with the other great Swedish metal act Arrows) and their decidedly fucked up Birds of Steel/Help Me single. I mean, fuck, check out the drummer, he looks like a math teacher. So can the music contained within meet the grand promise of their logo and their look? Well, shit howdy, it far surpasses any expectation with it's drunken lo-fi grit, ham-fisted amateurish playing, and desperate vocals belting out ESL lyrics about detrimental partying and metallic birds. The only downside to this record is that it is a scant eight minutes. Arrowz did follow up with a demo that I would gladly fork over my left nut for, even just a batch of shitty sounding mp3s. If you don't absolutely love this record you are probably some kind of nazi baby raper. Just sayin'.

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17 comments:

  1. KukenJuly 18, 2010 at 3:32 AM

    Great stuff!
    I guess the demo is here:
    http://strappadometalblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/arrowz-demo-1982.html
    along with alot of other cool stuff.

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  2. e normousJuly 18, 2010 at 5:20 AM

    OH SHIT. I'm an idiot for not listening to this earlier. This is utterly awesome. Thanks for the reminder.

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  3. e normousJuly 18, 2010 at 5:28 AM

    incidentally, have you heard the Vampa 7"? it's brilliant in much the same way as this is.

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  4. AnonymousJuly 18, 2010 at 6:25 AM

    WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! New favorite song. "HELP ME" totally kills everything. "Bird of steel" could have been release on "Lonesome crow" weird power ballad grime rock. Any comparison to the Scorpions is of the highest praise. Two songs does leave me with serious blue balls.

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  5. AnonymousJuly 18, 2010 at 7:38 AM

    Wow... This is awesome! The vocalist sounds like he has DS or suffers from gigantism! Fucking killer!

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  6. abwJuly 18, 2010 at 8:41 AM

    Beyond awesome.

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  7. AesopJuly 18, 2010 at 9:28 AM

    Thanks Kuken, I have perused Strappado many a time and must've missed it.

    E, Vampa? Never heard. Link?

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  8. AesopJuly 18, 2010 at 9:36 AM

    Found it.

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  9. RagnarRJuly 18, 2010 at 8:58 PM

    Yeah this def. has that certain charm to it. Gotta love these Swedish accents and odd transitions.

    Almost sounds like he's singing "Oh, Virgin Steele - to geet away." Nice guitar tone on both tracks but structurally it's all over the place FWOSHM + 70's hard rock jams.

    Oh and there's also Arrow the German Metal band from '85. Sorta on the same tip only speedier in the middle and more ESL lyrics.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wxUjlJxSv0

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  10. east kansas bangerJuly 19, 2010 at 7:40 AM

    This is great. Blows my mind that there were so many great swedish bands at that time. Swedish metal rules. Strappado is also a great resource for some top notch metal.
    I've pulled a lot of great NWOBHM from there and also here. Keep doing the Lords work Aesop.

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  11. Chet the MedicineJuly 19, 2010 at 9:41 AM

    tremendous.

    that is all i have to say on this one.

    simply, tremendous.

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  12. RyanJuly 19, 2010 at 3:58 PM

    They look like a power pop band! Must be the Bun E Carlos impersonator in the back...

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  13. GRK.July 21, 2010 at 2:30 AM

    Nice Iceman!

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  14. AnonymousJuly 21, 2010 at 3:19 PM

    shares like this which keep me bouncin back to yo bubble block!

    such cool music.
    such cool blog.

    thanks.

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  15. Dave GJuly 29, 2010 at 6:03 AM

    Thanks Aesop, now I know I'm not a nazi baby raper.

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  16. AnonymousAugust 4, 2010 at 1:39 PM

    so fucking rad. I need to own this.

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  17. trAshSeptember 27, 2010 at 4:07 PM

    help me is a theme song for taking over the world! thanks!

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