Solid Rock

Bollweevil's contribution to the growing list obscure NWOBHM relics by bands that only released one single is this plucky little gem. The A side is a rookie rocker with great fuzzy tones and lyrics about rocking. The B side is a more 70s hard rock number with a mellow intro. Bollweevil have an amateurish charm in their clumsy and overly stiff playing. Rock Solid!!!

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Bloodsoaked

Bloodsoaked may be Mexico's first Death Metal band having formed in 1989. The band's brief three year career yielded a demo, a full length, and an EP, and all are awesome relics of putrid Death Metal. 1993's Frost Image is a bit murky in the production, has a few questionable riffs, and that cover art is weak, but beneath these issues lies a decent early '90s Death Metal album.

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The Wizard of Nerath

Nergal is one of the earlier purveyors of Hellenic Black Metal that doesn't get the recognition of your Rotting Christs and Varathrons, perhaps because those bands were better. But I like Nergal, and their first album The Wizard of Nerath. It is so Greek Black Metal By Numbers it's hard not to.

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The Martian Brain Squeeze

The Neos, what can be said? They came from Victoria, British Columbia, they were insanely fast. In 1982 they bashed out two ridiculously awesome EPs. Here is one of them.

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Shakespeare

Shakespeare were from the bullshit town of Eskilstuna Sweden known mostly for stainless steel and handball. You know the drill, these Svenne youth release one fucking amazing single, fail to rocket to superstardom, and go back to working at the Volvo factory. Meanwhile an incredible record drifts further and further away into legend.

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Goat Father

Finis Gloria Dei is another excellent band from the same camp as Seigneur Voland, Blessed In Sin, Desolation Triumphalis and the like. I believe this unit's mission statement is to be more Satanic than the member's other bands. Goat: Father of the New Flesh, Finis Gloria Dei's sole full length, musically reminds me of Grand's Belial's Key, and the more Celtic Frosted moments of Darkthrone. These guys lack some of the melodic sensibilities you may have come to associate with the French Black Metal, but they make up for it with simple, effective, headbanging riffs. Goat: Father of the New Flesh is a triumph of good old fashioned Satanic Black Metal.

Goat!

From the Womb to the Grave

Massacre's 1986 album From the Womb to the Grave may be a bit late to the punk party but it remains hands down one of my favorite bits of Finnish teen angst. If you don't like this album, you don't really like Finnish Hardcore and you can take off that stupid shoe string headband thing that you wear to all the shows.

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In Absentia Christi

Monumentum may be the best known purveyors of this type of maudlin Italian gothic doom, along with Canaan. In Absentia Christi is Monumentum's debut. It's brilliantly strange, melodramatic, and extremely Italian.

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F.O.A.D.

FUCK OFF AND DIE!!!

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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R.I.P. Michael Davis

Michael Davis, bass player of one of America's greatest rock bands ever, The MC5, has passed away. He was 68. To Valhalla, Michael.

Breakout!

Here's an absolutely essential bit of hard rocking metal from a sadly overlooked Australian band called Taipan. The band released a single, couple of EPs and then called it quits in 1986. However, Taipan resurfaced in 2007 and has since released three albums. This EP sometimes called Taipan and sometimes called Breakout was released in 1984, and contains four catchy NWOBHM inspired rockers. Seriously mandatory.

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Newk's Time

Sonny Rollins is harder than Henry Rollins. Sonny had a mohawk in '63. Sonny served time on Riker's Island. Sonny practiced for hours and hours on the Williamsburg bridge so as to not disturb his pregnant neighbor. Sonny did heroin and then said "Fuck that shit!" Sonny would drop out of music study yoga and come back with some crazy record. Sonny is in his eighties and still plays his horn heavier than My War side 2. Sonny dropped Newk's Time in 1957.

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Funeral Obsession

Decomposed hailed from the bullshit town of Croyden in the UK. They played the sort of doom/death hybrid that was prevalent in the early '90s. After a few passable demos, Decomposed self released the standout moment of their brief career, The Funeral Obsession ep. Just two songs and ten minutes of colossal sounding bludgeon, with the occasional to-die-for dual guitar harmonies. This EP showed so much promise the never was realized in the band's first (and only) full length Hope Finally Died. What happened?

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Bango

VAMOS ALTA!!! Bango were an obscure Brazilian hard psych band that dropped one blotter soaked tab of an album in 1970, and what a record. Cool fuzzy guitars, kooky spooky organs, some mellower moments ("But I Felt"), a jokey song ("The Priest, The Doctor, The Mayor, and Me") and some primal fucking hard rocking freakout ("Rock Dream".) There is a lot going on here, Bango had no shortage of ideas, and the result was a stellar album, sadly their only recorded output. Get high, motherfuckers.

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Frozen Souls of a Mystical Winter

Here's some right fucked up Black Metal strangeness from Kalibos. Kalibos was the concern of two German youth calling themselves Schagrath Charondeimos and Phobos. During their five year run as Kalibos (before changing the name to Lugburz) these entities of unflinching Teutonic evil released six demos, but the only one I have been able to track down is Frozen Souls of Mystical Winter. The program is raw, poorly performed, poorly recorded Black Metal that makes Graveland sound like YES at times. Unlike many of their corpse-painted peers, Kalibos keep the songs short and unsweet, giving you eleven songs in just over fourteen minutes. This is truly bizarre outsider occult art that will melt the frozen soul of any of you who only come here for the fucked up Black Metal.

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Valentine's Day Hickey

You know that Cosmic Hearse doesn't really go for holiday posts, and I especially don't care for the pseudo-romantic pablum of Valentine's day, but this relic was too good to pass up. Seems that the awesome Scotty Luv (younger brother of Matty Luv) was sitting on this rare recording of Hickey doing their thing on Valentine's day way back in '97. Steve Stevenson of 1-2-3-4 Go Records cleaned it up a bit and now it goes in your earholes. Also this is as good a place to mention that 1-2-3-4 Go Records is on the verge of releasing a massive gatefold double LP edition of Hickey's Various States of Disrepair with extra tracks and shit. The image I used is the Valentine's day card I made for my girlfriend using nothing but porn and an Indian takeout menu.

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Cheer Up

Word on the street is that you been down. Shit's all fucked up and you want to pack it all in and give up. Well I am here to say "FUCK THAT!" Look at that picture above, listen to the shit I linked below, and I fucking challenge you to not feel better. Why do I do this shit? Because I love you, bitch.

Part 1

Part 2

War On 45

If you are old like I am, you remember those atrocious "Stars on 45" records that glutted shitty corporate radio in the early '80s. D.O.A., Vancouver B.C.'s greatest punk band ever certainly remembered, and in 1982 the band released an EP called War on 45. This stellar record collects eight songs, three of which have "war" in the title. War on 45 starts with "Liar For Hire" and it's trademark D.O.A. guitar intro. Lead dude Joey Shithead's instantly recognizable and most charismatic snarl rails against the untrustworthy and the false. "I'm Right, You're Wrong" is a classic D.O.A. singalong stomper. "America The Beautiful" might sound familiar to some, a live version was featured on the highly influential Rat Music For Rat People compilation. For Canadians, these dudes had quite a few songs about Reagan and the USA. After that searing political commentary, D.O.A. lighten up the mood with "Let's Fuck" a raunchy send up of the old Chris Montez tune "Let's Dance." D.O.A. return to the program with an excellent cover of the Edwin Starr classic "War." "I Hate You" is typically snarky D.O.A. "War In The East" is indicative of the type of goofy flirtations some punks had with Reggae (see The Clash, 7 Seconds...) it is wholly avoidable. This twenty minute conflict ends with a cover of The Dils best known number "Class War" and I almost hate to admit it, the D.O.A. version is better. D.O.A. in their prime were incredible musicians and really adept (for punk) song crafters. War On 45 only contains four real D.O.A. songs, three covers, and one bullshit bit of filler and still stands as one of the coolest punk records of the '80s. No other band could be this lazy AND this great. I love D.O.A.

WAR!

Pyramid

Duuuude. Here's some home-grown Swedish progressive hard rock from a band called Pyramid. Most notably, Pyramid was the first working band of future Silver Mountain frontman Christer Mentzer. First Stone is a solid (if not a bit goofy) album that kind of reminds me of Uriah Heep with a horn section, Mentzer is a ringer for David Byron. This is by no means Demons and Wizards, and Pyramid venture into some really cornball territory at times, but that doesn't ruin it for me. This is an excellent summertime wizard bong album, or even a snowed in wizard bong album if you desire.

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