FEAR OF GOD- Pneumatic Slaughter 7″EP (Atrocious Madness Records, USA, 1990)
cover scans currently down FEAR OF GOD was my band, founded in 1986. Lyrics and song and sound ideas went back to 84 and 85 though. It’s a bit off the wall musically for this blog but I still think it’s a good opportunity to make it accessible to people who probably have never heard of it.
I don’t want to write much about the bands origins and such in this post. Instead I’ll just put down what I remember from the evening it was recorded, which actually was one day in February 1988. FEAR OF GOD were invited to play the newly squatted “Reithalle” in Bern, an autonomous youth centre like there were many in middle europe at the time. We’ve had no idea what would expect us and were glad to play in Switzerland since we’d normally have to play outside the country if we wanted to gig – people didn’t like us much. So when we arrived at the squat, I was worried right on. Lots of drunk punks hanging around and the typical atmosphere of a nearly squat place. Tension, paranoia and aggressivity were thick. We felt like total outsiders from the moment on we arrived. As always, Osi the drummer and I would immediately pull out the tape deck and start playing everything from AMEBIX to ZERO BOYS, from RICHARD WAGNER to DIAMADA GALAS to make ourselves feel a little cosy. This was when we got the first looks from the mohawk-nazis. When finally we were up to do our soundcheck, we blasted some numbers with fullest intensity. Suddenly, a couple of beeer bottles started flying towards my head, some punker yelling “stop this noise” etc. We carried on, built up some more aggression and finally got into the cvan. Osi and I played some ASEXUALS and felt damn good. The first bands started playing. EXXOR and DARK AGE, a crossover band and a “true” punk band. I remember DARK AGE being pretty good that night and since they served the mohawk-nazis musically, they got some nice response. EXXOR, who were a horrible crossover band, did okay too. Then we got up, saying the usual silly jokes before we started our set. Well, it was a total avalanche and wit felt damn good on stage. Sure, you’d have to say “oh, I don’t like it because it was my own band so I just can’t like it, I’m not ENTITLED to like it” but bullshit set aside – it was a killer gig! We roared through our set, ready to be attacked again but instead the big hall just stood there. It was immensely, how it all built up, we could really feel on stage that it would only take a spark before something beyond our influende would break out. Some of the crowd pogo’d, others were headbanging, others just stood there and screamed at me. It was right.
After the gig, we hurried into our van to check out the live recording. How dissapointed we were! We thought it wasn’t “brutal enough”! Listening to the very recordings today, I cannot understand this other than we missed the power we just felt on stage, because these recordings still are among the most extreme I have ever heard. No editing, no post-production tricks just the power of four young men who hated everybody and everyting. That was FEAR OF GOD. Adding some Wagner-intro to the songs in postproduction just to make everybody wonder why we did that came from the same attitude we had towards everything. And we loved Wagner (and some of the band still do, including me)!
On the way home, the temporary guitarist of EXXOR, who had just come from apartheid – South Africa kept ranting about how great “his” country really was, like he wouldn’t see no crime in his white suburb of middle class families and all. I don’t recall properly whether we kicked him out of the van or just talked about it. This is however symptomatic for FEAR OF GOD – we never really were “there”.
The label “Grindcore” that was attached to the band from 1989 never felt right for us. We thought of FEAR OF GOD as a Hardcore band, because apart from bands like MASTER or REPULSION, Hardcore and poststructuralistic Noise was our main influence.
Three tunes from the A-side of this posthumously released 7″. 1000 copies were made of this, another 3000 copies were repressed on some german label. There seems to be a bootleg of this too, but I haven’t seen it.
Intro / Running through the Blood.mp3
Locked away.mp3
A Life in Rigorism.mp3
Peter - KBDRecords wrote:
First comment from a recent chat with the man in charge over here:”saw Diamanda Galas in Roskilde in 1987. Packe I was stupidly drunk and run around screaming Satan is coming to get you etc and was making “buhu” ing sounds to the ones watching.”
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 1:38 pm | Permalink
raison d'être wrote:
fuck this is pure noise! never heard your band before but i must admit i’m shocked! sounds like your slaughtering kids on stage!
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 1:43 pm | Permalink
Peter - KBDRecords wrote:
strangely enough I actually happen to appreciate some bits of FOG! EXCEPT for the “grind” parts that I NEVER felt like it was sounding FAST.
But my boy Erich it sounds like you swallowed your mother. Is she in there? Nock nock nock.
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 1:44 pm | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
eric – no ass kissing but your band FEAR OF GOD was and is the wildest, sickest shit I ever heard! I grew up in Vermont. Dont know if you know where that is and how things are there but your band and some other extreme bands literally saved me life! I used to cruise around with your ep on tape at 10 and it just felt RIGHT! your lyrics and all made me feel like i werent so alone. I will forever thank you for this!
PS: did you know that guy van bebber used fear of god in one of his horrror movies? i went to see it (its a short) in the theaters when there was a fantasy-film event in RI and suddenly heard your voice in the cinema! I totally freaked out!!!
Jon
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 1:55 pm | Permalink
Bernard wrote:
I never liked Napalm Death or Sore Throat too much although I’ve seen them live many many times. Fear Of god however were totall different from that “grindcore” thing! FOG just had that certain clanck! that made them unique and they were not “metal”. I can’t listen to you guys anymore because I have kids but I easily could play napalm Death or others. I guess this says something.
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 2:01 pm | Permalink
Picard wrote:
Wait a moment… You’re Erich Keller ??? Since I read about Fear Of God in “Choosing Death”, I was looking for some albums in my local record stores, but, alas! France is not the best place to find this type pf records…
Well, I’m very glad to be able to hear FOG at last! My ears are bleeding from happiness!…
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 2:59 pm | Permalink
E. wrote:
Thanx everybody for the comments.
Yepp picard, that’s me. Let me know if you need some more and I might put up some more ear destruction.
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 4:18 pm | Permalink
Mike wrote:
FOG owns that MASTER intro riff!
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Posted on 12-Sep-06 at 8:06 pm | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
every other grindcore band sounds like michael jackson compared to FOG. wish you would come back!
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Posted on 13-Sep-06 at 12:31 am | Permalink
marcelo wrote:
Simply one of my fave bands ever and a personal influence , i am really happy to be the one who released their double Lp discography few years ago! Thanks Erich!
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Posted on 13-Sep-06 at 12:43 pm | Permalink
Repulsion wrote:
Good job done marcelo. Have “Zeitgiest” and it’s a monster!! Why did Fear Of God put out so many live recordings?
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Posted on 15-Sep-06 at 12:18 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
cause they were existent for such a short time, that they had to put out every recording they had, no matter how fucked up the quality was, to feed the hype.
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Posted on 15-Sep-06 at 8:17 am | Permalink
E. wrote:
And the hype was good. It pays me a good bottle of wine every now and then. Please buy some more.
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Posted on 15-Sep-06 at 8:22 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
Wish the hype was bigger. Saw FOG in 2003 in Belgium and it was AWESOME! You guys made all the other bands look very very pale. I loved the total outsider thing of FOG. All of you guys looked so totally pissed off haha.
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Posted on 16-Sep-06 at 5:13 am | Permalink
Turd wrote:
best vocalist ever! never heard such a powerful voice. what were your influences? can you still “do it”?
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Posted on 16-Sep-06 at 5:19 am | Permalink
E. wrote:
Yeah, that festival in Belgium was aweful.
Cheers Turd. Influences? Well, pretty much every singer I ever heard and liked, I guess. I like to believe that my vocals in the 2003 Fear Of God were more extreme than ever.
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Posted on 16-Sep-06 at 7:38 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
holy shit this is fantastic!!!!! if you guys would reform you’d make a lot of people happy believe me.
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Posted on 16-Sep-06 at 2:24 pm | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
I am sorry I have to say that you have (or better to say,had) a shitty attitude,but I also have to say that the As Statues Fell EP,and especially it`s listeneable side (the A side) is something gigantic,I have never heard any better xy-core in my life.FOG was a beautiful inspiration for my band,and “As statues fell/Controlled by fear” is the first track we played on our first gig!!Godly F.O.G.
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Posted on 19-Sep-06 at 7:54 am | Permalink
E. wrote:
I would love to know more of my “shitty attitude”! Which crust band was yours then? Not so shy – you’re safe, it’s the internet.
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Posted on 19-Sep-06 at 8:58 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
I meant about the line “four young men who hated everybody and everyting”.That sucks,so please don`t get me wrong.And I am not shy,I am so proud I can talk to someone who was a great influence in my musical life.My band was no crust no grind or whatever,just a somethingcore band called LEUKKEMIAA which made parody of music and of ourselves.
Sorry if my words arrived to you in a wrong way.It surely wasn`t my intention.
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Posted on 23-Sep-06 at 1:04 am | Permalink
LoveMakesMeSick wrote:
I didn’t think I would see anything on hear that I actually owned and then I saw thi and you were in the band. It kicks ass! and your blog rules my butt!
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Posted on 16-Dec-06 at 11:51 pm | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
Hi, my name is Laura and I fucking love Fear Of God (the TRUE swiss band, not that lousy band that had Dawn Crosby in it). Even though I did not hear about them until 1998 when I got a bootleg video of them. Man, you guys fucking CRUSHED!! Fuck all of that stupid “goregrind” bullshit (Carcass being the only exception) You guys talked about things that actually mattered. Fuck Yeah!!
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Posted on 26-Jan-07 at 1:45 pm | Permalink
Erich wrote:
Cheers Laura and thanks for the kind words.
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Posted on 26-Jan-07 at 2:17 pm | Permalink
arnold wrote:
my 13 year old nephew laughed his ass off because you sound so much like a muppet
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Posted on 26-Jan-07 at 3:27 pm | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
a 13 yrs old who laughs at the muppets is probably demented and needs a doctor.
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Posted on 26-Jan-07 at 3:47 pm | Permalink
Erich wrote:
You’re definately right Arnold: Kid’s opinions on music should be taken seriously. Are you like 13 too?
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Posted on 27-Jan-07 at 7:49 am | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
i grind stones and bones for a living, and let me tell you, dawn crosby had more life in her little pinky than all of the douchebag members of this fear of god.
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Posted on 23-Mar-07 at 11:02 pm | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
Ha ha finally I’m listening to this and having a great good time! My dogs will adore it too (other favourites are Wretched, early Negazione & DRI, and Amebix). Thank you for the music (ABBA quote)! Noise is for heroes (yeah, the Wagner? intro fits so well)
Give us more Erich! (Can I ask for it?)
Fernando (laughing, but not joking)
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Posted on 31-Mar-07 at 8:05 am | Permalink
Erich wrote:
You’re welcome Fernando – and so is your dog. It shouldn’t be a problem to find more fear of god on the net, I suppose.
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Posted on 31-Mar-07 at 8:49 am | Permalink
Lee wrote:
I’ve never really taken a good listen to you guys. I’m not a very big fan of noisegrind, but this is pretty good. I’m 14 BTW.
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Posted on 02-Aug-07 at 5:27 pm | Permalink
FOG maniac wrote:
hi Erich!
wanted to know if anything is planned to put zeitgeist or a similar discography on CD?
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Posted on 03-Aug-07 at 4:59 am | Permalink
admin wrote:
Although there’s been some label interest in a discography cd, we (Dave and I) somehow don’t find time nor energy for such a project.
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Posted on 03-Aug-07 at 5:31 am | Permalink
FOG maniac wrote:
NOOOOOO!!!
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Posted on 03-Aug-07 at 10:03 am | Permalink
Lee wrote:
post some vicious circle, erich.
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Posted on 03-Aug-07 at 2:25 pm | Permalink
GMW wrote:
I would love to see Statues Fell posted, but im not sure if its a bootleg. is first 7″ still available on cd from eu 91?
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Posted on 26-Sep-07 at 10:24 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Now that’s funny, you’re asking for As Statues Fell. I was just thinking of ripping and posting either this os the demo 7″.
No idea about the cd on eu 91.
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Posted on 26-Sep-07 at 10:50 am | Permalink
gg allin wrote:
come on erich i can’t find this anywhere. please post the full ep. i need it badly.
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Posted on 29-Mar-09 at 3:49 pm | Permalink
gg allin wrote:
four young men who hated everybody and everything? dude souds like me. please post mor fog erich your voice is fucking awesome! and is it true that seth from anal cunt played drums with you live? all you need is gg allin in the band!
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Posted on 09-Apr-09 at 2:58 am | Permalink
gg allin wrote:
hey erich could yo, emale me the rest of this ep please? i would really like it. i’ve looked in every store in la and i can’t find this anywhere. could you please help me out?
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Posted on 21-Sep-09 at 6:22 am | Permalink