As promised (check the Paul Chain Violet Theatre post), here’s the mysterious and collectible DEATH SS 7″ from 1984.
I’m sure, everybody familiar with the work of italian band GOBLIN and movies such as “Suspiria” or “Profondo Rosso” from Dario Argento or slashers like “Anthropophagus” and the many italian Zombie movies of the late 70s and early 80s will get the vibe from this 7″. Totally morbid and sickly-sweet, walking on the edge between kitsch and glory. Just outstanding and very, very timeless.
The little I know of this 7″: Due to the bad pressing (or rather mastering), it got withdrawn immediately or more likely, never was on sale. Rumor has it, there are only a few dozen around. I used to have a friend (the same guy with coke and jellybear diet and the “Charles Manosn is innocent” writing on his leather jacket, btw), who was so fanaticly into this band that he spent a lot of money in buying off all remaining copies of “Evil Metal” cause he wanted to be the only person in the world who has this, haha. Don’t remember clearly how many he collected, but he had a few of them.
You might ask yourself now, what the hell does the band name mean? Well, I have no idea, but I remember reading Paul Chain in an interview, saying that it didn’t have anything to do with the historical SS (nationalsocialist paramilitary group) and that Chain said of himself to be coming from a left radical background, actually.
Now you know that writing funny things with silver ink on black leather jackets was very hip in the Switzerland underground scene of the early 80s. I used to have the DEATH SS logo on the back of my leather jacket, followed by a huge VENOM “Welcome to Hell” pentagram and DRI, COC, ANTIDOTE, SLAYER etc. (good bad music for life). One day, a nazi skin crossed my way and tapped me on my shoulder. I was scared cause I used to get beat up quite often for my looks back then and had lost 2 denim jackets with stickers already: We called that “getting stripped”, when normally Teds or Rockers would grab your jacket and tear it apart, cause they felt kids shouldn’t walk around like that. So I thought, fuck, now I’m getting my shit from a nazi (he was a huge mofo). To my surprise, he grinned at me like a school girl, asking me if I wanted to go for a beer. No, I said, I’m not homosexual (I was 15 or 16). He stopped grinning and walked off. Just like that. So i walked my way too, questioning myself what the hell just happened here – until I told about it to an older Punk friend of mine, who I met at the local record shop. He just laughed, tears in his eyes and pointed on the DEATH SS-logo on the back of my leather jacket. That’s how I became antifascist.
On Soulseek, you’ll find a rip of this in which somebody has tried to fix the pressing mistake. Unfortunately, the drop outs are still there, though a little less penetrating than on the vinyl. I’m sure that somebody with the necessary experience and software could make this sound much better. Drop me a line if you need wav-files!
And finally – as a bonus I also ripped DEATH SS’ best song, the incredible and never topped “Black and Violet” from the ultra rare “Heavy Metal Eruption” comp LP. That leaves only one more comp song to be digitized and that is the song “Terror” from a promo-only comp LP.
Check the band photo (left) from this comp – crazy bastards.
Chains of Death.mp3
Inquisitor.mp3
Schizophrenic.mp3
From “Heavy Metal Eruption – The italian Way of Heavy Metal” (1984):
PS: On a side note, one must add that this is the ultimate “hearing things out” record. For instance, in the beginning of “inqusitor”, Chain probably sings:
“It’s rusty tea, and it’s sanctus seven, full torn bloath and really hard, humble toes and holy hosses, guess it’s time for roll away (…)”
19 Comments
brilliant, just brilliant! been looking for this 7″ forever now and it’s greater than i would have expected it! and the compilation track is just unearthly.
“humble toes” – lmao. that’s JUST what I heard too!
J. from Dublin
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I would praise this band just for the name but listening to it what is this shit? Well i like it so cheers for yet another cool post.
I can totally relate to your experience with nazis, teddys etc. I remember talking myself out of a beating from a bunch of nazi meatheads by recommending bands like BLITZ etc.
Actually the jeans / leather jacket de-patching thing was done more by fellow punx than from scum, at least from where i am from. Like taking the piss off someone whos ordered ultratrendy (Disrupt or something) punk patches from the states or wherever by ripping the patch off. My friend used to amuse himself by pulling off peoples studs on their leatherjackets…
right!
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check back later today, slobo – got a surprise just for you!
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rofl rofl rofl rofl – best lyrics interpretation ever!
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damn,you rule the shit. everytime i come to your page,i wanna drink beer and fucking rock. my favorite site.
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rumours say that DEATH SS should mean “in DEATH of Steve Sylvester”…
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Great Erich! Cool story once again. Is this EP really that rare like you say? Then I am more than happy that I own MINT copy of it
(Electric Eye records written on the pink label of the vinyl). Musically its also fantastic. “Chains of Death” and “Black and Violet” (from comp LP) are best Death SS trx. All these great trx can be found on “The story of Death SS” LP/CD too.
This “Charles Manson is innocent” picture I noticed on great MESSIAH demos LP insert. Cool!
-Henri-
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Erich, you have told about great releases like Bulldözer EP, Death SS EP, Witcfinder General EP, Paul Chain Violet Theatre EP etc but what about this god-damn Flames of Hell LP? Reveal the secret of this one too!
-Henri-
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Nice place you got here. I’m loving all the Metal that you’ve been posting.
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Fantastic stuff as always– I’m glad you’ve decided to continue past #200. The SS were sure as hell no “paramilitary” group, though….
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Thanks Simon, but yes, the SS were in fact a paramilitary organisation and even quite paradigmatically so.
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Damn– I wrote a proper response to this and Blogger ate it. Anyways, I definitely disagree. The SS were in some ways a parallel military organisation, but they were able to fight independently, were integrated into the general command structure and were heavily armed (weren’t all SS divisions armoured formations at that?) professional soldiers that fought as part of the overall German order of battle. I would regard them as being far more akin to the Iraqi Republican Guard, Soviet Guards divisions or even American/UK Marine Corps than true paramilitaries such as Hezbollah or at best the NKVD. The SA, on the other hand, were indeed a definitive paramilitary.
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HI,
VERY NICE WORK. REALLY THIS IS VERY RARE RECORDING OF DEATH SS. DOES ANYBODY KNOW WHERE I CAN FIND THE ORIGINAL 7″ EP?
DIMITRIS
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Yes like that one wrote death ss has nothin to do with the 3th fucking reich but means ” in death of steve sylvester”, the infamous singer.. he used to rape a naughty nun onstage ahahahah
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HOWARD PHILLIPS LOVECRAFT! the cover art for this mother fucker was stolen from a picture in the book “Fungi From Yuggoth” which is a colloboration of LOVECRAFT poetry. i recognized this drawing immediately because i just finished reading that book like 2 hours ago and remember saying to myself, man…thats a fucking awesome drawing. CHAINS! CHAINS OF DEATH!
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Dude! I had never heard of Death SS until now. What an awesome band. Thanks for the mp3s and the Paul Chain stuff. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of their music.
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DEATH SS EVIL METAL
Available NEW copies (never playied) of DEATH SS ‘Evil Metal’ EP 7″
(Electric/Metal Eye) 1983
Cover: Mint – Disc: Mint. Perfect conditions: NEW, NEVER PLAYIED
Available photos.
info: fawn.herkimer@gmail.com
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I was totally unaware of how awesome Death SS were! Thanks a ton for this!
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Black & Violet is still one of my favorites. I’ve been obsessively buying everything I can find by Paul Chain ever since I got a recording of these tracks from you way back in the eighties. He’s got a new website which is still under construction (and has been for months): http://www.paolocatena.com
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