Good bad Music for bad, bad Times!

This concert was organized by Reto “Tschösi” Kühne (of MESSIAH and FEAR OF GOD) and me (I’m responsible for that lovely gig poster, haha). I think it was the first continental tour for HERESY and for the SOX. Reevsy, the original singer of HERESY had just left the band after one or two gigs (the guy who sings on the flexi and the original version of the split LP, that was circulating on tape and saw a legal reissue on a japanese CD-label a while ago - Reevsy was the HERESY singer, especially compared to the later Johny when he was trying to sound Ray of Today, as if one of them wasn’t enough!). So Johny, the drummer of CONCRETE SOX jumped in and took over the vocals job in HERESY. After the band returned home, they re-recorded the vocals ofthe split LP session because they were feld so pissed about the whole Reevsy issue. The rest is, may I say, history. This split LP not only marked the actual take off point in what was soon to be called Crust and, on the speedier branch, Grindcore, but also pushed the whole Death Metal circus by stocking up funds for Dig Pearson’s Earache Records.

Both bands were kinda arrogant. Especially Kalv, HERESY’s bassist, was one little prick, haha. But then again, we loved the music and in some way, it just suits the sound when the people behind it show some ego. SOX and HERESY were kinda surprised to see that we had rented a professional P.A. system and a mixer (who was a wanker). Only maybe 30 people showed up besides the band circus. I loved it. We thrashed along the whole fucking building and had massive fun especially with HERESY who tore pretty much everything apart we had ever seen up to then.
I’m not sure, but I think MESSIAH played that niht too and probably EXXOR. The location, Grabenhalle, was the same in which I organized the two first ever CELTIC FROST concerts in 1985. One of these shows ws bootlegged on vinyl, as I recently found out. And yeah, Tommy Fischer, you know, haha. What a dumbfuck. What a silly band.
In 1987, we visited HERESY in Birmingham, met Dig and the whole crew. They indeed had become a crew. I didn’t like that. But the atmosphere was impressive, with bands like HERESY, NAPALM DEATH, SOX, the dying AMEBIX, DOOM, HELLBASTARD and all the others getting popular, creating a new wave of what formerly known as “Punk” or “Hardcore” and suddenly, there was no clear distinction between this scene and Metal anymore.
What has become of Andy Larsen, the printer and promoter of HERESY, who helped the band so much from 85-86?

Unfortunately, the P.A. guy “forgot” to press the record-button (he was very, very unhappy about the music he had to mix, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, constantly shaking his head saying “this is just noise”), so only fragments of the show had been recorded. Luckily, I had my walkman-recorder running through HERESY’s gig (I think, I also had the SO’ entire show, but I can’t find it anymore), so you’re getting the complete HERESY set too. You will hear a bunch of unreleased tracks.
These recordings have never been published so far, so make sure you download them while they’re up. These links will expire after one or two weeks. And don’t ask me to repost or copy you any of these limited time offer tape rips, for I won’t. No exceptions.
128 kb/s encoding.

Here’s the setlist, written by Kalv:

CONCRETE SOX- eminent scum / your turn next / 10 steps to oblivion.mp3 [Soundboard] Link expired

HERESY- Belief / Visions in Fear.mp3 [Soundboard]

HERESY- Complete Gig.mp3 [Audience recording] Link expired

Today, I’ve heard first hand complaints about this blog. “Stop posting so much Metal, more Mongo Punk please!”, said my young friend David when I took a good walk with him. This ain’t so much Mongo, but it sue is Punk and it will be unknown to most and thus not be getting a lot of comments, but what can you do.
SOZZ released this, their first 7″, in 1979, but the band got together in 1978. SOZ came from Büren, near Berne, pretty far off (not in miles - this is Switzerland!) from the Punk capitol of Zurich. It was recorded in the Sunrise Studios near Zurich though and like all these records, you’ll find the mark of “R.So” in the run out grooves. Rico Sonderegger was a man born ca. in the 1920s, who had built up on his own and from scratch on his own mastering machine, where you cut the laqueur disks that were later used to further make the pressing molds with. when I had my own record label, I always attended in person the mastering job. It was an incredibly experience: You walked in his tiny office in St. Gallen. his wife was the secretary. They were both old and grey but you better not fuck around with them! Rico pretty much was an 1.65 m EAR. I tell you, this guy knew everything about music! When we cut really bad ass shit such as INFEST, MORBID ANGEL or FEAR OF GOD there, he wouldn’t even move one muscle in his face. He just played the master through and then said: I guess this must sound so and so, let’s add a little more of this, take out that, turn on these knobs and then it should sound like you want it to sound on vinyl, cause what most studio engineers don’t know, you always should give it a bit more of this knob right here when you’re cutting the master, cause this will irreversibly and ultimately define the final sound, the sound you’ll hear when you hold the vinyl in your hands”. His office was full of gold records and letters and stuff, top notch number one artists would be there in person in the old upstairs office without the slightest bit of comfort when Rico cut the laqueur, and all these shitty little Punk and Hardcore bands went through the same process and were taken care of with full respect. I’m sure the man is not among the living anymore. Hats off to Rico Sonderegger!

When you flip through the pages of old punk fanzines, like those of “No Fun” (first swiss Punk zine), you’ll notice that SOZZ were quite popular (they were often refered to as the “best looking Punk band”). I don’t know nothing of these times when it comes to Punk. My “Punk” was Abba, AC/DC, Judas Priest and Motörhead, Queen, Matchbox and Blondie, Elvis, Led Zeppelin or Kiss, I went to school and the first Punks I ever met were just a bunch of pretentious wankers from the better parts of the village. I sometimes wonder what would have been if I had met somebody who would have shown me Punk music at this time. Would I have gotten into it? I doubt so. And especially a band like SOZZ would have done nothing for me. But I’ve sung this gospel before: It’s great music now. I put these records on and I immediately “understand” them. I guess there must have been a certain code inscribed in late 70s bands that you just “get”, whatever the music sounds like, when you’ve grown up in this time. Same here: I don’t have the slightest idea what they could have meant with those lyrics. A lot seems to come from a regional scene posse, but what the heck. “Lurch Gang” is the hit here, “Patrol Car” is a bit weaker. Too bad they had these annoying background choruses though.
This is a pretty rare record. Unfortunatly, I can’t reproduce the entire nice foldout sleeve here. Enjoy!

Patrol Car.mp3
Lurch Gang.mp3

Peter had a feature of the 2nd CLA, oops sorry, SOZZ 7″ a while back. Check it out here.

SOLITUDE were formed in 1987 in Texas by John Perez who was in HELLPREACHER (see the last post) and ROTTING CORPSE prior to this. In 1988, the band released the highly acclaimed “And Justice for All” cassette – a few months later, METALLICA would release the top selling album of the same title.
I remember very well when I got a copy of this demo and how much it had impressed me. It’s obvious to hear that these guys were heavily influenced by early CANDLEMASS, but honestly and as much as I love “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus”: SOLITUDE were a great deal heavier and brought the radical impressionism of what some call “Fairy-tale Metal” to the boiling point. In 1990, the first album was released under the name of SOLITUDE AETERNUS, “Into the Depths of Sorrow”, and this took things one step further still. An incredible record that totally lives from the vocals of the new singer, who has such a clear and highly pitched voice that he actually sounds hybrid, like a post-gender Metal singer. Fantastic! You need to check out the one track from this album which I also included below (check out the official band site and order from them directly).
After this, I lost track of the band. It wasn’t until recently when I learned that the band had continued to release albums. I must admit that I’ve never heard any of these and that I somehow doubt that they could be any better than the demo and the first CD, but I’m sure, some of you will have something to say about these later offerings.
This demo tape was re-released on vinyl a few years ago, in a limited edition of 500. What is strange now is that although the official discography, the track listing on the demo and that of said vinyl version only name 5 songs – but actually, there are 6 songs on this tape (the sixth song is “Mirror of Sorrow”). Anybody knows how this came about? Was this song featured on all cassette versions?
One more thing: The original dub I had of this demo had a monstrous guitar sound that came mainly from a way too high input level. But actually, it sounds very very good that way too!

After posting a wantlist of original demos on this blog in 2007, David G. kindly offered me a bunch of tapes, which I bought off of him. This is one of these tapes; thanks a lot David, you’ve given me a great pleasure with these tapes and I’m sure many of the readers of this blog will feel the same now. So if anybody out there has more original demo tapes of Metal, Hardcore or Punk bands from the 70s and 80s, please get in touch with me (see the contact button in the left column). I will pay top prices.

It came upon one Night.mp3
Transcending Sentinels.mp3
Into Battle.mp3
Sojourner.mp3
Where Angels dare to tread.mp3
Mirror of Sorrow.mp3 [not mentioned on the tracklist]

From “Into the Depths of Sorrow”:
Mirror of Sorrow.mp3 [1990 version with hybrid singer]

PS: The mystery around the mystery track on the demo solved! Read the letter that accompanied the demo.

Thanks again, Dave!

What a nice blend of Death -, Thrash- and Black Metal! And what a band name - HELLPREACHER. You know this has to be great.
The band formed in San Antonio TX in 1985 and this demo is the only official release. Some of the band members involved in HELLPREACHER were also in bands such as ROTTING CORPSE (who sounded very familiar) or SOLITUDE AETERNUS (who were a great Doom Metal act).
“Resurrection” explodes with a simple, catchy as hell riff, before turning into some wicked good thrash. “Parricidal” is a bit of a drag, if you ask me, but “Inverted Crosses” again goes off with some major ferocity.
There’s not much more that I could tell you, and as always, feel free to fill us in. I first got a copy of this when I met Jason McMaster from WATCHTOWER in 1986. Back at home, I decided to contact the band for an original tape and I think (I would have to check that, but I’m too lazy right now) I featured the band in my fanzine too. Anyway, it’s a good, powerful blast, with quite a bit of aggression. Again, you can sense that someting was about to come and further radicalize guitar music in 1986.

Resurrection.mp3
Parracidal.mp3
Inverted Crosses.mp3

The DAYGLO ABORTIONS, the heaviest Punk band there ever was, recorded live at “The Farm” in San Francisco, when they played with RAW POWER. John (Scharpen) - does this tape come from you, like so many in my live tape collection? Kinda weird to see our trading days from over 20 years ago re-enacted in the not so virtual world, ain’t it, haha.
As you can hear, it’s a raw soundboarding recording. Don’t worry about the missing guitars in the first song - they soon crank ‘em up in the mix. It’s not a very good recording and I have better DAYGLO ABORTIONS stuff here (for instance an insane practice recording from ca. 1983), but I still like this tape cause it’s really raw and wild. Plus I don’t think there’s ever been live Dayglo stuff for download anywhere.
What I really like about this recording is how they alternate songs, fuck around, add intros and all the verbal abuse. “Religious Bumfucks” comes in so surprisingly after the odd rock intro. And “Scared of People” and how it turns into “Acting like Black Sabbath” and goes on to “Paranoid” (Black Sabbath) and from there back to “Acting like Black Sabbath” at the end of the tape hits damn hard. Awesome! And the final song is one that hasn’t been recorded (until not until 1986) and is a fucking burner!! Anybody knows if this is on one of the band’s post-”Feed U.S.A. Fetus” albums and what the title is?
I have never seen the DA live unfortunately, but everybody who has says they (still?) rip shit up.

46 min of fun. 128 kb/s rip. Limited time offer!

Expired, Punk.

Here’s something I have never done before: A full live tape. I divided the whole show into two parts. And this won’t stay up long, so grab it while you can!
DIE KREUZEN - the band that destroys all other bands, captured live during its best period. Raw, but powerful soundboard recording. Anybody knows what the 2nd last song is called?

Playing time: 36 min 15 sec. 128 kb rip. Download while you can!
Expired.