STYGIAN SHORE- s/t 12″EP (Roadster Records, USA, 1984)
One day, I got a package from my penpal Mark W. Shelton of MANILLA ROAD. I opened it up and found this record inside. Man, I loved the cover and I still like it a lot. There’s this ancient tree with the following mystic message carved in: “For those people who live too well and are on the border line of heaven and hell. There is a beach for their lost souls and it’s known as the STYGIAN SHORE.” A beach for lost souls, how great is that?! Dude, the dinosaur, much more a nice chap (spot the tang in his mouth?) than a monster. And the the back cover piece. Think art!
The a-side has two rockers, the band’s theme song and the usual song about having sexual intercourse. Intercourse, c’mon. Hard Rock. Hard as a rock. Then flip the plastic over and – woosh! “Tidal Wave”, the beach song, so to speak – excellent, excellent tune. Totally NWOBHM influenced. “Don’t look now” is nice too, but I’d buy this EP for “Tidal Wave” only. I mean, seriously: How could you not love such records? Totally pointless in a way, simple and a go nowhere after all. But still so charming in its naivety and freshness. And definitely not a record, Peter KBD is going to make a post of his own with!
There’s been a posthumous STYGIAN SHORE LP recently, with a free 7″ inside. It’s not bad, really competent and somewhat heavier than this.
Stygian Metal.mp3
Luv ta rock ya.mp3
Tidal Wave.mp3 <— Fucking excellent, the song you must listen to first!
Don’t look now.mp3
Frank Mossi wrote:
FINALLY! I want to hear this forever. Tidal Wave is great the other songs are very good too. But I’m sorry enrico, this is NOT kinky metal!!!
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Posted on 13-Feb-09 at 6:23 am | Permalink
B4 the dawn wrote:
Good to see the site is up & running again. It’s been down for a few days and I was getting worried already …..
Awful record by the way
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Posted on 14-Feb-09 at 5:22 am | Permalink
Rivethead wrote:
Man this rocks. No poseur will ever understand the diginity of these records.
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Posted on 14-Feb-09 at 6:24 am | Permalink
Pär wrote:
Helig kossa fan va bra, good to see some metal again. I didn´t listen to Tidal Wave first but it sure was a killer. I love epic heavy metal!
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Posted on 14-Feb-09 at 1:48 pm | Permalink
Anonymous wrote:
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/131/319047856_dbf1ef3e92.jpg
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Posted on 14-Feb-09 at 4:39 pm | Permalink
dragonlord wrote:
great music for MEN. totally love it. true metal at its best. thanks!
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Posted on 14-Feb-09 at 4:45 pm | Permalink
Jay Thurston wrote:
Oh boy…I did find this record humorous. How come they don’t have any songs about “Satan?” Hahahahaha…I must go play Dungeons and Dragons now.
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Posted on 14-Feb-09 at 6:37 pm | Permalink
Peter - KBD Records wrote:
Ha ha no you won´t see me post any metal records. If I should do a repost I would do “Don´t look now” under “Songs I almost liked”. This is music for men who´s scared of being caught playing with dolls. Horrible stuff!
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Posted on 15-Feb-09 at 4:12 am | Permalink
N(&F&6r3tj89czf wrote:
here we go again… nice one i’d never even heard about.
not necessarily GREAT but still very nice indeed!
one can certainly hear the shelton influence, production-wise… the guitar sound reminds me a quite bit of „crystal logic“, y’know… that „crystalline“ sound haha. „don’t look now“ has some good straight forward energy but favourite moments would be the refrain of „luv to rock ya“ (c’mon, of course it’s cock to the max, but with that snotty singing voice i find it totally charming… as if the guy would ever be getting any with that song…) and downpitched „death-growls“ on „tidal waves“ for emphasis: „NUVURMUUURE!!!“… the whole song’s got a cool, heavy headbanging-groove, too!
neat heavy rotation entry, btw : ) „there’s no need to argue anymooore“… reminds me of 2 little
++ DAMASCUS UPDATES ++:
1. in the meantime my copy of the EP arrived. according to your screenshots it’s identical to your version, the one with the same (godlike) cover on both sides (oh it looks even sooo much better life-sized in your cold dead hands! <3 ). nwobhm.info tells us the other has a different motive. What would that be? And which is which (1st/2nd pressing?)? hm…
2. finally someone showed mercy and leaked the damascus 84 demo unto youtube. I’ll provide a link, but unless your hopes for getting an original copy have died down completeley you’d probably not want to spoil the experience with youtube quality anyway:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAISBBdx7m0&feature=PlayList&p=E40F6146F88C1BF0&playnext=1&index=1
for the same reason of “spoiler-freeness” neither shall i talk about my impressions at this time…
but just wait until u hear „another rainy day“ ;P…..
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Posted on 15-Feb-09 at 1:19 pm | Permalink
Pär wrote:
“This is music for men who´s scared of being caught playing with dolls.”
I can pull out my old Big Jim dolls if you bring out your Barbies.
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Posted on 15-Feb-09 at 1:44 pm | Permalink
Ryan wrote:
Punks are so closed-minded and sexist.
(See what I did there?)
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Posted on 15-Feb-09 at 1:45 pm | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Thanks for the DAMASCUS demo links! Now somebody needs to get me an original tape and I can make good sounding rips of it. Bloody fantastic tunes!!
Ryan: Punks are the worst, really. Closed minded and proud on it too. Fuck em all.
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Posted on 16-Feb-09 at 2:38 am | Permalink
Ryan wrote:
And yet it’s always unassuming metalheads getting a bad rap.
I think punks are just jealous that the whole crossover period worked out in metal’s favor and hardcore didn’t do so well.
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Posted on 16-Feb-09 at 11:30 am | Permalink
Admin wrote:
Man, Ryan – that’s the explanation I was always looking for. You hit the nail right on its head. Thanks!
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Posted on 16-Feb-09 at 11:45 am | Permalink
Peter - KBD Records wrote:
I think metalheads are jealous at punx cause they have mohawks and believes in anarchy.
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Posted on 16-Feb-09 at 12:45 pm | Permalink
Jay Thurston wrote:
I think the poor Metalheads get a bad rap, because of long guitar wankings and falsetto screams about Satan and other meaningful topics. It is really humorous though.
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Posted on 16-Feb-09 at 5:26 pm | Permalink
Ryan wrote:
You just don’t understand that art of the guitar solo and the power of Satan. I feel for you.
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Posted on 17-Feb-09 at 8:35 am | Permalink
Pär wrote:
I love the long versions of Zeppelin doing Dazed and Confused or Purples half hours versions of Space Truckin, Page and Blackmore in thier pride.
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Posted on 17-Feb-09 at 12:50 pm | Permalink
dyslexic wrote:
Wow, I thought the name of the band was STYGIAN WHORE…..
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Posted on 19-Feb-09 at 6:32 am | Permalink