Label: Hells Headbangers Records
Release date: August 2nd 2011

This is another special by one of the most interesting labels from the last years, Hells Headbangers Records. …at least when it comes to the most extreme side of the Metal Worlds. The label not only released more than just a handful of splendid and/or excellent new recordings by acts like Vomitor, The Royal Arch Blaspheme, Flame, Grave Desecrator, Acid Witch, Inquisition etc., yet the staff sort of seems to have a very sensitive nose for the re-release of unique old stuff as well, more than once hard to get or previously unreleased – think: Inquisition, Deströyer 666, NunSlaughter, Dishammer, Bestial Mockery and so on. All of these releases, and many more (about twenty five to thirty, I guess), have been reviewed and posted on this lovely site as from last year, so check it out.

This special deals with three of the oldest intense bands around. First of all you’ll find out about an anthology, a complete discography of everything done by New York City’s Mayhem aka NYC (or N.Y.C.) Mayhem. Most of the material composed on this double-album has almost never been heard before, or at least not outside the North-Eastern states of the USA. Actually, the band only existed for a good year and a half. Next you’ll find the review on the sixth full length by Death Metal horde Cianide, a formation that started at the end of the eighties and that has been active ever since, at least most of the time; and finally you’ll find another re-release, a previously unreleased recording by Finnish psychos Beherit. This album used to be the duo’s debut, yet due to e.g. attitude problems (and therefore some troubling things that caused sickened issues with their label at that moment), the release never took place – until now.

Enjoy (again)!
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Band: NYC Mayhem
Title: The Metal & Crossover Days
Review: DCD (anthology)

We’re at the very end of the first part of the eighties. When some (young) school friends / musicians with a mutual passion for the pretty new Extreme Metal scene met (they were active in some smaller local bands back then, like Assault and Corrupt), they wanted to form a band together, doing something in the vein of bands like Venom, Slayer, Destruction, Mantas(pre-Death), Hellhammer, Metallica, Exciter, Mercyful Fate, Sodom, Possessed and the likes, with a modest influence by the NWOBHM-scene (Judas Priest, Saxon, Iron Maiden) – yet being young, foolish and ignorant, it was rather evident they wanted to do it their own way. During those early years, their music was especially inspired and influenced by many of higher mentioned acts, yet throughout the months / years, Mayhem did create an own sound and approach that did evolve permanently.
The band’s very short history and the related recordings are compiled on this double-CD, which will be released including a collage of interview and reviews from that period, and some old flyers and photos.

Before starting: the sound of this material. It’s rather evident that we’re dealing with a bad sound, for being nothing else but a collection of live and rehearsal sessions. If that might be a problem, then skip; if you care about the most true and honest ‘roots’ of unconventional ‘muSICK’, then please continue.

The Metal & Crossover Days opens with a rehearsal, done somewhere in February 1985. These songs stood for mainly fast, somewhat blackish-oriented Thrash Metal in the vein of Corrupt, Sodom, Bathory, Possessed, Tormentor and Slayer, including elements from Nuclear Assault, Exciter, Metallica and Nasty Savage. It’s a brutal form of simplicity, somewhat primal, yet not of the inspirationless kind, and still the pure essence of this kind of Thrash Supremacy.
The rehearsal/demo that was recorded in March 1985 was originally registered on a Walkman-box in the middle of a rehearsing room, yet the response (the cassette was sent all over the world to promote the band, also outside the American borders) was huge. Especially in the North-eastern states of the USA, the band was hailed and put in the same league as Slayer, Possessed and Mantas / Death by press and audience.
Next come five tracks recorded live in Mayhem’s hometown, performed with pleasure and, probably because of the members’ very young age (and therefore not a decade-long experience) some minor mistakes – yet of no importance!
After some line-up changes, and because of many contacts and friendships within the Hardcore-scene (Mayhem were friends with (current or later) musicians or crew members of e.g. Sick Of It All, Anthrax, Straight Ahead, Helmet etc.), the style somewhat evolved. Still the Death/Black-caressing Speed / Thrash-basics remained, yet as from half of 1985, this change in style became clearer and clearer, both instrumentally and vocally. The approach got more melodic and technical as well, yet still maintaining the heaviness and speed from the early months. First audible result: the six-track demo done in June. Punk / Hardcore à la G.B.H., Damage, Smegma, Inferno, even The Exploited and Sick Of It All, with leading and constructional Metal-based roots in the vein of Venom, Possessed, Death, Carnivore, Tormentor and so on… Remarkable were the short Grind-eruptions the band created, which did open the gates to worlds where fans of Napalm Death and S.O.D. dwell too.
The band played live whole the time, and the crowd, as well as the band’s attitude, became more and more Hardcore-focused, rather than Metal-oriented. You can hear it on both live-recordings done at CBGB (resp. in July and October), one of the most famous places to play in New York City. Around that time, by the way, the band did add the prefix ‘NYC’ to avoid confusion / troubles with other mayhemic entities.
The double-album ends with the 7”EP For Real, which was originally supposed to be released via Urinal Records, run by Mental Abuse’s Dave Jones. It did never get released officially because the band parted ways with the label just before the actual release date (in case you can talk about official release dates etc. back then, aha), and problems from different angles (also within the band) caused a definitive break-up very soon. The members continued in other bands afterwards (like Agnostic Front, Youth Of Today, Warzone, Straight Ahead and Zero Hour), both as permanent or session / live member, and here the (hi)story ends…

Conclusion: disc 1 = violent Thrash Metal + disc 2 = metalized Hardcore.

Byebye…

--/100
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Band: Cianide
Title: Gods Of Death
Review: CD

This Chicago-based band started as a trio in 1988 (originally Scott Carroll-g and Mike Perun-v, b, with addition of drummer Jeff Kabella), picking up where Venom and Hellhammer / Celtic Frost left off, and debuting in 1992 with the (legendary?) album The Dying Truth (a couple of demos had been recorded and released before), followed by A Descent Into Hell, which got reviewed even more positively than the first official studio recording. After the departure of the drummer, Andy Kuizin joined the duo, and Cianide strengthened their presence within the North American Death Metal scene with conviction and persuasion. And the most brutal strength… Especially splits did follow, with the likes of NunSlaughter, Machetazo, Coffins or their contribution to the third volume of the Headbangers Against Disco-series.
In mean time, it’s been more than a lustrum that this trio, a quartet in mean time after recruiting a second guitar player, did record studio stuff for a full length release. And after more than twenty years of existence, these guys do not seem to have aged at all – except for the increased song writing and experienced performance.
Gods Of Death, clocking forty minutes, is the sixth full length, as a matter of fact, continuing the direction being followed since the early years. The album brings a most rough and morbid form of Old School Death Metal with evident connections to the Doom-Death, Black and Thrash scene. The songs are rather melodic yet performed with a hammering approach, and the lack of any modernised elements is honourable. The latter, the band ignoring the 21st century with sardonic sarcasm, gets translated in the primal compositions at the one hand, and within the massive yet dirty sound production at the other. The tempo is slow, yes, it is. Just a couple of time, the speed gets fastened, yet the overall tempo is pounding and doomy. Cianide are such a band (like some of the comparable bands mentioned in the next paragraph) that does not need any blasting aggression to define brutality or power.
For fans of Kult-akts like: Autopsy, Grave, Hellhammer, Massacre, The Ravenous, Deviated Instinct, Goatlord, Bolt Thrower, Master etc.

90/100
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Band: Beherit
Title: At The Devil’s Studio 1990
Review: (M)CD (previously unreleased)

[‘Beherit’ is one of the monikers for Satan, originating from old Syrian mythology]

One of the most important and impressing formations from Finland directing the earliest years of the BMSW (Black Metal Second Wave): Beherit! Originally called Pseudochrist, yet soon morphed into the current moniker (1990). Rather hated than loved by (many of) their colleagues back then, for being assholes. …yet undeniable of magisterial importance for the further evolution of the Finnish (Black) Metal scene as from the early nineties. Loved and hated by the audience as well. I passionately hated this mother*ckin’ bunch for creating one of the most beautiful demo tapes (cassette indeed at that time) in 1990, Demonomancy – just grrreat stuff! Creators of lots of material during these first years, including some magisterial efforts, like the Dawn Of Satan’s Millennium EP, jummie jummie jummie!
[both mentioned recordings were re-released on LP, as The Oath Of Black Blood; 1991]
Then, suddenly, after some officially released material, Beherit changed their musical (aha, what’s in a name) direction, leaving the ‘Metal’-direction behind, yet without going mainstream, still breathing dark and ritual filth (H418ov21.C and Electric Doom Synthesis, resp. 1994 and 1995). Around that time, frontman Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance aka NHV worked (again – it’s what he did before starting Pseudochrist) as Rave / Techno-DJ (he called himself Gamma-G) (don’t laugh with it – even the sweet MZ.412-horde has such a side-project, called Al-Wahaar Dhin, so mind your narrow-mindedness), and both mentioned albums can be considered sort of covering the gap between (Black) Metal and Techno-Electronics.
Important fact from these early years: problems with their label, Turbo Music. It made Beherit release some stuff under a new moniker, The Lord Diabolus, and it’s the reason as well why their debut, recorded in 1990 at Ala Ky Studio, didn’t get released officially.
Break-up in 1996 (and resurrected in 2007, by the way, but that’s a new chapter within this (hi)story, which is of complete unimportance right here).

When talking about that previously unreleased (mini-) album, well, recently Sodomatic Slaughter found back the master tape of these recording sessions in his personal collection. It was done by himself and NHV and these guys are oh so kind to make this stuff finally available for those who might care. With eternal gratitude to the Hells Headbangers staff, of course… Re-mastered by Juuna Lukala (think Ablaze In Hatred etc.) in 2010.

Except for two tracks, the stuff isn’t new material, but I don’t think it might be a disaster. Tracks like Grave Desecration Vengeance, Demonomancy, Nocturnal Evil and The Oath Of Black Blood are purely chaotic, yet of the well-structured kind. It’s a romance between psychotic madness and primitive emotions; a relationship that still works, of course. And an important characteristic on Beherit’s noise is the sharpness between the tempo-changes.

One might criticise the sound. And let’s be serious: it sucks. The recordings were done during a live session in the Ala Ky Studio and considering an era when technical equipment wasn’t available yet (at least not within the different extreme Metal scenes, at that time still mainly being underground-focused), it says it all. It would be great if the duo would decide to re-record these sweet love songs and lullabies in a near future, yet until then we’ll have to do with this raw and unpolished collection, and that’s all right.

--/100
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Ivan Tibos.