Episode 31: What is Death Metal?

Let’s take a bite from the Death Metal dish! Rockin’ faster, harder, did I mention faster? From the UK to Massachusetts, to even Flint, Michigan. Finding out who is the fastest guitar player via tape trading. Let’s enter the world of Death Metal and Grindcore! 

Contact the show: jaysrockandrollstories@gmail.com

Transcript

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Hello, rock and roll. Welcome back. Welcome back to Jay's Rock and Roll Stories. I'm your host, Jay. Hey there. I got a surprise for you. You know how we're always at the same area of the buffet, you know, the 1965 to the 1970, 71, 72 area of the buffet. We're gonna look down the buffet. We'll look at the very end. Oh, way, way at the end of the buffet. It says death metal. What the hell is that? Let's walk over there. Let's walk way over there. Welcome. Yeah. What the hell is death metal? Let's do it. Let's jump in. Tell you the truth. Um, it's not my cup of tea, but I I I don't I don't hate anything. I honestly don't hate anything. And uh I don't mind visiting different parts of the buffet. I found uh this really great book. The book is called Choosing Death. The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore by Albert Moudrian, introduction by John Peel. Um, I don't know. I was at the library one day, I saw this book, and I was like, yeah, that I I'm intrigued. I picked it up, I started reading, it's pretty fucking cool, man. And uh I did some homework, I've been listening to some death metal throughout the week. I still have to repeat, it's not my cup of tea, but I I don't hate it. I think it's kind of cool. You know, it's like um, I don't know, maybe maybe you're really into like westerns or something, but every once in a while you'll watch like a horror film or something. Anyway, what it what is death metal? So we gotta put ourselves in like a reference point here. So this is uh post 199 post-1977. It's it's after uh Sex Pistols Punk Rock, you know, it's it's after punk. Um sort of like it's it's after like after punk rock, there was like these bands uh mostly crass and um Discharge, and they were like the very like political anarchy type punk rock band. So this is right after this. This is basically everything we talked about is around 1981 to like 1986. More or less. So um it's kind of like how would you say it? Noisy sounds of social and political protest of disgruntled UK United uh UK youths. Um what mattered was uh righteous anger, velocity, speed, um proficiency was the afterthought of um the whole thing. Uh aggressive music where uh UK youth express themselves. Right? So it's it's it's so let's let's go to 1981, 1982, around that area. There's this guy called Nicholas Bullen. He starts a band with a steady lineup in a small English town called uh Mer uh Meriden. Uh he starts a band called Napalm Death. So I've I've been listening to Napalm Death all freaking week. It's a lot different than listening to like some Carlos Santana, I tell ya. Alright, the name um came from Bullen and his friend uh another member of the band. Um uh his name was Rat. Miles Ratledge, they called him Rat. They were both in love with the film Apocalypse Now. They love that film. They named their band Napalm Death. Um, they're mostly influenced by um like those, you know, anarchy type punk bands, crass, discharge, who that's like right after Sex Episcopals kind of a thing. They played like faster. Um Napalm Death, they get on a compilation record off of Crass's uh record label. The album is called Bullshit Detector. That's the that's a little bit of exposure they got the right right in the beginning, called the uh crucifixion of uh possessions. Uh it's a tape that gets circulated at gigs, uh, also like with pen pals, people are trading the tapes. And uh tape traders, like it's kind of a big thing. People are trading tapes. Uh the guys that uh ball in and a rat, they say that they had done three or four demos, but it wasn't really for like a record company. They they just they they just made a tape, they didn't they didn't have a label or anything. So um they'd write uh they'd write like six letters a night, get together, do all these tape tradings with other people, you know. Been trading tapes from people all over the world uh for like two or three years already, by 1982. And they'd acquired like uh Swedish thrash metal, American thrash, old American punk bands, like trading, trading tapes. They had a lot of friends and like this trape uh tape trading scene, and I think this is kind of cool because it's the same concept of like deadheads, fish heads, trading tapes, you know, recording at a show and trading with other people, like putting an ad in a in a in a in like a magazine. Oh, yeah, I'm looking for this, I'm looking for this, I want this, I'll trade for this. Same concept. Uh no money transactions, it's just just for the love of the music. Uh these two guys also had uh fanzines that they had created. It um it's uh it's what they it's what they love, you know. It's it's all doing it's all done for the music. So uh back to our story here. There's this dude named uh Digby Pearson, who starts putting on shows um during like for like at like community centers. Digby puts on these shows all over the town, all these little community centers, and it's all of these like, you know, uh these kind of like punk rock bands that were found through this trading idea. So Digby gets uh Napalm Death to do their first show, like um outside the Birmingham area. These kids were all like 14, 15 years old, the members of uh Napalm Death, 14, 15 years old. And at this point, they're playing faster. Like um, so it's just like they the the concept is like how fast can we do this? You know, you go see one band, you listen to them, I gotta be faster than that band. Like that, it's this it's I think it's fascinating because it's the same I it's the same human idea with working on a car or you know, or any any kind of any kind of hobby or project, like just to be better than the one you're doing. So it's like it's there's nothing, it's not a monetary um like urge. It's like I want to get better, I want to be better than this. So um there's so many bands to name. Um it's it's all going on at the same time. There's another band called Hearsay, and there's another band called Extreme Noise Terror. And I think it's it's um it's a very incestual thing where uh members join this band, they they they break up, they go with this band. But uh the concept is just to uh play as fast as you possibly fucking can. Um the drummers try to play as fast as they fucking can. That's where the term blast beat comes from. Um the music is what was would be called musically would be called a 64th note. It's very, very fast. Uh the one of the new drummers of um of uh napalm death, he he terms it grindcore. That's where he he calls it this this extremely fast drumming, grindcore. All this happens at this shitty little bar called the Mermaid. Two drummers, uh one from each band, one in Napalm Death, one in Hearsay, both kind of egging each other on, you know, like uh when a band goes, let's say nail napalm death goes on, and the drummer is doing as fast as he can, then they come off hearsay goes on, he's trying to do faster. So they're out they're trying to outdo each other. It's it's like playing chicken, or it's a race, you know. It's it's zooping up your you know, Camaro. This is 1981, right? So um it's who can be fastest? It's getting pretty cool. Um, this is 1985. There's a magazine called Metal Forces. A uh magazine where there's a section called uh pen bangers. People are just posting, you know, ads like it's tape trading. I I want this. Do you have this? Very specific. Uh 1986, Napalm Death records at Rich Bitch Studio in Birmingham. Uh the band scraped together enough uh money to record it. And the the the tape trading is is very serious with this with this community. The um Shane Embry, that's the Napalm Death's bass player, he explains that he was literally living in front of his tape deck, like sometimes eight hours a day from morning to like afternoon. Um he knows that uh he would spend between about about 30 to 40 cassettes per week, sending them out, you know, just just just trying to get out there, right? So they record uh it's about 120 pounds that they that they spent booked for two days. Uh the material they would accord would become the A side for their debut album, Scum, Napalm Death Scum. But uh really it had no other reason um originally as um it's just a demo. Like they they did it as a demo, they they weren't signed. Um everyone stays at uh the bass player Jim Wheatley's place. It's a small apartment in a 92 apartment block. People are just coming in and out. There's uh visitors all the time. He says at one point there's like 20 to 30 people just like in that fucking apartment, trying to play either hanging out or sleeping or trying to find a place to just sit down. So the book the book also talks about the the same speed guitar playing uh wants or urges that are happening overseas. Like it's happening at the same time in the United States. We're gonna go right now to Boston, Massachusetts. And same time, let's let's do 1981-82, same shit's happening with a band called Deep Wound and also a band called Siege. And the same desire to just play faster and faster and faster. This guy, uh Robert Williams, he's the drummer of Siege, talks about how there was a time when they made a deliberate decision to set out to be the absolute fastest band in the world. And um he called it his speed training. This is his speed training to get fast as he can. He would put on ACDC's album, Highway to Hell, like the record, but you know, you push that little 45 button, beep. You know, you ever do that? You put a record on, you press the 45 button, and then it's like everything's out in the chipmunks, you know. So that's what he's doing. He's listening to an AC DC album, but put on set on the 45, so it's Jesus Christ, it's fast, very, very fast. Right. So um he would put on his headphones and play drums that keep up with the AC DC set, the 45. He's just like, we need to be faster. We need to be faster than this. Some of these uh some of these bands are very short-lived, you know. It's um Deep Wound, this band called Deep Wound. Uh, they sort of splintered to a band called Outpatience. The other half formed a band called Dinosaur, which would go on to be called uh Dinosaur Jr. Have you ever heard of that band? So 1983, let's jump up north a little bit to Flint, Michigan. Uh we see the creation of a band called Tempter. And unlike the other bands whose lyrics consisted of just things covering personal and political topics, uh, these guys drew more inspiration from like the goriest of gore horror films, slasher films. Uh they changed their name to uh Ultraviolence, and then they changed it to Genocide. I don't I'm just a million names in this fucking episode. Genocide. So Genocide, so they're into like horror films and shit, and they also um they're also into tape trading as well. Everyone, it's just like it I find that fascinating when the when when something picks up and everyone's doing it at the same time. That's just the human that's that human connection. That's let's let's just call it the universal tone, could we? So there's this guy, uh they connect with this guy called in Florida called Sh Chuck Shoulder, uh, who has a death metal band called Death. And uh with his failing members, they decide to merge the two groups. Alright, so those those bands merge together, uh, but it doesn't work out. So the two Flint Michigan guys who traveled down to Florida to rock out, they go back to Flint, and they find a drummer who was um they find this drummer who was uh he has a past record uh of getting arrested for robbing shit. And they're like, yeah, perfect. This one's this one's great. This is a good drummer. 1986, uh sorry, Genocide enters the studio at uh public radio station, WFBE, to record their first demo. Um This book uh really declares Genocide is the fastest band in the world. They record, it gets all the way, um the recording gets all the way to England, it follows the uh we need to play faster than that. You know, it's like it's it's he I could call this car culture, you know, like uh racing your car, zooping up your car. It's the same thing. Genocide changes their name to Repulsion in May of 86. All these bands keep changing their damn names. But I mean, what what's the topic? Bands Fast as We Can Play and uh like topping you, you know what I mean? It's a one-upmanship. Let's go in 1982. San Pablo, California, uh their a band begins by the name of Possessed. And by 1984, they signed a contract with a little record label called Combat Records. They create their album called Seven Churches. And this guy who starts the band, his name is Jeff Becerra. He lives on a farm, and he always refers to the album uh Seven Churches as Seven Chickens, because he talks about how he lived on a farm and he talks about how uh whenever I would he says, whenever I would play death metal, the chickens would run to the other side of the farm. Here's a quote from uh Jeff Becerra. He says, Death metal scares the fuck out of people. Uh 99% will hate you, animals included. Um so the band is uh called Possessed. They make an album called Seven Churches, and it is considered like overtly dark, violent, thrash-paced album. It's considered to be the first proper LP to fit uh to feature what would become standard growling death metal vocals for the genre. So uh think about how Iron Maiden, that lead singer, he would get ready, hi! You know, he would sing like that, but this this is the first time when he's doing that kind of shit. So you could say um Jeff Becerra, he also you could say he coined the term death metal, because on that album, Seven Churches, the closing song on Seven Churches is titled Death Metal. That's the name of a song. Another quote from our buddy uh Jeff Becerra, he says, I came up, I came up with that during English class, death metal. He talks about how um in high school he came up with that term. He says, I figured speed metal, black metal were already taken, so what the fuck? So I said death metal. We were playing this music and we we were trying to be the heaviest thing on the face of the planet. We wanted just to piss people off and send everyone home. And, you know, and that can't be like flower metal. There you go, death metal. Um, another big influence in the genre is a band called simply called Death. We just talked about that a second ago, right? And the record they made was called Scream Bloody Gore. This is 1986. From the magazine Metal Forces uh describing the album Scream Bloody Gore. He says, Scream Bloody Gore is death metal at its most extreme, brutal, raw, offensive, the kind that separates the true death metalers from the from the countless trend following wimps. Just one lesson will just one listen will have you either thrashing around your room like a mindless maniac or heading for the nearest toilet in disgust. If anything, it should be certainly established the band as one of the heaviest acts on the earth. Wow, okay. So um here's a little turn here. Uh another band called Morbid Angel. This is around the same time. It's all it's all around the same time. Let's just say 82 to 86. And uh the leader of the band, his name is George Emmanuel III. He explains how his band was um just as fast as the next one, just as fast, but he's more focused on having a like a cool logo, cool shirts, merchandise, uh something that that really gets the imagery out there, you know. He wants to have some kind of message, uh an intended meaning. He explains um he's always wanted it to be about the real magic about life and the idea of spiritualism. Um he will embrace, for example, Azagoth. Azigoth is a blind mad god of abomination, and he will take that name. What was his name? His name is George Emmanuel III. We're gonna change that name, right? That's that's not very tough. So he changes his name to Trey Azagoth. That's that's that's much better. Come on, man. If you're gonna be in a death metal band, you're not gonna be called George Emmanuel III. That's too royalty or some shit. No. Lead singer of uh uh Morbid Angel. This is gonna be Trey Azagoth. Much cooler. Alright, so he's lyrically inspired by the satanic book, The Necronomicon. Um this band also uh performs some uh self-mutilation on stage, you know, uh, to really get the crowd going. They all cut themselves up with razor blades, shit like that. Oh, one of the guys, uh Trey, he'd also uh eat worms, eat worms on stage. Alright, I've been I've been reading this book for uh the whole damn week, and uh so I'm gonna let you do a little choose your own adventure homework here. So, your homework assignment, you gotta cut you you got a choice. Alright, so I don't know what I I usually say YouTube. Why? Because like I don't know who who doesn't know what YouTube is, but if you don't use YouTube, use Spotify. I don't give a shit. Anyway, so homework assignment. So your choice, you can do either the album Scream Bloody Gore by the band Death, you can do the album Scum by Napalm Death. You can do the album Holocaust in your head by Extreme Noise Terror. Or you can take Alters of Madness by Morbid Angel. Alright, one of those. Listen to one of those. Uh I'm gonna wrap it up for now. Like that's it's cool. And I I I I don't dislike it. Um couple times I I put on a work and just go with the flow. Interesting, you know, it's it's interesting to have a bite on a different area of the buffet. Give it a shot. I'm gonna go with um let's I'm gonna go with Holocaust in your head by extreme noise tear. It sounds intriguing. I want to find out what that's all about. So, you know what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna treat this, my death metal episodes, as like uh the weekend horror movie. You know, you you go to school Monday through Friday, you come home, you do like, okay, Friday, you don't have to do homework, but then Saturday, oh finally we can watch a horror movie, you can stay up and watch a movie and eat pizza. Maybe that's what I'll do. Maybe I'll come back every once in a while and I'll and I'll catch up on my uh on my death metal. But uh I think I'm gonna take a break from death metal for now and move on to something else. I have something for ya. I have a story that I want to do. And so thank you for sticking around. A little different. Come on, no big deal, right? We did something different. So thanks for sticking around, thanks for listening, and I'll come back and do another uh death metal episode. So what do you what are you gonna listen to? I'm I'm gonna do the I'm gonna do the extreme noise tear one. You choose. What what do you want? Death Scream Bloody Gore, napalm death scum, or uh death leprosy. Anyway, uh thank you. Uh thank you for sending your emails to Jay's Rock'n'Roll Stories at um proton.me. Jay's Rock and Roll Stories at Proton.me. Okay, everyone, thanks for coming and I'll see you next time. See you later.