DEPECHE MODE - Violator

Artist:  Depeche Mode

Album:  Violator

Year:  1990

Genre:  Synth-Pop / New Wave / Alternative

I feel like I should be isolated in a video booth like they used to do on those horrible MTV reality shows.  It’s now true confession time.  As cool as I would like to play this, I didn’t let Depeche Mode into my life until my early 20s.  I used the word “let” with intention.  Depeche Mode has lurked around me since my mid-teen years.  My sister was heavy into them and my first real high school girlfriend and her crew were huge fans.  I denied their existence because my metal-thrash-punk personality was too rad for some wussy keyboard band.  Yeah, I wasn’t, and all I did was miss out on years of loving some of the best alternative synth pop in existence.  By the time Violator was unleashed on the planet, I was still too stubborn to admit to its awesomeness.  I was already working in a record store so I heard the album consistently and there was no way to avoid their videos on MTV or in clubs that catered to the alternative crowd.  Even though industrial music was a huge part of my life at the time, I just didn’t make the connection with Depeche Mode and their synth pop ways.  Like too many other bands I was pigheaded about, one day it kicked in and I’ve been listening intently ever since.

Depeche Mode has a vast catalog and I admittedly only love a slice of it.  I view their run of studio albums between the years 1983 and 1990 as the pinnacle of their output.  Just like their most popular contemporaries The Cure, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and New Order, I don’t think they ever bottomed out with any album.  No, not all their records resonate with me and I don’t listen regularly to any releases after 1993, but I truly appreciate their tenacity and the artistry of everything they create.  Even as they ascended with each album in the 80s, Violator soars above anything that came previously or after.  I know the Black Celebration and Music For The Masses supporters would like to have a strong word with me after that statement.  

What Depeche Mode achieved on Violator is profound. Simply put, there isn’t a single misstep on the album. The songs are so smooth and streamlined and pulsate effortlessly from the first note to the last, swaying back and forth between downcast moods and other moments that are lighter, and even border on gentle. All you have to do is listen to the back-to-back combo of "Halo" and "Waiting For The Night" to know what the album is all about.  Their fusion of darkwave and pop is effortless as they never let either personality take over.  Listening closely to the music, there is a formula that Depeche Mode utilizes that isn’t overly heady or complex.  But it is THEIR formula, and although the genius of Martin Gore’s songwriting may seem simplistic, it’s not and no other artist has been capable of successfully replicating it.  As he has shown time and time again, David Gahan has the ability to vocalize words and melody so surgically that the songs become instantaneously etched in the listener’s mind.  All of this gives Violator sustained playability.  I never tire from hearing these songs no matter the number of repeated plays.  Sure, there are times I think to myself, “Do I really need to hear ‘Personal Jesus’ for the 150th time?”  The answer is an emphatic “yes!” as then I soon find myself tapping along to its infectious rhythm, just as I do with the rest of the album.  Violator lives in the top tier of new wave / synthpop music which includes Please by Pet Shop Boys, Rio by Duran Duran, and the self-titled album by A Flock Of Seagulls; all bulletproof albums which set an almost unreachable standard for the genre.  Their exemplary consistency on Black Celebration, Music For The Masses and Violator (other fans may even add Some Great Reward and Songs Of Faith And Devotion) easily exceeds anything those other classic bands ever achieved.  My younger, obviously more immature, self may have dismissed Depeche Mode out of an allegiance to aggression, yet, Violator finally found a permanent home with me.  Decades later, it still sounds timeless and essential

Listen to "Halo" here.

TOP 6 ALBUMS OF 2025

Album Of The Year: Coroner Dissonance Theory

Top 5 (only 4 this year) Contenders:

Biohazard Divided We Fall
Century Sign Of The Storm
Scorpion Child I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me
7 Seconds Change In My Head

I had a strange feeling about 2025. For months, nothing grabbed me. It wasn’t until May that I finally stumbled onto a release that even had a shot at making my yearly Top 6, and that was a remix of an album I already loved.  It wasn’t looking good for quite a while and even with all my searching and hoping, I only ended up with 5 releases I felt were worthy of a coveted spot in my beloved Top 6 post.  Yeah, I know, nobody really cares, but I’m not going to fake liking a record if I don’t.  So, off we go with the 5 winners. 

My 2025 album of the year was an easy choice.  I’ve written in the past about how difficult it is for me to get hyped about new releases, let alone one from a band that existed in my teenage years.  Yet, once the new album by Coroner was announced, I admit I gained a whole lot of that youthful “I cannot fucking wait!” anticipation back.  I’m generally skeptical of bands that rise from the dead after decades away so why trust Coroner? The simple answer is their musicianship and the strength of their earlier work. I just couldn’t imagine these guys resurfacing only to put out something mediocre. Their first four albums are nearly flawless and even their very last record, Grin, although a departure from their typical output, was strong as compared to what metal turned into in the early 90s.  I believed if any band could deliver a stunning comeback record, it would be Coroner… and I was right!  Dissonance Theory surpassed any expectation I had for the band and sounds as if it should’ve followed their 1991 classic, Metal Vortex.  The band is absolutely surgical in its songwriting as the structures and dynamics are pretty close to perfect.  It makes sense since they had 32 YEARS to write this record.  It’s definitely the heaviest record in their arsenal but still showcases the technical ability that set them apart from the pack in the first place.  This is how you do a metal comeback album.  More bands should take notes from Coroner.  Also, Dear Coroner…I most likely won’t be around in another 32 years, so could you get your next record out a little quicker than that?  Thanks!  For those not in the know, I’ve already sung my high praises in a review about the new Biohazard album, Divided We Fall; a ferocious return-to-form that proves age hasn’t dulled them one bit.  Biohazard albums are hardly ever bad, but they are also rarely at the top of my list.  The band found its fire again and are stepping on the heads of the countless bands they inspired.  Nearly 40 years in, they’re still effective and Divided We Fall is a raw and heavy reminder that they are NYHC royalty.  Sweden’s heavy metal outfit Century was a wonderful new discovery this year.  I’m loving this band and if you are into everything about straight-up, no-frills classic heavy metal, you’ll love them too.  This band does “retro” the right way.  They don’t sound like a carbon copy of their predecessors, but more of a homage to the masters they obviously worship.  The singer brings the songs home with his rough, melodic delivery which fits seamlessly with the music. Listening to Century feels like stepping back into the era when the New Wave of British Heavy Metal swept across the underground scene and reshaped the genre.  If the names Tank, Warlord or Satan mean anything in your music world, you need Century in your life.  Austin, TX’s Scorpion Child also have a previous review floating somewhere on this blog where I strongly praised them for keeping rock alive.  Hard and heavy rock may be becoming a rare creature in today’s music landscape, but Scorpion Child are doing an exceptional job protecting that flame from becoming extinguished.  I will admit that when I first heard this album, I wondered whether my excitement came from simply finding something to satisfy my desire for some strong, new hard rock or if it would truly stay with me. I’m happy to say it wasn’t just a short-lived thrill. This album still absolutely rules.  If you’re a fan of The Cult, Guns N’ Roses, or anything that lives in between that space, I Saw the End as It Passed Right Through Me will have you hooked.  That brings me to my final pick.  It’s not possible for me to fully express the importance of 7 Seconds and their New Wind album.  In 1986, New Wind initiated a seismic shift for me musically and personally.  From that moment on, 7 Seconds became the most important band in my life.  Even though I was a fan of crossover thrashers DRI, COC and SOD previous to discovering Reno’s biggest hardcore export, 7 Seconds kicked opened the door to everything in the punk and hardcore realm.  Their lyrics influenced me to be an aware person and showed me it’s ok to be a good man.  All the songs I wrote many years later in my band Rebel Spies have their thumbprint on every note. As my singer once said about our band, “It’s our love letter to hardcore and punk.” Well, for me, it really was my personal thank you to 7 Seconds.  When Change In My Head was announced, I was ecstatic!  Since I’m not sure we’ll ever get another original 7 Seconds record, I’m grateful for anything they release.  I was especially excited because of what Change In My Head contains.  Earlier this year, it was announced that the legendary Ian Mackaye, yes, that Ian from Minor Threat and Fugazi, remixed and reimagined the New Wind recordings using alternative takes, adding compilation-only songs from that era, and a new track list, making it a unique reissue.  I was stoked because as big as a place as New Wind holds in my heart, the original production, although charming, is not its strongest element.  Change In My Head brings everything into balance.  I love the sound!  Everything just feels more cohesive now with the guitars sitting perfectly alongside the other instruments. Adding the two songs from the 4 Bands That Could Change the World compilation was a great choice as they balance the faster and slower songs.  Although it gained more appreciation and respect as time passed, New Wind was initially heavily dismissed by their hardcore fans as a sellout record.  It makes me wonder if this was the version of the album that was released if the punker crowd would’ve been happier with it?  With that, 2025 is done. Have super happy New Year everyone!

Video Mix Tape 21

 

0:00  Alcest

5:28  Damage

6:46  Repulsion

9:03  Jackson 5

12:04  Blind Guardian

15:41  The Black List

20:03  Master

23:31  Faith No Man

29:00  Tribulation

34:16  Cradle Of Filth

BIOHAZARD - Divided We Fall

Artist:  Biohazard
Album:  Divided We Fall
Year:  2025
Genre:  Hardcore

THEY’RE BACK MUTHERFUCKASSSSSS!!!  Sorry about that.  It felt like an appropriate way to introduce this review and I would make a substantial wager that Biohazard would approve of it.  For anyone who may not be familiar with Biohazard, I could easily just describe them as a New York hardcore band that combined elements of metal and rap with their street-level hardcore.  That description is a severe injustice to the band and their legacy.  Like it or not, Biohazard is thee band responsible for blending those musical elements and paving the way for future acts such as Korn, Machine Head, Madball, Slipknot and many more.  As I said, you can like it or not, but what you cannot do is deny the widespread influence.  Faith No More is often credited for the inception of rap metal.  While that could be true, Biohazard made it ok for the underground to join in the fun.  It wasn’t only future mainstream prospects that caught what they were throwing down.  Go listen to lesser known bands such as Tension or Undertow and the groove that dominated hardcore in the early to mid-90s. 

The four most long-standing members are back again and there’s an evident chemistry that occurs when they convene.  13 years ago, they united to come up with a solid record; nothing that rewrote the genre, but another Biohazard release that demonstrated strength and sincerity.  So, what do the OGs have left in the tank for 2025?   The answer is more than anyone, including me, expected. They are proving age means fucking nothing and that when all the cylinders are firing, very few can replicate the energy, fury and persona that is Biohazard.  A very good friend of mine spoke some truth after I heavily suggested he give their new album, Divided We Fall, a serious listen. When I anxiously asked for his thoughts, he replied, “they’re still better than the 1000 clones they spawned.”  He’s right and it’s absurd that Biohazard often are treated as some kind of ironic band to like in punk and hardcore circles, as if people need the scene’s permission.  Or they’re viewed as a “guilty pleasure” which is a completely stupid qualifier for anything.  You either stand behind what you like, or you don’t.

Here are the facts: they just released a crushing new album and continue to be a formidable and commanding force as a live act.  The guys are pushing 60 and look like they’re 25 on stage and exude more heart than can be measured.  Knowing this, if you had told me a new Biohazard record would contend for a spot in my top albums of 2025, even I would’ve raised a curious eyebrow. And yet here we are, with Biohazard proving that they still reign supreme in the kingdom they created and that they are still harder and more genuine than those 1000 clones that were mentioned.  Hardcore is not an easy game to play for the long haul, but they’ve done it for 38 years.  I certainly didn’t expect them to release anything mediocre, but I also didn’t expect what came blasting out of my speakers.

Divided We Fall is everything you could want out of an unrelenting, heavy-ass New York Hardcore band.  Of course, it contains a ton of mudhole-stomping breakdown riffs which will enrage any mosher enough to try to run head-first through a brick wall, yet there are a few things that stand out making this album different than their last few releases.  First, this album is fucking heavy.  Heavy sounding.  Heavy riffs.  Heavy vocals.  The production is stellar and does so much justice to the rage they are taking out on their instruments.  Sonically, this album will knock your head off whether you dig the songs or not.  Second, Billy sounds like State Of The World Address Billy again!  Vocally, Evan has always sounded just as he always has, but Billy changed to a more melodic scream/yell type thing, which also led to more melody in the songs.  I recently read an interview with him where he said over the years he’s “learned to sing” so he didn’t injure his throat.  He also said in the interview that the producer needed him to ruin his voice for this album.  Billy is fucking ferocious again and all melody is nonexistent.  This could also be why each song is so goddamn feral.  Third, this album is fast! Yeah, yeah, speed isn’t everything, but for Biohazard, it’s a welcomed strength. I’ve always thought their talent lied in the in the slow-to-midtempo bulldozing grooves they unleash which send fans into a frenzy, yet they often channel a thrashy, old-school hardcore vibe and it’s phenomenal.  I haven’t heard a modern hardcore record that starts this savagely in a while and it will weed out the naysayers instantly.  You will know after the first few songs whether or not this album is for you.  Not everything is perfect, as now I’ve started skipping the song “S.I.T.F.O.A.,” but the album is lethal.  Biohazard haven’t sounded this pissed since their 2003 slab of anger, Kill Or Be Killed.  Unlike KOBK, this album has more focus behind it as nothing on Divided We Fall lasts over 4 minutes and hits like a bomb.  It’s great to hear a band from the 80s put music into the world that isn’t a failed recapture of their glory days.  Divided We Fall is sincere and relevant.  I’d rather not wait another 13 years for Biohazard to release an album this good, but if that’s what it takes, I’ll wait.

Listen to "Word To The Wise" here.

Ten Album Tribute to 1985

Ten Album Tribute To 1985

I began writing this October 9^th of 2025 and I’ve tasked myself with a 3-year project.  No, this is not about some self-improvement, home improvement, or world improvement endeavor.  I don’t exactly know why it took me until October to realize that 1985 was 40 years ago.  FORTY FUCKING YEARS AGO!  It so happens that 1985, and subsequently 1986 and 1987, were life-changing times in music for me.   All three years ended up influencing the music I’ve listened to, the music I’ve played in my bands and the friends I’ve surrounded myself with to this day.  Outside of my personal relationships, music has been the most important aspect of my life. 

Something very special happened in the fall of 1984; I discovered Metallica on their Ride The Lightning album.  No, I’m not going to fake that I was one of those people who bought it the day it came out and I definitely didn’t own their debut Kill ‘Em All at that time.  I was a ordinary metal kid listening to Dio, Priest, Maiden, Sabbath, Ozzy, Crue, Scorpions and many of the typical heavy or hard rock bands of the day.  Plus, I listened to a ton of Top 40 radio and watched MTV when it first aired.  Metallica was my initial deep dive into extreme metal, which wasn’t a term anyone used back then.  I made a friend right away in 9^th grade through our shared love of the aforementioned bands.  He was a few steps ahead of me musically and told me to listen to some band called Metallica on a portable cassette player he’d brought to school.  I only got to hear a few minutes in between classes.  Mind. Blown.  I needed to own it, but I was nervous to pull the trigger on the purchase because I knew it was going to be very different when compared to the bands I worshiped at the time.  Also, I knew nothing about the bands that came previous to them such as Raven, Venom, Motorhead, or even the earlier releases by bands who would become their contemporaries like Slayer, Voivod, Celtic Frost and Anthrax.  I can’t even imagine what would’ve happened if I heard Venom in 1982.  No eleven year old should be exposed to that!

People need to remember there wasn’t much information about the underground unless you were involved in the zine and tape trading scene, which I became involved in later in the year.  I don’t remember who the first band I ever wrote asking for a demo, but I wrote just under 30 bands in the span of two years, sending “well hidden” cash in an envelope and hoping something would end up in my mailbox.  I also have rather vivid memories of all the work I did around the house to earn money for this adventure.  With the exception of a couple bands (still not happy about the ripoffs!) everyone was incredible and always came through with the goods.  A number of people from the bands just became pen pals.  At the time I didn’t realize how cool that really was.  Big shout out to Jeff from Wicked Angel and Killjoy (RIP) from Necrophagia for being two of the best!  I still have 90% of the demo tapes I ordered and traded away a few I really wish I hadn’t.  To my old friend Brian, I truly hope you still have that Necrovore demo and are still enjoying it!  Obviously, I was hooked.

Another aspect of all of this is that I was doing this on my own.  At 14/15 years old, I didn’t have a single friend that was searching for new music in this fashion.  My friend at school left after 9^th grade and I never saw him again.  No, I wasn’t some pioneer or elite person who was special, but I truly was on the ground floor of something new.  I went to a decently small school that was based on Catholicism, so the odds of connecting with another weirdo similar to me were slim.  I’m sure there were other kids my age doing the exact same thing I was in the suburbs of Detroit, but since I wasn’t in the live scene quite yet, I didn’t have any local connections at the time.  But now that I look back, I probably enjoyed these discoveries as much as I did because they were all my own. Metallica opened a door for me that had immeasurable influence on my music journey.  So, in honor of that monumental shift, I want to discuss and throw love at ten very special albums that came out in 1985 that were not only brand new discoveries but also had a lifelong impact upon me.  They deserve recognition because without them I may not be the same person I am today.

To be perfectly honest, I have no clue what order these albums came into my life.  It doesn’t matter.  What clue I do have is that hearing Metallica and wanting more like them led me to independent record companies.  Very soon I discovered labels such as Combat, Metal Blade, Megaforce, Death, Shrapnel and Black Dragon.  It’s not that I was ignoring the big labels or anything like that, it was just a new, unknown path for me to travel.  Also, don’t get the wrong idea, I still bought and listened to things any self-respecting thrasher would call “poser” bands.  I still loved the glam scene of the 80s.  Whatever, good music is good music.  Go ahead and try to tell me Pyromania by Def Leppard sucks.   Anyways, as I started morphing into a thrash fan, I began paying attention to the shirts bands were wearing or the bands named in the liner notes.  I started buying and ordering magazines and fanzines that weren’t Hit Parader or Circus.  Even the super vanilla publication Hit Parader started reviewing underground and import bands which they tucked away in the back pages of their magazine.  I still have a copy of the Celtic Frost review they did for Morbid Tales.  It slammed the band hard, which made me want to buy it even more!  Now that you have a touch of my backstory, let’s get into this.

Speed Kills (The Very Best In Speed Metal) – Various Artists

There are three compilation records that are pinnacle in my music evolution.  Yet, to only label them “pinnacle” doesn’t do them justice for how they changed my life.  The first is the International P.E.A.C.E. Benefit Compilation, better known in a simpler form as the Peace/War Comp, which solidified my lifelong loyalty to hardcore punk.  The second is Grindcrusher, which solidified my lifelong loyalty to death metal and grindcore.  The third is Speed Kills (The Very Best In Speed Metal), which solidified my lifelong loyalty to thrash metal.  Just look at the list of bands it introduced me to: Hallows Eve, Destruction, Bulldozer, Possessed, Exciter, Venom, Voivod, and Celtic Frost.  Holy shit!  I was floored!  Can you guess what happened?  Yep, I went on a hunt for anything they released.  Each of those bands mentioned has at least one classic album that lives in my head.  No other comp, not even the other two, affected my life as much as this one.  If I ever needed to thank an album, Speed Kills is the one.

Slayer – Hell Awaits

Hell Awaits is the first album that legitimately scared me.  Slayer’s Haunting The Chapel showed a huge leap in intensity and speed over Show No Mercy and displayed glimpses of what was to come on Hell Awaits.  Since I did not have either of those releases in 1985, this was my first experience with the band and it was almost too much at the time.  I will always maintain the notion that this is Slayer at their most evil.  Everything from the cover, the lyrics and the overall fucking brutality makes Hell Awaits terrifying.  You just got the feeling Slayer didn’t want you to live through listening to this record.  Unfortunately, the one thing it’s lacking is the incredible production we expected from Slayer the rest of their career.  It wasn’t anything unusual for thrash metal in the 80s to fail at dialing in the sound, but if this had the production of Reign In Blood, I believe history would look on this album as one of the best ever in the genre.  Yet, the raw production also lends to album’s overall aggression and esthetic, so I should just shut up.

Corrosion Of Conformity – Animosity
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles – Dealing With It
Stormtroopers Of Death – Speak English Or Die

At some point in 1985 I bought albums by COC, DRI and SOD.  The year of the acronym!  What a fucking gateway to hardcore and punk!  Animosity, Dealing With It and Speak English Or Die are right up there as the most significant albums I’ve ever purchased because it initiated a love for a type of music I had yet to discover.  I mean, I knew punk existed since there was one kid at my school that had a mohawk which he was allowed to spike up only on Fridays, but I had zero idea what it sounded like.  Yes people, I didn’t even know who The Ramones were back then, let alone The Damned, Black Flag, Poison Idea, Minor Threat or any of my local hardcore and punk bands.  Hell, I heard The Clash on the radio with “Rock The Casbah” and had no idea they were involved in anything punk rock.  Yes, I know, why didn’t I ask that kid?  Truthfully, he seemed like a dick and wasn’t there the next school year.  Well, if I’d ever had a musical epiphany, this was certainly it.  For the next few years my life was inundated as much as it could be with everything related to “crossover,” the wonderfully deadly combination of hardcore punk and thrash, which remains my favorite genre to this very day.  COC, DRI and SOD, plus the discovery of 7 Seconds a little more than a year later led me to an ocean-sized number of bands to discover.  It was a lot of experimentation and buying things I thought looked the part and would be similar.  Not everything worked out well.  I specifically remember buying things like the Flipper album with the yellow cover and wondering how it could be so terrible?  That album still sucks!  I’m sure even without these stellar releases punk would’ve crept its way into my life, but that’s the exact moment it did and ripped open a rabbit hole for me to slide down that has not ended.

Halloween – Don’t Metal With Evil
Halloween should have been huge; at least for a small window of time.  They were easily the biggest independent band in the Detroit area from about 1985 through 1988.  The stories have been told about why they were never able to take anything to the next level, but they truly should’ve been scooped up by a bigger independent label if not a major.  It could be my deep nostalgia for the band talking here, but I do think their style of metal certainly could have garnered a large audience, but even as fantastic as I believed their music and gimmick was, I don’t think that popularity would have lasted forever.  Nevertheless, they deserved the shot instead of being a cult-metal favorite as they are today.  With that said, Halloween was MY band.  They were the first band I remember feeling territorial about; like I knew a cool secret the typical person didn’t know.  They were the first local band I saw live and over the next few years I saw them a ton.  They were always great no matter the venue!  I got to see Rick’s hair catch on fire by backing into a candelabra at a teen night club!  They couldn’t have been any cooler musically or visually!  I mean a heavy metal band based on the best holiday of the year, which they used to the fullest potential at their shows.  In my eyes, they were my Alice Cooper and Kiss.  I wrote to them and the bass player’s mom wrote me back!  Kind of funny.  I also owe Halloween an enormous debt of gratitude because they absolutely inspired me to be in a band, so I did.  As much as I adore Don’t Metal With Evil I don’t think I will convince anyone that it’s one of the greatest records ever made.  There are many other records from 1985 that are superior, but none of them live in my heart like this album.

Metal Church – Metal Church
One of the greatest albums I own out of all the albums I own.  I know that technically their debut album came out in 1984, but anyone that tells you they had the Ground Zero version of the album, and they lived outside of Seattle, well, they are just lying.  Elektra Records reissued their self-titled album in 1985 and I was all over it after hearing “Gods Of Wrath” on the Metal Shop radio show.  I used to record every episode on a cassette and I just kept listening to that song repeatedly, which motivated me to find their release.  My god the power this album packs is astounding even by today’s standards.  I might not have known exactly what the band was at the time, but I knew they created something exceptional and unique.  I only imagine this is how people felt hearing the first albums by Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden.  Metal Church carved out a niche of their own and established a career spanning 40 years and somehow avoided the superstardom they deserved.  I only got to see Metal Church live once with David Wayne when they opened for Anthrax.  That concert is still burned in my memory.  I hate the notion of picking my favorite albums when it comes to any genre, but if you forced me to pick my favorite heavy metal record, this would be the album.  I’ve listened to very few records as much as this one.  It’s timeless and perfect.  This album still makes me as happy as the day I bought it.

Exodus – Bonded By Blood

I bought both Bonded By Blood and Megadeth’s Killing Is My Business And Business Is Good on the same day at my all-time favorite record store Sam’s Jams, and they probably only cost me about 15 bucks!  Yes, I still   the days of $7 and $8 cassettes and LPs.  When I arrived home, I spent the next few hours in my room rotating between each band, playing the albums front to back.  Killing Is My Business was cool, but I kind of didn’t get it.  It wasn’t heavy sounding.  Where were the palm-muted bang ‘em ‘til they bleed riffs?  That wasn’t Megadeth as Mustaine was making a deliberate musical separation from his former band.  Megadeth was fast but there was so much overplaying and the album had severely weak production.  Whether all this is good or bad, it’s my second favorite by them.  The clear winner of the day was Exodus!  I remember throwing on Bonded By Blood and getting my head caved in instantly by the title track.  There is still nothing that introduces an album like those triplet stabs crashing into what I think is one of the greatest thrash riffs ever written.  Once this album gets going, Exodus does zero fucking around and spawned a super tight killing machine.  It’s always heavy, always violent and rarely slows down.  Even when it does, it just gets heavier.  Bonded By Blood became the high bar other bands needed to reach to be considered great.  This is the album that launched a thousand thrash ships for bands to use as a blueprint for themselves.  Bay Area thrash would not be what it was without Exodus.  One day people will expound about how important this band was to the metal scene.  Talk about a standout album that STILL stands out from the crowd to this very day.

Helloween – Walls Of Jericho
Walls Of Jericho was my introduction to the pumpkin crew and my initiation into the world of speed metal.  While so many bands were trying to go more “evil,” Helloween embraced melody in all aspects of their music from vocals to bass lines to guitar solos.  Dare I say they are catchy?  Yes, I dare to say that because it was absolutely their intention.  They took what Priest, Maiden and NWOBHM bands were already doing and put a 400hp engine behind it to blaze just as rapidly as anyone else out there.  Every guy in the band was a top notch musician and didn’t shy away from showcasing their talent.  Let’s get to the sticking point for many people, the vocals.  Just like certain chemicals shouldn’t be combined, many people felt super melodic, high-pitched vocals shouldn’t be mixed with thrashy music.  There was justification in some cases where the music style just didn’t fit together with the vocal delivery.  Hey Hirax, I’m looking in your direction.  I never minded melodic vocals, so having the power and fury of a thrashing band behind them was super cool with me as long as it sounded good.  Helloween defined what became the standard for both speed and power metal and they are as relevant and vibrant as they have ever been to this very day.  If you haven’t listened to their last two albums or have seen them live recently, you’re doing it wrong. (I'm curious if Gen X readers will get the movie reference of those last three words)

Rogue Male – First Visit
I saved the outlier for last.  Why am I referring to this album as that?  Well, Rogue Male was one of my first purchases that I remember knowing absolutely nothing about at the time.  I never saw the name anywhere.  I never saw anyone wearing their shirt.  I never heard a single note.  They were on the same label as Metallica, so maybe that sparked my interest.  I believe it was just the cover and the fact that it was in the heavy metal section of my local Harmony House record store.  It was the first of a slew of, “I don’t know anything about it but it looks cool” purchases.  This type of purchase became prominent in my life soon after.  This led to many amazing discoveries, but also bands that were pure garbage.  I was greatly rewarded for my risk with Rogue Male.  First Visit is another album I wouldn’t say is the strongest from 1985, but it has been in consistent rotation since I bought it.  They played with a more traditional punk rock edge which wasn’t on my musical radar.  To put it plainly, they sound like Motorhead which also existed outside of my familiarity.  Once I heard Motorhead, I knew exactly what Rogue Male were doing and they did it very well.  I know I’m about to get a ton of shit from this, but I like this album more than any Motorhead album.  Send your hate mail to….yeah, not doing that because someone will say something terrible about me!

Sadly, I know I will never have another musical experience like I did from that era.  I’ve unearthed other bands over the past 40 years which have come close to the same feeling, but nothing has been as exciting, involved and formative as what happened with me in the mid-80s.  1985 was a year of discovery and wonder, and was the catalyst for what happened the following couple of years.  It was so personal, which made it everlasting.  I’m always curious if younger kids have the same experience now.  Well, that’s my long-winded 1985 tribute.  As I looked over my collection, there are almost to many albums to name that had perpetual and significant effect on me at some point in time.  To this day, I'm about the discovery of music and seek out bands and releases I missed in my youth.  I suppose that's me trying to recreate my experience as a kid.  It's still fun!  Now I need to start thinking about 1986 for my next post next November.

THE UNSANE - Inverted Crosses

Artist:  The Unsane

Album: Inverted Crosses

Year:  1986

Genre:  Thrash Metal / Death Metal

Oh god.  Looking at the back cover of this record should have made me pull a Kool-Aid Man right out a wall and leave it in the rubble.  It’s on New Renaissance Records; one of the most inconsistent independent labels when it comes to quality of both bands and production.  The title is Inverted Crosses and has a bunch of floating inverted crosses all over the back cover that looks like a first-year graphics student threw together.  The drummer has a Gold’s Gym, self-cut, sleeveless shirt on while flexing his arms in a “relaxed” position in his lap.  WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!  This has signs of horribleness written all over it.  The front cover art is pretty rad, though.  Did I run?  Nope.  Scooped it right up.  Know what?  If I followed my asshole, judgmental ways I would’ve missed out on one of the more ferocious thrash offerings of 1988.  The Unsane were good and Inverted Crosses is a savage listen.

The Unsane lifted heavily from the Slayer Hell Awaits / Dark Angel Darkness Descends / Viking Do Or Die method of thrash.  The difference is these guys narrow it down to about 3 riffs per song and keep everything under 180 seconds.  By doing this, they pulverize the listener and leave zero room to breathe.  Taking it easy is not in this band’s DNA.  This thing flies along like a caffeinated rhino trying to obliterate all in its path.  Some midtempo bars exist amongst the chaos, but, in a flash, it’s off again to the death races; hacking, slashing and burning until the final note.  At first, the production might make you question their decision of tones and mix, but it soon becomes clear their low-fi approach fits perfectly with the band’s barbarity and velocity.  Their overall vehemence is intimidating.  Imagine taking Seven Churches and turning each song into a 3-minute atomic blast.  The songs become heavier and more volatile right up to the finish line.  When the final knockout blow of this 6-song album hits, you have no choice but to turn the record over and drop the needle on side one again, because, unfortunately that’s all you get.  Find this record.

Listen to "Legions Of Violence" here.

SCORPION CHILD - I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me

Artist:  Scorpion Child

Album:  I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me

Year:  2025

Genre:  Hard Rock 

Rock is dead.  Rock isn’t dead.  Rock might be dead?!?!  I suppose this all depends on whose view currently has your attention.  Good god, I might actually agree with Gene Simmons on this.  Hard rock does not dominate media outlets as it once did.  I’m not talking about Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, Aerosmith or anyone of that ilk or popularity.  Those are established icons from decades passed.  Hard rock music dominated the 70s and 80s but was put on life support in the 90s and has never seemed to recover when it comes to new bands that don’t have famous members.  The seismic undertow the alternative wave of the 90s created seemingly swallowed up everything that was considered “uncool” coming out of the 80s, which included straight-up heavy rock bands.  If a band wasn’t already established with superstardom before 1990, you were facing certain doom.  Seriously.  Name a hard rock band that gained massive popularity comparable with the likes of Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen or any of their peers that formed after 1990 that isn’t linked to nu-metal, or alternative, or punk?  Anything?  Foo Fighters, you say.  Maybe.  Even if we let that answer count (Dave Ghrol was already famous, people), that’s one.  ONE IN 30 FUCKING YEARS!!!

As sad as that fact is, bands are still coming out of the corner swinging even though the odds of massive popularity are against them. One such band is Austin, Texas’s Scorpion Child who are proof positive that blood continues to pump through the veins of the heavier side of rock and roll.  I Saw The End As It Passed Right Through Me struck a chord in me that hasn’t been strummed for quite a while.  Maybe I’m also guilty of letting heavy rock die because I haven’t enjoyed a band like this for many years.  In fact, it probably hasn’t been since Hardcore Supterstar’s Dreamin’ In A Casket dropped in 2007.  Even that record is more heavy metal than it is hard rock.  Scorpion Child plays with massive amounts of style, substance and originality.  They successfully walk the line between hard rock and the more aggressive side of alternative. I can see Guns N’ Roses fans digging them just as much as Smashing Pumpkins fans with their dynamic, morose guitar-driven sound.  If I’m being completely honest here, the first two songs are high energy, attention grabbing tracks, but are the weakest on the album.  By the time song 3 titled “Outliers” hits this album just takes off and shows you just what they’re all about.  The strength of Scorpion Child lies in not only their ability to play but also in generating atmosphere.  As I mentioned, the first two songs bang away and pique your interest, but the rest of the album creates a whirlwind of mood.  There is a lot going on in these songs.  It’s an album that will sound good blasting out of your car while paying no attention to the speed limit or that you can play through a set of headphones and discover something new you didn’t hear previously.  Listening to them brings to mind bands such as Bang Tango, Saigon Kick, Pink Cream 69 and even The Misison and The Cult, which isn’t surprising since they most likely took their name from The Cult’s “Lil Devil.”  If you’re into any of those, Scorpion Child just might become your new favorite band.  Since I just discovered this cool band, I now need to dive back into their catalog.

Listen to "Outliers" here.

POISON IDEA - Feel The Darkness

Artist:  Poison Idea
Album:  Feel The Darkness
Year:  1990
Genre:  Hardcore Punk

The documentary American Hardcore does an admirable job capturing the history and spirit of hardcore's birth and how significant and electrifying this style of music was in the early 80s.  As you continue watching, the tide turns.  We begin to witness some of the most innovative artists start talking about how the scene changed; how bands would change their music, how people turned their backs on what they created and how hardcore was “dead” and “over.”  Well, I couldn’t disagree more with some of my heroes, as bands such as Cro-Mags, Verbal Assault, Gorilla Biscuits, Leeway and Poison Idea were putting out records that could easily complete with hardcore’s initial onslaught.  In fact, if you put a gun to my head, I just might choose Start Today over Out Of Step, or Age Of Quarrel over Damaged, or Trial over Rock For Light. Blasphemy?  Maybe. (and I’m glad no one is making me do that)  Hardcore was alive and well even when its founding fathers didn’t know what to do with it any more.  At a time when hardcore was proverbially “in the grave,” Poison Idea pounded out an album that marked their summit.

Feel The Darkness is appropriately titled.  The cover sets the stage as a willing hand shoves a gun in a beastly man’s face…while smiling.  Pretty sure they were sued by Tiny Tim over it.  This is not a feel good record.  This is not a happy record.  This is not a record that lets you take a moment to compose yourself and shake off the filth.  Simply classifying the music as hardcore punk is unjust.  The forceful and relentless nature of the sound and performances take the songs to a threatening level other bands wish they could achieve.  The musicians in this stage of Poison Idea's existence were very capable at their instruments, but play with menace and passion.  Simplistic and brute lyrics are spewed forth with virulence and venom, touching upon realistic social issues, personal experiences and a fun night out of lawlessness.  Singer Jerry A. was quoted in an interview from Moshable #9 as saying, “All our songs are true stories.”  Quit my job, told my boss to stand aside. Grabbed a gun, a fifth of booze, jumped in my ride. I got my girl, she's sixteen and she's really special. I can't slow down, I've got a date with the devil.   Some people play punk rock; some people live it.  This record is out of control and nihilistic.  Exactly how it should be.

Listen to "Just To Get Away" here.

Songs You Should Know #39 – Ignite, Venus Beads & Fudge Tunnel

Artist: Ignite

Song: Faraway

Genre: Hardcore

Artist: Venus Beads

Song: Day Of Nightmares

Genre: Modern Rock

Artist: Fudge Tunnel

Song: Bed Crumbs

Genre: Alternative / Metal

ANIALATOR - Anialator

Artist:  Anialator

Album: Anialator

Year:  1988

Genre:  Thrash Metal

This album is the perfect example of where motivation and lack of talent unite.  That is not meant to be as insulting as it sounds.  Anialator have their blackened thrash metal heart in the absolute right place.  The music is dirty, ugly and violent and is intent on causing pain.  Now back to my first sentence.  I believe the reason Anialator sounds as they do is because they are not the strongest players.  What Anialator create is a primal and single-minded assault.  Many bands have traveled the same rough beginnings and became legends, or at very least cult classics.  Just think back to the origins of Sepultura, Kreator, Bathory, Hellhammer, Sodom, NME, Destruction, Sacrifice and Voivod.  People worship their early material, but when it was first released, no one knew what to do with it and a majority of it did not receive positive praise.  No, Anialator will never be seen as a band that influenced generations of rabid metalheads, but this outing should not be easily thrown aside.  Bulldozing through at a voracious pace, this record really does sound like it’s going to implode at any time; almost as if they band should have stopped playing and had a stab at another take.  The rhythms are very loose, parts of the record are just messy and the guitarists had zero business soloing.  Yet, it’s those elements that have me coming back for another listen.  If you’re looking for razor-sharp, technical thrash, go listen to some Coroner and be happy.  If you want a record of unhinged thrash metal played with reckless abandon, this just might do the trick.

Listen to "Mission Of Death" here.