MYTHRA- The Death & Destiny EP (1979)

1. Death And Destiny
2. Killer
3. Overload
4. U.F.O.

To some This is really the holy grail of NWOBHM 7"s. It is definitely one of my favorite metal eps for sure. I only wish the copy I had was the picture sleeve edition. I live in Brooklyn NY now and have given up on ever finding the pic sleeve, because NYC sucks for record stores. Supposedly there were like 15,000 copies of these pressed on the Guardian label(not with the cover of course). Hard to believe that, but the band was pretty popular in the underground pub scene of their hometown in Newcastle(and in the UK in general). The second song "killer" is my favorite off of this slab. You can tell that Holocaust, Maiden, and even Metallica had been influenced by these 16 and 17 year old kids. Many reviews compared them to Judas Priest early on. I don't really see it, I hear more Diamond Head in this stuff. Rumors were that the band lost the master tapes of all their early recordings to a members asshole uncle that recorded them.
I got my copy of this for free at a local Ithaca NY record store that no longer exists. I recall I hit the store one day with some friends at 14 years old after scouring the commons(a Ithaca walkway) for trouble to get into. I remember buying a copy of Judas Priests Rock o rola at the store, and the punk rocker working behind the counter threw a copy of this single in the bag with the Priest LP. I think this was one of the first metal eps I'd gotten, and it sorta put me on the road to collecting Neat Records eps. I think this got more rtation on my turntable then that peticular Priest album that I'd bought. Weeks later I went back to the store to thank the punk for the tunes, and was "shocked" to find out he'd been fired. I never got to thank him, or tell him how rad I thought the ep was.

http://www.mediafire.com/?qhyjwoqjemz

HOSTAGES OF AYATOLLAH Hallo Nachbar 7" (1985)

1. Voulez Vous
2. Hallo Nachbar
3. In meinem Zimmer
4. Oh Mama
5. Geh doch nach drueben

HOA were another of the West German hardcore bands from the mid 1980's that has always been overlooked, and in my opinion underrated. The bands live shows were said to be awesome and filled with tons of angst and youthful energy(much like what was happening in the States at the time). As I stated in the Sons of Sadism post, I bought this used for like a dollar on my way back to Albany NY from Northern Cali along with the SOS ep. I loved my German stuff, and the name was really cool at the time, so I wasted no time grabbing this slab. The band went on to do a split LP with Manson Youth who were also a German band whom was also on my radar. The title track to the ep is the winner on this ep, the guitar riff and tone are just perfect.

http://www.mediafire.com/?n1ebsyzddzn

WARNING s/t LP (1982)

1.rock city
2.commando
3.serie noire
4.fire fire
5.speed moi
6.bahamas memorial
7.strange way of love(69)
8.sexy lube
9.planete reverse

The french definitely were never really known for good metal nor punk,Its a sad fact. The french unfortunately are known as pussies, and everyone knows it. Every once in a while, a very rare once in a while they could surprise you with something that you might dig though. Warning and Trust were two of those early French metal bands that I can stomach, and it prolly has more to do with nostalgia then anything else. I discovered these frogs as a teenage high school burnout who liked the killer "bird" artwork...ha ha. I think I was looking for obscure International type metal, and maybe discovered these guys and Accept at around the same time. Strangely enough these guys sound a lot like early Accept, cept this guy can really carry a scream. The Vox always sounded harsh to me with a lot of these bands that sang in their native tongue, making the stuff a bit harsher then it actually was. Warning were melodic and a mid paced sounding traditional heavy metal band that still gets me singing along to the chorus's, while laughing at the singers killer accent. I love hearing the singer scream "COMMANDO", or "FIRE, FIRE"!!! It still gets me laughing 25 years later. Speed or thrash metal elitists will hate this record as it has elements closer to hardrock. Fire Fire actually has a skip in it. My apologies. I left off Speed-moi as I had some issues with the rip.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jjmbnndxlvy

UF0 boogie for George/follow you home 7" (1970)

1.boogie for George
2.follow you home

Okay, this is about as early of music that you'll ever see posted here. These guys were a band I dug in the early 80's, although it was the Schenker years that I was exposed to back then. The MSG UF0 stuff was a lot more metal then this heavy psych stuff. When I finally was exposed to this stuff I got really into it, and can't even be bothered with the later stuff anymore. If you haven't heard the stuff, don't sit on it, its crushing for sure. Unfortunately these guys only did 2 albums with the guitarist that played during this era. The music had a very heavy Sabbath vibe. Its easy to see how bassist Pete Way went on to influence the likes of so many NWOBHM bass players including Steve Harris. I have no idea how this Japanese pressing ended up in my collection, seemed I bought it years ago and never realized how great these guys were before filing the sucker away.

http://www.mediafire.com/?njtl2mylz1z

CLOVEN HOOF s/t LP (1984)

1. Cloven Hoof
2. Nightstalker
3. March of the Damned
4. Gates of Gehenna
5. Crack the Whip
6. Laying Down the Law
7. Return of the Passover

I first heard these UK bastards in around 1985 or 1986. What attracted me to them at this point was their satanic/fantasy imagery, and the name. The songs were brilliant in that basic second generation NWOBHM sound. You could tell these guys were influenced and had huge man crushes on the likes of Budgie and Diamond Head. The gallops that these guys pull off on "cloven hoof", and "gates of gehenna" are triumphant in every way(like those early Maiden gallops). "Crack the Whip" sounds now very AC/DCish to me, its sort of a weird track on the album. Pretty sure the vocalist only appeared on this and the first 12", and then quit the band. Finding copies of these records can be difficult as hell. I got mine second hand from a friend/band mate in Latham NY named Mark Szwarcberg who had later moved away from metal, and joined the Marines. I haven't seen him in well over 20 years. Mark was a bass player, and his brother Dave was a godly guitarist. We would spend our days after school jammin on metal songs that we wrote in a basement across the street from his parents house. The stuff started off as more traditional/simple metal(like the stuff Cloven Hoof were playing), then gravitated towards faster speed metal/thrash styles. These two brothers went on to start Horrid Blessing(a name I came up with).

http://www.mediafire.com/?lmttngmmn3y

WITCHKILLER day of the saxons 12" (1984)

1.Day Of the Saxons
2.riders of doom
3.cry wolf
4.beg for mercy
5.penance for past sins

Time for some metal my brothers... I've been neglectful of the blog recently due to work related shit, my apologies. The good news is that I've seen a couple of great metal shows last week. I Saw Kreator with Exodus...that was fun, even saw some friends that I haven't seen in eons there. Next up I saw Napalm Death here in NYC with Toxic Holocaust, both bands killed as did Kataklysm.
WitchKiller were a band that a few of us listened to in high school(Pat J, Dave S and Mark S). When I graduated, my friend John H had a killer party that I'll never forget. I brought with me a sheet of dose, and handed it out like candy to my friends. By the end of the night John and I were the only ones left, and were walking the streets of Latham NY carrying an almost kicked keg, drinking straight from the tap. Coming down off of our trip at daybreak I started blasting metal in his basement. It started with Merciful Fate, but this shit freaked out John, and gave him a bad trip. Dude was a Aerosmith Zepplin sorta dude. He really had a freak out that I'm sure makes him cringe anytime he hears Fate. On the other side of the tape I had this Witchkiller 12" recorded. Though the band wasn't as satanic, or harsh sounding as Fate it still had John messed up. We had to move on to watching cartoons. When ever I listen to Merciful Fate or Witchkiller it has me recalling the trip I had on graduation night.
Witchkiller were from Canada, and played a pretty traditional style of heavy metal for the time period. Melodic, mid paced with cool vocals. Fans of Manowar, and Exciter should dig this shit. This is the bands only release that I know of.

http://www.mediafire.com/?geywncomjzn

SONS OF SADISM play loud 7" (1985)

1.s.o.s.
2.ignorant
3.millionen
4.syndikat des untergangs
5.no future
6.am rande des ruins

Anyone who knows me, or has been keeping up with this blog knows how much I loved German hardcore punk and thrash metal back in the day. It was my fetish in the 1980's. This is a second copy(spare of this ep). I first heard it after randomly picking it up used at a record store in the mid west, on a drive I made when I moved from Northern California to NY. I picked up the Hostages Of Ayatollah 7" as well at the store. I was already into my German stuff, so when I saw the address, and date I knew I needed this $2 7". These guys had a impact on how I attacked the bass. I was a guitar player, but played bass in a band called Intent in 1990. I loved the fact that you could actually noodle about, and play melodic type scales in fast riffs. S.O.S. made me realize you could do that in hardcore. This stuff is mainly faster, yet catchy hardcore that is sung in German. These were still the days when the wall existed between East and West Germany, and the cold war was still in its prime. I think this is what made underground music so angry and good in Germany back then. People were frustrated.. Through buying random private press records like this, I made many friends, over seas pen pals that turned me onto weird obscure international stuff. Enjoy.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nnzummdm22z