Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  You people can’t bitch that I picked the wrong album from this week’s artist, because they only HAD one album.  SUCK IT.  Anyway, here’s our look at the messed up death metal classic that is Demilich’s Nespithe (Pavement).

So, here’s the thing you’re going to notice about this music: it is seriously, seriously demented.  Like, it’s a mystery to me that the elements of this band came from somebody’s mind and then several other people agreed that it was a thing that they should do.  They are Finnish people, and it is cold and dark and boring there, but still.  You’re probably wondering what makes this weirder than the average weirdness that we cover.  It’s not weird in the sense of the stuff that Scott Seward writes about, but as far as death metal goes, these fearsome Finns push things to the breaking point.

A lot (but not all) of the insanity comes from Antti Boman’s throat.  These are maybe the most indecipherable, guttural vocals you can find outside of putting a pit bull in front of the microphone.  It literally sounds like the dude is belching the entire time.  And not in the “this is an easy analogy” way.  It’s pretty much just belching.  The rest of the insanity comes from the rest of the band – this is super-technical, heavy death metal, filled with stops and starts and sudden changes that recall Atheist and Autopsy at their twistiest.  What I’m trying to say is, Nespithe ain’t easy listening.

The end result of several demos, their sole full-length record was released in 1993 to very little attention (and re-released a decade later to pretty much the same reception).  Consider the other notable DM records that came out that year – Morbid Angel’s Covenant, Atheist’s Elements, Death’s Individual Thought Patterns, Entombed’s Wolverine Blues.  The prevailing trend was not in the direction of the sheer ugliness that Demilich purveyed.  Even if you could understand what Boman was saying (or tell the songs apart), it seemed unlikely that you could sing along to “The Planet That Once Used to Absorb Flesh in Order to Achieve Divinity and Immortality (Suffocated to the Flesh That It Desired…)” or “The Sixteenth Six-Tooth Son of Fourteen Four-Regional Dimensions (Still Unnamed).”  Not to mention that, as you can probably tell, the band had a really, really weird sense of humor.

Still, these guys wound up being pretty influential.  Hell, they inspired a straight up imitator, Biolich, which is quite the honor.  They broke up right after this record, but they reunite occasionally to do “final” shows, so catch them if you can (or just download their complete discography, which they’ve been kind enough to provide for free at their website).  Just try to avoid eating a large meal beforehand – that belching can really make you sick.

Official site

Download it for free (legally) here!

Buy it for really a lot of money here!

Currently tearing across the States with fellow thrash vets Anthrax and Death Angel, Testament will be releasing their tenth album in spring. Entitled The Dark Roots of Earth, Testament frontman Chuck Billy has intimated that it’ll go atomic in the pit much in the same fashion as 2008′s The Formation of Damnation did. Hmm… Good news for the consensus that argued that the Oakland quintet had never sounded better. Yeah it’s a long time coming and all those thrashers who got their necks bent of of shape with Formation… will be pissed off at the wait, but they can at least console themselves that Testament are operating a strict business-as-usual policy when it comes to the music

Despite losing drummer Paul Bostaph (initially to injury, but as Chuck explains Bostaph has left the band permanently), they’ve got a more than worthy replacement, especially for fans of the band’s Demonic era… Albeit on a wait-and-see temporary basis.

Testament are playing it close to their chest at the moment but we got Chuck to give us a few ideas on what to expect from the new record.

How’s the tour going?
Really good, it’s this second leg of the Anthrax/Death Angel tour and we’ve picked up right where we left off, just got back into it. The shows are going really well. It’s been a really good package—it’s co-billing but Anthrax closes the show.

And Gene Hoglan is drumming with you at the moment, right?
Yeah, he’s drumming for us and Anthrax. Charlie’s mom is ill, and he needs to be home near his mom right now.

Is there any resolution to the drummer situation with Testament; have you got an idea of who will be there permanently?
Well Paul [Bostaph] has recovered but he is not coming back to the group. He has decided to start a new band, I guess. So, we had Gene do the record, and Gene’s gonna do the touring for the record.

Do you think Gene would come back full-time? It’d be a popular one for the fans.
Well we’d love it if he decided to but we haven’t really got that far yet. We just have to get through this tour and see where we’re at. Gene kills it.

The Formation of Damnation came out ages ago, it went really well—why so long in following it up?
Well things just kept popping up. We had that Megadeth/Exodus tour pop up, then we had the Slayer/Megadeth tour… All these tours kept on popping up while we were trying to get the record written and recorded so, yeah, it took a little while but after we finished the Anthrax tour in—what was it?—October we just buckled down and got it done.

What do you put the success of Formation down to? It’s like Testament had a genuine renaissance and the band never seemed to be more stable?
The way we’re feeling about it, we as a band got an opportunity to finish something that we all started together, in a sense. I mean, not like we’re finished now, but we were back together and it feels good to play some of the old songs that we haven’t played in a long time, ‘cos some band members [in the past] didn’t want to do them or whatever, but having the original guys we can play anything from our catalog and it feels pretty good to do it. It’s like a second chance, just… Well, to finish something.

A band with a legacy (no pun intended), is always going to have that pressure creatively.
Yeah, I think so. In the writing process we don’t really think about it, we know what we want and need to do, but the songs just seem to come out. We’ve been writing and playing together for long enough that the songs just come together pretty quick.

What is the writing process like? Is Eric handling most of the music or is it a group effort?
Sometimes, it’s both—the majority of it Eric came up with because he’s been our main songwriter, and then Alex will come in and make some suggestions as far as arrangements go, and it seems to work out really well that way because Alex has good suggestions.

Alex has said that his other projects have given him fresh ideas when it comes to doing things with Testament, and to have him involved in the writing process must be a great asset.
He’s such a great player. He’s such a great addition to the sound of Testament; he is part of the sound and it’s very important to have him here in the mix [creatively].

How far along is The Dark Roots of Earth?
Well we just finished all of the recording the day before we left before this tour. We turned everything in and they’ve started mixing it now. Right now it’s just the beginning of the mix process.

Andy Sneap is producing it; did you go to England to track it?
We did it at our place in Oakland and at Trident Studios and Andy came out and did all the recordings with us—as much as he could—and then we finished off some vocals and guitars at Trident studios. I think over the years Andy really knows the sound of this band, and kinda knows what we want. We’ve mixed stuff with Andy, so I think he knows without has having to be there physically with him what we are looking for. And I just haven’t heard anybody in metal come out with any better mixes! Honesty!

Are you playing any new song on this tour?
No, we’re not. The Internet kinda spoiled that; we’d rather wait until it’s heard and judged as the real deal and not y’know somebody’s cellphone!

Shame, no iPhone and YouTube clips!
Yeah! I’ve seen it happen to other bands and you’ll get someone saying, “Oh, that doesn’t sound so good” but someone’s just listening to a telephone recording of a live performance.

It’s difficult to keep anything a surprise these days.
It would be good to start playing the stuff but we’ll just wait ‘til it’s out. Plus, if you don’t know a song, people don’t know how to react to it, and until they have the record and they’re familiar with the songs that’s for us to perform it. Performing music in front of people who don’t know it—it almost works against you, like, “How come they don’t get it? How come they’re not banging?” Well they’re just absorbing it, and it takes time, and it makes it weird for the band as well as the fans.

What can you tell us about some of the songs on the album?
Well, there’s a song called “Native Blood”, which is basically a song about my Native heritage. It’s almost like a protest song, that the Native Americans have a voice that needs to be heard—that’s the chorus of the song. There’s another called “True American Hate”, which was kinds inspired by when we sent all our troops overseas there, and we were just seeing in the news when all that was going on a lot of young kids, under 10 years old, out there with their families burning American flags. And that was a pretty shocking thing to see, to see that generation, a kid that young being taught to hate that much. It makes you think what’s going to happen, 10 to 15 years from now when the majority of these kids have just been raised to hate? It struck me as a little odd. There’s a song called “Cold Embrace”, which we kinda hoped we’d be able to pitch the song into one of the Twilight series movies; it’s a song about a girl becoming a vampire and never being able to see the sun again. “The Dark Roots of Earth” is kind of a play on the band we have together, just like a metaphor, like Testament is a tree and all of us in this group are really embedded in the planet, in the earth, the environment and our surroundings. It was kind of a play on that.”Rise Up for War” is more of a war song, like your preparing yourself for war, going into battle. There is a lot of cool stuff there.

Testament have had environmental themes before—is this going to be a political album in some respects?
No, I don’t think so. We’ve never been a political band, we just like to write things that are real, that we have to deal with and everybody has to deal with, things that are part of everybody’s life so that people can relate to it. I think everybody has to relate to what’s going on in our world as far as the environment goes.

“Native Blood” must be a very personal song for you. What message are you sending out with “Native Blood”, what sort of issues need addressing for the Native American community?
It is much different now compared to 10, 15 years ago, like on our reservation it was a pretty bad place 15 years ago. There was no help from the government, the schools were run down, no transportation, the housing was bad, broken down cars piled everywhere…. It was bad until we put a casino on our reservation and the money generated put people in work, brought back the schools, the culture, the language and the transportation to get the kids to school. But it’s just a bit of a sad thing that once you start helping yourself, the next thing you know the government’s got their hand out wanting their share for something you’ve done yourself and helping your own. It’s a sad thing; you ask for help and you don’t get it, as soon as there’s money involved the hands are out wanting a part of it. To me it was just about having a voice, for the Native Americans to have a voice that could be heard.

Is that one of the challenges facing Native American communities—raising awareness of their culture, language, and re-establishing that identity and community.
Definitely, the culture, the language, the history… I mean, if our reservation didn’t have a casino we might have lost all our language and culture, education would have been very bad if we didn’t get the help.

It’s very important, then, to spread the message to the younger generation of Native Americans, and keep them in touch with their culture.
Absolutely. That’s what it’s all about. Over the last year I’ve got some cool recognition for being Native American. I was put into the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC , on a display called “Up Where We Belong”, which was for Native Americans in pop culture and I was representing the heavy metal sector, and a couple of weeks ago I was the first Native American inducted into the Hard Rock Casino and Hotely in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That was a pretty big thing. It’s kinda cool to get there. There are so many reservations. I did an interview on a tribal radio station which broadcast all the way into Alaska, the US, Canada…. I think I hit a million people that day; there are a lot of Natives out there getting the word across about metal and what we stand for. I did the very first Native American Music Awards in 1990 or something like that and at the time there were no heavy metal bands in the categories; there were just Native artists, but a lot of these Natives were multi-platinum acts but they sold their records just touring and selling across the reservations. There’s a big Native American audience to support their people.

Click here for all the forthcoming tour dates.

First of all, let me say that I think one and all will agree: no one likes being ripped off. There are a lot of things we haven’t experienced in life and a lot of things we never will experience, but I don’t think anyone wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves, “Shit, today would be an awesome day to get my ass taken to the cleaners!” Or, to bring things down to the situation at hand, “Fuck, I really feel like paying for goods and services that I know I’m never going to see.”

Secondly, one will occasionally stumble across a less-than-reputable individual in the world of extreme music mail order and labels. However, I like to think that the numbers of scammers in our little corner of the musical world are miniscule and don’t amount so much to “rip-off artist” as they do “someone who has no business sense, bit off more they could chew and refuses to admit it.” Or “lazy.” Seriously though, when you think of ripping people off to make money, what comes to mind are Ponzi Schemes, casino or bank heists, even robbing gas stations, not withholding the profit margin from the sales of $10 CDs.

At the same time, I’m sure anybody who’s ordered merch online, won an eBay auction or has heard “the cheque is in the mail,” has stories of shit just not showing up. Whether it’s because of a less-than-honest person at the place of origin or the questionable competence of the various postal departments your goods travel through, packages get lost, stolen, opened, destroyed, delivery men get lazy, etc and stuff disappears.

On a personal note, who remembers the band Thought Industry? Back in the mid-90s, after the release of their first two albums, Songs for Insects and Mods Carve the Pig: Assassins, Toads and God’s Flesh, I was what you’d call a fanboy. To wit, I ended up buying a bunch of stuff via mail order directly from the band including demos, stickers and shirts. While I’ll never know what the hell kind of black postal hole existed between the band’s home base in Kalamazoo, MI and Toronto, but I’d say maybe half of the packages sent by then-drummer Dustin Donaldson actually made it to me. At the time, Dustin and I were familiar enough that I could call him up and ask what the heck was going on, to which he usually replied, “I sent that like two months ago.” I recall opening one of the parcels he sent that actually made it to me and a little note falling out when I unfolded the long sleeve shirt I purchased: “Dear Mr. Postman, this is the third time I’ve sent this shirt to my friend at this address. Stop stealing our shit!”

Once in a while, we do get heads-ups sent to us about “rip offs” which, more often than not, turn out to be a matter of shit getting lost and/or one person not working as rigorously as the other person thinks they should to rectify the issue or general apathy and someone’s inability to be accountable. The particular back-and-forth below, however, between Zbyszek at hellshop.eu and Crin at Godreah screams hilarity; that is, if you can follow what the hell is going on. Part of the fun here is trying to decode just what the hell the Polish-to-English translation program that Zbyszek ran his angry communiqués through spit out. He’s obviously very passionate about his metal and his work and Crin – who’s been doing Godreah as a zine, distro and label for a long fucking time – well, I don’t know what the hell he’s doing either, but chances are at some point he’s probably taking the piss out of a situation he has little control over. I’ve dealt with Crin and Godreah personally in the past and can say with a fair amount of confidence that he’s not a nefarious character. He’s a bit of an oddball, yes, and he obviously has a sense of humour and, after reading this exchange, someone who has a lot more patience than I.

Enjoy!

———- Forwarded message ———-
From:
Date: 2012/1/18
Subject: official statement – warning RIP-OFF
To: “Admin – hellshop.eu”

first of all – sorry for wastage Your time…

Official Statement
about thief called C. Hawkes or godreah
(full address below)

Three month ago we sent him parcel with 15 CDS / number of letter: RR462866581PL

Hi got our stuff and NEVER send own part of trade to us, NEVER!
Never send us number of parcel! Instead of this important things we
got his “FUCK OFF”!
(check our correspondence below)

In January I promised him that I’m wait only till of this month and
after that I will make “advertisement”
about this intolerable wangle…
He was afraid and quickly send many slander lies to many people (also
our friends and trade partners)…
All of them was shocked becasue is very easy to get stuff, to sent
“fuck off” against and after that spread lies!!!
Watch out! If this person will write to you and you will decide to trade
NEVER send them stuff as first!

Our stuff cadged and NEVER send promosed stuff:
C. Hawkes or godreah
email address: [REDACTED]
home address: [REDACTED]

———————————————————————————————————————————-
hellshop is official and legally working shop and worldwide distribution.
all working in hellshop people are in undergrond and metal scene since 1990.
we work with many bands, many labels and true people of underground!
———————————————————————————————————————————–

if you not boring of this RIP-OFF problem you can read our correspondence

in November I got
—– Original Message —–

From: godreah
To: [EMAIL REDACTED]
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2011 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: are you interested in trade?

your cd’s are on the way.
post can be shit slow sometimes
let me know when they arrive

i have your pack ok..

regards

crin

in December was still BIG NOTHING
—– Original Message —–

From: godreah
To: [EMAIL REDACTED]
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2011 2:40 PM
Subject: Re: are you interested in trade?

this number is now lost and i am at the mercy of the postal men.
of course i can send you another pack if you have no got the first one
it is a very great shame

crin

On 07/12/2011 08:24, [EMAIL REDACTED] wrote:

meantime I got a few parcels
all trade was made after your last email (about sending)
I you hope sent parcel as registered and you will find nember asap

zbyszek

Hails
i don’t understand why you have not received your package yet?
i shall look for the number as this moment i cannot trace it on my files.
all i know is i definitely posted it.

crin

No parcels, no numbers of letter and long wainting for any answer
when I lost my patient he saw other possibility… when will send me
fuck off I will forget about my stuff
NO WAY!!!!

—– Original Message —–

From: godreah
To: [EMAIL REDACTED]
Sent: Friday, December 23, 2011 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: are you interested in trade?

if you call me a liar one more time i will tell you to fuck off.

i fo not lie and i am very offended by your words

you insult me

On 23/12/2011 10:02, [EMAIL REDACTED] wrote:

is December 23th
AND I STILL DIDNT GOT PARCEL FROM YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im patient but I think that it is big lie
if you dont have stuff for me just send my back

I don’t like to got “fuck off” agains my stuff
and I think nobody likes it

its easy to get CDs and be insult when I need me stuff back
but I living too many years and I started to trade when was no internet
and I will spread information worldwide about any rip-off

www.hellshop.eu
www.godreahrecords.com

A sharp blast of powerviolence and sludge, with intricate lyrics and a pitch-perfect cover of Napalm Death’s “You Suffer,” Maine trio Robocop’s 2011 full-length Robocop II is easily one of the best releases on Grindcore Karaoke to date. Maybe we’re a little biased, because Robocop guitarist Ryan Page is consistently one of the most droll and on-point posters on the Decibel forum. But, seriously, check out this exclusive premiere of “Word Virus” (from the group’s upcoming split with Canada’s Detroit) and you’ll want to cop all of their shit immediately.

Robocop has paid tribute to Eric Wood on the song “Maine Is the Bastard” and with an equally radical T-shirt design. At what point did you contact him for clearance, and what advice did he have for you guys?
Ryan Page: Eric Wood was great. Luke Physioc, the artist we were working with, had come up with the idea for a T-shirt after hearing the song of the same name on Robocop II. The song itself was a bit of gonzo poetry about the painful stupidity of Maine punk. I had written the song in the early days of our band, so I hadn’t thought to contact Wood about it. When we decided to do the shirt with Luke, we agreed to do it only with his blessing. Luke sent Wood an email, received the OK, and had the design ready for us in a day. (This was all done while he was in Afghanistan, by the way.)

I was told that Wood really liked the design, and so we sent everyone in Bastard Noise one of the shirts. I know that there is this big controversy (which everyone will have probably forgotten about by the time this is published) regarding the use of “The Skull,” but I honestly think it wouldn’t have happened if that band with the Juggalo-sounding name had just asked him. In the midst of all the stupidity coming from both sides (it was a bummer to see MiTB fans using homophobic slurs), there was a quote that I felt nicely summed it up: “Stealing is often fine; I think it’s the gentrification of punk by a bunch of white middle-class hipsters which sticks in people’s craw.”

Is it true that you’re doing a limited cassette release of Robocop II?
Page: Yes, it is. I can’t really stand the format myself, but people have been asking us for a while, so when we got an offer to do it, we ran with it. I think my problem with tapes is that until about 10 years ago, I was broke enough to be still buying tapes, so now I just think back to how shitty my copy of Haunting the Chapel sounded after thousands of plays. I get it, though, I’m so stuck in my ways that I still have a massive collection of VHS tapes and Laserdiscs.

How does Robocop relate to Body Hammer?
Page: Well, although it’s a little ridiculous, there is some relevance to the particular names for each band. Body Hammer was named after a film by Shinya Tsukamoto, one of my favorite modern Japanese filmmakers (although he hasn’t exactly been knocking it out of the park lately). The film is about a man who slowly turns into a machine, and begins to collect metal on his body like an infection. Tsukamato’s two Tetsuo films are classics of Extreme Japanese Cyberpunk, which at the time I was quite interested in.

Body Hammer is sort of an odd project. I play all of the instruments, and program the drum machines. Cybergrind is quite a popular genre now, but what I do with Body Hammer is pretty far removed from that. I’ve heard it described as a cross between Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Gnaw Their Tongues, and while I obviously can’t compare with either of those bands, I think they are pretty good reference points for my sound.

Robocop started because Tom (our drummer) came up to me in a supermarket and asked me to start a band with him. At the time, what we were doing was very primitive kind of music, and I liked the idea of keeping with naming bands after movie cyborgs, hence our moniker. I also like the idea of Robocop as a subversive action movie, and Robocop as a subversive punk/hardcore band. Things started to shift after Luke Abbott joined. I think we’ve outgrown our name, but I’m also not particularly bothered by it.

Robocop broke up in July 2011, and what appears to be the band’s final material is being released on a split with a Canadian band named Detroit. Is this the last we’ll see of Robocop?
Page: Robocop split up this summer because I came out to California to get my MFA in electronic music at Mills College. We’re all on good terms, and we’ve been working together to finish this split. Live shows don’t seem a possibility in the near future, but we’ve talked about ideas for recording.

Robocop II was part of the initial wave of releases on Jay Randall’s Grindcore Karaoke label/website/repository of awesomeness. What type of exposure did this provide vis a vis putting out a record through more traditional avenues? Do you have any idea how many people got their hands on this?
Page: Grindcore Karaoke was the best promotion we could have hoped for. The speed at which it came together was probably the biggest advantage. Recording and mixing the album to way too long (over a year) and so it was good to be able to send the master to Jay and get the album out within days. It helped that we were in the first round of releases, because I think we began to be associated with the label, and its potential, which was an honor. I haven’t checked recently, but about six months ago Jay said that between the demo and Robocop II, there had been around 15,000 downloads of our albums from GK. Jay has been really great to us. He actually contributed a short track to the split. It’s not a noise track in the way one might expect, but somewhere between noise and the score to a horror film.

The name of Scourge Schematic’s debut is not exactly cryptic. Life Savings is what the four-piece cashed in to record this EP, hoping somebody out there would give a damn.

Money well spent, dudes.

Clearly influenced by the death and grind giants of the 90s, the band has soldered elements of thrash and punk rock onto these tracks with a quad-vocal salvo that hits from all sides.

But the Seattleites never let their skills or the overall brutality of their attack overpower riffs that stick in your head like a piece of shrapnel from ‘Nam. This is a formidable album of serious deathgrind that will only make that bangover worse.

Listen to the opening track above, and then go to their Bandcamp to pay whatever you want. And if you dig it, for god’s sake drop a little cash to show you give a damn.

To honor national prog day — yes, it really is 2.1.12 here in the United States, where we don’t mess up the date by transposing the month and day — Decibel was originally going to get Rush to perform Opeth covers in our offices, but logistics proved the event’s undoing. They were all up for it, believe us! We mean, can you imagine Rush doing “Forest of October” or “Devil’s Orchard”? We can.

To make up for our logistical oversight (not to mention way wide ambition), we nailed down Dutch prog metallers/rockers A Liquid Landscape. Having shared the stage Anathema (UK), Thrice (US) and Riverside (PL), it’s pretty evident to us, the quartet — guitarist Niels van Dam, bassist Robert van Dam, vocalist/guitarist Fons Herder and drummer Coen Speelman — think a bit differently from the norm. Perhaps more prog rock, without the mee-maw keyboards and ultra-weird, overcompensating song-stuff. Anyway, any band that is able to infuse a bit of melody and be smart musically, is prog to us.

Of course, random blurbs about random supposedly reflective things is always prog, so we’ll let the following A Liquid Landscape candid thought take you to the nearest Amsterdam “coffee house”: “Washed up, tired and staggering across a beach in the early hours of the morning. Somewhere in the twilight between desperation and surrender, there is still a glimmer of hope. That sense that everything will be alright, no matter what the odds are.”

** A Liquid Landscape’s new album, Nightingale Express, is out March 13, 2012 on Laser’s Edge Records. It’s available for pre-order HERE. And, no, Rush will never do in-office performances for anyone but us. Well, maybe they’ll visit Roadrunner’s offices in New York for a medley of “Tom Sawyer/Under the Weeping Moon/Valley of the Dolls”.

We’re obviously not breaking the news that Riot guitarist, Mark Reale (far L in photo), passed away on January 25 from complications from Crohn’s disease. Nonetheless, we wanted to pay tribute to a musician—and more importantly, a band—that hasn’t gotten his/their due in American metal history. Reale was not only a founding member of Riot, he was the primary songwriter in the band. Though we would have argued fervently to have the band’s third album, Fire Down Under, inducted into Decibel’s Hall of Fame, original lead vocalist Guy Speranza, unfortunately, preceded Reale in death in 2003, thus eliminating the band for consideration.

Riot started in NYC in the mid-’70s when there wasn’t much in the way of hard rock or metal in the States. The UK had any number of different purveyors, but we had the likes of KISS, Nugent, Montrose, Heart, Angel, Aerosmith, et al. It wasn’t entirely bleak, but it wasn’t super inspiring either. No surprise, then that Riot didn’t exactly have labels champing at the bit to sign them.

Their first album, Rock City, arrived in 1977, via Fire Sign Records, their own management’s label. It was licensed to Canadian and Japanese labels, but American labels had no interest. Metal Blade eventually reissued it in 1993, and while it’s not the band at its best—the limp ’70s production doesn’t help either—it’s pretty clear that Riot were following a different path.

“Warrior” from Rock City

Japan actually caught on to Riot long before the States ever did. The band’s second album, named after the Japanese airport Narita was first issued in Japan and then snapped up by Capitol for a major label release in America. That was to be the first and last record the band did for Capitol who clearly had no idea what kind of band they had. Capitol wanted something commercial, and Riot wanted to blow doors.

“Road Racing” (live) from Narita (and Riot Live)

Riot actually recorded their third album, Fire Down Under, while under contract to Capitol, but the label didn’t appreciate the band’s increasingly heavy direction and opted to drop them. Their loss was Elektra’s gain. Fire Down Under, released in 1981, didn’t sell a million copies (though it did chart in the Billboard Top 100), but it’s one of the greatest American metal releases of the era, easily standing toe to toe with their NWOBHM contemporaries of the day.

Just check out what they’re laying down in this Long Island club gig in 1981 (below). This 57-minute video is perhaps the best document of this lineup’s power, focus and energy. Fire Down Under is an essential example—along with Y&T’s Earthshaker—of US bands rising to the challenge of the NWOBHM. It was that all-important make-or-break third album (like Earthshaker) and Riot delivered. Unfortunately any momentum they may have had was lost when Speranza packed it in shortly after the album’s release.

Live club gig circa Fire Down Under

Riot was undeterred, however, and found a Georgia-born Southern belter named Rhett Forrester to take Speranza’s place. This, however, was the beginning of the end of this incarnation of Riot. While Forrester was a strong vocalist and his Southern drawl meshed surprisingly well with Riot’s music, Restless Breed (1982) failed to sell as well as its predecessor (despite its more commercial leanings) and the band left Elektra. The follow-up, Born in America, appeared on Candian indie Quality records in 1983, and shortly thereafter Riot disintegrated. (Forrester was killed by a carjacker a decade later, when he refused to relinquish his vehicle to the criminal.)

“Loanshark” from Restless Breed

Mark Reale, unlike his former band mates, refused to throw in the towel. He moved to Texas and continued to play music, though initially not as Riot. That is until 1988 when he re-emerged with an entirely new Riot lineup (that included drum wiz Bobby Jarzombek) completely devoid of any original members, save for Reale himself. They issued the Thundersteel album on CBS and have continued, more or less (and with numerous lineup changes), until Reale’s death. They were, in fact, just about to tour in support of their latest, Immortal Soul.

To be honest, the late-’80s-and-beyond, power metal version of Riot didn’t have the same appeal to us. It was an entirely band literally and figuratively. Reale’s playing remained stellar, but the vibe was different. Gone was the rough, street-wise NYC vibe, replaced by, well, this.

“Bloodstreets” from Thundersteel

Regardless, the Riot of 1977-1983, five albums in all, gave American metal a well-deserved kick in the ass at a crucial time. Ask any metal musician who came up in the era and they’ll tell you that those albums, particularly Fire Down Under, were important releases. So, we’ll leave you with this—one of our favorite Riot tracks—as well as our condolences to Mark Reale’s family and friends, and his numerous former band mates. The original Riot was an amazing band that deserves to be remembered. Rest in peace, Mark.

“Fire Down Under”

Get ready to put whatever trivial bullshit you were planning to bitch and moan over today on hold: The upcoming documentary Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet is imbued with the kind of uplifting against all odds triumph and spellbinding never-say-die persistence that reorients perspective in a serious way.

After making a name for himself in Cacophony with a Megadeth-bound Marty Friedman and releasing the well-received solo effort Perpetual Burn, neo-classical shred metal guitarist Jason Becker stood on the cusp of superstardom at the close of the Eighties. Alas, at age twenty Becker was diagnosed with the Lou Gehrig’s disease that would soon rob him of his virtuosic dexterity and freedom of movement. That’s the last most of us heard of Becker, but, happily, it is not where his story ends — in Not Dead Yet we learn he continues to compose music employing little save his eyes, chin, modern technology, and an iron will.

‘Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet’ [Film Trailer] from Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet on Vimeo.

“I didn’t want the film to focus on the disease,” director Jesse Vile told Decibel during a short break in his preparations for the impending world premiere of Not Dead Yet at the Cinequest Film Festival, “but rather more on Jason and his family’s battle to keep their dreams alive despite tremendous odds.”

I understand you’re a serious aficionado of guitar music. Is that love the genesis of Not Dead Yet?

I’m a big fan of the guitar and guitar music — especially guys that play with so much passion and feeling as Jason does. When I was 15-years-old my guitar teacher at the time introduced me to Jason and Cacophony. I immediately fell in love with Perpetual Burn and just thought it really stood out from so many other guitar-centric albums. You could really feel the beauty and emotion in Jason’s playing and he was only an 18-year-old kid at the time he recorded it. The natural, raw talent of this guy was so mysterious and magnetic…What I remember most were those beautiful bends in the intro that really made me feel like this guy was different and had more to say. It sounded unearthly and I immediately fell in love with his playing and music. I also loved that after he tears it up for half the song he breaks it down and shows how he can rock and have fun as well.

Jason really understands the importance of dynamics and I think that’s really what made him stand out for me. Then when I learned more about him I just thought he was such an incredible human being and always thought his story should be told.

What were your touchstones for the film? I know Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells a similar story.

Jason’s story is an interesting one in that it isn’t your typical rock star story. It isn’t a musician-becomes-famous-gets-hooked-on-drugs-nearly-dies-and-then-redeems-himself kind of story you hear so often. Those are all fine but Jason’s story is so much deeper in that it is really a story about love, family and the strength of the human spirit. It’s a much more universal story that everyone can identify with on some level. I didn’t think I could sum up such a powerful story in ten to fifteen minutes so I decided that Jason’s story needed to be a full-length feature. I did read Jean-Dominique Bauby’s book and watched the film as well, as I wanted to gain insight into another situation where someone was locked inside of themselves and how they dealt with that situation.

Considering the circumstances, it seems like it must have been difficult to build the trust necessary for the family to let you in.

The Beckers are amazing people who opened up their home to us and made us feel really comfortable and welcome. It did take a bit of convincing at first to gain their trust as they’ve had a few cases where people wanted to make films about Jason in the past and then just gave up after putting them through so much hard work. They were reluctant to take on another big project again but I was persistent. One way I showed them that I was serious and that I could make a good film was I took all the videos I could find off of Jason’s website and YouTube and cut a rough trailer and sent it to them. They loved it and gave me the go ahead.

Marty Friedman on Jason Becker and Cacophony from Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet on Vimeo.

How did spending time around Jason affect you as a person, separate from the film?

It is very inspiring being around Jason — although he’s not so much into the inspiring stuff. Jason just likes to chill out and make people laugh. He really is a goof ball and is so much fun to be around. He generally saves all the deep stuff for his music and when he writes it all just comes pouring out. When you go over to his place and spend time with him and his family you feel this powerful aura of love and inspiration and kindness that is so infectious. Everyone who goes over there says how affecting it is. You walk out of there feeling like a million bucks and you look at the world in a different way for a while. I love it over there and always look forward to visiting.

How involved was Jason in the direction the film took?

Jason was very involved from the start. I wanted him to be a part of the process. I showed him and his family a rough cut of the film to make sure it was accurate and true. They absolutely loved it and felt like I nailed it, which felt like such a huge achievement for me personally. Everyone, including Jason, had a lot of great comments and helped to shape it into a better film in the end. I think everyone hopes that this film will turn new people onto Jason’s music and will play a part in enabling him to continue writing and producing.

How much does Jason’s family figure into Not Dead Yet?

A lot of the film is their story. They play a huge part in Jason’s life. Jason’s dad Gary and his Uncle Ron play a huge part in the reason that Jason is a musician. They were his first guitar teachers and biggest source of inspiration. Also, a disease that is so debilitating as ALS affects everyone and not just the person with it. The Beckers have had to reshape their entire lives, dreams and futures as a result and have sacrificed a lot to stay a close family.

Obviously you made the film because you wanted to tell an extraordinary story. But the music Jason is still creating is also pretty epic/awesome. Is part of your motivation to open those songs up to a wider audience?

I‘d like more people to know about Jason and his music overall so everything he’s doing now and in the future is all a part of that. Hopefully it will turn on new people to his music. I think there is something for everyone in it.

How receptive was the shred guitar community to the documentary? Were Becker’s old cohorts aware of what he was up to?

The shred community was very receptive to the idea. A lot of people have been waiting a long time for a film about Jason to be made and the support we’ve received has been huge. We would never have come this far without their support and I’m so grateful for everyone that has helped along the way. Jason’s friends were also incredibly helpful and up for anything…Everyone was really eager to help but it was a challenge juggling everyone’s schedules. There were a few big musicians who wanted to be a part of the film but were unable due to conflicts with tour and recording schedules. It all worked out in the end though and I’m sure there are other ways more people can be involved now that the film is finished.

Steve Vai on Shred Guitar from Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet on Vimeo.

What do you hope people will take away from Not Dead Yet?

I’d like people to feel something, be touched in some way, and perhaps use that feeling in their own lives somehow.

This is your first feature-length film and it’s pretty high profile. Tell me a little bit about your background as a filmmaker.

I’ve wanted to make this film for many years and it took me a while before I felt like I was ready to tackle such a huge story that is really dear to many people. I think a lot of the themes in the film aren’t something that a person can really understand until they’ve grown up a little and have gained life experiences for themselves. Had I made this film as a younger person I probably would have made it more shred-heavy and delved more into Jason’s musical style and playing. But I didn’t want to make just a fan film as I think that would be selling Jason’s story short. I wanted to make a film that was universal and that had a human story at its core that many people could identify with.

Firstly, kudos to Ben Ward of Orange Goblin for posting this on Facebook today and reminding us that This is Spinal Tap doesn’t have a monopoly on eliciting belly laughs at the expense of rock and metal’s superstars.

You may like Def Leppard, and even those who don’t may still appreciate “Rocks Off” from On Through the Night as a good-times rock/metal track from when they still had some dirt in their sound…
“Rocks Off”

(See!? That’s OK)

…And yeah, probably most of you use the Sheffield vets for sick burn target practice and low humor and that’s cool, too. But all of you can forget that this is about Def Leppard, the story of a totally nauseously polished Mutt Lange record, and just sit back and enjoy the majesty of soap actors playing working class heavy metal heroes embracing the ideal of superstardom—artistic zenith or not, ponder their chances with the fairer sex, are sick on each other, get chided by their mothers for being too thin post-tour….

This isn’t some cheap shot at what was an acceptable triumph-over-adversity story, what with drummer Rick Allen losing his arm in a 1984 car accident and the perennial squabbles to shout down egos and cope with the late Steve Clark’s drink problems. No, that’s all five dudes’ sacrosanct personal history, etc…

But the filmmakers, ha! For shame. VH1, too, they deserve a warm round of applause for originally airing a rock bio to trump their cheese and plum-treacle Behind the Music puke-fests. Who would have thought such mawkish sentimentality, ham-acting and ridiculous editing (opening scene: Rick Allen’s car crash) and script would have failed to rouse and rally the critics in the same fashion that the straight-ahead Ramones biopic End of the Century did? Well, duh. But c’mon, this should be a cult classic. It is, excuse the pun, car-crash filmmaking at its best/worst.

It’s all up on YouTube so just click through for each chapter. We’d post it all but the lawsuits from unfortunates stuck mid-cringe is too great.
Here are some of the more choice seens including tasteful Corvette-trashing opener and some great inter-band banter, post-review drama, and comedy accents.

Part One

Part Five

Part Nine

Metal writers (sorry, not journos) are subjected to a slew of email proclamations from publicists, labels, and other label-centric interests. Stuff like “on tour now”, “new promo materials”, “x band celebrates the release of y album”, and so on. Basically, every day it’s email after email of one band’s new album release after another. Well, after sifting through my digital desktop last Friday, I get an email from Mediaskare Records, with this in the title, “Murder Death Kill ‘Abomination’ Music Video Premiered On [SITE REDACTED SO THIS SHOWS UP ON FACEBOOK-ed]“. Murder Death Kill? Must be a joke band, one of those death metal parody bands that is funny at first but not so much after 4.7 seconds.

Well, turns out Murder Death Kill aren’t a joke band, but some “beatdown”-core band from some hardscrabble town in California. So, the one-sheet states, “Mediaskare Records has teamed up with [SITE REDACTED SO THIS SHOWS UP ON FACEBOOK-ed] to premiere Murder Death Kill’s sure to be controversial music video for their track ‘Abomination’, the video can be seen here.” Controversial music video? The band’s name is Murder Death Kill. OK, why not?! So, I click on the video link (embedded below) — remembering the promo photo of the band all toughed up and bald-headed, with one face-tatted guy sporting ‘Keep Metal Out of Hardcore’ pentagram shirt — to find Murder Death Kill going through the motions of what could be any band appearing before 3 p.m. at the New England Metalfest. Chug, breakdown, pose, chug, breakdown, pose. At first blush, the ‘Keep Metal Out of Hardcore’ pentagram shirt is probably more irony than concrete statement, ’cause Murder Death Kill is far more hardcore than they are metal. If it were the reverse statement, ah, well, nevermind.

So, what’s so controversial about four dudes jamming in an alley with three other circlejerkers moshing to director’s cues? Uh, well, the plot of this ‘controversial’ video — obviously music and video theme conceived by an as-yet-revealed Rhodes Scholar — is a scene where a bro-heenie girl is attending a show of some v-neck wearing emo band. Singer comes on to scene girl, scene girl says no, plots revenge, texts her bro-heenies, and when v-neck wearing emo band exits the venue, Murder Death Kill show up with like 100 other bro-heenies to, uh, beat down (or perhaps kill) v-neck wearing emo band to, guess what, a breakdown. Brilliant!

Now, if Murder Death Kill were the tough guys they think they are, wouldn’t they stand and face the consequences, not scatter like cockroaches after v-neck wearing emo band lay bloodied and unmoving. Of course not. Like the wimps they are, the dudes run away, never to be caught for the act, or so the story in the video goes. Controversial? Hardly. It’s actually far more moronic than controversial. Rammstein’s NSFW “Pussy” video is controversial.

The takeaway: A) Murder Death Kill will beat the living shit out of people, musicians, etc. they find different. Neat. Revelatory! Isn’t it slightly ironic that members of Murder Death Kill would find v-neck wearing emo band “different” enough, when both bands in the video are “different” from regular society, and therefore cut from the same cloth? Or maybe I’m missing the point altogether and ‘Abomination”s really about the girl. OK, if that’s the case, then cue Rammstein, please.

Ah, well, it seems like ignorance is rife in Murder Death Kill, and the outcoming bliss is that, in the end, karma may be a bitch, but Darwinism’s much worse.