Canadian speed metal merchants Exciter, along with bands like Accept, Motorhead, and fellow Canadians Anvil, are widely regarded as one of the innovators of the speed metal movement. Speed metal was a precursor of thrash metal, and it has been argued that Exciter invented thrash, but for me, that title sits firmly on the shoulders of Metallica. Ibelieve that Exciter was an influence on what would come later but they were never a thrash band.
Their debut album Heavy Metal Maniac was released through Shrapnel records in 1983 and they had a successful run throughout the eighties touring with the likes of Mercyful Fate, Motorhead and Manowar. The band split up in 1989 but reformed in 1991, the line up at the time consisted of drummer/vocalist Dan Beehler, bassist David Ledden and guitarist John Ricci. The album I am listening to right now – Kill After Kill was released in 1992 on Noise records. The album is being re issued by Cherry Red Records, it has been remastered and includes extensive liner notes and contributions from the band describing the recording process and the changing climate in the metal world at the time.
This is my first time listening to this album and I have to say it is an extremely enjoyable listen for an old school metal head like me. Pounding drums, screaming vocals, manic guitar riffs and song titles like Smashing Em Down andRain of Terror give you a good idea of what is on offer here. There is nothing highbrow about Exciter, they absolutely deliver the goods here though. Dig out your studded wristbands and bullet belts, turn this up to eleven and worship at the metal altar of Kill After Kill!
German heavy metal legend Udo Dirkschneider returns with his 18th studio album under the U.D.O. moniker – ‘Game Over’. Ah, I remember as if it was yesterday (it was actually 1986) when I heard Accept’s ‘Restless and Wild’ album for the first time. The opening double bass drum barrage of Fast as a Shark had a huge impact on this young drummer. That album was a major influence on the thrash and speed metal genre with Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, Testament et al citing Accept as a huge inspiration. They had further worldwide success with the follow up ‘Balls to the Wall’ which went gold in the US and Canada.
Accept’s then frontman Udo Dirkschneider made an impact with his distinctive voice and image. After leaving (or being fired from) Accept in 1987 he formed U.D.O. and enjoyed continued success. With this latest album Dirkschneider tackles important subject matter ranging from climate change, war, and political corruption. The album delivers everything you expect, and I have to say Dirkschneider sounds fantastic, he sounds as good today as he ever did. The band also deliver some top-notch performances with riffs galore from guitar duo Andrey Smirnov and Fabian Dee Dammers and Udo’s son Sven delivers a fantastic performance on the drum throne.
Great song titles like ‘Fear Detector’, ‘Metal Never Dies’ and ‘Like A Beast’ sound just like you would imagine, metal to the core! One track that stands out though is ‘Kids and Guns’ with its almost AC/DC like groove. It feels a little out of place with the other tracks, but I like it all the same. Let’s be honest, if you’re checking out this album you know what to expect, it’s true head banging heavy metal that delivers what it says on the tin. A strong album that will appeal to U.D.O.’s hardcore fan base.
With a career that spans over forty years you must admire Dirkschneider for sticking to what he does best for all these years. As Accept famously said… ‘Shake Your Heads’!
Game Over is released on October 8th through AFM records.
TAKEN FROM THEIR NEW STUDIO ALBUM THE AFFAIR OF THE POISONS DUE FOR RELEASE ON PEACEVILLE ON 9TH OCTOBER
Album pre-orders now available
Hellripper have released their debut single and animated lyric video for “Spectres Of The Blood Moon Sabbath” from the upcoming new studio album The Affair Of The Poisons scheduled for release on 9th October 2020 through Peaceville.
“Spectres of the Blood Moon Sabbath” sets the scene for the new album as its themesprimarily revolve around the dark & insidious underworld witchcraft and the occult, with some tracks being based on historical events. The single unfurls in an infernal storm of heavy blackened thrash. James McBain, Hellripper mainman comments “this was one of the first tracks written for the album and has a definite “rock ‘n’ roll” feel to it with its bouncy rhythm & a Motörhead or TANK vibe, and it is one of two songs on the album where Joseph (live guitarist) performed lead guitar”.
James, based in the Scottish Highlands, says of their forthcoming epic new album The Affair of the Poisons that “it contains the mixture of thrash/black/speed metal and punk that Hellripper has become known for, but this time I feel that the end result is more cohesive. Some of the tracks are more straight-forward while others contain some twists and parts that are new to the Hellripper sound. As always, the whole writing and recording process was done at home by myself, with a few friends of mine contributing some additional vocals and lead guitar parts. The album was mixed by myself and was mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege who did an amazing job.
Skadvaldur did an excellent job, as he always does, of creating a piece of artwork that both represents the album’s themes, as well as being a somewhat of a homage in style to the old B-horror movie posters that inspired a few of the album’s tracks.”
The Affair Of The Poisons will be released on CD, LP, cassette and digital through Peaceville on 9th October and is available to pre-order now HERE
The band has also announced that they will be touring later in the year to coincide with the album’s release, some headline shows in the UK plus as special guests to Cleveland based Black Rock ‘n’ Roll/Thrash legends Midnight.
Hellripper has been fast gaining a reputation for whipping up an infectious storm of blackened speed metal greatness in the spirit of old and are one of the most electrifying young, up & coming metal acts in the scene today.
Inspired by the likes of the old-school legends including Venom, Kreator, Sabbat [JPN] and Metallica, McBain formed Hellripper in 2014 and with the release of the debut EP The Manifestation of Evil shortly after, the band were already making a very clear mission statement… Total fucking mayhem!
Back in the old days, there were a few bands who responded well to being harrassed by some writers from this side of the pond and some who lurked in the underground punk rock scene consistently knocking out great punk rock and B movie videos. Recently one of those beasts reconnected with RPM and had some new music available so it seems only fair that we threw out a few questions to Anthony about just what Chesty Malone is up to? So here goes a quick chat whilst your waiting for the new album to drop…
Hi Anthony, What have Chesty Malone & The Slice Em Ups been up to lately?
We spent most of the spring and summer of 2019 playing east coast shows in support of our ‘Satanic Brooklyn Scum’ 7” that came out on April fool’s day this year. We played with Dr Chud’s solo band in Delaware, we headlined a record release show at Lucky 13 Saloon in Brooklyn where we had a satanic blessing just before we went on. We also played Philadelphia, PA, and Altoona and State College, PA plus a bunch more I’m currently not remembering hahaha, I think we made it somewhere in Ohio too. We also have a brand new 3 song 7” coming out on Friday the 13th in December, ‘19. It’s called ‘Destroy All Humans’ and it’s gonna be on green, purple and black wax on 1332 Records. We also have upcoming shows in Brooklyn where we’re opening for Poison Idea’s final show along with our first ever shows in Pittsburgh, PA and Baltimore, MD and more!
For those new to the band can you give us a potted overview of who you are and what brought you together?
We formed in 2006 in the very depths of Queens, NY. We (Anthony Van Hoek and Jaqueline Blownaparte) were both heavy in the NYC Punk and hardcore scene and we decided to come together to bring back a more extreme old school feel. Music wasn’t our only influence, lots of B movies, Coors Light and hanging out with cool cats (the animals, not the people) inspired our new brand of sound. We like to express our love of those things and our feelings of disgust with society and people around us. Have you ever wondered what it’d be like if the OG Misfits played a VFW show with Metallica, the Cramps, the Plasmatics, the Stooges, Venom and some Las Vegas Strip club bands from the ‘50s while a Twilight Zone marathon played between bands with a white female Dolemite MCing the whole shabang? Well, wonder no more.
The East coast around the New York area especially has been such a creative centre for great Rock and Roll? what memories have you got of getting into punk rock?
My very 1st punk rock memory is probably when my uncle Allen brought the 1st Ramones record over to our house one summer when I was about 7 years old. That made a huge and indelible impression on me for sure. The east coast is great but we still wanna make it out west one day too!
Who influenced the sound of Chesty Malone?
I mean, life in general hahaha. Walk down the street behind a bunch of inconsiderate a-holes who don’t realize there are other people trying to use the sidewalk and you can get influenced by that for sure. Be a bouncer at a biker bar in New York City where you have to listen to the same country and classic rock tunes every night for years on end and that will inevitably sink into your soul. Ride the subway every day of your miserable life alongside rats, roaches and every form of assorted degenerate the world has to offer and, well you guessed it, huge influence! Sure I could name some bands we like but that’d be a bit boring and you can probably draw some conclusions on your own anyway.
You have a new record on the way what are the chances of a long-player? What about live shows?
We are currently writing and rehearsing for a new full-length album, thanks for asking! I’ll even give ya a scoop: it’s gonna be called “Please Chesty Don’t Hurt ‘em” and we’re always playing shows! Comin’ at ya live!
What about 2020 any plans for the band?
Well yeah! We’ve got the ‘Destroy All Humans’ 7” coming out at the end of 2019 so we’ll be shamelessly hawking that hot slab ‘o wax along with ‘Satanic Brooklyn Scum’ and all our other stuff all year. Maybe our 4th album that I mentioned above will come out in 2020. Unless something terrible happens of course.
On to you personally, What or Who made you pick up the guitar in the first place? From the scene that you started out in who are still kicking about? I’ve seen some cool footage of shows from places like Coney Island they always look like a lot of fun and a great community? where has everyone gone or are they still around?
Yeah, it’s more of a WHAT that made me want to play the guitar. I’ve always loved the dirty heavy sound of a loud distorted guitar. Literally from the scene, I started out in, I can only think of the band Slough Feg that’s still around. Look ’em up if ya don’t know.
Your videos always look like a load of fun some great B movie humour going on where do you get your ideas?
Thank ya! I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with video concept ideas and song ideas and artwork concepts etc. I keep a notebook and pen by my bed for these purposes.
There you go, folks, a quick catch up with our Favourite Queens punk rockers check out the videos and go listen to their tunes stream them or pop along to one of the links provided and pick up an old school record – they rock!
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 – 𝗜𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗢𝗻 𝗡𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟲𝘁𝗵 – Uncompromising and unmissable, this one-night-only event features the short film paired with a full concert performance and a cinema-exclusive welcome from the band.
For nearly four decades, Slayer’s onslaught has proven them to be the supreme thrash-metal band on the planet – the band that other heavy acts are measured against and aspire to. With their place in music history secure, Slayer – Tom Araya, Kerry King, Gary Holt and Paul Bostaph – in conjunction with Trafalgar Releasing, Nuclear Blast Records and Prime Zero Productions, will unleash the Slaytanic offensive on the big screen when “Slayer: The Repentless Killogy” debuts in movie theatres around the world on November 6, 2019. Uncompromising and unmissable, this one-night-only event will feature the short film paired with Slayer’s entire performance filmed at its August 5, 2017 concert at the Los Angeles Forum.
Revenge, murder, bloodshed and retribution. “Slayer: The Repentless Killogy” short film was written and directed by BJ McDonnell, who conceived and directed the three brutal music videos – “You Against You,” “Repentless,” and “Pride in Prejudice”- for Slayer’s final studio album Repentless (2015).
The “Repentless Killogy” motion picture begins with the powerful short narrative film that brings together the music of Slayer and the grisly story they wanted to tell. Opening with the trilogy of music videos assembled as one chronological storyline, we are introduced to the narrative’s main character Wyatt, a former Neo Nazi associated with “The Hand Brotherhood,” a gang whose signature mark was a bloody handprint left after a murder had taken place. Prior to the first music video, Wyatt had left the gang after he fell in love with Gina. The two had gone into hiding to escape his gruesome past and start a family, but The Hand Brotherhood was not going to allow that to happen, and Gina, pregnant with their first child, was savagely murdered as Wyatt was forced to look on. The film then segues into the present-time narrative that sees Wyatt on the run from law enforcement and the Nazi gang, but now dedicated to eliminating The Hand Brotherhood and seeking retribution wherever he can.
“The Repentless Killogy” stars many of the actors who appeared in the original video series: Jason Trost (“Beats of Rage,” “Hatchet III”) as Wyatt, Danny Trejo (“Machete,” “From Dusk Til Dawn”), Richard Speight (“Band of Brothers,” “Supernatural”), Derek Mears (“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”), Jessica Pimentel (“Orange Is The New Black”), Tyler Mane (“X-Men,” “Halloween !!”), Bill Moseley (“The Devil’s Rejects,” “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2”), Caroline Williams (“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” “Sharknado 4”), and Sean Whalen (“Twister,” “The People Under The Stairs”).
Part two of “The Repentless Killogy” features Slayer’s entire live set performed at the Los Angeles Forum on August 5, 2017, and was directed by Wayne Isham who has directed videos for artists including Metallica, Foo Fighters, Michael Jackson, Kelly Clarkson, and Britney Spears. Presented in front of one of the most striking stage productions of the band’s career, Slayer performs fan-favorites including “South of Heaven,” “War Ensemble,” “Mandatory Suicide,” “Dead Skin Mask,” “Raining Blood,” and “Angel of Death.”
Best known for his work in D.O.A. and The Four Horsemen Ken was the older brother of Chuck Biscuits who he followed into D.O.A. The brothers both played drums and whilst Chuck went on to play in Black Flag, circle jerks and Social Distortion Ken had the honour of being the stickman in the mighty Four Horsemen. Releasing their classic rock album ‘Nobody Said It Was Easy’ in ’91 Dimwit passed away on this day in ’94 of a Heroin overdose during the making of the bands follow up album ‘Gettin’ Pretty Good… at Barely Gettin’ By’ but the band seemed cursed as Dimwit was replaced by his younger brother to complete the recording. Later in ’95 frontman Starr was hit by a drunk driver and ended up in a coma with the album eventually coming out in ’96 with just Limzi as the sole remaining member. The album was dedicated to Dimwit.
Enjoy him at the peak of his powers on the magnificent ‘Tired Wings’
Clifford Lee Burton Born February 10, 1962 in California he was the youngest of three children first played the piano courtesy of his father Ray. Clifford started playing the bass at 13 and said he would become the best Bass player he could be for his brother who had passed away. Even after joining Metallica he was still understood to practice for up to six hours a day the usual suspects influenced his style and playing Lynott, Lee and Lemmy all styles that would have a bearing on the young Californian.
Playing on the metal giants first three albums ‘Kill ‘Em All’, ‘Ride the Lightning’ and ‘Master of Puppets’. He also received a writing credit for the song “To Live Is to Die” from the band’s fourth studio album, ‘…And Justice for All’.
On September 27, 1986, Burton was asleep as the tour bus he was travelling in was the centre of an accident in Kronoberg County, a rural area of Sweden. Metallica was supporting the ‘Master of Puppets’ album.
His passing was big news at the time for the tragedy that befell someone so young with so much going for him having the time of his young life. former bandmate Dave Mustain wrote ‘In My Darkest Hour’ about the news of his friend and fellow metal heavyweights Anthrax and Metal Church also dedicated records to their comrade Burton. Of the accident, Hetfield refuted the drivers claims that he hit black ice by suggesting he was under the influence.
Hetfield also stated that he walked long distances down the road looking for black ice and found none. When local freelance photographer Lennart Wennberg (who attended the crash scene the following morning), was asked in a later interview about the likelihood that black ice caused the accident, he said it was ‘out of the question’ because the road was dry and the temperature around 2 °C (36 °F), above the freezing point of 0 °C (32 °F). This was confirmed by police who – like Hetfield – also found no ice on the road. Ljungby detective Arne Pettersson was reported in a local newspaper to have said the tracks at the accident site were exactly like ones seen when drivers fall asleep at the wheel. However, the driver stated under oath that he had slept during the day and was fully rested; his testimony was confirmed by the driver of a second tour bus that was carrying the band’s crew and equipment. The driver was determined not at fault for the accident and no charges were brought against him. Regardless Burton wasn’t coming back and his memory lives on through his huge contribution to the birth and growth of a whole Genre and subsequent immense career of his bandmates. Rest in peace Ken and Cliff.
Well, we certainly didn’t stand still in the last seven days as we brought you reviews from a range of artist old and new with The Lemonheads starting things off with the second studio album of cover versions entitled ‘Varshons 2‘. As Evan Dando and Co, head out on a UK tour this week to promote the record RPM gave it the thumbs up as Dando led the band through some pretty diverse waters. Westerberg, Cave and the Eagles all made it onto the record which as an aside came out in a scented banana yellow version as well.
It was also a week that saw two live albums hit the death decks at RPM with Metallica lending a ‘Helping Hand’ Where they released a double album with proceeds going to a most admirable cause and helping the most vulnerable in society a real genuine act of kindness that doesn’t get the exposure it truly deserves as the rock stars are often castigated for their excesses but seldom praised when they do reach out with a simple yet effective act of kindness. So a huge well done from us at RPM as Johnny H gets stuck into the double slice of vinyl trouble.
The second of our live reviews came when Martin gave The Godfather a good seeing to with their fantastic ‘This Is War’ the once over. describing it as, “Loud Sharp and Beautiful”, is about as close a summery as you can get. It’s fair to say that it damn near captures the current line up right at the top of their game. It’s certainly raw it’s certainly loud and no question it has the Godfathers roaring on all cylinders and has you wondering why all live albums can’t sound this good. Essential listening no doubt about it.
We also brought you a summary of this years Gathering from North Wales as Mike Peters and the Alarm romped through a huge chunk of their back catalogue over two nights with plenty of special guests that included original Alarm Guitar player Dave Sharp, from Texas Ryan Hamilton and 80’s pop rockers Mark Shaws then Jerico. This year’s festivities weren’t without incident as the PA went down twice but it didn’t deter PEters who climbed into the audience with his acoustic guitar and un mic’d got the audience singing along and making the most out of a potentially bad situation and making it a memorable evening no doubt about it. Gathering twenty-Seven was again a privilege to attend and I can’t wait for 2020 and number twenty Eight.
We also brought you The Spangles album launch show from way up North otherwise known as Harrogate as Ben Hughes had an equally splendid evening with an immensely talented band playing one hell of a debut album. I for one hope there is a lot more to come from these three guys because their album was easily one of 2018 best releases.
As far as news goes we joined the rock world in wishing Bernie Torme a speedy recovery from his hospitalization from double Pneumonia and hope he’s back to full health as soon as possible. The same for our Australian friend Hayden McGoogan from The Black Heart Breakers who also found himself in Hospital this past week – Get yourselves fit and health please gents and I’m sure I speak for all the writers at RPM in wishing you both speedy full recoveries.
There was also some superb festival news as The Dead Boys were announced as headliners for this year’s Rebellion Festival in Blackpool along with Walter Lure who will be playing L.A.M.F. at the festival and across the channel in Belgium Sjock Festival announced a raft of superb bands added to this years festival including RPM favourites The Hip Priests and Barstool Preachers who play alongside The Hives, Hellacopters, Electric Frankenstein, the Briefs and Gluecifer. To be fair news wise last week was a bumper week for great rock n roll news.
Anyway, that was last week on RPM and as we are always looking forward here’s what you can expect this coming week on the website. We’ve got a couple of bumper interviews with the likes of Slyder from Last Great Dreamers as they announce a lot of dates for 2019 in what appears to be a hugely busy year for the band. Also, we have a monster interview with “Demons” Matheus Carlsson which should see your Friday seem a lot more enjoyable as we spoke about the past present and future of the band in what also looks like a great year for the band.
As for album reviews we’re once again scouring the globe for great bands and we’ve certainly got those coming at you with the debut long player from ‘Wet Dreams’ reviewed today by Johnny H and there is also the long-awaited long player from Jim Jones & the Righteous Mind’ coming later this week as ‘CollectiV’ has certainly been entertaining RPM HQ and what will be one of the years top albums no question about that. We also look back on some significant happenings this coming week in punk, rock and pop music history so keep it RPM folks for all your turbocharged Rock n Roll!
Having a pop at metal behemoths Metallica in 2019 really is like shooting fish in a barrel, just one look at the ticket prices for their upcoming UK dates and the fact that their manager Peter Mensch basically told the fans prior to the tour that he was pushing prices as high as he could should be as easy a starting point as any.
This aside though just over 2 years ago I last witnessed the band live playing an 850 capacity underground venue in London where the ticket price was a donation to a local charity that helped homeless children to get off the streets. They raised £15,000 that night as well as a hell of a lot of pairs of horns. So, kudos to the band for that.
‘Helping Hands… Live & Acoustic At The Masonic’ very much continues this theme as it is Metallica’s all-new limited edition double live vinyl album that supports the band’s All Within My Hands Foundation, a multi-cause platform set up to support society’s most vulnerable – you can check out the website linked below for more information.
Getting back this album and the online presale meant you had to be quick out the blocks to get one of these double 140gm blue vinyl beauties as they sold out almost overnight. So, I guess you’re probably wondering, why all the fuss?
Well, this 12 track set recorded at the Helping Hands Concert and Auction back in November of last year really is Metallica like you’ve never heard them before. I was immediately hooked after seeing the video for ‘All Within My Hands’, a deep cut from the ‘St Anger’ album that here, devoid of Lars’ awful cod reggae snare sound and now resplendent with pedal steel guitar, sounds like a completely new song. Likewise, the versions of ‘Disposable Heroes’ and ‘Enter Sandman’ that were also video leaked sound almost unrecognisable here, and I can’t help thinking of the ‘Unledded’ Page and Plant album, albeit forget the Far Eastern influences and instead get ready for Metallica goes Deep South.
With this in mind the (almost) played straight versions of ‘Nothing Else Matters’, and ‘The Unforgiven’ actually come as something of a disappointment, however, the acoustic thrash versions of ‘The Four Horsemen’ and ‘Hardwired’ that bring the 71 minutes set to a crashing close really do sound like the band having the most fun they’ve had in years.
The rest of the track listing is basically made up of covers of songs by the likes of Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Bob Seger and Nazareth, and again if I’m being totally honest here, I’d much rather have heard a few more of the band’s own deeper cuts being given the acoustic reinvention treatment. However what’s that old adage again about keeping them wanting more? Ha, well Metallica has certainly done that with ‘Helping Hands… Live & Acoustic At The Masonic’.
There appear to still be some retail copies of this LP set to hit the shelves (it looks like March) so if you do your search engine homework you can still possibly pre-order copies of this LP on the interweb without having to pay a flipper a Discogs King’s ransom, and trust me when I say it really is worth every penny of the donation you’ll be making to the All Within My Hands Foundation.
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