Lesser-known metal/punk from the 80's

Flick James · May 11, 2011, 02:32:33 PM

My tastes have widened and tempered quite a bit since then, but in high school I was all about hardcore metal and some punk, and went to many shows in Southern California. There were a number of bands that I liked that released albums on labels like Metal Blade that never went on to prominence, but made amazing music nonetheless. I see some of those bands mentioned on this site periodically. I'm going to mention some of those lesser-known bands and some commentary. I'm kind of curious how many of them are known by members here.

Dark Angel: I roadied for this band a couple of times in 1984. They were very fast and very hard. There was a venue in Long Beach called Fender's Ballroom that was a haven for hardcore metal and punk shows, and I used to see Dark Angel here all the time. Drummer Gene Hoglan is considered one of the best hardcore metal drummers in the business and has lent his hands and legs to about a gazillion metal projects.

Omen: Another band from Metal Blade Records that I saw once in their original incarnation in 1984, with J. D. Kimball on vocals. Solid power metal with a medieval theme, dressing in their original days in armor and featuring medieval weaponry on stage.

Possessed: Early death metal band from the Bay Area. I saw them once and the vocalist was doing his best to entice the audience into as violent a pit as possible.

Final Conflict: Hardcore punk band. The mid-80's saw concert promoters increasingly putting together shows with hardcore metal and punk bands on the same bill. This had been unheard of before, but I was going to shows when it was first being introduced. Sometimes these shows would be very violent, and metalheads and punks were quite at odds in California leading up to this trend. Final Conflict played a lot of these shows, although they were very much at odds with the metal crowd.

Hirax: I used to love this band. They were an unusual thrash band in that the vocals were higher pitched and melodic, less of the gutteral screaming, and that they had a black vocalist, certainly unusual for a metal band in the 80's.

Wargod: This band was very below the radar. I mention them because I started a band with the bassist Greg Gunthner called Archangel around 1983/84. He had just started playing bass. He was the guy who introduced me to all of this music by showing me the first Slayer EP and turning me on to many of the bands listed above. He became quite a talented bassist and went on to play with Wargod and then moved on to playing fusion jazz. The drummer was Lee Rausch, drummer for Dark Angel and an early drummer or Megadeth.

Just curious how familiar these bands are for some of our metal-loving members.

Psycho Circus · May 11, 2011, 02:37:54 PM

Heard of them all dude.

I absolutely LOVE Dark Angel, I actually think they were better than Slayer back in the early 80s. They were faster, without being any less technical, if not more technical than Slayer and just as evil, bordering on death metal. That is so cool that you were a roadie for them. I really wish they'd put another record out, "Perish In Flames" and "Welcome To The Slaughterhouse" are the most brutal thrash metal songs I've ever heard.

lester1/2jr · May 11, 2011, 06:00:15 PM

this band was from my hometown of Needham, MA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyoVuq43qIU

Allhallowsday · May 11, 2011, 07:44:35 PM

DARK ANGEL is about the only thrash I'd want to listen to (I think)...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p63k2dFHIvs

Technically, an astonishing band. How cool is it that you were their roadie?

I don't know any of the other bands, except FINAL CONFLICT... there was a British Prog Rock band by that name wasn't there?

HappyGilmore · May 11, 2011, 08:57:49 PM

Quote from: Allhallowsday on May 11, 2011, 07:44:35 PM
DARK ANGEL is about the only thrash I'd want to listen to (I think)...

Technically, an astonishing band. How cool is it that you were their roadie?
I don't know any of the other bands, except FINAL CONFLICT... there was a British Prog Rock band by that name wasn't there?

There is a British band Final Conflict, yes. They did the album Redress the Balance.

Not a fan of thrash?

Flick James · May 12, 2011, 09:20:30 AM

Quote from: HappyGilmore on May 11, 2011, 08:57:49 PM
Quote from: Allhallowsday on May 11, 2011, 07:44:35 PM
DARK ANGEL is about the only thrash I'd want to listen to (I think)...

Technically, an astonishing band. How cool is it that you were their roadie?
I don't know any of the other bands, except FINAL CONFLICT... there was a British Prog Rock band by that name wasn't there?
There is a British band Final Conflict, yes. They did the album Redress the Balance.

Not a fan of thrash?

When I looked up the punk band Final Conflict to see if they were still up to anything I saw that there was also a British band by the same name. The punk band Final Conflict was a pretty big player in keeping punk alive in Orange County when it had died away in the late 80's. The are sometimes credited for playing a part in the punk resurgence in the 90's. I've never cared for the resurgent punk bands of the 90's, I just remember liking the Final Conflic shows when I saw them in the early/mid 80's.

One of my alltime favorite shows from the metal/punk hybrid shows that started popping up around 1984/85 in Southern California was Slayer and D.R.I. That was the first show I went to where there was nearly an even mix of metal heads and punks. It was out of that period that the mosh pit arose, because before then that was not engaged in at metal shows. Some articles say it crossed over from punk in the 90's during the grunge explosion, but that's bulls**t. Metalheads were doing it in Southern California in '84. I saw it start when long-haired metalheads I hung out with, who would never have been caught at a punk show, let alone dancing in the pit, were suddenly doing it. Dark Angel used to encourage it.

Ah, memories. I don't listen to much of it anymore, but I still got some Slayer and VoiVod and Celtic Frost in my iPod.

Flick James · May 12, 2011, 09:36:36 AM

Quote from: lester1/2jr on May 11, 2011, 06:00:15 PM
this band was from my hometown of Needham, MA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyoVuq43qIU

I like that picture of the band the comes up later in the song. I remember the sleeveless denim jacket worn over the leather jacket bit. I couldn't afford a leather jacket back then, but I sported plenty of the sleeveless denim jackets, though, and drew plenty of metal artwork all over them.

The album cover artwork looks alot like the kind of thing you'd see on an Omen album cover.

Flick James · May 12, 2011, 09:39:55 AM

Quote from: Circus Circus on May 11, 2011, 02:37:54 PM
Heard of them all dude.

I absolutely LOVE Dark Angel, I actually think they were better than Slayer back in the early 80s. They were faster, without being any less technical, if not more technical than Slayer and just as evil, bordering on death metal. That is so cool that you were a roadie for them. I really wish they'd put another record out, "Perish In Flames" and "Welcome To The Slaughterhouse" are the most brutal thrash metal songs I've ever heard.

I didn't expect anybody to have heard of Wargod. They never released anything except for an EP, which was pretty much a demo. They were a technically brilliant band, however. I think they just couldn't keep the band together long enough to go very far.

Psycho Circus · May 12, 2011, 12:02:54 PM

Quote from: Flick James on May 12, 2011, 09:39:55 AM
I didn't expect anybody to have heard of Wargod. They never released anything except for an EP, which was pretty much a demo. They were a technically brilliant band, however. I think they just couldn't keep the band together long enough to go very far.

I've basically spent the last 12-14 years reading up and listening to as much obscure 80s metal as I can get my hands on. There's hundreds of really good bands that only managed a few demos or an EP before they broke up. Just seemed to depend on keeping it together long enough for record execs to take notice or high demand for a certain genre in the market. I hate when people say that the only great bands are the ones that have stayed popular and been around years. Yes, they maybe good, but there's a lot of hard work, timing and luck as well do with it, crossover appeal also. There's five or six bands I've heard that I could list that have only managed an EP or one solitary record that could blow the balls off a thousand more artists whose careers span decades.

HappyGilmore · May 12, 2011, 04:30:05 PM

Im a big fan of Anthrax. Not many seem to give them any kinda credit in the scene.

Flick James · May 12, 2011, 04:35:54 PM

Quote from: HappyGilmore on May 12, 2011, 04:30:05 PM
Im a big fan of Anthrax. Not many seem to give them any kinda credit in the scene.

I don't know about that. They acheived some semi-mainstream recognition. They are far more widely known than Dark Angel, for example. I was never a big fan of Anthrax, but I've always given them their due credit for what they contributed to the 80's hard metal scene.

Psycho Circus · May 12, 2011, 04:40:21 PM

Quote from: Flick James on May 12, 2011, 04:35:54 PM
Quote from: HappyGilmore on May 12, 2011, 04:30:05 PM
Im a big fan of Anthrax. Not many seem to give them any kinda credit in the scene.

I don't know about that. They acheived some semi-mainstream recognition. They are far more widely known than Dark Angel, for example. I was never a big fan of Anthrax, but I've always given them their due credit for what they contributed to the 80's hard metal scene.

Yeah, Anthrax were/are pretty huge in the thrash genre and extremely well respected. They got a ton of exposure on MTV back in the 80s/early 90s and still pack out large theatres to this day. They practically invented rap-metal (not a good thing though) and are seen over here as one of the most important thrash bands.

RCMerchant · May 12, 2011, 05:11:51 PM

GBH-!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGlRSYU2ais&feature=related

Chaotic Discord!

I had the album Virgin Goat F#ckers from Hell...!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajfZO4kiHnE

Millions of Dead Cops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SeMgDlG9MI&feature=related

HappyGilmore · May 12, 2011, 05:59:19 PM

Quote from: Flick James on May 12, 2011, 04:35:54 PM
Quote from: HappyGilmore on May 12, 2011, 04:30:05 PM
Im a big fan of Anthrax. Not many seem to give them any kinda credit in the scene.

I don't know about that. They acheived some semi-mainstream recognition. They are far more widely known than Dark Angel, for example. I was never a big fan of Anthrax, but I've always given them their due credit for what they contributed to the 80's hard metal scene.

What I meant by credit, probably worded it wrong. I meant, basically, that I know a lot of people who pretty much say that they don't like them, they're sh*t, produce terrible music, things like that. There's a lot of people that tend to overlook em in favor of Slayer, Dark Angel, Executioner and lesser known bands. Even some magazines try to discredit them a bit. They produce a lot of great records.

Allhallowsday · May 12, 2011, 09:51:21 PM

Nope, not a fan of Thrash, or any of these many other Metal labels... I particularly dislike when the "singing" is gargling a raw egg, and it's as boring as Rap can get. It ain't hardcore to me if it's nothing but attitude. I just want music with my attitude. We're all going to be dead a long time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkep-zFQJ2s

I guess lots of people now know NINA HAGEN, but in my day I was the only one who had her album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r5MBBRRn1Y

THE DICTATORS were hot on the East Coast, well known now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3XyJ0VjAw4