Review #28 - Saint Vitus - Saint Vitus

Genre: Doom Metal, Slow Heavy Metal
Label: SST Records
Country: USA
Released: 1984
My Rating: 8/8

Saint Vitus, proboably the earliest "doom metal" bands formed as early as in 1979. They took their name from a Black Sabbath song "Saint Vitus Dance". Saint Vitus was a christian saint who according to a legend, cured some cesar's son from a so called dancing disease aka Huntington's disease which causes dementia and forced motions or something like that. This is their first album and it's selftitled as you proboably realised unless you are blind and can't actually read anything i'm writing here so brrrrrrrrrr. It was released on one of the main influences of this band, Black Flag's label SST and produced by one of Black Flag members, Dez Cadena along with 2 other dudes. It's cool that the band had alot of influences, but still their sound doesn't sound like a total ripoff. It surprised me that theres quite a few "heavy" rock bands who were influenced by hardcore punk rock like Black Flag and the Dead Kenndys for example and not just Deep Purple or something like that. Some people say that Black Flag is kinda like Black Sabbath but just sped up. If you check out Saint Vitus' cover of "Thirsty and Miserable" you can see what that means. The word "vittu" in finnish means fuck and if you say like ei vitus, it means fuck no, or you can say totta vitus, and that means fuck yeah. Saint Fuck. HAHAHA!!!......... i said Black Flag alot of times there.


1. Saint Vitus
They start their first album the cool Black Sabbath way, with the same song title as the band's name. Really awesome song to start the album with. This song has one of the coolest riffs ever. Dave Chandler is one of my favorite guitar players. He has also proboably the coolest look of all heavy metal bands ever. The singer at this period of time was a guy named Scott Reager and he sings with kind of high voice like The Scorpions or something. The lyrics are kind of a story of a yound vitus who the king wants to eliminate for the religious propaganda he pursuits. Real cool noise solo threwn in. The whole song is just perfect, perfect formula and everything. The song ends with the words,

Well,people always stay the same
They never seem to learn
Till they all have lost their faith
And their souls have burned


2. White Magic/Black Magic
Stars with the drums going bang bang bang bang, in a cool smooth rhythm. Really down tuned cool guitar sound here too. The lyrics have a pretty deep statement, but they are also kind of confusing which makes it cool, cause it makes me wanna figure out exactly what they mean. He sings about what he believes in and what not.

3. Zombie Hunger
Again totally awesome heavy ass riff. Maybe this doesn't hit the super mega hardcore metal fans but i like that Vitus kept it heavy and "groovey" and didn't take it over the limit... This song is kind of slow compared to the first two. Slow tempo, but it could be ever slower which had made it a bit heavier and dronier or something, but this is alright. The riff at the ending part of the song kinda reminds me of Black Sabbath's name title song, but thats not a surprise. The lyrics are a bit funny, there saying that a guy has turned into a zombie and eats little girls "cause free meals ain't wasted" haha..

4. The Psychopath
The song starts with kind of strange and a bit creepy guitar riff. Makes me think of myself walking alone in the dark on a dark cemetery where theres lots of fog and hearing weird ass elfs laughter and killer clowns coming from under the ground with rusty knives wanting to kill me. This is the longest song on the album, almost 10 whole minuttoes. The guitar sounds are totally class A, godly love making to my ears. You really just get lost in the melody. Love stuff like this. i love kind of long guitar solos which change their format rapidly. I don't really dig the singer's style on this album. I think a more low, raspy voiced person had been much better, since this song has a depressive feel in it and this guy sounds like he could be in a glam rock band like early Pantera or whatever. i think he kinda over sings too much at times and his tone just doesn't fit.

5. Burial At The Sea
Just 5 songs? cmon dude. Well it's actually 5 really amazing songs so i shouldn't be complaining.
Again a slow tempo in the song. Makes me think of a march to a war against flesh eating zombies or this could be used in a scene of some very old zombie horror movie. That would be awesome. Right about on the middle of the song, the beat gets faster. This song would totally fit into a war movie with knights or something or more like vikings fighting in their ships with their swords and spilling lots of blood and guts and slashing off eachothers heads and other bodyparts, since this song is about "burial at the sea".

Well that was Saint fuckin' Vitus. Listen to them if you're into Black Sabbath style of music or even early 80's hardcore punk rock fans like me can really get into this band aswell.

Review #27 - Over The Edge (Movie)

Genre: -
Country: USA
Released: 1979
My Rating: 8/8



This is the first movie i'll be reviewing here. It may include spoilers, but i try not to reveal too much.
The movie is based on a place called New Granada, which is kinda small place and pretty much isolated from the big cities. Alot of teenagers live there and all the parents think they're just out of control and blame everything on them. The kids hung out at a local recreation center and drink and do drugs, but never really annoying their parents on purpose.
The main characters in the movie are two boys, Carl and Ritchie. Carl is from a desent above the average kinda family and Ritchie lives in the suburbs with his family. One day a guy called Mark shoots at a cop car window with a rifle. Not with a real bullet though. I don't know what kinda bullet it was but fuck it. It goes through the window and the copper starts chasing after them. Mark and his friend took off and on their way, they go past Carl and Ritchie and warn them of a cop coming after them. The boys hide for some reason and the cop sees them and arrests them, thinking they were the ones who shot at him. The cops are real assholes, but the boys give it back to them. The boys won't tell who shot at the cop and get out of the station. Meanwhile some rich Texas millionaires come to town and want to built some industrial buildings to New Granada and the kids don't like it so they start to tease them as much as possible. Carl's dad is really nervous 'cause hes the middleman in the business. The boys succeed to get the rich people out of there. The adults realise that the kids are behind this and make cops to keep an eye on them and the cop annoys them as much as possible. The kids start to rebel against and stuff. Carl has a crush on the prettiest girl in town, Cory and starts hanging out with her. Cory gives Carl and Ritchie a gun which gets them in trouble later on. The town arranges a meeting at the local school for the parents discussing about the kids' behaviour. Being totally pissed off already about being threated so bad, the kids gather around and walk at the school, meaning to thrash it to the ground.
The characters are real interesting and they do a good job acting in the movie and Pamela Ludwig is hot. It's the hollywood pretty boy Matt Dillon's first movie. I don't care about screen play or stuff like that. The bottom line is that the story is really good and interesting and this is a movie you can watch several times and not get tired of it. Being called the greatest teen rebellion movie ever, i can agree with that. The music is quite good too. It includes songs from Cheap Trick, The Ramones, The Cars, Jimi Hendrix and few others.

Review #26 The Weirdos - Destroy All Music (EP)

Genre: Punk Rock
Label: Bomp Records
Country: US of A
Released: 1977
My Rating: 6/8


Formed in Los Angeles in '76 and yada yada yada. This is the first time i'm hearing The Weirdos, i don't know much about them. All i've heard about them before is that their drummer Nickey Beat was the Germs drummer for a little while. This is their first release i think.






1. Destroy All Music
Woow that quite a heavy line. If all music was destroyed i'd be very very more miserable. Well the title is just irony i guess. The guitar playing here reminds me little bit of Black Flag's style. Weird part is that no matter they sing kinda "slow" i can't understand all the words, so i don't know what this songs really about.

2. Life Of Crime
I read some negative reactions towards this track before, but it's not that bad. Like the riff and the improvising the guitarist does here and there. The songs about some girl who he (whoever) liked but she "got hungry for a life of crime" and he doesn't want to be with her anymore because of that.

3. Why Do You Exist?
The beginning starts like the song is trying to built some intesity on it, with the fast beating drum beat and slow guitar riff, but quickly gets into not that impressive of a pop kinda song. The loud guitar fills are cool though. Don't know the lyrics to this one either.


Wasn't quite as i expected it to be. They were more poppy like a nice version of the Sex Pistols. But given that it was released in 1977, the music is way more original than some emerging bands of the time. If that makes sense. It's 3am so i guess i don't make much sense at this period of time. The bad reviews gotten track "Life of Crime" is my fav track on the album.

Review #25 - Iggy and the Stooges - Raw Power

Genre: Rock n Roll, Protopunk
Label: Columbia Records

Country: US

Released: 1973
My Rating: 8/8

This album was another musical turning point in my life. I didn't honestly know nothing about the Stooges, i just bought this album 'cause i've read it praised by some of my favorite bands at that time and so i felt like it could be a cool record. At first i didn't think Raw Power wasn't that good as i expected, but as i learned more about the Stooges, be it their notorious behaviour and Iggy Pop's unstoppable energy and ability to make people stare at them with their mouths open, or the massive influence they had for future generation bands, lets just name a few bands that got influenced by The Stooges just for fun, The Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Tales Of Terror, Dead Boys, Sex Pistols, Black Flag, The Fluid, Joan Jett, Nirvana, The White Stripes, Green day, Rancid, The Germs, The Wipers, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, Misfits, Fang, Mudhoney, Joy Division, The Clash, The Damned, Circle Jerks, The Runaways, The Jam, Husker Du, Alice in chains.... Or just simply that they rocked so motherfucking hard and they were born to do so. It wasn't phony. I learned that this is one remarkable piece in music history. This was the 3rd Stooges album to be released. 3 years before they had released another remarkable album titled "Fun House". Their record label back then was Elektra and they dropped the Stooges off their label after Fun House!!! No one liked these nasty boys back then. No one thought they were worthy enough, but those who did care about them, did really become somebodies. Iggy had met David Bowie before Raw Power was released and the two developed a strong friendship. Stooges had broken up, the members were dealing with drug addictions, but Bowie got Iggy and the Stooges to sign with Columbia Records and to record the album that would become legendary. Only this time the late Ron Asheton would not play guitar here, but bass and James Williamson would play the guitar instead. Bowie was the one who mixed the original release. I myself own the 1997 re-release of the album mixed by Iggy Pop himself. This year the album got re-released again but its somekinda boxset which includes ton of stuff with it and i must have it. The album reception was pretty poor and they called it as an commercial failure. Columbia Records desided to drop the Stooges off their label. This didn't stop the band though. They continued their notorious live act and living life on the fast lane. Sex, drugs & rock n roll. Well lets hear the bloody songs now and stop jabblin',

1. Search And Destroy
The beginning is loud as fuck. I like Iggy's dog like shouts he makes. He sings about being the world's forgotten boy whos searching to destroy. Iggy said he got the name of this song title from an article from Time magazine about the war in Vietnam. He also said he thinks no one had used the word "destroy" in a pop song before.

2. Gimme Danger
Now this is way more deep and calmed down song. Pretty sad song too. One of my favorite Stooges songs. It's played with an acoustic guitar, which isnt that common with the Stooges previously. Iggy thought at this point that he should write some really good songs, but girls would always come to his way and he would be not writing anything and developing his music. This song was written about one of the girls of his life. He tells to the girl "Theres nothing in my dreams just some ugly memories". After the second verse, the song gets more intense. Hes singing with pure passion. He wants to find a wild stranger who would spend some time with him. Hes not sure if the girl will do so, so he demands her to swear. This song has so many good elements that a song should have and its just 3 and a hald minutes long which makes it pretty much perfect.
3. Your Pretty Face is Going To Hell
Back some good old loud n raw rock. Iggy's voice is really raspy and defines the word "raw" perfectly. I'm sure he got fed up with the clean, nice, sweet, beautiful boys singing about love and Iggy just gets it straight to the point, "I knew right away that i'd have to get my hooks in you". I like the line "I'll tell ya honey it's a crying shame, All the pretty women look the same". Haha i hear you. They all wear same clothing, have same hair, which is usually dyed blonde, same bags, some even sound exactly the same. It's frightening. This song was dedicated to some girl who Iggy knew, who wasn't very nice according to him. Like i said before, the sweet singing boys were popular and singing how they'll love someone forever and ever and ever and everiosfdhgiozdfxhgosd, well Iggy knew she wasn't gonna be pretty all her life so she wont have that weapon in the future!
4. Penetration
This song is pretty haunting. The way Iggy sings and the lyrics just wanna fuck with your mind. They repeat the song riff through the whole song. Iggy makes some weirdass sounds with his mouth near the end of the song. I like the sounds they make with (whatever instrument it is, i think its with an electric piano im not sure though). This song is about boredom and loneliness. End of side 1.

5. Raw Power
Side 2 starts with the title track.Iggy makes somekinda burping sound at the beginning. In this song it seems like Iggy is trying to hypnotise a girl and talking about raw power. That if she wants to be with him, raw power is surely comming runnin' to her. Which means kind of an wild lifestyle or something. towards the end hes asking the girl "Can you feel it" over and over again. I'm not fucking sure if i even make sense at all. Really noisy guitar solo towards the end of the song.

6. I Need Somebody
Kinda bluesy melody here. The guitar fills they threw in, sound really haunting. This and "Gimme Danger" are the two dark, ballad kinda songs on the album. Real high pitched solo towards the end which changes its form like a good blues jam does.

7. Shake AppealThis song has an awesome rock n roll formula as usually in the Stooges songs. Again real noisy solo thrown in. I think this is about time going too fast and feeling really down and out, thinking about the empty past or just how he likes seeing girls in tight pants, well "Tight Pants" was the original title of this song... Iggy sings with pretty high voice at the end.

8. Death Trip
Iggy wrote something on the album sleeve that the reason this is the last song on the album is that he knows the album is doomed. No ones gonna promote it, its way too rawrr to be played on the radio. So he desided to sing about it, cause its the kind of music they all loved to do so thats what theyre gonna do. It's also the longest track on the album being over 6 minutes long. Hes also singing about being a sick boy with "weird" kinda love. I really like the riff. The whole album should be played on full volume.

Just can't give this album nothing but the best possible rating. It was hated by most people, 'cause it's way ahead of its time, more loud and rocking than anything up to that point. Theres not really a thing to complain. Screw Deep Purple, Uriah heep and White snake, this is rock n roll as its honest.

Review #24 - D.O.A. - World War 3 (Single)

Genre: Punk Rock
Label: Sudden Death Records

Country: Canada

Released: 1979
My Rating: 6/8

DOA, a highly influential punk rock band, but at the same time despised for being fucken Canadians! I'm not an American so it doesn't really bother me where they're from. I can't be 100% sure but this might be their 4th release. Led by Joey Shithead on guitar and vocals. Joey is infamous for peeing on an audience member once. Theres different version of this story so i dont know if its true though.



Side 1:
World War 3
Starts with kinda army style of drumming and quickly adds the guitar in it. The sound with the guitar can be heard used by many other punk rock bands who got formed after DOA. This is an anti-war song. Telling how redicilous it is. "I don't really wanna die, with A-bombs dropping from the sky". The people don't need it, "Whitehouse is aiming the gun". The song is over 4 minutes long. A more cleaned up version was later released. They also made a music video of this song. It isn't my fav DOA song but its alright.

Side 2:
Whatcha gonna do?
A little jam at the beginning. Really chilled. Reminds me little bit of the Clash with the guitar sounds Joey makes. This sounds like something The Clash could have written. It's quite long song too (over 4 minutes), taking that they're a punk band, but that doesn't mean the songs should be short, you can just be playing and doing what you want and being as creative as possible. Towards the end Joey sings kinda wooooooo style you know. I like this song better than the side 1.






















Backcover

Review #23 - Gang Green - Sold Out EP

Genre: Punk Rock, Hardcore Punk
Label: Taang! Records

Country: US

Released: 1984 or 1985

So yea Gang Green formed in Braintree, Massachusetts in 1980 by three 15 year old boys. This original line up would disband in 1984, but little after that, their first ever release, which is THIS EP im reviewing, came out. Atleast the first 2 tracks on this EP were later included on Gang Green's album "Preschool". Gang Green would later deform to more of a speed metal type band but this is from the period when they were really good and fast pure hardcore punk rock. There was only 100 copies made of this EP and its Taang Records' first release. Lets take a look,



1. Sold Out
The beginning sounds really happy and they sing something like "All we want is money..." i can't understand the rest, but soon the happy part ends and he sings "Give back the people what they want!!" and it gets super fast. The drummer is insane. Unbelievable he can play that fast and its just the basic beat, he throws in even faster fills. After the madness, it cools down a bit to the same "happy" sound as it did in the start, and soon gets just all jamming without any vocals, but towards the end they speed up the song and throw in a crazeeh geetar soloe.

2. Terrorize
Some guitar feeback in the start, but not for too long. It fucking explodes. Another super fast song, dare i call it super duper fast? pretty hardcore ehehehehehehehheheeheh. This song is like 43 seconds long. Can't understand a word. Cool, bizarre yelling during the chorus.

3. Taang Dub
Obviously gotten its title from the band's record label. Or is the other way around?
In the beginning the drums and the bass jam a little, but soon the drummer wants it to turn more fast so he plays so and the song gets as he wants. The vocals hit and i still havent heard a single guitar chord in the song. After some angry yelling, theres a little jam part again. After awhile, a real quiet guitar sound is hearable, but soon it they crank it up and it plays pretty crazy solo, but thats it. THE END. go home

This is the first time i'm hearing Gang Green, i don't know yet how does their later stuff sound. I like to start from the first album usually. Definitely a band worth checking out.

My Rating: 8/8

Review #22 - Adolescents - Adolescents (1981)

The Adolescents from California. Formed with the early members of Social Distortion and Agent Orange. Their singer, Tony Cadena has been performing with many other bands such as White Flag, Abandoned, Sister Goddamn, Flower Leperds, ADZ and Gabba Gabba Heys. When he formed the Adolescents, was as old back then as i am now, 17! It's been said that him and Steve Soto got the idea to form a band after an Agent Orange show. The Adolescents are fairly popular among skateboarders. This is their self titled first album, letz taek ey lookah,






1. I Hate Children
Starts with a mean riff and kicks in. Pretty basic hardcore punk themed song. Fast drums, riffs and chanting in the chorus "I hate children!". I think they're singing of an angry parent's point of view. Being sick of the responisibility of having to take care of a child. In the beginning the child gets born and moving towards the end, the parent is starting to be really damn fed up with it and says to the child, "Do you see this toy it's called a gun,
And if you wanna live you'd better run".


2. Who Is Who
This is my favorite song by Adolescents. And yeah its pretty cliche since its one of their most popular songs, but fuck it. The song is awesome. Mudhoney covered it. The starting riff sound is really cool, quickly kicks in the song and the chorus, you can't help but to crank it up during the chorus it just sounds so awesome.


3. Wrecking Crew
This is a slow, mellow song. Not really that was just the beginning. He sings about being so over bored but soon it gets really fast and loud. Songs about being a lonely blue-collar worker whose life seems empty.


4. LA Girl
The Distillers have a song with the same title, but the song is totally different. Song is telling us about a girl from Los Angeles, whose really spoiled and only hanging out with certain kind of people who look like she wants and stuff. "My life starts where your life ends".


5. Self Destruct
Really short song. Last 15 seconds or so are just a fun noise soloing. Song is about OD'ing of heroine.


6. Kids Of The Black Hole
This is the longest track on the album (5 and a half minutes). Starts really chilly. I like the guitar sounds they make and the bass is more visible to hear here. Song tells about lost kids. Aliens who don't belong to this world. I like when they stretch the song, but not too much. But like this. This proboably the most creative song on the album.


7. No Way
The album kinda cooled down. This starts real slow too, and some odd, i guess kinda psychedelic sounds in the background. Soon the song gets more fast. The lyrics are funny,

No class, no job
I'm just a victim of society a slob
No ass, no head
I gotta go home and jack off instead
No mind, no kind
My brain is jelly and my memory is blind
No way, no way
I cannot live in a world this gay

Too bad i can relate to it so its not that funny anymore............................................................................................................................................


8. Amoeba
Was the Amoeba record store named after this song? I don't know, maybe it wuz.
In the beginning they sing "Amoebaaa" over and over again. But soon Tony's vocals join the song. And yeah hes singing about an amoeba and being amazed that this little thing has a mind of its own, but it better off dead if it only knew.

9. Word Attack
This is a fast song. I like all the melodies the guitar plays. Specially during the "We'll attack, we'll attack" part.

10. Rip It Up
Someone yells "rip it up!!" with real raspy voice in the beginning and then here we go. The first verse of the song talks pretty much directly about the movie Clockwork Orange and how they're sick of violence and if thats away to kill your boredom then you really suck.

11. Democracy
A song about how democracy doesn't work. Here in finland, few years ago when was the last president election thingy, the right wing party representer said in his campaign that hes the "president of the workingclass" yeah fucking right. Glad he didnt win eventually..

12. No Friends
I'm so ronery, so ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
There's no one, just me onry
Sitting on my rittle throne
I work very hard
And make up great prans
But nobody listens no one understands
Seems like no one takes me seriousry

And so, I'm ronery
A bittle ronery
Poor rittle me

There's nobody I can rerate to
Feel rike a bird in a cage
It's kinda sirry but not rearry
Because it's firring my body with rage
I'm the smartest most crever most physically fit
But nobody else seems to rearize it
When I change the world maybe they'll notice me

And until then I'll just be ronery
Yeah a rittle ronery
Poor rittle me

I'm so ronery

13. Creatures
The theme of the song is being a reject and not fitting in in the jock ruled system. Cheerleaders are just pleasers, they say no so i jerk white tears - teasers. I like the chorus "I hate them all! creatures!" which they chant few times over again and towards the end Tony sings it more angrier and angrier.


My 3 fav tracks:

1. Who is Who
2. Kids of the black hole
3. Creatures

My Rating: 7/8