nuclear death
1987 was the year i really got into metal, thanks to someone on KCSB in santa barbara playing metallica. within a year i was tape trading, writing for a zine and buying demos from all over the fucking planet.
one of the first was nuclear death's welcome to the minds of the morbid - transitional forms of metal, discordant and messy one second, sounding like possessed the next; lori bravo's vocals laced the tracks like angel dust, ranting and insane and able to suddenly burst into bizarre operatics (see "the third antichrist," later re-recorded on "for our dead").
i got to know phil hampson, their guitarist, via tape trading and letters - in addition to taping me all sorts of ND ephemera (like the demon cubes), i also first heard demos by vader, cathedral, and autopsy through him.
their third demo came out in 1988. vultures feeding. the band had changed drastically; they had been early adopters of the not-yet dominant grindcore/blastbeat style, but here they really dropped genre signifiers and found the essence of their sound. phil's guitars became arcs and slashes of discordant fuzz. lori's bass, a growling churn like a stomach that's been empty for decades, her vocals becoming more confident and dropping anything like a standard metal delivery. joel whitfield's drumming continued on its bizarre scattering trajectory, the heart of the music - entropy always clawing away at meter, order and form.
their albums are all excellent but vultures feeding will always be the definitive nuclear death recording in my mind. i may post the entire demo at some point, as it (and their first two) are tragically unavailable. (and if anyone out there has the planet cachexial, please get in touch!)
nuclear death - the colour of blood
these days, i think phil and joel (who were both eventually kicked out of ND) are in the fairly awful-looking eroticide. and here's a nuclear death fan page.
one of the first was nuclear death's welcome to the minds of the morbid - transitional forms of metal, discordant and messy one second, sounding like possessed the next; lori bravo's vocals laced the tracks like angel dust, ranting and insane and able to suddenly burst into bizarre operatics (see "the third antichrist," later re-recorded on "for our dead").
i got to know phil hampson, their guitarist, via tape trading and letters - in addition to taping me all sorts of ND ephemera (like the demon cubes), i also first heard demos by vader, cathedral, and autopsy through him.
their third demo came out in 1988. vultures feeding. the band had changed drastically; they had been early adopters of the not-yet dominant grindcore/blastbeat style, but here they really dropped genre signifiers and found the essence of their sound. phil's guitars became arcs and slashes of discordant fuzz. lori's bass, a growling churn like a stomach that's been empty for decades, her vocals becoming more confident and dropping anything like a standard metal delivery. joel whitfield's drumming continued on its bizarre scattering trajectory, the heart of the music - entropy always clawing away at meter, order and form.
their albums are all excellent but vultures feeding will always be the definitive nuclear death recording in my mind. i may post the entire demo at some point, as it (and their first two) are tragically unavailable. (and if anyone out there has the planet cachexial, please get in touch!)
nuclear death - the colour of blood
these days, i think phil and joel (who were both eventually kicked out of ND) are in the fairly awful-looking eroticide. and here's a nuclear death fan page.
posted by brian eff @ 4:24 AM
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