DEFENDER - City Ad Mortis reissue review

 

DEFENDER - City Ad Mortis reissue

Hammerheart Records

Just for the record I think the good people at Hammerheart Records are killing it with their series of reissues. I mean if you're into cool sounding stuff from the past which was never properly recognized then here ya go. Obviously the people at this label know how to read the scene. 

Case in point DEFENDER were a Dutch five piece speed metal band from the late 80's. Aside from their Tales of the Unexpected four song demo put out in 1985. The band's only vinyl output was this five song EP from 1987. Now for those of you who have read this blog for a long time (and frankly who doesn't?) you know that my heritage is Dutch. Add to that for decades I've always supported my Dutch Metal. 

So in my not so humble opinion DEFENDER's City Ad Mortis EP is the holy grail of Dutch Metal. Go see how much an original copy of it is selling for on Ebay. But for me musically DEFENDER was a band that falls into that could've / should've been huge catagory. I mean they had all of the classic chops. 

Sound-wise the band had a melodic touch to speed metal with the obvious NWOBHM / early MAIDEN influence. Simon Menting was a great vocalist who could do a killer "heavy metal" scream. Their songs were actually complex as far as randon speed metal was at the time. I mean you could say that DEFENDER were better than their contemporaries. 

As well as the original EP cuts this reissue has three tracks which I believe were supposed to be part of a DEFENDER full length which never happened. These three cuts are more in the vein of early Euro Power Metal. Yeah go figure right. They're pretty cool but it also begs the question of what if? Be that as it may this reissue is a must have. Nuff Said!  

https://www.hammerheart.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2fYB-YIKrE

GISM - Detestation (Reissue) review

 

GISM - Detestation (Reissue)

Relapse Records

The greatest thing about this reissue is that the average lay-person will finally realize that this 1980's Japanese hardcore band was musically more average than legendary or groundbreaking. A little history for ya, by the late 80's early 90's you'd see people with a GISM patch on their jacket. But they never owned this album nor their second one. Plus their GISM merch was all from bootleg dealers anyway. If they were lucky then they might've had a cassette of the album from a tape trade. As far as certain stories about on stage incidents go in their history. Who cares, ever heard of G.G. Allin?

The fact is that GISM were just a Japanese Hardcore act that a few people here in the states knew about from their one song on a compilation album put out by a fanzine. Honestly they were bigger in England during the late 80's. Mainly since they were producing metal tinged hardcore early on. By 1990 people in the US caught on, especially in the anarcho punk scene or what revisionists call 'crust'. That's about the time when the bootlegs emerged, homemade band patches and t-shirts. 

By the time of the internet, aka: music sites, blogs, mainstream metal media and revisionist history scribes, is when the status of 'legendary' was attributed to GISM. Why you ask? I'm assuming you had hiptards wanting to seem cooler and authoritative than they actually were or deserved spouting bullshit. Seriously when hipsters start talking about the history of 80's punk / hardcore, run. too bad there's no fact check algorithm for them.

So three  paragraphs in and it's time to talk some truth about GISM's debut full length. Musically it's poorly recorded punk rock with some hard rock/metal influenced solos. The vocals fall under the psychotic ramblings category. Back in the day once you gave this a listen you thought OK and then pushed it somewhere to gather dust. There was plenty of better bands to listen to in the 80's anyway especially from the hardcore scene. 

I'm sure when people picked up that Determination compilation back in 2015 they felt the same way. There's only one saving grace for this reissue and that's the fact it's fully-authorized by the two remaining band members. So for once they'll see some yen come their way for their music. Then again aside from the bootleg vinyl copies you know every hiptard probably found this on a download site a decade ago. Plus the three bonus tracks also appear on the Determination comp. But hey you'll just buy a t-shirt so you can look cool. 

https://store.relapse.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://gismband.bandcamp.com/

WEHRMACHT - Shark Attack Reissue review

 

WEHRMACHT - Shark Attack Reissue

Hammerheart Records

Well this is a fucking trip down memory lane for yours truly. For those of you who were not around back then. WEHRMACHT were a late 80's five piece hardcore act out of Portland, Oregon. They put out one important demo and two proper full lengths. Shark Attack was their debut full length which originally came out in 1987 on New Renaissance Records. That's the basics alright.

Now as far as personal history goes, I never had an original copy of this on vinyl back in the day. I do have it on CD, a reissue, now. But decades ago I had this (still do) on a cassette via a tape trade. Another cool band from back then ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT are on one side of the tape and WEHRMACHT on the flip. I also had the demo, Beermacht, from 1986 but that was a bootleg. I think I gave it to someone or the tape broke. I forget it's been a while. What's crazy is that I once saw this release in a used record store with a price tag way to fuckin high. 

Musically WEHRMACHT relied on pure unadulterated speed and chaos plus they weren't too bad at musicianship. Their guitar tone was like banging on sheet metal. But their song structures were simple hardcore stuff with the vocals hidden behind the music and they also had a comedic sense to boot. Their songs were all on the not so serious side as well. 

Now historical revisionism as it is has placed this band into the crossover or crossover thrash genre tag line. As I've said for years, crossover is a term coined by the major labels who signed hardcore acts (just a few by the way) who also appealed to metal fans. You're average music fan at the time didn't say crossover to describe a fast sounding band. It was either hardcore or metal (thrash). 

Another important note, if WEHRMACHT's debut album was influential in any way it was towards a burgeoning music scene back then which we would eventually call grindcore. With that said this reissue is a damm good release to pick up if you're into these old sounds. Why pay a huge sum of money for something sticker-ed "rare crossover thrash" when you just want the music. So this is probably one of the more important reissues of 2021 thanks to Hammerheart Records.

https://www.hammerheart.com/

LISTEN HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg0g1roUH1g