p e n g u i n d e v i l

As you all remember, a month ago I mentioned that I had been listening to Anthrax’s first album again, which I consider to be classic speed metal. Now while I’m not the most knowledgeable speed metal person, I certainly do like that album and Accept’s Fast as a Shark (they certainly aren’t speed metal, but I think that song certainly is) but aside from that, it’s been a long time since I listened to much of this ilk. Lately my metal listening has had the urge to stretch beyond black metal (which happens occasionally) so I thought I would revisit some of the old 80’s stuff.

First impression, while this stuff certainly is metal, it doesn’t seem too speedy, not like those other bands. Maybe it’s just that Black Metal has turned up the knobs so much these last 15-20 years (none of these bands speed through like Impaled Nazarene, that’s for sure), that this stuff really shows its “big hair” roots and has a Sunset Strip sound. There certainly is some potential out there, though. I first tried out Cacophony’s Speed Metal Symphony. It was alright, the songs are alright, the vocals aren’t too bad, but probably not something I would tend to play much. I do appreciate the sleeve though.

oh yeah?

I then listened to some Racer X. This was a hit and miss bag. They have some good stand out songs, including a mad cover of BOC’s Godzilla (admittedly from their 2001 release Superheroes)! What really stood out from them were their instrumentals, especially Scarified (from Second Heat) and Viking Kong (also from Superheroes), these are complete guitar wanking, air guitarist dreams: clear, technical, fast guitars, like speed scales with a rhythm section, all the song long. The trouble with the rest of their stuff is the vocals. Really lame. In fact, I couldn’t really sit through most of those songs. Some are alright though, at their best (especially on Street Lethal) the vocal songs sound like Krokus, which isn’t bad. But some of the instrumentals are certainly worth keeping around.

racer x “scarified”

The high point of this so far has been Overkill. I listened to Feel the Fire and I thought the whole album was good (especially Hammerhead), fast, still rough with a sort of punk edge to it. I may need to look into more stuff of theirs. Also maybe find some other 80’s bands that are speedier.