In observance of the 50th anniversary of Black Sabbath's debut LP

This week Heavy Metal enthusiasts far and wide auspiciously observed a milestone 50 year anniversary for our founding fathers' debut album, the 1970 self-titled masterpiece that redefined music for generations to come. That last sentence reeks of cliche', I know, but really there is no other way of succinctly encapsulating the importance of that piece of wax that was ironically released on a friday the 13th a half of a century ago. I've thought about this long and hard, about the desert island question, where one is asked (or asks themselves in the case of friendless trolls such as I) about the one piece of music that they would absolutely have to take with them. Well, for me it wouldn't necessarily be the debut, but it would definitely be something between Paranoid and Never Say Die. Of course, taste is subjective, but the point is that Black Sabbath, after careful deliberation, are the authors of the ONE piece of music that I just can't live without. Punto!   

This morning, while getting lost in contemplation over this topic, I was reminded that I had written a piece back in 2013 after having seen them in Palm Beach for the online version of my old fanzine, the legendary (in my own mind) Tales Of Perversion. 

I went back to revisit for Auld Lang Syne and quite frankly I had forgotten what a great article this was. I laughed out loud a couple of times; yeah that's right, this hard-nosed sonofabitch was giggling like a schoolgirl. Those of you who actually read this blog and have familiarized themselves with my self-deprecating tone would well know that I don't toot my own horn needlessly, so take my word, it's an entertaining read. It's lengthy! I believe that they would call it a "feature" in the journalism racket; but stick with it it's worth it... 

Anyways, here is the link, you smelly little pink... enjoy!

Fear and Loathing at a Black Sabbath Concert (Aug. 2013)

Sabbat: Obscure but influential first wave Black Metal from Japan

note: misanthropaganda is so much more fun when you view it on your desktop or laptop. Your tablet is fine I guess, as is your phone, but for full enjoyment and understanding of the artist's (ha ha) vision, take my suggestion. It gives the posts a look that's a bit more reminiscent of an old 90's fanzine layout, which is the whole point of this bullshit blog...

I have long held a reverence for all things Japanese ever since I can remember. This is especially true of any heavy music that makes it to my waxy American ears all the way over from that magical little island nation which I will one day visit and have weird sex in. Sabbat is a credit to Japan's extreme music history, having been one of the early bands to pioneer what would go on to be known as Black Metal (or greatly influence it at the very least.) Long before the existence of an internet which facilitated the exchange of concepts and ideas beyond geographical borders, an international underground phenomenon was occurring amongst a handful of bands scattered across the globe in points like Canada, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan, connected only via snail mail (ah, the early tape trading days.) This movement is what we now in current day have labeled as the first wave of Black Metal. This was before blast-beats and corpse paint, it was before Mayhem and Darkthrone, before all of the arson and murder shenanigans that went on in Norway, it was before Appalachian and before Crazy Joe decided to take on a boss and start a war. (Reference!)

Throughout the years, Sabbat's sound has gone back and forth from Thrash-like, proto-Black Metal to a more traditional Heavy Metal sound (very much in the way that later on the likes of Darkthrone would experiment with.) Since this was before the Norwegian influence which gave way to a more stripped down sound devoid of virtuosic displays, Sabbat have never been shy to show proficiency with their instruments. Their songs pay mind to a basic verse-bridge-chorus-breakdown type of structure, in other words every song isn't like a blast-beat and feedback-fest for three minutes a pop. There are layers to their songwriting.

(Goddamnit I know that there has to be a more succinct way to phrase that last sentence!) 

Since "Black Thrash", or blackened Thrash, actually went on to become a thing -another microgenre- well then, I present you to one of its undeniable forefathers. The question is, where to begin with these scantily clad minions of Satan. Sabbat's career has been insanely prolific and just picking a jump-off with which to familiarize yourself with them can be a daunting task. They've dropped nine proper studio joints. They have a series of about forty-nine live albums recorded from just about everywhere on Earth (okay maybe a couple are bootlegs). Now I'll mention their twenty-six EPs, and the fact that they have appeared on twenty-one splits! That's quite a repertoire tucked snuggly into the waistband of those leather speedos that they've donned for four decades (blech, the marriage of old leather and testicle sweat over the span of forty years... fucking gross!)

my personal Sabbat headstash

You could go with any of their proper full-lengths and you wouldn't go wrong; Sabbat always delivers the goods with no filler when they put together an album. However, I am going to recommend their debut LP Envenom. This is where I jumped off strictly based on the fact that it was their first album (with Sabbat I steered my venture into their work chronologically for lack of any other reference.) That being said, this is as raw as they get musically. downright primitive, and there are two numbers on here that rule extremely hard (in my opinion) and are noteworthy. I am referring to Sabbat's rite of benediction titled "Satan Bless You" and the brute, barbaric "King Of Hell". 

First of all, how great is the title of the latter song mentioned. I have adopted the phrase "Satan Bless You" into my everyday life, just to fuck with the heads of the civilians that I'm forced to interact with daily for professional reasons. There is always that one asshole at the store or the gas station that has to slip in a "have a blessed day" as they hand you your change. I just place my hand over heart, humbly bow my head and reply "Satan bless you!" They just look back at me like if I just climbed out of a window at Bellevue! ( I am sooo adversarial!) The other joint, "King Of Hell" is a five-minute clubbing over the head via downtempo drums and a crude, five-chord riff that just oozes Linda Blair split-pea soup. This song is also more than likely where that big dummy from Gorgoroth got his 'infernal' stage name.

"King Of Hell" aside, Sabbat doesn't monkey around in down-pace for too long. These guys typically thrash out at full-speed-ahead with shred solos everywhere. I would say a roundabout comparison in sound would be like Morbid Visions-era Sepultura or even early Sodom but with not as many rough edges. Not that Sabbat is overly polished, but it certainly isn't "necro" sounding, or choppy and sloppy on the production like that Sepultura joint is, for example. Also, I'd say that Sabbat exhibits a bit better musicianship than Sepultura (at that point in their career) and/or Sodom. Just an opinion...

So give good ol' Gezol and the boys a listen if commercial Metal isn't your thing but yet you still feel a hankering for some cult, underground Metal. Sabbat is a highly enjoyable throwback, a hand in hand stroll with the ghost of Black Thrash past! Now go listen to "Devil Worship" off of this record and then commit bloody harakiri with your "Satanasword".  

Paul Chain, the master of vintage Italian Doom

note: misanthropaganda is so much more fun when you view it on your desktop or laptop. Your tablet is fine I guess, as is your phone, but for full enjoyment and understanding of the artist's (ha ha) vision, take my suggestion. It gives the posts a look that's a bit more reminiscent of an old 90's fanzine layout, which is the whole point of this bullshit blog...

Well, here we go with the lead-in music review for 2020, the Chinese year of the Metal Rat. The new Midnight album hasn't arrived at my new prison cell yet so it won't be the first review of the year as I previously thought. In the meantime, to avoid giving the devil something to play with, I will commit my idle hands to pecking away at these keys on my laptop and make like I'm Kurt Loder. Yeah, Kurt Loder... more like Kurt Loaded! 

I went digging through the archives for some good Metal worthy of mentioning and found endless selections appropriate for analysis. I couldn't make up my mind on what to select until I arrived at the P section and stumbled across my old friend from the boot Paolo Catena, AKA Paul Chain the cult Italian master of Doom Metal, which I haven't heard in a minute. With grey skies pouring rain over Miami that friday I thought to myself "what better atmosphere for this masterpiece?" So I popped two Ativans and began getting good and stoned to this ominous, skinny guinea. 

Paul Chain is also particularly worthy of giving mention because despite his extremely prolific career, he is still relatively obscure in Metal circles, despite a strong cult following. Even after the Doom Metal explosion of the last decade, which caused an influx of new congregants hungry to discover the forebearers of their new faith, it was the Sleeps, Pentagrams and the Saint Vitus' of the world that were more often the dusty record-bin finds while this obscure artistic gem remained a stone unturned.  

The story of Paul Chain as a solo entity begins in 1984 when he split from the Occult/Horror-Metal group Death SS, of which he was the lead guitarist and organist. Chain tried keeping Death SS around even after the departure of singer Stefano Silvestri (stage name Steve Sylvester) who walked away from the whole thing, probably to go pursue his Ordo Templi Orientis bullshit (I speculate, but he really was a member though.) Chain saw this as an opportune moment to venture out and start a project where he could explore free-form musical experimentation a little further, only this time without all of the occult imagery or negative connotations of Death SS, and so Paul Chain Violet Theatre was born. 

Chain's first EP on his own, the holy Detaching From Satan, was released the same year of the split from Death SS. It was put out on the highly influential Italian Metal label Minotauro Records, a label which Chain would later go on to become the in-house producer and art director for. As its title suggests, this record was the virtuoso's way of distancing himself from the diabolical themes of his previous musical endeavor. Himself a Christian, Chain could not have been too choked up with the shock-rock gimmickry and occult shenanigans for which Death SS was notorious for. However, don't let his faith be a deterrent from peeping this cat out if you are worried that all you'll get from his releases is proselytizing. There isn't any of that; in fact Paul Chain really doesn't sing about anything! The vocals of any given Paul Chain release feature a phonetic language of Chain's creation which is nothing more than gibberish for the sake of having vocals. There are Christian themes present in a lot of the imagery he uses which are used for context more than anything (which by the way, are equally as dark as any Occult referencing on behalf of any given Metal band.) But as far as his sullen howling, he isn't exactly reciting the book of Psalms so don't worry you won't start foaming at the mouth or convulsing if you play this record on Easter Sunday.

I've read before, here or there, where Chain is referred to as the Italian answer to Black Sabbath. While some may interpret this a high praise, and indeed it could be, I almost feel like it sells Paul Chain short in a strange way because the improvisational elements of his music really set him apart from the mighty masters. Sure, to conjure the Sabs as a reference point is fine if you're looking to describe what to generally expect from Paul Chain, but his tendency to go off on musical tangents distinguishes him from any would-be figure of influence. (The two bonus tracks on the CD version of Detaching From Satan are as good an example of this point as any.) Ask yourself this, who has ever seen or heard Tony Iommi do a 20 minute improvisation of "War Pigs"? My point exactly...  

(Also, just to mention in passing, Chain has been more prolific as far as putting out work than Sabbath throughout their span of like thirty vocalists... I'm just sayin'...)

There is also a creep factor in Chain's sound that is not present to such an unsettling level in any other "Doom" band, even in the overly-mentioned (in this article) Sabbath. Detaching From Satan is particularly eerie among his work as Violet Theatre. It has a ghostly, mournful presence beyond anything that can be conjured by mere use of diminished fifths and warm early '80s production value. 

The dismally lo-fi intro is reminiscent of the maddening sound trickery that made late '70s/early '80s Italian horror movies that much more terrifying. Still even more chilling is the choral re-adaptation (in Italian lyrics) of a Bach composition before the straightforward Metal riff of this EPs second track titled "Armageddon". Detaching From Satan also features the Paul Chain classic "Voyage To Hell". This track would later be revisited on the follow-up release to this by co-conspirator Lee Dorrian (of Napalm Death/Cathedral/Rise Above Records fame); but Dorrian's vocal rendition doesn't match the savage snear in Chain's voice on this original version. On the vinyl version of this release, track 4 closes the ceremonies with the sluggish pace of "17 Day". This is a number in true Doom Metal fashion, plodding along in its lethargic tempo, and then breaking down into Chain's disturbing organ playing that lends a severely stern tone of condemnation. Detaching From Satan will give you the fucking creeps -very much in the same way a Catholic church gives you the creeps, as a candlelit effigy of it's humiliated, gored and slain messiah hangs nailed to the altar like a bloody memo.

My personal Paul Chain headstash (not including mp3 downloads)

I recommend the CD version of the EP for the two extra tracks as a jump-off. The vinyl edition of this probably isn't cheap and you can pursue it later on if the CD tickles your pickle. The two extras, "Pentagon Society" and "Vivid Eyes Of The Dark" are both improvisations that were released as a 12" EP (also in 1984) under the name Paul Chain The Improviser. That's two songs clocking in at close to two hours -de pinga! I haven't seen the vinyl version but I can tell you that the CD version comes with a really beautiful layout which Minotauro Records did a really outstanding job on. Also, the recording quality of "Vivid Eyes Of The Dark" might be agonizingly bad on the vinyl version because it's certainly close to an ear-sore on the CD pressing of this. It's a goddamn shame too, because "Vivid Eyes" is probably one of his more haunting improvisations. 

Yo, don't dick around in your slumber any longer and join the cult following. I assure you this is something really special, really cult sounding and it is miles from all of the Doom Metal that you think you may known until now. Hook up, ASAP! Hit the link, you smelly pink, and go to Discogs and cop Detaching From Satan by Paul Chain, you'll fucking love it if you dig traditional Doom Metal, or just dark, vintage Metal.