Apologies to all my close associates and people who listen to my show regularly, because you're already sick of hearing me talk about how freaking great this compilation CD Downer Rock Genocide is. It came out on Audio Archives in Sweden in 2000. My friend Mark initially gave me heads up about it a while back, I then found one place that sold it in the UK and my order promptly disappeared over the Atlantic somehow. In the meantime I had a burn of some MP3s while every one of my friends I raved about it to managed to secure their copies (argh). Man, this thing is king on so many multiple levels; I'm not a huge fan of rock compilations in general (if anything I'll rip a few songs here and there that I like), but this one is a big exception. For those of you who aren't so into 1970s prog and metal, this is the most punk prog/metal comp you'll hear. Badass, Marshall-stacks wielding apes like the Iommi-produced Necromandus, Iron Claw, Hackensack and more all laying holy riff waste. There's Judas Priest's Glen Tipton in his old Flying Hat Band, another band called Iron Maiden (no relation), and unbelievable song "Dog Man" by Monument that I put on my Marathon metal premium CD this year. It's a horror-Goblin style story about a guy who bites women and drags them underneath the city, it's so demented that it makes Arthur Brown look like mere showbiz. The band Egor, who apparently opened for Sabbath, present a scuzz-fidelity live cut that starts with ungodly frayed-cable feedback and burns like a boogie-metallic "Sister Ray" more than anything. The disc winds down with a Writing on the Wall track "Lucifer Corpus" that has a guy doing an Iggy impersonation cackling how everyone's "all gonna die" as the second half of the song swirls into oblivion. Then the compilation ends with the sound of bombs and tank artillery for a minute and it's over. Completely nuts. And based on the cover, I can't wait to have a proper copy to check out the rest of the artwork; unfortunately for anyone who wants to buy it, imports are $36 and up. But if you're at all interested in proto-metal, proto-punk, the Vertigo discography, Sab influence pre-MTV metal, or just top grade, doom-laced rock in general it's a must-have.
Necromandus "Night Jar" (MP3)
Egor "Street (live)" (MP3)
Monument "Dog Man" (MP3)
There's a few other tunes floating around in WFMU's archives you can listen to on Real Audio.
BRILLIANT. I must acquire this CD.
Posted by: Sir Michael L. Foley | May 20, 2008 at 11:40 AM
The "Dog Man" scared me.
Posted by: Fluffy | May 20, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Wait: There's Prog-Punk band called Hackensack??????
Posted by: Fatherflot | May 20, 2008 at 12:49 PM
I first heard "Lucifer's Corpus" on a compilation called Visions of the Past Vol. 2, which includes many other great and notable post-psychedelic, pre-metal, one-off British rock tracks.
While "Lucifer's Corpus" is definitely their best song, Writing on the Wall's album, The Power of the Picts, is also terrific.
Posted by: WmMBerger | May 24, 2008 at 03:57 PM
Such a great comp. On par with the LSD series easily. The Necromandus LP was pressed on vinyl a few years back, I snagged a copy from some death metal shop in Las Vegas for around $20 if I remember. Night Jar is a great song and kind of reminds me of early Iron Maiden (British) but the rest of the tracks are decidedly proggy. I read once that Ozzy cherry-picked some of those guys for backup on one of his 80's or 90's schemes, I mean tours.
Posted by: Pat | May 25, 2008 at 11:30 AM
There's a whole IRON CLAW CD out on Vintage/Rockadrome label.
Posted by: Dennis | March 18, 2009 at 10:05 PM