WEEKEND DOUBLE-DOSE, PART II !
From the 1988 album …in Death of Steve Sylvester.
There's just something about Italy. When it came to movies, they took the format of the American Western and totally outdid us by pushing the boundaries further than we were comfortable with at the time.They were able to take the generic "killer on the loose" genre and turn it into amazing stylized gialli films. And when it came to metal... well, they certainly pushed things there, too. Sometimes, they push it so far in a cheesy direction that it just doesn't work for me. The whole synth-laden symphonic metal thing seems to be pretty big over there, and it just does nothing for me. But in the late '70s and early '80s, there was another sort of totally over-the-top metal band that opted for a much nastier horror vibe: Death SS. To say they had a penchant for the dramatic would be an understatement. The outrageous make-up and costuming alone was like KISS meets Mercyful Fate. Italy, don't ever stop being you. They later went on to a more industrial metal sound, but it's this earlier stuff that really does it for me.
Because I'm feeling generous tonight, here's a bonus track called “In Ancient Days” (a cover of the aforelinked Black Widow) just for DJ D, who shares my belief that there just isn't enough saxophone in rock anymore:
(From the 1993 & 1997 re-issues of the album …in Death of Steve Sylvester, and the 2000 tribute album to Black Widow, King of the Witches.)
I just spent the last little while catching up on the last 10 or so entries. Great stuff all around. And yeah, I do agree. "Vampire" was a little over the top there, but still a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteThanks for "In Ancient Days"! I'm digging it. Man, since you started doing this, you're really giving me some ideas on how to spice up my show, here. Some of this I'm hearing for the first time, some I was very familiar with and played a lot of anyway, and some of it is stuff I used to play quite a lot of, but just honestly forgot all about. Nice to take a trip down memory lane, especially when it's this dark and unsettling.
Stoked that you've been enjoying it, and thanks for the big batch of comments today!
ReplyDeleteIf you think "Vampire" was over the top, check out this performance on what I'm guessing is an Italian kids TV variety show. I love how that executioner never actually does anything, hahaha...