anniversaries

Talk about being productive! In 1979, Motörhead put out Bomber and Overkill, which turns 30 today. Bomber had better artwork, but Overkill had better songs. It was the first major statement by Motörhead’s classic lineup: Lemmy, “Fast” Eddie Clarke, Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor. Their eponymous 1977 record was a punky rush job. Bouncy and bluesy, […]

by Cosmo Lee Prong’s Cleansing turned 15 yesterday. Does anyone care besides me? Prong is not exactly hip right now. Tommy Victor’s bandmates on this record are known more for their gigs afterwards – Godflesh and Jesu for drummer Ted Parsons, Killing Joke and Ministry for bassist Raven (RIP), Fear Factory and Ascension of the […]

by Cosmo Lee Saturday marks the 20th birthday of Dark Angel’s Leave Scars. Unlike many, I find Dark Angel merely enjoyable. I think people have willed them into legendary status. Their relative obscurity compared to larger thrash bands is pretty much as it should be. For me, their biggest drawbacks were iffy production and singers […]

by Cosmo Lee Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be Brian Slagel. Does he go to bed each night with a smile, thinking, “Damn, I introduced Metallica and Slayer to the world”? Or does he lie awake in a cold sweat wondering, “Why I did I sign Goo Goo Dolls and I Killed the […]

Inside gatefold, Japanese edition Do yourself a favor. Take out your CD/LP/cassette tape/MP3 folder of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Listen to it. It turns 35 today. That’s older than me. Things older than oneself deserve respect. Especially if they’re still kicking their progeny’s ass 666 ways ’til Sunday. 95% of sludge/doom metal might as well give […]

by Cosmo Lee Death’s Leprosy turned 20 yesterday. In 1988, I was deep in the thrall of glam and thrash metal; I didn’t hear Leprosy until long after the fact. When I did, I was underwhelmed. I got into Death through their later records (Individual Thought Patterns onwards), and Leprosy seemed kind of boring. It […]

by Cosmo Lee Carcass’ Heartwork turns 15 today. It and Entombed’s Wolverine Blues, which came out the same month, were the main soundtracks to my college freshman year. (Earache’s licensing deal with Columbia, which exposed Carcass, Cathedral, Entombed, Fudge Tunnel, Godflesh, and Napalm Death to much wider audiences, was directly responsible for introducing me to […]

by Cosmo Lee Forbidden‘s debut, Forbidden Evil, turns 20 today. Its maturity is still startling. The band emerged almost fully-formed, refining their technical thrash only slightly on their 1990 masterpiece Twisted into Form. Forbidden were a second-tier band in prominence, but more than matched their first-tier peers in competence. As a duo, Craig Locicero and […]

by Cosmo Lee Cynic‘s Focus turned 15 yesterday. Plenty of ink has been spilled on it, so I need not discuss its importance, except to point out that without it there would be no Alarum, Behold…The Arctopus, Between the Buried and Me, Intronaut, Spiral Architect, and many other bands today. I don’t remember when I […]

by Cosmo Lee Invisible Oranges turns 2 tomorrow. This really isn’t a big deal, especially given that this site’s inspiration, aversionline.com, has been going in some form or another for 8 years. That boggles my mind. The headaches involved in running such a site are immense (Invisible Oranges is held together mostly by tape and […]