Unholy Death

If you like early Venom, NME's Unholy Death album is what you need. This is essentially a demo from 1986 from a band with little to no money for slick studio production. This is raw, there'll be no slickness here. The rawness absolutely works for NME. Think early Exciter style speed metal without the double bass mixed with Venom just rawer.

The music is speed metal (not thrash) with that sloppy Venom-y feel. it's not punk, these are definitely metal riffs, solos and structures that are sloppy yet catchy just like their obvious influence, early Venom. This is sloppy, raw, simple music done right. Even though NME are definitely not the best musicians in the world, their songwriting is legendary. This is an 80s black metal classic overlooked by all but the most diehard fans that dig deep to find gems like this.

Great bass lines throughout in lockstep with the drums more often than not. Crunchy, thick, raw guitar tone that exudes heaviness. Even though there are 2 guitarists, the music sounds like it came from a 3 piece band not that that's a bad thing, far from it. The solos are not technical, just heavy with lots of feedback. A lot of very rattling bass going on and completely unexpected unorthodox guitar squeals and noises thrown in here and there. Raw metal like this is why the 80s reign supreme.

The vocals are shouted similar to Lemmy of Motorhead but not exactly. A rough, aggressive, masculine voice yelling is what you get on Unholy Death. The songs are anthems meant to be sang along to. Even though the vocals are rough, they are clear, you understand every word. Listen to Black Knight or Louder Than Hell and tell me these aren't classic fist pumping anthems. The guitar medley of Stormwarning followed by a really cool bass part leading into being beaten over the head by Blood and Souls absolutely crushes. The Decadent Mayhem solo will make you think what if Jimi Hendrix was metal because that's exactly what it would sound like.

Of course I have my favorite songs on here but you won\t be skipping any songs on Unholy Death, it's great from start to finish.

This thing is an overdose of messiness. In fact, it's one of the messiest albums out there that doesn't end up crossing the line into full-on noise and still sounds good. Hell, I'd say the excess of filth is what gives Unholy Death most of its appeal. It sounds a lot like Venom but takes things so far over the top in such a "devil may care" way of creating gritty thrash that NME make Venom look like a glam rock band by comparison. Unholy Death is metal with rabies, and as such, everything has a bite to it. Seething with aggression and foaming at the mouth is how this thing conducts itself. In addition, it's also loaded with tracks that are perfectly suited to moshing in the sewers and back-alley rampages. Wild doesn't even being to describe it. I’m actually surprised this thing holds together as well as it does, given the bassy, static-riddled production and “no-fucks-given” playing style. But in using those, NME made thrash that’s so cannibalistic and crunchy that Unholy Death has gone down as a hidden legend in the underground.

The sound on this thing is something to behold. Normally, metal bands leave a bit of feedback or static in their sound for the sake of crunch, but these guys have so much grit that it becomes part of the actual composition itself, with distant bass thumps or lead guitar squeals and feedback introducing a song and seeping into the playing itself to give it this very primal and very crunchy timbre that is just perfect for smashing things to. The throbbing, chaotic bass lines help a lot in that regard with them thumping around like a predatory hobo in the dark knocking everything over. And speaking of predatory hobos, Brian Llapitan’s shouted vocals sound monstrous and inebriated whilst still being very strong and bracing to listen to. These come together into some songs that range from borderline chaos with a riff and a beat, to numbers like “Black Knight” or “Warrior” where it’s a catchier cavernous mudstomp, every note and beat feels like a kick to the chest, and the verses are belted out in a way that compels you into a good shout-along. It’s all good rampaging thrash fun with the right amount of crunch and echo for prowling the dark streets at night in search of prey (or another beer).

Another thing to note is that Unholy Death is aggressive and menacing in a primal way that feels just a little more real than what most death metal bands can do, while still being nastier than most other thrash acts, with only fellow gutter thrash acts like Hellhammer, Bulldozer, and Slaughter for company back in those days. Yeah, it’s related to first wave black metal, but there’s no satanic pretenses or tremolos, just dirty-ass, bass-loaded, street-prowling metal attitude, pure aggression, and excessive noise for noise’s sake while still trying to rock in as ugly a way as possible, as demonstrated by “Louder Than Hell” and “Evil Dead” which don’t venture too far from regular thrash song structure, but thrive on explosive echoes, trampling tempos, and pure crunchy filth in their approach that makes it feel all the mightier.

With some of the purest grit out there, NME made Unholy Death into one of the most pounding and savage thrash metal albums released in the underground. Every song is either pummeling the hell out of you with bruising riffage or rampaging through town destroying everything with feedback attacks and solos so chaotic and gnarly, yet so brilliant, it almost seems like a very happy accident. For all you speed freaks out there, this album is the sort of thing that’ll attract you like flies to a discarded steak. The mixture of feedback and bass feel like artillery going off, and if the chunky riff to “Black Knight” (along with other songs) doesn’t get you ready to mosh, you might as well be a corpse. It’s really a shame that this band tends to get attention because Kurt Struebing cut his mom open while on hallucinogens, because the music stands pretty damn tall on its own. This right here is recommended listening. It’s extreme filthiness taken to its very end and compacted into some punishing, unrelenting, and powerful songs, even if the band were sloppy musicians barely holding it all together (as evidenced by the live tracks). Bottom line, it kicks ass in the most primal of ways.

At the time of its release, this album represented the ultimate in raw, truly EVIL black Metal. The type of music that would send posers running and screaming back into the closet to listen to those Sheena Easton and Duran Duran albums (or slap on a Judas Priest record so they could at least PRETEND to be heavy.) But I can think of no other band at this time that was as truly malevolent and evil sounding as these guys were.

A lot of people have compared this to Venom, and certainly those comparisons are valid. Both bands share a similar songwriting style and image. NME weren’t really a speed or thrash band in the sense that, say, Bathory, Slayer and Possessed were. Rather, much like Venom and Hellhammer, they relied on a series of mid-paced, malevolent grinding riffs and allowed the overall heaviness, atmosphere and distortion to carry the sound. However, the guitar sounds on here are far darker and more corrosive and sinister than Venom ever were; its actually somewhat indescribable: eerie and heavy at the same time. The playing is none too complex, but there is more going on than just the simple riffs. The guitar has way more reverb and distortion on it than Venom or Hellhammer, and the guitarist deliberately channels the feedback to accentuate the playing. The overall effect is one of simplicity and power, getting the most power out of each single note, mimimalism at its best. And the production values are none too pretty either but that’s the point, you just don’t want them to be. The raw minimalist production actually suits this music perfectly; everything cranked up to ten. The whole thing is paradoxically beautiful in its very rawness and ugliness.

Mentioning individual tracks on here is pointless because to be honest, I would recommend just about every single one of them. This album represents what "True Black Metal" was before it came to be irrevocably changed by the Scandanavian bands of the early 90s; before Black Metal became about tremolo-picked riffs, hypnotic drumming, cackly-shrieky vocals, and quasi-melodic chord progressions based on major/minor third intervals. Before all of that, THIS was the formula- what people would nowadays toss terms like “True” or “Cult” at, except those terms didn’t even exist back then. And with the possible exception of Hellhammer and a tiny handful of obscure bands, almost nobody captured that sonic malevolence better than these guys did on this record.