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Monday, February 12, 2007


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Vengeance Rising - "One Dead" (Intense Records, 1990) [key tracks: Warfare, Frontal Lobotomy]
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"The time is limited, don't die a pointless life lived. That which you do matters for eternity... you were left here to warn the world to flee..."
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Something that was happening with the old incarnation of this site was a propensity to only talk about heavy metal. That is part of the reason I eliminated all of the old posts. Now, it seems, we are back in that mode! Or is it I am only posting records that will make Matt's day... But of course, if you ask Mark, nothing good has been posted yet...
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Vengeance Rising was a Christian grindcore/thrash band that was one of my favorites back in the day. This is their second LP, and it is absolutely retarded that this vinyl exists in such perfect shape, and that I was able to purchase it so easily. I ordered it from the UK, but the patience in waiting for delivery paid off! Every song is better than I feared, if not as good as I remembered. Roger Martinez's growl changed on each of the 4 LPs. What struck me most of all was the quality of the guitars on this LP. The band totally shreds! And they have a humorous side to them as well, as they do a great stoner metal-esque cover of Deep Purple's "Space Truckin." The maturity of the metal on this LP really shows (despite the Christian angle) the sort of musicianship that people overlook when metal is discussed. More than just 40 minutes of grind, growl, and double-bass-pedal blast beats, there is actually some interesting time signatures here, and some inventive structure to solos. All metal bands should sound this tight or not make an LP, in my opinion. Just record with a tad less treble; a problem that plagued about every Christian metal album ever made (as well as any LP produced by Ted Templeman). Scott Reeder and Rick Rubin, where were you? Not a good crossover LP to get people into metal by any means, but a seasoned rocker will dig the surprises of this completely unknown masterpiece of thrash and grind.
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As a funny side story, this was the last LP with the real band, as Roger started a descent into madness that left him self recording and producing the next two albums (each a classic in grindcore BTW) before completely denouncing Christianity and going off the deep-end. He spent many years as a drifter in Europe, and his delusions have seemed to solidify in the form of Satanism. Not passive Motley Crue Satanism, "principal of it all" LaVey Satanism, annoying campy Rob Zombie Satanism, or imaginary Mike Warnke/1980's Evangelical-scare-tactic Satanism, but real, scary, psychopathic, volatile, taking-it-too-far, and misguided Satanism. Roger currently is planning a Satanic metal onslaught with a new band forming, and he also won rights to use the Vengeance Rising moniker. His former band mates, still championing their white metal (that is, Christian metal, not Caucasian metal) are performing as Once Dead... Roger also hosts a very profane blog here, just to see how far he has fallen...
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Horn's up indeed!
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2 comments:

troy oz. said...

I also remember those days, the falcon with moon stickers, stealing said Pibb and swiss cake rolls when you guys werent' around. Mao, if you read in troubles cd sleave, they talked about how they got mad when someone called them "white metal". Doesn't mean anything but thats what I thought of when you wrote that.

Carl said...

LOL the 398. I haven't heard that used in its proper context for a long time. Sort of like "Waddie" or "Suey Hint-Ah." White metal is a slam no matter what the context because no one wants to be compared to Stryper. And as a current t-shirt says... even Jesus hates Creed.