It's hard to imagine that, in the not-so-distant past, punk and metal existed in distinct, separate worlds. Punks liked punk, metalheads liked metal, and there wasn't a whole lot of overlap. True story: my band was banned from a prominent Philly punk house for being "too metal" (at the time, we were a melodic d-beat band with Iron Maiden parts), and while we were loading out I heard some asshat saying, "Why the fuck are these people allowed in our scene?"
So when a band like Teen Cthulhu (or Asschapel, Fall of the Bastards, Inure, even Catharsis) showed up playing crusty metal in your local basement, some got butthurt, and others geeked the fuck out. "Holy shit," they'd think, "this so evil! How'd the drummer get so good? Is that tremolo picking?! Harmonized leads?! Fucking keyboards!?" Around the turn of the millennium, Teen Cthulhu's ripping, self-destructive mix of crust/hardcore and black metal -- complete with, yes, keyboards -- was unlike anything else, and punks went absolutely apeshit for it.
Track listing:
1. Burning Fields
2. Fantastic Wound
3. I'm Going to Fucking Kill Myself
4. The Aquaducts Will Run Red with the Blood of Caesar
5. 120 Days of Sodom
6. Milder Dimensions
7. Hydroencephaloid
8. Fucking with Death
9. Bloodhorse
10. Knocking on Heaven's Gate
11. Hillgiant Witch
12. Ready the Guillotine
13. Wolfhunter
Knife hits
link is down.
ReplyDeleteanyway, i discover lots of great stuff here, thanks for getting me into so many music
I just came across this and, as someone who was active in both the philly anarchist/punk "scene" (and lived in a philly "punk house", I'm curious which "prominent Philly punk house" you were banned from (if you want to name names that is)? I find that notion amusing.
ReplyDeleteBTW, had Catharsis play in my basement and it was highly enjoyable. Brian kept the pontification to a minimum and there was some fun ribbing when it came to Crimethinc (which reflected the prevailing sentiment about Crimethinc that existed in the house).
Enjoy the blog. Cheers.
I honestly don't remember the name of the house. All I can remember about it is that they had a sign over the front door with the name of the house, and shows happened in the basement. In retrospect, the "too metal" thing makes zero sense because we'd actually played there a few months before (with Municipal Waste, no less) with no issue. Our first drummer liked to get drunk and aggro, and in retrospect, I've wondered if maybe he had some drama with people at the house or something, but that's 100% speculation -- if that's the case, he didn't say anything about it. It was also mostly just one dude who lived there telling us we had to leave, so maybe it was more of a renegade action? I really stayed out of the fray back then so I genuinely don't really know. What I DO know for sure is that I accidentally left my backup guitar under the stairs in the basement because we had to load out so quickly after our set, and when we called the house the next day asking about it, whoever we talked to flat-out denied that it was there, which, unless someone had already found it and taken it, was definitely bullshit.
DeleteNice to hear that Catharsis was capable of putting on a good show. They always seemed like they WOULD be great live if dude could just have any sense of chill.
(This would've been in '04 or '05, if that helps narrow it down.)
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