Search - Death Strike :: Fucking Death

One of those rare underground metal releases that might plea

Zander Haberstaft | Miami, Florida | 03/09/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Ah, Paul Speckmann. The unheralded king of Chicago thrash metal in the mid-80s. Then his journey into the unheralded Death Metal arena in the early 90s didn't win him any favors within "mainstream" Death Metal circles. Maybe it was Speckmann's inability to play record company politics that forced his bands (Abomination, Master, Death Strike, and a few others) further into the trenches of the underground. In 1985 Speckmann's "Master" signed a record deal with the Thrash friendly Combat records and even recorded an album only to have it never released by Combat. Luckily Germany's Nuclear Blast Records took pity on Speckmann and not only released a few Master releases in the early 90s but also released (re-released?) this 1985 effort.



Speckmann (bass/vocals), Chris Mittlebrun (guitar), Kirk Miller (guitar), John Leprich (drums) comprise the entire Death Strike group. The lyrics are huge departure from the mid-80s norm of trying to have cartoonishly sounding Satanic lyrics or lyrics focused on flames and abstract death. The lyrics instead deal more with social/political issues and have a paranoid fascination with nuclear war (just like most people in 1980s and some bands like Nuclear Assault). The Death Strike sound is best explained as a cross between Venom, Motorhead, early-Slayer, Dark Angel, Celtic Frost, and some more punk influences. The album indeed almost has a Crossover aspect to it. So the sound crosses the sounds of the N.W.O.B.H.M., Thrash, Crossover, Doom and proto-Grind sub-genres. Muddied chugging guitars, super low bass guitar, and hammering mid-tempo double bass with the most dramatic drum strokes characterize this hilariously titled album.



The album has a very muddied production but is suprisingly crisp when it comes to the drums and the vocals. The drum intro to "Pervert" just proves this even more. Indeed the overall production might be this albums most interesting about it because it draws a valid comparison between Death Strike and another band from their neck-of-the-woods that has started to re-gain some recognition recently: Repulsion. It is short but certainly worth a listen because of its significant contrasts to the conventional Thrash metal sound of the day."

Fuckin' Death Indeed...

ProEvil | MA | 05/07/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Paul Speckmann is an unheralded national treasure. Definitely inspired by the uber-primitivist approach of Hellhammer, Venom, Motorhead and Discharge. Nevertheless, this manages to sound like nothing else really. Great music to listen to while hammering nails into baseball bats and donning your motorcycle helmet as you prepare for urban warfare. Hard as hell to find these days. As the saying goes, "I've got mine"."