Sepultura, Cradle of Filth, et Biohazard

Sepultura have the kind of origins that one would never believe if it wasn’t true. The band were formed by the brothers Max and Igor Cavalera, sons of a well to do Italian diplomat whose tragic death left his family in financial ruin. However, the very same day that his father died, Max heard Black Sabbath Vol. 4 for the first time. The combination of events sparked an obsession with heavy metal and both brothers conspired to form a band soon after that.

They settled on the name Sepultura, the Portuguese word for “grave”, when Max translated the lyrics to the Motörhead song “Dancing On Your Grave”. However, the final and most crucial influence that the brothers discovered was Newcastle’s very own Venom, considered by many to be the worlds first black metal band. By 1984, both brothers dropped out of school to make the band work, and were signed to Cogumelo Records by 1985.

1986 saw the release of their debut album “Morbid Visions”, whose song “Troops Of Doom” gained the band national attention. The band relocated to the larger city of São Paulo to capitalise and the follow up album, 1987’s “Schizophrenia” did just that. It was the first record to make a name for the band in the United Kingdom and the States due to the radio play it received and critical notices it was getting in the metal press.

Crucially, it secured the band a deal with metal titans Roadrunner Records without the label ever seeing them perform live. Everything was set up in the bands favour, and with 1989’s “Beneath The Remains”, they knocked it out of the park. It was immediately hailed as a classic to rival Slayer’s “Reign In Blood” L.P and was the ticket they needed for their first shows outside of South America. Inside of South America they were massive on a barely comprehendible scale, their set at the 1991 Rock In Rio Festival attracted a reported 100’000 spectators.

After that, the band had a creative run of three albums that most bands in general, let alone metal bands, haven’t been able to touch before or since. “Arise”, “Chaos A.D” and “Roots” were all massively critically acclaimed and sold buckets but, as with all good things, it had to come to an end. Max Cavalera left the band in 1997 with some seriously bad blood left between him and the rest of the band and while the band have continued without him, they’ve never quite reached the acclaim they had while he was still in their ranks. Then again, few bands ever reach that level of acclaim so it’s unfair to compare.

The band are still an unmissable live act, with tracks like “Refuse/Resist”, “Arise” and “Roots Bloody Roots” still able to cause as ungodly a ruckus as they were always able to. Any metal fan would do well to catch them the next chance they get.

It’s night on impossible for a band to last on shock-value alone Look at the recent career of Marilyn Manson for proof of that fact. However, for most part that means that if you find a band or artist who’ve been relevant for longer than five years with a controversial or eye-catching image, they’re usually the real deal. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Suffolk extreme metal icons Cradle Of Filth, who’ve managed to balance baiting absolutely everyone under the sun with releasing some of the best British metal of the 1990’s.

From the very beginning of the band, Dani Filth has been the sole constant member. Even the first incarnations of the band were erratic, with line-up switching drastically every time they recorded and released their demo E.P’s. Invoking the Unclean, Orgiastic Pleasures Foul and Total F**king Darkness, were all released in 1992 with three different line ups playing on them, They were still enough to generate some label interest, and after a disastrous stint on Tombstone Records where their debut album was wiped entirely when the label went bankrupt, the bad signed to Cacophonous Records to release their debut album “The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh” in 1994.

The album was critically revered however, even if it does bear little resemblance to modern Cradle Of Filth records. Almost immediately after the release of their debut however, the band became embroiled in a nasty legal spat with Cacophonous Records which took them out of commission for the whole of 1995. The following year, after a hastily recorded E.P released to get them out of their record deal, they signed to Music For Nations and in the same year they released their breakthrough record “Dusk… And Her Embrace”.

The critical notices that the album received, their theatrical live shows and a line of controversial merchandise, including the infamous “Jesus is a C*nt” T-Shirt, led to a high degree of notoriety for the band. Of course, there’s no such thing as bad publicity and ever since then, they’ve had a devoted following around the world as much for their music as their gothic image and controversial statements. It’s rare for a band to retain their ability to shock while still creating relevant music, but Cradle Of Filth are a sign that it’s still very much possible. And they come highly recommended.

Storming out of Brooklyn in 1987, Biohazard first made a name for themselves in the thriving New York City hardcore punk scene, playing shows with the likes of Cro-Mags and Agnostic Front. However, the band were always far more open minded and experimental than their NYHC peers. From the very beginning they were taking their blend of thrash metal and hardcore punk and adding influences from hip-hop to it, which got them noticed by Maze Records in 1990. The band signed a deal with them and released their self-titled debut album the same year, and although it still managed to sell a respectable 40’000 copies, it wasn’t promoted as well as it could have been, and the band were soon looking for another label to take them on.

The band arguably hit the jackpot in 1992 when they signed to Roadrunner Records, making them label mates with the likes of Sepultura and Type O Negative. They capitalised with their breakthrough record “Urban Discipline”, a record which sold over a million copies and gave MTV’s heavy metal show Headbanger’s Ball the most played video in their 17 year history in the form of the single “Punishment”. In 1993 the band moved off Roadrunner and signed to Warner Bros., releasing “State Of The World Address” the year after. This record equalled its predecessor’s commercial success, making them the hottest heavy metal band in the world for a period of time.

Ever since then the band have remained stalwarts on the American metal scene, even though they split for two years, reuniting in 2008. While they’ve never quite for the recognition they deserve for being a prototype Nu-Metal band before Korn took it over ground a couple of years after they debuted, they’ve still got legions of devoted followers. This isn’t even to mention how they can still blow the roof of any venue they play as a live act, and to this day, Biohazard come highly recommended.

With a career behind them that - on and off, with a few breaks - has now spanned more than thirty years, Exodus have proved to have had more longevity than many of their eighties heavy metal contemporaries, even if you have to concede that the lineup has by no means been stable down the years. As things stand, drummer Tom Hunting is the only founding member of the band to still be involved, although he only rejoined as recently as 2007; the rest of the present lineup includes longtime axeman Gary Holt on guitar, Steve Souza - around since 1986 - on vocals, Jack Gibson on bass and Lee Altus on guitar.

The band’s original lead guitarist was Kirk Hammett, now best known for being the longtime lead player in metal titans Metallica; James Hetfield’s men, along with Exodus and Testament, all hail from the Bay Area of California and are considered pioneers of the thrash metal genre. With a career spanning ten full-length records, countless tours and no fewer than five million albums sold, Exodus show no signs of slowing down; their 2014 release ‘Blood In, Blood Out’ met with fine reviews in the metal community and beyond, and was also their highest charting album in twenty-four years.

I guess we can let the state of New York off the hook for not giving us as much great death metal as places like Florida, Gothenburg and Stockholm. In between Patti Smith, Talking Heads, The Velvet Underground, Jay Z, Biggie Smalls and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I think they’ve earned the right to be lacking in one or two genres. Even then, they’ve still given the world two of the most respected and well known death metal bands in the world in the form of Cannibal Corpse, and the band that pioneered the technical death metal style, Suffocation. In fact, if it wasn’t for Frank Mullen’s vocal style on their album “Effigy Of The Forgotten”, then we probably wouldn’t have death growl vocals as we know them today. Needless to say, Suffocation are a very important band.

The first incarnation of Suffocation was put together by Mullen in 1988, however only he and bassist Josh Barohn lasted into the bands classic line-up after they first formed. The classic line up came when Mortuary, a local band who had been playing a few gigs with the fledgling Suffocation , split up. Their guitarists, Terrance Hobbs and Doug Cerrito, along with drummer Mike Smith got in touch with Mullen and the classic line up was formed. By 1991 they had signed to Relapse Records and had released their first E.P, called “Human Waste”, already their brand of extremely technical metal blackened by grindcore influences was unlike anything many fans of extreme music had heard before, but none of them could be prepared for what could come next.

Their debut, “Effigy Of The Fallen” was released the same year and hit the metal scene, that was already in the rudest health it had ever been in, like a meteor. To this day it’s cited as holy text by most death metal bands, and deathcore groups owe most of their existence to it. The band released two further albums, “Breeding The Spawn” and “Pierced From Within” and toured relentlessly around it before internal friction and tour exhaustion made them split up in 1998, after releasing one last E.P in the form of “Despise The Sun”. However, they weren’t going to stay down for long and triumphantly reunited in 2003.

After a comeback album released the year after, the band went on to play to audiences bigger than they ever could have been originally. It was a textbook case of a band being more influential in death than they were in life, and their comeback tour took in playing to over 33’000 fans at Germany’s Wacken Festival that same year. Since then the band left their original home at Relapse to join up with Nuclear Blast, they’re still touring like there’s no tomorrow and creating new music despite some line-up troubles. They’re an inspiration to any heavy metal fan around, and come highly recommended.