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Track Listing:
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Artist: Stormtroopers Of Death Rating: 3/5 Written By: Ken Pierce (copyright 2007) for PiercingMetal.com |
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For a band that was launched as a side project to their already existing groups the Stormtroopers Of Death or S.O.D. as they are often called, managed to create quite a stir with their debut recording “Speak English Or Die”. With this album the band found themselves making a little bit of music history because they were the first to blend the elements of Hardcore Punk and Thrash Metal into a new blend of sonic assault that was often referred to as “Crossover Thrash”. The members of the group are Billy Milano (vocals), Scott Ian (guitar), Dan Lilker (bass) and Charlie Benante (drums) and since this time collaborations of this kind are rather commonplace and not always as interesting. When S.O.D. was doing it no one was sure how it was going to be received and given the original premise I am not sure that the band even cared. The songs that they did were fast paced like classic Hardcore and used to some effect the riffs from the growing Thrash Metal scene and made songs like “Pu$$ywhipped” and “Kill Yourself” among their most popular numbers. This EP finds the band reunited and delivering what comes off as the longest EP in music history with its 24 included numbers. It begins with a couple of songs where Milano speaks out against people’s complacency in life as things steamroll over them and also how many are willing to cow down to places like Starbuck’s. He finds amazement at the pricing for what the product is and I guess like Chris Caffery always laments “Starbuck’s pisses him off”. Tracks three and four are the bands chance to cover tunes by Hardcore legends Agnostic Front and Negative Approach. They come out swinging on these tunes and that makes sense since Milano and the guys were always deeply rooted in the original NYHC scene when it was in full-swing. The EP continues with a blistering live set that captures S.O.D. just the way you were meant to enjoy them – onstage. Recorded at The Fenix in Seattle, Washington the group makes no bones about opening up with the “Ballad Of Nirvana”, a song that is only a few chords from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the words “You’re Dead”. That boldness and twisted sense of humor was a lot of what the band was all about and they feature about six more similar ballads towards the middle of the set. The recording of this concert is pretty good and seems to be more of a sound board production than an audience one. Either way it does the band the justice as one would hope that it would and comes off as energetic, funny and as irreverent as the band has been known to be across their career. The set is primarily built upon their classic album “Speak English Or Die” and gets to all of the tunes that the band was most notorious for delivering. The audience seems to be having fun and of course Milano makes sure to berate them from time to time for good measure. No one is safe at an S.O.D. show but Milano does stress that if someone is stage diving to be sure to catch them. While this is might be more geared for those that were really big fans of S.O.D., it’s not a bad thing for the casual fan to enjoy and appreciate. The band only gets together every so often as their own bands of Anthrax, Nuclear Assault and M.O.D. keep them rather busy but when S.O.D. does reunite you can be rest assured that there will be no safe haven. Official Web Site: www.sod-mod.com |
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