DANK SLAMS:
The Definitive History Of Slam
With Uncle Cam
So, we know this guy. This guy, man, he gets around. Dude is THE connoisseur of all that is brutal, slammin, groovin, gurglin, and chuggin. We'll admit, this guy has some years under his belt, yet he is incredibly young at heart. In fact, the number of years corresponds exactly to the holes on his bullet-adorned belt (upward of 40 – he wears his weight well, though).
Anyway, we invited this guy to give us a REAL history lesson in slam, as dude has been jammin this shit since the late-80s. In fact, dude still lives in the 80s (hence the Stranger Things-inspired Dank Slams feature image!). While your father was still jerking off to his Tiffany and Debbie Gibson collection (Google it), this guy was around, doin his thang – trading tapes with metalheads the world over. Dude also spun pre-slam tunes for a good eighteen years over the air waves on his very own, highly-rated radio show (Chronic Aggression Radio). This guy may be as old your dad – probably even older – but he has never lost his way as it relates to this brutal, beautiful music we all love.
We introduce to you Uncle Cam: The Professor Of Slam. Heed his wise words. Take it away, Cam!
CAM: For a true lesson in brutality, let's take this all the way back to the first time my face was fucked with a growl. We gotta go all the way back to '89 and a little UK compilation called North Atlantic Noise Attack which featured both Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror.
North Atlantic Noise Attack - Manic Ears hardcore compilation 1987
CAM: Those blasts. The gurgles. What first drew me into death metal was that slow, grooving breakdown, followed by the abrupt stop of an insane blast-beating riff, or a thrash-tastic speed metal song then – WHAMMO – right back to slam fucking city! I get those musical goosebumps when that riff begins to crunch with a sweet drum fill before the destruction begins. I've molded my entire life after that feeling. What about that riff in Napalm Death's "Mass Appeal Madness"? This thing has got to be the first slam riff ever (check out the riff at 1:04 in the vid below). Anyway, this shit always goes back to Napalm, for me at least.
Napalm Death - Mass Appeal Madness
CAM: Let's fast-forward a little from the late 80s, and take this thing straight into the early 90s. My bros and I listened to a radio show in Toronto, which I believe was called Aggressive Radio (on 89.5 FM). If I remember correctly, this was the first avenue that opened up our young, impressionable minds to more extreme material, though most of it was relegated to Toronto and area. Less than a one-hour drive from me, we were told a tale of a record shop in Niagara Falls, New York called Cavages. They apparently had a handful of people working there that knew what was up in the world-wide heavy scene – a much larger scene than my noob head could fathom. I can recall like it was yesterday the day my friend Dan and I were heading over there to grab some killer tunes (big-box CD cases were the big thing at the time). He purchased Agnostic Front's Live At CBGB's, Incubus' Beyond The Unknown, and the now-classic Carcass album Symphonies Of Sickness.
CAM: Excited as shit as we headed up to the counter to pay for our killer haul, we became momentarily distracted by a flyer about an upcoming show. Could this be? A local death metal show happening relatively close by? We knew Cannibal Corpse was from the area, along with Malevolent Creation – heavy hitters right in our backyard – but that was all we really knew. As it turns out Goreaphobia and Grotesque Infection were on that fateful flyer. Being huge Relapse Records fans, we had heard of Goreaphobia in passing, but who were these others? I remember losing my shit at the thought of real, undiscovered brutality all within an hours drive!
Gorephobia Morbidious Pathology EP 1990
CAM: We tried to make this show happen, but we just couldn't do it. Mind you, I kept track of that store because I had to witness the cultivating of brutal-in-my-backyard, and these dudes knew what was up. I started my venture into the local scene and it all started coming up Milhouse for me. It was around this time that Home Of The Hits was introduced to us, straight outta Buffalo. This was the underground shop of all underground shops. It was here that we spotted another flyer for another death metal/grindcore show. I went to this goddamn show. I fucking had to! This one also sported the mighty Grotesque Infection, along with Infestation and Obscurity, who absolutely kill.
Obscurity - Obscurity Demo 1992
CAM: Being seventeen and hanging out with these massive, larger-than-life American death metal dudes, I was, of course, a little intimidated, but that didn't stop me from grinding my face off. Infestation were an old-school styled death metal band with thrashy moments – which I totally dug – but this Grotesque Infection? WTF. Mutherfukin WOW!
Grotesque Infection - Rotted To The Cross
CAM: This was it! This was absolutely unreal. The usual blast beats were there in spades, but this slamming groove? This was the shit. This was what I was looking for. I needed more of these breakdowns in my death metal – super-crunch guitar that chugged heavier than the donely load currently festering in your mom's arse – all with a slight double-kick flying into this mountainous groove that sent chills right through my gore-drenched heart… gimmie gimmie gimmie!
Grotesque Infection - Festering Wounds Demo 1991
CAM: The underground was my family. I dived head first into tape trading, fanzine writing, bands and so on and so forth. The underground was a wonderful place at that time. People wrote to each other sending many tapes, discs, vinyl and sharing the love for all things not found anywhere else. But I needed more of that slamming groove. I found it. I had found the birth of what we all know today as "Slam". It was right there, in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY, where they took that Suffocation breakdown to realms it had never dared to venture before. This included Baphomet and their The Dead Shall Inherit release from '92
Baphomet - The dead shall inherit 1992
CAM: If this weren't enough, there was the unfuckingbelievably crushing sounds of Rochester, NY's Disgorged (who later changed their name to Withered Earth, and re-released their Thy Hideous Wake EP from '93).
Disgorged - Master of the Larvae
CAM: In a similar vein as Digorged came Ritual Torment from down the road in New Jersey. I had the good fortune of catching these guys live back in the day, and still have the video from that show. I remember being crushed under the weight of sound emanating from the stage. Let's take this one back to their '91 demo,
Ritual Torment - Demo 1991
In last week's installment of Dank, we introduced you to a very special guest columnist by the name of Uncle Cam, who went on to prove why he is the Professor of Slam. Dude has been around a long time. In fact, he was destroying pits/groovin to REAL earthquake-inducing breakdowns before most of you were a glistening little deathcore kid at the end of your dad's festering phallus.
Anyway, Unkie Cam had a lot to say last week, so we invited him back to lead a second semester of slams at Dank High.
The curriculum this time around will focus on the mid '90s through to the present, with titans as diverse as Skinless, Devourment, and Dying Fetus. Uncle Cam also delves right back into the underground, and digs out some gems from Buried Beneath, Lesch/Nyhan, Mangled, Coffin Rot, Damonacy, Catalepsy (no, we spelled it right… read on to find out), among others.
Anyway, recess is over you sick little fuks! Get your History Of Slam book out, sit your ass down, and pay attention to the brutality that is about to unfold. Take it away, Cam
CAM: So, let's start today's proceedings with the mighty Exhumed, who are – and always have been – my band for insane breakdowns. That being said, before the Relapse years (pre-2005) is an entirely different ballgame. Listen to the first minute of their amazing 7" Excreting Innards that dates all the way back to '92.
Exhumed - Festering Sphinctral Malignancy
CAM: Another killer outfit based out of Rochester, NY was Buried Beneath. They had the satanic imagery but – holy muthrfuk – their tunes meant so much more to me then that. Check it.
Buried Beneath - Creed Of The Unholy Spirit 1992 demo#1
CAM: What really got me was this little grinding death metal band from Pennsylvania called Lesch/Nyhan. It was through a tape trading friend (Justin the drummer from Grotesque Infection) who did a compilation tape called Grindrot that I found this little gem on. The vocals. The guitars… THOSE BREAKDOWNS! Seriously this was probably my fav album/demo/tape/band for many many years. Of course, I loved some of the big metal bands but, by this point, it was Lesch/Nyhan all day, every day.
Lesch-Nyhan - Organ Discharge
CAM: Slam? What was that? Back in those days, we still just called it death metal or grinding death metal or whatever the fuk. I'll say that the first few Cryptopsy releases had unimaginable breakdowns. Which also lead to incorporating much of the breakdown sound in some bands that I was in at the time, such as Mangled and Coffin Rot.
Mangled - Human Compost Demo 1993
Coffin Rot - Massive Sanguinary Spillage
CAM: We can't forget about New Jersey's Damonacy, who I ended up inviting to play the Niagara's Death fest (Canada) in May 93'.
Damonacy - Therapeutic Morbidity Demo 1992
CAM: Then there was LA's Catalepsy (not to be confused with Russian Slamaniacs Katalepsy).
Catalepsy - Compulsive Beastiality
CAM: These guys were a brutal foursome out of L.A., which I found on the compilation The Heralds Of Obliveon, released in '93 on Roughage Records. Another notable band from the comp was along with DECOMPOSED, who also hailed from California.
Decomposed - Angeles Diabolicos
CAM: So, this went on for many years until me and a friend , Metal Dan, began a radio show for Brock University called Chronic Aggression. Doing this show lead me straight into a whole new era of brutal. A trusted label for me at the time was Repulse Records, who had signed the incredible Imprecation. Such an amazing band, but I felt like something else was needed. It was also around this time ('97-ish) that I started getting promos from Morbid Records, which included Dead, Agathocles, and… Dying Fetus! Who the fuck is this Dying Fetus? The breakdowns found on Killing On Adrenaline were just what Dr. Slam ordered. Was this a new era?
Dying Fetus - Killing On Adrenaline
CAM: Back over at the Brock University Radio Studio, we scoured through their music library in an ongoing effort to find some killer hidden treasures. We came across a band called Rotting, straight from our very own backyard in Newmarket, Ontario. Over the following years, we became good friends with the guys, and they were later signed to a label called United Guttural Records.
Rotting - Crushed
CAM: Speaking of United Guttural Records, it was around '99 that I first acquired the internet, which allowed me to research what this label was all about. It was here where I was introduced to the likes of Devourment, Skinless, Ton, and Malignancy – all at the same time! Now THIS was a label I could get into! The next time I was able to hang with Rotting vocalist, Korey, he handed me Deaden's Hymns Of The Sick and Skinless' Progression Towards Evil. Man, that Skinless! This thing contained breakdowns beyond breakdowns, and was an album that didn't leave my CD player for many years.
Skinless - Scum Cookie
CAM: Then there was Devourment's debut album Molesting The Decapitated, which dropped in '99. Perfection. The vocals were some of the sickest sounds ever heard up to that point. How 'bout that pinging drum, or that first crushing slam riff in the opening track "Festering Vomitous Mass"?
Devourment - Festering Vomitous Mass
CAM: It was around this time that I began seeing the descriptor of 'Slam' used more and more, particularly with bands such as Eternal Suffering, Dehumanized, Prophecy, and, of course Dying Fetus. Along with the mighty DF, many of these bands are what I suppose you could call the catalyst for what would eventually become the sub-genre of slam. If this is where things were heading, then count-me-the-fuck-in! So, after about ten years or so of wondering what to call this style of brutal-as-fuck music, it turns out that what I was, in fact, an official Slamophiliac!
Eternal Suffering - Drowning In Tragedy
CAM: I'm gonna stop here, as I'm pretty sure that most of you know the rest of the story. I suppose the larger narrative to this piece was that there was a time, long ago, where brutal death metal aficionados had no clue what we were really looking for, as t here existed no rule book for this music. There was no tag applied to this music that we loved. It took hard work, and lots of research, to satisfy our lust for all things more-brutal-than-brutal. I obviously try to keep up with today's BSDM/slam, but I'm starting to get the feeling that too many bands try too hard in their quest for the ultimate breakdown – everyone trying to out slam one another. By doing so, it starts to lose feeling – what it is that made this music so special to begin with. Finding that ultimate breakdown/slam is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you do come across it, man, it's like a hammer to the fucking cranium!
In the end, I don't profess to know everything that's going on – there is just way too much. I'm just a guy that was around when this shit was birthed from the feculent, deliciously rotting orifice of brutal death metal. To this day, I remain great friends with many of the bands mentioned. But, most importantly, this little romp back in time has allowed me to express how much of an impact these trailblazing bands had on me. This stuff – this time – defined who I am today. Sure, Ozzy and Maiden blew my mind as a youngster, but death metal is – and will always be – the most influential style of music to ever grace our shitty existence.
Now, slam on and be awesome everyone… and never forget the roots of this music we all love so much! It's important.
Source Posting and Article :
With Uncle Cam
So, we know this guy. This guy, man, he gets around. Dude is THE connoisseur of all that is brutal, slammin, groovin, gurglin, and chuggin. We'll admit, this guy has some years under his belt, yet he is incredibly young at heart. In fact, the number of years corresponds exactly to the holes on his bullet-adorned belt (upward of 40 – he wears his weight well, though).
Anyway, we invited this guy to give us a REAL history lesson in slam, as dude has been jammin this shit since the late-80s. In fact, dude still lives in the 80s (hence the Stranger Things-inspired Dank Slams feature image!). While your father was still jerking off to his Tiffany and Debbie Gibson collection (Google it), this guy was around, doin his thang – trading tapes with metalheads the world over. Dude also spun pre-slam tunes for a good eighteen years over the air waves on his very own, highly-rated radio show (Chronic Aggression Radio). This guy may be as old your dad – probably even older – but he has never lost his way as it relates to this brutal, beautiful music we all love.
We introduce to you Uncle Cam: The Professor Of Slam. Heed his wise words. Take it away, Cam!
CAM: For a true lesson in brutality, let's take this all the way back to the first time my face was fucked with a growl. We gotta go all the way back to '89 and a little UK compilation called North Atlantic Noise Attack which featured both Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror.
North Atlantic Noise Attack - Manic Ears hardcore compilation 1987
CAM: Those blasts. The gurgles. What first drew me into death metal was that slow, grooving breakdown, followed by the abrupt stop of an insane blast-beating riff, or a thrash-tastic speed metal song then – WHAMMO – right back to slam fucking city! I get those musical goosebumps when that riff begins to crunch with a sweet drum fill before the destruction begins. I've molded my entire life after that feeling. What about that riff in Napalm Death's "Mass Appeal Madness"? This thing has got to be the first slam riff ever (check out the riff at 1:04 in the vid below). Anyway, this shit always goes back to Napalm, for me at least.
Napalm Death - Mass Appeal Madness
CAM: Let's fast-forward a little from the late 80s, and take this thing straight into the early 90s. My bros and I listened to a radio show in Toronto, which I believe was called Aggressive Radio (on 89.5 FM). If I remember correctly, this was the first avenue that opened up our young, impressionable minds to more extreme material, though most of it was relegated to Toronto and area. Less than a one-hour drive from me, we were told a tale of a record shop in Niagara Falls, New York called Cavages. They apparently had a handful of people working there that knew what was up in the world-wide heavy scene – a much larger scene than my noob head could fathom. I can recall like it was yesterday the day my friend Dan and I were heading over there to grab some killer tunes (big-box CD cases were the big thing at the time). He purchased Agnostic Front's Live At CBGB's, Incubus' Beyond The Unknown, and the now-classic Carcass album Symphonies Of Sickness.
CAM: Excited as shit as we headed up to the counter to pay for our killer haul, we became momentarily distracted by a flyer about an upcoming show. Could this be? A local death metal show happening relatively close by? We knew Cannibal Corpse was from the area, along with Malevolent Creation – heavy hitters right in our backyard – but that was all we really knew. As it turns out Goreaphobia and Grotesque Infection were on that fateful flyer. Being huge Relapse Records fans, we had heard of Goreaphobia in passing, but who were these others? I remember losing my shit at the thought of real, undiscovered brutality all within an hours drive!
Gorephobia Morbidious Pathology EP 1990
CAM: We tried to make this show happen, but we just couldn't do it. Mind you, I kept track of that store because I had to witness the cultivating of brutal-in-my-backyard, and these dudes knew what was up. I started my venture into the local scene and it all started coming up Milhouse for me. It was around this time that Home Of The Hits was introduced to us, straight outta Buffalo. This was the underground shop of all underground shops. It was here that we spotted another flyer for another death metal/grindcore show. I went to this goddamn show. I fucking had to! This one also sported the mighty Grotesque Infection, along with Infestation and Obscurity, who absolutely kill.
Obscurity - Obscurity Demo 1992
CAM: Being seventeen and hanging out with these massive, larger-than-life American death metal dudes, I was, of course, a little intimidated, but that didn't stop me from grinding my face off. Infestation were an old-school styled death metal band with thrashy moments – which I totally dug – but this Grotesque Infection? WTF. Mutherfukin WOW!
Grotesque Infection - Rotted To The Cross
CAM: This was it! This was absolutely unreal. The usual blast beats were there in spades, but this slamming groove? This was the shit. This was what I was looking for. I needed more of these breakdowns in my death metal – super-crunch guitar that chugged heavier than the donely load currently festering in your mom's arse – all with a slight double-kick flying into this mountainous groove that sent chills right through my gore-drenched heart… gimmie gimmie gimmie!
Grotesque Infection - Festering Wounds Demo 1991
CAM: The underground was my family. I dived head first into tape trading, fanzine writing, bands and so on and so forth. The underground was a wonderful place at that time. People wrote to each other sending many tapes, discs, vinyl and sharing the love for all things not found anywhere else. But I needed more of that slamming groove. I found it. I had found the birth of what we all know today as "Slam". It was right there, in Buffalo and Niagara Falls, NY, where they took that Suffocation breakdown to realms it had never dared to venture before. This included Baphomet and their The Dead Shall Inherit release from '92
Baphomet - The dead shall inherit 1992
CAM: If this weren't enough, there was the unfuckingbelievably crushing sounds of Rochester, NY's Disgorged (who later changed their name to Withered Earth, and re-released their Thy Hideous Wake EP from '93).
Disgorged - Master of the Larvae
CAM: In a similar vein as Digorged came Ritual Torment from down the road in New Jersey. I had the good fortune of catching these guys live back in the day, and still have the video from that show. I remember being crushed under the weight of sound emanating from the stage. Let's take this one back to their '91 demo,
Ritual Torment - Demo 1991
In last week's installment of Dank, we introduced you to a very special guest columnist by the name of Uncle Cam, who went on to prove why he is the Professor of Slam. Dude has been around a long time. In fact, he was destroying pits/groovin to REAL earthquake-inducing breakdowns before most of you were a glistening little deathcore kid at the end of your dad's festering phallus.
Anyway, Unkie Cam had a lot to say last week, so we invited him back to lead a second semester of slams at Dank High.
The curriculum this time around will focus on the mid '90s through to the present, with titans as diverse as Skinless, Devourment, and Dying Fetus. Uncle Cam also delves right back into the underground, and digs out some gems from Buried Beneath, Lesch/Nyhan, Mangled, Coffin Rot, Damonacy, Catalepsy (no, we spelled it right… read on to find out), among others.
Anyway, recess is over you sick little fuks! Get your History Of Slam book out, sit your ass down, and pay attention to the brutality that is about to unfold. Take it away, Cam
CAM: So, let's start today's proceedings with the mighty Exhumed, who are – and always have been – my band for insane breakdowns. That being said, before the Relapse years (pre-2005) is an entirely different ballgame. Listen to the first minute of their amazing 7" Excreting Innards that dates all the way back to '92.
Exhumed - Festering Sphinctral Malignancy
CAM: Another killer outfit based out of Rochester, NY was Buried Beneath. They had the satanic imagery but – holy muthrfuk – their tunes meant so much more to me then that. Check it.
Buried Beneath - Creed Of The Unholy Spirit 1992 demo#1
CAM: What really got me was this little grinding death metal band from Pennsylvania called Lesch/Nyhan. It was through a tape trading friend (Justin the drummer from Grotesque Infection) who did a compilation tape called Grindrot that I found this little gem on. The vocals. The guitars… THOSE BREAKDOWNS! Seriously this was probably my fav album/demo/tape/band for many many years. Of course, I loved some of the big metal bands but, by this point, it was Lesch/Nyhan all day, every day.
Lesch-Nyhan - Organ Discharge
CAM: Slam? What was that? Back in those days, we still just called it death metal or grinding death metal or whatever the fuk. I'll say that the first few Cryptopsy releases had unimaginable breakdowns. Which also lead to incorporating much of the breakdown sound in some bands that I was in at the time, such as Mangled and Coffin Rot.
Mangled - Human Compost Demo 1993
Coffin Rot - Massive Sanguinary Spillage
CAM: We can't forget about New Jersey's Damonacy, who I ended up inviting to play the Niagara's Death fest (Canada) in May 93'.
Damonacy - Therapeutic Morbidity Demo 1992
CAM: Then there was LA's Catalepsy (not to be confused with Russian Slamaniacs Katalepsy).
Catalepsy - Compulsive Beastiality
CAM: These guys were a brutal foursome out of L.A., which I found on the compilation The Heralds Of Obliveon, released in '93 on Roughage Records. Another notable band from the comp was along with DECOMPOSED, who also hailed from California.
Decomposed - Angeles Diabolicos
CAM: So, this went on for many years until me and a friend , Metal Dan, began a radio show for Brock University called Chronic Aggression. Doing this show lead me straight into a whole new era of brutal. A trusted label for me at the time was Repulse Records, who had signed the incredible Imprecation. Such an amazing band, but I felt like something else was needed. It was also around this time ('97-ish) that I started getting promos from Morbid Records, which included Dead, Agathocles, and… Dying Fetus! Who the fuck is this Dying Fetus? The breakdowns found on Killing On Adrenaline were just what Dr. Slam ordered. Was this a new era?
Dying Fetus - Killing On Adrenaline
CAM: Back over at the Brock University Radio Studio, we scoured through their music library in an ongoing effort to find some killer hidden treasures. We came across a band called Rotting, straight from our very own backyard in Newmarket, Ontario. Over the following years, we became good friends with the guys, and they were later signed to a label called United Guttural Records.
Rotting - Crushed
CAM: Speaking of United Guttural Records, it was around '99 that I first acquired the internet, which allowed me to research what this label was all about. It was here where I was introduced to the likes of Devourment, Skinless, Ton, and Malignancy – all at the same time! Now THIS was a label I could get into! The next time I was able to hang with Rotting vocalist, Korey, he handed me Deaden's Hymns Of The Sick and Skinless' Progression Towards Evil. Man, that Skinless! This thing contained breakdowns beyond breakdowns, and was an album that didn't leave my CD player for many years.
Skinless - Scum Cookie
CAM: Then there was Devourment's debut album Molesting The Decapitated, which dropped in '99. Perfection. The vocals were some of the sickest sounds ever heard up to that point. How 'bout that pinging drum, or that first crushing slam riff in the opening track "Festering Vomitous Mass"?
Devourment - Festering Vomitous Mass
CAM: It was around this time that I began seeing the descriptor of 'Slam' used more and more, particularly with bands such as Eternal Suffering, Dehumanized, Prophecy, and, of course Dying Fetus. Along with the mighty DF, many of these bands are what I suppose you could call the catalyst for what would eventually become the sub-genre of slam. If this is where things were heading, then count-me-the-fuck-in! So, after about ten years or so of wondering what to call this style of brutal-as-fuck music, it turns out that what I was, in fact, an official Slamophiliac!
Eternal Suffering - Drowning In Tragedy
CAM: I'm gonna stop here, as I'm pretty sure that most of you know the rest of the story. I suppose the larger narrative to this piece was that there was a time, long ago, where brutal death metal aficionados had no clue what we were really looking for, as t here existed no rule book for this music. There was no tag applied to this music that we loved. It took hard work, and lots of research, to satisfy our lust for all things more-brutal-than-brutal. I obviously try to keep up with today's BSDM/slam, but I'm starting to get the feeling that too many bands try too hard in their quest for the ultimate breakdown – everyone trying to out slam one another. By doing so, it starts to lose feeling – what it is that made this music so special to begin with. Finding that ultimate breakdown/slam is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, but when you do come across it, man, it's like a hammer to the fucking cranium!
In the end, I don't profess to know everything that's going on – there is just way too much. I'm just a guy that was around when this shit was birthed from the feculent, deliciously rotting orifice of brutal death metal. To this day, I remain great friends with many of the bands mentioned. But, most importantly, this little romp back in time has allowed me to express how much of an impact these trailblazing bands had on me. This stuff – this time – defined who I am today. Sure, Ozzy and Maiden blew my mind as a youngster, but death metal is – and will always be – the most influential style of music to ever grace our shitty existence.
Now, slam on and be awesome everyone… and never forget the roots of this music we all love so much! It's important.
Source Posting and Article :
http://www.metalinjection.net/author/jasond
http://www.metalinjection.net/av/dank-slams/dank-slams-the-definitive-history-of-slam-with-uncle-cam-part-1
http://www.metalinjection.net/av/dank-slams/dank-slams-the-definitive-history-of-slam-with-uncle-cam-part-2
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