Marginalia #5

A gallery of 80s metal I’ve been checking out recently. The Piledriver is hilarious and not meant to be taken seriously. I mean…that cover. The first two Raven albums are great. Guitar folks out there might want to check out some of the live stuff, since it’s weird to see and hear early speed metal/thrash played on a Telecaster. The first Angel Witch album is a horror-themed blast.

And Powermad! I tried to find anything by them for years. Some of you may know them from the Wild at Heart soundtrack. I even used to read rumors that it was a joke band made for the film. That maybe it was Jennifer Lynch’s boyfriend. Powermad is not a Lynch joke. Lynch is a cornball. Anyway, their full-length album rocks, they weren’t afraid of melody and so it lends itself to Anthrax comparisons. Powermad were from Minneapolis–Midwest Metal! The first ep, Where the Madness Begins, has good songs and a fun Ramones cover, but the album does not sound like it was recorded at Paisley Park. The guitar sounds are way off. I’m not sure if I was listening to a bad remix/master or the original recording.