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██▌ Artist...: Bloodcum ░▐██▌
░▐██ Album....: Death by a Clothes Hanger ░██▌░
▓▐██ Year.....: 1988 ▓▐██▓
▓▐██ Rel.Date.: 2020-08-09 ░▐██▓
▐██ Genre....: Thrash Metal ██▌░
░ ██▌ Label....: Wild Rags Records ██▌
▐██ Source...: CD ▐██
░▐██▌ Type.....: Album ▐██▌░
▓▄████ Quality..: VBR, 44.1kHz, Joint Stereo ████▌░
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1. Happily Married 3:56
2. Son of Sam 2:44
3. Live to Kill 1:56
4. Good Hearted Man 1:25
5. Treatment of Death 2:06
6. Death by a Clothes Hanger 2:23
7. Belligerent Youth 1:00
8. Harassment by Farm Animals 0:39
9. First to Die 1:38
10. Sike-o-Path! 3:03
11. Unlisted Track (Testing the Doorknob) 2:38
------
23:28
According to proper logical sense and extensive scientific and
psychological research, little brothers often follow their older
brother's direction- either by good, bad or thrash. And poor ol' little
Johnny decided to follow the direction of this older brother's path-
which is the third path:: Johnny's last name is Araya. And as we all
fellow metalheads know, Araya is the last name of Slayer's frontman,
with Johnny happening to be his brother.
Johnny's own thrash band, Bloodcum, rarely shows any sign of influence
from his older brother's band- except for the flashy solos that were
featured in this release, which could fit well inside Reign in Blood or
Hell Awaits. Except for that, the band didn't take any influence from
Slayer, and instead, focus on a more in-your-face NYHC influenced thrash
sound- think a mixture between D.R.I, S.O.D with some very Exodus and
Motorhead-like riffs. Most songs go in this straightforward and
easy-going manner, with a very fast crossover section, occasional solos
and bass-only parts, and very fast drumming all along the way. The short
duration of the album, which is just four seconds from being 21 minutes
long, prevents the music from being boring and is perfect for a release
of this type. A very notable thing about the album is its lyrics- they
are very dark but are actually very amusing and have many moments of
twisted humor:
"Keep me in a fucking room, all day long
Feed me full of pills, 'til my brain is gone
Then they watch me like a rat"
The production appeals the music and is perfectly suited for its genre-
it is one of the most underground productions I've ever heard in an
obscure crossover release, but it isn't thin and has a certain depth and
volume to it. The instruments and the NYHC shout-like vocals were made
very lo-fi, but are equalized perfectly and every instrument is heard
perfectly, except for the drums which give a feeling that they were
"left behind" and sound brittle compared to the rest of the instruments.
Recommended to die-hard thrash fans only.
---
Pretty much everything about Bloodcum describes them as one of the more
'raunchy' thrash metal acts to explode in the California scene of the
mid-80s. From the eyebrow raising band name, to the splattering
crossover-gone-speed metal chaos that they laid down i the studio, to
the album title, shitty album cover and menstrual look of the logo. But
mostly these guys remind me enormously of Exodus back when they were
their no-frills, evil, aggressive thrashing selves. Death by a Clothes
Hanger features some of the same violent guitar tone as a Bonded by
Blood, and the vocalist reminds me quite a lot of a Baloff, only far
less corrosive. The band even featured Tom Araya's brother John at one
point on bass and guitars, so they were pretty well jacked in to the
happenings of their region.
However, they never really reached the level of an Exodus, Forbidden,
Vio-Lence, or Testament, remaining far in the backdrop well behind even
Defiance or Hexx. It's kind of a pity, because their extreme approach to
the genre would have gone over very well with a wider range of Holy
Terror or Dark Angel fans, and I think they would certainly have had an
appeal to those into the extreme crossover sounds of Cryptic Slaughter
or D.R.I. There's a certain street ready savvy to Bloodcum, almost as if
they liked to gather around their audience and then gang bang them with
baseball bats and brass knuckles. If you're looking for a fight, then
you've come to the right band, and I can imagine their gigs must have
had some outrageous mosh pits and broken glass and club fixtures.
What prevents Death by a Clothes Hanger from reaching a higher tier of
possibility is the sheer lack of diversity present in the riffs. The
band simply clobbers you with one fast paced beating after the next, and
this can grow fairly exhausting in time. The entire album is only 21
minutes long, covering 10 tracks, and aside from the opener "Happily
Married" and closer "Sike-O-Path!", they are all about 1-2 minutes in
length, with some like the bass parody gone splatter core of "Harassment
by Farm Animals" at grind/punk length. At best, the band is just
attacking at an unrelenting pace, like "First to Die" which should
thrill anyone who digs Darkness Descends or the more aggressive, street
violent records from Canada's Razor. The guitars riffs speed by like
they're passengers on a dragster bound for a brick wall, and at their
slowest they lapse into crushing Exodus mosh riffs (queue the intro to
"Sike-O-Path!"!).
Had the band slowed down more often, who knows what they could have been
capable of. The lack of branching out in the writing process probably
crippled their chance to make waves, but that doesn't stop the trio of
"Happily Married", "Son of Sam" and "Live to Kill" from kicking your ass
all the way down to the liquor store and back. Frenetic levels of
testosterone are being bled dry into the atmosphere, slipping up
prostitutes and gangbangers both. Can you imagine living in this band's
neighborhood when they were jamming? I'd suspect it was Pearl Harbor II.
The vocals often sink into some goofy narrative, and the lyrics are your
typical street level moronic views of subjects both silly and serious
that forever haunted most crossover bands, but this dude would sneer
just enough that you could overcome the hesitation and just bang thy
head.
Imagine a happily married union of Exodus and D.R.I. If such a prospect
thrills you and has you donning your Municipal Waste tee and shit
kicking boots, then go fucking track this record down, because it has
your name written all over it and it's actually superior to dozens of
the current crop of wanna-be bands who were not even alive when material
like this was in natural abundance the first time. I don't personally
love this to death, but songs like "Happily Married" and "First to Die"
are certainly engaging in a head meets pavement manner, and you could do
a lot worse, excepting the band's name and album title.
---
Bloodcum are another forgotten band back in the 80s and they played a
raw form of thrash/speed metal. They are quite famous in the underground
because they feature in the line up John Araya, the brother of the more
famous Tom from Slayer. Despite that, the music itself is quite good and
exactly what I like in this genre. ItÆs made of passion, speed, sweat
and violence. As always in these cases, fuck technique. They donÆt need
it and they point to the core of the violence through up tempo and fast
palm muting riffs.
ôHappily Marriedö features mid-paced sections alternated to furious
restarts where the band is truly compact and energetic. The vocals are
quite common but really pissed off and somehow in a way between hardcore
and thrash; anyway they donÆt have that childish touch we could find in
lots of bands at the time. ôSon of Samö is faster and pounding. The way
they play can be consider in part brutal thrash too because the load of
anger these guys have is absolutely amazing and destructive. The solos
are hyper fast and full of tremolo pickings to destroy literally the
chords.
The production is raw but perfect in the volumes and all sounds
incredibly powerful. ôLive to Killö is another unbelievable bloodbath
made of a neverending series of up tempo sections and uncountable riffs.
What I really like here is right the way the play the guitars: there are
no open chords parts like in hardcore and everything is more bound to
thrash with lots of palm muting parts and guitars duets that soon turn
into impulsive solos. The sonic violence follows that one in the lyrics
and the sick, angry vocals parts.
As you noticed, the songs are quite short but they are also quite
complete and amazing if you search for pure brutality. In ôTreatment of
Deathö the Slayer influences become stronger and this is a thing I like
a lot, being my favourite band. The title track, along with ôBelligerent
Youthö, is the most hardcore one of the entire album because it features
spoken parts and more childish vocals but that is not annoying at all
because the furious restarts have nothing to do with hardcore. Finally,
with the last two tracks we come back to the original thrash and after
the fast explosion of ôFirst To Dieö we can find the mid-paced beginning
and the brutal thrash restarts of ôSick-O-Pathö.
All in all, this is an album for those who want violence. Pure violence.
Here everything is all about the sheer impact of the instruments but at
the end we can also find a funny song like ôTesting My Doorknobö that is
made just by the vocals and an acoustic guitar. Recommended to the
thrashers.
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