Demons, Thrash, & Black Crowes Connections
80s horror soundtracks, thrash experiments, and genre-defining chaos—cast your vote
You know that feeling when you stumble across an album that makes you go, “Wait, this exists?”
That’s exactly what we’ve got cooking in this month’s poll—four wildly different slices of 80s rock and metal goodness that range from demonic movie soundtracks to Bay Area thrash experiments. Each one’s got a story worth telling. The question is: which one do you want to hear us tear into first?
Black Roses (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - Various Artists
Black Roses is a movie about a band of demons who come to a town to drag everyone to hell. The band is played by King Kobra, who contribute tracks like “Take It Off” to the soundtrack. But they’re joined by Lizzy Borden, Tempest, and Hallow’s Eve in what becomes a compilation of pure cheesy 80s metal goodness. This 1988 soundtrack isn’t high art—it’s the kind of gloriously ridiculous album that lives in the “so bad it’s perfect” zone. Think leather, hairspray, and supernatural mayhem condensed into one glorious slab of vinyl.
Nominated by: Keith P Miller
Museum - Mary My Hope
A weird anomaly of an alt-rock, goth rock, hard rock album. This Atlanta outfit was formed in 1987 by Clinton Steele and Sven Pipien (both formerly of The Children), along with Kentucky transplants Steve Gorman and James Vincent Hall. Drummer Steve Gorman was an early member who left to join Mr. Crowe’s Garden—which would become The Black Crowes—and bassist Sven Pipien ended up in The Black Crowes too. Their 1989 album Museum is what happens when goth rock, hard rock, and alt-rock get tossed in a blender by a band that couldn’t decide what they wanted to be. Critics called it “flawed and unfocused,” comparing it to everyone from Bauhaus to the Beatles to Pink Floyd. But tracks like “Suicide King” and “Communion” suggest there’s something genuinely compelling buried in the chaos. An anomaly? Absolutely. Nominated by: Marmaduke
Frolic Through the Park - Death Angel
A young Bay Area thrash band made up of Filipino teenagers, Death Angel’s 1988 sophomore release saw the band branching out a little bit, incorporating some punk, funk, and hard rock into their speed metal sound. They had a small bit of success with the single “Bored,” which got some airplay on MTV’s Headbanger’s Ball in October 1988 and was even used in the 1990 film Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III. While the album got good reviews, it’s not the favorite of the band, which is still around today. They’ve been quoted as calling this the “bastard” of their catalog, and they’ve criticized the production which was done by Davy Vain of the band Vain. Sometimes the albums artists distance themselves from are the most fascinating to dissect.
Nominated by: Chip Midnight
Welcome to Hell - Venom
From the UK but mostly eschewing the NWOBHM sounds of their youthful compatriots Iron Maiden and Saxon, Venom were immediately on their way to creating the new black metal genre on their debut release in December 1981. Since it didn’t exist yet, this was what black metal actually was before the genre became more well-defined. For that matter, death metal didn’t exist either, so their Black Sabbath-inspired demonic lyrics and their Motörhead-level breakneck speed are now revered as the impetus of several extreme metal subgenres. Critics hated them, possibly because they were not good at playing their instruments and the production is so lo-fi that the drummer sounds like he is in a closet (or a casket, if you will). However, the real reason critics struggled was because they couldn’t easily define the band—and they didn’t have the bloody guts to. This raw, unpolished slab of fury became the blueprint for extreme metal.
Nominated by: Patrick Testa
Cast Your Vote
So what’ll it be? The tongue-in-cheek horror soundtrack? The genre-confused Atlanta oddity with Black Crowes connections? The thrash experiment the band disowned? Or the primitive extreme metal blueprint that changed everything?
Drop your vote and tell us why. Which one of these deserves the full Dig Me Out treatment?