Deformed in 1987 by Don of the Dead (bass) with Jer the Butcher
(guitar), Gregoroth (vocals) and Behemoth Bill (drums), the spawn called
NunSlaughter began spewing forth the
sonic vomit known as Death Metal. Taking from the learning experience of
their earlier bands Death Sentence and Bird of Prey they shunned the
vile confines of a studio for the oppressive darkness of a basement tomb
to release their first demo in 1987 christened "Ritual of Darkness".
The raw sound of "Ritual…" established N.S. as purveyors of true Death
Metal.
The band's line up experienced its first of many
mutations in 1989, with Jer and Bill being replaced by Rick Rancid
(guitar) and John Sicko (drums). NunSlaughter's second bastard offspring
came screaming through the birth canal shortly thereafter, dragging its
fetid placenta, "The Rotting Christ". The next band-member
morphogenesis occurred in 1991 when Gregoroth and Sicko slithered away.
Von the Impaler latched on as a drummer and Don of the Dead (still on
bass) became NunSlaughter's vocalist as well. This repugnant assemblage
produced the band's third demo, "Impale the Soul of Christ on the
Inverted Cross of Death".
Two years crawled by before the next
NunSlaughter creation was revealed. In 1993, upon learning that the now
legendary "Ritual of Darkness" demo was being bootlegged as a 7" record
in Brazil, Don of the Dead began conspiring to celebrate NunSlaughter's
international conquest. The band conjured up yet another drummer, Mark
Perversion. Hell bent on keeping the intrinsic, unrefined sound that had
become their trademark, N.S. recorded their infamous "The Guts of
Christ" demo completely live in their living room.
In 1995,
NunSlaughter reinstated the unholy alliance of three of the original
members: Don of the Dead, Gregoroth and Jer the Butcher. This sinister
triad summoned the relentless drumming powers of Jim Sadist and
exorcised the "Face of Evil" demo for the underground Death Metal
masses. In January of '97 (after Gregoroth and the Butcher went their
separate ways) Don and Jim, along with fresh meat Chris 213 (bass) and
Blood (guitar), began a new decade of death with the bands first studio
recording, a split 7" record with Bloodsick.
After countless
setbacks but continuous writing NunSlaughter unleashed four more 7"
records with the first being a limited edition glow in the dark split 7"
record with Dekapitator. Soon after, a meeting of the most sinister
kind came about with Crucifer to release a split 7" of 666 copies.
Unable to restrain their twisted prolific minds, NunSlaughter then
produced an entire 7" record entitled "Blood Devil" and the legend
continued to grow from their split 7" with cult female Death Metal band
Derketa.
With the signing to Revenge Productions NunSlaughter
released their full length LP/CD "Hells Unholy Fire". A tour was
arranged to promote the LP and NunSlaughter began their European tour in
September 2000. While touring NS released another 7" record entitled
"Trifurcate". This was another vile release that is heralded by the
underground as one of the best 7"s.
Continuing with the
tradition of vinyl and metal NunSlaughter prominently display their
prowess in song writing ability and creativity in releasing many 7"s
with specialty packaging. The time was ripe and the desire was there so
NunSlaughter decided to release another full length studio LP in 2003.
Entitled "Goat" this insidious recording was released by Revenge
Productions in Europe and Metal War Productions in the USA. Another tour
was booked and NunSlaughter prepared to invade Australia with their
Metal Assault tour. Booking six dates in Australia with some of the best
underground Aussie bands NunSlaughter held their own and proved their
metal music fist could reach around the world. Upon their return
NunSlaughter spent the next 2 years writing and recording over 16 new 7"
records and split 7"s. Working almost exclusively with Hells
Headbangers the band has been able to produce some of the underground's
most sought after vinyl releases.
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Agathocles formed in the Belgian city of Mol, aspiring to sound like bands such as Lärm or Hellhammer. Although the band itself did not form until 1985, its original members (Jan and Erwin) had been involved in the underground metal/punk scene since the beginning of the decade, releasing compilation tapes and zines. Most of the rehearsal tapes they recorded during their first year together have now been lost, although a few survive, mainly in the form of appearances on compilations from the time.
Agathocles first started doing concerts a year later, in 1985, although audiences were always small due to there only being a small minority who listened to the type of extreme music the band was producing. That year, the band had an on-air interview on the local radio station.
By 1987, the band's line-up had begun to settle, albeit temporarily, in the form of Jan, Ronny and Erwin. The band had also found a long-term rehearsal space, where they would not receive complaints (or even get kicked out) because of the noise as they had done in earlier rehearsal rooms. This was in a youth club in Mol, "Jam", where they recorded more compilation tracks and organised more small concerts. They even played gigs with other bands who would become equally famous in later years, such as Napalm Death and Pestilence (and later Extreme Noise Terror, as well as smaller bands such as Violent Mosquitos and Total Mosh Project.)
The first Agathocles releases were issued in 1988, which saw the arrival of a split EP with Riek Boois, as well as their first solo outing, Cabbalic Gnosticism, both of which were originally issued on cassette. Other material was recorded at the same time, although this was not released until later. By this time the band had 4 members, as Jakke had joined on guitar in December the year before, allowing Jan to concentrate on vocals.
Another guitarist, Guy, joined a year later, in 1989, and the split LP with the band Drudge was recorded and released on Deaf Records, as well as several other EPs. Towards the end of the year, the line-up changed yet again, with the bassist, Ronny, leaving the band and guitarist Jakke taking over from him.
A major line-up change occurred at the beginning of the decade, in May 1990, when Jan got rid of all the other members of the band and found two new members instead - Domingo on guitar and Burt on drums, with Jan now playing bass. Domingo and Burt were both from little-known Belgian grindcore band Necrosis, who recorded only one demo, in 1990. With the new line-up, the band ceased rehearsing in Mol, moving instead to the drummer's home town of Zichem. Several more EPs were released in the same year and, with the band growing in popularity, they did gigs in Denmark as well as Belgium and went on a mini tour with the Japanese grindcore band SxOxB.
Second pressing limited to 500 copies.
-Tracklist:
Side A
1. Agathocles - Trail of Despair 01:25
2. Agathocles - Nazional Sozial(ist) Security 02:38
3. Agathocles - Flanders' Little Cesspool 01:34
Side B
4. Nunslaughter - To Sin Again 01:52
5. Nunslaughter - Your Soul Belongs to Me 01:03
-Line up:
Nunslaughter:
- Don of the Dead: Vocals, Bass
- The Deserter: Guitars, Bass
- Jim Sadist (R.I.P. 2015): Drums
- Zack Massacre: Guitars.
Agathocles:
- Nils Laureys: Drums, Vocals
- Bram Criekemans: Bass
- Jan Frederickx: Vocals, Guitars.
Label: Selfmadegod Records.
Agathocles:
Recorded on October 6th, 2010 in Geel, Belgium.
Cover art by Justin Stubbs.
NunSlaughter:
Tracking by Metal Dave
Artwork by Mark Riddick.
Logo by Daniel Blasphemer.
Jim Sadist
(Apr 21st, 1971 - Oct 7th, 2015)
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