Ratos de Porão - Anarkophobia
Speaking of rats, Brazil's Ratos de Porão ("basement rats") began in 1981. In 1984, they released Crucificados Pelo Sistema, purportedly the first hardcore punk album in South America. You may recognize the name from Sepultura's cover of the title track on 1993's Refuse/Resist EP. Last year Metal Mind reissued RDP's late-'80s/mid-'90s records on Roadrunner. 1989's Brasil may be the best crossover thrash record I've ever heard - it's raging.Death of the KingRise and Fall
1990's Anarkophobia was RDP's second record for Roadrunner. Evidently the band caught flak for becoming "too thrash," which is like complaining that sex is "too good." But I can understand the gripe - the songs on Anarkophobia are slightly longer and more technical, and the record isn't as direct and punchy as Brasil.
Still, I loves me some thrash, especially when it comes from a singer named Gordo and a drummer named Spaghetti. I'd bet that the band was listening to Anthrax, as the picking patterns are often Scott Ian-esque. "Death of the King" evokes early Prong, while some of the slinkier riffs recall Slayer.
But RDP didn't ditch their punk roots. (Gordo once told me his favorite bands all began with "Dis": Discharge, Disrupt, and Disfear.) "Born to Suffer" could almost be a Sex Pistols song, and the band turns the Ramones' "Commando" into a gruff Bad Religion rave-up. Who doesn't like Ramones songs in Brazilian accents?
In typical Metal Mind fashion, this reissue has a spiffy digipak with bonus live tracks, complete lyrics, historical photos, and biographical info. Metal Mind has scores of such reissues - how do they afford it?
Anarkophobia is available at CM Distro, Relapse, and Interpunk.
Labels: brazil, clee, hardcore punk, thrash metal
8 Comments:
I interviewed Monte Conner (big guy at Roadrunner) about the whole Metal Mind reissue program; basically, Metal Mind was Roadrunner's European distributor in the '80s and '90s, so they had built up a great relationship not only with the label, but with the individual bands. So when these reissues come out with all the bonus tracks and photos and stuff, that's got nothing to do with Roadrunner - Metal Mind is doing their own research and tracking down former bandmembers, out of pure love.
Interesting note: Ratos' final album was produced by Alex Newport of Fudge Tunnel and Nailbomb - another Sepultura connection.
That's insane, I would think that somehow Roadrunner would still own the "rights" to the records somehow, even after all this time. Wild.
I still cannot fathom how they afford it, though.
Anyway, R.D.P. is one of those bands that I've always had on my radar for years, but never really heard much of. I heard some of their REALLY early stuff, and some of their fairly LATE stuff, but never anything like this kinda in the middle. Nor did I ever own any of their records somehow (at least I don't think so!?). Not sure what people complained about with this album either, 'cause obviously there's some thrash metal there, but they never seem to abandon a crossover/hardcore sense of energy at all on these two tracks. D.R.I. lost that edge WAY more in my opinion, and this isn't even as metal as some of the stuff that The Exploited did either!
Don't get me wrong - Metal Mind is definitely paying some kind of token fee to Roadrunner to reissue these titles, but it's almost certainly minimal, because of the long-standing relationship and the fact that they're doing limited editions (2000 copies each) and that RR itself is damn sure never gonna put this stuff back out.
Some of it's amazingly geeky, like the nine-disc Tank boxed set or the fact that they reissued Pestilence's third album, "Spheres," with the originally-rejected cover art, rather than the art it had when RR put it out. But I've been having a lot of fun with these reissues. Les Claypool happened to come by my office not long ago, the same day I got in a Metal Mind reissue of the Blind Illusion album, "Sane Asylum." He cracked up laughing at the sight of it, said it was like looking at a high school yearbook picture of himself.
Very cool - thanks, Phil, for sharing this info. I totally have to get that Blind Illusion reissue. That was some good shit.
Gordo was once roommates with one of the Sepultura members, so when I met him, he regaled us with stories accordingly. My favorite: "Max thinks he is a god."
Metal Mind is polish, right? It's interesting that they can afford all these reissues, true. But it's pretty clear they're doing it for the love of it.
Les Claypool looked much better in highschool
Yup, Metal Mind is Polish. Maybe they are just a front for some huge drug cartel. I honestly don't get how a record label is doing something "for the love of it" on such a massive scale.
I really think Metal Mind understands the state of the industry. More labels should release editions of 2000 copies...because that's about all they're gonna sell anyway. Why press 10,000 copies and sit on 8,000 of them for years? Press 2,000 and feed the diehards, then move on.
Phil, I think you're right. (But would sales of only 2,000 recoup the investments of these reissue packages? Evidently Metal Mind thinks so. I guess they don't have to pay for studio time or A&R, just remastering, super-involved packaging, and manufacturing (and royalties? How does that work?)) And I think the industry will move that way as CD sales keep dropping.
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