NYC Mayhem - "Deathwish" (Dylan's Dumb iPod #14)

Apparently there was a thrash band from Louisville called Mayhem. Never heard of 'em, but interesting nonetheless (No bro, I've never heard of the Norweigian black metal band. Educate me, for I only learn about bands when Cold World spoofs them for merch designs).

Cool shirt bruh

NYC Mayhem experienced a few sonic permutations in their short lifetime, but this demo sees the lineup of Tony Marc and Gordon Ancis (both of a band called Assault that you've never listened to...right?) and Tommy Carroll (yes, THAT Tommy Carroll) on drums and vox (Phil Collins style). Later on in the game, Craig Setari (Sick of it All, Rest in Pieces, Straight Ahead) would replace Tony Marc (though, he's credited as being "ex-Smegma" in Metal Forces Magazine, history is weird!). Were it not for later and subsequent contributions to hardcore, it's difficult to say if people could muster up a passing fancy in this band, but that ain't important.

D.R.I, C.O.C, N.Y.C

I love this demo. A lot. So much that once I was listening to it on the way home from work. It was dusky outside, I thought I was alone and the time seemed ripe for public moshing...so I did it...and right when I get to the crosswalk I was heading (moshing) to, some sexy latina literally laughed and pointed at me. D'oh. That's how college worked for me. I moshed at inopportune times and didn't get dates. The astonishing thing here is that at the time, the exchange didn't seem that weird.

Though staking their claim as one of those "fastest bands around," this demo's actually chock full of above-average instrumentation and not tuneless warbling like a lot of the "pioneering" fastcore bands. Especially for a trio. Vocals are muddled, but riffs are noodly. Lore and long-haired fandom asserts that this demo is NYC Mayhem's only purely "metal" release (and that's why they've got a page on the metal archives) and the rest is just "thrashy hardcore" but my favorite shit involves line blurring of all kinds.

"Deathwish" has a snakey intro that conjures up the crossover stuff that D.R.I was messing with, and the bass always has a presence with this band. Then it goes into standard blast beat territory from then on.

Thanks the godz for those comp sites that compile all this stuff for dorks like me. Apparently some thrash band called Mortal Sin (from Australia) also had a release called Mayhemic Destruction but it came out a year later and had no relation to the New York band.

If you're a Tommy Carroll superfan, track down that Crumbsuckers live set where he heckles Kirk Hammett for being a "rock star."

Also, they used to call this "death core." If only they knew.