MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM (12)
By:
February 8, 2024
One in a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of metal records from the Eighties (1984–1993, in our periodization schema). Series edited by Heather Quinlan. Also check out our MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM playlist at Spotify.
G.I.S.M. | “GAS BURNER PANIC” | 1986
Scribbling these words on October 23rd 2023. Almost two months to the day since Sakevi Yokoyama died on August 24th. Mysterious, out of control frontman of G.I.S.M. Resistance, shock tactics, mass slaughter. Sheepy western labellers left bewildered. Are they thrash? Hardcore? Punk? what the fuck are they? Shock value beyond the tepid Satanism of American metal. After all, what is Satanism but another form of bible lore? Christianity in another skin. Same book, different problems. Meticulous metal solos from Randy Uchida confusing crusties in the pit. Dislocated, garbled yelling aggravating conservative metalheads. Many steps ahead of their peers — musically at least. Precision drums. Idiosyncratic guitar. Erupting in ’83 with their self-produced debut Detestation. Swastikas occluded by Obi tape. Dead baby anthems. Nuclear screams. All the fun of the fair. Screeching anti-war sentiments. Anti-this, anti-that, anti-everything. Sakevi burping, screaming, babbling insanely. Detestation goes on to become one of the most bootlegged albums ever. Not that the band would be happy. Rumours of the frontman stabbing pirate merch dealers. Tracking down bootleggers and stomping their faces. Sakevi has a reputation for being serious business. Mass-producing art on the side. Collage-heavy zines. Intestinal splurge of drawings. Then there’s that infamous release, Bootleg ’86. A live video of a gig where Sakevi fires a flamethrower into the crowd during a performance of the unreleased track “Gas Burner Panic.” Three album releases between ’83 and ’98. Styles vary dramatically between each. Constant metamorphosis. Crossover hopping. Punk, grindcore, sludge, thrash, old-school metal. When Uchida dies in 2001, the remaining members reform for a last blast in Tokyo. But it’s far from the final hurrah. Ex-Napalm Death’s Lee Dorrian tracked Sakevi down. Famously hung out at his flat, got high and watched human dissection videos or something. Culminating in G.I.S.M’s first and only performance outside Japan. At Roadburn, in the Netherlands in 2016. Now, Sakevi is his own worm farm. Leaving behind a wealth of rancid treasure. Practically a museum piece of resistance art himself. Epitaph to a corrupted civilisation. Black and white grainy photos in his prime. Chokers of bullets, lightly pricking shock-sweat skin. Snarling in close-up. Videos online of the flamethrower gig. He’s lurking in military fatigues. Guttural whispers and grunts and shrieks. Sidling up to the audience with his weapon. Apparently, arrested for it. Rumours rife — set right by old punks gone straight. The ‘I was there’ crowd and all the vanilla music magazine testimonials. But Sakevi’s blast shadow runs deeper than a simple musical heritage. As Marshall McLuhan said: ‘The medium is the message.’ A living embodiment of rebellion. Seriously motivated. Militaristically anti-militant. Hair of the dog that bit you. Ghost of apocalypse to come — just waiting for a tepid American-produced biopic. To be put on the kind of pedestal he would have probably torn down. Youth drawn to the superficial veneer — ‘the look.’ Missing the point entirely. Military affairs neurotic. Poison ideas. Revolt can be slaughter. Gas burner panic!
MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Heather Quinlan | Crockett Doob on Metallica’s ENTER SANDMAN | Dean Haspiel on Mötley Crüe’s HOME SWEET HOME | Jack Silbert on Poison’s TALK DIRTY TO ME | Adam McGovern on Dio’s INVISIBLE | Mariane Cara on Faith No More’s EPIC | Heather Quinlan on Blue Öyster Cult’s SHOOTING SHARK | Steve Schneider on UFO’s DIESEL IN THE DUST | Carlo Rotella on Primus’ JERRY WAS A RACE CAR DRIVER | Erik Davis on St. Vitus’ BORN TOO LATE | Greg Rowland on Motörhead’s ACE OF SPADES (remix) | Kathy Biehl on Twisted Sister’s WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT | Nikhil Singh on G.I.S.M.’s GAS BURNER PANIC | Erin M. Routson on Metallica’s ESCAPE | Holly Interlandi on Helmet’s MILQUETOAST | Marc Weidenbaum on Celtic Frost’s I WON’T DANCE (THE ELDERS’ ORIENT) | Amy Keyishian on Living Colour’s CULT OF PERSONALITY | Josh Glenn on Scorpions’ STILL LOVING YOU | Alycia Chillemi on Danzig’s SOUL ON FIRE | James Parker on Godflesh’s CHRISTBAIT RISING | Miranda Mellis on The Afflicted’s HERE COME THE COPS | Rene Rosa on Type O Negative’s BLACK NO. 1 | Tony Leone on Slayer’s SOUTH OF HEAVEN | Christopher Cannon on Neurosis’s LOST | Brian Berger on Black Sabbath’s HEADLESS CROSS | MÖSH CONTEST-WINNING ENTRY: Tony Pacitti on Metallica’s THE CALL OF KTULU. PLUS: CONTEST RUNNER-UP: James Scott Maloy on Accept’s MIDNIGHT MOVER.
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!