MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM (18)
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February 28, 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.
DANZIG | “SOUL ON FIRE” | 1988
Gotta wait on the Samhain of my soul
Gonna bring your world down in fire…..
A long time ago the little kid me loved horror movies and pored over every issue of Fangoria. It was the age of pre-teen crushes and kisses tasting like strawberry lip gloss. Something life-changing happened, in more ways than I’d ever know. One of the aforementioned crushes slipped me a mix-tape cassette. Being the recipient of a gift like this was a trophy: “He” was thinking about you, the selections were about you, etc. Except this tape wasn’t like that. At all. It just said “Misfits Walk Among Us.”
I’d never heard anything like it. I yearned for my era’s version of Black Sabbath, spooky and scary. The Misfits were something else, combining horror lyrics, fierce punk edge, monster movie references…this was it. I didn’t know what the Misfits looked like for a long time — remember this was in the zine age and not the World Wide Web and its buffering… buffering… but I was hooked.
The band had broken up. Samhain and subsequent projects just didn’t do it for me. I forged forward, obsessively listening to any Misfits material available. I kept going, even getting a crimson skull tattoo on my wrist. I was still looking for something else. I spent some time majoring in NYHC with a goth minor. I loved it too (and still) but there was something missing.
The calendar page turns and it’s now 1988. Danzig releases the self-titled LP filled with bangers and it’s everything I could have asked for. Keep your Mötley Crüe, Warrant, and Poison. The heavy music full of fire is finally here. For me, the first Danzig album represents a sense of dark sensuality, aggressive and dominant. The occult imagery added to the deliciousness — MTV editing the “Mother” video only helped the hype and made the seasoned listeners feel like they were part of a secret club. We knew what this was about. The video scenes weren’t part of a marketing ploy to pique interest, they were paintings made by the master depicting all our incense-filled, candle-lit, leather-wearing fantasies. The Horned God was here and he wasn’t just whispering to me. He was holding me down, looking deep in my eyes and taking it all. Danzig II: Lucifuge and Type O’s Bloody Kisses fleshed out the UnHoly Trinity for me.
The summer of my soul arrived. It’s 1989, I just graduated high school and I’m in the back seat of a car with friends driving furiously down an open road in Staten Island, NY. “Soul on Fire,” my favorite song on the LP is blaring… Devil-girl you must burn… and I was burning. Burning with life set before me and the newness of it on my terms. Burning with new tastes, touches, feelings, the passion of young lust and new-found freedom. I was waiting on the Samhain of my soul. In fact… I might still be waiting.
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!