.jpg)
When I was young I wanted to be an explorer, to traverse the dark
places of earth and see things that no one else had ever seen. Unfortunately, I
was a boy during the 1990s and early 2000s; a time of rising technological
innovations the likes of GPS and satellite imaging. What’s the point of
traveling to remote locations when you can simple go there in the comfort of
your own home via Google earth? In short, I left my dream of exploration and
adventure behind and delved into the seemingly bottomless mass of obscure metal
instead.
Many years later, Shadow Kingdom Records sends me a piece of gold, a
re-release of an utterly obscure and forgotten band from Italy with the enigmatic
moniker: Run After To. Naturally I was intrigued. The band formed in 1983,
released a demo entitled “Gjinn and Djinn” in 1985, a self-titled EP in 1988
and then, disappeared. After decades of neglect, these two recordings have been
re-mastered and paired together for one hell of a listening experience.
But before I get ahead of myself with the accolades I must admit, I
was not completely sold on Run After To. The first three songs, though better
produced and containing a show of greater musicianship then the following six
tracks, came across as cheesy. These three tracks make up the bands 1988
self-titled EP and sound less like the proto doom I was expecting and more like
an 80’s soft metal band the likes of Metal Church, with the added embarrassment
of some truly schlocky keyboard sections and vocals delivered with eyebrow
raising half-heartedness.
To be fair, the Run After To EP is not all bad. In fact, there are
some real standout performances, particularly in the bass lines which bring to
mind the finessed noodlings of Geezer Butler and Martin Swaney. The opening
track, “Who Cries for the Children” in particular has some spectacular riffing
while the EP’s 12 minute closer “My Name is Man” has one hell of an extended
solo. All in all however, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to the remaining six
songs luckily I forged on.
Once “Gjinn and Djinn” kicked off with “Occultism” I was enthralled.
Here was the music I was expecting: dark, heavy, and containing more riffs then
you can shake a stick at. This is Proto Doom at its best containing the melodic
edge of NWOBHM, whilst still dishing out punishingly heavy riffs. As far as its
production value goes, “Gjinn and Djinn” is much rawer then “Run After To” but
this does little to dampen its effect on the listener, in fact in some ways it
enhances the experience.
To be honest, after listening to “Occultism” (a song Paul Chain
covered in his 1984 Violet Theatre EP, Detaching from Satan), “Walking on the
Rainbow” and the impossibly heavy “Visions” I am now convinced that the “Gjinn
and Djinn” demo belongs next to the other standout recordings in a time when
Doom Metal was just being born. This includes; Pentagram’s “Relentless” Witchfinder
General’s “Death Penalty” and Candlemass’s “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus.”
After years of listening to strange and unheard of bands the genre
of so-called “Pop Music” makes little sense to me now. How can radio friendly
music that is heard everywhere across the globe challenge the listener? How can
a person be satisfied in simply turning a knob on their radio and have instant
music? “Run After To” is all but unknown, save for those looking for something
truly obscure. It is satisfying knowing that bands like this exist and are just
waiting to be discovered.
words by Brendan E. Butler
No comments:
Post a Comment