Detestation cover

Detestation

Released

Japanese bands are often much weirder and artier than their Western counterparts, and G.I.S.M. (which was said to stand for Guerrilla Incendiary Sabotage Mutineer, God In the Schizoid Mind, Gothic Incest Sex Machine, and more) fused D-beat hardcore with squealing heavy metal guitar solos, guttural, proto-death metal vocals and galloping, fist-in-the-air rock ’n’ roll energy. Detestation, their 1984 debut album, foregrounded frontman Sakevi Yokoyama’s wild vocals, which fluctuated between a hoarse roar and declamations reminiscent of Mark E. Smith of the Fall, and Randy Uchida’s noise-shred guitar solos. If you can figure out what a song title like “Endless Blockades for the Pussyfooter” means, you’re ahead of the game, but the broken English lyrics hardly matter when the music is this amped-up.

Phil Freeman

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