BLACK DEATH

How many bands must have called themsleves BLACK DEATH? This one hailed from Reading, England and cranked out a super UK punk demo in 1980 before coming to a premature end. I say premature because these tracks are subtly amazing, and I would have loved to have more than just four songs to uncover on this two hour mix tape of early Reading demos and live sets. After the 5+ minute "Micro Chip" comes to an end, the bass starts hinting at the mysterious would be classic that might be right around the corner, and then "Alien Invasion" is exactly that, but "Street Fear" is among the most brilliant unknown UK punk burners I've ever heard, almost straddling the NWOBHM line, even if accidentally. If this track had made it to wax, I have no doubt that it would be an insanely sought after piece of UK punk history. This band was way more mature than most in their approach to writing, and more accomplished than most in their ability to translate those compositions to tape. One raucous and marginally in tune live number, and that's all that I can find from BLACK DEATH, except that they became ZEROX II after switching vocalists. Great fukkn stuff.

BLACK DEATH