Ahhh POISON… Remember these guys and their MTV smash hits ‘Nothin’ But A Good Time’, ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ or ‘Unskinny Bop’ (to name but a few)? You really do? Well, then this is obviously the wrong website for you, cause the band we’re dealing with here has nothing to do with the American Glamrock fourpiece. What HELLHAMMER was for Switzerland, MAYHEM for Norway and SARCOFAGO for Brazil, POISON definitely was for Germany back in the 80s! At a time when all of a sudden everyone else was starting to play Speed Metal in order to follow-up the success that METALLICA had just achieved, these lads certainly gave a fuck and focused on raw and very ugly Black Metal! And when I say “Black Metal” I don’t talk about corpsepainted fellows that add keyboards to their sound (in order to come across more scary or symphonic), but a very harsh form of extreme old school Thrash Metal, just way more primitive. Imagine a style kinda close to what MANTAS / early DEATH delivered in their classic days (especially the live songs on this CD have a very similar spirit), add the vocal insanity and doomy elements of classic MESSIAH to it and mix all that up with the fuck off attitude of old VENOM (or demo-days SODOM if you prefer) and you’re already pretty much aware of POISON’s eternal creations. Songtitles like ‘Wake The Dead’, ‘Zombie Dance’, ‘Satan Commands’, ‘Possessed (By Hell)’, ‘Black Death’ or ‘Angel Of Satan’ should be another hint here… The major magazines hated them, even some underground zines did, but the uncompromising honest attitude turned them into a real cult act after all those years. This CD features their most mature (and last official) recording, the 4 song “Into The Abyss” demo, that also came out on vinyl several years ago plus various demo- and live-songs from their early days. The sound quality is extremely undergroundish (typical tapetrading stuff), but hey, that’s a big part of what made the whole stuff so entertaining (as stupid as it may sound). The booklet comes with liner-notes from original member Uli “Angel Of Death” Hildenbrand, several old fanzine clippings, flyers, demo covers and pics as well as an interview, done by our good fellow Laurent Ramadier (of Snakepit Magazine). So, all in all a very cool release of a highly underrated German band! I just wished that someone would someday also put out a CD of the entire POISON demos (and yes, I know of their sound quality)… For ordering information head to www.iron-pegasus.com