by Niklas Göransson

Danny Lilker is an American musician with a metal legacy spanning more than four decades. In the opening chapter of a trilogy, we revisit the early days of bands like Anthrax, S.O.D, and Nuclear Assault.

 

DANNY LILKER: As soon as I heard the bassline come in on LED ZEPPELIN’s “Whole Lotta Love”, I felt immediately drawn to the nice, low tone and bottom-end sound of this instrument. Even though I ended up playing guitar in the earliest incarnation of ANTHRAX, my initial attraction was to the bass.

During the summer of 1981, Danny Lilker and guitarist Scott Ian formed ANTHRAX. The boys were aged seventeen and eighteen, respectively, and lived in Queens, New York City.

DANNY: We were playing JUDAS PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN covers with twin guitar harmonies, and I was the best at figuring all that shit out. So, Scott said, ‘Instead of teaching me and someone else how to play those songs, why don’t you just switch to guitar? Then you only have to show me.’ I just shrugged; ‘Yeah, sure. Whatever.’

In Scott Ian’s book, I’m the Man: The Story of That Guy from Anthrax, he mentions that Danny was nicknamed Beethoven at school because of his ‘perfect pitch’ and uncanny ability to figure out how to play essentially any type of music.

DANNY: Huh? I thought I got that nickname because I’d been trying to grow my hair long, but it came out kind of bushy. Ludwig van Beethoven also had this shaggy, messy hair – perhaps that combined with my musicality? Rolling with the ANTHRAX guys, as a high-school dude, I didn’t attach much importance to it. I’d already been told that I have perfect pitch by my piano teacher back when I was five.

The turning point came when Danny and Scott Ian got an up-close view of BLACK SABBATH’s iconic bass player, Geezer Butler, plying his craft at a February 1982 show in Madison Square Garden.

DANNY: Watching Geezer, Scott had a sudden epiphany. ‘Danny, you need to switch back to bass’, he said. ‘That’s you – it’s what you do.’ Bear in mind now, this was way before people started going, ‘You do you!’ and all that stupid bullshit. We were evolving from just neighbourhood kids into a serious band, so I went, ‘Alright, let’s do this.’

Didn’t you have a bass player already?

DANNY: Yeah, but we would’ve just told him, ‘Okay, thanks. Bye.’ I guess that was a case of weeding out the chaff. It might sound mean, but when you start a band and you’re playing with your buddies – after a while, you might notice, ‘This guy is holding us back. Sure, he’s our friend, but he’s not really a good drummer.’ When things reach a certain level, not everyone rises to the occasion.

After many years of interviewing metal bands, I’ve noticed that bass players by choice – as opposed to sub-par musicians who’d rather be guitarists – are a special breed. Common traits are their laid-back nature, with very little need to be the centre of attention, and a preference for working musically through layers, nuances, and depth rather than melodies.

DANNY: That would certainly be a good description of how I approach my music. It’s funny, while you were asking your question, I was thinking, ‘Well, what about Steve Harris (IRON MAIDEN)? Or Joey DeMaio (MANOWAR)? They’re show-offs who wanna be upfront all the time.’ But you’re right – those two are exceptions. Usually, you have your Ian Hills or whatever.

Ian Hill is the bassist of British heavy metal titans JUDAS PRIEST. Known for his unassuming stage presence and solid playing style, he’s been an integral part of the band since its inception.

DANNY: I never really thought about it; that perhaps there is something to the personality as well. Because it does sound like me as far as being laid-back and chill and not feeling any need to wank off or boast about my musicality. I’m not here to prove anything to anyone; I just want to play metal and enjoy myself.

 

In July 1982, ANTHRAX released their first official demo, “Anthrax”. The music has a rough edge but is mainly influenced by New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

The same month, ANTHRAX performed live at the Northstage Theater in Glen Cove, New York. Danny used to play in a band called WHITE HEAT, so he was the only member who’d set foot on the stage of a proper venue before.

DANNY: I didn’t have a helluvalot of live experience. Plus, we were still trying to figure shit out. ‘What should we look like?’ Now, I’ve never been an image-based person; I always wanted it to be jeans and t-shirts or whatever. But at that age, wanting to be a rock star, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, maybe I should dress a little fancier?’ I’m sure there were a lot of nerves, but we basically just did what we did at rehearsal but in front of other people, hoping for the best. That’s kinda what I still do.

During the early years on the club circuit, did you come across any really good bands that never broke out of obscurity?

DANNY: That depends entirely on what you’d term ‘obscurity’. ANTHRAX played with a metal band called DAGGER in Ozone Park, Queens. One of the members worked at a music store – we saw him all the time. ‘Hey, it’s Steve from DAGGER.’ And then he went, ‘Come check out my band!’ It was heavy stuff, but I wouldn’t call it incredibly original.

Many years later, in 1994, DAGGER released an album called “Fate of a Violent World” on North American Music.

DANNY: What else? ZEBRA played the same circuit, but that’s just hard rock. Those two are all that come to mind regarding bands who never went anywhere. Had anyone else made a lasting impression on me, I probably would’ve remembered them – even after all this time. This was the TWISTED SISTER era; they broke out, whereas many others did not.

 

What was the local record shop situation like?

DANNY: We’d make pilgrimages to Slipped Disc Records in Valley Stream, Long Island. You could take a couple of different public buses but when we turned seventeen it was like, ‘Hey, who’s got a car? We’re going to Slipped Disc on Sunday.’ There was also one in Queens, on Union Turnpike off Utopia Parkway, called Music Box. Finding these stores changed everything.

Any notable discoveries come to mind?

DANNY: That’s how I found stuff like VENOM and ANGELWITCH. The moment I laid eyes on the back of “In the Sign of Evil” (SODOM)… Tom Angelripper in his working-in-the-coalmine haircut and corpse paint – that’s when I knew. The same goes for “Sentence of Death” (DESTRUCTION), the MERCYFUL FATE EP, and all that shit. Then we heard about Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven, which was cool because Scott and I could head out to New Jersey and bother Jonny Z with our ANTHRAX demos.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven – a flea-market booth in Old Bridge, New Jersey – was owned and operated by Jonny Z, who’d recently founded Megaforce Records after hearing METALLICA’s July 1982 demo, “No Life ‘til Leather”.

Following a lukewarm response to the self-titled 1982 ANTHRAX tape, Danny and Scott found more success with their next attempt, “Soldiers of Metal”. Recorded in early ’83 and produced by MANOWAR guitarist Ross the Boss, the thrashier style of ANTHRAX’s second demo reflected the members’ evolving musical tastes.

When the boys arrived at Rock ‘n’ Roll Heaven to hand it over, they were told Jonny Z was at a nearby pancake restaurant.

DANNY: Afterwards, Scott and I doubted ourselves, like, ‘Oh man, we just bothered the poor guy in the middle of his breakfast. He’s probably gonna throw our tape out the window.’ But I guess that’s what you did as an annoying, persistent teenager. Just like equally annoying persistent teenagers trying to get laid or something, we wanted a record deal. I guess you must walk the fence between wanting to impress the guy and bugging the shit out of him. Luckily, the music was just good enough that our attitude paid off.

It did indeed, as Megaforce took ANTHRAX under its wing. Jonny Z offered to release “Soldiers of Metal” as an EP and fund the recording of their debut album.

ANTHRAX’s fourth-ever show was in support of METALLICA in May 1983, one month before “Kill ‘Em All” came out. The same year, Megaforce also released MERCYFUL FATE’s “Melissa”, MANOWAR’s “Into Glory Ride”, VENOM’s “Die Hard” EP, and several other metal classics.

DANNY: This was before bands could record at home studios. To put out an album so you could be promoted and have your shit heard internationally and played on the radio or whatever, you had to reach a certain level. METALLICA just shot up – and deservingly so, because they really put thrash metal on the map.

“Kill ‘Em All” marked METALLICA’s entry into the mainstream music scene, selling over 60,000 copies in the United States during the first year. With its crude energy, aggressive sound, and fast-paced riffs, the album came to define thrash as a genre.

DANNY: There were other thrash bands like EXODUS, but METALLICA broke first and got pretty big right away. By then, we already knew the members as they’d spent a lot of time in New York. For example, I remember taking Dave Mustaine to Music Box. Also, I’ll tell you what: Cliff Burton was a perfect example of the type of bass player you were talking about.

 

In October 1983, ANTHRAX recorded their debut album, “Fistful of Metal”, in Ithaca, New York. Danny wrote most of the material. Even back here, we can hear his inclination for dark and dirty riffing, taking the opening song “Deathrider” as a prime example.

DANNY: Yeah, I wrote in a far more evil-sounding way than Scott and the other dudes. I can’t recall where or when that riff came to me, but I can tell you why; it’s a mixture of MERCYFUL FATE’s worst grimness but as fast as EXCITER. Those were the influences we had to play around with – this was before I got into DISCHARGE and bands like that.

Megaforce Records released “Soldiers of Metal” as a seven-inch in November 1983, and all three thousand copies sold out shortly thereafter. “Fistful of Metal” was scheduled for release a few months later.

Not only did ANTHRAX have an album coming out on the same label as many contemporary greats, but they were also billed as the supporting act for two EXCITER shows and one with METALLICA – all in December of that year.

DANNY: Yeah, man, exciting times. That METALLICA show was on New Year’s Eve at The Left Bank in Mount Vernon. And with them growing in popularity and all that… perhaps we were thinking, ‘ANTHRAX should be up next.’ Of course, there were other bands around, but we would’ve been the closest on METALLICA’s heels. However, a couple of different things happened – notably, I was no longer in the band.

ANTHRAX vocalist Neil Turbin had taken issue with both Danny’s personality and his height. Turbin, a towering man himself, believed that no one in the line-up should be taller than the frontman. He gave the remaining members an ultimatum: either get rid of the band’s co-founder and main songwriter, Danny, or look for a new singer. They chose the former.

 

Danny wasted little time putting together a new project. Initially, he considered something black metal-oriented – an ‘occult-type band’, to quote his autobiography, Perpetual Conversion – with VENOM and HELLHAMMER as influences. Danny’s first step was to contact his friend, guitarist John Connelly.

DANNY: The black metal idea didn’t pan out because John – being an Irish Roman Catholic – was never gonna agree to that. But strictly musically speaking, I doubt it would’ve been too far off from the first NUCLEAR ASSAULT demo. Songs like “Cold Steel” and “Stranded in Hell” are essentially what you might call classic black/thrash.

In 1984, after bringing in a guitarist and a drummer, Danny and John Connelly recorded a demo titled “Back with Vengeance” with their new project, NUCLEAR ASSAULT.

DANNY: That demo never fucking lets up, plus it’s got all these ugly chords and everything. However, while not musically dissimilar to NUCLEAR ASSAULT, the singing would obviously have been different with a black metal band. I don’t think John’s voice was suited to that anyway.

Ergo, in a way, it was Christianity that prevented Danny from becoming a first-wave black metal pioneer – which I’m sure would’ve happened if he’d taken that route. Instead, he chose the path of ‘life metal’ with socially conscious lyrics; the music of ‘hardcore pigs’ as MAYHEM’s Euronymous might’ve put it.

DANNY: Totally true. Here’s the thing, though: I would’ve been just who I am now, what I’d call a ‘dark atheist’. I’m friends with… let’s say people like Necrobutcher, so I have first-hand evidence that a lot of black metal people claiming to be Satanists were actually just kids caught up in something really sinister.

Necrobutcher is the original and current bass player of Norwegian black metal band MAYHEM. He left the band in 1991, following the suicide of their vocalist – Dead – and conflicts with the band’s guitarist and co-founder, Euronymous.

DANNY: Had somebody said, ‘Oh, I’m cool to play black metal’, I’d gladly have done that. As long as it would’ve been permitted the same way as everyone else did things – which was basically going along with this grim image and walking around with pentagrams and inverted crosses. But in my heart, I wouldn’t have worshipped any kind of deity.

 

In early 1985, Danny received a phone call from Scott Ian – his former ANTHRAX bandmate – who was conceptualising a new project: S.O.D, or STORMTROOPERS OF DEATH. He wanted Danny to join on bass. Referring again to Ian’s autobiography, he mentions the ‘savage’ tone Danny had developed as a primary reason.

DANNY: One day, myself and Craig Setari from NYC MAYHEM – who was almost like a hardcore version of me – were smoking weed and fucking around in the NUCLEAR ASSAULT rehearsal room. I used to have this Peavey Mark III bass head. For some reason, it had a distortion circuit built in, which bass heads normally didn’t. And I’m fucking glad this one did!

In the mid-1980s, guitar amplifiers typically featured built-in distortion circuits, allowing guitarists to achieve a crunchy, overdriven sound without using pedals. Standard bass amps, however, usually aimed for a cleaner sound to preserve the low-end clarity crucial for the rhythm section. Bassists seeking distortion had to rely on external gear or use guitar heads, which could compromise the bass frequencies.

DANNY: With a guitar amp, you’d normally put your regular volume on ten and the master volume on three or four; it then distorted properly. So, there we were when I said, ‘I wonder what happens if I try that with my bass?’ Then, all of a sudden… <deep, rumbling hum> I fuckin’ hit the bass a couple of times, then looked at Craig and went, ‘I’m gonna use this tone forever.’ And so far, I have – although these days, I use pedals to emulate it.

So, did the ‘savageness’ mostly come down to distortion, or were there other factors?

DANNY: I’d say my tone is a combination of not just having the tools but also knowing what to do with them. But it also helps to play hard and in a very aggressive manner, which I do naturally. I mean, there’s no LACUNA COIL shit going on here, dude. This one goes to eleven, all fucking day.

 

Megaforce Records released the S.O.D. debut, “Speak English or Die”, in August 1985. Besides Danny and Scott Ian, the project featured ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante and Billy Milano from New York hardcore band THE PSYCHOS on vocals.

Danny states in his book that he found great pleasure in taking things to new extremes and pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable, both musically and conceptually. ‘Let’s give them something to talk about!’ and so on.

DANNY: This was before terms like ‘politically correct’ were thrown around too much. Within the punk rock scene, you had a lot of ultra-liberals. You also had the more middle-of-the-road types, and then the New York skinheads who looked very imposing and… sure, maybe a few years earlier, they might’ve been saying some dodgy shit or whatever. Perhaps there was a reason why some of them wore spiderweb tattoos on their elbows.

Initially, spiderweb tattoos within skinhead culture symbolised being ‘caught in the system’, reflecting a sense of societal entrapment. In later interpretations, it also represented time spent in prison, with each ring of the web marking a year served.

DANNY: And of course, some individuals might’ve had the bad taste to throw the N-word around. But it’s not the end of the fucking world – it’s the 80s. Nobody is completely innocent. And, of course, whenever I do an interview these days, all everyone brings up is ‘cancel culture’ and how you could never make “Speak English or Die” today. It’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m well fucking aware of that.’ You’re not gonna ask me about this, are you?

Definitely not.

DANNY: Good, because that’s come up way too much. Thanks. I’ll smoke to that! Anyway, people like Jello Biafra (DEAD KENNEDYS) and Tim Yohannan of Maximum Rocknroll – a San Francisco-based ‘zine – kept whining about New York, giving our scene a bad name. You know, ‘Oh, those violent skinheads beat somebody up again.’ It was also a coastal thing: we’re here in New York, 2,400 miles from California where these little nannies were moaning. So, we decided to do S.O.D. just to piss them off.

“Speak English or Die” contains songs like “Fuck the Middle East”, “Kill Yourself”, and “Pussy Whipped” – but it’s impossible to miss the tongue-in-cheek spirit.

DANNY: It has many exaggerated sentiments, some of which are distasteful. We wrote the lyrics giggling, like, ‘What’s that dot on your head?’ That’s just funny. Obviously, all of us knew damn well it would provoke those cry-babies. AGNOSTIC FRONT actually wrote a song called “Fascist Attitudes”, calling out the same people and talking about how it wasn’t cool. So, we told Roger Miret (AGNOSTIC FRONT), ‘We’ve got this, dude.’

 

On December 21, 1985 – following a tour with SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – S.O.D. and CRO–MAGS opened for MOTÖRHEAD and Wendy O Williams at The Ritz in New York. What a fucking line-up.

DANNY: I met Wendy briefly; she seemed very nice, but her skin had gone kind of weird… brown, shiny, and snake-leather-like. I remember being creeped out, and I wasn’t even tripping. Of course, we already knew the CRO–MAGS dudes from a million local shows. Then MOTÖRHEAD… I mean, obviously, who the fuck doesn’t like MOTÖRHEAD? All the bands were cool – there was no rockstar behaviour or having a curtain by their dressing room.

Danny raises an interesting point in his book. When he first discovered MOTÖRHEAD, they were the fastest band he’d ever heard. He suggests that their groundbreaking style was the result of three amphetamine fiends holed up in a rehearsal space, jamming like maniacs for long stretches of time.

DANNY: Listen to the main riff of “Ace of Spades”, where it goes ‘ta-dum-dum-dum’… I know, that’s gonna be hard to transcribe – but imagine it slower and more in the pocket. Take the BPM down and it sounds almost like a surf riff. But through the combination of rehearsing over and over again and snorting shit that’ll rot your teeth and turn you into a skeleton, it got sped up to an unnatural tempo. Not unnatural, but way faster than originally intended. That’s my theory: a lot of speed and a lot of jamming.

The following month, in January 1986, S.O.D. came to a swift end following drama within the ANTHRAX camp.

DANNY: Certain people were getting envious. Danny Spitz used to do these guitar solos… you know, I’ve always thought a lone guitarist playing on stage, without any shit behind him, is just dumb. It’s nothing but a five-minute ‘Look how talented I am!’ Anyhow, Spitz did this at ANTHRAX shows during that era, and fans started chanting ‘S.O.D!’ Oh boy, would that piss him off… shaking his head and just cutting shit short.

It’s quite remarkable how intrigues within ANTHRAX drastically altered the course of Danny’s musical career a second time, even though he was no longer in the band.

DANNY: Yeah, Scott and Charlie prioritised keeping everyone in ANTHRAX happy. Same as when I got kicked out: it was deemed more important to appease the frontman, Neil – who they then fired seven months later. So, another genius idea. Billy and I were suddenly told, ‘That’s it.’ I just shrugged and thought, ‘Whatever. I have some other shit going right now.’

Instead, Danny proceeded with NUCLEAR ASSAULT. He and John Connelly had been writing music together ever since the “Back with Vengeance” demo.

DANNY: Meanwhile, as S.O.D. kind of blew up, NUCLEAR ASSAULT hired Anthony Bramante as our guitar player. Then, in December ‘85, we brought in Glenn Evans on drums. Perhaps I would’ve been a bit more let down if not for the timing working out so well: ‘Okay, now I can laser focus on this.’

 

In early 1986, NUCLEAR ASSAULT released their second demo, “Live, Suffer, Die”. The tape caught the attention of New York City-based label Combat Records, who offered them a record deal.

NUCLEAR ASSAULT’s debut album, “Game Over”, was recorded in May 1986 and released the following October. It is widely regarded as a pioneering milestone of crossover, a hybrid genre combining thrash metal and hardcore.

DANNY: It was a natural evolution coming from me and John attending so many hardcore shows. Those influences crept into NUCLEAR ASSAULT subconsciously, musically and lyrically. No other bands around then except REPULSION – who just blasted non-stop – played this kind of really fast, noisy stuff. Especially songs like “Hang the Pope”.

How did you get John – the Roman Catholic – to sing on that track?

DANNY: Well, John had a sense of humour and enjoyed rubbing people the wrong way. I think those instincts conquered whatever fears he might’ve had over going to Hell for writing a song called “Hang the Pope” – a title I was responsible for anyway.

In addition to traditional metal lyrics with diabolical themes – such as “Stranded in Hell” and “Cold Steel”, both written by Danny – “Game Over” also features topics more common in hardcore, like “Radiation Sickness” and “Nuclear War”.

DANNY: Lyrically, John was… I mean, he’s a high school history teacher now – he’s very intelligent and articulate. We discovered this concept that you can have metal lyrics which actually mean something. But John always made sure never to lecture people; he just wanted to make them think a little bit. There was none of the ‘don’t eat this, don’t smoke that’ type shit.