by Niklas Göransson

Building on the momentum of Crushed Infamy and a streak of incendiary performances across the Midwest, American death metal juggernaut Order from Chaos recorded their debut album, Stillbirth Machine.

 

CHUCK KELLER: It’s the heaviness I’ve always liked about metal. The main reason “The Number of the Beast” (IRON MAIDEN) grabbed me so was its massive-sounding production and orchestral vibe. Similarly, I loved METALLICA’s epic riffs and dense, suffocating guitar tone – much of which came from the type of chords they used.

ORDER FROM CHAOS recorded “Demo 1” in January 1988. The tape showcases a visceral and pounding form of thrash, infused with punk-adjacent influences and Mike Miller’s heavy metal-based drumming.

The opener, “Of Death and Dying”, was written by bass player Pete Helmkamp before the band formed, whereas “Quietus” and “The Scourge” were the first two songs composed by guitarist Chuck Keller.

CHUCK: If you listen to “The Scourge”, it’s full of… I don’t even know what you’d call them. These kind-of crushing riffs are produced by combining barre and power chords in various ways – but you can’t play those fast, or it ends up as this big, ponderous, quasi-doom. Hearing the song “Dawn of Megiddo” sort of deconstructed that idea for me.

“Dawn of Megiddo” from CELTIC FROST’s 1985 album “To Mega Therion” is an example of how playing individual notes in a harmonic sequence can create a powerful, full sound, even though the chord is not strummed all at once.

CHUCK: Thanks to my music background, I had a decent grasp of how the guitar works, likening it to big piano chords. I knew how to string chords together and make them speak. Pete’s technique as a bass player, on the other hand, took a more primal, attacking MOTÖRHEAD form. I’d say, ‘Okay, you go for the throat, and then I’ll smother ‘em!’ <laughs> Essentially, that was our way of things.

The evolution of O.F.C.’s distinctive sound involved Pete’s complex basslines, which Chuck enhanced using his knowledge of music theory.

CHUCK: Pete is such a great bassist that if I tried to imitate his playing on guitar, it would sound like a bunch of tremolo-picking nonsense. I mean, I shouldn’t say nonsense, but just a string of notes – far too busy for what we had in mind. So, I’d take the root notes of his riffs or licks and build my guitar part around that.

This technique is often referred to as ‘harmonising’. Chuck focused on creating a complementary guitar part that fit the bassline without simply replicating it.

CHUCK: That approach allowed me to express myself and my love for playing this way –using big chords, or whatever – while also making it work alongside these spectacular basslines that nobody else could play. Undoubtedly, it was a huge part of what made the O.F.C. sound, blending Pete’s style with mine through an unrelenting SLAUGHTER LORD prism.

From his very first interviews, Chuck has made numerous references to Australian thrashers SLAUGHTER LORD – their 1987 demo “Taste of Blood” in particular.

CHUCK: SLAUGHTER LORD did such an incredible job of taking all our common influences and blending them together. That’s what really got me the first time I listened to “Taste of Blood”. ‘Holy shit – it’s like KREATOR, SODOM, and BATHORY all rolled into one.’ It absolutely hijacked our imaginations. Pete and I thought, ‘This is perfection! We gotta do something similar.’

 

In July 1988, half a year after “Demo 1”, ORDER FROM CHAOS recorded their second demo, “Inhumanities”. Presenting a significantly more death metal-scented sound, it features a new rendition of “The Scourge” plus three new songs, the shortest of which is five and a half minutes.

Two months later, ORDER FROM CHAOS made their stage debut by opening for American thrash veterans OVERKILL at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City. Not bad for a band that hadn’t even existed a full year.

CHUCK: We got the gig through a connection at the record store I worked at. The production company wanted a sample, so I gave them “Demo 1” <laughs>. Honestly, they were probably just out of options. Kansas City had a couple of other metal bands, such as MORTAL REIGN… who weren’t necessarily bad but clearly didn’t know what they wanted to do.

Formed in 1985, MORTAL REIGN was a thrash band from Olathe, Kansas. They had yet to release their first demo when supporting MEGADETH in October ‘86.

CHUCK: MORTAL REIGN put ramps on stage, and the members wore big furry boots and fake blood, playing their goofy, theatrical, generic metal that eventually morphed into some sort of thrash. This ties into what I said earlier: Kansas City is a town of followers. We had all these posers who started out as glam rock, then witnessed METALLICA’s rise to fame and thought, ‘Oh, we should do that instead.’

The late 80s and early 90s saw several established metal bands drastically altering their styles to align with prevailing trends. Famously, PANTERA – initially a glam act – successfully transitioned to a more aggressive thrash and groove metal sound. Ironically, some old-school thrashers like EXODUS and TESTAMENT later incorporated groove elements in attempts to stay relevant.

CHUCK: Another local act, VIPER… the guitarist was great, but they were a poofy hair metal group. Then, six or so months later, they reemerged as BLOWER, supposedly playing thrash. So, when OVERKILL came to town, I guess all those bands were undergoing various periods of metamorphosis, trying to update their shtick, and just weren’t available. Somehow, we were.

 

The Uptown Theater concert – which was part of OVERKILL’s “Under the Influence” tour – boasted an ambitious stage show.

CHUCK: There were curtains draped around OVERKILL’s gigantic props, so we had about five feet of stage to work with. The sound guy just butchered our set, using us as a playground. Mike’s dad recorded it on video, and that came out great, but you don’t ever wanna listen to the soundboard because he made Pete sound like a cyclone. Absolutely absurd, but it was O.F.C. at its most primal.

How were you received?

CHUCK: The Kansas City fans didn’t have a clue what any of this was. They knew OVERKILL from the music videos; we, on the other hand, were a local band they had no frame of reference for. Most of them probably recognised some SLAYER but couldn’t make sense of the SLAUGHTER LORD and BATHORY influences. This really showed the difference between us and everybody else in town.

In January 1989, ORDER FROM CHAOS started tracking their third demo, “Crushed Infamy”, at Studio 7 – a sixteen-track home recording setup owned by Ron West, the father of Chuck’s girlfriend at the time. Having unlimited studio access, Chuck spent several weeks searching for a distinct guitar sound.

CHUCK: I was chasing a huge guitar tone, yet nothing seemed to work; I just couldn’t dial it in. One night, out of sheer frustration, I cranked up all the levels on my Boss Heavy Metal pedal, and… I should add that I had no idea Tomas Skogsberg was doing something similar in Sweden around the same time. But it’s not identical to the Sunlight sound because I used a hundred-watt Marshall MOSFET.

The ‘Sunlight sound’ refers to the famed guitar tone crafted by Swedish producer Tomas Skogsberg. His Sunlight Studio became iconic in the early 90s death metal scene, particularly with bands like ENTOMBED and DISMEMBER.

Sunlight’s characteristically thick, buzzing distortion was achieved through a mix of cranked-up tube amplifiers and Boss HM-2 pedals. Chuck’s method differed somewhat because the Marshall MOSFET amp relied on transistor technology rather than tubes, giving his tone a unique edge.

CHUCK: Instantly, as soon as I heard that harsh, overdriven tone, I thought, ‘Oh my god, here it is!’ <hums a heavy, distorted riff> This would’ve been around three in the morning, and my girlfriend’s parents were trying to sleep upstairs. I had to turn down the volume really fast, but I vowed right then and there to record the EP with that sound.

 

“Crushed Infamy” opens with “Webs of Perdition”, one of the most iconic songs in ORDER FROM CHAOS’ discography.

CHUCK: As a matter of fact, while writing that one, we thought, ‘This is gonna be one of our signature songs.’ “Webs of Perdition” felt so much more advanced than everything else we’d done; all of us knew there was something special brewing. “Crushed Infamy” also has “Crimes Against the State”, which is Pete’s track through and through. That staccato, go-for-the-throat attack is totally him.

Besides the aforementioned two songs, “Crushed Infamy” includes updated versions of “Quietus” and “Of Death and Dying” from “Demo 1”. The EP closes with another new piece: “Blood and Thunder”.

CHUCK: “Blood and Thunder” was just me ripping off CELTIC FROST – and boy, did Quorthon (BATHORY) let me have it over that. As you’re probably aware, he never liked any of Tom G Warrior’s bands. Quorthon said, ‘I wish I’d enjoyed your song, but it sounds like FROST, so I didn’t. But goddammit, I already had a title called “Blood and Thunder”, and now it must be changed!’

Chuck wrote to BATHORY mastermind Quorthon a few years earlier; they kept in touch and eventually developed an enduring friendship. When BATHORY’s “Hammerheart” came out the following year, Quorthon seized the opportunity to address Chuck’s usurpation of his song title.

CHUCK: He sent me the record, and I had no idea! By then, I’d appeared on several thanks lists; Quorthon and I shared such a special bond, so I probably figured I’d be in the “Hammerheart” booklet somewhere – but I never expected to be singled out. It was Quorthon’s way of saying, ‘Yeah, you got it.’

 

In June 1989, with “Crushed Infamy” nearing completion, Pete, Mike, and two friends started renting a house together. ORDER FROM CHAOS built a new rehearsal studio in the basement.

CHUCK: I’m sure you can imagine a household of four drunk metalheads with no parental supervision <laughs>. I didn’t live there myself, thank God. If I had, the band would’ve ended way sooner. But we had a lot of good times there. That house still stands; it’s a personal landmark for us all now, I think.

The following month, ORDER FROM CHAOS finished mixing “Crushed Infamy” and self-released it on cassette. Chuck still worked at the record shop, utilising their heavy-duty copy machine to produce and distribute O.F.C. flyers.

CHUCK: The store said I could use scratch paper, such as copies they’d made that weren’t good enough to give out. These would end up in a recycling bin, and I’d use the blank backsides. I’d run off literally hundreds in a night, doing quarter panels on a page, then cut them up. Whenever I sent out a parcel, I’d jam fifty flyers in there, so those things just got everywhere. We were very thrifty in those days.

Although musically influenced by bands like SODOM and HELLHAMMER, O.F.C.’s staunch DIY ethos was inspired by the local punk scene.

CHUCK: As metalheads, we were alone in Kansas City, but an hour west of us lies Lawrence, a big college town with a great underground scene. There was a place called The Outhouse – basically a cinderblock structure in the middle of a cornfield. The building used to be a storage space for farm equipment, but somehow, somebody had converted it into a music venue.

 

The Outhouse started consistently hosting shows in 1985 and quickly became a regional hub for punk, hardcore, and underground music. Despite its bare-bones setup, the venue hosted a wide array of bands.

CHUCK: It was like a crust-punk house before we knew what a crust-punk house was – a place where anyone could put on a show. When pulling up, it looked like something from Silence of the Lambs <laughs>. ‘What the hell is this?’ But we saw it as an oasis. There were no rules, yet everybody behaved. I saw SAINT VITUS open for MENTORS at The Outhouse in 1987 and got to talk with Dave Chandler, Wino, and all the guys, including El Duce.

Didn’t ORDER FROM CHAOS open for POISON IDEA at The Outhouse?

CHUCK: O.F.C. played, but POISON IDEA didn’t make it – which sucked because we really wanted to see them. The punk scene was vital for us; that world accepted us. However, getting to The Outhouse entailed an hour of driving, which wasn’t ideal. So, we made our own scene in Kansas City.

Paul Ledney of PROFANATICA has mentioned that, unlike most death metal bands in the tri-state area, he and his bandmates drew significant influence from punk and hardcore. Supposedly, this background shaped a distinct breed of metalhead, setting them apart from their peers.

CHUCK: I agree. It wasn’t just about the DIY spirit but also the aggression in the music. Punk helped keep metal from getting too full of itself, you know? It also taught us how to accomplish more with simpler songs. Once you learn to play an instrument, it’s easy to want to keep improving. On an individual level, absolutely develop your technique and practise, practise, practise. But as a death metal band, you don’t wanna evolve too much because then you lose what made you special.

 

During the spring of 1990, ORDER FROM CHAOS returned to Studio 7 and recorded two songs, “Nucleosynthesis” and “Megalomania”. Prior to this, O.F.C. had been approached by Putrefaction Records, a new underground outfit run by André Lemesle from French thrash metal band NOMED.

In July 1990, Putrefaction released the new tracks – plus “Webs of Perdition” from “Crushed Infamy” – on a seven-inch called “Will to Power”.

CHUCK: I don’t know how the Putrefaction guy got hold of us, but I’m glad he did because that’s how “Will to Power” came about. We remastered “Webs of Perdition” but overdid it a little bit. There’s way too much bass, so the tone just distorts – it sounds horrible.

By then, Chuck and Pete wrote their material independently. While initially collaborating, including input from Mike, they found that involving three inexperienced songwriters in one piece made for a ‘glacial pace’.

CHUCK: Pete wrote way more of the lyrics than I did; for me, it was all about composition. What really underpinned everything was our growing competence and experience in putting music together. Instead of sculpting songs from the ground up, Pete and I would come in with the skeleton of a track, and then the band as a whole fleshed it out.

Did Mike still take an active part?

CHUCK: Absolutely. Mike always put his stamp on the riffs, changing the feel or original dynamic. He’d often have a completely different approach and sense of what the song needed and what he could bring to the table. Sometimes, the full band would change something because of Mike’s idea, or maybe just a subtle alteration of my guitar part. So, the three-person interplay remained very much intact.

In a contemporary interview for Peardrop #4, a French fanzine edited by Laurent of Listenable Records, Chuck stated that he’d never come across anything close to “Nucleosynthesis”, either lyrically or musically. Quote: ‘The song has gone over many people’s heads as I knew it would, but eventually, (…) I think the appreciation for what we do will skyrocket. I just hope we’re still around if and when it happens.’

CHUCK: Admittedly, there are plenty of songs out there now that are as chaotic as “Nucleosynthesis”. I took a lot of influence from Piggy (VOIVOD) and the way he structured his chords. The only thing I added to that formula was the tremolo bar. I’m doing more dives – not just at the end of a riff, but within the riff structure itself.

Tremolo bars allow guitarists to bend the pitch of notes up or down, creating a distinctively chaotic ‘dive bomb’ effect.

CHUCK: “Nucleosynthesis” would’ve been the first track where I really did that, designing the riff to feel like a sledgehammer. There wasn’t supposed to be anything subtle about it. Nowadays, the war metal bands write whole albums of such songs, and that’s one thing I could never have predicted.

 

The home Pete and Mike shared became known as the Roadhouse. Within months of moving in, they started the tradition of Friday Night Witching Hour – a full-performance O.F.C. rehearsal open to friends, fans, and curious onlookers.

CHUCK: These open practices became legendary throughout the city, even attracting folks from the rich suburbs. We had an endless parade of visitors dropping by to witness the spectacle – most of whom only attended once. It was like Animal House for real, but with metal and way worse <laughs>. People got thrown through windows, bones were broken… absolute chaos.

I’m assuming the neighbours must’ve been either deaf, dead or supremely tolerant.

CHUCK: None of the above, actually. The Roadhouse was in a rough area, close to a real crime-infested ghetto. But when four crazy long-haired metalheads moved in, burglaries and such decreased noticeably. We were up at all hours, running around outside, so someone always knew what was going on. The whole area became safer.

During the summer of 1990, Pete ran into a sixteen-year-old metalhead called Alex Blume at a record store and invited him to the Roadhouse. The following Friday, the young man arrived with an equally unsuspecting friend, Kevin.

CHUCK: Alex turned up wearing a MORTAL REIGN shirt. This was the local band that opened for MEGADETH, and they were very much a punchline for us. Two of our friends, Eric – the drummer of the old cover act – and Doug Overbay, had developed this hilarious fascination with a TV preacher called Robert Tilton, who supposedly spoke in tongues.

Robert Tilton was a televangelist in the 1980s and early 1990s, known for his flamboyant oration and claims of miraculous healings.

CHUCK: They would memorise all this rambling nonsense and scream it at people. I’ll never forget Alex and Kevin sitting on the couch, with Eric and Doug standing in front of them, yelling in their faces about how ‘Satan is gonna dip you in his deep fat fire of sin, boy’ while everyone ran around drunk out of their minds <laughs>. When Alex and Kevin left, someone said, ‘We’ll never see those two again.’ But the next week, they showed up carrying a case of beer.

Alex Blume became a frequent attendee, spending nearly every weekend there for the next five years. The Roadhouse regulars soon formed a tight clique.

CHUCK: Back in the day, this was common in many metro areas: a small circle of friends who tend to be musically similar. You’re alone in the world, so you find allies and keep them close. That’s basically what happened. We called them the Bastard Squad because, by that stage, we were the black sheep of the local scene.

The Bastard Squad – ORDER FROM CHAOS’ core entourage – consisted of assorted troublemakers who’d go on to bands such as NEPENTHE, ARES KINGDOM, and VULPECULA.

CHUCK: These guys knew they had our blessing to go out and wreak havoc, and that’s what happened. Hence, O.F.C. rarely played around Kansas City; the promoters wanted nothing to do with us. We were just nuts and truly relished the chaos-mongering because we had nothing to lose. The local scene did nothing for us, so we didn’t care.