Menu
Angelcorpse II

Angelcorpse II

by Niklas Göransson

Fathered by Vengeance and Carnal Lust. Riding the surge of their debut album and first European tour, Angelcorpse unleashed the classic Wolflust EP. While solidifying the band’s domestic presence, they channelled all ferocity into Exterminate.

 

GENE PALUBICKI: ANGELCORPSE played a handful of US shows to promote our debut album, “Hammer of Gods”. We also toured Europe as support for IMPALED NAZARENE in December 1996. The final show was in Strasbourg, France – afterwards, we decided to use two tracks from the soundboard recording for a seven-inch.

In February 1997, two months after the Nuclear Tour ’96 with IMPALED NAZARENE and GEHENNAH, ANGELORPSE self-released “Nuclear Hell”. The EP features live renditions of “Envenomed” and “Sodomy Curse” from their debut album “Hammer of Gods”, issued by Osmose Productions in October of the previous year.

GENE: The sleeve says ‘Evil Vengeance Records’, which wasn’t even a real label at that point but rather something Pete and I decided to put there to avoid it looking like a bootleg. Then, we contacted a vinyl-pressing plant and printed around one thousand copies to sell on tour and through the mail.

Two months later, ANGELCORPSE – now a four-piece, following the addition of guitarist Bill Taylor – entered Chapman Recording Studios to track one original song and three covers.

GENE: Part of the funding came from Dwell Records – an American label that, if you remember, kept cranking out endless tributes to every fucking metal band imaginable. One of their first was an IRON MAIDEN tribute called “A Call to Irons”, and they wanted ANGELCORPSE to participate. We received about five hundred bucks to record a MAIDEN cover.

ANGELCORPSE chose “Genghis Khan” – an instrumental track from IRON MAIDEN’s 1981 album “Killers”.

GENE: It would’ve been ridiculous to have Pete – or any death metal vocalist – try to sing an IRON MAIDEN song. Historically, covers where underground bands attempt to tackle traditional metal or hard rock just sound terrible. We also recorded “Pleasure to Kill” for a KREATOR tribute released by Full Moon Productions. I can’t recall the name now, but it had weird artwork and featured a whole shitload of bands.

The ANGELCORPSE interpretation of “Pleasure to Kill” can be found on Full Moon Productions “Tribute to Kreator”, released in the year 2000.

GENE: Between those two labels, we received about a thousand dollars, which gave us a decent studio budget. Pete and I figured, ‘Okay, we’ve got this new song, “Wolflust”; should we record it along with those covers? And while we’re at it, why not make a B-side too and put out another seven-inch?’ So, I ended up learning “Burning in Hell” by POSSESSED. I had a bit of money, enough to cover the additional studio costs.

“Wolflust” would go on to become one of the most recognisable ANGELCORPSE songs. I’m probably not the only one with nostalgic memories of drunken headbanging while hollering along to ‘Eat, fuck, kill’.

GENE: That phrase came from some obscure and terrible movie called The Doom Generation. One of the characters had this black button with that exact phrase on it. So yeah, it was a bit of artistic borrowing. You know, we’d often do things like that – find offbeat stuff and creatively work it into our material, even if it didn’t necessarily relate to anything else.

 

In July 1997, ANGELCORPSE played Milwaukee Metalfest – the same event where, six years earlier, Gene and Pete first connected through ORDER FROM CHAOS guitarist Chuck Keller.

GENE: At that point, without having done a full US tour, ANGELCORPSE remained relatively unknown. Our afternoon performance received a good response; people got right into it. However, the crowd clearly didn’t recognise the songs or know who the hell we were. And this wasn’t unique to Milwaukee Metalfest – it took time for things to develop in the States.

The next month, ANGELCORPSE played two consecutive nights at Michigan International Metalfest 1997, filling in for fellow US band ABSU.

GENE: We also performed in Chicago with SUFFOCATION, followed by smaller shows in Minneapolis and Milwaukee alongside bands like VADER and MONSTROSITY. These were smaller festival-type events, but it was the same situation where most fans had yet to discover ANGELCORPSE.

Weren’t your records selling in the US?

GENE: Osmose didn’t have much American distribution back then. Apart from grassroots trading with other labels, our titles simply weren’t available in most record stores. Some specialised metal shops probably stocked ANGELCORPSE, but they were rare. Most people had to get our stuff through mail-order. So, during the whole “Hammer of Gods” period, making any headway was a steep climb.

 

ANGELCORPSE recorded their second album, “Exterminate”, at Florida’s Morrisound Studios in November 1997. The writing process was completed before the band’s most intense touring started, giving them ample time to hone the material.

GENE: We still rehearsed at the ANGELCORPSE house in Kansas City. Most of the band lived there together – me, Pete, and Bill Taylor, once he joined. Each of us had his own room, and we jammed in the basement. It was essentially the same setup as during the demo period.

In an interview leading up to “Exterminate”, Gene promised an album completely devoid of ‘groove shit or slow parts to bore the fans’. I found this a bit confusing, as I’ve never heard such complaints levelled against ANGELCORPSE.

GENE: I don’t think there was any pushback about “Hammer of Gods”; it’s just that by then, things were shifting in the metal scene. During the early 90s, major record companies like Warner Brothers and Sony began licensing titles from Earache and other independent labels. So, certain bands leaning toward death metal ventured into more mainstream material, hoping to be noticed.

One rather successful attempt came from ENTOMBED, who enjoyed commercial acclaim with “Wolverine Blues”, released by Earache Records in October 1993. It marked a departure from the death metal of “Left Hand Path” and “Clandestine” and introduced elements of classic rock to create what some called ‘death ‘n’ roll’.

That same month, Earache released CARCASS“Heartwork”, showcasing a move from gore-laden grindcore towards a more melodic and polished approach. Similarly, with “Chaos A.D.”, SEPULTURA stepped away from their thrash roots and began incorporating groove metal influences.

GENE: These bands retained elements like low-tuned, distorted bass guitars or growling vocals but moved away from brutality and aggression. To me, trying to impress the commercial mainstream using death metal is completely backwards. I probably meant to say that we had nothing to do with prevailing trends. I focused on developing the band’s sound and evolving what ANGELCORPSE would become musically.

While researching for this interview, I was surprised to discover that although Pete wrote the lyrics, Gene came up with many of ANGELCORPSE’s iconic titles. Besides the first three albums, he named songs like “Christhammer” from “Exterminate”.

GENE: A lot of times, Pete would have lyrics but hadn’t settled on a title. I’d read through them, try to grasp their meaning, and come up with something appropriate. For a song like “Christhammer”, the concept struck me as a reversal of the witch-hammer – a kind of wickedness turning against the righteous. I thought, ‘What would you even call that? Maybe something like Christhammer?’ The term stuck, so we used it.

 

“Exterminate” was released by Osmose Productions in February 1998.

The album launch was preceded by months of growing discontent within the ANGELCORPSE ranks, as Pete and Gene often clashed with John Longstreth over the drummer’s perceived lack of dedication. Not long after the recording of “Exterminate”, John left the band.

GENE: John would’ve been around twenty, while the rest of us were four or five years older, so there was a big age gap. The thing is, at that time – especially with what we tried to do on “Exterminate”John just wasn’t ready. His pre-ANGELCORPSE band didn’t focus on double bass or fast drumming, and we wanted to take our sound to the next level.

When joining what became ANGELCORPSE – six months after Gene moved to Kansas City from Winona, Minnesota – John played with a local death metal band called MALICIOUS INTENT.

GENE: Unfortunately, John couldn’t keep up. With several tours looming, a decision had to be made – we needed someone who could handle it. However, not long after leaving ANGELCORPSE, John went on to do incredible things. As a drummer now, he’s definitely one of the top performers in death metal. So, while things happened the way they did back then, he’s accomplished a lot since – probably even more than I have, for that matter.

Back in 1998, skilled death and black metal drummers were extremely difficult to find. Without viable options in Kansas City, ANGELCORPSE recruited Tony Laureano – a Puerto Rico native living in Tampa, Florida.

GENE: Tony didn’t wanna move to Kansas City so in order to rehearse regularly, we joined him down in Tampa. That’s the only reason we ended up there – otherwise, I might never have lived in Florida at all. Even though he wasn’t staying in the band, Bill Taylor came along with us. He’d hoped to sort of start over; there were some things going on in his life.

 

In April 1998, ANGELCORPSE were part of a tour package called No Mercy Festival Part II. Featuring some of the biggest names in extreme metal, it averaged a thousand attendees per night.

GENE: We shared the stage with IMMORTAL, CANNIBAL CORPSE, OBITUARY, MARDUK, GOD DETHRONED, and a band from Sweden called DEFLESHED, if I remember correctly. That was the lineup for the first eleven dates.

Do you think you appealed more to the death or black metal contingent?

GENE: Probably a mix of both. A lot of people felt the need to define us but couldn’t quite figure out where we fit; it didn’t add up for them. They’d approach our merch table saying things like, ‘I can’t tell whether you’re a death or black metal band.’ The fact that Pete’s vocals weren’t in that lower, guttural range seemed confusing to some.

Gene first heard Pete’s oration at Milwaukee Metalfest V in July 1991. Entering the venue while ORDER FROM CHAOS performed, he was met by ‘vocals that sounded like old BATHORY’ – very different from the deep growling typical of early 90s death metal.

GENE: Some even questioned why, since our vocals sounded like black metal, we weren’t wearing face paint. But the music I wrote didn’t fit that framework; it was a more aggressive form of death metal. We’ve never fit neatly into either category. I don’t need to be defined by one or the other; people can interpret ANGELCORPSE in whatever way works best for them.

After the eleven days of No Mercy, ANGELCORPSE embarked on an additional twenty-five dates with their label mates in Norway’s IMMORTAL.

Although the venues were smaller, the tour provided additional exposure for ANGELCORPSE. IMMORTAL had achieved their commercial breakthrough in 1995 with “Battles in the North”, selling 40,000 copies in the first month.

GENE: That tour was a pretty big deal for IMMORTAL, too, because these were their first shows with Abbath as guitarist. As you might recall, about a year earlier, Demonaz had developed carpal tunnel in his wrists and couldn’t play for many years.

Did you still enjoy touring life, or had the novelty started wearing off?

GENE: No, not at all – I loved every moment of it. After returning from Europe in the spring of ‘98, we spent a few months at home. By then, all of us lived in Tampa, so we went straight back into rehearsals and continued over the summer, right up until the CANNIBAL CORPSE tour.

 

Starting at Milwaukee Metalfest XII in late July 1998, ANGELCORPSE joined CANNIBAL CORPSE on a nine-week tour across the US and Canada.

By this stage, ANGELCORPSE’s live assault had reached nuclear potency, as evidenced by numerous witness testimonies. Opening for a death metal behemoth like CANNIBAL CORPSE significantly expanded the band’s domestic reach.

GENE: Back in 1998, platforms like YouTube didn’t exist. Without performing live, there weren’t many ways to reach people unless they stumbled upon your record by chance. So that tour did a lot for “Exterminate” and really helped put ANGELCORPSE on the map. Moving into ‘99, we kept the momentum going.

log in to keep reading

The second half of this article is reserved for subscribers of the Bardo Methodology online archive. To keep reading, sign up or log in below.