Death rock

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Death rock

Development phase: late 1970s
Place of origin: los Angeles
Stylistic precursors
Punk Rock · psychedelic rock · Glam Rock
Pioneers
45 Grave · The Flesh Eaters · Kommunity FK · Misfits
Instruments typical of the genre
Electric guitar · electric bass · drums
Sub-styles
Horror punk · American Gothic
Pioneer
The Cramps · The Damned

Death rock , also known as death punk , refers to a music movement in the post-punk environment that emerged in the United States in the late 1970s .

Influences

Death rock developed in American post punk parallel to British Gothic rock . In the meantime, American death rock was also made up of hard and shock rock , which was less evident in British gothic rock. An important pioneer of both styles were next to Iggy Pop and David Bowie , meanwhile, The Cramps which as Dave Vanian and David Letts, with the British punk band The Damned occurred in 1977 in Los Angeles and the aesthetics of the burgeoning scene with his vampire outfit and cemetery aesthetics influenced.

"The performers that I drew inspiration off of would be Alice Cooper, Ozzy, Joan Jett, the Runaways, the Ramones, and the Damned."

"I drew inspiration from artists like Alice Cooper , Ozzy , Joan Jett , The Runaways , the Ramones and The Damned ."

- Dinah Cancer ( 45 Grave )

"I thought if we were lucky, people would think we were like the Cramps or Alice Cooper."

"I thought if we were lucky people would think we were like the Cramps or Alice Cooper ."

Emergence

The heavily made-up Jack Grisham Live with TSOL

Death rock developed in the musical underground of Los Angeles and Washington, DC in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of emerging hardcore punk as a further development of punk rock. While hardcore punk "in its beginnings simply a harder version of punk that was definitely part of the punk scene [...] only faster, louder and harder" [sic!], Played in the beginnings of death rock psychedelic and surreal aspects play an important role, which was in stark contrast to hardcore punk. Nevertheless, the musical currents have long been regarded as a common punk scene.

“There weren't any different names for different looks, the whole spectrum of clothing and hairstyles - everything was considered punk. There were kids with torn jeans and combat boots, others dressed like Nosferatu , some wore S / M clothes [...] others T-shirts with safety pins. [...] It wasn't until 1984 that different looks with different names began to emerge. "

- Monica Richards (Madhouse / Faith and the Muse )
Rozz Williams

The close ties to the American post-punk scene also led to joint releases such as the sampler Hell Comes to your House Vol.1 , on which, in addition to the death rock protagonists Super Heroines, 45 Grave and Christian Death , Social Distortion , Rhino 39 and The Conservatives were represented. Similar to British Gothic Rock, some bands with a common, psychedelic and dark attitude emerged from American post-punk.

"The Deathrockers were splintered off from the punk / hardcore scene that was going on at the time. We played punk rock but we loved Halloween and we looked like vampires. So the phrase, Death rock was born. We had a deeper appreciation of the darker side of slice o 'life. It was our way of giving back to something we enjoyed. "

“The death rockers split off from the punk / hardcore scene that existed back then. We played punk rock, but we loved Halloween and we looked like vampires. With that the name Death-Rock was born. We had a deeper understanding of the dark side of life. It was our way of giving back something that we liked. "

- Dinah Cancer (45 Grave)

While the early Misfits are considered to be the forerunners on the east coast in New York , bands like Christian Death , 45 Grave , the early TSOL , Theater of Ice , Kommunity FK , Super Heroines and Voodoo Church fought their way through the clubs of Los Angeles in the west where the local press first used the term death rock as a term for the bands performing there in horror aesthetics.

Advancement, separation and decline

Dinah Cancer of 45 Grave in an appearance in 2007.

In the early 1980s, two main trends in death rock developed. While the horror punk of the early representatives 45 Grave and the Misfits began as a self-deprecating punk variant with elements from surf rock and rockabilly , bands like Christian Death and Kommunity FK played a mixture of deep, heavy bass and tribal-like drums similar to British Gothic punk as well as scratching and squeaky rumbling guitar, with influences from hard rock and shock rock . In particular, the first releases of Christian Death changed the sound of death rock anchored in punk and thus formed a counterpart to British Gothic rock.

"The sound of Christian Death was about to change and become more affected and various remaining in the death rock, which is in fact the American gothic rock, quite different from the UK gothic scene of the 80s, fields that Rozz Williams formed with Christian Death with "Deathwish" (1981) and "Only Theater Of Pain" (1982). "

“The sound of Christian Death influenced and changed death rock, which in fact is the American Gothic Rock that differs from the British Gothic Rock scene of the 80s, a style that Rozz Williams with Christian Death with 'Deathwish' (1981) and ' Only Theater Of Pain '(1982). "

- The Rozzengarten

Only Theater of Pain became an authoritative work for death rock, which in its effect on death rock has been compared to the Ramones' debut album for punk. While a part of the bands (later also called "American Gothic" ) proved to be equivalent to British Gothic Punk and partly to Gothic Rock , other groups that were still anchored in punk laid the foundation for what was under the Titling horror punk became common. In particular, performers such as 45 Grave and the Misfits remained arrested in punk and staged themselves in partly comic- like Halloween - and black and white - horror film aesthetics .

With the increasing popularity and the separation of the terms, the perception of the term death rock changed, which means that only those bands were perceived as death rock that appeared and played related to the British Gothic Rock and the associated scene . Meanwhile, the protagonists of death rock found the assignment to gothic rock restrictive and unsatisfactory.

"So death rock as we saw it, was taking the visual and lyrical aspect of the cramps, and attaching it to rock'n'roll. Only People started calling it gothic rock instead, and it ended up going to a very different place we had intended. "

“So death rock, as we understood it, took the visual and lyrical aspects of The Cramps and pinned them to rock 'n' roll . Except that people started calling it Gothic Rock and it ended up going in a completely different direction than we had intended. "

- Rozz Williams

By the mid-1980s, the Los Angeles death rock scene had collapsed. In 1983, Chris Desjardins disbanded The Flesh Eaters . 45 Grave split up in 1984 after the divorce of singer Dinah Cancer and guitarist Paul Cuttler. Rozz Williams dissolved Christian Death in 1982 and reformed the band in 1983 with a different line-up, but left Los Angeles shortly afterwards and with Christian Death oriented himself more towards Gothic Rock. With Revenge 1986 TSOL oriented themselves more towards hard rock . Patrick Mata from Kommunity FK commuted between the British and American scenes in the second half of the 1980s, designed various projects, of which only Stavio Luvbox released two albums away from death rock, and did not appear with Kommunity FK for years beyond a few appearances Appearance. Other interpreters of death rock also turned around or disappeared from the scene, so that around 1984 the first high phase of the style came to a standstill.

consequences

In the mid-1980s the term death rock lost its influence and was increasingly equated with the term gothic rock. In particular, the popularity of individual representatives of Gothic Rock was identified as the origin of this change.

"I don't know how things went from death rock to Goth, but I think the Sisters had something to do with it."

"I don't know how it went from Deathrock to Goth, but I think the Sisters had something to do with it."

- Rozz Williams

A few years after the dissolution of the core scene in Gothic Rock , the term Death Rock established itself as a style name for a "macabre or dark rock 'n' roll with driving, hard guitars and the main influences of 1977 Punk Rock or 1982 Hardcore Punk ."

In the aftermath, the clash of Gothic Rock and Death Rock led to a reorganization and mixing of both scenes and also in America to a wave of new bands that used both Death Rock and Gothic Rock as an influence. A development that was sometimes referred to as American Gothic .

revival

In the new millennium, bands like The Deep Eynde , Cinema Strange , Scarlet's Remains , Subtonix or Tragic Black first saw a clearly gothic-punk-oriented death rock revival in the USA , the effects of which also had an impact on Europe (especially Great Britain and Germany) expanded. This revival is often referred to as the "Batcave Revival" due to its stylistic and visual reference to the style of the Batcave Club in London in the 1980s. In Germany, bands like Murder at the Registry and Bloody Dead and Sexy in particular left their mark on the resurrection of the movement. To this day, the revival of ever-sprouting bands or formations such as u. a. Christ Vs. Warhol (Dissent, 2011), Novocaine Mausoleum ( Novocaine Mausoleum, 2006 ) Fangs on Fur, Dystopian Society ( Violations, 2013 ) and Readership Hostile .

Significant representatives (origin)

  • Pompeii 99
  • The speed queens
  • Super heroines
  • Theater of Ice
  • TSOL
  • Voodoo Church

Important representatives (Revival)

Individual evidence

  1. Dave Thompson, Kirsten Borchardt: Shadow World - Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock . 2004, ISBN 3-85445-236-5 , p. 49.
  2. a b Alice Bag: Woman in LA Punk - Dinah Cancer Interview. Alice Bag, archived from the original on February 17, 2015 ; accessed on March 23, 2014 .
  3. Oliver Sheppard: Deathrock a Brief History Part II. Souciant, accessed March 23, 2014 .
  4. a b Dave Thompson, Kirsten Borchardt: Shadow World - Heroes and Legends of Gothic Rock. 2004, ISBN 3-85445-236-5 , p. 361ff.
  5. ^ A b Roman Rutkowski: The charisma of the grave. 2004, ISBN 3-8334-1351-4 . P. 53
  6. Hardcore History. Hardcore History, archived from the original on October 9, 2013 ; accessed on March 23, 2014 .
  7. Jack Rabid: Hell Comes to your House, Vol. 1. All Music, accessed March 23, 2014 .
  8. a b Judith Platz: The 'black' music. In Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: The world of the Gothics. Scope of dark connotations of transcendence. 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 . P. 262f
  9. a b c Dave Thompson: The Birth of Goth in Dave Thompson: Alternative Rock: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion, Miller Freeman Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0-87930-607-6 , pp. 62ff
  10. ^ Ned Raggett: Sleep in Safety. AllMusic, accessed March 23, 2014 .
  11. ^ Ned Raggett: Walk Among us. AllMusic, accessed March 23, 2014 .
  12. ^ Ned Raggett: The Vision and the Voices. AllMusic, accessed March 23, 2014 .
  13. Garry Sharpe-Young: AZ of Doom, Goth & Stoner Metal. 2003 ISBN 978-1-90144-714-9 , p. 85.
  14. The Rozzengarten: Christian Death - Catastrophe Ballet review. Metal Storm, accessed March 21, 2014 .
  15. Oliver Sheppard: Deathrock a Brief History Part I. Souciant, accessed March 24, 2014 .
  16. Dave Thompson: Alternative Rock: Third Ear - The Essential Listening Companion, Miller Freeman Books, 2000, ISBN 978-0-87930-607-6 , pp. 500f
  17. Reyan Ali: Death-rock Pioneers 45 Grave Rise, Fall and Rise Again. (No longer available online.) OC Weekly, archived from the original on March 25, 2014 ; accessed on March 24, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ocweekly.com
  18. The Graves Family: Rozz Williams Biography. Rozznet, accessed March 24, 2014 .
  19. Robert Gabriel: Revenge. All Music, accessed March 24, 2014 .
  20. ^ Greg Fasolino: Kommunity FK. trouserpress, accessed March 24, 2014 .
  21. ^ A b Dave Thompson and Jo-Ann Greene: Undead. Alternative Press, accessed March 24, 2014 .
  22. Oliver Sheppard: New Deathrock on the Horizon a Field Report on New Deathrock-Bands. (No longer available online.) Cvlt Nation, archived from the original on March 26, 2014 ; accessed on March 26, 2014 .