Speak English or Die

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Speak English or Die
Studio album by SOD
Label (s) Megaforce Records

Genre (s)

Thrash metal , hardcore punk , crossover

Title (number)

21st

running time

29 min 41 s

occupation

production

Alex Perialas & Scott Ian

Studio (s)

Pyramid Sound, Ithaca

chronology
- Speak English or Die Bigger than the Devil
(1999)

Speak English or Die is the first studio album by the American thrash metal / hardcore punk / crossover band SOD. It was released in 1985 via Megaforce Records . The album sold over a million copies worldwide and caused controversy due to the politically incorrect lyrics.

Emergence

In July 1985, the band recorded anthrax in the recording studio Pyramid Sound in Ithaca her second studio album, Spreading the Disease on. After the recordings were finished, the band had a few days of studio time. Just for fun, guitarist Scott Ian recorded the album Speak English or Die with drummer Charlie Benante, former anthrax bassist Dan Lilker and anthrax roadie Billy Milano within three days . Another three days were needed for the mixing .

The texts written by Billy Milano were sometimes described as funny, sometimes as tasteless or racist . In the title song, for example, illegal immigrants are urged to adapt to American culture. An example of the sarcastic humor is the song Fuck the Middle East , in which Milano pleads for the extinction of the Middle East in favor of Israel and Egypt . The text of the song The Ballad of Jimi Hendrix consists only of the words You're dead! ( English for 'You are dead!'). Dan Lilker stated that it wasn't the band's intention to write serious lyrics. The texts should only offend.

Track list

  1. March of the SOD - 1:27
  2. Sargent D and the SOD - 2:23
  3. Kill Yourself - 2:11
  4. Milano Mosh - 1:32
  5. Speak English or Die - 2:24
  6. United Forces - 1:53
  7. Chromatic Death - 0:43
  8. Pi Alpha Nu - 1:09
  9. Anti-Procrastination Song - 0:06
  10. What's that Noise - 1:00
  11. Freddy Krueger - 2:32
  2. Milk - 1:54
  3. Pre-Menstrual Princess Blues - 1:20
  4. Pussy Whipped - 2:14
  5. Fist Banging Mania - 2:04
  6. No Turning Back - 0:52
  7. Fuck the Middle East - 0:27
  8. Douche Crew - 1:35
  9. Hey Gordy! - 0:07
  10. Ballad of Jimi Hendrix - 0:05
  11. Diamonds and Rust (Extended Version) - 0:05

reception

Allmusic's Steve Huey described Speak English or Die as an important album for the fusion of hardcore punk with thrash and speed metal .

In the book Best of Rock & Metal by the German magazine Rock Hard , which lists the 500 strongest metal and hard rock albums of all time, according to the Rock-Hard editorial team, Speak English or Die took 247th place. Götz Kühnemund described the work as one of the milestones of the original crossover movement, which at the time wanted to bring the metal and hardcore scenes together. In addition, the leading Rock Hard Speak English or Die on its list of the 250 thrash metal albums that you should know .

The German-Turkish rapper Volkan T. called his second studio album Sprich Deutsch or die in reference to Speak English or Die , while the French band Noflag released an album called Spit English or Die . The German hardcore punk band COR released another variation of Speak English or Die in 2012 with the album Snack Platt Orrer Die . The online magazine Ugly Punk , fittingly, published a review in Low German . The right-wing extremist Hatecore band Solution with the imprint "Speak German or Die" on their album Love Your Neighbors and the Greek Nazi punk band Pogrom with the song title Μίλα Ελληνικά ή Ψόφα ( reproduced in English-language reports with Speak Greek or Die ) also played on it SOD album. An article in Rock Hard magazine about the French band Rise of the Northstar quotes their statement, referring to their own poor knowledge of English, "We are French, so the rest of the world should learn French" and comments on it with "Speak French or die!"

Re-releases

The album has been re-released twice so far. In 1995 Megaforce re-released the album with the bonus title Ram It Up . This is a cover version of a song by the German band Inferno . Five years later, Megaforce released the Platinum Edition , which, in addition to the studio titles Identity , Go and Ram It Up, also contains nine live recordings from a 1999 concert in Tokyo .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Christe : Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal . ItBooks, 2004, ISBN 0-06-052362-X , pp. 177 .
  2. ↑ Holger Stratmann (Ed.): Rock Hard Encyclopedia . Rock Hard GmbH, Dortmund 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , p. 254 .
  3. ↑ Joachim Prein: SOD Speak English Or Die . In: Rock Hard , No. 14.
  4. ↑ Stormtroopers of Death: Speak English or Live (DVD).
  5. ↑ Steve Huey: Speak English or Die - Stormtroopers of Death .
  6. ↑ Rock Hard (Ed.): Best of Rock & Metal - The 500 strongest discs of all time . Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2005, ISBN 3-89880-517-4 , p. 116 .
  7. ↑ Götz Kühnemund : 250 Thrash albums that you should know . In: Rock Hard . No. 265 , June 2009, p. 75 .
  8. ↑ Dani Fromm: "Speak German Or Die" by Volkan T. .
  9. ^ Walter Scheurer: Noflag / Spit English Or Die .
  10. ↑ Rübi: COR - SNACK PLATT ORRER DIE ( Memento from May 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ).
  11. ^ Ingo Taler: Out of Step . Hardcore punk between rollback and neo-Nazi adaptation. series of anti-fascist texts / UNRAST-Verlag, Hamburg / Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-89771-821-0 , p. 244 .
  12. ↑ Greece welcomes newest MP: A 'Nazi punk' musician. Ynetnews , July 26, 2012, accessed February 6, 2015 .
  13. ↑ Max Fisher: Pogrom Punk: The Greek neo-Nazi rock bands boosting Golden Dawn's rise. In: The Washington Post . October 29, 2012, accessed February 6, 2015 .
  14. ^ Marcus Schleutermann: Rise of the Northstar . Welcome to Japan. In: Rock Hard . No. 331 , December 2014, p. 54 .