A Fist in the Face of God presents... Full Speed Ahead Vol IV - A Mix by Hades & Sergeant Salsten

  So a full five years and some change (LOTS of that) have passed since I last posted a mix from the Full Speed Ahead series and, looking back at the intro I wrote for that in 2016, it couldn't ring truer now:
"You know, with every year that passes, the 80s get further away. Luckily for me, missing the 20th century is almost a worldwide hobby these days, and what better way to roll back some musical years than by blasting your ears with the shrieking sounds of 1980s speed metal."
Ah, how we all now wish for those simpler times, but rejoice we shall with this latest offering from Hades of Incinerator/Omega, alongside past mix-master himself, Sergeant Salsten of Norwegian thrash metal kings, Deathhammer. I will let the lads and the mix itself do the rest of the talking. Enjoy.

Hades Omega: And here we are again, bleeding your ears and giving you a tachycardia with a lethal dose of speed fuckin' metal!
This time I gathered forces with the one and only Sergeant Salsten. I've known this nefarious character for almost a decade now and I consider him a HUGE speed metal devotee, so I invited him to join me and select a few killer tunes for the new Full Speed Ahead compilation.
We chose mostly old and hidden diamonds, but also a few newer bands which totally deserve people's attention and support.
Now crack a cold one open and play the mix on a volume loud enough so that your neighbours can also enjoy it!

Sergeant Salsten: Bon appetite. Here are some nasty speedballs for all the hectic ones! Speed metal takes no prisoners and is all about raw energy.
There's a couple of German ones here, of course, since they are total Speedlandia.
Lots of gems there, but there's speed in heaps of cracks. MAUSOLEUM RECORDS FOREVER.
Slash your ears!

OBITUARY:
1. ATLAIN - SPHINX
2. GOTHAM CITY - SEE HOW IT FLYES
3. V8 - DESTRUCCIÓN
4. DEEF - ZACZYNA SIĘ
5. BLACK VIPER - HELLIONS OF FIRE
6. X JAPAN - X
7. LETHAL STEEL - WARRIOR
8. ORIGINAL SIN - BITCHES FROM HELL
9. RUNNING WILD - DIABOLIC FORCE
10. SPOTLIGHT - SPEEDWAY
11. THRUSTER - THE CONFLICT
12. LIVING DEATH - SHADOW OF THE DAWN
13. MYSTIK - NIGHTMARES
14. VULTURE - VULTURE
15. SUBWAY FORCE - RAINBOW FIRE 

A Fist in the Face of God presents... Full Speed Ahead Vol III - A Mix by Hades & Olof

You know, with every year that passes, the 80s get further away. Luckily for me, missing the 20th century is almost a worldwide hobby these days, and what better way to roll back some musical years than by blasting your ears with the shrieking sounds of 1980s speed metal.
It was on this year's first day, as I cursed the awakening of yet another year further from metal's golden age, when I got an email from my buddy Theodor "Hades", informing me of his latest mixtape, this time featuring tracks picked by Olof of the Swedish speed metal band Enforcer. And boy, did they do good, even throwing in a good few tracks from bands I'd never heard of before. Over to them...

A few words from Hades:

For the new Full Speed Ahead compilation I asked my pal Olof Wikstrand of the band Enforcer to join me in selecting half of the tracks, because we both worship this genre and I knew he'd pick some kickass tunes. I'm totally satisfied with the result, and I'm sure it's going to interest anyone who likes fast 'n' wild heavy metal, so play it loud and bang your skulls!

And from Olof:

Hades asked me if I wanted to join him for the next Full Speed Ahead compilation, so of course I immersed myself right into it and collected a bunch of my favourite tracks of both well known and some more unknown bands. Speed metal is, in my opinion, the ultimate metal genre, being the most aggressive, passionate, heavy and serious. The energy level is higher than any of the modern shit and contains everything I could possibly ask for. Enjoy!

TRACKLIST:
01. Powerlord (USA) - "The Invasion of the Lords" [1986]
02. Mad Max (Germany) - "Shout and Cry" [1984]
03. Fingernails (Italy) - "Just Like You Want" [2006]
04. Lizzy Borden (USA) - "Godiva" [1985]
05. Randy (Denmark) - "The Beast" [1986]
06. Znöwhite (USA) - "Do or Die" [1984]
07. Acero Letal (Chile) - "Por la Gloria del Metal" [2009]
08. Blind Guardian (Germany) - "Trial By the Archon/Wizard's Crown" [1988]
09. Van Halen (USA) - "Hot for Teacher" [1984]
10. Death Dealer (Canada) - "Cross My Way" [1983]
11. Impulse (Bulgaria) - "Gladiator" [1989]
12. Kratos (USA) - "Iron Beast" [1985]
13. Terminal (SWE) - "Satanski Narocila" [2015]

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LONG LIVE THE LOUD!!!

Midnite Madness LXIX—Total Metal

Apologies to anyone who tuned in to NTS for the live show to be greeted with dead air. This was a fault by the producer, who apparently forgot how to do his job. No big deal, really, as it has been recorded and is now available for download below.

Show is in-keeping with the new formula of recalling the last month or so's listenings, and includes a 30-minute selection from the brand-new mix by Hades and Fenriz, Full Speed Ahead Vol. II. Shouts to those guys again for making yet another killer mix and to Salsten for sending me the new Deathhammer album Evil Power and allowing you to hear the ripping "Total Metal" track.

Midnite Madness returns on April 7th. You know what to do until then.

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A Fist in the Face of God presents... Full Speed Ahead Vol II - A Mix by Hades & Fenriz

Artwork by Jan Utecht

After the relative success of last year's Full Speed Ahead speed metal compilation, its composer—Hades Omega of Greek speed metal outfit Omega—informed me of a follow-up, this time brining more of the proto-speed metal sounds that set the sub-genre in motion for the early to mid-80s. This time he enlisted the skills of one DJ Fenriz, who picked out almost half of the tracks on this second volume of heart-pounding ripping metal.

Live from Kniven

They actually played the mix out at Oslo's finest metal bar Kniven, last weekend. Oh, and he even had the multi-talented Jan Utecht of German speed/black metal band Occvlta draw up the artwork for the mix. And a fine job he did, too. A real group effort, nice one.

I asked the guys if they had anything to say about their selection and Fenriz started by adding:

yeah, it's dopi from machetazo that sent me a whole bunch of old spanish metal from the 80s and i picked out my faves from that and put on this comp, atleast 4 spanish tracks i think. when i heard the whole comp i quickly deducted that the black magic track ruled the whole comp, btw.

Before Hades weighed in with:

Since last year's compilation went pretty good and many people got into it, i thought it's time for a second speed metal attack!  This time though, i was thinking about asking my friend and music trader Fenriz (Darkthrone), since he is the BIGGEST speed metal maniac i know, to join me and choose together the tracks. We even decided presenting the compilation LIVE at Kniven bar (Oslo), while hitting a few beers! I really like how it turned out, cuz there are many obscurities and interesting releases to dig from old and even new bands!! So i hope people will enjoy it , as much as we did!

TRACKLISTING:

1. Hades - Toxic (USA) - "Heart Attack" [1986]

2. Fenriz - Banshee (Canada) - "Breakdown" [1984]
3. H - Gillan (UK) - "What's the Matter" [1982]
4. F - Banzai (Spain) - "Coche Rapido en La Noche" [1983]
5. H - Dio (USA) - "I Speed at Night" [1984]
6. F - Hades (Spain) - "Entre El Fuego y La Crue" [1985]
7. H- Black Magic (Norway) - "Thunder" [2014]
8. F - Jonah Quizz (Sweden) - "Attack" [1982]
9. H - Scorpions (Germany) - "Dynamite" [1982]
10. F - Paradox (Germany) - "At Night Never Twice" [1986]
11. H - Flight (Norway) - "Escape" [2014]
12. F - Sable (Spain) - "Simbolos de Rebelion" [1987]
13. H - Blood Money (UK) - "Metalyzed" [1986]
14. F - Triton (Spain) - "Triton" [1985]
15. H - Outcast (Australia) - "No Tomorrow" [2014]

16. H - Satan (UK) - "Fuck You" [1986]

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A Fist in the Face of God presents... Full Speed Ahead - A Mix by Hades

ALRIGHT. Here we have the first mix of the year, compiled by none other than Hades of Greek speed metal band, Omega. I met Hades at a recent metal festival where we talked about our shared love for fast heavy metal with shrieking vocals and naturally we spoke about a mix. He wanted to make a kind of Best Of mix, and he did not disappoint, taking in sounds from 1971 right up until today. Hell, he even managed to squeeze in some Queen (on a speed metal compilation?!).

He also mimicked my usual style of mix covers (this is the first one I did not make of all the mixes to feature on here) and sent over a few different edits of the comp before settling on a 30-track, nigh two-hour long opus. I make one of these every two weeks for my radio show, so it was nice to see what bangers a fellow speed freak would concoct.

And, he even had the good sense to include a ripper off his own band's latest offering The Hell Patrol (that I included on my end of year show), in the midst of action. I will let him tell his tale now…

I came across this heavy metal sub-genre when I was looking for bands playing stuff like the fast songs of Judas Priest, Saxon and Iron Maiden.  I had to find more, so I asked an old friend of mine (who has a killer vinyl collection) in my town and he told me about this Speed Metal genre. A week later he gave me a tape compilation with Exciter, Agent Steel, first Anthrax, Warrant (from Germany, of course), Violent Force, and a few more obscure bands from the 80s on it. I was beyond impressed, because I could hear the heavy metal riffs and solo melodies, but in a more THRASHY way and with faster tempo then the usual NWOBHM bands I'd heard previously. This gave me a fascinating mania to DIG deeper and deeper in the 80s underground scene and find more bands playing this so called Speed Metal genre. 

Many of you may ask WHY there is a song from Queen and Deep Purple in the compilation—do they play Speed Metal? The answer is "no, they don’t", because there wasn’t a genre called Speed Metal back in the 70s.  The reason I HAD to include these specific songs is because they gave the inspiration to bands like Metallica, Exciter, and Anvil to create this heavy metal sub genre in the early 80s. So it’s more or less for history reasons and it’s for those who are interested to learn how all this craze started.

A very important factor was also the Canadian label, Banzai Records, which gave birth of the so-called “Speed Metal Swirl”, which they used for many of their releases, some of which were not even Speed Metal by definition, but they had this mark or symbol for all the extreme and fast metal bands coming out then. I hope people will enjoy this compilation as much as I do and I want to thank all the NEW bands which are still keeping this way of playing metal ALIVE, even after 30 years of existence. Bang your head and raise the dead!
HADES

1. Judas Priest (England) - "Exciter" [1978]
2. Riot (USA) - "Warrior" [1977]
3. Queen (England) - "Stone Cold Crazy" [1974]
4. Whiplash (USA) - "The Burning of Atlanta" [1985]
5. ADX (France) - "Caligula" [1985]
6. Darkthrone (Norway) - "Circle the Wagons" [2010]
7. Violent Force (Germany) - "Sign of Evil" [1987]
8. Deep Purple (England) - "Fireball" [1971]
9. Phantom Lord (USA) - "Speed Demons" [1986]
10. Agent Steel (USA) - "Mad Locust Rising" [1986]
11. Ranger (Finland) - "Touch of Death" [2013]
12. Motörhead (England) - "Speedfreak" [1982]
13. Exciter (Canada) - "Stand Up and Fight" [1983]
14. Tank (England) - "Turn Your Head Around" [1982]
15. Tröjan (England) - "Hypnotized" [1985]
16. Megadeth (USA) - "Rattlehead" [1985]
17. Savage Grace (USA) - "Sins of the Damned" [1985]
18. Omega (Greece) - "Speed Metal Force" [2013]
19. Razor (Canada) - "Take This Torch" [1985]
20. Enforcer (Sweden) - "Live for the Night" [2010]
21. Iron Maiden (England) - "Aces High" [1984]
22. Flotsam And Jetsam (USA) - "Hammerhead" [1986]
23. Warrant (Germany) - "The Enforcer" [1985]
24. Saxon (England) - "Set Me Free [Sweet cover]" [1984]
25. Exorcist (USA) - "Riding to Hell" [1986]
26. Bitches Sin (England) - "Hold On to Love" [1980]
27. Diamond Head (England) - "The Prince" [1980]
28. Griffin (USA) - "Hunger" [1986]
29. Hallows Eve (USA) - "Outer Limits" [1985]
30. Metallica (USA) - "Metal Militia" [1983]

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