10.28.2006

Satanic Rites!




Satanic Rites Hit and Run 7" (Heavy Metal, 1981)

Like a lot of suburban born & breed juvenile delinquents, coming of age in the 1970s, my first musical crush was heavy metal. At the time, heavy metal was the loudest, most obnoxious thing going in music. It was heavy and often anti-social and for me the best of the best was Black Sabbath. Clad in bell bottom jeans and hiking boots, long greasy hair dangling down my zit pocked face, I would march down the street with my boom box at 10, speakers blaring Electric Funeral to the world, which in my case was the Sacramento suburbs of Glenbrook & College Greens. My teen gang would march along, none of us the leader, just a pack of neer do wells intent on vandalizing whatever we deemed necessary. As a teen I had three gifts: I could spit farther than anyone else. I was great at shoplifting (built my record collection up to two hundred by walking out of a K-Mart with whatever I could grab). And I had an unquenchable thirst for music (which partially explains the shoplifting). In my crowd I was the music man. I had the boom box and I had the tapes. Everywhere I went I took my shitty portable cassette deck and a backpack full of tapes. We would go to Glenbrook Park, snort speed and kick the shit out of each other under the guise of playing football - I had the boombox pumping When the Levee Breaks. We would be at the elementary school setting fire to garbage cans - the boombox fed us Highway Star. We would watch OC dive into the American River to shepherd a keg away so that the park rangers wouldn't snatch it and thus our deposit and beer gone - the boombox blasted Symptom of the Universe (while the sheriff's helicopter hovered overhead). Heavy metal was my soundtrack until one fine day in 1979, when a fellow shitbag sung me the lyrics of the Sex Pistols' Bodies. That afternoon I was on my bike for an hour ride to Tower Records on Watt Ave in order to steal me a copy of Never Mind the Bollocks. I got home, heard the jackbooted intro, Steve Jones's guitar flails, and Johnny Rotten's caterwaul and I was hooked (a better album intro doesn't exist). A few days latter I begged my mom to crop my hair, I pegged my bell bottoms, and made a Sex Pistols shirt with a sharpie. Goodbye heavy metal, hello punk.

By the time I got into punk, heavy metal was sucking anyway. Bands like Sabbath were all coked up and turning out crap. Hard rock like Foreigner was starting to take over. It was garbage. However, in the UK punk rock was having an impact on metal. Fresh from being sacked from Hawkwind, Lemmy formed Motorhead kicked the sad old hasbeens stucking up the metal scene out on their duffs. A New Wave of British Heavy Metal was on and it was called NWOBHM for short. Like a lot of things that were sensible at the time, NWOBHM didn't catch on in the US. Motorhead's audience was limited to a few bikers, Hawkwind freaks, and punks. Our metal renaissance (again thanks to punk) didn't happen until crossover in the mid-80s. Anyway, by the time NWOBHM came around, I had little need for any heavy metal (though I did buy Motorhead records) so I missed out on the hundreds of indie 7"s that it generated. No problem. Good things come to those who dig. I was at a radio station record sale, going through 45s. Next to me was the guy who gave me the Yama Yama Man LP. We had a standing arrangement. I gave him any homemade acetate that I found: He gave me anything in a picture sleeve. So when he handed me a plastic bag with about 40 NWOBHM 7"s in it, who was I to say "No"? I got home and over a week's time played them all. Five of the 40 stood out so I kept them and sold the rest. One of the ones I kept was the debut by Satanic Rites.

If you've paid attention it should be pretty obvious why I kept the Satanic Rites 7". These guys not only nail the early Motorhead sound, but there is the sound you get on some of the Damned's Machine Gun Etiquette. Yeah, that and it is a great single. I read that these guys put out two albums, one in 1985, the other in 1987. The dates don't give me promise. I'll stick to this one.


Comments:
Motörhead is another thing...
 
metal came of age with thrash=black=death=and grindcore
 
yes, I think that that the Metallica has killed the metal,
in the middle of the 80's.
 
Wow, what a find. I'm jealous.
 
yes they did do 2 albums. one in 1985 called "Which way the wind blows" and one in 1987 called "No use crying" and i should know as i used to be married to the guitarist who is the one on the right.
 
Hi, my name is Stuart Page the guitarist with Satanic Rites. What a surprise to see something like this on the internet (a pleasant surprise). As Karen has said there were two other albums recorded. By this time we had a female singer and introduced a keyboard player. The first album is still very raw and the second is a bit more refined. I don't know if you can still buy the albums but if you can give them a listen.
Thanks for the interest
Stuart
 
hey pagey where are you now gordon
 
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