New Wave Of Low Lands Heavy Metal 1979-1984
Scream for me Kerkrade!
Music currents come and go, like ebb and flow. When such a movement, however small, coincides with your childhood, and the music also gets under your adolescent skin and nourishes your identity, then the love for it will not disappear. Then the flood continues.
That was and is also the case with writer A.H.J. Dautzenberg and Vincent Loozen, who in their early teens were confronted with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, the wave of heavy metal bands that flooded their insecure teenage minds in the early eighties.
Dautzenberg (Heerlen, 1967) and fellow countryman Loozen (Valkenburg, 1966) made a compilation in which they honor the metal pioneers of the low countries. They concentrate on the Belgian and Dutch scene in the years 1979 to 1984. That was the era in which hard music slowly took shape in the low countries as well.
At the time, the scene was small but close-knit, and mainly took place in the villages - in the cellar or in the attic of the youth club. That secrecy enhanced the attraction and in a way gave identity and self-confidence.
The compilation is titled CRASH! BANG! WALLOP!, an English expression that describes a sudden event accompanied by a lot of noise. It is also the title of the bonus track on Wiped Out, the second album by the influential British band Raven, one of the standard bearers of the NWOBHM as an energetic live band in the early days.
Three variants
CRASH! BANG! WALLOP! collects 21 bands on double vinyl (with flap sleeve) and 23 bands on double CD (in deluxe digipack). CRASH! BANG! WALLOP! is a time document of the early days of a new music genre. A period where there were no subgenres yet, which made the record very diverse and diverse; from more blues-inclined classic rock (Bodine and Teaser), rough garage proto metal (S To S and Vopo’s) to early speed metal (Acid and The Rogers).
In addition to a very special early demo release of Bodine'’s Shooting Dice, the album also contains two previously unreleased songs; Don't touch it from the Dutch Mover and Nightriders from the Belgian Victim. Van Mover has never had music on record before. A real first for the first band of the now worldwide acclaimed Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) and the later also renowned in metal circles and now deceased singer Shmoulik Avigal.
Both the vinyl and the CD feature extensive liner notes. The vinyl record also appears in an exclusive limited edition box with, in addition to the double LP, the liner notes and a sew-on emblem, a 76-page book formatted as a tour book for which Dautzenberg and Loozen have gone back to the early years over the past year and a half. They spoke to musicians, fans, organizers, programmers and journalists.
Book
For the book, Dautzenberg and Loozen interviewed Metal Mike, among others, and they tell the story of Aardschok, the magazine that runs like a red thread through the book. But also that of Rave On, the first metal record label in the Low Countries. And the rise and fall of the Belgian Heavy Sound Festival, still acclaimed by Metallica and Slayer, the first metal festival on the European mainland. And who remembers Hanneke Kappen, the presenter of radio program Stampij? And an interview with Kate De Lombaert, the first frontwoman of a metal band. But also a conversation about the years of long hair and wild guitars with Rowwen Hèze singer Jack Poels, who started out as a hard rocker.
The book is packed with memorabilia and photographs, many of which have never been published before. And all of this carried out in a design that completely breathes the early eighties. Illustrator Maarten Donders (Roadburn, Opeth, Brutus, SUNN O))), Danko Jones) drew the logo and painted an inferno for the inside of the gatefold in which Dante and Jeroen Bosch had felt at home.
The release of CRASH! BANG! WALLOP! is scheduled for April 8, 2022 and will be released on RE:. On this label, Excelsior Recordings provides pop-cultural heritage with special (re)releases.
