Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. Today, we go back in time to the year 1985. The first wave of black metal is in full swing. Although Venom are now starting to lose steam, there’s no shortage of bands picking up where Welcome to Hell and Black Metal left off. Bathory releases their second album, The Return……, which surpasses their debut in terms of darkness and extremity. Celtic Frost breaks new creative ground with To Mega Therion. Destruction and Kreator drop their full length debuts, Infernal Overkill and Endless Pain respectively, and Sodom unleashes a game changing EP with In the Sign of Evil. Meanwhile, in Italy, a young band of maniacs would forge their own path within the black metal underground. That band is Bulldozer. This is their story.
Like many of the bands we cover in this series, the roots of Bulldozer go farther back than one would expect. In their case, it was 1980 when the band initially formed under the short lived moniker Barricada. They quickly changed their name to Bulldozer and even recorded a two track demo. Unfortunately, they broke up as quickly as they came together, due to compulsory military service. Fast forward to 1983. Frontman and bassist AC Wild decided to resurrect Bulldozer, this time with the assistance of guitarist and songwriter Andy Panigada. You can read more about these early days of the band in our interview with Wild, here.
Things developed rather fast for the dynamic duo of Wild and Panigada. While they were faced with some personnel changes, it wasn’t long before they teamed up with drummer Don Andras and found themselves signed to the burgeoning Roadrunner Records. Not bad for a band with one single (“Fallen Angel”) and a demo tape to their name! Funny enough, of the 3 known copies that exist of this demo, one was sent to King Diamond, in hopes he’d produce what would become their debut album, The Day of Wrath. King turned down the offer, as he considered the demo to be “too punk”, and he’s not entirely wrong. These raw, high speed hymns of hedonism and evil were a far cry from the blackened suites penned by Mercyful Fate.
When The Day of Wrath came out on March 13, 1985, it didn’t necessarily revolutionize underground metal the way some of the releases mentioned in the introductory paragraph did that year. However, it further expanded upon the fast n’ filthy formula established by Motörhead and Venom, serving as a mediator between these early pioneers and subsequent late 80s bands, especially Sarcófago, whose obsession with crass, broken English lyrics (“If you are a false, don’t entry.”) and barbaric lo-fi production was a blatant nod to Bulldozer.
The album opens with an eerie soundscape entitled “The Exorcism”. With its hellish screams, howling winds, and chanting incantations, many believe it’s a reference to the film The Exorcist. Wild has dispelled this claim, instead ominously stating that it is based off a real personal experience. Talk about spooky! This builds up into the album’s proper opening, “Cut-Throat”. A headbanging anthem and a half, “Cut-Throat” took metal maniacs back to the glory days of the early 80s, when Venom cared less about being taken seriously as musicians and more about unleashing full blown musical hellfire.
The chaos continues with what’s probably my personal favorite cut on here, “Insurrection of the Living Damned”. Bulldozer didn’t rely on speed to make their listeners bleed! “Insurrection” sees the band utilizing a Motörhead inspired rock n’ roll beat and riffing that comes off as far more evil than pulverizing. A rerecording of their debut single, “Fallen Angel”, soon follows. While this new version is slightly more “polished” than the original, that’s not saying much. It’s still a devastating, unholy marriage of Venom riffs and d-beats on steroids, pure metalpunk mayhem.
Side A closes with the fastest and most ferocious cut on this album thus far, “The Great Deceiver”. Forget “blackened speed” or “first wave black metal”. THIS is unadulterated blackened thrash. The guitars and drums just don’t stop, and while there is a slight, sleazy rock n’ roll delivery to the guitar solo, that’s not enough to take away from its thrasher cred. Aura Noir and Nifelheim were certainly taking notes while listening to this one. You can hear the roots of these bands and a slew of other 90s defenders in this 4 and a half minute neck snapper.
As we flip over to side B, we’re greeted by the equally thrashy “Mad Man”. When hearing songs like this and “The Great Deceiver”, it’s no wonder Bulldozer embraced a straightforward thrash sound on subsequent releases. The album rages on with one of the all time great metal party anthems, “Whisky Time”. Sorry, but if this isn’t alongside Venom’s “Live like an Angel (Die like a Devil)” and Gehennah’s “Piss Off, I’m Drinking” on your “metal party playlist”, you might want to turn in your headbanger card, just saying.
The thrash and speed insanity of “Mad Man” and “Whisky Time” respectively are contrasted by the most dynamic composition on the album, “Welcome Death”. Slow, doomy, and menacing, this 6 minute opus comes off as a black metal spin on the godfathers of metal themselves, Black Sabbath. Panigada channels his inner Iommi, churning out one pummeling riff after the next, while drummer Andras even incorporates some jazzy flourishes reminiscent of Bill Ward. Rounding it all out is yet another slab of blackened doom, the chilling soundscape that is “Endless Funeral”, which is more or less an outro to “Welcome Death”. See King Diamond! These guys knew how to write!
Although Bulldozer never ascended to the heights of their peers, their cult status has only grown in the decades to follow. The band would breakup in 1990, reform as a techno project in 1992 (we don’t talk about those days), and return to their black metal roots for good in 2008, with Wild and Panigada back at the helm. Since their reunion, Bulldozer have even made it to America, playing Maryland Deathfest, Metal Threat Fest, and even just completing their first ever American tour last week. We hope it’s not their last!