Two-fer: Nasty Savage and Penetration Point

Titles: Nasty Savage, Penetration Point
Band: Nasty Savage
Purchased: Uhhhh…
Verdict: Keep 'em

I only vaguely remember when and where I got these albums. I remember that I spent cash money on them for the usual reasons: the covers and the price. I mean, look at those covers? What the hell is that? No, not the cover of Nasty Savage. Any idiot could tell you that's just the band's name spelled out in swords. Look at Penetration Point. It's got some sort of owl man goat monster on it. And a little boy. And a sword. And some serious late 80s design element on the right. I had a friend in high school, Kyle Anderson, who would draw stuff like that. Only he was good.

There's not a ton of information about Nasty Savage. At least, there wasn't a ton of information that my four minutes of googling and searching Wikipedia turned up. Their official website is a Geocities site, now shut down. The music, one might guess, is metal. Between the two albums they went from the Motley Crue denim-n-bondage look to the Metallica long-hair look, or maybe the Suicidal Tendencies long after that song about the Pepsi look. Musically, they rock. Fast drums, fast guitars, and lyrics obsessed with evil and self-doubt and the welcome wagon. That is not a typo.

The rock is passable. It's like a poor-man's Florida-based not-as-smart Metallica. Not quite as blistering, but still pretty enjoyable if you want to listen to metal that doesn't suck.

My favorite moment is on the song "Asmodeus." When he hits the last syllable of "Asmodeus"–keeping in mind that he has added an extra syllable between "as" and "mod"–his voice swoops up about 5 octaves. This visual approximation can not do it justice, but here goes.

                                uuuuuuuuuuusssss!"
                            uuu
"Az-a-mode-ee-

He sings about a demon like a girl. And that, on record, is just too amazing to let go.