S.O.D. Off

Sometimes band members like to step away from their day jobs and create something totally different with a new group of people.

And sometimes they want to step away from their day jobs and create something remarkably familiar with people they already work with.

S.O.D. or Stormtroopers of Death to give them their full name fall into the latter category.

Scott Ian (Anthrax) and Charlie Benante (Anthrax) were joined by Dan Lilker (Nuclear Assault, but also ex-Anthrax) and Billy Milano (fundamentally unlikeable frontman of M.O.D.).

The idea came after Anthrax had recorded Spreading the Disease. There were musical leftovers kicking around and the original demo S.O.D. recorded consisted of 63 tracks. It was trimmed down a lot, new songs were added and Speak English or Die was the result.

Yes, the lyrical content on Speak English or Die is in places fairly racist (Fuck the Middle East and the title track) and sexist (Pre-menstrual Princess Blues, Pussy Whipped), but the band always said it was just done to piss people off and for “fun”. This could well be frantic back-pedalling though, an attempt to get away with something that wasn't really acceptable then and definitely isn't now. Or it's a joke that backfired a little.

Anyway I've always been more about the music than the lyrics and this is as relevant now as it was in 1985. Did S.O.D. Invent the genre of crossover? Many have claimed that they did, but I believe a lot of US punk and hardcore bands of the early 80s already had enough of an element of metal to their sounds to be labelled as pioneers ahead of this band. Fundamentally this is what thrash metal could have sounded like if bands didn't fuck about so much.

Right from the off Speak English or Die sounds like it's made solely of sweepings up from the Anthrax riff factory. March of the S.O.D. has a riff that looks like Scott Ian, never mind just sounding like him and it segues into Sargent [sic] D. and the S.O.D. which quickens significantly in parts.

The songs are much shorter than Anthrax songs. There are no guitar solos. Well there is one on United Forces which bizarrely the drummer played. There are breakdowns in the middle of most songs and nothing is overly complicated. In fact I reckon a reasonably competent guitarist could learn to play this entire album in a day. It might sound like I'm selling it short, but I'm really not. Not everything has to come from the Led Zeppelin school of “let's make everything as complicated as we possibly can”.

There are some incredibly quick songs on Speak English or Die. Hey Gordy, Diamonds and Rust and Anti-Procrastination Song are all over as soon as they start – comical hardcore blasts. There's the poor taste Ballad of Jimi Hendrix – the intro to Purple Haze followed by “you're dead” – and the utterly pointless What's That Noise?

Milk later appeared on Anthrax' Attack of the Killer Bs album as “a cover version of a song we wrote”, as did Chromatic Death, but nothing beats the originals.

This album is full of classic songs and it's done with a smile, but there are some serious moments too. No Turning Back has environmental lyrics and probably leans more towards Nuclear Assault than Anthrax.

Despite the million re-issues of Speak English or Die the original was under half an hour. This was the band's sole studio album until 1999 and they managed to tour with it. Bizarre.