Stormtroopers of Death
Encyclopedia
Stormtroopers of Death, better known as S.O.D., was a crossover thrash
band formed in New York
in 1985. They are commonly credited as being among the first bands to fuse hardcore punk
with thrash metal
into a style sometimes called "crossover thrash
." The song "March of the S.O.D.," from their 1985 debut album, was the Headbanger's Ball intro anthem for many years.
They have also been a subject of controversy due to their politically-incorrect lyrics. S.O.D. member Dan Lilker has stated: "The lyrics were never intended to be serious, just to piss people off."
album Spreading the Disease
, Scott Ian
would draw pictures of the face of a character known as "Sargent D." The pictures would be accompanied by slogans such as "I'm not racist; I hate everyone" and "Speak English or Die," and Ian would write lyrics about this character. He decided to form a hardcore band based on Sargent D, so he recruited Anthrax drummer
Charlie Benante
, ex-Anthrax bassist Dan Lilker
, and Psychos bassist Billy Milano
on vocals.
They recorded a 63-song demo called Crab Society North
and set to work on an album for Johnny Zazula's Megaforce Records
. The record, titled Speak English or Die
, was recorded and mixed over three days and has since been recognized as a landmark recording. They toured in support of the record in 1985, opening for, among others, Motörhead and The Plasmatics. Their planned follow-up, USA For S.O.D., was never recorded.
After the tour finished, Lilker carried on with the band Nuclear Assault
while Benante and Ian continued with Anthrax. Milano formed the spin-off band Method of Destruction
, more popularly known as M.O.D. The band's first album, U.S.A. for M.O.D.
, featured many lyrics written by Scott Ian, as well as an altered version of "Aren't You Hungry," an unrecorded S.O.D. song from the 1985 tour.
Their music also served as the theme of the '80s incarnation of MTV's Headbangers Ball
.
S.O.D. reformed for a one-off gig in New York City in 1992, released as the live album Live at Budokan. The record featured most of the studio album, a few songs from the demo and covers of Ministry
, Nirvana
and American hardcore punk band Fear
.
In 1997, S.O.D. reunited again to play the Milwaukee Metal Fest. They played their first Europe
an gig at the With Full Force
festival in Germany
, and in 1999 the second studio album was released. Bigger Than the Devil
, with its hardcore metal and black humor, was welcomed by fans and the band toured again in the late '90s. Bigger Than the Devil also featured the original S.O.D. version of "Aren't You Hungry."
In 2001, the DVD
/video Speak English or Live was released. It added to the original Live at Budokan video by including a gig from a German metal festival and footage of the band recording overdubs for live tracks recorded in Japan
. These would be included on the platinum reissue of the debut, along with two new studio tracks, to celebrate sales of one million for Speak English or Die.
In 2002, the tour movie Kill Yourself: The Movie
was released on DVD. Metal magazines reported in 2003 that the band had split up due to disagreements between Ian and Milano.
In 2007, apparently despite those earlier reports, S.O.D. released its third album, Rise of the Infidels
. The album consists of previously recorded material.
In October 2011, Scott Ian of Anthrax is asked by UnRatd Magazine, "if there is any chance of reigniting that spark?" Ian replying, ""No. I think I can safely say that, yeah. It was never supposed to be any thing more than it was. As far as I'm concerned we did too much with it. It started out as comic book strip that I drew in the studio and then turned into this record that we made, but you know, that's all that it is for me. It's the opposite of The Damned Things, for me, it was never meant to be a real band with a schedule and making records and touring. S.O.D. was supposed to be the 'anti' of that, it was supposed to just be about having fun and never having it turn into something real where all of a sudden it's not just fun anymore - it becomes a job, it becomes a business. And I'm glad everyone around the world got to see it at least once because in '99 and 2000 we played everywhere and I don't feel the need to go out and do that again."
" of live and unreleased material called Rise Of The Infidels
, released in August 2007 on Megaforce Records, is the final release by the band. Said Milano, "(the EP) will finally be the last of S.O.D.," laying to rest rumors of another S.O.D. reunion.
Crossover thrash
__FORCETOC__Crossover thrash, often abbreviated to crossover, is a form of thrash metal that contains more hardcore punk elements than standard thrash. The genre lies on a continuum between heavy metal and punk rock...
band formed in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1985. They are commonly credited as being among the first bands to fuse hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
with thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
into a style sometimes called "crossover thrash
Crossover thrash
__FORCETOC__Crossover thrash, often abbreviated to crossover, is a form of thrash metal that contains more hardcore punk elements than standard thrash. The genre lies on a continuum between heavy metal and punk rock...
." The song "March of the S.O.D.," from their 1985 debut album, was the Headbanger's Ball intro anthem for many years.
They have also been a subject of controversy due to their politically-incorrect lyrics. S.O.D. member Dan Lilker has stated: "The lyrics were never intended to be serious, just to piss people off."
Biography
After finishing his guitar tracks on the AnthraxAnthrax (band)
Anthrax is an American heavy metal band from New York City, formed in 1981. Founded by guitarists Scott Ian and Danny Lilker, the band has since released ten studio albums and 20 singles, and an EP featuring Public Enemy. The band was one of the most popular of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
album Spreading the Disease
Spreading the Disease
Spreading the Disease is the second studio album by the American heavy metal band Anthrax. It was released on October 30, 1985 through Megaforce Worldwide/Island Records. It was the band's first album to feature vocalist Joey Belladonna and bassist Frank Bello.-Album information:The band produced...
, Scott Ian
Scott Ian
Scott Ian Rosenfeld , better known by the stage name Scott Ian, is an American musician, best known as the rhythm & lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Anthrax. Ian is also the guitarist and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death...
would draw pictures of the face of a character known as "Sargent D." The pictures would be accompanied by slogans such as "I'm not racist; I hate everyone" and "Speak English or Die," and Ian would write lyrics about this character. He decided to form a hardcore band based on Sargent D, so he recruited Anthrax drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
Charlie Benante
Charlie Benante
Charlie Benante is the drummer for the heavy metal bands Anthrax and Stormtroopers of Death .- Career :...
, ex-Anthrax bassist Dan Lilker
Dan Lilker
Dan Lilker is a musician from the United States, most known as a bass player, but also guitarist, pianist, drummer and vocalist...
, and Psychos bassist Billy Milano
Billy Milano
Billy Milano is a Bronx-born heavy metal musician now based in Austin, Texas. He was the singer, guitarist, and bassist of crossover thrash band M.O.D., and the singer of its predecessor, Stormtroopers of Death....
on vocals.
They recorded a 63-song demo called Crab Society North
Crab Society North
Crab Society North is a demo by American Crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death. It was recorded on July 1, 1985 with a walkman put into a speaker.The demo was recorded in the kitchen of Pyramid Sound studios and contains mostly improvised material....
and set to work on an album for Johnny Zazula's Megaforce Records
Megaforce Records
Megaforce Records is an American independent record label which was founded in 1982 by Jon and Marsha Zazula to publish the first works of Metallica. It has offices in New York and Philadelphia. The label is distributed in the U.S. by Sony Music Entertainment/RED Distribution...
. The record, titled Speak English or Die
Speak English or Die
Speak English or Die is the first studio album by the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death .After Anthrax finished recording Spreading the Disease, there was still some studio time left, so Scott Ian and Charlie Benante called some friends, practiced some songs, and recorded it all within...
, was recorded and mixed over three days and has since been recognized as a landmark recording. They toured in support of the record in 1985, opening for, among others, Motörhead and The Plasmatics. Their planned follow-up, USA For S.O.D., was never recorded.
After the tour finished, Lilker carried on with the band Nuclear Assault
Nuclear Assault
Nuclear Assault is an American thrash metal/crossover thrash band formed in 1984.-History:After the release of Anthrax's debut album Fistful of Metal, bass player Danny Lilker, a founding member of the group, was fired by the band...
while Benante and Ian continued with Anthrax. Milano formed the spin-off band Method of Destruction
M.O.D.
M.O.D. was a crossover thrash band from New York City, fronted by former Anthrax roadie and Stormtroopers of Death vocalist Billy Milano. The band existed from 1986 to 1997, and again from 2001 to 2008...
, more popularly known as M.O.D. The band's first album, U.S.A. for M.O.D.
U.S.A. for M.O.D.
U.S.A. for M.O.D. is the debut full-length studio album from American crossover thrash band, M.O.D.. It was released in 1987 on Megaforce Records. In 1988, the band subsequently released the EP, Surfin' M.O.D..-Album name:...
, featured many lyrics written by Scott Ian, as well as an altered version of "Aren't You Hungry," an unrecorded S.O.D. song from the 1985 tour.
Their music also served as the theme of the '80s incarnation of MTV's Headbangers Ball
Headbangers Ball
Headbangers Ball is a music television program consisting of heavy metal music videos airing on MTV2, MTV Australia, MTV Two , MTV Adria , MTV Brand New, MTV Portugal, MTV Finland, MTV Arabia, MTV Norway, MTV Sweden, MTV Denmark, MTV Greece, MTV Türkiye, MTV...
.
S.O.D. reformed for a one-off gig in New York City in 1992, released as the live album Live at Budokan. The record featured most of the studio album, a few songs from the demo and covers of Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
and American hardcore punk band Fear
Fear (band)
Fear is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1977. The band is credited for helping to shape the sound and style of American hardcore punk, the group started out as part of the early California punk rock scene, and gained national prominence after an infamous 1981...
.
In 1997, S.O.D. reunited again to play the Milwaukee Metal Fest. They played their first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an gig at the With Full Force
With Full Force
With Full Force is a metal, hardcore and punk festival held annually in Germany since 1994. The 2011 edition took place on July 1 and July 3 at the Roitzschjora airport in Löbnitz near Leipzig in the Saxon county of Delitzsch.-2010:...
festival in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and in 1999 the second studio album was released. Bigger Than the Devil
Bigger Than the Devil
Bigger than the Devil is the third release by crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death . The album was released in May 1999 on the Nuclear Blast label...
, with its hardcore metal and black humor, was welcomed by fans and the band toured again in the late '90s. Bigger Than the Devil also featured the original S.O.D. version of "Aren't You Hungry."
In 2001, the DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
/video Speak English or Live was released. It added to the original Live at Budokan video by including a gig from a German metal festival and footage of the band recording overdubs for live tracks recorded in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. These would be included on the platinum reissue of the debut, along with two new studio tracks, to celebrate sales of one million for Speak English or Die.
In 2002, the tour movie Kill Yourself: The Movie
Kill Yourself: The Movie
Kill Yourself: The Movie; the bulk of the footage on this DVD was shot during the S.O.D. promotional tour for Bigger Than The Devil in Japan and America, interspersed with footage from various events, such as some 1999 shots from the Dynamo Open Air in the Netherlands...
was released on DVD. Metal magazines reported in 2003 that the band had split up due to disagreements between Ian and Milano.
In 2007, apparently despite those earlier reports, S.O.D. released its third album, Rise of the Infidels
Rise of the Infidels
Rise of the Infidels is the fourth and final release by crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death. The album was released in August 2007 on the Nuclear Blast label. The album is described as an "extended EP", with a running time close to an hour...
. The album consists of previously recorded material.
In October 2011, Scott Ian of Anthrax is asked by UnRatd Magazine, "if there is any chance of reigniting that spark?" Ian replying, ""No. I think I can safely say that, yeah. It was never supposed to be any thing more than it was. As far as I'm concerned we did too much with it. It started out as comic book strip that I drew in the studio and then turned into this record that we made, but you know, that's all that it is for me. It's the opposite of The Damned Things, for me, it was never meant to be a real band with a schedule and making records and touring. S.O.D. was supposed to be the 'anti' of that, it was supposed to just be about having fun and never having it turn into something real where all of a sudden it's not just fun anymore - it becomes a job, it becomes a business. And I'm glad everyone around the world got to see it at least once because in '99 and 2000 we played everywhere and I don't feel the need to go out and do that again."
Final release
According to singer Milano, the 24-song extended "EPExtended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
" of live and unreleased material called Rise Of The Infidels
Rise of the Infidels
Rise of the Infidels is the fourth and final release by crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death. The album was released in August 2007 on the Nuclear Blast label. The album is described as an "extended EP", with a running time close to an hour...
, released in August 2007 on Megaforce Records, is the final release by the band. Said Milano, "(the EP) will finally be the last of S.O.D.," laying to rest rumors of another S.O.D. reunion.
Members
- Scott IanScott IanScott Ian Rosenfeld , better known by the stage name Scott Ian, is an American musician, best known as the rhythm & lead guitarist for the heavy metal band Anthrax. Ian is also the guitarist and a founding member of the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death...
- guitar, backing vocals - Dan LilkerDan LilkerDan Lilker is a musician from the United States, most known as a bass player, but also guitarist, pianist, drummer and vocalist...
- bass, backing vocals - Charlie BenanteCharlie BenanteCharlie Benante is the drummer for the heavy metal bands Anthrax and Stormtroopers of Death .- Career :...
- drums, additional guitar solos - Billy MilanoBilly MilanoBilly Milano is a Bronx-born heavy metal musician now based in Austin, Texas. He was the singer, guitarist, and bassist of crossover thrash band M.O.D., and the singer of its predecessor, Stormtroopers of Death....
- lead vocals
Albums
- Speak English or DieSpeak English or DieSpeak English or Die is the first studio album by the crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death .After Anthrax finished recording Spreading the Disease, there was still some studio time left, so Scott Ian and Charlie Benante called some friends, practiced some songs, and recorded it all within...
(December 1985, Megaforce RecordsMegaforce RecordsMegaforce Records is an American independent record label which was founded in 1982 by Jon and Marsha Zazula to publish the first works of Metallica. It has offices in New York and Philadelphia. The label is distributed in the U.S. by Sony Music Entertainment/RED Distribution...
) - Live at BudokanLive at Budokan (S.O.D. album)Live at Budokan is a live album released by American crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death. The album is a recording of a one-off re-union gig put on by the band, and includes the majority of the longer tracks from their first album and some previously unheard tracks, as well as covers of...
(March 21, 1992, Megaforce Records) - Bigger Than the DevilBigger Than the DevilBigger than the Devil is the third release by crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death . The album was released in May 1999 on the Nuclear Blast label...
(May 22, 1999, Nuclear Blast Records) - Rise of the InfidelsRise of the InfidelsRise of the Infidels is the fourth and final release by crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death. The album was released in August 2007 on the Nuclear Blast label. The album is described as an "extended EP", with a running time close to an hour...
(August 21, 2007, Megaforce Records)
Other appearances
- From the Megavault (1985)
- Deeper into the Vault (1991)
- Crossover (1993)
- Stars on Thrash (1998)
- Suburban Open Air '99 (1999)
- Death Is Just the Beginning, Vol. 5 (1999)
- Dynamit Vol. 16 (1999)
- Nuclear Blast Soundcheck Series, Vol. 18 (1999)
- A Tribute to the Scorpions (2000)
- Death Is Just the Beginning, Vol. 6 (2000)
- New York's Hardest, Vol. 3 (2001)
- Death Is Just the Beginning, Vol. 7 (2002)
Videos
| Year | Title] | Label |
| 1992 | S.O.D. Live At Budokan (VHS) | Megaforce Entertainment |
| January 23, 2001 | Kill Yourself: The Movie Kill Yourself: The Movie Kill Yourself: The Movie; the bulk of the footage on this DVD was shot during the S.O.D. promotional tour for Bigger Than The Devil in Japan and America, interspersed with footage from various events, such as some 1999 shots from the Dynamo Open Air in the Netherlands... (DVD or VHS) |
Nuclear Blast Records |
| September 25, 2001 | Speak English or Live (DVD) | Nuclear Blast Records |
| July 26, 2005 | 20 Years of Dysfunction 20 Years of Dysfunction 20 Years Of Dysfunction is a DVD/CD released in 2005 by crossover thrash band Stormtroopers Of Death. Mainly created by singer Billy Milano, the material for the 2-disc DVD/CD is mostly culled from fan-shot amateur footage... |
Nuclear Blast Records |
External links
- Official S.O.D. Website (no longer maintained, last updated in 2005)
- Billy Milano Official Website (under construction)
- The official S.O.D. & M.O.D. fansite