Holy Terror – A Long Skank Down Memory Lane And Review Of Total Terror

Ask any encyclopedic heavy metal relic trundling through the streets who he/she would pick as the 80s Most Underrated Thrash Band and you’ll inevitably end up with a stack of votes thrown toward LA’s Holy Terror. This raises the question: If you spend enough time being considered underrated by more and more people over time, won’t you eventually become, you know, not underrated? Perhaps. But Holy Terror’s relatively brief stop under the accent lights of center stage happened so long ago, and today’s culture throws so many new bands into listeners’ ears every week that trying to get the crew their proper due thirty years later almost seems futile. A band such as this probably didn’t pull in a lot of cheddar for all their efforts in 1987/88, and the likelihood that yet another repress of two classic records will net the surviving members anything more than a week’s worth of coffee seems equally improbable.

But let’s not minimize the value of esteem. Sure, it won’t remodel the guest bathroom, but knowing that you’ve created something that’s truly revered and serves as a compelling influence for others moving forward—that’s the sort of thing that makes the heart swell during those quiet, reflective hours. Therefore, it remains vital that the great works always have a means of getting into the people’s hands, even if the amount of hands isn’t as many as we’d like them to be.

Terror and Submission [1987] and Mind Wars [1988] are both great underground works in the speed/thrash realm, and they’ve seen official (fairly limited) runs on LP, cassette and CD through approximately six different labels over three decades. This latest compilation via Dissonance Productions (also responsible for Holy Terror guitarist Mike Alvord’s latest band, Mindwars) collects everything the band has delivered, minus Dark Descent’s vinyl remaster of their 1986 demo and three live shows via 2015’s Guardians of the Netherworld: A Tribute to Keith Deen, and puts it all into one extremely affordable compact disc boxset. How necessary the collection is depends entirely on whether or not you have the first two albums and the El Revengo comp, and whether or not those copies have managed to survive extensive use over the years. There is no remastering or bonus material here; it simply takes everything the band delivered from 1987, 1988 and 2007 and puts it into a convenient pile.

However, if you’ve somehow managed to remain oblivious to the band’s work over the years, or if you’re the type who enjoys taking a walk down memory lane in a pair of beat-up, puffy high-tops…

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A Somewhat Summarized History and Account of Several Punches To the Nose

 (assembled with help from the band’s website)

1985: After getting punched in the nose by security at a show in San Pedro in support of Skeptics Apocalypse, Agent Steel guitarist Kurt “Kilfelt” Colfelt leaves the band to form Holy Terror alongside drummer Jack Schwartz, who’d recently been kicked out of Dark Angel following the release of We Have Arrived. Friends talk to friends talk to friends, which brings Mike Alvord in as a second guitarist and Floyd Flanary (ex-Thrust) in on bass. Vocalist Keith Deen eventually gets netted via an ad in a local LA rag. Boom: Holy Terror is born.

1986: As bands are wont to do, Holy Terror ships a cassette demo out to any and all ears willing to listen. Positive press develops, and unbeknownst to interested parties, Schwartz negotiates a deal with England’s Music for Nations/Under One Flag without bothering to mention it to the rest of the lads. Oops. Killfelt boots Schwartz out of the band, Schwartz refuses to leave, Schwartz’s nose gets punched. Bye-bye Jack Schwartz, hello Joe Mitchell.

1987: Terror and Submission gets engineered by a guy who knows little-to-nothing about speed/thrash and mastered by the same dude who mastered Judas Priest’s Turbo. Oops. The resulting sound is not exactly what Holy Terror was hoping to deliver. Still, it’s enough to get the band to Europe opening for D.R.I., and it’s enough to get them recognized by R/C Records/Roadracer for a Stateside reissue of the record in 1988 and a U.S. version of album number two, Mind Wars. All noses rejoice in safety.

1988: Mind Wars gets more time and attention in multiple studios, resulting in a sound more suited to what Kurt and crew had in mind. Unfortunately, Roadracer was hoping for something more in line with the “popular” thrash of the day (see Extreme Aggression: zero bass and drums punching you in the nose), so Kurt begins butting heads with the label. Luckily, no noses get punched, but cloaked insults decorate liner notes.

The band buys a bus for a U.S. tour with Kreator and D.R.I., but it ends up punting them in the nuts with endless mechanical problems. Everyone limps home carrying the GD bus on their backs.

After four successful shows opening for Motörhead in and around LA, the band lands a big European tour with Exodus and Nuclear Assault on Music For Nations’ dime. Lamentably, Keith absentmindedly states in an interview that the band’s label is Roadracer, which gets them tossed from the tour early with no way to get home. Kurt fights like hell to get the band back on the bill—like, literally fights, which includes punching the tour manager in the nose—and Mike eventually tells everyone that he’s tired of all the nose-punching and quits. Everyone else eventually makes it home after rotting in a van for a couple weeks.

1989-ish: The band decides to relocate to Seattle, but Keith and Mike don’t go, which leads to the first folding of the band.

2005: Kurt reforms the band with Joe Mitchell on drums, Jeff Matz (High On Fire) on bass, Matt Fox (Bitter End) on second guitar, and a dude named Aaron Redird on vocals.

2007: The El Revengo comp gets released. The first four tracks (five songs) are from Mind Wars, but from a September 2004 remix. The next nine tracks are Terror and Submission in its entirety. Disc 2 is a compilation of live performances, which includes a bonus DVD of the band playing live and a video for the song “Judas Reward.”

2008: Band breaks up again. No new material.

2012: At the age of 56, vocalist Keith Deen passes away from cancer. Someone please, please punch cancer in the nose.

2015: Dark Descent releases Guardians of the Netherworld: A Tribute to Keith Deen. As mentioned earlier, it compiles a vinyl remix of the band’s demo, plus some previously unreleased live material. Buy it here.

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A Somewhat In-Depth Account of North American Thrash/Speed Metal During 1987 & 1988, And Reasons Why You Should Still Care About Holy Terror in 2018

By the mid 80s, metal’s popularity had increased significantly, and those joining the ranks made an (at times) exhaustive commitment to an entire lifestyle that was highly inclusive and decidedly frowned upon by those overly spooked by its brazen embrace of taboo elements. Two things were pretty clear, though: 1) Metal fans were very serious about their commitment, and 2) they were equally as serious about spending money to nourish said commitment. Enough money that major labels got a whiff and subsequently gummed up the goddamned works by making piles of greasy longhairs believe they could actually get paid real loot to schlep around the U.S. and Europe with empty twelve-packs to crown their domes.

With increased popularity, major label intere$t and the Big Four getting treated like royalty, more and more bands fought harder and harder to get a piece of the spotlight and a chance to actually afford rent. Holy Terror probably should have been targeted for a push by someone like Atlantic or Epic based on ability alone, but by that point there were so many dogs fighting for position that getting yourself noticed must have been more challenging than a Gene Hoglan drum solo. To illustrate the point, here are 75 full-lengths from 1987 and 1988 that are just speed/thrash-related, just from North America, and in direct competition with Holy Terror:

1987:
The Accüsed – More Fun than an Open Casket Funeral! (Combat)
Agent Steel – Unstoppable Force (Combat)
Anthrax – Among the Living (Island)
Blessed Death – Destined for Extinction (Roadracer)
Blood Feast – Kill for Pleasure (New Renaissance)
Carnivore – Retaliation (Roadrunner)
Cryptic Slaughter – Money Talks (Metal Blade)
D.R.I. – Crossover (Metal Blade)
DBC – Dead Brain Cells (Combat)
Death Angel – The Ultra-Violence (Enigma)
Devastation – Violent Termination (Zombo)
Excel – Split Image (Suicidal)
E-X-E – Stricken By Might (Shatter)
Exodus – Pleasures of the Flesh (Combat)
Hades – Resisting Success (Torrid)
Heathen – Breaking the Silence (Combat)
Intruder – Live to Die (Iron Works)
Infernäl Mäjesty – None Shall Defy (Roadracer)
Kublai Khan – Annihilation (New Renaissance)
Lääz Rockit – Know Your Enemy (Enigma)
Nasty Savage – Indulgence (Metal Blade)
Overkill – Taking Over (Megaforce)
Razor – Custom Killing (Fringe Product)
Sacred Reich – Ignorance (Metal Blade)
Sacrifice – Forward to Termination (Fringe Product)
Suicidal Tendencies – Join the Army (Caroline)
Testament – The Legacy (Megaforce/Atlantic)
Toxik – World Circus (Roadrunner)
Voivod – Killing Technology (Noise)
Whiplash – Ticket to Mayhem (Roadrunner)
Zoetrope – A Life of Crime (Combat)

1988:
The Accüsed – Martha Splatterhead’s Maddest Stories Ever Told (Combat)
Acrophet – Corrupt Minds (Triple X)
Anacrusis – Suffering Hour (Axis)
Anthrax – State of Euphoria (Island)
Atrophy – Socialized Hate (Roadrunner)
Blind Illusion – The Sane Asylum (Combat)
Crumbsuckers – B.O.M.B. (Combat)
Cryptic Slaughter – Stream of Consciousness (Death/Metal Blade)
Deadly Blessing – Ascend from the Cauldron (New Renaissance)
Death Angel – Frolic Through the Park (Enigma)
D.R.I. – 4 of a Kind (Metal Blade)
Dr. Know – Wreckage in Flesh (Death/Metal Blade)
Flotsam & Jetsam – No Place for Disgrace (Elektra)
Forbidden – Forbidden Evil (Combat)
Gothic Slam – Killer Instinct (Torrid)
Hades – If at First You Don’t Succeed (Torrid)
Hallows Eve – Monument (Metal Blade)
Helstar – A Distant Thunder (Metal Blade)
Heretic – Breaking Point (Metal Blade)
Incubus – Serpent Temptation (Brutal)
Leeway – Born to Expire (Profile)
Meliah Rage – Kill to Survive (Epic)
Metallica – …And Justice for All (Elektra)
Morbid Saint – Spectrum of Death (Avanzada Metálica)
Nasty Savage – Abstract Reality (Metal Blade)
Nuclear Assault – Survive (I.R.S.)
NumSkull – Ritually Abused (Medusa)
Overkill – Under the Influence (Megaforce)
Prong – Force Fed (Spigot)
Razor – Violent Restitution (Steamhammer)
Realm – Endless War (R/C)
Rigor Mortis – Rigor Mortis (Capitol)
Sadus – Illusions/Chemical Exposure (Sadus)
Sanctuary – Refuge Denied (Epic)
Slayer – South of Heaven (Def Jam)
Suicidal Tendencies – How Will I Laugh Tomorrow… (Epic)
Testament – The New Order (Megaforce/Atlantic)
Vengeance – Human Sacrifice (Intense)
Viking – Do or Die (Metal Blade)
Vio-Lence – Eternal Nightmare (Mechanic)
Violent Playground – Thrashin’ Playground (Big Chief)
Voivod – Dimension Hatröss (Noise)
Wargasm – Why Play Around (Profile)
Znöwhite – Act of God (Roadracer)

Stiff competition, to say the least. But when the prize is reveling in the fact that your thrash LP is being displayed on the New Release wall right next to Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, and you have enough cash in your back pocket to buy dark beer, you’re gonna do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t have to cut that hair and “get a real job, son.”

Parsing through Holy Terror’s two offerings now decades later, it’s equally as mystifying as it is understandable as to why they never got a big break but always find a way onto “most underrated” lists. The production on Terror and Submission was terrible—the very same distortion pops at 0:52 and 0:54 on the excellent “Evil’s Rising” can still be heard on Total Terror’s version in 2018. But it still doesn’t ruin a 42-minute experience that balances darkness and light more exquisitely than any of the other 31 competitors from 1987 listed above.

Terror and Submission roars with all the wild, unbridled rawness of Dark Angel’s Darkness Descends, but it never fails to temper the edges with the sort of melody that would force Maiden tunes into your brain for days on end. In that way, its closest relative is probably Flotsam & Jetsam’s Doomsday for the Deceiver, but stormier and with the perfect pinch of punk (particularly with that emphasized bass—listen carefully to Floyd Flanary fly on “Mortal Fear”) dirtying up the edges. There’s a continual sense that the wheels are about to fly off the wagon on this record, and the production certainly extends that looseness. But then a song like “Distant Calling” lands and nails home a reminder about just how pleasant the chaos can sometimes be.

None of the bands in that list of 75 above had a guy quite like Keith Deen behind the mic. Some good’ns up there, for sure, but Deen had a way of standing out by fully blending thrash, power and bits of punk into the most intense, pure ball of natural voltage you could get without jamming David Wayne through a Pushead grinder. He sang those clean lines straight from the heart, and his roar blasted from a fiery furnace located deep inside the guts of his guts. Mind Wars was a cleaner, smoother, more melodic affair, both production-wise (thank you, Casey McMackin) and in overall approach, but it still flashed serious teeth when necessary, and Deen was a key factor in keeping the whole of the record tethered to turbulent fury. Listen to “Do Unto Others” and delight in his beautiful frenzy.

By 1989, the writing was on the wall. Thrash still managed to release bangers such as Consuming Impulse, Dreamweaver, Beneath the Remains and curveballs like Control and Resistance, but death metal and grind’s foothold was just too overpowering, thanks to massive records from Morbid Angel, Autopsy, Bolt Thrower, Obituary, Repulsion, Carcass et al putting a boot to extreme metal’s neck. A third Holy Terror record would have been tempting, but an essential piece of the puzzle would have been missing without Deen behind the mic. A thousand miles between band members is feasible in the modern age, but it killed bands in 1989.

If you had to choose one word to describe Holy Terror and the impact they had on metal in 1987 and 1988, that word would probably be ENERGY—bright, aggressive, beautiful, terrifying, uncontrollable energy. Now, thanks to Dissonance Productions, people have yet another avenue for making sure they get this perfect storm into their ears.

Holy Terror were and always will be:
Kurt “Kilfelt” Colfelt – guitars
Mike Alvord – guitars
Keith Deen – vocals
Floyd Flanary – bass
Joe Mitchell – drums

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