Jul 20, 2020
Pact With Satan by Insanity Alert from the album Moshburger - Video by Lorenzo Fassina
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Pact With Satan by Insanity Alert from the album Moshburger - Video by Lorenzo Fassina
Holy Moses - Finished With the Dogs
1987
Holy Moses: Queen of Siam (1986)
Even though I made room for Holy Moses’ debut in Loudwire’s list of 10 Teutonic Thrash Metal Albums You Should Own, Queen of Siam’s competent, at times even outstanding songs, aren’t nearly as significant as the band’s pioneering singer, Sabina Classen.
Classen’s hoarse howls and tuneless screeches lifted the extreme metal portcullis for numerous frontwomen to pass through, years and years ahead of future beneficiaries like Karyn Crisis, Otep Shamaya, Wall of Jericho’s Candace Kucsulain, Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow and her successor Alissa White-Gluz.
You’re welcome, ladies.
As for the boys in Holy Moses -- bassist Ramon Brüsseler, drummer Herbert Dreger, and Sabina’s husband and guitarist Andy Classen -- they were no slouches, either, as evidenced by Dreger’s fluid double kick drums on “Roadcrew”) and Andy’s flammable fretwork throughout.
Queen of Siam’s songs, for their part, range from the quality thrash of “Necropolis” and “Walpurgisnight,” to the slower, almost traditional heavy metal of “Don't Mess Around with the Bitch” and “Torches of Hire” (say what?), to the title track’s frequent time changes, flailing hammer-ons, and legend-inspired lyrics, I’m guessing, by Manilla Road.
The remaining songs are less distinctive, but don’t let that dissuade you devoted thrashers from giving Queen of Siam a spin.
And if you’d like to learn more about Holy Moses’ future exploits (including their ties to a Helloween drummer and a strangely named third album), visit my All-Music Guide biography of the band.
More German Thrash & Speed Metal: Destruction’s Infernal Overkill, Exumer’s Possessed by Fire, Grave Digger’s Witch Hunter, Helloween’s Walls of Jericho, Iron Angel’s Hellish Crossfire, Kreator’s Pleasure to Kill, Paradox’s Product of Imagination, Rage’s Reign of Fear, Running Wild’s Branded and Exiled, Sodom’s Persecution Mania, Violent Force’s Malevolent Assault of Tomorrow.
Monday, February 13: Holy Moses, “Near Dark”
Long before the likes of Angela Gossow and Otep Shamaya shattered conventions about how vocals in “female-fronted metal” bands should sound, Sabina Classen terrified audiences with a guttural roar that felt much more brutal than anything Chuck Billy or Tom Araya could attempt. Indeed, her work with Holy Moses cleared the way for gender equality in metal, and Classen was (and remains) a true pioneer. But the rest of the band were no slouches: they were one of the first German bands to absorb the first strains of thrash and step it up by adding a distinctly European sense of precision. “Near Dark” opened The New Machine of Lichtenstein, the band’s third album, with aggression and technicality, highlighting the considerable chops of future Helloween drummer Uli Kusch and guitar interplay of Andy Classen and future Running Wild axeman Thilo Herrmann. But it was Sabina Classen’s agitated screeching that set the song apart, sounding every bit as extreme as any death metal frontman. But what might’ve originally come off as novelty turned out to be a vital signal of where metal would eventually venture.
Why Is David Guetta Still Alive? by Insanity Alert from the album Moshburger - Video by mugs AKA Max Raggl
Holy Moses - Queen of Siam
1986
Holy Moses - Reborn Dogs
1992
Holy Moses - Walpurgisnight
1985