Hades Archer - Penis Metal (2008) - Phallus Satani: The anti-thesis of Amon Düül II - 30% (01/04/14)

Hades Archer is a Chilean black metal band with blistering death and especially thrash metal influences in the key of Brazilian legends Sarcofago. The band is infamous for the fact that they called both their genre and their first ambitious release “Penis Metal”. Phallic symbols are also included in the band logo. Rude and simplistic lyrics in Spanish and English underline the band’s destructive passion for misogyny, perversion and Satanism. If you were looking for silly black metal stereotypes, they are almost all included on this fifteen minute long release. At least they didn’t include artificially flavoured keyboard sounds but that’s the only thing they have missed.

Musically, the band has not much to offer. Basically, their music is just apocalyptic, fast and vulgar. The musicians or the singer don’t show off any talent. The garage production is straight and raw but it obviously fits this kind of release. The songs are very short and repetitive and no track can really stand out on here. Some people might call this being coherent, consequent and hypnotizing but I would call it being dull, exchangeable and forgettable. The most annoying thing is the way the band ends their songs because it almost always sounds exactly the same. There is a random breakdown at some point and one can still hear a distorted guitar for a few unnecessary seconds. The only track that grabs some minor attention is the cover version of Sodom’s “Equinox” but it’s only distinctive for recalling you the original track.

“Penis Metal” is as narrow-minded and stupid as its title. While sexual topics always sound a little bit stupid but can still be mildly amusing as it’s the case for Edguy, Nanowar or Steel Panther, Hades Archer are just plain limited in their silly attempt of attention-seeking provocation. The only good points of this release are that it screams for vivid circle pits if performed live, offers you fifteen minutes where you can completely switch your brains off and has an almost mantra-like hypnotic effect if you listen to it several times in a row. That’s why this release is objectively not utterly bad. A few obscure black metal or blackened thrash metal fans might actually fully enjoy this otherwise rather forgettable release. This is the musical and lyrical anti-thesis of the playful epic hippie anthem “Phallus Dei” by the weird experimental Krautrock band Amon Düül II.