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Onslaught - Power From Hell is in some ways pretty advanced for 1985. This is the foundation that a lot of later Crust Metal and Death Metal were built upon. Released on Pusmort/Children of the Revolution originally, Power From Hell takes  a relatively extreme crossover style up for its time. There’s a good deal of COC, Discharge, and GBH in the mix here, but with heavy doses of Venom, early Slayer, Bathory, and Sodom. Onslaught were a UK band, and their influence on subsequent groups from the country, like Bolt Thrower, Hell Bastard, and Axegrinder is plainly evident, although the lyrical content, which is mainly of the demons/Satan/evil/Hell variety is totally different. I guess the main thing is that Onslaught were a little more ragged than your average Deathrash band of the day. Harder vocals, more chugging mosh riffs, and still a discernible musical connection to punk.

Of course a big reason this was snatched up by punk rockers is that it was on a punk label and had the Pushead endorsement which might have been a little more worthwhile before he was doing Cocobat CDs and weird action figures. I’d imagine for some people who picked this up, it was the first time they heard real down and dirty underground metal, and thus served as an adequate point of entry. Actually it’s worth mentioning that a lot of songs just rip off Venom and then add some chugging skank riffs to pad things out. Take for instance “DEATH METAL” not to be confused with Possessed’s song of the same name, and having very little in common sonically with the genre that subsequently took the same name. This one is basically a retread of Venom’s “Black Metal” (also very unlike what we call Black Metal now), right down to the the speed-rockin’ verse, and the ascending chorus with the repeated shouting of the song title. The reality of it is that early Venom really is only a degree or two off the first couple GBH lps anyway, which really must have primed this for punk consumption.

As you may have noticed this is a pressing on green vinyl out of an unknown number (probably a few hundred) and that combined with the Pushead label makes it fairly desirable.

…oh and 1 day left on these: http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZtrem_two