NME

Truly a cult underground band with a checkered past, NME formed in the early eighties and released their seminal album, Unholy Death, in 1985. Shortly afterward, their career was cut short when guitarist Kurt Struebing went to jail for 8 years for the murder of his adoptive mother. Upon his release in 1994 the band resumed and recorded sporadically over the years, most recently in 2002 with Vermination, but with the untimely passing of Struebing in early 2005, the band is now done.

Unholy Death is really little more than an early Venom clone, right down to the rambling bass lines, tinny guitars, simplistic drumming, and Cronos-ish vocals. So, few marks for originality and fewer still for musicianship, but for raw appeal it actually does deliver, and it remains a cult favorite to this day as well as an undeniable future influence on the black metal scene. On the other hand, Machine Of War '95 (originally meant to be an anniversary re-recording of their 1985 demo, but it turned out quite different than that) is more a straight metal/punk album, again quite a bit on the raw side but clearly more mature than Unholy Death, with some inventive covers in the form of "Electric Funeral" and "Let There Be Rock".

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Discography

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