Deiphago Satan Alpha Omega

Deiphago ‘Satan Alpha Omega’ (Hell’s Headbangers, 2012)

Sometimes when I consider the lustrous packaging that seems to come with every Hell’s Headbangers’ release I ask myself how it’s possible for an underground label to keep putting out such expensive looking products. Then I realise that it’s because mugs like me are poised over the Paypal purchase button like one of Pavlov’s dogs as soon as the whisper of a ‘Die Hard’ limited edition is heard.

This lush package was limited to 111 copies and features a fetching picture disc of three Filipinos of indeterminable age, fully laden with chains, spikes and bandoliers posing in front of an effigy of their sworn enemy. If ever you needed evidence of the Ross Bay Cult’s influence on extreme music across the globe you need look no further. As you may remember, I find this stuff both hilarious and totally amazing.

Record nerds moan about picture discs and how the sound quality is poor, blah, blah. Yes, there is quite a bit of surface noise before each side launches its face ripping assault, but as soon as the indecipherable cacophony starts you actually crave the peace of that weird almost inaudible whoop.

This type of ‘bestial’ black metal often owes a lot more to the raging beef of death metal and Deiphago acknowledge this with a cruelly blasting cover of Deicide’s ‘Crucifixation’. Deiphago also recognise the debt their brand of sonic barbarity owes to the chaos punk sound of 1982/83 which they pay homage to on their split ‘Excharge’ 7” with Nuclear Hammer.

‘Satan Alpha Omega’ is quite a chore to get through as it’s really, really punishing. It doesn’t stop for breath and when it does, on the title track, the result is dissonant and dizzying before a hideous blitzkrieg is released.

I much prefer their debut LP ‘Filipino Antichrist’ which has one of the best titles ever. Fray and I spotted a German chap wearing a Deiphago hooded top when we went to Party San and every time we saw him over the weekend one of us would scream ‘Filipino Antichrist!’ at him. As you can imagine he was delighted to constantly receive our adulation. Ah, the japes!

Peace