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PO box is in manchester, which is about an hour away from where my parents live... might have to do some digging next time i'm up there

Capricorn wrote:I don't think this was a ripoff/sploitation label. It was started up by a guy who received a bunch of money from a car crash that left him without the use of his legs....if I recall correctly. Something like that. I think he just liked metal and wanted to do something with the money, but really had no idea what he was doing. I talked to the guy, but it was over 20 years ago!! Probably have some files on those bands around here still.

Thanx a lot for the info. I always knew there would be some interesting background story about this label, but never expected it would be such a sad one
...and Sad in more ways than one I guess, since this poor guy managed to release 3 of the worst (a strong consensous among collectors) US Metal album ever.

Stormbringer wrote:

DaN wrote: What I would really like to see is picture-proof of an original Landslyde 1st pressing of the "Manslayer" album. The ME release says it was licensed from Landslyde, but unlike the KILLER FOX(X) original LP I've never ever seen this one...

Here you go...

[/img]

Cheers Niclas! So the front cover is the same as the ME pressing then?

Ernest Thesiger wrote:

tbieri wrote:What is N° 1 and 2 ???

I think we're better off not knowing...

No we're not. Let's solve this mystery once and for all.
@Capricorn: More details are very welcomed.

this might be a stretch but here's a youtube comment on the still vid of thrash queen's "manslayer":

mattsmaxmacs
5 days ago

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!

I'm the one who produced this piece of sh*t!!!!!!!

The story is HYSTERICALLY funny, if anyone wants to hear it, let me know! Its got everything you'd ever expect in an '80s rockumentary! It makes Spinal Tap look like a legit documentary!!!!!!!

I can't wait to play this for my kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS- I was also responsible for KILLERFOXX!!!!!!!

The whole thing is so funny, you will fall off your chair!!!!!

Matt -ex of (Lanslyde Records)

naturally i shot him a message - i'll update if anything comes out of it

fuck i want to hear these stories please be legit

Check out the top comment on this YouTube vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMKiBzcBTjU

I think I need to invite this guy over here...

Someone needs to re-release this THRASH QUEEN asap. With selected slogans like the ones below it will kick into a massive promotional-campaign and sell like wildfire:

"Finally, after all these years I found something that actually sounds worse than St Anger."

"It sounds like my Washing machine decided to form a rock band."

"This is an insult to all-girl metal bands everywhere."

"HEY GUYS THIS IS TOTALLY HARDCORE!!!"

"Hell yeah. Not to mention Meanstreak, an all-female thrash band that rapes these failures with a strap-on"

"The epitome of ASS."

"There's worse music out there. NOT"

"I've heard Black Metal demo's worse than this. I'm kind of into it. But I also like Faxed Head."

"Alvin and the Chipmunks ROCK THE FUCK OUT!"

"This is so bad I think it gave me cancer."

"This was the only album I ever gave a 0% rating on Metal Archives."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE VOCALS!?!"

"This makes Bathory's first album look like a modern Andy Sneap production!"

"The most annoying riff ever..."

"Oh dear..."

stormspell wrote: "Alvin and the Chipmunks ROCK THE FUCK OUT!"

lmao

DaN wrote:Check out the top comment on this YouTube vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMKiBzcBTjU

I think I need to invite this guy over here...

Oh gawd, what is this?? It's like an assault against my eardrums, how could they release crap like this? Already heard some Killer Fox and many others in the same league but Thrash Queen manages to sound even worse. That's quite an accomplishment there.

At long last, we have the story of Thrash Queen's origin and recording of Manslayer by the producer himself, Matt Brooks.

Pasted together from the posted link in the comments section:

"I got a lot of responses asking for the story, so here it is.
Its going to be broken up because Youtube only allows 500 letters per comment.
First, yes the production is shitty. It was recorded on a "Studiomaster" 4 track cassette, and was never even mastered.
The guitars were recorded with a mic and a 4x12 cab stuffed into an old toyota and tethered to the 4 track by long cables. I don't even want to talk about the drums. Reverb was from a spring unit built from a PAIA kit.
Any delay etc. was from guitar units run in the effects loop. But... Perhaps that's part of its charm. I must have done something right for the record to endure so long!
I just reconnected with my "partner in crime" during that era, who actually still has the unmastered "masters" of this album. Maybe a cd release...
..and now- the rest of the story...
Please keep in mind that the context of the story is the early '80s with all its moral ambiguousness.
BTW, you may have to read these segments in reverse order as the new ones appear on before the old ones... Start at the bottom.
So.. here we gooooooooo....
Diane [the singer] and I were erstwhile "partners" in the early days. There were two clubs in Manchester NH- "The Place" and "The Casbah". If there was nothing going on at the end of the night, we'd end up having drinks and then, well, you know.
In hindsight I think that I missed the fact that she really liked me and just settled for...
... The whole "friends with benefits" thing. She had a subtle latent hostility towards me once the whole ThrashQueen thing got underway. I wasn't the most sensitive guy back then.
Shortly after that we parted ways when I started actually dating the drummer - Robyn Paradise (No seriously, that was her real name!) I encouraged her musical efforts and things stayed on an "even keel" for a while. Then she brought Laura Maguire, a guitar player she knew, down from Vermont.
We kind of hit it off from the get-go, and that ended part 1 of my relationship with Robyn.
Like most musicians in the '80s, I did whatever I could to avoid having a day job for too long. I was on workman's comp from a back injury I got working for an insulation company- and stayed on it well past the time I would have been ok to go back to work. I had my own band "Hunter" at that time, and like every other band, we were looking for any opportunity to get signed, or get famous.
Before I go on, I want to shortstop anyone who is becoming tempted to pass judgement on me or, for that matter, any of us who lived that era. As Dickens put it: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."
If you weren't there in Boston during the '80s you have no idea.
The Channel Club, Bunratty's, The Rat, Lipstick (Heavy Metal Night) and others are all gone now. "Nasty Habits" on WBUR radio with its signature "got nasty habits, its deadly metal!" is long gone as well.
Mike- the DJ was a friend to all of us "metalheads" and we would gather round the radio when his show was on to listen to the latest indie metal releases.
No one had a job for very long, our hair made us virtually unemployable and when we needed to find one, we'd find a friend who had one and could get us in to a place where: "they don't care about our hair!"
Apartments were dives with way more people than there were rooms, people crashed wherever, and gave what they could towards the rent.
So.. with the scene set, back to ThrashQueen.
There are so many '80s stories I could tell, so I am reluctantly resisting the temptation to go off topic. I could write a book...
Anyway, the powers that be at the workman's comp bureaucracy decided they were sick of paying me and I needed to go to "Vocational Rehabilitation".
An assignment I went to reluctantly until I figured out that they had... MONEY TO SPEND!
At that point, the cogs in my brain began churning earnestly...
Subsequent meetings unearthed the fact that State money would pay for me to start my own business. It occurred to me that if I couldn't get my music to a real record label, why not create my own?
But...
One band on a label would not fly, as it looked way too self serving. (as it was)
So...
I grabbed a couple of members of Hunter (myself included) and a couple of members of a working cover band I knew...
And Killerfoxx was born!
Two bands was still not enough though, as it would look like myself and some friends, a third was needed, and that's when the idea of "ThrashQueen" was born.
Metallica was moving to prominence, bands like Anvil, Armored Saint, Accept, and many other's were starting to get cult followings, but it occurred to my fevered brain that thrash metal was a bastion of maleness. A testosterone fest without any female counterparts. Thus, the idea for ThrashQueen was formed.
Three bands makes a record label, and Landslide Records became a reality with a $6000 grant I talked the poor woman at NH Vocational Rehab out of. The business plan I drafted must have been good because it did the trick.
The first hiccup came when we got a trademark infringement letter from a company called Landslide Records (you gotta admit, its a great name!) and had to change the name to Lanslyde Records. (Oh well)
I gathered Laura, Robyn, and Diane, and they found a bass player...
I wrote all the material for the KillerFoxx "All You Can Eat" album at the same speed of the record. I only wrote 50% of the ThrashQueen album including the title track "Manslayer". The Chorus "Die Die Die Manslayer" was out well before Metallica's "Creeping Death" which was suspiciously similar - but, as I sometimes always say... "It is what it is".
To her credit, Laura (whom I later married and then divorced within a year) insisted on writing genuine songs...
My favorite line of her's was "I've got a bottle of Pills, supposed to give me some thrills, so I don't think I can see you tonight." A classic!
She and I battled it out because she was holding up the release date, and I was getting static from the woman at NH Voc. Rehab.
In the end, everything came together.
The poor woman I talked into the grant was banished to Siberia because of the KillerFoxx album cover which depicted a man and a woman engaged in oral sex. (All you can eat)
The German company sent us a check for a few grand which we partied on for some time, wondering why they never asked for the "masters" as it were.
They must have just used the vinyl. Who knows.
The second ThrashQueen album was never released in the states because we only sold the European rights.
Given funds, I could probably give enough info to a Private Detective to find them all for a reunion, but...
Sometimes its best to leave these things alone.
Its gratifying that the music survived!"

What a scummy story! Origins of slop metal...

No shit, right? Supposedly this is just one of several examples of money-laundering labels made in the 80's.

Anybody who knows anything about what happened to any of the members or how to get a hold of that Slayer-mag interview, let me know.

the end is a bit strange...

The German company sent us a check for a few grand which we partied on for some time, wondering why they never asked for the "masters" as it were.
They must have just used the vinyl. Who knows.

The second ThrashQueen album was never released in the states because we only sold the European rights.

Given funds, I could probably give enough info to a Private Detective to find them all for a reunion, but...

Sometimes its best to leave these things alone.
Its gratifying that the music survived!"

is he trying to imply that the second thrash queen album wasnt a totally different band?

I don't think so. He mentioned that they sold the rights, and only to Europe.

What I'm wondering is how these two sleazy labels from across the world managed to strike this kind of deal and BOTH manage to create some of the trashiest metal albums ever made. Was this guy trying to make money by getting the band noticed in Europe, and so managed to contact a European metal label that just happened to also be really shitty? Who sought who out first and how?

the rights to the name i guess? i guess its kind of ridiculous that theres any issue of intellectual proprety with this nonsense to begin with...

i agree its disappointing he didn't get into details with business with ME. perhaps ME was looking for fresh content, didnt want to pay much, and licensed shit from lanslyde really cheap? thats the only thing i could think of

[quote="ThrashQueen"Fan&qu"]I don't think so. He mentioned that they sold the rights, and only to Europe.

What I'm wondering is how these two sleazy labels from across the world managed to strike this kind of deal and BOTH manage to create some of the trashiest metal albums ever made. Was this guy trying to make money by getting the band noticed in Europe, and so managed to contact a European metal label that just happened to also be really shitty? Who sought who out first and how?[/quote]
Cheers for sharing, ye Die-Hard Fan Of Thrash Queen! A mind-boggling read indeed... Lots of questions appear, like how does this story tie into Capricorn's account of "the poor invalid" just wanting to make his mark on the Metal Map?

Capricorn wrote:I don't think this was a ripoff/sploitation label. It was started up by a guy who received a bunch of money from a car crash that left him without the use of his legs....if I recall correctly. Something like that. I think he just liked metal and wanted to do something with the money, but really had no idea what he was doing. I talked to the guy, but it was over 20 years ago!! Probably have some files on those bands around here still.

...and was this Matt/HUNTER (a band almost as awful as Thrash Queen or Killer Foxx mind you..) also behind the KILLER FOX(X)-monicker? --> another fake studio project? --> the story about the band dying in a car-crash a sick inside joke? When you think about it, this actually makes sense.

...and finally, for us crazy collector scum, does the "All You Can Eat"-edition of the KILLER FOX(X) lp really exist? With feisty cocksucker-sleeve-art to top it off?!?

khiijol wrote:perhaps ME was looking for fresh content, didnt want to pay much, and licensed shit from lanslyde really cheap? thats the only thing i could think of

My bet also. From what info I've gathered through the years, ME was for the most part a tax write-off label and just needed to release ANYTHING at the lowest cost possible.