CLAWS OF SIN site http://www.clawsofsin.tk is not bout Shock Rock as some understand it nowadays... bands like Rackets And Drapes, Deathstars, Undercover Slut, Marylin Manson, Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13 and Murderdolls don't have a place in this site.
This site is also not about Glam Rock 'cos Glam Rock is not the same as Glam Metal and has never been. Shock Rock, under which name is hidden the word Metal, goes further than Glam Metal. It is not only Glam Metal.
Let me explain a little bit deeper which are the differences, in our opinion, between the two genres: Glam Rock is a style of rock music popularised in the 1970s, and was mostly a British phenomenon. It was distinguished by the costumes and stage acts of the performers rather than any particular aspect of their music. The emphasis was on superficiality and an unabashed embracing of fame and wealth, a statement of sorts against such acts as Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes and Genesis, whose music was often referred to by critics as Art Rock.
Male glam performers often dressed androgynously in make up and glittery, outrageous costumes, not dissimilar to the kind of thing Liberace or Elvis Presley wore when performing in cabaret. The most famous example is David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust phase. Sexual ambiguity became a game; Bowie told the press he was gay simply for the publicity, while the late Jobraith is thought really to have been rock's first openly gay star.
Although credit for starting the trend in Britain is often given to Gary Glitter and his band, it was probably Roxy Music, headed by former art teacher Bryan Ferry who led the field, though they avoided the excesses of many of their imitators. Ferry's brainwave was to give his young audience an excuse to dress up for concerts; as he put it, "It would be like a night at the opera for them." Other bands/acts who might be considered part of the Glam Rock Scene include: Abba, Alvin Stardust, Bay City Rollers, David Bowie, David Essex, Steve Harley and thingyney Rebel, Jobraith, Elton John, LaBelle, Mott the Hoople, Mud, The New York Dolls, Klaus Nomi, Suzi Quatro, Queen, Lou Reed, The Rubettes, Slade, The Sweet, T. Rex, Wizzard, etc.
Glam Metal is another thing... a very different thing. Some might say it all started with M?tley Cr?e's "Too Fast For Love" (1982) in the States and I even might agree 'cos I have selected this and their second album to show the early years of the Shock Rock School... Some other consider it a type of heavy metal music that arose in the mid/late 1970s in the United States and was a strong force in popular music throughout most of the 1980s. I don't agree... Kiss or Alice Cooper were not Glam Metal in my opinion... "They said Glam died a slow death in the 70's, but this is a reincarnation of Glam, it's called "Glam Metal" and it goes something like this... (Rocky Shades - Mascara Massacre Demo - 1982) That's it! That's the first time the expression "Glam Metal" was used and this was the beginning, this was in England too and Wrathchild the owners of this term. And Wrathchild came from the legacy of Black Sabbath meets Gary Glitter. This term has been often used derisively, due to the perception that most hair metal bands watered down a combination of metal and glam rock, and were known more for their flashy make-up, clothing, lyrics and stage shows than their music, which tended to be anthemic pop-metal mixed with the occasional power ballad, and which took much of its musical inspiration, in the States, from the harder progressive rock bands of the 1970s like Kansas, Boston, and Foreigner. In Europe the things were not going in this direction... In Europe the sources were others...
Let'z go to Denmark, where really started all, where way back to 1980 a specially talented Danish musician called Jens Leonhard Arnstedt, who simply as "Jenz", revamped, as bass player, singer and writer of most of the songs an early Danish punk act into a new NWOHM meets Punk band called Brats, whose album "1980" (recently re-released in 2000 by Diamond Records to accomodate the fans) offered some of the best creative and most influential moments ever in the whole history of metal rock music, was the one which later, this time as Yenz Cheyenne, joined the Swedish band formed in Gothenburg but later moved to Copenhaguen and which meant the culmination in mastery of all the elements which Bestial Cock Shock Metal Rock is made of. I am talking about Geisha, the band, and Phantasmagoria, the album, which in 1987 set a before and an after to the history of metal music. This site is inspired in this band and their album and wants to be somehow a tribute site to them and specially to the memory of the great Yenz and The Sleazy S&M Youth Brotherhood CLAWS OF SIN wants to be a revamping of that glorius Geisha Brotherhood based in Copenhagen which worked hard to spread the message around the world in the late 80's. Shame that cult band only released that only album and then disbanded. Although later in 1992 Yenz Voigt Cheyenne showed again his mastery in writing music and lyrics in an another Sleazy masterpiece called "Rawchild", this time under the band name =Y=, the Bestial Cock Shock Metal Rock feeling was gone and he had already lost somehow the right direction and the project was soon condemned to disband in a world lead by the grunge movement. He sadly ended up touring Germany for years with a The Sweet cover band he formed and more recently has been seen playing in the "Too" tour of band Kingdom Come while living and working as a producer in Holland at the same time. Nowadays, since December 2003, he plays bass and co-writes songs in a German Power Metal band called Iron Savior. So, with all this in mind, The Sleazy S&M Brotherhood CLAWS OF SIN has selected for you some scenes from the underworld classified in chapters according to the titles of the songs in Geisha's album Phantasmagoria. Among those scenes you will find some of the best moments of the golden era of Bestial Cock Shock Metal Rock provided by bands as M?tley Cr?e, Wrathchild, W.A.S.P., Tarot, Teeze, Slutt, EZO, Celtic Frost, Roxx Gang, WWIII and others.
It is a shame that there have been derogatory terms for Glam Metal style as poodle rock and also hair metal because some of those bands, mainly the ones from the American school, were also known for their distinctive, teased hair, usually long and/or bushy and large. It is also a shame that it was too much too soon already by the end of the 1980s/early 1990's, when all those hair metal bands were increasingly formulaic one-hit wonders, that in 1991, alternative rock led by Alice In Chains, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam overtook hair metal, which quickly died off or adapted their sound. Los Angeles, the city where many hair metalists originated, became replaced by Seattle, where many alternative rock bands were formed.
Years have gone by and now, in recent years, have been certain bands associated (perhaps loosely) with punk rock (the main example in Europe would be Hardcore Superstar) which have scored hits with tracks that seem to evoke the anthemic hair-metal sound. Private Line would be the main example right now in Finland.
And I also want to explain why there's not much room in this site for albumz/bandz, some of them underrated, which have meant a lot in the history of what can be called Sleazy (Sleazy Hard Rock, Sleazy Metal, Sleazy Glam-Trash-Punk? -there would be a big discussion about what is hard rock, what is metal and what is glam-trash-punk-) which, together with Glam Metal, Goth'n Roll and others, is the main style the fellow and sister website of Hellsinki Vampires (http://hellsinkivampires.tk) stands for. Well, I understand Sleazy as another bastard child of heavy metal and, in my opinion, this term defines a musical genre that, same as Glam Metal, has almost as much to do with attitude as with songs. But the difference is that the music itself is rebellious, aggressive and downright nasty but less metallic. I would locate the origin of the Sleazy Scene in Helsinki, Finland, in the early 80's, with a band called Hanoi Rocks. They started it all and, together with Johnny Thunders, The Lords Of The New Church, the gods of gods of street angsty punk rock called Smack (whose first two studio albums we initially thought to feature in this site and also their live album called "Live Desire", which we consider the best live album ever released but they finally were not included because there's already a fellow fan site of Smack mastered in part by the founder of our brotherhood himself) and the first Dogs d'Amour (which recorded their first album "The State That I Am In", recently appeared in CD format for the first time, in Helsinki, Finland) trashed the city down by playin' every two nights in all the goth smoky atmosphere clubs downtown. But soon after that Hanoi Rocks moved to England and disappeared in 1985 (although now they have also recenly reformed) after drummer Razzle died in a car crash during American tour and... It was not until "Appetite For Destruction" of Guns'N Roses in 1987 that a new L.A. Sleazy Scene was born. So, whether it was Guns'N Roses' invitation "Welcome To The Jungle", Zodiac Mindwarp claiming to be the "Tattooed Beat Messiah", or L.A. Guns wanting some "Sex Action", the attitude remained the same as they gave the general public the middle finger. Let me chose three masterpieces of Sleazy which summarize the three different directions in this style. Sadly none of these is one of Hanoi Rocks or Guns'N Roses because I really think they were not the bands which expressed better what it was all about, specially because of their lack of cold metallic feeling. So, these three masterpieces of Sleazy are 1988 L.A. GUNS S/T, 1990 THE THROBS "The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds" and 1995 THE 69 EYES "Savage Garden". In spite of their failure in meeting all the Cock Shock Metal Rock criteria, even if not because of lack of cold metallic feeling in this case, only the first has been proudly included in this site too but not second because of only two interesting songs in the album, the first called "Underground" and the second called "Come Down Sister" and the third hasn't been included only because of Hellsinki Vampires sister site already featuring it. Those two songs of The Throbs might be included in one of the upcoming volumes of CLAWS OF SIN compilation CDs though. Even if both are at the top of their game when touring on the road, abusing drugs and alcohol and having sex with daughters and wives, and apart from the facts (1) that the look and attitude also separate both the same way from other bands (Long -most jet black- hair that looks like it's been washed with used motorcycle oil, black leather jackets and tight pants, and tattoos proudly displayed from head to toe are all trademarks of a true Sleazy band) and (2) that they truly have always been the outlaws of rock 'n' roll, a big difference between Cock Shock Metal Rock bands and Sleazy bands is that while Sleazy bands are the ones which come across better live than in a studio, which always try to harness their aggression, Cock Shock Metal Rock bands are as good live than in studio.
As you can see, although all of them are appreciated, this site encompasses just some of those Sleazy bands, exactly those which are as dangerous in studio than live, those which are more metallic, those who come more from Heavy Metal but in the good sense of the word. We have our reasons for not having included Pretty Boy Floyd first album "Leather Boys With Electric Toys" for example, and otherS. So, sit back and discover who got what it takes to be a Bestial Cock Shock Metal Rock Star and get ready to take some lessons at our Shock Rock School. Sure you will reminisce about some of your old 80's Glam Metal favourites. And Beware the ones which still are alive and scratching life.
