DEATHMETAL (found album from British indie rock band; 2000)
D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L is an album created by British indie rock band, Panchiko. The band recieved public attention when a 4chan user found their 2000 demo album D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L in a charity shop. The disc was mostly notable from the disc rot, lending a big cult following and extensive search into finding the band and a clean copy of the album.
Background
Panchiko was formed in 1997-1998 with the members almost nearing the end of Secondary school.[1][2] The band consisted of childhood friends, Owain Davies, Andy Wright, Shaun Ferreday, and John. The band's name is derived from a misspelling of the word "Pachinko" and that the otaku culture had an influence on the band.[3] The music was influenced by bands, Radiohead, Nirvana, The Beatles, Super Furry Animals, and more. The band performed live covers in pubs despite being underage and peformed in Battle of The Band competitions, but never won any competitions.[1][2]
The band made music in their basement and bedrooms by using cheap equipments.[4] Their first album, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L was being made in 1999-2000 and was completed in June 2000. The cover artwork is from a panel from the manga, Mint na Bokura, made by Wataru Yoshizumi from 1997-1999. Notably, The albums line notes only credits the band members first name.[5] The music has been described as emo, dream pop, shoegaze, etc.
Only 30 copies were roughly made and shared among friends, some being sent to labels and reviewers.[4] Panchiko received only one response from label, Fierce Panda, quote:
"'Death Metal', of course, is anything but death metal. Hahaha!! Lovely sweet vocals, then some wiggy wiggy stuff. Needs a bit of va-va-va-voom on the vocals front. I really like this. It would make my ears stand on end if I heard it on the radio. 'Stabilizers For Big Boys' = great. Swearing + ranting in a very familiar stylee. 'Laputa' is lovely and slow. Bugger knows what they remind me of."
Even though the label had interest, they remained unsigned.
Between 2000-2001, Panchiko made three other songs for their EP, kicking cars, which remained unreleased.[1] The band members were in college and studying music and working different part-time jobs before being disbanded and went with their own lives.
Resurgence
On July 21st, 2016, an anonymous user found a copy of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L at an charity shop and posted it onto 4chan. The user shared an image of the CD on the /mu/ board and wanted assistance into uncovering more information on the band.[6] Shortly after the post, multiple request from users asked for the user to upload an ripped copy of the album. The user complied and shared the track from the album.[6] Though, the CD had disc rot, making the audio heavily corrupted and distorted.[5][1] Many said that the album was a publicity stunt but the band already received an cult following without the band's knowledge.
Search Efforts
In 2017, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L was further popularized when the rip was uploaded on YouTube, garnering 200,000 views and renewed interest on the band.[5][7] It led to an dedicated search to finding more information. On January 19th, 2020, users took note on the bar code of the cover which led them to an Oxfam shop in Sherwood, Nottingham, leading users to search for musicians under the first names from the cover. On January 21st, 2020, a user successfully found a Facebook profile of the lead singer of Panchiko, Davies and contacted them. Davies didn't know about about the resurgence of the album and contacted Wright and Ferreday, none knowing about the band's popularity. John, the original drummer was no longer in contact and his whereabouts is unknown.[1][5]
Availability
Wright, after being contacted, tasked himself into recovering Panchiko's past works. Wright restoration efforts struggled as he didn't have access to the master copies. However, a friend of Wrights came out that they possessed the original copy, with a slightly better condition and no disc rot. Wright using this copy, remastered all four tracks of the album and released it on February 16th, 2020 with tracks from Kicking Cars, rendering it found.
Gallery
Song
Videos
External Link
Reference
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Surprising Story of Panchiko
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Andy guitarist of enigmatic Panchiko delves into the widely speculated mysteries surrounding the band
- ↑ Panchiko: The Internet's Greatest Mystery
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Panchiko D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L interview
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Panchiko: How a Mysterious Shoegaze Album Sparked an Global InterSearch
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Panchiko: The Internets Own Band
- ↑ Dismiss Yourself Label Profile