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Desperados: The dawn of dying

13/08/09 || Habakuk

March 6th, 2000. The town of Heidelberg amidst the desolate German plains of Baden-Württemberg, Wild West-Germany. An Ennio Morricone song is playing. Followed by a cloud of dust, a black VW campervan with mustangs airbrushed to the sides appears from the nearby Autobahn leading to the Sodom Mines. Shortly before it rolls into town, its sound system shakes the ground sending a thunderous pinch harmonics guitar riff. The word spreads quickly: The Cowboys from Hell and their young gun front man are back! The inhabitants altogether run for cover and pull down the window shutters, women and children are locked up and the men hurry to grab their washed-out Pantera shirts from the bottom of their drawers hoping to be sent further down on the target list.

On the desolated main road, the camper van comes to a halt. Spitting out a hate-filled “Furrgh!”, a black coated giant gets out the driver’s seat. Great surprise among the dismayed watchers: It is no one else than the infamous… Angelripper! But what is this? He does not have his gold plated Winchester bass guitar on him? And he’s wearing a cowboy hat! What might he be up to? And who are the four guys in his posse? They have never been seen before around town… No, wait! One of them is an old partner of the Angelripper, Axel Kraft. But why does he keep on playing western-style acoustic guitar licks over the heavy southern metal riffs? All these questions come unheard as the fierce bunch pull their toy guns from their holsters and start wreaking havoc with sampled gunfight sounds. After law and order have thus been restored, the Angelripper announces – in a surprisingly heavy German accent – that “The dawn of dying” has come for this town. He and his sidekick feel victory’s in sight and sentimentally burst into a semi-ballad chock full of country bass, southern guitar and “Hey-ho!” shouts. A new hope arises amongst the citizens: Rejoice, this can’t be Pantera!

They choke on their laughter as the posse starts stomping through town with a barrage of heavily produced midtempo double-bass crushers featuring heavy guitars, catchy vocal lines that the dreaded Angelripper strains his vocal chords for like rarely heard before, thumpy bumm-bomm-bumm-bomm country bass, occasional mouth-harps and the ever-present twangy southern guitar on top of it. In their Whiskey-fueled frenzy of awesomeness, the posse heads straight for the general store and plunders the entire cheese counter reciting Wild West stories. Much to the dismay of the clerk, they don’t leave the shop without his favorite Stan Jones LP, “Ghost riders in the sky” and follow this gruesome act with a spontaneous “Yippie-ay-yeah”-heavy metal jam. After the 5 gunslingers have spent the night partying in the Oriental Saloon and drunk Axel has impressed the girls with his fake southern accent, the VW dashes out of town in the early morning hours. After dawn, the only thing reminding the town of the scourging visit is discovered by a young fellow sent out to the surrounding fields. All the cows have been branded with a mark that reads:

“DESPERADOS”.

The Angelripper and his posse however were never seen again together.

Information
Released: 2000
Label: Drakkar
Website: Desperados (/Dezperadoz) MySpace
Band
Tom Angelripper: vocals
Axel Kraft: vocals, guitars
Volker Liebig: bass
Olli Lampertsdörfer: drums
Ferdy Doernberg: piano

Tracklist
01. The Beginning
02. As a Judgement (Ennio Morricone)
03. Gomorrah of the Plains
04. The Dawn of Dying
05. My Gun and Me
06. Gone with the Wind
07. Rattlesnake Shake
08. (Ghost) Riders in the Sky
09. Devil’s Horse
10. Jumpin’ Down a Running Train
11. Dodge City
12. Desperados
13. The End
14. Oriental Saloon

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