All-around Breakdown: Chesty Malone & The Slice 'em Ups Breakdown 2011's Torture Rock Ahead of First-ever Vinyl LP Re-issue (1332 Records)
Brooklyn's own Chesty Malone & The Slice 'em Ups are re-issuing their second album (originally released in 2011) on vinyl for the first time. Boise, Idaho's most evil record label, 1332 Records, is releasing Torture Rock on red/white and red/black splatter vinyl, along with classic black. The album, recorded back in the Fall of 2009 at Queens, New York studio Wild Arctic by engineer Shawn Kimon, also, features maniac drummer Angel Cotte (Demolition Hammer) who said recording Torture Rock was "the best experience of my life!!!" When it came out in 2011, it was only on CD and streaming, so the band is pretty excited about this release. "Torture Rock is finally coming out on vinyl, just like the devil intended!" singer Jaqueline Blownaparte said.
The album's artwork was faithfully re-created from the original elements of the CD release by artist Anthony Allen Begnal. "Since that album was sized for a CD cover originally, it was obviously way too small, so I had to go searching in all my various flash drives to find the original pieces that I used for the artwork back then. I still have the painting I did and the cover photos, etc., then, I reached out to old friend and [photographer] Holly [Neal] to get some band pics she took right around when the album was recorded. It took some doing doing, but I think it came out great; slightly different from the CD, but, also, completely faithful to the time that the record was recorded," Allen Begnal explained. The Slice 'em Ups' second album saw the band expanding on the old school American Hardcore Horror vibe of their first album.
Guitar mangler Anthony Allen Van Hoek said, "our first one (Now We're Gonna See What Disaster Really Means!) was a total Hardcore record at heart and with Torture Rock we had the perfect drummer in Angel Cotte to add a lot of our Crossover & Thrash Metal influences, too. We poured everything we had at the time into that album!" Blownaparte, also, added, "as [Danzig II:] Lucifuge was to Danzig, Torture Rock is to Chesty Malone & The Slice 'em Ups. It slaughtered us all who listened to it unlike any thrasher has done before. Available [to pre-order] for the first time on vinyl; do yourself a favor and grab this iconic Horror Hardcore masterpiece and soak yourself in its bloody embrace!" Chesty Malone's own Jaqueline Blownaparte & Anthony Allen Van Hoek were kind enough to provide us with a bloody, gory track-by-track breakdown about the making-of Torture Rock's 15 blood-curdling tracks exclusively for The Witzard
Anthony Allen Van Hoek: I remember I just wanted to write some kinda simple heavy [instrumental] thing and we decided to cut it into two to bookend the album. So, we got ["En Sanguine"] and ["Ex Sanguine"]. We, also, brought in some friends to moan and "whoa" over it.
Jaqueline Blownaparte: Yup, what he said. Only track(s) I don't sing on!
Van Hoek: Me & Jackie [Jaqueline Blownaparte] were driving home from Manhattan to Staten Island in murderous traffic and I saw a bumper sticker that said "PROTECT THE UNBORN" and I said, "f**k that, there's way too many of us as it is!" and jotted down "PROTEST The Unborn" instead. Sort of a Discharge-y number.
Blownaparte: I still think we should have made bumper stickers of it when the album came out, haha! Lyrically, it was a combination of "this city is so f***ing crowded; give me some room to breathe" and "man, stupid people really need to stop breeding." That would give us some room considering the amount of them doing it.
Van Hoek: Sort of an ode to caveman life and, also, a tribute to classic American Hardcore ("... going back to the CORE...".)
Blownaparte: Yeah, like, send me back in time. Any time other [than] now.
Van Hoek: A classic thrasher that's written about a mini-Midwest weekend tour we did right before we wrote this album. Title is borrowed from "Lonesome, On'ry, and Mean" by Waylon Jennings. I worked at a biker bar in Manhattan at the time and I'd always get ideas from my surroundings (that song was in high rotation on the jukebox.)
Blownaparte: The "Strange Noises Echo In The Night" was our beloved bass player at the time, Üruk Brutal, having explosive diarrhea. And, yeah, other nods to that adventure.
Van Hoek: For some reason, I don't remember a lot about the origins of this one. It's one of my favorites, though. Just a classic "bash you in your skull" kind of jam. Oh, and Metallica stole the opening riff for their new song ("Lux Æterna!" (seriously, compare and contrast.))
Blownaparte: It's definitely intended to "bash in your f***ing skull!" My idea was everyone just sits on their a$$es watching TV all day—not quite watching their phones all day because that wasn't a thing yet—and just stop poisoning your mind with all this filth they ram in your brain and make you rot. You're a filtheater just taking it all in.
Van Hoek: It's a eulogy for New York City. We'll always love ya, though. Lots of "whoa's" in this one.
Blownaparte: Yeah, it's a "what the f**k happened to our city? Why did you let this happen?" song.
Van Hoek: Who doesn't love f***ing and killing? Our friend, Rob Daly, kind of hummed the verse riff to me and we took it from there.
Blownaparte: Duh, my hobbies.
Van Hoek: I decided I wanted to get really radical and start the song with the chorus (wow!) and Üruk [Brutal] decided what it really needed was a Lounge mosh part in the middle. Drink it!
Blownaparte: Yeah, a classic "f**k off and die" kinda song with a [The] Cramps go Lounge part in the middle.
Van Hoek: An ode to blood, plain and simple. There's f***ing blood EVERYwhere!
Blownaparte: Blood is life.
Van Hoek: I'm going to reveal publicly for the first time ever that what I was trying to do here is... re-write The King of The Hill theme music. Not sure if I succeeded.
Blownaparte: It's true!
Van Hoek: A ripper of a minute and a half Hardcore basher. The feedback at the end is longer than the actual song.
Blownaparte: Hardcore, man. F***ing Hardcore.
Van Hoek: The mosh part to end all mosh parts, courtesy of Üruk Brutal.
Blownaparte: The tale of being trapped in a cannibal town; no escaping, just torture.
Van Hoek: "Exit 13" was, literally, our exit off The Staten Island Expressway and we got the best cut of the meat!
Blownaparte: It's about Staten Island.
Van Hoek: Title is, of course, borrowed from the classic Horror flick, The Night Evelyn Came Out of The Grave. Another one with a hefty amount of "whoa's."
Blownaparte: It's my "you can never stop me... I'm never going away... I will always f***ing get you" anthem.
Van Hoek: Which brings us to aforementioned "end-tro" bookend. If push comes to shove, I think I'd have to say Torture Rock is my favorite album of ours. I love 'em all, of course, but, yeah. So, I'm extra stoked about this finally coming out on vinyl, like it was meant to be! Our first one (Now We're Gonna See What Disaster Really Means!) was a total Hardcore record at heart and with Torture Rock, we had the perfect drummer in Angel Cotte to add a lot of our Crossover & Thrash Metal influences, too. We poured everything we had at the time into that album!
Blownaparte: Definitely, Torture Rock is a masterpiece and probably my favorite line-up of the band. Play it loud!!!
