Acid - ST (1982)

I don’t know much about Acid. The band, I mean. They were from Belgium, which was pretty novel, and they had a Leather Tuscadaro type named Kate on vocals. I remember she looked kinda like Kim from Girlschool, and that the rest of the band looked like Viking bikers from a Monty Python skit. Significantly, the rest of ‘em were named Anvil (drums!), T-Bone (bass),Dizzy Lizzy, and Demon (guitars). They formed in 1980 as Precious Page, changed their name to Acid after, I dunno, taking a lot of acid, and quickly rose to prominence in Euro-metal circles thanks to their Satan worshippin’ lyrics and tough, head-busting, motor-metal sound. The band only lasted about 5 years, but they managed to play with every major metal band of the day, from Venom to Motorhead to Manowar, and along the way they released three albums full of biker scorch that still sounds as sexy and tough and evil as it did 20 years ago.

The band dissolved for reasons unknown around 1986. They were supposed to reunite for some Euro-metalfest in the early 90’s, but it never came together. It would be interesting to find out what became of Kate and her hairy, scary, devil-dudes, but that would probably involve talking, at length, to aging ‘true metal’ freaks, and that kind of abuse is just not in my contract. So, much like we do with Bettie Page, let’s pretend they never got old or went soft.

All three albums are well worth hunting down, although they will cost you, like most Satanic drug things do. There’s CD versions of all three out there somewhere, but I think they’re just ripped from vinyl copies, and the OG wax is going for, like, $20 and more a pop. But hey, they last longer than actual acid, so why not?

Oh yeah, Acid’s last record was called “Engine Beast”, and whenever anybody tells me that they’re forming a new band and need a cool name, I always say “Engine Beast”. Nobody ever takes me up on it, but seriously, that would be an awesome band name. I would TOTALLY go to see a band called Engine Beast.

Oh, and Acid were black metal way before the corpespaint kids. In fact, Kate's probably some corpespaint kid's mother.

Here’s two tracks from their first, self-titled album, chosen for the demonic-ness. If you listen to them backwards, your head will explode.

- Ken McIntyre