New Built Ghetto Status

Description

Sudden Darkness was an unlucky speed and thrash metal band from the Rhine-Neckar region in Germany. The status of “Local Heroes” stuck to them, because the LP “Fear Of Reality”, recorded in 1988 for the GAMA Records label, was never released, except for 12 (!) test pressings. The band split up, but bassist Guido Holzmann and drummer Neudi carried it on with a new singer (Axel Schott) and a new guitarist (Roger Dequis). Instead of letting the frustration of their career degenerate into even harder music, the new lineup, now featuring a “melodic singer,” showed unlimited creativity that led not only to a change of name, but also to a new style that brought together virtually all aspects of heavy metal (of the time). In 1993, the debut album “New Built Ghetto Status” was released, first as a CD, then on Massacre/Intercord. On the one hand, it received very good reviews and posted four-digit sales figures, but on the other hand, it posed problems for the press and some metal fans. To this day, there is no band that sounds like Economist, which naturally makes describing the style difficult. The band itself described its music as “psycho metal,” and one can still recognize a certain closeness to Anacrusis, Damn The Machine, Voivod, but also Black Sabbath and various American metal bands. A second album (“Mind Movies”, 1995) remained unreleased and can be heard in full for the first time on the double CD “ICEFLOWERED - THE COMPLETE WORKS” (released in 2021 on Golden Core). Today, after another 25 to 30 years of heavy metal history, the two records are easier to understand and make perfect sense, which many fans did not see or could not see at the time. Some Economist musicians later appeared in renowned bands such as Manilla Road, Roxxcalibur, SavageGrace, Century, Viron, Jameson Raid, Still Patient and Trance. Fenriz of Darkthrone praised Economist’s work and called the style “90s extravaganza metal,” even placing the band above the previous band Sudden Darkness. The double LP comes in a gatefold sleeve and also includes a printed four-page booklet. A week before handing it over to the pressing plant, guitarist Roger Dequis discovered two slide sheets containing an unused photo session for the second album “Mind Movies”. Some of these photos are now visible for the first time. Drummer Neudi tells the band’s story over two pages and goes into detail about the songs, which further enhances the listening pleasure. Among other things, we learn that all sound effects are handmade - from light bulbs breaking in rhythm to the pipes of an industrial air-conditioning system... This double LP is the ultimate tribute to a band that deserved more attention then and now.