siLLy puPPy This Italian band from Salerno existed from 1985 until 1990 and then broke up due to the lack of interest. The band featured brothers Roberto Figliolia (drums) and Maurizio Figliolia (vocals, guitars) along with Umberto Giannini (bass.) The band probably stands out from the huge number of demo release only bands for one reason and that is that it started out as MAYHEM and then changed its name to Enslaved.

The black metal Norwegian band Mayhem formed a year prior in 1984 and once this band discovered the name was already taken it switched to Enslaved for its second demo which actually predated the more famous Norwegian band by two years and another East German band called Enslaved by one. This Mayhem / Enslaved featured the same members for its five year run but never made it past the demo stage.

As MAYHEM the trio released this one demo “Hate And Pain” in 1987. With an apparent love of Slayer along with Motorhead sloppiness, this demo featured four tracks and only clocked in at 12 minutes and 20 seconds. This is definitely demo quality production but the music showcases a talented trio with the passion and ferocity to compete with any thrash or speed metal band of the era. Like many bands this one was late to the game and both thrash metal and speed metal had evolved beyond this primitive early 80s sound.

This is really nothing special but my curiosity was peaked as i do like to check out these anomaly bands that stand out for whatever reason and in this case the fact that the band would carry not one but two monikers of two other Norwegian bands that would become black metal legends. While this has slight proto-black undertones, this is basically a no nonsense metal attack with a sound that sounds like early 80s bands like Slayer that were sort of in between speed and thrash metal.