#steamhammer

Type O Negative play the Tennessee Theatre with Motley Crue in Knoxville, TN (1994)

Type O Negative play the With Full Force Festival in Zwickau, Germany (1997)

Type O Negative play the Forestglade Festival in Wiesen, Austria (2003)

Steam Hammer

The steam hammer was developed in 1839 by the Scotsman James Nasmyth (also spelt Naysmyth, 1808-1890). Coming in a wide range of dimensions, the steam-powered machine was used to forge and shape very large pieces of metal for industrial use. Nasmyth made a fortune from an invention which became crucial to the larger engineering projects of the Industrial Revolution.

Killing Floor: Killing Floor (1969)

One of my favorite areas of musical discovery in recent years has been the ever-so-exciting British blues scene of the late '60s and early '70s, so I was positively chuffed to discover this 55-year-old LP by South London savages Killing Floor.

Just look at all that unruly hair!

Starting in 1968, Bill Thorndycraft (vocals/harmonica) and Mick Clarke (lead guitar) played in a blues band called The Loop, but by the following year they had decided to make a fresh start with pianist Lou Martin, bassist Stuart McDonald, and drummer Bazz Smith.

Taking their name from the Chicago blues standard made famous by Howlin' Wolf, Killing Floor found an enthusiastic patron in London DJ, John Edward, who offered to manage them and helped secure a deal with music publisher Bob Kingston's Spark Records.

The band's self-titled debut was recorded in less than two weeks at Pye Studios, and their moniker was most certainly reflected in the frantic acts of raw violence like "Come Home Baby," "Forget It," and an instrument-wrecking interlude named simply "Wet."

Clarke, in particular, wielded his axe like a wild man, pushing his band mates dangerously close to hard rock on "People Change Your Mind" and "Nobody By My Side" (where sinister riff hypnosis verges on doom); but the fabulously named Thorndycraft was no slouch on harmonica, either, wailing his lungs out from front to back.

Mind you: though credited to the band, these songs were basically energized re-interpretations of the American blues masters' works, but then, this was also true of better-known Brit-Blues ensembles like Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, etc.

Indeed, this LP's only "official" cover was similarly rough-and-tumble take on of Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters' "You Need Love," which got worked over by so many bands around this time (The Small Faces, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, etc.), you'd think it was done by order of Her Fucking Majesty the Queen!

And after the album's release, Killing Floor got to work!

They opened for fellow Brits Jethro Tull, Chicken Shack, Ten Years After, The Herd, and, at London's Marquee Club, The Nice and Yes, but they also embarked on U.K. tours backing up American blues greats like Freddie King and Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup.

Killing Floor returned to the studio in 1970 and emerged with the crassly named sophomore LP, Out of Uranus, and poor sales soon led to line-up instability and short-term replacements recruited from Juicy Lucy and Fuzzy Duck -- both REAL band names, by the way!

But by 1972, Killing Floor were no more, as the gifted Martin signed up for a long stint with Rory Gallagher, McDonald briefly joined Paul Rodgers' ill-fated Peace project, and the others pursued less successful endeavors before surprisingly reuniting in 2002.

p.s. -- This LP was issued with several different covers and, in Germany, it was renamed Original Killing Floor, but I'm partial to this pressing's blood-red, jail cell scenario, even if it's not exactly on point by definition.