The Metal Files

I remember it like it was yesterday (it was 1986).  I went over to a former friend from high school’s house and he said, “Dude, check this out.”  It was Sweet Pain’s self-titled debut record and he put it on.  Before hearing it and just looking at the album cover I was in hysterics.  Were these guys for real?  Let me state right now that I was never a fan of the glam/sleaze rock and metal minus a few rare exceptions.  The album started and we were rolling.  It was awful.  So awful that we spun it all the time.  Made fun of it every chance we got. Kelly Nickels of LA Guns/Faster Pussycat was in this band.

Looking at the back of the album I saw that they were on Combat Records.  COMBAT?  Really?  How in the hell did that happen?  What the hell were these spandex chumps with teased up hair doing on this awesome metal label?  Whatever.  They were the running joke with me and some of my teenage metal pals for years.

Oddly enough I found this on vinyl some years ago and had to have, purely for nostalgia’s sake.  For as many times as we listened to it, I could still recite almost the whole damned thing to this day when I hear it.  A few years back a friend of mine made a CD of the vinyl for me and I still get reminded of that feeling of hanging out when we were just stupid teenagers.  They were great times.

About 6 or 7 years ago through the advent of Myspace, I met a dude online named Scarlet Rowe who was in a band from New York City called Joker Five Speed.  I dug his band a lot and got to hang out with him a little when they played a show in Portsmouth, VA.  They kicked ass even though there were only about 20 people there.  About a year or so ago I was browsing some of his photos and saw a promo photo of Sweet Pain with him in the picture.  Looking at my vinyl I saw that he wasn’t on it and started asking him some questions about his involvement with the band.  He wrote and played on it but was not credited nor in the final photo.  Pity.  Seems like it was a torrid split from the band.  Scarlet’s still rocking though and is a king amongst men.  100% good dude.

If you liked the NYC and Hollywood glam stuff, you’ll likely dig this a lot.  As I said, it was never my thing but it does bring me a great amount of joy when I hear them now.

Download from here.

Sweet Pain w/Scarlet.