Stormtroopers Of Death, more commonly known as S.O.D., formed in New York in 1985. They are commonly credited as being among the first bands to fuse hardcore punk with thrash metal into a new sound dubbed crossover thrash. They have also been the victim of controversy due to their utterly politically-incorrect lyrics. However, Dan Lilker has stated, "The lyrics were never intended to be serious, just to piss people off."

Biography

After finishing his guitar tracks on the Anthrax album, Spreading the Disease, Scott Ian would draw pictures of the face of a character known as Sargent D. The pictures would be accompanied by slogans such as "I'm not racist, I hate everyone equally, so fuck you." and "Speak English or Die.", and Ian would write lyrics about this character. He decided to form a hardcore band based on Sargent D, so he recruited Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante, ex-Anthrax bassist Dan Lilker and Psychos vocalist Billy Milano.

They recorded a 63 song demo called The Crab Society North Demo and set to work on an album for Johnny Zazula's Megaforce Records. The record, titled Speak English or Die, was recorded and mixed over three days and has since been recognised as a landmark recording. They toured the record in 1985 supporting, amongst others, Motörhead and The Plasmatics. Their planned follow up, "USA For S.O.D.", never recorded (USA For MOD however was).

After the tour finished, Lilker would form Nuclear Assault, Benante and Ian carried on with Anthrax and Milano formed a spin off band, Method of Destruction, more popularly known as M.O.D. The first album of M.O.D., USA for M.O.D. featured many lyrics written by Scott Ian, as well as an altered version of "Aren't You Hungry", an unrecorded S.O.D. song from the 1985 tour.

S.O.D. would reform for a one off gig in New York City, released as the live album Live at Budokan. The record featured most of the studio album, a few songs from the demo and covers of Ministry, Nirvana and American hardcore punk band Fear.

In the mids 1990s they toured Europe, and in 1999 the second studio album was released. Bigger Than the Devil, with its hardcore metal and black humor, was welcomed by fans and the band toured again in the late '90s. Bigger Than the Devil also featured the original S.O.D. version of Aren't You Hungry

In 2001 the DVD/Video, Speak English or Live was released. It added to the original "Live at Budokan" video by including a gig from a German metal festival and footage of the band recording overdubs for live tracks recorded in Japan. These would be included on the platinum reissue of the debut, along with two new studio tracks, to celebrate sales of one million for Speak English or Die.

In 2002 the tour movie, Kill Yourself - The Movie was released on DVD/Video. Metal magazines reported in 2003 that the band was over due to disagreements between Scott Ian and Billy Milano. Benante and Ian went back to Anthrax, Milano carried on with M.O.D. and Lilker was involved with multiple other bands.

An interesting note of the band is that they release an album every seven years, and because of this, some fans are expecting a release in 2006. In 2005, Megaforce Records released a new S.O.D. live DVD, 20 Years of Dysfunction, and the label's website claims that a new S.O.D. CD "will be forthcoming in the winter of 2005". That, coupled with Heather Lilker's statement that S.O.D. are under contract by Nuclear Blast to release one more album[http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=578, it does appear that there will be a third record at some point.

Members

• Scott Ian - Guitars
• Dan Lilker - Bass
• Charlie Benante - Drums
• Billy Milano - Vocals

Discography

Albums

The single 'Seasoning the Obese' was given away for a limited time when 'Bigger than the Devil' came out

Videos

External links

• Billy Milano Official Webpage

American heavy metal musical groups | Hardcore punk groups | Thrash metal musical groups

Stormtroopers of Death | S.O.D. | Stormtroopers of Death | Stormtroopers of Death | S.O.D.