ECONOMIST
New Built Ghetto Status DLP

Golden Core Records, black vinyl, Sudden Darkness was an unlucky speed and thrash metal band from Germany's Rhine-Neckar region. The status of "Local Heroes" remained attached to them, as the "Fear Of Reality" LP recorded in 1988 for GAMA Records was never released, apart from 12(!) test pressings. The band split up, but bassist Guido Holzmann and drummer Neudi continued with a new singer (Axel Schott) and guitarist (Roger Dequis). Instead of letting the frustration of their career degenerate into even harder music, the new line-up, now with a "melodic singer", showed unlimited creativity, resulting not only in a name change, but also in a new style that brought together just about every aspect (at the time) of heavy metal. In 1993, the debut album "New Built Ghetto Status" was released, first on CD, then by Massacre/Intercord. On the one hand, it received rave reviews and posted four-figure sales figures, but on the other, it caused problems for the press and some metal fans. To this day, there is no band that sounds like Economist, which naturally makes it difficult to describe the style. The band itself has described its music as "psycho metal", although there is a certain closeness to Anacrusis, Damn The Machine, Voivod, Black Sabbath and other American metal bands. A second album ("Mind Movies" 1995) has remained unreleased and can be heard in its entirety for the first time on the double CD "ICEFLOWERED - THE COMPLETE WORKS" (released in 2021 by Golden Core). Today, after another 25 to 30 years of heavy metal history, the two discs are easier to understand and make more sense than many fans could or didn't see at the time. Some of Economist's musicians went on to appear in such well-known bands as Manilla Road, Roxxcalibur, Savage Grace, Century, Viron, Jameson Raid, Still Patient and Trance. Darkthrone's Fenriz praised Economist's work and called the style "the metal extravaganza of the '90s", even placing the band above predecessor Sudden Darkness. The double LP is released in gatefold and also includes a four-page printed booklet. A week before handing it over to the pressing plant, guitarist Roger Dequis discovered two sheets of slides containing an unused photo shoot for the second "Mind Movies" album. Some of these photos are now visible for the first time. On two pages, drummer Neudi tells the story of the band and goes into great detail about the songs, adding to the listening pleasure. In particular, we learn that all the sound effects are handmade - from the rhythmically shattering light bulbs to the pipes of an industrial air-conditioning system...