D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L
By: Gregory Makarian
While in London, you spend a lot of time on the tube and while on the tube you spend a lot of time on your phone. I was on the way to see my cousin, and was listening to music when Spotify recommended a song called ‘death metal’ by an artist named Panchiko.
Despite its title, the song didn’t sound like death metal at all; instead its a dreamy ballad with soothing vocals, singing of a long lost lover. The lyrics caught my ear.
“‘Cause you’re holding onto someone who’s special
Educating someone who’s mental Giving the fat pigs their facial We all listen to death metal [Bridge: OWAIN] Let it go Let it go Let it go Let it go”
While the music caught my ear, the album art caught my eye, I recognized the face of an anime girl in peril ripped out of a manga panel, felt like a touchstone of a culture I knew, and so began my fascination with Panchiko.
The track “Stabilizers for Big Boys” instantly captivated me with its grungy guitar riffs and the rhythm of metallic, clanking drums, reminiscent of a washing machine cascading down a staircase. I continued to listen, thoroughly drawn in by the sound.
And while I wasn’t quite sure what I was hearing, i knew I had to find out more about this mysterious anime girl indie band.
Next, came the song Laputa, which began with what sounds like an old lullaby, then opened up into chords,
“Laputa was all we knew, and How we got there, how we flew up Heaven’s doors are miles away ‘Cause you’re stuck to the ground, you have to stay [Bridge: OWAIN] The robots died in a flash The robots died off at last”
In reference to Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, the first animated film released under Studio Ghibili. The story follows a mysterious girl named Sheeta and a boy named Pozu as they are guided by a magical crystal amulet on a journey to find a legend, the castle in the sky named Laputa.
In these words of longing, the singer yearns for Laputa as much as the characters in the story. I imagine him seeing Castle in the Sky for the first time in 1986 somewhere in Nottingham England, his childhood imagination running wild with tales of Laputa, a land of magic and wonder that exists just out of reach from the world. The motif of a fantasy realm parallel to our own is relatable to an entire generation raised on late night TV cartoons. It’s fitting then that deathmetal was conceived of by 4 teenagers in 1999.
The 4 track EP was recorded in a basement by 4 teenagers in Nottingham England. And for 17 years, that’s where it stayed. That was until 21 July 2016, when a user on 4chan posted a copy of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L; The album was unknown, but the tracks intrigued listeners who wanted to know more. Unbeknownst to the former members, Panchiko gained a small cult following determined to find out whether the CD was an elaborate hoax or the real deal. Much of the search and lack of information was due to the members not putting their last names on the back of the album.
Since their discovery and reunion, Panchiko has recorded 3 studio albums including a remaster of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L (Remastered and reissued) complete with B sides and disc rot versions of the original tracks. The band, now in their late 40s, are playing sold out shows on a world tour, their lvies changed forever by a stroke of luck, only it wasn’t luck - it was curiosity, a taste for the unknown, shared with the world.
Mateo and I went to a recent show in Ft. Worth and we spoke with several fans after the show,
“They just make me float, honestly”
recounted one fan,
“You can hear the soul in it”
remarked another.
While filming interviews, we happened to run into Shaun who was packing some of the gear. I asked him if he imagined this would have been his life.
“Those dreams had gone long, long ago…we had normal lives and stuff…every day it feels weird to be living this life.”
“Its a very strange thing to happen, but we’re really grateful.”
Their story is a modern artifact of internet culture meshing the internet with IRL in a permeable sense, illuminating the thin veil between fantasy and reality, it seems Laputa was never that far away after all.