This was quite possibly the first ever example of hardcore "crossover" that I heard back in the day: my college radio metal show of choice (WERS-88.9FM's "Nasty Habits", a show that got me into soooo many classic bands) spotlighted this album as its "Nasty Album of the NIght" and I will never forget DJ Mike Jones declaring this album "BRUTAL". Lo and behold, it was and still is to this day!

We all know about how S.O.D. got together, yaddada yaddada, so let's us concentrate on the music. And what hella powerful music this is! "March Of The S.O.D." is one of the most ominous and evil-sounding instrumentals ever laid to wax with its powerful unison riffing--once it starts, you know you're in trouble! Attitude to spare, and followup, "Sergeant D and the S.O.D.", sets the tone with its extremely antisocial and violent lyrics. That's the thing about this album that pissed off so many folks, the fact that Scott Ian just LET IT ALL HANG OUT and damn the torpedoes. And so many took it far too seriously--how can you take lyrics like this seriously at all? I can't, and still laugh my ass off at them.

The micro tunes like "The Ballad of Jimi Hendrix", "Hey Gordy", and "Diamonds and Rust" are throwaways, so I disregard them, hence the points deleted. But "Milk", with its scary-ass bass intro (Lilker has the bass tone of DEATH on this album) and blast beats on the verses makes up for that along with the frantic title track (Billy Milano lets out a really irate scream of "Speak! English! Or...DIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" at the end!), and "United Forces" with its repetitive riff and blazing thrash ending. Alex Perialas' production job is excellent considering that this was bashed out in about three days, and the band is tight, with a great natural, sounding mix. Perialas really knew his stuff--Carnivore's "Retaliation" comes to mind as another good 'un he produced--Scott's guitar is like a chainsaw, with Danny's eeeevil grinding bass backing it up in spades, and the drum sound is perfect for this band's approach.

This deserves to be in any self-respecting metaller's collection for a good laugh if nothing else--and a sense of (crude, sometimes downright lowbrow)humor is required to enjoy this album to the fullest. Of course, you can always disregard the lyrics and just thrash out to the berserk mania exploding from your speakers, which works just fine for me!

Speak English Or Die

You come into this country
You can't get real jobs
Boats and boats and boats of you
Go home you fuckin' slobs
Selling hot dogs on the corner
Selling papers in the street
Pushing, pulling, digging, sweating
Where you come from must be beat

[CHORUS]
You always make us wait
You're the ones we hate
You can't communicate
Speak English Or Die

You don't know what I want
You don't know what I need
Why must I repeat myself
Can't you fuckin' read?
Nice fuckin' accents
Why can't you speak like me
What's that dots on your head,
Do you use it to see??

[CHORUS-MOSH PART-CHORUS]