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Music of the Week – Zouo – Son of Satan

Zouo (Japanese for “hatred”) was one of the most interesting hardcore acts in Japan in the early ’80s.
They released only an EP (the final agony) in 1984, and a split before fading into nothingness. They played a very harsh hardcore, borderline with black metal, both in the music and in the lyrics (the theme of the demonic and the satanic is central in this EP) and this is very interesting: remember, at the time Hellhammer and Bathory were moving their first steps and I doubt that their material was available in Japan!
The band’s singer, Cherry (Katsunori Nishida) moved in the USA and become friend with Glenn Danzig and introduced him to Japanese comics, in particular Devilman, of which Danzig became a great fan. Cherry is also the oldest brother of Butcher, the singer of the hardcore punk act Outo.

Recently some unreleased material from Zouo has been released as “A Roar Agitating Violent Age” by the Crustwar label. Some old video bootlegs are floating around the net as well, one of them can be downloaded from archive.org.

Enough talking now…enjoy Son of Satan, the first track off “the final agony” !