TOP 10 albums that influenced "Jesus Christ pornostar"

The monolithic "Jesus Christ pornostar" suite, disclosing quite a few spicy facts that happened 2000 years ago in Holy Land, was designed from the start as a huge cauldron of musical influences, generally revolving around sonic extremism, yet at the same time extremely broad and varied in nature, sometimes even antithetical or contradictory to one another - ranging from the most rock-friendly melodic sensibilities to the cruelest forms of ear-piercing noise.

Need to find some order amidst the chaos? Very well then. Here's a gallery of 10 ALBUMS THAT INFLUENCED "JESUS CHRIST PORNOSTAR"!

Dark Angel - Time does not heal (1991)

"9 songs, 67 minutes, 246 riffs". This slogan alone, back in 2013, was enough to titillate the imagination of a 15-year old Noise Maniakk, at the time already a sucker for riff-heavy thrash metal - so that he could give birth (in his sick, poorly ventilated head, maybe due to all the messy hair) to the core idea for "Jesus Christ pornostar": a long, hyper-complex, adventurous composition, filled with sharp-as-fuck riffs and unpredictable tempo changes, telling a shocking, extreme story to the listener. I never counted all the riffs on "Jesus Christ pornostar", but I can guarantee there are a lot. I'm positively sure I have never recorded these many riffs in a single session as I did on that afternoon in Siracusa back in september 2018, when all the electric guitar parts for the suite were laid down.

Kreator - Coma of souls (1990)

One of those albums that, even more than 30 years later, still serve as a WikiHow tutorial on how to make thrash metal in a way that can still be imaginative, expressive and not creatively stale. A lesson on how far you can take the genre in its different facets, experimenting with various types of riffing in a tasteful, sophisticated manner, yet still vigorous and straight to the point, never losing sight of catchiness and conciseness.

This is an album I played a lot while writing the suite, and I can still hear the influence when listening back.

Massacra - Final holocaust (1990)

A record that takes the formula of thrash albums such as "Coma of souls" and brings it to such levels of power, wickedness and intensity verging even on death metal - yet without sacrificing the variety and dynamism of the riffing: on the contrary, only strengthening said attributes.

This album was strongly influential for the more violent, vicious moments of "Jesus Christ pornostar", along with the works of other death/thrash masters such as Merciless, Sadus and Hypnosia.

Iron Maiden - Full discography

Iron Maiden is not a phenomenon you can fully grasp and put into words: they're able to embody and transcend the essence of heavy metal all at once, and weirdly enough, without any perceived contradiction between these two things (as it usually tends to be the rule). They sure played a pivotal role in giving me the urge to create a proper musical suite, of course being inspired by their masterful track "Rime of the ancient mariner" (taken from the definitive heavy metal masterpiece "Powerslave").

While I am a notorious "noise maniakk" who worships dissonance and sonic sewage, I can't deny sometimes the Maiden melodic imprint manages to get across even through Rotgod's repertoire (and don't get me started on my melo-black side-project The Ineffable): more specifically, on "Jesus Christ pornostar", this influence manifested in the ouverture and the outro, which are definitely the song's brightest, most melodic moments. My inspiration for these sections draws from pretty much all of Maiden's discography, including their recent, more prog-tinged material (the massive "Empire of the clouds" being the best example of that), while never forgetting timeless classics of heavy metal history such as "The number of the beast".

Sepultura - Morbid visions (1986)

One of my all-time favorite examples of "old school rawness", coming from the large roster of Cogumelo Records featuring bands such as Sarcófago, Mutilator, Sextrash, Holocausto, Vulcano and Chakal.

This album has been influential for "Jesus Christ pornostar" not so much in the songwriting department, but rather in the "mood" that needed to be evoked - especially during the more openly blasphemous, "iconoclastic" sections, such as third track "Death (by orgasm)" where the death of Jesus is announced following the sacrilegious act that just took place on the cross: by that point, it's the perfect moment to unleash all the raw, depraved atmosphere from the 80's brazilian school of lo-fi proto-extreme metal, proclaiming the loss of any form of purity.

The Cavalera brothers have recently re-recorded "Morbid visions", in order to give those songs justice with "the awesome sounds of today". Man, if it ain't broken, DON'T FUCKING FIX IT.

Type O Negative - Slow, deep and hard (1991)

Insanity and genius, derangement and self-awareness, hatred and love, humor and tragedy, alcohol and psychiatric drugs. All dichotomies between words that shouldn't go well together - and yet, every once in a blue moon, these words manage to coexist, to connect together without any rational explanation, giving birth to genre-bending masterpieces such as the debut album of notorious money-making machine for Brooklyn's infamous green giant, a guy who almost got to be a "pornostar" for real.

Hardcore, thrashcore, doom, sludge, industrial, goth - all coming together in a psychotic, deranged mix, in a constant equilibrium between serious and witty, despite the heaviness and the insanity of the lyrical topics at hand. For me, personally, an enormous source of inspiration while writing "Jesus Christ pornostar", especially in its most tense and "dramatic" moments - if we're really willing to use the term "dramatic" for a suite that's basically about the Messiah having a morning wood.

Fun fact: on followup album "Bloody kisses", hit single "Christian woman" is indeed about a woman who feels a strong attraction towards the "body of Christ". What if ol' buddy Pete was telling our same story all along?

Godflesh - Streetcleaner (1989)

Well-known italian blog Metal Skunk has described Godflesh as "a bridge between metal and the rest of heavy music worth hearing". A very fitting definition, since it's only thanks to this record if, over the course of my musical growth, I've been exposed to genres such as industrial, noise and post-punk - incorporating bands such as Swans, Killing Joke, Today is the Day and Big Black within Rotgod's musical influences.

Without "Streetcleaner", many parts of "Jesus Christ pornostar" wouldn't sound the same. Specifically: the more dissonant, alienating, "psychedelic" ones.

San Culamo - I predatori dell'Arca Madonna (2001)

Cult comedy/parody project and historical piece of italian blasphemy I used to spin religiously (pun intended) back when I came up with the idea for "Jesus Christ pornostar". The verse about Mary Magdalene on the track "La combriccola del porco" must have sure left its mark on my already-compromised teenage psyche. Also worth mentioning is their very polite, well-mannered re-dubbing of "The passion of the Christ", which they released right around that same time. A cauldron of high-class inspirations!

I.C.S. - National blasphemy (2014)

An amazing hidden gem of italian retro-thrash from the past decade, which nowadays can't seemingly be found anywhere. A fun, comedic, lighthearted take on fast-paced thrash metal, filled with straightforward, ultra-catchy riffs that will get stuck in your head, warranting for repeated listens.

The album's silly artwork was enough for me to explicitly mention this band in the lyrics of "Jesus Christ pornostar", openly advertising their record: yup, just to set it straight once and for all - the phrase "resurrection from erection" was intended to be a nod to I.C.S., not to Powerwolf. Honestly, do you really expect an old school noise maniakk like me to listen to Powerwolf?

The entire "Orrore a 33 Giri" archive

And speaking of nods and homages.

www.orrorea33giri.com is a well-known italian website, dedicated to dig up and catalog the countless forgotten gems of vintage "trash" music. A meeting point for nostalgics, retro collectors and bad media freaks - but most importantly, your potential guidebook to discover the countless Easter eggs and obscure references hidden within "Jesus Christ pornostar".

Wanna have some fun at finding them? LISTEN TO THE SUITE ON ROTGOD.BANDCAMP.COM!

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