Dudër's Album Review
03.02.2026
Panchiko: D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L (2000)
While not an entirely niche album these days, the story behind Panchiko and their debut album always held me in a sort of artistic chokehold. This band's tale has probably been told over a million times in the past half-decade, but I'll give a bit of background on the subject of today's review anyhow.
Officially, Panchiko was formed sometime between 1997 and 1998 in Nottingham, England by Owain Davies, Andrew Wright, Shaun Ferreday, and a drummer named John, who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth. Each member would have been just 16 or 17 at the time of the band's formation, and nearing the end of secondary school. Starting in 1997, the band would begin to write and record song demos on cheap tape recorders, the results of which can be heard in their Ferric Oxide tracks, Formula and Untitled Demo (1997).
In 1998, the band got their hands on the Roland VS-840 audio workstation, which would have been released in May of that year. Along with some other relatively new gear, the VS-840 allowed Panchiko to produce some very lush-sounding tracks from a home studio. From that point forward, Panchiko recorded four new tracks: All They Wanted, NeilSSong, No. 8, and Stuck. Compared to their first two demos, these tracks are far cleaner, though the VS-840 had a nasty habit of cutting off frequencies above 16khz during recording. This was a major limitation of digital recording back then, but it's considered "totally cool" now.
While trying to find their audience, Panchiko regularly performed at local pubs and battle of the band competitions, though rarely received much attention or praise, if any at all. In 1999, Panchiko began work on their next demo EP, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L! The original EP consisted of four tracks: the eponymous D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L, Stabilisers For Big Boys, Laputa, and The Eyes of Ibad.
Around 30 copies of this EP were produced and sent off to friends of the band. A select few discs were also sent to labels for review, though nothing ever came from this effort. The band would continue to record three more songs for an EP called Kicking Cars between 2000 and 2001, which would go unreleased following the band's quiet breakup.
Between then and 2016, a copy of the original D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L EP would find its way to an Oxfam charity shop in Sherwood, Nottingham. There, it was picked up by an anonymous /mu/ user, who posted their findings to the 4chan board. Having been written to a cheap CD-R, the years had not been kind to the EP, and so it suffered from disc rot. With the band members only credited by their first names, it was difficult to track any of them down. The disc-rotted EP had amassed a cult following and, in 2020, a member of the search made contact with Owain over Facebook. The rest is history.
Death Metal is not Death Metal
I seem to have a pretty bad habit of rambling more about a band's mysterious origins and disappearances instead of their actual music. I wonder if I should just rename this series to "Dudër's Band Review". In any case, I'll do my best to give a review of every song in this album, no matter how disgustingly long this page becomes...
D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L
This was the first track that introduced me to the band when I discovered them in 2020. The anime girl on the album cover and its release year (2000) are what drew me in. Initially, I expected to find a niche punk or nu metal band, but I was surprised to be greeted with the lush soundscapes of an experimental rock/pop band from the late 1990s. The charm of this particular track comes from its creative use of samples.
Panchiko found their sound by chopping up samples to play with live instruments. In particular, D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L is a perfect display of how the band sampled tons of different media for their music. The song opens up with a snippet of the intro theme from the movie, Dr. Strangelove (1964). Layered in for percussion is a drum beat from Dexter Wansel's Theme From the Planets (1976).
At some point during this song's production process, one band member or another had the brilliant idea to stick their Burning Rangers disc for the Sega Saturn into their CD Player. If you have an original copy of Burning Rangers for the Sega Saturn, please, for the LOVE OF GOD do not do this.
