In a recent conversation with Screamer Magazine, Dan Lilker addressed the controversial lyrics of his mid-’80s project Stormtroopers of Death (S.O.D.).
“There were some people that we did wanna piss off a little bit, but if you couldn’t tell that we were kind of being just obnoxious and provocative… People weren’t looking at the big picture,” the bassist said of the controversy they caused lyrics in the songs like ‘Speak English Or Die’ and ‘F*ck The Middle East.’
Lilker continued, “We also had a song on the record about being hung over and having no milk in the fridge. And you had to step out a little bit. And by the way, ‘F*ck The Middle East’ is still relevant. And we wrote a song about a guy in a movie with impossibly long fingers who would f*cking slice your throat off with.”
“So, sure, calling the record ‘Speak English Or Die’ — and we’re not gonna get into the cancel culture conversation, by the way. I know that [the S.O.D. album] couldn’t happen today, and we all know that. But let’s just say that we knew what we were doing. I don’t regret any of it,” the musician revealed.
He also added, “I know some people might’ve thought, ‘That’s over the line,’ but then we weren’t really like that. We were just being perhaps a tiny bit reckless, but S.O.D. was about the music. The lyrics were just kind of like — I was gonna say icing on the cake, but it’s more like salt. I don’t know.”
Besides Lilker, S.O.D included Anthrax’s Scott Ian (guitar), Charlie Benante (drums), and M.O.D.’s Billy Milano (vocals). S.O.D. were pioneers of crossover thrash, blending hardcore punk and thrash metal. Their song ‘March of the S.O.D.’ was the ‘Headbangers Ball’ intro for years.
S.O.D. was formed after Scott Ian finished recording Anthrax’s ‘Spreading the Disease.’ Inspired by his ‘Sargent D’ drawings and slogans like ‘Speak English Or Die,’ Ian created the band with Benante, Lilker, and Milano. The 30th-anniversary edition of ‘Speak English Or Die’ was released in November 2015.
