It's not so often I see people talking about BEAST 666. Was just listening V/A Helter Skelter tape from 1986. Intense line-up consists Le Syndicat & Merzbow collaboration which combines great elements of both. Think of dominating rhythm beats and industrial structures of Le Syndicat shattered by sheer insanity of mid 80's Merz-noise. Very hectic and active feel with lots of stuff happening on many levels. Great sound. The Hanatarashi follows with 4 minutes live cut. Percussive drum noise with strong feedback. Nothing amusing here, just brutal and grim.
Null also is almost like tribal drumming combined with hard noise and distorted vocal noise. All melting into crunchy overdriven sound. Finally HijoKaidan does what they do so well. Live noise improvisation, full of guitar noise, feedback and fierce electronics, free drumming and distant high pitched screams.
Packaged in J-card with grainy anal sex photo, and one can't claim unsatisfactory experience!
Beast 666 isn't really known for having "label roster". There's merely couple solo releases, such as Masonna, Costes, GG Allin and Psychodrama. Otherwise labels sole aim seems to have been to make well curated compilations. Perhaps most people should know insane doube C-120 tape set GARBAGE SANDWICH and perhaps most of all JOURNEY INTO PAIN series. USA version, 5 cassette box-set by Statutory Tape (=RRR) has been available for decades by now. Many of the tapes are curiously curated. It rarely seems to be about theme or geography. It appears that collections were made simply as attempt to create interesting, diverse mix of stuff. While you have actual harsh noise there, like one could expect from 80's tapes, it's not like listening huge block of sound without ability to truely tell who is playing. Instead, lots of personality and character and clear changes from artist to next. There can be line-up's as diverse as Boredoms, Giancarlo Toniutti, The Sodality, Hanatarashi, Bruno Cossano, Nord and Incapacitants on same tape. Very often putting together (now widely known cult-) japanese noise bands and (now) legendary western industrial/experimental/tape-scene music. Also desing of the label was exceptionally nice.
If there would be possibility to collect on CD box-sets some of these BEAST666 compilation, they would certainly give very nice overview of those times.
