The Great Kat Worship Me Or Die

When I was a kid, we didn’t have access to computers, YouTube or anything like that, so when we saw an album in a record store that looked interesting, we just had to buy it and hope for the best. Honestly, this was my entire childhood, I’ve gotten into so many artists doing this. And yes, there were some bad choices, but for the most part I liked the bulk of everything I purchased. Let’s be honest, after you’ve saved your lunch money, cut grass, raked leaves or whatever else you had to do, you’re going to find something to like about it. Or at least that’s the way I always tried to look at it.

So, in 1987, I came across The Great Kat’s “Worship Me or Die” cassette in our local record store, it was called the Record Bar – to this day it’s still the best record store I’ve ever been in, and I miss it ferociously! The cover of this tape featured a cute blonde with her mouth wide open looking wild as hell holding a guitar. I flipped the tape over and looked at the song titles – “Satan Says”, “Satan goes to Church” “Death to You” and “Worship Me or Die” were just a few of the titles. Given my yearning to have the heaviest stuff available I didn’t think twice about buying it. As soon as I got home, I put it in my tape deck and turned it up. It started out tame, but I knew this was going to Thrash Metal with some serious guitar shred. Vocally, it was lacking, but let’s be honest, most Metal of this kind doesn’t feature great vocals if you’re looking for a “songbird” vibe. The Great Kat’s vocals were more like screams or talking through gritted teeth. Musically, it was insane and at the time I wasn’t familiar with Death Metal, it wasn’t a thing in my neck of the woods, just yet. This is exactly what I considered this release to be back then, it was Death Metal with no rules, no rhyme or reason and it was performed with reckless abandon. After I finished listening, I didn’t care for the album, it was redundant, loud, obnoxious and made little sense to me at all. Sure, I could hear the talent in the guitar shredding, but musically, vocally and lyrically it was terrible. Given that I’d spent all my hard-earned money on the cassette I went back the next day and listened to it again and it got better so I continued to listen day after day until I found myself absolutely in love with the album. Why, I can’t say, it could’ve been the money I spent and not wanting to lose it, or it could’ve just been that I was a mean little bastard, because this was without a doubt one of the meanest albums I had in my collection. In 1987 W.A.S.P., Maiden, Sabbath and Judas Priest didn’t have shit on The Great Kat’s “Worship Me or Die”! It was powerful and angry – Power Violence at its finest. All of this was due to a small petite blonde female who annihilated guitar leads, screamed about herself and demanded that you “WORSHIP ME OR DIE”!

A few years later, The Great Kat released another album called “Beethoven on Speed” and that’s when it clicked, her approach to playing guitar was based out of Classical music, not only that, but I’d read that she was a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music. A musical genius and classically trained violinist virtuoso who taught herself how to play guitar in the same manner that she’d learned to play the violin. Over the years I’ve ran into a few people who know about the Great Kat, thanks to the internet. Most folks don’t care for her music but those of us do truly enjoy it. I can also thank the internet for learning about who The Great Kat really is or who she portrays herself to be – a reincarnation of Beethoven who’s obnoxious, tenacious and relentless in the pursuit of self-promotion. I’ve been afforded the chance to interview her and speak with her through e-mails and when she’s not referring to you as a Slave or demanding that you Worship her or screaming at you to wake up or some nonsensical rubbish, she’s a sincerely kind and gentle lady. I don’t have the interview anymore, I let it go with the old BAP website, but it wasn’t very good, because Kat doesn’t play along with interviews, she answers what she wants in the manner that she wants. Never once has The Great Kat broken character openly and given that she built her career on this character, she never will. I’d really like to know why she chose this path for her character. My thoughts are it could be that she was passed over and looked down at musically because she was a female. How many violin soloist do you know that play in a prestigious orchestra, not many, I’m sure. And let’s face it, sexism has run rampant for way longer than it should’ve and it was specifically terrible in the 80’s when the Great Kat was making her way onto the scene. (For that we should all be ashamed.) I’m sure that played a part and I can respect it – screw you, I’m not going to play by your rules, listen to this music, I’m better than you, you’re a peasant in my presence, now get on all fours and WORSHIP ME OR DIE! Has The Great Kat been successful, sure, but is she a household name, not at all. If you’re an old-school Metalhead with tastes you know of her and I guess at this point in her career, that’s enough.

In 2023 “Worship Me or Die” was reissued on vinyl thanks to MOV. It was a limited individually numbered pressing which is commonplace with MOV, this release only got 1,000 presses. I was fortunate enough to somehow land #216 of the press. I’d wanted this album for years on vinyl specifically with resurgence of vinyl, but the asking price of the album had always been outrageous and I just couldn’t see spending 100$ on an original press that may or may not be massacred. There are some still available via eBay, Amazon, Discogs or you could always hop over to The Great Kat’s website and purchase one from her that’s been autographed, but I think the asking price is steep. No matter what you do, don’t sleep on this album if you’re a fan of Metal, specifically if you like it HEAVY and FAST! You’ll want this on vinyl, neither the cassette nor cd does the album justice. My inner 12-year-old is smiling from ear to ear and will continue to do so every time I spin this which as of late has been often. GET READY FOR HYPER-SPEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~Black Angel