As 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of S.O.D.'s debut album, Speak English Or Die, bassist Dan Lilker recently spoke with Screamer Magazine to discuss the intentionally offensive lyrics of songs such as "Speak English Or Die" and "Fuck The Middle East". 

The complete video interview can be seen below. An excerpt has been transcribed as follows:

 "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. 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, 'Fuck The Middle East' is still relevant. And we wrote a song about a guy in a movie with impossibly long fingers who would fucking 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 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. 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."

S.O.D. began in the mid-1980s during a break in the recording of the Anthrax album, Spreading The Disease. What started out as a quick, satirical release for guitarist Scott Ian, drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Dan Lilker, and the infamous vocalist Billy Milano, turned into a seminal record that has influenced countless hardcore, metalcore and post-hardcore bands.