Panchiko
On July 21st, 2016, an anonymous user on 4Chan posted a picture of the album cover for D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L. The user told 4Chan that they saw the CD at a nearby thrift store and purchased it due to finding the cover to be interesting. They then asked for help in tracking down more information about the album or the band, called Panchiko. Other users expressed interest in the content of the CD, which the original poster ripped and uploaded online.
Original audio from 4Chan
Users loved the sound of the music and began looking for any info on the album or band, but none could be found. Looking up the band name or the album name brought up nothing online, the names listed on the album were only first names and pretty common names, and the cover artwork was found to be from the manga Mint na Bokura. With nothing else to find on the album or band, the search died.
In 2017 efforts were restarted due to an upload of the album on YouTube becoming popular. This effort quickly seemed like it would go nowhere once more, but that changed on January 19th, 2020. One user managed to use the barcode from the original image to find out the album was purchased from an Oxfam shop. Oxfam is a line of thrift shops only within the United Kingdom, narrowing down the origins. This was further narrowed down to the Oxfam shop located in Sherwood, Nottingham by using a code on the label. On January 21st, 2020, a user tracked down the Facebook profile of a member of the band and got in contact with them. From the member contacted, it was learned the unique sound heard on the audio was the result of disc rot and not intentional. When asked for copies of the original, they were provided along with 3 other songs not known about: "CUT," "Sodium Chloride," and "Kicking Cars."
Full album
The story of Panchiko doesn't just end here. Due to the following the group found online, the band reformed and began producing new content. They've since gotten enough popularity to embark on world tours and live out their dreams of being musicians.