Wicked Things for Heavy Metal Life, by Bazillion Points publisher Ian Christe
Just for you, a photo of the spiffy Burzum shirt worn by a gay German dude getting off the subway in Brooklyn after the gay pride parade in New York last weekend. No, he had no idea who Varg Vikernes is — and yes, he assumed I was hitting on him. When Varg is out on weekend furloughs from prison in Norway, does he see this shirt in swanky boutique windows while out shopping for CDs? He was denied parole again recently, by the way.
Man does not live by blog alone, and in fact the monster project for the past six months has been getting all the pieces in place to publish SWEDISH DEATH METAL by Daniel Ekeroth in a fat, dark new edition. The cover test and page proofs arrived from the printer a couple weeks back–take a look for yourself. By the end of July, every household of ghouls around the world will be able to own a copy, suitable for endless obsessing and secondary use as a butcher’s block. More to come, in the meantime check the pulse here:
Check it out: the two heads on the right of this row of people being astonished by Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden belong to Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong. No joke. They made out throughout “Iron Maiden,” but never nude. If they thought the gossip rags would pick up on it…well, here you go!
I bought tickets yesterday on the cheap, and I’m so glad I did. Iron Maiden are unique among major rock bands in that they’ve never forgotten why they’re big. They work the same vein that paid off for them first in 1983, only now in more elaborate ways. And after seeing Van Halen and the Who multiple times in the past couple years for various reasons, Iron Maiden comes off looking and sounding much more impressive. I was proud to be part of a crowd of newly-minted 12-year-old Maiden fans and their equally proud doddering old dads. Best off-Broadway spectacular ever! And fastest costume changes on the old Bruce.
There was a weird incident — midway through “Powerslave,” the sound cut out altogether. The band shrugged their shoulders, looked at each other, and then began kicking a soccer ball around. This went on for at least ten minutes, and believe me the audience barely minded seeing this improvised spectacle. At one point, Bruce picked up a sarcophagus and used it to beat back the soccer ball. Funny stuff. When the power came on, he surprised me by blaming Sharon Osbourne by name in front of the massive crowd, saying she was getting her revenge and that the “wicked witch of west rides again.” Is that British humor, or does he have reason to think Sharon Osbourne still reaching out from afar fucking with Iron Maiden shows?
I’m putting together a D-beat episode of my Bloody Roots metal history show for Sirius, and simultaneously we’re approaching the anniversary of the booze and pills overdose death of Disclose frontman/guitarist Kawakami. Here’s what his heavily-branded gravestone looks like. I think the message of the Super Saddam Bros. doll is to enjoy life, enjoy Discharge, embrace some rules and throw others down the nearest green pipe.
[Click image to enlarge]
Hey look, it’s our founding fathers (and mother Kira Roessler), the ones that really matter. This excellent info-graphic charts the 11-year history and changing hairs of fundamental psychotic California hardcore band Black Flag, If I could get this printed onto disposable paper placemats, I’d take them with me everywhere I go and eat every meal blessed by these people I consider to be as holy as monks.
Artist unknown–but the Henry Rollins head is obviously copied from a sketch of Charles Manson, and that’s pretty goddamn funny!
“Celtic Frost singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer has left Celtic Frost due to the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and ambitious.”
Taking advantage of the occasion of the new Iron Man movie, The Boston Globe has posted an awesome long-form multimedia inquest into the origins of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man.” Delving way beyond “Can he walk and talk?”, reporter Joshua Glenn offers a handful of interpretations–all of them smart, and all funny.
From the A-Z band biography reference section in Swedish Death Metal:
“SPORTLOV — The natural end result of the black metal movement. In 2000 some musicians from Uppsala heard about the German band Vintersemestre (which means “Winter Holiday” in Swedish), and decide the ridiculousness of black metal had gone too far. (What kind of name is that, anyway?) They decided to make some extreme black metal themselves, basing lyrics around winter sports to mock the genre’s obsessions with snow, ice, trolls, etc. They succeeded beyond all expectations, and sound very good! This might come as no surprise, since members hail from supreme metal and crust acts like Defleshed, Dark Funeral, Diskonto, F.K.Ü, and Uncurbed. Highly recommended.”
If you’ve ever played World of Warcraft (or any other sword and magic role-playing game), or listened to Manowar (or any other sword and magic headbanging band) your imagination owes a real thank you to Gary Gygax, who missed his last saving throw March 4 at his home in fabled Lake Geneva, WI. The “father” of Dungeons & Dragons, Gygax started the company TSR in 1973, condensed a series of rules and theories into the first edition of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974. Later, he wrote the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Player’s Handbook. He also wrote the Monster Manual — by now there is a metal band named after every creature in that book. The impact his game has had on heavy metal music is beyond my comprehension. As I said on my Sirius show today, I hope there is a heavy metal museum someday, I hope I am on the board, and I will do my best to cast special honor on non-metal dudes like Gygax, JRR Tolkien, and other wizards whose work has meant so much for the cause.
“I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else,” Gary Gygax, GameSpy interview 2005.
Below, an amazing D&D guide to prostitutes, from the DM Guide, courtesy of BoingBoing.net.
I guess if anybody hates Christianity more than Glen Benton, it’s al-Qaeda. My former patrons (briefly) over at Mother Jones have compiled a streaming audio playlist built from leaked interrogation logs from U.S. military prisons, and look who’s getting enemy combatants talking: Deicide! Also appearing: Metallica, Dope, Drowning Pool, and King Diamond’s uncle, Neil Diamond. Of course, torture is in the ear (or waterboarded nose) of the beholder, and most of us would rather wear an orange jumpsuit than listen to Christina Aguilera or Barney the Dinosaur at any volume. But doesn’t Eninem’s “White America,” end with an outburst of fuck yous directed towards Dick Cheney? I guess that any loud sound at all would get pretty irritating when you’re freezing in chains in a dark room somewhere.
Note to our friends with their fingers on the red play buttons: if hated al-Qaeda mouthpiece Adam Gadahn, aka Azzam the American, is ever captured, somebody should remember that the guy reviewed Autopsy and General Surgery albums for a death metal fanzine in the early ’90s.
