HEBI METARE: Sound of the Beast Japanese Edition

Finnish publisher Johnny Kniga’s ultra-rugged hardcover edition of my heavy metal history book Sound of the Beast has just been scorched and stomped by a real monster from Japan’s Hayakawa Publishing. A sack these deluxe 600-page beasts arrived unexpectedly this afternoon like a storm of Ultraman villains, complete with chrome-embossed cover, matte black-on-black skull print on actual book beneath cover, gunmetal grey woven ribbon bookmark, and gonzo uber-metallic and detailed cover painting by Hayakawa Designs. (At least, that’s what I deciphered the katakana text to say).

If you’re keeping track, this joins American, British, German, Czech, French, Finnish, and Spanish editions of this book. Soon to come are Croatian, Serbian, Italian, and Brazilian editions. Yes, it’s fair to say that the success of Sound of the Beast has matched my wildest dreams. But of course there was never any question that the world needed a comprehensive overview of heavy metal like this.

Of course all of this is now fuel for Bazillion Points books. We’ve now got about twelve books in the incubator; everything from Andy McCoy’s ribald tales to Jeff Wagner’s dazzling prog metal book to the unannounced Slayer Mag anthology that has roared into life in the past couple weeks. And ANUS.com just did a lengthy joint interview with me and Swedish Death Metal author Daniel Ekeroth that talks about the origins of all this madness.

If your local Shane Embury toy source doesn’t carry SOTB-JP, here’s the LINK to Amazon.jp.

And domo arigato to book translator Yuka Nakajima!

Many Empty Lawnchairs

My temperature rises for vintage videos of Overkill slaying the New York legions at L’Amour in Brooklyn, or Exodus goading the Slay Team to new heights of depravity at a classic SF show. But I grew up in several different middles of nowhere, and every single headbanger at what few shows did happen was not so cool. So it floats my goat with pride to see this kind of 1988 conquering of a Houston waterpark by early Earache Records outcasts Confessor, the learned metal and tiny shorts scourge of Raleigh, NC. How many members of Watchtower lay lounging in yellow chairs watching Confessor on this day at Fame City Waterworks, wishing they had stuck together (or feeling glad they didn’t)?

Catch up with more recent exploits of Confessor along the tangled math path HERE.

Thanks, Capt. O’Malley!

What Do You Know About Rad Behavior?

Here’s a painfully sweet metal/hardcore crossover blast from 1985 by the ultra-obscure white sneakers crew Radical Behavior. I got this on a tape with Lethal Aggression’s demo from Terror Ken Thunders (the prolific rock animal now known as Ken Sleazegrinder), and he sent me a flyer for the band picturing a bunch of dudes in denim vests. I just wrote him for help, and got a couple hints. “Tom…Tom somebody,” Ken says. “He also had a fanzine called Mutilator. From New York, I think. skate-metal foolishness, from what I remember.”

I could find no mention of this band anywhere on the entire Internets, which is crazy because they definitely hold a zany feedback-dipped candle to Lethal Agression. So while I go dig, please stab yourself in the thigh with this chaotic, goofy six-minute demo. Since only one of the songs is over a minute long, I didn’t even bother slicing apart the songs. “No God, No Devil” is epic! Shades of Napalm Death’s Scum, for sure. “Dirty Laundry” is even stupider and shorter than S.O.D.’s “Milk.”

RADICAL BEHAVIOR 8-song demo 1985 [8.7MB MP3]

1. Radical Behavior
2. You Suck
3. Unknown #1
4. No God, No Devil
5. Car Crash
6. Unknown #2
7. Dirty Laundry
8. Jealous Loser

Maybe you know more? Fill us in! What’s the deal with Rad Behavior, and where can I get a shirt?

Drill Baby, Drill

Friends of the world, if you’ve ever wondered what American Republicans talk about when they get together, here’s a hint: It starts with a high-pitched whine. 

Thanks, Rob!

Non-Metal Dude Reading Metal Book?

BrooklynVegan posted this street scene from yesterday’s Brooklyn Book Festival, depicting Sonic Youth’s giant emeritus Thurston Moore flanked by two great accessories: Ian MacKaye, and the Swedish Death Metal book. If I could have been there, I would have given Ian Senior a copy of my Van Halen book (which outs him as a lifelong fan on page 55), so they could be a matched pair of metal-literate independent thinkers. Cheers all around–these two and their pals extolling the DIY mindset made this book possible.

Now I’ll sit back and wait for Sonic Youth to catch the fever and record a Bathory cover.

Photo by David Shankbone

Beyond Possession, Princess!

Beyond Possession from Calgary, Canada, have at least one molecule of a legacy, thanks to a legendary punk 7″, an album on Death/Metal Blade, and a smattering of mid-1980s compilation appearances. But in the opinion of me and the impulse that makes me jump seven feet in the air every time I hear it, the band’s 1985 demo rips the rest of their catalog and most other attempts at punk/metal thrash to shreds. Short and to the point, here are three songs in five minutes that stand alongside Seattle’s The Accüsed and Oxnard’s Dr. Know as some of the coolest, sickest music of its day. There’s even a kind of hectic early Voïvod psychosis going on here–yes, Beyond Possession are that good. No Ed Repka artwork, no bullet belts, no colored vinyl, no puffy white sneakers, this is just horror, speed, and great songs; everything that made frantic thrash metal work on a gut level.

BEYOND POSSESSION – 3-song demo 1985 [7.3MB rar]

Thanks to Punkhistorycanada.ca for scanning the band history included in this download from the Beyond Possession – Repossessed 1985-1989 CD, which is itself impossible to find and does not contain these songs. Lots of funny facts there, including a mention of a Beyond Possession poster hanging in the bedroom of former Melvins roadie Kurt Cobain.

What do you think? See you back here in five minutes.

Bazillion Points in Time Out New York?

Time Out New York has splashed a bucket of cool water on the ongoing gnawing heat of anxiety and alienation in my individual stretch of bones. Just look! In less than a page, the esteemed Elisabeth Vincentelli finds things to like about my creaky old Sound of the Beast metal history, the new Swedish Death Metal book, and in fact the entire modus operandi of Bazillion Points Books. So now I guess I have to live up to something and publish some more books. Or go swimming. In my experience, the calming effect of a nice piece of press lasts a few days– but I’ve honestly never had one this nice. I think the Nightwish book will be out in December, the Andy McCoy book in January, and Jeff Wagner’s magnum opus next summer–when he’s done swimming in the prog metal ectoplasm.

www.bazillionpoints.com

The Mad Baker

If you’re familiar with the concept of gingerbread men, you’ll love this mostly silent footage from a Thai bakery where human body parts built from lumpy dough are a specialty. See? It’s easy to play God. And just relax if you see a small child eating a human hand on the streets of Ratchaburi — I’m almost sure it came from this shop. Well, almost…

Thanks, PatD!

Who Are You? #6: Audio Edition

A few weeks ago, I put together a fast thrash metal episode of my weekly Bloody Roots radio show on Sirius Hard Attack, featuring Sacrifice, Fueled by Fire, Whiplash, Exumer, and others. A listener got in touch to say thanks for playing Holy Terror, and began a strange and intriguing story:

“You might be able to solve a metal mystery that has vexed me for 16 years. It was October 1992. I was 17, in my first year of college. A high school buddy had come down to LA from the Bay Area so we could catch Metallica/Guns N’ Roses at the Rose Bowl. I hopped in his truck out in front of my dorm room, and he said “dude, you gotta hear this,” and he played me a tasty bit of technical, somewhat melodic speed thrash metal. I asked who it was, and that’s where the mystery begins. “We don’t know,” he said. Seems a friend of my friend’s friend had found this scuffed CD on the side of the road. No case, no cover, just a disc. On the cover, goes their story, was ‘some kind of a face.’ No band name. No song titles. And since then I’ve been trying to find out who this goddamn band is.”

I racked my brain, and tried a few tricks, but I can’t help the guy. It does sound like Invocator, as he goes on to mention in his email, but I don’t think so. There are many clues pointing to this being a band from the Bay Area: the Death Angelic vocals, the Alex Skolnik-style sweeping leads, and the Violence gang backing vocals. But half the thrashers on Earth nicked those stylistic attributes. So once again I ask: Who Are You? And this time I don’t know the answer!

MYSTERY THRASHERS – “Track 2 From Mysterious Thrash Album” [6.9MB MP3]

Nihilist -> Entombed -> The Hellacopters -> Death Breath -> The Solution

Larvaes and germs, we have The Solution, the latest project of Nicke Andersson, one of the main originators of Swedish death metal (and cover artist of the Swedish Death Metal book). This dude keeps going and going and going, and he’s always wearing a sharp lid. Vocals by Scott Morgan of The Rationals and Sonic’s Rendezvous Band. This clip for the song “You Gotta Come Down” was shot on one roll of Super-8, as director Jim Heneghan explains: “A roll of Super-8 runs for about 3 minutes and 20 seconds of moving pictures. The song ‘You Gotta Come Down’ runs 3 minutes and 23 seconds. So Super-8 was a perfect choice for a one-shot, one-take Super-8 promo film.”

MYSPACE LINK