“Judge me for what I am but, to me, and other KD fans, “Them” ain’t derogatory bullshit. “Them” won’t transform you into a dick-less, redneck loser. No. Instead, “Them” will turn you into a helpless pansy who’ll piss her/his pants at the ring of the doorbell. “Them” will keep you up at night and make your stomach turn at that smell of a warm cup of tea. “Them” will be the reason you fall to the floor and curl up in the fetal position when your grandma comes for the weekend.” Teabag the attic.
“1998 was not metal’s finest year. Nu-metal was rearing its ugly head and 80s bands were withering on the vine. It had also been five years since Bruce Dickinson left Iron Maiden, and while he had released a few decent albums since (and Iron Maiden had released, um, The X Factor), he wasn’t setting the world on fire with legendary recordings. Unlike with Ozzy and Black Sabbath, a separation did not inspire Bruce nor Maiden to go above and beyond – at least, not until 1998, when Dickinson released The Chemical Wedding and Maiden dropped Virtual XI on us.” Married to metal.
“Obscura is flat out the most influential technical death metal album ever written. Steeve Hurdle and Luc Lemay’s paradigm-establishing use of dissonance and deliberate composition drew up an instant classic almost de novo. If ever a death metal album was divinely inspired, Obscura was, and once this box was opened, there was never a chance of resealing its contents.” The birth of evolution.
For those who have only listened to metal since 1995, or for those who never thought Queensrÿche worthy of checking out, Operation: mindcrime is a concept album which tells the story of a drug addict who becomes an assassin for a political extremist group, but has a change of heart when he falls in love with a former prostitute who has become a nun.” That’s fookin metal, and olde.
“Formed in 1990 by prolific bass-slinging band whore Dan Lilker (Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, Blurring, Venomous Concept, S.O.D. & many others), New York’s Brutal Truth threw their hats into the grind ring and captured lightning in a bottle with their phenomenal 1992 debut, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses; a dead-set grind classic, now certified as an olde motherfucker. There’s something special about Brutal Truth’s underappreciated debut that sets it apart from pretty much any other grind album I’ve experienced.” The ugly truth.
“Let’s just say you’re in a hardcore band with a niche-but-loyal audience. You just completed a major festival, embarked on a fairly successful US tour, and you’re about to write your next album when your bandmates decide, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m giving up music for the ministry.’ Folks, that’s what happened in 1997, to Jesse Smith, (now former) drummer for (then-)Virginia’s Christian hardcore outfit, Zao.” Cross-core and more.
“August 1977. A small boy is on vacation in the Big City with his family — once a year they make the eight-hour drive, to buy new corduroy pants and wide-striped shirts. But that’s not what is exciting the boy today in the shopping mall. He spent the summer picking bottles in the alleyways of his hometown and managed to save up seven dollars. And now he was in a record store, staring at a display on the wall that he could hardly get over. He knew he was looking at a record — after all, his parents had plenty of albums, from Neil Young to Engelbert Humperdinck — but he had never seen one that also looked like a comic book. And the price on it was $6.98: he had to have this.” Love is a battlefield, Kiss is the army.
“Back in May, my Twitter feed burped this out at me: “30 years ago today, Helloween released Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I.” The memories flooded back. For most of you, our loyal thralls readers, 1987 isn’t even a glint in your papa’s eye.” Still a keeper after all these years.
“The 90’s, for Townsend, certainly look hectic on paper: whilst touring the world with Steve Vai and The Wildhearts in the early nineties, jamming with Jason Newsted, dealing with corporate buffoons Roadrunner Records, recording the punk-opera Punky Brüster – Cooked on Phonics, formulating industrial destruction under the guise of Strapping Young Lad, coping with the harmful effects of hallucinogenic use and mental illness, Townsend was creating snippets of music that would feature on Ocean Machine.” Fluid dynamics.
“Vishnu, ineffable by nature, is an ultimately cyclical deity – one whose concept is equal parts creator and destroyer; an incarnation of extremes. As he creates, so he destroys. So did Chuck.” And then there was Death.
