Midnight Priest - Interview 12/28/2011

So Pita, we last spoke about a year and a half ago when you did the interview for the first issue of Contaminated Tones Magazine. What has been going on with Midnight Priest since then, have there been any member changes? I know you have a new record coming out. Who will be releasing the record? What will it sound like? When will it be available?

Hey Jon! Yes, it’s been quite a while and a lot of stuff has been going on. The album is out now and going fast! There’s a CD release on Stormspell Records and a vinyl release on A Forja (Label links at end). We’re very proud with the end result, it sounds fucking great and powerful and that’s what we wanted from the start – maddening Old School Metal Mayhem!

There’s been a line up change also, since Nasty Nightmare recorded the album and took off, so we have a new guitar player Johnny Kilmister, who is without any doubt the ultimate axe man for MIDNIGHT PRIEST. He’s mad, loud and nasty just like we all are, so we’re doing quite alright!

You said the album would be out in 2010 but I guess that got delayed. What happened that delayed the album for a full year?

That’s true, it took us almost a year to get the album out, and the main reason’s because we don’t have any management or whatsoever and must take care of every little detail by ourselves before the stuff goes to the pressing plant. We definitely want to have some control over our releases, from the cover artwork to the final mix. We’re lucky enough to have our good friend Zé Metálica - headbanger and graphic artist since the early days, to produce the exactly kind of art we wanted for the record and that took a while. Apart from this, we were waiting for the masters to arrive and had to make a couple of tweaks to the sound, since we wanted a very specific kind of production with a lot of detail and weren’t backing down on anything.

Fortunately the album has been out and doing very well, so go bang your head!!

Are there any songs on this debut full length that we have heard before from either the EP or 2009 cassette demo or will this album contain completely new songs? How would you compare these songs to the previous releases?

The album has a song ‘No Calor do Inferno’ (In The Heat of Hell) which dates back to the demo; we really wanted to make that song justice. ‘The Priest is Back’ demo was a shot in the dark when it came to production and the quality of the release compromised a lot. The label didn’t have much care for the dubbing quality and it came out pretty shitty I must say. Nevertheless it sold out very fast, but I’m still very pissed off with the end result. Nevertheless, power to the label, they put out very good underground bands.

There are only new songs on the album, apart from the above mentioned one, and they are of course MIDNIGHT PRIEST songs, with the same obscure atmosphere and nasty finesse the band always stood by. The production is great and it’s totally analogical, no modern equipment was used and that was our main goal production wise, no modern amps, gear or instruments, if anything further from1989 entered that studio, it got thrown in the fire no questions asked!

Compared to our previous releases, what really stands out is the technical abyss in musicianship. We actually had to learn how to play our instruments or else no album would ever be recorded, and that shows every second of the record; we grind our balls and it was worth every second of it. You take the heat and move on.

You have a track uploaded for people to check out called Sabado Negro. What is this track about? Tell me about why you chose this track to be the public's first glimpse at the album.

Actually it was the Iordan from Stormspell Records who chose that track for the preview. It was a challenge to put that song opening the album since it is almost 7 minutes long, not a lot of Heavy Metal albums start with such a long track, but it brings up that dark atmosphere which gets you into the record. It’s a prologue to insanity and it works pretty well.

The song ‘Sábado Negro’ means ‘Black Saturday’ and is inspired on Mario Bava’s work with Barbara Steel on Black Sunday, which is one of the finest movies ever made. In fact a lot of our songs are based upon horror movies and vintage Portuguese horror tales. There are also some lines on the lyrics taken from the ‘Portuguese Black Book of Magic’ which is an ancient manuscript used for spiritual séances and obscure burial rituals that take place since the XII century, there are a lot of burial sites and graveyards marked with inscriptions on tombs and they’re made to ward off people from those grounds which are said to be haunted.

All cemeteries are confined within heavy gates and walls, where ancient prayers have been written on rock, and they close down before the strike of midnight since a lot of dread and doom surround these places and a lot of obscure practices and covens still go on to this day.

What else could you ask for inspiration?

Any stories about this recording session. You told me an awesome story about voices appearing on Numa Campa last time we talked. Are there any interesting experiences associated with this album's recording as well?

There are no voices this time, but there sure are notable facts! Since we wanted an intro with keyboards, paying our respects to The King, we knew we had to do something special, so our producer arranged for that intro to actually be recorded at the church with a real church organ and real church choir. So we went to the Black Madonna Church, Jasna Góra in Czestochowa, Poland (which is the city where we recorded the album) and were fortunate enough to get this amazingly insane intro. It couldn’t have been better.

Now given the fact that we were five clueless dirty slobs trying to pull off a record of our asses in five days on a top studio, I figure the situation speaks for itself! A lot of shit happened, hadn’t we the dirtiest of reputations around! Between gallons of vodka, arrests, women and barely managing to get out of the country alive, I think we did pretty well. Not to say that Poland is the main amphetamine exporter in Europe and that stuff is cheaper to get than a pack of cigars! I don’t remember sleeping at all, Dalton also, we were on instant coffee, cigars and heavy duty studio work through the whole week; and I would be very happy do it all over again many times.

On a different, more obscure note, if you give the album cover the right angle, you will see something really creepy. And who knows how it got there…!

How have your recent live shows gone? You've played a handful of shows recently. Who have you played with? I saw you did a show with Portrait?

MIDNIGHT PRIEST shows have been growing immensely in crowd attendance and die hard fans. There was a somewhat dead spot for us within the more sceptical part of the underground scene and even though Portuguese magazines still don’t want to believe that we’re the biggest Heavy Metal act in Portugal, we’ve been doing pretty well here, the last MIDNIGHT PRIEST show of the year got 200 metal maniacs screaming their lungs out and partying hard, singing our songs and going mad all over the place! What a fucking badass atmosphere… and taking a few exceptions, I really think the Portuguese metal scene stinks - band wise. There’s no fire, no balls, it looks more like a graduation party if you ask me, but we sure know how to give people a great fucking time, and that’s all we care for; if live shows suck, there’s no point for the band to exist. We aren’t ego masturbators and we don’t live of the “glories from the past” we’re straight forward Heavy Metal Machine and we’ll drink, fight and fuck in the oldest of ways. We’re Punks in league with Satan and a lot of people don’t get that!

Now, on the Ireland shows with Portrait, we actually didn’t make it out there because there was a misunderstanding with the promoter. It turned out that we had to pay for the whole thing, we already had paid for the trips and that’s fine, but it turned out that even transporting and food had to be financed; not to mention shelter because any sewer will do just as any good as any hotel suite. But come one, just take a look at any tabloid and figure out why we can’t afford these kind of touring, we’re even more miserable than we ever were, and it’s impossible to pay for everything. We will go anywhere, I mean ANYWHERE, but you got to give us at least some beer. And been that said, I sincerely hope that we will play in Ireland one day, I know of a lot of MIDNIGHT PRIEST fans in Cork, Dublin, Belfast, all over the place. Cheers!!

You also just put out a T-shirt! How many of these are available? How can people interested in the shirt get one!?

The t-shirt was printed on very short stock, like 30 pieces or so, and they’re all gone, but I guess we’ll print some new ones with new artwork and improved quality. Anyway, anyone interested in merchandise can email the band and we will see what we can do, we want to spread the word out as far as we possibly can, and a few new releases will be out next year in Brazil and Greece, so stay tuned!

What else is there that you would like to say about Midnight Priest? Any touring planned for overseas this year? Possibly the USA?

This year we’ll have a couple of shows in Spain, and are plans are that we will be in Greece too, we have been planning a tour for quite a while and hopefully it will happen this upcoming year of 2012. All Hell Breaks Loose!!!

It would be a fucking blast to play in the USA, what a highlight that would be! I guess my brains would gore out from the excitement!! Man that would be the ultimate thing I’m sure. And if anyone has enough interest to make it happen please don’t hesitate to get in touch, we’re up for anything, and anything will fly for MIDNIGHT PRIEST. We’ll eat sawdust and drink metal for all we care!

Having received several emails from people in the States asking for shows and distributing our stuff overseas, and being our label based in California, I don’t see why not. There’s an uprising legion of fans in the NY, NJ area and on the West Coast, so I figure this would be absolutely doable no doubt about it. And I tell you, you guys will have a great fucking time!!

The Heavy Metal Machine is burning HOT & HEAVY!!

THE PRIEST IS BACK!!!

Thank you so much for having us Jon, and hope to meet you very soon, total support and dedication to the US Metal Underground; it’s all our pleasure to be part of its interest.

And to all the Metal Maniacs out the in the US, we’ll meet you one day and burn those stages to the fucking ground, we were born to fucking ROCK!!!

Thanks again for the interview!

________________________________________________

For more info on MIDNIGHT PRIEST:

Headbang to our album online: Here

For shows, interviews and hate mail: midnightpriestcult@gmail.com
Official Myspace: Here
Official Facebook: Here
Ze Metalica: Here

Buy our records or be damned!!!

www.aforja.org

www.stormspell.com

Maximum Oversatan - Too Evil For Hell Demo

Maximum Oversatan - Too Evil For Hell

Fans of Venom and Motorhead and crusty dirty first wave black metal rejoice, Maximum Oversatan take the formulas of the classics and worship them openly and righteously. Metal demos as metal demos should be. Too Evil For Hell is an unsubtle mixture of alcoholic recklessness, overt satanic influence and total disregard for modernity. Sodom and Venom covers and three original tracks fuming with malice and lust for blood.

To order email: Orion_metalhead@hotmail.com

CTP - 001 - I (QTY = 50 Copies) Sold Out
CTP - 001 - II (QTY = 50 Copies) Sold Out

LINKS

Maximum Oversatan Official Facebook
Maximum Oversatan Official Youtube

REVIEWS

11/06/2012 - Heavy Metal Spotlight

Sometimes, bands and their releases can be absolutely intriguing, and Maximum Oversatan are one such band. As the forum post which introduced me to the band said, "They sound like their name". Frankly, that was enough to get me interested, and if the name hits the same switches in your head as mine, you should be too. The normal order of things is that bands ask me if I'll review their material, but not this time. At risk of sounding like a cheeky bastard, I directly asked for a link to their demo so I could listen to it and review it, and that's precisely what I plan to do.

Picture, if you will, what would happen if a band were to travel back in time and distil the essence of a 1986 not-quite-black-metal-yet Mayhem, and then, to gain incredible devilish metal powers, drink it, presumably with Jack Daniels. Maximum Oversatan are a bit like that. Speed metal, with more than a touch of black-metal thrown in to the recipe. Raucous, raw and with a motorcycle-riding, greasy and dirty sound which the demo's artwork, and the bands name, as I've already mentioned, really encapsulates. The whole demo is a glimpse into a mad and rather satanic world of chaotic, percussive and rabid metal - Thundering drums carry the swift, vicious tracks along with a possessed energy and natural, but also very thick forceful and solid presence - it may be a demo, and quite a raw one at that, but the drum sound is certainly one to be admired - Clearly drums that have been recorded well from the onset, as opposed to meddled with excessively afterwards. Soaring angrily over the percussion, the vocals are caustic and enraged sounding - not strictly a conventional black-metal shriek, but something frequently deeper and more gruff, a harsher and more bestial version of, for instance, Venom, as opposed to a shrill and piercing screech. This has the effect of giving the music quite a muscular edge, which is enjoyable to say the least, and makes for a more raucous and meaty listen. Adding to this is the guitar tone, which while quite treble-heavy, also has a lower end with a rasping, buzzing tone which makes a number of the riffs into the sonic equivalent of an iron fist.

You can tell a lot about a band by the songs which they choose to cover, and on Too Evil for Hell, the covers probably say a lot more than I possibly could about Maximum Oversatan's musical direction. Going by their sound, I can't say I'm surprised by the presence of both a Sodom cover and a Venom one, both of which are done with an enjoyable level of creativity and spiced with Maximum Oversatan's own style, particularly "Welcome to Hell", which the band have taken and made into perhaps even more of a swaggering, spitting occult monster of a track than Venom made it the first time around. Being a demo, one might expect the production to be a little bit rough - and it is, there's no denying that. At the same time, there's not much point in denying it, because the rough and haphazard production fits the music's coarseness like a glove, in fact, I'd be happy to hear an album or EP with this level of neatness, or enjoyable lack thereof. The guitar tone is a little bit buried in places, although in others it sounds great, which suggests a bit of inconsistency in the volume levels, but given that the whole demo is something of a maelstrom, it doesn't have too much of an effect on the balance and flow of the demo. Perhaps the original songs aren't quite anthems or instant classics just yet, but the whole demo has a real sense of solidness and an attitude which metal can never have enough of.

01/04/2012 - Foul Feast Of Flesh Blog

"Maximum Oversatan reeks of old school filth. Upon first listen it should be very apparent where this New Jersey duo pulls their influence from. These dudes harken back to speed metal and the earliest days of black metal, an era that not many new bands seem to be gravitating towards. Often echoing Venom's early material (whom they also cover a track from on this demo) but never to the point where it seems like some shitty tribute band. Consisting of three original tracks and two covers the demo gives a nice sample taste of what this band is all about.

The first thing that one will notice when putting on this demo is the raw, throwback sound. Naturally early demos from bands are fairly lofi but if this were to be played with no background knowledge of the band pinpointing a recording date would be an impossible feat. The vocals are delivered by what appears to be a possessed man on the brink of insanity. Little technique is used and it fits perfectly with the stripped down sound Maximum Oversatan churns out. The three original tracks are fairly straightforward and to the point. Sure, at times some of the riffs may seem vaguely familiar but they hit the mark where it counts with this style, delivery. The thrashier moments on these tracks come with a high level of intensity and are sure to whip your neck into a seizure-like frenzy.

Overall Too Evil For Hell is exactly what the name would lead you to believe, a sinister, primitive slab of heavy metal. Satan would be proud but unfortunately he is not evil enough to listen. Given that we only get the chance to hear about ten minutes of original material here it is hard to form too solid of an opinion. I like what I hear though, and if you like the earlier bands that influenced black metal chances are you will find yourself playing this a lot more then once. Give this a listen, thrash around like a barbarian and perform some sort of bloody ritual. "

02/13/2012 - Witching Metal Webzine

"Do you like d-beats? Do you like Satan? Goats? Hell? Tits? Then MAXIMUM FUCKING OVERSATAN is for you!

Torn from the foetid bowels of New Jersey in 2011, this horrid horde of hellraising miscreants sprang was unleashed upon the world late last year with the debut demo Too Evil For Hell. With production and songwriting halfway between early Sodom and Hellhammer with a syringe full of punk to the arm for good measure, this shit is any beer swilling metalpunk's wet dream.

The demo contains 3 original songs and 2 covers. The originals are rough, sloppy satanic speed metal assaults that follow in the anthemic footsteps of Burst Command Til War, To Hell and Back, etc. Just TRY not to sing along to the chorus of Reaper's Night after a couple listens. The originals all wear influences on the sleeve but the riffs are cool enough that it doesn't matter. The covers are (surprise surprise) Welcome to Hell and Outbreak of Evil, both of which sound great belted out by frontman Atomic Destructor From Hell.

Some listeners might be turned off by the extremely raw production, occasionally off kilter drumming, and overall sloppiness of the whole affair. But y'know what? Fuck you. That's part of the magic. This sounds like it came from about 1984, just before thrash and black metal properly got underway; posers fucking beware. To sum it up simply:

ONLY DEATH IS REAL! FALSE WILL BURNING AND DIED! OUGH OUGH OUGH HEAVY METAL!!!! "

03/07/2012 - Metal Archives - Zodijackyl

There's a Sodom cover, there's a Venom cover, and there are three original songs that I'd believe if you told me were rough cuts from either of those bands. Maximum Oversatan put a more extreme edge on the spirit of these bands - they sound furious, hell bent on making extreme heavy metal at reasonably high speeds. The fierce feel of the music is more like that of the bands who paid tribute to Venom and Sodom in the late 80s, with huge sounding drums and dirty guitars and vocals mixed together quite roughly.

It took a while to get used to the drums being so loud and booming in the mix, though they seem to calm down a bit on the later tracks. The sound of everything is pretty much perfect for the band on the title track, where Satanic speed metal meets Motorhead's rock and roll - the drums get a bit faster, the vocals are coherent and crunchy, and the band fully lives up to its name. It's rough, rockin', and has just enough of an extreme metal tinge to make it really appealing to fans of the retro blackish speed metal type stuff. All of the recordings are first takes, so it's sufficiently rough without being sloppy, nothing at all is polished.

It's easy to describe the band simply - they're called "Maximum Oversatan", there's a Venom cover, a Sodom cover, and the songs in between... and they're good.

PHOTOS

Denial Fiend - Live At Champs 11/17/2011

Another recording from Champs in Trenton, this one of Denial Fiend. Killer set. Definitely check out this band live if you get a chance. Download the live audio here: Denial Fiend Live At Champs 11.17.11.

Check out all the other audio downloads here: Audio Archives.

Midnite Hellion Live At Champs 11/17/2011

Here is another live recording from the same night as the Fiakra show at Champs in Trenton. Midnite Hellion were pretty fun to watch live and their bassist is pretty damn awesome. They did covers of Slayer's Die By The Sword and Iron Maiden's Invaders. Enjoy! Download the show here or visit the archives here.

Midnite Hellion Official Website: www.MidniteHellion.com
Midnite Hellion Facebook page: Midnite Hellion Facebook

Fiakra Live At Champs

Check out Fiakra's live show at Champs from 11.17.2011. Pretty awesome epic metal from Freehold, NJ. Thanks again to Kenneth and the band for letting me record their set and for being a crew of awesome, chainmailed metal warriors! As always, you can download other live shows and interviews by visiting the Archives Page.

Fiakra official website: WWW.FIAKRA.COM

News 11/19/2011

Well, things may seem to have been slow around here but in reality, a LOT has been going on. Let's take things one step at a time.

1. I've amassed about 6 or 7 live recordings over the span of the past three weeks which I hope to put up online for everyone as soon as I get the approval of the bands. You should see one or two up in the next or two. Basically, I have to upload still: Midnite Hellion, Fiakra, Denial Fiend, Buzzherd, Slasherthroat and Gorematory. So, a lot of cool audio stuff to add as soon as Mediafire decided to upload things.


2. Most interestingly, I think, is that I will be doing a cassette release for the Motorhead / Venom crazed lunatics of Maximum Oversatan. Look for that in a week or two. I'm looking to do more releases in the future so anyone who has something they want to release, get in touch and I'll let you know if I am interested. The goal is going to be to do small initial runs of tapes so bands that want to release limited stuff of rehearsals or bonus tracks or whatever, that kind of material is ideal. Black / Death / Doom / Speed / Heavy / Traditional Metal bands are all welcome to submit material. Thrash bands too though, they kind of fall somewhere between everything so... whatever, you get the point.

4. Still interested in doing interviews and reviews of stuff so be sure to email and ask about that.

Bastard Thieves Live 09/09/2011

Live recording of Bastard Theives' 09/09/2011 Show at the Meatlocker in Montclair. Here or Here

Occular Peehole Sewerzine Issue #2

Occular Peehole Sewerzine is one of the most enjoyable zines I've ever read simply for the type of bands and overblown descriptions in the zine. Covering bands from the porno-grind, gore-grind, harsh noise, and pretty much any other anti-music genre you can think of, the subjects are pretty obscure even for my knowledge. Ultimately, anyone interested in really delving into the pure anus of underground music, this is a great zine to start your exploration with. The zine was created by the man behind Thanatoseptis, Reclusa, Inverted Exorcism, etc. And the writing is very good, the interviews are interesting and the rest of the articles involved are pretty damn entertaining. The whole thing is done in a cut and paste style, with extra space taken up by clippings of random crap such as sharks, off-center humored comics, and just all kinds of general tomfoolery. Some of the included bands are Analthrone, Hemorrhoidal Anal Suffering, Urinary Tract Infection From Sever Pus Clots and Xanax Feast. A bunch of reviews are scattered around as well as an interesting rant about Agathocles. Some horror movie reviews also are tossed in for extra viewing pleasure (or displeasure).

The best interview is hands down is this short drunken messterpiece with Mike Sweeney of Xanax Feast / Cripple Slaughter / Amputee... it's a pretty awesome read. Favorite quote: "I'm a huge piss porn fan muthafuka got vids? I'll buy em." The whole interview is pretty much like that. It's a doozy. On a more serious note, the rest of the interviews are interesting from a regular interview perspective. I just find it fascinating that people can discuss their band in a totally serious manner and talk about their projects when those projects include names like Analthrone (Not to single Analthrone out of course, just an example). Maybe I'm just not down with this scene at all but the names are pretty ridiculous. Mega Toilet Flush!? Whoah. Still, a bunch of the bands mentioned in here are probably pretty interesting to listen to so I may delve into it a bit later on after I finish my Anthem discography. The zine is also a quick read. I read the whole thing on my lunch hour at work in my car. I would probably be sent to Human Resources if I brought the thing into the break room and lose my job. It's a pretty vulgar affair so if you have company coming over, you may want to make sure it's not lying around on the coffee table. I purposefully left it out for my mom to find. I'm that kind of guy.

Free review sample. The whole zine is pretty much full of these.

Submit To Suffering Interview 09/09/2011

September 9th, I had the fortune to check out a great show at the Meatlocker in Montclair NJ. I caught up with the guys in Submit To Suffering a day before recording their demo and after playing an exceptionally late gig. Check out their track "Boom" from this gig and my interview with the band by clicking here or at the archives here.




Submit To Suffering Facebook Page
Submit To Suffering Reverbnation Page

Witches - Silly Symphony

Witches is an ancient French thrash band which has largely gone unnoticed throughout the ages of metaldom. Their 1988 demo, Silly Symphony, is more interesting contextually than it is musically. Opening track Lessive Agressive is a worthy thrash moment for the thrash maniac out there but to actually grab a hold of the demo probably isn't worth the price. I was lucky enough to snatch this from a distro for cheap but I doubt that would be the case usually. What makes the demo interesting for me, is the inner sleeve, with thank you lists listing legends like Mille from Kreator, Holy Moses and Piggy and Blacky from Voivod. Also mentioned are some members of the emerging black metal scene in Norway and death metal scene in Sweden including the members of Ice Age and Euronymous and Necrobutcher from Mayhem. Lemmy is included as well as Girlschool. Listed are some well known zines as well such as Slayer Mag and Morbid Mag and several other lesser known zines as well. It's a cool list of who's who at that time.

While the music is a bit generic and unnecessary for most here, those really into collecting and piecing together the underground movements of death and black metal along with those interested in the golden age of underground fanzines will find some interest in these liner notes. Musically, my favorite track is the opening combination of intro "Lycanthropy" and "Lessive Agressive" though the speedy primitivism of "Moment of Distraction for Deep Sleepers" fits together with the named influences in the thank you list and final track "Pool of Running Blood" is an interesting track as well, starting with an awkward melody and movement that borders on NWOBHM as opposed to thrashier parts of the rest of the demo. The track speeds up halfway through but never really holds my attention after the intro due to sub par riffs and an amateurish song structure.

Abazagorath Interview

So, after some bureaucratic trouble getting the audio files for the Abazagorath interview, here it is, finally available to all. On a more somber note, this will be my last interview on WP88.7 Brave New Radio due to the station management deciding that it's time I give up my radio slot to dead air because I have already graduated. Please send them your displeasure and ask for The Vault to return to the airwaves. 3 years of metal undulations across the northern New Jersey airwaves was awesome, and you will still hear interviews and such through this website and blog.

Anyway, not to drown the moment with solemnity, I want to thank Chris Warhead and Dave Nyarlathotep for coming on the air, and giving and awesome interview. One of my favorite moments was messing up the pronunciation of Dave's pseudonym so much that he threatened to kill me on air... that's pretty awesome. Ultimately, the interview had this subplot of me trying to pronounce Nyarlathotep, and eventually succeeding. Kind of a strange subtextual thing. But anyway, enjoy.

The interview can be downloaded at this link: LINNNNNNk

Or you can find it linked on the Radio archives page.

Playlist 08/31/2011 - Thanatoseptis - Sacrificial Septic Tank Tomb

Tonights show begins a new segment of The Vault. I have a million demo tapes laying around and while I almost always play demo tracks on the show, as listeners know, it's just not a real good way to really get a feel for a band's ability, style, and worth. Every show from now on, I will be playing the entirety of one full demo starting at 10:00, effectively splitting the show in half, with the more extreme side of metal taking over the show the second half, and leaving the first half of the show for the old school, head banging metal of the 80's.... give or take of course.

Thanatoseptis - Sacrificial Septic Tank Tomb

Kicking of this new segment is a rarity of unimaginable, weirdness, a combination of black metal, primitive death metal and industrial ambient / noise. Thanatoseptis' Sacrificial Septic Tank Tomb demo. The one man project is a US creation, hailing from some slime ridden cave in the United States of America, and this demo contains new tracks and tracks from their first demo as well. There really is no describing this. Simply calling himself STW, all instruments and programming and audio has been created by this sole creature.


The seven tracks present contain otherworldly echoes of demonic incantation and sewage spewing grimy, ugly death metal mixed with noise. There is a reason this is limited to 60 copies... it is too obscure and bizarre for the everyday human. A true masterwork in abrasiveness. While listening to this with a friend I compared the sound to the feeling of having a rapist in your house. It's unsettling, pressing nerves together with a singular effort of original malevolence. Tracks such as Ritual of Unholy Resurrection Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 both contain awkward ticking, as if an old clock is ticking down on your sanity. The title track, is a mammoth ugly monster of distorted genres clashing. The slow, plodding nature of doom is prevalent, along with the archaic melodies of ancient death metal all soaked in a noisy ambient storm of incinerated bone ash.


And all this on two sides of a TDK. I don't know why the two sides were split on the tape at all. They all could have fit on the one side. Regardless, there is little for me to complain about on this one. A totally unique take on whatever genre or anti-genre STW is embracing. Listen to this antidote to the mainstream music conglomerate at 10:00pm on The Vault.

PLAYLIST:

01. Morbid Sin - Twisted Souls In Hell
02. In Solitude - Demons
03. Holy Terror - Distant Calling
04. Motorhead - No Class (Live)
05. Manowar - Gloves Of Metal
06. Obsession - Killer Elite
07. Overkill - Overkill (Request - James)
08. Dio - Gypsy
09. Mercyful Fate - Gypsy
10. Fates Warning - Orphan Gypsy
11. Heathen - Set Me Free (Sweet Cover)
12. Manilla Road - Into The Maelstrom



13. Thanatoseptis - Hydra Of Polluted Water
14. Thanatoseptis - The Black March Of Disease
15. Thanatoseptis - Ghost In The Sewer
16. Thanatoseptis - Sacrificial Septic Tank Tomb
17. Thanatoseptis - Seweritual Of Unholy Resurrection Pt. 1
18. Thanatoseptis - Seweritual Of Unholy Resurrection Pt. 2
19. Thanatoseptis - Black Vapors Of Possession



20. Primordial - Lain With The Wolf
21. Mandatory - Where They Bleed
22. Abazagorath - Bestial Moans
23. Primitive Graven Image - As I Wander
24. Aeternus - There's No Wine Like The Blood's Crimson
25. The Wakedead Gathering - Wasps From The Chamber Of The Divine
26. Death Strike - Pay To Die
27. Apolion - Winds
28. Source Of Deep Shadows - Powolne Zatracenie
29. Mystifier - An Elizabethan Devil Worshipper's Spell Book
30. Grave - Awakening
31. Hellwitch - Mordirivial Dissemination
32. Skepticism - The Organum
33. Burzum - Valen

Abazagorath On The Vault August 24th

Black metal fans rejoice! NJ Black metal legends Abazagorath will have their day to recant tales of demon worship and cosmic chaos on The Vault. Wednesday, August 24th, Chris Warhead and Dave Nyarlathotep will join me for several hours. Abazagorath's debut album Tenebrarum Cadent Exsurgemus was released in 1997, predating the trend of US black metal we see today and helping to lay a foundation for black metal in the United States. Their 2004 album Sacraments of the Final Atrocity continues their cosmic assault on the vermin of humanity.

Tune in Wednesday, August 24th at 9pm for another special interview only on The Vault. Be sure to call in with your questions for the Beasts of Abazagorath and your requests.

www.GOBRAVE.org

Deadly Illness - Deadly Illness # 4

Deadly Illness #4 is a great midday read for an underground zine with a heavy load of reviews, some really cool interviews with bands from the hardcore punk scene, death metal and black metal and thrash realms, and a some slight exploration of the expansive noise scene as well. Ultimately, you're not going to read interviews with any major bands, not going to hear the same tired responses from people you could care less about and not going to see space wasted on whole page adds for products and releases you're never going to buy. It's a pure underground labor of love. Hungary's Poller Csaba has done a great job of incorporating bands that he wants to see do well and that he believes should get some help spreading the word. Bands like Germ Attach, Anguish, Sardonis, Grave Ritual, the awesome Protector, Psycopath Witch and Slaughter Strike. Also included is about five pages of quick reviews and an interview with Brandon of Skeleton Plague Records.

The writing is good, readable, and even though Csaba is from Hungary, he still writes with more English proficiency than I've seen in some zines from homegrown papermakers. There is, predictably, some humorous quirkiness in reading English from someone who I expect does not use English as their first language but that makes it all the better. Deadly Illness is a sweet little zine worth the time of someone looking for a small zine to digest without feeling overwhelmed.

Lit-Ning Metal Box Restoration

Some people may know that I am an avid do-it-yourself-er. I figured that this would be an interesting post outside of my normal musical reviews and may come in handy for any metalhead interested in doing refinishing work on perhaps a metal music case, or whatever one might run across. Let's face it, metal music tends to impress upon us a sense of creativity and thriftiness. Regardless of what your reasoning for using this information may be, the steps are pretty much the same for any metal item. I will most likely do another post like this in the future just for my own personal interest as this blog has also become a journal of sorts for my creative endeavors anyway. So without further pause, this is the tale of how I turned a $1.00 tool box at the flea market into something worth much more.

The story behind this particular project starts at a trip to one of my favorite record collecting spots - the local flea market. Generally, I don't bother with the regular vendors, instead I go straight to the weekend warrior booths, your everyday Joe's selling random crap from their house. This one guy was selling an old Craftsman toolbox, a really nice metal one from who knows when for $2.00. I bought that one for the $2.00 and he threw in this one for an extra $1.00. Three dollars, why not. This particular box was in pretty decent shape apart from the rough looking paint job. This particular tutorial will be specifically for this tool box. I will detail how to remove the old paint, some light rust which coated the bottom of the box, and also the painting procedure. I will give reasoning for why I decided to do what I did as well. Of course, any questions regarding why I did what, or whatever, feel free to ask in the comments. Being my first post of this sort, I may not have pictures for every specific step but I will ultimately try to accompany most of the main steps with some sort of images. Anyway, those wondering about my record finds from that specific trip will be pretty disappointed. I picked up two VHS tapes, Tales from the Darkside Volume 4 and 1981's Ghost Story. Music wise, only two cassettes were to be nabbed that day, Dokken's Back for the Attack and Def Leppard's Hysteria. Anyway...

The first thing that I had to do with this particular tool box was to remove the old paint that looked worn, scratched, and generally deplorable in every way. There are two methods for removing paint like this from metal. The first would be to use a stripping agent such as Jasco's Paint Remover. I personally don't like using a paint remover for something I plan on repainting. Paint removers leave a residue which, if not removed correctly, will affect how the second coat adheres to the metal. You can always use an afterwash solution, but it's just another step and you wind up with a messy clump of liquid and paint. For this box, I decided to use a wire brush drill attachment to remove the paint on the box. First, I own several drills so there was no added cost to me having the necessary hardware. Strippers and an afterwash would add up to roughly $11.00 or more.

The wire brush attachment I bought was $2.50. I actually bought two, a smaller style attachment to reach into the corners inside the box. I got two attachments which I can use over and over again, in many different situations, for half the cost of the liquid solutions. The left brush is a coarser haired wire brush which I used on the flat surfaces of the box and generally everywhere that I could. It not only strips the paint faster than a fine grit brush would, but it also leaves a slightly rougher finish on the metal, giving the paint a better surface to adhere to. I used the finer wire brush (right) to do some small touch up on the metal hardware without removing too much of the patina. It ultimately resulted in a more consistent finish on the parts of the box that I knew I wasn't going to paint. For instance, the name plate on the top of the box, I wanted to leave with the oldish patina but there was some slight rust in the corners near where the handle is located. I used the fine brush to remove the rust, while leaving the patina.

I started removing the paint on the outside of the box. Of course, I wore a general purpose mask to prevent me from breathing in the small particles of paint which are never a good thing to breath in for many reasons, mostly Lead. It's also a good idea to wear some sort of eye protection. In my case, I also wore a pair of work gloves so should the wire brush come in contact with my hands, which did happen on several occasions, I would still have some sort of epidermis left. If you are really clumsy, you may want to also wear some sort of arm protection. I happened to briefly nick my arm with the brush and it left about seventeen thousand hairline scratches.



If you're a big strong tough guy like me, feel free to do this whole process in the nude, wearing no shoes, no face mask and while consuming your favorite cold beverage. Ultimately for my particular project the two most important liquids to have on hand were my 1/2 pint of paint and my 12oz bottle of Stone Pale ale. Of course, the other liquid which is necessary unless you want to keep buying paint brushes over and over again for eternity is a can of Mineral Spirits.




The finished exterior of my box. The exterior of my box took me approximately forty minutes to strip the paint from. If you really like the stainless steel look, you could actually just leave the box like this. It would be more susceptible to further rust without a protective coat however. For a real professional look, you would ideally want to use some sort of polishing powder or tool to give it a real smooth finish. Unfortunately, I did not take more pictures of this in progress. On the larger tool box, I will be sure to take more pictures, but then again, that is an entirely different project, quite a bit more difficult than this box. Anyway, with the outside of the box completely stripped I turned my attention to the inside of the box. Generally speaking the inside of something is always harder to work on than the outside. It is more difficult to get into the tighter spaces with tools specifically. I used an extension tool for my wire brush so that I had more room to maneuver within the box itself. There really is no right or wrong way to go about it. You can do the inside, then the outside, you can start on the lid or the bottom... whatever floats your canoe. I happened to start on the bottom first. The previous painter had painted the hardware so I made sure to get at that with the fine wire brush. To get in the corners, I actually couldn't fit the coarse brush so I just jammed the fine brush in the corners and removed the paint with that. There was a tiny small area of paint left there which I scraped off manually with some 60 grit sandpaper I had lying around.

Voila, the finished stripped box. All paint removed. The total time to remove all the paint on this box took about an hour and forty five minutes. I also think I took a minute of that to get a second beer. After finishing removing the old paint I took a damp rag and just removed any of the remaining dust from the metal so that I would have a completely clean surface to paint.

Before going ahead with painting the box, here are some more close up images of the box totally stripped. First, is the plate on the box showing the handle - very easily - disassembled.


I found it much easier to strip the stop of the box by removing the metal handle from it's holders just by using a little extra force to get it out. If you can remove hardware with ease, do it. Breaking down something into separate parts will make everything move along smoother and you don't have to worry about accidentally ruining a part of whatever you're working on.

Another picture of the plate on the box, showing the patina I wanted to leave as is. I felt it gave the box a bit of an antique-y feel and added a bit of detail to the box.

So we are ready to paint the box. I used a Purdy one inch brush for this project and for some of the really small details, I used hobby brushes - a #2 and #4. For this specific project, I saw no reason to prime the metal surface before applying my paint. The surface was already rough, due to the stripping of the older paint and I don't plan on having this box outside, in a situation that would endorse rust appreciation and the material was uniform across the whole project. If I planned on keeping this box in a place with high humidity, or outside or in an environment which would be more harsh than normal, using a clean metal primer would increase the already excellent protection from rust that your standard oil based enamel would provide. I would not use a latex based paint on a project such as this. For a small box like this, you only need a small amount of paint. I chose a gloss (shiny) finish and tinted the paint towards an industrial-gray-green color. Oil based paints are practically impossible to remove from clothing should you get some on a shirt or pants. Trust me, wear something you don't mind getting dirty.

I painted the inside of my box first. No reason to start there, I just thought it a good place to start. I specifically decided to leave the hardware with the metal showing. The rivets holding the company plate on the top of the box, the hinges and the front latch I left completely unpainted. I applied my first coat on the inside of the box and allowed for twenty-four hours to dry as directed on the can. I then proceeded to do a second coat to get a consistent finish across the whole surface. Be wary of applying too much paint at once to vertical surfaces. Over application will cause dripping marks. It's better to apply a thinner coat of paint, and do several thin coats and get a clean finish than to apply one massive thick coat and just get it done. On flat surfaces, this is not a problem and I often apply a thicker coat to surfaces such as the bottom of the box so I have less to touch up on the second coat. Be careful around detail spots such as hardware. If you are uncomfortable "cutting in" around tight spots with a larger brush, use a fine detail brush to get in the small areas. Remember, it's better to be careful than have to try and remove paint from a surface. Oil enamels are incredibly durable and a pain to remove from places where you don't want paint.

The most important part of doing a job like this, is making sure you clean your brushes properly after each coat. Paint brushes can be expensive, especially high quality brushes. Do not use a chip brush, or a cheap brush on a project like this. Chip brushes are generally one-time use brushes and have coarse hairs which leave unsightly hair marks on your finish. Cheap brushes work for a few coats but wear down when using chemicals to clean them - a required part of cleaning paints, particularly specialty paints such as oil based primers and enamels. For latex paints, economy brushes are acceptable at times but, if you use a premium quality brush, you will not have to buy brushes after each project and you can reuse them, over and over again.

For cleaning oil paints, mineral spirits an ideal solution to clean brushes. Pour a little amount into a cup, shake your brush around and you should be able to remove all the oils from the brush. After wards, rinse the brush in warm water with soap. Don't let the brush sit in the mineral spirits and rinse the brush immediately after painting. Oils are impossible to remove after they have dried and will ultimately cause you more trouble than is worth. You'll be forced to just buy another brush. After washing the brush, just let it hang on a peg hook or wherever to allow it to air dry.

I let the inside of the box dry completely before working on the outside. I did the outside part of the box in two steps. I applied paint to the upper three-quarters of the box first and did my recoat and then I finished the bottom of the box in the same manner. I then waited another twenty-four hours before reattaching the handle or handling the box. I cleaned my brushes after each coat, the same way as I described above and completed the box. The total project took me about four and a half hours excluding drying time. With drying time, I spent about 3 days, letting the painted parts dry for a full day between coats Here are some completed images of the tool box:

Finished Box without handle

Finished face plate without handle

Finished box with handle

Open Finished Box