Maybe it's unwelcoming because you're kind of a dum dum?
It seems like the, uh, research for this article was done by playing a game of telephone. Why not just copy/paste from the Wikipedia article on Mayhem?
Also, if anyone is aware of any NSBM bands who actually wore SS uniforms and the like, please let me know so I can check them out! I'm only aware of bands either following fairly standard BM aesthetic tropes, or looking like football hooligans.
Thankfully, her "music" and "journalism" endeavors seem to have ended a while ago.
I will add I have no particularly strong opinions about Pink Mass. I remember before actually hearing them, they were often presented as some sort of war metal parody band, but in reality they primarily seem to be middling grindcore. Just throw on some Naked Whipper instead (or for superior aesthetics coupled with better music, Tsatthoggua or Shitfucker).
I've been aware of Savage Grace's reactivation, and while I don't really have any particular expectations, I do think it has the potential to be more interesting than the 2010 gigs considering Chris Logue will be on guitar again. I was web surfing earlier and what I was unfortunately not aware of is that THE SAVAGE GRACE WEBSITE IS FUCKING INSANE.
As a huge Savage Grace fan (well, at least of their '80s stuff*), I don't mean that in a smarmy SJW-esque way either. Despite me being terribly late on this, as soon as I saw some of the crazy shit on there, I knew I had to make a blog post.
Eh, as much as I love Master of Disguise--it's almost (but not quite**) neck and neck with Skeptics Apocalypse as my favorite US speed metal album--this is some terribly overzealous embellishment at best. I subscribe to what I think is a pretty standard view: Priest, Accept, and Anvil having early examples of individual speed metal tracks, and the Exciter debut being the first overall speed metal album. As for the US? Never really thought about it too much. I consider The Dominatress and the early SG stuff to be far more USPM than speed metal anyway. Perhaps the '82 Exodus demo, or the Abattoir or Sceptre demo stuff?
Then there's the book:
This is a bit confusing, as the book is marketed for "men of honor and conviction"--isn't that kind of contradictory with that Ian Astbury looking cover? The "reviews" are fantastic and made me laugh in much the same way as I did when hearing the vocals in a certain Countess song for the first time. Alas, I doubt I'll be joining the affiliate program. The $19.95 price for a .pdf is a bit too steep, particularly since the site doesn't specifically mention if there's anything in there about Peter Knutson or Logue's illustrious medical career. For that price I want several hundred pages of how the Master of Disguise cover was conceived and executed (and why they didn't get a, uh, perkier gal for the cover).
Be sure to check out the photo gallery, lots of classic (and other) stuff. Considering anything semi-recent, probably the best classic metal bandsite photo gallery after Nasty Savage's.
I love it.
*"Crazy Saturday Night" is musically decent, but most of that lame early '90s hard rock shit they did makes me want to sing "HE'S THE JUDAS OF US ALL...BE-TRAYAAAAAAAH! BE-TRAYAAAAAAAH!"
**Don't feel bad. Cyriis was clearly a gift to metal from extraterrestrial forces.
I suspect the majority of Priest fans worked backwards to the Rocka Rolla era from whatever their JP initiation was. Anachronistically, I started with it, as "Dying to Meet You" was the first track on The Best of Judas Priest with their Gull material. It was the first time I had ever really sat down and seriously listened to metal, let alone Priest. My young self had a very nebulous idea of metal based almost solely on aesthetics and mid '80s pop culture portrayals, and of course, like a dork, I had christened myself a fan before I had even really heard any actual music.
Initially, I found "Dying to Meet You" very disappointing--it lacked the sizzle, the power, and the excitement I was expecting. It was very morose and lethargic compared to my preconceptions. I recall making some vague associations with whatever mental concept I had of old progressive rock at the time, but I'm sure that I had such limited grasp of genres and musical styles, the term really wouldn't have meant much to me. Were someone to tell me that's what heavy metal was, I would have moved on to something else. Then the galloping "hero, hero" part kicked in, everything clicked, and my destiny was set. And while I won't claim to have taken any particular notice of the drumming back then, John Hinch was still involved, in some small way, in things that set my life trajectory.
The post title and audio clip* come from the John Hinch interview responses from the "Insight Series" versions of The Best of Judas Priest.** They're available to hear on YouTube. While Mr. Tipton is sadly not a fan, anyone interested in Gull-era Priest or the state of pre-NWOBHM British hard rock should give them a listen.
*UPDATE: Apparently it doesn't work, and I have even less interest in fixing technical issues with this blog than I do in technical death metal. Listen to the interview stuff and you'll figure out the clip.
**The expanded edition of the CD with the Hinch tracks holds the distinction of being one of only two CDs I've ever bought at a Wal-Mart (and which are the only times I've ever gotten music at a regular department store, in fact). Wondering what the other was, aren't you? The Eternal Masters Black Sabbath tribute with Cadaver and Cannibal Corpse.
The visuals are obviously entertaining, but the music, not so much. This could use some overdubbing with something more thematically appropriate like Holocausto (speaking of which, I have yet to hear Diário de Guerra yet and don't have very high hopes for it, but the artwork is FUCKING KILLER. Reminds me of a Ghanaian movie poster version of the Persecution Mania cover).
In fact, there are a slew of high budget vids (I'm not going to bother linking them all):
The corpsepainted Tommy Wiseau/Pete Sandoval hybrid is the father of the younger fellow, which makes total sense in context. Offhand I can't think of any examples of metal nepotism resulting in anything great, only things like a garbage Omen album. In addition to this, there are also vids for the duo's punk project and some extremely cheap looking short film stuff, which all seemingly exist to showcase the son's production, edting, and CG, uh, skills.
While I wholeheartedly support the impalement of Fenriz, of course the great irony here is that pointlessly generic lo-fi black metal and dorky corpsepaint are themselves metal fads that desperately need to be summarily executed. This almost reminds me of how Beelzeebubth from Mystifier seemed staunchly traditionalist and against stereotypical Norwegian BM trends--very sensibly so--in past interviews, but rather than the nighttime Christ-abusing maniacs of the debut, his current bandmates look like a laughable appropriation of '90s Scandinavian BM aesthetics by middle-aged men.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that some of the older songs posted on YouTube are more listenable, with less ridiculous vocals and the semblance of something like actual drums. Sadly, the associated videos are far less visually exciting.
There's also a track which Metal-Archives claims is from 1991, long before the son was involved:
I don't think they should have expected a phone call from Cogumelo based on this, but as dismal black/death (with that endearingly sloppy soloing), it sounds right in line with the old Brazilian demo scene and is fairly enjoyable.
