Welcome to the newest feature here at Metal Army America, one we’re really excited about! Two of our esteemed writers will tackle a controversial subject in metal and debate each side of an argument. Each topic will be examined like an experiment, analyzed philosophically and pontificated on like …..like a pontiff! (Editor’s note: bad pun intended, sorry.) Well, maybe if that pontiff was Papa Emeritus of GHOST! A thoughtful debate between Metal Army America writers on topics concern metal music, its culture and the fans is what we are aiming for. These debates won’t always be as simple as pro versus con since issues like these are rarely cut and dry. Our hope is you will read these blogs and join in the conversation (respectfully, always) with us here in the comments below or on our Facebook page.
And…. here….. we….. go!
RELIGION AND METAL:
Keith (Keefy) Chachkes: I have always been fascinated with the role religion plays in music, specifically metal. BLACK SABBATH was really the first band I learned of as a child who exploited people’s fears of religion in their music. This was pretty potent to the listener when their use of the tri-tone (“The Devil’s note”) was heard in their first recorded notes ever, gave birth to metal. They had songs about Witchcraft and Satanism, while constantly warning against the false righteousness of the other side. Original black metal bands like VENOM and CELTIC FROST were outwardly evil sounding and promoted The Devil as the enemy of normal society, and the prowess of the occult over anything else. This has influenced everything that has happened in heavy music in the last thirty years.
American bands like EXODUS, SLAYER and POSSESED were the next generation bands to reference it heavily, often pitting Christianity against metal as a whole. Most of the old-school death metal bands, when they weren’t fixated on gore, were quite blasphemous (hats off to you DEATH & GLEN BENTON!). Being anti-religion of any kind is enough to get you censored and threatened with jail in most societies, just ask NERGAL of Behemoth or the guys from WATAIN. From church burning Norwegian bands in the 1990′s to modern Neo-folk/Pagan Metal, your favorite Norse/Viking metal bands, modern black and death metal bands and even the recent “occult rock” bands all use religion to attract fans, draw endless topics for songs and define themselves.
“Jesus, you say? I don’t believe we’ve met.”
With all the energy spent on hating Jude-Christian values, there is a flip side rarely talked about by fans. If religions didn’t exist, what would they be angry at? I’m sure there would still be plenty of shitty things in the world to sing about if there were no religion. Personally, I can enjoy the music of bands like THE CHARIOT, FOR TODAY, and MY CHILDREN MY BRIDE who use their music as a platform to promote their beliefs, even if I find the on stage preaching distasteful. They certainly have a right to do it, as does NILE to talk about ancient Sumerian beliefs, as does CHTHONIC does to discuss their historic religious culture in a modern political context. It’s all good to me and makes a more interesting world of heavy music to listen to and write about.
Dave Williams: Since being handed this assignment, I’ve been struggling somewhat with my potential approach. For those who know me only superficially, my position should seem obvious. My feelings on religion (Christianity in general) are quite public, and I play in a band that exists solely to question/attack the theistic masses.
Was this a good thing or a bad thing?
That said, there is the part of me that very strongly believes that music’s true purpose (particularly in the case of metal, hardcore, punk, and any other ‘rebel’ music) is the unbridled expression of our passions, regardless of what those might be. As members of these subcultures, we have always been beacons for free speech, and to draw lines as to who should be allowed to say what seems rather hypocritical…
However, then there is my true stance on this matter: Metal (and again, hardcore/punk/etc) was born as a reactionary position against the purveying herd mentality of the Western hemisphere (and has obviously expanded its scope quite significantly since), and part of that mentality, undeniably, is the pox upon our species that is Christianity. For eons, the befuddled masses have commandeered and swept countless cultures and histories under the proverbial rug, and the co-opting of rebel music as a form of ‘praise’ is simply another example of the slow, steady trampling of the world’s beauty beneath the lumbering feet of a billion filthy, bleating sheep.
(I should mention that my feelings on the presence of other ‘religions’ within the genre are not quite as strong. Granted, this is inevitably somewhat personal as Christianity simply hits closer to home, but as I attribute nearly all of the modern world’s ills to the spread of the Christian disease, any counterpoint is at least slightly welcome)
To melodramatically drive my point home, I leave you with this: To me, metal is the Cerberus-guarded gates that separate true humanity from celestial, dead-eyed lunatics. Metal is the fucking nails that bind their fictional savior to the planks that adorn a billion fools’ walls the world over. Simply put, metal is a pure expression of freedom (in an entirely non-patriotic, non-nationalist sense), and spiritual surrender is its fundamental opposition. Follow Metal Army contributor Dave Williams at: his website and on Twitter.
AMON, the band featuring the HOFFMAN brothers who formed DEICIDE with Glen Benton many years ago, has announced the plans for their new album ‘Liar In Wait’. Apparently, the band will be self-releasing the album via their newly launched website and online outlets like iTunes and Amazon. It strikes me as odd that they couldn’t secure a record deal for this album as it seems like a ton of hype has been building on what the band will deliver.
Will you be picking up the new album from AMON? Do you expect it to be better than the latest DEICIDE record?
Back when I first heard the rumors of this tour, it was going to be a DEICIDE/OBITUARY co-headline tour. However, after the recent tales of Glen giving RALPH SANTOLLA the boot from DEICIDE, I imagine those guys are no longer on speaking terms which means that now DEICIDE is going to hit the road solo. The bill for the tour is really fucking impressive. LECHEROUS NOCTURNE is an awesome death metal band from the small but crushing UNIQUE LEADER RECORDS, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS are an awesome band (seriously, if you haven’t listened to them since they dropped the keyboards, you are missing out) and JUNGLE ROT are death metal icons that I can’t wait to see live.
Then there is DEICIDE. Really, who has any idea how much longer this band will be around? They don’t really tour as much anymore. All that said, they are still one of the most important and well-known death metal bands of all time who just released their best album in quite some time so I highly recommend you get there and check this show out!
The tour doesn’t start until March 2012, but keep it on your radar. You don’t want to miss this trek!
3/1/12-West Springfield, VA-Jaxx
3/2/12-Reading, PA-Reverb
3/3/12-New York, NY-The Gramercy Theatre
3/4/12-Montreal, QUE-FouFounes
3/5/12-Quebec City, QUE-Imperial de Quebec
3/6/12-Toronto, ONT-Opera House
3/7/12-Rochester, NY-Montage Music Hall
3/8/12-Cleveland, OH-Peabody’s
3/9/12-Detroit, MI-Blondie’s
3/10/12-Chicago, IL-Reggie’s Rock Club
3/12/12-Winnipeg, MB-The Osbourne Village Inn
3/13/12-Regina, SK-The Exchange
3/14/12-Edmonton, AL-Starlite
3/15/12-Calgary, AL-Dickens
3/16/12-Kelowna , BC-Rutland Centennial Hall
3/17/12-Vancouver, BC-Rickshaw Theater
3/18/12-Seattle, WA-El Corazon
3/19/12-Portland, OR-Hawthorne Theatre
3/20/12-San Francisco, CA-The Grand Ballroom
3/21/12-West Hollywood, CA-House of Blues
3/22/12-Tempe, AZ-Clubhouse
3/23/12-Salt Lake City, UT-The Complex
3/24/12-Denver, CO-Bluebird Theater
3/26/12-Dallas, TX-Trees
3/27/12-Austin, TX-Emo’s Alternative Lounging
3/28/12-New Orleans, LA-The Hangar
3/29/12-Orlando, FL-The Club at Firestone
This is one of the most interesting things I’ve heard about in the past few months and I really can’t wait to see the footage when it airs! MAYHEM’s founding bassist NECROBUTCHER (real name: Jørn Stubberud) will travel to Phoenix, AZ to have an exorcism performed on him by legendary televangelist Bob Larson. The exorcism will be filmed by NRK, which is basically Norway’s version of PBS, and broadcast in a special show that they are packaging. MAYHEM is truly one of the most Satanic bands in the black metal scene and NECROBUTCHER certainly has a long past of anti-Christian sentiment so it will be quite interesting to see this play out and just what Larson and Stubberud make out of this meeting.
Metal Hammer Magazine caught up with MAYHEM at Wacken Open Air last weekend and asked him Stubberud about the upcoming exorcism: “NRK is sending me over to Phoenix, Arizona next week. There’s this famous preacher. I’m not a believer, so I think he’s a quack. A very religious guy. He’s an excorcist; that’s what he does. I’m just there for the fun of it. He’s gonna perform an exorcism on me on national TV. So it’s gonna be wild as fuck and, of course, I don’t expect to suddenly be free from some demons or whatever. I’m just there for the fun of it and for the hell of it.”
“All religious people, when they talk about [how] they talked to God or God talked to them, stuff like that, I know it’s a lie. Because they look at all the people, they speak in tongue, it’s a mass, they get into that stuff, they think, ‘If I behave like that guy, all the people will think that I truly have an open connection straight to God’ or whatever. But for us, enlightened people, we know that it’s all bullshit, that they’re full of fucking lies and shit. And that’s why I’m there — to give a little punch and a kick in the ass to this little quack and people saying that they have direct contact with God and shit like that.”
So, it sounds as if NECROBUTCHER won’t be playing along very well if and when this exorcism fails to rid him of any “demons”.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Larson before, he became the de facto zealot of the metal community and, in the early 90s, traded barbs (hilariously) with DEICIDE frontman Glen Benton on his syndicated radio show. Check out the most memorable call ever below!
It appears that DEICIDE has booted Ralph Santolla from the ranks after Glen Benton took to Facebook to set the record straight regarding the situation. One quick look at the official DEICIDE fan page shows that Santolla has been replaced by Kevin Quirion in the members section but no official announcement has come from Century Media, the band’s label, as of this writing.
To me, Santolla really never fit with DEICIDE anyway. Sure, he was in DEATH and OBITUARY, but DEICIDE isn’t your typical death metal band. They’re not ‘fun’ — they’re fucking DEICIDE. Santolla, to me, always seemed better suited for a mainstream metal act where he and the rhythm guitarist could lean back-to-back and ‘rawk out’ during a solo.
Below is a string of messages that Benton posted on Facebook last night. If any official word from Century comes, we’ll keep you updated!
“Ralph didn’t make us better, he never wrote one part and he threw up all over the studio drunk when he did his leads, fuck that drunk, Kevin is back full time, we would rather have a tight sound than that drunk fucking his way through the set”
“Deicide If it had been solely up to me I would have kicked his ass off the tour the first night and sent for Kev…but the nice guy I am we gave him some chances, to bad alcohol is more important than your livelihood…”
” Oh the whole I am a Christian thing with him is total bullshit…the guy just uses that shit to upset myself and the fans…don’t buy it, the guy couldn’t tell ya the last time he went to church…”
” The fucked up thing is, that he thinks it’s fine to go on stage a drunken mess, me and Steve have more respect for the fans then to let him make us look bad, fuck the guy, total drunk” “Like I said, YouTube the drunk, let obituary sound like shit, we care what we sound like,”
“Just to get the story straight cause the bum will deny it, I kicked his drunk ass off the bus in Italy..and finished the tour as a three piece…that’s how bad it was with the drunkard…I would rather sound tight than to have him slopping through the songs another night…”
I headed back down to Club Hell in Providence for another awesome show. This has been without a doubt my favorite small venue for metal in the Northeast for the last half year. The place is cool, the crowds are good and the sound is excellent for metal and deathmetal as evidenced by the recent shows I’ve seen here with NILE, OVERKILL/FORBIDDEN and now DEICIDE for the “God is Dead-To Hell With God Tour”. I think at one point during the night I turned to my friends and said “I wish I owned this place!”. I’m glad there are still places like this that cater to metal and are proud to book these bands. You gotta support your scene where ever you are or make one if there isn’t one. The future of metal depends on being able to see bands do their thing live and bands getting as up close and personal to the fans as possible. Thankfully the turnout for this bitter cold Sunday in February was stout, keeping my metal faith strong.
Local openers VIOLENT HISTORY was the first band on this night. They are young guys who play an exciting blend of thrash and classic sounding deathmetal and the results were good. Referring to themselves as playing “Blackstone Valley Thrash” they played a handful of uptempo heavy-ass numbers and showed off some impressive chops, especially their drummer Rob Cinami. They did a fine job warming up the early crowd especially with their best song of the set “Venomizer” which sounds like old-school SLAYER mashed with modern deathmetal. I’ll be looking out for more from these guys in the future.
PATHOLOGY was the first tour band up tonight and they arrived with little fanfare to begin with. Setting up their own gear I barely recognized them with new singer Jonathan Huber (I DECLARE WAR) added to the fact that the band has been plagued with constant turnover. I was a big fan of ex-singer Matti Way and was curious to hear how Huber would mesh with them. The minute they started to play however, it was pure mayhem and any doubt was erased. Playing their take on So-Cal technical deathmetal the band ripped through a set mostly comprising songs of of last years Legacy of The Ancients (Victory Records). Huber’s mouthy, guttural vocals add a great dimension to the band and he fits them beautifully as a performer. Opening up with an old song in “Symptoms of Bleeding” they just crushed it. Rather than compose mini-epic journey music like DECREPIT BIRTH or technically impossible sounding songs like BRAINDRILL, PATHOLOGY writes short songs that rarely repeat parts or themes. “Among Giants” and “Code Injection” arrive, hit you over the head musically and are done before your third eye has a chance to blink. Tim Tiszcenko (BEING KILLED) and Kevin Schwartz do a nice job of playing riffy complicated parts that intertwine and don’t clutter the sound-scape, coming off like a modern OBITUARY. Longtime bassist Oscar Ramierez keeps the low end low, but has strong chops and plays tasty parts for this kind of band. Cutting through five brutal songs in under twenty minutes is a feat for any band and their economy paid off with a deeper set than most opening bands get. “Legacy of the Ancients”, “Collapsing in Violence” and the brilliant “Saturn Brotherhood” ended their run and left me wanting more. If this lineup, also bolstered by powerhouse drummer Dave Astor (CATTLE DECAPITATION/BEING KILLED) can stay together at all the sky is the limit for them.
Set List:
Symptoms of Bleeding
Among Giants
Code Injection
Age Onset
Afterlife
Legacy of the Ancients
Collapsing in Violence
Saturn Brotherhood
Next up was another techie death band, NEURAXIS hailing from the great Montreal scene. I talked to vocalist Alex and the bassist Oliver before the show and they were really excited to be on the tour with DEICIDE. They remarked how stoked they were at how well received their new material is going over. Asylon (Prosthetic Records) has just been released to rave reviews and the band has several big tours lined up up in the states in addition to this one. They hit the stage very quickly and I was impressed at how much of the room showed them support. Even though they have been around for ever I have seen them before and the crowd response was blah at the time. One of the best frontmen in the underground Alex jumps all around and pumps the crowd up live few others in the game. “Reptile” was unleashed on the crowd and everyone was into it as a fierce pit broke out. Shifting tempos, blastbeats and over the top guitar riffs are all in the mix in the short track. The “Dreaming End” was next and the chaos continued with Alex standing on the stage monitors imploring the crowd to move. Although everyone in the group has the delivers the goods Guitarist Robin Miley is really the standout player with his chunky riffs, crazy tricks and the occasional solo. “Savior and Destroyer” was the best song of the set with its bruising heaviness and awesome lyrics to match. Alex is one of the finest lyricists in the scene these days. The band wrapped things up with “Left to Devour” and thanked everybody for remembering them and the supporting metal.
Set List:
Reptile
Dreaming the End
Savior and Destroyer
Asylum
Clarity
Left To Devour
With BELPHEGOR not able to enter the country for the initial few weeks of the tour due to visa problems with their consulate, BLACKGUARD was in the #2 slot tonight right under the headliners. Having seen them twice before and not really crazy about them in first place I decided to give up my prime spot at the front of the stage and mingle a bit. DEICIDE main man Glen Benton was just chillin in the back of the club posing for pictures and chatting with fans. He was really relaxed and mellow which is a stark contrast to his on stage demeanor.
BLACKGUARD took the stage with a lot of passion and they had many heads in the room that rushed to the front. Playing a mix of thrash and folk-metal themed music they kept the energy high and the circle pits going. It was nice to see that they were enthusiastically received even by some of the DEICIDE fans whom I have seen bottle bands they did not like once before. They played a set of mostly new songs from their forthcoming album Firefight (Victory Records). Their best song of the set was “Fear of All Flesh” which has some nice thrashy parts to it. BLACKGUARD are a solid band and you likely love them if you are into this style so check them out if you are interested.
Set List:
The Sword
Firefight
Farewell
Fear of All Flesh
Allegiance
Finally the hour for evil was nigh, otherwise known as DEICIDE time! I managed to muscle my way back to the front of the stage right up close. People were already moshing a little before the band even started to play with a lot of pushing and shoving up front. There were some especially badass female metalheads right up front too and now that I think of it DEICIDE might be the death metal band with the best female fan turnout. Nevertheless, it was time for the craziness to begin as the band came out one at a time, with Glen last from behind his huge bass stack. They sprang to life immediately with “Homage for Satan” and the scene in the tiny club was epic. As usual the band was a tight, well-oiled machine ready to unleash hell on our ears. Next up was the bands’ best known song “Dead by Dawn” which was killer to hear so early in the night. My neck and back were already sore as a legion of crowd surfers and stage divers attempted take over our spot in the front during the breakneck speed song. The band kept the assault on high as they tore through classics “Once Upon the Cross” and “Scars of the Crucifix” without stopping for a second.
Finally taking a mini-break to address the crowd, Glen welcomed and thanked everybody for coming out and talked about the history the band has playing gigs in the New England-area. Saying it was “time for more old shit” the band went right into “Scars of the Crucifix” and “When Satan Rules his World”. These older gems from the past that really demonstrates the full power of the band. Glen’s hateful satanic lyrics and underrated bass playing lead the charge while drummer Steve Asheim (ORDER OF ENEAD) sets the table for every song with his amazing sweet skills. He is truly inspiring to watch live as he jams away behind the kit, but never misses a beat. Always precise, never over playing and always in control. Then you have Jack Owen (CANNIBAL CORPSE/ORDER OF ENEAD) and Ralph Santolla (OBITUARY/ ICED EARTH/DEATH) who are the most formidable 1-2 guitar tandems in the genre. Neither ever seems to break a sweat while playing difficult rhythms or sick leads. Later on when introducing Ralph, Glen thanked OBITUARY for “whoring him out to us” which was hilarious. Ralph and Jack turned out amazing solos one after the other, all night.
The band mixed up the set list throughout the night which was also refreshing. Both classic early material and new songs off of To Hell With God (Century Media Records) blended together well. Brand new tracks like “Hang In Agony Until You Are Dead”, “Conviction” and “Witness of Death” went over really well and people around me already knew some of the words which was impressive. However, the diehards came out to hear the best of the beast so to speak and DEICIDE delivered with full demonic force. Powerful renditions of “They Are the Children of the Underworld”, “Death to Jesus”, “Desecration” and “Kill the Christian” had the fans enraptured. After a brief break the band returned for a killer encore of “Lunatic of God’s Creation” and “Sacrificial Suicide”. It was an hour and a half of pure, blasphemous music and nobody left in the aptly named Club Hell could be happier at the end.
The last few years have seen a great resurgence by most of the original forefathers of American Deathmetal. We have seen and heard some excellent albums from the likes of CANNIBAL CORPSE, IMMOLATION, MALEVOLENT CREATION, OBITUARY, MACABRE and recent reissues of the early DEATH classic catalog. Without appreciating history we not only don’t know where we came from, but where we are going either. Many bands and the community at large still look up Glen Benton and DEICIDE to dictate the course of history. Naturally when a veteran act comes out with a new album there is a tendency to bestow automatic blind praise on it (IRON MAIDEN’s last album comes to mind). It says a lot about a band that could rest on their reputation and laurels and doesn’t. When a band like DEICIDE steps up to the plate and puts out one of their finest albums in their twenty-three year career, you have to step back and show respect.
Opening with the unrelenting tittle track, the sounds in my headphones immediately took me back to such albums as Once Upon the Cross and Serpents of the Light, the excellent middle era of the band. Spastic yet precise drums, sick riffs and great ripping solos give way to pure ecstasy for the listener. Add in the pure holocaust vocals and evil lyricism from Glen you have death metal gold. You can just tell this song is destined to be a great show starter and staple live for years to come. Second track “Save Your” piles on the ultra hate of religion with preposterously fast double bass kicks, blast beats and rhythmic guitar chug. It’s hard to fathom that in the pantheon of greatest death drummers Steve Asheim (ORDER OF ENNEAD) is never one of the first few guys mentioned by most. It’s hard to count him as underrated among his peers, but his performance here is some of his best work ever. “Witness of Death” is where the album rises over the standard fare for DEICIDE and starts to go into the realm of new territory. The song is brutal and short, making its point felt. Ralph Santolla (DEATH/OBITUARY/ICED EARTH) does one of his patented delay and chorus drenched solos full of equal parts shred and dread. DEICIDE has always done a good job of showing their “Slaytanic influence” without copying. “Conviction” has a great SLAYER inspired main riff, but is steeped in the strict DEICIDE style. This song is not only killer it boasts great solos from Santolla and Jack Owen (CANNIBAL CORPSE/ORDER OF ENNEAD). Each take a turn showing off their distinctly different styles. “Empowered by Blasphemy” features another sick riff/beat combo. Glen Benton’s business is Satanism and not only is business booming, he never fails to articulate his anti-Christian beliefs in new ways. Another batch of crazy leads close out the hectic finish. “Angels of Hell”, “Hang in Agony Until You’re Dead” and “Servant of the Enemy” are also fast paced thumpers. “Hang In Agony….” in particular has amazing tribal breakdown part that gives way to another explosive guitar volley from Santolla. Most of these tracks are so well written and so short and to the point you could miss them since the entire record is a direct and to the point thirty five minutes. The record finishes out strong with the classic sounding cuts “Into the Darkness You Go” and “How Can You Call Yourself A God” which stack up against anything the band has done in quite a while.
Before DEICIDE became the band you now know, they were called AMON and featured the iconic Hoffman brothers on guitar. After a massive falling out, the Hoffmans have been out of the spotlight for a bit of time but have now resurrected the AMON banner and are recording a brand new album, ‘Liar in Wait’, for a 2011 release. This band finds the Hoffmans alongside former members of SUCCESS WILL WRITE APOCALYPSE ACROSS THE SKY and the cover for the album is available below. What do you think? Are you excited to hear what the Hoffmans have to offer?
The blasphemous BELPHEGOR is gearing up to release another perverse slab of satanic death metal upon the masses. On January 14, ‘Blood Magick Necromance’ will be released via Nuclear Blast and soon after these Austrian titans of destruction will head out on tour in North America with death metal icons DEICIDE. Check out this studio report from the band and get ready for things to get freaky, creepy and weird – that’s just how BELPHEGOR rolls!
