The path I chose has led me to my grave…
When I first heard Slayer I hated it. It was probably Show No Mercy and I think we were all over at Shelton’s house. He was all about some Slayer which was probably the main reason i didn’t like them. Any time you saw Shelton you heard, “Slayuh rules.” You never really wanted to disagree with him because he was an ox and would wrestle you into submission or body slam you or something. He was a bit of a nutcase and I always felt sorry for his mom. She was so nice.
Metal Blade Records put out 3 compilations called The Best of Metal Blade (vols 1, 2 and 3…duh). Each of them had Slayer and I liked the songs that were compiled…Chemical Warfare, Evil has No Boundaries, Black Magic and Die By the Sword. But I still didn’t consider myself a fan. Then one day in 1986 I was at either at Kelz’ or Danile’s house (sure, his name is Daniel but spelling it Danile is much more fun) and someone had Reign In Blood (on cassette of course!). I was so not into listening to it when they were talking about it. I’m stubborn. Some things never change as I am still stubborn, but I digress. I sat defiantly and quietly in my listening as Angel of Death started.
Then the drums kicked in. WTH? Are those his feet doing that? Really? Someone says dude, check this part out. Yes, you know which part. Right at the end of the solo when everything stops and it’s nothing but Lombardo’s feet pounding the shit out of the kick drums. “Play that again.” “OK, one more time.” “Can we check that part out again?”
On that day I became a Slayer fan. Soon after I went back to the older stuff and really gave it a chance. Raw. Vicious. Vile. Crude. Badass. The whole album plays like a concept album even though it’s not. The cool thing was that the whole album fit on one side of the tape so you never had to turn the tape over when it was in your car stereo. It’s the best and fastest 29:03 of your life.
I went to a Catholic high school and got kicked out of religion class every few weeks for arguing theology or from some other class for just for being a pain in the ass. Instead of going to the office I’d usually just go to the library and listen to Reign In Blood. It was more productive. When classmates would hear it they’d just shake their heads.
I liked South of heaven when it first came out but it was no Reign In Blood. I was pretty much done with Slayer after Seasons In the Abyss. They got a little too…polished.
I’ll meet you in Poland, baby…
I’m pretty sure it was spring or fall of 1991 (92 maybe?) when I went to JMU to visit with Kelz for a weekend. While there we drank…a lot. No, really. A LOT. We hit the local watering hole called JM’s and went thru about 5 or 6 pitchers of beer all while trying to play the video bowling game. I swear I think we got better the drunker we got. I just remember hitting a few parties that night and drinking more. I remember listening to some Dwight Yoakim on vinyl at some dude’s apartment. I went blind that night, that is until Kelz said “dude, open your eyes.” Oh, well…that was why I couldn’t see. Thanks!
The next day we went record store hopping which I believe consisted of 2 record stores and a few pawn shops. Harrisonburg, VA is not a big town. One of the things he played for me while I was there was was this odd sounding industrial song called “Fin” by Feotus Interruptus which featured clips from Overkill’s debut LP Feel The Fire…you know, the “kill kill kill kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllll” part. Of course you know.
He let me hear a few other songs from that album “Thaw” and I believe made me a cassette dub of “Nail” for the long ride home. I was hooked. Totally not my style of music but this guy’s arrangements and lyrics we pretty cool. He was totally vile, raw, irreverent and everything he needed to be.
See, Foetus is really just one guy…Jim (JG) Thirwell, Clint Ruin, Foetus. He does his albums himself and has a live touring band. All Foetus albums are four letter word titles…Deaf, Ache, Rife, Hole, Thaw, Nail, Sink, Gash, Null, Void, Boil, Love, Flow, Blow…you get the picture.
The week after I got married in June of ’95, Kelz called and told me that Feotus was playing in DC @ the old 930 Club. The wife indulged me and gave me the go ahead to go. I think she went to her mom’s that weekend anyway. That was great fun. We got chased by a gimpy bum, ate great chinese food, saw Foetus and just had a good time.
The Foetus stuff was pretty much trash from the time Gash came out until now. Once he got signed to Sony and started doing work for MTV, my interest in his music waned. Lots of his side projects were pretty cool, mainly Wiseblood and Steroid Maximus.
You can check out his newer stuff here. More info at Foetus.org.
Everyone goes south every now and and then…
I remember hearing Billy Joel’s The Stranger probably a year or 2 after it came out, maybe even a little later. The title track is such a great tune. Some pretty deep lyrics and some of which hit home to me every couple of years when I get off my normal path.
Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin, some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They’re the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on
I’m not a huge Billy Joel fan but this album has stuck with me for a lot of years. Lots of familiars on there Movin’ Out, Just The Way You Are, Only The Good Die Young and She’s Always A Woman. But it’s songs like The Stranger and Scenes From An Italian Restaurant that really set Billy above a lot of the other singer/songwriters of that era. Plus he had such a badass band. C’mon, his drummer’s name is Liberty Devito, how can you go wrong?
Here’s a vid from the recently released 30th Anniversary box set. I went to Encore Music to buy some metal and saw this set and flipped out.
So, Sarah Palin eh?
She’s pretty but alas, she won’t get my vote no matter the hottie factor.
Bob Barr 08!
We’ll Burn the Sky…
So I guess it was around 2000 when my best friend Daniel and I went to see DIO, Deep Purple and the Scorpions at the Va Beach Amphitheater. I think I had scored some free tix from someone and they were grass passes. It was a great show all in all. Doug Aldrich was a badass for DIO, Deep Purple was better than expected and I was all excited when they played Perfect Strangers.
But…the highlight of the night was when the Scorpions played “We’ll Burn the Sky.” When Klaus Meine announced that they were going to go back and play and old song, I expected some like “Loving You Sunday Morning” or something else from Lovedrive. Much to our surprise, he announced We’ll Burn the Sky. Daniel and I stood up and cheered along with about 5 other people it seemed. Obviously most of the Scoprions fans there wanted to just hear stuff from Love At First Sting.
This is one of my all time faves from them. They always wrote such great love songs/ballads and this one simply rules.
The song seems to be about his girl who died.
I’m in love with the sunshine
I’m in love with the falling rain
Everything seems to call your name
Yesterday, you were leavin’
Leavin’ life and all the pain
Everything wants you back again
I’ve found myself through you
And there was love in my life
I felt always naturally high
And my love had a home
But now my mind has started to roam
You’re my life-giving fire
And you carry all my love
Through you I was so inspired
You’re engraved deep in my heart
My dreams recall us being one
I’ve searched for you to be free
My force of life you have always been
I feel blue since you’ve gone
Your breath of love surrounded me
When can I rejoin you to be free
Wait, can this be a dream
There is a voice in my head
It belongs to you, it says
Don’t cry no need to be sad
There’s a way to stay with you again
It’s more than you ever had
And no death brings us apart
Our timeless love always grows
Because you are my other heart
I know we’ve never been apart
Your love sets fire to my heart
We’ll Burn The Sky
When it’s timeFor me to die!
We’ll Burn The Sky
Oh YeahWe’ll Burn The Sky
Oh YeahWhen it’s time to die
We’ll Burn The Sky
We’ll Burn The Sky
The Metal Files 
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