Malcolm Young

Malcolm Young, we salute you.

AC↯DC, laying waste to the chaste at the Myer Bowl, Melbourne, '76.

Dirty Rotten Imbeciles

Later this afternoon I'm heading down to Blackwire Records to see D.R.I. It's a weird occasion for me. I'm stoked, but it's tinged with a bittersweet sense of melancholy nostalgia. The last time I saw the Texan powerhouse was exactly 30 years ago, December '87, at the show above. That was the night that the East Coast contingent of Nazi skins (coming from as far afield as Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne and our own town of Canberra, which was home to the worst of them) organised to meet en masse and fuck our shit up. They were violent thugs, bigger than us, and the pattern that had been established over the years leading up to that night was that they bullied, and we ran. That night the unthinkable happened: we fought back, and they were not ready for it.

Some memories of that night:

- Randy from Massappeal, full-force smashing a skin in the face with a folded cymbal stand. Lots of blood.

- A big dude (who I now believe to be Chumly Porter, D.R.I.'s roadie at the time, who would later join the band before taking his own life in 2011) wading into the melee from backstage, to flat-out deck two of the biggest skins.

- When things were looking grim, my friend Trog taking the stage and grabbing the mic, rallying the room into fighting back. An action that would result in him having part of his ear sliced off with a knife, when he was jumped by some of these cowards a few months later.

- After the tables had turned (and a bunch of tables had literally been overturned) a room full of passionate people chanting "NAZIS OUT" until they left.

- Later, after the show had resumed, getting brained so hard by a stagediver's knee that I blacked out in the pit for a few seconds.

Yeah, I know I'm old, and there's nothing worse than hearing old punks rant about their glory days. But there's something important to take away from this: Nazism, xenophobia, homophobia, sexism, hate, is on the rise. Everywhere. At the highest levels of power, and in your hometown.

Don't be complacent. Stand up. Fight back.

GREEN ROOM OST

The complete soundtrack for Jeremy Saulnier's Green Room is now streaming on Spotify. Have a listen below. You get all of Brooke and Will Blair's score, some tracks from Corpus Rottus, Midnight, Hochstedder, Battletorn, Patsy's Rats, CCR(!), and finally four tracks from Green Room's unfortunate punk band, the Ain't Rights (that's actually not a bad cover of "Nazi Punks Fuck Off"). Not enough for ya? Then scroll down and take a look at some alternate art that's cropped up online recently (the last one is weirdly coincidental after yesterday's post).

An Aussie release date has finally been confirmed, and I've got my tickets for opening night next week (that's Wednesday 11th at Dendy Newtown for my fellow Sydneysiders). Fuck yes!

CHAIN GANG GRAVE

"Fusion" has become such a dirty word for punks, and with pretty good reason. It's a sad fact that some great '90s bands like NoMeansNo ended up paving the way for some of the worst musical trainwrecks of the late '90s and '00s. For every band who got it right (San Francisco's The Mass), there were a hundred that are just unlistenable garbage. The pendulum swung, and now the DIY kids are so obsessed with back to basics "purity" (imitation) that almost everything just sounds the same, a trend that's no less tiresome and a lot more regressive.

Then a band like New York's Chain Gang Grave comes along, and things don't seem so grim anymore. Sounds that ride the line between the purity that hardcore needs to stay honest, and the progression that it needs to keep growing. This unholy fusion of hardcore, noise rock and death metal doesn't feel forced, it feels like just what I need.

Bury Them and Keep Quiet

Lemmy Kilmister

Just a few weeks after losing Phil Taylor, Lemmy is gone. I'm gutted. A world without Lemmy in it is gonna be a shittier place to live in.

that's the way I like it baby

I don't wanna live forever

Phil Taylor

The Philthy Animal is gone.

One of the raddest drummers ever, he was the hammer that drove the Motör.

INTERVIEW: Andrei Bouzikov

For longtime readers of this blog the name Andrei Bouzikov should be a familiar one by now. For the uninitiated, Andrei is a Belarusian-American graphic artist, renowned the world over for his lurid Ed Repka-style album covers. Although best known for his thrash metal covers, his art has also graced the LPs, shirts and posters of a long list of bands that span the gamut of metal genres (and some hardcore too). Among the horde of bands to get the Bouzikov treatment: Autopsy, Amebix, S.O.D., Toxic Holocaust, High on Fire, Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch, Volture, Cannabis Corpse, Fucked Up, Nails, A.N.S. and Vöetsek. The man recently relented to an intense bout of interrogation for the EYE, and the results of that demonic inquisition are as follows...

EYE: Your work is often political and frequently depicts environmental destruction. Is this driven more by your connection to Belarus and what's happening there, or from your experience of living in the US? What's pissing you off at the moment?

AB: I am an '80s Soviet child, I was heavily influenced by Cold War scare and aftermath of nuclear fallout. Even though Soviet Union collapsed 25 years ago this post-apocalyptic theme is stronger than ever - pop culture is full of it. I don't feel very pissed off just because it's too exhausting! The pictures I make are influenced by both worlds, old and new, past and present. I hope the subject matter stays a fantasy, just trying to have fun with painting process and work.

EYE: Who are some other contemporary artists that you are into at the moment?

AB: Anything from cave art to modern art color field paintings! I love Scott Greenwalt's paintings, Skinner's art is fantastic, Mike Sutfin's illustrations blow my mind every day! Really enjoy Iggy Pop, Timothy Cummings' art, Ben Venom, Odd Nerdrum, Julie Heffernan, Vivienne Westwood. Many more of course.

EYE: What is your usual development process when designing album covers? Do bands supply the concept, or do you have free rein?

AB: Most of the time bands give me a concept and I have to stick to guidelines, but I think best cover art comes out when I can do my own thing. I was trained as an illustrator so I can take a concept and try to make it work, even though it can restrict your creativity. That's the mistake some bands make, their ideas are so specific that there is no room for interpretation left and what they get at the end is a skilled art laborer. Instead they need to unleash an art stallion and let it roam free around the canvas haha. It's the same with music, when you create a song you just kind of jam and wander off into deepest corners of your subconsciousness, then some tune catches your ear and you go along with it. The same with visual art, you just sit there at your table almost meditating, and then images start popping out one after another until, bingo!, you have yourself a basic shape and composition. Then you add details, reworking certain parts, add a few things here and there and bam! You got a nice little painting.

EYE: Is it hard to make a living doing what you do? Do you have to supplement your income with more commercial work?

AB: Very hard! Not knowing when your next paycheck is coming is always worrying. At some point to get by I had to take on every project, now I am a bit more selective and don't take the job if it's underpaid or the concept is strange. Sometimes I have non music related illustration projects, and I used to work for an interior muralist. We would paint rococo style 18th century paintings in different client's homes. That was a great gig, we would travel a lot and paint some cool stuff. If I hadn't had that at the time I wouldn't have been able to eat.

EYE: Do you ever scan your paintings and do some retouching in Photoshop?

AB: I mostly paint on illustration boards then scan it at Kinko's. After that I drop a file to Photoshop, trick out the levels a bit and maybe add some details, maybe prong out the lights and darken the shadows, that's it!

EYE: What's your favourite album cover that you've done?

AB: Really like one of my first paintings that end up being used by Voetsek Infernal Command LP. I just dropped out of art school (school loans ran out a few months before I graduated, which sucked and made no sense) and I was messing around with composition and colors. After the painting was complete my roommate/bandmate at the time Scotty from Tankcrimes noticed that piece in my room and asked if he can use it for his band. It was one of my first thrash related paintings, after that came Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch and many more. Really like Ghoul/Cannabis Corpse painting.

EYE: How is the punk and metal scene in San Francisco in 2015?

AB: Metal scene is going ok, seems like most of the shows are happening in Oakland these days, don't know what's going on in punk scene. I try to get out once in a while but it's mostly to see friend's bands. There are mostly computer nerds that are left in SF, all metal and punk dudes live across the bay.

EYE: Boris Vallejo or Frank Frazetta?

AB: Definitely Frazetta! I love his color palette and energy in his paintings. I do like Boris' paintings but it's too polished and technical.

EYE: Your work is very cinematic. Are there any movies and or directors that you admire?

AB: Thank you for pointing this out! I love watching films immensely! When I was a teen in post-Soviet Belarus barely anyone had a VCR. If you wanted to watch an American film we had to go to Videoteka or Videoclub which was just a room with TV and VCR and a dozen or so chairs. We would pay a rubl and watch an amazing films, anything from The Terminator to Jackie Chan films. I love watching '80s to early '90s movies, they used to have big productions and would use very elaborate lighting. Just watch Blade Runner, it's a dark film, but there is a lot of reflecting lights going on in most of the scenes, it's somehow reminding me of metal shows with smoke machines and different colored lamps. Sometimes I would pause my Netflix film and study the scene, check out composition, perspective, lighting and colors. Love the old film directors - Andrei Tarkovsky, Jodorowsky, Hitchcock, Milius, James Cameron (very cinematic!), Spielberg.

SCUM

Gotta love this painting by San Francisco based metal artist Andrei Bouzikov (who was the subject of one of my earliest posts here). The sentiment expressed here is a common one felt throughout the western world, but at this point, after years of hipster bashing on the internet, is it just petty and mean-spirited to keep mocking these pathetic twits? Nah, fuck 'em, they deserve it!

Due to a couple of rage-inducing experiences, this tribe of obnoxious wankers are the sole reason I don't go to revival screenings anymore. After gritting my teeth through screenings of Tenebre and Dawn of the Dead during which these clowns guffawed loudly throughout the entire movies, I vowed never to put myself through that pain again. For any of my younger readers who've had a similar experience and assumed that's just how repertory screenings are, I'm sorry to say that's just not the case. You used to be able to go see old films secure in the knowledge that you'd be watching it with other like-minded, respectful moviegoers who were there to, you know, watch the fucking movie and judge it on its own merits*. Since these twirly moustached, dead eyed, ecstasy-addled brats hit the scene it's all about ridiculing anything that doesn't fit in with their jaded sense of cultural superiority.

Again: fuck 'em. Moving from the inner city four years ago was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

*I hate going into "angry old man" mode, but desperate times call for desperate measures!

MIDWIFE

Victorian HM-2 worshipping shredders Midwife might be Australia's best kept secret at the moment. A perfect storm of noise-rock tinged hardcore, powerviolence and grinding metal, these Melbourne maniacs are ripping harder than just about any other band on the continent right now. 

Ahead of their afternoon show at Blackwire tomorrow, have a listen to their new tape that compiles 2013's /\/\/\/ and last year's Labour Day with a live set tacked on at the end. Standouts include the breakdown and subsequent blast in "Death Breeds Death", the punk-as-fuck noise rock riffing in "Characterised" and the face-melting gnar that is "Cactus". You're moshing.

SFF 2015: DEATHGASM

It's fitting that throughout much of Deathgasm one of the characters wears a Bad Taste t-shirt. Director Jason Lei Howden has spent much of his career toiling as a VFX artist for WETA Digital, and his admiration for its co-founder and owner's early films is evident in every frame of his first movie. Underneath all the gross-out gore and dildo jokes Deathgasm shares the same sense of quaint sweetness that has made Bad Taste and Braindead so enduringly charming. It's that very specific brand of whimsical Kiwi charm that set Jackson's early movies apart from his main influence - Raimi's Evil Dead and Evil Dead II - and which continues to define the spirit of NZ horror comedies to this day.

Deathgasm also shares another essential quality that has characterised New Zealand's homegrown splatstick genre: it's actually funny. There's been an international avalanche of Jackson-influenced horror comedy in the last couple of decades, and way too much of it has been excruciatingly unfunny and exasperatingly stupid (and yes Tommy Wirkola I'm looking right at you). Deathgasm is cleverly written and frequently laugh out loud funny, a hilarious mixed bag of physical gags and silly jokes. Howden, who also wrote the script, seems to have a pretty decent grasp of heavy metal lore, and works in a number of in-jokes for metalheads, knowingly referencing everything from Poison to Manowar and Anal Cunt.

Unfortunately, the one thing that lets this movie down is the third defining feature of Jackson's seminal classics: the splatter fx. Although Howden's heart (and spleen, intestines etc) is obviously in the right place, and I appreciate his steadfast use of practical fx, most of the mayhem on display here is pretty uninspiring. I think it's essential with a movie like this to be as inventive with the gags as possible, and (with the exception of a pretty funny death by dildo scene) I'm afraid the grue in Deathgasm is more chore than gore. To be fair though, Howden's VFX skills make up for it with a number of cool little flourishes peppered throughout the movie, especially the animated title sequence which makes for a really fist pumping opener. It's also worth noting that the demons here are more Lamberto Bava than Raimi, which was refreshing.

As far as Kiwi horror comedies go, the recent Housebound and What We Do in the Shadows have set the bar almost impossibly high. Deathgasm may not have reached those same dizzy heights for me, but it's still well worth a watch. Horns up!

Next for me at the fest: Teutonic transgression in GERMAN ANGST!

SOMNOL

Filthy, crushing NYC death metal.

Scumbags from AJAX, Nomos, Nuclear Spring, Rival Mob, Vanity etc.

The riff at 1:35 of "Dose".

FUCK OFF

Gully Foyle and The Lord Weird Slough Feg (TIGER! TIGER!)

Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination, AKA Tiger! Tiger!, is one of the most important and criminally underappreciated sci-fi novels of the 20th century. An enduring inspiration for generations of SF luminaries to follow (including Joe Haldeman, Michael Moorcock and William Gibson), Tiger! Tiger! was a major precursor to the cyberpunk literary movement and continues to be influential to this day. 

Bester's novel is very cinematic, a well balanced blend of heady ideas, operatic grandeur and pulpy action, so it comes as no surprise that Hollywood has designs on it. However, like Haldeman's The Forever War and Gibson's Neuromancer, Tiger! Tiger! is a novel with great cinematic potential that has languished in development hell for decades.

That inexorable development now seems to have entered a new stage, with the announcement that Jordan Vogt-Roberts is the latest director attached to helm the adaptation. I'm clueless about Vogt-Roberts beyond the fact that he's known for his well-received coming-of-age drama, The Kings of Summer, and that he's in the director's chair for Legendary's upcoming Kong: Skull Island. He's an unknown quantity for me, but I'm just glad the suits aren't going with some meat-headed action director. So far, so good.

Anyway, regardless of The Stars My Destination's treatment at the hands of Hollywood, we'll always have Slough Feg's rousing power metal interpretation to enjoy. Their 2007 LP Hardworlder features a few songs based on Bester's novel, but this one, "Tiger! Tiger!", is essential listening. Space opera reimagined as stirring, anthemic NWOBHM. 

Artwork below stolen from Noah Pierce.

The spheres in motion wrapped around collapsing stars

Immortal hands and eyes are framed in fearful scars

The mystery of living, breathing, dying hard

My name and occupation tattooed on my face

The stars my destiny, deep space my dwelling place

Delirious and rotting, where's my saving grace

The stars burn bright

In the forest of night

But what mortal hands and eyes will I see there?

I'm locked behind bars

On the gateway to Mars

But when all the stars expire will I still be here?

I'll set the villages and colonies aflame

The bards of history had best forget my name

Deliriously plotting, Nomad is my fame

MANHUNT

Normal (de)programming resumes:

Hey punk, got nothing to do this afternoon? Then get off your ass and head down to Blackwire Records for what promises to be a face-melting matinee.

Brisbane's Manhunt are an aural assault of fast, and I mean fast, powerviolence infested with on-a-dime time changes, chugging breakdowns and some evil DM riffs thrown in for good measure. Take a listen to their self titled LP here. If the riff in "No Tolerance" doesn't make you want to punch things, you'd better check your pulse because you just might be dead.

Joining Manhunt are Melbourne's thrashing grind scumbags Internal Rot who also play kinda fast.

LUDICRA - The Tenant

I've been revisiting Ludicra's 2010 album The Tenant recently, and it's so good that it makes me lament the fact that they broke up so soon after it came out. I love the direction they took on this one, leaving behind the more traditional black metal of their previous albums for a slower-paced, more melodic style. It still gets pretty fast and heavy at times, but I think The Tenant really shines when it slows and lays down the groovy, hypnotic riffs. Check out "In Stable" for some moments of truly "stand up and pump your fist" riffage. Laurie and Christy's dual vocals are amazing too, alternating between throat-tearing harshness and beautiful, wistful harmonising (this contrast is particularly effective during album opener "Stagnant Pond"). Underpinning the whole thing is Aesop Dekker's solid drumming which is, as usual, completely on point.

If black metal isn't really your thing, you shouldn't be put off by the label. I've turned a few people onto this one who aren't that into metal at all. "Accessible" may not usually be considered a compliment when describing a metal album, but in this case The Tenant's broad appeal is simply due to the fact that it's really fucking good.

The Tenant

WARMOUTH

Under Tony Abbott's far-right government Islamophobia in Australia seems to be ramping up to unprecedented levels of hysteria, thanks to its racist policies and an ongoing campaign of fear-mongering propaganda. On September 18 a massive "anti-terror" raid, involving no less than 800 heavily armed cops, was mounted across two states. The entire operation resulted in a single man being charged. It mirrors recent events in the US that highlight a disturbing heavy-handedness and over-militarisation of our police forces.

To clarify my position, I'm an atheist but I respect the right to peaceful religious belief and practice. However, as with most reasonable people, I hold all forms of religious zealotry in an equal measure of disdain. But with the kind of xenophobia that Australia is becoming known for, criticism is never restricted to being directed at religious fanaticism alone. It always seems to bleed over into rabid hatred based on little more than cultural and racial differences.

So in the spirit of saying FUCK YOU to white Australian bigotry, and showing some solidarity with our closest neighbours, here's another banging demo from Indonesia, this time from Yogyakarta's Warmouth.

Two tracks of gnarly, neck-snapping, grinding hardcore. Rad vocals with a heavy as fuck and totally damaging guitar tone. Get pissed. Bandcamp link below.

Cloudburst

Here's a tasty two track demo, submitted by some of our friends to the north in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Cloudburst play scorching metallic hardcore with a strong emphasis on the hxc end of the spectrum, just the way I like it. I've been told that the scene up there is exploding, and if these pissed off young punx are anything to go by, I'd better get up there soon to see for myself.

DEAD

Snäggletooth

Singapore's Vaarallinen toured here a few months back, melting faces all over the continent with their perfectly executed Finnish hardcore worship. They blew the roof off of Blackwire here in Sydney, and left me wandering the streets at nine o'clock on a Wednesday night with nothing to do and a bad case of hardcore blueballs.

Vaarallinen's bassist and drummer are also two thirds of a ripping Motörpunk outfit called Snäggletooth, and to put it simply, if you love Motörhead, you already love this band by default. So far they've only released a three song demo, but Thaib (bass/vocals for Snäggletooth) told me there's a 12'' on the way. Get it here, scumbag!

Extinction

Join me in escaping the election tomorrow night, with a killer lineup of crust, hardcore and metal at Blackwire. Promises to be a crushing night, and a whole lot less depressing than staying home and watching the fiasco unfold on TV. 

Headliners ExtinctExist from Melbourne (ex-Pisschrïst) have a ripping demo out, available at Bandcamp here.

Skeletal Hand

Cathedral are in Australia later this month to play their last two headlining shows ever. They're also making a number of festival appearances at a big, touring rock fest, with a lineup so cringe-inducingly bad that I'd rather do this to my ears than subject myself to a minute of it.

I'm not too crazy about Cathedral's recent output, but their earlier stuff is epic doom incarnate, and in my opinion some of the best the genre as a whole has ever produced, right up there with doom gods Pagan Altar, Saint Vitus, Corrupted, Electric Wizard etc. I don't know how much of their classic material Cathedral are including in their recent sets, but I'm hoping for a track or two off of Forest Of Equilibrium.

The blood sacrifice I'm offering you today is their long out of print and very rare Gargoylian 7". It's the obvious choice for the EYE, given its Blind Dead cover art, and b-side track that is pure, raging, early UK d-beat (completely out of character for the band, but not too surprising considering singer Lee Dorrian's earlier stint with Napalm Death).

Details for Cathedral's Sydney show HERE. Have a listen to the 7'' HERE.

Tutti il Colori del Buio

This here is some vile, horror-infused crust, served up with a tasty garnish of neanderthal death and doom metal, likely to please fans of Entombed, Asphyx, Bolt Thrower etc.

Washington D.C.'s Ilsa are a relatively new band (formed in '07 I think) who are a good fit for the EYE, not just for their punishing punk & metal assault, but also due to their obsession with quality cinema. Having taken their latest album title from Sergio Martino's stylish psychedelic nightmare Tutti i Colori del Buio (although they misspelt it, bless 'em), and with song titles like "120 Days", I'd say it's fair to assume that their favourite section of the video store isn't Disney classics. Not to mention that their name is borrowed from everyone's favourite sadistic S.S. bitch - yes, right down to the font.

To be honest their slower stuff leaves me a bit cold, but when they speed things up on tracks like "120 Days", "Butcher's Castle" and "Frostthrower", they unleash a vicious ferocity that puts a big shit-eating grin on my face. Drummer Josh is a particular stand-out for me, pounding out some relentless and infectious D-beat rhythms that have kept me wanting more. I believe he's also responsible for all their artwork which is none too shabby either.

They also have a split out with another degenerate band that's sullied the pages of this blog before, Finland's Hooded Menace.

Buy or listen to Tutti il Colori del Buio HERE...