I WAS GETTING INKED at a friend’s house in Florida many years ago. His stepdaughter had a gaggle of punk kids over. One of these, a wiry miscreant in a coonskin hat, informed me he was on acid. I plopped his ass in front of the stereo and put Suffocation’s Pierced from Within on the […]
Thaddeus Christian
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Unadulterated Sonic Brutality
One Night Only
Mike Thrasher, of Mike Thrasher Presents, might be the only guy in town who could bring in a show like this: Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Necrophagist, Unmerciful, and Brain Drill. You know ’em, you love ’em. Cannibal Corpse. From backyard wrestlers to the religious right, who can’t appreciate the subtlety of classics like “Fucked with […]
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Slayer to Slaughter Salem
And Other Sibilant Sentences
WE’RE NOT TALKING about Buffy, folks. Just as Chuck Berry was the father of rock ‘n’ roll, Slayer are the fathers of modern metal. Slayer are the pioneers, the covered wagon of speed metal. They crossed this fertile land driving out all indigenous inhabitants before them, though they used extremely loud guitars instead of small […]
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Volcanoes, Space Pirates…
Walk the Plank with Alien Metal Mutants
IT BEGINS WITH WOLVES in the Throne Room: epic, organic, eco-metal from Olympia. Subverting the European black-metal aesthetic to reflect the nature of the Pacific Northwest, the Wolves are creating anti-modern music, promoting an anarchistic return to nature and the fundamental rhythms of the earth. Like Mother Earth, the Wolves work in geologic time. Songs […]
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Don’t Complain, Participate
Steal This Festival is an Easy Sell
DO YOU MIND LETTING the long arm of Donald Rumsfeld systematically canvas schools for recruitment opportunities? Are kids learning a whitewashed, white-male version of history? Do teachers have the tools they need to do their job? In an effort to discuss these questions, Loveland is hosting Steal This Festival, a day for organizers and activists, […]
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Heads Explode, Goats Moan
When Morbid Angel Falls Upon PDX
RISING FROM THE MIRE and flies of the Florida swamp in the mid ’80s, Morbid Angel shook the earth with their landmark debut Altars of Madness. Seventeen years later they continue to craft America’s leading brand of schizophrenic death metal. Morbid Angel paved the road for the legions: Propelled by blast-ogre Pete Sandoval, the songs […]
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Plague Soundscapes
Deicide’s Four Horsemen Ride On
IN 1995, DEICIDE FUCKING ROCKED. They were the catchiest, heaviest singsong death metal around; their sound could dent concrete, level cities. And then the four horsemen fell right out of the saddle. But maybe they kept one boot in the stirrup… The timing was right for Deicide. They surfaced with a brutal self-titled release in […]