Unpublished Interviews (part 2)

Sorry I've been away for a bit. Here's the other interview I did for my failed zine with False Security. Re-reading this evokes a certain amount of chagrin on my part, not because of the band but because of the realization of how stand-offish/combative/irritatingly opinionated I used to be. Some my questions come off as unnecessarily confrontational and poorly formed in their approach.

I'd like to think a lot has changed about me since early 2005, and no, I no longer really care about nor do I have any substantial beef with message boards, hipsters, crusties, California, etc.

As far as the band goes I no longer have a copy of the False Security demo as I lent it to a friend whom I soon lost touch with. I think if this band stayed together they would've been really good. As you may know both Chris and Golnar donned suits and went to work at Maximum Rock 'N' Roll, they also played in the short-lived Modern Problems. Rumor has it that both Chris and Golnar are slated to appear in the next season of "I'm From Rolling Stone." After a year spent taking peyote and wandering through the Texas desert, Ben returned to New York to go to grad school. Ben also logged time in the infamous porn-grind band Sex Drive when he flew through Austin on a speed bender, tapes have yet to surface. Spencer was last seen chugging Jamaican table-wine on New Years while blaring Scott Walker.

1. I guess I'll start with the basics, how did you guys get together
and decide to form a band?

BEN: Golnar and I were already in TIME TO DIE, but that was more or
less defunct, and we had always talked about doing a d-beat band that
would only play the poppy, mid-tempo TOTALITAR tempo, and I knew Chris
from being "around," as well as writing some reviews for Kill From the
Heart. I think about Golnar as a sort of all-time top five friend, and
Chris and Spencer have known each other forever, but at the same time
there is a really good dynamic between each ofus, which is not the
case with most bands. There usually is an "odd man out," or some sort
of faction, whereas we are just a bunch of friends who tend to let the
jokes and hanging out get in the way of practice.

GOLNAR: I learned how to play drums by playing in a band with Ben,
which probably didn't help his poor sense of rhythm! We decided to ask
Chris if he wanted to play with us, since both Insurrection (Chris'
band) and Time To Die (nee Gorefist - Ben/my band) were on the verge of
breaking up. Spencer was a mutual friend and the natural fit for the
False Security. He is the funniestpersonanyofushasevermet!



2. Where there any extra musical reasons for choosing to play the
style that you play? Reasons beyond, "we all like this type of music?"
in an era when most USHC/ punk equates to meathead attitudes,
mediocrity, and/or ripping off TRAGEDY, deciding to sound like
TOTALITAR seems like a statement.

BEN: The way I think about our music is best summed up by the band
name. "False Security" is a great ARTICLES OF FAITH song, and on the
other hand you have great Swedish HC band NO SECURITY. So those are our
two "official" influences, sort of like d-beat with a USHC sense of
melody. Chris definitely has an AoF tattoo, and I don't think he is a
meathead. For my part, I ripped off a lot of the vocal parts from
listening to SKITSYSTEM on the way to class, and then scribbling down
lyrics during lecture. There is also an ILDJARN vocal part, and I'm
sure the dudes in TOTALITAR are not rocking to "Strength and Anger." We
definitely did not want to rip off TRAGEDY, though, which is
exclusively the property of Connecticut.

GOLNAR: All of my reasons for being in a band are musical. I love
simple, straightforward raw hardcore punk. If that is a statement, then
so be it.

CHRIS: I don't think there was much of a calculated attempted to sound
like a certain band or style - we ended up sounding the way we do cause
we all like it, I think. I wouldn't say deciding to sound like
"band-A" is more of a statement than deciding to sound like "band-B".
The real statement would be deciding to be original! (Which I guess we
failed at, ha ha.)
Also, just as a matter of personal taste, the US scene in the last
couple of years has been the best I've ever seen it. Having so-called
"Tragedy rip-off bands" is a hell of a lot better than the NYHC/Victory
Records rip-off bands that were big in the mid/late-90s or the
play-with-your-back-to-the-audience screamo trend that was popular a
few years ago.



3. How has the response been to the demo so far? Have your live
performances been well recieved?

GOLNAR: We are really big in New Jersey and Texas.

CHRIS: Well we pretty much gave the demos out to people we were friends
with, so unsurprisingly the response has been fairly positive. The only
review of it that I've seen was in MRR, and I remember it was pretty
good. As for the handful of shows we've played, I thought the first
one was great; all the ones after that were played on borrowed
equipment and without much practice...



4. Demos tapes and cassettes seem to be of dwindling importance in the
punk scene: Distros rarely carry demos and despite many zines
championing them they are generally hard to come by. Compare this to
the underground metal scene where tapes play a significant role. Why
do you think punks have lost interest in this format?

BEN: I don't buy that many demos, but there have been a lot of good
ones recently. CALL THE POLICE, LEBENDEN TOTEN, SKITKIDS, MIDNIGHT, NO
FUCKER, BACTERIA, SLEEPER CELL, and DISCLOSE all put out good cassettes
in the last two years. I think the only metal tape I have bought is the
"Forest Poetry" cassette. What I find weird is when bands press their
demos to vinyl right away. That is such a rockstar thing to do, because
you haven't had any time to gauge whether people will still want to
hear that stuff in six months. A demo is basically a mission-statement
from a band, and I don't think you need to rush to vinyl. The Japanese
have it right, I think, with putting out tons of demos before you move
onto to comp tracks, and then finally maybe you put out a 7" after
years of existence, instead of shooting your load right away.

GOLNAR: I think demos are still important in punk. The problem is that
bands are far too eager to put records out, and because there are so
many (often mediocre) records to keep up with, it would be nearly
impossible for the average punker to keep up with demos as well. This
keeps demos somewhat regional, which is not all bad — punk is regional.
More bands should definitely take the time to hone their chops and put
out some demo tapes before they go on tour, put out an LP, etc. I would
add to Ben's list of recent good demo tapes: The Pedestrians, Hue &
Cry, Maradikt (sp? - i'll check on it..), Gasmask Terror, Hjertestop.


5. New York went from having a great hardcore/punk scene in the
eighties to having virtually no punk scene in the nineties, why do you
think that happened? The same decline of punk happened throughout the
US as a whole during the same period. Why do you think some places are
able to maintain a thriving punk scene while others must struggle to
stay afloat? Feel free to reference Japan and Scandinavia in your
answer.

GOLNAR: New York's tiny punk scene is a mystery to me, one of life's
unanswerable questions along the same lines as "Whatever happened to
Italian hardcore?" I think the lack of a scene in NYC has to do to some
extent to the social and economic makeup of the city, as well as its
landscape. New York punks have to contend with the lack of affordable
housing (which means fewer young kids with the means to be active NYC
punx), not enough space to practice, and few regular places to have DIY
shows. Unlike cities like Chatanooga or Madison, Wisconsin, a great
deal of time and energy has to be spent in New York simply working
enough to get by. I live in San Francisco, a city with 1/10 the
population of NYC and probably 20X the number of punk rockers. Who
knows why. Though through it all, New York has always had great punk
bands from the Ramones to Urban Waste to Kraut to Citizens Arrest to
Distraught to Balance of Terror, and will continue to have them in the
future. Big ups to Brooklyn!

CHRIS: This is a complicated question... In general, I think a good
scene is, to some degree, the result of a small number of very
dedicated people - a responsible, savvy booker, an inspiring band, or
simply someone willing risk having shows in his or her basement. Also,
as Golnar mentioned, there are the questions of resources and cost of
living. Though I can't say from firsthand experience, I've always
heard that Scandinavia, and Western Europe in general, is more tolerant
ofany activities that can be passed off as "cultural" or "artistic",
to the point where bands can play at government-sponsored youth centers
and bands have, in the past, received government subsidies for touring.
In addition, squatting is much more prevalent and a healthy welfare
program makes it relatively easier to be a fulltime punk rocker.
Maintaining a punk scene is a struggle anywhere, though, and it's far
easier in New York than, say, Southeast Asia.
New York has always had the advantage of being a sort of magnet for the
surrounding areas – Long Island, Upstate NY, New Jersey, Connecticut
and beyond. Non-residents make up a significant, often unrecognized
portion of the scene. And while New York punks frequently get burned
out, frustrated, or simply find it too difficult to make ends meet,
there are always new people moving here with fresh ideas and ambitions
to make something happen.



6. What do you think the future holds for hardcore? Do you foresee
another schism akin to what happened in the '80s, with certain bands
(FROM ASHES RISE, DAS OATH) signing to Larger labels and getting write
ups in the Village Voice? Does the recent TO WHAT END? record herald a
new rise of emo? With the number of terrible pseudo-mainstream bands
claiming to be punk/ hardcore and the somewhat esoteric history and
nature of punk do you think DIY hardcore will survive/ still be
relevant in the coming generations?

BEN: A few years ago, "punk" as a term and a look, was almost the only
way to be cool. People called JAY-Z and THE BEATLES both punk, and yet
LIMP BIZKIT were labeled hardcore. The allmusic review of MINOR THREAT
actually talks about LIMP BIZKIT in a really weird way, blaming them
for nu-metal, I think. Punk has been so thoroughly assimilated into
normal music that you don't even notice anymore. ELVIS COSTELLO, HANOI
ROCKS, and IRON MAIDEN all have a relation to punk in some way,
musically. I think that there has been a decline in mainstream posing
recently, so that when I look back to my early zines and there was a
lot of complaining about EDDIE VEDDER having a mohawk, that stuff isn't
happening as much anymore. People don't want to be punks anymore.
People nowadays just want to drop acid, I think. As far as the separate
issue of DIY hardcore, I can't imagine TO WHAT END? making it big, and
I think the huge thing nowadays is hippies, like THIS BIKE IS A PIPE
BOMB or AGAINST ME. On the other hand, I guess there are a lot of
metalcore kids who are going to want to listen to good music in a
couple of years, and where will they go? Maybe they will start
listening to raw punk or whatever is going on in DIY punk then? Anyways
I'm surprised that DIY HC outlasted thrash metal, and so it's anyone's
guess how long it will go. Thrash Metal is so totally dead that it
serves as a warning to any genre about the lifespan of underground
music.

GOLNAR: I don't know what the future holds for hardcore, but sadly it
seems that there will always be bands who lazily or egomaniacally want
to abandon DIY. When will they learn that DIY ethics will outlive them
all?! I hope that DIY hardcore and punk will remain relevant in the
future—I can't imagine this music ever losing it's relevance for me.

CHRIS: Punk has a pretty timeless appeal since it taps into universal
teenage (and beyond) themes like alienation, dissatisfaction with the
status quo, conflicts with authority, and so forth, and the DIY model
also allows for punk's survival when big business loses interest and
moves on to another profitable musical trend.


7. What do you are some of the obstacles present in existing as a punk
band on the east coast, that aren't exactly present elsewhere in the US
(read: California, and to a lesser extent Portland)? I know one of you
(Golnar) lives in California and the rest of you have at least visited
there. California seems to be flooded with bands (though most suck)
and has a very strong scene as compared to the east coast. Why do you
think this is? (After all most of the best bands of '80s came from the
east coast.)

BEN: California had DIATRIBE, ICONOCLAST, and CRUCIFIX, dude! Also they
had METALLICA whereas NYC only had ANTHRAX. Yuck! To answer your
question, the best music will always come from the south: KYLESA, COC,
THE DICKS, MORBID ANGEL, MDC, KORO, and NOTA.

GOLNAR: Unfortunately, I don't think we were around long enough as a
band to run into any real obstacles one way or the other. While it's
certainly true that NYC has fewer punks than other large cities, the
punk rockers there are among the most dedicated in the country, so I
think we would've been OK in terms of support. It's also true that the
West Coast has a very strong and vibrant scene, though bands out here
face similar problems: not enough venues, not enough money, etc.
Also, I don't know if I can say that most of the best bands of the 80s
came from the East Coast. I'd have to double check, but I don't think
I even like any NYHC between the Kraut LP and the Life's Blood EP. I'd
take the Adolescents over Agnostic Front any day. Though, the debate
over coasts is probably a moot point, as the best US region of the 80s
is the Midwest: AoF, Negative Approach, Zero Boys, Die Kreuzen, The
Fix, and on and on.

CHRIS: Probably the biggest obstacle, at least in NYC, is the high cost
of living, followed by the lack of consistent places to play. However,
living on either coast probably presents fewer obstacles for
maintaining a band than pretty much anywhere else in the country. The
Northeast in particular has a number of large cities within relatively
close distance to each other, allowing for easy and frequent exchange
of both bands and audience members. And while NYC is expensive, places
like Philadelphia and Providence are nearby and offer cheap places to
live.



8. Some punks expect the HC scene to be an overt political movement, do
you think punk can or should be expected to serve such a purpose? Your
lyrics are of a socio-political nature so I'm curious about your
thoughts on the "music scene as political resource" belief held by all
those kids on the PE board?

BEN: When I was in high school, CRASS were really big for me, not in
terms of learning, but just because they were saying things I wish I
could have thought up. Obviously if you played "Feeding of the 5000"
for Rush Limbaugh, he would not suddenly recant his conservative
viewpoints in the face of the overwhelming logic of CRASS. DISCHARGE
lyrics were great because they walk this perverse line between anti-war
documentation and sort of gory voyeurism. It is no coincidence to me
that a lot of early early death metal cites DISCHARGE as an influence,
because they have more charred corpses than anyone. I'm not sure what
people expect out of a punk band when you want every song to be a
lecture. My lyrics are almost exclusively (for this band) about the
level of altered reality that the ruling elites have set up, where all
the cards are stacked against truth and disclosure. Although TOTALITAR
don't translate their lyrics, I imagine this is what they would be
like. If we were playing a different style of music, I would write
totally different lyrics. For the most part, I think political lyrics
fit the music, but if you want to learn anything you should read a
book. But obviously it fills some gap in these people's lives to get
patted on the back about hating Bush when they listen to
third-generation ANTI SECT clones.


GOLNAR: I don't expect punk politics to change the world, though I feel
a profound amount of alienation from the "anti-PC" culture that has
become fashionable in punk these days. Bullshit shock value posturing
has no place in my life. I am sick of people thinking that they are
pushing the envelope by invoking 3rd grade levels of homophobic,
sexist, or racist nonsense. On the other hand, I don't think punk has
to be overtly political lyrically to be good, or to be punk. I think at
it's best, punk is too irreverent to be a movement with finite borders
or a definable agenda.

CHRIS: I think of the hardcore scene as more of a community than a
political movement. A 30-second hardcore song is definitely one of the
worst formats for complex political ideas – if I want to educate myself
I'll read a book, not a record sleeve. I particularly resent people in
the punk scene who use radical politics to feel better about themselves
by looking down on or criticizing others. That said, I have no problem
with bands expressing political opinions in their music. If done well
and with sincerity, it can be very powerful and inspiring.



9. Do you think there is an inherent danger in using the punk scene as
one's sole cultural guide/reference point?

BEN: I don't think any of us are guilty of that. I think that the
problem would be getting disillusioned in punk, when you find out that
(like anything) it doesn't have all the answers. There is a really good
TRAGEDY interview in #40 of Profane Existence, where they talk about
how people expect punk to do all these things for the world that it
just isn't capable of doing. That said, Todd Burdette does not know who
FIONA APPLE is.

GOLNAR: The punk scene can be very insular and very insulating, which
has led certainly led some punkers to lose their sense of perspective
on the world around them. Luckily, that is not true of anyone in this
band—I think we manage to maintain punk rock as a healthy part of our
lives.

CHRIS: Yes.



10. I understand you recently played with Finnish legends RATTUS when
they toured the US? Where you in awe or did you just mistake them for
U2?

BEN: I really admire those guys for doing a DIY tour, and playing ABC
No Rio (on a weeknight no less). DISCHARGE, on the other hand, played
at CBGB with all sorts of goober bands, and I thought that was a real
sell-out of the scene they came from. RATTUS on the other hand probably
didn't make much money but they played an all-hardcore set and were
very nice. We also had the opportunity to play with Finnish band FORCA
MACABRA, and that was a real treat as well. That said, I get so nervous
about shows that I still haven't registered that we got to play with
one of my favorite ever Finnish bands (RATTUS), but they were great
(and I have a picture of you headbanging during their set).

GOLNAR: I think that Rattus are a huge favorite of everyone in the
band, and it was super fun to get a chance to play with them. They were
absolutely incredible! One highlight was seeing the drummer bathe in an
oversized sink after their set in Philly.


11. What have you been listening too lately?

BEN: BESTHOVEN, NAILBITER, ZOE, the new AXIS OF ADVANCE, and JUDAS
PRIEST.

GOLNAR: Over the last few days I've listened to the DV8 7", TOZIBABE
7", RIP - No Te Muevas LP, ENDLESS NIGHTMARE - 7", BESTHOVEN -
everything, SADO-NATION 7", VIOLENT MINDS - everything, BURIAL - 7",
KAJUN SS 12", among others.

CHRIS: Mostly early 80s hardcore. Some recent bands I like are Direct
Control, Strung Up, No Hope for the Kids, the Repos…



12. What's your favorite CCR record?

BEN: Green River.

GOLNAR: Hardest question yet! Probably Green River.

CHRIS: Pendulum is not only my favorite CCR record, it's also
indisputably their best.



13. Are there any plans to record any new material or play some more
shows? Will the band continue to function now that one of you has left
New York, or do you plan on becoming the next DIATRIBE?

BEN: I still don't know myself. That is Chris/Golnar territory. I am
ready to rock any time, anywhere, but I'm holding off on the False
Security tattoo for right now.

GOLNAR: I guess being the next Diatribe is not so bad, but I don't
think our demo is quite as good as that, so hopefully we'll get a
chance to tour or record some more and really create a lasting legacy!
(note: sarcasm)
I really love every member of this band, and couldn't imagine playing
music with people whose company I enjoy more, so hopefully we'll work
something out. Oh, and if we had a logo, I'd get a False Security
tattoo for sure.

CHRIS: In the hopes that this interview is not totally irrelevant to
all but the handful of people who already know about False Security, we
would like to stay together long enough to at least record properly and
play some more shows. Who knows?



14. That's it, closing comments? Are demos still available? How can
you be contacted by the inquisitive reader? Thanks for the interview?

BEN: Our new lyrics will be so Proustian you will shit your pants.

CHRIS: If anyone wants a demo, write to me at
killfromtheheart@yahoo.com - I still have a bunch of blank tapes and
covers. And yes, thanks for the interview!


-all photos stolen from Al Quint

Ignorance

I know this is generally Talya's domain, but I recently saw two movies that can't escape comment

FANTASTIC PLANET

A weird French sci-fi animated movie set to a prog-rock soundtrack. Not only is the animation really bizarre but the film is supposedly an allegory for the Soviet invasion of the Czech Republic: what?! Maybe this is just the present talking but cartoons as serious socio-political dissertations?! Ignorant

CONQUEST

I generally go in for this kind of crap, CONAN is definitely a favorite of mine, but this is just terrible. Now when I heard Lucio Fulci directed this I was excited by the sheer absurdity of such a concept, but I really should have given it more thought. This is definitely a Fulci movie, confusing "plot," ridiculous gore, and no character development at all. One can argue whether or not Fulci actually knows how to make movies, but he definitely has no clue how to make fantasy pictures. Fulci is so out of his element here it's ridiculous. First off this is more along the lines of CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, CONQUEST can't even be called a swords-and-sorcery movie because no one even has swords! The non-villains in this movie are all cavemen, oh and every woman in this movie walks around topless. Even more bizarre is that even though the villains wear metal (in the stone age no less) they are mystified by the hero's special weapon, a bow and arrow! Whereas Fulci can get away with confusing plots in his horror pictures it really doesn't work here, so many plot points are left completely unanswered: why is the hero even here? How did he finally figure out the special power of the magic bow? and what's up with the main villainess turning into a coyote at the end?! The plot can be summed up thusly: some guy arrives from a faraway land with a magic bow, meets up with a weird freegetarian animal-lover/Fabio look-alike; the two walk around in circles arguing whether or not to destroy an evil sorceress; get into random battles with evil dudes, and finally destroy the evil witch-woman. Fulci obviously just threw together everything he thought consisted of a fantasy picture together into one big mish-mash of a cash in. AVOID AVOID AVOID

Unpublished Interviews (part 1)

So yeah, when I was planning to do my zine two years ago I interviewed a couple bands via e-mail, one of them being Satanic Death. It's sort of embarrassing to re-read this interview now, due to the fact I never really got my zine off the ground* and realizing how my views on metal/music have changed. I don't know what happened to the band, I think they're still active and there was talk of a 12-inch awhile back, hopefully they'll release something new 'cause the 2nd demo is really good.

1. Hails Black Winged, how is life in Argentina?

Hail! pretty fucking boring, its raining the sky is black and im hungover...at least beherit sounds through my speakers

2. How did SATANIC DEATH form? What were your reasons for starting the band? Influences?

well...at the time i was playing in another band and iwas so bored with it and the whole scenes and atittudes towards metal and all, so i thought fuck it im doing it my own way and whoever doesnt like it can blow me...so i hooked up with those guys wrote some songs rehearsed and we recorded a rehearsal and cutted it as first demo,the demo was raw as hell and we were really shitty players too,but it had conviction and was agressive i still like it alot,some people noticed that and word got spread

3. What responses have you gotten for the demo so far? How has the local scene reacted to your formation?

Black Mass demo got a great response or so ive heard ,its all over europe, the local scene???well Satanic Death is the band everyone heard of but never actually heard

4. Satanic Propaganda seems to be a fairly new label, how did you get in touch with him?

saw the advice of a new label that was looking for bands,so i got in touch with him,showed him the first demo and we worked something out

5. South America had one of the most dedicated and extreme metal scenes of the late eighties (acts like HOLOCAUSTO, MUTILATOR, SARCOFAGO) how is the scene today? Also why is it that South American bands always seem much more exrtreem and over the top musically and in their presentation (old SARCOFAGO photos come to mind)?

it's true southamerica used to have kickass bands and scene,now i dont know that much,i know for instance that in brazil and chile you have amazing huge scenes ,argentina is a piece of shit when it comes to extreme metal...only power metal scene and they suck about the extremecy of the bands... dunno it has a lot to do with culture of violence,but musically is because bands dont limit themselves

6. I know you played live recently, how was it? Do you have any more shows planned for the future (possibly in the US)? Ever since the '90s the Black Metal scene has carried with it an ideology that is against playing live, what is your opinion of this attitude?

i hate that anti live shit its an excuse for pathetic idiots that cant play well or fear crowds,although there is some music that is not for live performance our gig went quite good,yes we are planning more gigs and touring,,about playing in the US we would for sure do it if someone has the balls to fly us over there and put a few gigs together

7. Recently there has been a movement of Black Metallers reclaiming the metalness of the genres. I mention this in reference to the demo because you play in a style that is neither "suicidal" or "avante-garde," and is decidely influenced by thrash metal. Do you consider your choice of sound a statement against non-metal black metal? Do you feel that black metal's rejection of death metal's stupidity puts it in danger of being overrun by goths and psuedo-intellectuals?

our music is a statement against that wimpy cry baby "black metal",and yes there is definitely a thrashy edge to our music its a sad thing that people have forgot about the word METAL in black metal ,people need to wake the fuck up and pull their heads out of their arses and start headbanging again to the devils music


8. There seems to be a lot of dead weight in the nowadays black metal scene. Please list your top ten most overrated bands/ records? top ten???

i dont know but all that mutiilation, deathspell omega, katharsis stuff is totally overrated..im not saying its bad music,but stupid fucks that pay 500 euro for a mutiilation lp should be shot

9. On a related note, what have you been listening too lately?

death,destruction,the first 4 megadeth records,order from chaos

10. While the style of SATANIC DEATH is reminiscent of early BEHERIT, I wouldn't classify it as war metal or a BLASPHEMY clone. Do you feel most people today only pay lip service to great records like The Oath of Black Blood? Is the term BEHERIT-esque used far too loosely as a companion piece to the term "BLASPHEMY clone?"

people classify everything as a beherit/blasphemy band,there is no more originality anymore
although i dont find that much beherit on our music ...i think we are coming
up with something quite unique ,but its true that at the time of the first demo the only thing that i was listening to was beherit...

11. I notice you don't include lyrics on your demo, how come? Are the song
titles fairly self-explanatory?

we never really thought about it ,we were more focussed on the demo being released because it took some time for the label to put it out...
some may be self explanatory some not,anyone that wishes to get the lyrics
just write to me

12. With the increasing popularity of black metal among trendies (see ruthlessreviews.com), do you think black metal has a future, or will it stagnate like death metal? What do you think black metal will look like in the coming decades?

i think that the trendy idiots will move to the next trend and leave black metalbe pure again ...years of glory await

13. How has DISCHARGE influenced your sound?

HA! a litle bit more raw maybe,although gg allin,rattus,misfits and sex
pistols are the best punk. we had real good times getting drunk and listening to rattus and tervet kadeet in the old drummers house

14. Thanks for the interview, any closing
comments? How should interested parties contact the band? May poseurs be
crushed under your heel.

thanks a lot for the interview we are negotiating for new releases so labels interested in real offers ( not that shit 200 copys in cdr and 12 for the band,we dont need that
shit) write to us , and meurtre noir records (usa)is doing some t shirts of
the black mass demo so you might want to check that out
hail and kill we might try to play up there

Additional notes
-Isn't it funny how the dudes in Satanic Death look like generic members of a norse-core band, when Satanic Death is anything but


*The crux of it rested on a large article on French black metal I was going to write but never finished.

FUCK THIS RECORD

From the cover-art you'd think you'd be in for some good folk- or country-rock along the lines of CCR's first record

Wrong, this band sounds like bad Tom Jones or Scott Walker*. Don't be fooled, avoid! If you want good folk-rock buy this record instead.



*what's the big deal with this guy anyway?

Neo-Folk

So I’ve been listening to a lot of Death In June and Current 93 lately, bands which I never thought I’d like, and while I like them, I still have a few reservations about the neo-folk scene. Now initially I considered Death In June to be some weird industrial/ ambient variation like how I imagine Blood Axis sounds or like those Brian Eno/ Robert Fripp ambient records. My impression of Death In June sums up how I viewed the neo-folk scene as a whole, an industrial/ ambient offshoot that was all about “reinterpreting conceptions of music and sound, etc. etc.” which really had no interest to me. I find ambient, industrial, and noise music boring and pretentious, so I really had no desire to ever listen to any neo-folk. This impression was also fostered by the praise of neo-folk by people like Vijay Prozak and Michael Moynihan; Death In June to me was another non-metal “Prozak band.”

It wasn’t until my friend Mark burned me some Death In June albums that I decided to give the band a chance, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard: Death In June actually plays folk music. In a reductionist sense Death In June sound like Joy Division, if Joy Division played folk music: the vocals resemble Joy Division and Death In June utilize a lot of electronic effects as a back drop to an acoustic-folk base. This use of contemporary electronics is rather striking, considering folk musicians generally value traditionalism and frown upon contemporary music. The neo-folk scene is breath of fresh air in the contemporary folk-scene since in recent times folk has largely degenerated to a bunch of old people playing bland covers or near covers. The fact that neo-folk is equally informed by Comus and Love as it is by Joy Division and Throbbing Gristle means that it is able to reinvent folk, as shoe-gazing did for psychedelic music, while capturing the spirit of what made folk enjoyable in the first place.

In theory I should love neo-folk since I love both Love and Joy Division, however it is the seeming pretension of this scene that bums me out. This pretension is evidenced both in its common lyrical/aesthetic topics (death, fascism, paganism/ occultism, and symbolist literature) and in the company it keeps. Now while I find the topics neo-folk covers interesting it is the embarrassing seriousness with which they embrace these topics and the goth outlook that informs their approach that I find off-putting. The neo-folk scene also has connections to the goth/industrial scene*, and I find the inability or unwillingness of neo-folk to fully break from the industrial scene highly suspect. These connections also largely determine the audience of neo-folk, industrial fans, an audience that would shape interpretation of the neo-folk scene and constitute future neo-folk bands, as most audiences do. In short neo-folk is the music I can imagine early-90’s goth college students listening to, and we don’t need Seth Putnam to tell us what we think of them.

This pretension also relates to another gripe I have about neo-folk, and while it may be minor, one complaint that I have about neo-folk is how expected many of its topics are. While a band like Comus was completely unexpected within the 60’s folk scene, in neo-folk a band with the same musical and lyrical idiosyncrasies as Comus is quite de rigueur. One of the joys of Comus is the oddity of a FOLK band singing about rape, murder, and insanity. Comus almost reaches a level of absurdist comedy with its demented style, but within neo-folk this humor is replaced with a deadly seriousness that takes some of the fun out of listening to the music.
Maybe I should be stoked that there is a scene (as opposed to just one band) that further develops the sound of folk, acknowledges bands outside of traditional folk, and covers topics I’m interested in. Maybe my complaints are all for nothing. I’ll still listen to the music, but my advice to the bands, “get over yourselves!”



* Many of the early neo-folk bands in fact started off as industrial bands, which could be part of the problem


-all photos taken from Death In June's merch page

Youtube Hits

Check Keith Relf's awesome mustache in this video. Keith Relf: HERO.



Moëvöt's promo video from like 2001. Remember when it was still cool to like the Black Legions?

D.o.A.S.T.

I recently made a remark to a few friends of mine that it would be interesting to re-watch Mel Gibson's films to try to find any anti-semitic undertones; mainly whether Braveheart can be viewed as Mel Gibson's struggle against ZOG. I'm sure critical analysis has started on Mel Gibson's oeuvre already, so I'll just mention my impressions of the two Mel Gibson movies I saw recently.


Gallipoli- Peter Weir seems to have abandoned the mystical approach he took in Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave in favor of a more direct approach. Like Samurai Rebellion, the expected violence in Gallipoli is held off to the very end. This prolongation works to the films advantage in that it avoids any glorification of war common to many anti-war films, Apocalypse Now comes to mind. When the violence comes it's particularly powerful, but man, having to wait around so much, you start to wonder what this movie is really about: war or a bunch of dudes clowning around, Samurai Rebellion had a similar problem. Of particular note is a beautiful underwater scene towards the end of the film, not to be missed.

So I just went through that review without mentioning Mel Gibson, here are my impressions of him in the film:
-I was surprised to see that Mel had established his character type and mannerisms so early on. Maybe I'm more surprised that he's been playing essentially the same character for over twenty years
-Mel didn't actually direct this picture so the cause of WWI wasn't blamed on the Jews

Verdict: not anti-semitic, more anti-British


Braveheart- I'm sure everyone else has seen this movie so I'll be brief.
-In the beginning Edward I is described as pagan, now I'm no English history scholar but I doubt Edward I was pagan; according to wikipedia the last pagan Anglo-Saxon king died in 655 AYPS.
-Jews are again not blamed for this war, I get more of a sense of Gibson's Christianity and anti-English sentiment.
-Edward I actually expelled the Jews from England, but Mel has nothing positive to say about him. Maybe Mel's silence on this issue in the course of the movie says something, but I don't see how this subject would really relate to the movie.

Verdict: again not anti-Semitic, but anti-English.

I don't know the history of Mel Gibson's opinions of Jews but it wasn't until The Passion of Christ that his anti-Semitism started to become evident. I don't think someone could have predicted Mel Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade until The Passion of Christ. One could point to Mel's strong Christian beliefs, but that is not really an indicator of anti-Semitism in this day and age: Jack T. Chick loves Jews*, even going so far as to see African famines as God's wrath against the tribes who mistreated Jews in the Bible.
With Michael Richards recent outburst some comparisons have to be made and here are my thoughts.
-Why is it that the Michael Richards outburst seems more the more offensive of the two?
-Is it because there is no video tape of Mel Gibson slurring Jews?
-Is it because Mel Gibson was drunk and Richards was not?
-Is it because Gibson's rant was the more expected of the two? Considering the buildup from Passion of Christ, to statements he made about Jews, the drunken outburst was as expected as the Jen and Vince break up. If one looks through Michael Richards filmography one can see evidence of his racism, Whoops Apocalypse, but it still seemed less apparent than Mel's
-Richards is being more active in apologizing but he still is the less liked of the two: a friend told me of a segment on Howard Stern where Stern interviewed people in Harlem on their opinions of Richards and Gibson; Richards was universally hated while interviewees stated that they would still watch Gibson's movies
-Finally, is anti-black racism a bigger issue in America than anti-Semtism?

*http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1000/1000_01.asp