The List: Iron Maiden

On Saturday, July 3rd, 1982, I was halfway through spending the weekend at my grandparents, while my parents were attending a concert at Rich Stadium, just outside of Buffalo, NY.  I was only 8, so I didn't really have awareness of exactly what they went to, but while watching the 6 o'clock news with my grandfather, they showed a clip of the concert, a few guys running around stage and a giant Frankenstein monster guy with them! I was already a fan of giant monster movies thanks to UHF television- Godzilla, War of the Gargantuan, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and the like and I was TOTALLY onboard with what I saw on the news. "That's the concert your parents are at!" My grandfather exclaimed, kind of shocked. That was my first introduction to Iron Maiden and my parents were never that cool again.

By the time I was 12, I was a full-on heavy metal maniac. Iron Maiden were my favorite band with Metallica quickly closing in by the time I was 13. A month after my 13th birthday, Maiden played Buffalo and a few of my friends and some classmates went; my envy was off the charts, even if I didn't really think Somewhere in Time was as good as Powerslave. In 1988, my uncle to pledged to take me to see them on the "Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour" and boy was I was excited! The tour was for an album I actually love- I rode my bike (during easter break if I recall) to the store in the spring to buy it on cassette and it essentially didn't leave my Walkman until ...And Justice for All came out in the fall. Now, I SWEAR he told me the show was at the Niagara Falls Convention Center and that he had bought tickets and it got cancelled. I remember my friends talking about the show being cancelled but looking at online information about the tour and cancelled dates, the only NY shows I see that are listed as cancelled are Utica and Binghampton. Perhaps it was booked and canned so fast that there's no online record of it? I may also be confusing this with a David Lee Roth concert that was there in '88 that I desperately wanted to attend, but that show happened for sure. Regardless, I wasn't interested in going to the Rochester shows in '91 or '92 (this is an ongoing theme with Rochester) and didn't finally see Iron Maiden until February 1996- a very bleak time for them and metal in general. The venue only has a capacity of 2,500 and it was nowhere near full. Plus, Blaze Bailey was singing. A very strange and non-epic gig. 

Great tour, TERRIBLE video game.

In 1999, Bruce and Adrian returned to Maiden and a bunch of us crammed into a car and drove to Cleveland to witness the "Ed Hunter" tour and that was EVERYTHING we had hoped for. The set opened with the goddamned Churchill speech into Aces High and I've seen them 8 more times since. 

Not that it's been all gravy since 1999, I left pretty disappointed in 2012 on the "Maiden England" tour because Bruce was constantly being a total buzzkill BITCHING about the height of the venue stage and I didn't think they played especially well. Also, and a further bummer, though I've seen them a total of 10 times I had tickets to two shows (2017 "Book of Souls" and the first leg of the "Legacy of the Beast" in 2019) that I couldn't attend because of events at the college I used to work at. When I caught the post covid leg of "Legacy" they opened with three fucking boat anchors from Senjutsu- not exactly the legacy I signed up for. Regardless, Maiden are an exceptional live band on a level that is only rivaled by Metallica.

 This is the LIST of every song I've seen them perform at least once:

 

 S/T

Iron Maiden

Phantom of the Opera

Sanctuary

Prowler

Remember Tomorrow

Running Free

Killers

Wrathchild

Killers

Murders in the Rue Morgue

Another Life

Drifter

Number of the Beast

The Number of the Beast

Hallowed be Thy Name

Run to the Hills

The Prisoner

Piece of Mind

The Trooper

Die with your Boots On

Revelations

Where Eagles Dare

Flight of Icarus

Power Slave

Aces High

2 Minutes to Midnight

Powerslave

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Somewhere in Time

Heaven Can Wait

Wasted Years

Seventh Son

Moon Child

The Evil That Men Do

The Clairvoyant

Can I Play with Madness

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

Fear of the Dark

Afraid to Shoot Strangers

Fear of the Dark

X Factor

Man on the Edge

Lord of the Flies

The Edge of Darkness

Fortunes of War

The Aftermath

Blood on the World’s Hands

Sign of the Cross

Virtual Xi

The Clansman

Futureal

Brave New World

The Wickerman

Ghost of the Navigator

Brave New World

The Mercenary

Dream of Mirrors

Blood Brothers

Dance of Death

Wildest Dreams

Senjutsu

Senjutsu

Stratego

The Writing on the Wall

I can't stop listening to Gastunk.

 It's been a long time since I've jumped into blogland. in the past 3 1/2 years since my last post, I did try my hand at doing a very similar podcast, utilizing some of the content I've touched on in my writing, but after three episodes deleted the whole thing. Let's consider it a pandemic dream that is best left to the black void of the ether.

How cool

Something has happened to me over the past 5 or 6 years and it's probably been a long time coming: I got into Japanese metal and hardcore, mostly from the mid 80's to late 90's. I think this comes from the fact that many current American and European bands aren't speaking to me creatively (or musically!) and that I have gotten full-bore back into record collecting. Thumbing through the crates and rarity walls on the left coast has had me fumble into many an insanely rare Japanese record, temporarily satiating my desire to have the coolest record collection in my wine country suburb. 

Gastunk 1986

Jurassic Jade, Doom, X (Japan), Ghoul, Aion, Gauze, Death Side, Poison (Arts), Judgement, Shell Shock, Paintbox, Crow, Gudon, The Execute, Gism... The list goes on and on, but my current fascination is with GASTUNK. I know I am WAY behind the curve on this one particularly, but I think this journey makes sense. 

I first became aware of Gastunk as many in the US "of a certain age" did: through Pushead and the masters of making bands relevant through t shirt wearing; Metallica. Kirk and Lars wore their shirts in photo shoots and Pushead not only painted an incredible portrait of  frontman Baki, but also used it on the Gastunk LP he himself released on Pusmort Records "Under the Sun" in 1987. 

Those of us who read Thrasher magazine in the late 80's couldn't help but trip over something Pushead related- either writing, art or  Zorlac Skateboard ads with his signature skulls puking or bleeding all over it. Pushead's style appealed to aggro adolescents everywhere. Let's face it, across the board, his shit rocked. He even interviewed Glenn Danzig for christ's sake. He did the art not just for Metallica's shirts, but also their SKATEBOARD. Pushead was achieving the things a landlocked 14 year old could only dream of. Top all that off, he had an AWESOME band (Septic Death) and an incredible record label (Pusmort).

Metallica liked Gastunk, Pushead liked Gastunk, looking at pictures in metal magazines and skatezines- it seemed like everyone liked Gastunk, but I didn't. I heard about 45 seconds of "Under the Sun" and wrote them off forever. Later Skater. 

Metallica, T Shirt Champions

Two years ago (nearly exactly), however, that all changed. I had come across a test press of the INCREDIBLE 1986 "A Farewell to Arms" LP compilation featuring Lip Cream, Outto, Ghoul, The Execute, Gauze and you guessed it... Gastunk. When the record arrived, I put it on and went about my business in my living room. At the end of side A, something magical happened: I heard an absolutely perfect song. A seamless blend of metal and punk that at the same time was neither, yet BOTH. That song was The Eye's by none other than Gastunk... Perhaps further research WAS actually needed.

Thanks to all things digital I was able to find many of their releases on Archive.org to  explore and got right into re-evaluating all things Gastunk.  Holy shit were they a great band. Their first self-titled EP and "Dead Song," their first LP (both from 1985) are incredible! "Vanishing Signs" and the "To Fans" EP (1986) are right in that pocket as well, but the other singles and EPs from that year start to slide a bit. Then I got to my former nemesis, "Under the Sun," and it was like wrecking a "new-to-you" car. It sounded less confident and cheesy. The material after was practically indigestible. But MAN, that stuff from 85-86 kept me engaged, I listened to it over and over and over. I read every scrap about the band I could online and procured physical copies of "Dead Song," "Vanishing Signs" and "To Fans." I then found that there were two versions of "Under the Sun" released- the original Japanese version on Vice records released in June of 1987 and the US version on Pusmort in November 1987- this version had the vocals redone in English and a different mix. I sought out the original and boy oh boy, it is 100, if not 1000, times better and I now consider myself a fan. Gastunk is all I want to listen to, all the time. Maybe I'll give that last LP another shot too but let me revel in this small victory first. 

Unfortunately, Gastunk barely made it out of Japan before breaking up in December 1988. Though, in early 1988, they DID play two US shows: one In Long Beach at Fender's Ballroom in February with Nuclear Assault and another, 36 years ago today, at The Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood. Video shows it's a far cry from what was going on in '85, but they were a band that continued to play their classic with the new/ current stuff their entire career... Oh to be a fly on the wall on 3/14/88.

My Friend Malachai

I used to go out in public wearing these as pants.

The summer before 9th grade (1988), a new kid named Derek moved into my neighborhood and changed my life forever. I was firmly rooted into metal: Metallica, Ozzy, Anthrax, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and also  Devo, Sex Pistols and the Ramones. I even had a Celtic Frost album I had swiped from my uncle. But I wasn't a cool looking metal head, I emulated Anthrax' corny style, which made my 14 year old pudgy male body look like a 30-something lesbian (no offense to 30-something 80's lesbians) and is why I generally do not post pictures of myself before 1991. But that didn't matter to Derek, he just wanted to listen to and talk about underground music.

The guitar player of this band was my neighborhood's paperboy- "87 demo"

Derek had a slightly older cousin that lived on the other side of town, and hung out with the guys in Malevolent Creation (hometown heroes before they relocated to FL). His cousin REALLY had his finger on the pulse of what was going on in the thrash/ death metal/ crossover scene. Through him, cool bands to check out trickled to Derek and then to me, where I got to choose what I did and didn't like. Derek introduced me to Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Death, Dark and Death Angel, Possessed, Exodus, Pestilence, Sodom, DRI, COC, Excel... The list could go on. I'm not going to lie and say that I loved all of these bands right away, some I outright did not "get" and I called most death metal bands "super thrash" upon my first listen. I remember actually laughing the first time he played me Scum by Napalm Death, only to have them become one of my favorite bands within a year or so. The bands I liked right out of the gate though were Slayer, DRI and COC- then closely followed by Exodus and Kreator. By the middle of 9th grade (1989) I was a bonafide thrash metal maniac and went to see my beloved Metallica for the first time. Club shows followed and many times I went to shows, I went with Derek. By this time, due to his red-headed mullet and insane attitude, older dudes at school started calling him "basket weaver" presumably because people in insane asylums would weave baskets, he played into that a little bit, jocks didn't fuck with him the way they did with the rest of us and he was mostly popular, much to his chagrin. His popularity at school hit an all time high the end of that year when someone called him "Malachai" due to his resemblance to the kid in Children of the Corn. The new nickname stuck and he still answers to this, although his resemblance to the aforementioned antagonist (which was questionable in 1989) is mostly nonexistent.

Not our Malachai.

There is a list of hilarious Malachai stories. I could fill an entire book, but those are his stories to tell, not mine. Though, I should probably give some high lights. He was once headbanging to Kreator so hard that he got ran over by a car because he wasn't paying attention. Another time, he and another dude in our neighborhood named Evan (Who I was later in a band with) got into a fist fight in the middle of his street after school. A few minutes into it, Malachai's dad (Dennis), who looked EXACTLY like Mr. Brady from the Brady Bunch pulled up,as he was coming home from work, and broke it up. Evan took exception to this, calling Dennis something that alleged that he had a small dick. Imagine our surprise when Dennis, called Evan's bluff and started undoing his pants, "you wanna measure dicks, you little asshole? Whip it out!" everyone laughed and Evan and Malachai were friends from that day forward too.  But back to the original point of writing this, Malachai introduced me to A LOT of music.

Our Malachai in Seattle in 2009, photo by the author

The last band Malachai got me into was Asphyx, the classic Dutch death metal band. he introduced me to The Rack, their debut, shortly before they played Maryland Death Metal Fest in 2009. I was obviously familiar with Pestilence, the singer's former classic band, but not Asphyx; who I ended up liking right away. I was so fucking pissed when the sub-par Mayhem overstayed their welcome onstage at the fest resulting on a truncated Asphyx set, which was still great, but I, and the crowd, were pissed and wanted more.

so good.

Last December, when I got to see Metallica absolutely kill it in a club , the first person I thought about was Malachai and how he didn't get to see Metallica in 89 AND had to wait many, many years before he finally did. I feel badly that I haven't spoken to him since I've moved to California, nearly two years now. I should call him and see what's up, I know it will be exactly the same as if we talked last week, as if no time has passed; especially because a week ago, I went and saw Asphyx headline a show at the Oakland Metro and they were fucking awesome.

Skeletal Remains, a recent highlight

I got to the show late, missing what I assume were the first two openers, save for about 12 seconds of a last song. Skeletal Remains, from LA then blazed through an awesome set of classic styled death metal and really impressed me. Pumped on the Skeletal Remains set, I bought their debut and a shirt, then purchased their sophomore effort on iTunes over the weekend. I even convinced the guys working the door to let me run out to my car (no ins-and-outs) to throw it in my trunk, much like they had let me in October 2015 when I saw Infest and Excel there.

Asphyx, so cool.

Asphyx were on the last California date of their "Death Across The West" tour and there was a pretty good crowd of around 300 die-hards. They raged through 15 songs, but, although I have their most recent efforts, I am not as familiar with stuff that isn't on The Rack. I tend to post set lists, but I can tell you they played Wasteland of Terror really fucking fast and that was cool, but the rest was a blur. Some of vocalist Martin van Drunen's stage banter was a little more corny than I expected; relating their song about the WWII battleship Bismark to "motor-boating tits" and complaining that the ride to Portland for the next gig wouldn't even "give them enough time to get laid." But I guess metal is as metal does. Still, I was again grateful to see another incredible set (two in one night!) and picked up a shirt and their new record, that the opening track, "Candiru," regardless of how ridiculous, is awesome. Maybe I'll call Malachai, or rather, Derek, and thank him for introducing me to a world that has continued to pay dividends to my quality of life for nearly 30 years, I really should.

The day the music (Anthrax) died

Cool guys, right?

From 1987-1990, the years from 8^th grade until my junior year of high school, I certainly did not look “Cool.” Thankfully, there was a band that looked as ridiculous as I did. That band was Anthrax. I didn’t have the personality or good looks to pull off the traditional metal look, but with their goofy attitude and Surfline Original Jams, Anthrax really made me feel like I was one of them. Hell, in 9^th grade, I even wrote them an honest to goodness fan letter (that went unanswered, of course). They liked TMNT and Judge Dredd and as an added bonus, as a fledgling guitar player, Anthrax’s simple-yet-effective riffs were relatively easy to figure out, whereas I couldn’t even touch a Metallica or Slayer song; my fondness for them grew with each chug-chugalug of the open E string. 

The author, Christmas 1989 wearing a Sacred Reich shirt

I saw them in their peak of popularity in 1991 and though my tastes were heading towards more extreme music at that time, I still thought very highly of the band and of the thrash metal scene I had invested my interest in for the 4 years prior. Then something happened, something strange and unthinkable; Heavy Metal died. I think I recognized that bands were releasing subpar follow up records in the post Metallica Black Album world, but I was not prepared for the alternative rock boom. I was equally not prepared for Anthrax firing vocalist Joey Belladonna and replacing him with the guy from Armored Saint, whose voice I think straight up sucks (to this day). The Sound of White Noise sounded like they were trying to play the alternative rock game and I hate every fucking minute of it. Post 1993, I ignored Anthrax’s new material mostly, but still jammed Among the Living and State of Euphoria regularly.

Then it happened, the very moment Anthrax turned a corner for me that I couldn’t ignore; I went to see them with the newly reformed “Misfits” in Rochester, NY in May of ’96. They mostly stuck to Bush era songs- stuff I didn’t know or like. Then they threw out a bone to the old school fan, the intro to Among the Living kicked in and my friend John and I started moshing like crazy- “Duh-nuh-nuh-na-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug-chug.” I was so pumped. This is what I wanted- this riff, this moment. 16 year old me had taken control of my 21 year old body, I was metal thrashing mad. Then an open chord was struck and held for a long period of time. There would be no group chant of “Disease! Disease! Spreading the disease!” instead, guitarist Scott Ian yelled into his back up mic, “last chance to mosh- BRING THAAAAAA NOISE!” and fucking mumble mouth Armored Saint guy and Ian slaughtered Public Enemy’s crossover hit. Nail meet coffin. DONE.

I was further insulted a few years later when I was sent a bunch of promo cassettes from the quickly disbanded “Ignition Records” containing the Anthrax single Piss N Vinegar which is fucking Locomotive Breath by Jethro Tull, yes really, they stole the riff and vocal melody from a Tull song, fucking heathens.  Anthrax was so set adrift at that point that they had no fucking idea.

I’m mostly a grown up now, I mean, I’m a dad in my 40’; so I have satellite radio. I hear new Anthrax songs from time to time from their most recent effort, I don’t like it, but fuck; I’m so glad they got rid of fucking mumble mouth John Bush and got Joey Belladonna back.