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.
One of the rare exceptions when the album is way better than the cover leads you to believe.
A little over a month ago, I got a copy of Hardwired…
To Self-Destruct by Metallica, after being drawn in by cleverly
released videos of the title track and two others that ACTUALLY SOUNDED LIKE
METALLICA. I have been overly critical of the band’s output since I graduated high
school in the early 90’s, but I have to say that over the past year, I have
become fond of most of the singles from the Black Album through Death
Magnetic; except for that LuLu and St. Anger stuff, I still can’t
hang with how they sound. Regardless, I think it’s safe to say that Metallica won their way
back into my heart, and then some.
HOLY SHIT!
When Metallica’s fan club, “met club,” announced a bay area
club show at the Fox Theater to benefit the Alameda Food Bank, I felt the
strong urge to go; but did not win the raffle to purchase the $25 fan ticket,
nor was I able to procure a $100 general admission ticket through Ticket master
when they went on sale on November 18th. I was so bummed when my
Ticketmaster app timed out and even more bummed when I learned my friend Matt, who was also trying to get us
tickets, had similar luck. The following Monday, I was still down on the fact
that I would miss this prefect opportunity to see the Metallica I wanted to see,
in a setting where I am most comfortable; how could this happen? Better yet,
HOW COULD I MAKE THIS HAPPEN? I had found a guy on the Metallica forums who had
his plus one available, but that didn’t pan out and probably ended up too rich
for my blood anyway, I then decided to be a Metallican and not a Metallican’t.
I searched online for the band management’s email and thanks
to the WikiLeaks of an email forwarded from Laurie Mensch to John Podesta, I
got co-manager Peter Mensch’s email, as he was CC’d by his wife into the
exchange. I emailed him, and a few others I found and waited… The afternoon of
Friday, December 16th, the day before the gig and after I had given
up all hope, I received the following email,
“Hi
Jeremy: Peter Mensch forwarded your e-mail to us and it’s your lucky day! We
will be able to assist you - please fill out the attached form and return it as
soon as possible to this e-mail address. We’ll process your credit card and
send you a confirmation e-mail and you can pick up your tickets at will call
before the show.
Welcome to the
Bay Area and enjoy the show!!
Vickie Strate
Metallica HQ”
The aforementioned form was for a donation to the Alameda
Food Bank, which I filled out for $100 for two tickets, $50 apiece. I received
confirmation and let Matt know I had done the impossible; WE WERE GOING TO SEE
A METALLICA CLUB SHOW! The boy who fell in love with Metallica in Todd Peck’s
bedroom in 1986 was getting the opportunity few have had SINCE 1986, seeing
Metallica in a non-arena type setting. I have always been afraid to taint the “perfect”
set list I saw them play in 1989 but with how much I love the new record, I had
to go, I just HAD to. When Matt and I arrived, we found we had pretty awesome balcony seats.
When the band hit the stage with very little fanfare around 9:45, they hit us square in the jaw with Budgie’s Breadfan, which is the last song I saw them play in 89, I literally had tears in my eyes, it was like an extension of that gig from nearly 28 years ago; BREADFAN/ CREEPING DEATH/ BLACKENED/ SAD BUT TRUE/ FADE TO BLACK/ ATLAS, RISE!/ HARVESTER OF SORROW/ MOTH INTO FLAME/ ONE/ MASTER OF PUPPETS/ FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS/ ENTER SANDMAN/ WHISKEY IN THE JAR/ HARDWIRED/ SEEK AND DESTROY
I didn't take many photos, I was too busy, but here's one.
What a fucking set list! I know there are friends of mine that would probably disparage some of these songs, but as far as I am concerned, it was all top shelf bangers. The Metallica album I’ve always felt the strongest connection with is …And Justice For All and having 3 songs from it blasted into my ear drums was incredible. I appreciated the minimalistic stage set up and was very happy that Lars’ playing seems to have improved over where he was 10, 15 years ago. The band looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves and the sounds was fucking impeccable. This was hands down the best set I saw in 2016.
The Author and Matthew Kadi, of Monster Squad fame
From 1987-1990, the years from 8th 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 9th 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.
