“I largely prefer to listen to my records at home today.”

Just that.  A draft of an old post I wrote back in 2011, who knows what else was going on in my mind. And in all fairness, it was more or less the same shit I would have written in 2001.

How exactly did I end up loathing going to venues and getting drunk with friends?

I’ll omit personal reasons and will try to stick to facts even though you might point out that something was definitely going on after the year 2000, which seems like such a distant year now. Can’t believe it’s been 22 years. But yeah, I remember talking to Timo back in 1999 and I just went through my deepest crisis in the sphere of music. I sometimes do what I call the Autopsy detox. Whenever I start to get tired of listening to new and old albums and everything appears to have lost its shine, I go through a long period, usually one month, during which I only listen to Autopsy records. At the time the band was still split up so we’re basically talking about the records between the demo tapes days up to Shitfun. It’s just something that recalibrates my slimy brain and reminds me why I still like this shitty form of music after so many years. Interestingly, it was more or less the time when my first record by Nefas was released under the name of Nuclear Abominations which at the time was only on paper.

And so the question lies in these terms, this is not the first time I have taken a break from the musical discussion. That is, in that case, the break was not only toward concerts but really from everything, including home listening. Such moments of rejection are rarer today partly because I have found a vague equilibrium in my approach to hobbies. Let’s not shout it too loudly.

So how did I end up getting tired of going to concerts? For a couple of years, I ran a record shop so I went to every single concert in Italy and several ones in Europe as well, and I definitely got my share of bullshit, but that can’t be the only reason. I got old too, but then there are people a lot older than me keeping the same enthusiasm.

There is also the economic factor, getting out of the house paying for highway, food, beer, gasoline, tickets, etc. must really be worth it, so basically you filter out all those mediocre concerts that are mostly an excuse to get out of the house. It’s one thing to go to the pub, it’s another to stay out ten hours and spend a hundred euros.

But beyond all of the above which is perhaps more immediate, there are equally hidden personal factors to weigh in. When I go to a concert, I like to focus, analyze and think about what I am looking at. Which I find particularly funny since the genres I follow more closely (you might be surprised but it’s not just Death and Grind) are not particularly deep or brainy. But that’s what I like to do, actually, go there and listen to a band and seriously ask myself if I am liking what I hear and see and why, or if it was worth the pain of all the time and resources wasted to get there. It is energy-consuming, a bit like a chore in some sense, which I force myself into doing for some stupid form of self masochism. I am not a fan of the metal crowd kind of easygoing circus, I would literally die at a gig like the Wacken. I fucking hate the nonsense fun, people in carnival dress, and all that tribal wanking. To me it’s a bit like really enjoying a good glass of wine, you can shove it down your throat or you can actually think about your perceptions. But with age comes some form of control and experience and now I can basically share my attention between a good talk and watching a band, even though I now need 60 seconds to understand if a band is shit and I can take half an hour off to drink in the parking lot.

That brings us back to the first statement. Listening to a record at home is the perfect situation when you can relax, think and focus on the record, not to mention listen to it with a much better sound. But at the end of the day going to a concert is a totally different experience. It’s a ritual. Especially in the broad family of music that this fanzine covers, where aesthetics and image are so important (and such they must be, it’s like going to the opera) seeing a live show is a complement to music and at the same time a ritual in itself. It’s also tiring, just like any kind of social experience. And not something for all seasons of life maybe. It’s also a risk, I definitely give a chance to every band but it is often a total defeat.

The music is alive, and it’s a two-way relationship. It sends back to you what you give it. Underestimate it, treat it like second-grade fun and it gives you back some cheap fun. I was probably in such a situation when I wrote that sentence, I was expecting something back without investing in it first.

Two cool short movies with nice Cold Meat soundtrack.

The director and make-up artist of these clips is undergoing an incredible series of abuses and persecution by Canadian police to this day. His story is unbelievable, read it all in his website http://www.innerdepravity.com/ . It is when I read about this kind of censorship and repression that I realize the worse makind can express lies far outside gore and splatter movies and music.

This video illustrates perfectly what I think about the band and every other “technical” death metal band in this vein.

This project was ambitious, but things went pretty well for a few years before it choked in so much spam I gave up. It is a sort of Wikipedia (actually I have done it with exactly the same program) which only dealt with goregrind bands and fanzines (and labels etc.). In the beginning goregrind.com was supposed to become a sort of community but with time two things happened:

1. I couldn’t care less of creating a community, most of the time the people that participate are just annoying dorks.
2. The goregrind scene, while quite large enough to support such a project, is not large enough to make the pain in the ass of maintaining such project worthwile. There’s already an excellent forum at grindgore.net, I do not want to make something redundant. Not to mention I by far prefer to have a single forum to check, now and then.

That said, I have spent part of today upgrading software and making backups of that wiki. Before I start doing reviews again, I’d like to have the goregrind wiki up and working. I am having some difficulties due to very strict hosting policies and program upgrades, but I believe I can handle it.

EDIT: The Encyclopedia is now working. It is not pretty at all. Just the bare skeleton of a wiki, but we have time to improve it. Everyone is invited to contribute!

http://www.goregrind.com/wiki

Indeed. Myself has returned home, or as they say: “heeere’s daddy”!

The return to the old headquarters has been great, if weird. Lots of cobwebs and dust here, all the rancid cadavers I left putrefacting on the floor have turned to dust, and time has come for a good swipe, some air change, some paint has well, maybe. Even the flies that made home in my jars full of guts have died. This room need some good clean up before a new start. The rusty hooks hanging from the ceiling need some sharpening and polishing. And fuck, if that turntable doesn’t need some slick blood to turn again smoothly.

But yes, here I am. A good concert, a talk with few old friends, a new home, a new base of operations, all helped very much in getting back to business. And of course I had to put Autopsy on recently. Without Autopsy, there could be no Nuclear Abominations at all. I have unpacked the big box of material that still awaits for a sick review.

The wiki I had installed on goregrind.com is full of spam, and the website doesn’t work anymore. Yet another thing to fix.

And, I have been offered the chance to publish something… the project is still a secret and I haven0t even begun to think how to write it, but well, everything needs a start.

And, the Internet is so full of shit that some honest talk is definitely needed, don’t you think?

The zombies are back in town, and they’re hungry for brains!

New Renaissance Records will re-release the 1989 debut album from Canadian thrashers SOOTHSAYER, May 15, 2008.Soothsayer’s debut, entitled HAVE A GOOD TIME, was released in 1989 in North America on COLOSSAL RECORDS and in Europe on NEW RENAISSANCE RECORDS. Tracks include: 1. FREE VIOLENCE, 2. DIG, 3. BUZZ FLY, 4. THE GAME 1, 5. 101, 6. GO TEAM GO, 7. E.T., 8. THE GAME II, 9. PIMPLE SPRAYER, 10. TOGETHER TO MAKE A WORLD, 11. CHANGES, and 12. ROCK AND ROLL FOREVER. DON KAYE once wrote in KERRANG MAGAZINE that Soothsayer has “obviously been to the SLAYER school of music, with side courses in VOI VOD and SACRIFICE.” Soothsayer includes: DANIEL CLARET on drums, SIMON COHEST on bass, MARTIN CUR on guitars, and STEPHANE WHITTON on vocals. The band’s website is found at: www.troopsofhate.com An interview with singer Stephane Whitton appears in the January 2008 issue of METAL MANIACS. In 2007 Soothsayer reformed to play a reunion show in Canada and released their album TO BE A REAL TERRORIST on GALY RECORDS. A link to a video from a 2007 interview with the band is included below.