SPIN.com is honoring the life of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman with a gallery of early photographs by D.R.I. bassist Harald Oimoen, coauthor with Brian Lew of the book Murder in the Front Row: Shots from the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter. The photos capture several live and candid moments from the rise of U.S. thrash metal circa 1984, including Hanneman and Slayer performing outdoors on a plywood stage; Slayer’s very first face-to-face encounter with the members of Metallica; Oimoen’s classic sleeve photo from Slayer’s Hell Awaits album; and a moving portrait of Hanneman and his eventual substitute in Slayer-Gary Holt of Exodus.

The gallery can be viewed HERE:

http://www.spin.com/gallery/slayer-jeff-hanneman-metallica-early-years-bay-area-thrash/

MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW

Today, Donald Trump gets no ink and is crying. In her venerable Page Six gossip column in the New York Post, Cindy Adams, born 1930, jettisons the mogul in favor of “the sweet read” Murder in the Front Row: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew. She makes special mention of the Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Possessed photos. See above! This is close as Possessed has ever been to a Park Ave. penthouse. Adams has a famous Yorkie named “Jazzy”—maybe “Thrashy” is next?

MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW

Sat, June 15 6PM ET
Sun, June 16 2PM ET
Tues, June 18 3PM ET
Thurs, June 20 9PM ET

*** NOTE: Use code FATHER to save 16.66% on Bazillion Points Books until June 18 ***

Hails to metal dads! As metal tackles the mighty figures of history in search of subject matter, of course the role of fathers becomes fair game for heavy scrutiny. Join host Ian Christe (Bazillion Points / “Sound of the Beast”) for a celebration of fatherhood and fathering, featuring the guiding lights of Black Sabbath, Bathory, Manowar, Altar, Orchid, Exodus, Immolation, Amon Amarth, Bestial Mockery, and more! Know your Roots!

PLAYLIST:

Amon Amarth – “Father of the Wolf” from Deceiver of the Gods
Manowar – “Defender” from Defender EP
Bathory – “Father To Son” from Hammerheart
Solefald – “The Death of Father” from Pills
Orchid – “Electric Father” from Capricorn
Exodus – “Like Father, Like Son” from Fabulous Disaster
Immolation – “Father You’re Not A Father” from Close to a World Below
Laaz Rockit – “In the Name of the Father and the Gun” from Nothing$ $acred
Black Sabbath – “Sins Of The Father” from Dehumanizer
Patriarch – “Father Kreator” from Prophecy
Altar – “In The Name Of The Father” from In The Name Of The Father
Cadaver – “GoatFather” from Necrosis
Bestial Mockery – “Father In Heaven” from Gospel of the Insane
Black Sabbath – “Dear Father” from 13

Bloody Roots is Sound of the Beast author (and Bazillion Points publisher) Ian Christe’s heavy metal history show on Sirius XM Liquid Metal channel 40. Since June 2004, each weekly show has examined another subgenre, band, movement, country, or theme in metal, punk, and heavy rock. The show is available on-demand online from SiriusXM.com.

Bazillion Points Books is proud to announce the October 2013 deluxe hardcover release of EXPERIENCING NIRVANA: Grunge in Europe, 1989 (ISBN 978-1-935950-10-3). This intimate photo journal and wild grunge rock micro-history was shot and written by Bruce Pavitt, co-founder of Sub Pop Records, the legendary Seattle label that signed Nirvana in 1988. The book features over 200 live and candid color photos shot by Pavitt over a tumultuous one-week period on the Bleach tour from Rome to London with Nirvana, TAD, and Mudhoney. In addition, the book features a foreword by Keith Cameron (Mojo), and a portfolio of incredible never-seen live shots by acclaimed photographer Steve Double. Pre-orders will ship in October with a limited poster-sized dustjacket and a metal badge.

http://www.bazillionpoints.com/nirvana

On November 27, 1989, Bruce Pavitt and his Sub Pop partner Jon Poneman arrived in Rome to meet Nirvana, as the band was nearing the finish of a grueling six week tour of Europe. While determined to promote their grungy, riff-heavy debut album, Bleach, Nirvana’s travels with fellow Sub Pop act TAD had left them exhausted. Pavitt and Poneman did their best to revive the spirits of frustrated and downcast Nirvana bandleader Kurt Cobain. While he nearly leapt from a 14-foot speaker tower one night, and then had his passport stolen, Cobain managed to continue to London, where Nirvana played the most important show of its young career.

The band’s breakthrough performance at the 2,000-capacity Astoria Theatre, London, was meant to be a warm-up for sets by labelmates and hometown Seattle heroes Tad and Mudhoney. Openers Nirvana won over the crowd and changed the band’s fate, as the then-powerful London music press proclaimed Nirvana: “Sub Pop’s answer to the Beatles.” With the support of the British press, Nirvana soon began work on their Nevermind record, which made Nirvana arguably the most important band of the 1990s. Incredibly, they almost broke up in Rome, which would have ended their career before it started. Bruce Pavitt was there, photographing the events onstage and off, and documenting the details in the hours before fame came calling.

Nearly twenty-five years later, Pavitt has opened this treasure trove to the public. “I put a lot of heart into this grunge rock ‘microhistory’,” he says. “I’m honored to be collaborating with Bazillion Points on a hardcover edition of this project.”

EXPERIENCING NIRVANA: Grunge in Europe, 1989

Back in 2011, we heard from a rabid Swedish Death Metal reader who had tattooed Nicke Andersson’s insidious cover artwork on her body. Looks like this flesh-desecrating disease is spreading! Reader Nino Madonia went under the needle, and we are once again in awe of the  dedication of Daniel Ekeroth’s readers—not to mention the needle magicians found in good tattoo parlors. How many more Bazillion Points tattoos are out there?

SWEDISH DEATH METAL

BLOODY ROOTS OF SEXAGENARIAN METAL
Week of June 8, 2013

Sat 6/8, 6PM ET
Sun 6/9, 2PM ET
Tues 6/11, 3PM ET
Thurs 6/13, 9PM ET

Sixty is the new 666! As heavy metal crunches into its fifth decade, the classic earthshaking early music remains timeless, and continues to perpetually enchant and transfix new generations. At the same time, the bodies of metal masters like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and Motorhead are accumulating mortal years. As Black Sabbath releases its first studio album with Ozzy Osbourne since 1978, this week’s history lesson checks out recent recordings by metal kings still active past age sixty, including Sabbath, Priest, Motorhead, Blue Cheer, Saxon, actor Christopher Lee, Root, and more!

PLAYLIST:

BLACK SABBATH – “End of the Beginning” from 13
SAXON – “Stand Up and Fight” from SACRIFICE
JUDAS PRIEST – “Night Crawler” from EPITAPH
BLUE CHEER – “Maladjusted Child” from WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU
MOTORHEAD – “Bomber” from THE WORLD IS OURS VOL 2
HEAVEN AND HELL – “Bible Black” from WACKEN 2009
BLACK SABBATH – “Live Forever” from 13
ROOT – “Darksome Prophet” from HERITAGE OF SATAN
CHRISTOPHER LEE – “The Bloody Verdict of Verden” from CHARLEMAGNE: BY THE SWORD AND THE CROSS
PENTAGRAM – “Nothing Left” from LAST RITES

Bloody Roots is Sound of the Beast author (and Bazillion Points publisher) Ian Christe’s heavy metal history show on Sirius XM Liquid Metal channel 40. Since June 2004, each weekly show has examined another subgenre, band, movement, country, or theme in metal, punk, and heavy rock. The show is available on-demand online from SiriusXM.com.

With the third Sunday in June coming down fast, we’ve noticed a lot of crap being peddled on behalf of fathers, and we’d like to get out in front of that avalanche of dumb hats, gift cards, and cheap tools with our own better offer. Put some slow-burning fuel on dear old Dad’s fiery heart with something from our unrivaled shelf of masterpieces by the fathers of the metal, hardcore, and rock scenes.

Bazillion Points

And you should buy the guy a beer on us, so use coupon code FATHER at checkout to skim 16.66% off of great works by intensely revered authors like these:

Fathers of thrash metal: MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW: Shots From the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter, by D.R.I. bassist Harald Oimoen and Whiplash editor Brian Lew, featuring the definitive early photos of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Possessed, and many more;

Fathers of death metal: ONLY DEATH IS REAL: An Illustrated History of Hellhammer and Early Celtic Frost, by Tom Gabriel Fischer, driving force behind the most brutal of all musical revolutions;

Father of black metal: METALION: The Slayer Mag Diaries, a 744-page titan written by Jon Kristiansen, called “the godfather of Norwegian black metal” by Grutle Kjellson of Enslaved;

Fathers of hardcore punk: TOUCH AND GO: The Complete Hardcore Punk Zine ’79–’83, by Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson, with 576 pages of frontline reporting from the hardcore punk explosion, plus contributions by Henry Rollins, Ian MacKaye, and more. And WE GOT POWER!: Hardcore Punk Scenes from 1980s Southern California, featuring 400 photos and essays by members of Circle Jerks, Adolescents, Vandals, Minutemen, Redd Kross, plus four members of Flag/Black Flag.

Father of glam metal: SHERIFF McCOY: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks, by founding guitarist Andy McCoy of the legendary Finnish rock n’ roll band that inspired Guns ‘N Roses and Mötley Crüe

Fathers of hard rock: DIRTY DEEDS: My Life Inside/Outside AC/DC, by Mark Evans, bassist in the classic early AC/DC lineup and confidant of every father’s nightmare, the late Bon Scott

And our hilarious SWEDISH SENSATIONSFILMS book by Daniel Ekeroth contains plenty of information on how to go about fathering!

There you go. You’re stuck with your father for a lifetime, might as well get him something that will last the whole way. And if you live in Fiji or Vanuatu, where this holiday doesn’t come until September, we won’t blame you for ordering early.

BAZILLION POINTS BOOKS

During Pantera shows in the late 1990s, Phil Anselmo routinely went on an anti-hip hop tirade that raised eyebrows and made some black headbangers slink to the sides of the concert hall. In her thorough book about being a black woman in the metal scene, What Are You Doing Here?, Laina Dawes specifically breaks down that rant. As a die-hard Pantera fan, she was surprised and a little hurt that it felt like Phil was verbally attacking people like her. In the end… well, seek out Laina’s book to read her conclusions.

Above photo of Phil Anselmo and Laina Dawes (with mystery Hellhammer supporter bombing in the back) taken at Maryland Deathfest XI, Sat. May 25, 2013.

What Are You Doing Here?

Every week we take a nosedive into the extensive band index of Daniel Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal to see what old corpse we can drag into the sunlight. All-too-many Swedish bands failed to reap the rewards of their unquestionable talents. In the case of WOMBBATH, the brutality was certainly all there—and they distinguished themselves with a very un-Swedish sound—but their career cut short after just one demo, an album, and a couple EPs. Their problem was partially timing—who could compete with the exciting Norwegian black metal wave?—but they might have erred in choosing a band name that summons images of a cuddly Australian marsupial.

From the book: “Sala band formed in August 1990. They produced pretty groovy death metal with deep grunted vocals. Not bad, but lacking the quality of bands from nearby Avesta. Uncanny, Interment, and Fulmination were always a notch above. They actually released an album, though it passed mostly unnoticed in the days of black metal. Lindfors went on to In Thy Dreams.”

For the full story of the rabid Swedish death metal scene, get a signed copy of Swedish Death Metal at this location:

SWEDISH DEATH METAL

BLOODY ROOTS OF POWERVIOLENCE
Week of June 1, 2013

Sat 6/1, 6PM ET
Sun 6/2, 2PM ET
Tues 6/4, 3PM ET
Thurs 6/6, 9PM ET

If you blinked, you might have missed the split-second contortions of the powerviolence scene, a mostly West Coast tribe of spastic aggressors dangling from the undercarriage of crossover, grindcore, and extreme hardcore. Join host Ian Christe (Sound of the Beast/Bazillion Points) for an attention-deficit spectacle of hyperspasmic proportions, featuring short fast and loud tracks by DRI, Crossed Out, Charles Bronson, Man Is the Bastard, Neanderthal, Siege, Noothgrush, Infest, Black Army Jacket, and many, many more. Know your Roots!

Neanderthal – “Brain Tourniquet” from Complete Fighting Music 1996
Infest – “Lifes Halt” from Slave 1988
Siege – “Sad But True” from Drop Dead 1985
Larm – “Chemical Suicide” from No One Can Be That Dumb 1986
D.R.I. – “F.R.D.C.” from Dirty Rotten EP 1983
Siege – “Life of Hate” from Drop Dead 1993
Neanderthal – “Kill, Eat And Breed” from Complete Fighting Music 1996
Charred Remains aka MITB – “Side A” from Aunt Mary split 1992
Crossed Out – “Locked In” from Discography: 1990-1993
Infest – “Break The Chain” from Slave 1988
Dropdead – “Fucking Assholes” from Dropdead Complete Discography 1994
Charles Bronson – “Obligatory Jock Slaughter Song” from Complete Discocrappy 2000
Black Army Jacket – “Alpha Male” from Spazz Split
No Comment – “Dead Stare For Life” from Downsided 7″ 1992
Cum Dumpster – “Blow Torture” from Son of bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!! 1992
Man Is The Bastard – “Refuse To Thrive” from D.I.Y.C.D. 1995
Fuck On the Beach – “She Used To Cry For It” from Endless Summer
Plutocracy – “Good Times” from Son of bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!! 1992
Dropdead – “Bullshit Tradition” from Complete Discography
Agathocles – “Get Off Your Ass” from Revive Us Again EP 1993
Destroy! – “Fuck You, I’m Punk” from Son of bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!! 1992
Benumb – “untitled” from The dukes of hazzard split ep 1995
Mexican Power Authority – “Victorian Punque” from BLLLEEEEAAAUUURRRRGGHHH! – A Music War 1998
Crossed Out – “Suicide Of The Species” from Discography: 1990-1993
Flash Gordon – “Bassfisher” from BLLLEEEEAAAUUURRRRGGHHH! – A Music War 1998
Charles Bronson – “Marriage Can Suck It” from Complete Discocrappy 1999
Disassociate – “Phatboy” from BLLLEEEEAAAUUURRRRGGHHH! – A Music War 1998
Noothgrush – “Strawberry Shortcake and Friends etc” from BLLLEEEEAAAUUURRRRGGHHH! – A Music War 1998
Dropdead – “Do You Choose Life?” from Discography 1991-1993 1994
Gasp – “Love For The Retarded Strands” from Noothgrush split 7″ 1997
Noothgrush – “Starvation” from Gasp split 7″ 1997
Rupture – “Green Goblin Is Our Leader” from Revive Us Again EP 1993
Crossed Out – “He-man” from Discography: 1990-1993
Excrement Of War – “Armchair Critic” from Revive Us Again EP 1993
Gob – “Clobbered With a Brick” BLLLEEEEAAAUUURRRRGGHHH! – A Music War 1998
The Misanthropists – “Cruel, Rude, Defensive Street Entertainers Will Die Of Hunger” from BLLLEEEEAAAUUURRRRGGHHH! – A Music War 1998
Slight Slappers – “Anal Count” from BLLLEEEEAAAUUURRRRGGHHH! – A Music War 1998
Dropdead – “Wake of Deception” from Dropdead Complete Discography 1994
Charles Bronson – “Second Hand Choke” from Complete Discocrappy 2000
No Comment – “Hacked To Chunks” from Downsided 7″ 1992
Spazz – “Stabbed In The Back” from Black Army Jacket Split 2007
Man Is The Bastard – “Funeral For Cargo” from Revive Us Again EP 1993
Man Is The Bastard – “Steak Eating Boss” from D.I.Y.C.D. 1995
Charles Bronson – “Bible Thumpers Go To Hell” from Complete Discocrappy 1999
Black Army Jacket – “Greedy Bastard” from Spazz split

Bloody Roots is Sound of the Beast author (and Bazillion Points publisher) Ian Christe’s heavy metal history show on Sirius XM Liquid Metal channel 40. Since June 2004, each weekly show has examined another subgenre, band, movement, country, or theme in metal, punk, and heavy rock. The show is available on-demand online from SiriusXM.com.