Heavy Street

I have seen Kiss Meets The Phantom Of The Park about twenty times now, and after every viewing my appreciation increases over how genius this movie really is. If you have not seen Kiss Meets The Phantom of The Park, then you are missing out on monumental movie making history. Phantom came out in 1978, and was televised on Halloween night on NBC and later released on VHS in the early eighties. Since then, the only way to view it is on the Kiss Anthology 2 DVD. The only downside to that is, most of Ace’s lines (the best parts of the movie) are cut from the European version of the movie on that DVD.

I can understand why KISS wont release the US version on its own, as KISS considers it their low point career wise, but I digress. Why Phantom did not win any oscars is beyond me, from everything to the hilarious shitty acting, the cheesy stunts, the laughable special effects. Pure gold I tell ya. Now as I have stated before, if you talk to Peter, Gene, Paul, & Ace, they will try to bury the movie. Is it, because Peter Criss’s voice was so bad, they had to get someone to do voice over for his parts, or is it cause Ace was so out of it during the shooting, they had to get a stuntman in the fight scenes who was black. You cant script this stuff up folks.  The KISS army though, love the film in all it’s cheesy glory.

Kiss Meets The Phantom  has to be one of the greatest “so bad that it’s good” movies ever made. I am hoping that in my lifetime, this movie gets created into a touring Broadway musical, if not I will watch it again for the twenty first time. On that note, I will leave you with one of the lines Paul says in his New York lisp as Peter makes a wise crack to the police when they try to blame Gene for an act of vandalism…..”easy catman, they ahh therious”.

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Man this one hit me like a brick when I first heard it. This is one of the most blasphemous, evil, vile, old school black metal records I have heard in a long time. There is an eerie, haunting vibe through the whole thirty minutes of this record that never washes away from you.

Hard to believe it’s now been ten years since Finntroll has been beating us vikings over the head with their brand of Finnish polka metal. My first foray into this mighty musical pirate ship started when my best friend introduced me to their second album Jaktens tid. At first I hated their brand of polka metal, what with the fiddles, accordions, and all, but over time Finntroll’s sound grew on me. Now I just cant get enough of the oompah blackness that these merry men create.

If you haven’t been converted yet to the morbid, eerie, haunting, yet sexy power of all that is Gallhammer, then you are truly missing out. Gallhammer is a Japanese all female three piece that consists of Vivian Slaughter on vocals & bass, Mika Penetrator on Guitar, and Risa Reaper on drums. Together they make a beautiful wall of dark ambient noise that drones, and sloths its way through in a wicked manner.

These girls basically bow to the alter of all that is Hellhammer and Morbid Tales era Celtic Frost with the rest of us Tom G Warrior droogs.  It’s dirty, raw mid eighties rock as f**k black metal at its finest mates. They have two solid full length albums out, the dark and sinister Gloomy Lights from 2004 & the more gentle yet brooding and deceptive Ill Innocence from 2007,  I highly recommend checking both of them out.

I recently heard Gallhammer is playing three shows in Tokyo Japan on April 19th, May 6th, and June 28th. Man I would love to see this evil incarnate threesome live soon, and am hoping after they do this quick Japanese jaunt, Gallhammer will actually do a full North American tour this year.



Last night was the first time for me seeing Every Time I Die live. The show was at  The Rickshaw Theatre, my favourite venue in Vancouver of course and was a very diverse bill (not for the better, but more on that later). By the time the first band Trapped Under Ice went on, the place was about half full. TUI were the only authentic hardcore band on the bill. The last time I saw them was when they came to Vancouver a few years ago opening up for Terror, since then TUI have toured a whole bunch and have honed their craft big time. They were super tight & heavy as f**k. Justin is a wicked front man and had the ninja’s up front all rilled up.  They definitely got a good response from the young Every Time I Die fans in attendance.

No this is how it’s done. For those of you still waiting for Flick Of The Switch part 2, here it is full of piss n vinegar. This is the perfect cure for the all out weak, let down of Black Ice (man that album blew chunks) , or for that matter the last three AC/DC albums since 1995.

I was listening to some Psalm 69 today and got all sentimental about the late 80′s / early 90′s industrial scene. So I decided to make up a small top five list of my personal all time fave industrial bands:

The New York Hardcore documentary DVD is not the place one would want to start to find out the history of New York hardcore, but it’s definitely a good time capsule piece on the mid 90′s period of hardcore. This documentary focuses on bands that made somewhat of an impact during that period, such as 25 Ta Life, Crown of Thornz, Madball, District 9, Cro Mags and a few others. With the DVD you get a lot for what you pay, as it’s a 2 disc set  filled with tons of in-depth interviews, and quality live footage.

Public Enemy is coming to Vancouver May 27th at the Commodore Ballroom. I am so psyched about this show, as rumour has it that the original line up of Chuck D, Flavor Flav & Professor Griff minus Terminator X is doing this tour. I remember the first time hearing PE was back in 1988 when She Watch Channel Zero came on the local college radio station and hearing them use Slayer’s “Angel Of Death” riff as a sample in the background……fucking changed my life right there. It was the hardest music I had heard back then, with a socio-political message to boot. No one at the time was saying shit that PE was preaching and still isn’t.

Some even go far as saying PE were one of the first straight edge bands as their lyrics were against any form of alcohol or drugs. PE were back then and still are an important piece of the puzzle in the underground music scene as a whole. Cause while clowns like Young Jeezy,  Lil’ Wayne , and Lil Jon talk about getting crunk with all the bitches & the hoes and using autotune while doing it, PE send their political & social message as convincing as ever, across to those who care to listen.

No one has taken over  PE’s spot in hip hop since their first album came out in 1987 (Paris & Dead Prez have come close) and I dont think anyone truly ever will. It makes me happy that their still putting out relevant records & still touring, cause the world more than ever need a band like PE to spread the word. Now if I can only find my Fear Of A Black Planet cassette to listen to right about now.

I was expecting another beatdown, thugcore band when I listened to this album. Maybe cause it’s a Eulogy records release and I based the opinion on the last few releases from bands I heard from on the label. Well…fogettabout it! These Buffalo, New York boys are the real deal, as their straight edge message sounds convincing as Joe Pesci making his point in a Martin Scorsese film.