Comic related metal songs are relatively few and far between. The lyric for "Into The Timewastes" by Dutch Death/Doom metal band Asphyx worked it's way into my subconcious after listening to their most recent album ("Deathhammer", 2012) a few times and it eventually hit me - this is totally the A.B.C Warriors, atleast in the start of the song.
"dive into the timewastes
at the speed of light
robot mercenaries
elite for hire
galactic warriors
ancient as space
serving and protecting
a weak organic race
universal empires
face the ultimate threat
disturbance in order
time meets death
sensors activating
defensive shields
encountering chaos
desorientating fields"
That appears to have ties to the Black Hole saga from the late 80's. The ABC Warriors, a band of old war robots, are dispatched into an area known as the Time Wastes to repair a problem that threatens to destroy Earth. Curious, I tracked down an interview with the vocalist to see if it was intentional:
Metal Blast: You guys have always had very interesting song titles; ‘Into The Timewastes,’ ‘Of Days When Blades Turned Blunt,’ ‘We Doom You To Death.’ Martin van Drunen: [Laughs] Yeah, it was just the fun of it. The thing is that we were trying to be original in the song titles, but also so you know what it deals with. ‘Into The Timewastes’ is non-existing, it’s like science fiction more-or-less. That’s what the song says, too. It’s about a bunch of robot mercenaries that travel throughout the galaxy and are constantly at war with all kinds of creatures, and they dive into this thing called the ‘Timewaste’ where time meets death and that is the end of the universe if they don’t fix that problem. That’s the idea behind it; I read too many comics sometimes, I guess.
No confirmation there of the inspiration, but there's a nod to comics at the end so it seems possible.
On to the song itself. It starts off relatively pedestrian - this is your basic straight-ahead Death Metal, and there's nothing subtle about it. Where the song becomes brilliant is at the 1:08 mark, when the breakdown is introduced. Sure it's a couple of simple riffs, but the groove to it is colossal. I defy any metal fan to not nod their head to it.
During one of my regular searches for artwork (Firestorm related, of course), I found the cover to Firestorm #2 (vol.2).
Awesome stuff. Upon closer inspection, I noticed this in the margin at the bottom left of the page:
Pat Broderick must've been pretty chuffed with his finished pencils and wanted to see them preserved. Of course these days the penciled art need never leave the artist's side. Back in 1982, I'd imagine it was a much less common (and quite impractical) request.
Raising this from "interesting" to "funny" is a second note to editor Len Wein written in the margin. In the bottom right margin is this response:
I assume this was written by Dick Giordano who was inking the series covers. I like to imagine him seeing the cover and deciding it would actually be quite fun to ink it, and adding this comment in jest.
As it turned out, there was an inked version of the cover done, but what saw print turned out to be markedly different from the original pencils:
I have no idea of the details behind this. As I see it either Pat Broderick drew it again, or Dick Giordano did a recreation of it. I have an inkling that I've seen the inked artwork online once before, but I can't for the life of me find it nor did I appear to save it (which I generally do with all Firestorm artwork I stumble across) so I guess not.
For anyone interested in the cover and with a spare $1,950 to burn, it is currently available here.
Courtesy of randomly digging through a cupboard and stumbling across something I hadn't seen in years, today I bring you: Brutallica!
Brutallica, unleashed on the world in 1992, was the creation of one Colin MacKenzie. I have no idea who Colin was or what has happened to him since, although one of his books has managed to get itself a listing in Google Books, albeit a blank entry. Of course, when I say "unleashed on the world" what I really mean by "world" is "New Zealand", and probably even more specifically "Auckland". As you can no doubt guess from the cover, this is your basic home produced comic book; Printed on a photocopier and most likely sold at the local comic shop. It's A4 size and clocks in at 7 pages. Here's the intro:
As near as I can tell this thing ran for 8 issues, plus one reprint collecting the first 3 issues (well it's probably more accurate to say "I have 9 issues and I'm guessing that's it". There's not really anyone I can ask about it.) According to the intro in #3, the first 2 issues sold 15 copies (I'm assuming that's total, not each). Brutallica cared not for social causes- he was all about killing stuff, mostly "just because". His first adventure:
Yeah. Ummm... take that McDonalds....
The pages that follow include Brutallica unleashing his fury on a government department, a heavy metal band, and a flock of birds:
I inherited these from a friend who left the country 10+ years ago. Still holding on to them, they've gotta be worth something one day surely...
Professor Martin Stein has been called in to consult on a project. Sounds pretty safe, the Firestorm curse of being terrible with women couldn't possibly raise it's ugly head here right?
Unless the person that called you in for the consult is madly in love with you. Still, that could be ok. If you're a busy scientist, it stands to reason that you'd socialize with your peers. Relationships are going to happen. She looks like a nice emotionally balanced lady. I wonder how they met?
Ah. Well, the student/teacher thing is seldom a good idea at the best of times. We'll just leave it to Martin to let her down gently.
Or not.
Ah well, it's over now. Sure it's awkward, but they're both adults. At least she's not a psycho killer bent on revenge or something crazy like that.
Oh. Nice one Martin. Firestorm matrix strikes again!
This year I bought 43 new releases, and added around about 100 CDs to my collection. Here's what I thought about some of them:
Album of the Year
Kreator - Phantom Antichrist
This surprised the hell out of me. I'm not really a Thrash Metal fan at all, and as such I'd never bothered to check out the legendary Kreator. Bought on a whim, this has been at the top of my playlist ever since. If you're a guitarist, you need to hear this album. The riffs on it are amazing - very technical, but what elevates it to a level of greatness is the melody that's injected into each song. This is not a band just trying to blast out fast music, everything is given an epic feeling. Also, the lead guitarist has killer technique and writes awesome solos. It's one of those rare albums that just inspires me to pick up a guitar and jam with it.
Album of the Year (Runner Up)
Ahab - The Giant
So before I got the Kreator album, I was thinking this was an absolute certainty for best of the year. I love the band's two previous albums, but this was a little bit surprising. It's a lot more mellow than their previous outings. The crushingly heavy riffs and guttural vocals are still there, and all still moving at glacially slow speed. They have added a much more serene element to the mix, bringing to mind the final album by Morgion. To be honest, I didn't completely like it at first- it took many listens for it to work it's way into my brain, for the haunting melodies to take root and reveal their beauty. But I'm glad I stuck with it.
Notable Mentions
Epica - Requiem for the Indifferent
A return to form after a slightly lackluster previous album. Symphonic Metal at it's best, just be sure to get it on Vinyl if you're a hardcore fan as the track "Serenade of Self Destruction" has a bunch of vocal tracks that are missing on the CD version (and it's a better song with them!)
Eluveitie - Helvetios
I'll freely admit to being a fanboy of this Folk Metal band so their inclusion isn't much of a surprise. Not really anything new, just the continuation of a class act.
Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol
Over the course of their last 3 albums they've been steadily regressing their sound back to their mid-90's glory days. This continues the trend. Everything I need from a good Doom Metal album.
Winterfylleth - The Threnody of Triumph
The 3rd album from this Black Folk Metal group. Loved their previous album, but this one blows it away. In a year that also saw a solid release from Drudkh, these guys managed to beat the Ukrainian masters at their own game. Raw and aggressive yet somehow captivating and beautiful at the same time.
Top 3 Songs of the Year
Asphyx - Into The Timewastes
It's nothing new or clever, it's just one hell of a great groove from 1:08 onward.
Ahab - Antarctica The Polymorphess
This song encapsulates everything great about the new album, and the band in general. Haunting, and like all good doom should, has a killer guitar melody at the end.
My Dying Bride - A Map Of All Our Failures
The title track from MDB's best album in 10 years. The riff from 4:10 is brilliantly bleak.
Worst Album of the Year
Fear Factory - The Industrialist
Two words that one should never read when it come to FF: drum machine. Everything that was ever cool about Fear Factory revolved around the tight interplay between the guitar and drums. Raymond Herrera's double-kick drum work was just fun to listen to (and later, Gene Hoglan). Now in place of an actual human we get a drum machine, sucking the soul from the music and rendering it unlistenable. Sure, it doesn't *sound* any different, but knowing it's a computer just kills it for me.
Worst Song of the Year
Delain - We Are The Others
I discovered Delain this year, and really loved them. Their new album is fantastic. HOWEVER... they decided to rerecord this song from the album and release it as a single. I like the original version. The new one has "sellout" written all over it. Delain's music in general has a commercial direction to it, and that's perfectly ok. Watering down one of your songs to get airplay is NOT ok. In all honesty, I haven't been able to listen to the band since this single came out. I care about artistic integrity, and this band has none.
On that controversial note, we'll leave it there ;)
