Metal Jew

Tel Aviv suicide bombing

I heard late last night  that there had been a suicde bombing ouutside Tel Aviv's The Stage nightclub, killing 4. Some brief thoughts:

1) Oh no not again.
2) I pray that the Israeli government won't let the extremists have a veto on the peace process (such as it is) once again.
3) It always freaks me out when the bombers strike at the iconic heartlands of secular Israelis - nightclubs in tel Aviv, coffee bars in Jerusalem - as it suggests they have a much better understanding of Israeli culture than sometimes appears. As well as (presumably) seeing them as decadent, they want to push the buttons of those who are the most liberal in order to drive  them into the arms of the Jewish right.
4) In April, we are staying in Tel Aviv near the seafront 
5) Nothing more profound to add.  I have plenty of thoughts but I promised myself that this blog would not be  an excuse to swim in the river of me. That way madness lies.  Stick to the facts...

Ha'aretz launches new supplement

The English version of Haaretz has launched an interesting new supplement called Underground that appears to deal with the hipper aspects of Israeli culture. 

The current issue features a good article on Betzefer.

 

Italian 'Beasts of Satan' jailed

I hadn't heard about this before funnily enough:

The Italian mastermind of three gruesome "satanic" murders has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.

A second member of the cult involved in the murders received a 16 year term, while a third man was acquitted. The killings, which shocked Italy, were carried out by a heavy metal band calling itself the Beasts of Satan. The three victims were a woman shot and then buried alive in 2004 and a teenage couple, murdered six years earlier. Andrea Volpe, the leader of the heavy metal group and the main culprit in the murders, has been handed down a longer prison sentence than expected.

His prosecutors had asked for 20 years on the grounds that had cooperated with investigators and shown remorse. Pietro Guerrieri is to serve the 16-year term.

Buried alive

"Today justice rewarded me", said Michele Tollis, the father of Fabio, who was only 16 when he was killed and buried along with his 19-year-old girlfriend Chiara in a forest not far from Milan.
But Chiara's mother, Lina Marino, was outraged at the punishment, which she considered too lenient. "They are murderers. It's not fair," she said.

The 1998 murders were carried out as part of drug fuelled rituals involving sex and heavy metal music. The couple, themselves members of the heavy metal band, were killed in woods northeast of Milan and then buried next to each other. Volpe was also found guilty of the 2004 murder of his own girlfriend, 27-year-old Mariangela Pezzotta, who was shot and buried alive in a forest.

It was the discovery of her body that helped investigators solve the 1998 case. A third defendant was acquitted at the end of the fast-track trial on Tuesday, but five more members of the cult are due to go to trial in June.

 

 

 



I wonder what kind of Metal band Beasts of Satan were?

Link: BBC NEWS | Europe | Italian 'Beasts of Satan' jailed.

In the face of death

This month's Observer Music Monthly has an, all things considered, pretty accurate article on Norwegian Black Metal, focusing on a live report from Mayhem 's Norwegian tour. Whilst focusing on BM's more outrageous aspects, the article manages to avoid lurid sensationalism.I rather liked the line:

'...Mayhem sound like a band at war with  the world. And possibly even themselves.'

Link: The Observer | OMM | In the face of death.

A Bissel Rap

All is Vanity Blog  alerted me to a Joel Moss's A Bissel Rap  - a new Jewish rap posted at www.supermasterpiece.com.

A brief google of the song shows that it appears to have had awesomely bad reviews.  Full marks then to supermasterpiece.com for promoting it with the following banner:

Israeli music conquers the world!

Hot on the heals of HaDag Nahash's US tour, 2 more Israeli artists have announced US dates:  Rapper  Subliminal  and Metal Gods  Orphaned Land . The latter are playing the Prog Power USA festival.

Twisted Tales

A rare case of Death Metal appearing in popular culture (in this cae BBC3). Sadly, it wasn't very good:

Death Metal Chronicles
Bucket of Pus lead singer Zak is fed up of bass player Dominic’s lack of ambition for their Death Metal band, while the whole band are jealous that Dominic is dating the very fit Bella. Zak plucks up courage to take the band in a new direction, but then one of them turns up dead and the whole lot are under suspicion. But, if there are no clues to pin it on the band, is it the dark forces of Death Metal wreaking revenge on the boys for turning their backs on the music? Detectives Pierson and Tanner are brought in to find the killer: will they get their act together and discover the truth before it’s too late for those who are left?
               
                Written by by David Cummings (Kevin and Perry Go Large, Happiness)
               
Death Metal Chronicles is peppered with guest stars including Morwenna Banks as the head cop, Steve Oram (of comedy duo Oram and Meeten) as her deputy and Ricky Grover as the band’s roadie, Maggot. The band include Rafe Spall (son of Tim) and Simon Woods (soon to be seen in the new Pride and Prejudice movie).

Link: BBC - BBC THREE - Twisted Tales.

Jewish Rock and Roll hall of fame

Yahoo story on the Jewish Rock and Roll hall of fame

Apparently, the putitive web project 'The Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of fame is in dispute with the The official Rock and Roll hall of fame over the use of the name.  Note in itself that interesting but the idea of a Jewish rock and roll hall of fame certainly is.

Of course it will probably (if and when it gets off the ground) be as vaguely disappointing as other similar projects such as Guy Oseary's book 'Jew who rock' . The problem is, with obvious exceptions, that most Jews who rock don't seem to do so in any distinctively Jewish way.  Sure, other books like Micheal Billig's 'Rock and Roll Jews' do attempt to dig a bit deeper to discover the hidden Jewishness of Jews who rock.  I still think though that in today's rock scene, being Jewish doesn't mean that much. That said, I love playing 'spot the yid' as much as anyone...

Possessing the secret of Metal

The secret of Metal (at least UK Metal)?  That Metal is full of irony and play. That Metallers love their more dim-witted bretheren rather than finding them an embarassment. That accusations that Metal is dum don't need to be defended.

Fellow Terrorizer writers have been enjoying reminiscing and celebrating 2 of UK Metal's  less sharp-minded fans:

Where is Mitch Hale?.

In Bed with Chris Needham

Taffy

I doubt if very many people remember Taffy who had a hit in the mid 80s with an okayish song called 'I Love My Radio'.  The song talked of her love for the 'DJ after midnight'. So far so dull. What makes this interesting is I remember hearing at the time - from whom I can't remember - that the edit of the song used on radio 1 changed the payoff line to 'DJ up to midnight' as the station didn't broadcast through the night at that time.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but God would it be wonderful if it was...