Metal Jew

Peace, love and Satanism in Northern Ireland

This just in from Earache Records:

Akercocke to play Belfast tonight despite protests

Akercocke will play Belfast tonight despite protests from Christian groups and a strong police presence at the Belfast show.
The impending release of UK death metal country gents Akercocke's latest album "Antichrist" caused so much uproar amongst Northern Ireland¹s religious community that the band appeared on BBC Northern Ireland on Wednesday night.
`Nolan Live' is BBC Northern Ireland's flagship topical affairs series.
It is presented by double Royal Television Society Award winner Stephen Nolan, who also hosts a daily radio show on BBC Radio Ulster and a weekend slot on BBC Five Live.
See: www.bbc.co.uk/ni/nolan
As the title suggests, the programme is a late-night 60 minute LIVE programme, transmitted on BBC Northern Ireland television from 2240-2340 on a Wednesday night (also available on digital television). It is totally interactive thereby allowing viewers to e-mail, text and call the show LIVE - they will also be able to pose questions to Stephen and the studio guests.
Audiences took advantage of the communication channels on Wednesday night to air a variety of views:
" How do they know the Antichrist likes that kind of music?  ...  We dont dont need religion, religion has caused more harm than good  ...  There's enough antichrists in Belfast  ...  Stormont is full of weirdos like those 2.  ...  Was that singer on the right bitten by the wolf  ...  It
They dont look evil. Just stupid.   ...  Satan suckz God rulez  ...  I
say welcome the band here. They rule!!  ...  Is 666 under their hair?
...  How do you even know what they are saying??   ...  Who cares? Its
what they believe.   ...  The problem is the 2 in front of you.
Christians brain washers  ...  Its only theatrics, catch a grip!  ...
The God Squad want to ban anything they don't agree with  ...  Get Uri to bend their drum sticks.  ...  For gods sake let them sing. At the end of
the day people don't need music 2turn away from god   ...  COME ON NI
STAND UP AGAINST THIS EVIL INVASION. PROTECT OUR LAND.  ...  That music
is rubbish, it should be banned.   ...  If your religions strong enough
shouldn''t matter. its music, Peace!  ..."

The programme consistently tops the ratings in Northern Ireland, achieving massive viewing figures.
The overtly satanic content contained within "Antichrist" and the bands previous albums specifically "Rape of the bastard Nazerene" has come under attack by religious forces, leading to the band's vocalist Jason Mendonca and drummer David Gray having a head- to-head live TV debate that aired on BBC1¹s ŒNolan Live¹ show. VIEW a clip of Wednesday night's show on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9oM4f1xdQ

According to sources in Belfast, there are Christian protestors outside the venue now and police are demanding to see Akercocke lyrics before letting them go on stage tonight.
The band are determined to play and tickets for shows are now limited as the Irish metal community responds with support for Akercocke.

The band also guested on Steven Nolans BBC radio show the next morning Listen in at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/ulster/aod.shtml?ulster/nolan_thu

Jason will be appearing on Totalrock radio www.totalrock.com on Monday morning 11.30am to tell people about his thoughts on the BBC programmes.

To find out more about Antichrist and to listen exclusively to the track "Summon The Antichrist" that has ignited this controversy, head over to www.myspace.com/akercockeantichrist.

Antichrist is released in the UK on Earache Records on May 28th (UK) and July 17th (USA)

Truly it's a new dawn in N Ireland...

Interesting articles/links (not a post title that is likely to lead anyone to this blog via a Google search but I live in hope)

Some interesting stuff from Decibel Magazine (a bit old but I only browsed the site properly today):

Gays in Metal (which mentions the site queermetal.net )
A Special Report on NSBM (that's National Socialist Black Metal)
The History of Comedy Grind

There isn't enough of these kinds of general features in the Metal press. Anyone know any other good features to link to?

Brief thoughts on Eurovision 2007

I've got loads to say about Eurovision 2007. What with the complexities of voting, national rivalries, massive stylistic diversity and sheer campness, Eurovision always gets me fired up (usually in a good way). There's been some interesting discussions in the comments threads of Eurovision blog that are worth checking out.

I'll confine myself to one comment: It was fascinating to see how important Metal and hard music generally seem to have become to the Finns. Last year's winners Lordi featured in the pre-show video and also appeared on stage. One of the between songs video clips featured fans at a Finnish Metal festival. This year's Finnish entry was itself an Evanescence-style slice of dark/gothic alt-Metal. But most extraordinary was the choice of Apocalyptica as interval entertainment. Okay, so it's cellos, but their music is out-and-out Metal. What's more it accompanied a circus show that featured, amongst other things, a guy who sword-swallowed a UV lightbulb. You may hate this stuff or love it but this certainly wasn't the bland, middle of the road and camp Eurovision of old (okay, maybe it was a little bit camp). Metal culture appears to be closer to the cultural mainstream in Scandinavia and Finland in particular than anywhere else. Is this simply a case of mainstream incorporation with the inevitable blandifying consequences? To a certain extent perhaps, but let's not forget that Finland and the rest of Scandinavia are world leaders not only in the more palatable forms of Metal, but also in its more extreme and experimental forms.

So - Impaled Nazarene to be the Finnish Eurovision entry next year?

Metal Humor

Just stumbled upon an amusing newish blog Metal Humor . There's some funny stuff there (much of it on youtube). Proof again that Metal fans, contrary to popular opinion, do have a keen sense of humor and irony.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad

Big shout to Martin Shuster who told me about this fascinating documentary on Heavy Metal in Bagdhad . Here's the blurb:

In 2003, just after the US toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein, Vice magazine published an article on the only heavy metal band in Iraq, Acrassicauda. The Baghdad-based band was formed in the last few years of Saddam's rule and aside from the typical problems every band has, they also had to deal with the stigma of playing dark western music in an Islamic state under Baath party rule, while coming out of a decade of war, sanctions, and poverty. We found their story inspiring. When we interviewed the band they were excited to be living in a newly freed Iraq, and their future seemed limitless. They even talked of recording an album. Things took a turn for the worse, however. After a few months respite, the situation in free Iraq deteriorated quickly and by the end of the year, after a few key insurgent attacks‑the bombing at the UN building, the massive strike at the grand Shi'a mosque in Najaf‑Iraq started to unravel. We stayed in touch with the band through this time and in the fall of 2006, with the insurgency reaching a fevered pitch, VICE Co-Founder Suroosh Alvi and VBS Producer Eddy Moretti decided to visit them.

For more go to www.vbs.tv

More self promotion

There's a good detailed interview with me about my book in the latest issue of Terrorizer.

My sponsored mid-life crisis - update

I'm pleased to announce that my sponsored mid-life crisis has raised the target amount of £1000. Thanks to everyone who gave. If you haven't given then donations are open for the next 3 months.
I will be posting my embarassing metal video within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned...