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Monday, December 12, 2011

And the tour recap continues...


My exciting new shelf.
I needed somewhere to put my Shogun Warrior -
it really ties the room together.

And so we continue with our seemingly endless saga of road warrior-ism... As those of you who have been following our story so far may remember... We had spent the summer criss-crossing the western two-thirds of the US and Canada with Macabre , Cephalic Carnage and Withered - topping things off with a trip to Europe for a four-day, four-festival marathon. We got back from Belgium late Monday night, August 15th, more than ready for a bit of rest. I have to admit, I was pretty psyched about having a month and a half off the road. While I was still in Orange County (after Rob kindly picked Mike and I up from LAX) I went out and bought a new amp, a Peavey 6505+, a new phone that doesn't totally suck, as well as a much-needed new bookshelf that actually fits all my records (for now, haha!). When you live on the central California coast, you're hours away from the nearest Guitar Center and Ikea, so I decided to make the most of my proximity to mega-shopping during my Tuesday in SoCal.

Amp mod in progress.
Wes and Rob: Working hard. Me: hardly working.
Good times.
Since I'm talking about the gear I bought, I want to give you a brief idea of how out of control my gear situation was when we did the “All Guts...” record: for starters, I didn't even own an amplifier. I had three guitars in various states of disrepair (now at least one is functioning at 100%, another at about 75%, while there's still one in pretty bad shape), some pedals (noise suppressor, tuner, and tube screamer) and a busted Marshall cabinet. While on the Macabre tour, I picked up a Line 6 relay wireless system, a delay and EQ pedal for a lead boost, a pedal board to organize my crap and a new stand case for the side of the stage. In early June, Wes set up my old Ibanez RGT-350 so I wouldn't have to keep using my shitty blue RG 270 (that I used at MDF and our first few shows in Europe). The RG-270 used to be my back-up guitar before the wiring in my RGT got shot to hell and the bridge rusted beyond usefulness. I got a new, Gotoh bridge for the RGT-350, which totally rules and stays in tune perfectly after Wes' expert set-up work. After the North American tour ended, Wes also fixed my cabinet by removing the circuit board and replacing all the wiring (I think he removed the circuit board – I really know next to nothing about all the technical stuff) as well as doing a really cool mod on it. He and Rob lined the whole front of the cabinet with caulk that gave it a lot more bottom end and really darkened up the sound of the cabinet. I think it sounds better than the rectifier cabinets, to be honest, because it still has a bit of that Marshall warmth. If you're wondering how we recorded the record... We recorded everything with Wes' and Ryan's (Butler at Arcane Digital Recording) gear.

The bar whose name I have
forgotten. But I remember the pic
of Billy Dee Williams distinctly! 
I had enough time in those six weeks to play a really fun free Gravehill show in Los Angeles at a cool bar where I tried Johnnie Walker Green for the first time. It's expensive, but I highly recommend it! Matt Olivo from Repulsion came out and hooked me up with an awesome Genocide LP which totally made my night! The stage was about 6 inches high, and I totally got knocked flat on my ass by someone in the pit - always the sign of a good evening. 

I also went up to my old hometown of San Jose for Labor Day weekend to hang out with my old Exhumed and Scarecrow band-mates and managed to get a DUI, which was a bit of a drag to say the least. Luckily, my license wouldn't become suspended until after we were supposed to leave for tour so I was free to roam around and get whatever needed to get done in the interim. One thing that was a bit of a sticky wicket about the DUI was that my court date was set for October 18th – the day we were scheduled to play in Ljubljana, Slovenia, so I ended up having to spring for a lawyer to go to court for me... Which meant that on top of the thousands of dollars for the DUI + classes, I had to fork over another $1500 for a lawyer. Awesome. Needless to say, I didn't buy anymore gear during / after the Goatwhore / Havok tour we finished in November... But more on that later.

Now that is a cool record!
My Death Metal nerd status:
Assured!!!
Our plan when we did the record was that we would just concentrate on doing a couple of festivals and then maybe add a few dates depending on what the vibe was with the band and the reaction to the album, etc. etc. Needless to say, things grew beyond our expectations pretty quickly with “All Guts...” and we ended up kind of piecing tours together around the festivals we already had booked – so our North American tour ended up being two separate three-week tours, rather than one five-week tour. Europe was sporadic in a similar fashion. Having already played a bunch of places with Atheist in April, and a few more in June, we had some pretty wide swaths of uncovered ground there. So we made plans to trek back to Europe in September and October with Cephalic Carnage. As things were a bit slow coming together logistically, the tour ended up kicking off in October. In the meantime we decided to hit the California Discord Fest, since we had been talking about doing a “punk rock” style show in Los Angeles anyway. Several scenarios were discussed, mostly revolving around Exhumed + Despise You at the Boulevard, but this festival featuring Dropdead, Rattus, Ghoul, Magrudergrind, Lack Of Interest, Despise You and many others seemed to cover the same ground more effectively, so we opted to do this instead. Then my old friend Joe Axler (drummer extraordinaire for Splatterhouse, Book Of Black Earth, etc.) hit me up about the Discord weekend. It turned out that his new band, the killer Theories (click the link to download their record for free, dude!) was playing some shows on their way down from Seattle with the also excellent Transient and was wondering if we'd like to do a bay area show in addition to the festival. A few emails to our intrepid agent, Dan Rozenblum at the Pantheon Agency (who not coincidentally is Theories' agent as well) and we had managed to squeeze into a last minute spot at the Uptown in Oakland. I made sure we got my former band-mates' new band Mortuous (featuring Col Jones on drums and Mike Beams on guitar) on the bill as well and things were set for a pretty fun weekend. Wes flew to Orange County from Arizona and he and Rob arrived in time for a couple days of rehearsal. We worked in a few different songs to the set, adding new tracks “Distorted And Twisted To Form”, “Death Knell” and “Necrotized” as well as “Torso” from the Hemdale split. After a couple of rehearsals (and the aforementioned cabinet repair / mod) we were ready for a weekend of grind.

Rehearsing in SLO.  With any luck, we may have actually
been in tune and playing the same song in this photo!

Hammy blasting away at rehearsal.
Since all this stuff was more or less local (San Luis Obispo is about four hours south of Oakland and four hours north of Los Angeles), we were doing the drive in our own cars, my SUV and Mike's pickup with a minimal amount of gear. Foolishly, the night before we left, Rob, Wes and I drank some hash-infused rum. I failed to take into account that the longer hash (or weed for that matter) sits in alcohol, the more potent it becomes. The last time I imbibed this felonious concoction, I had a pretty tall glass mixed with Grapefruit juice – the vitamin C from the juice supposedly makes it hit you a bit harder. It was pretty intense. With this in mind, I fixed us each a pretty small glass with ice – about the size of a generous “on the rocks” drink. Well, it had been a couple of months at least since the last time I had indulged in this particular libation, so it had plenty of time to steep in the rum and it hit even harder this time. This is worth mentioning because when the three of us woke up the next morning, we were all still very much under the influence. When we met up with Mike that morning at our jam space, he could tell we were a bit sideways. Okay, let's be honest: we were still high as fuck. Rob, Wes and I aren't particularly habitual stoners, so we were pretty spaced out as we drifted through the trip to Oakland in a heavy haze of stupefaction. I was still not quite right when I ate a burrito around 5:00 that evening or so, but the food really helped a lot. I was slowly coming back to a state resembling normalcy, which was a relief since I did not want to have to play the show stoned. I've never done that before, but it doesn't seem like a good idea and I am stoked that I didn't have to start in 2011.

A little bit about this Oakland show: The Uptown is not a rock / metal club – it's more of a “club” club. Cover bands and dance nights and shit. So most metal people don't really like going there. Strike One. Also, Hammers Of Misfortune was playing the same night in San Francisco. Strike Two. The club already had a cover band booked for that night, so our show was schedule to start at 5:30 PM and run until 9:30. If you know anything about the Bay Area, the traffic there is terrible, so if you're off work in San Jose / San Francisco / Concord at five, there's no way you can be in Oakland by 5:30. Strike Three. Oh yeah, and we had just played a packed show in San Francisco a month ago, which usually hurts your draw in a city 8 miles across the bay. So, there goes my baseball metaphor. The point of all this is... this wasn't looking like it was going to be a good show.

And it wasn't. Things were already off to a rocky start when two of the Mortuous guys were caught in traffic (I'm not gonna name names, but Mike Beams is one that comes to mind, haha!) and didn't make it to the venue in time to even play their set. They ended up setting up half their gear, and then tearing it down 30 minutes later without playing a note, which was a bummer. Transient was up next, and played an awesome set of powerviolence to a pretty empty house. Theories followed and also sounded killer, despite the lack of much of an audience. By the time we got onstage, some folks actually started filtering in and the place had gone from sparse to not that bad (although by no means great). I got to meet Mike's family which was cool, and we tested out our new set, which went pretty smoothly. There was another show in Oakland at a warehouse that Mortuous had jumped on (which probably didn't help the draw either), so we headed over after we loaded out to actually catch their set this time. They played their killer take on early 90s Swedish / Finnish death metal, and sounded heavy as hell. Since we had to be in LA the next day, we headed back to San Luis for some proper sleep and got back about three or four am.

Exhumed drummers past (R) and present (L) -
Mike and Danny at CA Discord Fest (the 1st venue)
Truly a meeting of the grinds...
The next day it was nice to wake up sober. We headed down to Los Angeles stoked that the set had gone well, and feeling ready to rock. We got to the site of the festival, a huge warehouse space, and despite the show being sold-out, the crowd was a bit sparse. Of course, it was still early. Since there was no alcohol at the festival, as soon as we finished loading our shit in, we decided to head to a bar. The show was in a really industrial area, so it was about a 2 mile walk to the nearest place that served beer: a bikini strip bar (in California, it's illegal to sell alcohol anyplace with full nudity, so there are a bunch of topless / bikini bars that try to split the difference). It was not a cool Motley Crue type of strip bar where chicks that dress like Kelly Bundy dance, but a fancy 21st century hip-hop style one. They had just opened and the place was pretty much empty – which was cool because we didn't feel quite so out of place, but not that cool because we were the only people there for the dancers to harass with their lap-dance sales pitches. After a couple of drinks we started getting texts from various LA friends that were arriving, so we headed back to the venue with a plan to hit a liquor store and drink in someone's van / car / etc.

We got back and ran into a bunch of friends, procured beer and headed to the rear parking lot where we were joined by our friend Deedee, who had done our merch on the Macabre / Cephalic tour. As we were proceeding to get inebriated, Aimee from Progeria / Bastard Noise happened to walk by and told us that the show was being broken up by the cops and that everyone was getting all their shit and leaving. Needless to say, that got our attention. We got back to the venue, explained to the police that we were one of the bands and we had to get our stuff out of there. They seemed cool with that, and I didn't see them beating anyone up or anything, but there was a lot of confusion. In the hubbub, we managed to lose a toolbox, Wes' backpack and something of Mike's I can't recall at the moment. I managed to find the promoter, who didn't have much information for me, but assured me that steps were being taken to get something going the next day (Sunday) where us and a few other bands would still play. Of course we agreed and exchanged numbers so we could (hopefully) play the next day.

You know it's a party house when this is the
clock on the wall. 
There was quite a bit of confusion as to what to do next, as there was a house show that Magrudergrind was playing, a party nearby, and some other stuff going on. We opted for the party house, because we didn't want to try to see Magrudergrind and end up being at yet another show police were going to shut down that night. Luckily for us, we're touring Europe with them in February so we'll have ample opportunity to see them soon. More on that later... Apparently that show went off without a hitch, which is cool, but we ended up going to the Poor Kids' Radio house in LA. Every Saturday they have a party there while they do their online radio show, spinning killer punk, metal and crossover. We grabbed some burgers and more beer and headed over. It ended up being a pretty happening scene there with a lot of folks cruising by and a lot of beers drained. We had a bottle of Jack Daniels whose appearance dictated that we would remain there all night getting stupid. We then proceeded to get totally blitzed. Wes crashed out in my car around one, and later, Rob got a bit riled up (as he sometimes does when things get really alcohol-soaked - hence his nickname "Wild Card") and almost fell over into a bunch of guitars, which was unilaterally frowned upon. After trying to keep Rob from fighting people for about 30 minutes, I finally decided I was too tired to care and passed out on a picnic table outside at about 5:30 in the morning. I woke up cold at some point in the early morning light and wandered into the house and passed out on the floor, which demonstrated some comparably sound judgment. I discovered later when I woke up that someone had punched my windshield and cracked it pretty badly. I suppose that's a lot better than our gear getting stolen out of the back of my car, but still... C'mon man. Anyway, it was Sunday morning (okay, morning-ish), so we headed to Rob's house in Anaheim for football and see if there would actually be a show to play.

Hijinks at the Poor Kids' Radio House. There was no
lampshade, so Wes made do with a frisbee.
Rob in pre "Wild Card" mode...
I have to admit that I was very skeptical about our prospects for playing that day, but my cynicism was unfounded. The Discord folks had found a place in Fullerton called the Riffhaus (which was conveniently very nearby Rob's place) and were having two mini-shows. I missed their first call somehow or other, so ended up on the second show of the day with Dropdead, Ghoul (who played both sets) and Mange. We found the place pretty easily and had a few hours to kill once we got there, so we headed to a nearby bar called Bananas (the name alone totally sold me on the place) with Leon, Danny, and Ross. It was like an Exhumed reunion party in there, and we all had a laugh, several drinks and caught up. We totally missed Mange, and headed back in time to catch about half of Ghoul's set, which was really, really fucking good. I was grinning ear to ear the whole time. The place was tiny and was totally packed – you would've needed a shoe-horn to get another person in there, and we had a great time grinding it out for the kids. Dropdead followed and were fucking great, I hadn't seen them in years, and they are still one of the deadliest pure Grind bands out there.  I think everyone was glad that there actually was a show to play and the vibe was good all around. Wes stayed down in Orange County with Rob for a family wedding the following weekend, and Mike and I headed back to SLO to rest up for the European run with Cephalic Carnage we had looming in our very near future – a mere thirteen days later.  

To be continued at this blog in the same sense-shattering, pulse-pounding manner in which you have become (hopefully) accustomed...  

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Tour recap, Part One of many


Tour recaps are always tough... It's hard to remember everything that happens, for many reasons. First off, we're usually drunk most of the time anything interesting is going on. Secondly, the longer you're on tour, the more things blend together into one continuous stream of sitting in the van, loading in, sitting in the van, sleeping, sitting in the van, getting on a plane, hanging out in an airport, sitting in the van, loading out, sitting in the van, trying to fix things that get broken (strings, shoes, drum hardware, boxes, etc.), sitting in the van, eating, waiting to eat, sitting in the van, well, you get the idea. Oh yeah, we occasionally play music too. Basically the average day consists of the following: 9 hours of sleeping, 1 hour total of loading gear and merchandise in / out of the venue, 1 hour of eating, 1 hour of playing, 1 hour of soundchecking, and 11 hours of either driving in the van or waiting around to do any of those other things. Of course, that's still plenty of time to get into trouble when you're hanging out at a club / bar with access to a large supply of alcohol, so we manage to make the best of things. Sometimes the other guys ask me how I remember all of the crap I write about in these blogs, and really it's the act of writing it all down that jogs my memory more than anything, so while some of the stuff in here is doubtless boring or tremendously unfunny, it at least helps me to make sense of what the fuck I've been doing. So thanks for reading these little travelogues and helping me clear all this shit out of my fairly damaged brain.

Four Countries, Four Festivals, Four Days, and Four Idiots
Brutal Assault, Jalo Metalli, Party San Open Air, and Ieper Festival

...In which our heroes endure international travel at a withering pace, reunite with Leon del Muerte, become somewhat of a (bigger) laughing stock, and endure other pratfalls, trials and tribulations...
File under: miscellaneous shit to throw away next time I move.
The last tour recap I finished chronicled our Summer tour with Macabre, Cephalic Carnage and Withered. The weird thing is that we did that tour with the lineup of myself, the inimitable Wes “Sunshine” Caley, Mike “Hammy” Hamilton, and Rob “Wild Card” Babcock on bass and vocals. We played together for three and a half weeks and became a well-oiled, highly-trained musical killing machine (well, as musical as Exhumed gets). Right after the tour, we headed to Europe for a marathon of four festival shows in four countries in four days, but with our old pal Leon del Muerte on bass and vocals. Even though our bass guitar is (lamentably) rarely audible, it was a bit of a weird dynamic shift playing with two different bassist / vocalists, especially with minimal (and by that, I mean none) rehearsal time. Of course, I've known Leon since around '94, so personality-wise, there was no issue whatsoever, and we've all done this many, many times, so it's pretty smooth. Wes, Mike and myself flew out the Wednesday after the last show (3 days later) to Prague to get ready for our show at the Brutal Assault Festival in the Czech Republic. Leon was at a convention for his job in San Diego and would join us in hte land of Pilsner Urquell and extremely hot women on Friday. 

We were picked up by our driver at the airport, and again we used the great Czech company Fluffwheels, who provided us with a nice Sprinter van to kick around in as well as yet another friendly, highly competent driver whose name unfortunately escapes me at the time of this writing. We headed out to the town Brutal Assault was in and on to our hotel, which, oddly enough was on a golf course and was called "Nova America". Nothing like heading to eastern Europe for a taste of home. We were one of the first overseas bands to arrive and looked / felt pretty out of place amongst the golfers, but the grounds were verdant, rustic and quite pleasant. Wes and I were assigned the “Arizona” room, while Mike and our driver had the “Indiana” room. There was nothing particularly indicative of the states themselves in the rooms, but seeing places from our home country (and not particularly interesting places at that) re-tooled as something exotic was a bit weird. We ate a late lunch, had a couple of beers, and then were asleep by 6 or 7pm. We were all exhausted from being on the road for three weeks in the US and Canada and extremely jet-lagged, so we crashed out pretty hard. The next day we all woke up incredibly early and very, very hungry. I was up at about 4:45 am and simply could not sleep anymore. Fucking jet lag. I went out in the hallway and read a little bit until the sky started to lighten up about 5:30 or so. I figured I might as well put on my headphones and go for a walk out on the course. In the pre-morning light, I saw a family of deer grazing pastorally in the meadow near the golf course, which was nice. I got back by about 6:15 to find Mike wide awake as well. We were soon joined by Wes, and the three of us proceeded to stalk the restaurant where breakfast would be served at 8. After an excruciatingly long two hours of waiting, we hit the continental breakfast with a vengeance. From what I could infer, the staff was not too stoked that we ate about four plates of food each and drank at least 5 or 6 glasses of water and juice. Full and relatively contented, we passed the next few hours changing guitar strings (Wes), reading and napping (me) and exploring the grounds and napping (Mike).

That afternoon we headed over to the festival to make sure our merchandise had been shipped correctly. Not only had it been received, but it was already being sold, which was my main concern. We met up with an American chick from New York who was our contact person for the festival, and she gave us food / drink tickets, lanyards, and all of that good stuff that one needs at a festival. We dropped off our guitars and cymbals in the assigned area, and our driver headed back to Prague to pick up Leon from the airport. Our set wasn't until after 1:00 am that night/the next morning, so we had plenty of time for him to arrive. The festival was organized by Thomas who used to do Bizarre Leprous Productions back in the 90s, and who I hadn't seen in quite a while, so it was nice to catch up with him. The festival grounds were an old military base – and I mean old. There were a number of weird back passageways and a barracks-type area where there was a gypsy squat. Not your typical venue for a metal show. The whole place had a weird, in a cool way, vibe- even though there were some parts where you felt like if you wandered off you would quickly stumble into something out of the movie “Hostel”.

Leon arrived on time and intact and we went for a meet and greet which was fun, and then headed to (surprise!) the artist bar. The artist bar was equipped with a tv that showed multi-camera footage of the action unfolding onstage, so we hung out and had a few beers with the Hail Of Bullets guys while watching Kreator and Suicidal Tendencies on TV. Suicidal was surprisingly awesome. Motorhead was on next, and being extremely lazy and tired from all the traveling, I just stayed in the bar and watched their admittedly awesome set. Then Morbid Angel hit the stage, and we would be following them on the left-hand stage (the festival had two large side-by-side stages so that the audience could theoretically see every band, if they had the endurance) so we headed to our temporary dressing room and got prepared. Going into the show I felt like it wouldn't really be much to write home about, considering the headliners of the day had already played and we weren't even going onstage until just after 1 in the morning. So I was a bit surprised to look out at around 4,000 kids in the audience when we got underway. That was a great boost of energy that we needed, considering how tired we were that day. The sound on stage was a bit muddy, but by the third song or so we were settled in and hitting on all cylinders. The festival set wasn't too different from what he had been playing, but we cut out a few songs from the new record, since “As Hammer To Anvil” was the only new song that Leon had really played with the band extensively. We sent out “Decrepit Crescendo” to our old friend Curby from Obscene Productions to close things out and returned to the dressing room exhausted, but psyched that so many people in the audience were still up and functioning (let alone cheering) at such a late hour. We went to grab a Doner Kebab in the food area and ran into our old friend Jim Mack (who is from San Francisco, so his presence there was an extremely unexpected surprise) on the festival grounds which rounded out the night nicely. Finally we gathered all our shit and hit the road back to the hotel so that we could wake up early the next morning to drive to Frankfurt so we could make our flight to Finland the following day. Sound convoluted? Probably because it was.

"Necromaniac" live at Brutal Assault. 

At any rate, we made it to the airport in time to fly to Finland, but after our driver dropped us off, we were informed by the Finnair guy (who was a real dick about it) that we could only take one carry-on per person, or we would have to pay over 300 Euro total to check our “extra” bags. Who the fuck ever heard of one carry-on?!?! Anyway, we called our driver, had him turn around and come back to the airport and consolidated our baggage, since we'd only be in Finland one night. We got back and boarded the plane without further incident aside from some dirty looks when the same asshole took our tickets when we boarded. Once we were in Finland, everything seemed a lot nicer. The JaloMetalli festival is in Oulu, in the north of the country (yeah, in the north of the north) so we had to catch a connecting flight from Helsinki to Oulu. The Helsinki airport was ultra-modern, ultra-clean, and ultra-expensive. It was everything that an American thinks of when they think of Scandinavia- modern, forest-y, sterile, polite, and very, very blonde. I have never seen so many people with all natural platinum-blonde hair in my life. On the flight from Helsinki to Oulu, we were basically the only people on the flight who weren't blonde. I have never felt so not-white in my life! Oulu is a beautiful tourist town in the north of Finland where people go to ski and relax – kind of like Aspen or Lake Tahoe from what I could gather. We were picked up from the tiny airport by van and drove into town to a very nice hotel where we immediately went upstairs and went back to sleep. By early evening we were up and showered and headed to the festival. Jalo Metalli is a bit of a smaller festival, maybe 1500 people total in attendance, and we would end up missing basically every band we wanted to see there (but I did pick up a sweet Oz longsleeve – “Turn The Cross Upside Down” still totally rules!) but we got there while Sepultura was onstage.

Just like at Brutal Assault, we were playing afterthe headliners, which wasn't really all that cool, but what can you do. This night our time slot proved to be more of an impediment than in the Czech Republic, as the crowd was beginning to visibly thin out by the time we actually played. The crowd that stuck around was a bit lifeless, until we ended the set, when they suddenly got really loud and enthusiastic and demanded an encore. Of course, since we hadn't rehearsed with Leon at all, we basically had prepared our festival set (40 minutes) and that was it. We all said the same thing when we left the stage - “where was all that energy for the first 39 minutes?” If you want to check out pictures and a recap of the whole day we played, you can check it out here

After our set, we met up with the Evildead and Napalm Death guys backstage and made plans to hit the bar in town. We were scheduled to leave the hotel for the airport at 5am the next day, and since it doesn't really get too dark in Finland during the summer, the bars are open until 4am. It seemed pointless to try to sleep for 4 hours when we could be drinking, so we went back to the hotel where I took a really quick shower and we hit the "Nuclear Bar". Yes, that is the actual name. How badass is that? Several "Nuclear Girl" jokes were made by Wes and I to the amusement of nobody (unless you have the "Drawing Down The Moon" record by Beherit you won't know what the hell we were talking about, and even then you probably won't think that's particularly funny) . The "Nuclear Bar" is basically the city's rock bar, and it was pretty full of folks from the festival. We met Antti Boman of my personal favorite Finnish band, Demilich, and hung out with him for a while, as well as our aforementioned friends from America (I say America, since Mitch and Danny were the only Napalm dudes that made it out to the bar).

Eventually 4am came around, and we headed to all night food truck to grab some food. By this point, we were all pretty wasted and feeling good. We ended up standing in line for well over a half hour with all the other folks that had let out from the various bars. A really nice local Finnish dude whose girlfriend oddly lived in Hayward of all places was our guide around the city. Somehow we ended up talking to some locals who were also really drunk and found us hilarious. I remember asking “What is Finnish food anyway? Is it just the shit that Sweden doesn't want that washes up over here?” Or something incredibly witty and culturally sensitive like that. A woman behind us was not amused (her boyfriend seemed to think it was funny, but couldn't show it) and let us know in no uncertain terms. I apologized and told her that I knew I was being rude and I didn't mean it, and that of course everyone knows that the national dish of Finland was “penguin shit”. This didn't go over too well either. I forget exactly what happened next, but I think one of us was riding some random Finn's bicycle around the small park where the food truck was located, and the woman was eventually dragged away yelling and screaming by her boyfriend. Of course we all thought we were exceedingly funny and clever (in our defense, some of the people around us were laughing as well). We finally got some sandwiches that I have to think tasted considerably better than penguin shit and we headed back to the hotel to gather our belongings and get back to the airport. By 7:30am we were dead tired, sleeping on the floor of the terminal. We wearily boarded the flight back to Helsinki and sleep-walked our way onto the connection to Frankfurt. The Sepultura guys were on the flight as well, but we were so out of it we didn't even make their acquaintance.

Nothing makes you feel like a proper band douche than copious amounts of lanyards - the fancier the better.
We finally got back to Germany and piled in the van to head out to the Party San Open Air festival. I don't think any of us remember the drive there at all, we just slept the whole way. We woke up in a small town called Bad Berka where our driver was having a bit of a hard time finding the festival. Usually these European festivals are in relatively small towns, where there's enough room to set up big stages, tents, etc., so you end up in weird little out-of-the-way places more often than not. One thing that is a good indicator that the festival is actually happening is that you'll see a lot of long-hairs wandering around a small town with patch jackets, and there was a distinct lack of long-hairs and patch jackets on the streets of Bad Berka that day. Our driver frantically consulted his notes to double check the address... And lo and behold, we had two sets of information, one indicating that the fest was in Bad Berka, and another indicating that it was in Schlotheim... But the most recent info we had indicated Bad Berka. A few phone calls and texts later, we discovered that the fest was indeed in Schlotheim – about 45 minutes away. Of course, the road we were supposed to take was closed due to construction. This was a night when we were scheduled to play at around six in the evening – so time was running very, very short. We had already cancelled the meet-and-greet we had planned for 3:30 that afternoon and it was already after 4:00 when we had arrived in Bad Berka. The folks at the festival were kind enough to swap our spot with Taake (who were total gentlemen about it) so we were still able to get onstage and perform, but they had also announced to the entire audience that we had driven to the wrong town. Which, needless to say, did not reflect well on our competence. As soon as we rolled up, people started ribbing us, asking how Bad Berka was, etc. Whoever thinks Germans have no sense of humor, think again. It's not that funny, and it's moderately humiliating, but it is a sense of humor. We got there as Taake was taking the stage and we had about an hour to get our passes, sort out merchandising, our backstage, beer, catering, change clothes, tune our instruments etc. etc. So... it was not the most relaxing day. But by the time we got onstage, everything was fine and we came out and had a pretty kickass set. I want to again thank the Taake guys for switching with us at the last minute so that we were able to get out and play this killer fest. I got to see Hail Of Bullets again, and they had sprung for pyro (which was way out of our budget) so their set was complete with flames and explosions, making it extra epic. Luckily, despite the fact that it looked like it was about to rain the entire day, precipitation was not forthcoming and we were able to enjoy our day there in the mud without getting drizzled on the whole time. We headed to the bar for a while and hung out for a while, then hit the merchandise tents where I got a sweet Witchfynde hoodie and grabbed a Scorpions “In Trance” shirt for Wes. By the time At The Gates was playing, we were all incredibly tired and split a little early to head to the hotel, which was a bit disappointing, but very necessary. We finally got to shower and get a bit of sleep before grabbing breakfast and heading out to Belgium early the next day.

Here's an interesting video that kind of gives a sense of the whole vibe of Party San that some dude put to one of our songs.  Pretty cool overview of a German Death Metal festival for those of us on this side of the Atlantic.

Again, the entire trip to Belgium was spent fast asleep. The Ieper Fest was a bit different, as it was primarily a Hardcore festival with a few Metal bands sprinkled in for variety. Apparently the fest had been straight-edge until a few years prior, which would have been a major problem for us. I think beer was the only thing keeping us going for these four grueling days. There was no meat served at the fest, though, which was kind of interesting. The fest itself was outdoors in a muddy farm area, as it had rained the last few days. Again, we were lucky weather-wise in that skies were blue and clear. We met up with Anthony from Tombs and had a couple of beers with them and their tour-mates The Secret, both great bands and great dudes. I caught their set and they were fucking massive. We played second to last in the tent stage, right before Decapitated, and the show went over surprisingly well with the hardcore crowd. It was a totally different scene from the previous day in Germany, where it was an exclusively Death / Black Metal crowd, but it was a lot of fun regardless. Our final night in Europe was spent in a bare-bones hostel, with all five of us (band + driver) bunking in the same room, which wasn't as cool as having three hotel rooms like we'd had the last three days but it was by no means terrible either. The only bummer was that there was no delicious European breakfast buffet awaiting us in the morning. I always love the Muesli, yogurt, fresh fruit, meat, bread and cheese that most European hotels provide. We left early that morning for the Brussels airport and eventually California.

"Forged In Fire" live at Ieper Fest

We were shocked when we went to check in at the Delta counter and they told us that Wes' guitar was considered “oversize” and they'd have to charge us $250 to check it. I argued with the really hot chick at the counter first, who then called her manager over and then I got into with him and started swearing and getting pretty hot under the collar, but it was all to no avail. We were stewing over this bullshit while we were getting ready to go through security and I was already planning on calling the airline to get the money back as soon as we got to America. I realized (having been fucked over by airlines several times in the past) that I should probably get the names of the people I had talked to. They were dicks about that too, but I was pissed off and not to be dissuaded. We went through security and were waiting at the gate when Wes' name was called to come up to the ticket counter. My only thought was “what now?!?” Having flown Delta (who I DO NOT recommend to anyone) several times this year, Wes had already had one guitar case totally smashed by their baggage handlers, and had another bag of his sent to the wrong airport, and they had lost my guitar and a box of merchandise on two separate occasions (I eventually got both of them back, but it was still a major fucking hassle). I decided to go up there with him, half in an effort to help him sort out whatever bullshit they were about to conjure, and half just to see what it could possibly be. Instead, they gave us back the money we had paid for the oversize charge, stating that they didn't realize his bag was a musical instrument, which was exempt from the charge. Now, Wes' guitar case is literally shaped like a fucking flying V. And, three out of four of us have long hair, and WE'RE ALL CARRYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, but somehow, they "didn't realize" it was a musical instrument. What a bunch of assholes. Anyway, feeling moderately vindicated (they had somehow managed to charge us an extra 40 Euro for some other bullshit anyway) we finally boarded the plane and headed back to the states for some serious rest. I for one was looking forward to having a couple of months off, buying some new gear and of course, catching up on some proper sleep.

To give you an idea of how much traveling we did, we left Wednesday from Los Angeles to Prague (with one connection) - about 5,900 miles, then we rode from Prage to Frankfurt Saturday, about 315 miles, then flew about 1600 miles from Frankfurt to Oulu (with a stopover in Helsinki), then flew out the next morning - another 1600 miles back to Frankfurt, then drove another 175 miles to Party San, played, got up the next day, drove 450 miles to Ieper, played, then drove 90 miles to brussels, and then flew another 5600 or so miles back to Los Angeles. All told, we traveled about 15,730 miles in six days. Gnarly. When we told our friends in America what we were doing everyone said - "That's awesome! You guys are so lucky!" When we told our friends in Europe what we were doing everyone said "That's insane! You guys are fucking retarded!" In the end I think they were both right. 


Top 10 of 2011 list


Obviously, this blog is mostly designed to talk about what's been going on (and what's going to happen) in the weird and wacky world of Exhumed, but since it's the end of the year, I figured I'd throw something a little different up here. People often ask me what new stuff I'm into, random people as well as "journalists", and I frequently draw a blank. Well, now that I'm home, rested and have my thoughts collected, here are my personal top 10 records of the past year - my opinions may not necessarily reflect the views of the rest of the band (or anyone else, for that matter) but here they are nonetheless. 
Enjoy!
- Matt

Best of 2011
When Decibel asked me for my top 5 records of the year, I was on the road and was not only sleep-deprived and in desperate need of a shower, but I didn't really even have a particularly good guage for what actually came out in 2011 (for instance, the Black Nasty “Shark Tank” album I mentioned actually came out in 2010- whoops!). So after getting home and having access to my full music library, (and using the “sort by year” function in iTunes) I decided to make a more thorough and correct list for the heck of it. I feel a little weird about it since I haven't heard the new Bjork or Coldplay yet, and both of them usually put out stuff that I really love, but time marches on and I should finish this list before the year is over. And no, I'm not kidding, I really dig Bjork and Coldplay. That said, as much as I love Thrash and traditional Heavy Metal, it looks like the Death Metal comeback is in full force, because most of my picks for this year are Death Metal. So here are my top ten for the year and nine more honorable mentions. Enjoy and feel free to add your own picks in the comments or tell me what awesome / shitty taste I have.

#1. Deceased – Surreal Overdose
I've always loved Deceased, ever since our original drummer Col Jones bought the “Gut Wrench” EP back in '91. It took me a little while to get used to the blatant Heavy Metalisms that started around “Fearless Undead Machines” , but I grew to love that record, and its successor “Supernatural Addiction” slowly became my favorite Deceased album – until 2011. A band is not supposed to make their best record 24 years into their career, but, fuck, they just did. Having King back on drums injects a really intense raw, edge to the songs, with some really ferocious tempos. I listened to this masterpiece of “Death Metal From The Grave” for a week straight when I first got it. Describing this album is kind of pointless – It sounds like Deceased, but it effectively mixes the ferocity of the really early stuff (the pre “Luck of the Corpse” era) with the refined class and confidence of “Fearless...” and beyond. And on the track “Cloned (Day of the Robot)” the robot voice from the song “Birth By Radiation” is back – how fucking awesome is that?!?!? Synthesizing the best elements of classic Voivod, Iron Maiden and pre-1990 Death Metal, Deceased has created what is hands-down the metal album of the year for me and I can't recommend it highly enough.


#2. Hammock w/Steve Gibley and Tim Powles of the Church – Asleep In The Downlights EP /
Hammock - Black Metallic Single
When not listening to metal (which is most of the time, let's face it) I have been delving deeper into the “post-rock” genre. While I've been disappointed to discover that there are an army of bands trying to simply out-Mogwai Mogwai, Hammock is one band that has really stood out as being amazing. Without the bleak, totally depressing vibe of the all the post-GY!BE bands, Hammock make music that is really beautiful and quite emotional, while being very ethereal and spacey. They cemented their place in my current favorite bands list with their two 2011 Eps- first I got the “Black Metallic” single, which is a cover of the Catherine Wheel song. If you are into shoegaze / metalgaze / My Bloody Valentine at all, you owe it to yourself to go back and get Catherine Wheel's “Ferment” album, it is a total masterpiece. Hammock did a great cover that evokes the original, but is uniquely their own. The female vocals add a totally different dimension to the song. Then on top of that, they went and teamed up with two of the dudes from The Church – one of my favorite depressing 80s bands (The Church are best known for the song “Under The Milky Way” which most folks nowadays think of as “that cool song from Donnie Darko that's not by Echo And The Bunnymen or Tears For Fears”) for their 4 song “Asleep in the Downlights” EP. This EP has two quasi-instrumental tracks and two tracks with the guys from The Church doing vocals. Those two tracks are fucking amazing, beautiful, heartbreaking, and deep. Great, great stuff.

#3. Mortuous – Rehearsal tape '11
I have to admit a bit of bias on this one. Mortuous is the new band featuring my old band-mates Col Jones (drums) and Mike Beams (guitar). It's also a bit unfair putting something in your “top however many records of the year” that no one can buy or hear. However, you can watch some halfway decent quality videos of this band on youtube. This is good ol' fashioned Death Metal in the Finnish / Swedish / British tradition. Tons of murky doomy passages a la “Lost Paradise” or the slow stuff by Demigod or Convulse colliding head on with gnarly Incantation style fast parts – everything is dark, obscure and totally sickening. Of course, there's a hint of that “Sunlight” guitar tone going on as well. Overall, this is really fucking morbid underground Death Metal at its absolute finest – now these guys just need to finish recording their actual demo and release something so everyone can tell me how cool I am for knowing about this band before they did.

#4. Zombi – Escape Velocity
This band is awesome and so is this record. This CD stayed in my car for months and months. The first track in particular is just amazing. It's music to drive a spacehip through the neighborhoods in “Blade Runner” on your way to a coke party in 1986. This record has been the soundtrack to many, many long drives from Orange County to San Luis Obispo for me in '11. If you haven't heard this band, imagine Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, and Goblin forming a band. But only the cool shit from those artists, none of Vangelis' “Chariots of Fire” stuff or Goblin's weird (albeit occasionally awesome) pseudo-Eurofunk. This record, and really everything that Zombi does is totally badass. And the cover gets points for having a levitating naked woman and a DeLorean on it. Choice.

#5. This Will Destroy You – Tunnel Blanket

Another post-rock find, this one courtesy of Pandora (thank you “Sigur Ros station”!), this record unmistakeably has that bleak, hopeless edge to it. Complete with ambient noise, almost unbearable silences and slowly shifting instrumentation that makes me feel like I'm watching a beautiful tree rot in zero gravity. Contemplative, layered, and depressing, this is a great album to sit and zone out to. Or to put on while reading extremely depressing books. That's what I did during all the drives on our European tour with Cephalic Carnage: listen to this band, Hammock and Manual while reading The Possessed” by Dostoyevsky and a collection of Chekov's short stories. Good times! Their “Young Mountain” album is a bit happier and more uplifting, and also killer.

#6. Cianide – Gods Of Death
2011 was the year people finally started waking up to how fucking awesome this band is and always has been. Most of my friends were all abuzz after finally witnessing Cianide live at MDF this year, and with good reason. I almost fell over the first time I heard the rough mix of this album at Scott's house in Chicago, because it seemed like each riff was somehow heavier than the last. It's fucking insane. I love Scott's weird wah-wah pedal solos that sound like an even more fucked up Autopsy. “Dead And Rotting” is the heaviest song of the year for sure. While “Gods Of Death” isn't drastically different from most of their records, that's what makes it so fucking great. With a sound akin to taking a Hellhammer 45 and playing at 33 RPM mixed with the most brutal Master-style riffs since 1987 and a relentless barrage of ridiculous heaviness (even their fast stuff is heavier than most DM band's “heavy stuff”), Cianide is one of the ultimate pure Death Metal bands today.

#7. Rotten Sound – Cursed
Swedish-style buzzsaw guitar tone? Check. Incredibly pissed off vocals? Check. One word song titles? Check.Totally unhinged drumming? Check. Best Grind album of the year? Check. Sure everything blurs together on this record, but it's a Grindcore record. That's what it's supposed to sound like. Fucking amazing.


#8. Bullet – Highway Pirates
While much has been made of the recent “return” of NWOBHM-influenced traditional Metal, Bullet have been doing it for years. I got their “Heavy Metal Highway” EP back in '03 from their guitarist Hampus Klang (ex-Hypnosia and Birdflesh) and haven't looked back since. This album is their most sophisticated yet – and it's not particularly sophisticated at all, haha! The guitars still have that pure Marshall / Gibson tone and everything sounds super live and organic. The solos are noticeably more interesting than on previous albums, but still firmly rooted in the pre-'83 Tipton / Downing school. Bullet simply synthesize “Restless & Wild”, “On Through The Night”, “British Steel” and “Highway To Hell” into a super fun, catchy, and energetic HM experience that kicks ass from front to back. It's worth saying that these guys do AC/DC flawlessley – which is a lot harder than it seems. In fact they do it much, much better than Airbourne's second album (check out Bullet's “Stay Wild” if you doubt me). A big plus is the voice of Dag Hell Hofer – whose post-Udo / Brian Johnson wailing is certainly not technically brilliant, but bristles with energy and personality – something lacking in so many metal singers these days. The only band that I think is currently as good as these guys at playing pure Heavy Metal is Enforcer (who Bullet did a split 7” with for Record Store Day that I would LOVE to get my hands on), but their album “Diamonds” dropped last year, so now it's Bullet's turn to get into my top albums of the year list. “Back On The Road” has got to be the ultimate pre-game partying anthem of 21st Century traditional Metal – at least until the next Bullet album.

#9. Trap Them – Darker Handcraft

I am a latecomer to this band (as well as the pretty similar - and likewise excellent - Black Breath) and I am gonna call bullshit right now. This band is not really Hardcore. It's mostly straight-up Death Metal in the old Entombed way with some cool Tragedy / D-Beat stuff going on that's played by Americans with short hair. And it's fucking awesome. There is some D-beat stuff, but it just ends up sounding like Dismember due to the production, which makes it really awesome. Bombastic riffs and inventive drums provide a nice template for some seriously pissed-off vocals – which are the only thing that's truly “Hardcore” about this band to my ears. I guess if a dude is screaming and angry sounding it's considered HC now and you have to make a monster voice for it to be considered Death Metal? I'm too old for these kind of distinctions at this stage in the game, and I couldn't care less anyway. This record is great because it's obviously influenced by the Stockholm sound (the first riff in “All By The Constant Vulse” is one of the best Swedish Death Metal riffs I've heard since the 90's) but it takes that influence and then actually does something unique and interesting with it.



#10. Talkdemonic – Ruins
Another mellow, moody instrumental album, this one is a bit more electronic. What really sold it for me was the synth line in “Midcentury Motion.” It totally reminds me of something from the music from the original Legend Of Zelda game way back when. I can't put my finger on it, but it's in there somewhere, or some NES game or other. Overall, the music is far more varied than the NES music, featuring feedback loops, droning melodies, mesmerizing percussion, string sections, and everything necessary to tune in, turn on and drop out. This is a great zone / chill / space out album for sure. It's soothing, textured, and dreamlike, making it perfect background music, but there's enough nuance and quality there for you to really sink into as well. Since there are no lyrics, picking standout tracks is a bit difficult. The album works really well as a whole piece and definitely will take you into several different states of consciousness if you let it.

Honorable mentions:

- in no particular order -

Haemorrhage – Hospital Carnage
Well, this is another great Haemorrhage album, and if you like this band, then you'll like this album. No real surprises here, just a lot of really fun post-Carcass Goregrinding madness. The video for “Flesh Devouring Pandemia” is also very well done. Totally awesome stuff, and it's about time that Haemorrhage and Exhumed were finally labelmates!

Havok – Time Is Up
This record is a bit uneven, but when this band is firing on all cylinders (on tracks like “Fatal Intervention”, “Get Out Of My Way”, “Covering Fire” and “D.O.A.”), they evoke everything great about American Thrash Metal from 1987-1990. The track “Killing Tendencies” also shows that they have what it takes to head confidently into “Countdown To Extinction” territory. These guys are not only one of the few young thrash bands actually worth their weight in vinyl, but with any luck they're on the edge of a breakthrough. 

Landmine Marathon – Gallows
Ryan Butler just seems to be able to summon an endless supply of Bolt Thrower riffs that continue to astound me. Combine those with the killer crust / d-beat riffs that are all over this record, and you've got a definite winner. The blast beats being a bit stiff and Grace's vocals sounding slightly forced in the lower range featured on this record are the only things keeping this in the “honorable mention” category. Death Metal is best when it keeps a punk-rock edge and that's exactly what LM do so fucking well on this record. Also, thanks a lot for not putting me in the thanks list Butler. Fucking jerk.

Vomitory – Opus Mortis VIII
The leadoff track “Regorge In The Morgue” alone is worth the price of admission. This is pure Death Metal with strummed, D-Beat via Swedish Death Metal riffs, occasional Slayer-esque moments, and a monstrously thick guitar tone dripping with distortion and attitude. Killer solos add some nice bits of texture and vibe, but never overdo it. I wish all Death Metal bands had this much taste and restraint. If you haven't heard Vomitory before, just Imagine early 90s Swedish Death Metal played at double speed and tighter. You're there. Now get this album. This is just a quintessentially aggressive Death Metal album – it fucking rules.

Toxic Holocaust – Conjure and Command
This is a really, really good album. One problem: It's not quite as good as their last one. But damn, it is still really fucking good. “Bitch” is an instant classic, Joel's vocals are still awesome and his rhythm guitar work is unfuckwithable. I love this band's riffs because they are so simple that Anybody can play them, but nobody can do it this well and this convincingly. My only other complaint is that I liked their old logo better. I hope that Joel at least still rocks that sweet headband!

Ghoul – Transmission Zero
This band is just too much fucking fun. They were beyond great when we played with them at the California discord fest this past summer, and this new record did not disappoint. I knew exactly what to expect, and I got exactly what I wanted. I literally can't listen to this album without grinning ear to ear. “Transmission Zero” is chock-full of everything I love about this band: detuned, deranged surf riffs, gang vocals, catchy solos, drumming that makes you want to move (not count bpms), endearing and clever lyrics about Creepsylvania and a cast of goofy, spooky characters, and of course - the Killbot robot voice effect. If there's anything that makes me smile it's that robot voice.

Team Ghost – We All Shine
This is a great record of shoegaze-y post rocking brilliance – the music is beautiful, weird and has a lot of great textures colliding. There's just one problem, the vocals in a few of the songs are the very definition of “acquired taste”. If the vocals were different in a few key tracks (most notably the first song on the album with vocals, "A Glorious Time"), this album would have been in my top 5 for sure. After several listens, I still haven't been able to fully get past all the vocals (although some songs like "High Hopes" have great vocals), which is a shame because the music is just about perfect. Plus this band has an awesome band name. If you can get past / into the vocals on a few of the songs, you'll be treated to some seriously awesome shoegaze / indie / post rock.

Volture – Shocking Its Prey
This was a bit of a slow year for traditional heavy metal for my ears. I enjoyed, but wasn't wowed by that In Solitude record that everyone was raving about and felt the same about the Portrait record (which I thought was a bit better with some really great moments), but I did really get into this Volture record. It's just straight-up fun and rocking heavy metal in the NWOBHM / Priest vein with cliched lyrics about racing down the freeway, banging chicks backstage and all that shit that really only makes sense when you're totally wasted. The clincher that puts this band ahead of their contemporaries is that their singer Brent Hubbard can really sing. An amazing falsetto that thankfully doesn't sound like King Diamond magically turns lyrics about motorcycles and loving heavy metal from juvenile and silly to completely resonant. For further illustration of this point, see every Judas Priest album ever. Tasteful leads and killer riffs don't hurt either. 

Mastodon – The Hunter
I'm stoked that this band has finally made another album simple enough that I don't end up zoning out and forgetting what's going on two thirds of the way through. I suppose “simple” is the wrong word – how about direct? There we go. Immediate, stand-alone songs that are catchy, heavy, intricate and full of bad ass riffs, spacey vibes and excellent clean singing made this album resonate a bit more for me than their last two records. Don't get me wrong, I like every Mastodon record, but this one is probably my favorite since “Leviathan” - although it might be too early to call. There is one major sticking point though: the song “Blasteroid” totally sucks, but the rest of the album more than makes up for it. “Stargasm” and “Curl Of The Burl” are probably my two favorites on this one, although each listen kind of makes me think that a different song should be my favorite. I don't care how popular this band is, they're popular because they fucking rule, plain and simple.

Best opening bands Exhumed played with in 2011:
Transient (from Portland, but we played with them in Oakland)
Ingrowing (Prage, Czech Republic)
B.U.T. (Prage, Czech Republic)
Theories (from Seattle, but we played with them in Oakland)
Hot Graves (from Jacksonville, but we played with them in New Orleans)
Coffin Dust (Wilmington, Delaware)

Things I got my band-mates into this year that I am stoked about:
Johnnie Walker
Coke Zero
Tim And Eric Awesome Show Great Job

Places I went to for the first time this year:
Norway
Denmark
Rome

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Merchandise Madness!!!!!

So we're back from tour and you know what that means! And if you're thinking 14 hours of solid sleep per day for the first week and taking advantage of my newfound privacy to indulge in an age-inappropriate level of enjoyment of internet pornography, you'd be right, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about liquidating the remainder of our merch. We have a few different things left so, here are our wares.
First off we have this lovely zipper hoodie. The back design is above, the front design (pocket print on the left) is above. Available in S, M, L...

The hoodie is $35 US / CAD + shipping. Shipping within the US is $7, $12 for Canada and for international rates please email me at harvey_matt@yahoo.com To pay, just paypal me at harvey_matt@yahoo.com - please remember to include your name and address. Domestic orders with multiple items pay $7 shipping total (except wholesale orders).


Next up is this delightful "Torso" tour shirt design.  These are available in S, M, L
The Torso shirt is $15 US/CAD + $5 shipping within the US, $12 in Canada for international rates please email me at harvey_matt@yahoo.com To pay, just paypal me at harvey_matt@yahoo.com - please remember to include your name and address. Domestic orders with multiple items pay $7 shipping total (except wholesale orders).


Next up, we have some lovely designs for you ladies out there. There are 3 different girl shirts below that are all $10 US/CAD + $5 shipping within the US, $12 for Canada, for international rates please email me at harvey_matt@yahoo.com To pay, just paypal me at harvey_matt@yahoo.com - please remember to include your name and address. Domestic orders with multiple items pay $7 shipping total (except wholesale orders).




 Lastly but not leastly... We have some CDs.  We have "All Guts, No Glory", "Anatomy is Destiny", "Slaughtercult" and "Gore Metal". The discs are $10 each, $2 shipping in the US, no individual orders for discs will be shipped outside the US, as the postage will be prohibitive, but if you're getting a shirt already, I'll happily add a disc to your order for $10. Again, to order, please paypal harvey_matt@yahoo.com with which disc you'd like and your address. No wholesale orders on CDs, you can just get them from Relapse at that point.