THEEEYYYY’RE BAAAAAACKNOSTALGIA AND REUNION CULTURE IN METAL by DAVE KRISTIANSEN

If you’re a metal fan today, reunions have become a fact of life. Bands once long thought interred are rising from their slumber to record a “STUNNING RETURN TO FORM” and embark on live tours with increasing regularity. While this procession from beyond the musical grave may seem like a great idea, I have unfortunate news: It stinks and its ruining Metal. Something is rotten in the Steel Republic these days, and its name is reunion mania. Often crass, embarrassing and hollow, this accelerating phenomenon warrants a look. Why, you ask? This glut of re-animated bands is symptomatic of much of what is wrong with metal and other underground music these days. Reunion announcements used to be pretty rare things in Metal. Bands and their fans were largely focused on new and exciting developments and pushing forward throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Recent years have seen us all become victims of changes. It seems like every other week I hear about some gatecrashing reunion announcement. It’s also become a standard now for large metal fests to feature at least one huge reunion in order to rank in the minds of fans.

Our culture as a whole has become increasingly focused on rehashing the past rather than investing in a vibrant present. Fashion trends are obliquely retroactive in increasingly shrinking circles. Film and television are perhaps the most severe indicators of this trend. Hollywood has settled into a masturbatory catatonic state of remake after remake, in some cases even remaking remakes (Spider Man, Superman, etc). One of the problems with this closed loop of creation is that it is largely devoid of any new creativity or honest addition to a genre. Ever a step-cousin to Heavy Metal, horror films are the best example of this. The endless horror remakes currently on offer seek vainly to evoke the essence of a genre but are merely diluting it into pablum through clean, precise imitation. The process is akin to an illiterate person precisely recreating words written on a page, ignorant to their actual meaning. The root causes of why this prevailing retro-vision has become the order of the day

is for the cultural theorists to determine. One thing that is clear is that Heavy Metal is no exception.

It is due to Metal’s acute retro obsession that reunion culture has achieved critical mass. Like any other subculture, Metal revolves around authenticity. Being real and true are paramount. To be half-hearted or insincere is to be a poser, or in modern parlance, a hipster. As with culture as a whole, Metal is increasingly looking backwards for cultural currency. The result is an opaque default to “old school” aesthetics as the prevailing way to achieve authenticity. Cue a massive swell of Metal fans aching to hurriedly patch up their vests and reenact their perceptions of a past they probably never experienced in the first place.

One no longer has to be invested in a subculture in order to lay claim to it. Knowledge of and access to the entire history of Heavy Metal music was once reserved for people actively involved in its livelihood. One had to commit to time spent trading and absorbing letters, fanzines and records and tapes in order to access the real

deal. And before we continue: This isn’t a chest-thumping circle-jerk about the “good old days”. There were just as many shit bands then as there are now. Plus that shit took HOURS UPON HOURS and a lot of the time you got ripped off in the end. Things have changed. Now any budding Warrior of Ice can easily circumvent that barrier via the internet. The dissolving of the ritual and tradition of material involvement in Metal has quite frankly made the genre stupider. There’s an intangible wisdom that comes from sifting through years of good and bad music that is slowly disappearing. Couple that with a contextless desire for “old-school” authenticity and you’ve got a perfect market for

“OLD SCHOOL NWOBHM LEGENDS BACK FROM

THE GRAVE”or what-fucking-ever have you.

Image by Sarde Hardie

Continues on back page...

• Yo Sick• Kizmet32• Chelsea Watt• Steve Horvath• Alex Matuszczak• Give Up • Pahnl

www.youthandrust.comApril 11, 2014 • Volume 1 • Issue 1 • If it never freezes here, it never really thaws either.

What do you have planned for the future?

I gave my father a haircut recently, and now I’m constantly concerned about ear hair growth at a young age. He has it bad, and I worry about it for myself constantly. In terms of the future of other things, I just plan to keep making stuff. Drawing, taking photos, painting, making zines, making stickers, shirts, etc. Whatever I feel like at the time, I want to do it, and be doing it better than my previous attempt. I’ve always loved this quote from Geoff McFetridge that I try to become closer to achieving, ‘I’m always trying to make my life better and part of that is making my art and my life one.’ I hope to say I’ve achieved that in the future.

I have to ask, where’s the best slice in Toronto?

I like that you specified the ‘best slice’. All too often people ask me what my thoughts are on the ‘best pizza’ in the city, and I tell them that’s a complicated question. Dine in vs. take out, whole pie vs. slice, neighbourhood you are in, etc. Anyways, the best slice as of late I would say is Fresca on the north side of College just east of Spadina. I feel like I’ve been sleeping on this place the last couple of years. It’s the closest slice you’ll find to what Vinny Massimo’s (RIP) used to be and replaced it after it burnt down. From what I’ve heard, the chef and owner was the cook at Masimo’s for years, so that makes sense. Slices are inexpensive, and I feel like they are always five minutes from pulling a fresh pie of margherita out of the oven. It’s never too crowded or busy, but you can tell the couple running it know they have a good product that people keep coming back for.

Anything else we need to know?Nah, I think that more than covers it. I

just have a compulsive urge to make things whenever an idea comes to me. Sometimes it’s rushed, sometimes it’s thought out and methodical. If it connects with people all the better. Thanks for the space to share some of it.

YO SICKYO SICK is Prashant Gopal, image maker and pizza lover.

www.yosickzine.com

What is the history of Yo Sick?I’ve been collecting zines for over 10 years

now, but around 5 years ago I wanted to make something of my own and share it with a few friends. It started to grow from there as I began trading with people locally, then around North America, then all over the world. I still love to trade with other people that make anything, but I operate an online store now where people can buy my zines, sticker, prints, patches, and whatever else I feel like making for a few dollars, and the response has been great. Sometimes a zine or piece of work will be on a theme, but otherwise it’s a mix of whatever I’m interested in at the time. My work is generally divided in to illustration or photography. With illustrations I’m most interested in communicating something (usually a joke) as simply as possible. I’m not actually very technical with drawing, so I like to draw as few things as possible to make it work. I really like visual puns. With photography it’s different and I just try to document what I’m doing or what people around me are doing. Taking photographs is more of a compulsion, and I file everything in to my records (both in prints and digitally), then I like to select what I want to share with people.

What first made you interested in zines?I’ve always loved that a zine is a very

inexpensive medium for anyone to create something to share it with people, and I’ve realized that sharing and communicating things is a driving force in my life. The first zine that got me interested and excited was called Dialed Zine out of Hamilton, ON and it was about their local BMX scene. It was full of funny editorials, bad drawings, and grainy photos. It was an honest and funny portrayal of how a group of friends saw BMX, and was in total contrast to the glossy magazines of the time, and it got me hooked. I began finding zines and independent publications about music and art, and started following a lot of artists and photographers because of them. It was a great way for someone to collect work from an artist with whom you couldn’t afford an original, or even a print. It brings things to a more common level, and you can actually obtain a physical and tangible copy of someones ideas they want to communicate. It’s one of the best ways people can share their work.

What is Northern Embassy?Northern Embassy is an online BMX

media outlet that my friend Jeremy Deme started, and asked me to come on board at the beginning. I’ve been involved in BMX for almost half my life, worked in the industry for a time, and use to operate a local scene website that I took a lot of pride in updating, shooting photos, sharing news, etc. Jeremy wanted to start a site that was on the national level, and bring on a few like minded people from different communities across Canada. We had all always grown up looking at BMX media that was being created and felt like consumers of it, and not sure how to be active contributing members, then with the internet we made our own outlet. It has since grown and often receives global attention and respect, and I help manage the content, we make videos, conduct interviews, share photos and provide an outlet for other creative BMX riders across the country. It’s an ongoing project that I love to be a part of as I’m still very connected to the BMX world, and any money we make from the site we put back in to it to fund the next project. We are working on a full colour photo book right now, and some other ideas for later this year that I’m excited about.

What is Union Press?Union Press is another project rooted

in BMX. My friend Bobby contacted me a couple years ago and said he wanted to make a Canadian BMX print project, and since he knew I made zines he asked me for some help. I had always wanted to try to make something with newsprint, as you can do high volume for very little money, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I grew up reading magazines, and a number of BMX (and skate) titles were very influential to me when I was younger. We wanted to showcase our photos and friends, and like with Northern Embassy, we decided to just make our own outlet instead of trying to get the bigger guys to notice us. With some supportive advertisers we were able to grow it and published four issues, print thousands of copies, and have them distributed across Canada for free. I’ll go in to a bike shop and see copies of it sitting on the counter for kids to take, and you can’t always get that with a website. It was a great project to do, and Bobby and I learned a lot while making it, but we decided to close it down after the last issue and leave on a high note because I had too much on my plate and didn’t want the quality of any of my projects to suffer.

KIZMET32What is your history with graffiti?

Been writing for 13 years, and I’ll be dropping sloppy handstyles till infinity.

Who influenced you most?People who create with passion inspire

me, I mostly get inspiration from people I kick it with and create with. Jackie Chan was also a huge influence back when he was actually hungry.

What projects do you have on the go right now?

Working on music with my brother Jordan Dunn in 2 new bandos. MONEY MURDER ROMANCE, that type of music it hurts not to dance to, and DARKMAN, which is that type of music that feel like that commercial about your brain on drugs where the wire cutters are snipping away at your brain. Going to tour these groups around a bit soon and drop some shambly tags and burners wherever we roam at.

You’ve done some graffiti classes for younger kids, how did you get started teaching?

I’ve always been more than willing and open to share what I know and what I do with others, and helping others realize their passion and energy is something beautiful. When you teach you also learn about other people’s creative processes and discover the vast diversity of individual minds which helps you grow and progress as a human. My parents were both teachers, so it sort of came natural for me to work with kids and I kind of just fell into it. Those little people are the fucking future of this corrupt backwards greed driven world, we should all make sure they don’t end up being consumer driven reality TV brainwashed shitheads or we are all fucking doomed. Teach love and compassion, understanding and listen to each other with open minds and

KIZMET is a graffiti writer from Toronto, ON. He’s the KIZ in KIZ & LEGIN.

www.kizmet32.com

hearts. Fuck this everyone for themselves. I’m going to become the CEO of some shit sociopath ass bullshit shitcorp, don’t even watch that! LEARN UP, LOVE UP. EACH ONE TEACH ONE and always remain a student of all things.

How do you reconcile the illegal aspect of graffiti while teaching?

I used to lie to the kids and say I don’t do it anymore... thats why I quit my jobs and I’m leaving to walk the earth. Mainly because in most respects I don’t think its wrong to vandalize certain things, In fact there are companies and evil empire leaders out there who should be more than vandalized, but the kids will either learn that on their own or if they ever have a chance to sit and talk to me, once they realize the majority of what they have been taught and told has been a fabrication to create employees for some dumb shit, then I will tell them my truth and what I know and what I have learned and what I still question and what interests me and they can tell me all of those things from their perspective and we can go back and forth both attempting to make sense of this crazy existence.

You traveled to Europe last year, where all did you go, and how was the reception, being a travelling artist?

I have been a lot of places in the world and soon I will travel the earth and visit many ancient sites and dive into the depth of the modern babylon system societies. I never walk with expectation so usually its always a great time and I meet amazing people. Everyone, to an extent, in my eyes is an artist in their own realm no matter what occupation or situation they are in. So really I am able to kick it with all types of people. When I meet people I don’t think I can chill with I stick it out and try and get deep in their world to understand exactly what they

are about and why they are about what they are about. But really ask me what its like being a travelling artist in 4 years and I’ll really let you know.

What’s going on with Kiz & Legin? At the moment I am about to embark on

my own personal journey, but people I have created with in the past and present always end up in my future, Kiz & Legin will reunite again, but for the next little while I have some work to do globally before I can come back to Toronto and really energize fully here with the people I grew up with.

What are your plans for the future?I am currently manifesting a few things.

Murals in every continent, European music tour with Money Murder Romance, energizing with new people I have yet to meet while always CHANGING THE MOTHER FUCKING WORLD. But really, not planning anything too hard, just trying to live by the moral teaching of captain Picard and his crew and boldly go where no one has gone before.

CHELSEA WATTWhat is your history with art? What came first, art or punk?

Art came first, I was always the arty kid. My mother’s side had a lot of working class drawers and painters who never really pursued art or knew anything about it besides putting pencil to paper.

Who has most influenced your photography and illustration?

David Hockney, illustrators Eleanor Davis, Brian Rea and James Blagden, and anyone shooting film at shows in Toronto and Hamilton.

How do photography and illustration relate?

I’ve been trying to figure this out since I started college, since I like doing both but I can never seem to balance the two in a way that I like. Illustration seems to be a means to communicate a part of me, or communicate an idea for an audience, whereas photography is capturing an important moment for me and is typically only for me. They’re both communicative tools, but for me they reflect either outwards or inwards.

What do you prefer about film photography?

I prefer film because when, or if, I work digitally I get caught up in the editing process after and end up hating the image because I messed with it too much. Film is straight forward; you get what you get.

What projects do you have on the go?Finishing up my final year of illustration

at Sheridan (college), my thesis for that, which is a self-published book of small illustrations, and working towards our grad show.

What other plans do you have for the future?

To paint more, to make more zines and to keep producing work at a steady pace.

Chelsea is a photographer and illustrator from Hamilton, ON.

www.chelseawatt.com

STEVE HORVATHWhat is your history with visual work? What came first, punk or art?

I don’t really have much history with visual work. Getting into doing things like Howlin’ or other little ephemeral things is still very new to me as I haven’t had any actual visual work experience since my final year of elementary school. So for me, punk came first. I won’t jeopardize space here, but the two bleed together in my mind. I think good art is necessarily subversive, and good punk is necessarily subversive so therefore...

What is Howlin’ Zine? What connections do you see between 1950’s blues music and 20XX hardcore?

Howlin’ Zine is a painfully sporadic double-sided fanzine/newsletter of broad subject matter that I first assembled about a year ago. Initially intended to be a monthly publication, thus far I’ve only hit the three issue mark. Despite the name, I don’t really see many widespread connections between Post-war blues and post-Y2K hardcore beyond my almost equal interest in both of them. That being said, each genre seems to attract serious fanatics who can be some of the most obsessive and insular people in the world. The perfect recipe for an extreme and sometimes insane opinions committed to print.

How is life as a Hired Goon?This will probably seem facetious but it’s

not. I’ve always enjoyed playing in bands in which someone else writes the music and in this case Kevin and Sam handle that side of things. They write great songs, Hired Goons is a great band, life as a Hired Goon is great.

What other projects do you have on the go?

Slowly piecing together a full or half-size zine independent of the Howlin’ name. Tentatively titled “Tell The Kids...” it’s going to have writing on a variety of topics both musical and non-musical. Heavily influenced by and indebted to some of the great current or recent zines that really explore the world outside as well as inside punk. I.E. Distort, Put The Music In It’s Coffin, NUTS, Negative Guest List and Sex Before Suicide to name a few. Howlin’ might continue as well but it’s definitely not front and centre.

What do you have planned for the future?

Who knows. I’ve Been toying with the idea of starting a zine distro but I’m not sure if I’m ready for that level of minimal responsibility. Otherwise, just trying to write a lot and read even more.

Steve Horvath is from Kitchener, ON.He does HOWLIN’ ZINE and plays in HIRED GOONS.www.rampanthedonism.tumblr.com

GIVE UPWith a name like Give Up, the message is pretty clear, but you certainly haven’t given up—what keeps you going?

I started with it pretty casually, without any aim or anything. But it didn’t take long before doing GIVE UP pretty much took over my life. I keep doing it because I still enjoy it. If that weren’t the case I’d have to stop. But at this point I’ve dedicated so much of myself to it I’m not sure what I’d do if I wasn’t doing GIVE UP.

What’s the history of Give Up? What came first, graffiti or punk? Are the two synonymous?

Skateboarding, punk/hardcore, and graffiti all kind of happened at the same time for me. All the people I was hanging out with were involved with at least one or two of them. Just how it was at the time. If you skated you also wrote, if you were a writer you also went to punk shows. This would have been around 1995. A few years in I realized I’d done as much as I was capable of or willing to do with traditional graffiti so I kind of eased into postering and more ‘street art’ type stuff.

Who has most influenced your style and technique?

In the beginning style and influence came out of necessity. Making fliers for punk shows at the photocopier. Photoshop and google weren’t an option. In hindsight I was harkening back, like everyone else, to the stuff Winston Smith and those guys were doing. I enjoy that kind of cut ‘n paste, photocopier style though so I just stuck with it.

Do you feel any allegiance to more “traditional” graffiti?

Definitely. I have to acknowledge that what I do is ‘street art’, but I really don’t care to be aligned with it. Coming from a graffiti background I get why writers hate street art so much. So regardless of what I’m putting up, when I go out I try to keep the graffiti mindset and follow those rules.

What is the aim of Sisster Ssounds?

It’s pretty loose. I’d toyed with the idea of started a label for quite some time. Figured it was time to piss or get off the pot. Though I’m still reluctant to call it a ‘label’ at this point. I’m just putting out tapes for bands I like and stuff that I want to hear. Admittedly I haven’t had the time or finance to really turn it into what I’d like it to be. One day though, I’d like for it to eventually function as a legitimate label,

if still on a smaller scale. Something that the bands I work with might use to transition to bigger things.

Does putting your work up in public factor into what you make? Does the message change between developing it in private and putting it up in public?

To an extent. Only in that I’ll sometimes try to take into account how easy it might be to read a print from a distance or from a moving vehicle or something. Something bold and simple will stand out, but something with a lot of small detail or that’s busy might not even get noticed by anyone unless they’re walking. So I try to split the difference. As far as any meaning goes, that changes all the time regardless. I might have a specific feeling when i start a piece, but by the time it’s finished and has kind of evolved organically through the process that notion may have evolved as well. Even when I revisit an old piece my feelings toward it or what I think it might deliver will change depending on my own mood at the time.

What projects are you working on at the moment?

I just finished a tshirt design for Column of Heaven and a skateboard series for Southside skatepark. Working on something for Territory right now. Trying to get a couple of songs for an upcoming split and compilation recorded with my audio output, Horders. And there’s always other visual stuff peppered in. At this point I can’t not be making stuff.

What do you have planned for the future?

More travel, more art. Stay busy in the streets. I’m just trying to stay on the same trajectory I have been. With the constant intent of ratcheting up the scale.

GIVE UP is a Texas based artist. He runs SISSTER SOUND and plays in HORDERS.www.ingivingup.com

PAHNLWhat is your history with visual art? Did you have any projects before what you’re currently doing?

I used to run an online comic that updated three times a week for three and a half years with maybe six weeks off during that entire period. The webcomic was just about a generic company, although the storylines never had anything to do with business. About a thousand people would visit the site a day but in the end, I moved onto more interesting things.

I think doing that taught me the importance of sticking with something. People respect something a little more if they know you’re not just going to disappear in a few months time. It shows a certain dedication and passion for what you do. I guess I’ve carried that over to my stencil work, which I’ve been doing for over a decade now.

Your style is deceptively simple, but with a great depth to it. Who or what influenced you up to now?

Keith Haring would be my immediate answer. I really enjoy his energy and playfulness. Darius and Downey are a pair of street artists that create some subversive installations in the street, so their work sticks in my mind when I think about context sensitive work. I love street art the most when it has been put in a specific place for a reason.

With that said, I’m on the internet a lot, and I follow my fair share of blogs like Vandalog, Juxtapoz and Unurth. Playing around with different mediums is also really fun, so there’s a few photography blogs, like PetaPixel, on there, as well as design blogs like Core77. With the internet, you can digest a shit ton of stuff without any real effort. The stuff I like invariably ‘sticks’ but then it can be hard to recall where an idea has come from later on.

You’ve been making a living as an artist for the past while, what was the transition like between school and making a living off of your own work?

Yeah! I’ve been full-time just over for a year and a half now and it’s really starting to pay dividends.

I remember when I first sat down and said ‘right, let’s give this my full attention and if it tanks, I’ll get a more conventional job at a design agency’. So I spent my days, sat around, trying to get into the groove of it. I had been doing my stencil stuff throughout school and university but now it was THE main thing; it wasn’t what I did in my spare time, y’know.

So it was a case of treating it like a real job until it became a real job. Initially it felt like a lot of days were a case of padding it out but now I’m kept solidly busy every day. Weekends mean something now, haha.

You opened your first solo show, “Do Look Down”, the summer of 2013. What was the main focus of the show? What was the reception like?

The show focused around a city called ‘Lowdown’, which I had painted onto the walls of the groundfloor of the gallery using stencils. This was painted in the five days leading up to the opening. There were flats, shops and people going about their business, etc. To accompany the ‘painted city’, I also created a tabloid sized newspaper, with I think 12 pages, containing stories and articles about the city as if it was a real place. I gave the newspaper away for free at the show because I didn’t want people to miss out on another layer of the city.

Visitors also had the option to have a piece of the city painted onto canvas for them using various sized frames to choose an area they fancied. I think five or six people ended up buying a part of the city like that. In fact, one guy from Italy was shown around the city via Skype by one of the gallery staff members and he bought a scene from the city, which is a pretty cool story.

There was then another floor upstairs filled with more conventional work, so far as in I had painted it in the studio well before the show and all they needed was hanging. That floor mostly revolved around subverting road signs, so there was a lot of metal involved.

Have you ever been caught while putting up work in public?

A couple times in the early days but nothing ever serious as it was usually for stickers. You apologize, plead ignorance and move along. I’ve not had any run-ins lately and that’s just because I’ve been holed up inside painting work in the studio. To be honest, the fact I’ve not done any real street work lately feels like a betrayal. I’m trying to rectify that...

What do you have planned for the future? What would most improve your immediate surroundings, along with the rest of the world?

Like I say, this is my job now and I still feel like I’ve yet to ‘crack’ the recipe for good work. I spend a lot of time trying to think how best to approach my work. I guess it’s a lot of cerebral nonsense and I just need to keeping ‘doing’ stuff. Making is better than thinking.

Anything else we need to know?I like turtles.

PAHNL is an artist based in England and uses stencils and stickers to bring little people, dogs, cats and birds to life on the street and in the studio. www.pahnl.co.uk

ALEX MATUSZCZAKWhat is your history with photography? What came first, photography or punk?

The punk definitely came first. However, one of the first hardcore shows I went to, I noticed a photographer with a rapid-flash taking shots of Buried Alive at The Reverb in 2000. Though Buried Alive blew my mind at that point in my life, I left the show wanting to know how those photos turned out. I was taking a photography course in high school at the moment, and having recently discovered this new underground scene, along with wanting the subject of my photos to stand apart from my fellow classmates’, I started taking photos at shows. Though I really enjoyed this new creative outlet during high school, once I started going to University, the financial strain of school life took its toll and I felt discouraged by the high cost of film photography. I also grew tired of lugging around the photo equipment, and not being able to mosh at shows, so I dropped it entirely for a few years. Once I graduated from school and found full-time work, I felt there was a resurgence in the Toronto hardcore scene around 2011. I was really excited by a few new bands and felt a need to document it, so I started to bring my film camera to shows again.

Alex is a photographer and a hell of a guy from Toronto, ON.

www.personalityclash.tubmblr.com

Who most influenced your style?Danielle Dombrowski, Glen E. Friedman,

and Mimi Cabell all had an equal influence on the way I try to compose a photo. Though I’m still trying to develop my own style, I really appreciate their styles and see no reason why I can’t use their methods to document the way I take my photos.

The first issue of Personality Clash came out in 2012, where’s issue 2?

Yeah, it’s been over a year since the first issue. While I was really happy with how the first one turned out, I really want the next issue to include interviews, with contributing writers and photographers. I should have the next issue out this summer.

What other projects do you have on the go?

Over the past year, I’ve been going to fewer shows because I’ve been focusing more on my career. The good thing about the photography is that I’m trying to use it to contribute to an overall visual portfolio that I’ve been working on.

How has the Toronto Hardcore scene changed since you started going to shows?

When I started going to shows, it was in an era where there was still an element of violence present. Though now, I no longer see any skinheads or people getting totally shit-faced and causing trouble at shows. I think this can be attributed to local promoters taking a no tolerance approach to that sort of bullshit. The Toronto scene has become a lot more friendly and less cliquey as a result of this. I also think there is a huge interest, almost a desperation, to see bands pushing the envelope and writing interesting music.

What do you have planned for the future?

I’m going to continue my short-terms plans of releasing a second issue of Personality Clash. In June, I’m going to fly to California and hopefully see a hardcore show there. I’m also in the middle of organizing an outdoor men’s soccer team with the ultimate goal of winning the Division 3 championship at Downsview Park. At the time of writing, Liverpool are top of the English Premier League and with six remaining matches, the prospect of winning a first title in 24 years is becoming a reality. I’ve been very excited by that as of late.

Opposite page:Mind Eraser~Top:S.H.I.T.~Bottom:Merchandise,Dawn of Humans

COLD READINGVANCOUVER SCENE REPORT by ANTHONY FERRARI

Consider also that Metal is big business. Heavy Metal music and culture have become thoroughly monetized since coming back in from the cultural cold. “Old-School” metal has become a prevailing desire and so a glut of labels and bands have risen to fulfill that need. This is often the bald truth and deciding factor behind many reunions. Most bands dissolve and stay broken up for very good artistic and personal reasons, but the lure of cash can easily overrule that reasoning. Put yourself in the shoes of a former metal musician who’s been slicing away their soul at some dreary job since calling it quits. Out of nowhere a promoter tells you that they want your old band to play. People will be stoked. There’ll be money, hotels, flights, groupies, lanyards, towels, bottled water, etc. Too tantalizing to pass up, right? I’m not simple enough to say that all bands who reunite are sellouts. Far from it. I’m not here to judge a musician’s motivations. My point is that if a genuine desire to create music isn’t your first motivation, then your art suffers. Especially when people consume that art all the same.

Thus, the classic law of supply and demand has given rise to some of the crummiest moments in all of Metal. Let’s contextualize some of these $10 words I’ve been tossing around into the real world. Anvil are a great example. A band that frankly have always been a complete waste of time have experienced a huge comeback due to their documentary. Now people worldwide who have nothing to do with Metal can claim Anvil are a great classic band (toilet flushing noise in background). How about Possessed? Watching Becerra flap about on stage barely singing while his backing band Sadistic Intent looked bored to tears was awful. Black Sabbath decided to grace us all with a NEW ALBUM last year. It turned out to be the most soulless simulacrum of a band that once existed solely to terrify squares. Speaking of lacklustre comeback albums, Discharge’s was ho hum. Carcass’ “Surgical Steel” reeked of fatigue filtered through autopilot. The list goes on and on.

The perfect circumstances for all-too willing fans to oblige less-than deserving artists are in full bloom. The allure of experiencing what is perceived as the glory days of Metal through the antics of rickety once-throughs has become immensely powerful. Many of you are probably at the “who cares?!” threshold here, and the answer is I do! Because the result of all this is the acceptance as commonplace of second-rate, entropic art that makes our eyes roll instead of creating relevant, vibrant music that moves forward, even while still embracing tradition (this is Metal, lest we forget).

METAL IS TOO KILLER TO LET IT SUCK.

Let’s be more discerning as we consume and create it!

Stop Press: Reunions sometimes rule. Bands occasionally reform for great, valid reasons or without having stopped making music otherwise during their breakup. On these rare occasions, it shows through in their efforts so obviously. See also: Obituary, Autopsy, Sacrifice, Satan, select others!!

New issue of Chromium Dioxide, out soon!

My original conception of Vancouver was a suburban Straight Edge utopia, filled with bleached-haired, shirt-over-sweater clad, white people. In this utopia my hands would be perpetually sore—traditional forms of physical social interaction being frowned upon and replaced with high fives. Go it Alone and Blue Monday were the only mildly contemporary bands I could associate with the city fuelled this idea. Upon arrival I realized that within the list of my pre-conceived notions I had about the hardcore scene in Vancouver, only one rang true...White people.

Vancouver is a hell filled with open-relationship advocating, gender-politicking, “safe”, white people. Glorification of poverty and terrible mosh etiquette, their liberal ideals near fascist in terms of social interaction when given the chance to exercise. I’ve found myself spinning the ‘87 Breakdown demo and Satisfaction is the Death of Desire on a daily basis. These two records—a year ago I wouldn’t have any interest in listening to more than once a year—have become the soundtracks to my existence.

Here is a list of things that don’t suck:• Slam Dance Jakob and The Brass• Snob• Citi Crew• Systematik• Infidel• Cera• Vacant State• Sarnia Tristan• GOMS• Mookie aka The Prince of The

Vancouver Hardcore Board• Tyler Trinh

Gig highlights:• The Brass and GOMS in Kamloops• GAG at Jabbas• Hoax Condition and Systematik at The

A.L.F.• The Brass and Snob at The Twins• Vacant State Keep it Clear and Snob at

333

Death to posers, death to false ponx and false metals, death to PC goofs.

Fuck a “safe” space. Fuck Back Pitters. Fuck Tumblr. Fuck lecturing me on Nikes while you rail conflict cocaine.

- CIS HET Kony aka Young Tony aka Kony the Halfrican.

Views expressed are those of the author.

MAKE NO MISTAKE: new releases by DEATH KNEEL, COLUMN OF HEAVEN & S.M.Next issue of YOUTH & RUST STANDARD out for RRROOOAAARRR in Montreal, and announcing:EXCHANGING PLEASANTRIES - Chelsea Watt and Youth & Rust - August 7-12 at The Black Cat.