By Valient Himself (Valient Thorr)

These are in no particular order. That's because accurate lists are time-consuming, all-encompassing shared social knowledge that have to be precise, detailed, and accurate for the benefit of all who may come across said list. However, I lack the time necessary to develop a maquette that will cross off all the parameters that are usually present on one of these lists. So I'll just run with what I can think of that I would like to party and sweat to AT THIS MOMENT.

5. FUNKADELIC - LET'S TAKE IT TO THE STAGE
An unbelievable album. The three-guitar attack of Eddie Hazel, Michael Hampton, and Garry Shider combined with the FUNK combines to make what I consider their best effort. These dudes made some of the best, underrated guitar albums of the seventies. This one in particular makes me freak out when the needle hits the wax.

4. DEVO - DUTY NOW FOR THE FUTURE
My number one favorite band of all time. This is their second record. Not an obvious choice, I think most spuds would've pick Q: ARE WE NOT MEN? instead. I went with this one, which has a few of my favorite tracks. I've always dreamed of covering "Smart Patrol/Mr. DNA," and maybe one day I'll get my chance. I can't believe no one has ever put "Timing X" into a rap song or some kind of mashup. It's every bit as danceable as "Steppin' Out" by Joe Jackson (and Lemmy told me he was an asshole). Plus, "Wiggly World" is one of the best songs ever.

3. ALICE COOPER - LOVE IT TO DEATH
If you are familiar with these albums, you're already hip to the idea that there aren't any stinkers located anywhere on them. That's pretty much the biggest requirement for a 100% ass-kicker. All killer, no filler. It's something I think artists should strive to achieve. However, I know I still got a LONG WAY TO GO. Every jam on this record could've been a single. When I crank this, I can't help but sing them out loud.

2. FRANK ZAPPA - OVERNIGHT SENSATION
Last year I went through a heavy Zappa period. When we were out with Motorhead, every single night after their set, the soundman would play "Dirty Love" and whether we were out there selling merch or backstage partying, we would always hit the floor to jam when this came on. The whole damn record rules, and with this lineup, they were the kind of band that no matter what kind of tunes you like to party to, you can surely get loosened up when one of these songs comes on. ZOMBY WOOF? Bring it.

1. SACRED STEEL - BLOODLUST
When it comes down to it, whenever I wanna party, usually I wanna stop whatever bullshit it is that I'm doing, and start partying right away. I wanna immediately crank a record that makes me wanna throw the books, or the mower, or whatever it is down, hit the fridge for a beer, and run around the house and start headbanging right away to get my adrenaline pumping. This album is the answer. Think Manowar fronted by Geddy Lee. With songs like "Blood on My Steel" and "Stormhmmer," this album is full-tilt from beginning to end. I dare you to not bang to one of the jams on this record.

Click here for Valient Thorr's upcoming tour dates.

By Igor Nardin (Noctiferia)

I must admit that I haven't written such a novel since my primary school. This diary for Deciblog was quite a deal for me, and I am happy it's last day of writing!

Today, I just saw that Galder of Dimmu Borgir is wearing Noctiferia t-shirt in an interview for some UK webzine. Which is very cool. We play with Dimmu at the end of September and I am happy to see a person like Galder supporting us. We in Noctiferia have been deeply involved with the scene for a long time and follow both underground and major scene, but we have our own believes and that makes us different And we are talking about our all-time influences here like Bathory, Morbid Angel or Samael and are just not interested in just any scene and I am happy many times to stay uninformed. I mean, there's a great list of bands new and old, but there are certain scenes we just don't follow. It is quite impossible to follow it all. We are not in the '90s anymore, when few bands ruled the scene and that was it. We are in new era and time wants us to search in undiscovered territories. Music, art and philosophy develop through the centuries. Goal for all young new bands must be to succeed in building a bridge between the modern styles/sounds and techniques and keep the traditional marks of heavy metal, I think. Practicing and playing instruments is very important. You must get a routine for practicing and experiencing new techniques, instruments, sounds, and this can be very powerful and very self healing. I started to experiment yesterday with first SMRT video and all I can say is it's going to be very psychedelic and occult. Steve DiGiorgio and Tony Loreano are the rhythm section for this project and it's a great Balkano-American relationship of musicians. I also stared to work on finishing the "Holymen" video for Noctiferia. We recorded some material while in the studio and I just got a cool idea how to make it all more interesting and pack it together in a cool new Noctiferia video. Hope I'll be better with all the deadlines and you will be able to see it soon!

Great news to close this novel is that I got endorsed by Schecter and I am getting my first 8-string guitar...next week. I wish at this moment to thank everyone involved into helping us spreading our name and giving us a chance to experience ecstasy and illumination.

Peace!

** Noctiferia's new album, Death Culture, is out now on Listenable Records. Order it here.

** Fast forward to the :36 second mark **

Okay, let's not make this a conversation on whether this is death metal, deathcore or "Ticknikal Dith Mittle." No matter how we may parse this, these guys are still playing some of the most extreme music possible in front of children in New Zealand or Australia or some other upside down country and the kids are just bopping around arrhythmically like they're trying to shake their sillies out. And the band's called Blindfolded and Led To The Woods. That's not a name as much as instructions. They may as well be called Get Into Vans With Strangers.

Obviously these guys didn't just hop off the cool train as is evidenced by their clothes, that they refer to it as a "gig" and the bassplayer's instrument which he probably takes furniture polish to every night. Oh, and because at the end they dance along to whatever ball-shrinking dance-pop that signals the end of this deranged show for children whose parents hate the idea of raising them. But seriously, what the fuck is going on? They said they found these guys practicing in a storage shed by the TV studio, so maybe there's some sort of law in this country that states they have to show up for an awkward interview in between discussions of arts and crafts. I don't know. The American metal community still seems to be reeling from the time that kid on Home Improvement wore a Neurosis shirt so I can't see this happening stateside without some sort of synchronized pants-shitting. But please, do tell, what is your dream band/show combination?

Never Sleep Again, the gargantuan new documentary covering the New Line, pre-remake years of the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, is flat out fantastic—essential viewing, really, for fans of the franchise, pre-CGI horror films, or even those with just a general interest in creative low budget, insurgent filmmaking. From the gay subtext of Freddy's Revenge, New Line palace intrigue, and how The Dream Child (unintentionally!?) ended up so goddamn ridiculously camp to Renny Harlin's awesome break down of Freddy’s Dream Master resurrection for that pompous, humorless ass James Cameron (“A dog pisses fire”) and a hilarious exposition of the lyrical competition between Don Dokken and Jeff Pilson which culminated in the “Dream Warriors” single, the film is as comprehensive as it is entertaining. 

“This is not a fluffy promo piece,” the film's amiable, incisive director Daniel Farrands tells Decibel in the Q&A after the jump. “It’s an indie documentary. We didn’t make it to appease a studio or sell DVDs. We wanted to tell the real behind the scenes stories of a franchise we love in a real way from as many viewpoints as possible, and the stars thankfully somehow aligned for us.”

The end result is obviously exceptional, but how difficult was it to convince Nightmare alumni at the outset that Never Sleep Again would be something special and not half-hearted hack work?

Our co-producer Thommy Hutson has known Heather Langenkamp for a long time, so we were lucky to have the Nancy Thompson ‘Seal of Approval’ from early on, and it was really Heather endorsing the project that helped us get into the offices of Wes Craven and Bob Shaye and Robert Englund. Without those four people the documentary wouldn’t exist. Their involvement helped legitimize it. After that, we found out pretty quickly the casts and crews that made these movies are genuinely great people who are proud to have been part of the series. Most answered our interview requests with a, ‘Yeah, of course.’ Even people who have since become really big names, like Renny Harlin, were enthusiastic about coming in. There’s a nostalgia there, but also the coolest people I’ve met in this business are the ones who never lost touch with where they came from, and there are a lot of people with that attitude associated with the Nightmare movies, people who have a sincere gratitude for the opportunities the series provided them.

By the standards of some of the extras on the DVD I would say I’m a moderate fan of the series—I don’t have any tattoos of Freddy clawing his way out of my abdomen or anything—but I know the series, I’ve paid to see Wes Craven speak at the New Yorker Fest, for example, read about the productions, etcetera, and still so much of Never Sleep Again was nevertheless brand new to me.

Everyone—I mean everyone—on this crew was a huge fan of the series. No one was here to casually phone it in on this one. So we had a lot of background knowledge and a lot of really good questions planned. Even so, no matter who came through the door I was surprised by some factoid they’d drop on us. We shot these interviews over a period of ten or fifteen days. Every hour another Nightmare person was walking through the door, it was a parade of alumni, and every one of them knocked our socks off with production stories, behind the scenes trivia, stories of interpersonal relationships, whatever it was. So many anecdotes, so much insider stuff. There were a lot of great, fascinating surprises. I also really liked that people were willing to say, ‘On this film we may have made a mistake,’ and not just defensively hold their film up as unquestionably the best one. People were very candid. And that’s what fans want to hear. They don’t want to hear the same sugarcoated stories a hundred times. They want real deal. So that’s what we went for.

Do you look at the Nightmare movies differently after all of this?

I don’t know if I could look at these movies again for a few years. [Laughs] It was a lot of watching and re-watching and immersing myself in that world in pre-production. But, yeah, you do walk away with a newfound respect for what are considered the lesser films in the canon.

As someone who got one of his first big breaks penning Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers  you must have come to Never Sleep Again sympathetic to the trials and tribulations of those who take on the challenge of making sequels to classic films?

Of course! As a franchise goes on and grows, more and more cooks enter the kitchen—everybody wants a say...

And you lose some of the kinetic creative energy of an unknown quantity?

Right. When John Carpenter and Debra Hill did the original Halloween, nobody was looking over their shoulders; nobody was saying, ‘This is right, this is wrong.’ One of the sad things about Hollywood is the more successful you become, the less control you have, from Nightmare and Halloween to Spiderman. That's par for the course out here. So I could totally relate to the sense of frustration that's sometimes felt of not necessarily being able to do a story exactly the way you envisioned doing it. You end up with a lot of production war stories. At the same time, I am eternally grateful for having had the chance to have been involved in a little piece of a cultural phenomenon at all. Plenty of people would have traded places with me in a second, and I actually wouldn't trade it for anything. I think most of the Nightmare people would say the same thing about their experiences.

Do you have any greater perspective now on why/how these films have become such colossal cultural-cinematic touchstones?

Every generation has its monsters, its own fascination with the dark side. Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers are without a doubt the Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolf Man of this era, and Freddy is sort of the ultimate boogeyman, because you can’t escape your dreams, so you can’t escape or reason with him—that resonates with people. Dreams are a universal experience.

It’s interesting—my wife watched bits of Never Sleep Again with me and, despite not being a particular fan of the genre or series, she enjoyed it as a behind the scenes look at  how people deal with undreamed of success. 

A lot of this documentary is about what it takes to make an independent film. Bob Shaye threw caution to the wind, did what he thought was the right, and made a huge gamble that paid off in a huge way. In the history of Hollywood has there ever been any other time when a studio was born on the back of a horror series? New Line was, and the heart of that story is the heart of our documentary. There’s a lot to be learned from people like Shaye who built an empire. 

So there’s a film school element to it…

Well, for certain viewers, I hope so. If the New Line story gives a new group of filmmakers some courage and inspiration to make their own movie, great. Any small thing I’ve done that might help the aspiring filmmakers of today evolve into the next generation of professionals is something I’d be proud of. When I started out you couldn’t go online see what movie was in production or find out the gossip of what happened on the set that day. I was digging through the back of writing magazines or Hollywood Reporter or Fangoria or whatever I could get my hands on for any little bit of direction back then. If there was a new Nightmare or Friday the 13^th movie coming out, the first you heard of it was when you were sitting in a theater and the trailer came on. Now it’s Ain’t it Cool News 24/7. And, at the same time, technology has advanced to the point where if you have the inspiration, you can make a movie. People aren’t stuck with Super 8 film and giant VHS camcorders anymore, so it’s easier and less expensive to learn the craft. Some of these oneline fan films look as if they were made by some kid with access to Industrial Light & Magic. For them Never Sleep Again might be kind of a history lesson.

Your documentary is very, very comprehensive. It does not feel at all too long to me, but were you concerned about the run time?

We decided early on we weren’t going to leave anything really juicy on the cutting room floor. There were days that were so overwhelming—the written transcripts of interviews could fill a phonebook. Sometimes I'm surprised we're just all still standing and all still friends, it was such a mammoth task. But I worked previously on the Friday the 13^th series documentary His Name Was Jason and it just never really achieved what I hoped it would. The producer had his own ideas and I completely disagreed. I knew if I was going to do a project like that again, I was going to do it right. So our goal was to just go for it. Let the material dictate how long the show should be. If it’s a good two hours great, a good four hours, better. It’s frustrating for me as a fan and viewer when I think I’m only getting part of the picture. One thing Never Sleep Again definitely is not is snippets.

And by party we mean act like a goddamn lunatic. Brent Smith, lead singer and unironic facial hair sporter for the almost incomprehensibly shitty asshole band Shinedown is a bad story teller, but thanks to a cartoon, it's like we're really there to see Eddie Van Halen's "Smoking Gun." What is the smoking gun?

It's pretty much the dumbest, most vile rockstar douchebag "joke" you'll ever hear about. But hey, this is a guy who now scores porn movies, claims secret made-up garbage cures cancer and hired his fat son to play bass (sorry, Wolfgang). It's not like combining urine and deli trays should be surprising to anyone. Here's the guy in his heyday when he was just the best guitar player in the world and not some dipshit who thought Shinedown would be a good opening band.

And, there are probably much dumber things he or other douchebag rockstars have pulled off. Anyone wanna top this?

By Igor Nardin (Noctiferia) 

Last night there was a major storm here in Ljubljana. I love the mornings after a stormy night. There is strange calmness in the air and everything seems to be so simple. At least for the first few hours. Then everything gets messy again. Nature is one of the main inspirations in my life. I try to recreate its dramatics in our music with all its extremes... Beauty on one hand and terror on other.

As said last time music is not my only concern in Noctiferia. We put a lot effort to all artistic parts of the band. I am employed as a designer for a major company and in my private life, I also design a lot of stuff for other bands. I have a busy weekend ahead. I'm doing a CD cover for local rock band called Cancel and logo for another one. When it comes to the responsibility for taking care of Noctiferia’s designs, I must admit that it takes a lot of time.
It's my band. I have an exact view of how the mysticism of main message, music, lyrics, design and the entire image should be connected. But this requires a lot of concentration and takes time. It’s imagination that plays an important role in the development of Noctiferia. It is in an artist’s nature to continually move further to accomplish his visions. I feel very relaxed because in the last years everyone involved in Noctiferia knows their responsibilities and it is much easier this way. To me, the design is just the same long procedure as the preparations for album recordings. Death Culture is a great name for the album and the cover really fits.

Noctiferia members are involved with few projects and Noctiferia itself is pretty influential metal band at this end of the world. I mean kids really follow the equipment we use, the recording techniques and to see us as inspiration for a new generation gives us even more power to create more and better. But here comes the thing that we like to experiment a lot and we just cannot buy all the equipment. We got our own small studio and a lot of racks for an extreme metal band. But if you want to develop in sound you need all the new modern technology. So we are also in the process of searching for equipment endorsement deals and here comes another problem. A lot of companies do not know our market or care for this part of Europe, which is pretty ignorant and wrong.

Kids play music everywhere in the world. Well, it seems that we got some luck at the moment, since we are getting our first 8-string endorsement guitar from Schecter that I will use for the next album. They are very supportive and understand the market we come from and (still) see the potential. So, if there is anyone interested in cooperating please get in touch. We would be really grateful to try any new stuff. We intend to do our next album natural and dirty.

Peace! 

** Noctiferia's new album, Death Culture, is out now on Listenable Records. Order it here.

If you're anywhere near Philadelphia (I'm looking at your New York, Baltimore, and D.C.!), this weekend -- actually right fucking now -- at Club Polaris death and black metal bands from across the country and around the globe -- actually just Australia's Destroyer 666 and Belgium's Enthroned -- are tearing the City of Brotherly Hate a new asshole. Like we need it. Well, our crime rate is down for the second year in a row. OK, so we're no Flint, Michigan or Chester, Pennsylvania, but for the next three days Philadelphia not going to be the same. Trust us. 'Cause we're gonna be there! Along with...

Thrash gods Exodus are here. PA OSDM legends Incantation are here. Florida's Malevolent Creation are here. So too are Hate Eternal, Origin, Diabolic, Mortician, and Black Anvil. Even Shaun LaCanne is bringing his cuddly one-man death metal show, Putrid Pile, to the Hostile City Deathfest.

Click here for more information on the Hostile City Deathfest. Click here for the running order. Click here to check out some guts.

******CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR PLAYING.********

Reading is fundamental. No doubt about it. And if you have any interest in punk and hardcore music, nothing is more fundamental than ye olde zine known as Touch and Go. Back in Lansing, Michigan, in 1979, two fellas by the names of Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson started the zine to talk about their favorite bands. (If you missed the Deciblog's extremely excellent interview with Vee and editor Steve Miller, read it now.) As Negative Approach's John Brannon so eloquently put it, "Creem may have taught me how to piss, but Touch and Go taught me how to shit." That's deep, dude. The entire 22-issue run was recently wrapped up into a ridiculously awesome book put out by Bazillion Points Press. Want a copy? Yes, yes you do. Enter for a chance to win after the jump.

To enter for a chance to win the book, email deciblog@gmail.com by Tuesday, August 31, at midnight EST and we'll pick a winner at random. If the zine taught these guys how to shit, imagine what it can do for you.

Too bad there are no keytars in this video. Or Michael Score haircuts. Or George Alan O'Dowd dance moves. Mose Giganticus actually kind of rocks. Kevin Stewart-Panko kinda thought so too in dB #070.

By Igor Nardin (Noctiferia) 

Today, I found some time to play with Noctiferia symbols. I got cool idea for a series of t-shirts titled ‘God Save us from Religion’. Three main religious symbols with the NoctiStar symbol on top. Maybe it was already done, I don't know. I honestly don't care. Ironically I chose the three most pop religions. Obviously, those that created most suffering in history. Every religion is the same at its base. All have same source, but they were divided to create conflict, manipulate, and separate instead to connect. I work as designer, so I do all Noctiferia designs. It is almost as important as music.

At least for me. I am one of those dinosaurs that still buy and collect CDs. I like to have whole package: music, pictures, design. We like to use simple but powerful symbols. No extra bullshit. No kitch. No cliché. Everything has a story behind it. The Death Culture sleeve cover is good example. There's no fancy Photoshop compositing. It is 100% photo. It was taken in the middle of a desert-like place at high noon. I believe if you can create a scary or morbid situation without post-production in a real everyday place it will work way better. I love that [Peter Beste] photo with I think it is Gorgoroth guy standing in the street with corpsepaint and some old lady is passing by him... Maybe a funny example.

Every day I battle in my mind and think about our new stuff. We have fast kinda black metal stuff. We have absolutely low-tuned slow and heavy stuff and also few nice ethno-like acoustic riffs... How to pack all together? To me, extreme metal is rooted in the technicality of death metal that over time has come to contain elements of black metal teachings. Extreme metal is a system of death and black metal studies. There are various interpretations of extreme metal and extreme metal has been divided to several branches. I see it as extensive system of musical and spiritual growth. Death Culture is based upon our own studies of metal.

We’ve followed metal since early ‘90s. Domination by Morbid Angel or any Chuck Schuldiner’s stuff. I mean, tell me where else can you take death metal? Also in black metal. Who is more evil than Mayhem? And there is no one with more atmospheric than Emperor? So, I see a big unfilled space within extreme metal as a style of total freedom that allows you to go somewhere else… My mind is constantly moving from project to project, but the biggest concern is [our] next album. What about the sound? Noctiferia must stay heavy, full of evil atmosphere.

I will probably use an 8-string guitar that I will modify a bit. We got something like four songs packed together. Stylistically and spiritually, we have to develop extreme metal to the next level. All in Noctiferia have always felt extreme metal is a precise artistic and practical discipline. And lately we really feel it as a highly spiritual way of life. Our goal is to follow the soul and make new album sound good.

Peace! 

** Noctiferia's new album, Death Culture, is out now on Listenable Records. Order it here.