If there's one month that you can count on to be on metal's side, it's October. We're allowed to adorn our residences with skulls, fake blood, and motion-sensor demons without being judged. Hell, we are also allowed to indulge in an array of freaky, horrific activities, orchestrated by record companies and movie studios.
What other time of year do you find Clergy Appreciation Month and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender History Month living peacefully side-by-side? Don't worry, Mental Health and Auto Battery Safety Awareness -- you're in there too. Throw in Day of The Dead, All Soul's Procession, and Halloween, and all the weirdos, punks, metalheads, wiccans, and neopagans are throwing calendar parties like it's nobody's business.
See also: Is Heavy Metal for Easy Girls? See also: Rob Zombie on His New Record, New Movie, and Why Metal Shows Need Girls See also: Rob Zombie's Guitarist John 5 Has a Motto: "More is More"
So while you're carving up some pumpkins this month, here's a couple awesome things happening around the world of metal that might make your October that much better. Oh yeah, and remember that those jack-o'-lanterns you're slicin' and dicin' springs from the Samhain custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering lost souls held in purgatory. Cue Eric Cartman: Keeeewwlllllll.
But if you'd rather celebrate by toasting whiskey with a tranny in a nun's habit, and experimenting with jumper cables in the bedroom to attune your mental health to a six sense...well, you know us metalheads aren't going to judge you.
The release of Rob Zombie's new trailer, Lords of Salem
It's projected to be his best work yet, moving way down the spectrum from his usual shock-gore, comedic tales like Devils Rejects and House of a 1000 Corpses, and brushes up against such influences as Roman Polanski. A tale of psychological horror; a mind fuck (called so by both Zombie and John 5 in differing interviews). Sheri Moon supposedly provides a fantastic performance, channeling mental breakdowns and drug addict tendencies in a character nothing like she's ever done. As said in Uncle Squid's Horror Basement, this is "satanic horror done right." While the trailer made my week, it will be hard to wait for the movie to hit theaters in 2013.
Read what Zombie said about his new film in my recent interview with him here.
GWAR Names New Guitarist
Almost a year after GWAR guitarist Cory Smoot's untimely death, the band have named the guitarist who will be replacing him. The group made the announcement in their usual, always professional manner via their website:
"It was a little less than a year ago that the world was rocked by the passing of Flattus Maximus, back to the cosmos from whence he came. And since that day fans of GWAR have wondered how the mighty overlords of GWAR would deal with the void it left within the band. GWAR responded the only way they knew how-by soldiering on-and continued to play as a four-piece. But from the very beginning of that phase, the quest began to find the new Scumdog that was in every way as magnificent as his predecessor. Today the members of GWAR are pleased to inform their legions of followers, and even more so their many enemies, that once again the band is whole, with the proclamation that long-lost cousin of Flattus, Pustulus Maximus, has officially joined the band in the position of lead guitarist, and will join with the group on their upcoming "Fate or Chaos" tour.
Pustulus offered his first words to the press with the following, "At this point I have nothing to say to the press, even though I am talking to you. I will let my guitar speak for itself. But let me add that I am blood-sworn to honor the legacy of the great Flattus and indeed the whole Maximus tribe. I didn't come here to fuck around. HAIL FLATTUS!" Vincent Castiglia's Blood Work
Artist Vincent Castiglia once took so much of his own blood to use in his artwork that his lung collapsed. How metal is that? But he's more careful now--and elaborate. His new show "Resurrection" was announced last week and is running through October in Manhattan's Soho district. All the paintings featured, spanning from the past decade, were created with Castiglia's blood.
It features a number of Castiglia's paintings from the last 10 years, all of which were created with Castiglia's blood. The artist says that he uses the medium as a "need to connect with my work on the most intimate level."
Since human blood contains iron oxide, a pigment found in many traditional paints, and which occurs naturally in iron ore and common rust, the process makes for some great, eerily personal paintings. They come off as surreal, and are mostly of human bodies in some stage of decay. Wanna own one? They start at over $900.
Lamb of God Seeking Photos of the U.S. Military
It's not new news that Lamb of God is doing an awesome documentary about fans whom are loyal to their music, located in war-torn and violent regions. But now the band has issued an announcement about seeking photos of U.S. military members for an upcoming tour video. They want to honor the men and women who serve the U.S., incorporating their names and faces into a video presentation during their upcoming U.S. tour. Check out their website for more details.
Lamb of God is scheduled to perform Tuesday, October 30, at Comerica Theatre. Shock Me Some More, David Blaine (Or Not.)
I can't STAND David Blaine. I've never been a fan, and I don't understand why so many people think he's amazing. So, this news really brightened my day.
The amazing metal/hard rock musician Andrew W.K. teamed up with Blaine for his event Electrified. He performed on a unique keyboard solo that used a tesla coil-powered instrument imprisoning David Blaine and sending one million volts through his body. in which David Blaine will be imprisoned as 1,000,000 volts of party music surge through his body. Check him out on a 20-foot-high platform at Hudson River Park Pier 54 in New York, surrounded by seven towering metallic orbs -- or Tesla coils -- that stream 1 million volts of electricity around him for three days and three nights.
It kicked off on Sunday, October 7, and audiences around the world can control the Tesla coils through Ultrabook stations in cities worldwide, while the entire event will be continuously live-streamed.
