Noise Pollution #76

Trick or Treat?

The best thing about leaving Invisible Oranges and moving the column here, outside of being allowed to type the words “Burzum”, “suicide” and “cunt” in an article, is that I’m not beholden to a publishing schedule and thus I can dump a piece on a particular day, hour and even minute.

I assure myself, no one but myself cares. But, like for today being Halloween? I can do a Halloween piece on the fucking holiday itself.

This kind of freedom corrupts and is how you become Elon Musk.

Anyway, let’s revisit my favorite Calmed By Nature Halloween while I gather my thoughts. It’s actually around 7am yesterday and when I went to take the trash out to the street a very wet, smelly and excited lost dog ran up to me and I tried to get her to stay still long enough to get the number off her collar and trap her in my yard but she saw either a kid or a chipmunk and tore off like fucking Tokyo Drift.

fuck yeah.

Anyway, this Halloween season has sucked. The trees here are mostly still green, most of my neighbors don’t put out decorations (they get in the way of their Trump flags which is not a joke) and the mood in the Jameson household has been a little dour with the whole money/cancer/autism thing. But despite that it’d still feel a bit off this year. Almost anyone I’ve spoken to isn’t particularly excited this year, which considering the subcultures, this is supposed to be the most wonderful time of year. And yet it feels flat, like a sad fart or rushed orgasm.

How do I handle this, then? Like I do with everything else: dig into the well of nostalgia of course. And with that we come back to Danzig, another repeating theme.

The above is here mostly because the video has a lot of vintage Halloween imagery and also the song, I suppose.

It was 1994, I was nearing the cusp of discovering black metal. I already had a few death metal records, Entombed “Wolverine Blues”, Morbid Angel “Covenant” and Bolt Thrower “The IVth Crusade” managed their way in with my steady stream of Type of Negative/Carnivore and whatever “Headbanger’s Ball” had played that was darker than normal. It was one of those weird transitional years when you’re a kid trying to find yourself, especially when you’re on the outside of things and what you’re growing into is even further outside of that.

Then a single video changed fucking everything.

I’ve written at length about the profound impact this song and video have had on me over the years, so this isn’t going to turn into a Danzig “IV” piece again. But it is an important jumping off point.

I was really starting to get into music as more than just something to listen to but as something to mold my lifestyle and views entirely. I was pretty young, a sophmore in high school, and while there were people who had full bands and were entirely indoctrinated into the underground at that age, this was just the start for me. And uncovering the long history of Glenn Danzig was my first real deep dive into music outside of what I heard on “Headbanger’s Ball.”

I don’t know how I discovered ACRAT (Atlantic City Records And Tapes, which I wrote about a few pieces ago) but it became my first real indie record store experience outside of a small store in Ocean City called Rock Garden that existed when I first moved to the coast. When I went in to try to find the other Danzig stuff I met Chuck Miller (Temperance Records, see ACRAT piece) who actually asked me questions about what I was getting into, something I probably should have done myself as a record store employee but I’m historically unfriendly, and I told him the various shit I was listening to, Type O, Biohazard and Danzig. Danzig was where he lit up and went to the store’s large punk section to bring me three records: The Misfits “Collection I”, Danzig’s “Black Aria” and Samhain’s “November Coming Fire.” This wasn’t just opening a door for me, it was kicking it wide open and off the hinges.

You hear a lot about kids being introduced to Slayer and Venom by older friends when they were like 10 years old and then forming bands which made demos that are now worth hundreds of dollars before forming At the Gates or whatever classic band you want to put in. That wasn’t my experience. The works of Glenn Danzig were my Venom, Hellhammer, what have you.

The Misfits were probably the easiest of the three to get into as they had a pretty extensive back catalog and weren’t too out there for a kid. I know that’s the case for a lot of other people, that much I remember from the record store. But at the time? It was another world that was hidden from most “normal” people. This was, after all, around the time the world shifted from the Seattle/Sub Pop sound into shit that I just couldn’t care less about, like Korn or Creed. That kind of stuff just held no appeal for me.

The Misfits were also my first real example of a band evolving their sound through time, which was perfectly evidenced by “Collection I” since it was, afterall, a collection of their material through their history. But the version of the Misfits that I gravitated towards the most? “Earth A.D” and the surrounding recordings.

Years later I would make plans to cover ‘Devilock” for a split with Centuries of Deception that would both have Misfits covers. This never came to fruition, but the idea was nice.

Still rules.

“Black Aria” was another revelation. I was always into classical music when I would hear it, especially the darker and more morose side of it, plus I was deep into the 16 bit era of gaming where soundtracks started becoming far more intricate and something I would want to listen to outside of a game, so “Black Aria” scratched those itches, plus it showed me a musician can have different sides to their personalities creatively.

And yet I’ve still never listened to the second one. Go figure.

Finally, Samhain. This was absolute fucking evil. I loved it.

I was on the cusp of discovering goth as a genre as well as black metal, and the sounds of Samhain prepared me for it. Ritualistic, cavernous and unlike anything I’d heard up to that point in my life. It felt like the music was being played wrong, backwards or twisted.

For the rest of my sophmore year, thanks to the guidance provided by Chuck, I would beging my descent into the shit that’s poisoned my life ever since. Over thirty years later, here we are.

Years ago I wrote a piece for Decibel which was an open letter to Danzig about reissuing the Samhain records. I don’t think he ever read it. I’ve had to sell a lot of records over the years for various reasons and I don’t really regret too many of them, but punting off my Samhain vinyl because I was sure they would eventually come back into print? That’s a big one.

Every year it seems that Danzig (or Peter Steele) are the patron saints of the season. But I also remember them for helping get me to wherever life has taken me. I don’t know what kind of person I’d be without them.

Coming back to my dungeon synth pieces that I ran for Halloween I received a message from lawyer to the American underground, Danny Katz, with a link of a project from American Nightmare’s Wes Eisold called Teufelsregen that he thought would be up my alley. As he generally is, he was spot on.

This is dungeon synth that fits nicely in between the aforementioned “Black Aria” album and something like the first few Old Tower records or some of the Hollow Myths releases I talked about in my last one. Dark dungeon music that maintains a sense of obscurity without any kind of grandiosity, just as I want this kind of music to be. Of course it’s super limited and sold out quick but I could see this being something that would be nice on vinyl.

Maybe one day. Either way this is fucking fantastic.

On the heels of my last round of begging through selling records on Discogs (which I’m going through orders now, everyone’s shit should be in the mail no later than Saturday) I was asked about direct donation links. I’m not going to run a Gofundme again because I already despise asking for charity, especially when so much shit is going on around the world. I’d rather sell records or do some paid writing for people or anything useful but if you are inclined here’s my Venmo and Paypal.

blackhouseindustries -Venmo

noiseinfection@outlook.com -paypal

Discogs link is: https://www.discogs.com/user/NoiseInfection

As always I appreciate the support as this year has been a real motherfucker for this household. Even if it’s just taking the time to read my weekly nonsense. If it weren’t for Danzig I’d probably be a doctor or something else productive, maybe I should send him a therapy bill. Or another request to repress Samhain. Happy Halloween, y’all.