Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Current Thrash/Crossover Revival = Civil War Reenactments


Just last week, fellow Metal Inquisition staffer Sergeant D wrote an interesting post regarding what to do "when posers like sweet bands". Perhaps I'm an aging idiot, but I didn't know the names of many of the bands that came up in that post, which made me feel great about myself.

Anyway, while reading said post, I began to think about the current crossover and thrash metal revival that appears to be prevalent among today's metal youth. I'm sure that the mere fact that I'm calling this revival "current" means that it has no doubt been going on for years, and I'm only now aware of it. Yes, it's true that my current lifestyle keeps me from knowing what's going on with "the kids" today, but that does not make my opinion any less valid. Like a WWII vet who is full of opinions and gripes, I too wish to speak my mind. I'm no Johnny-come-lately to the world of metal at large. I was in the Wild Rags Records street team damnit! And that's no joke. Don't know Wild Rags? You douche, look it up!

I would rather impale myself on a rusty fence post than go to a show where one of these bands is playing, or listen to their music, I can just tell what it's all about. Based on the picture that Mr. Sergeant D posted of the band Municipal Waste, this genre basically amounts to the metal equivalent of a Civil War Reenactment. Accuracy becomes paramount, but is nevertheless questionable. Oh my, how funny...they wear jean vests just like those older bands did! Oh, how witty! Ha, ha...a bandana? These guys must be crazy! I guess the shows probably function much like reenactments of battles, people wearing period attire, almost channeling a certain persona of the time ("Oh no, I'm supposed to be the guy who stands on the side of the stage in D.R.I.'s 'Live At The Ritz' home video, the one with the Token Entry shirt and shorts"). If someone's going to point out that the guys in these bands are not young posers, but actually old-timers who roadied for Acid Reign, and have unbelievable metal pedigree from back in the day...well, they should at least know better if that's the case. If only based on their age.

Perhaps these young men should try to re-live shows of the past by staging them all over again. Maybe even at the same venue where the original show took place. The reenactments should include cover bands doing the complete sets that would have been played by the bands at that time (if the original band is not available). If some idiot wants to make this happen, just look around for old flyers online, and put on a show based on the coolest flyer and line up you can find. D.R.I. flyers are probably a good place to start. Use the same flyer, only changing the date and you're done. If you look at the flyer below, however, you'll see that things were never as cool back then as you thought they were. Yes, D.R.I. and Sick Of It All would have been rad to see back then (even if Sick Of it All is more of a hardcore band.) but if you want to stay true to the original show, you now have to find someone to play Nasty Savage covers. Oh boy.



Look, originality has never been the strong suit of any subculture. The recycling of previous movements and co-opting certain aspects of them always has been however. Having said that, going back in time and taking a sub-genre such as crossover nearly verbatim due to nostalgia (or for whatever reason) is nauseating to anyone, like myself, who lived through part of the original era. I'm fully aware that these are the ramblings of a man whose time within a certain youth culture has long ago passed him. But I'm completely comfortable with that. Much like the oh-so-popular 80's nights that continue to plague every city in this country to this day, nostalgia reveals the inability that we all have with dealing with the here and now.

By the way, I'm only partially pointing fingers here. I mean, I just recently wrote a post about Nuclear Assault, and the year is 2008. I suppose that I too partially live in the past....but at least I don't wear period costumes while doing it.

19 comments:

  1. Richard Campos of Wild Rags was a rip-off scumbag of the higest degree!

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  2. I never knew that was his last name, I only knew him as "richard c". its funny that this many years after that name still gets people going. that guy was a controversy machine. i wonder where his is now.

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  3. you know, i wrote with richard c. for many, many years and met him at the milwaukee metal fest a few times. i dealt with him alot. i bought from him, he distributed shit for me...he never ripped me off or even seemed that shady. a little weird in a child molester kinda way, but not in a rip-off-hundreds-of-people way, you know? boy, was i wrong! i have heard so many first-hand accounts of big rip-offs, not $25 2 CD orders, but $4000 studio-time bills. id love to know what happened to that dude.

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  4. Buttsex is good except for the poop on my peepee is GROSS!!! I love racial slurs. THE INTERNET GOT AIDS and now you do to coz you are a gayfag. I love double bass.

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  5. hey now... let's not drag richard c's name through the mud here! some things you just don't do!

    but yeah this is pretty much the best thing anybody has written in at least 100 years.

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  6. The same is completely or even more true for the whole "kustom kulture" rockabilly rat rod thing. It is a plague perhaps worse than the current Thrash trend, because the Thrash thing seems heavily populated with ex hardcore kid hipsters who will assuredly move on to something cooler or more ironic within a year or two. The rockasillies will be ruining car shows for the next 20 years if they're not stopped.

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  7. Ugh, rockabilly! Tattooed Betties and "Crybaby" clones...hey at least it's not as big as in the 1990's.

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  8. Hey, at the very least Nasty Savage had Rob Proctor at one point (including that particular show, I suppose.)

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  9. Did you take the idea of retro thrash as Civil War reenactment from a Merciless Death review I wrote last year?

    http://metalinjection.net/blog/2007/06/12/cd-review-merciless-death-evil-in-the-night/

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  10. the link is broken.
    the civil war thing comes from a long standing joke with a few peple i know regarding metal, punk and hardcore shows.

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  11. link working now. i see the reference in your review. you should feel great about having come up with the same thought that a genius like me did. if you think we're bitting off of you...think again my friend. i can garantee that all metal inquisition staffers are too clueless to read anything semi-current online. we're too full of ourselves and think everything that everyone does sucks balls. if we read any reviews ever, we mostly stick with to Metal Maniacs demo reviews from 1990-1995 which we revisit often. we are all united in our feeling that everything sucks, with the exception of our work...which is amazing and will save the world

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  12. I had this idea a month back to get tribute bands to reenact famous festivals. Like getting a Van Halen tribute band, a Clash tribute etc. to reenact the US Festival, even prompting the band's to learn the in between stage banter. Details details details. Of course I will never put forth the effort, but reading this post reminded me. Yeah, nostalgia from folks who missed it the first time is creepy and always reeks of fashion to me.

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  13. Im a little late with this reply but blah, who cares:
    I guess I have to answer this, as someone who is part of this so called "thrash revival". Now I could just wonder off and slander you and be like "AH YOU SUCK YOU KNOW NOTHING YOUR A WHORE FUCK YOU FUCK YOUR MOTHER YOU HAVE AIDS MW RULES" but honestly, if you dont like this so called revival why write about it? I may sound like a poser or whatever, I really dont care but....you know this generation.
    The style of clothing has nothing to do with it besides the fact that we want to identity people who have similar interest as ours, show pride in our music, and really I just find it plain badass. That style was just a rip off of greasers and punks anyway so why do you try to parade it as something completely original?
    Sounds like you need a little history lesson.

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  14. Hahaha, wonderful. Who is this "someone" - "someone" from that Trash Meddl band?

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  15. I don't know where I stand on the whole thrash revival thing. It seems synonymous with what's been happening with the whole 80s hardcore revival going on the last couple years. Some bands will do something good with it, some are going to do it to merely ride the trend, and some who have good intentions will just churn out the same shit over and over. It's certainly better than all this annoying "atmospheric" and "depressive" black metal coming out courtesy of Hydra Hurl or bree bree mosh metal . Would you rather metal trends now be determined by a bunch of fuckin wieners with swords who read too damn much Nietzsche or some dorks who listen to too much Vio-lence?

    Sweeping statements sure are great for blog op eds but maybe the whole thrashrehash has to be given a little more time?

    And if not this then what is there to look forward to? Death metal (not melo, not wigger slam) could be on the upswing again. Dead Congregation from Greece are doing the whole Immolation (but way better) with black metal "melody." Nominon from Sweden just put out "Terra Necrosis," a fairly solid and straight forward early 90s style SweDM record or is that more of the same sickness that is nostalgia?

    Whatever. I'm getting long winded and I'm starting to show that I care but at least it ain't the Sword.

    Here are some links so you can dismiss some bands:
    http://www.myspace.com/deadcongregation
    http://www.myspace.com/nominon

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  16. The excellent Motorbooty mag (edited by ex-Necros people through the '90's) did a hilarious and in-depth satirical piece on '80's hardcore "re-enactments" circa 1999/2000, posing as actual journalism. The only reference I could find on the web is even written by someone who appears to have taken it seriously...

    'Equally fascinating as a slice of life is Motorbooty magazine's "Punk: Undead" about the phenomenon of "hardcore re-enactments." Bizarrely, for a movement that supposedly scorns artifice, die-hard fans recreate concerts and even entire tours from the hardcore era, "much like their spiritual compatriots in the Civil War re-enactment movement." Standards are strict: "Goatees, piercings and modern slang are forbidden, and each event is policed by scene historians, who ensure that all attendees wear the proper band t-shirts and other era-appropriate accessories."'

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  17. witnessing someone completely miss satire is like seeing an old person fall. it is never not funny.

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  18. thrash revival is for poser fags. i feel bad for all the kids coming up now having to rework shit thats been done by their parents. I felt just as bad for the kids in the 80's who wore peace symbols and dashikis to school. Its a form of child abuse.

    To all you idiots covering your denim vests in patches, flipping up your bill, and wearing bandanas in 2009...

    There's nothing wrong with inspiration, but try starting with a blank page and come up with something new rather than basing your band on google jpeg hunts and whatever youve downloaded this week.

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