MY 2007 SCRAPBOOK
IAN CHRISTE, AUTHOR OF SOUND OF THE BEAST

1. SHINING, V: HALMSTAD CD
The rebirth of dark metal. Thank the gods they haven’t ruined the majesty by bringing their silly stage shtick to the States.

2. BITTERSWEETS NEW YORK STORE
I can bake bread, make wine, cake up some soap on my own–but forging a vampire fangs engagement ring or serpent’s tongue earrings from precious metals is way out of my league.

3. ONLY DEATH IS REAL: An Illustrated History of Hellhammer and Early Celtic Frost, by Tom Gabriel Warrior with Martin Eric Ain
An angry primer in alienation. After all, Switzerland is historically a nation of warriors.

4. V/A BROKEN STEPS MIX
I’m two years late on this great incessantly-urgent 2005 breakstep/dubstep comp w/Loefah, Vex’d, and Search & Destroy. So what, I was busy listening to Bolt Thrower.

5. WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA
I’ve got the Wheeling feeling. The Capitol Music Hall needs to reopen soon! I went to see a country show and some greyhound races, and the first human I saw downtown was a 12-year old kid in a Darkthrone shirt.

6. ELECTRO HARMONIX MINI-SYNTHESIZER
If your favorite Van Halen songs are “Saturday Afternoon in the Park” and “Intruder,” that is.

7. HEAVEN AND HELL, RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, MARCH 30, 2007
Ronnie James Dio, Vinnie Appice, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, so old and so metal.

8. Baritone guitars by Gibson and Schecter, permanently tuned to B.

9. Tropa de Elite, directed by José Padiha
The grim and contaminated downstream effluviant of CITY OF GOD, GRAND THEFT AUTO, and the UN report on Guantanamo.

10. Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, and their amazing love story and legacy of 20th Century American non-fiction.

11. Any computer-animated TV cartoons about wandering long-tongued philosophical freaks with serpent arms, bird beak noses, and backwards legs.

12. The 500-page motion filed in October to hear new evidence in the convictions of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley–the West Memphis Three. Now that DNA tests on dozens of pieces of evidence have come back clean, the wait might soon be over for these three misfits after nearly 15 years in prison. And the game could be over for every judge, cop, and prosecutor who has profited from their sham guilty verdicts on the basis of hearsay testimony of “devil worship.”

www.soundofthebeast.com
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