f666

We've moved to Tumblr!

2012-02-27T21:30:00.002-08:00

Hey all, we've upgraded and moved to Tumblr.
www.f666.biz now points to f666.tumblr.com.
Follow us there. This site will slowly phase out.
Thanks for the continued support!

f666 number 2, winter 2012

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-08:00

f666 number 2, the metal, punk and hardcore photo zine is out! This one features a show photo diary by Nunslaughter, a photo contribution entitled '6.66 reasons' by Angela Boatwright, 'artist behind the cover' interview with Jon Clue, columns by select writers and my photo coverage of the numerous bands that come through New York City including Incantation, Cannibal Corpse, Coffinworm, Wormrot and much, much more. Click here to buy em! A few copies of the first issue still remain and can be picked up here.

Seven Sisters of Sleep @ The Acheron

2012-01-23T10:27:00.001-08:00

Finally, an update(s)... the second issue of the f666 zine will be out next week, stay tuned for a sneak preview tomorrow or the day after and finally this set from the Seven Sisters of Sleep show at the Acheron from a few nights ago.

Higher res and Flickr set here.

Havok, Goatwhore + Exhumed @ Club Europa

2011-11-14T06:28:00.000-08:00

These are from the current Exhumed tour with Goatwhore and Havok at Club Europa in Greenpoint. Big thanks to BBG!

Havok

Goatwhore

Exhumed

'LIMB FROM LIMB!'

And for the flickr photo set, click here.

f666 zine snippet: Interview with Karlynn Holland

2011-11-06T16:36:00.001-08:00

The Artist Behind The Cover with Karlynn Holland

Krallice's Dimensional Bleedthrough

This is the rest of the interview with Karlynn Holland that didn't fit to print in the first issue of the zine, which you should of bought by now.

How did the concept for the cover come together and did it take time, or was it something that was sparked from existing work?

The CD version of the album artwork for Dimensional Bleedthrough came first. Nick is a talented collage artist and has done some rather amazing artwork in his life in addition to being a flourishing bass player. I attached a picture of one of his works. He says it's a boat with oars. I say it's a pinned vagina. Either way, I adore it and still to this day wonder at exactly how he made it. So anyway, he made the cover, thinking of it as a digital collage. He scanned all kinds of source material, taking a rounded part here and a wing there and making the figure in the foreground, referred to by the band as Mr. Dimensional. (Goofballs.) The background is a detail from one of Goya's black paintings, Procession of the Holy Office. Nick sampled the sky and edge of the mountain from the left side of the painting. My contributions to this version of the artwork are the logo and the mouth of Mr. Dimensional. Nick wanted to use the mouth of the figure from a Francis Bacon painting, Figure Study II, but being the neurotic perfectionist that he is, he was worried over copyright issues should anyone recognize where the mouth was copied from. So he asked me to make a study of the open mouth, which I did in colored pencil and we scanned and used my drawing instead of digitally sampling from a protected published image.

These two drawings were wonderful work to do. Studying from masters is not something I do nearly enough of. In both cases it brought me much closer to the original works themselves, sharpening my eye to the finer details and techniques employed to create their apparitional compositions. The study of the mouth from the Bacon painting took a day or two. The drawing from the Goya painting took much longer mostly because it was a much larger drawing, as large as a vinyl gatefold. I worked on it for a couple days across about a month. If I had worked on it straight through, it probably would have taken about a week.

You mention the cover was an expanded detail of a Goya painting. Which of this Old Master’s painting does it come from? Why this specific detail, and what medium did you go with?

The detail from "Procession of the Holy Office" was scanned from a rather small reproduction in a book and while the scan was large enough to cover a CD tray, it was not large enough to sheath the vinyl. The actual dots from the printed image started to show up when we made the scan vinyl sized. We tried rescanning and blurring the image, but it just didn't work all that well. So again Nick asked me to make a study, this time large enough for vinyl. Subtle differences in how I drew or interpreted the worn and cracked surface of Goya's painting lent a warm subtly to the vinyl artwork. I'm actually surprised that more people don't notice that they are different. Most people assume the vinyl and CD cover background are the same image, but they're not. One is Goya's painting, the other is my drawing. As a final touch before printing the drawing for the vinyl release, Nick added a bit of a golden tint to the whole drawing, which was intended as a subtle reference to the cover artwork for Drudkh's album, Autumn Aurora.

The drawing itself is done in Prismacolor pencil on bristol paper.

How did you and Nick McMaster work together to bring the artwork for the vinyl come to life? What was the process like? Describe the communication between you two. Seeing that McMaster is also part of Krallice, how much input did the rest of the band have on the cover?

Nick and I had collaborated in a similar manner before on the Astomatous logo and album artwork, so working together on this was very easy. Nick knew what he wanted and he also knew what my technical capabilities were. The cover art was Nick's conception and my hand acted only to fill in where his vision expanded beyond the source material he had gathered. He was the designer, I was a technician. He used his impeccable taste to make careful selections and created as much of what he envisioned as he could, but when his vision went beyond something he could find or butted up against the legal limits of what he could sample, my hand was employed to fill in the gaps. The rest of the band saw what an awesome job he had done creating such a finely crafted composition and gave their approval.

The choice of the Forest drawing for the gatefold was made by Mick Barr. I finished that drawing around the time the vinyl release was being put together. He saw it and asked to use it.

The inside of the gatefold beautifully displays your “Black Forest” piece, it features your trademark fine line work as seen in your other pieces such as; “Sin Eater”, “Goslings Moss” and “Rudra Hunting Demons in the Forest”. Even the Dimensional Bleedthrough cover has a forest like scene going on. What effect or inspiration does nature and the outdoors have on your work? What else inspires your work?

Early on, I wanted to draw from nature and many of my favorite artists are also gifted anatomists and naturalists, including Da Vinci, Caravaggio, and Jan Van Calcar who illustrated Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body). Unlike those three, I don't seek to study nature and recreate its likeness visually. More often, I create my own nature in an attempt to build a larger visual metaphor for music or emotion. For example, I was talking to James Plotkin one day. I was listening to a lot of drone doom at the time, Black Boned Angel, Boris' The Thing Which Solomon Overlooked and of course Earth 2 Special Low Frequency Edition were in heavy rotation, and Jim gave me a copy of a Goslings/Warmth album, Heaven of Animals. It is superb and his description of it was perfect: like wrapping your ears in a black blanket of moss. I thought the image of that texture, this amourphous blob of black moss wrapped across a page, was simply irresistable. So I started drawing and as I make progress, I rescan the drawing and post it to the internet, mostly to remind myself to keep working on it.

The Sin Eaters started as practice drawings, a way to warm up my hand and pens before working on a more representational drawing like one of the demon portraits. However, after I made a few, I decided to devote an entire notebook to them and they took on a life of their own. The title for the series was inspired by Niall Scott's essay for Nicola Masciandaro's Hideous Gnosis publication. In his essay, Scott describes the medieval practice of sin eating wherein a loaf of bread symbolically absorbs the sins of the deceased and is then consumed by a member of the town, symbolically consuming the sins of the dead. I was intrigued by this antiquated communal practice and agreed with Scott that the act of looking at a work of art or hearing a band perform could become a similarly consumptive experience. Through these abstract drawings, I wanted to convey feelings of darkness that would be communally digested by everyone who participates in the act of looking. I posted a couple early versions of a few of the sin eaters to my blog, and found out that Nicola was one of my readers when he asked to publish the drawings in the Hideous Gnosis publication.

Music is obviously a huge influence on my work, one could really say the primary influence. I taught myself to draw by copying my dad’s comic books, especially Will Eisner's work for the noir comic series The Spirit. Other artists that made serious impressions on me were Gerhard Richter, Lee Bontecou, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Otto Dix, and Sally Mann. Mann’s exhibition “What Remains” as well as Sugimoto’s “Theaters” and “Seas” are delicate monuments to temporal mortality that still leave a chill in my bones and awe in my eyes.

How do you create these line driven pieces that become forests, shrubbery and even abstract logos like Astomatous’ or even Solecism’s?

For the Forests, I start with a blank piece of paper, a pencil and my eyes closed. I place wavy vertical lines at random on the page, loosely tracking perspective and depth by varying their length and spatial placement. Then I open my eyes, pick up a pen and loosely and quickly trace the pencil and start building masses of overlapping and intertwining lines. The last step is the most time consuming. I do several more refining layers in pen smoothing out the line, filling in gaps and selectively building a darkened density that become the trees, or whatever you want to call them. I think of them as being more like the hairs that line the inner ear, and the forest landscape as a kind of visual metaphor for the black metal auditory experience. The Goslings Moss drawing is much the same. The placement of the Moss is done more or less randomly, but the details of the moss, it's texture, is executed tediously. I love painstaking, time consuming drawing.

As for the Solecism and Astomatous logos... Both of these logos were designed by members of the respective bands. Allen Nelson of Solecism came to me one day and said he wanted a logo that was two circles, the interior most containing wild lines of energy and around that the letters forming the band name. The Astomatous logo was conceptualized by Nick McMaster. Nick described to me a kind of pelvic shape at the top which were made from the beginning A and ending S. Piercing this pelvic form, he wanted a dew drop shape, filled with the rest of the letters overlapping and fuzzed out in a heavier syle. In both cases, these guys had specific, unorthodox ideas and I was employed to realize their vision.

Do you use certain pens and paper? What are your artistic weapons of choice?

Weapons of choice are micron pens and Bristol paper, which is a standard archival heavy weight paper. It's a lot pricier than what you put in your printer, but it's absolutely worth it. Prismacolor pencils are always close at hand as well.

Is it all freehand?

No, my work is not all freehand. I make use of a lot of tools. I am absolutely in love with my compass and circular geometry is a lot of fun to play around with. Circles appear in a lot of places in my logos, sometimes obviously as with the Solecism and Theologian logos, and other times implicitly, like the focal center atop the tear drop shape in the Astomatous logo. All of my logos contain the words they represent, so for the most part they are not perfectly symmetrical. However, in cases where the design calls for perfect symmetry, I only draw what I need (1/2 or 1/4) of the logo and use photoshop to do the mirroring and complete the design. The vinyl monogram labels for the Krallice self title vinyl release are an example of this technique, as is 1.2.2.1.

I also employ tracing and transfering of images as well from time to time. For example, the upcoming Krallice vinyl artwork encountered a similar reproduction issue as Dimensional Bleedthrough wherein the background image is too small to be printed vinyl sized. Nick asked me to make an outline from the background of the CD artwork. I simply printed out the background image at Vinyl scale and drew on it with a pen then used Photoshop to select my drawing out from the background. One might think of tracing as cheating, but I approach my artwork in a goal oriented way. Whatever I need to do to make visible what my vision or another's vision imagines, I do. It's the final product that will ultimately have to stand up to critique. I don't use a tablet or draw directly into a computer program like illustrator. My drawings are all conceived on and exist on paper.

The vinyl’s center labels feature what seem to be sketches of the Krallice logo. Were these early sketches of what became the Krallice logo today?

These were not early sketches for the Krallice logo. The four labels for Dimensional Bleedthrough were Mr. Dimensional, my mouth study from the Francis Bacon painting and two monogram sketches intended as original labels for the DB vinyl release. These two sketches were ultimately going to be inked and photoshopped so they would stylistically match the labels for Krallice self title vinyl release. However, Nick decided that he wanted the labels to have an in progress quality to them, and asked me not to finish them. What was printed on the DB vinyl labels is more like a page from my sketchbook than a finished drawing.

If you were lucky enough to catch Krallice on their latest tour, they were selling shirts that featured an early sketch of the logo. The same version of the logo will also be on a tape release coming out later this year.

When I’m shooting photos, I’m listening to the band play and it inspires the way I shoot. When I edit my photographs, I generally listen to the bands music and it inspires the way I edit them. At anytime while working on this cover did the record play in the background? Did any music play while you created the cover? What kind of music inspires your art?

I worked on the artwork in large part while hanging out with Nick McMaster. More often that not, I would draw while he practiced, so the entire Krallice catalogue, including new songs yet to be finished and recorded, were the bulk of my background music. It was hugely inspirational. It also allowed me to ask a lot of questions, so I could recreate by hand what Nick saw in his head as closely as possible. Is it ok if I change this? What do you think of this color scheme and range? Does this area have enough detail? And so on.

What is currently in the works for you, any upcoming projects you’d like to discuss?

I'll have the Forest drawings in a group show at the New Art Center in Massachusetts this fall. The show is entitled "We Still See the Black" and was curated by Owen Rundquist, singer of Brooklyn's Trench Grinder, and Alex Demaria. Owen and Alex work together under the pseudonym Under the Same Shadow. Their work is definitely worth checking out. The show is quite the collection of artists, including work by the three of us, Seldon Hunt and many others.

Justina Villanueva is also publishing a zine soon that will feature some of my drawings. Photographs, writings and recipes from the immensely talented matriarchs of the New York metal scene, including Vanessa America, Kim Kelly, and Samantha Marble, will be included as well.

Beyond that, I'm continuing to forge ahead on new logos and album artwork. You can keep up with that on my Facebook (facebook.com/KarlynnHolland) and blog (karlhol.blogspot.com).

Gigan, Jungle Rot + Immolation @ Gramercy Theater

2011-10-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

This set is from the New York stop of the recent Immolation tour, apologies for a little delay on this post because it first had exclusivity here. Gigan and Jungle Rot played alongside as Immolation unleashed a highly energetic set upon Gramercy Theater's awkwardly large stage. Honestly, not one of my favorite venues and if you haven't been there it's a shitty Live Nation space with more staff than needed, and expensive ball park priced drinks. Immolation is just much more enjoyable in intimate venues, as with all bands, here's a set I shot from their show a few months ago at Webster Hall. Though the space was unusually large for even a band of big fellas like themselves, now in their forties, their amount of energy live is just unsurpassable.

Been a little busy, but more updates on f666 coming soon, including a set from Mutant Supremacy with Drawn and Quartered and Wolves in The Throne Room with Thou. If you haven't picked up the first issue of the f666 photo zine, do it now! Issue 2 is currently in the works for Winter 2012, new contributors welcome.

Gigan

Jungle Rot

Immolation

Also featured on BrooklynVegan.
And for larger resolutions, as always on Flickr.

f666 issue 1, fall 2011

2011-09-13T22:53:00.000-07:00

Finally, after a long process and multiple printers, the f666 photo zine is here! Pick it up starting September 25th, 2011 at the 'Dreams Were Made For Mortals 2' group art show in Greenpoint Brooklyn's Saint Vitus Bar. You can also get it by supporting your local shops, and buying it up at Generation Records in New York City and Desert Island in Brooklyn. This thirty-six page, full color 8.5" by 5.5", saddle stitched zine was printed at Magcloud and is available in an initial run of one-hundred copies at only $6.66! It features interviews with Karlynn Holland, contributing photography spread with Justina Villanueva, essays by Justin Elm and finally, Suren Karapetyan's photography coverage of the ever exploding metal scene in New York City. Bands covered include, Mayhem, Misery Index, Immolation, Krallice, Cephalic Carnage, Toxic Holocaust and much more! Order directly from the f666 store by clicking here. I HIGHLY recommend you buy locally from one of the above mentioned shops if you're in the NYC area!

Come see my photography work and other great art from local artists at the Dreams Were Made For Mortals 2, group art show on September 25th, 2011. RSVP to Facebarf invite here.

Full of Hell, Night Birds, Fuck the Facts + From Ashes Rise @ Public Assembly

2011-08-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

Interesting mix of bands that I probably wouldn't go see if Fuck the Facts wasn't there. They drove down to do their only show in the states as part of their recent Canadian tour. Nonetheless I was impressed by all. Most of these photos weren't sent to BrooklynVegan, but some were. For the rest of the set click here.

Full of Hell

Night Birds

Fuck the Facts

From Ashes Rise

View the higher res Flickr photo set here!

Coffinworm + Disma @ Saint Vitus

2011-08-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Coffinworm's set was the first I've ever witnessed of them and they've brought their heavy wall of sound all the way from Indiana for us to headbang to. The band reminded me a lot of why I enjoy shooting metal. Label mates Disma headlined with a killer old school Autopsy/Incantation-like death metal doom that rattled the shiny and new Greenpoint bar, Saint Vitus. Nothing like last nights show could of broken in the place any better. Photos below and after the jump! Here's Disma from a previous show I shot of them with Arsis and Immolation.

Coffinworm

Disma

View the higher res Flickr photo set here!

Maryland Deathfest Parking Lot

2011-06-10T23:16:00.000-07:00

The parking lot of Maryland Deathfest was like a scene out of Heavy Metal Parking lot. Booze, watermelons, solo cups and Black Sabbath blarring out the back of cars was the scene in front of Sonar this year during metal's "biggest party of the year". The guy selling nitrous oxide in balloons was surely at the wrong fest as crowds of metal heads took over the city of Baltimore, where fifteen cans of Colt 45 cost you only ten bucks. Below are the results of four disposable cameras, numerous metal heads and nomadic crust punks. The scene in the parking lot and the scene ahead of lazy violent security guards at the gates are documented below.

View the Flickr photo set here.

Shitstorm, Noisear, The Kill, Magrudergrind + Cripple Bastards @ Public Assembly

2011-05-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

An evening of grindcore blasted through Brooklyn's Public Assembly on one of the many excellent nights here in pre-MDF ridden New York City. All five bands destroyed the awkwardly high stage at Public Assembly's front room. The all-killer-no-filler set had only one grievance from me, and that was wanting more Shitstorm! Below is the chaos.

Shitstorm

Noisear

The Kill

Magrudergrind

Cripple Bastards

View the Flickr photo set here.

Withered and Krallice @ Webster Hall + Bootleg

2011-05-06T17:49:00.000-07:00

Withered and Krallice ripped through Webster Hall this past Monday on their final day of Krallice's mini tour in support of their new album Diotima, see excellency. With support of opening band Ipsissimus (not pictured) they played an insane set of new material that I thoroughly enjoyed standing atop the sinking and vibrating floor of Webster Hall thanks to the ferocity of the blast beats and kick drums Lev pulled off. The following I shot on Ilford HP5 35mm on a Canon EOS 1.

There's also a few exciting things happening at f666 in the near future, one of which is starting tonight! Firstly, I'm introducing the Bootleg series. To further my love and appreciation of the venue of live music, I'm going to record select sets on my little WAV recorder to put up on the internet for you six viewers to enjoy. I was going to have the entire Krallice set tonight, but due to some negligence that wasn't on my part, we only have the encore.

Secondly, I'm finally putting out a full color f666 zine full of photos, essays and illustrations! I'm also looking for contributors for future issues, feel free to e-mail your ideas. Look for the f666 quarterly starting June!

Thirdly, I'm putting on a show in July, stay tuned for updates on the show and the zine in the months to come.
Oh back to the photos below!

F666-01 Krallice Live @ Webster Hall Bootleg

Withered

Krallice

View the Flickr photo set here.
The second most viewed post on f666 was the Krallice show from last October, check it here.

Strong Intention, Mutilation Rites, Magrudergrind + Misery Index @ Europa

2011-05-01T10:32:00.001-07:00

Here's a show from a few months back that I never got around to posting. This was the show that Eyehategod headlined at Club Europa, I unfortunately couldn't stick around to shoot there set. These were shot on Fuji Instax and the old standard digital.

Mutilation Rites

Strong Intention

Magrudergrind

Misery Index

View the Flickr photo set here.

Psychic Limb, New Lows + Nails @ Union Pool

2011-04-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to shooting a show on film, been meaning to for awhile and Fuji's Instax has helped persuade me to go a little more analog these days. Though medium format is not to ideal for shooting shows, partially due to its size and minimal number of exposures given, I think I'm going to try and shoot a few shows in 35mm in the near future. The below were shot on Kodak Porta 800 on a Mamiya 7II (6x7) and are the results of about the 20 exposures I had.

Psychic Limb

New Lows

Nails

View the Flickr photo set here.

Mutant Supremacy Win-Tour photo dump + Tour Diary

2011-04-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

I have been pretty busy and haven't had a chance to update the ol' metal photo bloggins for awhile but I'm back and present to you the long over-due photo dump and unedited tour diary of Mutant Supremacy's Nuclear Win-Tour from January 2011. Enjoy and let me go back to listening to Incantation.

The tour started under circumstances that could be charitably called “sub-optimal”. Due to several cancelations in the first week, Wednesday Dec 12th found the six of us driving 800 miles to Tennessee in a blizzard...

Upon arriving in Nashville Thursday afternoon, we killed a few hours by visiting Jay Krupka, the proprietor of Cyclonic Guitars, who did custom work on four of my guitars and of whom I am a partial endorsee. His work shop is a modded BC Rich wet dream, overflowing with guitars that he has hot-rodded and repainted, and anyone interested in one of a kind guitars at a third the cost of a custom shop order would be well served to look him up.

The Nashville show was again, charitably put, a train wreck. We were playing in a claustrophobic and dubiously heated basement that only seemed to have one working outlet. Our gear and bodies took up approximately two thirds of the room. To save space, Winslow, ever the team player, opted to play shirtless. The other bands had played through combo amps and the sound, while not being good, was manageable. Against our half stacks, however, the sound devolved into a chaotic whirlpool of distortion, and not in a good way. While playing there were moments where I couldn’t tell if my guitar was actually making noise as I couldn’t pick it out of the noise. Three songs in Curt’s amp stopped working. After about twenty minutes of awkward diagnosis we found one of the fuses had not only blown, but exploded, leaving only broken glass shards in its housing. At that point, one of the house’s inhabitants came down stairs to inform us that it was getting late and if we managed to coax more life out of it that we really should only play one more song as the neighbors might complain. We told him that the amp wasn’t going to be back and that was all we could do. The last band played in the living room as we packed our gear and reloaded the van.

The next show was in Asheville NC. Special thanks are due to our hosts Chad and Hannah for exemplary hospitality, Hannah even baked us a cake. We had a drinks and snacks with Chad and Ben, both members of Shadow of the Destroyer, who unfortunately weren’t playing with us that night as their drummer’s other band was opening for Neurosis the next day in San Francisco. Ben made the best of the situation by drinking an entire 4 Loko during the five minute drive to the venue. He seemed lucid but there are a couple hours during the show where he was completely unaccounted for. I think the 4 Loko made him physically disassociate, losing his physical form like Sauron. Whatever they put in that shit is no joke. The owner of the Get Down’s band Blowtorch Circumcision played first, and covered Motorhead and Metallica. The second band was a pop punk band called Biggy Stardust and the Wretched Hives, and they reminded me of the Sloppy Seconds. We played to an attentive and energetic crowd, but got almost no recognition from the Death cover. Back to school, people. The last band, Megahurtz, played a thoroughly enjoyable mix of thrash and NWOBHM and also covered Metallica. Before leaving we rearranged the bar’s marquee to more properly represent what had been unleashed upon it.

Atlanta. We’d been looking forward to this show for months. We were playing at a club called the Drunken Unicorn, where our sound man Lewis used to work. He had actually called ahead to the manager Armando and arranged to mix the entire show that night, thus earning the only money he was going to make on the road with our broke asses, so props to him. The world helps those who help themselves. We had learned via the internet that Lectures on the Apocalypse also covers Zombie Ritual. A few drinks in, I cornered their singer Dan and asked if it was still part of their set. I broke it down like this: “If you want, why don’t you let us do it, and you can come sing it with us? If you don’t want to, we have backup covers but it would be cool.” “Oh really?” he answered, his interest piqued, “what are they?”. Here I made a critical error. “Slayer”. “What song?” “Altar of Sacrifice and Jesus Saves.” Dan said he’d consult the rest of his band. They, predictably, voted that they wanted to do their Death cover, and they wanted to hear us cover Slayer.

Thus it was decided. In a way it was for the best, because Georgia still exists in the dark ages and allows smoking indoors. This wreaks havoc on my throat, so having Winslow sing a couple songs in the third half of the set is a welcome break. I could write more about who played what and analyze the show in detail, but I’ll skip it because the rest of the night was much more interesting. The Unicorn is down a the block from an infamous strip club called the Claremont Lounge. Infamous as in known for it’s um, lack of age or weight restrictions on the dancers. While commendably egalitarian, it leads to an experience that lans more toward “funny” than “sexy”. Really, you just need to go there to see what I mean. The Claremont was packed but we found a corner of the bar, ordered beers and singles. After the Claremont closed we returned to the Unicorn, as we were staying with Armando and had after hours privileges. Winslow had been verging on “uh-oh” drunk since we loaded out and by three he was completely out of control. As usual, this manifested itself in the form of inarticulate screaming and physical assaults on his bandmates. At one point it took all three of us to hold him down as the other after hours patrons looked on in a mixture of confusion and horror.

Finally it was deemed that enough was enough, and we were corralled out of the bar. I emerged last, having tried in vain to get one last drink. I collided with Robert who was on his way back inside. “Um, Winsow’s head is bleeding”. Sure enough, Winslow had launched a surprise attack on Robert in the parking lot that had backfired, landing him cranium first on the pavement. The back of his head looked like a bloody sweaty rats nest. Miraculously, this did not deter him from trying to fight us, and had to be restrained from stabbing Curt with one of Armando’s kitchen knives while Lewis was holding a towel and ice over his still bleeding wound. -Sam Awry

The next morning was, as you could imagine, a son of a bitch. Broken bullet belt, missing beer coozie and a head that felt like an overripe kiwi. Had to consult some video evidence and the recollections of others (also hazy) to discover the origin of the bloody towels on the floor. Alabama and some recording was the next chunk of our southern booze and metal bender. Robert had been in touch with his pal Jamie at Sarcophagus Studios about recording a couple of tracks when and if a southern tour was to happen, and getting a chance to record with friends isn’t to be passed up. -Winslow

We journeyed through the hills of Atlanta to Auburn, Alabama arriving at Sarcophagus Studios. Home studios are quite a common thing these days. However, this one is truly unique. The architecture and design of the house is a creation of Bazaad, a professor of architecture at Auburn University. It was like a cute single peaked church exaggerated, and stretched vertically to strip it of all holiness thus making it a perfect home and studio for evil dudes and evil music. This is the home of my good friend and tour buddy Jamie Uertz, who also plays guitar in the band Hematovore. Jamie and his band mate, Rob Stewart, greeted and welcomed Los Mutantes into the studio. We got right to work, unpacking drums and guitars prepping to record some new jams that have been in the works, some for more than a year. As per our normal recording process goes, drums first, guitars, bass then vocals. It took me (Robert) a good few runs to acclimate to the environment of the room and headphones. However with the help and encouragement of Suren and the timeless inspiration from a Hustler Magazine, day 1 at Sarcophagus Studios ended 6 hours later with 4 solid drum tracks.

With all the drum tracks finished. Sam and Curt got right to work on guitars. We had a few gear hang ups but they sorted themselves out quickly and the result was killer. While Curt was tracking guitars, Sam got busy and made a generous pot of chili that everyone shared. Tasty as it was, it certainly made the rounds..... and continued rounding out the night as well as the next morning...yeeesh! I'd like to pretend that I know the songs pretty thoroughly, but when these guys start recording, the fine toothed comb definitely makes its way through every note in the songs... in death metal, that's a lot of notes. The 4 songs were rather smooth and efficient. There was some deliberation and reconfiguration to guitar solos, but that is to be expected. Remember kids, if it goes to tape it's there for life. So do it for the kids. Crushing tones, shredding solos, and ripping farts ended day 2 of recording. I made a fish dinner and we drank ourselves to sleep.

Chocolate peanut butter with apples.

Guitars finalized, Drums tracked, time for bass and vocals. Winslow's time to shine. By "shine" I mean to assault your ears with a ultra violent bass tone coming from his killer '83 mockingbird, early 70's V-4 and maniacal playing. He was the brightest bulb on the block that day. We know this because the neighbors confirmed it. HA! Winslow blazed through the tracks like he normally does. Probably due largely in part to the fact that we had all just spent the past 2 days combing of over the songs so meticulously. All of which is good thing, because in the studio, proficiency is king. We ended day 3 with a trip to Jamie's tattoo appointment to meet his awesome tattoo artist that goes by the name of KANAN (pro: Kaa- nan). It's a well earned title, seeing how this guy is over 6'2" built like a shit brick house and actually owns a SHARPENED replica of the 11lb sword used in Conan the Barbarian. That's not all he owns either.... he gave us a tour of the shop, showing us the hidden doors he built into the shop and the methods they are used for in the event of a full on zombie attack. He also showed us his replica masks of Mike Meyers (Halloween), Darth Vader, and a Tuskin Raider. Finally, he dug into the attic of the shop and lowered a real life BABY COFFIN onto the shop floor! Kanan asked us to sign the coffin, So we did! It was awesome, we drew crude images of dead babies, tombstones and weapons. What great end to a day of recording.

Day 4 was quick, just track some vocals and finish before the neighbors call and report a torture scene! Ha! Jamie constructed a simple make shift iso-booth for vocals... we properly accessorized it with the best photos of the Huslter's amateur section, one of which a rather obese woman had scribbled "slut for black cock" across her naked vagina. Oh the limitless inspiration that smut can provide. With vocals as finished as they could get and the cops still not outside, we concluded our recording session at Sarcophagus Studios with Jamie Uertz. The rough mixes sound killer! I cant wait to hear the final versions, especially once they are released on splits with some of our favorite other bands. Far out man, far fuckin' out. -Robert Nelson

Savannah... didn’t pull much expectation from me personally. We were booked at a punk house called PonyPen somewhere residential in or around Savannah (I’d have more of an idea about it, but a lot of the south looks the same to me). It’s always funny in an unfamiliar city playing “find the venue by looking for metal dudes”. The house was visually similar to most punk houses I’ve ever seen: wrecked and graffitied couch on the porch, random bits of signage from stores and municipal buildings, clever shit on the walls and a rescue pitbull.

Our hosts, Andy and XXXXXX were quite gracious in their offer to set us up with air-mattresses and floor-space for the night, so a convenience store excursion was in order. Sam settled for a $7 bottle of sake instead of the usual shite beer routine, and he came out of it satisfied enough that when the final third of the bottle was knocked over and spilt, he crawled back to the gas station and grabbed another. We got our gear moved inside and against the walls since we were playing at the last of the three band show. Savannah knows how to appreciate some live music, or at least this particular crew of folks. The house was about as packed as could be without stacking people on the shoulders of others. Luckily for all of us, the police kept themselves busy elsewhere that night as our amps made quite a storm of sound in the otherwise quiet neighborhood. Eventually people were climbing on each others heads for lack of stage to dive from. It was a truly pleasant surprise to see such enthusiasm for death metal in a punk setting. Miraculously, nobody stepped on our pedals or knocked anything unplugged in the whirlwind mosh that was cooked up. I borrowed a Bass Muff pedal from one of the residents who was in the first band, and it sounded fucking fierce through my old Ampeg. Four Loko felt fucking fierce in my guts as its lemony poison took hold. When the smoke cleared, pizza appeared and we’d sold a good amount of records patches and shirts. Thank you Savannah! Perhaps we’d break even this tour, hehe. -Winslow

Okay so I'm not much of a writer, so I'll sum up the rest of the debauchery because the Mutante Supremidado dudes left the last few days for me. Here you go in a nutshell... Raleigh was invaded by Richmond's Cannabis Corpse (which started the last few string of dates with them) and Inter-Arma. In Richmond we stayed with the Parasytic dudes (Erik, Nick, Ethan..) and Mutant Supremacy, Cannabis Corpse and Short Bus Pile Up played a killer sold out show at Strange Matter. Fast forward, Philly included some blaspheming at a loft/house show with a couple of religious text books we found in hotel rooms around the country. And then back home to Brooklyn for the home show. All in all, it was a ridiculously fun tour and I can say I've never been with a group of people that fart as much as Mutant Supremacy. -Suren

Raleigh, Inter-Arma and Cannabis Corpse

Richmond

Philly

View the Flickr photo set here.
Stay tuned I've got a few shows to post that I've been too busy to post, they include Magrudergrind, Nails, Misery Index and Strong Intention.

Natur, Cauldron + Volture @ Union Pool

2011-01-31T21:15:00.000-08:00

Brooklyn's Natur opened up this night of old school heavy metal at Union Pool on a surprisingly crowded Sunday night. These dudes have been getting a lot of buzz around town lately but my cash unfortunately went towards five-dollar-two-fers-of-pee-ber instead of their 7 inch which I'll surely pick up soon. Cauldron, looking like british rock star punks from up north played joining Richmond's Volture, who headlined. Photos of the set below and after the jump.

Natur

Cauldron

Volture

View the Flickr photo set here.
As seen on Brooklyn Vegan

Daily Wintouroid + Mutant Supremacy Nuclear Win-Tour Flyer

2011-01-14T08:58:00.000-08:00

Mutant Supremacy's Nuclear Win-Tour is now in full swing, flyer below. Check here daily for the "Wintouroid" instant polaroid of the night.

Nuclear Win-Tour is wrapped! Digital tour dump of the photos will be up soon.

01/23/11 - Brooklyn, NY, Union Pool Last day of tour.

01/23/11 - Brooklyn, NY, Union Pool Last day of tour.

01/22/11 - Philadelphia, PA, Hong Kong Garden

01/21/11 - Richmond, VA, Strange Matter

01/20/11 - Raleigh, NC, King's Barcade

01/19/11 - Savannah, GA The Pony Pen

01/18/11 - Auburn, AL ...last day of recording vokills

01/17/11 - Auburn, AL still recording...

01/16/11 - Auburn, AL Recording new material for splits

01/15/11 - Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta, GA

01/14/11 - The Get Down, Asheville, NC

01/13/11 - The Green Womb, Nashville, TN

Deathammer + Mutant Supremacy @ Charm City Arts Space, Baltimore

2011-01-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

Mutant Supremacy is hitting the road next week on a short east coast tour dubbed the 'Nuclear Win-Tour'. This was a little one off show in Baltimore with Deathammer, Revolta and Daisycvtter before the road. I'll be doing a daily photo upload with a 'Win-Touroid" instant polaroid for you nerds trolling the site. Find Mutant Supremacy on the road with myself and say hello, maybe buy some merch and pick up an f666 sticker for your skateboard. Full dates after the jump, in which the last string of dates include Cannabis Corpse.

Deathammer

Mutant Supremacy

Nuclear Win-Tour 2011
January 9 - Baltimore, MD @ Charm City Arts Space
January 13 - Nashville, TN
January 14 - West Asheville, NC
January 15 - Atlanta, GA
January 19- Savannah, GA
January 20 - Raleigh, NC
January 21 - Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter
January 22 - Philadelphia, PA
January 23 - Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool

View the Flickr photo set here.

Mortician + Incantation @ Europa

2010-12-15T22:02:00.000-08:00

What a messy turn out. I'm sure you read all about it, but if you didn't read Sunyata's review of the show here. Photos below and after the jump. If you haven't seen the new video section, check up above in the menu bar!

Mortician

Incantation

View the Flickr photo set here.
View the BrooklynVegan write up here.

Dying Fetus + Cannibal Corpse @ Santos Party House

2010-11-21T14:04:00.000-08:00

The security guard inquired about the band that was making all the kids go nuts because he hadn't seen such a thing before. "Cannibal Corpse, come on dude, they're rad aren't they?!" He agreed it was definitely an experience and in fact, I even caught him bobbing his head to Hammer Smashed Face. Death metal veterans Cannibal Corpse came through town this time around with Dying Fetus, Vital Remains and Devourment. They ripped up Santos Party House which actually seemed like an appropriate venue considering It had the space and no railing, so crowd surfing was optimal. It was like a scene straight out of Ace Ventura. I managed to only capture Dying Fetus and Cannibal Corpse though but the results are lots of stills, instant photos and even a video all below and after the jump! Enjoy.

Dying Fetus

Cannibal Corpse

Thrash and Destroy!

Larger resolution and Flickr goodness is available at the photo set here.

Castevet, Mutant Supremacy + Cannabis Corpse @ Bowery Electric

2010-10-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

This was my first time at the Bowery Electric and I must say it wasn't too bad, a decent amount of people for the space and the show didn't end up being too crowded. Fifteen dollars this time around got you five bands. The space didn't have much a stage which is perfectly fine, it was reminiscent of a good old floor show. Nonetheless this was my third time seeing and first time photographing Cannabis Corpse (shot some in the bud suit!) and a millionth time seeing/photographing my dudes Mutant Supremacy. Photos below of the entire set, snapped a few of Respawn The Ancients followed by Castevet. (video to be up tomorrow!)

Respawn The Ancients

The vokiller had a monster of a voice.

Castevet

NYBM!!

Mutant Supremacy

Cannabis Corpse

Larger resolution and Flickr goodness is available at the photo set here.
As seen on Brooklyn Vegan

Bonded By Blood, Evile + Early Man @ Europa

2010-10-11T20:27:00.000-07:00

Club Europa in Greenpoint, Brooklyn hosted an evening of thrash that featured Elks, Bonded by Blood, Evile and Early Man ...and probably a night of shitty disco downstairs. Big thanks to Earache, photos below and after the jump.

Bonded by Blood

Evile

Early Man

View the Flickr photo set here.

Concussion, Infernal Stronghold + Krallice @ Shea Stadium

2010-10-10T12:17:00.001-07:00

Shea Stadium is officially my new favorite venue. Eight dollars bought you a night of three amazing local acts (Philly is local!) that included Brooklyn's Concussion and Krallice and Philly's Infernal Stronghold, who have been on repeat on my iPod for the past two months. Photos are below and more after the jump. Be sure to download Concussion's Dried Blood EP for free here.

Concussion

Infernal Stronghold

Krallice

View the Flickr photo set here.

Wormrot @ Party Expo

2010-10-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

Wormrot played Party Expo tonight. Third and last day in New York City, almost thought I'd miss this one. They played with Mutilation Rites, DeMilitia (who passed along a demo to me, and deserve a shout out because of this. So check them out) and Alekhine's Gun. I managed to only catch Mutilation Rites and Wormrot's set. More photos after the jump, Krallice + Infernal Stronghold tomorrow night!

Wormrot

View the Flickr photo set here.

Atakke, Defeatist, Magrudergrind + Fuck The Facts @ Cake Shop

2010-08-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

The last time I recall so much body banging and head banging was at the Cannibal Corpse show a few months back at the Crazy Donkey. Nonetheless, the grind overcame at the Cake Shop last night as it smelled like a can of dude-spray. The crowd was just overflowing onto the "stage" of the tiny venue as references from The Big Lebowski ensued. So I'm suddenly in the mood for a bag of milk, so check the photos below and after the jump. Video from Magrudergrind should be up later. And be patient while I figure out how to get good audio out of my photo camera, oxymoronic, I know.

Attake

Defeatist

Magrudergrind

Fuck The Facts

Magrudergrind @ The Cake Shop from f666 on Vimeo.

View the Flickr photo set here.

Disma, Arsis + Immolation @ Webster Hall

2010-07-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

Disma, Arsis and Immolation played The Studio at Webster Hall last night, pics below and video later today. All black button ups the new fashion trend in metal? Anyway, more shit after the jump.

Disma

Arsis

Immolation

Arsis - Face of My Innocence @ Webster Hall from f666 on Vimeo.

Immolation @ Webster Hall from f666 on Vimeo.

Misery Index @ Generation Records

2010-06-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

Misery Index played a free show tonight at Generation Records, call it unplugged with triggers and distortion. It was like watching band practice, the dudes played old shit and the sober crowd followed. Photos below, and videos should be up tomorrow. Big thanks to Generation Records for being rad.

Misery Index @ Generation Records from f666 on Vimeo.

View the Flickr photo set here.

Mutant Supremacy, Nekromantheon, Unearthly Trance + Obliteration @ Fontana's Tones of Death

2010-06-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Asahi was gone in seconds after Tones of Death hosted another free night of metal and beer at Fontana's last Thursday. Mutant Supremacy, Nekromantheon, Unearthly Trance and Obliteration played the post-MDF show madness. Check the photos below, and videos after the jump.

Mutant Supremacy

Nekromantheon (Norway)

Unearthly Trance

Obliteration (Norway)

Mutant Supremay - Epitaph from f666 on Vimeo.

View the Flickr photo set here.

Mutant Supremacy + Cannabis Corpse @ Party Expo

2010-05-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

Party Expo, a new rad venue located under the tracks of the J, M and Z train, in a torn up building, hosted a few bands last night that included - at least what I caught to be, Street Pizza, Mutant Supremacy and Cannabis Corpse. The venue, is well what anyone can ask for, a floor and a band and beers flying. Didn't have my camera this time around, but luckily Nicolonoscopy snapped a few of these for us. ...And a few more after the jump.

Mutant Supremacy

Cannabis Corpse

Atakke, Toxic Holocaust + Municipal Waste @ Knitting Factory

2010-04-22T23:08:00.001-07:00

Atakke, Toxic Holocaust and Municipal Waste threw a party at the Knitting Factory tonight in Brooklyn. More photos and videos after the jump.

Attake

Toxic Holocaust

Municipal Waste

Sadistic Magician - Municipal Waste @ the Knitting Factory 04/22/2010 from f666 on Vimeo.

Mind Eraser - Municipal Waste @ the Knitting Factory 04/22/2010 from f666 on Vimeo.

View the Flickr photo set here.

Municipal Waste @ Gramercy Theater, Waste The World Tour

2009-12-10T10:21:00.000-08:00

These shitty cell phone pics are a result of some kind of discrepancy in the photo pass list, or maybe the guy working the booth who barely checked the list. With my bagged checked in, I only had my phone and only had the opportunity to "photograph" Municipal Waste. Brutal Truth and Municipal Waste threw a party, beers were flying and roadies were stage diving. These photos don't do it any justice though. More photos after the jump.

View the Flickr photo set here.

Mayhem+Cephalic Carnage @ Irving Plaza, Blackenedfest Tour

2009-10-03T21:54:00.000-07:00

Shot in July at the first stop of the Blackenedfest tour at Irving Plaza in New York City.
Mayhem headlined with support from Cephalic Carnage, Withered and Lair of The Minotaur.
Marduk unfortunately didn't show up.

Lair of The Minotaur

Withered

Cephalic Carnage

Marduk

Mayhem

View the Flickr photo set here.

f666 :: the most brutal aperture

2009-09-30T19:05:00.001-07:00

live metal photography shot at the most brutal aperture.