Mayhemfest 2012

 My review for The Rockstar Energy Mayhemfest is up and ready to be read!

I made this show my 10 year old sons 1st festival. Find out 

why inside!

 

http://www.metaldistro.com/blogs/metal-army/6460694-live-review-rockstar-energy-drink-mayhem-festival

Ephel Duath-

The review I did for the new EPHEL DUATH EP is out The New Metal Army site!

  If your a fan of Crisis then you'll love this!

http://www.metaldistro.com/blogs/metal-army/6427630-album-review-ephel-duath-ep

BENT SEA - NOSTALGIA

This is a review I wrote a few months ago for Metal Army America. I dig this album a lot and think it deserves to be heard. So here it is! 

With drums & guitars done in Clevland Oh, bass in Vancover and vocals laid down in Tel Aviv, this is truly an international album! It's grindcore at its best, clocking in at 17 minutes it gets to the point on every song. Dirk Verbeuren (SOILWORK) is doing double duty with the guitar, it shows he's more then just a drummer. He wrote the damned album! Devin Townsend (DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT) laid down some solid bass lines & Sven De Caluwe (ABORTED,SYSTEMS DIVIDE) well, does what Sven does!

The booklet has one sentence intros to each song, just so your not mislead by anything. From songs about blast beats, Blast Beat Barrage and technological advances, Digital Disaster, your also treated to all the social commentary you'd expect with grind since this is just one big ole love letter. It basically says that in the Nostalgia title track. “An homage to grindcore and noise” As fun as short songs are I do wish the song “In One Word” was longer, I would've loved to hear what other band names they could toss in there. I think it's because of the basslines, “Sustained Idiocy” just makes me want to punch something. Dirk's SOILWORK bandmate Sylvain Coudret, comes in and throws a solo in your face on “Dead Meat”. Fool for Life is the longest track (4:06) and gives the album some added weight. It ends with a lovely rendition of “ Bullshit Propaganda” in honor of the mighty EXTREME NOISE TERROR.

They manage to cram this album full of greatness in a short amount of time. Not sure if throw back is the right description for this but this does make ya remember the early days of grind. (Only with better production. Thank you Devy!) With Nostalgia, BENT SEA came, saw and kicked ass. Not only did I like it, I bought it.

OJayy- B+

Find it here, bentsea 

Album of the month: January! BIOHAZARD

With all these new albums coming out every month its not fair to pick favorites too early. I also don't want to wait to the almost mandatory end of year list. So after an albums been out for a few months, I've decided to let my playlist counter speak the truth on what I really enjoy listening to that month.

As the new year began there was only ONE album was coming out that I was super stoked to hear. (Sorry LAMB OF GOD & ABORTED, you were #2 &3) BIOHAZARD-Reborn In Defiance. I'm a DFL fan for sure. I have all their previous releases, that's right,  ALL of them! I dug all the post Bobby albums. New World Disorder is my favorite Bobby-less album. This record just kicks you right in the teeth after the heart beat intro & it doesn't let up till its over. Favorite tracks so far: "Vengeance is Mine", "Decay" & "Skull Crusher".


They sound fresh young hungry and pissed off.  Bassist/ vocals Evan Seinfeld & rhythm guitarist/vocals Billy (Graziadei) sound like beasts out for blood. Drummer, Danny Schuler's just a powerhouse of intensity while Bobby Hambel makes you wish all hardcore bands had guitar solos. This is a very FULL sounding production. It's metal enough for the metal heads and hardcore enough for, well...the hardcore heads. 




I was very lucky I was able to see the last NYC show with the original lineup. I've seen them with all the previous guitar players and never have I seen sooo much energy from them. Yeah, Billy always ran around, but now with Bobby, if you blink they've switched sides or doing something like hanging upside down from the stage. These guys enjoy what they do you can hear & see it clearly.



Sadly Evan bowed out of the band before the release of Reborn..., but thankfully former lead guitarist Scott (Means To An End record) Roberts stepped up to the challenge and hit it out of the park live. I know it must not be an easy thing going from guitar to bass. But his attitude and skills make it seem natural.He's got some pretty nice foot work too!

If you weren't a fan before, this probably won't change your mind. However, if you were a fan who fell off on them , this will make you go 'what the hell have I been missing!?'

Circus Folk!

     We're not carnies! There's a difference! We yelled In unison and without pause when one of my supervisors on my last job called me & my other coworker Carnies, (he used to work at the circus too)

      For over 2 yrs I ran away and joined a circus. I got to travel most of the east coast from new Hampshire to Georgia. I was part of the ring crew aka stage hand dept. We handled all the rigging, staging, ring and dressing room set ups. in addition to preforming through out the course of the show as needed.

     Most of the time it was like college or how I envisioned college life would be. a lot hanging out, watching people drink & whatever else. When It's not all party, party, party, There's a lot of work to be done before the playing can begin. The great separator, the dreaded load out/load in! A combined 4 days (2 days each) of tearing down everything, packing it up and setting It all back up in a new locale the exact same way. That's where you'd see people come and go the most. Some people just can't handle the physicality of it and working in all kinds of weather.  you'd hear "place your bets to see how long a newbie would last." It's not as bad as it sounds, when it's all set up all your done. your on your time until its showtime. when it's open you work roughly 2 3hr shifts a day. So big deal you have to bust your ass for a little while. It's fun watching things build up from nothing and watching things disappear to the way you found it.

      One of the most "controversial" parts of the whole circus, is animals. Let me just say I dont own any pets and never plan on it. I'm Allergic to most and don't have the urge to grow a tolerance, its not worth it to me. (Thankfully its mostly an open air environment so my asthma was fine.) I've worked with Horse & Dog acts ONLY, So I'm speaking about my experience with those animals only.

     I've seen these animals treated great. Better then the human performers even. Not once did I see anything questionable and I worked directly with all the performers. The "trick training" is quite simple. tedious but simple once you've gained their trust. You walk the dog/horse Through the trick a few times, give them a treat when they do it right.  IT's really no different then teaching your own dog to roll over, sit or beg. The only difference I see is the level of eyes on you. If these acts were done in a back yard or a farm, it'd be fine. but because the Human involved is probably wearing a colorful outfit under some spotlights. The trainers I've worked with we're excellent. Some people like animal tricks some don't. It's just a matter of preference.


     For me the best part of being there was meeting people from all over the world. its pretty cool to meet someone who can speak 5 languages to my 1. makes ya feel a little lazy. experiencing different work ethics, skills and foods were some of the other bonuses. It helped show me how big this world really was, having international friends really opened my eyes to the world.

     I guess once your in your always in. If you have the time head over to netflix or pbs.org type in Circus. Check out the awesome documentary I was part of.

I'm a Black guy into metal!

Here's a rough view into my life after metal joined my world.

Phil 98?

    I've been this way since I was 12. Ever since my cousin and I saw bill & teds excellent adventure. We loved that movie, then on day we saw the trailer for the bogus journey. We saw it the day it came out. For the next 2 wks you would of thought our Queens NY asses were from San Dimas. He went back to listening to rap after that, i stayed there. I wanted more B&T stuff I devoured everything I could. The comic, the playing cards & the sound track. The cassette tape changed my life. Up till then all I listened to was my moms Motown records and movie tv scores. Then vh1 came around and found the Monkees and Aerosmith.

Chino '99

       That sdtk had everything! Megadeth, Faith No More, Primus, Kings X, Kiss, etc.. They had the lyrics to every song. So I was able to follow along regardless of the vocals. Megadeth go to hell was my 1st metal song. I was hooked! All I knew was Megadeth till High School. In Jr h.s. I had no one to talk metal with. Then I met the metal kids at h.s. was shown more metal.

The Man, Alex WInter! '09 

       All the metal kids I met were not all white, we were a bunch of everything. It was a total acceptance, a family like bond I never felt before. Nobody cared what I looked like.  No ones birth background was an issue. 'You like metal? Cool me too! I like so n so'  Then when I was 15, I Started playing drums. I Played with Biohazard, Hatebreed, Skinlab, Mortician and tons of others. I also met some of my best friends through music.

Ice T '04

       My mom was fine with me listening to metal, I was a pretty good kid stayed outta the trouble. Only my cousins and their friends ever gave me grief for my musical choices. As they got older the got used to it and even came a a few shows i did.

Dave Ghrol, 95

     The way I looked at it is you hear music before you see it. Doesn't matter what the artist looks like if their Musics good that's all that matters. Now 'Back in my day" I was one of the few  black people at shows, nowadays its such a mash up of people at shows. Its a none issue; Its a great thing.  My experience in metal has been pretty awesome. 

Words, words, words & more words

   As promised here's the 1st 3 lettering samples I've done since I finished my comic. I found these samples on digital webbings forum for lettering.

Blacklight # 1 (Image) Pg 10 

written by Scott Wherle, Art by John Toledo

Victoria's Secret Service # 0 

Written by Nick Lyons & Art by Sean Lee

                    The Worlds of Dungeons and Dragons

                       Not sure who worked on this.
     What I'm attempting to do is get the positioning and placements down good before I start working on FX and the all mighty cover logos. Its just the start, crawl before I walk...

Slash Jacking! Tales of the Jack O Slasher!

     So last september I was approached by my one my friends from high school. Aardvark, Host of "The all new Brain eaters show" on nyc public access. about starring in her horror / comedy movie, Jack O Slasher. I jumped at it! Why the hell not!?

     We filmed it in Oct-Nov. in long island at F & A Schmitts farm in Melville. It was low budget goodness. Long days & nights and pretty chilly. Not only did I get to star as the killer, I was able to be part of the crew. It was my film making dream come true. From lighting to boom operator to story boards to camera man I did it all, and everything in between.

    A lot of good things came  of this random call. Made some new friends and got the catalyst to move forward again with my short from earlier. (More on that later...)

     Like our facebook page for more updates! Jack-O-Slasher

     As far as when it'll be released, I'm not sure yet. It's all in post production now. I'm excited to see what the future holds with this!

     So here's the teaser trailer from the 1st nights shoot.

That's it for now, Go hard or go home!
Ojayy

Busy body!?

   So, it's been a very hectic few months! I moved, filmed a starring role in a horror movie, worked for a lighting company & finally finished my comic short.  Now that I'm all settled I'll be doin more posts about all the different adventures of me!

   1st up is my comic short, it's being published as part of the 2nd 11 O'Clock comics podcast forums anthology. Drawn by the awesome Mr. Jay Odjick (http://jayodjick.deviantart.com/) and lettered by yours truly. Jay did a great job, I couldn't be happier with the way it came out. He's easy to work with and has great communication. He helped guide my rookie lettering to be a strong as possible. Thank you so much Jay!

   The 11 O'Clock comics podcast anthology is making its debut at the c2e2 show in Chicago in April on the 13th. You can preorder & donate to the cause here eocanthology and see previews from most of the other artists at 11 O' Clock Comics.

   Here's the 1st page of my story lettered and tweaked up!

 

That's it for now, Go hard or go home!
Ojayy