KISW STORMHARBOR
Zeke comes strutting out in peak element. With hometown advantage, ZEKE tears the roof off
with their revamped Motorhead goes Discharge speed-rock stamp that is as unique as it is
devastating. The only other time I’d seen them is opening for Superjoint Ritual at Harpo’s
Detroit. Then they looked petrified of the audience (for good reason). Tonight they are white hot
and stab a crushing blow that’s so pulverizing the walls are shaking.
They filter off and one of the chick band chicks nabs my sleeve and starts tugging me
down the street: “Come on, we’re going to the studio.” We pass homebum and I just shrug, but he
checks out the five girls I’m with, smiles, and gives the big thumbs up. We walk another two
blocks to a corporate high-rise. When they said “studio,” I figured a rehearsal space -- not KISW,
the biggest rock station in Seattle.
We zoom up the elevators, all of us wobbling drunk, and next you know we’re in the
sound booth of DJ Steve Rock, being interviewed live. I keep leaning into the mic speaking
hushed subliminal messages which no one notices beneath their loud, hammered responses:
“GhostNomad owns your soul, live for Satan, kill for Gandhi...”
The mob of rock n’ roll honeys moves into the corridor, and I explain my ordeal to Steve
Rock, who is amazed by the ferocity of this project. He’s a big metalhead, very friendly, and
demands I fill my backpack up with energy drinks from the stations freezer: “KISW, the rock of
Seattle for 35 years. My name is Steve Rock, I’m on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Friday night I do
‘The Grindhouse,’ which is pretty much our main Nirvana/Metallica type deal, but I end up doing
a bunch of DIO, Maiden, Pantera. Saturday nights is ‘Metal Shop’ from 11pm-2am. I program
the three hours going from Red Chord to Suffocation to Iced Earth and Symphony X. Metal, all
kinds.”
“Tell me about Seattle.”
Steve Rock: “Seattle is probably my favorite city in the nation, there are hardly any cons.
It’s hard to get anywhere once you have something like grunge hit your city. What can you do
after that? So it looks like nothing, but honestly I see more bands rising up. We do have our fair
share of metal. There’s still a lot of bands keeping it rock.”
“A lot of major radio stations have a play list. What’s the ratio of unadulterated airplay
and what do you spin when it occurs?”
“There are a few really large companies in America running the show. I’m pretty stoked
that this is an Intercom company and not Clear Channel. Those guys are pretty much governed by
one book. My boss who’s brought this station to number one in ratings, he used to run Q101 in
Chicago. He gives more leeway than other people do. It’s for the good of the people how we have
it programmed – old song, new song, middle song. From grunge to metal to somewhere in the
middle. I’ve gone way off the map on a few occasions and all he’ll do is raise an eyebrow. On
Saturday nights I get my three hours to do literally everything I want. I’ll do NASUM into
Hatebreed into Killers.”
“What are some bands in particular that you’re pushing?”
“I like bands that keep it fresh and push technicality. The Red Chord, I love those guys.
Gunface, The Faceless, Napalm Death, Sepultura, Carcass… I’m an advocate for music in every
sense. I believe there’s good in every genre and never judge a band before you see them live. It’s
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good to know there’s more melding of subgenres with 16 year old guitarists playing far more
advanced than any of us ever will.”
“What needs to change about major radio?”
“The FCC. Like the people who are rating movies -- it’s just a tiny speck of sand in the
ocean trying to command the entire ocean, and that’s ridiculous.”
“What would you say to the younger kids who have an aspiration of going into radio?”
“Either love it or don’t do it. Without having completely dropped all and just focused on
this I wouldn’t have gotten this far. Radio is pretty harsh to anyone who doesn’t want to give it
200%.”
“What’s just a bizarre story you have?”
“My friends don’t see me as much these days. When I tell them a story like Phil Anselmo
asked to see me after the last DOWN show and played me all his new side projects on his
IPOD… That’s the hugest deal to me. My friends are like ‘yeah, yeah, you’re Steve Rock, big
whoop.’ So no one gets excited with me anymore. I’m like ‘I hung out with Slash!’ They’re like
‘Yeah. Cool.’ As far as unbelievable feats, I ate 9 Arby’s sandwiches in a row. I’m pretty proud of
that.”
“Did you shit blood?”
“No, just Arby’s. For a long, long time…”
As I’m hustling to give my number to the gals the elevator door closes shut. One of them just
winks and waves goodbye, the slip of paper still in my palm. Stranded again…
Two of the other station guys grab me, flash this bag of purple and orange kryptonite, and
we head up to the roof. One of the two is Pat Fry, guitarist of a local death metal act christened
Churchburner. He’s this big dude with long blonde hair and a scruffy beard that reminds me so
much of Dusty from Severed Savior. He exhales a toke and says, “Man, if you dig this shit, your
mind is gonna be totally blown on Sunday.”
“What’s going on?” I ask, naïve as a Sunday lamb.
“Fuck, you’re kidding me. I thought that’s why’d you be here in the first place. You just
happened to show up randomly when the biggest free pot festival in the world is going on. It
happens every year, it’s called The Seattle Hempfest. There are like 100,000 stoners who show up
from all over the world. Everyone s just tossing around pot like its rice at a wedding. They got
two stages of bands, all these speakers. Woody Harrelson was there last year, and he was so
stoned he could barely perform his speech. He kept fucking up and laughing, he was so fucking
beyond baked dude. And this year Ed Rosenthal is gonna be there. He’s like the biggest grower of
pot in North America...”
From on top of the high-rise you can see all of Seattle stretched below. It is magical beyond
description. This is all too perfect. Barely here 12 hours and I’ve left such a corrosive dent that
the ball will keep rolling unrelentingly for the next 11 days.
Rolling in Pat’s truck scoping a park to sleep in, he gives a confused look and says: ‘Do
you just wanna crash at my house? “Sure. Great.” “Why didn’t you just ask?” “’Cause that’s not
how I roll. I’m like a vampire -- you gotta invite me in…”
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A NIHILIST AND A NIHLISTIK TERRORIST, NO CONNECTION
Oh MySpace, you clever little devil. One quick peruse at the Seattle Public Library and the last-
ditch email campaign worked elite. I now possess the cell numbers to over 40 local bands, and
Steve Rock will also be promoting me on air, telling people what I look like and that I’ll be
lurking in the shadows.
First up is an Iraq vet named Draygen from a black/death metal band called Nihilistik
Terrorist. He’s security at Hempfest this year, and has pledged to get me backstage access. We
shoot the breeze as he gives me a lift to The Funhouse, which I have declared as my official bum
post for the week: “The demo I’m working on now, the majority of the songs are 7-9 minutes
long. The song names are ‘Dethrone The False Messiah,’ ‘Hierarchy Of Heretics,’ ‘Preaching
Nihilistik Terror’ and ‘Systematic Annihilation.’”
“The lyrics revolve around atheism, nihilism, terrorism, war. Not necessarily satanic,
maybe more an atheist point of view. I just recruited the drummer from Morbidism. The stuff that
generally influenced me is Excommunion, Angel Corpse, Destroyer 666 -- the more cult
underground. I got here about 2002 from LA to see what death metal was available, started
getting into black metal. Not much of a scene here for that… I did some time in the army, went to
Iraq in 2004.”
“Were you the clean up crew?”
Draygen: “The beginning crew… Overseas I started getting into booking and promoting
bands all through my computer – Infernal Legion, Drawn And Quartered, Winds Of Pestilence,
Unsanctified, Intestinal Strangulation. I think the biggest con in Seattle are the ego trips and the
whole rock star attitude that kills the possibly great bands.”
“What do you do for work?”
“The army gave me an opportunity to come up here. I work as a DOD contractor. My
actual job term is ‘Mutilation Specialist.’ A lot of people are jealous when they hear that.
Basically I go to different scrap yards, look at scrap metal and decide if its mutilated to DOD
standards. Stand around with my arms crossed, look and say ‘Yep… It’s mutilated.’”
“Is the nu metal thing completely dead out here?”
“The nu-metal wave is dead as far as your Korn and Slipknot type bands. The younger
kids are just going to feed into what’s popular. Piss on the commercial scene, they don’t need our
help. The radio friendly bands don’t need our help, the people trying to make an easy buck out
here, all those local metalcore bands -- piss on them. They don’t give a shit about people”
“Do you want to comment on the Iraq thing? Do you think it’s a hopeless situation?”
“I can go on forever… To some extent you might find it hopeless, but it’s a lot of
democrats trying to screw it up for everybody. America’s the type of country that doesn’t like
losing and that’s where it could be heading if they get their way. For the year that I’d been out
there – a year of hell obviously – there’s a lot of shit that you go through. You come back, you’re
changed. All you can do is hope it doesn’t come back and bite you in the ass.”
“Do you think that if they do get a government stabilized it will last? Do the people
there actually want what we’re trying to do, or do you think it’s headed for civil war?”
“I think the government might have a chance, but until the Sunni’s and Shiites get their
shit organized, I don’t think its gonna happen. It could wind up like Israel and Palestine where
they’re just fighting each other for decades so long as you’ve got al Sadr, supposedly al Qaeda.
And Bush probably won’t leave until he gets all the oil he wants, but that’ll never happen.”
“I heard they haven’t even been able to get the pipelines up for more than eight hours,
because militants keep blowing them up every time they look away.”
“The main line is out in Basra, so they’re just gonna keep on blowing it up…”
11pm at El Corazon, second day of the Tattoo series. I’ve been hanging out with Nihilist, the
singer from In Memorium, who looks like a death metal Steve Buscemi. We pull tokes off his
mock-cigarette one-hitter under that same viaduct, but homebum is nowhere to be found.
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Nihilist is a minor legend in extreme metal folklore. Every band he’s ever been in you
will find burned amongst the CD collections of die-hards – Abazagorath, Lordgore, Hatefuckers,
Engorged, Wraithen, and Stahlmantel, which is a side project of the main guy in Bethlehem,
whom you all know I am a big fan of.
In Memorium are on the roster of the premier US black metal label Moribund Records,
who have the elite graphic design/satanic propaganda attack hype-machine market cornered.
Moribund is the undisputable king of the flavor-of-the-month BM club, packaged so ingeniously
it’s irresistible, and In Memorium’s stock has steadily been rising alongside label mates
Leviathan, Xasthur, Azaghal, Hacavitz, Azrael, etc...
Nihilist is slapping on the corpse-paint and fixing his shredded, blood-caked white dress
shit while the head of El Corazon’s security keeps eyeballing me. “What’s up?” I ask. Hey looks
me over again, squinting: “You look so fucking familiar…” Same on my part, which is strange,
because I feel like I’ve known this guy forever.
Turns out to be Johnny Pettibone, the vocalist of HIMSA, which are one of the major
metalcore pigeon-holed bands today. They recently toured with Danzig, Behemoth, Chiamara and
Mortiis on the Misfits reunion circuit, been getting airplay on MTV, and have been on the road 4
years.
This is the first show they’ve done since declaring hiatus a year ago, and it is THE
moment for them. Their first major record is about to be released by Century Media, and soon
they will be off to Europe for a six-week tour with As I Lay Dying, Darkest Hour & Maroon…
HIMSA
Johnny Pettibone: “I grew up outside Seattle in a small logging community, about 40 minutes
away. We were all in hardcore bands in the 90’s and we always played together… The great thing
about Seattle hardcore is we never pigeonholed ourselves with that, we always loved metal too.
The band actually started in 1997 out of the ashes of a hardcore band called TRIAL. It was all
completely different members, the only original left is Derrick the bass player. I came in 2000
after moving from New York. I was working for Sick Of It All, I was a guitar tech.
“How’d you land that gig?”
“Again, just Seattle hardcore. Them coming through here, becoming friends, my old band
playing with them. My old drummer went to New York before I did and said they needed
someone to work cheap, string guitars on the road. I’d always looked up to those guys so…”
“Tell me about the new album.”
“It’s called Summon In Thunder, it’s our first for Century Media. We didn’t think we’d
make it this far, our third record being accepted by a label like that. They took us on at a really
good point. The new record is about inspiration, being where I am today, living in this city.