Starting off here with a theme I used way back when, running out of things to say I guess. Can’t really get enough of gored matadors though and this one satisfies me on so many levels. The gored matador level, the man vs. nature level, and of course the plain ole blood and gore level (you just couldn’t duplicate this without CGI). See the horn sticking out of this gentleman’s mouth. I wonder if the bull still gets butchered when he is the obvious winner? I’m sure he does. You know, I eat meat, after 15 years of being a vegetarian, so maybe I’m not better than a matador or the people who follow the “sport”, but damn that shit is a throw back to the days of slaughter in the Colosseum. Funny too how brave the matador is made out to be, with a bull that has been tortured, speared and left exhausted before the matador even hits the scene. At least the bullriders in American rodeos (haven’t made up my mind on those yet) have to ride a bull that’s fresh and raring to go. I don’t know, perhaps it all sucks, everything sucks…
Was going through my records looking to make a few extra bucks and sell some shit on ebay, yes even in my little corner of the world we have hit the hard times that everyone seem to be going through. So came on this one, Fang’s 1998 release, American Nightmare. This was the second coming of Fang though, after the singer had done a 5-6 year stint in prison and not the band I remember from the early 80s. It just didn’t do it for me, although the cover is a site to behold, funny as hell, done by an extremely good artist and to be honest with you, if I owned a bar/club (a venue for bands to play of course) I would have this as a mural on the wall. Anyway like I hinted at, this thing didn’t do much for me, except one tune, a cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak”…that was just perfect. Figured that my throngs of fans should get a chance to sample it, so I ripped it and even posted it to Youtube as it wasn’t represented there either. Dig it or don’t.
In this modern age, sharing music is just as enlightening as the old tape trading days, minus the impatience waiting for the mail to arrive. Can’t get away from waiting for the hard copies to arrive, but with a few clicks of the mouse you can at least give shit a listen. So my internet buddy, Bjorn, of Unter den Linden & Pilleemandjoonks, among others, emails me the other day. We shoot the shit sometimes (he’s been a stud and sent me hard copies of rarities too) inquiring about our very different living situations and locals. This time he sends me a tune by a Swedish mid 90’s band called EON with his nephew, Fredrik, on vox & guitar, recorded when he was in his teens. I’ll be damn if this stuff doesn’t rock the fuck out, with a heavy emphasis on the interestingly unique side of some kind of metal conglomeration. Elements of thrash and speed, mixed with an odd sort bluesy post-grunge. Fredrik’s vocals sound so much older and mature than he is at 17. Like nothing I’ve ever heard in metal. It could even be called pre-Nu Metal if Nu Metal wasn’t such a bad word (I don’t care what you say, the System of a Down early demos I posted a while back…shred). The music is hard and soft, like a salad with croûtons, chunky and driving. I got in touch with Fredrik and asked if he’d do a little who, what, why, where, when, how on the band… “The demo was recorded about 15 years or so in a small town called Kristinehamn located in Värmland. Kristinehamn had practically nothing to offer, so creativity was a way to survive and deal with the surroundings. Almost everybody was in a band at that time, and i guess we all influenced one and another. The strong influences I had at that time was anything from Slayer, Entombed, Henry Rollins, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Alice in chains, John Lee Hooker, to Miles Davis and probably a lot more, at that time I was also interested in paranormal phenomena and astral sleep. Since i don´t remember everything from that time this could give you an idea of what elements influenced the demo. We were around 17 years old when the demo was recorded, a year later the band split up, we had different paths to walk i guess, I went to study music, the bass player Pontus went to another school and the other guitarist Dava got kids early, the drummer Christer still plays in different constellations like me. I live in Gothenburg and i have finally returned to rock´n roll after exploring what i had to explore.” He’s going to be sending me some of his more recent tune-age so keep an eye out for that. This stuff would probably be lost in time if it wasn’t for this. In the meantime, explore the band that was EON…
EDIT: This was lost in time again during the great Mustard Relics apokálypsis, but all is left to be revealed. It’s just too fucking obscure and too damn good not to be floating out there waiting to be heard. Special thanx to Bjorn and Fredrik for feeding my brain with this monster of a demo, cheers guys. There is no web presence for EON, or at least none I could find other than my old post and I’ve noticed that people have been hitting this post, but of course nothing was there, just scorched earth. So we continue to sow the seed and we all reap the harvest…
