Sunday, February 19, 2017

SMASH YOUR SKULLS WITH POWER!!!!



I'm announcing this one way in advance, because that's how excited I am! Wyrd War proudly delivers legendary Rust Belt warlords DESTRUCTOR to Mississippi Studios for their first ever west coast appearance on Friday July 7, 2017! This ain't no tour, this is a mission of death!!!!

Formed in Euclid, Ohio in 1983, DESTRUCTOR’s enduring legacy is forged in tragedy and triumph worthy of their epic battle hymns. Following the 1985 release of their debut underground masterpiece Maximum Destruction, on the equally legendary Auburn Records label, the band was poised on the brink of major label success. In 1987 they recorded their second and third demos, Decibel Casualties and Power Aggression, in preparation for their sophomore release, when founding bass player David “Holocaust” Iannicca was stabbed in the heart by a stranger at a New Year’s Eve party, dying where he fell outside of the band’s rehearsal space. The unthinkable loss of their brother precipitated the band’s unraveling, and both DESTRUCTOR and Auburn Records went into hiatus in the terrible aftermath. A few years later they returned with one final demo before unceremoniously disappearing into the fog of obscurity…until an entirely unexpected return to form in 2007 with a Nunslaughter split, an EP and their second full-length, Forever in Leather. International festival appearances soon followed, heralding the true rebirth of pounding evil! In 2016 they released their third full-length Back in Bondage (a nod to their Maximum Destruction roots and sleazy classics such as ‘Bondage’ and ‘Wet Hot Leather’). Join us for this exclusive Pacific Northwest appearance as we smash our skulls with power in memory of Dave Holocaust and the unbending might of American-made steel!!!! 

ANTICHRIST: The Swedish militia of death known as ANTICHRIST sets sail from their hometown of Växjö in longships crafted from the bones of their enemies to decimate Portland for the very first time! Formed in 2007, ANTICHRIST released two underground demo tapes, Crushing Metal (2009) and Put to Death (2010), before unleashing their widely celebrated debut full-length Forbidden World in 2011. Anton Sunesson (vocals), Gabriel Forslund (guitars), Filip Runesson (guitars), Gobbe Hennigsson (bass) and Sven Nilsson (drums) return from the terror dimension in 2017 with their first full North American tour, and a sophomore full-length recording titled Sinful Birth on Electric Assault Records. Hailing the old ways with unexpected influences and unhinged energy, ANTICHRIST has come to kill...’til there’s nothing left to kill! It’s time to raise the flag of violent thrashing metal victory!!!! 

DANAVA: There are many paths to the jeweled gates of liberation: possession, ecstasy, sacrilege, heresy. Paradox subjugates ego in the transcendent thrust toward the eternally expansive. The star studded spacecraft known as DANAVA, dispatched as it was from America's rainy northwest coast, emerged on the midnight horizon with an obscure 4 song masterpiece as a shining symbol of freedom in sound. Critics have done their best to identify this flying object with all manner of convenient but ultimately meaningless qualifiers and all have missed the mark. This is not "stoner rock," even if the pilots are probably stoned. This is not "progressive rock," for the boundless soul thwarts gentrification. This is not "space rock," although their heads are full of meteor dust their boots still waltz in the gutters of Whitechapel sin. This is not "retro rock," because tomorrow calls even as the third eye glances in reverse to hail electric ancestry. Armed to the teeth with Orgone amplification and mesmeric Luciferian aether, the technicolor demon people have risen from primordial depths to dispel all curses and sever all bonds. 

DJ DENNIS DREAD: Dread is an internationally renown artist (cough, cough), beer drinker and hellraiser (true!) who has provided album cover artwork for Dead Moon, Darkthrone, Autopsy and Bobby BeauSoleil among many others. He has exhibited his intricately detailed ballpoint drawings across the U.S. and in Germany, Italy, Denmark and Sweden without the aid of methamphetamine. As "war chief" of Wyrd War Records, together with his darling companion Meadow “Mother Wolf,” Dread co-facilitates vinyl releases and guerrilla action events keenly focused on the advancement and celebration of strange and beautiful music, film and art. On July 7th he returns to the wheels of steel to bang that head that doesn't bang. Don't be a fuckin' idiot, buy your tickets NOW!

Sunday, February 05, 2017

NEITHER THE SUN NOR DEATH CAN BE LOOKED AT STEADILY


The 40th Portland International Film Festival kicks off this week, and my friend Nick Bruno has curated an inspired program of independent films for his sidebar series PIFF After Dark. As the title cleverly implies, these are films that might best be described as "post-horror," with moody existential themes and artsy fartsy angst presiding (cue the digital filter that makes everything look like an overcast car commercial). The title also refers to the fact that these films don't get started until 10:30pm, which is an ideal time to poke yourself in the third eye while drinking beer in the dark. The razor blade party really gets started with a ghastly shudder on night two, Saturday February 11th, with Emiliano Rocha Minter's depraved and beautiful Tenemos La Carne, a.k.a. We Are The Flesh (2016), a post-apocalyptic atrocity exhibition of incest, necrophilia and cannibalism that is loosely strung together with sparse haiku-like subtitles. Something of an inverted parable of the Garden of Eden, this Mexican mindfuck features full penetration and a POV fellatio scene worthy of Jodorowsky that caused my penis to retract into my gut. For the less savage of heart, Without Name (2016) is a milder eldtritch fairytale set in a primeval Irish forest where the trees are decidedly not what they seem. Director Lorcan Finnegan's brooding mystery unfolds as if someone replaced the third reel of Hour of the Wolf with The Secret Life of Plants (sans Stevie Wonder), and exemplifies the sort of genre-bending experimentation that makes this entire series so fun. There hasn't been a better reason to wallow in the splendor of the Bagdad Theater in a long time. Buy your tickets and blow your mind!