Sunday, May 20, 2007

SWORN TO THE DARK: Tour Photo Diary Part 1

6 days, 5 cities, 16 hours of sleep...


WATAIN


NACHTMYSTIUM
set the controls for the heart of the sun...


"KEEP THEM OPEN!"


ANGELCORPSE


Dana Duffy
of Mythic and Demonic Christ!


CIANIDE!!!!


Just my luck!
I meet Tom Warrior and make this retarded face in the photo...


Thursday, May 17, 2007

SWORN TO THE DARK: Tour Photo Diary Part 2


"...ignite in me the fire of the storming triple 6..."



At the Mutter Museum, Philadelphia, PA.


MARCH INTO THE SEA


CRUCIFIER


Drew Elliot, the man behind some of my favorite late 80's death metal record covers! He also created the Nachtmystium tour shirt and dealt with my drunken banter. All around nice guy.





"THE PATH OF NO RETURN!"

PART 3

SWORN TO THE DARK: Tour Photo Diary Part 3


Legendary punk artist Fly in her studio.
We ran into each other at Thompkins Square Park
and she took me back to her squat to draw my portrait...


While I was in the Lower East Side I visited my old friend and former Antischism singer Brent "Arrow" Baker. Brent is currently a bio-diesel activist in the process of organizing a major bio-fuel factory that he hopes will one day serve the entire tri-state region.



ANGELCORPSE
...exterminate!!!!



Goat head.


Goat head.






"DON'T BREAK THE OATH!"


After hours at Duff's Alcohol Abuse Center in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.


I parted ways with everyone in Brooklyn. We drank until the sun came up and stumbled out into the morning to snap this farewell photo. It was impossible to document all the insanity and allies encountered on the sleepless road but, needless to say, this tour exceeded my expectations on every level. Hail to all the friends I met, especially all the bands, and everyone who came out and said hello.
See you next time...

Monday, May 14, 2007

WEAPONS OF MOSH DESTRUCTION!!!!

I'm hitting the road again in June for the Weapons of Mosh Destruction Tour! Be sure to come out when we come to your town...
West Coast Tour 2007
ENGORGED (Portland)/ GHOUL (Creepsylvania)/ F.K.U. (Sweden)

June 22-23
Portland (Goregon Massacre Fest II @ Hawthorne Theatre)

June 25
Sacremento Ca (club TBA)

June 26
Oakland (Oakland Metro)

June 27
Santa Cruz (Blue Lagoon)

June 28
South Gate, Los Angeles (Allen Theater)

June 29
Los Angeles (Showcase Theatre)

June 30
TBA (California)

pre-tour gig in PDX!
June 9


ENGORGED/ALDEBARAN/BURIED BLOOD!!!!

@ The Satyricon
125 NW 6th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209
all ages + full bar

Flyer art created by Sean "Bloodbath" McGrath
and he'll have t-shirts available on the tour!

Saturday, May 05, 2007

MASTODON


MASTODON guitarist Brent Hinds represents Destroying Angels at the Roseland in Portland Friday May 4th!


"Tell Your Wimp Friends..."


We had to leave.


Things got ugly.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

ANTICHRIST VANGUARDS


I'm hitting the road for 5 dates of the Antichrist Vanguards East Coast Tour in May! This leg of the tour consists of WATAIN, NACHTMYSTIUM & ANGELCORPSE. I'll be at the following shows so look for me at the Ajna Offensive merch table. Buy me drinks...

5/10 ~ Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle (w/ CIANIDE & KOMMANDANT!)
5/11 ~ Cleveland, OH - Peabody’s (w/ CELTIC FROST!)
5/12 ~ Philadelphia, PA - The Northstar
5/13 ~ Cambridge, MA - Middle East
5/14 ~ New York, NY - BB King’s

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

KA-WHUMP!

A magazine called KA-WHUMP! "News and Reviews From the Underground Press" arrived in the mail this morning. There was no letter enclosed and I wasn't sure why I had received this unexpected gift until I flipped through and found a review of Destroying Angels #5. This particular issue of Destroying Angels is several years old but I purposefully design my zine to have a long shelf life and the reviewer really seems to get what it's all about. The underground needs more of this kind of comraderie and support. Here's the review written by editor Robert Sumner:

"Remember back in the 80's when Heavy Metal gave way to Death Metal and the stoners in school all professed their love for Satan and decided to start their own bands that would meet every Friday night to drink, make music and get high...No? Well, if you do, then DESTROYING ANGELS is right up your alley. Editor/Publisher Dennis Dread makes us all feel 16 again but talks to us like adults in this well produced and extensively researched zine. To lump it in the category of punkzine is almost an insult. Although DA has the feel of one of the early punkzines, the layouts, articles and artwork are so far advanced, that it goes into a category all its own. Dennis is himself an incredible artist whose talents with a ballpoint (yes...BALLPOINT) pen are like nothing I've ever seen before, and his love for the death metal genre shines through in every page. In #5, Dennis has a great tribute to another overtly talented man..."Mad" Marc Rude, who passed away in 2002 and left quite a legacy in he world of underground art. Dennis includes tales of those who knew Rude as well as his anticipated meeting with Rude which was cancelled due to Rude's death. Among other articles in this issue is an interview with the infamous Mike Diana, who tells from his own words what happened when he went to trial and was convicted of drawing the underground comic Boiled Angel. Diana also supplies lots of his disgusting artwork including his autobiographical strip of when he first saw G.G. Allin in concert. I'm sorry that I'm so behind on getting recent issues of this zine because it definitely is a one of a kind. Dread is up to #8 already and hopefully I'll be getting a copy soon to review in an upcoming KW. Production is creative, cutting edge and VERY well done. MATURE READERS"
KA-WHUMP!
c/o Robert L. Sumner
PO Box 1523
Depoe Bay, Oregon
97341
$3.50

Let's review: I make you feel 16 again, but I talk to you like an adult.

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Fast as a shark...and twice as mean!


Here's a glimpse at my new drawing for Denmark speedthrashers Victimizer! This is a completely raw untouched scan. You like metal? Here's a zombie holding the head of jesus, a great white shark, barbwire, and a pentagram stormtrooper! This should be out by June on Hell's Headbangers records. THRASH or DIE!!!!

Sunday, February 25, 2007

ENTARTETE KUNTS!

COMING TO PORTLAND, GOREGON THIS SUMMER!

OPENING RECEPTION
THURSDAY JUNE 21

OPTIC NERVE ARTS

dread portrait


Ever wonder what Dennis Dread looked like with long hair?
No? Never? Oh well...

Behold one of my most cherished possessions! This is a portrait of me & my girlfriend drawn by one of the greatest living artists, Joe Coleman. Joe scribbled this on the back of a 'no smoking' sign back in 1998, just days before I shaved my head. Yeah, I pretty much look like that when I'm very excited or after a few beers. The likeness is actually remarkable.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Inherit the Wasteland

My daughter is studying immigation in her 4th grade class right now. As part of this project each student was asked to interview an immigrant. So Kallisti sat down and spoke to her old pal and former housemate Neil Robinson. Neil immigrated to New York in 1984 and became a prominant fixture among the thriving L.E.S. squatter movement as the original vocalist for seminal crust band Nausea. He went on to front Jesus Chrust and Final Warning and founded Tribal War Records which he operated for 15 years before quietly retiring from the punk scene to focus on organic farming here in Portland, Oregon. His message of protest and resistance has never wavered. This was my daughter's first interview. She may have a future with Destroying Angels. This is how their conversation went...

Kallisti: What did you do in your old country?

Neil: When I left school I got a job working in hotel kitchens in London. I started out as a pot washer and worked my way up and became a chef and I done that until I left. So I was a cook for 10 years.

What was your favorite food? Do you have a favorite recipe?

Fish and chips! Haha…not much of a recipe…

Yeah…haha!

...potatoes and a bit of fish! But yeah, I was really into fried foods.

Why did you decide to immigrate to the United States? Had you been here before?

No, I hadn’t been here before. I met an American girl in London and she had visited me like four times and on the fifth time, about two days before she left, she said she couldn’t afford to keep coming over. I said, “Well there’s no way I can afford to come to America.” She said she would buy me a plane ticket and two days later I left and ended up in America! I originally came for 2 weeks and ended up staying for 22 years!


How did you learn to speak English?

Haha…it was a natural thing…the Queen showed me!

What route did you travel to come to the U.S.? What form of transportation did you use?

Well it was pretty simple, I took a plane. It wasn’t very exciting.

Would you like to tell me anything else about what it was like to become an immigrant?

It was pretty hard coming to New York City. It was weird that even though I spoke English, people had different ways and words of communicating and it was really hard the first couple of months. No one understood what I was saying or anything like that. I was really nervous and I was scared about getting a job. It was so much more expensive than where I lived as far as housing and stuff, so I didn’t know how I was gonna live. The first few months I was really scared that the immigration would catch me and I’d get kicked out.

Where did you land when you arrived in the U.S.?

I landed in Newark [New Jersey].

Did you have any difficulties getting through immigration? Were you detained?


I was pulled aside. I had a Russian stamp in my passport. I had been to Russia and they really didn’t like that. So they took me and interviewed me for about an hour about what I’d done in Russia and was I a spy and all this other stuff! It was pretty intimidating. And the customs people can be really hard on immigrants. It wasn’t a very nice atmosphere.

Do you remember seeing any famous monuments when you arrived, like the Statue of Liberty?

Yeah, I saw the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center! Probably the most intense was flying in and seeing the whole of Manhattan.

Did anyone come to meet you?

My girlfriend’s mom came to meet us. It was pretty strange because at the time I had a mohican…

Hehehe!

…but she was really cool, y’know, she gave me a hug and welcomed me to America. It was nice.

Is there anything else you would like to tell me about when you first arrived in the United States?

When I first arrived here I stayed out at my girlfriend’s mom’s house in New Jersey in this little town. And the cops didn’t like me in that town very much. It was a very white, conservative town and we would go into the city for shows and when we were coming home- twice we had cop cars try to run us off the road! So I got out of there as fast as I could!

Where did you go to make your first home? What was it like?

I moved up to Manhattan, to the Lower East Side. I first lived on 1st Avenue between 10th & 11th, it was above a punk bar called First Avenue and it was really noisy 'cause they had a punk jukebox. But I spent most of my time down in the bar…haha…It was really expensive and at that time it was hard to get a job, so I moved into a squat on 8th Street between Avenue B & C. It was just an abandoned building that a group of people took over and we made a home. I lived there for most of my time in New York.


What was you first job and what did you do?

My first job was moving furniture. It was for a furniture company in the Lower East Side and it was mostly illegal immigrants that worked there. The work was really hard and the money was terrible. I had to get up at 5am in the morning and wait in line to see if I would go out in the truck that day. But I met some really interesting people and I met a lot of people that kind of shared experiences of how to live as an immigrant and how to live on the streets of New York and how to survive. So I kind of learned my survival skills from them.


What is your job now and what do you do?

I am now the Produce Manager of People’s Food Co-Op. I buy produce, put it out on display, I decide what specials are going to be for the week, create recipes…And People’s is a collectively run store, so I’m a Collective Manager as well. Part of my duty is to help manage the store.

Are there any things you miss from your old country?

Yeah, I really miss the history. I miss the culture, I miss the working-class culture that I grew up in. My favorite part of England is the West Country, Cornwall and Devon. One of the reasons I moved out to Oregon was 'cause I started really missing Europe, but I didn’t want to go back. I came out here and the coast really gave me the same feeling as those favorite parts of England. That’s why I moved out here and that’s helped a bit. It’s a different vibe on the West Coast.

What was the biggest change to your way of life when you came to the U.S.?

Um…I think the biggest change was the opportunities in America. Even though it seemed like it was hard to get a job, there were plenty of jobs for immigrants in New York, even if the money wasn’t that good. It felt like all of a sudden I had all this money which I never dreamt in England I could ever have! And within a year I had a car! And I would’ve never ever…it’s kinda funny…I would never be able to afford a car in England! So it was kinda weird coming here. It seemed like a lot of people had money.

How do you stay connected to your old country, friends, and family?

Well, my brother e-mails me and he tells me when I have to call my mom and dad…haha! I was actually trying to phone them today. My mom and dad came over here last summer and that was really nice. I hadn’t seen them for 12 years. It was kinda strange cause I realized that I’ve aged and they’ve aged. It’s a weird process when you’re not together and seeing each other age.

Well, that’s it.

Cool!


Thanks to Kallisti & Neil for letting me post this interview.