Question Of The Week: Closing The Book On 2012
Friday Friday Friday here at last! Let’s all get way fked up this wknd for real! But first, a question: Can u recall a year so packed with crazy, random, weird, and horrifying events in the world of Metal? Correct answer: Shit no! 2012 was completely sideways as metal studz were threatened with imprisonment, touring bands endure serious road accidents, and organizations that shape our world suffer restructuring and death. Make no mistake: The internet brings more news to our attention and with greater intensity, but still … Goddamn we were stressed out!
But what will u remember most about The Year In Metal 2012? What is the richest story with the widest ramifications? What freaked u the fuck out? Let us know in today’s MetalSucks Question Of The Week.
Fearless. Controversial. Half-baked. We give it to you straight every Friday afternoon. Straight into the history books! Here’s this week’s question:
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Inspired by a wild year in the world of Metal 2012, we asked our staff the following:
If hired to write a book about any 2012 Metal news story, which would u choose?
Read the MS Staff’s sexpert answers and answer for yourself below!
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COREY MITCHELL
There’s really only one story that deserves an entire book and that is the travesty that is the Randy Blythe manslaughter case. It has all of the elements that I specialize in including metal, tragedy, and true crime. I would honestly love to write a book on this case.
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GRIM KIM
Though it’s not technically metal (metal-related, to be sure!), I’d want to use the final demise of Amebix as a springboard for writing the band’s biography. Their tumultuous, massively influential, and unapologetically chaotic career and the furious spate of activity over the last couple years resulted in one reunion, one last monolithic album, and decades’ worth of unanswered questions. It’d be a biased story, of course, given that I’ve been friends with and worked for the band since 2009, but one that I’d like to see in print.
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SATAN ROSENBLOOM
While the ongoing saga of Randy Blythe’s manslaughter woes would make for a fascinating book (and probably will, if my MS bro Corey Mitchell has anything to say about it), I’d be most curious to write a book-length treatment on how metal labels are adapting to the digital age. It seems like so many new upstart labels have emerged in the last couple years, and they’ve done a much better job at establishing great rosters and names in the digital sphere than you’d expect for labels with as little capital as they have. 2012 was also a year that the public started really wondering about those streaming sites’ business models…and that at least one high-profile metal label (Century Media) recanted its initial suspicion of Spotify. My book would be totally boring and full of idle speculation. Stream it before buying it.
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LEYLA FORD
Pussy Riot! While it seemed most of the world embraced their cause because yeah! Girl power! Fighting Russia! Punk! Cause of the day! Yeah! I’d like to go beyond the sensationalism to the bare facts. It’d be more interesting to really learn about their beginnings, what they want/wanted to accomplish, if their long-term goals are the same now that two-thirds of the band is still in prison. I’d interview the members still in jail and the one who was released about what they have to deal with right now and in the future. I’d also expand to various other feminist/punk movements across the world like Femen in Ukraine. Get the more socio-political angle of music vs. the law.
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ABYSMAL SHAWN
Jesus Christ, this is impossible to answer. I can’t remember another year with so much music news that completely shocked me: new Sabbath record (will probably suck), Mitch Lucker’s death (definitely sucked), Quicksand tour (can only suck if Schreifels goes all Rival Schools on us), new My Bloody Valentine album to be released in 2012 (ahem, waiting sucks), Beach Boys reunion with Brian Wilson (who isn’t actually alive enough to know if this sucked), Killswitch singer improvement (sucks for metal’s racial diversity?). Writing an entire book sounds like it sucks hard though, so I’m out!
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ANSO DF
The world around us is old, but our lifestyle is brand new. We are the first humans to grapple with the deafening roar of hyper-pervasive media and the glabbering clatter of interpersonal oversharing. It’s exciting and wild — and requiring of intense consideration, adjustment, discipline, and teamwork! And though most of us have taken a deep breath, faced the tidal wave, and are poised to raft for new shores, still more haven’t mustered the required strength — or identified the need to. Instead, they ignore this and many other immediate, tangible challenges to follow antiquated texts, undertake a lot of guesswork, and think wishfully of a man in the sky who helps them with stuff. Their fantasy is so precarious that violent is their reaction to any intrusion: This is how a musician ends up in jail for hurting their feelings. ha That’s how I’d frame my book about Behemoth frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski’s persecution by religious zealots. Buy it please! U have already read the inside flap! lol
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DAVE MUSTEIN
I’d go with the no-brainer and write about the history and demise of Hydra Head Records. Aaron Turner’s label lasted for more than 20 years, and without it dozens of unique underground artists wouldn’t have been discovered. The label included some of the most diverse, eclectic artists inside and outside the metal scene, and I’ll forever thank it for many of my personal favorite artists.
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Ugh 2012 can fuck off! We’ll keep the good albums and fond memories of live jamz, but just make way for 2013 like asap! Weigh in below with the 2012 Metal news story that rocked u hardest! Don’t say the absence of a Trivium album lol.
