SOLSTICE, Isen Torr & The Miskatonic Foundation – w/ Richard M. Walker (guitars)
# What was your first album purchase?
Sex Pistols ~ Never Mind the Bollocks on vinyl back in 1979 after three or four weeks trying to get the money together.
# What was your latest album purchase?
Discharge
~ Punk & Destroy. A Japanese-only release of the band’s early 7”’s released in 1984. Currently I’m very much into Black Sabbath and Discharge Japanese pressings. I have all the Discharge ones now, and I’m trying to complete a set of the early 80’s Coffin Obi Strip Black Sabbath issues…
# Which single album has changed your perception of music?
Hmm, definitely Sex Pistols because before that I only considered music to be background noise which fucking idiots listened to. Within a year of buying that I owned maybe seven or eight more albums by The Damned, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, etc. Some of the bigger names of the day.
# Which album would you pick up for your best friend?
Right now, I would probably pick up Discharge ~ Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing or Bathory ~ Under the Sign of the Black Mark because those are the two I’m listening to most for the past week. I like to inflict my musical tastes on other people; that’s why I started a label, ha ha!
# And which album would you pick up your worst enemy?
Anything by nu-doom bands like Pantheist, etc. Those bands are sheer audio faggotry.
# Which album would you use to seduce a person of the other sex?
Anything by Nana Mouskouri. Works every time. If that fails, Sammy Davis Jr.
# Your preferred album to fall asleep to?
I cannot fall asleep listening to music. I get too hyped up, you know. When for example you put on Razor or Motörhead or Witch Cross, etc., you just want to drink beer, break bar stools over posers’ heads or simply bang thy head.
# Your preferred album to wake up to/banish hangovers with?
This has to be Powerlord ~ The Awakening from 1986 or something. Best fucking speed/thrash metal album ever made along with Destructor ~ Maximum Destruction. The adrenaline kicks in and you want to start all over again…
# Your preferred album to sing along to in the shower?
I don’t have a shower; we have a bath tub. But If I did, maybe something by… Discharge.
# Please recommend an album from the 80s!
I cannot recommend just one so I’ll do five instead:
Brocas Helm ~ Black Death – the perfect US metal LP.
Witch Cross ~ Fit for Fight – incredible, melodic, super-heavy.
Bathory ~ Under the Sign of the Black Mark – pure fucking audio violence.
Razor ~ Evil Invaders – thrash till death! Sheepdog rules!
Saint Vitus ~ s/t – the doom classic. Scott Reagers was beyond words!
# Please recommend an album from the 90s!
Hmm, it would be virtually impossible to find anything from the 90’s, but I’ll have to go with Crimson Relic ~ Purgatory’s Reign or Saint Vitus ~ Die Healing.
# Please recommend an album from after the turn of the millennium!
Without a shadow of a doubt Pagan Altar ~ Lords of Hypocrisy. Nothing can beat it so far. The band are simply masters of their chosen genre.
# What is the most embarrassing album in your collection?
Nothing, I don’t buy shit. I buy for myself and I buy what I know I’ll like. Only posers like the fat Wigger from My Dying Bride have shit like Korn, Portishead and Tool in their collections.
# And what is the most valuable item in your record collection?
Well, I would say in monetary value my entire set of 1970’s Pentagram 7” singles (Including the “Under My Thumb” 7” Acetate of which only one known copy exists worldwide…). Maybe, it’s hard to say. There are albums, though, worth £10 that are just as valuable to me that I couldn’t live without. Stuff by Pagan Altar, Discharge, Venom, etc. I have rare records with bands like Solar Eagle, Heathen’s Rage, Kratos, Angel Of Mercy, Witches Hammer, Powerlord, Halloween, etc. but it doesn’t mean to say they are any better musically than a £10 Bathory LP.
# Most represented band by raw numbers in your collection?
Venom, Discharge and Black Sabbath. Think I have around 60 or so different Venom records. Maybe more. I didn’t count them for a while.
# Most disappointing album you ever bought?
Venom ~ Possessed. After At War with Satan I was expecting to be fucking massacred. I sure as hell wasn’t. Some great songs but such a shitty production. I’m glad to say I never bought one fucking record on Peaceville or Earache or Nuclear Blast EVER!!! I always bought from a second store, and then I have maybe three or four records in total on those labels in my collection. It would be embarrassing to own homosexual crap like My Dying Bride or Anathema, don’t you think?
# Name the one album you would have loved the most to have contributed on?
Pagan Altar ~ Volume 1, Bathory ~ Hammerheart, Discharge ~ Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing. More as well, but those are just the first three that spring to mind. All three are some of the most groundbreaking music of the glorious 80’s.
# Name the album that you and your record collection lacks the most?
Ha ha, right now I need the Discharge ~ Massacre of Philadelphia bootleg LP on black vinyl and picture disc, and the Discharge ~ Live in Preston bootleg 7”.
# Name the song you would like to have played at your funeral?
“Shove the Dove” by Skrewdriver. It’s a real toe-tapper and guaranteed to get everyone singing along and drinking beer.
# Name three albums you would bring along to a deserted island?
Fuck the albums, I’ll take a high-power rifle & ammunition, food & water supplies, and an oil tanker filled with Duvel… Mhmmm!