- 7 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00:18All the radio stations think they rock out or they're cock out
00:00:22Until they hear about a devastation radio
00:00:57All the radio stations think they rock out
00:01:00Don't count it, hear my word
00:01:02The initial capture is over
00:01:05So now this life will recluse
00:01:07The world will grow bad upon us
00:01:11The world will fail for no three
00:01:14The world will grow your deception
00:01:17About pieces that beat up on me
00:01:20Now the chain, new gun is in me
00:01:23I love the sound of the street
00:01:26Never fall into the woods
00:01:29I'll rock by these people's face
00:01:33I'll do the bonnet
00:01:35We are the young ones to breathe
00:01:37I know it's not an alcohol
00:01:41I'm good and slow
00:01:43I'm trying to cry
00:01:44I'll fade to it
00:01:46You're my other day
00:01:47The blood made me
00:01:49Just like I said
00:01:51Don't be the same
00:01:55I'll do the same
00:01:56So now it's a monkey
00:01:57Yes!
00:02:36I'll remember as far back as when I was like 12, 13 years old, when we lived in Maryland,
00:02:43there was a really cool college radio station out of there called The Underground, I believe,
00:02:49and they were playing DSI, King Diamond.
00:02:52I used to tape record a lot of those guys, the DJs and stuff, and listen to it and fantasize
00:02:57about that in my room, just being in that world, but I was also very much into music.
00:03:03I did a solo project called Brutal Deathfuck.
00:03:19Right away, I noticed there was all these podcasters or internet radios that were hitting me up,
00:03:25so I started talking with those people and meeting with them and getting to know that
00:03:29world.
00:03:29One day, they were like, Zach, you're always here.
00:03:33Why don't you just do it?
00:03:34You should be a DJ.
00:03:35One thing led to another, and then I had a show, and I called it the Metal Devastation
00:03:43Radio Show.
00:03:44You started Metal Devastation Radio in 2013 with this motto.
00:03:48Our main goal is, and always has been, to promote underground music from unsigned bands
00:03:53and bands on small labels, so what it seems like to me is your main motives are to help
00:04:00bands get heard.
00:04:01Is that correct?
00:04:02Totally, man.
00:04:03Totally, dude.
00:04:04Because I'm a musician myself, and that's how I actually got into this whole thing, I wanted
00:04:10to be able to do something for other bands that I wanted to be done for me, if that makes
00:04:14sense.
00:04:15I ended up leaving that station.
00:04:17I was kind of depressed.
00:04:18I was just sitting around, and one day, she was like, you know, why don't we just start
00:04:22our own radio station?
00:04:23Why not?
00:04:24We can do it.
00:04:25Holy motherfucking shit, motherfuckers.
00:04:27What the fuck is going on?
00:04:28God damn it.
00:04:29I'm Zach Moonshine.
00:04:30You're listening to the motherfucking Zach Moonshine Show live right here on Metal Devastation
00:04:35motherfucking radio.
00:04:36Actually, you were telling me, she was like, you know, you've got to do interviews.
00:04:39You've got to start talking to some of these bands.
00:04:41Gotta do it.
00:04:42I was like, all right, all right, whatever.
00:04:44I'll give it a shot.
00:04:45And I interviewed one of my friend's bands, Rock and Roll Villain Society, Cameron, the
00:04:52drummer, because I already knew him, so I felt comfortable to do that with him.
00:04:56And then right away, as soon as I did that, here comes the promoters and record labels.
00:05:01They're just, as soon as they find out that you do that, they're in your inbox, like immediately,
00:05:06man.
00:05:06We got fucking a brand new Pounder, brand new Double Horse, brand new As I Like Dying,
00:05:16brand new Nightwish, Grand Magus, Rust Bucket.
00:05:19A lot of times on Thursdays, I like to do a throwback Thursday post, and sometimes I'll
00:05:25do that based on some interview that I did back in the day, and I'll go look the room,
00:05:30and I'll listen to some of those older ones, especially the ones during the years when I
00:05:35was at the factory working all those hours, and I can hear myself, how tired I sound on
00:05:41the phone with these people, but I'm still fighting through it, trying to get it done.
00:05:45When I'm listening to it, driving down the road, it definitely has, like it's got that
00:05:53rock feel, you know, that groove and shit that makes you, I don't know.
00:05:58At one time, I even had a webcam set up in my studio, where it would, you know, so the
00:06:05people listening, they could see me on the website, and there was times where I would
00:06:12pass out, you know, like later on in the show.
00:06:16I'd be getting messages from people that were watching, they'd be like, Raven.
00:06:19The cat would be sitting on the back of the chair.
00:06:22Zach's asleep during the middle of his show, because he'd be up at 3 a.m. to go to work,
00:06:26and then come home and be doing this, and he would just pass out in his chair, and so
00:06:31we did away with the camera.
00:06:33Oh, man, whenever the factory would threaten that we would have to go work Saturday, or
00:06:38that we'd have to work over on, oh, man, I'd be like, you know, I would have to kick it
00:06:45into hyperdrive and do whatever I had to do to get whatever they needed done, like, extra
00:06:51fast just so I could get out of there, because I was not missing that shit.
00:06:55All you got to do is reach out, grab that volume knob, and crank it to the right.
00:07:00This is brand new shit from Corrosive from our buddies at CDN Records.
00:07:04Check this out.
00:07:05Crank it the fuck up.
00:07:06It was definitely something to look forward to, you know, like every week, you know,
00:07:10just no matter how brutal or hard it was, whatever we had to go through, however many
00:07:16hours we had to work that week, I always knew, you know, on Friday, there's going to be a
00:07:22six-pack of beer, some heavy metal, some band I'm going to get to talk to, and it's going
00:07:28to be cool, and we're going to have laughs.
00:07:31It's Friday night, and you guys know it's not just any fucking Friday night, man.
00:07:36This is motherfucking devastating Friday night.
00:07:39Yes, it was a hobby, but always in the back of my mind, there was always the hope and the
00:07:45dream that someday that would become my reality, that that would become my job, that that would
00:07:51somehow have to make that just become what it is now.
00:07:57It wasn't until the quarantine that that became a reality, like, that's pretty much what made
00:08:03it happen, and bands were literally emailing me, asking me, like, hey, we see how you promote
00:08:12your radio show, can you promote our album?
00:08:16We've got this tour coming up, you know, like, can you write something about it and send out
00:08:20an email?
00:08:20We like how you do that.
00:08:21I'm like, you're talking about PR, but I was like, well, fuck it, you know, I'll give
00:08:26it a try, you know, like, yes, I do know a shit ton of people, I got an insane amount
00:08:31of email contacts, they paid me, and I did it, and immediately I was like, God, I hope
00:08:36this works, I really hope that they get something out of this, because I don't want to feel like
00:08:40an asshole for, you know, taking somebody's money and doing something like that, so it
00:08:46was just sort of, but immediately, fucking all these people, all these magazines and websites
00:08:51and shit, you know, like, yeah, hell yeah, we're posting it here, we're doing this for
00:08:55you.
00:08:58I remember so many nights in the chat room on Metal Devastation Radio, just talking with
00:09:04underground bands and listeners and stuff, and we would be drinking, and we'd often just,
00:09:09you know, get into, like, talking hypothetically, making jokes about, you know, wouldn't it be
00:09:15cool to have our own festival?
00:09:17Talking about it to the bands that were playing on the show, you know, that aren't big bands,
00:09:22you know, because they don't get those opportunities a lot, or especially not back then, and so
00:09:27for years, it was just something that we just talked about at random times in the chat room,
00:09:33I remember, and it was really weird for it to actually come to fruition.
00:09:39It was bizarre, honestly.
00:10:11So it started when we had this employee, a DJ of ours, he was a promoter in Kentucky, he wanted
00:10:17to help putting
00:10:18together a festival when his venue fell through, so we hooked up with him, we did our best to help
00:10:24him, but about a month into planning, after we'd announced it and everything, he pulled out, we had
00:10:29no idea what to do, so we just said, I guess we're putting on a festival, and we just rolled
00:10:34with it.
00:10:49We'll see you then.
00:14:22It was my first time vending any event.
00:14:25I couldn't think of a better event to vend, you know, 12 hours of metal that I get to sit
00:14:30and listen to while I'm sitting there making money.
00:14:32I mean, come on.
00:15:02Just go find some people to hang out with, you know, just go find some people to hang out with,
00:15:04you know, so we go around the lake and I see this long-haired guy sitting up on the picnic
00:15:07table smoking a cigarette and I yelled, I said, hey, you want to go get fucked up?
00:15:14And he's like, yeah, I don't know if that kind of, you know, you know, being on that trippy level
00:15:20the first night kind of brought us, you know, had this special connection or what.
00:15:25But he told his friend that night, but he told his friend that night, but he told his friend that
00:15:54night that he was going to marry me someday.
00:15:54And he was like, oh, yeah, I love heavy metal.
00:15:58Then we started announcing our lineup.
00:16:01The people of Lexington started getting kind of nervous about the heavy metal thing.
00:16:05So they started looking into the artists, looking into the songs and looking into the lyrics.
00:16:21What first started it was they got a hold of our lyrics from Annabelle's Hell.
00:16:25It was about a doll that came to life, you know, influenced by a movie and everything.
00:16:30But they took those lyrics and they ran with it and were just so upset that we're like, all these
00:16:36metal heads are trying to, like, influence the minds of kids and things like that.
00:16:40And, yeah, they kind of took it and it just kind of snowballed after that.
00:16:44They attacked, I think, almost every single band on the fest.
00:16:48When the pushback started, it was actually from two local churches there in Lexington.
00:16:53They got on the message boards on Facebook, started telling everybody there's this festival.
00:16:58It's demonic.
00:16:59They're trying to open a portal to hell.
00:17:01All kinds of different things.
00:17:03And Zach and I kind of looked at each other and we were like, you know, that's not a bad
00:17:08marketing, you know.
00:17:09That's pretty good PR.
00:17:11So we ran with it.
00:17:13Some of you may have heard, some of you may have seen, but we made a special merchandise item just
00:17:18for you.
00:17:19What is this?
00:17:22What is it?
00:17:24How do shirts work?
00:17:26I don't know.
00:17:33After they had announced casket robbery, they were starting to get a lot of hate feedback off of that.
00:17:39And I kind of jokingly made a comment on Facebook saying, oh, man, wait until they find Summoner Circle.
00:17:44And it didn't even take 24 hours before they found our content.
00:17:49Yeah, we kind of upped the ante a little bit on that.
00:17:51I will say that I was not expecting the pushback to be as hard as it was in Lexington.
00:17:59I was shocked, actually.
00:18:22We were getting inundated with emails and messages and people talking about our fest on community Facebook, social pages.
00:18:31And then when we spoke with the people at the lake, the girl at the front desk told us we've
00:18:37been getting hundreds of emails, phone calls, people wanting us to shut this down, wanting to know why we're doing
00:18:42it.
00:18:44And some of the messages that we were getting were kind of threatening, people saying they were going to show
00:18:49up and unplug us, saying that there was no way they were going to allow this to be in their
00:18:53town.
00:18:53We walked across to the venue with one of the bands.
00:18:56There was a whole group, and I'm not quite sure which church they were from, but they were on the
00:19:01stage and around the stage praying, like putting hands on it.
00:19:05I mean, you could see it on their face that they were terrified.
00:19:08Like they honestly thought we were what we were doing was evil and diabolical.
00:19:13One of the comments was something that we sacrificed live animals on stage, and maybe there was another one that
00:19:20we cut each other before the shows.
00:19:23Someone sent me a message and said, did you hear you have to like sacrifice a goat to get in?
00:19:27And I'm like, are you like kidding me?
00:19:29Are you like believing this stuff on social media?
00:19:33We had originally rented our sound equipment through an individual who had the equipment that we needed.
00:19:39Three days before the fest, well, it was the Wednesday, and the fest was Saturday.
00:19:43Yeah, we were out there on the field.
00:19:45We were at Beach Lake.
00:19:46Looking at the venue, planning out like where to put the gates and everything like that.
00:19:51Last minute things.
00:19:51And he just calls out of the blue and was saying that, you know.
00:19:56He said, we have a problem.
00:19:57We can't do this.
00:19:58Yeah, he was pretty much like, I didn't know that it was going to be, you know, that kind of
00:20:04music.
00:20:05I don't know your sound engineer.
00:20:07I don't know if he's going to bust my speakers.
00:20:09And I'm just frankly not comfortable with allowing my equipment to be used for your event.
00:20:16So we ended up having to scramble.
00:20:19We had two days before the event.
00:20:21We had no idea what we were going to do.
00:20:23We found a company in Memphis that had about half of what we needed, but not everything.
00:20:28And then we found a company in Nashville that had the other half.
00:20:32So what we ended up, the first day, we went to Memphis and back and got the stuff, dropped it
00:20:39off here.
00:20:40This would have been on Friday, I think.
00:20:41It was the day before the fest.
00:20:43Then we also drove to Nashville and all the way back.
00:20:46So all in all, that's about eight hours worth of driving just to get the sound equipment.
00:20:52It was extremely stressful.
00:20:55I didn't know what to expect that next morning.
00:20:58I didn't know.
00:20:58We didn't know what was going to happen.
00:21:00My insides were turning, turning inside out, man.
00:21:04I was thinking.
00:21:05What if we did that?
00:21:06There's going to be like five people here.
00:21:08There's only five people in Henderson County that like metal.
00:21:12But no.
00:21:13Seeing all those cars lined up all the way down the street and all these people, they already
00:21:17had their fest shirts on.
00:21:18They're blasting metal in their cars and they're just ready to go at it.
00:21:22I'm like, wow, this is really real.
00:21:39The first year of the Metal Devastation Fest really blew my mind.
00:21:48Honestly, I thought it was going to be just some joke.
00:21:50It was just a bunch of very untalented bands.
00:21:55I didn't really know of anybody.
00:21:58And it just blew my mind so much that I became so involved.
00:22:04I started playing music again.
00:22:06I've been to hundreds of festivals all over the world, pretty much.
00:22:10And I've never seen such commitment and just such love that I get at that one.
00:22:16It exceeded all of our expectations.
00:22:19When we showed up, there was already a lot of people there.
00:22:21And this was in the morning, you know, and then by the afternoon, the field was full.
00:22:25It was unbelievable, you know, the success of it.
00:22:28I was highly pleased, even in Lexington.
00:22:32Big crowd, big space, amazing sound.
00:22:35I was like, this is showcasing the little guys.
00:22:40And we need this.
00:22:51I thought there'd be a lot more protesters and there was only like one incident.
00:22:54It was wonderful that first year was just all about the music.
00:22:58It was all about community.
00:23:00And it was all about building up these underground bands that not a lot of people have heard of.
00:23:07And bringing heavier music to a scene that doesn't really get a lot of heavy music from outside of Tennessee.
00:23:25There was so much support and so much community and it was so much fun.
00:23:30That was one of the most low-key festivals I've ever done as far as people having fun.
00:23:34It was amazing.
00:23:35No problems whatsoever.
00:23:37We did tremendous.
00:23:39The people were amazing.
00:23:41The crowd was amazing.
00:23:42The bands were amazing.
00:23:43I got to meet so many different people.
00:23:46So it was all around just a great experience.
00:23:49Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth.
00:23:57Anybody who knows us knows that we're a metal band for nerds.
00:24:01You guys drew a circle on top of Mercury.
00:24:04Explain that.
00:24:05Tell us in detail.
00:24:07The god who created our planet Mercury was killed in an interplanetary war by the god of war, Raghoth.
00:24:14And when the god was killed, its blood was spilled all over the planet Mercury.
00:24:19Gog and Magog got the bright idea of gathering that blood, putting it into a summoner's circle,
00:24:24and then summoning a god of their own and becoming that god.
00:24:32Everything that we had done had been inspired by, you know, Lord of the Rings, H.P. Lovecraft, video games,
00:24:39Dungeons & Dragons.
00:24:40It was meant to be dark horror fantasy.
00:24:48It's even more tame than what you would find in a lot of B-horror movies.
00:24:52So that being said, that first festival was the first time that we introduced the ripping up the Bible on
00:24:59stage.
00:25:06Figure, screw it.
00:25:07Just give them what they want.
00:25:08If that's what they want, let's give it to them.
00:25:10So, I hear, because I can't see, that there were some people who were wanting to stop this from happening
00:25:18tonight.
00:25:21Yeah, fuck those motherfuckers.
00:25:24They were afraid that we were going to, what was it, he talked.
00:25:28A portal.
00:25:29We were going to open a portal, like, to hell.
00:25:34Oh no, oh god.
00:25:37But there is already a portal here.
00:25:40In case you didn't see it, a little Mexican restaurant down the road.
00:25:44Los Portales.
00:25:46Yeah.
00:25:47Who knew that portals to hell could also come with quesadillas?
00:25:51Personally, I'd like to thank the conservative people and the religious folks for protesting and raising a ruckus,
00:25:56because I think it did nothing more than raise interest in the festival and got more people there.
00:26:12So, the next day after the festival, we were on such a high.
00:26:16Everything was, you know, it felt like everything just went perfect.
00:26:20Nobody got hurt.
00:26:22You know, everybody was happy.
00:26:23And we were just ready to book another show for the next year.
00:26:29The first time they came out with the Metal Devastation Festival, went off without a hitch.
00:26:34One of the things, obviously, being involved in politics, I never heard a word about it, which was a positive
00:26:39thing.
00:26:40And obviously, there shouldn't have been an issue.
00:26:42The second time around, that's when it started getting a little bit dicey.
00:26:49So, I went up to Beach Lake, ready to book our next date so that we could start booking vans
00:26:54for 2023.
00:26:55So, I went in there and I asked to meet with them, and the gentleman who normally does it wasn't
00:27:00there.
00:27:01So, I called numerous emails, numerous phone calls.
00:27:04Nobody would call me back.
00:27:07Finally, they got back with me and they said,
00:27:09We're not going to be able to book you.
00:27:11There's been some confusion over who owns the stage.
00:27:16This lake is actually owned by TVA, and it's managed by Beach River Watershed.
00:27:22There was a lot of information that was going around.
00:27:24Our Chamber of Commerce was being said that they were the ones who didn't,
00:27:28because they were trying to take over control of it based on conversations.
00:27:32Well, they never got to that point, and BWRDA actually eventually canceled the whole thing.
00:27:40Taxpayers with the city helped build it.
00:27:43It's on TWRA land.
00:27:45And then Beach Lake also said that a local church had called the building or code people
00:27:51and that no one was going to be allowed to use the stage anymore because of the handrails.
00:28:11There's an international building code that we actually have adopted here,
00:28:15and we adopt it every year.
00:28:16But if you actually go back in, it's not required to have handrails or lounge stages.
00:28:21So, it was kind of a, pardon my French, a piss poor excuse
00:28:24to keep the Metal Devastation Festival from coming.
00:28:29And there was no problems.
00:28:31There was no problems.
00:28:33There was, you know, the cops were enjoying it.
00:28:35I saw cops out there headbanging the first year, and they were.
00:28:39I was like, holy hell, look at this.
00:28:41This is awesome.
00:28:43You know, everybody's enjoyed it.
00:28:45You know, I didn't see any problems at all.
00:28:48Everybody was like one big family treating each other with respect.
00:28:52There was no reason for them to put an end to it.
00:28:55I think there was a church that didn't like it, complained, this, that, and the other.
00:29:00It's pretty much a small group, but it's a group of power.
00:29:29So, we were forced to find a new venue to move the festival,
00:29:33which was really stressful.
00:29:35We spent months driving around looking at different venues.
00:29:38We did look at the amp first.
00:29:40When we first saw it, we didn't see how we were going to contain it.
00:29:43So, we went on.
00:29:44We visited a farm slash venue in Middle Tennessee, which was great.
00:29:50It had all this acreage, and it was wonderful.
00:29:51But the stage was literally like four wooden pallets in a field.
00:29:57Pallets aren't going to do.
00:29:58So, that one fell through.
00:30:00Then there was one in West Tennessee near the river.
00:30:03Then we found this one that was perfect.
00:30:05Like, it had camping.
00:30:07It was out by the water.
00:30:08It was open.
00:30:09It had a stage.
00:30:10It was wonderful.
00:30:11The price was right.
00:30:12I was on the phone with the guy, and everything was great.
00:30:14And then finally, he says, I only have one stipulation,
00:30:17and that is that nothing satanic, no satanic imagery, no satanic lyrics.
00:30:23And we're like, but this is heavy metal.
00:30:35We were forced to re-look at the amp.
00:30:38I remember that day, we were really feeling down.
00:30:41And I was just like, let's just go back by there one more time.
00:30:44Look at it again with different eyes.
00:30:46Get out and walk around and feel it.
00:30:48And it just seemed like it made sense.
00:30:50And I was like, you know what?
00:30:50Let's just do it.
00:31:12I remember them coming, calling, and saying that they would like to come down here at the amp
00:31:17and host the metal fest, and we said, come on down.
00:31:23And so from there, it's history.
00:31:31They were so supportive.
00:31:38When we told them it was a heavy metal show, they didn't think anything about it.
00:31:42They were willing to book our date when we needed to go out there all times of the day,
00:31:48even on the weekends.
00:31:49You know, they didn't care.
00:31:50To make this a safe show and to be ticketed, we had to have barriers and boundaries.
00:31:55They helped us with that.
00:31:56And anybody that came down there and tried to push back against us, they stood up for us.
00:32:01And, you know, a big shout out to Ricky and Bruce.
00:32:04They're amazing humans, and they didn't judge us.
00:32:06And it was just a profoundly different and a more supportive experience.
00:32:19They're wonderful people to work with.
00:32:21You know, we enjoy working with them, and when they come down, we're always cutting up and everything.
00:32:28So...
00:32:28You know, we enjoy working with them, and when they come down, we're always cutting up and everything.
00:32:39We enjoy working with them, and when they come down, we're always cutting up and everything.
00:32:51We enjoy working with them, and when they come down, we're always cutting up and everything.
00:33:07We enjoy working with them, and when they come down and everything.
00:33:11We enjoy working with them, and when they come down, we see people.
00:33:11About three months before the fest, Ricky at the AMP gives me a call, and he says,
00:33:15Raven, you would not believe the pushback that we're getting, the phone calls and whatnot.
00:33:19So I had to go down there and I went in the office and spoke with him and he said,
00:33:23you know, just between us, I can't give you any names, but I'm having politicians come in here.
00:33:27I'm having some of the wealthy heavy hitters that have Poole and Jackson, everybody coming in here wanting to know
00:33:34about this show and if we're actually letting it happen.
00:33:36They were asking them, you know, are they satanic? Do you know if they're satanic?
00:33:42Specifically in the second year, there was pushback against the festival itself.
00:33:46The people didn't seem to target the bands as much as they did previously.
00:33:50It was really aimed at the festival itself and Zach and Raven specifically.
00:33:58In 2023, the first radio interview that I was asked to do, as soon as I picked up the phone,
00:34:05the first question they asked me was, do you worship Satan?
00:34:08We are not evil people. We just like a certain type of music.
00:34:14Are you a Satan worshiper?
00:34:18No, absolutely not. I'm actually not religious at all.
00:34:22And so to be accused of worshiping something that I don't even believe in is pretty funny.
00:34:28Oh, you laugh about it. That's because you make me do all the interviews.
00:34:38This is the Bible Belt, where we are inundated with religion the moment you step outside your front door.
00:34:43You've got billboards, you've got giant 300-foot aluminum crosses everywhere.
00:34:48So it's always going to be in your face.
00:34:51And the moment you step out of the social norms, you're going to get backhanded.
00:34:57I get a lot of emails, too, from different magazines and radio stations and different media outlets for metal from
00:35:05around the world.
00:35:06For a lot of people around the world, they didn't know that that still existed.
00:35:10Yeah.
00:35:11A lot of people were shocked at first.
00:35:13They were like, what?
00:35:13Like, they're angry because music, because of a, you know, it's just...
00:35:21The Bible Belt's a special place.
00:35:23And unless you live in it, you really don't get it, get it.
00:35:48We actually started the transition of going to a more anti-religious theme for this album
00:35:53right before the first Metal Devastation Festival.
00:35:56We wrote A Reverence of the Cross as a reaction to that negativity that we all got from it.
00:36:04It kind of just kept going from there.
00:36:06You know, we decided, you know, let's be a little more blasphemous here.
00:36:09Let's have a little fun with this.
00:36:10Definitely solidified leaning into that as a theme.
00:37:44I know me personally, as much as I would love the chance to speak to some of these people
00:37:50and try to figure out what's going on in that head and actually have a conversation with them.
00:37:56I have my limit.
00:38:06Oh, this one's angry.
00:38:07No one will take a stand against this junk, and then we wonder why kids are the way they are
00:38:13today.
00:38:14Someone should stand up and say, we are not allowing this garbage in our town.
00:38:19We're not going to take it.
00:38:22Unreal that this garbage would be in our community.
00:38:26This event is a horrible thing for a Christian county to permit.
00:38:30The issue at hand is not about freedom of speech.
00:38:34Our city and state laws would consider a heavy metal show to be inappropriate for children and should be held
00:38:39more than 50 feet away from any family event.
00:38:42This isn't about Christianity.
00:38:44It's about there being a time and a place for all events, just like the drag shows at public parks
00:38:50that have now been banned for this exact reason.
00:38:53If my children and I are at the farmer's market that day, we will be forced to listen to this.
00:38:58The bands and their lyrics are clearly demonic.
00:39:01Time to call the mayor's office.
00:39:04Jackson has always had a hometown identity where the local church and local businesses were the core of the city.
00:39:10We were able to take our kids to the park without having our children exposed to adult entertainment.
00:39:15Jackson is at risk of losing its identity.
00:39:18That's Ray Condre.
00:39:49put his family on it and his family on it.
00:40:05The subject of the Metal Devastation Fest is kind of a moot point now.
00:40:10On the mayor campaign, I did speak out against it because it just didn't seem like that that
00:40:15was the type of image that myself and most of my supporters wanted Jackson to be portrayed as.
00:40:52I may not like it, but I don't have to listen to it.
00:40:55You got that right, you son of a bitch, LGBTQ rights are human rights, Metal Devastation
00:40:59forever.
00:41:26It's not a turning point, it's a good name for me, to live an ordinary life, it's just
00:41:44one of the groups that was giving us the most pushback, especially on social media, was the
00:41:49We the People group.
00:41:50And one of their members, she and her whole family go up to the farmers market on the weekends
00:41:55and they sell their home goods that they make.
00:41:58She was concerned and making comments about not wanting her children up there, that they
00:42:03could hear various things.
00:42:06And it got pretty heated for a while and then the day of the fest, at one point when
00:42:11I'm up setting up with the vendors, I look over and this woman that had done all of that
00:42:16and like a group of five or six children and a couple other people stood across the street
00:42:20and like had this staring contest with me.
00:42:23And that's really all they did.
00:42:35As far as I know, nobody within the people of West Tennessee ever did anything.
00:42:42As far as I know, there were no protesters, there was nobody that was there that was doing
00:42:48anything that would be considered an activist type situation that I know of.
00:42:57Again, there may have been individuals that did, but not under the guise of the group.
00:43:12Our experience playing the second year of the festival where we headlined was so much fun.
00:43:16We were about two weeks into a tour.
00:43:19We just had an absolute blast.
00:43:21We got to see so many people that we saw the year before.
00:43:24Just being welcomed back into open arms was just so great.
00:43:29We love that festival and what they're doing is incredibly important.
00:43:36I think the second year was even bigger and better.
00:43:39Jackson is more centrally located for everybody.
00:43:42So I think it brought a lot of people into town and it helped other businesses as well
00:43:46as the small businesses that she allows to pop up at the festival.
00:43:54The environment felt more at home in Jackson.
00:43:59Even though it was a little bit smaller place, sometimes that doesn't matter, you know, the
00:44:04more intimate you can get.
00:44:05Put your hands together, motherfuckers.
00:44:07Come on.
00:44:08Like this.
00:44:12I really enjoyed it just for the sake that everything was kind of there encapsulated together.
00:44:18You know, the merch was right there on the hill and then the people were sitting.
00:44:23Some were standing.
00:44:24There were a lot moshing.
00:44:28And we're positioned very well.
00:44:30You know, Jackson's right in between Memphis and Nashville, two tremendous music historical
00:44:36places.
00:44:37And it just makes sense, right?
00:44:39Like Jackson's right there on I-40, right in between the two.
00:44:42To me, it's just a natural progression of Hellraising throughout the decades, you know, just the next
00:44:48phase of it.
00:44:55I had banged so hard when Grave Huffer was on, because those guys are just grind like crazy,
00:45:00that I actually, everything turned green and I fell over.
00:45:04And I wasn't drunk or nothing.
00:45:06It was just, I had banged so hard.
00:45:08I'm older, man.
00:45:09I just fell over.
00:45:19When we tried to get in the first time, we submitted and then we got the notification
00:45:24that it was too late to get in.
00:45:27I was super bummed.
00:45:29As soon as I saw the registration open for the next year, I was like, let me get this
00:45:33in and see if they'll have us.
00:45:35And then, I think it was like a day later, Raven messaged me and was like, we would love
00:45:41to have you guys.
00:45:47I was not expecting the crowd to be as big as it was.
00:45:50And I looked out and it was just a sea of people.
00:45:52And I was like, oh, this is, this is real.
00:45:55This is, this is a real deal here.
00:45:57You know, there's quite a bit of people out there.
00:45:59It was fun.
00:46:00I had a blast, you know.
00:46:05It is to be expected.
00:46:06People, people stay pretty, pretty stoked for us.
00:46:08I heard some people were scared we were going to open up a hell mouth over here or something
00:46:13like that.
00:46:16What a bunch of scary bitches, bro.
00:46:19What the fuck?
00:46:21There's a long history of the exact same thing happening all the way back from, you know,
00:46:26people didn't want their kids listening to the Stones or the Beatles or when Kiss came
00:46:30out, there was all the backlash.
00:46:32Oh, they're night in Satan service or whatever, you know, and then Alice Cooper came out and
00:46:36then Marilyn Manson came out and they do the same thing every time.
00:46:39And they, you know, try to tell, oh, you can't listen to this, or this is terrible,
00:46:42or this is the devil's music.
00:46:44But more people showed up just because they wanted to check it out.
00:46:56I don't mean this to sound as insulting as it is going to sound, but after so many decades
00:47:02of using the same tactic and all it doing is just providing more and more press and
00:47:08success for the things that you are rallying against, at some point you realize that it's
00:47:12a really stupid tactic.
00:47:14But, you know, hey, if they want to be dumb, I will gladly accept all the ticket sales that
00:47:20come from them being that dumb.
00:47:31I mean, it was from start to finish amazing.
00:47:35They pull it off flawlessly every year.
00:47:37They've worked so hard.
00:47:41So I went down to the amp after the fest to book for 2024 and Ricky took me to the
00:47:48side.
00:47:48He said, Raven, this was just one of the best events that I've ever seen.
00:47:52It's definitely one of the best events we've had here at the amp.
00:47:55I hope that you guys will be able to come here and have your event here for a long time.
00:48:10So I was in local bands back when I was a teenager around the West Tennessee area.
00:48:15There used to be such a vibrant scene.
00:48:18And then when they put this together, it was awesome because like, oh, yes, there, you
00:48:23know, there are still all these metalheads around.
00:48:25You know, they still live here.
00:48:26They're still around.
00:48:27Just because there's no shows going on doesn't mean they all disappeared.
00:48:32And I think you're seeing that now at this festival.
00:48:34You know, you're seeing all these people coming out.
00:49:00We have actually seen a tremendous jump in our fan base online, especially.
00:49:05We've picked up a few people that have continued to comment and follow our page because of the festival,
00:49:13because they saw us there.
00:49:37It's like I've always looked up to people who played festivals and like we're a very young band.
00:49:43Like it's been a year.
00:49:45I think this month since we started this band.
00:49:48And the fact that we already have that is just it blows my mind.
00:50:09Improvisation in the band in general is a big part of what we're doing and how we're developing our sound
00:50:15going forward.
00:50:16Not only is he improvising guitar solos, but I'm improvising on top of a lot of the basics of the
00:50:23bass lines that I'm doing on a lot of those songs too.
00:50:26So improvisation in the band is huge on our sound.
00:50:31What's up?
00:50:32It's time to act like a fucking dick!
00:50:34Push somebody!
00:50:36Jack Ball!
00:50:47It's time to act like a fucking dick!
00:50:49Push somebody!
00:50:50Jack Ball!
00:50:58We love anything that has to do with 50s sci-fi.
00:51:02The lore of the band is that we are three scientists that we're trying to open a portal
00:51:08to the next dimension of the Mantises.
00:51:15We get taken over by the Mantis pheromones, by the bug pheromones, open the gates of the
00:51:20gates again, and chaos ensues.
00:51:37We never expected it to take off like this.
00:51:40We never expected to fit in, we never expected to play as many shows as we have, we never
00:51:44expected to get offered to play Metal Devastation or anything like that.
00:51:48We just expected to go up on stage, have fun, get off stage and then party with our friends.
00:52:00Having something like the Metal Devastation Festival, something that these smaller underground bands
00:52:08can really try and actually go for, something that's more realistic than a lot of these
00:52:15bigger metal festivals that most of us would never even dream of being on.
00:52:23pressing unearly singing, and the Damien rumour, but G-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d
00:52:26-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d.
00:52:31Get on your knees and pray
00:52:37Get on your knees, turn it free
00:52:40Forever, you're telling me
00:52:45Oh, you're trying to so easy
00:52:50Let them crucify me
00:52:54Let us know
00:52:57What a beautiful fire and rise
00:53:27Come on, I want to hear you
00:53:29We're out to get on your knees
00:53:34Let them rule you
00:53:35Come on
00:53:49Let them rule you
00:53:51Let them rule you
00:53:52Let them rule you
00:53:58Bury me back your life
00:54:14Bury me back your life
00:54:22Bury me back your life
00:54:28Bury me back your life
00:54:32I think that the festival promoting the underground is the best thing they can do
00:54:38because that is where the music is.
00:54:40You know, you hear all of these people talk about,
00:54:43oh, there's no good rock and roll these days.
00:54:46You can't find any good music these days.
00:54:49If you just stop listening to the fucking radio
00:54:52and looked a little deeper in your own community,
00:54:55you would find some incredible music.
00:54:58Something like this bringing a spotlight to that,
00:55:00I think is the best thing.
00:55:24What's the head of God?
00:55:26I want to see you earn it!
00:55:29You gotta fight for it!
00:55:30What is the value?
00:55:50I want you to be king,
00:55:52I want you to be king!
00:55:55I want you to be king!
00:55:56Feed me back your life
00:56:00And who's king?
00:56:00I want you to be king.
00:56:00holding me up for so for so long like my show the radio station all of that
00:56:08wouldn't even be possible if it wasn't for the underground the underground
00:56:11bands are the ones that make all that that big the underground bands and you
00:56:17put the spotlight on them they tell everybody and they you know all their
00:56:21friends come out
00:56:42every band at all of our festivals they keep a hundred percent merch and last
00:56:46year we decided that we were going to make sure that every single band was paid
00:56:51at least enough to make it worth their travel here one of the bands that we
00:56:56have coming this year and I won't name them but when we sent them our offer to
00:57:00play it almost made me cry because this band has been going for 10 years and
00:57:05she told me we have never been paid to play at a festival before it's always
00:57:11been either pay for free sell tickets or a buy-on I said are you serious because I
00:57:18know for a fact that they have traveled all over the country and out of the
00:57:21country playing festivals you mean to tell me our small little festival in
00:57:25Tennessee is the first festival that has ever offered you money room and board
00:57:30money for food the day of the festival that is absurd to me that's crazy that's
00:57:36why bands can't make a living doing music anymore
00:57:49we never wanted any band to be able to look at what we do and say oh they're cool
00:57:55and all but they rip the bands off that's not what we're about we would rather go in the red
00:58:00ourselves
00:58:01and make sure that the bands walk away feeling like they didn't go in the red
00:58:10it's cool I said to somebody recently that was asking me about it I was like these aren't the dead
00:58:15suit and ties trying to get you to sell you know a bunch of records or do whatever to make
00:58:21them
00:58:21rich or whatever anything like that you know they really love the underground music
00:58:27um what do you got over here uh just an oddity shop with a bunch of weird cool shit
00:58:32an oddity come this way with me a little bit I want to get you
00:58:35so I don't know if you can hear them we've got an oddity shop I quote with some bullshit
00:58:41right yeah okay all right I thought that Wilson got that quick
00:58:44so you got how many years have you been here at the festival
00:58:49um all three years all three years that's right you guys
00:58:53I think it's been really nice to see some of those vendors that we saw at the first festival
00:58:58coming back for the second festival and being able to follow their journey
00:59:02on social media and catch up with them a year later
00:59:05a company like Smith Oddities which during the first festival
00:59:09did not have a brick and mortar store and now here we are
00:59:13about a year and a half after the the first festival
00:59:15and now they have their own physical brick and mortar store
00:59:18they're doing really well and I'm hearing stories like that from so many other businesses
00:59:24that have been affiliated with the festival
00:59:27there's a couple couple different things that I take away from reasons of why I was able to open a
00:59:33shop
00:59:33and I've told Raven seeing that I could gain a customer base locally
00:59:38definitely secured the a big reason behind why we decided to open up a brick and mortar
00:59:52the misfits market that was stemmed directly from her with the metal fest
01:00:00seeing it come together seeing that it was possible
01:00:04gave me the drive to try to do something in my own wheelhouse
01:00:17like I've said before with the festival I think so many artists and people like that
01:00:23have felt like they're alone living here and that they're really struggling to reach their audience
01:00:28but when you have something like this happen and it pulls all the weirdos that are around here
01:00:33out to one place then all of a sudden everyone is seen
01:00:37everyone's building this clientele everyone is feeling uplifted and inspired
01:00:41and so I feel like not just us alone but people like Dustin and other people
01:00:46we have changed Jackson
01:00:48if you go to downtown Main Street right now
01:00:51we've now got Salem and Sage they have their grand opening next week
01:00:54you've got Smith Oddities down there
01:00:56you've got so much cool shit going in downtown
01:00:59because finally people know there's an audience here for it
01:01:02and I don't know what we would call this little movement
01:01:05but I would say that the vendors and stuff have very much flourished
01:01:12you know me and Moonshine were texting
01:01:14he played me some of his brutal death fuck
01:01:17he said he mixed it himself
01:01:19I sent him some of my stuff
01:01:21he thought man this is really good
01:01:23you know you should let me mix this for you
01:01:25so I was like well how about I just write a whole new song
01:01:29and I just started writing songs
01:01:31as soon as he get done mixing me immediately play it on a station
01:01:34and then I just started getting all these comments
01:01:37and all these you know people are liking this stuff
01:01:39so I just kept doing it
01:01:50I think it's growing every day
01:01:53it's you know it's just amazing
01:01:55and I was here for 10 years
01:01:57and I thought I was the only one
01:02:00I mean I met a couple people
01:02:04and so it was fewer and far between
01:02:06and then now it's like I see them just
01:02:08it's like crawling out everywhere
01:02:10I mean it's really getting
01:02:12it's getting bigger
01:02:28right now
01:02:30anybody
01:02:31that wants to come on the stage
01:02:33come up on the stage right now
01:02:34let's fuck it down
01:02:40walking down the street
01:02:41and I guess you can be
01:02:43a bitch motherfucker
01:02:45and he's looking like me
01:02:46he's got
01:02:47two eyes on the world
01:02:49and for the others in the corner
01:02:51where the dance is for a guy
01:02:53come in love
01:02:58love what they love
01:03:00come on
01:03:00come up on stage
01:03:02let's fucking have a party
01:03:20I mean I think metal has always been
01:03:23a welcoming place for people
01:03:25who didn't fit in
01:03:26you know
01:03:27as people who are a little bit different
01:03:29people you know
01:03:30it kind of united us
01:03:31and it brings us together
01:03:33just you know
01:03:34we share this music
01:03:35regardless of what our backgrounds are
01:03:36where we came from
01:03:37I think a lot of us
01:03:39who got into metal
01:03:40felt we didn't belong
01:03:45I think it's important
01:03:47for the people
01:03:48who have been othered
01:03:49by the religious right
01:03:52in the Bible Belt
01:03:54to understand that
01:03:56there is more here
01:03:58you do have allies
01:03:59you do have supporters
01:04:00so if you are
01:04:02part of the LGBTQIA community
01:04:04if you are non-religious
01:04:06or if you are just simply
01:04:07of a different religion
01:04:09you have supporters
01:04:11and we are more than happy
01:04:13to be there for you
01:04:14and be supporters for you
01:04:27if you are non-religious
01:04:31if you are non-religious
01:04:36you have mutta
01:04:47Motherfuckin' go fuckin' target
01:04:52Mr. Curry come in for his face
01:04:56And Adam Smith
01:04:57I said, hey
01:05:01I said, hey
01:05:04I said, hey
01:05:14Metal Devastation Music Festival opens up a place for people to come and go that they've never had before
01:05:20That they can look forward to this event yearly
01:05:22And they can be comfortable when they go
01:05:26I mean, it's all walks of life that are there
01:05:28We're the Red Mountain man, we love you
01:05:30We love you
01:05:32We fuckin' love you
01:05:42Just because you're into metal music doesn't mean that you're a bad person
01:05:47Or like they talked about in Lexington, we were gonna open portals to hell
01:05:52I said, the only portal to hell I found was the toilet in the bathroom that wouldn't quit flushing that
01:05:56night
01:05:57And you're higher
01:05:58And you're higher and higher and higher and higher
01:06:02And the table will flip and the glass will break
01:06:06All the hell's broken loose
01:06:07And you're driving in this case
01:06:09And got your keys and we're coming right in
01:06:12So all the multiverse
01:06:14The faint is talking
01:06:15And
01:06:17Say hey
01:06:19Amen
01:06:22Put the drink in my head
01:06:24The faint is
01:06:30Give me a check
01:06:31Give me a coat
01:06:32I'll show you
01:06:33All the things that I'm
01:06:35Children have enough
01:06:36Let me
01:06:37Drop me my teeth
01:06:39I'll show you
01:06:40Three, no
01:06:42We'll assess them
01:06:43It's worth it
01:06:49Hey, hey, hey, hey
01:06:51Oh, you're better
01:06:51You ready?
01:06:54Hey, hey, hey
01:07:01Hey, hey, hey
01:07:04Hey, hey, hey, hey
01:07:08Hey, hey
01:07:13Hey man
01:07:15Hey man
01:07:17Hey MAN
01:07:29What am I out to?
01:07:34We love you guys
01:07:36Zack and Rayman, we love you
01:07:42Thank you, good night
01:07:43Thank you guys
01:08:12We try to take a lot of our cues from the crowd
01:08:14Which bands do you want to come back?
01:08:16We want a different headliner every year
01:08:18And when Autumn Lies Buried walked out there last year
01:08:21And he had a whole huge amount of people
01:08:24That had never heard of them before
01:08:25And the minute that they just started going
01:08:27That place erupted
01:08:30Like, I don't even know
01:08:31Like fireworks
01:08:37But that energy
01:08:38Like, they were fearless
01:08:40They were fearless about what they said
01:08:42They stood by what they believed in
01:08:43And the music was heavy
01:08:45The energy was just, ugh
01:08:46This song is called Fuck Around and Find Out
01:08:50And it's about hanging clansmen
01:08:52For their really redneck chicken fucking brooks
01:08:56Fuckeraceous, let's do this
01:08:57So, to me, the way the crowd responded
01:09:00And the way that they performed
01:09:02That was, we immediately
01:09:03It was right after the fest
01:09:05I was like, next year, y'all headline
01:09:07And we got a mattress right here side stage
01:09:10Surf on that bitch
01:09:11You better match yourself, bitch
01:09:12Let's go
01:09:12Fish and metal fest
01:09:14Fucking surf that bitch
01:09:15It's it
01:09:17We match with surfing on this bitch
01:09:19Believe me
01:09:20If I started murdering people
01:09:24It'd be none of them
01:09:26We did not pass
01:09:27Whatever all the time
01:09:27This song has been
01:09:28Or that was…
01:09:30Was they like, they had a heart
01:09:32Who made a heart
01:09:32Who made a heart
01:09:33Who ruined their home
01:09:37Who made a heart
01:09:40Who made a heart
01:09:44He was like, he was like, he was like, he was like, he was like, he was like, you got
01:09:47to know what is the rest of this bitch
01:10:19I don't know what you want to hear me
01:10:23I don't know what you want to hear me
01:10:53I don't know what you want to hear me
01:11:27This is not it, you're here to sing.
01:12:16Do you have any closing thoughts
01:12:18about anything you're talking about?
01:12:19Yeah.
01:12:20Fuck Nazis, fuck bigots.
01:12:22Don't come to our shows.
01:12:23We'll beat your ass.
01:12:26Perfectly stated, man.
Comments