- 1 week ago
Death Reigns
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 own of the cloud
00:01:47The pure amazing
00:01:49It's not an alcohol
00:01:50I'm trying to cry
00:01:52I'm trying to cry
00:01:56I'm trying to cry
00:01:56But let's go wrong
00:01:57And let's go wrong
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,
00:02:59just 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 world.
00:03:29One day, they were like, Zach, you're always here.
00:03:33Why don't you just do it? You should be a DJ.
00:03:35One thing led to another, and then I had a show, and I called it The Metal Devastation Radio 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 and bands on small labels.
00:03:55So what it seems like to me is your main motives are to help bands get heard. Is that correct?
00:04:02Totally, man. Totally, dude. Because I'm a musician myself, and that's how I actually got into this whole thing,
00:04:09I wanted to be able to do something for other bands that I wanted to be done for me, if
00:04:14that makes sense.
00:04:15I ended up leaving that station. I was kind of depressed. I was just sitting around, and one day she
00:04:20was like,
00:04:21you know, why don't we just start our own radio station?
00:04:23Why not?
00:04:24We can do it.
00:04:25Holy motherfucking shit, motherfuckers. What the fuck is going on? God damn it. I'm Zach Moonshine.
00:04:30You're listening to The Motherfucking Zach Moonshine Show live right here on Metal Devastation Motherfucking 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.
00:04:41Got to do it.
00:04:42I was like, all right, all right, whatever. I'll give it a shot.
00:04:45And I interviewed one of my friend's bands, Rock and Roll Villain Society, Cameron the drummer,
00:04:53because 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, man.
00:05:06We got fucking a brand new Pounder, brand new Double Horse, brand new As I Like Dying, brand new Nightwish,
00:05:17Grand Magus, Rust Bucket.
00:05:19A lot of times on Thursdays, I like to do a throwback Thursday post, and sometimes I'll do that based
00:05:26on some interview that I did back in the day,
00:05:29and I'll go look through them, and I'll listen to some of those older ones,
00:05:33especially the ones during the years when I was at the factory working all those hours.
00:05:37And I can hear myself, how tired I sound on the phone with these people, but I'm still fighting through
00:05:44it, 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 rock feel, you know,
00:05:54that 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 that
00:06:05people listening, they could see me on the website.
00:06:10And there was times where I would pass 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.
00:06:30And so we did away with the camera.
00:06:34Oh, man.
00:06:34Whenever the factory would threaten that we would have to go work Saturday or that we'd have to work over
00:06:39on, oh, man, I'd be like, you know,
00:06:42I would have to kick it into hyperdrive and do whatever I had to do to get whatever they needed
00:06:48done, like, extra fast, just so I could get out of there, because I was not missing that shit.
00:06:55All you gotta 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, just no matter how brutal
00:07:11or hard it was, whatever we had to go through, however many hours we had to work that week, I
00:07:18always knew, you know, on Friday, there's gonna be a six-pack of beer, some heavy metal, some band I'm
00:07:26gonna get to talk to, and it's gonna be cool, and we're gonna 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.
00:07:40Yes, 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 somehow have to
00:07:52make that just become what it is now.
00:07:56It wasn't until the quarantine that that that became, that became a reality, like that's pretty much what made it
00:08:03happen.
00:08:07And bands were literally emailing me, asking me like, hey, we see how you promote your radio show, can you
00:08:15promote our album? We've got this tour coming up, you know, like, can you write something about it and send
00:08:20out an email? We 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 it a try,
00:08:27you know, like, yes, I do know a shit ton of people, I got an insane amount of email contacts.
00:08:32They paid me, and I did it, and immediately I was like, God, I hope this works, I really hope
00:08:38that they get something out of this, because I don't want to feel like an asshole for, you know, taking
00:08:43somebody's money and doing something like that.
00:08:45So it was just sort of, but immediately, fucking all these people, all these magazines and websites and shit, you
00:08:52know, like, yeah, hell yeah, we're posting it here, we're doing this for you.
00:08:58I remember so many nights in the chat room on Metal Devastation Radio, just talking with underground bands and listeners
00:09:06and stuff, and we would be drinking, and we'd often just, you know, get into, like, talking hypothetically, making jokes
00:09:13about, you know, wouldn't it be cool 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, you know,
00:09:23because they don't get those opportunities a lot, or especially not back then.
00:09:27And so for 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.
00:10:15He was a promoter in Kentucky, he wanted to help putting together a festival when his venue fell through.
00:10:21So we hooked up with him, we did our best to help him, but about a month into planning, after
00:10:26we'd announced it and everything, he pulled out, we had no idea what to do, so we just said, I
00:10:32guess we're putting on a festival, and we just rolled with it.
00:14:22It was my first time.
00:17:06you know that's not a bad marketing you know that that's pretty good pr so 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 what is this what is it how do shirts work i don't know
00:17:33after they had announced casket robbery they were starting to get a lot of hate
00:17:37feedback off of that and i kind of jokingly made a comment on facebook saying oh man wait until
00:17:43they find summoner circle and 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 i will say that i was not expecting
00:17:55the
00:17:55pushback to be as hard as it was in lexington i was shocked actually
00:18:22we were getting inundated with emails and messages and people talking about our fest on community
00:18:29uh facebook social pages and then when we spoke with the people at the lake the girl at the front
00:18:35desk told us we've been getting hundreds of emails phone calls people wanting us to shut this down
00:18:40wanting to know why we're doing it and some of the messages that we were getting were kind of
00:18:47threatening people saying they were going to show up and unplug us saying that there was no way they
00:18:52were going to allow this to be in their town we walked across to the venue with one of the
00:18:55bands
00:18:56there was a whole group and i'm not quite sure which church they were from but they were
00:19:00on the stage and around the stage praying like putting hands on it i mean you could see it on
00:19:06their face that they were terrified like they honestly thought we were what we were doing was
00:19:11evil and diabolical one of the comments was something that we sacrificed live animals on stage
00:19:18and maybe there was another one that we cut each other before the shows someone sent me a message
00:19:24just said did you hear you have to like sacrifice a goat to get in and i'm like are you
00:19:28like
00:19:28kidding me are you like believing this stuff on social media we had originally rented our sound
00:19:35equipment through a an individual who had the equipment that we needed three days before the fest
00:19:41well it was the wednesday and the fest was saturday yeah we were out there on the field we were
00:19:45at
00:19:45beach lake looking at the venue uh planning out like where to put the gates and everything like that
00:19:51last minute things and he just calls out of the blue and was saying that you know he said we
00:19:56have
00:19:56a problem we can't do this yeah he was pretty much like i didn't know that it was going to
00:20:03be you know
00:20:04that kind of music i don't know your sound engineer i don't know if he's going to bust my speakers
00:20:09and
00:20:09i'm just frankly not comfortable with allowing my equipment to be used for your event
00:20:16so we ended up having to scramble we had two days before the event we had no idea what we
00:20:22were going
00:20:22to do we found a company in memphis that had about half of what we needed but not everything and
00:20:29then
00:20:29we found a company in nashville that had the other half so what we ended up the first day we
00:20:35went to
00:20:35memphis and back and got the stuff dropped it off here this would have been on friday i think it
00:20:41was the
00:20:42day before the fest then we also drove to nashville and all the way back so all in all that's
00:20:48about
00:20:48eight hours worth of driving just to get the sound equipment it was extremely stressful
00:20:55i didn't know what to expect that next morning i didn't you know we didn't know what was going to
00:21:00happen my uh insides were turning turning inside out man i was thinking what if we did that there's
00:21:07going to be like five people here there's only five people in henderson county to like metal
00:21:12but no seeing all those cars lined up all the way down the street and and all these people they
00:21:17already had their fest shirts on they're blasting metal in their cars and they're just ready to
00:21:21to go ahead and i'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 it was just a bunch of very untalented bands
00:21:55i didn't really know of anybody and it just blew my mind so much that i became so involved i
00:22:04started
00:22:04playing music again i've been to hundreds of festivals all over the world pretty much and i've never seen
00:22:12such commitment and just such love that i get at that one it exceeded all of our expectations when
00:22:19we showed up there was already a lot of people there and this was in the morning you know and
00:22:23then
00:22:23by the afternoon that the field was full it was unbelievable you know the success of it i was highly
00:22:29pleased even in lexington big crowd big space amazing sound i was like this is showcasing the little guys
00:22:39the little guys and we need this i thought there'd be a lot more protesters and there was only like
00:22:54one incident it was wonderful that first year was just all about the music it was all about community
00:23:01and 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 that was one of the
00:23:30most
00:23:31low-key festivals i've ever done as far as people having fun it was amazing no problems whatsoever we
00:23:38did tremendous the people were amazing the crowd was amazing the bands were amazing i got to meet
00:23:44so many different people um so it was all around just a great experience
00:23:57anybody who knows us knows that we're a metal band for nerds you guys drew a circle on top of
00:24:03mercury
00:24:04explain that like uh tell us in detail the god who created our planet mercury was killed in a
00:24:11interplanetary war by the god of war ragoth and when the god was killed its blood was spilled all over
00:24:18the planet mercury gog and magog got the bright idea of gathering that blood putting it into a summoner's
00:24:23circle and 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 hp lovecraft video
00:24:38games dungeons and dragons it 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 so that being said
00:24:54that first festival was the first time that we introduced the ripping up the bible on stage
00:25:06bigger screw it just give them what they want if 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 are wanting to stop this from happening
00:25:18tonight
00:25:21yeah fuck those motherfuckers they were afraid that we were going to what was it he talked
00:25:28a portal we were going to open a portal like to hell oh no oh god but there is already
00:25:38a portal here
00:25:40again you didn't see a little mexican restaurant down the road los portales
00:25:46yeah who knew that portals to hell could also come with quesadillas personally i'd like to thank the
00:25:52conservative people and the religious folks for protesting because and raising a ruckus because
00:25:57i think it did nothing more than raise interest in the festival and and got more people there
00:26:12so the next day after the festival we were on such a high everything was you know felt like everything
00:26:18just went perfect uh nobody got hurt you know everybody was happy and we were just ready to
00:26:25to book another show for the next year the first time they came out with the metal devastation festival
00:26:32went off without a hitch one of the things obviously being involved in politics i never heard a word
00:26:37about it which was a positive thing and obviously there shouldn't have been an issue the second time
00:26:43around uh that's when it started getting a little bit dicey so i went up to beach lake ready to
00:26:51book
00:26:51our next date so that we could start booking vans for 2023 so i went in there and i asked
00:26:57to meet with
00:26:57them and the gentleman who normally does it wasn't there so um i called numerous emails numerous phone
00:27:04calls nobody would call me back um finally they got back with me and they said uh we're not going
00:27:10to be
00:27:10able to book you there's been some confusion over who owns the stage this lake is actually owned by
00:27:18tva and it's managed by a beach river watershed there was a lot of information that was going around
00:27:25our chamber of commerce was being said that they were the ones who didn't because they were trying
00:27:29to take over control of it based on conversations well they never got to that point and be our bwrda
00:27:37actually eventually canceled the whole thing taxpayers with the city helped build it it's on twra land and
00:27:46then beach lake also said that a local church had called the building or code people and that no one
00:27:53was going to be allowed to use the stage anymore because of the handrail there's a an international
00:28:12building code that we actually have adopted here and we adopted every year but if you actually go back in
00:28:17it's not required to have handrails along stages so it was kind of a part of my french a piss
00:28:24poor excuse
00:28:24to keep the metal devastation festival from coming and there was no problems there was no problems there
00:28:33was you know the cops were enjoying it i saw cops out there head banging the first year and they
00:28:39were i was
00:28:40like holy hell look at this this is awesome you know everybody's enjoyed it you know i didn't see
00:28:46any problems at all everybody was like one big family treating each other with respect there was no
00:28:52reason for them to put an end to it i think there was a church that didn't like it complained
00:28:58this that
00:28:59the other it's pretty much a small group but it it's a group of power
00:29:29so we were forced to find a new venue to move the festival which was really stressful we spent months
00:29:36driving around looking at different venues we did look at the amp first when we first saw it we didn't
00:29:41see how we were going to contain it so we went on we visited a farm slash venue in middle
00:29:48tennessee
00:29:48which was great it had all this acreage and it was wonderful but the stage was literally like
00:29:53four wooden wooden pallets in a field pallets aren't gonna do so that one fell through then
00:30:00there was one in west tennessee near the river then we found this one that was perfect like it had
00:30:06camping it was out by the water it was open it had a stage it was wonderful the price was
00:30:11right i was on
00:30:13the phone with the guy and everything was great and then finally he says i only have one stipulation
00:30:17and that is that nothing satanic no satanic imagery no satanic lyrics and we're like but this is heavy
00:30:25metal we were forced to relook at the amp i remember that day i was we were really feeling down
00:30:41and i was
00:30:42just like let's just go back by there one more time get it again with different eyes get out and
00:30:46walk
00:30:47around and feel it and it just seemed like it made sense and i was like you know what let's
00:30:51just do it
00:31:12i remember them coming calling and saying that they would like to come down here at the amp and
00:31:18host of the metal fest and we said come on down and so from there it's history
00:31:32they were so supportive when 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 even
00:31:48on the
00:31:48weekends you know they didn't care to make this a safe show and to be ticketed we had to have
00:31:54barriers
00:31:54and boundaries they helped us with that and anybody that came down there and tried to push back against
00:31:59us they stood up for us and you know big shout out to ricky and bruce they're amazing humans and
00:32:05they
00:32:06didn't judge us and it was just a profoundly different and a more supportive experience
00:32:19wonderful people to work with you know we enjoy working with them and
00:32:23they when they come down we always cutting up and everything so
00:32:33so
00:32:34Let's go, run, dethrone, and we get better
00:32:40Who we are your looks at me?
00:32:45I make the distance, I get better
00:32:49I can tell that for the soul
00:32:53I get fucked now, we get better
00:32:58Who we are your looks at me?
00:33:11About three months before the fest, Ricky at the amp gives me a call
00:33:14And he says, Raven, 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 them
00:33:22And he said, you know, just between us, I can't give you any names
00:33:25But I'm having politicians come in here
00:33:27I'm having some of the wealthy heavy hitters that have Poole and Jackson
00:33:32Everybody coming in here wanting to know about this show
00:33:34And if we're actually letting it happen
00:33:36They were asking them, you know, are they satanic?
00:33:39Do 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 Zack and Raven specifically
00:33:57In 2023, the first radio interview that I was asked to do
00:34:02As soon as I picked up the phone, the first question they asked me was
00:34:06Do you worship Satan?
00:34:08We are not evil people
00:34:11We just like a certain type of music
00:34:14Are you a Satan worshipper?
00:34:18No, absolutely not
00:34:19I'm actually not religious at all
00:34:21And so to be accused of worshipping something that I don't even believe in is pretty funny
00:34:28Oh, you laugh about it
00:34:30That's because you make me do all the interviews
00:34:38This is the Bible Belt
00:34:39Where we are inundated with religion
00:34:41The moment you step outside your front door
00:34:43You've got billboards
00:34:44You'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
00:34:54You're going to get backhanded
00:34:57I get a lot of emails too from different magazines and radio stations
00:35:03And different media outlets for metal from around the world
00:35:06For a lot of people around the world, they didn't know that that still existed
00:35:10Yeah
00:35:10A lot of people were shocked at first
00:35:12They were like, what?
00:35:13Like, they're angry because music
00:35:19Because 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
00:36:03It 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
00:36:17We'll let you see if it looks more like this
00:36:37We'll be free
00:36:51I'll see you next time.
00:37:22I'll see you next time.
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
00:37:55them, I have my limit.
00:38:06Oh, this one's angry.
00:38:08No one will take a stand against this junk.
00:38:10And then we wonder why kids are the way they are today.
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 had in our community.
00:38:25This 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
00:38:39and should be held more 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
00:38:49public parks that 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
00:39:08were 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.
00:39:50Jackson has always had a role to make our children available.
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.
00:50:29Come on.
00:50:31Jackson, it's time to act like a fucking dick!
00:50:34Push somebody!
00:50:36Jackpot!
00:50:46Quietus at Mantis is a sci-fi based thrash metal band.
00:50:58We love anything that has to do with like 50s sci-fi.
00:51:02The lore of the band is that we are three scientists that we're trying to open a portal to the
00:51:09next dimension of the Mantises.
00:51:15We get taken over by the Mantis pheromones, by the bug pheromones, open the gates 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,
00:51:44we never expected 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 can really try and actually go for.
00:52:12Something that's more realistic than a lot of these bigger metal festivals that most of us would never even dream
00:52:18of being on.
00:52:23Lieutenant
00:52:24Getting from the Movie
00:52:49The peace of the crucified
00:52:53The beautiful
00:52:56The beautiful
00:53:00Fire and rise
00:53:03The beautiful
00:53:06The beautiful
00:53:11The beautiful
00:53:13The beautiful
00:53:15The beautiful
00:53:18The beautiful
00:53:21The beautiful
00:53:23The beautiful
00:53:29The beautiful
00:53:31The beautiful
00:53:31The beautiful
00:53:35The beautiful
00:53:36The beautiful
00:53:37The beautiful
00:53:38The beautiful
00:53:39The beautiful
00:53:39The beautiful
00:53:40live
00:53:42...
00:53:48live
00:53:50live
00:53:50life
00:53:51live
00:53:52live
00:53:55live
00:53:57live
00:53:58Bury me back your life
00:54:13Bury me back your life
00:54:22Bury me back your life
00:54:32I think that the festival promoting the underground is the best thing they can do, because that is where the
00:54:39music is.
00:54:40You know, you hear all of these people talk about, oh, there's no good rock and roll these days.
00:54:46You can't find any good music these days.
00:54:49And if you just stop listening to the fucking radio and looked a little deeper in your own community, you
00:54:56would find some incredible music.
00:54:58Something like this bringing a spotlight to that, I 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!
00:55:50I almost even feel, I don't know, obligated, I guess would be the wrong word, but it just feels natural
00:55:57to feed back to the community that's been...
00:56:00holding me up for so long.
00:56:03Like my show, the radio station, all of that, wouldn't even be possible if it wasn't for the underground.
00:56:11The underground bands are the ones that make all that, that big.
00:56:15The underground bands, when you put the spotlight on them, they tell everybody, man.
00:56:19They, you know, all their friends come out to support you.
00:56:43Every band at all of our festivals, they keep 100% merch.
00:56:46And last year we decided that we were going to make sure that every single band was paid at least
00:56:52enough to make it worth their travel here.
00:56:54One of the bands that we have coming this year, and I won't name them, but when we sent them
00:56:59our offer to play,
00:57:00it almost made me cry because this band has been going for 10 years.
00:57:04And she told me we have never been paid to play at a festival before.
00:57:10It's always been either pay for free, sell tickets or a buy on.
00:57:15I said, are you serious?
00:57:17Because I know for a fact that they have traveled all over the country and out of the country playing
00:57:22festivals.
00:57:23You mean to tell me our small little festival in Tennessee is the first festival that has ever offered you
00:57:28money, room and board, money for food the day of the festival.
00:57:33That is absurd to me.
00:57:35Yeah, that's crazy.
00:57:36That's why 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 and
00:57:55all, but they rip the bands off.
00:57:57That's not what we're about.
00:57:59We would rather go in the red ourselves and make sure that the bands walk away feeling like they didn't
00:58:05go in the red.
00:58:10It's cool.
00:58:11I said to somebody recently that was asking me about it.
00:58:14I was like, these aren't the dead suit and ties trying to get you to sell, you know, a bunch
00:58:19of records or do whatever to make them rich or whatever, anything like that.
00:58:23You know, they really love the underground music.
00:58:27What do you got over here?
00:58:29Just an oddity shop with a bunch of weird, cool shit.
00:58:32An oddity?
00:58:33Come this way with me a little bit.
00:58:34I want to get you.
00:58:35So, I don't know if you can hear them.
00:58:37We've got an oddity shop, I quote, with some bullshit.
00:58:41Right?
00:58:42Yeah.
00:58:43Okay.
00:58:56All right.
00:58:57I saw at the first festival coming back for the second festival and being able to follow their journey on
00:59:03social media and catch up with them a year later.
00:59:06A company like Smith Oddities, which during the first festival did not have a brick and mortar store.
00:59:12And now here we are about a year and a half after the first festival and now they have their
00:59:16own physical brick and mortar store.
00:59:18They're doing really well.
00:59:20And I'm hearing stories like that from so many other businesses that have been affiliated with the festival.
00:59:27There's a couple different things that I take away from reasons of why I was able to open a shop.
00:59:34And I've told Raven, seeing that I could gain a customer base locally, definitely secured a big reason behind why
00:59:42we decided to open up a brick and mortar.
00:59:52The Misfits Market, that was stemmed directly from her with the Metal Fest.
01:00:01Seeing it come together, seeing that it was possible gave me the drive to try to do something in my
01:00:09own wheelhouse.
01:00:10Hey, hey, come get some dead shit.
01:00:12Come get some dead shit.
01:00:15If you don't buy dead shit, I don't know how I can help you.
01:00:17Like I've said before with the festival, I think so many artists and people like that have felt like they're
01:00:23alone 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 out to
01:00:34one place, then all of a sudden everyone is seen.
01:00:37Everyone's building this clientele.
01:00:39Everyone is feeling uplifted and inspired.
01:00:41And so I feel like not just us alone, but people like Dustin and other people, we have changed Jackson.
01:00:48If you go to downtown Main Street right now, we've now got Salem and Sage.
01:00:53They 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 because finally people know there's an audience here for it.
01:01:02And I don't know what we would call this little movement, but I would say that the vendors and stuff
01:01:09have very much flourished.
01:01:12You know, me and Moonshine were texting.
01:01:15He played me some of his brutal death fucks.
01:01:17He said he mixed it himself.
01:01:19I sent him some of my stuff.
01:01:21He's like, man, this is really good.
01:01:23You know, you should let me mix this for you.
01:01:26So 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, he immediately played it on a station.
01:01:34And then I just started getting all these comments and 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.
01:01:55I was here for 10 years and 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 him just, it's like crawling out everywhere.
01:02:10I mean, it's really getting, it's getting bigger.
01:02:13Hey!
01:02:16Hey!
01:02:18Hey!
01:02:20Hey!
01:02:21Hey!
01:02:23Hey!
01:02:23Hey!
01:02:23Hey!
01:02:26Hey!
01:02:26Hey, man!
01:02:28Right now.
01:02:30Anybody that wants to come on the stage, come up on the stage right now.
01:02:34Let's fucking have a party!
01:02:36Let's fucking to be here.
01:02:36I know.
01:02:40Welcome down the street.
01:02:42And I guess you will be вик một dalle,
01:02:43He'll be this motherfucker.
01:02:45And he's fucking like me, he's got two eyes on the wall, and from,
01:02:50The others' in the corner, and when they dance is for a guy coming along!
01:03:20I mean, I think metal has always been
01:03:23a welcoming place for people who didn't fit in, you know, as people who are a little
01:03:29bit different. It kind of united us and it brings us together. Just, you know, we share
01:03:34this music, regardless of what our backgrounds are, where we came from. I think a lot of us
01:03:39who got into metal felt we didn't belong.
01:03:46I think it's important for the people who have been othered by the religious right in
01:03:53the Bible Belt to understand that there is more here. You do have allies. You do have
01:04:00supporters. So if you are part of the LGBTQIA community, if you are non-religious, or if
01:04:06you are just simply of a different religion, you have supporters. And we are more than happy
01:04:13to be there for you and be supporters for you.
01:04:16except for you.
01:04:21No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
01:04:46If I know
01:04:46Motherfuckin' go fuckin' tired of it.
01:04:52Mr. Curry come in for his face.
01:04:56And Adam Smith!
01:04:58I said, hey!
01:05:01I said, hey!
01:05:05I said, hey!
01:05:08Yeah, I said, hey!
01:05:12Oh, I wait!
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, and 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 Rat Mountain man, we love you!
01:05:31We love you!
01:05:33Fuckin' love you!
01:05:36Here we go!
01:05:39Y'all ready?
01:05:42Just because you're into metal music doesn't mean that you're a bad person.
01:05:48Or, 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.
01:05:57He died.
01:05:57And you're higher, and you're higher, and higher, and higher, and higher, and higher.
01:06:03Now the tables will flip, and the glass will break.
01:06:06All the hell's broken loose.
01:06:08It's arriving in this case, and got the keys, and we're coming right in.
01:06:13So all the multivestivates are coming in.
01:06:16live in this sleep in you.
01:06:22Put your insurance in the Shank Yeast.
01:06:30Give me your jacket, and the coat just sold in as the pastes.
01:06:34I'll show you all the needs of copies.
01:06:35allen the hundreds, and I will sing them enough to read me.탁
01:06:38me on my T's I'll show ya'll
01:06:413-0, we'll attach them in front of them
01:07:30We love you guys
01:07:36Zack and Raven, we love you
01:07:42Thank you, good night
01:07:43Thank you guys
01:07:46Thank you so much
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 Liesbury walked out there last year
01:08:21And he had a whole huge amount of people that 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
01:08:44The energy was just
01:08:46Ugh
01:08:46This song is called Fuck Around and Find Out
01:08:50And it's about having Klansmen for their really redneck chicken fucking bloods
01:08:56Fucker races, 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
01:09:06Next year, y'all headline
01:09:07Hey, 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
01:09:12This kid that'll fast fucking surf that bitch
01:09:15You see it
01:09:17We match with surfing on this bitch
01:09:19Believe me
01:09:20If I start murdering people
01:09:24It'd be none of them
01:09:37But your eyes inside
01:09:38I need one of them
01:09:40I need one of them
01:09:42Hundredrender
01:09:43Two
01:09:43Three
01:09:43Three
01:09:44Four
01:09:45Three
01:09:46Five
01:09:46Six
01:09:46Five
01:09:46Six
01:09:46Four
01:09:47Nine
01:09:49Six
01:09:50Elizabeth, I don't believe and not messions
01:09:54seconds I want that they can fucking be damned
01:09:58Look into my eyes, you fucking half And what other hands on me bilmiyorum
01:10:03And what then-
01:10:05bullies are gonna fight
01:10:07I've dropped the crumbs
01:10:07Now what d-
01:10:07Ow-
01:10:07Now I can feel it
01:10:08You can-
01:10:08My mother-
01:10:09This will be-
01:10:09I'm getting head ofどう
01:10:20Um
01:10:20I don't want you to carry.
01:10:22I don't want you to protect myself.
01:10:24I don't know what happens.
01:10:26I don't want you to
01:11:11Come here close now, motherfuckers, hear this shit real quick
01:11:15I won't ever close my eyes again
01:11:20I don't wanna stop it
01:11:26This man ain't gonna say
01:11:28I'm not the fuck I'm gonna show you
01:11:33I'm not the fuck I'm gonna show you
01:11:36Oh, my God!
01:12:16Do you have any closing thoughts about 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