- 6 hours ago
Death Reigns
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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 are the true
00:01:47The blood made me
00:01:49Just a good day
00:01:51Don't be the same
00:01:54You are the true
00:01:56So now the world will be
00:02:36I'll remember as far back as when I was like 12, 13 years old, when we lived in Maryland, there
00:02:44was a really cool college radio station out of there called The Underground, I believe, and they were playing DSI,
00:02:51King 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.
00:03:01But 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?
00:03:34You know, you should be a DJ.
00:03:36One 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, our main goal is and always has been to promote
00:03:51underground 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.
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 to be able
00:04:10to do something for other bands that I wanted to be done for me.
00:04:14If that makes sense.
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 our own
00:04:22radio 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 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.
00:04:41Gotta do it.
00:04:42I was like, all right, all right, whatever.
00:04:43I'll give it a shot.
00:04:45And I interviewed one of my friend's bands, Rock and Roll Villain Society, Cameron, the drummer, because I already knew
00:04:53him.
00:04:54So 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 the room and I'll listen to some of those older ones, especially the ones during the
00:05:34years 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 the
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.
00:06:18They'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.
00:06:28And he would just pass out in his chair.
00:06:30And so we did away with the camera.
00:06:33Oh, 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, I would have to kick it into hyperdrive
00:06:45and do whatever I had to do to get whatever they needed done, like, extra, extra fast just so I
00:06:52could 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, 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 going to be a six-pack of beer, some heavy metal, some band
00:07:26I'm going to get to talk to, and it's going to be cool.
00:07:28I'm 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.
00:07:40Yes, 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 became a reality, like that's pretty much what made it happen.
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?
00:08:16We've got this tour coming up, you know, like, can you write something about it and send out an email?
00:08:20We like how you do that.
00:08:21I'm like, you're talking about PR.
00:08:24But 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.
00:08:29I 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.
00:08:37I really hope that they get something out of this, because I don't want to feel like an asshole for,
00:08:41you know, taking somebody'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
00:08:51know, like, yeah, well, yeah, we're posting it here.
00:08:54We'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.
00:09:41Thanks to you.
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 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.
00:10:29We had no idea what to do, so we just said, I guess we're putting on a festival, and we
00:10:34just rolled with it.
00:12:50Somewhere around the time that we had released our first few songs, our first few singles.
00:12:56One of us had sent them, I want to say, Cosmic Guns.
00:13:01Fast forward a little bit longer, they mentioned the festival.
00:13:04They were just like, yeah, we would love to have y'all.
00:13:07It was a surprise to me because it already looked super professional the first time I was seeing things come
00:13:13out about it.
00:13:14So I was like, man, this is going to be huge.
00:13:17It was just a surprise.
00:13:18You know, the festival itself was a surprise.
00:13:21You didn't know anything like that big was going to happen around here.
00:13:24You know, growing up as kids, you always dream about stuff like that happening.
00:13:27They asked us to come play this festival.
00:13:31Our friends in Summoner Circle were also playing it.
00:13:34We were stoked to make it a stop.
00:13:36We had never been there in Tennessee before, and they just played it up like this huge, like, family underground
00:13:44music festival.
00:13:44Well, the very first year I knew when we were talking about this, I said, I want this festival to
00:13:51be like a curiosities, like, we're here for heavy music.
00:13:58The items are going to be weird and obscure and all of that.
00:14:01And I did go seeking that.
00:14:02The very first vendor that I reached out to was Dustin at Smithodities.
00:14:06We connected very early on in the beginning stages of me making Smithodities.
00:14:12She messaged me whenever she first had thoughts of doing the Metal Fest and asked me if I would be
00:14:18interested in being a vendor.
00:14:20I was excited.
00:14:21It was my first time vending any event.
00:14:25I couldn't think of a better event to vend.
00:14:28You know, 12 hours of metal that I get to sit and listen to while I'm sitting there making money.
00:14:32I mean, come on.
00:14:44He was hanging out on the picnic table at Beach Lake one night, and I was from Nashville, but my
00:14:49dad lived in Lexington.
00:14:50So I was in Lexington visiting my dad, and I was in my car.
00:14:54I had a little convertible, and I had some acid and some weed.
00:14:59We were driving around, me and my sister, and we were like, let's just go find some people to hang
00:15:03out with, you know?
00:15:04So we go around the lake, and I see this long-haired guy sitting up on the picnic table smoking
00:15:08a cigarette, and I yelled.
00:15:10I said, hey, you want to go get fucked up?
00:15:14And he's like, yeah.
00:15:17I don't know if that kind of, you know, being on that trippy level the first night kind of brought
00:15:22us, you know, had this special connection or what.
00:15:25But he told his friend that night that he was going to marry me someday.
00:15:31So we decided that Beach Lake would be the perfect venue for this for several reasons.
00:15:36One, because that's where we met years ago, but also it's a beautiful place.
00:15:41It's a big open field, has an enormous stage with the backdrop of the lake.
00:15:46So we went up there, and we asked him.
00:15:48We were like, you know, could we have a festival here?
00:15:50And he was like, sure, what kind?
00:15:52And we said, well, it's heavy metal.
00:15:55And 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.
00:16:20What 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,
00:16:36all these metalheads 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, all 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.
00:17:10So we ran with it.
00:17:13Some of you may have heard, some of you may have seen,
00:17:16but we made a special merchandise item just for 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,
00:17:43oh, 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,
00:18:39people wanting us to shut this down, wanting to know why we're doing it.
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,
00:18:50saying that there was no way they were going to allow this to be in their town.
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,
00:18:59but they were on the stage 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, like they honestly thought we were,
00:19:10what we were doing was evil and diabolical.
00:19:13One of the comments was something that we sacrificed live animals on stage.
00:19:19And maybe there was another one that we 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.
00:20:22We 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.
00:20:47So 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, you know, we 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 had their
00:21:17fest shirts on.
00:21:18They're blasting metal in their cars and they're just ready to go at it.
00:21:22And 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.
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 never seen such commitment and just such love that I get at that one.
00:22:17It exceeded all of our expectations.
00:22:19When we showed up, there was already a lot of people there and this was in the morning, you know.
00:22:23And 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 and we need this.
00:22:51I thought there'd be a lot more protesters and there was only like one incident.
00:22:55It was wonderful that first year was just all about the music.
00:22:58It was all about community and it was all about building up these underground bands
00:23:05that not a lot of people have heard of and bringing heavier music to a scene
00:23:11that 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
00:24:12by 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 Lord of the Rings, H.P. Lovecraft, video games, Dungeons &
00:24:39Dragons.
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.
00:25:09So, 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?
00:25:29We were going to open a portal?
00:25:31Like, to hell?
00:25:34Oh no!
00:25:36Oh God!
00:25:36But 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.
00:32:39You know, we enjoy working with them, and when they come down, we're always cutting up and everything.
00:33:11About three months before the fest, Ricky at the amp gives me a call and he says, Raven, you would
00:33:16not 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.
00:33:57In 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.
00:35:10A lot of people were shocked at first. They were like, what?
00:35:14Like, they're angry because music?
00:35:19Because of a... 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 it.
00:36:10It definitely solidified leaning into that as a theme.
00:36:23We'll see you next time.
00:36:57We'll see you next time.
00:37:14We'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 and
00:37:51try to figure out what's going on in that head and actually have a conversation with them, I have my
00:37:56limit.
00:38:06Oh, this one's angry.
00:38:07No 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.
00:38:53If 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.
00:39:03Jackson 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 Condrey.
00:39:20That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:20That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:20That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:20That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:21That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:23That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:25That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:32That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:33That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:34That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:34That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:35That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:36That's Ray Condrey.
00:39:41That's Ray Condrey.
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 was
00:40:16the 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 forever!
00:41:08I don't want cannibals, I'll make sure it's concrete, the tired part shall fill the name.
00:41:17The HDI the clerk, to them we have no name, I won't touch all side down again.
00:41:26It's not a turning point, so can I move it?
00:41:35To live an ordinary life, it's just my experiences.
00:41:44So one of the groups that was giving us the most pushback, especially on social media, was the We the
00:41:49People group.
00:41:50And one of their members, she and her whole family go up to the farmer's 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.
00:42:02That they could hear, you know, various things.
00:42:07And it got pretty heated for a while.
00:42:09And then the day of the fest, at one point when I'm up setting up with the vendors,
00:42:12I look over and this woman that had done all of that and like a group of five or six
00:42:17children
00:42:17and a couple other people stood across the street and 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.
00:42:45There was nobody that was there that was doing anything that would be considered an activist type situation that I
00:42:56know 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.
00:43:37I 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 as the
00:43:47small 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.
00:44:04You know, the more intimate you can get.
00:44:05Put your hands together, motherfuckers. Come on. Like 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.
00:44:21And then the people were sitting, some were standing, there were a lot moshing.
00:44:28And we're positioned very well. You know, Jackson's right in between Memphis and Nashville.
00:44:32Two tremendous music historical places.
00:44:37And it just makes sense, right? Like Jackson's right there on I-40, right in between the two.
00:44:43To me, it's just a natural progression of Hellraising throughout the decades, you know, just the next phase of it.
00:44:55I had banged so hard when Grave Huffer was on, because those guys are just grind like crazy, that I
00:45:01actually, everything turned green and I fell over.
00:45:04And I wasn't drunk or nothing. It was just, I had banged so hard. I'm an older man. I just
00:45:10fell over.
00:45:19When we tried to get in the first time, we submitted and then we got the notification that it was
00:45:26too late to get in.
00:45:27I was super bummed. As soon as I saw the registration open for the next year, I was like, let
00:45:32me get this in 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 to
00:45:41have you guys.
00:45:47I'm not expecting the crowd to be as big as it was. And I looked out and it was just
00:45:51a sea of people.
00:45:52I was like, oh, this is, this is real. This is, this is a real deal here. You know, there's
00:45:58quite a bit of people out there.
00:45:59It was fun. I had a blast, you know.
00:46:05It is to be expected. People, 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 like
00:46:13that.
00:46:16What a bunch of scary bitches, bro. What the fuck?
00:46:21There's a long history of the exact same thing happening all the way back from, you know, people didn't want
00:46:26their kids listening to the Stones or the Beatles.
00:46:29Or when Kiss came out, there was all the backlash. Oh, they're night in Satan service or whatever, you know.
00:46:34And then Alice Cooper came out and then 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 or this is
00:46:43the 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.
00:47:00But after so many decades of using the same tactic and all it doing is just providing more and more
00:47:07press and success for the things that you are rallying against.
00:47:11At some point, you realize that it's a really stupid tactic.
00:47:14But, you know, hey, if they want to be dumb, I will gladly accept all the ticket sales that come
00:47:20from them being that dumb.
00:47:31I mean, it was from start to finish. Amazing.
00:47:35They pull it off flawlessly every year. They've worked so hard.
00:47:41So I went down to the amp after the fest to book for 2024.
00:47:47And Ricky took me to the side and he said, Raven, this was just one of the best events that
00:47:51I'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 thing 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 know, there are still
00:48:23all these metalheads around.
00:48:25You know, they still live here. They'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, you 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 because
00:49:13they saw us there.
00:49:13I would say, oh, no, this is a fantastic year, that's a fantastic year.
00:49:37I was the same for the festival.
00:49:38It's a wonderful festival.
00:49:41And I was just able to talk about a new version of the show.
00:49:42We are in a very young band.
00:49:43It's been a very young band here.
00:49:43It's been a year, I think, this month, since we started this band, and the fact that we already have
00:49:49that, it just 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, so improvisation in the band is huge on
00:50:29our sound.
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, we never expected
00:51:45to 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, you know, really try and actually
00:52:11go 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.
00:52:39Do it.
00:52:44Oh.
00:52:45Oh.
00:52:47Oh.
00:52:48Oh.
00:52:48We're so pleased
00:52:50I've been crucified
00:52:54We're so beautiful
00:53:00We're alive and rise
00:53:04We're alive and alive
00:53:11We're alive and alive
00:53:16We're alive and alive
00:53:20We're alive and alive
00:53:22We're alive and alive
00:53:27Come on!
00:53:28I'm gonna hear you!
00:53:29Let's go, let's go, let's go!
00:53:59Let's go, let's go!
00:54:58Let's go, let's go, let's go!
00:55:00Let's go, let's go!
00:55:01Let's go, let's go, let's go!
00:55:50I almost even feel, I don't know, obligated I guess would be the wrong word, but it just
00:55:56feels natural to feed back to the community that's been holding 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
00:56:10the 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, and all
00:56:21their friends come out and support you.
00:56:42Every band at all of our festivals, they keep 100% merch.
00:56:46Last year, 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.
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, it almost made me cry because this band has been going for 10 years.
00:57:05She 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
00:57:22playing festivals.
00:57:22You mean to tell me our small little festival in Tennessee is the first festival that has
00:57:27ever offered you money, room and board, money for food the day of the festival?
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
00:58:04like they didn't go in the red.
00:58:10It's cool.
00:58:11I 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 a bunch of records or do whatever to make them
00:58:21rich 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.
00:58:43All right.
00:58:44So you got, how many years have you been here at the festival?
00:58:49All three years.
00:58:51All three years.
00:58:52That's right.
00:58:52You guys.
00:58:53I think it's been really nice to see some of those vendors that we saw at the first festival
00:58:59coming back for the second festival and being able to follow their journey on social media
00:59:03and catch up with them a year later.
00:59:05A company like Smith Oddities, which during the first festival did not have a brick and
00:59:11mortar store.
00:59:11And now here we are about a year and a half after the first festival.
00:59:15And now they have their own 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
00:59:26with the festival.
00:59:27There's a couple, couple of different things that I take away from reasons of why I was
00:59:32able to open a shop.
00:59:33And I've told Raven, seeing that I could gain a customer base locally, definitely secured
00:59:39the, 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.
01:00:01Seeing it come together, seeing that it was possible gave me the drive to try to do something
01:00:09in my own wheelhouse.
01:00:11Hey, 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
01:00:23have felt like they're alone living here and that they're really struggling to reach their
01:00:27audience.
01:00:28But when you have something like this happen and it pulls all the weirdos that are around
01:00:33here out to one place, then all of a sudden everyone is seen, everyone's building this
01:00:38clientele, everyone 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
01:00:46changed 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 Smithodities down there.
01:00:56You've got so much cool shit going in downtown because finally people know there's an audience
01:01:01here for it.
01:01:02And I don't know what we would call this little movement, but I would say that the vendors
01:01:08and stuff have 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.
01:01:20I 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 could 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
01:01:39liking this stuff.
01:01:40So 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 and so it's 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.
01:02:14Hey!
01:02:16Hey!
01:02:19Hey, hey!
01:02:21Hey, hey, hey!
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, let's fuck it down.
01:02:40Walking down the street and I guess you can be a bitch motherfucker and he's looking like me.
01:02:46He's got two eyes on the world in front of the others in the corner where the district got to
01:02:53come alone.
01:02:58I mean, I think metal has always been a welcome.
01:02:59Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, let's fucking have a party.
01:03:20I mean, I think metal has always been a welcoming place for people who didn't fit in.
01:03:26You know, as people who are a little bit different, it kind of united us and it brings us together.
01:03:33Just, you know, we share this music, regardless of what our backgrounds are, where we came from.
01:03:37I think a lot of us who got into metal felt we didn't belong.
01:03:45I think it's important for the people who have been othered by the religious right in the Bible Belt to
01:03:54understand that there is more here.
01:03:58You do have allies, you do have supporters, so if you are part of the LGBTQIA community, if you are
01:04:05non-religious, or if you are just simply of a different religion, you have supporters and we are more than
01:04:13happy to be there for you and be supporters for you.
01:04:28You do have a lot of us who have been other than happy to be there for you and be
01:04:43there for you and be there for you and be there for you.
01:04:58I said, hey!
01:05:01I said, hey!
01:05:05I said, hey!
01:05:08Yeah, I said, hey!
01:05:11Oh, my wife!
01:05:14Metal Devastation Music Festival opens up a place for people to come and go that they've never had before, that
01:05:20they can look forward to this event yearly and they can be comfortable when they go.
01:05:25So, I mean, it's all walks of life that are there.
01:05:28We're the Red Mountain, man.
01:05:30We love you.
01:05:31We love you.
01:05:32We love you.
01:05:33We love you.
01:05:34We fucking love you.
01:05:36Here we go.
01:05:37We're going to take them home.
01:05:40Y'all ready?
01:05:42Just because you're into metal music doesn't mean that you're a bad person or like they talked about in Lexington,
01:05:50they were, we were going to 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.
01:05:57I said, hey!
01:06:30Give me a check, give me a coat, can I show you all the things that I'm doing to have
01:06:36enough.
01:06:37Let me drop in my teeth, can I show you?
01:06:41Three, two, we'll attach them in front of you.
01:06:44One, two, we'll attach them in front of you.
01:06:53Y'all ready?
01:06:55Let's take them home.
01:06:56Hey.
01:06:59Hey.
01:07:02Hey.
01:07:04Hey.
01:07:05Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
01:07:24hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
01:07:24hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
01:07:24hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
01:07:24hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
01:07:25hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
01:07:34We love you, guys.
01:07:36Zach and Raymond, we love you.
01:07:43Good night.
01:07:44Thank you, guys.
01:07:46Thank you so much.
01:08:12We try to take a lot of our cues from the crowd.
01:08:15Which 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,
01:08:22and 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, that place erupted.
01:08:30Like, I don't even know, like fireworks.
01:08:37But that energy, like they were fearless.
01:08:40They were fearless about what they said.
01:08:42They stood by what they believed in.
01:08:44And the music was heavy.
01:08:45The energy was just, ugh.
01:08:47This song is called Fuck Around and Find Out.
01:08:50And it's about having Klansmen for their really redneck chicken fucking brooks.
01:08:56Fuck away, she's supposed to be this.
01:08:57So, to me, the way the crowd responded and the way that they performed, that was, we immediately.
01:09:04It was right after the fest.
01:09:05I was like, next year, y'all headline.
01:09:08And we got a mattress right here, side stage.
01:09:11You better match yourself, bitch.
01:09:12Let's go.
01:09:13Bitch, you're not a best fucking surf that bitch.
01:09:15You see it.
01:09:17We match with surfing on this bitch.
01:09:19Believe me, if I started murdering people, it'd be none of good.
01:09:25You see it, though.amethrower
01:09:53gekling.
01:10:19I don't know what you want to hear me
01:10:22I can't believe, let yourself be
01:10:26I can't believe in your mansions
01:10:26I can't believe it's time
01:10:29I can't believe it's time
01:10:31When you have nothing new to that capability
01:10:33Your formation is afraid
01:10:37I can't believe you're withcraft
01:10:39I can't believe in mine
01:10:39I can't believe in my soul
01:10:40I don't know what you want to hear
01:11:11Come here close now motherfuckers, hear this shit real quick
01:11:17My eyes are blind, I don't want to see
01:11:27This man is dancing
01:11:29Is the best I could for us to know?
01:11:33Do the crime are supposed to be
01:11:45My eyes are blind, I don't want to see
01:11:52I can't see, I can't see
01:11:55I can't see, I can't see
01:12:16do you have any closing thoughts about anything you're talking about yeah fuck nazis fuck bigots
01:12:22don't come to our shows we'll beat your ass perfectly stated man
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