Love at first...

In the summer before I started grade 10 , I had mentioned how I became an avid buyer of Thrasher skateboard magazine. Not only could you see the newest skate trends and products, learn the newest tricks, and read in depth interviews and articles on your favourite skaters, but you could also discover some pretty cool bands through the rag. A few bands in particular that I discovered in the pages of Thrasher were SNFU, GWAR & a Seattle outfit called The Accused.

I can clearly remember sitting in the lounge at work on lunch break reading the newest issue like it was yesterday. I stumbled upon an article/interview called The Accused A-Z. I had no idea who they were or what they were about but I decided to read it anyway. This wasn't your typical band interview however, instead the writer through 26 words at the band, each one starting with a letter of the alphabet in chronological order. From there the band talked about the first thing that came to their heads for each word that was thrown at them.

It didn't take me reading much of the article to realize these guys were HUGE horror movie fans such as myself. In fact they were so enamoured by horror and darkness that they didn't even call themselves punk or thrash or hardcore, they had dubbed themselves in their own personal genre which they referred to as "Splatter Rock/Splatter Core" they even had their own band mascot like a lot of bands did, her name was Martha.

Martha Splatterhead to be exact, a zombified punk rock prostitute back from the dead to serve her own brand of street justice on rapists and child molesters. Needless to say I got my butt down to the Record Peddler pronto and picked up their latest release "Martha Splatterhead's Maddest Stories Ever Told" As soon as the needle hit the record I was in love. You've heard of love at first sight? Well this was love at first listen! This music was insane! It was fast, heavy, had sick break downs, insane time signatures, undertones of jazz, and was quite technical all around. Their singer "Blaine Fart" had a voice like none I had other heard, he  sounded somewhat like a small animal being tortured to death, and judging by the photos in the album sleeve, these guys brought some seriously intense energy to their live performance.

A lot of my friends who liked thrash and hardcore didn't like The Accused very much because they didn't like Blaine's voice, I for one however loved it and he still stands as one of my all time favourite vocalists. Some of those friends came full circle eventually and liked the band, while others just didn't get it. Regardless they were now at the top of my list and I was ready to spread the word to everyone and anyone who was willing to listen...