#Ozzie is fast and aggressive. not always aggressive but usually very fast

[peapod20001]

Talk About The Band

Heheheogo ok so their fuckin thrown together high school band doesn’t have a name still rip BUT they DID play together and they CAN still play

My only music knowledge is thru google searches but pretty much Blondee is lead guitar and vocals , August was the rhythm guitar and vocals (him and Blondee can switch sometimes (also he’s the rich kid that had lots of intruments he’d play)) , Goose did bass guitar occasionally but usually he’d play dumb shit like the cowbell , Max was the drummer exclusively (not a singer, more of a yeller) , Ozzie did the set up for things cus the others are lowkey stupid (he would sing SOMETIMES and he can play the others instruments if needed (also unrelated to the band but he played violin)) , and Dahlia was a singer (and also played dumb shit with Goose)

They ALL still play, but it’s more of a hobby than a lifestyle

[im-hyperfixating]

(I was listening to some music on shuffle and "Faithfully", by Journey played right after "Secret Loser", by Ozzy. And since I'm always daydreaming about Eddie, I came up with this)

"Forever yours...Faithfully"

(EDDIE MUNSON SHORT STORY - Possible Continuation)

♡ 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, "𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳", 𝘣𝘺 𝘖𝘻𝘻𝘺 𝘖𝘴𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘦. 𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘳,𝘢𝘭𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭, 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 pretty 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 only 𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴. 𝘐𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦. 𝘚𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘫𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘵. ♡

~

"Eddie, you know there's other great bands out there that aren't metal", you say, as you're flipping through Eddie's cassettes.

"Mediocre bands; yes. Great bands; No.", Eddie replies, with a smirk. Almost like he wants you to try and prove him wrong. While you own a decent amount of hard rock and metal yourself, Eddie usually decides what you guys listen to. You can never get him to listen to anything of yours that isn't Metal or hard rock.

"Look, I love Ozzy, Metallica, and the others just as much as you do—"

"Almost as much", he interjects. You roll your eyes.

"The point is, there's really great music out there that you're missing out on just because you think it's not "metal enough". You say that last part with air quotes and a sarcastic tone.

"Basically, you're doing the same thing that you say you hate about people who refuse to listen to metal. You're kind of hypocrite.", You say with a shrug.

"It's not the same.", Eddie retorts.

"It's exactly the same. You literally said the other day you wouldn't listen to Journey with me! They're literally a rock band!", you almost scream.

"Yeah, a rock band that only sings power ballads that everyone and their mother sings along to. Even Dustin's mom was humming 'Don't Stop Believin' the other day. That doesn't scream metal.", Eddie says. He finally gets up to put one of his Iron Maiden tapes in , since you've been too distracted arguing with him to even start something.

"What, no.", You say, as you eject the tape he just put in. He tries to wrestle it away from, as you hop to the other side of his bed. You two are always very playful like this, but you can tell he's actually a little annoyed this time.

"Look, will you let me show you one song!? Please!", you say with a little fake pout.

"Fine." Eddie grumbles out with a eyeroll, and a slight smile.

You run to your backpack and pull out the recent mixtape you made for yourself. You pop it in and fast forward to the last song on the tape. You hop onto Eddie's bed, sit criss-cross, and pat the bed for him to join. He grumbles, but does the same.

"This is probably my favorite song ever! Like if I got married, this would absolutely be my first dance song!", you say, just as the intro to 'Faithfully', by Journey starts to play.

"If?", Eddie says curiously.

"Yeah, I don't see it happening. I mean I'm probably too fucked up for anyone to want to marry me.", you say nonchalantly. Not seeing the sad look that crosses Eddie's eyes. You have your eyes closed, lip syncing the lyrics already.

"Restless hearts!", You sing out aggressively.

"Y/N", Eddie says softly, still not over what you just said.

"Eddie. Shh! Just listen.", You says as you put a hand up.

Eddie finally starts to pay attention to the song. But wishing that he had just come right out and said "I'd marry you", and "You're not fucked up."

"They say that the road ain't no place to start a family!", You say, loudly. Breaking into Eddie's thoughts, startling him. Then the drums kick in, you air drum aggressively. Eddie grabs your shoulders to keep you from falling off the bed. "Woah. Easy there, sweetheart.", he says with a big grin.

As the chorus starts to play again, you grab Eddie's arms, shaking them violently as you sing along,

"Two strangers learn to fall in love again!"

Eddie has know idea what to do as you completely lose yourself in the song. He tries to put your arms down, but you just grab a hold to his knees,

"Oh, girl. You stand by me! I'm forever yours! Faithfully!!!"

You air drum again, singing along to the outro.

"Here comes the solo!", you say, grabbing Eddie's arms again. Your eyes are closed as you take in the outro of the song. And in that moment Eddie realizes, this is his favorite song too.

(Let me know if you like this!! While writing I kind of came up with a back story for "Y/N". I also have a part 2 in mind. So if you liked it and want me to continue let me know. Thank you!! 😊)

[garciaasfluffypen]

bestie can you do an eddie munson x grungey reader? like someone with that classic 80's/90's grungey look and like eddie matching band tees with them?

to run into your arms (pt. 1)

pairing: eddie munson x fem!reader wc: 1.6k warnings: bullying (j*son and andy are dicks), pot mentions, perhaps a gl*e mention, softie!eddie (he lets you borrow one of his shirts), eddie calls reader “sweetheart”, also calls the reader “lady” 

this is def gonna be split into two parts, it got long lol

it wasn’t every day that eddie munson found himself staring at one particular girl. but that had been his life for the past few months as he realized that y/n was probably the coolest girl around. scratch that. she was the coolest girl around. since moving to hawkins, he had been branded the “freak”. it was probably because he didn’t want to get stuck in the conformities that society had put forward, and it could also be because he was a metal head. or maybe it was because he sold drugs. who really knew? not him. he didn’t give a flying fuck. 

that was, until y/n stepped foot into school. 

he had no clue there was going to be a new student coming in this year. not at all. obviously the new batch of freshmen were coming in but a new senior? now this was next level. and ozzy above, she had absolutely gorgeous eyes. and surprisingly enough, she dressed a lot like him. jeans with rips that showed the fishnets she was wearing under them, usually with a band t-shirt tucked under what looked to be a very worn down leather jacket with- was that a dio patch on it? eddie was absolutely captivated by this girl, and he needed to be her best friend, approximately ten minutes ago. 

“hey, watch where you’re goin’ freak!”

 eddie snapped out of his trance as he saw y/n fall to the ground to pick up the books that had fallen from her arms as andy stood over her. of fucking course the jocks had gotten to her before he did. just his fucking luck.

“speak up princess, i can’t hear you over that bullshit you have playing on your walkman. what are you even playing?” jason stepped up to her and ripped the walkman off her jeans, aggressively pulling the tape out and throwing it to the ground. “oops. doesn’t matter now.”

eddie could tell from a mile away that y/n was about to cry, and it took all his will power not to step in and do anything. all he could see was red, and he had to get out of there and fast. so he did what he did best.

he ran.

                                                        ------

lunch time was supposed to be peaceful, you had thought. that was, until jason and his band of idiots decided to ruin your brand new metallica cassette. you had spent the extra pocket money that you had gotten from chores and babysitting the week before you moved to buy it, and it was one of the last fun and happy memories you had of that stupid old town in stupid old wyoming.  but that was then, and this was now, and you were currently sitting on top of a picnic table just past the football fields, using a pencil to try and wind the tape back to the beginning. 

a twig snapped somewhere around you and you shot up, pencil falling from your grip as you got ready to run. it was what you did best. running. always running from all your problems- which was probably why you simply let jason and his idiots walk all over you since you started here in hawkins. what were you going to do, fight back? he was a basketball player and you were simply a nobody in the school. the new girl at most. he’d simply laugh in your face and shove you into a locker before he moved onto his next prawn. 

“oh, sorry.” you looked up to see a boy, dressed a lot like you, sheepishly standing at the entrance to the clearing. “i didn’ see you there.”

“oh no worries, i was just trying to fix my cassette. i needed some time to calm down.” you met his eyes, and oh gods they were beautiful. “hawkins can be a lot.” 

“you’re tellin’ me.” the boy came to sit at the table with you. “ ‘ve been here three years an’ it doesn’t get any better, sadly.” 

“damn, i was really hoping it would.” you chuckled. “but i mean i met you so that has to be good.” 

you couldn’t help but notice him blush.

“i’m y/n by the way.”

“eddie. munson. eddie munson.”

“oh yeah, i think we have history together. with mr. stein.”

eddie nodded, rolling his eyes. “i feel like i need to be high to get through his lectures sometimes. he’s just so boring.”

“you smoke?”

“yeah, you?”

“sometimes. mainly socially.” you shrug. “i used to go back to a lot of parties in wyoming but that was because my plug would always throw them.” 

“oh believe me, you don’t want to go to a party here. they’re thrown by steve the hair harrington and good ozzy are they boring.” 

“did.. did you just say ozzy instead of god?” you spoke through your laugh, trying to hide your amusement. 

“maybe i did. what about it?”

it was cute. “not much. just curious as to why you say ozzy instead of god.” 

eddie scoffed playfully. “because ozzy is god.” 

“and bon jovi isn’t?” you rose an eyebrow. 

“come on y/n, we both know that ozzy is the true god of metal.”

before you could answer, the end of lunch bell rang, signaling to both of you that you had to leave your little hideout. you let out a big sigh, grabbing your bag and your still messed up cassette. 

“guess i can count this as a goner.” 

“lemme take a stab at it.” eddie held out his hand. “i might be able to fix it.”

“you sure? jason fucked it up pretty bad.”

“i’m a magician with my fingers, sweetheart. i’m sure i can fix it.”

and if he couldn’t, he would run around this whole stupid town looking for a new one, but he wasn’t going to tell you that. 

“if you insist, kind sir.” you dramatically placed the cassette in his hands. “i’ll see you later?”

“i’ll see you later.”  

                                                         ------

eddie didn’t usually go to 7-11, but he figured it would be nice to treat himself to a slushie after finally mustering up the courage to talk to you. he practically skipped down the aisle as he made his way to the machine, deciding last minute to duck behind the snack area when he saw an all too familiar letterman jacket. maybe he’d grab some pretzels to enjoy tonight too. or maybe some corn nuts. maybe he’d go wild and get not one, but two twinkies. the door bell jingled and he automatically knew without looking that you happened to walk in, simply by the way the leather arms of the jacket swished against the sides. 

you walked right past him, not even noticing he was there, going straight for the slushie machine. considering how hard today had been for you, since you had lost your comfort cassette, you figured a slushie couldn’t hurt. what you didn’t notice at all was how jason and his friends were plotting in the corner. but eddie noticed. before he could say anything, the sound of slushie coming out of a cup and landing on a person’s chest could be heard as jason’s groupie laughed their asses off as they ran outside of the store. he rushed around the aisle to see you standing there, covered in red slushie. 

“y/n-”

“eddie, i-”

“i got an extra shirt in my car, come on. i got ‘cha.”

eddie slapped a ten dollar bill on the counter on the way out, quickly explaining to the poor sophomore what had happened. you met him outside as he led you to his van, opening the back door and rummaging through the blankets before he found one of his extra shirts he always kept in the back. 

“it should hopefully fit you. you can change in the back, there should be a plastic bag somewhere we-you can put your shirt.”  

you smiled. “thanks, eddie.” 

you waited until eddie shut the door to the back of the van before you pulled off the slushie covered shirt, setting it down on what seemed to be an empty piece of carpet before pulling eddie’s shirt over your head. it smelled exactly like him- a mix of cigarettes, pot and the woods. which you decided were now your favorite smells in the whole world. for no particular reason, of course. even if that reason was cute. his shirt was perfectly oversized, sitting on your frame a little skewed but enough to look nice. the metallica logo looked back up at you as you brushed a few crumbs off of the front, pushing the van door open and grabbing your bag from eddie, making sure to reach back in and grab your stained shirt. 

“thanks again, i’ll wash your shirt tonight and bring it back.”

“you can keep it, if you want. i mean, until you can get your shirt cleaned ‘cus who knows how long that’s gonna take.” 

you chuckled. “you like seeing me in your shirt, munson?” 

“i- i mean, i-” he stuttered. “it does look good on you.” 

you took a few steps away. “see you tomorrow?”

“wh-where are you going?”

“home? i thought that was obvious.” you raised an eyebrow, smirking. “you tryin’ to stalk me now?”

“i was gonna ask if you needed a ride home.” 

“oh. i mean, if you wanna.” you shrugged. “i don’t live that far away, it wouldn’t be that bad of a walk.”

“oh, but i insist. only the best for lady y/n.” 

it was your turn to blush now. 

“well in that case, lead the way, sir munson.” 

[stratobucker]

Top 25 Guitarists

When I thought I might do a list of my favorite guitar players I was originally going to do my usual Top 10 theme. However, upon giving this some thought there was just NO WAY I could keep it at 10. There are too many players that have had too much of impact on me to slight them with the obligatory “honorable mention”. So here we go with 25 heroes that collectively represent my landscape of influence. Since it is impossible to “rank” these fellows in any type of order of importance, as they were all severely impactful on me, I went with the risk free alphabetization method.

1)    Jeff Beck – What a career! Decades of diverse and amazing music. He has a touch unlike anyone else. The highlights of my life are the Wired and Blow By Blow albums. Jazz rock fusion at its absolute best.

2)    Ritchie Blackmore – Between Deep Purple and Rainbow, Ritchie has a mountain of stellar hard rock. His extended jams on the live albums are utterly electric.

3)    Denis D’Amour (Piggy) – Piggy was such an original. Bringing dissonance and twist to heavy metal in way that had never been done before, or since really. His writing evolved beautifully from crushing noise to thoughtful progressive epics.

4)    Warren DeMartini – His lead work on the first couple of Ratt albums is beyond belief. Flurries of cleverly phrased notes that just dazzle like no other.

5)    Rick Derringer – The very definition of underrated. In the 70’s he was taking leads to places that hadn’t been done before and hardly anyone noticed.

6)    Ace Frehley – Guitar Solos 101. While his skills were rather elementary, he had style for days. His solos add so much “cool factor” to Kiss tunes.

7)    Billy Gibbons – May be my favorite guitar tone of the 70’s. Badass riffs and slinky leads that go down like a beer and a shot. He’s bad, he’s nationwide.

8)    David Gilmour – His ability to squeeze so much emotion out of so few notes is unrivaled. The slow hand king.

9)    Greg Ginn – This one is a curveball. Ginn has an anarchic quality that is so purely against the grain of the term “guitar hero”. Going for pure raw emotion over technique, structure, or even key. He brings to the table a true punk ethos, declaring a big “fuck you” to everything considered musically acceptable.

10) Guthrie Govan – The all-around best modern player in the world. Nothing is off limits for this guy. He can play any style and all styles are played with total mastery. He makes it look so easy and always looks like he’s having a great time doing it.

11) Jimi Hendrix – The first “guitar hero”. What’s left to be said about him? Pushing the boundaries of the guitar without really trying to, he was just being himself.

12) Alan Holdsworth – From another planet altogether. Dismantling jazz and rock lead theory to form an identity all his own. Dissonance and grace flow through his dancing fingers.

13) Jake E. Lee – While he is known for his great work with Ozzy, it was his band Badlands that solidified Jake in my guitar hierarchy. Excellent tone and an aggressive attack both in rhythms and leads. Making standard 70s styles feel fresh again.

14) Alex Lifeson – Always interesting, both technically and tonally. I love how his playing and his sound evolved along with the Rush. Just wonderful their entire career.

15) George Lynch – One of the unrivaled guitar gods of the 80’s, Lynch’s playing is fast and mean with uncanny twists and turns.

16) Yngwie J. Malmsteen – Brought neo-classical sensibility to the instrument and his impact cannot be understated.

17) Jimmy Page – Wildly imaginative writer with one of the most amazing resumes in musical history. Whether acoustic or electric, he was always innovating.

18) Chris Poland – What is this modal jazz soloist doing in a killer metal band? I don’t know but thank God for it.

19) Brian Setzer – The rockabilly king. Carrying the torch for true vintage rock and roll. And beyond that he is an incredible technical player as well.

20) Akira Takasaki – The beast from the East. Underrated in America. He’s brazenly aggressive with a sizzling tone.

21) Robin Trower – Another underrated gem. His chill psychedelic blues style just charms me to no end.

22) Steve Vai – The alien. Pulling notes and phrases from other worlds that no one has ever heard before.

23) Eddie Van Halen – Like Hendrix before him, he changed and broadened the entire landscape of guitar in the most severe way.

24) Stevie Ray Vaughn – Took the playing of your standard blues bar band guy and made it utterly lethal. His off the charts dexterity coupled with his uncanny sense of groove makes him beyond special.

25) Angus Young – Who knew you could play standard blues licks over three chord riffs and be so kickass at it that it becomes the most exciting thing you ever heard?

[nogodsnomasters138-blog]

Crushing craniums with Pat O’Brien of Cannibal Corpse

Editor’s note: Interview conducted in 2012 … obviously way before the craziness.

CANNIBAL CORPSE… the band, the myth, the legend. After 24 years on the Death Metal scene and after 12 albums, there’s little new ground to cover when it comes to writing an introduction for this ground-breaking band. Fresh off the release of “Torture”, guitarist Pat O'Brien spoke with Phillip Lawless about the recording process, MORBID ANGEL's last album and O'Brien's brief stint as a replacement guitarist in SLAYER.

Phillip Lawless: The new album just came out, and it seems to be a little more aggressive, if that’s possible. Tell us a little bit about how you guys put it together. Pat O’Brien: It just pretty much just came together. We got together like we normally did at the end of the tour. We started writing; you know for the album … I mean writing tunes for the album. I don’t know, it just came together. We made it kind of a point for everybody to get more involved in the writing process. So maybe that has something to do why it might sound a little different. I wrote a few more songs, and Rob wrote more songs, so it kind of added something I think to the album. Other than that, it just … I don’t know, just a different time period for CANNIBAL CORPSE I think. PL: It’s obviously challenging music. How long do you guys normally rehearse before you head into the recording studio? PO: Usually, it’s about like six months to write the album. That’s usually about the time frame. This time it got pushed back a little bit, it got a little bit delayed. So we had a little more time. But yeah, usually it’s like about six months. PL: You worked with Erik Rutan again for “Torture”. He’s produced some amazing releases with you guys and for other bands. Why did you decide to work with him again? PO: Yeah, he’d done such great work for us before; there was just no reason to go to anybody else different. We went out to a different studio this time, did the first half out at his place out Tornillo just outside of El Paso. And it’s called Sonic Ranch Studios. We went out there. We added different elements into the recording process, and it just made sense to use them. You know, we’re just used to the way he works, and, you know, he’s really good at what he does. PL: Why did you guys decide to record in Texas? What was the motivation? PO: We just basically did it for something new. It was something different. Just because we could, you know. It was kind of a little bit of a break to get out of Florida. Because we’ve already done the last previous albums in Erik’s place. And it was just the idea of being able to wake up there at the studio and being able to walk there and be right there. You know, it’s just something about that that’s very appealing to me. Having to get in your car and drive for 45 minutes to get down and start recording, you know. So it was just … plus we had done already a few albums out there already. We had done “Wretched Spawn”, “Bloodthirst” and “Gore Obsessed”. We already did like three albums out there in Texas before. So we were, you know, quite familiar with the place. And, you know, we just wanted to go back. PL: It seems weird to me, Tampa, FL, is such a gorgeous place with beautiful women, yet there’s all these Brutal Death Metal bands from the city. What do you think it is about the city that kind of spawned that scene? Is there something we don’t know about? PO: It’s probably called the Florida heat. That’s about the only way I can describe it, you know, it gets hot down here in the summer. PL: Were the guys in the CANNIBAL CORPSE camp aware of the response to the new MORBID ANGEL album? PO: Uh, yeah. PL: Is that type of response something you worry about, or do you just write for yourselves and record for yourselves? PO: Well, you know, I mean you’ve always got to be I guess … we always have to kind of be a little on guard for something like that. To where we put out our new album and we think it’s one of our best. And if for some reason, you know, it’s not. For some reason, no one likes it or whatever. But I think we pretty much stayed true to what we do, you know, we didn’t really stray away from being CANNIBAL CORPSE. You know, I think MORBID ANGEL, I think they went a little out there on trying some different kind of things. Which I don’t really mind if a band does that, but I think they should have taken … I think they should have maybe saved songs that they put on their new album maybe and done a side project and just did a whole different band or something. With different kind of songs like that. PL: So no techno on CANNIBAL CORPSE albums? PO: No, no. No, I mean that’s what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a CANNIBAL CORPSE album. There’s going to be a few little surprises here and there, but, you know, it’s like if you go buy an AC/DC album, you’re going to expect to hear AC/DC. You know, you don’t want to go buy an AC/DC album and all of the sudden it sounds like RUSH. Cause that’s not AC/DC anymore. PL: I had forgotten until I was doing some research, but you filled in on guitar for SLAYER for a few dates. I wanted to get your impressions. How was that for you? PO: Oh, that was intense. That was hard, actually. I didn’t have very much time to learn the songs, so I had to really bust my ass, shall I say. And I had like a week and a half to learn all the songs. It was intense. It was a very surreal situation. Yeah, it was cool though. PL: Were the dates larger festivals or smaller festivals in Europe? What types of shows were you playing? PO: It was like a, some of it was like arenas and some of it was like really big clubs. Yeah, it was SLAYER and MEGADETH, actually. PL: In the time you’ve been in CANNIBAL CORPSE, have your label, Metal Blade Records, ever stepped in over artwork or lyrics and said, “Whoa, you guys are maybe taking this too far.” Or have they always been in your corner? PO: They’ve always been in our corner, pretty much. I mean they’ll make suggestions, you know, like putting a sleeve maybe over the top of some of the graphic work, but then still leaving the good artwork in there. Just so they can get it in the stores, because they’ve had problems in the past like getting some of our album covers like in let’s say one place like Best Buy for example. So we’ve had to have some censored artwork. But it’s not been a big deal. They’ve pretty much been in our corner the whole time. They know what we’re about. PL: When it comes to album artwork, do you guys choose from multiple pieces of art, or is the artwork created specifically based on CANNIBAL CORPSE’s ideas? PO: Well, we have the same artist; he’s been doing the album covers since day one. His name’s Vince Locke. And what happens is he’ll come up with a rough sketch, and then we’ll maybe throw some suggestions here and there. Then he’ll go forward with the sketch. And it kind of just goes further and further until we’ve pretty much got what we want. Then he actually makes the actual painting. PL: You guys have a big tour with EXHUMED and some other bands coming up. Tell us a little about it. PO: We’re going to go do the major markets with the “Summer Slaughter”. PL: What’s the typical day on the road like for CANNIBAL CORPSE? Is it more low key, or is it horror movies and Heavy Metal all day? PO: I’d say it’s pretty much low key. Yeah, I’d say pretty much. Our singer, I don’t know, he likes to stay up and drink all night and listen to Hank III. That’s his new thing, drinking Jack Daniels and listening to Hank III. But other than that, it’s pretty mellow. PL: Going back to your earlier band, were you in MONSTROSITY at the same time as George? PO: I was actually in MONSTROSITY after George had joined (CANNIBAL CORPSE) for the “Vile” album. I came in and did a tour when they had just put out the “Millenium” album with George’s vocals on it. George left to join CANNIBAL CORPSE I think right before that album came out or something. PL: How do European audiences respond to American death metal, and how are they different than U.S. audiences? PO: Um, it seems to be really close to the same at this point. Yeah, I don’t really see that big of a difference. I mean, the European fans are very dedicated though, you know, very dedicated. There’s a lot of dedicated metal fans in Europe. But, you know, there’s a lot of them in the States too. It’s about the same, it really is. PL: Are you all headed to Europe for some bigger festivals this summer? What’s the biggest one looking like for CANNIBAL CORPSE? PO: I think we’re playing … I’m not real sure honestly. I think we might be playing Grasspop, but I’m not sure. That might be the biggest one. I still haven’t even; honestly, I haven’t even looked at all the dates. But we’re doing Hellfest, I know that’s a big one we’re going to be doing. We were supposed to be doing some of them with the original BLACK SABBATHlineup. But then Tony Iommi came down with his cancer, so it’s going to be like OZZY and friends, I guess. The original BLACK SABBATH, I’m kind of a little bummed about that because I was … well, I’m a guitar player and Tony Iommi is probably one of my favorite all-time heroes of guitar so. PL: Thinking back over your time with CANNIBAL CORPSE, what’s the strangest gig you’ve ever played with them? Where have you been on stage and thought, “What the hell is going on?” PO: Well, it was actually probably with SLAYER. I standing up there, I’m looking over and there’s, you know, Tom Araya and then Kerry King. I’m looking over there, and I’m like, “What the fuck? What the hell am I doing up here?” You know, looking back there and seeing Lombardo. And it was just … wow, that was just weird. That was the weirdest for me. Because it all went down so fast, I was like, “What the hell am I doing up here?” PL: Did it make it hard to enjoy playing with SLAYER? PO: Well, it was just … there was just so much to learn and so much stress that there really wasn’t time to really … there wasn’t really time to, time to enjoy it. See, I had to just focus on doing the job, you know. But that was probably the weirdest for me. You know, as far as a CANNIBAL gig goes, the weirdest CANNIBAL gig we’ve ever done, I don’t know. I’d have to think about that one. There’s so many of them.