#but that player got him cursed in several ways Wanted by the church and eventually killed

[forgetmethought]

my boy, Keth

(and his shadow raven familiar [with imp stats])

he’s a reborn tabaxi shadow sorc/ phantom rogue/ undead chainlock with the shadowdancer (umbramancer) prestige (sub)class.

so he’s basically the definition of edgy edgelord

he doesn’t actually wear a skull mask like that tho. it was just the only good half mask option (that still showed his eyes), since he usually has to hide his face for…. several reasons.

plus it kinda works, bc part of him being a Reborn means that his actual skull shows thru a bit, since his face was partially caved in at the end of his last life 🫠💀

he used to use the Mask of Many Faces warlock invocation to always be disguising himself bc he’s Wanted in the main city for stuff he did in his past life, but i got rid of that invocation recently (while reworking some of his warlock & rogue abilities, since my dm made custom versions of them recently), so i think i’m just gonna start using his scarf/cloak/disguise kit proficiency to hide himself, plus minor illusion to create a mask over his face.

the masks will change up every now and then to be something like these:

[palidoozy-art]

The more I think about your recent post about the changes you made to Strahd, the more I wonder about those changes you made to the others mentioned (Rahadin, Van Richten, Ireena, etc). I'd absolutely love to hear what adjustments you made as you already shared some stellar ideas already. Like the Tome? -Chef kiss- Amazing.

Oh mannn I do love talking about my campaign. I changed a lot with them. Again, weirdly enough, I think Strahd wound up being the most like his original incarnation. I could talk forever about the changes I made so I'll try to be brief haha. IT STILL WON'T BE BRIEF.

Obvious CoS spoilers below

IREENA - I thought it was weird that the picture they gave her makes her look like such a badass, and then the module just kind of writes her as a damsel in distress to either get kidnapped or pulled into water or dumped somewhere. To me, she's like, the second most important character in CoS -- and the book literally gives you less direction to roleplay her than her brother. Furthermore, reading her ending actually legit made me mad.

So I said fuck all that. Ireena in my game was a 19-year old girl who grew and developed over the course of the campaign. Several of my players actually said they thought of her as "the main character," just because she experienced a lot of character growth and development, going from a sheltered meek teenager to someone who can fight and assert herself. The biggest change I made to her though was that I very specifically did not just want her to be "Tatyana with memory loss." Ireena is a unique individual who happens to be partially made out of Tatyana's soul. While she shares many similarities with Tatyana, they're separate people, and part of what Ireena has to grapple with is how to live up to that. She's in the post-campaign because of that distinction -- while Sergei offered her to join him, she declined, because she wants to experience life past her twenties. I didn't get to play it out because we were kind of rushing towards the end, but I honestly envisioned a scene where she talks to the portrait of Tatyana, apologizing to her because she knows she's being selfish remaining alive.

This also brings up a unique problem in the post campaign. If Ireena dies, she ceases to exist and may not be able to be resurrected. When her soul leaves her body, it's Tatyana's again. Ireena very much wants to live. Tatyana doesn't. A resurrection has to be made with the consent of the soul, and if Tatyana declines, Ireena's just... gone. Forever.

Related: because I wasn't sure what my players would ask, and Rahadin would absolutely know this information -- there have been 18 incarnations of Tatyana, including the original. I actually have a timeline of when they were all born and how they died. The curse manifests in that they always die or are killed before their 25th birthday. If Strahd attempts to marry them, they lose their minds and throw themselves off of the same balcony the original Tatyana jumped off of during the ceremony. Strahd can never have Tatyana. Vampyr will ensure of that.

But yeah, essentially: Ireena gained actual class levels; she wasn't just Tatyana with memory loss; she traveled with the party for 90% of the campaign and wasn't just a macguffin to be kidnapped/take to places; and I removed any of the "Sergei takes her into water/the sky and you never see her again" endings because I absolutely hated those.

VAN RICHTEN - Van Richten I tweaked a lot from his original incarnation. First, I started him off as Lawful Neutral. No, game, I know you tell me he's Lawful Good, but I'm gonna have to disagree with you that "training a racist tiger to genocide an ethnic camp" falls under the spectrum of Lawful Good. Second, I changed him from cleric to artificer (alchemist). I somehow just got the impression the dude was a godless man, and so he felt more fitting to be a man of science rather than a man of the church. Third, since I wasn't sure the other dread domains were ever going to be brought into 5e I moved him out of Darkon and into another world from the outside.

His backstory was also tied more into Strahd and the campaign in general, as well as the Dark Powers. About 30 years ago, he went into the mists with his own adventuring party (that included Escher) to try to rescue his kidnapped son, Erasmus. He found his son half-turned and begging him for death. Killing him, Van Richten hunted down the Vistani woman (Ezmerelda's mother) who sold the man, and in a rage strangled her to death. This gave him a curse. Ezmerelda witnessed it happen.

He went on a warpath against vampire spawn and vistani alike, until Strahd proposed a deal to Escher. Escher lured the group to a familiar dinner date with Strahd... only for Strahd to murder all of them, including Van Richten. Van Richten was approached by a dark power -- Vaund the Evasive, and given the option to return to life in exchange for the promise that Van Richten would eventually return to Amber Temple and free him. He took it, waking up outside of Barovia. From there he became famed vampire-hunter-book-author, until in his early 50's he decided it was time to seek vengeance and fulfill his promise. He brought in his hat of disguise, came up with an alibi, and headed into Barovia as Rictavio the Great.

He was absolutely played as a much more morally grey character at the start (the party's first encounter with him rather than Rictavio was him literally torturing a dude). He softened over the course of the campaign as he grew attached to the party, until finally reaching a point in the post-campaign where he's considered Lawful Good

Also: Ezmerelda was treated more or less as his adoptive daughter. She absolutely argued against this every single time, but he even slipped up and referred to her as his daughter on a few tense occasions.

RAHADIN - Rahadin I adjusted a lot, too. A LOOOOOOT. Strahd being comically evil makes sense -- the dude is a darklord, that kind of comes with the territory. With Rahadin, I wanted him to have more motivations to his actions, because the base game actually suggests that the dude is actually capable of caring. In the base game, you can find him at Amber Temple, trying to "petition the dark god into releasing his master from his torment." He screams in grief if he finds Strahd dead. Furthermore it felt like the game glosses over the fact that the dude was adopted as Barov's son. It doesn't bother addressing how Rahadin felt about Sergei, who would in theory be his other brother. I thought a number of things suggested in his backstory were interesting, but not expanded upon in the base game. So I took it upon myself to do so.

I changed how dusk elf society was built, which affected the three major dusk elf characters. It worked off of a pretty brutal caste system, with three kings at the top overseeing all of it. Rahadin was born in a lower caste, but actually brought into the warrior caste after a member of royalty was intrigued by his stature. Rahadin worked as a general, but grew frustrated by the inefficiencies of the caste system and its inequality. He started attempting to use his influence to petition other members of nobility into changing or loosening the strict system.

Patrina caught wind of this, and viewing it as a threat to her lifestyle + viewing it as an easy way to gain brownie points with those above her... tattled on him to the three kings, spinning what he was doing as treason. Rahadin was arrested and subsequently tortured. They attempted to execute him on a breaking wheel, breaking his bones against the spokes and leaving him in the town square as an example. He wound up escaping, crawling his way out of town until he was subsequently rescued by a group of human monks. The event pretty much broke him, morally. He went to Barov soon after and sold his people out, taking a personal hand in helping annihilate the dusk elves and conquering their land. Barov was so impressed by the man's loyalty that he adopted him as his son.

Part of this was done to make a connection as to why the hell Rahadin just absolutely fuckin' hates Patrina so much (since that definitely got played up during the campaign). When thinking of Rahadin's motivations, I tried to come at it from the angle that this man was evil... but legitimately cared deeply about Strahd, Sergei, and Tatyana. He was devestated from the events of the wedding, but saw Strahd's return as a second chance. As the lone surviving witness from the wedding, he desperately wanted to help the three of them. But his own blind loyalty to Strahd and his broken moral compass prevented him from doing so.

One of my favorite little additions was a sidequest I offered to the players (they wanted to redeem Rahadin). They were requested by him to retrieve (well, "not destroy or sell") one of his most precious belongings in his office. When they get there... it turns out it's a birthday card and a worn-out old amulet from Sergei and Tatyana that he's kept after all these years. They got Ireena to read the letter to him, to help him keep going after Strahd's death.

anyway i could ramble on about changes forever but i don't want this post to get too long haha. i have. many feelings. over this campaign. maybe at some point I'll do a separate post with some of the others.

i also kinda wanna do a comic of an event from Rahadin's backstory for my players but we'll see, I might deem it "too stupid."

[svampirebait]

My Curse of Strahd Campaign - latest session. The Feast of St Andral.

Warning, heavy spoilers for Curse of Strahd.

So this is how our Curse of Strahd game went last night:

The party are in Vallaki staying with Fiona Wachter, the Tiefling Warlock’s long lost cousin. She thinks they will help her overthrow the Burgomaster. They agree things in Vallaki need to change but don’t want either the Burgomaster or Lady Wachter in charge.

Since arriving in town, Ireena was snatched by Izek, the Burgomaster’s henchmen. The party want to make sure she’s ok and as they’re heading there anyway Lady Wachter asks them to bring her proof of whatever the Burgomaster’s son did to drive her daughter mad.

The party ended the last session having taken Victor’s journal from his secret lab. They ran into the Burgomaster, made nice and were told that Ireena is now betrothed to Victor. She is very clearly against this.

I was about to start the session when the Druid turns to me and says:

“Question, Octopuses...”

Me: “...ahuh...”

Druid: “they can breathe air for an hour out of water. So say I summoned some. Would they have full air?”

Me *knowing I’m about to unleash hell on this town and imagining everyone being attacked by Octopuses.*: “I’m gona say, yes.”

So we start the game in the Burgomaster’s mansion. Victor, invisible, follows the rogue who snatched his journal but can’t do anything to get it back because of all the people. He settles for glaring at him from the doorway of the dining room making it very clear that he is gona get it back.

The party and Ireena discover that Lady Lydia’s old wedding dress is being altered for Ireena to wear the next day during the festival of the blazing sun. She tries to protest but the Burgomaster acts like she hasn’t said a word. The Rogue starts to loudly tell the Burgomaster that “All is not well” and there is a runour that something is happening at the Coffin Makers that will ruin the festival. They have no proof and the Burgomaster is not pleased to hear such blatant nay saying about his beloved festival. He orders Izek, who is towering over Ireena, to arrest the rogue. The Rogue dodges him and yells that the coffin maker is doing something that will hurt Ireena.

Izek runs out of the Manor to take care of the Coffin Maker ignoring the Burgomaster who is yelling after him.

The Rogue is then grabbed by two remaining guards who are told to give him 10 lashes in the town square. He’s dragged outside.

The Druid immediately says to the Burgomaster that he is perfectly right, nay sayers are terrible for putting everyone in danger and the Rogue’s punishment is clearly justified. He offers the party’s assistance in investigating the coffin maker and retrieving Izek. He’ll even give Iteena away at her wedding tomorrow.

The Burgomaster is delighted and sends the party on their way.

They follow the guards and see them stripping the rogue of his shirt and belongings in the middle of the square, before chaining his hands to a pole.

They ready the whip. The bard casts Minor illusion and from a side street a voice yells “This festival is a sham!! The Burgomaster is insane! All is not well!”

What few townsfolk are around hurridly disappear. The party even see one poor man trying to hide behind a barrel his arse sticking out as he assumes the crash position.

The guards drop everything to chase down whoever said that, leaving the party and one guard who is standing watch over the people in the town stocks.

The Tiefling warlock sneaks away and uses mask of many faces to make himself look like another guard. He walks over to the one on watch and casts suggestion:

“Have you heard the rumour that Izek is planning to marry Ireena instead of Victor? You should tell everyone.”

The guard fails his save and immediately turns to the nearest person who happens to be in the stocks and says “Have you heard-“

While he’s destracted the bard takes the rogue’s lock picks out and tries to undo the manacles with no luck. The rogue at this point is thanking the party for the great destraction but wondering what the fuck they actually plan to do about getting him out of there!

Behind them the guard is moving down the line of prisoners, “Have you heard-“

At this point the Warlock turns to me confused that the guard didn’t walk off and i answer “you told him to tell “EVERYONE””

Finally as the guards are returning the druid has the bard cast minor illusion again to make fresh whip marks appear on the rogues back. The warlock takes that moment to walk back behind a house to change back from being a guard.

The spelled guard walks up to the party “Have you heard-“

The other guards return. See the whip marks and a guard walking away and assume the sentence has been carried out. They let the rogue go with a warning to be more careful what he says in future and hand him over to his friends.

The spelled guard is in the background peering over the barrel at the man trying to hide “Have you heard-“

As the party walk away towards the coffin maker the bard asks the warlock how long the suggestion will last. “8 hours or until the task is complete” poor guy.

Meanwhile, knowing what’s at the coffin maker’s I was rolling dice behind the screen to see what happened when Izek got there. Turns out, he wasn’t doing great...I rolled the last dice and choked on my drink. The players were confused as i recovered laughed and started crossing things out on my notes for future sessions.

So they get to the Coffin Makers and see that the front door has been kicked in. As they’re debating whether to go in or not they see Van Rickton/Rictavio lurking in the shadows.

They ask why he’s there. He gives an unconvincing story about hearing strange noises. Realising the PCs don’t believe a word he very grandly reveals the shocking truth, he is none other than THE Rudolph Van Rickten, vampire hunter.

The Druid says “I know, your monkey told me.”

They team up and enter the coffin makers.

Inside they find evidence of a scuffle. Several of the empty coffins in the showroom have been broken.

They hear voices coming from beyond a door and approach. From inside a silky voice calls out that they are welcome and asks “Henrik” to let the party inside.

A terrified older man wearing carpenters clothes opens the door and tries to motion for the party to run but the voice calls him out for being rude and he quickly opens the door stepping aside for the party to enter.

Seated at a table, stroking a curled up ginger cat and sipping from a goblet is a young man, handsome with long blonde hair, wearing a pink ruffled shirt. Escher, greets the party making side comments to Henrik who is curled in on himself in the corner of the room.

Escher recognises Van Rickten but only makes a brief comment anout him looking familiar. As his eyes fall on the Vistani rogue he immediately leaves his seat and goes over declaring him to be a “beauty” and being heavily flirty.

The rogue looks up at the ceiling and after the last few days decides this is all too much. He leaves the shop to wait outside much to Escher’s disappointment.

The party ask where Izek is. Escher is evasive, meering saying about how rude Izek was. He declares what a wonderful day to make new friends seeing as how it’s the feast of St Andral. There were others staying with him and Henrik but they’ve already left to begin the “festivities”

The party asked where they went and he answers “where else my dear boy? The church of course!” He says it’s getting late and he must be going. The bard is blocking his way so he charms her. She lets him pass with a smile as he bows and takes a subtle taste of blood from her hand.

Outside the rogue was leaning up against the wall of the shop. He turns to find Escher beside him. The vampire gets close and comments on his looks again then tells him that his Master bids him to join them. Rooms are already prepared at Ravenloft for him and Escher dearly hopes that he will agree to go back with him. He tells him they’ll take their time on the journey and get to know each other a little more.

The rogue sighed and said he’d think on it. Delighted Escher left and the rogue went back inside the shop yelling that, that dude was totally a vampire!

While he was outside the party had discovered that the ginger cat had been dead for s long time, the goblet was full of blood and instead of a chair behind the table, Escher had been sitting on the fresh corpse of Isrk Strenzni.

The rogue loots him and finds an old family picture where a much younger Izek is standing with his long lost sister. Noticing the resemblance between the sister and Ireena the rogue quickly hides the picture.

The rest of the party question the coffin maker who admits to agreeing to house the vampires. His arms and neck are covered in puncture wounds where they have fed off him. The wwrlock casts froends on him and asks where the bones of saint andral are. He said he didn’t know so they all start searching for the bones. The rogue eventually finds them in a secret compartment in the upstairs bedroom.

They leave the shop and race to the church. The druid turns into a horse with the rogue on his back carrying the bones. They leave the rest of the party on foot. As they run through the streets they see Ireena running towards them and sweep her up on to the horses back.

The night is drawing in. In the distance there are screams and the glow of flames. Above their heads thunder sounds and when they glance up they see the silhouette of strahd against the clouds astride his nightmare.

When they arrive at the church they see chaos. Terrified by Strahd’s appearance the townsfolk ran to the church only to find the vampire spawn already there. The party see two vampires on the steps cheerfully feasting on the confused townsfolk.

They rolled initiative, from somewhere in the painicking crowd they hear a familiar voice yelling in terror. “HAVE YOU HEARD-“

and that’s when the game ended.

I can’t wait to run the battle in two weeks.

[henshinhistory]

A retrospective on The Skull Man (2007)

...now that Henshin History’s coverage of it is complete.

Van here! I don’t know if I’ll do this for every series we cover, but! I wanted to sit down one last time and try and piece the plot together, given how disjointed the anime ended up being.

Because, seriously: Who is Tatsuo Kagura?

Tatsuo Kagura in the 1970 manga was an amoral, gleeful killer. In the 1998 followup, he’s a more pentient antihero (though still an arrogant brat). In the 2007 anime reboot, he’s gone. Tatsuo’s face and his deeds from the original manga play through the opening animation; a blink-and-you-miss-it flashback shows a young boy with a concealed face escaping the destruction of his home — and that’s it, your only on-screen confirmation that Tatsuo ever really existed. At the very end, Maya calls out for her brother, but at that point, both Maya and the man she’s calling to are so distorted and confused that you can’t trust what either of them are saying.

Yet Tatsuo’s presence haunts the show. The city officials either scoff at the legends of his ghost, or they fear his reprisal. The head of Ootomo Pharmaceuticals, Gozo Kuroshio, uses Tatsuo’s legacy as a cover for his hired assassin.  The foundations of Ootomo City are built on the Kagura family’s works — literally. Various buildings and business bear the Kagura name, or they used to. The cult that has Ootomo City in its grip originates from an artifact that Tatsuo’s father, Tatsuyuki Kagura unearthed; the Gagou, the monster-forms that the cultists take, all originate from the skull mask.

(It might have been Ootomo’s treachery that turned Tatsuo into the original Skull Man and inspired his desire for revenge, but it was the Skull’s power that turned Ootomo into what it is.)

So where did that little boy go?

The anime starts out with this mystery: Who is the Skull Man, if he’s not Tatsuo? And in that case, where is Tatsuo Kagura?

The show eventually answers the first question (discarding candidates like Masaki, Akira, Jin, even Tatsuo’s actual ghost) with Father Yoshio Kanzaki, a priest traumatized by his experiences as a wartime chaplain. This reveal comes with… very little fanfare, almost overshadowed by the military coup and the introduction of Van Vogt and his killer clownbots.

As for the second question…

Maya’s stepfather Gozo tells her that “Tatsuo died when you were very young [...] he’s not your brother anymore.” This tells us nothing — Gozo is either lying or mistaken about the former, and as for the latter, Gozo thinks the Skull Man is his illegitimate son. Maya is becoming more detached from reality at this point, and Gozo may just be trying to gently bring her back to earth.

Akira Usami claims for a hot second that he is Tatsuo Kagura, but (I suspect) Akira has been driven mad by the Voice of God (something that ends up a bit glossed over, but it appears to be an audio waveform based on the sound created by the White Bell pendants, which is beyond human hearing and affects the minds of people who have been turned into Gagou). Akira also dies basically immediately.

The boy in the flashback was taken in by a priest, who was Kanzaki’s predecessor at the church. Kanzaki was raised in the church orphanage and given guardianship of the Skull mask by his predecessor, and took up the mask to kill the Gagou created by the White Bell cult. He also has a close friendship with Maya. So, obvious, right?

Except there’s Hayato. Hayato’s memories are inexplicably blurry, but he was also raised in the church orphanage. From the eavesdropped conversation, Hayato’s adopted father was also working for the pharmaceutical company, and also secretly assassinated… just like Tatsuyuki. Gozo goes out of his way to protect Hayato, and — looking back… why is Hayato so obsessed with the Skull Man legend, really? The other two people who appeared to be seeking the legend (Kiriko and Tachigi) both had additional agendas; could Hayato have subconscious reasons of his own?

(And if Hayato is not an amnesiac Tatsuo, then why is he amnesiac at all?)

And there’s the Skull itself. The Skull has a will and personality of its own — the moment Hayato takes up the mantle, he begins to experience flashbacks and memories that don’t belong to him, and to say things that an illiterate thug like Hayato Mikogami would never say. The Skull has an iron grip on its wielders — Kanzaki wanted the curse to die with him, but how much of that was Kanzaki wanting to bear this burden so nobody else would have to, or because the Skull wouldn’t let Kanzaki be free?

Could Tatsuo have been consumed by the Skull, several years ago, and his ghost is now haunting the mask and its wielders?

The show gives no definite answer.

Our problem with the show is not that it doesn’t have an answer. Our problem is that it shoots for subtlety — and misses the mark completely and lands right in “completely obtuse.” The anime cuts abruptly from scene to scene, setting up the city politics and the behind-the-curtain scheming and some truly baffling alternate-history details, while the main characters and their own development fall by the wayside.

You’re expected to be able to follow multiple different threads running at once, yet you rarely get solid introductions for half the cast — people aren’t clearly namedropped, several male characters look like each other to set them up as candidates for Skull Man’s alter ego. You aren’t allowed to get a sense of knowing who the major players are.

The most prominent villain of the show, the one who gets the big might-makes-right speech and turns into the big muscle monsterman at the end? We never know for sure what his deal is. On my first watch, I barely knew who he was even into the final episode. Was Masaki legit once, and learning about the Skull’s power seduced him into evil? Did his resentment over being the unrecognized son turn him against Gozo, and his involvement with the military was meant to ruin Ootomo City and topple Gozo’s house of cards? The answer is, “Yes, probably — but the show refuses to connect these dots.”

Then the show makes the jarring transition from “supernatural murder mystery” into “military political thriller” in the last quarter, leaving the initial overarching mysteries in the dust. It falls into the trap of using cameos as prominent characters: Suddenly, the references overtake the work, and if you don’t pick up on every easter egg, good luck trying to follow what’s going on. And it’s not even that easy to follow even if you do recognize these characters! You really should not need to watch a show frame-by-frame to get any understanding of its basic plot.

The thing is: The show could have made all of these elements work. Its failing was trying to pack all of them into a 13-episode-long can of sardines. Hayato’s downfall, and his alienation from Kiriko and Shinjou, doesn’t hit as hard as it ought to, because everything is so incredibly rushed. Part of the reason I flipped my lid over the Akira Usami episodes was because, if given enough space to breathe, they could have been fantastic at foreshadowing the events of the finale and drip-feeding more hints about Tatsuo Kagura’s true fate. Instead, once Akira was killed, all you got was a sense of wasted time.  

And there’s more things that could have been fixed, like Kiriko’s characterization. Kiriko’s history as a resistance member could have been interesting — if only it ever came up in any capacity whatsoever aside from as leverage to use against her brother Jin.

And Kiriko’s status as Joe’s mother is… just silly? And super gross because she’s so young? If you really needed a cameo, a better reveal would have been for one of the younger church orphans, perhaps a little boy who always lurked in the background and revealed at the epilogue to be tiny kiddo Joe. Or if he has to be Hayato’s son, how about have Nami survive and escape the city? Anyway...

The question, “Who is Tatsuo Kagura?” goes unanswered, because the show’s intent was for his fate to remain murky.

Unfortunately, the rest of the story is just as opaque.

[im-invisible-erased]

Very Old Story...

Misconceptions of Life

 By Ashley

Freak, loser, bitch, slut.  I’ve heard them all before and this school will be no different.  Every school I’ve been to tells the same story, just change the faces and the names.  This is my third high school, and I am only in the 10th grade.  I just hope I can lie low here.  I can’t take the treatment that I had at my last two schools.  Letting out a long drawn out sigh I shut off my beaten down, old 79 Chevy Silverado truck and slam the door.  The duct tape holding the mirror comes loose and falls on the pavement.  F my life, seriously?  Why did I get stuck with this piece of junk?  Mumbling a few choice curse words under my breath I gingerly pick up the side mirror and inspect it for cracks; it was fine.  I put the mirror in the bed of the truck and walked through the deserted student parking lot.  I was 45 minutes early; I walked in the school and looked around, nothing I hadn’t seen before.  I picked up my schedule and found my locker.  The combo didn’t work.  Letting out another sigh, I took a quick look to my right, then left, then at the ceiling. No teachers and no cameras, good. I fish in the back pocket of my skinny jeans and pull out a bobby pin.  I pick the lock to my locker and close it again.  

The day goes by without anything else going wrong.  Boring syllabi and those dumb get to know everybody’s name games which are totally pointless.  I’m the only new person to this school in seven years!  I drive home, unlock the front door, and go straight to my room.  I shut the door quietly behind me.  Finally, a connection to a cell phone tower.  That entire school is one giant black hole for cell phones.  I had learned quickly that the school had put up a cell phone jammer.  It was said to increase the productivity of the students; less distractions or something.  It was the dumbest thing I’d ever heard.  I didn’t even know cell phone blockers existed until today.  I checked my phone for the first time since last night.  The scratched up black flip phone with the pink-stripped case started to vibrate on my desk.  4 new messages.  

Katie-1:42 AM Hey, don’t get too down about going to a new school sometimes being the unknown is the better option, and from what you told me about your last schools (which is terrible BTW) that you could use being the unknown.  Cheer up, I hate seeing you this way T~T. Katie-1:52 AM Alli…You there? Katie-2:14 AM you better not be doing what I think you are, I absolutely HATE when you do that to yourself. :/ Katie-2:24 AM

Night, talk to you tomorrow after school.

I finish reading the texts from last night when my phone gets another text. Katie-3:42PM

-Massive Hugs-. How was your first day at the new school? Alli-3:44 PM

Not terrible… I guess but the first week or so is always the same, ya know what I mean?

Katie-3:45 PM Yea it pretty much is, so are you out of this god awful town now since you switched schools?

Alli-3:47 PM

Nope, I just drive further to and from school now. Katie-3:48 PM

That sucks.  I’m sorry :( Alli-3:50 PM It’s fine.  I was able to keep my job and Nick said he would be giving me more hours to help out my gas bill. Katie-3:50 PM You’re lucky that your boyfriend is also your boss ;) Alli-3:53 PM He’s NOT my boyfriend!  He is just my neighbor. Katie-3:54 PM Suurre he’s not :P Alli-3:59 PM If I didn’t have to be at work soon I would drive over there and show you what I think of your sarcasm. ♥

I was only kidding of course, but Kate knew me well; I had known her since we were in our little Sunday dresses as kids.  She still keeps a picture from that day and always says, “Look how cute you used to be, what happened to that?”  She knew I hated those dresses ever since I was forced into them by Momma, back when we went to church.  I checked my email before I left for work.  4 junk emails and 30 hate emails that I sent to the delete folder.  I shut down the computer and grabbed my keys and locked the house behind me.  5:55 PM, I was early.  The daytime hostess got off at 6:00, which was when my shift started. I assumed my position and spent the next 5 hours greeting people and showing them to their tables in my sing-song work voice.  Work is, well, work; a means of surviving.  Chef Chang gave me some sweet and sour pork and the left over rice from that night’s batch.  Night shifts are terrible, but I get free food.  I love working at Sakura but it can be hectic at times.  I left my uniform in my locker and went out to my car. He was there leaning up against the hood of my car smoking a cigarette.   “What are you doing here?” “Oh I just wanted to see how my favorite neighbor was doing.”  He gave me one of his I have other intentions smiles.  

“Your driver side mirror is missing.  You know that right?” “I know,” I mumbled.  I let out a sigh of relief and put my head on his shoulder. He looked at me, flicks the burnt end of his cigarette, and gives me a deep kiss.  We break apart and he smiles at me.  

“Love you Alli.”  

“I love you too.”  He gives me another kiss and a quick squeeze.  

“You want me to escort you home, Milady?  ‘Cause your mother is going to be furious about that mirror.”  He’s such a goofball sometimes, but he’s right.  

“Nah, I’m fine.  See you tomorrow?”  

“Yea, love ya.”  

“Love you too.”

 I got out of the car and walked toward the front door, hours pass before I hear the screams of Momma coming from the living room rousing me from my sleep.

“Allison!  Get in here right now young lady!”

“Yes Momma?”

“What the hell happened to the truck, you’re always so careless!”  She raised her hand up to strike me; I winced and covered my face with my arms.  Three thuds and a whimper could be heard through the house.  Back in my room I check my phone for the time.  1:40 AM.  I had to be up for school in 5 hours.  I took out the razor I kept in my pocket.  

I wake up to the sound of my alarm clock.  It’s only the third week of school and I’m already wishing it was summer. I roll out of bed and check my phone. 1 new message. Cole- 5:50 AM Check your email as soon as you read this. It’s urgent.

I turn on the computer and wait for it to boot up.  This thing was ancient it still had Windows 97.  I open the email from Cole once the computer has gotten a chance to work.  I pull out my phone a minute later.  There are only two people to call in a situation such as this and since one is probably asleep, we just got back from work not too long ago I’ll let him sleep and tell him later.  The only other person I knew that would listen was Katie.   Alli-7:00 AM

Hey!  You got some time to chat?!!

Katie-7:02 AM

Sure what’s up? Alli-7:05 AM something terrible…

Katie-7:07 AM why terrible? :( Alli-7:07 AM My reputation has followed me; the rumors will be starting again. Katie-7:08 AM are you serious?  How?  You’re like going to school two towns over.  

I sent the link to the page that was the end of my quiet restart of my school life.  It was a link to a picture of my Mom at her work.  Next to it was a small caption that read.  “Doesn’t this look a lot like Allison Green the 10th grader at our school?”  Underneath were several pages of comments. Katie-7:25 AM

…Oh god…I’m so sorry. Alli-7:25 AM I don’t know what will be worse facing everybody at school or skipping and facing Mamma T-T Katie-7:26 AM I’m not sure either.  Pick the lesser of the two evils?            I check the time.  I had 25 minutes left before I had to be out the door.  Might as well get ready for the absolute hell that awaited me at school. Alli-7:27 AM I’ll TTYL. I got to get ready for school. Katie-7:28 AM Bye-Bye, Love ya ♥ Good luck.

I shutdown the computer and got ready for school.  I pulled into the parking lot and sat in the truck, my hands shaking, playing with my lip ring.  I sat there trying to calm my nerves for several minutes.  I eventually got out and entered the school.  I kept my head down and walked quickly through the halls but it couldn’t stop the whispers and the pointing.  Nothing would.  

“You see that girl?  You know her mother is a whore.”  

“I heard she left her last school because her father sold her into prostitution to feed his heroin addiction.”  Lies, lies, all ridiculous lies.  I wanted to scream at them to get my story straight, but it wouldn’t do anything.  Most people are ignorant idiots who, when even with the facts sitting right in their face don’t accept them.  And do they bother to find out the truth?  No, they just believe the outlandish rumors and don’t even second guess any of it.  The sound of my own name roused me from my swirling emotions and thoughts.  

“Hey Allison, will you give me a discount on the mother daughter special if I help you with math?” it was the smart-aleck, know it all guy that sits in front of me in my math class.  He saw my test scores and how I struggled in math.  I flipped him the bird and stuck out my tongue.

“Why you little bitch…” The rest of his words were drowned out by the warning bell.  I ran off to the bathroom.  I checked in the stalls to make sure I was alone.  I went into the first stall and started sobbing.  I can’t deal with this abuse again, I just can’t.  Sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you.  What a load of crap.  Words are the things that cut you the deepest they penetrate the mind and wage psychological warfare.  I pull out the razor I had put in my bag, rolled up my sleeves.  

I walk into history class late.  I get a tardy but nothing more.  I block out the whispers and peoples’ stares.  Thank God for my MP3 player and decent headphones.  By the end of the day, I’m ready to leave so badly.  I stop by my locker.  Somebody has put a sign up that says: You already have a career why bother staying around for an education. Leave! I crumple up the paper and leave the prison that my school life has become yet again.

           Work, school, home, the vicious cycle continues for the next six weeks. The only times I’m actually not depressed now are when I’m with him, and even then the time is so short that it doesn’t even seem worth it now.  I’m a terrible secret girlfriend.  He could do better than me.  Maybe I should just break it off with him.  I’ll talk to him after this shift is over.  I send him a quick text while there are no customers coming in.  

Alli-10:45 PM

Same time same place, kay?

Nick-10:55 PM Alright.

           I’m sitting in the bed of my truck waiting for him to show up.  He’s late.  

“Hey, really sorry I’m late I had to do some last minute things.”  

“It’s fine,” I say starting to play with my lip ring. He looks at me with concern.  

“What’s wrong?  School again?”  I nod looking down at the pavement.  He puts his arm around my shoulder and kisses the top of my head.  “So wanna get going?  Don’t your finals start next week?”  I nod again not wanting to move or say what had to be done next.  He hops down from the bed of my truck and offers me a hand. I just sit there, on the verge of tears. “Okay Allison, seriously what’s the matter?” he frowns at me.  

“I have to break up with you.  You can do so much better then some high school girl like me. I’m sorry”.  Tears start running down my face, and I jump off the bed of the truck, get in, and start the ignition.  He’s just standing there dumbfounded.  I speed off towards my house, wiping my eyes.  I arrive home.  Momma won’t be home for another hour.  I go to my room, slamming the door behind me, and collapse on my bed crying. I didn’t want to break up with him, but it had to be done.  I’m not good enough for him.  I’m ugly, stupid, and a complete failure.  Plus he’s 3 years older then I am.  He should be dating people his own age.  The sound of my phone vibrating breaks my chain of thought.  He’s calling.  I take out the battery to my phone and curl up into a ball hugging myself crying softly.

I’m jarred awake to the sounds of screaming. I can hear Momma yelling at someone on the other side of a phone.  I fall back asleep.

           Fifth period lunch, I’m sitting in my usual corner, headphones on, music up full blast.  I hate lunch period.  It’s full of people doing idiotic things.  At least nobody has come up to me today.  Just as I finish my optimistic thought, nameless upperclassman jerk with his band of idiots stands in front of me.  I look up at them.  Their lips are moving, but I can’t hear them.  I remove my headphones and give them a piercing stare.  

“Hey, what’s up slut? How’s your mother doing in that stripper bar of hers?”  I ignore the comment and mouth the words “Leave me alone.”  

“So I was thinking this should be enough for one night of fun for me and the boys, right?”  He tossed a roll of cash in my lap.  I stare at the bills, a hundred dollars wrapped in a bunch of singles probably. I let out a sigh and hand the idiot back his money.  

“Sorry, I don’t do that.”  I turn to walk away but the nameless idiot grabs me by the shoulders.  

“Hey, now not so fast.  Now I promised the guys here a good time, and since you already have so much experience doing things for cash, I figured you would oblige.”  

“I said I don’t do that.  Are you hearing impaired?” I mumbled.  His face shoots with rage at my comment.  Great.  Good job Alli, your smart mouth has gotten you in a sticky situation.  He whispers into my ear.  

“You should be a good little girl and keep that mouth of yours shut.”  

“Let me go, or you will be in a world of pain.” I growled menacingly.  He laughed at my comment.  I let out a sigh; I warned him.  I scream at the top of my lungs.  “Get off me you deranged pervert!”  The lunch room got deathly quiet, and teachers who had been completely oblivious until that moment spotted the group of boys surrounding me.  The guys scatter like rats from a flashlight.  I ran out of the lunch room and hid in the bathroom. I can’t deal with this crap anymore.  I just can’t. Why me?  What did I ever do to deserve this?  Can I help it that everyone is an ignorant fool?  Can I control who my parents are and what they choose to do with their lives?  Why am I constantly tortured by other peoples’ vices and peoples’ misconceptions.  It just isn’t fair, this world isn’t fair.  I never did anything to deserve this kind of treatment, and yet here I am living each day for no reason at all.  My life has no purpose.  I would be doing the world a favor if I just disappeared.  

           It’s past midnight, and I can’t sleep.  I quit my job after that idiot at school tried to pay for a...  A shiver runs up my spine at the thought. I would be doing the world a favor if I just disappeared...      The next day Momma was angry that I had quit my job.  She yelled at me for over three hours saying that I was just dropping out of society and that I was overreacting and that I should go to Mr. Chang and beg him to hire me again.  I just couldn’t face “Him” again.  That was why I didn’t want to go back to work and why I quit.  I wasn’t worth his time or effort.  I’m just not good enough for him.  People say it constantly when they think I can’t hear them, that I’ll never amount to anything and that I’m going to end up worse off than Mama working as a prostitute for the rest of my life.  Maybe they’re right.  Maybe I will amount to nothing and that I’m just a worthless piece of trash that is a drain on society.  I lazed around most of Saturday morning; I didn't know what I was going to do with myself anymore.  School wasn’t an option.  I was passing, yes, but it had become a living nightmare that I couldn't keep returning to.  Home, well it’s mostly quiet until nighttime. But home is no better than school.  Where else is there to go?  What other options did I really have?  I can’t survive in the world with only a 9th grade education and the little money that I have saved up won’t last very long either.  I just don’t know what to do anymore.  

The doorbell rings.  It’s Kate, she drags me outside and we get in her car.  We end up at the mall, walking around, people and mostly window shopping.  Trying on clothes and just having a girl’s day out.  Kate really cheered me up and it was nice to be away from all the worries of the world, I was genuinely happy for the first time, in a long time.  It was a good day.

I return home exhausted and go straight to bed.  A crash breaks my light sleep, and I sit up in my bed.  Someone is yelling at Mama over the phone and she’s yelling back, I get up and sit in the hallway to hear her better. “I wish we never would have been so foolish back in the day, I regret ever dating you, I didn’t want this for my life.  I had to drop everything that I had going for me and take care of the baby.  I wake up every day and work a shitty job to provide for my family that I wish I had never made.  I told you back then that we should have waited.  We weren’t ready for a child and the second I told you I was pregnant you up and leave like the cowardly son of a bitch you are!  Oh, you’ve changed huh?  Want to come back into your daughters’ life after 15 years?  I've managed to survive for 16 years on my own I’m sure we can survive two more until she graduates.  We’ll be fine.  And after that it’s her decision whither she wants you to be a part of her life or not.”

Mama was just saying that to make herself look stronger than she really is.  We weren’t gonna be fine, and I knew that she was just telling him what he wanted to hear, so he would leave her alone.  We barely scrape by every month.  I didn't think that my paycheck made any difference most of it was spent on gas money and the rest I put in the bank.  A sudden realization hit me, Mama must have been stealing the money from my account to help pay for the bills.  “Allison! Get in here now.”  

“Umm, yes Mama?” I stood in the doorway.  “What were you doing in the hallway?  Eavesdropping, how many times have I told you not to listen to my conversations?”

“I’m sorry, I couldn't fall back asleep and I heard you two talking.”

“How dense are you, I’ve told you over and over to not eavesdrop do you learn from anything that I tell you?  How many times do we have to have this same conversation?”  I stood there blankly staring at the ground messing with my lip ring, I could tell that she hadn’t calmed down from the phone call.  Mama took a deep breath, “So, why did you quit your job?”  I was silent.  “You aren’t pregnant are you?”  I shook my head no.  “If I find out that you’re lying you won’t be welcome in this house, now please go to bed.”  I couldn’t tell if that was a serious threat.  I froze for a second trying to figure out the words that she had just said would she really kick me out just like that?  “I said go to bed!”  I returned to my room and lay there on the bed staring at the ceiling my heart racing.

           Another week passed and there was no point to anything anymore I showed up to school out of fear and returned home for lack of a better place to be.  Everything had become pointless and monotonous.  I feel numb every second of every minute of everyday I want this feeling to end.  I just want to disappear.  I start crying softly as I pull out my phone and a piece of paper.

Alli-12:48 AM

To my best friend, what can I say?  It’s been an interesting life and you’ve always made me smile when I was sad. I’m glad that I met you all those years ago.  But this is it for me I can’t take living in this world anymore.  I’m sorry about everything.  This is my last farewell.  

I turned off my phone and turn my attention to the piece of paper on the desk.  

      Dear Everyone,

I’m sorry for everything that has gone wrong on my account.  I’m sorry that I was the daughter that you never wanted and that I ruined your life by being born.  I’m sorry that I forced you to work at the bar again as a waitress Momma.  I’m sorry that I’m such a worthless soul and a nuisance on everyone that I come in contact with.  But that will all be solved tonight.  I’m fixing your mistake that you made when you were no older than me. I’m a nobody, and honestly nobody will miss me after today.  I was a mistake, and there is no other way out of this world of sorrow...Goodbye, Your welcome.  You weren’t always the best parent, but I loved you more than you will ever know, even though you never showed me any in return.

Sincerely,

Allison

I picked up the razorblade and started to make a deep cut in the tenants in my right wrist.  I continued until there were three very deep cuts in my wrist and anywhere else I could see a vein.  Blood was dripping from the wounds.  I passed out shortly after that.

           I woke up with a sharp pain shooting from all over my body.  Katie was sitting next to me crying hysterically saying.  “Please don’t die, please don’t be dead, please don’t be dead.”  Over and over crying on the bed in the unknown room I was now laying in.  I made a faint whimpering sound and she looked up.  She looked at me and started crying more.  I sat up slowly and she hugged me tightly.      

I was in the hospital for a week getting “help.” Katie visited me everyday for those seven days.  She was the high point of my day inside that terrible place.  I was released after I had been claimed, “not a threat to my own self anymore.”  I went to live with Katie after being released her mom had talked with my mom and they agreed to the deal.  Maybe life would be better away from my house and school for a while.

[riffrelevant]

Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker, Senior Writer/Journalist ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway, Owner/Chief Editor

It was just this past year, 2018, that the Richmond, Virginia based THUNDERCHIEF landed on my musical radar thanks to my pal of many years, and all around great musician, Erik Larson (Backwoods Payback, Alabama Thunderpussy, Hail Hornet).

At the time, he had collaborated on a track with the wizard behind the THUNDERCHIEF curtain, Rik Surly, but we’ll delve into that a bit more later. An online friendship between Rik and I quickly developed, as often does in this modern age of cyber-realm communications and exchanges of information, culminating in our meeting in person at last year’s edition of The Maryland Doom Fest. Speaking of which, there is also more to come on that too shortly, concerning the upcoming 2019 event.

Anyway, Rik is indeed THE man behind the one-man, stand alone sonic crushing that is THUNDERCHIEF, and if you have not experienced that amalgamated bastardization of crusty sludge and industrial doom metal, you will before this article ends, rest assured. Yet, in the time I’ve gotten to know Rik, I have learned of his incredible musical past, including ties to some bands, and people, that utterly intrigues me. Plus, Rik is the living, breathing, type of aural underdog that I love, and love to champion… a true, dyed in the wool DIY’er.

So, without a lot more further elaborate expounding from me, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of why we are here: I was recently able to pick Rik’s brain about THUNDERCHIEF, his past, his present, his future, and much, much more and thus…

Riff Relevant Interviews: THUNDERCHIEF’s Rik Surly

RIK SURLY

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Rik, a lot of folks are aware of your recent moves with Thunderchief of course but for the uninitiated, share with us a little of your musical background (bands, etc.)… what instruments do you play? Aren’t you originally a drummer?

RIK: Yes, I am a drummer that dabbles in strings. For this project, I am playing drums, bass, and guitar, plus creating my own noise/tape tracks.

I’ve been in bands since 1989, starting with a tech/death/thrash/trash band called Lycanthropy. After hilariously embarrassing myself, showing my young age by blowing an “audition” with a long-haired Neil Fallon, I then made a glorious move to Charlotte, where I joined The Furys with Bradzig from The Dixie Damned. I was doing road work too, and then I started The Irritations out of the remains of The Screamin’ Street Trash, who were being scouted by MCA Records. Of course this was when anything that looked or sounded “punk” was being signed. So we blew that real good.

Then I hitchhiked to Dallas with my dog and drums. I wrote articles for a few Texas ‘zines while looking for a band. I was at Jim Heath’s one day, saw 2 greasers smoking weed and beers across the street from Church Of Sub-Genius. We formed a gritty 3 piece rockabilly trio called Mean Mean Man & The Brass Knuckle Band. Tour, tour, tour – then I had the fortunate experience of having El Duce call me to book/play/drive/babysit his solo tour. When he went to jail, I joined The Spo-Its (notorious sexploitation noise outfit, like Crash Worship, but meaner; known to Jerry Springer as “Shock Rock”), then when he got out of jail, I did The Mentors’ 20th Anniversary Tour.

When that imploded, I hit Atlanta. The hot band in ’96-’98 was Dick Delicious & The Tasty Testicles, so I played with them, he (Dick D.) played with The Spo-Its, and we eventually got Kirk from Buzzoven and Robert Williams of Capt. Beefheart to join in.

Ok….now we go to Richmond, VA circa 2001 where I formed The Deviltones, we did that for about 5 years. This included Demonboy from Texas Terri & The Stiff Ones and Pustulus of GWAR (known as B.)

Being surrounded by Richmond musicians during this time was very inspiring, so many of us were on the edge of breaking thru to the masses.

The Deviltones had a few successes, but we fought constantly, but were still in somewhat of a demand. This is where I had the vision of THUNDERCHIEF – one man, a guitar, with a bunch of amps, drowning out the chaos that surrounded me. When the “big” expensive Deviltones record came out on 3 labels worldwide, we collapsed. We didn’t tour, the band member’s wives were the shittiest they could have been, and my only out was Thunderchief.

Then I diddled a bit live with Thunderchief and an I-pod, which, to me, was the anti-christ. Bobby from The Undead was really my inspiration for a 1-man band – he used to tour as The Undead with a mixtape of his backing tracks, and he would sing, just him and a tape. Very bad, but inspiring. I then spent 7 years as a hired gun/tour manager/tour accountant for several national acts. Then I did it…. I stopped all other ventures in 2013 to focus on Thunderchief, and here we are.

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: What was the catalyst that initially got you interested in music – as far as a particular band, album, or concert?

RIK: I have a pic of me when I was 3 years old, jamming to Elton John’s ”Saturday Night’s Alright” with big-ass headphones and my Mickey mouse guitar. Later, that guitar turned into a KISS guitar, and I was hooked. My sister took me to see KISS in ‘78, we saw the “real” Beach Boys, Stones, Rod Stewart. My sisters were at Cal Jam ’74, so I was always interested in what they were doing with music. I played their records so much, my dad got me a K-Mart record player. Then the next day, he came home with KISS “Rock ‘N Roll Over”. Everyday I would air guitar, or sing along with a brush in my hand, or both at the same time… music was, and has been, my life since I can remember. Hell, I still have those KISS records he bought me.

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: And yet another musician names KISS as their gateway band! Being the lone, sole member of Thunderchief, I assume this has its Pros & Cons. Care to elaborate on what any of either might be?

RIK:

Pros –

No band mates.

Can do anything I want. Literally.

No schedule conflicts/family issues

Rehearse everyday

Cons –

No band mates.

Booking/recording/touring is much harder

Promotion is difficult for 1 person

Songwriting becomes more lengthy

*People do not take solo acts seriously*

I don’t think anything can take the place of a “band”, but, if the people you work with are not on the same page, it wastes all of your damn years of creating music. I decided to take a chance with a solo project, and honestly, I’ve done as well solo, as I did with the baggage. I don’t want to sound like a dick, but really, I have true recollections man, and even recent tours have proven that sometimes when you get a band with 4-5 dudes with issues, you get eggroll.

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: What prompted you to pursue a project as its singular member like this?

RIK: Thunderchief started as a cartoon of amps and a little dude screaming. I realized that could be me, if only I knew how to play a guitar. I have skater hands, from breaking and dislocating shit when I was younger, so I could never really articulate my fingers to fret properly. I can beat the hell out of drums, Bonham-style, but can’t play power chords. So when the 3, 4, 5-man band thing was clearly not working for me, I had to keep on keeping on… many of those guys I played with just gave up music, but I couldn’t do that, I had to forge my way somehow. I can tour when I want, take my dog, fuck off in Nebraska for a while, whatever I want, instead of waiting for my bandmate’s wife to tell us we can’t go to Europe, ha ha!

The idea is of purity and as little effects as possible. Knowing that very band does not  “master” every song, I decided I didn’t care about being the absolute best – don’t get me wrong, I like it to be more than good, but no band is perfect. Some keep overdubbing and adding on tracks to make a record, like “Dopesmoker”, or some have 1 good song and 9 that you don’t want to listen to… Thunderchief is different in that aspect, if it’s not perfect, it’s perfect.

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Admittedly, I’m not a very tech adept kind of guy… it’s all kind of Greek to me, ha! That said, break things down for us as to how Thunderchief works, in the aspect of you being it’s sole member/player?

What type of equipment or set up do you use, either in studio or live?

RIK: I use the same equipment and settings in the studio, on stage, or at rehearsal. Currently, I have a guitar stack and bass stack with a drive pedal by Sean Ryan Customs, and a huge PA to match. Drums thru the PA, guitar split to 2 amps, and some yelling, you got Thunderchief. I haven’t introduced any effects into the mix, the original idea was to be as straight forward as possible regarding tone. The drums have to be pushed thru the PA from an iPod, but they’re not programmed, they are human.

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Speaking of human, how does a drummer like Erik Larson play with you on the road without actually playing with you live on the road? (Readers, ICYMI – Rik and current Backwoods Payback drummer Erik Larson collaborated on a crushing track earlier this year titled “Stone House”… it’s streaming below)

RIK: I box him up in the back so my dog can sit up front, nobody knows he’s actually there – we wrap his hair in a man-bun!

https://soundcloud.com/thunderchief-3/stone-house

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: LMAO!! Being based in Richmond, VA., a hotbed for great music over the years, what do you attribute to RVA’s having such a richly fertile, long running underground music scene? Care to name-drop any current bands from that scene that you like or think readers should check out?

RIK: I am not sure what it is about Richmond, maybe it’s the ancient Powhatan curse of perseverance. There has been so many great bands to surface from here, and it continues with bands like Book Of Wyrms, Desert Altar, Lair, and many more. The one thing I have noticed from living in Richmond twice within 20 years, is that the music is still here. There is a good support structure here, and everybody is quite genuine in their craft, it’s nice.

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: What is currently going on with Thunderchief… and what plans loom on the horizon? And of course, we must touch upon Thunderchief being part of The Maryland Doom Fest 2019’s roster of confirmed bands!

RIK: Man, I have some plans! Of course, being only 1 person hinders a lot of planning, and I rely on fans and friends to help make booking and touring work. Now, I’m writing new material for an album, like I’ve said many times before, haha… but I still have a few unreleased tracks. Booking for 2019 has been a very pleasant experience, I’ll be hitting the region a bit heavier than in the past, tours in the works, and some killer festival dates to be psyched about. And yes, plans do now include playing MDDF V.

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: And what are your expectations / hopes with this appearance at the famed Maryland Doom Fest? For the uninitiated, what can observers expect from a Thunderchief live show, be it on the road or at MDDF specifically?

RIK:  It’s an honor to be a part of the bad-ass MD Doom Fest. I will be on tour at that time, my goal is to play with some, if not most, of the MDDF bands in others cities. I hope to see every band I can by not talking so damn much, I expect it to sell out! I love Frederick, I guess I’ll have to pull out the big guns for that show. Fans will definitely be encouraged to wear earplugs, get stoned and forget the boundaries of the music… Thunderchief isn’t out to reinvent the wheel, or do noodly solos and add rad effects. The idea is to play with a very organic tone, with a little push, and no gimmicks, but I might throw in a surprise for the Fest. [You can find these upcoming Thunderchief live dates below! – Pat]

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Knowing some of your background, I know you have been at this for several decades now… what keeps you so personally invested and still “at it” after all this time”? Care to share some sage advice, insight or warnings for anyone that may just be starting out?

RIK: Man this is all I know – I don’t have kids and all that normal stuff, I’m basically the same 13 year old practicing to [John] Bonham and Motley Crue, just doing it differently. My love for music and everything that comes with it hasn’t diminished yet, I doubt it will. All of my past colleagues have been done for a long time, except 1 ex-bandmate, who plays with a national act now. I don’t want to do anything else man, I just wanna rock out ’til dawn with a spliff and a cool one. Not much bothers me, but when I’m not playing shows, I always remember The Subhumans lyric – “How’s it going there? It’s Not going at all, We’ve got no more gigs”. Probably the most depressing part of it all for me. That, and post-tour blues.

I think I’m the one who should be asking for advice, insights and warnings! I’m not sure of what to say here, but I can help you with all of your problems, just send me $1 per problem, and consider it done!

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Ha! You and I have talked privately about the hardships that (independent) musicians / bands / artists face in today’s current music scene… what are some of the biggest that you have encountered?

RIK: Well, the current “industry” changes don’t really allow for past methods to work for bands – for example, we give away our music for free even more so than we used to. We work hard, we have extremely high overhead, we do all of these things for art, to be given away on YouTube or whatever, which is fine, but in contrast, years ago, we were cool with people dubbing tapes of our music, but we were gaining so much more from that form of free distribution. That’s one major change I’ve seen that hasn’t really helped out artists.

One particular conversation you and I had was… what does a band do if they want to release a single with a B-side?

Why do we have to continue to write and release full length albums in order to be seen, reviewed or taken seriously? I think if there were an avenue for this, we would see bands releasing much more material. Not every band has the desire to release album after album, without EP’s and singles, right? Maybe I’m just old, but that’s how I still buy music I want. Sometimes 3-4 songs are plenty when I’m in my car, and every record/tape/CD in my collection is not a full length, you know?

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Hypothetically, if there was one thing you could change or improve, what would it be and how might you go about it?

RIK: I guess I would like to see more booking agents. They do such a huge service for independent touring bands. If bands could spend more time writing and touring, rather than Facebooking and emailing all night, there would be more productivity in regards to the artist’s future.

You know, if a saucy agent would act as a “package promoter”, like, promote package tours for small indie bands (not just his/her friends’ bands), the venues would only need to find those one or two stellar local bands to play with the package they booked. Everyone’s headache goes away, the venue makes bar and food $$, and bands are playing to more people. But the flip-side is, some locals hold out for only “touring acts” – WTF? We are all touring acts!

I can honestly say, I don’t know how to suggest any changes, but what I’ve seen at a small handful of venues does not make sense for the establishment, or the artists. It’s reminiscent of the old days, like at the Electric Banana in Pittsburgh. If anyone reading this emails me with an Electric Banana story, I’ll send them free junk!

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Uh-oh, a challenge! About your aforementioned background, I have a question that’s solely for my own curiosity: I recently read that at one point, you were a roadie for a band I love and want to know more about your experiences with – Nuclear Assault!

What period of time was that and if you don’t mind, care to share one of your more memorable recollections from then?

RIK: Oh man, the times! That was the ’92 Agnostic Front / Nuclear Assault tour. I was at a show one night, working for Polygram Records (age card shown) when Danny [Lilker] asked me to hold his bass. Next thing I knew, I was 20 dates deep, their new guitarist and I started the same day. As much fun as Nuclear Assault was, and everything they were up to, I was in awe of Agnostic Front. It was my first AF experience, and I was hooked. NA was great, definitely a “slam a beer and go” philosophy. Lots of beer, pot, and thrashing about. It felt like a summer camp hanging with those guys.

That was a great tour seeing both sides of hardcore and thrash. I did a lot of tech work for those years. I landed in Dallas in ‘95 and got the ultimate gig…catering for Motorhead/Belladonna club tour. I think there are more “experiences” on that tour than most others, besides Buzzoven, Cramps, Napalm Death, Rev. Horton Heat, Mentors, etc. were all after that. I was so young and in my own world, I don’t know if I appreciated what I was involved in, I took it for granted because that’s all I knew at the time.

So many stories… I remember one venue cancelled the show because Roger was walking around with his shirt off after soundcheck, saw his chest tattoo, and cancelled the show in the name of Catholicism!

AGNOSTIC FRONT Circa 1992

NUCLEAR ASSAULT Circa 1992

Another quickie… I remember Belladonna had a young female tour manager, she was very business, very tough, but a doll behind the curtains. She would make sure to go to as many people as possible and say “Belladonna prohibits any photos”. After hearing that for so long I asked if anyone had tried to take a picture to make her say that, she said “no” (inner laughter).

At that age, talking to Danny and Freddie (Madball) convinced me to back off of helping others be successful and focus on my own music. So I did, maybe not the best choice but I did!

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: Outside of music, what type of things (hobbies, extracurricular things, etc.) do you enjoy doing in your personal life?

RIK: I still travel to skate, I ride BMX less than a mile from my house, I’m a horticulturin’ fool, I grow hot chile varieties and pickling cucumbers, of course hanging with my best girl Sasha and trusty Roadhound Kraut. Music has always been sort of a hobby, but like a permanent hobby that you do everyday for too many hours. [Riff Relevant extends our condolences on the recent passing of KRAUT McMANUS – Rest In Power, Pup!]

RIFF RELEVANT [Pat]: I have a tradition of letting the interviewee have the final word so is there anything you would like to say, share, rant about or whatever, here’s your shot!

RIK: Last words…. don’t be an elitist, enjoy things for what they are instead of finding the “wrong” in everything not suited to you. And time goes by faster as you get older, don’t waste it… and thank you for allowing me to speak, and thank you for reading this far!

Wow, I hope you all enjoyed that as much as I did! I want to thank THUNDERCHIEF‘s Rik Surly for submitting to the previous interrogation… and Erik Larson for bringing us together, ha!

Before closing, let me say, or suggest, that you listen to and support independent music and artists. You can catch THUNDERCHIEF at the following February appearances and The Maryland Doom Fest this June. RIOT Out!

Feb. 1 – Washington, DC @ The Pinch Feb.2 – Doom Hawg Day (presented by Maryland Doom Fest) – Frederick, MD @ Cafe 611 Feb. 7 – Raleigh, NC @ Slim’s Downtown Feb. 8 – Asheville, NC @ Sly Grog

June 20 – 23 The Maryland Doom Fest – Frederick, MD @ Cafe 611 / Guido’s Speakeasy [Info]

Riff Relevant Interviews: THUNDERCHIEF’s Rik Surly [Tour Dates + Maryland Doom Fest 2019] Article By: Pat 'Riot' Whitaker, Senior Writer/Journalist ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway, Owner/Chief Editor It was just this past year, 2018, that the Richmond, Virginia based…