NOISE POLLUTION #2
Follow up from pilot, one dislocated kneecap later…
(Originally published December 31, 2024)
NOISE POLLUTION is a print-formatted zine primarily posted on Instagram (@noisepollutionzine), with PDF and print versions available. To better digitize the zine, I am trying out Substack as a way to offer even more accessible reading for metalheads all over the internet. See table of contents below with navigational links, and DOWNLOADABLE PDF AT THE END!
INSIDE:
Click links to navigate individually published pages
1 (THIS PAGE)
3 GIVING BACK & POPPING KNEECAPS
4 CHARITABLE MALPRACTICE - INTERVIEW
5 A YOUNGHEAD’S REVIEW OF MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW (DOC & PHOTOBOOK)
6 A LESSON IN (ROMANTICIZING) VIOLENCE
7-8 EXODUS ATTACK!!!
10 EXODEATHAVOK
11-12 BATTLE ARMOR "NO LIFE 'TIL DENIM!"
16 GUEST COMIC! by CHANEQUE
LISTENING TO:
“And Justice For All...” by Metallica - And Justice For All… (1988) has some of Metallica’s most political songs, which isn’t saying that much. But, we all start somewhere. Those with money and power can and will use it to overcome justice. Dragging out cases to out-pay the opposition, corporations vs. exploited or affected citizens, or influential abusers against their victims (like our next president). “Halls of justice painted green, money talking” Even when the hammer of justice comes down on the elite, so often they find a way to escape punishment. There’s a saying that if a crime is punished with a fine, it just means it’s legal for a price.
“Fabulous Disaster” by Exodus - To prepare for the show 12/6 (pg. 7-8), I wanted to listen to the Exodus discography, only got through like the first 3 albums before getting distracted, so sorry if I’m missed some gold (pg. 10). One song that hit is the title track of their 3rd album, Fabulous Disaster (1989), with lyrics how our government prioritizes war profiteering over people, and becoming a disillusioned generation. Written by Gary Holt, there’s a call to action about voting and recognizing “they lie in their campaigns / promise through their teeth for total world peace” which is something I feel like has just happened again (pg. 14). “World’s being plastered by an evil bastard” and if we could sum up the failures of the American project in two words: “FABULOUS DISASTER”
“Thrashers" by Death Angel - Not as politically deep as the rest of this line-up, “Thrashers” is an iconic ode to the scene that Filipino band, Death Angel grew up in from a young age, hailing from Daly City as a part of the second wave of Bay Area thrash in the later 80s. As above, I didn’t get around to listening to more of their discography before their live show 12/13-14 (pg. 9), but their debut album The Ultra-Violence (1987) is overall a great thrash album that I quite enjoyed, and I definitely got FOMO from missing out on concert tix (will try next year!!).
Rage Against the Machine (1992) by Rage Against the Machine - Anyone who things RATM has “gone woke” is a child left behind (and many were, deliberately). Since the start, they’ve BEEN “awake” (”Wake Up”). Their songs are hammers on the nose, and I can’t even pick just one right now. “Take the Power Back” from the conservative status quo that keeps us in line, keeps us uneducated and ignorant to their agenda, and keeps us in culture wars instead of class wars, ”’Cause the circle of hatred continues unless we react / we gotta take the power back”; “Settle for Nothing” If we want anything to change, WE GOTTA TAKE ACTION, embrace education, learn to truly empathize, reject reactionary distractions, resist fascistic ideologies; “Know Your Enemy” is not the impoverished, the migrant, the black or brown, but it’s the elite that preys on every one of us (the capitalist/colonizer/white supremacist, all intertwined). “Township Rebellion”, speak up and fight ignorance “when ignorance reigns, life is lost”, especially as musicians and artists, “Why stand on a silent platform? Fight the war, fuck the norm”
“Prison Song” & “Deer Dance” by System of a Down - Another incredible album, Toxicity (2001) has multiple fantastic and politically loaded songs. Prisons profit from legalized slave labor, so the more bodies locked up, the more money for the elite. “Prison Song” was about CIA distribution of drugs in the 80s to “fill your prisons”, but now applies to the “undocumented migrant crisis” as stocks for prisons rose when Trump was elected, due to his mass deportation plans; “Deer Dance” is about police brutality against protesters (especially students), which we have seen plenty of during BLM in 2020, as well as the pro-Palestine protests against genocide and apartheid; but the chorus also reminds me viscerally of the soldiers who gun down children (IDF or American, flip a fucking coin). The American police, many of which train with the IDF, are the state’s military force against the citizens, you and I, to protect corporate interest and white supremacist values. As RATM also says: “By wearin’ the badge, they’re the chosen whites” ACAB
“Remain Violent” by Warbringer - I saw Warbringer 3/20, and “Remain Violent” was the closing song; I got yanked into the circle pit by a guy I know, it was a fantastic show. If you’re noticing a trend this issue, yes it’s also directly about police violence. But I also read this applying to the current events of political violence. JFK’s quote has been floating around recently, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable”, and based on reactions to the UHC CEO shooting on 12/4, I think we are in a truly interesting time. The system will never let you take away their power, so they’ll do anything to stop you from making real change, but as self-ID socialist, and Warbringer vocalist John Kevill says: “You have the right, to remain / to REMAIN VIOLENT”
SINCE LAST RELEASE
So…funny story: the day before I released the pilot issue of the zine, I went to the Stay Gold Deli show on 11/23, & dislocated my kneecap :)
So, unfortunately I’m out of pit commission for 6 wks at the least. But that’s not gonna stop me from going to shows, like EXODUS!!! on 12/6 (pg. 7), DEATH ANGEL (livestream since tix sold out, pg. 9). It’s also given me some time to reflect on the culture of recklessness in the scene, which is kind of covered in the 80s Bay Area metal documentary/book, Murder in the Front Row (pg. 5).
As this is also a zine based in my politics, Trump’s coming term has obviously been on my mind, and doing what I can to understand what’s to come, how to face it, and how to uplift those around me as we head for real uncertain times.
Note: I started writing this 11/30. December has been a fucking whirlwind. Failed coups, a CEO assassination (and a fascinating public response, pg. 14), global regime changes, daunting news of what the next presidential era may look like, and more I can’t even keep up with. As a certain man once (possibly) said, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”
In lighter news, this issue I’ve got my first band interview with MALPRACTICE (pg. 4)!! And featuring a special holiday comic by an online Metallifan friend all the way from Texas (pg. 16)!!
Photo: "POV: YOU JUST ATE SHIT IN THE PIT AND YOUR KNEE GOT FUCKT"
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