A YOUNGHEAD'S REVIEW OF "MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW"
Covering the 2019 metal documentary directed by Adam Dubin, and the 2012 photobook by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew
NPZ #2 — DECEMBER 2024 — PAGE 5
After dislocating my kneecap, I had a Thanksgiving break to rest, and decided to put on the Bay Area metal documentary, Murder in the Front Row (2019) directed by Adam Dubin. The doc features lots of cool people and performers, from Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Death Angel, Testament etc. Also lots of people who were central to the scene outside of bands, like Ron Quintana who created Metal Mania, THEE Bay Area metal zine (which I’d love to track down a copy of); and of course photo legends Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew, co-authors of the book of the same title.
The documentary is on Youtube, and I highly recommend watching it to any metal fans old and young alike. As a young fan, it really gave me a glimpse into a whole community that I hadn’t been a part of, and idolize to an extent. But seeing the people in the documentary talk so fondly of the time and their memories, it really grounds this golden era back to reality instead of something just left in books or on screen.
Murder in the Front Row: Shots from the Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter (2011) by Harald Oimoen & Brian Lew is a photobook with so many iconic photos documenting the scene, and written pieces by people in the scene (Ron Quintana, Gary Holt of Exodus, Alex Skolnick of Testament, Robb Flynn of Machine Head). These days, I find a lot of old-school metal photos on the internet or social media (and my algorithm is mostly Metallica), but when I picked up this book from a library, I realized where most of my favorites were coming from. It’s so cool being able to have these pictures of your favorite band in your hands, and even cooler (weirder?), from when they were your age four decades ago.
Making this zine is already giving me some crazy opportunities to meet and talk to people in the scene, OG and young alike, and just gives me even more fuel to think that I’m just following the steps of headbangers that came before, and embodying that passion to this day. I don’t know why that sounds like they’re dead, although some have tragically passed too soon, but obviously many are still very much alive and active in the scene!
I had the chance to talk to Harald O. at the Exodus show, AND saw Brian Lew but felt weird approaching (pg. 7), which was fucking crazy to me, as just a young fan who read their book and watched them on screen. So often I viewed the “80s Bay Area Metal Scene” as an unattainable THING or time gone by, but now here I am able to talk to and see the people who were front and center. I even got some show photography advice from Harald since a lot of my shots were coming out too dark; gonna try to switch to 400 film and see if I get better results, or might just stick to digital for cost sake 💀
I’m definitely hoping to see if I can talk to these guys more, maybe an interview or documented conversation in the future, because I just enjoy so much about the Bay Area scene and what better way to really learn more than going straight to the source?
Oimoen and Lew’s book, Murder in the Front Row, recently announced a restock sometime Spring 2025, and if I’ve got the extra cash I’ll be picking up a copy as soon as I can.
Photos:
@noisepollutionzine Instagram story, 11/24
MITFR in hand while watching "Cliff 'Em All" on VHS at my friend's house
Harald: "When I had a regular 35 mm camera I used 400 speed film & I had to use an aperture of 2.8 and I used a 60 or 125 shutter speed !' You're talking about 35 mm film right ?? Not a digital ?? Every photo in my book was taken with 35 mm !!"
my Ride the Lightning record with Oimoen's picture of Cliff, the inaccurately spelled credit on the insert "Harold O.", and the picture as it appears in MITFR (pg. 82)
(above) yours truly with my own hand-painted Alcoholica shirt (left) based off of Harald O's pic of James Hetfield
(captions directly photographed from MITFR book)
My best-known shot, from the back of Ride the Lightning. Cliff told me he dug this shot because he was doing a sick string-bend. Unfortunately this signed duplicate is the only one in existence, since I never got the original negative back from Cliff. HARALD OIMOEN
The Alcoholica tee was created by a fan. HARALD OIMOEN
