Blog #9: Revisiting the "Big Four" of Thrash. 


It's been a while since writing my last blog. The last couple of months have been full of grief and reflection, but as I've already written about melancholia, I thought it would be a good time to go back to my roots and write about a time when I was madly obsessed with music. More than I ever have been, yet I couldn't play a note on any instrument for another half a decade.


I was HUGE into thrash later on in my teens and I was getting into the more extreme stuff like At The Gates and Napalm Death in my early 20's. I was caught up in the late 2000's thrash resurgence that brought in Municipal Waste, Bonded By Blood, Warbringer, Mutant, Toxic Holocaust and, mostly importantly to me, Evile. The latter I followed since the start of their career as I was getting into music and they were one of the only metal bands for many years who played in my hometown of Aberystwyth. I bloody love that band, but I digress.

~
That particular wave peaked with "The Big 4" of Thrash Metal (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth & Anthrax) finally touring together after decades of rivalry, a wet dream come true for thrashers young and old. At the time, Mustaine settled his beef with Slayer and Metallica for something new to boast about, it was the biggest ever tour of American artists at that point, what with their combined record sales and influence n' all. I was a skint performance arts student so I wasn't going to catch the Big 4 playing the long-gone Sonisphere festival, but I was lucky enough instead to watch 5 hours of the Sofia, Bulgaria show at the Aberystwyth Arts Center with all of the towns metalheads. There was about 8 of us.


The shows themselves were incredible, every band had something to prove and were all at the top of their game. Anthrax got the entire arena clapping their hands and pumping their fists, opening the proceedings with the most energetic performance of the four. Belladonas vocals strain here and there, but the band look like they are having time of their lives and bring the whole arena together for the celebratory occasion. Rain battered down for Megadeths set but it didn't deter the crowds spirit one bit. In fact, Megadeth had the best reception of the first three bands with the most musically sophisticated set of the Big 4. The drenched crowd sang along and gave huge cheers after each song. I've seen Megadeth live many times in person and recorded, but this is the best set I've seen with Mustaine clearly lapping it all up. "The whole world is watching Sofia...that might not mean something to you but it means a fucking lot to me!". They even had the gall to open AND close the set with my personal favourate: 'Holy Wars...The Punishment Is Due'. It's no exaggeration to say I've enjoyed hearing that song at least a thousand times since 2010.


The rain calms down for Slayer, who opted for a more contemporary set-list than a legacy performance, with nearly half of the show dedicated to material from 'Christ Illusion' and 'World Painted Blood'. Opening with the latters title track, it's clearly apparent..."Oh shit, THIS is fucking thrash metal." Mosh pits open, red flares go off and Slayer slice and stab their way through a relentless show. Two things really stood out to me. First, Dave Lombardo has no equal when we're talking about thrash metal drumming. The double bass attack and those fills are absolutely ferocious, he just batters that kit like no-one else. Second, with Jeff Henneman, this was the classic Slayer lineup and they never sounded better. When Jeff faced and headbanged toward the wall of amplifiers for the climactic guitar wails in 'Mandatory Suicide', it stuck in my memory all this time to me replicating it when I play 'Thinking Nothing, Feeling Nothing'.


But it's obvious why Metallica are the by far the biggest of the four from their headlining set. The entire crowd sings each classic song after another. 'Creeping Death', 'For Whom The Bell Tolls', 'Fuel', 'Master Of Puppets', 'One', 'Enter Sandman', 'Harvester Of Sorrow', 'Hit The Lights', 'Seek & Destroy'...it's all part of every thrash fans DNA. The only dip is when the band play 'Cyanide' and 'That Was Just Your Life' from the then-recent 'Death Magnetic' album, given the crowds relative unfamiliarity with those songs compared to the rest. However, I'd love to see them revisit 'All Nightmare Long' again in the set-list given it's arguably their best thrash song in the past 30 years. Metallica own the occasion as the headliners, but give humble special shouts to the influence of all the bands of the big 4, not just as themselves. When they invite the rest of the bands up to play a massive jam of Diamond Heads 'Am I Evil', the event reaches it's apex. Mustaine playing with Metallica again?! How many bass guitars onstage?! If there's a nitpick, it's that Slayer were too serious to join in on the fun but at least Tom Araya joins the group photo with a massive shit-eating grin.


After re-watching this old DVD of mine recently, I concluded that this is probably the best event that Thrash Metal ever had. That's no disrespect the more recent wave of thrash that gave us Havok and Power Trip, it's just that the big 4 are no longer in their prime and no thrash band has been commercially equal since. What could be better than what happened in Sofia, 2010?


I suggest getting rid of the Big 4 label. It might have applied back then, but thrash is in a different state in 2024. I have a lot of love for Anthrax, but given their slow album output and unwillingness to play anything other than the classics, I consider Testament and Exodus to be just as important right now (Overkill deserve a mention too for their consistency for quality albums and shows). More-so, Kreator have been truly incredible in the past decade and deserve far more recognition, especially as part of German Thrash Metals influence.


Picture it now, a day long lineup of all the best thrash bands right now. HAVOK, DEATH ANGEL, EVILE, OVERKILL, MUNICIPAL WASTE, TESTAMENT, ANTRHAX, KREATOR (taking Slayers vicious place), MEGADETH, METALLICA. It'll never happen but I can dream. Call it the Big 10.


- Mike

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2tAV9pHv9238d2RPN9MWpv?si=11cfb89ca9f747d8

Interview around the 30m mark.

Blog #8: Broodmother (2016-2024)

"It's all about the groove, not just making the furniture vibrate" - Carnifex

Dear reader, much like the 'Krank Is Life' blog (#3), I would like to dedicate this entry to another band I admired that has sadly hung up their instruments and called it a day. That band is the worstershire stoner collective Broodmother.

I've dabbled in lots of stoner doom albums when I was exploring the fringes of what's possible in metal. Electric Wizard, Conan, Bongripper, Down, Yob, Sleep, Pallbearer - they were all bands that I enjoyed listening to while either stoned off my bonce or found catharsis in the throes of depression. While I'd say Broodmother were more of a hard rock band than being strictly metal, I can't think of a single other band that laid down the grin-inducing, slow-nod groove better than them.

I first saw them when we shared the stage in Wolverhampton in 2018, then later again in Birmingham when they supported Boss Keloid. While the first gigs lineup was a hodgepodge of genres, it was clearer to me on the second gig when they shared the stage with a doom metal band and an experimental prog band how much Broodmother stood out in the stoner genre. 'Natural Born Sinner' has an incredible bass interlude that rumbles like a distorted cello and wails like alien static before the band kicks into it's crescendo on an absolutely delicious riff. Cosmic Pyramid also had some really fun interplay between the instruments, especially when the second half builds tension, skittering and dancing over the fretboard before delivering an absolute bastard of a groove. This kind of magic was later expanded on over their next two EPs which had some amazing standouts I loved seeing in their show. 'Trick Of The Journey' has a really sweet jam section that blossoms into a fantastic guitar solo (especially live), 'Vlad The Inhaler' has a fantastic vocal hook with the woozy guitar leads working diagetically with the lyrics, and 'The Fix Is In' is the best song I've heard about the subject of a drug deal. With 'Born To Lose' I invited them to play in Shrewsbury twice and once in Machynlleth and they always delivered the goods.

Broodmother unfortunately, seemed to have a case of the exploding drummer syndrome. In the past year and a half, they couldn't find a full time drummer and it seemed to stall their momentum. I filled in on the drums at their Machynlleth show, and they later offered to pay for my travel playing future gigs with them as they looked for a full time replacement. I happily accepted! I've got a lot of respect for them continuing with a part-time drummer instead of playing to a drum-machine backing track, who in the right mind would do that?!

In that time, I hung out with them for a few practice sessions and rocked behind the kit for the next three shows in Nottingham, Shrewsbury and Bournemouth. Drumming was my original instrument, so it was a genuine pleasure to have an outlet for this particular skill, though I admit it was an odd fit sometimes. My thrash metal/D-beat punk influences would kick up the tempo on a few songs where the groove necessitated a slower beat; it was something that took me a while to get used to. Still, I like to think that at the time I made the drumming for those songs my own with new double-kick patterns and an onstage energy headbanging away behind the kit.

In the end though, after the high of playing a cracking set in Bournemouth, the band decided to call it a day. It's sad news, but not entirely surprising given their stall in momentum. I'll miss the bands mercilessly democratic candour in the practice room, Noel's laid back attitude and his mid-jam expressions, Ian's (guitar) quick death metal jams in the practice space, chatting Phillip Glass with Ian (Bass) and his recommendations of obscure Japanese grindcore bands, and the intelligent conversations with Clive (guitar) on the long drives home. I know a couple of members of the band have their own projects to focus on that must feel fresh and exciting after being stuck in the mud, but right now between them, nothing is going to match the collective groove of Broodmother in their prime. I'll have their set-list burned in my memory for a long time indeed!

Mike

PS: I never got to ask them if the yonic imagery on their EP 'The Third Eye' was intentional or not.

PS: I never got to ask them if the yonic imagary on their EP 'The Third Eye' was intentional or not.

Contains topics of depression and suicide.

This has easily been the hardest blog to write so far. There's been a few different drafts that were going to either talk about the making of the new album, or chronicling the album release shows, or describing the relief of finishing a personal five year project. But every attempt felt woefully inauthentic. I'd stop halfway through a draft with a heavy sigh, stare out the window for a while before eventually deciding it's better the delete the lot. A whole lot of epiphanots going on, one after another. The album had some weighty subject matter that felt like it took a whole lifetime to express, so reflecting back on it should've been a relief where I could've taken some rest and take in new ideas for where to go next. Instead, I found myself staring directly at my depression that's been present for most of my life and I've been trying to get by on a day by day basis without sinking into the mire.

I'm writing this because I guested on the Spoken Metal Show podcast. I enjoy binging a lot of these episodes exclusively on long coach journeys because Coop (the host) has an infectious enthusiasm for the Merseyside metal scene that sets me up with positivity on my way to a gig. I've been on the show twice before briefly on two M2TM episodes and it's been great fun rattling away with excitement about the show at hand. This is usually the case with most of my on-air interviews as I'm either flying on adrenaline or, on one slightly embarrassing occasion, very drunk (Moshville Times!).

I was generously given the time on Coops show to talk about my stand up comedy, the shows I help organize with Born To Lose Productions and the new Mad Spanner album 'Sisyphus Happy', but this time I was on a video call from my welsh village environment, far away from the scene and in the midst of a heavy depression. Sure enough our conversation started with buoyancy, but when I started to talk about how much live music meant to me and talking frankly about the new albums main theme, I felt the weight of the conversation got much heavier. I felt like it was going to be very difficult to raise the conversation back again to the usual Mad Spanner patter when the hyperactivity I'm known for seemed to gave way to fatigue. I knew the topics of depression and suicide was going to get brought up but I was still under-prepared for exposing my day to day depression on air with the added exhaustion to my cadence. I tend to go through many tangential adventures in conversation anyway, but on the topic of depression, I felt like I was much more scattershot than usual. It's really uncomfortable to nail down what the hell this feeling even is without getting lost in a quagmire with seemingly no end in sight.

And the funny thing is? Listening back on the podcast, I don't even sound like how I felt at the time at all. I'm not 200mph but I certainly don't sound exhausted. I was engaged in the conversation throughout as we covered many topics from the importance of live music to Lemmy. I don't sound depressed, even though in that conversation I felt crushed by it. What I'm trying to show here, is how invisible this can be. The blog isn't a pity party, nor is it a cry for help. I hope to describe my own melancholy and let other people with invisible illnessess know they aren't alone, because depression can be really good at fooling you that you are, always were and always will be.

I've never been a happy person. Happiness is a fleeting transient experience often noticed in hindsight but even then I struggle to find a time when I've been happy for more than half a day. I'm elated at concerts and festivals however. People often ask where I get my energy from (not drugs, for those wondering), and I can honestly say for me it's a knee jerk response to get away from the mire, the grey, the void, the empty, the nothing - as much as possible. That's also true to my approach to creative pursuits to a point where this constant escapism makes me feel utterly delusional at times. My emotional range feels like a flat-line, so the passionate energy for live music or creating art is like a jump-start to an engine on the fritz. Happiness for me feels like either a comforting day of non resistance or when I'm hyperfocussed on productivity or learning. But otherwise, I'm stuck with this dreadful melancholia that just won't fuck off.

I first felt suicidal at 17 after moving into a bedsit with the help of a social worker and was diagnosed with depression soon after. I was on increasing amounts of medication that didn't mix well with the amphetamines, benzodiazapenes, dissociatives and hallouciogenics I was also taking in my late teens. I'd dissociate and begin living in personas to fit in, which led to a psychotic break in university in my early 20's.

Everything was so rich in colour. I could hear the hidden messages of the world reveal themselves to me. I believed I was a god of space and time and alienated everyone with my wild fanaticism. I felt every minute of the day with such intensity, even in my sleep where I had such vivid and lucid dreams of the apocalypse. One was an expressionless doll floating desolate on the watercolour oceans surface, looking back at a distant charcoal city under a sky entirely ablaze with the most beautiful crimson that burned into my memory. If it wasn't for my friends who rescued me under the guise of a "suprise road trip", I would have certainly been sectioned. The following breakdown, deconstruction and rebuilding of my life took a few years. I was put on new medication that not only destroyed all of my drive, but also spooked me with outer-body hallucinations. It shook me enough to quit all drugs cold turkey, legal and otherwise so I could find what my default state was. Even my favourate, booze. Everything was given up other than my ferocious chain smoking habit at the time.

Instead of wallowing of the end of my theatrical aspirations at uni, I later decided I was wasting time not working on another way to perform onstage, through music. "No time to waste!". I became obsessed with learning different instruments and Mad Spanner shortly became something I was genuinely excited about for the first time in years. As the project came to an end and the demo was released, I was suicidal when the excitement I had for this project was met with complete indifference to the outside world. I've since done away with the need for external validation when it comes to art. If someone does art deep in the woods and noone is there to appreciate it, is that person still an artist? I think so, which informs to to focus on the process rather than if other people care or its popularity.

Then things became so much more positive. The band was formed, we played plenty of shows and released the 'Life Absurd' album. I had some of the best times of my life in that period booking shows and meeting new people across England and Wales. When I noticed the patterns of thought that would inevitably spiral downwards, I became able to stop myself feeding into it and eventually stop becoming suicidal altogether. It took practice, but after around a decade the worst of it was finally over.

When Sisyphus Happy released, I felt like the boulder was at the foot of the mountain again after another project ended. It was the worst depression I've felt in a long time that made me consider going back on medication as it was affecting my diet and my work. But after many rewrites of this blog over the past three months I can say the black cloud has passed and the metaphorical boulders being pushed again with all the love and passion I have for living. The resolution of the album still holds true and I know that when the black dog, the black cloud, the falling boulder or whatever you want to call it comes round again, I have this 5 year project to remind me of the importance of perseverance, that the worst will pass, and that the melancholia can fuel the creative drive going forward.

Not everyone who suffers from depression has the creative drive so I can only speak for myself there. But every time I perform onstage, I've get so much catharsis from channeling all of that internal struggle that I hope people can share some of that release vicariously. A Mad Spanner show is a celebration of life and I know invisible illnesses exist in every single crowd - I want those people to be included in that celebration too.
It's a long blog, both in the making and the reading. Thank you and have a "happy" new year, whatever that looks like.

Mike

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3INIBzSPGBrvTdwtkSTLY2?si=2d2dc42031b5460f

         The Loopfest show of 2023 will be a very special one indeed. Many songs will get played for the final time, like Avocado Commando and Escape Into Reality, to make room for new and exciting material. "99% Effective" and "Landmine On A Frisbee" have been received well so far, and "Batty Off The Chain" and "Prison Of Convenience" have already settled quite nicely in the set for quite a long while now. I've always liked it when bands keep themselves relevant and contemporary by playing as much new material as they can out of the gate, and that will be the focus for the next year in support of 'Sisyphus Happy'. But before the run up to that albums release, I have an opportunity to reflect on Life Absurd and chronicle some of the many experiences I've had in it.

            It's fitting that the cycle ends exactly where it began, playing with backing tracks at the Yorkshire House in Shrewsbury. 2017 saw the release of the demo 'Wrong Shade Of Orange' which helped form a band later in the year with Dan Ashley on Guitar and Ben Codd on drums. We played our first gigs at the Yorkshire house, then the Giffard Arms in Wolverhampton and Percys in Whitchurch, and our first milestone was playing the Albert Shed and later, the Rock & Bowl festival - both proving we could entertain non-rocker audiences. With this newfound confidence, we started to play to audiences further away, like Wrexham, Manchester and Birmingham where we found returning audiences. The aim was always to have as much fun with our own silly sense of humour and go full pelt no matter how many people were in attendance. There was a fantastic sense of camaraderie with ourselves and the new friends we made in other bands and promoters in the scene.

           If I'm being honest, I have some reservations about the recording of the album and the production which aimed to fix our rushed time in the studio. But what it does do well is capture the madcap chaotic energy from our live show. I put a lot of thought into tracklist order and making sure each song flows into the other and I'm glad the album sounds like a whole work of art and not a disjointed patchwork. It's still a rough and very imperfect debut, but one that was received well critically and made it into a couple of BOTY lists of 2019. We sold about 70 CDs at live shows, but not a single song has 1000 streams on Spotify as I type, probably due to being quite playlist-unfriendly and the lack of music promotion compared to the live show. There's many lessons learned and things to improve, but my efforts have always been focussed for the live show...

      ...And live shows was really what Mad Spanner was about! It doesn't matter what kind of audience there is, from any background or in any musical line-up, the aim has always been to entertain with the most energetic display of frenzied lunacy. The people at the back, the bar staff, the disabled, the designated drivers, parents, grandparents, moshers. The audience really matters to me on an individual level and I've always tried my best to involve everyone in the room in the show. Depression is a killer and anxiety can be socially crippling. A lot of this energy comes as a direct battle of those internal battles I know exist in the room, hidden within strangers in the audience. I believe communal experiences really matter, maybe more so now than ever. No-one should ever feel alone at a Mad Spanner show.

       I have a few favourite gigs from the 76 shows I've played to this point. Getting invited to play at Footprints in the Custard's 'A New Low' album launch was absolutely huge for Dan and I, who were fans of theirs for a long time. It provided us with a chance to warm up a packed crowd at the Rebellion, Manchester - the most people I've ever performed to and it was an amazing experience winning over a fabulously receptive audience, who probably had no idea who we were. The next time we played in Manchester at the Peer Hat as an opening band, we had stage invasions, stage dives and constant pits and chants that continued as we were packing up our gear. It was such a visceral experience with this particular audience, whom I crowdsurfed playing my bass, that it comes as a personal favourite. It was such a frenzy I can barely remember it but thankfully both of those Manchester shows are up on YouTube.

      Dan and Ben were already planning on going separate ways but the band properly imploded in 2021 at the M2TM north Wales final. We were all feeling pretty crazy from the pandemic, Ben had to pull out last minute due to restrictions and chaos ensued behind the scenes. The short term win of Dan and I successfully pulling off a gaffa-tape 30 minute set out of our asses as a two-piece the night before was marred by the lasting impact it had on us as a 6-legged unit. We finally made up and reunited for a one-off at Gerbfest the next year, but it was very obvious from it that the dissolution of the band was for the best. At least we had closure and we then went our separate ways for career/family/music. I shared some of the best times of my life with those guys and I wish them both well with everything.

      The final part of the 'Life Absurd' era came back to where it all began, playing with a bloody drum machine! I had serious doubts of the future of Mad Spanner, but the fantastic reception from audiences playing solo in Liverpool and Manchester put them to rest. I wrote nearly all of the music of Life Absurd and continued to write and record the new album while establishing myself as a one-man hype show. The Liverpool show was amazing but the ultimate highlight for me was playing crude grindcore thrash-punk in the middle of a shopping centre at noon at Loopfest last year. It was shaping up to be a disaster but it ended up being exactly the 'WTF' experience for everyone involved!

      I'll miss playing a lot of these songs, but I'm really looking forward to playing almost entirely new material from now on. I thank every single one of you for all the kindness I've received and all of your continued support. I couldn't do this without you or from the help from my friends. I truly, TRULY love performing as Mad Spanner with a passion. I hope to continue to bring wide smiles to as many people as possible, even the smiles of relief when the rackets finally over.

- Mike

Michael Randall, Dog Lover. #5

"What owning a dog tells me is that your so lonley, you could pick up shit." - Frankie Boyle

It's been a while since my last blog post, so this one's going to be a long entry. If that prospect alone is daunting enough as you skim past, know that it's written earnestly from the heart as such that I will simulteneously try to exploit it and sell something to you by its end. I'm sorry and you're welcome.

There was a song Mad Spanner used to play quite often that didn't quite make the last album and again, missed the cut on this next one - 'I didn't kick your dog'. A bit of a naff title but it had a storytelling aspect about being misunderstood that was fun to perform live, a song specifically about NOT kicking dogs.

"I went out on a lovely walk the other morning when out of nowhere a dog flew round the corner and I fell over it. The old lady appeared and she said "you kicked my dog" and I said "no madam, I actually fell over" and she said "no, I'm calling the police you kicked my dog" and I said "no I didn't kick your dog, I lost my balance-" and she said "YOU SPAWN OF SATAN-" and I said "NO! MISUNDERSTANDING. What actually happened is that I....TRIPPED...OVER THE PUG FACED CUNT!". And I'd shout that over and over.

The timing of the thrash-grind coming in was very important to get right, which given that I use backing tracks is the reason why this 60 second track has been sidelined for so long. There was even a special version that was only ever played live once where we dropped tuning and played an extended death metal version as a treat for those who had repeatedly seen Mad Spanner and had already heard the joke enough times. One version has better comedic timing, the other absolutley slams but the comedic element gets lost. The indecision chosing between which version to record lost it's spot on the album again but it will certainly return to the setlist one day. Like thrush.

Along with playing 'I didn't kick your dog' so many times in Mad Spanners earliest years, there was a rehashed post from my personal facebook over to the band page recently as follows:

Going out for a date with a dog lover -
Her: I had a cuddle buddy who had the most beautiful husky I'd ever seen!
Me: Cool! I punched a husky in the head once.

It's a joke that works better without any context whatsoever and explaining the details of its true story would blunt the impact. I love situations of the absurd where people are forced to question "why?" and don't get an answer. However, I was warned by a friend that I have to be careful what I post online as people who don't know me might take it on face value and might not book or see a show with a dog-punching shithead. Perhaps. But as long as these are jokes I can defend, I don't really care about being misunderstood by people who either dont understand my humour or who find it offensive. Life is way too short.

I want to highlight 'Die Eir Von Satan' by the band Tool. It's an industrial track sounding like an ominous and hateful nazi rally, but anyone who could understand german would tell you that it's actually just someone declaring ridiculous ingredients for a cake recipe. I took a lesson from this, learning about this translation, is that you should try to question your first gut-impressions of something and never judge a book by it's cover. If someone would judge me for the act of punching a husky without thinking how I could possibly do such a thing, well then the joke's on them.

So my point (if there is one), or my confession, is that with all of this talk about not kicking dogs and puching huskies, is that I'm a massive fan of dogs. I absolutley love them! With all my existential angst and manic-depressive tendancies, there's something about the dumb and expressive happiness of dogs that reminds me to chill the fuck out and embrace the simple things in life. I can't afford to look after a doggie-woggie, nor have time to look after one as I travel so often, but I really enjoy taking other peoples dogs for walks and seeing thier joyous expressions chasing after a ball. The profound concept of 'ball' seems to be the happiest I see the dogs which I find most infectious. If there was an example of the 'Absurd Hero' that Albert Camus wrote about, then I'd point to the dog chasing back and forth to catch and retrieve the ball over and over again if the dog wasn't in complete unquestioning ignorance of it's existence.

I adore big, clumsy dogs, but my favourate breeds are working dogs like springer spaniels with all thier boundless energy! I don't share the same fondness for the yappy little shits like terriers, but I'm not exactly dog racist. If anything, the smaller and more territorial breeds I find more entertaining with thier eccentricities. My mum owns a terrier called 'Taffy' who's been rehomed about 5 or 6 times growing up as a puppy so he has developed terrible seperation anxiety, or just anxiety full stop as it's constantly looking over it's shoulder and panting like he's reliving the horrors of na'am. But then it's matched by this fierce protectivness of his owner and a tendancy to go 'a bit mad' jumping off furniture and accidentally sprinting into walls or doors. A weird fucking dog but I love him all the more for it.

I used to be a live-in carer, which by extension, also meant looking after the two yorkshire terriers who were bizarrely given human names; Annie and Andy. They had plenty of quirks of their own. When the daughter of this looked-after person dropped off a husky for a couple of days, Annie and Andy were fiercely territorial with their incessant barking and were to be seperated by two doors at all times from the husky. Gotcha, I can follow instructions. At least until I forget them. Piercing yapping. A bark. Then pained yelping piercing through aggressive gnawing. The husky had picked up Annies head in its jaw, lifted her in the air and violently shook it side to side in a way it was obviously going for the kill. Adrelanine hit as I pulled the husky back by it's pelt and, while terrified, punched the husky twice in the head knowing there was a possibility it would attack me next. Luckily, it let go obideiently and didn't put up too much resistance as I closed the door behind it, while poor whimpering Annie was carried off with blood pouring from its eye socket. Thankfully, there was no long-term injuries sustained, but it was still a truly awful experience. Jokes are funnier when you don't have to explain them.

That was basically my blog post, but it comes at the perfect timing that a new shipment of Mad Spanner T-shirts have just arrived. I'm not shy my declaration that it's my favourate design of absolutley anything ever! It was born from Kieran Scott (Ashen Crown, Death Collector, Grimorte ect ect ect ect) and I trying to come up with the most bizarrely offensive T-shirt ever. He really knocked it out of the park producing this monstrocity of a tshirt design of a literal 'pug faced cunt'. If there is any shame from wearing my own band merch, I have absolutley none of it wearing this. Fun fact is that in making the first batch, there was a debate in the band if the word 'cunt' should be censored. Mad Spanner was always democratic as a group, other than this one specific time when I, the tyrant dictator, ruled against the 2-1 vote! I couldn't imagine someone finding the word offensive as much as everything else on the shirt and that censoring the word would only blunt it's impact. No half measures, this was a shirt that had to be all or nothing and I'm still so tremendously happy to see and hear about people wearing this abomination in public!

New shirts available through bandcamp at £15, link bellow!


https://madspanner.bandcamp.com/merch

          I've never been afraid of admitting my own contradictions. You might grow up with specific held beliefs and then from certain circumstances your forced to confront the nuances of issues. Rather than doubling down in fear of being a hypocrite, it's a great time to reevaluate your thoughts and come away with a better understanding of the subject and potentially, change your mind.

         I used to absolutely loathe backing tracks as a fan of live music. I don't want to see a replanned choreography and perfection of a pop act, I want to see a band pour their heart and soul out there onstage with no faking. I want a visceral experience with the feedback and the mistakes, the warts and all. Live bands could be a mass ensemble, but even with a drummer & guitarist two-piece, I prefer the authenticity of them playing live together without the use of backing tracks to fill in those empty spaces*. I remember seeing a one-man band at Bloodstock years ago on the Jager stage. I was impressed by the technicality and the music, but my overall takeaway impression at the time was that the man really needed a backing band. You lose so much sonic presence without the power of real percussion or multiple amps blaring, as well as the natural stage presence of having a gang performing together. This isn't a criticism of that acts stellar music, but of the medium of playing on your own with backing tracks - an insecurity that persisted when I shifted to playing solo.

        But this isn't something new. For those who have followed Mad Spanners journey from the beginning (shout out!), you'll remember it began as a transition from the sketch comedy series 'Boredom Killers' and was the original band name that a chunk of songs from 'Life Absurd' was written as. I ran out of sketch ideas as a comedy duo, and I was finding more inspiration communicating humour through music but after years prior of searching for musicians, we had to settle to perform as a two piece with the backing track of a drum machine. And I HATED it. "Forced To Use A Shitty Drum Machine" was written as a self-depricating jab when it was obvious there were no local drummers to be found, and it's likely I'll play that old chestnut for a while longer.

         Since the three-piece band that Mad Spanners been known as dissolved and I've moved from Shrewbsury back home to Aberystwyth between lock downs, It feels like being at square one again. The search for other musicians who can or want to play a niche experimental blend of crossover thrash/grind punk didn't yield any interest, so the only options from that point were to uproot and move to a city where I might be able to find some skilled players, or get comfortable being a one-man band and perform with backing tracks. In order to choose the latter, I had to reevaluate my position.

          Instead of judging what a solo act lacks compared to a band, it's probably better to look at the benefits of playing to a backing track. There's so much more space on the stage to move around in! I love music, but my passion above all has been stage performance. Hell, Anton Artauds 'Theatre & its Double' is just as influential to my approach to Mad Spanner as Megadeth, so I reframed Mad Spanner as less of a live music act and more a form of theater. Instead of that pop act choreography, I think of spaces for 'planned spontaneity', depending on the specific crowd or venue. The music in the background might be prerecorded, but the frenzied movements need room to be fresh so that the authenticity of a "live" performance can be upheld. If I'm already trying my best to avoid 'genre' to order fitting in, I may as well lean entirely into the art of stage performance to help differentiate my approach from other bands, which would primarily be about the music first and foremost. I'm always going to lack the sonic presence or the many-legged group presence of a live band, but hopefully I can do enough my own way to limit comparisons as we're approaching the stage differently. Music isn't the objective, it's catharsis through frenzied chaos.

        Is the use of backing tracks cheating? It depends on intention. God flesh is the only example I can think of where backing tracks sound better than the live equivalent, it's nearly always better never having to rely on it. But if it comes from a place of necessity, then it certainly beats waiting around until a band is fully formed. There's so much to gain from the collaboration and camaraderie of a band, but what if only one person is heavily invested from writing all the material? Where's the separation of being a band and a solo project? Lemmy, Mustaine, Ihsahn, Devin Townsend, even if they are the sole visionaries writing the music, they still have to collaborate with other musicians from time to everyones benefit. There are many solo acts out there that make truly amazing music on their own but never play live because they live remotely, or their ego is so insufferable it's too hard to work with. Who wants to be dictated to in what and how they play to realize one dickheads vision? Playing as a band requires collaboration and compromise, but as I live remotely and I have a foaming salivation for playing live - the use of backing tracks is necessary. It doesn't feel like cheating as much as playing with a handicap and with that, I've made peace of using backing tracks for the time being.

        Moving to a city and finding musicians to collaborate with seems inevitable long term, but I want to do as much as I can to promote and represent alternative music here in Wales. There's lovely scenery where I live but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. I walked past a lamb last month on the other side of the fence. It was abandoned, scrawny and shivering. I crouched and studied the lamb, saying "hi" to passers-by as if this was something I'd normally do. Another lamb, a healthy one, approached the shivering one and gave it a curious sniff. It then turned around and proceeded to defecate over the cowered head of the other lamb, who was completely unfazed of the shit happening. The healthy lamb left and skipped over to its mother, and I got up and left the lamb to its own survival.

         What I'm saying is, I don't really have a point here.

* One fantastic exception to the rule would be Bodach, who have an ambient backing track that elevates the spaces in between songs rather than fill a hole in their music.

Krank Is Life!

If there's one thing I miss more in the world, it's the stellar and often bizarre world of 'Krank'. Even more so than vanilla flavoured monster munch and that's saying something. When that sickly sweet artifical flavouring was dropped in the past tense like a fart at a party, it was like my world stopped turning. And that feeling happened again last year in May, when the greatest band you've never heard called it quits in a cafe in Bangor, never heard from again.

Damn man, that's how you do it. Make a stark impression to everyone you play to in the underground and then fuck off before the wider world takes notice. Mad Spanner shared the stage with krank twice, and both times they played made a lasting impact. The first time I saw them, they played to the other two bands, a loop artist who was double booked, and maybe three or four others who wandered in. The venue was absolutley dead, but that didn't stop Krank introucing us into their world. Those once memed, squeaking rubber chickens were chucked into the meager crowd - which parped and honked through thier whole set. It almost undermined everything onstage, even when the frontman giant screamed in catharsis that his week old baby was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen "AND SHE HAS TUBES ALL OVER HER FACE", it was reciprocated with the rabbid honking of novelty chickens. I had witnessed the absurd and it was glorious. The second time was to a packed out M2TM finals in Wrexham just as things opened up a bit from the lockdown. The frontman smashed an accoustic guitar to pieces over the back of one of his backing dancers (wearing a giant housefly mask, of course) and had an onstage scuffle mid-song. The dancers hand was split open bleeding and left the stage mirroring the flipped bird from the singer - who then proceeded to sit down, rip open his tshirt and eat the bloodied pieces between lyrics. I had witnessed the absurd onstage again, and it was glorious. The scrapping pair were all cushty afterward to make me wonder if it was all an act and I'm breaking their kafage, but what a show it was.

Oh yeah, not everyones cup of tea in the audience, sure. "Where's the proffessionalism?", "there's no way they are getting through". Fucking hell, what happened to authenticity? The unpredictability? The danger? Fuck em, Krank always played within their own world and as far as the audience was concerned, you could like it or lump it - those bloody chickens were going to get honked anyway. They were a true as hell punk band playing to metalheads and I wish the punks I know got to see em and thier wholly fresh, idiosyncratic take on music. Thier humour was unique and totally their own.

And that's not to take away from the existentialist and orwelian themes peppered all the way through thier only album 'Down And Out In Blenau and Port'. They had that perfect mix of having something to say but not caring if anyone was paying attention. The production is servicable, but even the peaking microphone added authenticity to thier sound without making anything unlistenable. It's raw, unique and wildly themselves. I dare people to listen to the likes of 'Reptile Man' and 'Divide & Rule' and disagree they are downright BANGERS!

"HO HO FUCKING HO, IT'S CHRISTMAS! LETS FILL THE OCEAN WITH PLASTIC, IT'S CHRISTMAAAAAS!"

I've seen many comedic bands, sure, but Krank were so much more than that. They effortlessly put the absurd onstage and did it far more effectivley than Mad Spanner ever have. Maybe things wern't quite right after THAT show. Maybe life got in the way and they went thier own seperate ways as priorities shifted, like my ex bandmates did. Maybe one of them was about to get hashtag Me Too-ed as a sheep nonce by the local farmers market. It doesn't matter, they left an impact I'm supremely jealous of. They were the best band to ever come out of Wales and noone knew it but the relative few. 

ALBUM UPDATE!


The recording of the new album has finished, set for release this Autumn!


The 5 years of making of this album has been a private hell of sorts. The pandemic, losing the band, losing the camaraderie, finding the guts to perform solo and practicing all the instruments to a level the music required all tested my resolve. Remember that time in Liverpool when I lost my laptop and all album progress in an unknown taxi last year? Huge thanks to the taxi driver who brought my bag to the police station thinking it was a bomb, otherwise this albums story would've ended there! It was also challenging to balance the lyrical themes, from the unhinged rants of student debt and snapping condoms to sincere explorations of suicide and mankinds search for meaning. There's an element to sunk cost with this album with the emotions and time invested and honestly, I've barely enjoyed any of the process of making the follow up to 'Life Absurd' but it came from a place of necessity as an artist.

Listening through the basic mix of the album, I'm really taken back. A bit emotional. A bucket of relief. The album flows nicely, 9 tracks fly by with a variety of ideas and sideways riffs. Some are in odd time (5's, 7's and 9's), while some others are played at blisteringly tempos that'll require tons of practice playing live (looking at you, 'Landmine On A Frisbee'). I do some death metal vocals on a couple of occasions and the humour is scattergun throughout. But the real ambitious statement is the 16 minute three-part title track that closes the album. It's heavy on piano, spoken word, blast beats, with an instrumental section at it's climax that throws the kitchen sink into a maddening vortex of random precision. It sounds fucking crazy and I can't wait to perform that part onstage.

But there are ways where the album kinda sucks. My vocals are and have always been the weakest factor. I find it difficult to control my voice and a greater range or dynamics could compliment the music better, though the purpose of my voice has always been more about expression than technique. Still, some parts were written with certain notes and melodies in mind but I fell short and had to settle for less. It's also not a conventional album, nor is it particularly easy to listen to. Apart from the couple of songs where I failed to not sound like Discharge, it's not straight up metal, punk, thrash, grindcore or whatever, so it's not going to appeal to anyone in a genre scene where familiarity would help accessibility. And because of the lack of a non-electronic drum kit and a recording space, I've settled for a drum machine for the album which clips the albums wings a bit further. The drums written are dynamic (and fun to play), but even with my best efforts, people will still easily notice the lack of accoustic percussion. Hows that for pre-release marketing hype?

But overall I am immensely proud of this work. It's fucking mental. It showcases what I'm capable of as a multi-instrumentalist and the end result is very close to what I envisioned from the start. I've done my best to alienate myself from musical templates of other genres and write from an experimental approach - I'm not just ripping off 3 or 4 bands but from hundreds! It's a solo project, but it couldn't of been done without the help of two of my friends in particualar: Charlie and Kieran, who lent me the gear I lacked while giving valuable advice and insights that improved the album considerably. One described the album as 'definitive' and that in a word describes this album very well. It's my lifetime statement as a musical and performance artist and the truest expression of myself I could make. The albums called 'Sisyphus Happy'.

- Mike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GecfWf_xc2A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Femz2NuXYhs

https://open.spotify.com/episode/43n1NQj22qb5L7O6QzKdxU?si=1544812d7cb0495d 
Interview starts at 9.50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZI9KEyDhus&t=426s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkpmWxCo8aA&t=39s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iCL4Sw_RVI&t=5s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIV5lPgZwMw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HMdc6yjMas&t=712s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91POu5ZSSpE&t=1907s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmvHkYwHPi8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXphleDyhTQ

Mad Spanner proceed into the semi-finals of the Metal 2 The Masses competition! Check out the review of the night by Ever Metal here: https://ever-metal.com/2020/03/05/bloodstock-m2tm-north-wales-heat-1-29-02-20/

Check out our interview with Simon Redtank over at HRH punk radio backstage at Smashfest, Birmingham! 

t.ly/j6EM3
(interview starts at 21.00)

Mike talks about all his horror prefferences over in this interview by Games, Braaains and a headbanging life. 

https://www.gbhbl.com/13-days-of-halloween-horror-interview-michael-randell-mad-spanner/

https://ever-metal.com/2019/04/24/mad-spanner-life-absurd/?fbclid=IwAR1szipoGZgYiwYtDhfq2Z1nYQkF6u-MlzwkUYphSJb7tGqm2yldD4sqRGg

http://phoenixrising.rocks/mad-spanner-life-absurd-album-review/?fbclid=IwAR08dhX7q3Hgx6IfLBzKkM8iSHJ_2Jxw6EZ0I50C5OFfPWKqm5B06Jxj6W4

https://planetmosh.com/mad-spanner-life-absurd/?fbclid=IwAR0JAQ7AsethTMJxF3bmJEQXMo1WxaE1lT0z8Mxeyql3LUVYT6JMxVb01Dc

https://rifftastic2.wixsite.com/rifftastic/post/mad-spanner-life-absurd-album-review?fbclid=IwAR0XoWz-hv1z3o1uH5nXM1PNhIXMeG2_OKvV8DU-OjGn_7DS8czjLlBRSaQ

https://www.gbhbl.com/album-review-mad-spanner-life-absurd-self-released/?fbclid=IwAR1IsfH8anN7olQcM74RcMOuzrHXliN5zAd9MrxpDxplh77oRDm5xZkCNeg

Mike talks about a wide range of subjects from the band origins, scenes in different areas, the music industry, favourate shows and albums and our experiences being in a band. Check it out here! 

https://ever-metal.com/2019/04/27/emqs-with-mad-spanner/?fbclid=IwAR1CIzwn8uvzvSOPgbVsu6duFmnkFbMSYFDukNbmlAmak_yKbFrYg-Ts-_0

Our debut album has arrived with all the fury of a receeding fury on bandcamp! Listen to and buy here!  

https://madspanner.bandcamp.com/

Our night with The Sourheads and 10:59 has been documented over at rifftastic -https://rifftastic.wixsite.com/website/single-post/2018/04/15/THE-SOURHEADS-1059-MADSPANNER

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubr6a4YKVuQ&t=224s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDn4x-7dXXI&t=8s