Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors…

Douglas Wynne understands we’re living in a post-Clive Davis/Oh God! You Devil world. He knows you can’t just go out to the crossroads howling your rendition of “Me and the Devil Blues” and expect to knock all of us jaded motherfuckers on our asses. So when Wynne invites us out to an isolated recording studio to observe industrial goth metaller Billy Moon cut a (perhaps final) album for the producer/manager he is beginning to believe may be a malevolent supernatural force, it isn’t to subject us to slow walk us toward a Ralph-Macchio-vs.-Steve-Vai climax.

Instead, The Devil of Echo Lake throws the infernal kitchen sink at us — sex, drugs, stalker groupies, witches, a chapel ghost, corporeal manifestations of ancient pagan gods, gunplay, samurai swords, fire, demonic possession, autoerotic asphyxiation, rock n’ roll excess to the nth degree, etcetera. (Wynne also pulls a clever All the King’s Men-esque narrative trick by letting us see a good deal of the action through the outsider perspective of a low-paid studio engineer trying to make his bones with this surrealist nightmare unfolding around him.) It’s an impressive, crackling, no-holds-barred debut from an author who can actually write about rock music without it devolving into No seriously I’m cool! preening clunkiness.

Check out an audio excerpt from The Devil of Echo Lake below. The book trailer is posted after the jump. Billy Moon’s Souncloud page lives here. The Metalnomicon previously noted Wynne’s short story “The Last Chord” in the entry on Dark Discoveries rock n’ roll issue.

Do you love Decibel‘s most favoritest non-metal-but-kinda-pretty-metal band?  Live near Charleston, South Carolina?  Or just happen to be passing through the area this coming Monday, May 27th?  If so, make sure you roll on over to Monster Music & Movies for a special in-store performance and signing session with Baroness, scheduled for 4:00 pm on Memorial Day 2013!  The Charleston City Paper calls it “big news [for] headbangers”, which is misleading: it’s good news for anyone in earshot who loves that sweet rock ‘n’ roll sound.  Check out the poster below, and if you plan to be in the area, check it out and report the awesomeness back to all of us who live too far away to enjoy it.  Have fun!

Oh, hey, and here are some links for extra info:

Monster Music @ Facebook

Monster Music Events Page

Monster Music Newsletter

With a spat of excellent releases from the likes Light Bearer, Amber, Momentum, Northless, Multiple Truths and Protestant, Halo of Flies Records has recently and consistently been knockin’ ‘em out of the park. Another stellar forthcoming release is Certain Death, the new 7″ from Pittsburgh grinding powerviolence-ers, Heartless.

To celebrate the occasion – and to no doubt score a little promo in the process – Halo of Flies bossman, Cory, has made available a Certain Death package available including a test pressing as well as copies on clear and black vinyl. All you gotta do is email Cory directly at halooffliesrcds@hotmail.com with your name and address with “Heartless contest” in the subject line before Monday May 27th and he’ll randomly do the selecting. Please note that this is only open to North American dwellers due to a spike in international shipping rates.

Here’s what the winner will get:

This is what Cory himself has to say about Certain Death: “This is the best hardcore 7″ of 2013 from possibly the best, yet most underrated, hardcore band in the US.” Check out the band’s bandcamp page and see if you agree – heartless.bandcamp.com

Here are a few more details:
8 song 7″.
500 copies (US Pressing)
300 on black, 200 on clear.
Pressed at United Record Pressing.
b/w foldover covers and inserts printed at Econopress.
includes download card.

Halo of Flies