Me, Hookers, and Gravehill: Part 2

I moved to California from Texas back in 2001 because I didn't have anything better to do. My roommate was my best friend from the Army days and we were both jobless and living off the government's dime (and my credit card). As much as the Army had cleaned me up, I fell back into some old habits. I started smoking pot again and since I lived in the hood (commonly known as Riverside), I was required to start smoking crack. It was part of my lease unfortunately.

This chick had the highest quality crack.

Many a night was spent sitting around playing video games, eating TV dinners, and talking about getting jobs. Now don't get me wrong, my roommate (let's call him Ru Paul) and I went out to several job interviews but 90% of them were scams. I actually scammed people into signing up for a modeling agency that was pretty much nonexistent. I feel bad about it now, but shit, I got to talk to hot chicks without them running away in terror. Let's see, I also tried the door-to-door salesman routine but every time I knocked on some poor schmoe's door I wanted to kick my own ass.

"As you can see here, ma'am, there is a clause
that says you can beat my ass with your
walking stick at any time during this conversation."

Money was running dry, we had used the last of any cash reserves to pay for at least one more month in the apartment, and my credit card was maxed out. As luck would have it, Ru Paul found a temp agency and got a job within a couple of days. I signed up at the same place and got a job just as quickly. This was an actual grown up job. Monday to Friday, 8-5, benefits, vacation and sick days, man...what the fuck was this. I was officially an adult! It only took me 27 years to get there.

Before I knew any of the turd burglars in Gravehill, most of my weeknights and weekends were spent looking for any and all metal shows. There were none too big and none too small. I just wanted to watch bands play. Another good friend of mine (let's call him BeelzeBob) knew Lilith Sanchez whose father owned the infamous Wild Rags Records and in turn, Lili eventually hooked up with Thorgrimm. Frequent parties were held at Lili and Thorgrimm's pad and that's where I met a majority of the creeps I hang out with today. That's also where I got the Gravehill demo "Metal of Death". Soon after, Thorgrimm gave me "The Advocation of Murder and Suicide" EP. Gravehill knew I played guitar because of a previous black metal project I worked on so Thorgrimm approached me soon after they sacked their bass player and asked if I wanted to play bass for them. I think my reply was, "Nah. I got better things to do." I was a fan of the band but I was trying to pursue a career in Hip Hop so my priorities were elsewhere.

Months later, I started to get bored again and my Hip Hop dreams were dashed upon the unforgiving rocks of the music industry. Did you know there were already white Hip Hop artists out there?? Fuck, if I would have known, I wouldn't have tried. My goal of trying to start up another LA Dream Team was crushed.

R.I.P. Dreams of fortune and fame! :(

I hadn't smoked, inhaled, or taken a suppository full of PCP in several years since getting my grown up job. While I was making decent money and still in party mode every once in a while, I realized that perhaps I needed a money pit to sink my dollars into instead of saving and investing like I was. So in September 2008 at the Masters of Metal show in San Bernardino, Thorgrimm once again propositioned me, "So we still need a bass player..." And I said, "Fuck it. Okay. I don't have anything else better to do."

Coming up next on Me, Hookers, and Gravehill: Part 3-

The evolution of the Helmet, Mexican Hookers, and my first show.

In the Works: Fratricide Demo

There once were two metalheads who met by chance in the military. Both were into death and black metal and both were relieved that there were other "heads" in the Army. Being surrounded by constant barrages of rap, hip-hop, r&b, country music, and shitty alternative rock, it's a wonder that neither of these two individuals committed "fratricide" on their fellow soldiers during this time period.

Fratricide is the black metal brainchild of Rob Gaines (aka Hellfire Helviti) and moi (Coaxial "Coax" Helviti). In all actuality, it was Rob's idea. His experience ranged from great vocal prowess in several Ohio death metal groups as well as some good guitar abilities. He knew I played guitar and approached me one evening about starting a black metal "group." Starting any kind of band while serving in the military is virtually impossible so our "group" pretty much consisted of he and I. It was his idea to create this fantastic militaristic image of black SWAT fatigues complete with name tapes of the group and our respective stage names. But his most original idea was changing the traditional corpse paint of standard black metal fair to black and green. Those who know me have already seen these pictures and I will post them up later.

So we had a name and look, all we needed was music! I lived in a very small barracks room designed for one person. Space was limited but that didn't stop me from plugging in the guitar and wailing for days, trying to come up with Fratricide's sound. Rob came over anxious to see if I had come up with anything. At the time he didn't have a guitar rig so I was pretty much the primary music writer. I played him some riffs along with a drum machine I had. He immediately sat down and started writing lyrics. This was Rob's talent. Not only does this guy have a powerful set of vox on him, but he's an extremely talented lyric writer. What he produced was Bastards of the Battlefield. To this day I think this song has some of the most evil and powerful lyrics I have every seen or heard. I may be slightly biased though, but these lyrics are fucking brutal.

Rob and I were couped up in my barracks room for a couple of nights arranging the music for Bastards of the Battlefield. From searching the still fledgling Internet for sound clips to setting up the drum machine, bass, guitars, and vox to patch through my sad little 4-track recorder. We recorded several versions of Bastards... and finally settled with the one you can hear on our MySpace profile (visit http://www.myspace.com/fratricidemetal). During this time period, Rob and I also wrote two other dynamic songs called Prayers for an Apocalypse and Attention to Orders which we sat down and painstakingly wrote out.

But then the bad news came, Rob was leaving the Army and moving back to Ohio. It seemed as if what was destined to be the ultimate kvlt black metal would just fade back into the night. But he and I kept in touch and I continued to write. A song called Schwerpunkt was developed but the recording didn't turn out that well and frankly, it was a disorganized disaster. This was my first time writing Fratricide material without the other half of Fratricide! I still sent it on to Rob who then proceeded to write lyrics for it.

After wallowing in several cases of beer, I decided to jump back on the horse after several months. Inspiration hit after a visit to a Chinese restaurant. I opened a fortune cookie and the title of a song was staring me in the face, "No One Conquers Who Doesn't Fight". To me, that sounded war like and I'm guessing the actual fortune can be interpreted in several ways. I took it as "You will never conquer anything unless you actively stand up and fight." It affected me on numerous levels. On my way home, riff ideas were rushing through my head and that night I created the actual song No One Conquers Who Doesn't Fight. This was the song that made up for the travesty of Schwerpunkt and also reignited the Fratricide fire. After recording, I forwarded it on to Rob for lyrics.

Fast forward 8 years later (give or take a few months). I've kept Fratricide's spirit alive in various forms. From comedy, to small demos of our 4-track recordings, to websites. Rob and I are communicating once again after a long hiatus and we have decided to pursue and finish what we started so long ago.

Already he is practicing with session musicians in Ohio and I am building my strength back up on guitar. He has a recording studio, photo shoot, and all manner of things set-up. I've seen video of a practice session of Rob and the session drummer, Kellum (I believe that's his name) rocking out to Prayers for an Apocalypse and it sent chills down my spine. It looks like Rob has pulled together some extremely professional musicians and that's refreshing. Out of everything that's coming up with this demo, that's what I worry about the most. I'm hoping I can even keep with their caliber of expertise. We still haven't set a recording date but I hope it's soon.