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…

Tales first encountered the infernally enchanting work of James Newman when the stalwart badasses over at Shock Totem re-released his uber-excellent “ode to 1980s horror” The Wicked last year, and subsequent forays into his “coming-of-age thriller” Midnight Rain and human-psyche-plumbing Animosity proved every bit as satisfying. Now, as Newman prepares to unleash his insane-sounding fourth novel Ugly As Sin upon the world it seemed as good a time as any to query the hard rock/heavy metal enthusiast about the soundtrack to his apocalypse…

There was a time in my life when I was proud to call myself a Horror Writer. Horror is what I grew up reading/watching, and I used to dream of being “the next Stephen King” — which hasn’t happened yet, in case you were wondering. It never failed to piss me off when I read interviews with writers I admired, and they insisted that they weren’t horror writers. They sounded ashamed of it, and I took that shit personally.

We live and learn, though. We change as we grow older. The things that we used to consider so important fall by the wayside and no longer seem like such a big deal. Now I understand completely where my favorite authors were coming from. Make no mistake: I will never apologize for my love of the macabre. I still write horror often — although usually in the short form — and I have no doubt that every piece of fiction I write for the rest of my life will have one foot planted firmly “in the darkness.” I can promise that you won’t be reading any romance novels with my name on the spine. But straight-up horror is no longer the only thing I write. And these days I’m just fine with that.

There is a point to all of this. Honestly. It just took me a while to get to it.

Just like horror isn’t the only thing I write, the hard rock and metal I grew up listening to isn’t the only kind of music I dig these days. It’s certainly not the only thing I have playing in the background as I’m working on my latest project. In fact, the older I get, I find any music with vocals tends to be distracting. Instead of focusing on whatever story I’m working on, I find myself wanting to sing along, bang my head, and pump my fist in the air. There are exceptions to every rule, however…

You’ll notice multiple genres are represented here. Some of it is spooky, some of it rocks, and some of it just gets my juices flowing and makes me want to create.

Create what? Well, that depends on my mood…

I’m not sure if I’d go so far as to say that I prefer Dio-era Sabbath over the band’s output with Ozzy, but I do love the two incarnations equally. All the same, this album has long been my favorite Black Sabbath album. Such a brilliant collection of classic heavy metal tunes, full of raw, blistering power but also moments of eerie beauty.

Deep in the heart of east central California—that’d be Mono County or to be more specific Mammoth Lakes—lies one of the most enigmatic black metal outfits this side of France. Although Valdur aren’t particularly coy about revealing where they’re from, they’re pretty tight on who they are. Formed in ’03 but fiercely independent—their close affiliation with Bloody Mountain Records is no secret—Valdur have crafted two full-lengths and numerable one-off singles and EPs, the latest of which is The Hammer Pit EP.

To kick off the final moments of 2012—yes, we’re still here; no apocalypse—we’ve teamed up with Valdur’s unnamed emissary to premiere new track, “Blast Beast.” One listen in and it’s pretty evident Valdur have designed its last song of the Year Of The Dragon with uncompromising effect. The guitars swirl like a wicked blizzard at night, the drums blaaast! an unheard of brutality, and the vocals sound like they come from the blackest depths of the Mammoth Mountain. And then there’s that ominous horn-like sound permeating the soundscape. The end of the world or the beginning of an evil era, Valdur certainly understand black metal’s key dynamics without making them sound tired.

So, as 2012 clicks to a close, ‘spin’ “Blast Beast” from Valdur’s upcoming as-yet-untitled long-player. It might be the last black metal you’ll ever hear. Oh, wait. 12/21/2012 already passed, right?!

** Valdur’s new EP, Blast Beast, is available directly from the mighty Valdur as a digital download. Go HERE to seal your fate in swirl of chaos and impending doom. Now, don’t argue, just do it!

Speaking to Terrorizer frontman Anthony “Wolf” Rezhawk just before comeback LP Hordes of Zombies dropped, there was a lot that needed thrashing out. Firstly, there was the prospect of the Californian grind crew getting back together again after founding member Jesse Pintado’s death in 2006. Also, drummer Pete “Commando” Sandoval’s well-publicized back trouble, which has kept him off the Morbid Angel drum stool in recent years, was sure to be a problem.

Hiring Rezhawk’s Resistant Culture bandmate, Katina Culture, on guitar, Terrorizer reformed in 2009. This is the unabridged story of how they pieced the band back together, and why they used the undead for a muse.

Putting Terrorizer back together must have taken a long time, and a lot of consideration, how did it come about?
“Yeah, after Jesse passed away it was really a time to just mourn his death and put aside any ideas for the future. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what was gonna happen, but in 2008, at the end of 2008, I got a phonecall from Pete and he asked me if I was interested in doing a demo and it was at that time that we had the conversation whether we should do this and continue with the legacy, or not. He said that he still had that fire burning in him. He said, ‘Hey, I’m the last original member here and I feel that I want to continue’. Also, he felt that Jesse would have wanted it to be that way, so after talking about this for a little while we agreed to get together and record a five-song demo, which ended up being a full album. That’s pretty much how it happened. It was one of those things where you just jump into it and see what’s going to come out of it.”

At first, I guess it would have been more important how it felt rather than how it sounded?
“That was one of the reasons why we got Katina; she had already played with Jesse in my other band, Resistant Culture. They had spent countless hours playing together, and he really enjoyed playing with her so it was a natural thing, it just felt like that would be a good way to continue because there were some connections there, some family-type connections as far as the music was concerned. Personally I wasn’t that worried that the music wasn’t going to be all there it was more of the spirit, getting to that point to see how it was going to feel, but gladly it just all worked out super-smooth, y’know.”

There’s a whole lot of scary to live up to when one christens a band The Beast of the Apocalypse, but on Henosis these down and dirty Dutch black metallers give the Dark One a run for his money. The Dictionary of Spiritual Terms defines henosis as “the soul’s purification, accomplished primarily through philosophy, culminates in noetic vision and finally in mystical union,” but I feel more like Beelzebub just sent me an awesome-yet-unsettling mix tape.

“The self-titled track, ‘Henosis,’ is for us the perfect balance point on the album as it captures best what we wish to convey with our music — primitive, mystical atmospheres and states of complete frenzy,” H.T. Mozes, one half of the TBOTA duo, tells Decibel. “The inspiration from this peculiar track comes directly from our interpretation, on various planes of understanding, of the One, Henosis.”

Right. Well…check out the track for yourself below. Album artwork after the jump.

Henosis by Decibel Magazine