PUBLIC COLLECTORS

R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman. Scanned from a Slayer feature in the April 1987 issue of Metal Mania magazine. More Slayer on Public Collectors here.

Slayer destroying a fake P.M.R.C. (Parents Music Resource Center) rock censorship manual on the cover of Rip magazine, June 1987. R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman. More Slayer on Public Collectors here.

Public Collectors will be Slayer focused today in memory of Jeff Hanneman. The number of times I’ve listened to Reign in Blood, since the month it came out, might be over a thousand. Here’s a photo by Ira Rossenson, scanned from the July 1988 issue of Power Metal. More Slayer on Public Collectors here.

A promo photo for the band Violent Playground. Is there anything more disappointing than finding a playground only to discover that it’s violent? Were these guys part of the problem or part of the solution? More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

Mask metal! A promo photo of the band Crimson Glory. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

A promo photo for the metal band Rage, all of whom are really into their sunglasses. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

A photo of the New York metal band Sanctus. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

An early promo photo for the thrash metal band Pestilence from the Netherlands. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

A promo photo of King Diamond posing with the most evil prop in the office - a telephone. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

A promo photo for the band Evil Dead, just in time for the remake of the film Evil Dead. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

A promo photo from the Montreal thrash metal band DBC (Dead Brain Cells). More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

A metal promo photo from 1989. No band name is listed but given that two of the guys happen to be wearing Black Ritual t-shirts, I think we can safely assume that this is Black Ritual. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

I just removed the last of my crap from a storage space I was renting and unearthed a thick file of promo photos that record companies and bands sent me back when I did an underground music fanzine (1988-91). I almost never printed these photos at the time because they seemed too generic. I liked amateur photos better. Over 20 years on, these are a bit more interesting to look at so I’m going to post a bunch. Some will be of more well known bands, like Sodom, but others are going to be a bit obscure. If you like metal or photos of dudes standing in front of brick walls, enjoy! If not, hang in there - I’ll shift over to something else before long. More promo photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s here.

For the past few weeks I’ve been working on answering questions for a long email interview with my friend Chris Forbes who does the webzine MetalCore (once a printed ‘zine). Chris and I knew each other in the mid-late 1980s when I was doing the ‘zine Primary Concern. We recently reconnected and he asked me a lot of questions about how I first got into metal and how I discovered underground metal bands.

One publication that pointed me to a lot of bands was the glossy, color mag Metal Mania. Because I save everything, I have about five issues of this magazine - mostly from the first couple years of production. I’m going to post a bunch of scans from just one issue: December, 1987 (Vol. 2, No. 2). Here’s the cover. More scans to follow.

Moshpit, a photo zine published by Hamburger Eyes with photos by Josie Ramondetta, 2011. One of the things I picked up while tabling with Temporary Services / Half Letter Press at the amazing L.A. Art Book Fair last weekend.