I don’t know how black metal entered your world in the ’90s, but it was this weird organic anomaly that just appeared in mine. Punks and punk adjacent metalheads started chattering about these bands from Scandinavia, of course there were the churches and shit that gave the whole thing an element of ‘hmmmm, this is interesting’ even beyond the music. On tour in 1995, FUCKFACE came across an interview with BLACK FUNERAL and we clowned that dude relentlessly in the van (later found out he worked at a Pizza Hut in Indiana and lived with his mom) before we used a quote from the interview as the center label for the Don’t Hate Us ‘Cause We’re… EP and still…black metal was just curiosity. Meanwhile, black metal was consuming the scene in San Francisco – Lucifer’s Hammer started hosting shows on Tuesdays and were responsible for MAYHEM, MORTIIS, EMPEROR, IMPALED NAZARENE and countless others playing a dive bar on Folsom street…on a Tuesday. And while this was happening….people were starting bands, and these bands made it very fucking clear to casual consumers that this new ‘thing’ was much more than a curiosity; this shit was for real. There was UNHOLY CADAVER – a recording project that came out of THUNDERCHIMP and evolved into HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE. There was LUDICRA, who featured the guitarist from HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, the guitarist from MISSILE COMMAND, and the drummer from HICKEY along with Jessika from a drunk band called KETAMINE.
And then….there was WEAKLING…WEAKLING were different, and 1999’s Dead As Dreams is as much a genre defining record as anything I can conjure. The drummer from SANGRE AMADO, the guitarist from FUCKING CHAMPS and the dude from VOMITORIUM made something that changed everything. And then in 2023 this dude I know wanted to sell a bunch of tapes and I offered to help him more the units…..couldn’t put a price tag on the WEAKLING tape so after some friendly discussions it lives with me now. This shit is so important (to me) that I don’t give two shits how important the band was (is) in general – no one in North America did this better. Period. And this is seventy five minutes of proof.These tapes were dubbed off sporadically – I never saw this for sale anywhere….you got a copy of this if you were there, you dig? So I am honored to give this copy a (new) home. If you don’t know….listen.
