To celebrate the release of Decibel magazine’s DaCapo anthology, “Precious Metal,” the LA Times has collected some heavy metal memories from rock journalists around the country–an oral history of this strange genre of American rock.
The collection includes the stories behind such classic metal albums as Black Sabbath’s “Heaven and Hell” and Slayer’s “Reign in Blood.” In the article, rock reporters reminisce about heavy metal dinners, drug abuse, and satanism.
Here’s rock journalist Adem Tepedelen with an anti-climactic memory: “[I arranged] an interview with Mercyful Fate on their first U.S. tour in late 1984 … lead vocalist King Diamond[‘s] stage get-up at the time featured corpse paint and an upside down cross painted on his forehead. He also used a microphone holder reportedly made from human thigh bones to screech lyrics largely about Satan and other occult-themed topics … The things that I remember most vividly to this day are how blue his eyes were, how well he spoke English and how smart and how nice he was. Which I gotta admit, at the time, was a little disappointing.”