JOHN PEEL LIVES
Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 1:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I think that I (and about a hundred other people who write about metal) have extolled the virtues of Decibel editor Albert Mudrian’s Choosing Death many times in the past, but just to be sure: it’s an awesome history of death and grind, and if you’ve never read it, you really, really should. He got pretty much everybody to go on record about the early days of metal’s most extreme subgenres. If you’re new to these styles of music and need a primer, it’s a perfect place to start; if you already love these styles of music, I guarantee you you’ll still learn some shit ya didn’t know.
One of the things that Mudrian spends a good deal of time discussing is John Peel’s old national BBC radio show, which was the place to hear all the best new grind. And now Earache will commemorate Peel’s show with Grind Madness At The BBC (The Earache Peel Sessions), a three disc (!), three and a half hour set that will feature 118 recordings of sessions done on Peel’s show, including performances by Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror, Godflesh, Napalm Death, and a shitload more.
This is obviously a must-own for grind fans. Earache puts the set out on October 12. Mark it in your calendars.
-AR
John Peel…he loved all styles/forms/genres of music, and he is greatly missed.
That sounds fucking epic – anyone know where to find a tracklist??
You can find the track list on the myspace for the album. This is a must own for any real fan of extreme metal.
Looking forward to this, especially the liner notes.
mahk, you can find the track list here:
http://www.myspace.com/grindmadness
I read Choosing Death when I first started getting into death metal/grindcore. I was looking for an indepth exploration of the genres and how they developed. Unfortunately, it was more like a genealogy of bands. Which is obviously interesting in it’s own right, but I generally found that the book was more focused on printing names than it was in really discussing the music. Maybe that’s just me, and I missed the entire point of the book. ???
Anyway, it’s not a bad book, and it IS a great place to start…I just think the definitively “THIS is death metal/grindcore” book has yet to be written.
I just finished reading “Choosing Death” last week, and it’s an essential read if you’re into heavy, envelope-pushing music. I can’t WAIT for this John Peel collection. He was a HUGE part of breaking the legendary UK grind bands.
I have the original cd pressings of Napalm and Extreme Noise Terror. Can’t wait to get all of them in one collection