MURDER IN THE FRONT ROW thrash metal book tribute in Metal Hammer UK

Slayer at The Stone, San Francisco, May 24, 1984

BACK TO THE

FRONT Imagine travelling back in time and watching SLAYER, Exodus, Testament, Megadeth and Metallica play live when they were booze-swilling teenagers. Actually, don’t bother… we’ve spoken with the men who were there at the time. Lucky bastards.

WORDS: Dom Lawson PHOTOS: BRIAN LEW & HARALD OIMOEN

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Metallica preparing for soundcheck before Cliff Burton’s first show: The Stone, March 5, 1983 Metallica’s Dave, Lars and Ron help celebrate Brian Lew’s 19th birthday at the Old Waldorf, San Francisco, October 18, 1982

A

n extraordinary treasure trove of exclusive pics from the very earliest days of thrash in San Francisco’s hallowed Bay Area, Murder In Front Row is essential reading for fans of the genre. Its creators, photographers Brian Lew and Harald Oimoen, were card-carrying members of the original thrash scene, friends with all of its principal players, and they witnessed the rise of groundbreaking pioneers like Metallica, Slayer and Exodus first hand. You can see numerous photos from Murder In The Front Row scattered throughout this magazine: put simply, Harald and Brian’s visual reports back from the thrash frontlines are as raw, powerful and exciting as the visceral riffs that irrevocably skewered so many of us back in the 80s. Head to page 69 to find out how you could win a copy of Murder In The Front Row. Meanwhile, we spoke to Brian and Harald about what it felt like to watch an unstoppable musical movement erupt before their very eyes…

WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME AWARE OF THRASH? Brian Lew: “My time with metal began before thrash.

In the early 80s there was a strong underground metal community in the San Francisco Bay Area and we worshipped NWOBHM. However, there were also a lot

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“METALLICA WERE THE HEADLINERS, EXODUS WERE THE HEART AND SOUL” Brian Lew

of people in that original scene who were also into punk. I didn’t get into punk until later, and when Motörhead first played in San Francisco I was surprised by how many punks were there, because I considered Motörhead to be a metal band. I was a teenager and didn’t comprehend how a punk could like the same music as me, but in reality punks and metalheads were both looking for aggressive bands. The metal/ punk crossover happened much earlier in the Bay Area.

Exodus were playing shows with Suicidal Tendencies as early as 1984. By the time thrash spread worldwide it was almost old news here.”

Harald Oimoen: “It all started for me when my co-author Brian first played me Metallica’s No Life ’Til Leather demo (even though I didn’t know it at the time).

The first time I saw Slayer and Metallica live, I slowly started to realise thrash was its own genre and bands started popping up all over the place!”

WHY DO YOU THINK THE BAY AREA BECAME THE GENRE’S EPICENTRE? BL: “The Bay Area has always been a melting pot, that goes back to the 60s. There’s always been a different way of looking and creating things here. There is also a lot of open-mindedness here and that has always influenced Bay Area music. The fact that Cliff Burton listened to classical music, Mercyful Fate, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Misfits and even early R.E.M. at the same time is a perfect

example. I think that attitude made it easier for bands to do their own thing here and for kids like me to be open to checking it out. It was also a perfect storm of other things here in the early 80s. There were a couple of record stores that carried the latest import metal records from Europe and there were several venues in San Francisco and in the East Bay, like Ruthie’s Inn, that booked shows.”

WAS IT OBVIOUS WHO THE BEST BANDS WERE IN THE EARLY DAYS? BL: “That’s hard for me to answer 30 years later. We were all just kids, us and the bands. We were all friends and some of us were in bands so everyone raged. But Exodus did rise up and became the heart and soul of that original scene. Once Metallica moved here they were the obvious headliners, but Exodus were the craziest and most aggressive.”

HO: “Exodus and Metallica pretty much ruled from day one and led the pack with their drunken, violent live shows that became legendary. But LA transplants like Slayer and Megadeth started giving the Exo-Tallica boys a run for their money and developed fanatical followings of their own. Second wave bands like Testament, Death Angel, Vio-lence, Forbidden and Heathen started gaining substantial followings in their own right and started delivering incredibly OTT live performances like the elder statesmen they idolised.”

DESCRIBE THE FIRST TIME YOU SAW METALLICA… DID THEY ALWAYS HAVE STAR QUALITY? BL: “No, they were just like me and my buddies. We were

PICTURED BELOW (left to right): Steve “Zetro” Souza of Legacy and Testament frontman Chuck Billy give the bird James Hetfield sinks his teeth into the remains of a Men At Work album at The Record Vault, September 3, 1983 Lars and James at the infamous “Metallica Mansion” Legacy with original vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza, before Chuck Billy joined and the band’s name changed to Testament Early Slayer shot 12-year-old Death Angel drummer Andy Galeon with Dave Mustaine at The Stone Dave Mustaine (and hand grenades) onstage at Ruthie’s Inn during Megadeth’s second show, February 17, 1984 Hetfield and Kirk Hammett during an impromptu shoot at Kirk Hammett’s mum’s house in El Sobrante Future Machine Head duo Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel onstage with Vio-lence, at The Omni Exodus crew member Toby Rage walking on heads at a Death Angel show

all pimply-faced geeky metal kids! The first time I met Metallica was on the sidewalk outside of The Stone in San Francisco before their first show here in September 1982. I had spoken to Lars and Mustaine over the phone before, because I was a big fan of their No Life ‘Til Leather demo tape, but all of us were the same age.

Hetfield and Lars were only 18 years old, the same age as us. That’s why Metallica bonded with San Francisco so quickly. They were kids and we were kids and we all loved metal and especially NWOBHM. They just happened to be in a band. Lars was the geeky metalhead who talked a lot and James was the quiet one. That’s why it’s still amazing to me how huge they became.”

HO: “They were a unique breath of fresh air compared to what was going on at the time and we were all blown away by their speed and originality. They were like our own special secret band who we didn’t want to share with the rest of the world! Looking back, I think they definitely had star quality from day one, but nobody could have ever predicted their rise to ‘biggest metal band ever’ status in a million years.”

WHAT WERE THOSE EARLY GIGS LIKE? TOTAL MAYHEM? HO: “Yep! Total mayhem. They used to play totally shitfaced on beer and vodka and early gigs had an element of danger to them where it seemed they could spiral off the tracks at any moment. Their crowds were usually as inebriated as they were and it was one big drunken, headbanging, slamming cesspit of humanity!”

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BL: “Harald and I have known each other since we were teenagers. It was an amazing experience because, although I’ve known Harald all my life, we had not been in close contact in recent years. However, once the project started it was like we were teenage metalhead buddies again and it was like we were putting together a yearbook for all of our old friends.”

Megadeth soundcheck with Kerry King in the band, Ruthie’s Inn, February 17, 1984

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM VOLUME TWO? HO: “I’m still working out the details, but ideally volume two will show my wacky sense of humour a little more. Brian won’t be involved since he used up most of his material in volume one. I thought this time it would be cool to feature a much wider range of metal bands and not just Bay Area thrash stuff.

I’ve got some great unseen shots of King Diamond hamming it up, Celtic Frost’s first US Tour – with Tom G. Warrior wearing black spandex and an Anthrax t-shirt! – and a bunch of cool shots of Maiden’s first gig in SF, plus Sabbath, GWAR, Machine Head, Kreator at Disneyland and more unseen photos of Metallica, Slayer, Exodus and Testament.”

WAS THE BAY AREA SCENE UNITED OR WERE THERE RIVALRIES BETWEEN BANDS? HO: “We had the most united scene you could ever imagine. All of the bands got along with each other so well and mingled with the fans at gigs and parties. Back then there was no real distinction between bands and fans, and we all had a sense of purpose. We hated the LA glam rock scene with a passion and our battle cry was to destroy all posers and poser bands at any cost!

But of course there was a healthy rivalry between some of the bands to be the heaviest and fastest!”

BL: “I think it’s obvious from the photos in Murder… that the Bay Area scene was profoundly united, the

“THE SHOWS WERE ONE BIG DRUNKEN, SLAMMING CESSPIT OF HUMANITY!” Harald Oimoen

bands and the fans. In the beginning it was like a big gang. We were united by the local metal fanzines, shows and hanging out at the main local metal record store, The Record Vault. There was a very strong sense of community. I think that once the scene got bigger things became fractured because more people were involved, but that seems to always happen whenever something gets popular. However, in the early days there was absolutely none of that.”

HOW IMPORTANT WAS LATE, GREAT EXODUS FRONTMAN PAUL BALOFF TO THE WHOLE SCENE? HO: “Paul Baloff was a totally crazy character who lived, breathed and slept metal, 24/7, 365 days a year!

He was almost like the leader of a gang of delinquent metalheads who could almost always get away with doing the craziest, most fucked up things to people and their belongings. He used to throw parties and invite

Exodus and Slayer outside the famous Ruthie’s Inn

es Hetfield Jam ith w ht) Harald (rig in 1985 avatage gig S a at co and 64

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HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE THRASH SCENE IN 2014?

HO: “I think it’s the healthiest it’s been in years.

Bands like Testament, Death Angel, Machine Head and even Metallica are putting out some of the heaviest and best albums of their careers, plus a bunch of cool younger bands like Diamond Plate, Warbringer and Skeletonwitch are carrying the torch forward for a new generation of thrashers.”

Exodus onstage at the Kabuki Theatre, San Francisco

people to houses he didn’t even live at! His betweensong banter with Exodus was legendary, with lines like ‘Metal rules! If you don’t like it… die!’ and ‘My grandma could make more noise than that… and she’s dead!’”

BL: “At first it was weird for me to see bands and fans dressing the way we did 30 years ago and for bands to sound like the bands from 30 years ago. I follow many of the newer metal bands, but it’s interesting to me that so many younger people are into the old sound and look. At the same time, it all makes thrash timeless, with older fans and newer fans being into the same thing. Bonded by blood!”

BL: “Paul Baloff was the personification of everything that made the original Bay Area metal scene special. He was loud and crazy. He was very dogmatic in his beliefs – he hated posers. There are photos in Murder… where he and Gary Holt have strips of cloth tied around their wrists. If someone showed up at Ruthie’s Inn wearing a hair metal band shirt, Baloff would go up to them and literally tear the shirt off their back! He and Gary would cut strips from the shirts and tie them around their wrists and wore them like scalps. That’s how much we hated hair metal! Baloff was loud, crazy and partied a lot but he also had a big heart. He was very loyal to his friends and the scene. He represented everything about us onstage and in the songs he and Exodus wrote for the Bonded By Blood album. That album is the original Bay Area scene in a nutshell. The song Bonded By Blood describes it perfectly.”

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO PUT THE BOOK TOGETHER? HO: “It was something I always wanted to do since I started shooting concerts way back in 1979. The timing just seemed right and coincided with the Big Four concerts and the thrash revival that happened a couple of years back. You could almost say the stars aligned just perfectly when we released the book. All of the bands featured in the book have totally embraced it and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Above: Kerry King shows some leg

Harald (left ) & Cliff Bur ton, Aquatic Park, Berkel ey, August 19 , 1984

James Hetfield produces some live shit

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