Polish technical death metal titans Decapitated have had a storied career, from signing their record deal while still in their teens in the late 1990s to a bus accident in 2007 that left their drummer dead and their singer in a coma. The band went on a two-year hiatus after the tragedy before deciding to continue with a new drummer and singer.
2011 saw Decapitated make a triumphant return with the critically acclaimed album Carnival Is Forever. Now comes the band’s sixth album, Blood Mantra, which already has the metal world abuzz.
In the 1980s the rock journalist’s life was one of sharing long bar tabs, exotic substances, and stinging hangovers with our music heroes. Coupled with the nefarious activities conducted in the tour buses, clubs, and just about anywhere on the sunset strip, theirs was a life we would marvel at in our favourite magazines with jealous glee.
This was the life Kirk Blows lived in his 20s as a writer for the eminent rock rags Metal Hammer, Raw, Guitar magazine, and contributor of a slightly more saucy article to Penthouse on numerous occasions. Blows has talked, toked, and toiled with bands in tour buses, clubs, and hotels across the world. Hammered: Heavy Metal Tales From The Hard Rock Highway is a collection of some of his funniest, most enlightening interviews and encounters with rock stars big and small from the 1980s and ’90s, presented it in all its colorful glory.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press
