International Day of Slayer was born.

Slayer \m/

The first International Day of Slayer occurred on June 6, 2006 – the 6th of the 6th of the 6th. An auspicious day for metalheads, where bands and fans around the world gathered together to listen to and play Slayer and down copious amounts of beer and basically talk about how awesome we are. And four years on, International Day of Slayer is bigger than ever. IDOS spokepeople have even petitioned the white house to make International Day of Slayer an official holiday, stating “heavy metal music is the central belief of a culture that exists among us, and Slayer is the perfect spokesperson.”

“I think it’s awesome, and it’s totally cool that fans have taken the time to maintain it. Slayer should have a national holiday – there are enough stupid holidays out there, so why not have one for us?” Kerry King – Slayer

Celebrate International Day of Slayer

It’s time to introduce your ignorant family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, and fellow bus/train patrons to Slayer. Their protests only mean you aren’t playing Slayer loud enough.

Stage a “Slay-Out”. Don’t go to work. Stay at home and listen to Slayer.

If you’re in church today, replace all the hymm sheets with the lyrics to “South of Heaven”.

Eat steak. Listen to Slayer.

Play Slayer in your car. Roll down the windows and yell “Slayer!” at pedestrians.

Legally change your name to “Slayer”

If you work in a call centre, answer every enquiry with “Slayer did it” or “Can you hold on a minute while I check with Slayer.”

The Truth about Slayer

On the Seventh Day, God wasn’t resting. He was recovering from a Slayer concert.

Kerry King doesn’t go to tattoo parlours … he grows them.

When Slayer die, they will go to heaven. Not because they are good, because Satan is afraid they will take over.

Slayer is the force keeping the universe from imploding upon itself.

Kerry King isn’t headbanging … he’s growing more neck muscle

The Grand Canyon was formed by Kerry King scraping his guitar pick across the Southwest

Kerry King doesn’t tune his guitar … he frightens it into tune.

Before he goes to sleep, Chuck Norris checks his closet for Slayer.

The dinosaurs weren’t destroyed by a meteor. Slayer ate them.

Kerry King’s goatee cannot be destroyed by mortal weapons.

Kerry King didn’t shave his head … he just got pissed and scared the hair away.

Play some SLAYYYYYYYERRRRR!!!!!

For More Information

National Day of Slayer Official Website.

Slayer Official Band Website

Slayer Myspace Page

Slayer Lyrics. As if you could forget them.

Slayer Saves Excellent Fansite and Forum

Fucking SLAYER \m/

• SWANClothing Sock garters
• Black skirt – I call it Gladiatrix because it looks like a warrior’s skirt (Queen of Darkness)
• black top (some hippy shop)
• Red corset (actually an underwear corset – an awesome present from my wicked cool sister)
• Spider thigh-high socks
• Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots

I am so happy with the sock garters. My legs as so skinny my socks and stockings constantly fall down, and these are the only sock garters I’ve ever seen on the market with a slightly feminine, but with a bondage twist, feel to them. They are no good for REALLY thick socks, but these are a thick-ish cotton/wool blend and the garters hold them up just fine. They’re extremely well made, and I love the little swan on my right leg. I love buying and wearing handmade products and supporting independent designers, and if doing that means I get to wear cool things like these, then I will continue to do so with a smile!

The only terrible thing is, since they fit my upper legs so well, I am going to have to get another pair for my shorter socks. Oh no, so sad!

Since this was an industrial gig, I wanted to do something with my hair. I don’t own any dreadfalls (although I am eyeing up these “steamfalls” from SteampunkCouture), so I DIYed my own hair ribbons using … shoelaces. I just put my hair into pigtails and tied the laces around the hairties. CDH thought it was hilarious, because I was worrying people would think I looked stupid, but no one could tell in the dark. I should really know by now NO ONE in this community would care if you wore shoelaces in your hair.

Socking’ it to ya.
Steff Metal

Setting up for the suspension

Went to see Gen-xx (a stripped-down version of the Genitorturers) at the Transmission Room in Auckland last night. Hell of a show.

Let me clear this up from the onset: I am not a “festish-y” type girl. I don’t like wearing latex or PVC, I’ve never been a big fan of industrial music as something to listen to. I am not exactly … vanilla. More like strawberry ripple, or orange chocolate chip. But I’m definitely not triple dark chocolate with mascapone cherry ganache, sprinkles, and assorted nuts, if you know what I mean. I’ve only been to a couple of these kind of gigs before, and I mostly like going because the crowd are so interesting, and the music is great to dance to.

In between sets, Skindependent put on a couple of suspension shows. Now, for those uninitiated, suspension is where a person with extreme body piercings all over their body has those piercings attached to giant hooks, and they are then hoisted up into the air on a pulley, where they hang by their skin for a little while, before being winched down to earth again. Don’t ask me why you would want to do this – I don’t even have my ears pierced, so I couldn’t tell you. But I watch this guy do one, and it was both fascinating and profoundly disgusting at the same time. Props to him though, for hanging there while everyone watched.

Skindependent suspension

We missed the opening band, but caught NZ industrial doom metallers Cripple Mr Onion’s set. If you asked me to name my favorite NZ band, metal or otherwise, Cripple would be it. Not only do they have a wicked name (which they have Terry Pratchett’s permission to use) they have a unique, dark sound – quite unusual for the NZ metal scene, which is dominated by BROOTAL black metal, and Pantera and Lamb of God sound-a-likes. They’re also the nicest bunch of guys, which goes a long way in my books.

Listen to Cripple Mr. Onion on their myspace page, or wait for this week’s Metal Mixtape …

After Cripple we had to wait around for a long time for Gen XX to start. This wouldn’t be so bad if the Transmission Room had a place for people to sit and hang out, but it doesn’t. After an hour of waiting over half the room was sitting on the concrete floor, and a couple of guys were yelling at the DJ to get the band up.

But when Gen started, boy did she start. Surrounded by beautiful dancers (three local lasses who put on an AMAZING show – Hannah, Leila and Eva, you guys were total stars), Gen ripped through a furious set of older Genitorturers stuff, and songs from her new album and upcoming solo project. I was really bummed about the serious lack of grunty guitar, but the show was so visually enjoyable, raunchy, and fun, it didn’t matter. There’s a few seriously dodgy photos of me and Gen’s 10 inch strap-on floating around on the internet. It’s a good thing I never intended this website to be PG :)

For the finale, the gorgeous Hannah regaled us all with a dance with her fire fans. This girl is seriously talented (I’ve done fire Poi once and kept smacking myself in the arm. I couldn’t imagine swinging these things around AND looking so sexy at the same time!)

A great night out, and I’d recommend the Genitorturers / Gen XX to anyone wanting a fun night out, who doesn’t mind a lot of foul language and having a strap-on penis waved in your face.

Yours, with a 10 inch \m/

Arch Enemy – Carry the Cross

I’ve mentioned my love of Arch Enemy before. I think this is a great song to blast on Easter morning.

Rotting Christ – You My Cross

APART from <> and souvlaki and <> and Ouzo, Rotting Christ are the best thing to come out of Greece. WARNING: Anti-christian themes and non-norwegian black metal.

Orphaned Land –

Lets not forget the Jews on Easter – so here’s Jerusalem’s Orphaned Land, who are my new favorite band at the moment. I am a sucker for anything with traditional instruments.

Skyclad – Earth Mother, the Sun and the Furious Host

A little pagan mongering, in spirit of the original Beltaine celebrations. Skyclad were the first – and are still one of the best – folk metal bands. They write the BEST lyrics in all of metal – seriously, every song on every album is an amazing feat of word-skill.

Tori Amos – Crucify

From her 1992 album, Little Earthquakes. I first became a Tori Amos fan because she wrote the forward to my “Death” Neil Gaiman graphic novel. This is my favorite song of hers.

Slayer – Behind the Crooked Cross

The other day I received a legend email that simply said “Play some Slayeeeeeeeeeer!” So I will. In keeping with our easter theme (albeit loosely) here’s “behind the crooked cross”.

Monty Python – Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

I had to.

Any more easter songs to suggest?
Reign in Chocolate \m/
Steff Metal

Ew, my stockings are falling down a bit. I need to get some garters.

• Black lace dress with lace tail. (Smoove, on sale for 50%)
• Black leather bustier (21st birthday present from a big group of friends. One day I will tell the amusing story of how we found this corset.) It’s beautiful and very unique – I think it’s been handmade. It’s lots of little scrappy squares of leather sewn together into the bustier. There’s no boning so I won’t call it a “corset” but the stiffness of the leather gives it a nice shape.
• Red ribbed thigh-high socks, from Sock Dreams (present from wonderful Mum and Dad Metal.) They’re so lovely and warm
• Steel-cap NZ-Safety boots
• Orange scarf, gift from Mum Metal, from Australia (not many of you would know this, but orange is actually my favorite colour. Or would be, if I could see colours.)

I have a tail!

Orange Scarf

I’ve seen Amanda Palmer before, when she came with the Dresdon Dolls in 2006, I think it was. They were most excellent then, but now, she’s incredible. Ten minutes before Hera, the opening act, was to start, she came out into the bar to give out hugs and sign stuff. I got me a hug, and one of my postcards signed. She’s tiny, and lovely. I went by my lonesome, but met up with my friend Levi and some of his friends, Max from the good ole Hawke’s Bay, sporting some fine steampunkey threads, Vince and Louisa (hi guys!) who were all very lovely. I squeezed my way to the front for the show.

Everyone’s jostling to get the three inches closer to the front of the stage, the lights dim, and nothing happens. Suddenly, everyone turns around. Amanda’s on top of the bar, dressed in a corset and star-spangled stockings, singing “he’s making whoopie” and strumming her Ukelele. She saunters up to the stage, sits down at the keyboard and hits a dramatic first note. Nothing happens. Que soundman – who manages to make the keyboard work. She opens with two songs from her solo project, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? – “Ampersand” and “Astronaut”.

Amanda Palmer

If you go to an Amanda Palmer show, you can’t expect to just stand there, arms folded, and watch. It’s an entire performance experience. You, as the audience, collectively create the experience. She encourages this. One of the first thing she said when she saw two of the girls in front of me trying to take photos of the setlist (why? I don’t know) was “Don’t worry about that. I don’t use it anyway. I normally just ask what you guys want to hear. I want you to tell me “.

Next, we had “Ask Amanda” where we all wrote questions down on scraps of paper and passed them onto the stage. The first one she pulled out wanted her to tell us about the first song she ever wrote. We asked her to play it: Herein follows the delightful video evidence (poor Amanda.)

She then performed an Exorcism on the first Twilight book.

Twilight Exorcism

What did we have next? More song requests: “Oasis”, “Half Jack”, “Coin-Operated Boy”, a brilliant cover of Michael Jackson’s “Billy Jean” (it has to be good for me to say this because I’ve never liked Michael Jackson songs. Don’t shoot me – it’s just not my thing). Then she played the song she wrote in Wellington, NZ, backstage during her last tour. I have a video of that, too.

10 Reasons Why Amanda Palmer is awesome

1. She’s a testament the power you have to touch people’s lives with music, especially when you reach out to fans over and above simply writing and releasing songs.
2. She’s a shining example of how an effective use of blogging and social media can grow your business and totally change your career
3. When she performs, she gives it everything she’s got. I’ve seen bands who “go through the motions” but when she plays, you feel as though you’re hearing this song as she writes it, with all the emotion dripping from her voice
4. She is clueless about pop culture
5. She’s beautiful, inside and out
6. She writes crazy, wild music about life in all it’s glory, beauty and folly
7. She loves Black Sabbath
8. She’s brutally honest and completely open
9. She creates am incredible live atmosphere because of her devotion to creating the show YOU want to see. Her shows are more a conversation between herself and the audience. I believe they call it “breaching the wall”. I wish more bands would embrace this – I’ve only seen one metal band do this, and that was Opeth.
10. She’s engaged to Neil Gaimen, which shows us all she has impeccable taste.

So yeah, I had a good night. How did you spend St. Patrick’s Day?

Steff

See? We did actually hijack a train.

CDH and I and 20 of our closest friends spent the day at Glenbrook Vintage Railway. Now, this may not sound exciting, but with 20 metalheads, anything can … and does … become automatically awesome.

I decided I wanted a steampunk-themed birthday party, to celebrate finishing (and possibly selling) my steampunk novel this year. As you all know, metalheads love to dress up, so the idea of pulling out the corsets and crinolines and bustles and fantasy goggles appealed to all our friends, who put serious effort into their costumes for the day.

Amy and Kelli rocking their handmade steampunk outfits

Amy and Kelly came around to our place earlier to get dressed. They made their steampunk outfits themselves, and had raided the local antique shops for their hats and watches and telescopes.

Gallery Serpentine corset

I'm on a train! (it's cooler than being on a boat)

I wore:

• black tulle skirt, $4 from second-hand shop
• black ruffled shirt, from Smoove, a present from friends for my last birthday
• Forest green corset, from Gallery Serpentine
• Pandora beads, including cute new Pumpkin bead from Jessocles and JP for my birthday
• Top hat, from Camden markets – with Essex badge and cameo broch on it.
• fingerless gloves, Glassons
• chainmail spike bracelet, gift from BFF linley from the US
• Leonardo de Vinci socks, from Sock Dreams (gift from parents – who rock!)
• Jeffrey Campbell boots (another gift from parents – who doubly rock!)
• studded SDP belt (from somewhere in Aus), Skull and crossbones belt (Supre, of all places!), eyelet clip thing from bondage pants, chains (from Glassons, years ago!), leather pouch from a pair of binoculars

Iris and Steff

Iris looked beautiful, as usual, and had her goggles made by a friend who creates movie props. They looked amazing.

Kelli, Aaron and Amy

Aaron looked like a dapper genteel serial killer. He made his glasses himself, including the laser sight.

You rang?

Liz in her steampunk costume

Liz had another awesome costume – she made her goggles and watch herself, and found her jewellry and her wicked camera (you cn just see it behind her arm) at an antique store.

Tarah and Tim in steampunk costume (beautiful photo by Ryan Fogarty)

Tarah – who I think must be one of the most beautiful ladies in the world - and Tim, looking quite dapper for a drummer.

Levi's got me!

CDH - the "running wild fan"

CDH came dressed as “a Running Wild fan”. He prefers to stand behind the camera.

Help!

If you want to have a similiar birthday, these tiny vintage railways exist all over the world. They’re usually run by volunteers and are quite inexpensive to visit. We chartered a carriage for the entire day for $250, which split between 20 people, turned out to be about $12 each, plus $1 extra for a jigger ride. The railway put some trestle tables in the carriage for us and we each brought a plate of food and drink to share.

Horns Up! \m/

We had heaps of fun taking crazy photos on and off the trains. The Glenbrook railway stops at the maintenance sheds for 10 minutes each trip, so we had several stationary trains to climb over as well. The other visitors kept stopping us for photos – and the volunteers thought us great fun.

So long! Do forget to write!

I’m going to have to think of something extra-awesome for next year to top this. Any ideas?

Steam up!
Steff

birthday cupcakes!

I’m 25 years old today. It’s nice. I like it. I’m feeling it.

Some people loathe their birthday, and I’ve never understood that. But then, I was talking to Father Metal on the phone last night and he pointed out I’ve packed more into my quarter century than most people do in their entire lives”.

I think maybe this fear of birthdays stems from. A birthday is a time when you’re forced to step outside yourself and look objectively at your life. Looking back can be terrible, if we haven’t done what we wanted, or what we should have done, or we know we’re going nowhere. On the other hands, us perfectionists can feel like we’re letting ourselves down – “another year over and I still haven’t got that Pulitzer!”

Here are some ideas for celebrating your birthday the “metal” way, and not being sad you’re another year older!:

Find out who was born on your birthday, and theme a party or do something fun related to them. For example, Pierre Auguste Renoir was born on my birthday, so to celebrate, I might take a life-drawing class or sketch my husband nekkid while he’s not looking. Or I could celebrate with Sean Astin (Samwise Gamgee from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings) by having a hobbit picnic in the park. Or, as Anthony Burgess – author of A Clockwork Orange, also shares my birthday, I might don a strange costume and bowler hat and beat up parishioners …

Along the same vein find out what happened in history on your Geburtstag. I know now that on my birthday in 1751, the first ever performing monkey was exhibited in the US. (I should go to the zoo!) and in 1838 a London pedestrian walks 20 miles backward and forward in 8 hours (I don’t know why and I’m not doing it). My birthday in 1859 was the first use of the “insanity” plea to secure innocence, and in 1932 this was the day immigrant Adolf Hitler recieved his German citizenship.

Do something you’ve never done before. I know I say this a lot, but achieving something – no matter how ridiculous – outside your comfort zone really makes you feel alive. If you can’t think of anything, ask an adventurous friend.

See friends and family. Nothing makes a birthday more enjoyable than spending it with people who care about you.

Write a list of everything you’ve achieved in your lifetime, and a list of everything you still want to do. Then go and do one of those things.

Get some new birthday traditions – borrow from other cultures (see this wicked list of birthday traditions), or make up your own.

Throw the rulebook away: Dispense with the diet for a day, forget about “going for a run”, take the day off work, celebrate! Today I had pie and mocha tart for breakfast, and I’m going to have a huge chocolate sundae for lunch.

Buy yourself a small gift – a new CD, a corset, a mocha tart, just to say “yeah, I’m pretty cool. If I was friends with me, I’d totally buy me this”.

Make a metal mixtape of all your favorite songs from previous years (I’m sure you will remember them) and blast it all day. It’s the soundtrack for your life.

Any more ideas!

Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses
Steff

Rock n' Roll train - AC/DC cashes in on Steampunk

The show kicked off with a wicked, anime style train cartoon, which ended with a massive live locomotive steaming onto stage, while ACDC launched into “Rock n Roll train”, from their new album. Johnson’s first note was perfect, setting the stage for a great show. Angus Young stole the show with his typical onstage antics – a delightful striptease during “She’s Got the Jack”, and an extended solo in “Let there be Rock.”

I love the way they’ve cashed in on the steampunk trend, in good old rock n’ roll style. The giant evil black train puffed smoke and had devil horns. The stage was outlined in cogs and gears. The only thing that spoiled the effect was two giant blowup “viking” helmets with the letter ‘A’ stamped on them. I’m not entirely sure how they contributed to the overall aesthetic?

Perhaps I’m overthinking this.

A WHOLE lotta Rosie

They played the old favorites – Back in Black, Highway to Hell and For Those About to Rock (the encore, of course), Dirty Deeds,High Voltage, TNT and Whole Lotta Rosie – during which an immense blowup woman with breats the size of a the millenium falcon )I’m trying to think of something really large and round) descented from the roof and sat astride the steampunk caboose. She wobbled there for the entire song while the band cowered under her enormous boobies. It was brill.

CDH and I had a lengthly debate about whether AC/DC counts as metal. We’ve still not come to a final conclusion.

On the one hand, AC/DC is what people who aren’t into metal think metal is. CDh noted most of the entire crowd consisted of “rockers” who thought they were “metalheads”, but wouldn’t know Amon Amarth from Iron Maiden. He said, sure they’re important to metal’s history, but so is Led Zeppelin and Uriah Heep – would you consider them metal? They also self identify as “rock n’ roll”, not metal.

Brian and Angus

However, AC/DC are incredibly important to increasing the popularity of metal the world over. I said they’ve stuck with a winning formula and with their steady rise in popularity comes the rejection from the undergound which inevitably turns a band from metal to the ambiguous “rock”. Just look at Metallica, who were considered “rock” after the black album, despite the fact the black album is still really a metal album. And I’d call Death Magnetic a metal album, too. But Metallica can no longer be a metal band. Just because AC/DC aren’t blasting out double bass rolls at 250 BPM doesn’t mean they’re not metal. And, if AC/DC aren’t metal, does that mean Manowar aren’t metal, either? Because they’re not all that dissimiliar. I’m sure they’d have words to say about that.

Also, I’ve always thought of Uriah Heep as the first progressive power metal band.

Also, also, if they put on a great show, does it matter? Not really, but CDH and I will discuss it anyway.

Thoughts?

Steff

As the years go by, I’ve been less and less enthusiastic about Christmas. I used to love the holiday – time to hang out with my awesome family, sit back and celebrate the successes of the year gone by, and feel like I was part of something bigger than myself. Christmas is meant to be about relaxing, about family and friends and expressing thanks and joy for what you have.

Christmas is no longer about these things, and I’m so over it. I won’t let this post devolve into a “commercialisation of Christmas” rant, but that’s really how I feel. We put ourselves through incredible stress and <> every year just to buy presents out of obligation. The people we care about are now just items on yet another to-do list waiting to be checked off.

The financial strain and forced time-off work when we can least afford it means we can’t relax. We’re travelling great distances to spend time with equally stessed and strained people. We’re attending Church to placate our grandmothers. We’ve no time or inclination to sit back and ponder the year gone by and plan for the next. We’re too busy performing our Christmas obligations to actually attend Christmas.

Christmas is just no fun.

I want Christmas to mean something again. I’m no longer hip to that religious lingo, and I’m finding less and less to agree with about the way the rest of the world celebrates this holiday. But we’re metalheads – we don’t have to do what everybody else does. We’ve NEVER done what everybody else does.

So lets make Christmas the annual heavy metal holiday!

Change all the Christmas words to metal words.

I love how metalheads consider themselves the world’s theasaurus of epic words. Nothing is ever “the BBQ sauce” or “a milkshake”, it’s always “Satan’s fiery hell-meat-juice” or “the grymn, frostbitten milk drink of eternal sorrow”.

So why not, instead of Christmas, we celebrate “anti-Christmas”, and instead of getting a visit from Santa, we welcome into our home “the grymm spectre of Odin, the Old Man of Winter”. Instead of giving presents we give “foil-wrapped gifts of damnation tied with the curly tail of SATAN.” Instead of roasting a turkey or ham or chicken, what about bringing out the “delicious, meaty bounty of Odin”?

Readers, tell me your best metal Christmas names!

Create “anti-christmas” traditions to be proud of

For me personally, I feel modern Christmas traditions are too tied up in Christian beliefs. While I think the Christian celebrations are beautiful, their charity and generosity over this period is admirable, and the Christmas message they preach is one of love and patience and kindness, I don’t personally count myself among my ranks, and nor do many of my metal comrades. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. It just means that a holiday centred around the values and beliefs of one religious means little to the people who don’t subscribe to that religion.

So if the modern Christmas traditions don’t get you excited, try to find or invent some traditions that do. You make something a personal tradition by doing it year after year, by making it part of your perception of the holiday.

Look to your own history. Do you have. Does your family have any traditions you’d like to keep intact? My family always has a huge roast lunch together, followed by an afternoon of playing cards and boardgames together. I love this tradition and CDH and I will keep it going when we have Christmas together ourselves.

Look to your heritage. Whichever ethnic, racial, cultural, or geographical grouping you belong to, you will have inherited a set of holiday traditions. Do some research. Ask your great grandparents. For example, I have some Croatian/Dalmation heritage, so I’ve been researching their traditions and thinking of ways to incorporate these into our Christmas ideas.

As a metalhead, you don’t have to be religious to find some common ground with more pagan beliefs. Christmas, after all, is an amalgamation of several pagan holidays created by the church as a means of more easily converting the hearthern scum. I’ve talked a lot on this blog about how metalhead “ideals” seem to match pagan ideals and beliefs, moreso than any other belief system. As such, pagan traditions resonate with me, especially those surrounding Christmas.

Christmas celebrations occur at the same time as the Winter Solstice, an important date on the pagan / Viking calender. The days are getting longer, and the sun begins to return. This is a time for joy in Scandinavia, because the winter is bloody dark and bitterly cold. Vikings celebrated for many days (usually 12 – hence the 12 days of Christmas) in their typical Viking way: sacrificing wild boar to Freya, then eating said boar with generous lashings of stout Viking brew.

They would make a sunwheel out of straw, set this alight and roll it down a hill. This encouraged the sun to return. A fun activity for the children. Oh hell yes! In honour of the Yule Goat (how metal is that?) young people dressed up in goat skins and danced around the villages, singing and performing in exchange for treats. They would also dress up someone as “Old Man Winter” who would ride around on a white horse and join the festivities. When the Vikings invaded England, Old Man Winter because the english Father Christmas.

Some of these traditions might find their way into your Christmas celebrations.

Decorate your Christmas Tree … with metalhead style

The Vikings would decorate evergreen trees with food and statues of their gods. They would carve runestones and hang these from the tree also, enticing the tree spirits to come back in the spring.

What about enticing the metal gods to return with a tree hung with miniature beer can, runestones and choclate goats? Heavy metal keyrings also look great hanging from the tree. You can pick these up for cheap at festivals throughout the year. I hung our Wacken dog-tags on our tree.

But what about the epic tree-topper? A heavy metal tree couldn’t use an innocent angel. Look for other ornaments throughout the year that might be suitable for a tree so epicly metal. Dragon toys, kiss dolls or zombie figurines adorn metalhead’s trees. My friends use a witch brought back from Germany. We use a funny black and red baubly-thing, until I can get around to making a double-bass drumkit.

Some bands, like the epic Manowar, even sell Christmas tree baubles. Check out the Manowar decorations here.

Make Thoughtful Christmas Presents

I used to think of Christmas presents months in advance, and spend weeks on end handmaking them. Creating unique gifts was my way of making Christmas special. One year I spent a couple of months writing a novel for my then boyfriend. It was an epic tale of a talented musician who accidentally played “the forbidden chord” and found himself lost in Ancient Greece. It was a masterpiece, filled with jokes and heart-wrenching chariot races and gourd-throwing competitions. He thought it was silly. He brought me a DVD – the cheapest one he could find (he knew I wanted one that was $20 dearer). I was gutted. Ever since then, I’ve been wary of putting the usual effort into making Christmas presents.

But I’m reviving the tradition. Although we brought everybody Christmas presents in Europe/Middle East, I’m baking up a storm to bring down some goodies for my parents, sister and brother-in-law, and awesome new nephew to gorge themselves on. And let me tell you, making an almighty mess in the kitchen is a LOT more fun than traipsing around those busy shops.

There are some many things you can make that will brighten Christmas for your family and friends. I have heaps of ideas, so I think I’ll write another post on this topic.

Last year, my friend Andy and I spent a day making chocolate gift boxes. We kept a supply in the cupboard for all those times we needed a gift for someone. Cost us very little in money, a whole day hanging out together having fun, and the people who got the giftboxes were blown away by our creativity. It’s a triple win.

Pass on your own mythology for your Children

Just because their friends or teachers or relatives celebrate Christmas a certian way, doesn’t mean you should change your Christmas traditions so your kids “don’t feel left out”. Children are bright. They understand people think and act and believe differently. They can learn about the nativity scene and make paper angels at school without having to believe in that stuff. They can call Santa “Old Man Winter” and no one will care about the difference. They can wear their baby Slayer shirt to the Christmas pageant and no one will die. Teach your kids the traditions YOU believe matter. They’ll decide the rest for themselves.

Listen to metal Christmas songs, or just metal in general

Metalheads the world over have embraced that ubiquitious “Christmas Spirit” and released Christmas songs and albums. No metalhead could ever forget Twisted Sister’s Christmas album, or that We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year album (with Auld Land Syme sung by Girlschool. Rad). And this year, Rob Halford’s Winter Songs will be stuffed in many a metalhead’s stocking. My all-time metal favorite – Manowar’s “Silent Night” – is available for free online. Finnish death metal band Medeia have released a video for their new holiday single “antichristmas” which I would recommend checking out.

More metal, all the time!
Hail and Kill and Merry Christmas / Yule /

Every year my friends all get together for “Bogan Christmas” – a metal Christmas extravaganza of epicly kreig proportions. This year, we managed to outdo ourselves with the awesomeness of the party. There was the most fantastica array of food and drink and sweets and cake and ham (oh so good hammy ham) and ratatouille and cherries and sausage rolls and cobb loaf (courtesy of my friend Ryan, with whom I shared my super secret recipe).

So much food!

I LOVE this shirt - it reminds me of a Roman Legionaire

I was going with a slightly military theme. I love how the belts on the skirt look a little like ammunition. The skirt is actually not a skirt – it’s a pair of extremely short coulottes. My friends brought it for me as a birthday present last year. It’s awesome.

I am wearing:

skirt/shorts from Smoove in Auckland
black dirty dog sweater
black military-inspired jacket from Tripp NYC
black straight leg pants from Just Jeans
black boots
one black fingerless glove, brought from Glassons about ten years ago
black pearl beaded bracelet
lapis lazuli bracelet (brought by CDH in Seafeild in Austria)

Every year we play “the present game” which has earned quite the reputation as a bogan killer. We each bring a $5 present, put it in the centre of the cirle, and one by one everyone gets a turn to either pick a present from the centre of the circle, or steal a present from someone who’s already got one. If your present gets stolen, you can’t just steal it straight back, but you can either pick another present or steal someone elses. It’s br00tal.

This year, I wrote a little poem “the 12 days of metal xmas” and drew some pictures to go with it. This was hotly fought over, as was a box of pirate lego and a plastic sword and shield set. I got a vase with pink flowers on it.

metalheads give the BEST presents

mayhem surrounding the present game

I'm a ghost

It was an awesome night and yet another reason why I am super grateful to have such amazing friends.

What are your friends doing to celebrate Christmas?

Horns up \m/
Steff