Steff Metal

Urgh, apologies for being a little late with the ole Linking Horn of Apocalyptic Thunder this week: I’ve been a bit snowed under with work. Novel edits are going incredibly slowly since CDH gave me a fascinating book on a certain incident in history that can be manipulated into my plot to make it 5 kinds of awesome, but involves moving the whole thing ten years into the future and adding maybe 10 000 words. When / If you get to read it, you will thank me (I hope) because it’s quite fun.

You can buy your very own set of Bates Motel Towels. One day, we will own a set of these, to go with our blood-spattered bath mats.

Slightly bondage fashion shoot from Tush Magazine. Some of this is NSFW.

As a writer, I follow the developments in the publishing industry closely. Everyone’s talking about ebooks – when will they become our evil overlords? Personally, I am looking forward to the impending ebook apocalypse – while print books will always have a place in the market, the publishing industry can be very wasteful, and I’d love to be able to travel with a device the size of one book that could carry thousands of books. Plane rides would just fly by (oh dear). Anyway, Agent Nathan Bransford agrees. Read his response to e-book skeptics.

by Black Lotus clothing

Gothic / Tribal fusion bellydance clothing from Black Lotus. Wow.

March is Metal Month over from EMI. Over on Metal Insider, they’re giving away the Megadeth reissue back catalogue (US residents only, poo) and you can download an 11 track sampler album for free, featuring rare, unreleased songs from Fear Factory, Five Finger Death Punch and Lacuna Coil.

In wedding porn, Offbeat Bride’s featuring Ouiji Board Save-the-Date cards. I think StD cards are stupid – it’s like sending a “pre-invitation”, but these are cool. The idea could easily be adapted into other ephemera. Also, here’s a punk / rockabilly bridal shoot and some Poe-themed wedding invitations. Nevermore as a wedding theme? Ok-ay.

I used to love Pestilence. They’re doing a tour of the US, their first in 16 years. Who said the US doesn’t get any good metal?

Female Illustrators of the mid-20^th century blog. Doubleplus Wow.

Baroque Bleak Brutal dissects a concert flyer, to the amusement of all (except possibly the poor band who made the flyer). Br00tal

“Heavy Fundementalism: Music, Metal and Politics” the ebook is available for free download. Written by an international team of academics, the ebook includes such stirring works as “Metal Community and Aesthetics of Identity”, “Machine Guns and Machine Gun Drums: Heavy Metal’s Portrayal of War” and “I’m a Metalhead: the Representation of Women Letter Writers in Kerrang! Magazine”. This looks like the sort of thing I’d love, and I’ve got a few nights home alone this week, so I’ll see if I can get a review up for y’all.

Haute Macabre reports a rumor that Gareth Pugh will be taking over as fashion director of the Alexander McQueen Fashion house, after the latter’s suicide last month. I couldn’t think of a more fitting successor.

No Clean Singing’s post on heavy metal cats. Yes, that’s right. This is why No Clean Singing is made of Awesome.

What are you reading this week? 

Horns Up! \m/
Steff

Following on from my two previous fashion-by-subgenre articles: Power Metal Fashion and Black Metal Fashion, I give you … fashion advice for Death Metallers.

Death Metal. Probably one of the most heavily-underrated musical genres of all time. Due no doubt to the gutteral, growling vocals, complex songs structures, multiple tempo changes, shaggy hairstyles, and album covers featuring demembered bodies. Apparently, not everyone thinks dismembered bodies are cool. Or songs like “Meathook Sodomy.” I know, right? Go figure some people.

Death metal originated in the bay area with bands like Possessed and Death, and Florida’s Morbid Angel, Deicide and Obituary. 1987 saw the release of Death’s Scream Bloody Gore, considered by most to be the first “tr00″ death metal album.

Although a strictly underground style, it became one of the most distinctive metal sounds to emerge from the US, enduring long after glam metal died it’s ugly, obnoxious death.

Death metal carries the flag for having the most prolific range of sub-sub- and sub-sub-sub-genres: there’s technical death metal, gore metal, melodic death metal, gothenburg death metal, blackened death, progressive death metal, death/doom, goregrind, deathgrind, deathcore, symphonic death metal, viking death metal, folkdeath, brutal death metal, brutal gore metal, brutal technical death metal, brutal melodic technical death metal with viking influences … you can see where I’m going with this …

Clothing

As with all other genres, the staple of an death metal wardrobe is a decent collection of death metal t-shirts.

For some reason, unbeknownst to me, death metallers are particularly fond of long-sleeved metal shirts, and care for these highly prized possessions as they do their first born children. I’ve often wondered if this predisposition towards long sleeves has anything to do with death metallers spending more time standing around outside the club, smoking, than inside watching the band.

Exhibit A: Steff in Cannibal Corpse long-sleeve

Exhibit B: My charming husband (who loathes having his photo taken, hence his rude gesture) in a long-sleeve (Can you tell we go to the same gigs?)

Death metallers like to proudly display the scars of their moshpit misadventures – so ripped, torn, patched, faded, and gourged clothing is a must. If someone asks you how your clothes got destroyed, you must launch into a story of an epic battle for the barrier of a Morbid Angel gig, or a dramatic retelling of the time Glen Benton kicked you in the head.

Death Metallers love everything horrible, gory and sick. They’re fans of cheesy B-grade horror films and those Japanese cartoons where everyone gets raped by tentacles (I’m serious, it’s like a whole film sub-genre). So if you can’t source any death metal tees, horror movie memorabilia makes a good second choice.

Other wardrobe staples include blue jeans and cargo pants in various stages of disrepair, and a decent pair of steel-capped boots.

Women in death metal tend to project an image of tomboy tough – denim and leather, tank tops and cargo pants and chains.

Since a lot of death and gore metal employs themes of dismemberment, hospital operations gone wrong (one of my fave grindcore / death metal acts Carcass do this so well), clothing inspired by nurse’s attire seems to be a favorite for the ladies.

Military chic, death-metal style

Death is never more present than in times of war, so it’s not surprising military dress appeals to death metallers. For guys, that’s camo pants and cargo pockets, and for ladies, that’s military dresses and skirts.

Hair

Death metallers love their hair. It’s the most important part of their attire. Without long hair, how can you windmill? How can you cover your pimply face on stage? How can you lacerate the baby-deaths until they bleed?

Hair is matted to the face, covered in sweat and dripping with gore. Dreadlocks look appropriate too, and they’re great for flicking people in the face in the mosh pit (I had dreadlocks once, so I know this is standard practise).

Accessories

Following on from the military theme, no death metaller would be complete without their bullet belt. That’s right, a belt made from a strip of bullets and bullet links. You can buy bullet belts online, or make your own. Obviously they should be real bullets. Bonus points if they’re live bullets. Extra bonus points if their not live bullets but one of the bullets was dug out of somebody.

a very attractive-looking death-metal type

I’ve seen some death metallers wearing a leather cuff. Unlike mallgoths, who wear their spikes and studs all the way from their wrists to their elbows, a death metaller chooses ONE, well-made, not-covered-with-bling cuff. Any more and you’re going to look like a try-hard, and you don’t want to know what happens to try-hards in the pit …

Style Icons

Angela Gossow (Arch Enemy)

Glen Benton - Deicide

Kittie - getting more death-y with every album

Deadlock - german melodic death metal

Cannibal Corpse

Severed Heaven

Matriarch

Shopping

November Fire: an incredible collection of classic horror film shirts (and by classic, I mean old-school and b-grade). These shirts are hand-screened on heavy black cotton. Noice.

Queen of Darkness: This is a German site, but it’s worth a look. A lot of their stuff is a bit OTT with the chains and buckles and things, but I brought a few pieces (including a military mini-dress) from Wacken and LOVED what I found.

Kitty Vamp Designs: repurposed death metal t-shirts, made into wicked women’s clothing.

Lip Service: Normally these guys are a bit too “mallgoth” but their latest collections are actually quite br00tal. The rule with these kind of labels is all in how you style them!

Kinky Angel: more military / nursey stuff for girls.

Batwings and Battleaxes: I love the cuffs these guys make – understated, but unmistakingly metal.

If you’re new to Steff Metal, Up the Irons! is a semi-regular feature where I give a little shout out to all the awesome stuff going on in my life and in the world. It’s a way to remind ourselves that being alive, and being a metalhead, or a goth, or a satanist, christian, geek, freak, mainstream, mother, or any mixture of the human being persuasion, is completly awesome. For this reason, you should write your own lists and post them in the comments, or on your own blog.

This week, I give metal horns to:

My new boots

My parentals coming to visit for the weekend for my birthday!  \m/  My birthday in 6 days!  \m/   The fact that I’m 25 and the celebrations last all WEEK.  \m/  Our “Great Bogan Train Robbery” party next weekend – we rented a carriage on an old steam train and about 25 metalheads are riding around all day, having a tea party and dressing up in steampunk / victorian gear! (there WILL be photos)  \m/  I had my first EVER impulse buy (I normally think about these things for months, and I never buy shoes. I hate shoes) a pair of Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots, and they’re beautiful  \m/  My husband, who laughed about my new boots, whereas if it had been him and a new cymbol, I wouldv’e made a frowny face  \m/  Arch Enemy, for inspiring my novel edits  \m/  German classes, which are filled with adventurous people are are teaching us so much  \m/  My husband, for getting me the best birthday present ever – an easal to paint my artwork on  \m/  My blog readers, for filling in my 2010 reader survey with such awesome answers  \m/  nasty gal – new favorite shopping site  \m/  Chocolate self-saucing pudding – the fuel for life  \m/  jazz-inspired metal – it’s the next big thing  \m/  Life and the universe, for treating me so well :)

Linkage for your Drinkage! (urgh, in my head that sounded awesome, but here it just sounds like a bad hip hop line.)

Toronto photographer Ian Pool uses a combination of photoshop, plastic figurines and costumes to create these interesting behind-the-scenes art pictures on the lives of superheroes. I love Darth Vador, on the toilet, reading a parenting magazine, with the sweet plaque saying “May the Dark Side of the Force be With You.”

Darth Vador by Ian Pool

Not Always Right is a blog about those wacky customers every customer service person has to deal with. I loved this TV remote story, which is SO TRUE and totally reminds me how awesome marriage is.

Rackk and Ruin recycled leather spiked headbands. I love. Buy from her Etsy Shop.

If you know anything about the internet, Google alogarithims or SEO at all, this will crack you up: Facebook Login Fail.

ThinkGeek in association with Black Alchemy present … Cthulhu in Love perfume.

“an amorphous mix of oppressive, piceous ritual incense, macerated kelp, sea salt, sticky dark ocean plants, and . . . mixed chocolates.”

Serial Killers Ink: for the metalhead who has everything. Now you too can own a jail canteen list signed by Theresa Knorr or Charles Manson’s drivers license. They do also have – which I found interesting since I just watched a documentary on the Manson cult – some of Charles Manson’s recorded music and the interview by Ron Reagan in 1991, which wasn’t released because the content was so controversial. These downloads are all under $10 and might interest some of you.

The Blog of “Unnecessary” Quotation Marks. Win.

Hideous Gnosis – the book. Satan preserve us!

E. Bleak’s hilarious take on Having a Heavy Metal Valentines Day.

10 Fake Simpsons Words That Totally Belong in the Dictionary. I ageee with all. We use “Car Hole” to describe our carage, and most of these other words in every day conversation.

Shoes and Harnesses. Omg.

Angry Norwegians in Scuba Gear chase after Google Streets car. It turns out they were mates with the driver, but doesn’t make this picture any less awesome.

More abandoned houses.

This shoot is hot. Warning: nekkid people.

Sock Dreams are spondering Haute Macabre this month. I had never heard of these guys before, but I think I’m in love. Have I ever told you guys about my OBSESSION with bright coloured socks and stockings? Well … ahem. I have an obsession with bright-coloured socks and stockings. And Sock Dreams is … a dream come true. I will be spending money here in future.

Anybody want a job writing for a zombie-horror movie review site? It’s paid.

I’m heading back into the next round of novel edits, so content might be a bit light and fluffy over the next few weeks – just a heads up. CDH and I have our first German class tomorrow, and I’ve got meetings with friends aplenty before the weekend, when my folks come up to celebrate my birthday! Yay! And I’ve got to find a costume for a Rocky Horror Picture Show hen’s night – I want to go as Magenta, so I might just make something from my own wardrobe.

Horns Up \m/

Steff

Linking Horn ho!

iPad, Kindle or Rock - which would you buy?

I have been remiss with the linkage over the last week, but fear not, for the Linking Horn has returned to quench your thirst for clicking!

No you can claim your status as a mosh pit socialite.

10 Upside Down Buildings. Wow, I didn’t even think you could find ten. Most metal of all goes to the Canadian inverted church.

Gaga Face dollar bills, by Craig Clesson.

New favorite band of the week – Keen of the Crow. Southern Californian Doom Metal. This was their first demo, and they did one album on Grau Records, than split up. Sob.

Grymmest Shoes Ever.

In a follow up to my guest post on Apocalypse Ladies, Michelle has created some Valkyrie outfit concepts.

Decaying Attice Grungy photo shoot from Creative Factory. This shoot was done for Ewelina Sliwa’s fashion line, which you should totally check out because it is delicious.

Hello Kitty Chainsaw.

Haute Macabre’s Valentine’s Day Gift Guide.

No Clean Singing’s take on the 70 000 tons of metal cruise.

The internet has been abuzz with predictions with Apple’s announcement of the iPad. Hilarious tampon jokes aside (and there are some great ones), so many people have poo pooed the device as being a closed system. However, read this article, and tell me Apple hasn’t got something fundamentally right. I won’t be buying an iPad – any kind of tabletty device I buy in future will be for ebook reading, and it won’t cost $499, but I can totally see the market for the iPad.

Cupcakes, Metalographer style.

19 Most Complex and Dangerous Roads in the World. We’ve driven (accidentally) through the Birmingham Junction and on that Swiss Alpine Pass. 2 down, 17 to go.

A beautiful woman. 

A new fashion collection by designer Reid Peppard (a vegetarian) called “RP Encore”. As the name awesomely suggests, we are talking taxidermy here. Reign in Blode dubbed the collection “if Cattle Decapitated got into Fashion.”

42 Ways to Simplify Your Life, by Zen Habits. I am drafting a respose called “42 Ways to Kreig Up Your Life”. Stay tuned.

Anything I forgot to add?

Steff

It’s my birthday on the 25 of Feb. I will be 25, which is neither too old nor too young.

I am having a poor week this week, one of those “spagetti on toast for dinner again” weeks. Being poor stresses me out.

So to cheer myself up I’ve been pretend online shopping for all the things I would buy if I weren’t so poor. Sometimes the art of finding those perfect items – the ones that scream “Steff!” – beats the act of actually buying them.

Do you wanna see the treasures I found?

Diesalpunk Spat Corset - $89, from Velvet Mechanism

Velvet Mechanism Corset

You can really see my 2010 Style Inspiration theme – Soundtrack to the End of the World – in my clothing choices at the moment. I can’t get over how amazingly post-apocalyptic this looks. It is made from authentic WWII soldier’s spats. She’s even used the straps from the spats to make fake suspender loops. She has a couple left in stock, but one of them is mine. MINE!

black and maroon gothic tribal skirt, $160, from Dark Fusion Boutique

Black and Burgandy Skirt

This is designed by Dark Fusion boutique for belly dancers. I’ve been admiring the style of Tribal Fusion belly dancers for awhile – they look dark and gothic, yet have those elements of whimsy, fun and feminimity. It’s not all PVC and spikes. And I love this skirt. Oh Lordi how I love the ruffles and the textures and the lace and the fact it’s red and black and the uneven hemline and did I mention I love it SO MUCH?

Severity corset, $125, Angry Girl Gear

Angry Girl Gear Corset

I love the industrial “I am made of Iron” look of this.

Ancient Arcania Steampunk Ring, $10, by Taeliac

Ancient Arcania Steampunk Ring

This ring looks so chunky (I love chunky jewelry, because being blind it kind of shows up more) and just looks all archaic and ancient.

vintage glass spice jars

Spice Jars

I have all these little bags and packets of spices scattered over my cupboard. I would love some cute vintage glass bottles to store them in.

Urrrrrgh!

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

I really want to read this. I think it looks grand.

Behemoth tour NZ in April

Tickets to Behemoth

Urgh, I still haven’t got ours yet. I missed these guys last time they came and CDH says it was one of the best shows he’s ever been too. I’m NOT missing it again.

See, now I feel better. Because I know I will eventually scrounge enough moneys for the Behemoth tickets, and I will probably continue admiring the clothings from afar. I’m handing in a decent-sized freelance project in a couple of weeks, so I might have a little splurge moneys from that.

What are you admiring from afar this week?

Steff

These Linking Horns keep getting longer and longer.

As I sat on the park bench in my Chuck Taylors and Buddy Holly glasses, cup of coffee in one hand, cigarette hanging from my mouth and a battered copy of “On the Road” on my knees, I felt I was trying way too hard. One Sentance

From CakeWrecks (my favorite food blog), when Mario Marries. Also in wedding-related awesome, the unbelievably lovely faery wedding (it’s not an actual wedding, but a photo shoot, and it is stunning. I bet everyone in Blind Guardian got married in a wedding like this.)

So, I saw Avatar the other weekend, and I didn’t think much of it. Possibly it’s because I’m blind, and although it was pretty, it wasn’t SO pretty to make up for it’s gross shortcomings – cardboard characters, rehashed, sickly plot, excessive length. So I lolled, I lolled a lot, when I read this essay on reasons I laughed out loud, offending several fellow patrons, during the major motion picture Avatar. Props to Sady of Tiger Beat Down for the awesome.

Cosmic Hearse has the Carcass Tools of the Trade EP. Very cool.

Haute Macabre informs us Bondage Pants are in. Now this is what I like to hear. My favorite bondage pants are from Black Market Baby. Also, a little metal fashion from Reign in Blonde.

Long coats are not genre-specific.

Hairless Cat

WebUrbanist never, ever fails to disappoint. 52 photos of a poisoness, abandoned factory. This building is in Warsaw, Poland, and it’s beautiful and eerie and deadly.

A fantastic fashion editorial from Dazed and Confused Feb 2010, inspired by Edward Scissorhands, from Rakk and Ruin.

BookBook for your MacBook. I love how arcane this looks. If I had a Mac laptop, which I might one day, I would sooooo be all over this.

A analysis of cookies baked and decorated to represent various Lady Gaga outfits. Mostly, I put this in for my friend Jess. Hi Jess! Also, boy howdy does Lady Gaga have some wicked outfits.

I’ve been a participant in the Operation Beautiful project for a few months now. If you’re a lady wanting to spread some love to other lasses the world over, check it out.

Wicked Plants – a book of flora that just wants to maim, kill and eat you. Another great book is Grimmer Tales – cartoons illustrating the messy aftermath of classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes, like the Cow Jumped Over the Moon.

Owl in Flight. Stunning.

That’s all for now. An article tomorrow, I promise!

Horns Up \m/
Steff

In the second of my heavy metal fashion reports, I talk about the grymmest of the grymm, the kreigest cats of all: Black Metal Fashion.

Born in the early 90s of a disgust at the emerging death metal scene in Europe, and a general disgust at middle-class, conservative Christian Norway, black metal emerged as a rasp of defiance. The first wave bands like Bathory and Celtic Frost cemented the music style, while the second wave – the infamous Black Circle bands like Mayhem, Burzum and Dark Funeral – created the black metal mythos. Crimes were committed, churches were burnt, band members were murdered and their brains turned into milkshakes. Misanthropic music was written, and it all sort of died down a bit after Varg Vikernes was ushered off to jail.

Black Metal exists today as the most underground and difficult-to-get-into sub-genre of metal. The screeching vocals, demoniac blast beats and lo-budget, static-infused production make it probably the most difficult music in the world to appreciate – it’s almost anti-music, a black fuzz of angst and anger, hatred and loathing. Most black metal albums are senseless noise, but sometimes, it’s magic. Dark magic, evil magic, but beautiful nonetheless.

And black metal, like every sub-genre of metal, has it’s own fashion. At any festival, you can pick the black metallers out by their surly expressions and t-shirts featuring unreadable names of bands you’ve never heard of. They’re the dudes with runic tattoos poring through the $2 vinyl boxes, looking for those obscure records of misanthropic gold. They’re the last of the Great Hunt, the demons of the night, the metalheads of your nightmares.

Clothing

The kreigest black metallers know that, like the music they so love, tr00 black metal attire must come from Scandenavia. So when you shop for black metal attire, you should look first to the underground boutiques of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. However, when buying from these sources, be wary, the kvlt kreig tr00 scandenavian look does not come cheap!

The first fashion item for any discerning black metaller is a pair of tight jeans in the darkest, grymmest hue of black. Acne, Cheap Monday and Anti-Sweden jeans make black jeans specifically tailored for the black metaller’s waifish, undernourished physique. And they’re all from Norway or Sweden, for additional scene points.

Next, you’ll probably want a t-shirt. Like most metalheads, the best black metal t-shirts are band t-shirts, the more unpronouncable the name and more unreadable the logo, the better.

If you can’t find a band tee suitably indecipherable, your next best buy is a standard satan shirt. You can find these at Infidel Concepts (warning, Australian company, NOT Norwegian), Satan Shop or Turbowolf. I wrote a post last year about shopping for satanic shirts, which also has some great shops to try.

Also, tees with runic designs and pagan symbols work well, too. Steer away from cheery, pot-bellied Vikings, however.

Remember, black metal is not a fashion that accepts color. There is black clothing with white designs, and white clothing with black designs. That is final.

To prevent wrinkling, wash your clothing in virgin’s blood.

Accessories

To dress up your brootal outfit for a night on the town, you should start with a belt or twenty. Spiked and bullet belts make great accessories, the spikier the better. Wear them around your waist or cross them over your chest.

Spiked or rune-adorned gauntlets encircle your wrists, and a chain. Upside-down crosses, pentegrams, runes and other pagan symbols adorn the neck. A black metaller is never without his or her trusty Thor’s Hammer or pentegram necklace. My favorites come from Wulflund in the Czech Republic. These are replicas of archaeological finds. You can slo find Thors Hammers and other pagan / satanic pendants at Little Devil Designs, WodansWolf and Vermorlian Magick Shoppe.

To carry around your church-burning kit, Broake and Thumb designs offer Thor’s Hammer messanger bags.

fur and feathers give a naturalistic, Dark Ages feel to any black metal outfit. Ravens were the messengers of Odin, and the carrian harbringers of doom, so black raven feathers obviously the kreigest of them all. Pluck them from a live raven for maximum kreig factor, and string on a low necklace or sew around the edge of a black skirt.

For even krieger outfits, carry a weapon, like a sword or axe or mace. Add spikes to it. The more spikes, the more black metal scene points you earn.

Makeup

No article about black metal fashion would be complete without a discussion about Corpsepaint. To perfect a corpsepaint look, paint your whole face white and add black (or VERY OCCASIONALLY red) details, around your eyes and mouths. The style mimics the face paintings of the Norse Oskorei.

Most black metal musicians have a specific corpsepaint “look”, which seldom changes. With a little experimenting you can perfect your own black metal “look”.

See this tutorial on how to apply corpsepaint.

It will take a bit of experimenting to find the perfect white paint. Black Metal legends Behemoth recoomend Kryolan Supracolour Cream Makeup, which is professional theatre makeup. Others suggest using ordinary acrylic paints instead of makeup. Just make sure it’s non-toxic, first!

For some great examples of corpse paint, see rate my corpsepaint, which is my new favorite makes me giggle website.

Style Icons

Resources:

Black Metal Fashion Show

Ann-Sophie Back – Swedish avant-garde designer and lover of black metal.

Anti-Sweden Jeans: Made in Oslo, Norway. The tr00est, kvltest black metal jeans you ever could find. Exchange an old pair of jeans made in Sweden and get your Anti-Sweden jeans for NOK$666. Brootal.

Cheap Monkey: Swedish purveyors of fine black metal jeans.

Rakk and Ruin: jewellery and accessories for the black metal babe.

Wulflund – swords, jewelry, clothing, helmets and misc. from my fave Czech Republic historical shop. For all your Thor’s hammer and guantlet needs.

This was actually one of the most fun articles to write so far. Please let me know what you think, and if you know of any great black metal designers, shops and accessories.

Stay Grymm \m/
Steff

In three days time CDH and I journey down the country to spend the holiday with my parents. Since they’re still on dial-up (my dad doesn’t believe in the internet), you won’t see many posts from me until after New Years. To sate your lust, here’s many, many great links from around the itnerwebs.

I am doing some edits to the website (in readiness for my product launch early next year). You might have noticed two new pages have appeared: Steff Metal’s Publications and the Steff Metal Archive. I haven’t got everything quite perfect yet, but feel free to peruse.

E. Bleak writes Positively Bleak: Grinning back from the Abyss – another fantastic heavy metal lifestyle blog. Read The Positively Bleak Guide to Metal Hair and Getting the GWAR off for some kreig advice.

Terry Border’s The Secret Life of Everyday things explores the idea of our possessions getting up to mischief while we’re a-sleeping. Border started by posting the photos of his little “bent objects” on his blog, but they became so popular he’s turned 70 of his funniest photographs into a book.

Apparently, it’s not impossible to pull down a six-figure salary selling crafts on Etsy. But it doesn’t sound like much fun.

No Clean Singing is writing a series of posts on the most brutal countries in the world. First on the block is Germany. In fact, Germany is so brutal, it gets two posts.

Things that go Hump in the Night.

Monster Cereal. Why yes, it is an entire blog dedicated to monster-themed cereal. Totally makes me giggle.

Spragwerk’s new jewelry collection – called “Tools of the Trade” – features meat hooks, torture implements and cleavers for Africa. Awesome.

Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want.” Anne Lappe

This awesome billboard was erected by our very own St Matthew’s in the City. The billboard was meant to inspire critical thinking of the literalness of the Christmas story.

In other NZ news, the NZ Athiest Bus Campaign has raised over $20 000 to have it’s slogan “There’s Probably No God, so Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life” painted on the side of NZ buses. I wholeheartedly support this campaign, not because I’m an atheist but because I love the positivity of the message and I don’t believe it’s deliberately antagonistic towards those who do believe.

Yes and Yes encourages us to Give the gift of non-stuff. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Go to Metal Fairy Tales right now, and buy this:

Told in the fashion of a Grimms Fairy Tale, and originally written as a heavy metal musical (hell yes!), ‘The Windowmaker, the Codpiece and the Sex Gods from Planet Metal’, tells the story of Nestor, windowmaker to the King who’s enchanted codpiece is stolen by an evil wizard. After befriending some brave knights, the Sex Gods from Planet Metal, Nestor then embarks on a fantastic adventure to retrieve it, battling monstrous vegetables along the way and saving the Kings daughter from peril in the process

A fashion blog honours the metal jacket.

If you love Beatallica (and I do) you might get a kick out of For Whom the Bell Joels. Yes, that is heavy metal covers of Billy Joel songs. Apparently even Liberty Devitto (Joel’s drummer) thinks they’re fantastic, although we all know drummers don’t know shit about music.

Sparkle Mistress Tarina Tarintino’s steampunk collection. If you want to look like Gala Darling with a bit of an edge, this is for you.

There you go, my pretties! Merry Metal Christmas to you and a Headbanging New Year! \m/

Steff Metal

I’ve been hoarding a few of these fantastic fashion photographs, but I thought I’d better share them with you in one bumper post.

Corset from the Blonds, iD Magazine

If you’re not familiar with Philipe and David Blond NYC, I’d hop over to their website and oogle their collection quick smart. Seriously, you don’t want to miss their amazing mis of textures, spikes, chains, florals and corsetry. I mean … wow.

Impractical but totally kreig. That's the metal fashion way.

leather backpacks by Ora

Martin Cohn (via Rakk and Ruin)

Spiked headband - seriously awesome idea!

from the Six Six Sick Girls collection

The Six Six Sick girls have all worked in the fashion industry at one point or another. They’ve combined forces to come up with dark, distorted, disturbed, urban, and totally metal outfits for their weekly parties.

Daid Sims for Vogue US

Metal Fashion inspiration! Since so many of us are having a break over the Christmas holiday, I think it’s time to think of a few DIY projects we could create while we’re at home, chilling out and annoying our respective others. I know a spikey headband like the one above wouldn’t be too difficult to create.

Horns up! \m/
Steff Metal