Metal Storm

Over The Mountain

-October 4th, 1986-
Days passed and then weeks.
We had rehearsals almost every week now, going over songs that we could potentially cover in the future and songs that Eric had written together with Svenn.
The band's own style was heavy. Dark. Almost like a blend of the distorted intensity of Celtic Frost's "Morbid Tales" and the brutal guitar onslaught of the first few Sodom albums.
Eric had been busy trying to book us a show as well as forming a potential set list for it with our help for the past few days and so far we had decided on playing Exodus's "Bonded By Blood", Celtic Frost's "Circle Of The Tyrants", Sodom's "Blasphemer", and one of our own songs at the end.
A lovely little tune about getting dragged down by the goat lord himself into the ninth circle of hell.
Astrid had been horrified when I had told her that I'd been accepted into the band and even more so when I had pointed out the members to her at lunch, claiming that they were probably going to sacrifice me in some cave when the time came.
It would take a long while of convincing her until she could come and watch us play.
Despite the band becoming my main focus in life, I still heavily focused on my schoolwork as in January, I would be submitting applications for university.
As much as I thought that I wanted to become an English teacher, I was feeling that interest beginning to steadily die down. It was something that I was so sure that I wanted to pursue once but now I felt uncertain about whether it was something that I would truly enjoy dedicating my lifetime to or not....
     Currently, I was in the garage as we once again went over the set list.
My confidence in my playing had grown since that day on that late summer evening when Eric had first opened that chipped, white door for me.
I could now confidently play along with almost any song that they threw at me. Even Kreator's "Pleasure To Kill."
Eric nailed in a tapped solo at the end of the Celtic Frost song, nearly falling over as he got down on his knees and attempted to do an exaggerated Angus Young impression.
"If you even attempt this at a gig, I'm walking right out," I joked, putting my guitar back in its stand and going over to the fridge to grab a cold drink. The hours of practising had me constantly craving cold drinks nowadays, no matter how cold the October weather was
      Eric flipped me off playfully with an annoyed glance, "fuck you, Marlene."
      The others sitting down on the amps laughed, even Svenn who barely ever said anything unless he was onstage, snickered.
     "Speaking of gigs," Eric began, as he pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper out of his pocket, smoothing it out and holding it out in front of us, "I think we just got us our first gig."
     It must have taken a few seconds for me to process the words cause for a short moment, I just sat there, stunned while the others cheered and congratulated the guitarist on landing us a gig.
     "Hello, Earth to Marlene?" Ace said, waving his hands in front of me.
     "Don't worry, you'll be fine. Hell, I've never played in front of a crowd either. None of us have." Eric said, "it's a first for everyone here."
"When is the show?" I asked.
"On Halloween so October 31st," Eric replied, rubbing his hands a little, "I told them that we write about the brutal shit. About Satanic rituals and Hell and stuff and the guy who owned the club immediately accepted my offer. Said that we sounded like the perfect band to set the mood for All Hallows' Eve."
Phew, so we still had plenty of time for practise until the day of the show came.
To be honest, I was still more than slightly nervous though. Sure, we'd had played for people before such as the bands other friends and one time Eric's dad and little brother had come in to watch us play a few songs. But this was a whole audience of metalheads that we were going to be playing for....
    "Yeahhhh, let's fucking go!" Ace exclaimed, his bright grey eyes shining with excitement.
     I suddenly thought of Astrid, maybe I could somehow convince her to come...? She liked clubs and parties, that sort of thing. But she was also totally obsessed with Halloween, she dressed up every year, claiming that there wasn't an age limit to it, surely a Halloween themed metal concert was something that could possibly catch her interest?
     We'd planned to hang out after band practise so I decided to bring it up to her.
     "You got any friends who would be interested in coming?" Kristina asked me as if reading my mind, "anyone who would be potentially into buying a record from us in the future?"
     "No posers though!" Eric growled, "especially none of those pussies who listen to Poison and Stryper and shit. Who the fuck do they even think they are to jack off to the Bible and then call themselves a metal band?"
      I could agree with him on that. A lot of the bands advertised as metal that were played on MTV and on the radios were quite a far cry from the bands that we worshipped. These guys with their cheesy power ballads and garish spandex jumpsuits were a far cry from the distorted evil sound that Black Sabbath had invented and bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Motörhead, had further developed.
     "Ughhh, she's not into that. She's more into 60s rock n roll but she likes horror stories and stuff like that," I said, rolling my eyes.
     "Yeah fine, she can come then," Eric muttered, "anyone BUT those awful glammed up losers with their atrocious haircuts."
     I chuckled.
     "Bet."
     ———
     "You're asking me if I want to go to a concert filled with greasy metalheads and their groupies!?"
     "A Halloween themed concert," I corrected my friend.
     We were having tea inside a downtown cafe that had always been one of our favourite places to hang out at with its plushy couches, friendly tourist oriented atmosphere, and delicious smell of cookies.
     "That's still a metal show filled with greasy metalheads and their groupies?" Astrid said, raising her brow.
     "Astrid, come on. They're not so bad. You can watch from the side if you want," I suggested with a groan.
    Astrid could be really stubborn on some days.
    Today was one of them.
    "Okayyyy okay, I'll come," she said, raising her hands in mock defeat, "but only for the first song."
     Well, that surprisingly wasnt too hard.
     "It's just kind of hard for me to take your word for it when people like your band mates have such a crazy reputation, like, on TV, they're always talking about how heavy metal is Satan's music and how it pollutes peoples minds. But I'm going to try to keep my mind open. You are after all not some Satanic murderer or whatever."
     I raised my fist in triumph.
     "Before you know it you'll be buying my music and attending every metal show in Stockholm," I said, winking at her.
"Yeah, no. Don't get too excited there," Astrid said taking a sip of her tea.