REDEFINING EVIL: A JOURNEY INTO THE CREATION OF BOSTON BASED BLACK METAL SOLO ARTIST "RANCID ABOMINATION"
Author : Black Plague (The Founder of Rancid Abomination)
INTRO:
Part 1 : Getting into Metal
I grew up in the Lonely suburb of Boston, MA named Dedham. It's a colonial town that is very similar to many in the New England area. Dedham doesn't have much of a metal scene around it. Boston has a small scene with a lot of metalcore bands and a few thrash ones also but none of them are big outside Massachusetts where I am from. I was only 16 when I first heard heavy metal music. I loved it then and still do. In fact looking back, heavy metal music is the single most important thing that has happened to me in my life. Around 16 or so I was stuck with Rap Music and I liked it then, but hate it now for reasons you will understand way later. I started with bands like Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Megadeth, Pantera, etc.. Mostly Thrash metal then... I now no longer listen to any of those bands because frankly, Thrash Metal from US sucks these days, I'd rather listen to some underground Australian Thrash band like Harlott then listen to anything the "Big 4" have put out in 15 years minus slayer, and that's a huge maybe. But for a kid growing up with serious emotional problems which I will not spoil in this book, Metal was a godsend. Rap was becoming very scary for me. Half of it was drug induced Racist thug crap. I wanted an escape. So When my Cousin played Master of Puppets by Metallica, it was a portal into a whole new world which I have never left since then... Now I would probably never listen to that cd, but back then it was amazing for me to hear it. But I trudged on with rap. It wouldn't be till my best friend, Hitman213 got me into Metal permanently that I fully changed into a head banger...
Hitman213 is a major figure in the life of the Black Metal solo artist I would found later, named "Rancid Abomination". Rancid Abomination is so underground that no one reading this who is into metal would even know it exists. But it does. Back in 1996 though, writing music was the last thing I wanted to do. Enjoying good metal was enough for me... Over time I would get into many new bands but back in the time period that was 1996-1997 it was limited. I got into a few new bands such as Queensryche, Black Sabbath, Prong, etc... But I never was really into EXTREME metal then like I am now. In fact right now I listen to 75% black or death metal these days but back in 1996-1997 it was all heavy metal, prog metal and thrash. A lot of the more extreme thrash bands were unknown to me then so I didn't know what Hexx, Kreator, Old Sepultura, Harlott, Dew-Scented, etc sounded like then... Now they are a huge influence for me as a writer because these days I would rather listen to them than Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax or Megadeth.
Around college time in 1997 I started getting into British Metal besides Sabbath... Starting with Judas Priest and then shortly after, Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden is the single biggest influence for me wanting to write music. It was so well executed that I wanted to do my own stuff when I heard "Number of the Beast" for the first time. And in fact Iron Maiden was the single biggest reason I got into my favorite kind of Non-Extreme Metal : Power Metal. I was soon into not just Maiden, But Helloween, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, you name it... But these kinds of bands were something I would not be into for long, you see a major event in my life that I will keep anonymous changed my listening habits dramatically. But I would first be introduced to Melodic Death Metal, and Black metal first. The internet helped me to get into huge bands in these fields, At the Gates and Dimmu Borgir Respectively. I'd never listen to these kinds of metal if I never heard these two bands. Pretty soon I was into Amon-Amarth, Hypocrisy, Nightrage, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames (old stuff only!), etc... Then the black Metal Revolution came through with a force so strong that It would change my listening habits so dramatically that it would take 6 more years for me to go back to Power Metal...
Part 2 : Getting into Black Metal
Ok... I had heard a lot of extreme metal by this point. I heard Venom, Bathory and loved that stuff. But something about hearing Dimmu and other Symphonic Black Metal bands made me want to take my solo artist Massacred to new level and make it black metal. I was never really into RAW black metal but loved Symphonic stuff.. That might come as a surprise to anyone who knows what Rancid Abomination is like, it's raw as hell. But as a listener, I rarely listened to Mayhem, Darkthrone, etc... They were boring to me compared to Dimmu and Old Mans Child. I listened to those 2 bands a ton and they were such a huge influence for Early Rancid Abomination Material from 2001-2002 that it was insane. Now the actual formation of RA is for Chapter 2 but the obsession with Black Metal was a huge thing for me. A personal tragedy kicked this into overdrive in September 2000. This tragedy made me not want to listen to anything Happy at all. I was miserable for months and I needed EVIL sounding music to make me feel better then. I couldn't listen to Maiden, or anything like that for years on end. I got Hooked on Black Metal due to this and became a huge fan of it. It however was not something I would listen to forever, and in 2006 I would ditch it for over 9 years. Not until I got into AWESOME Black Metal bands Like Windir and Melechesh did I go back to Black Metal in 2016 and reform Rancid Abomination after 10 years of it being shelved. But back in 2000-2006 I was hooked on Black Metal. I heard every single major Black Metal band coming from Norway and liked most of these... I listened to not only Dimmu, But Old Mans Child, Emporer, Immortal, Satyricon, Susperia, Darkthrone and Mayhem, and many many more. I also heard a lot of black metal that wasn't Norwegian such as Bathory (which was technically the first Black Metal band I would hear - Venom to me is thrash), Dark Funeral, Dragonlord (A big favorite now), Naglfar (Another HUGE favorite of mine) and others... I had even gotten into underground bands in Norway like Ancient and other Black Metal bands later like Satariel and Summoning thanks to Internet Radio. Snakenet Metal Radio was a huge thing for me later in 2008-2009 because I got me into tons of new bands that stuff like the Metalzone on WHJY could not. But back then in 2001-2006 the bands I mentioned before summoning plus many others I cannot remember now were big favorites....
Part 3 : Getting Back into Power Metal
It took a damn long time before I was good enough, mental state wise, before I started listening to Power Metal again. I credit one band for this... Blind Guardian. I had heard their newer Symphonic stuff only in 1998 and didn't really like it then... I didn't know just how heavy they were in earlier cd's and in 2006 I became a huge fan of them thanks to their older stuff. This shifted my listening habits away from Black metal and towards Power Metal again. This was huge... Around 2006 or so is when this happened. I got into other bands like Gamma Ray later, and Edguy, Primal Fear, Grave Digger, etc after that... But it wouldn't be until much later that I got into my favorite 2 power metal bands, Manticora and Persuader. These two bands were something I would never figure out about till around 2010 or so. By this Point Rancid Abomination was folded and Caustic Euphony (a weird mix of black/death/prog and folk metal!) had taken it's place. I was now getting into prog metal a lot more and started to listen to bands such as Dream Theater more. But that was a secondary thing. it wasn't till way later that I heard Progressive bands like Gorguts and Voivod that I really got into the more experimental kind of prog metal I love today.
This all leads into chapter 2.. But chapter two begins in 2001 when I had just gotten into Black Metal and Death metal for the first time...
