Death Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey
Heavy Metal Relics is a by-the-fans-for-the-fans Youtube series hosted by headbanger Bridgett Englund. Spotlighted on her channel are rare demos and collectibles, interviews and performances, and personal conversations with band members, zine editors etc about a variety of subjects. This is among the latest of many channels made to connect with other fans on Youtube. I recently discovered it when Billy Nocera of Razorback Records and Evilspeak Magazine posted a link on his Facebook profile. I surfed over to the channel, looked it over, and figured her support of the underground deserved some coverage. Englund has been running this channel for about a year and her video uploads have been receiving an impressive amount of viewer feedback. In this video made for her Heavy Metal Cribs category Englund visits the home of Ash Thomas the drummer/vocalist of Faithxtractor who leads her on a tour showing her merchandise he has collected through his years as a fan. His extensive record, seven-inch, cassette and CD collection, an extensive collection of shirts, guitar equipment, rare band posters and a Suicidal Tendencies hat he owns. He shows her a rehearsal room where several bands have practiced. For a six and a half minute video it shows what a serious collector he is and his unswerving devotion to his music; everything from classic metal to thrash to death and black metal, much of it dating back to the 1980s. Showing her some of his vinyl collection, Thomas mentioned a local record store in his area, Everybody’s Records, which thankfully is still open today. It made me want to travel to Ohio just to check the place out after all the closings in New York. What I appreciated about this video was its casual, down to earth tone, as if two friends were getting together. So watching it was an educational experience and I got to hear about new bands and merchandise outlets; it was worth the effort made to track down this channel. -Dave Wolff
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