| Title | : | Axes of Evil |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1497360560 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781497360563 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 576 |
| Publication | : | First published March 26, 2014 |
Axes of Evil Reviews
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This is a great anthology full of awesome stories. Of course the metal bands were always my thing. I just went and saw Motley Crue two weeks ago, so yea, I loved the metal band theme for these stories.
Some of my favorite stories in this book were: The Plaster Casters Rise Again - Charie D. La Marr; Sinister Cavan - Jim Goforth; Rio Grande Blood - Chris Kelso; Ex-Punk - MP Johnson; Death Call - Christopher Hivner; and Rock and Roll All Night - Sephera Giron.
All of the stories were very good, I enjoyed them all. -
This is an incredible collection. This is 576 pages of bad-ass, gore-soaked heavy metal thunder! I recognized only a few of the names in the table of contents, but every story in this book captures the true essence of metal, of rock and roll, and all of them kept me riveted (always impressive, as far as anthologies are concerned.) Like a killer album, every "track" in Axes of Evil is a single, all strong and well-performed, but here are some of my favorites:
"Battle of the Bands" by Joel Kaplan is an intense vision of a vicious future that makes violently playful dystopian sci-fi like “The Running Man” look like kiddie fare. Think Smash TV with guitar-blades that sound best when stabbing human flesh (and other equally creative, destructive gadgets used to flay grateful fans and the members of other bands alike)
"The Plaster Casters Rise Again" by Charie D. La Marr is a funny, wild, and totally raunchy tale that features a bad ass (and very well endowed) viking rocker named Thor. If you know anything about Cynthia Plaster Caster, you can imagine how this story begins, and it just gets more interesting from there.
Lindsey Beth Goddard's "All The Rage" mixes Lovecraft-style elder-god madness with heavy metal to create a soul-devouring tale of brain-melting music and audience massacre without anyone even touching a blade. Great lines in this one.
"Frygga: Dreams of Fire" by Christine Morgan is as elegant as hell and twice as poetic. I love this piece, and not just because I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Norse mythology. The tale is gripping, powerful and very intriguingly told.
"Before The Ball" by Ray Van Horn, Jr. takes the 80's monster movie concept in a thrilling direction. I love the way this piece is constructed, steeped in the vibe and paraphernalia of the period and saving the big, creepy reveal for a spot near the end. Rock on! -
I really wanted to like this book, as I'm a lifelong fan of both horror and heavy metal. Maybe my expectations were too high, because I was disappointed.
First of all, the book should be about half as long. There are 36 stories, and of those I liked 11. That made the book a chore to get through. Most of the rest of the stories weren't actively bad, they were just "meh." I'm sure I won't remember them in a week.
Second, I expected more of a connection to heavy metal. Some of the stories felt like the author shoved in a couple of metal references to fit an existing story in to the anthology.
Third, don't start an anthology with the best story. "Mourningstar" by Del James is far and away my favorite of the collection, and it was EXACTLY what I wanted the book to be. The metal and horror elements were perfect, and Del James is an expert in each. After such a rousing start the rest of the 550 pages could never live up to it.
I don't want to be entirely negative. There is some great stuff here if you are willing to slog through it. On the humorous side there is "Harbinger Master" by G. Arthur Brown and "To Hell With the Metal" by Sean Leonard. "Hardcore Crust" by Terry West, "Sinister Cavan" by Jim Goforth, and "Battle of the Bands" by Joel Kaplan are all excellent and have different takes on the subject matter. "Extremophiles" by Lucy Taylor takes second place for me in the final installment.
Overall, this is a mixed bag like all anthologies and I may have gotten my hopes too high. There are some gems here if you are willing to put in the work. 3 stars. -
What's better than a big book full of horror fiction? The answer is a big book of horror stories that are about Heavy Metal music. Axes Of Evil is a heavy metal anthology for people who are passionate about metal music and horror fiction. There are 34 stories in this collection that go from supernatural horror to comedy to splatterpunk. Axes of Evil is edited by music journalist and horror writer Alex S. Johnson and it includes stories from Sephera Giron, Terry M. West and Charie D. La Marr.
There are so many good stories in Axes Of Evil that its hard to pick just a couple to talk about but one of my favorite story in this collection was The Plaster Casters Rise Again by Charie D. La Marr. Since I love stories that combine horror, humor and smut this one really appealed to me. It's about a woman who makes molds of Rock Stars privates and goes to a metal show to get a mold from a rock star named Thor. Thor always talks in the third person and considers himself to be the viking god of thunder. I thought it was hilarious the way Thor talks about the women he has been with and the situation that makes Thor loose his temper towards the end was funny. There is another good story by Charie D. La. Marr in this book called Once Bitten, Twice Shy. This is a more serious story and deals with a night club fire that killed almost 100 people in Rhode Island back in 2003.
Another story I liked was All the Rage by Lindsey Beth Goddard. This story was told by a rock god who has been living disguised as a singer in a boy band. The rock god gets tired of hiding his true self and decides to give his fans a surprise. I liked the concept here of rock gods that don't like music that isn't heavy. The editor of the book Alex S. Johnson has a great story here also called Die, Clown, Die! This one shows the diversity of stories in this book. It's about a guy dressed as a clown that goes to a clown metal show. He goes to the wrong place and the band that is playing is called Bozokill and they don't like clowns.
Battle Of The Bands by Joel Kaplan is another one of my favorites in this book. This is a futuristic story where the competition between the bands isn't just about having the best songs, they also have to kill the other bands and try to be the most shocking. This story was gruesome but entertaining at the same time. These bands torture their audience and and use their instruments as weapons to slice through their competition. This story is an original idea and has to be read to be believed.
At 572 pages, Axes Of Evil is one massive anthology. For fans of horror and heavy metal this is a must have. Both metal and horror have a lot in common, they both look at the dark side of life yet in my opinion have a positive energy to them. Reading horror and listening to metal is like a socially acceptable way to get your aggression out, so its great to see an anthology that merges the two. -
hahaha not yet finished, far from it but since it's a colection of shorts I can pick any story I want :D.
So I started with Jeff O'Brians short "The Cold and Lonely Tombstone of Angus Smith" and I've to say briliant, it remindet me a bit about the good old times when the Horror movies were really creepy cause they build up a certain kind of suspense over the time and don't gave away everything in the first 5 minutes ;)
So five stars for that one.
Next on the Axis of Evil list Joel Kaplans "Battle of the Bands" on wich I'm very confident that this one will rock too. I mean that's the author of "High on Blood at the End of the World" and that one was fantastic ;) -
Excellent variety with a unifying theme of metal. From gory and shocking to slapstick comedy, there was something for everyone!
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As I've mentioned before, writing a review for a book written - or edited - by a friend can be daunting. Thankfully all my friends know that I am honest and will call it like I read it.
Having just finished Axes of Evil, I can say it's really hit and miss. I wanted to give it a three and a half but half stars aren't available. But here is my assessment:
"Notation in Crimson" - Mary Genevieve Fortier. Let me start off by saying I hate poetry. The only two poems I can even tolerate are The Raven by Poe and When I Heard the Learned Astronomer by Whitman. That being said, you can add this poem to that list. It might be all the Zeppelin references, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't want to say anymore.
"Metallifer and Lucifer" by Magenta Nero. A really cool tale about the fall of angels and the birth of Hell. This was one of my favorites in the anthology.
"Bring Your Daughter...to the Slaughter" - E.R. Robin Dover. An odd tale about a rock band who sacrifice women during their concerts to grow the lead singer's magical powers... Until he meets his match. It was a little confusing, seemed to drag at places, and truthfully, Ray Charles could see the ending coming a third of the way in.
"The Collector" - Greg McWhorter. This one was awesome! Take an obscure band that seldom plays, and obsessed fan on a mission to own every tchotchkes he can find for the band, and well pure evil. It may make you think twice before checking eBay for that signed guitar pick.
"Widow" - Ray Van Horn, Jr. I liked this one. A journalist for a magazine is asked to interview a rock goddess. Only the interview occurs in the bedroom. She is covered from head to toe - including a very unusual one on her abdomen (the title might give it away). Just an interesting tale about sex and death.
"Poseurs" by Sam Reese. This one had potential, but fell flat. A band hits Craigslist to find a female singer to join the band in an attempt to make them famous. They find a girl named Succubus - well, you can probably guess the rest... I did.
"All The Rage" by Lindsey Goddard. Demon disguised as a rock god in order to suck up "souls". Meh. It was well written, but didn't do anything for me.
"Stigmata Mania" by Russell Holbrook. Let me start by saying this story was definitely not my cup of tea. It was bizarre to excess. I'm all for sex - I mean, who isn't? But when the sexual situations go so far from the norm, it takes away from the story and becomes distracting and unnecessary. This would have been a decent story - along the lines of Halloween 3: Season of the Witch. A psycho designs a song that turns people into mush and is hellbent on getting it played in order to destroy mankind. It was just way too weird for me to find enjoyable.
"Under the Bus" - Mimi A. Williams. Another of my favorites in the collection. Be careful who you cross - especially if it's a band mate that you've experienced demon sacrifices with. The person you throw under the bus may get their revenge.
"Louder, Faster..." - John Claude Smith. Even though I didn't get this one, it was an interesting read. A man looking for a louder, more head banging band, finds one - much to his surprise.
"All the Hellish Cruelties of Heaven" - Paula D. Ashe. Again, didn't get this one - and it wasn't an interesting read. Written in diary form it's an obscure story about a woman following what I think was a serial killer.
"Everybody Needs at Least One Demon" - Neko A. Lilly. This one was weird. But in a cool way. I really couldn't see where it was headed. A girl, a boy, a romp in the bathroom - a drugging, a threesome, bondage, and a disgusting description of a castration. Oh, and did I mention the girl is psychotic?
"Rock and Roll All Night - Sephera Giron. If I had to pick a favorite, this would be it. A rock singer turned office worker, a trip to New Orleans with a coworker, and voodoo. Does it get better than that? Yes it does - read this one and find out.
"Deatherz" - Alex S. Johnson. Editing an anthology has its benefits: you get to include your own story. I liked this story - and I'm not saying that because Alex is a friend of mine. Mon is a girl who frequents clubs and is picked up by a rock legend Razor Blakk. He take her to his mansion where all sorts of depravity occurs. While there is some of the gratuitous, disgusting, shock treatment (as discussed earlier), it isn't distracting from the end game.
"Still Life with Chattering Teeth and People-Shaped Things" - The Reverend Groucho. What the hell did I just read? Was it a dream? Was it drug induced hallucinations? Was it a story within a story? I don't know. I've never tried LSD, but from what I've read, maybe I should have taken a hit before reading this - it might have made more sense. The torture scene at the end was the only thing that was distinguishable.
"Extremophiles" - Lucy Taylor. Maybe it's because I would love to visit the Arctic, or maybe it was just well written. Either way, this was a good tale about survival.
"The Chords of Death" - Norbert Gora. And now I'm back to hating poetry. Yes, this one is a poem. Didn't get it, didn't like it.
So there you have it. As with every anthology, there are going to be good stories, ok stories, and stories that you think the editor had to be stoned in order to include. But that's what makes the world go round. If everyone liked everything everyone else did, this would be a very boring existence. Alex wouldn't have added the stories, even the ones I hated, if something didn't speak to him through them - and who knows, they may speak to you as well; and that's ok. Give this one a try if you want to take a very bizarre trip along a musical highway. -
I really liked this book and the way each story was presented. I don’t think you need to be a fan of heavy meatal music, or this genera of material because the writing that each story offers holds up on their own. At least for me. I will say that like any group of stories there are some that stand out for each person. For me the two stories written by, Charie D. La Marr, the first one I think she could actually write an entire book from that story it really was amazing, from the characters to the story line. Her second one was just as well written but from a totally different genera for she was doing it memory of the people who had lost their lives in the Station at Warwick Rhode Island February 20, 2003. And for the people who were also injured or who had lost someone dear to them, a very moving story. There was another story that was about a concert in Bakersfield, thought that was funny because I live there. Each story is well thought out and though it is tied to heavy metal the way each story comes back to the music is unique and that is what makes this book a good read. The stories are well thought out and not just put together, you really have to think about what you are reading. The way each story moves you is not a way I would have thought I could have been moved, but each one got me. Even now writing this review I am still thinking of a couple one about a clown, and another one about a young man always wanting to be a heavy metal rock star but instead is working as an attendant picking up dead people and taking them to the morgue, this has a an ending you really want to read about. You see each story is different and that is what makes this book a very good book and one I am grateful to the author to allow me to read.
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There are just some thing you think there should be more of, but you don't realize it until you see it for the first time. It's like when the Eggo waffle folks finally got around to making their own syrup. How hard of an idea was that to pop out? And how long did that take them? It's not rocket surgery, folks. I felt the same way when I heard about Axes of Evil, an anthology of horror stories based with heavy metal music as the central theme. Heavy metal and horror, the chocolate and peanut butter of my world, together in the written word. I could pee.
Axes of Evil is a huge (almost clocking in at 600 pages) collection of stories ranging from the brutally hilarious to the downright evil. Personal favorites of mine include "Keltorrian" by Jacurutu23, "Extremophiles" by Lucy Taylor, "Battle of the Bands" by Joel Kaplan, and "Tones of Skin and Bones" by Michael Faun. The absolute gem of the anthology, in my opinion, has got to be "Once Bitten, Twice Shy" by Charlie D. La Marr. It's set at the utterly tragic fire that took place during the Great White concert the Station back in 2003, and is one of the most emotionally riveting stories I've read in awhile, horror or otherwise. It packs a punch and puts a serious lump in your throat.
This is a definite must for fans of horror and heavy metal alike. -
What's better than a big book full of horror fiction? The answer is a big book of horror stories that are about Heavy Metal music. Axes Of Evil is a heavy metal anthology for people who are passionate about metal music and horror fiction. There are 34 stories in this collection that go from supernatural horror to comedy to splatterpunk. Axes of Evil is edited by music journalist and horror writer Alex S. Johnson and it includes stories from Sephera Giron, Terry M. West and Charie D. La Marr.
There are so many good stories in Axes Of Evil that its hard to pick just a couple to talk about but one of my favorite story in this collection was The Plaster Casters Rise Again by Charie D. La Marr. Since I love stories that combine horror, humor and smut this one really appealed to me. It's about a woman who makes molds of Rock Stars privates and goes to a metal show to get a mold from a rock star named Thor. Thor always talks in the third person and considers himself to be the viking god of thunder. I thought it was hilarious the way Thor talks about the women he has been with and the situation that makes Thor loose his temper towards the end was funny. There is another good story by Charie D. La. Marr in this book called Once Bitten, Twice Shy. This is a more serious story and deals with a night club fire that killed almost 100 people in Rhode Island back in 2003.
Another story I liked was All the Rage by Lindsey Beth Goddard. This story was told by a rock god who has been living disguised as a singer in a boy band. The rock god gets tired of hiding his true self and decides to give his fans a surprise. I liked the concept here of rock gods that don't like music that isn't heavy. The editor of the book Alex S. Johnson has a great story here also called Die, Clown, Die! This one shows the diversity of stories in this book. It's about a guy dressed as a clown that goes to a clown metal show. He goes to the wrong place and the band that is playing is called Bozokill and they don't like clowns.
Battle Of The Bands by Joel Kaplan is another one of my favorites in this book. This is a futuristic story where the competition between the bands isn't just about having the best songs, they also have to kill the other bands and try to be the most shocking. This story was gruesome but entertaining at the same time. These bands torture their audience and and use their instruments as weapons to slice through their competition. This story is an original idea and has to be read to be believed.
At 572 pages, Axes Of Evil is one massive anthology. For fans of horror and heavy metal this is a must have. Both metal and horror have a lot in common, they both look at the dark side of life yet in my opinion have a positive energy to them. Reading horror and listening to metal is like a socially acceptable way to get your aggression out, so its great to see an anthology that merges the two.
