The Scream by John Skipp

The Scream Reviews

• 
  Twerking To Beethoven

  I didn't like "The Scream" one bit.
  
  I'm an eighties kid, alright. One of my all time favourite movies happens to be
  Trick or Treat , a monumental, humongous piece of crap of a horror movie about a snuffed rockstar coming back from the dead because some bullied high-school kid spins his records backwards. Pure, unadulterated & delicious eighties cheese, boyos. Check this out:
  https://youtu.be/pjOnfKvqGEQ ("Gonna drive my long steel missile down on your love channel")
  
  Even though "Trick or Treat" is so utterly stupid watching it will make you a total idiot (and that's the main reason I love it so much), it features one of the most magnificent soundtracks evah, this:
  
  
  
  
  Fastway's "Trick or Treat" is an underrated hard rock masterpiece from the eighties, featuring Flogging Molly's Dave King's pipes and "Fast" Eddie Clarke's smoking stratocaster.
  
  That said, I went through "The Scream" hoping to find the same sort of mindless Trick-or-Treat fun, but was sorely mistaken.
  
  Unfortunately this book is a mess, and not in a good way. In my worthless opinion, it would have been a whole lot better without all the flashbacks, the pointless Vietnam bits, and the couple of hundred pages dealing with the interior turmoil of the characters.
  
  Two disappointed stars.
• 
  Grady Hendrix

  Lurid and over the top, but also features a giant monster who eats people with her vagina, and the first female character is introduced when we peer up her skirt while she's onstage. So there's that.
• 
  Craig

  Skipp & Spector's fourth collaborative novel is a sex & drugs & rock'n'roll splatterpunk gore fest, extremely graphic and disturbing at times, with controversial examinations of the changing world and values of the 1980s. It's a pretty good story, too, though not for the squeamish. I'd put it on the same shelf as Martin's Armageddon Rag, McCammon's The Five, and Denton's Wrack and Roll, except with a more horrific heavy-metal punkish slant. Rust never sleeps... let God sort it out.
• 
  Dan

  This is a far more complex book than any of the tag-lines would lead you to believe. Yes, it's an incredibly visceral horror story set in the world of rock-and-roll, but there are far deeper subjects that get addressed and discussed throughout the book.
  
  One of the most obvious - and controversial - is that of abortion. One of the side characters struggles with the keeping of a pregnancy in light of her career, her history, her temperament, and her relationship with the father. Because of the nature of the book, the extremes of both sides get put before us, and we can see the ugliness - and maybe the truths - of each side.
  
  Other issues presented: rock-and-roll music as a controversial entertainment. This book was published in 1988, in the aftermath of the PMRC's congressional hearing and sticker parade. (see
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_... for more info). Again, the book shows both sides of the argument (with obvious partiality, but still relatively fair, if not overly sympathetic to the opposing side) in both good and negative lights. And that's kind of the point.
  
  If you take anything to its polar extremes, it turns bad, no matter which way you slice it. In this particular example, you have rock-and-roll music (an outdated term, to be sure, but you get what I'm talking about: "the music your parents hate") which, in and of itself, is neutral. But you have extreme right-wing conservatives, typically claiming the Christian moniker, who want ALL rock music outlawed, because themes in "that type of music" run counter to their way of life and way of thinking. Standing in the middle ground, for story purposes, are musicians who are fighting for their livelihood. They recognize that what the right-wingers want to do is complete censorship for control purposes, and they want none of that. The know that rock music is cathartic, and downright necessary for human growth - rebellion aiding in the breaking away from mommy and daddy. On the far other side, in the story, are the centerpiece band THE SCREAM. Their goals are far more sinister, closer in scope to what the far-right wingers believe ALL rockers are about: the destruction of the youth of the world.
  
  The book also deals with post traumatic stress disorder, both war-induced and tragedy-induced, and how people with this disorder react and cope with breakouts in their own personal ways.
  
  I've read this book a couple of times, and as usual, I had forgotten about certain aspects from the previous reading. Maybe as I grow older, I see certain things from a different perspective.
  
  Again, fair warning, the authors of this book were part of the "splatterpunk" movement of the mid-80's to early 90's, and as such, this story drips with blood. There is no pulling away from cringe-worthy scenes, no pulling punches. In fact, the camera plays pretty steady on the most violent scenes (you'll never look at a staple gun quite the same way again).
  
  If you can handle that kind of gore, and don't have issue with themes touching on the satanic and blasphemous, then I recommend this book to you. If you do have issues with those things, I strongly recommend you not come near this book. You will be highly offended, even though there is some very good passages regarding God and Good fighting Evil and faith and salvation. Ultimately, it's your choice.
  
  And that's kinda the point.
• 
  Phil

  Skipp and Spector's third novel The Scream, published in 1988, is a real blast from the past, but many of the cultural links I believe will be lost to those not living in 1980s. The center of the novel is the band called The Scream-- a heavy metal act that is taking the nation by storm. Our main lead Jake Hamer is a Vietnam vet and leads his own heavy metal band. Early on, Jake appears on a talk show with a few other rockers (one side) and a minister and the wife of a senator (the other side) who want heavy metal (the devil's music) either outright banned or at least given parental ratings. Of course, this is a reference to Tipper Gore, who in the 80s help lead the campaign to 'censor' metal bands. I vividly remember living through this controversy and was/am a huge metal fan-- my first concert was Judas Priest and Iron Maiden back in 1982. Sanctimonious assholes like Jimmy Swaggart and other moral majority types basically declared rock music the enemy and it was a cultural struggle. Skipp and Spector nail this head on with flare and elan; like I wrote above, it brought back a lot of memories.
  
  Well, Jake and friends decide to take the bull by the horns and arrange a large concert in Philly 'Rock Aid' to raise money for bands being sued and so forth. Again, this is a clever reference to all the 'Aid' concerts back then for various causes ("feed the world, don't they know its Christmas..."). It seems, however, that The Scream really _are_ somehow affiliated with evil/the devil what have you. Some of their fans ('Screamers') are carrying out nasty murders and starting bloody riots when The Scream play their way across the US from the West Coast to reach Philly for Rock Aid.
  The story slowly unfolds with many flashbacks from Jake and others on Vietnam; something happened there that comes to play a role today with The Scream, but I cannot say more without spoilers.
  
  Overall, a fun read that touched some fun buttons and clearly fits into the splatterpunk genre that Skipp and Spector helped invent. The actual book is well produced with a little fold out poster inside as well. My biggest problems were the at times glacial pacing and character introspection that slowed the story down; with a different editor, this could be a much stronger book. Yet, it really encapsulates a piece of history so nicely I can over look its faults. 3.5 stars, rounding up-- Rock On!
• 
  Brian Surratt

  Read this MANY moons ago, senior yeah of high school I think, on the recommendation of a friend. Very intense, very visceral, very graphic. The characters are fairly well developed and diverse in a complex story.
  
  A few common tropes for the late 80's (Vietnam, heavy metal satanism, single mothers, corrupt televangelists, the works). But that's what the story is about, taping into the absurd paranoia of the time. It literally is a parent's rock and roll nightmare.
  
  If you were going to compare this book to a roller coaster, it would be one of those rides that launch you from 0 to 60 in no time flat and hardly slow down at all. The opening scenes set a burning pace and the climax is a rock and roll spectacular that you could only find in Ziggy Stardust's most horrific fantasies.
  
  At 18, I'd have called rated this a 6 on 5 star scale. 20+ years later, I'll guess my teen-aged self was overly stimulated by the sex, drugs and rock and roll and call it a 4. But it is definitely a book I'll NEVER forget.
• 
  Daniel James

  When I first heard about this I jumped at the chance to read it, with it having numerous ingredients to whet my appetite to the point where I was salivating: heavy metal, demonic forces, a hedonistic band as the main protagonists, Catholic-bashing, and Vietnam, the most rock 'n' roll of all wars (at least in fiction, obvs in real life all war just flat-out sucks!!). And having read the Book of the Dead Vol. 1 & 2 as a feral child, I knew that The Scream wasn't going to skimp on the gory carnage when things go south.
  
  So why only 3 stars? Well, to be fair, it isn't the story, the characters, or the "gory carnage" the latter of which you get in spades, but my own opinion of the first half of the book. It opens very well, and yanked my attention like two cold hands roughly gripping my cheeks, but somewhere not long afterwards I personally felt as though the plot meandered a little, however, I'm not sure if that's entirely accurate, I think the issue might have been the overwriting which tended to pop up here and there in various chapters, repeatedly derailing my attention, and therefore enjoyment of the advancing plot. This being a purely subjective criticism, I MUST point out that other readers might love the prose (and there really is some lovely writing here, I just think the editor should have reined in the language on occasion), and the story itself was very enjoyable: Jake Hamer is a tortured 'Nam vet and lead singer, who along with fellow ex-soldier and sax player Hempstead, are two members of the top-flight metal band, the Jacob Hamer Band, who along with the eponymous The Scream, and the rest of the '80's headbanging enthusiasts, find themselves targeted as the sinful, evil pariahs of youthful corruption by the hypocritical Pastor Furniss and his brainless and bible-thumping masses. However, The Scream are the real deal, they are sinful, they are evil, and their music truly is the product of the Devil.
  Despite my wandering attention, from the mid-point on, this book really took off, and was very entertaining, all culminating in a truly great and blood-drenched climax, and as somebody who loves their horror stories to end with a satisfying body count I can't fault the finale.
  
  In fact, screw it, playing it back in my head, I'm upping it to 4 stars. \m/
• 
  Craig DiLouie

  Recently finished THE SCREAM by John Skipp and Craig Spector and was amazed at how talented these guys are. They can tell one hell of a story. In THE SCREAM, Jake, a Vietnam vet and leader of a heavy metal band, jousts with Christian fundamentalists campaigning against what they see as Satanic rock music. What neither understands is that mega-cult band The Scream is actually using their music to plant the seeds of slaughter and literally raise Hell. Grounded in rich detail about the rock industry in the ’80s and a deep background in the hell of the Vietnam War, THE SCREAM is an outrageous trip bringing together heavy metal bands fighting Christian fundamentalists fighting the Devil. If you’re familiar with their stories you already know that Skipp and Spector do their homework, pour their hearts into their characters, and lavish their stories with tons of gore and mayhem. Lots of fun. Recommended.
• 
  Albert

  Ok I guess. This is my fourth Skipp/Spector novel and so far I'm all over the place when rating these guys.
  This is the second book of theirs where I was completely indifferent towards all the characters, and to me forming some kind of emotional attachment to a character goes a long way towards making or breaking a novel. I thought the story itself was pretty unique though and somewhat interesting, and I had no problem with the writing style.
• 
  Scott Waldie

  Has all the visceral gross out factor of their other collaborations, and could probably be considered one of the better heavy metal or rock and roll horror novels, but it felt overlong and I didn’t care about the Christian/Antichristian elements, the ‘safe’ rocker lead characters or the other commentary here on issues like abortion. Meanders too much and thus dilutes all the good stuff. Doesn’t hold a candle to their other books like THE BRIDGE or THE LIGHT AT THE END.
• 
  Mika Lietzén

  All the 80s kids are going crazy about rock music and the band of the moment is The Scream, an enigmatic and openly diabolical outfit that nobody really knows nothing about. Their debut album soon becomes a soundtrack to murder and mayhem as the band's hardcore fans, the Screamers, sort of zombies with their eyes gouged out, begin their slaughter-spree and suburban homes and concert venues become killing grounds. EEYAAOW! as them kids say.
  
  Splatterpunk, which is basically a synonym for excess, was all the rage in the 80s and Skipp and Spector were the horror subgenre's best examples. The Scream has a good base to it - rock music is the Devil's music, after all - but as Manowar sang it, "all men play on ten", and so do Skipp and Spector. Sometimes the results are admittedly nice, but often they feel cartoonish, because everything that can go over the limit inevitably does. Especially problematic is the finale at a stadium concert, with one fictional band led by Jacob Hamer going after the by-gum-they-are-truly-evil The Scream with guns and grenades and what not. Seeing as the final concert takes place after The Scream's previous concert caused a massacre makes one wonder about the competence of the municipal authorities as well.
  
  The subplot about the Christian right's crusade against rock music is a sign of the times, as are the references to Vietnam. Everyone and their uncle seems to be a veteran, probably because First Blood part 2 came out in 1985 and they all suddenly remembered. Getting the music right is the hardest part of any book dealing with music and while The Scream doesn't fumble too badly it hasn't aged too well either, mainly because the music that came after makes these fictional mid-80s bands pale in comparison. Sure, some of The Scream's lyrics are clearly evil invocations (the Screamers would probably have their minds blown by Morbid Angel, whose debut LP came in 1989), but mostly the lyrics spell generic mid-80s hard rock.
  
  The Scream would be a quick fun read if not for its slightly bloated length, with too many secondary (or tertiary) characters one barely even remembers by name. There's simply too much filler here for an effective impact, and the impact is all one cares about in splatterpunk.
• 
  Todd Charlton

  Rock'n'roll and its bastard child Heavy Metal were more conversational in the 1980's than at any other time thanks to organisations like Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center and countless TV evangelists. John Skipp and Craig Spector made this fact the foundation of their third novel The Scream. The Scream is a Heavy Metal band led by an impossibly beautiful woman; the ultimate femme fatal. Jake Hamer is a rocker as well, but his group is less extreme. He publicly takes on the wowzers, led by Rev Dan Furniss, with an event called Rock Aid; like Live Aid but aimed at saving rock'n'roll instead of staving children.
  It turns out The Scream is on the bill and sixty something people are murdered at the event. There's something very wrong with The Scream and their fans.
  Heavy Metal is almost always associated with the devil and evil and Skipp and Spector make this a reality with The Scream. Jake is a campaigner for reason but when things get demonically real he is forced to fight the monster with the indirect help of Walker, The Scream's manager who has a crisis of conscience.
  Were the wowzers right all along?
  I wanted to like this novel more than I did. The Scream is written in the authors' folksy; let me tell you a story, informal way, which is good. But it goes on a bit long. And given what happens later perhaps the title of the book should have been Napalm Death; but of course we already have one of those.
  Add the occasional Vietnam flashback to the marching mothers and we are slap bang in the middle of the topical eighties. Perhaps The Scream hasn't aged as well as the classic The Light at the End?
  
• 
  Darren

  TITLE: The Scream
  
  AUTHOR: John Skipp and Craig Spector
  
  GENRE: Horror
  
  PAGES: 432
  
  We have all heard the phrase "Sex, Drugs, and Rock n Roll". Well, if you go to the flipside of that coin you will see "Blood, Gore, and Goo!" Lucky for us, John Skipp and Craig Spector own that coin, and they have flipped it over and over and over again in their novel The Scream.
  
  The Scream is a heavy metal rock and roll band that have legions of fans. Their fans see an awesome heavy metal group that goes beyond the norm and embraces all things dark and Satanic, which is right up their alley. For the rest of the rock community, they realize that something is not quite right with the group, but hey, it is all in the name of Rock and Roll.
  
  Add to this a preacher that wants to ban Rock altogether, an entity called Momma that has an agenda all her own, some Vietnam War vets on both sides of the aisle, a runaway teen that has seen both heaven and hell, and a pregnant band member of the Jake Hamer Group (another Heavy Metal Group that butts heads with The Scream) and you get a story that ratchets up the tension with each and every page, right to a a soul searing showdown in Philadelphia that will leave the reader feeling like a wrung out dishrag at the end.
  
  What really makes this novel shine is the fact that thirty two years after its publication it still stands the test of time. It is as relevant today as when it was written, maybe even more so considering all that the world is going through.
  
  6 Bookmarks out of 5! (Yes, I realize I said 6, but this book is worth the extra bump. It is THAT good!)
• 
  Robert Burnett

  The defining 1980s splatterpunk novel and the pinnacle of Skipp and Spector's collaboration. What I'd give for a copy of The Scream's "
  Critical Mass" CD! One of the most entertaining horror novels ever written.
• 
  James Ranger

  As always, Skipp and Spector NEVER fail. This book is so well written I am certain other writers of their generation hate them for being so good. And I don't blame them! The authors know how to deep dive into emotions and characterization. The people in the book were my family by the end. I read this every few years. Awesome book
• 
  Nikolas Robinson

  Skipp and Spector captured the zeitgeist of the late 1980s in an unflinchingly visceral and gritty tale of worlds colliding in a catastrophic and terrifying nightmare brought to life. Heavy metal, Christian fundamentalism, and the horrors of a war most people wanted to forget--though it was less than two decades in the rearview--combine to create a tense and dizzying descent into the depths of Hell. But Hell isn't content to remain in the depths.
  The Scream is the fictional band the Christian right believed all heavy metal acts to be, sinister occultists using the devotion of their fans to bring Hell on Earth. Fronted by the beautiful and mysterious Tara, the band pushes the limits of technology, performance art, and irreligious symbolism. But there's more going on than performative evil, and it all has something to do with a presence at work during the Vietnam war.
  Jake Hamer, Vietnam veteran and frontman of the Jacob Hamer Band, is no stranger to pushing limits and pushing buttons. He's developed an extreme dislike for the brand of Christian fundamentalism promoted by the likes of Pastor Daniel Furniss, and that sentiment goes both ways. As conservative voices in the political world seek to stifle and curtail the free expression of artists like Jake Hamer, these two men find themselves on opposite sides of a battle neither of them knows is coming, with stakes that they couldn't imagine.
  Skipp and Spector's novel hits the ground running with a barrage of violence and insanity that sets the stage for the nightmares still to come. Packed with as much social commentary as violence, the authors force readers to confront some unpleasant truths, the most striking of those being the light shone on the performative nature of evangelical Christianity being not so different from the performative Satanism of heavy metal artists of the time.
• 
  Ryan Sasek

  Just finished this one by Skipp and Spector and damn I loved it. Horror, heavy metal, evil spawn, and death. The ultimate struggle of good versus evil. This book was batshit crazy and I loved every second. As a huge metalhead and fan of all things horror this book had everything I dig in one story.
• 
  Cassandra Glissadevil

  4.7 stars!
  The Scream popped my Splatterpunk cherry. What a long crazy ride. Demonic metal music massacre.
  Puns, lyrics, poetry, insane terror!
  Compulsory addition to any splatterpunk and horror collection.
• 
  Olof

  Better than I remembered. Remember it to be more gruesome than it was (read it late 80s). Loved the premise. Not the best realization of it though. Really like the writing style. And the narrator was really great.
  
• 
  Michael Louis Dixon

  For the most part, I found this a rather entertaining horror novel. The end though was spectacular!
• 
  Carson Moore

  wild and mysoginistic but bloody and relatively well-written compared to books like The Sharing.
• 
  Frances

  "Welcome to the food chain!"
  
  A classic of epic horror, evil vs badass rock'n'roll, and cults of zombie teenagers.
• 
  Todd Charlton

  Rock'n'roll and its bastard child Heavy Metal were more conversational in the 1980's than at any other time thanks to organisations like Tipper Gore's Parents Music Resource Center and countless TV evangelists. John Skipp and Craig Spector made this fact the foundation of their third novel The Scream. The Scream is a Heavy Metal band led by an impossibly beautiful woman; the ultimate femme fatal. Jake Hamer is a rocker as well, but his group is less extreme. He publicly takes on the wowzers, led by Rev Dan Furniss, with an event called Rock Aid; like Live Aid but aimed at saving rock'n'roll instead of staving children.
  It turns out The Scream is on the bill and sixty something people are murdered at the event. There's something very wrong with The Scream and their fans.
  Heavy Metal is almost always associated with the devil and evil and Skipp and Spector make this a reality with The Scream. Jake is a campaigner for reason but when things get demonically real he is forced to fight the monster with the indirect help of Walker, The Scream's manager who has a crisis of conscience.
  Were the wowzers right all along?
  I wanted to like this novel more than I did. The Scream is written in the authors' folksy; let me tell you a story, informal way, which is good. But it goes on a bit long. And given what happens later perhaps the title of the book should have been Napalm Death; but of course we already have one of those.
  Add the occasional Vietnam flashback to the marching mothers and we are slap bang in the middle of the topical eighties. Perhaps The Scream hasn't aged as well as the classic The Light at the End?
• 
  Ed [Redacted]

  After reading THE CLEANUP by Skipp and Spector, I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, I was treated to a big pile of "rock and roll" fetishism and the type of stereotypical Vietnam veteran characters so common in the 80's. despite all of this, S&S are clearly talented writers. The writing is crisp as ever and several scenes in the book are quite effective. Unfortunately the whole plot left me cold, and the deeper themes I enjoyed so much in THE CLEANUP were missing. I had already ordered a copy of THE LIGHT AT THE END prior to starting this one. I hope it is more like THE CLEANUP than THE SCREAM.
• 
  Steven Shroyer

  A dark journey through the excessive 1980's Heavy Metal scene. Skipp and Spector craft a brilliant tale set around a rock band whose goal is nothing less than the end of the world. Throw in jabs at the evangelical right wing and top it off with over the top gore and you have book that will keep you up until the wee hours of the morning. Do yourself a favor, skip the eventual DVD release of the rock musical "Rock of Ages" with Tom Cruise and get this e-book. It is a work truly rooted in the 1980's and is probably the best 4 buck I ever spent!
• 
  DJMikeG

  A great, big, wild rock and roll horror novel by the masters of 'splatterpunk', Skipp and Spector. It isn't a perfect novel, but it is such a daring book that asks big questions in such a fearless style that you can't help but love it. Highly recommended.
• 
  Sherrie Gingery

  It's hard to impress me with a horror book because I not only do I require good writing, I want to feel creeped out. This is a fast moving story and there are quite a few characters to follow. It's scary!
• 
  Ken

  Hahahah! I read this Rock n Roll horror novel when I was 17 and just picked it up again out of nostalgia. It's not very well written, but it's entertaining in the way trashy reading can sometimes be.