Trevor Strnad chooses his favourites.
The first record I bought was…
MEGADETH, COUNTDOWN TO EXTINCTION [CAPITOL, 1992]
“I actually had a couple of albums before that, Pearl Jam and some other shit that was semi-rocking. But this was my first metal record. It blew my head off, to say the least.”
The album with the best artwork is…
DISMEMBER, LIKE AN EVER FLOWING STREAM [NUCLEAR BLAST, 1991]
“It looks pretty mystical. I’m all about the death metal covers that have some kind of fantastic place on it: the fantasy place of evil, the forbidden zone, the treacherous realm. I keep doing that with TBDM.”
The album I wish I’d made is…
SUFFOCATION, PIERCED FROM WITHIN [ROADRUNNER, 1995]
“My all-time favourite death metal record. It’s so twisted and convoluted and alien-sounding. It’s like an endless labyrinth of awesome riffs. It’s aged really well. It still sounds modern. It laid the groundwork for most of brutal death metal to come afterwards.”
A kid asks me what metal is, I hand them a copy of…
IRON MAIDEN, POWERSLAVE [EMI, 1984]
“It would be good for somebody who’s not prepared for the most brutal shit out there. It would get the adrenaline pumping and is melodic. It was my first [Maiden record] and it worked for me. It’s got some of the singles that they still play, but it has a lot of cool deep cuts: Back In The Village and The Duellists. There’s a few swordplay songs on that one, which is pretty metal stuff.”
The album that makes me want to fight is…
RAZOR, VIOLENT RESTITUTION [SPV, 1988]
“It’s a brazen thrash record, and their lyrics are kind of corny – people are being double-crossed and there’s lots of hand-to-hand combat. The guitar sound on it was ahead of its time. Don’t worry about the corny-assed cover art with the chainsaw – it looks like it was drawn on somebody’s folder in high school – because it’s seriously good.”
The album I’d want played at my funeral is…
SLAYER, SOUTH OF HEAVEN [DEF JAM, 1988]
“It’s a good record to party to. That’s the vibe I want to go out with: a headbanging funeral!”
No one will believe I own a copy of…
HARRY CONNICK, JR., WE ARE IN LOVE [SONY/COLUMBIA, 1990]
“This is probably the most shameful record a metalhead could own. It’s from my dad. It’s a wannabe Sinatra kind of thing, so definitely the uncoolest thing possible.”
The album that broke my heart is…
MEGADETH, YOUTHANASIA [CAPITOL, 1994]
“I was so obsessed with Megadeth that I used to draw pictures of their faces. I had a Megadeth shirt for every day of the week. So when I got Youthanasia, I cried. My world crumbled. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know who I was – I wasn’t Megadeth Man anymore, I was at a total loss. I like some of the stuff now, but they softened up a lot with that record.”
The album that reminds me of school is…
CANNIBAL CORPSE, THE BLEEDING [METAL BLADE, 1994]
“Butchered At Birth was my first exposure to gore, and I loved it and hated it. It scared the shit out of me. Like a car crash, you can’t turn away from the horror. The contraband kind of quality (if my parents only knew what it was about…) made it all the more attractive. And The Bleeding in particular; the songs really feel like they were written by a serial killer. The way they were so blunt really had an impact on me, and what I’d write eventually for TBDM.”
The first album I had sex to was…
THE RAMONES, ROCKET TO RUSSIA [SIRE, 1977]
“It was over fast! A good two minutes, just like a Ramones song.”
The Black Dahlia Murder’s latest album, Abysmal, is out now via Metal Blade. They’ll tour the UK in January
