Nuclear Blast America

[#295]

[Note: Is that a man or a woman?]

[Note: Check out the shirt 'At least I'm not Christian'! Haha... No, you're just a 'discouraged soul'!]

[Note: Here is Mortal Wish from Brazil, with another band I'm not familiar with. Down in South America some people hate Christians as much as they do anywhere. And for great reasons.
Christianity decimated their ancient people more than any viruses carried by the Spaniards.
Anyway, as you can see, this cassette cover/inlay (this is an uncut sheet) folds out into an inverted cross. Heil Quetzalcoatl!]

[Note: I don't recall ever hearing this band, but our culture does have a proverbial gun in its mouth, that's for sure.
Imagine if our culture was a person. He/She would be one sick, disturbed bastard.
Not to mention the fact that he/she would already be dying of a horrible cancer.]

[Note: Here's a band that started off strong and... well, you know the all too familiar story.]

[Note: Two past-great label/distros. I used to order from Full Moon years ago and never had a single problem. Unlike a lot of other distros, they usually always had what was listed for sale in stock. I'm not sure what Dark Age is doing these days?]

[Note: Well, this Canadian band gets points just for the great name.
From what I remember this was a cool release. Haven't heard anything else in years though.]

[Note: This is the first and only time I have seen a metal band use this form of death imagery. Dead cattle. Very strange.]

[Above: Show flyer]

[Note: I've never heard this band (meaning 'heathen blood'), but the rat imagery on the flyer is awesome. Like a hand made of dead rats reaching out.]

*UPDATE: I found out what this odd picture is of! It is a phenomenon called a 'rat king'. It is a rare happening when black rats, or even sometimes mice and squirrels, get their tails stuck together and knotted. No one knows exactly how this occurs, some think it may be due to their tails freezing together, since most of them have been found in cold conditions, but that doesn't explain one found in Indonesia (Java). The number of rats involved in this 'Gordian Knot' range from just a few to up to 32!

[Below: Strasbourg rat king]

The earliest report of a rat king comes from 1564. Specimens of rat kings are in a handful of museums around the world. The most recent confirmed example was found in Estonia by a farmer (2005).

[Below: This 2018 photo of a 'squirrel king' was taken by the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at Wisconsin Humane Society. It was successfully separated and the animals released.]