I don't know why, but I've never heard anything about Waking the Cadaver's douchebaggery, can you expand on that?

Also any info on Labonte's douchebaggery would be appreciated as well, he kind of did come off as a jerk in an interview I read with him.

I hung out with all the current members of Arsis (with the exception of James Malorne), and their live guitarist/vocalist. Took 'em out for beers and everything. Drank half a 40 of rye in the back alley with Sean Priest after we loaded up their van with shit. *laughs* Really cool guys. Noah came off as kind of being a bit arrogant, but otherwise, he's a pretty nice dude. The only thing better than meeting some of your favourite musicians is meeting them, hanging out with them by their table the whole night, and then taking them out for beers. Coincidentally, on that same night, we met the guy who invented the double stroke on drums. Tim Waterson or something. Anyway, it was cool as shit. I've also met, and drank with, all the members of Striker. Also met Ola Lindgren of Grave. I just shook his hand and complimented him on an awesome gig, but still. Hung out with all the members of Jungle Rot, too. Seriously nice dudes, talked about what it was like to be a touring death metal band for two years and knocked back a few beers. Met everyone from Nightrage on the same night as Arsis, too. Funny guys.

I think that's about it. I'll never forget that night with Arsis though, it was a fucking blast.

WtC guys: Campan is a raging homophobe who loves to try and start fights over petty slights, the rest aren't much better. I've heard plenty of stories over the years about their doing things like jumping people in parking lots, damaging the gear of other bands, assaulting people out of the blue for past disputes... there's a lot of stuff about them.
Phil: Seems nice at first until you do something he doesn't like, in which case he starts acting like a rockstar with all the requisite "don't you know who the fuck I am?" posturing. That's him at his NICEST. If he doesn't feel like being nice, he'll cut straight to being a rockstar asshole without any pleasantries and will go out of his way to be as rude and confrontational as possible. He's also an extremely preachy and rage-inducingly judgmental libertarian who will give you hell if you so much as dare to not agree with him, and he is an avid Alex Jones fan. From what several Mass-area musicians have told me, he and Brian Fair are on a "shoot first, ask later" basis, with those words being true in a literal sense with Phil, as he has threatened to shoot Fair and Donais on multiple occasions; also, he's been 86'd from a good five or six Chicopee-area venues, and ATR is actually banned from almost all of the venues near his hometown thanks to his atrocious behavior. Jesus, I probably have heard enough shit about the dude to compile it into a book. He's an awful, awful person whose grave I will relish the chance to piss on when the day does come.

Dude that's terrible. I have friends who have met Brian Fair and Jon Donais and have said they are both really nice, friendly guys. It's really a shame that All That Remains ended up being more successful than Shadows Fall. As for the description of him being a 'extremely preachy and rage-inducingly judgmental libertarian', I can definitely see that judging from an interview I read with him in Metal Hammer.

Phil did an IAMA on Reddit not too long ago. I've never used Reddit but I did just to antagonize him that day. I basically just asked him if he thought it'd be too daring to write a new album instead of just doing This Darkened Heart for a fifth time and asked if he'd like to comment on how egregiously they rip off Strung Out. He just said he'd never heard of Strung Out and that I was probably the only person on earth who thinks they haven't changed their sound. That's not the interesting part, I was being childish and could have just left it alone and his response wasn't even that assholish or offensive or anything, but the part that really interested me was how he pretty much just gave dismissive one word answers to all of his fans. He just came off as entirely uninterested and couldn't be less appreciative of his fame and popularity. The only time he elaborated on anything was when it had to do with his guns, which he looooooved talking about how important it is to own all of his guns and how much they mean to him. Best of all his opening line was "My name is Phil and I sing for a band called All That Remains. I'm libertarian and sarcastic as hell". I'm of the impression that whenever somebody self describes as "sarcastic" they really mean "a rude and confrontational asshole", and he did nothing to dispel that impression.

Also, Frank Booth, about half of your posts are in this thread. Do you go around collecting all of these anecdotes for any reason other than personal pleasure? Or do you make it a note to hang out with every band you ever see? Just curious because I feel like it's you who keeps this thread alive.

Mixture of hanging out with lots of bands (and being on a first-name basis with several) and collecting lots of "friend of a friend" anecdotes from buddies of mine about people they either know or have heard of. There are a couple people who I think might be pulling my leg about some things, but they've told me enough accurate things in the past that I believe them. There are also the mundane things, too, like a teacher from my old high school telling me that he was pretty sure that Bob Vigna was manning the DJ booth at a wedding he was at in Yonkers, which I believe because I've heard other things about Bob running a wedding business. I mean, he could've been wrong, but the dude did apparently look exactly like Bob.

As for Phil, once again, the dude lives like forty minutes from my house and co-owns a gun store in that area, and between my interactions with him the one time that I went in there and the many, many, MANY tales of his douchebaggery that I've heard over the years from people who have known him, I think it's pretty clear that he's a bad person. When everyone says you're a fucking asshole, you probably are one. Also, I'm not mentioning who told me about his death threats towards Fair and Donais because that person doesn't want to risk getting on Phil's bad side; while he is apparently an "all bark, no bite" type, no one wants to risk being the one exception to that.

The singer of The Devil's Blood was a huge bitch to me. Refused to autograph my stuff. In fact most of The Devil's Blood are quite... off.

Other than that... nobody I can recall. And I have met sooooo many bands. Some of my favorite experiences have been:

Caligula, ex-singer of Dark Funeral: Just stood and talked with us (me and a couple friends) for forever and told us some pretty awesome tour stories.

Nergal, Behemoth - Not really into the music anymore, but after one show, he randomly decided to invite a few of us who were still standing around onto the tour and handed us each a beer as we got on.

Singer of Machine Head - Now I have NEVER liked their music but after Arch Enemy completed their set, I decided to stick around on the front rail to watch a few songs before I headed. And for some reason he took quite the liking to me, and handed only ME a few shots through their set and made some comments regarding how I was a true supporter because I stuck around through all the bands (he was apparently watching me :\...). I ended up talking to him a bit after the show, and he was just a really nice guy.

Immolation - Have met the guys a number of times and they are just so fucking chilled and laid back. Very awesome guys. And I want Dolan's hair.

Troy Sanders of Mastodon - Had a REALLY weird experience with him. Was waiting to get him to sign my stuff after a show but he had been walking around for FOREVER talking on the phone with someone. So as me and my friend are about to leave, we walk by him and he wasn't on his phone anymore. So I walk up to him and tell him I enjoyed the show and shook his hand. His grasped my hand with both of his hands and said "Thank you so much" as he continued to shake my hand... and wouldn't stop. So I'm like "Umm, hey, so can I get you to sign this and get a picture with you". He obliges and when we get to the picture, he wraps his arm around me and starts rubbing my back. Then he goes "Here I want to put my face like this" and squishes the front of his face against the side of my face... and that is how the picture was taken. He was fucked up on.... something. And yes, I still have the picture as proof.

Cato - The drummer of Enslaved. He is fucking awesome for a number of reasons.

Mkm, vocalist in Aosoth and Antaeus - I know him a bit personally, a really cool dude.

Trail of Tears & Unexpect - Hung out with them all night on their tour bus once and drove some of them around in my car for at 5 am looking for food. I think we ended up getting What-a-burger for everyone.

Augury, Swashbuckle, Blackguard, Death Angel - I BBQ'ed for these guys when they came through on tour. They were super appreciate and I got tons of free shit.

Belphegor, Neuraxis, Gigan - Same as above but they paid me for services and still gave me a bunch of free shit.

That is all I have at the moment.

Oh, I can't forget Inquisition. Let's just say those guys didn't forget me, lol.

Holy shit, I forgot Swallow the Sun too. The best fucking group of drunks you could ever hope to meet. One of times I met them, Pasi (ex-drummer) signed my stuff and that shit REALLY escalated. My friend and several other members of the band wound up having his signature written all over them.

I am beginning to think of more great situations I have been in with bands, but I'll end it there as to not carry on too much.

"I usually try to avoid people in bands I like because it's hard to like assholes afterwards. A more recent interaction was Vasaeleth, who possibly believe they are the hardest most metal motherfuckers on planet earth, god's gift to death metal, utterly fucking sucked live and got pissed off because no one was moshing, cannot listen to CD anymore."

I have met them at all three performances they have done so far in their career and have been really nice dudes to me. And I fucking loved them live all three times.

"Jeff Tandy, smart funny guy, was thrilled to meet me"

Haha, I know him. I am beginning to think we might know each other.


"Anatomia - friends for life"

Yup, I know these dudes and beginning to REALLY think I know you now.

I think I once got lightly headbutted by the singer of Deathhammer before their set at Live Evil, not sure what brought that on but there it is.

I've never met anyone from Vattnet Viskar personally, but Nick from VV e-mailed me to personally thank me for a review I wrote for their new album. Really nice of him to do, and completely unexpected.

I asked Dave Mustaine for a blowjob and he told me to fuck off.

What a douche.

Pretty strange haha. Post the picture up if you can.

I met Barney from Napalm Death for the second time last Tuesday and he was great to talk with as usual. Very humble, down to earth, and fun.

The guys in Abnormality are all super chill, but especially Jay, Josh, and Mallika. To restate what I said in a previous thread about them, Jay and I spent a good 20 minutes outside Dusk in Providence when Abnormality and Sorrowseed played together talking about drums, Josh and I have a mutual love for King Diamond, and Mallika seemed kinda flustered when I told her I'd be listening to them since I was 14. Mallika was also apparently at the last show at Dusk that I had played with Sorrowseed before the Halloween one in the middle of September, which I was completely unaware of before she told me. Plus that show they did a damn fine cover of The Philosopher that got me right out of a funk I was in when I realized I'd left my drum chair in Massachusetts 3 days prior.

About June of last year my family and I traveled down to Florida for a baseball road trip. I was really excited because of the metal history down there so we went to Erik Rutan's Mana Studio and he was really cool with us just showing up.

I told him why we were in Florida and he gave me a mini tour of the studio and I met the guys from Goatwhore as they were about to record bass tracks for their last album.

All around everyone I met was really nice and pleasant.

Alex Blume from Ares Kingdom is a very nice guy, and the rest of the guys in the band seem cool too. Talked to Alex at Cianide | Gates of Slumber | Ares Kingdom | Superchrist show in Chicago this past weekend. He listened to me ramble on and on about having seen Nepenthe play their only live show ever at Howard's (with Scythe and Order From Chaos) in Wichita, KS and how it scared the crap out of me as a 16 year old still brainwashed by the catholic church.

There's entirely not enough meeting of douchebags in this thread.

My friend met Brent Hinds, not sure which member but I do believe is the one with the tattoos over his face. He was so excited he complimented his beard (That's my friend for you, a big fan of the beards too lol)

To some of you who meet loads of bands and say that they are "super nice". Are you a male or female? The reason why I ask. Is because someone I know brags about meeting loads of bands, and hanging out with them after shows. I believe that most of these bands act so nice on tour is because they either want to hook up with someone. Or are trying to get something from someone (drugs,booze,food,etc.) I'm not trying to make an argument. Or trying to say that most of them are users. I'm just curious.

I'm a dude, and none of them are trying to get anything off me.

Do you have any tangible experience of what being in a touring band is actually like? I think you might find the reality to be slightly different than what you're portraying here.

This. Unless you're a very high-profile act (and this is not a given even then), you'll be cramped together in a van for at least four or five hours a day, eating nothing but Taco Bell, Mickey Dee's, Subway, and KFC for food, getting absolutely no sleep, and having to worry about whether you'll get to the venue or not, how likely that night's show is to make the guarantee and whether you'll break even or not, how safe the area is in light of all the bands getting their shit stolen recently, and what that noise from the van was, because last thing you need is for your van to shit the bed. Let's put it this way: for the vast majority of bands, everything about touring save for the actual show fucking sucks.

I recently had the chance to meet Proscriptor from Absu and Beelzebubth from Mystifier, and Rick Rozz and Terry Butler the next day. All of them very very, friendly, down-to-Earth, good persons. Especially Rick Rozz, what a frieldy guy. He wouldnt mind to share a few anecdotes about the early days of Mantas/Death...

While they were on tour, they had a cancelled date the night before Montreal, so they stopped by my place. I was booking their Montreal show, so naturally I offered my appartment to crash and avoid having them sleep in a motel. we drank beer and smoked weed all night. These guys are really cool and funny. Their show was also incredible.

Vattnet Viskar = the shit

So weird, I was just thinking of that band and some of the negative stuff I've heard right before reading your post. It really sucks considering I really like what they do.



I have a friend who smoked crack with one of the guys in Mastodon (most probably Troy Sanders), so this is honestly not at all surprising.

What was Beelzebubth like? I'd love to see Mystifier someday. I always pictured him as being a bit weird though for some reason...maybe mystifier's lyrics, which I believe he writes...there's nothing quite like them in all of metal.

Well, he's very friendly, actually and has his own views about a lot of topics, especially on how overrated Norwegian BM is, he's quite a heavy drinker; he went to share some drinks with us at the nearest bar from the venue after the amazing concert they played here in Medellin (Mystifier and Absu with Colombian DM legends Masacre) and he kept drinking and looked pretty sober while we were... well, pissed drunk. And since such a big guy (6'2") and looks like a weigth-lifter, we had some sort of 'contests' with him.

i met Dave Davidson from Revocation at their merch table at the "metal" fest in cali (just look who was head-lining the fest, you'll see why i put it in quotes). Anyways, he was pretty cool, especially considering that i didnt recognize who was at first due to his sunglasses and i didnt expect to see him at the table.

I met the members of moonspell some years ago. Fernando Ribeiro - the vox - is a bit of an arse. The fact that the majority of the metal community in Portugal isn't very fond of them - him especially - the guy is, imo, a bit disrespectful of those that do not have a positive opinion about him.
I have talked to him some times and yeah, he's a bit blargh...

I've talked with Ken Sorceron on Facebook before. He's a nice guy, although he REALLY doesn't like Samus Paulicelli. My friend Josh met him in person on one of the shows Abigail Williams did with Rotting Christ up around here, and he said that Ken was nice if really, really tired and looked like he wanted to be anywhere but the show.

A lot of people don't like that kid. I've been told that he's gotten better over the years, but he had a reputation for being a douchebag back around that time.

Ken said that Samus thought that his shit didn't stink just because he could play really fast. I wouldn't put it past someone who can play as fast as he does to think he's high shit, as I've known a few guys like that in the past.

I've heard that he was just rude, arrogant, and manipulative, as he apparently always had to have his way and would lie and connive left and right to get it. Standard "young gun who let all the praise go to their head" behavior, really, just a bit more extreme than most cases.

He was fast, but I actually really hated his drumming.

I liked his parts on the few Abigail Williams songs he played on their first album. Can't really say anything about his time in Decrepit Birth as he's yet to do any records with them, but I will say that I really am not that big on their sound.

Met Blaze Bayley the other week - absolutely awesome. I didn't meet Dianno who he was playing with, the poor guy has a pretty bad knee at the moment, but speaking to the support bands he was apparently really cool to everyone, and when I met him a few years ago he was pretty damn nice, he seems swell. Keeping in the Maiden camp, Paul Day who also sung for Wildfire and More I've seen a couple of times and spoken to online, and he is absolutely nice, too.

Di'Anno's really come off as a bitter, jealous has been who just can't get over that Maiden became who they are today after they fired him. His public demeanor as of late has only enforced that assertion.

Completely agree with Subrick. Actually, I see Di'Anno and Bayley as two sides of the same coin; one is a washed up asshole who speaks shit of his former band at any chance he gets, and keeps on riding on said band's fame, while the other is happy working with his own music, plus playing the occasional Maiden tune to please the crowd. I'd also like to point out how Paul nowadays couldn't carry a tune if his life depended on it, while Blaze sounds almost exactly like he did during the 90's.