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The Inverted Katabasis #1
Death Metal Epic
David Fosberg plays guitar in Valhalla. But don’t worry: this is no jukebox hero saga of his rise to fame and fortune.
Valhalla’s a death metal band. From Florida.
And the rest of the guys just quit. There’s not a lot of money in metal hymns to the Elder Gods.
If David can record another album, Plutonic Records will send him on a two week tour to promote it.
A Eurotour.
Where people like metal.
Valhalla’s a death metal band. From Florida.
And the rest of the guys just quit. There’s not a lot of money in metal hymns to the Elder Gods.
If David can record another album, Plutonic Records will send him on a two week tour to promote it.
A Eurotour.
Where people like metal.
160 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2013
2 people are currently reading
362 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 24, 2017
This book needed to happen. Punk rock, skinheads, straight edge and various other youth subculutres all have coming of age novels or movies some good and most bad. I know I am known for writing punk rock books, and I grew up on punk rock but I am just much if not more of a Death metal dude at heart. I don't want to be the white guy explaining his hip-hop credentials but I rock Morbid Angel,Carcass, Suffocation and Misry Index far more than I do Black Flag. Some people live and breath death metal like my homeboy Steve Crow who plays guitar in our San Diego locals Condemned. That dude sweats brutal riffs out of his pores. Infact their latest record is the soundtrack for writing this review.
Condemned His Divine Shadow...
Brutal.
I Digress but I think Swinford probably doesn't mind. Death Metal was desperately in need of a coming age story, and believe me this not the easiest task for an author. You can't really playing super seriously, because lets face it Death metal as genre is pretty funny. I have a story about a death metal band in my collection Amazing Punk Stories and I played it for laughs. At the same time if you are devoting an entire book to it you don't want to go full Spinal Tap because you want to give respect to the genre you love enough to write about. That balance is the spine of this short but fun book.
This novel is the story of Azreal AKA David Fosberg, a Florida teenager who is far too brutal even for Florida. He is trying very hard to put together a death metal band Valhalla. He keeps trying and burns through members including tolkein worshiping wizard who doesn't want drums. Things click when they start to get positive reviews for their demo Zombichrist.
Brutal.
So what is next but a euro-tour, which makes sense because that is the way it is for American bands. Can't draw twenty dudes in their hometown but rock euro-tours and 50,000 raging fans in Indonesian. The struggle is real, and if you have a back on your jean jacket filled with unreadable logos that look like the root system of tree knocked over by a storm then you find this book brutal in all the right ways.
I gave this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads because it is not for everyone. Swinford knows his audience - if you grew up on this style of music the book will be better. You will get the humor, you will get the jokes about logos etc. If you don't like Death metal this book is probably a one star book. I hate to say because I like it personally.
Did I love it? Was I dying to read the second book already on my shelf. I liked, not loved the book. It is already there and I think Swinford will likely have grown as a writer in between books So I am interested in that aspect. The story was a little too straight forward to me. I was hoping for more of a surreal brutal death metal fantasy, in that regard perhaps book one is origin story and that is coming.
For those of you who love Death metal I think you should buy these books, support Death metal fiction and put this up on your shelf. I think you'll laugh and that is worth it.
Condemned His Divine Shadow...
Brutal.
I Digress but I think Swinford probably doesn't mind. Death Metal was desperately in need of a coming age story, and believe me this not the easiest task for an author. You can't really playing super seriously, because lets face it Death metal as genre is pretty funny. I have a story about a death metal band in my collection Amazing Punk Stories and I played it for laughs. At the same time if you are devoting an entire book to it you don't want to go full Spinal Tap because you want to give respect to the genre you love enough to write about. That balance is the spine of this short but fun book.
This novel is the story of Azreal AKA David Fosberg, a Florida teenager who is far too brutal even for Florida. He is trying very hard to put together a death metal band Valhalla. He keeps trying and burns through members including tolkein worshiping wizard who doesn't want drums. Things click when they start to get positive reviews for their demo Zombichrist.
Brutal.
So what is next but a euro-tour, which makes sense because that is the way it is for American bands. Can't draw twenty dudes in their hometown but rock euro-tours and 50,000 raging fans in Indonesian. The struggle is real, and if you have a back on your jean jacket filled with unreadable logos that look like the root system of tree knocked over by a storm then you find this book brutal in all the right ways.
I gave this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads because it is not for everyone. Swinford knows his audience - if you grew up on this style of music the book will be better. You will get the humor, you will get the jokes about logos etc. If you don't like Death metal this book is probably a one star book. I hate to say because I like it personally.
Did I love it? Was I dying to read the second book already on my shelf. I liked, not loved the book. It is already there and I think Swinford will likely have grown as a writer in between books So I am interested in that aspect. The story was a little too straight forward to me. I was hoping for more of a surreal brutal death metal fantasy, in that regard perhaps book one is origin story and that is coming.
For those of you who love Death metal I think you should buy these books, support Death metal fiction and put this up on your shelf. I think you'll laugh and that is worth it.
May 31, 2013
This is a compelling novel, much more nicely-edited than other small-press metal novels I have read. If you are not already interested in death metal, you may not find the book as entertaining as I did, however. It is a book about death metal for metalheads -- who are smarter than you think and whose intelligence and vocabulary will not be insulted by this smart and witty novel. While the novel does not employ metal stereotypes in most respects, the treatment of female characters is somewhat disappointingly usual: Big girls are obnoxious, and skinny girls are pure, untouchable goddesses. Still, I get the feeling the protagonist will change his perspective on this matter in upcoming novels, for this is the first book in a series I look forward to following to its (I hope triumphant and crashing) conclusion.
November 10, 2015
I really liked all of the connections to the bands and music I grew up with in this one. Many of the opinions and desires related to music herein are ones I identify with on a daily basis. The story was good too, and also very relate-able. I am curious what lies next for David, a.k.a. Azreal. I hope that the wait is not long for the 2nd book.
November 4, 2014
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
Dean Swinford's Death Metal Epic, Book 1: The Inverted Katabasis is both exactly what you would expect from a book with this title, and nothing like what you'd expect -- it is in fact a rather sweet coming-of-age tale about a Florida teen in the early '90s enmeshed in the "death metal" culture so prevalent at the time, exploring both the humiliating lows that he goes through in his pursuit of being a "dark one" and a heartfelt look at why he feels it's so important anyway. And that's really the key to this book working as well as it does, because it neither takes itself too seriously nor is it a "Spinal Tap" deliberate comedy about losers; it is instead merely a clear-eyed look at the trials and triumphs (okay, mostly trials) of our put-upon, mall-working hero "Azrael," as his band Valhalla first breaks up, then reforms under the influence of a Tolkien-worshipping hippie who "doesn't believe in percussion," and then is finally sent by his exasperated record label on an ill-funded and non-promoted tour of small college towns in northern Europe, where he eventually falls under the spell of thinly-veiled versions of real-life death-metal veterans Oystein Aarseth (a.k.a. "Euronymous") and Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. "Burzum"), setting things up nicely for the coming part 2 of this legitimate saga. (For more on the '90s death-metal scene in northern Europe, and the violent extremes it eventually devolved into, a necessary primer for enjoying Swinford's work at its fullest, see the still excellent 1998 book Lords of Chaos by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind.)
I mean, obviously "legitimate saga" is being used here in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way, with the majority of this book's fast-moving plot being about the small indignities Valhalla (now known as Katabasis) must endure on a daily basis while pursuing their dreams (their drunken adventures with a group of Norwegian undergraduates on holiday break is a great example, and one of the highlights of the book); but ultimately Death Metal Epic fits squarely in the tradition of such now classics as Joe Meno's Hairstyles of the Damned or Abram Shalom Himelstein's Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing, a plain-spoken and moving ode to outsider art and its transformative effect on bored teens across the planet, no matter what age or what scene you're talking about. A brisk read that is always entertaining, and brutally honest about its subject's shortcomings where other books wouldn't be, volume 1 of Death Metal Epic comes strongly recommended whether or not you're a metal fan yourself, and I'm now highly looking forward to volume 2.
Out of 10: 9.1
Dean Swinford's Death Metal Epic, Book 1: The Inverted Katabasis is both exactly what you would expect from a book with this title, and nothing like what you'd expect -- it is in fact a rather sweet coming-of-age tale about a Florida teen in the early '90s enmeshed in the "death metal" culture so prevalent at the time, exploring both the humiliating lows that he goes through in his pursuit of being a "dark one" and a heartfelt look at why he feels it's so important anyway. And that's really the key to this book working as well as it does, because it neither takes itself too seriously nor is it a "Spinal Tap" deliberate comedy about losers; it is instead merely a clear-eyed look at the trials and triumphs (okay, mostly trials) of our put-upon, mall-working hero "Azrael," as his band Valhalla first breaks up, then reforms under the influence of a Tolkien-worshipping hippie who "doesn't believe in percussion," and then is finally sent by his exasperated record label on an ill-funded and non-promoted tour of small college towns in northern Europe, where he eventually falls under the spell of thinly-veiled versions of real-life death-metal veterans Oystein Aarseth (a.k.a. "Euronymous") and Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. "Burzum"), setting things up nicely for the coming part 2 of this legitimate saga. (For more on the '90s death-metal scene in northern Europe, and the violent extremes it eventually devolved into, a necessary primer for enjoying Swinford's work at its fullest, see the still excellent 1998 book Lords of Chaos by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind.)
I mean, obviously "legitimate saga" is being used here in a slightly tongue-in-cheek way, with the majority of this book's fast-moving plot being about the small indignities Valhalla (now known as Katabasis) must endure on a daily basis while pursuing their dreams (their drunken adventures with a group of Norwegian undergraduates on holiday break is a great example, and one of the highlights of the book); but ultimately Death Metal Epic fits squarely in the tradition of such now classics as Joe Meno's Hairstyles of the Damned or Abram Shalom Himelstein's Tales of a Punk Rock Nothing, a plain-spoken and moving ode to outsider art and its transformative effect on bored teens across the planet, no matter what age or what scene you're talking about. A brisk read that is always entertaining, and brutally honest about its subject's shortcomings where other books wouldn't be, volume 1 of Death Metal Epic comes strongly recommended whether or not you're a metal fan yourself, and I'm now highly looking forward to volume 2.
Out of 10: 9.1
May 31, 2017
Excellent book! I'll admit that I first I was expecting something a little more... bizarre (ahem)... because I found out about this through Andersen Prunty. But it's not a Bizarro-type book. Nonetheless, it was a pleasure and I flew through it and I can't wait to see what happens next (as I write this I'm awaiting delivery of the second book, "Goat Song Sacrifice").
It's about a guy in Florida who works in a bookstore and was in a death metal band before the other guys decided to ditch and go to college. The "band" still owes one record on their contract and dude has to figure out what to do now. Before you know it, he's on the other side of the world meeting all sorts of interesting characters and tapping into heretofore unexpected realms of music. I won't say much more, but if you like "slice of life/life as adventure" novels, especially when they deal with music - and particularly black and death metal - you can't go wrong with this. The narration is nicely conversational; you feel like you're hanging out with the guy and he's relating the story.
It's about a guy in Florida who works in a bookstore and was in a death metal band before the other guys decided to ditch and go to college. The "band" still owes one record on their contract and dude has to figure out what to do now. Before you know it, he's on the other side of the world meeting all sorts of interesting characters and tapping into heretofore unexpected realms of music. I won't say much more, but if you like "slice of life/life as adventure" novels, especially when they deal with music - and particularly black and death metal - you can't go wrong with this. The narration is nicely conversational; you feel like you're hanging out with the guy and he's relating the story.
October 22, 2022
This is witty, full of metalhead references and all round a great read. This goes for the entire series.
January 14, 2014
Compelling in it's interpretation of the underground scene as well as it's analysis of how the industry works even amongst those the most dedicated to independent and underground music. Even for those who are unmoved or uninspired by death metal, I think those of us who are either fans of music in general or spent any amount of time with people in bands in the music industry or wanting to be, can relate to the struggles of the main character in this book. Some of the portions of this book remind me of a time spent with other musicians, scenesters and groupies. I think the writing style pulls you in by the hair and gets you attached to these characters as people who are vaguely familiar and somewhat mirror people we've met in our own lives. I look forward to the second book!
June 29, 2013
I was really excited to read this book when it arrived in the mail. Disappointment from the very first page! I really did try to read the entire thing but just couldn't force myself to do it. I guess you really have to love to read a first account of a Death Metal band member and how unmotivated he is to move on in life.
This book was confusing and boring from the very beginning. I shook my head and continued on in the manner of a hardcore book reader but alas I failed. There are very few books that I refuse to finish and this was one of them....life is too short to waste it on a book that does not interest you.
Goodreads Giveaway Book
This book was confusing and boring from the very beginning. I shook my head and continued on in the manner of a hardcore book reader but alas I failed. There are very few books that I refuse to finish and this was one of them....life is too short to waste it on a book that does not interest you.
Goodreads Giveaway Book
June 28, 2013
Fun and compelling read. You don't have to be a metalhead to get it!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews