Since times are tough, this year’s holiday metal gift guide focuses on more affordable items. If one must buy tchotchkes for others this season, one might as well keep the money within the community. You can give your money to some multi-national corporation or a label/band/artist who actually needs it. The choice is yours.
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10.
Gift certificates
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The most practical gift of all. So far I’ve found gift certificates available for Hells Headbangers; Willowtip; The End; All That Is Heavy; Aquarius Records; Crucial Blast; Deathwish, Inc.; and Warlord Clothing.
If you find more gift certificates for metal-related stores, supply links in the comments below, and I’ll add them here.
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9.
Black metal greeting cards
Inside: "Thinking of you"
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These are a little silly, a little profound, and very affordable ($5 each). Housed in black envelopes, they feature black metal photos on the front with pithy greetings inside like “Thinking of you”. Farron Loathing, a formidable artist, designed them. You can buy them (along with other works of his) at his store or this Etsy store. (Thanks to Van D for the tip!)
Mr. Loathing also designed Dreaming Dead’s latest t-shirt, available here.
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8.
Black metal post-it notes
Gaahl
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Tom Neely, the artist of the infamous Henry & Glenn Forever comic, has sketched a series of black metal portraits on post-it notes. They are remarkable for conveying a lot with few strokes. Still available are portraits of Wrest (Leviathan), It (Abruptum), Frost (Satyricon), Ancalagon the Black (Crebain), Nocturnus Horrendus (Corpus Christii), and Alice Cooper. The already-bought ones are well worth a look, too. See the collection here.
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7.
Harvey Milk merch
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Harvey Milk are solid men making difficult music. They deserve support. Until the end of the year, if you pre-order the vinyl of A Small Turn of Human Kindess (which includes a download card), you get 25% off other Harvey Milk merch. I recommend the Harvey Milk coffee mug.
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6.
Ludicra merch
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Ludicra are scrappy men and women making amazing music. They deserve support. In a wide array of fabric formats – patches, shirts, longsleeves, hoodies – they have five lovely designs. See selection here.
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5.
Profound Lore merch
Agalloch zip-up hoodie
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Profound Lore put out many of your favorite metal records this year. It deserves support. Its merch selection currently includes limited edition Agalloch zip-up hoodies, and shirts for Dawnbringer, Salome, Dispirit, The Devil’s Blood, Amesoeurs, and Thralldom. Check these out here.
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4.
Mark Rudolph’s book of illustrations
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Mark Rudolph does one of my favorite parts of Decibel, the illustration accompanying each lead review. I particularly like his recent ones for Agalloch and Electric Wizard. They’re quite, for lack of a better word, cute. Now he’s collected many of these illustrations together in a 60-page book. Cute overload awaits here.
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3.
Justina Villanueva zines
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Justina Villanueva was the first photographer to show me that metal photography could be insightful. Sure, I’ve seen Ross Halfin and Peter Beste wield virtuoso technique in photographing rock gods. But Villanueva is down on the ground, ducking headstocks, eating hair, and consistently producing some of the most amazing concert photography around. She has five zines for sale (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5). Until the end of the year, they are 25% off.
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2.
Bazillion Points books
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Every book from Ian Christe’s Bazillion Points imprint is an event. The material is quality, and so are the layouts, paper, and bindings. Daniel Ekeroth’s Swedish Death Metal, Annick Giroux’ Hellbent for Cooking, Tom G. Warrior’s Only Death Is Real, Tesco Vee and Dave Stimson’s Touch and Go, and now Jeff Wagner’s Mean Deviation – the hits keep coming. Download a chapter from Mean Deviation here, and view the whole catalogue here.
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1.
Stephen Kasner donations and purchases
Untitled print
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You’ve probably read the original post, but if not: Stephen Kasner, one of the great artists of our time, is gravely sick and in need of financial help. We’re running two giveaways to induce more people to help. All donations to or purchases from him will be entered for a chance to win a signed hardback copy of his WORKS: 1993-2006 career retrospective book. Furthermore, all donations above $20 will also be entered in a drawing to win one of five t-shirt/CD packages from Black Sleep of Kali. To enter these giveaways, send me screenshots of your donations and purchases by midnight PST tomorrow, Friday, December 17. (See full details here.) But, of course, keep spreading the word and giving if you can. Giving should not end just because some commercial holiday comes and goes. There’s too much at stake.
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Kult kards! Those are all awesome. Great merch, but why is Profound Lore only offering a Marrow hoody? I really need a shirt, but haven’t felt like paying for the European exclusive.
Thanks for making my Christmas list for me Cosmo. If any of my friends or family are reading this post, I’ll take one of each, please.
I’d add aquarius records (http://www.aquariusrecords.org) to the list of places to purchase gift certificates. They’ve done more in the past decade than any other record store I know of to promote interesting, underground metal music with their biweekly list of releases and reviews.
Bazillion Points have released some of the most amazing books I’ve ever read. You don’t own them: you treasure them. Anyway, those things are not the most important now, I guess. Thanks for such a thoughtful list: I really appreciate the intention to create the awareness of a musical gift culture beyond the buy-give rule. When buying merch or whatever you buy from these bands/labels you’re supporting AND spreading the word. Let’s hope people apply this though not only in Christmas!
Justina!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My girlfriend gave me Hellbent for Cooking for xmas last year and it is my favorite cookbook. If you know anyone who is into cooking and metal it is a great present.
Great list, but I think that if anyone I knew actually paid $40 for a post-it note… I’d strangle them.
pseudonymous – Aquarius Records indeed deserve props and support. I’ve added their gift certificate link to the post. Thanks for the reminder!
Two of the very best mailorders in the USA have gift certificates.
Hells Headbangers: http://www.shop-hellsheadbangers.com/giftcertificates.asp
Crucial Blast: http://www.crucialblastshop.net/giftcertificate.html
I’ll second MacMurdo’s recommendation of Hellbent for Cooking. My wife wouldn’t buy it for me for Christmas because she thought it was a silly novelty cookbook (we buy each other cookbooks for Christmas) so I had to buy it myself and while it maybe isn’t my favorite cookbook, it’s the one I use most. The obvious metal interest aside–which would have been enough for me anyway–there are a lot of great recipes in there.
I really want to get one of those Post-Its!
It would be cool to have a bunch framed. The price tag is hefty though. Make your own, kids!
Perhaps unsurprisingly, I also got _Hellbent for Cooking_ last Xmas, and even more unsurprisingly, have loved the hell out of cooking from it. And no, I’m not married to MacMurdo’s girlfriend (at least I don’t think I am). It would be fun to do a group post sometime of greatest hits people have made from the book.
A ticket to Maryland Death Fest and Roadburn is a great stocking stuffer for the metalhead in your life.
Gotta say, I’m pretty old-fashioned and this year’s gonna be a bit on the cheap side. Keep it easy, and hand-made as long as it doesn’t suck:
1.) Metal mix tape! Or at least a CD, which is a zillion times easier and quicker but way less heartfelt than an old-school cassette.
2.) Make riff-inspired cupcakes: Check out http://metalcakes.blogspot.com/ for Prehistoric Nog Cakes dedicated to Red Fang.
3.) Pot up a carnivorous plant, and you can stick plastic (or real) skulls, crucifixes, etc. in the surrounding soil. A plant that eats bugs and looks insane is always entertaining.
Merry Xmas, happy solstice, rock on into the New Year….
I’m not buying anyone anything this year and I’m not getting any gifts as I don’t have any friends or loved ones to do this with.
I’m soooooooo looking forward to Jeff Wagner’s book!