Back to entry: bloodhag | Show links blue

BlöödHag

US death metal band based in Seattle, Washington, which unusually focused on sf, fantasy and horror authors in short songs homaging and providing some sketchy bio-bibliographical information on their subjects. The original 1996 band members were Jeff McNulty (guitar), Jake Stratton (vocals), Zachary Orgel (bass) and a drum machine subsequently replaced by Rod Karp (drums) and later by Brent Carpenter (drums). Their demo tape Swords and Deviltry (1996) – taking its title from a Fritz Leiber collection in the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser saga – has tracks devoted in running order to Philip K Dick, Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury, A E van Vogt, Robert E Howard, H P Lovecraft and Joanna Russ. The first BlöödHag EP album, The Dewey Decibel System (1997), reprised three of the above and added J R R Tolkien, Jules Verne, Michael Moorcock ("Moorcock smoked pot with Lemmy / You think you wrote a lot of books, he wrote twice as many") and John Brunner ("Shockwave Rider put us in deep shit / Inescapable jagged orbit / John Brunner put our horrible future in print / We sheep won't look up 'til our throats are slit!"). These are available for online listening [see links below] along with further compilations including the all-female G.L.O.W. Gorgeous Ladies of Writing (1999), featuring Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Andre Norton, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Joanna Russ, Ursula K Le Guin and James Tiptree Jr.

Thomas M Disch's Mecca/Mettle (2005 chap) includes a CD of Disch reading his title story, together with music by BlöödHag. A late album along the usual lines is Hell Bent for Letters (2006). The band ceased touring in 2010. [DRL]

links

Entry from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (2011-current) edited by John Clute and David Langford.
Accessed 18:03 pm on 19 April 2024.
<https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bloodhag>