The Book of Armageddon #4 (NY, USA) 1989, Editor: “Ed Farshtey”
This week I have the fourth and final issue of Ed Farshtey’s “Book of Armageddon.” Ed was entrenched in the New York metal scene throughout the 80s to the 90s, from ‘heavy’ metal, to thrash, to death, and even ended up working at Roadrunner when they were signing all the classic death metal acts around 1990. This issue features Armoros (who had a pre-Strapping Young Lad Jed Simon), as well as a lengthy interview with Dark Angel right as “Leave Scars” dropped. Speaking of Dark Angel, there is a review of the classic “Ultimate Revenge 2” show in Philadelphia…poor Raven!!!(among numerous other great live reviews). Also, interviews with Gargoyle, pre-“Beneath the Remains” Sepultura (where they discuss their 7-album (!) deal with Roadrunner), Voivod!, and the underrated Prime Evil.
I had a chance to catch up with Ed this week, so here is a bit from him, in his own words…also check out the interview with him from Metalcore zine here.
“I started the Book of Armageddon in 1985 with my friend Mark Sokoll. Back then we just began contacting different bands we were into, like Death, Celtic Frost, Bathory and Dark Angel, just for the hell of it. Then, when a bunch of them actually got back to us, we decided to put out the zine. The Book of Armageddon was available around the city, in places like It’s Only Rock and Roll, Bleecker Bob’s, Venus Records, Butterfly, Slipped Disc on Long Island, Generation Records, etc, and I would also send them out of state, to places like Ace’s Records in Tampa and Wild Rags in LA.
I would sell them at shows, like back in the day at L’Amours in Brooklyn. We would show up there at like twelve in the afternoon, hang out all day and meet the bands. We would bring copies of the zine, and hope to sell them fast, because if we had to hold on to them all night they would end up getting ripped up. Nearly all the metal shows at the time would go through L’Amours, but there were a few other places like Studio 54, The Ritz, and Irving Plaza, and even CBGB’s would sometimes do a metal show. But at L’Amours it seemed every week there was a big metal show coming through.
By early 1990, I stopped doing the zine when I began working at Roadrunner Records. That was the best time to work at the label. I knew half of the bands that were getting signed then, like Malevolent Creation, Suffocation, Immolation, Sorrow and Gorguts. Those were excellent times, meeting bands like Pestilence and Sepultura, and getting to work with them too! ” – Ed Farshtey
demonicphysicist
This is awesome! Thanks