Tsunami Death Toll

I don't like how fans of music expect their favorite bands to put out the same album again and again.  They then end up complaining how that band sounds "old" if they do have an album that sounds simular.  It's a no win situation.  As a result, a lot of musicians have side projects where they can perform different types of music without running into that problem.  The most well known of these is Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters.  He has more side project than I can name.  The same with Les Claypool.  He is best known as the bassist/ frontman from Primus.

This got me to thinking of what my musical side project should be.  I wanted something hardcore, and not just hardcore.  Post industrial metal hardcore.  I have no clue what that means.  I'm sure bands that are post industrial metal hardcore have no idea what that means, but that's what my band will be.

It was just after Christmas in 2004 when the deadly tsunami hit Indonesia and the surrounding areas.  They kept talking about how many people were hurt and then died.  It became an everyday, er every minute occurrence to update us on, "The Tsunami Death Toll."

That's when it hit me like a.... well, tsunami.  That would be the name of my post industrial hardcore band, Tsunami Death Toll.  We would write music that was not like very other band that covered Slayer.  Heck, even Slayer got sick of doing Slayer.  They eased off the Satan thing on "Divine Intervention," but then the next few albums were named, "Diabolus In Musica," "God Hates Us All," and "Christ Illusion."  So I guess that's not a good example.

But back to the point.  I already had a few songs lined up.  First there was one about how everybody gets small forks.  There's no need for oversized forks.  Also, one about Fibromyalgia.  I'm not sure what I would write about it, but I think it's a good place to start.

But I also needed a title for the album.  Again, I didn't want anything Satanic as that is so 1980's.  I wanted something fresh, something new, something never seen.  Then it hit me, on the evening news.  Not long after the Tsunami killed a bunch of people, a disaster of some kind was killing just even more people.  It turned out that some earthquake or something damaged a sewer plant, and it was leaking, you guessed it, highly acidic sludge.  "That's the name of my new album!" I yelled.  "Highly Acidic Sludge."

So what does this say about me?  That I watch way too much news.  That, and Tom Brokaw was the best inspiration a young songwriter could have.

Does this man look "hardcore?"



  Oh, I almost forgot.  I think I already have the look down.

There is only one problem in this whole mess.  It's that my Dad could not pronounce my bands name.  He can't say the word Tsunami.  He pronounces it, (To-sue-me.)  And I am not making that up.  No matter how much we try to train him to say it correctly, he never can.  So maybe we could change the name to "To-sue-me Death Toll?"