Toxic Holocaust 2009: The Desecration
This is my first blog for the Vans site, so I guess I should take some time and introduce myself. My name is Joel, I play guitar and sing for the Speed Metal band Toxic Holocaust. I live in Portland, Oregon, but I'm originally from the east coast. I've been into Metal and Punk music since before I was a teenager. Some of my favorite bands are Accept, Kreator, Sodom, Venom, Discharge, Exploited, Bathory, Motorhead and AC/DC.
For my first blog I've decided to do a year end recap of 2009. I'm sitting here cranking the Blackfoot “Strikes” record while trying to make some sense of it all....it was a very chaotic and eventful year that's for sure!! A lot of people have dubbed us the hardest working or most touring band in Metal, while I'm not sure if that's true we definitely toured our asses in 2009! We played a grand total of 188 shows and did tours with 3 Inches of Blood, Napalm Death, Hatebreed, Satyricon, Goatwhore and Black Dahlia Murder to name a few. To actually call Portland home is a misnomer, I should call “wherever our van is currently parked” home.
The year started of with a (head)bang! We kicked 2009 off by touring with our friends in 3 Inches of Blood and Early Man down the west coast. It was a short run but it really was one of those situations where each show was better than the last. 3 Inches can definitely pack a club and their fans were very receptive to us. Plus partying with them and Early Man is always a good time. Highlights of this tour were the Bellingham, Washington show (where each member of Toxic did stagedives during the 3 Inches set and had the bruises the next day to prove it) and the Chain Reaction show in Anaheim, CA.


(Anaheim Pics - Photos by Angela Boatwright)
In March we got the offer to come to Mexico. It was our first time playing there. What can I say? UNREAL! The crowds and energy were nothing like I have ever experienced. The first show was in Monterrey and it was a fest type show with a ton of cool local bands. One of them was Holocausto Nuclear who had a 15 year old guitar player that can out shred anyone I know. We played in an old gym, on top of a makeshift “stage” in the middle of a basketball court. It was packed. Actually, now thinking of it, maybe it was an active gym because our drummer got a basketball to the head mid song! HAHA!! I remember the lighting being so bad that I couldn't see my frets....or the stagedivers. Needless to say, there was some close calls. The second show was Mexico City where we played with 1349 and Grave. This show was huge! Lots of circle pitting and diving. Our stage monitors were feedbacking so much that our bass player Phil and I both got vertigo from the piercing sound. Phil actually unplugged all of them because it was so loud. I had never seen so many Toxic Holocaust bootlegs in my life: Bumper Stickers, Patches, Posters, Shirts, Hats, Lighters (!), wrist bands, etc., etc. It was pretty rad actually.
(Photo Top: that gymnasium in Monterrey, Photo Bottom: The gym filled up)
(Photo Top: a small sample of the bootlegs that were made, Photo Bottom: Mexico City maniacs)
(Live video in Mexico City)
After the video shoot we did a short headlining run down the west coast to meet up with Carcass in San Francisco @ the Grand Ballroom. The band before us went over their set time so we got screwed and had a 20 minute set. Kinda sucked, but it was cool to see Death Angel and Carcass. After this show we did a another show with Carcass, but this time it was at the California Metal Fest in Anaheim, CA. Some of the bands that night were Suffocation, Exodus and Repulsion (!!!!).
(Clip from the California Metal Fest)
After this, we toured with Napalm Death, Trap Them and Coliseum across the U.S.A. The Napalm guys are super cool, and it was awesome to have Trap Them and Coliseum on this tour. Everyone got along super well and the new Napalm record “Time Waits For No Slave” rules!
Canada, O Canada. I love touring Canada! We always have a blast up there. Good shows, good beer, hot girls. What more do you want? We did something not a lot of bands do: toured Canada for a month straight. We hit a lot of places that most bands don't go and it seemed like they really appreciated it. Favorites included Halifax, Moncton, Prince George and Victoria. We played dates with bands like Cauldron, Iron Giant and Hellacaust.
(Photos Top and Bottom: Canadian BBQ!)
Toxic Holocaust, touring with Hatebreed?!? That was the reaction from a lot of people. But ya know what?? F**K 'em. I will always do what I want regardless of what people say. The crowds at these shows were definitely hard to win over. Sometimes it worked other times it didn't. To be honest the best part of this tour was just getting to hang out with Hatebreed on their bus and crank tunes. Every night was total debauchery!
(Photo Top: A typical night on the Hatebreed tour, Photo Bottom: Phil beer bonging whiskey)
(We played an unannouced gig with D-Clone from Japan in L.A.)
Almost directly after the tour with Satyricon ended we went right into our tour with Black Dahlia Murder, Skeletonwitch and Trap Them. Black Dahlia fans are young and energetic and came to have a good time. This was a good tour for us, seems like we corrupted a bunch of kids, which is always a good thing! Highlights were Halloween night in Augusta, GA where we dressed up as ZZ Top and Black Dahlia dressed up as the Village People, and the show in the Christian run venue in Nashville that made national news because of the controversy we caused. Read about that here: http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2009/10/christian-club-rocketown-plays.html
(This is the news report about the show)
(And this is what we did at the show......had our tour manager dress up as the devil)
Also on this tour I got my first of three yellow guitar cabs from Emperor. I got turned onto Emperor Cabs from Brian of Trap Them and Ryan of Coliseum on the Napalm Death tour. They sound amazing and they build 'em anyway you want. They are made in Chicago and the guys running it are super rad. Support these guys!


(Emperor building my cab)
The night after this tour ended we went up to Canada with Black Dahlia to play at the Trois-Rivières Metal Fest, so intense!!
About 2 weeks after that we flew to Helsinki, Finland to do a one off show before our Euro Tour with Goatwhore and Skeletonwitch. There was a rumor that I was mad at the 20 or so kids who came up on stage with us at the end and were headbanging, to clear it up, I thought it was hilarious and awesome. I wasn't mad at all. I actually thought it was pretty cool.
The Euro Tour with Goatwhore and Skeletonwitch was amazing. It was the first time we'd been to Europe since 2006. So many good shows and played a lot of places we didn't hit last time. Highlights include Poland, Czech, and France. Thanks to all my old and new friends from over there for making it so good! Also, this was the last tour of the year and I'm glad it ended on such a high note.
As you can see, 2009 was insane!! And averaging one hotel every two weeks, our van really was our home. In reality this is just scratching the surface, there was so many crazy one off shows, basement shows, warehouse shows etc. Let's hope that 2010 brings more good times!
In case anyone is wondering here are the dates of these tours:
3 Inches of Blood/Early Man Tour: Jan. 10 – Jan. 24
Scion Metal Fest: Feb. 28
Mexico shows: March 06 and 07
Carcass show: March 26
California Metal Fest (with Carcass, Exodus, Repulsion): March 28
Napalm Death Tour (with Trap Them and Coliseum): April 10 – May 18
Canadian Headlining Tour: May 21 – June 19
Hatebreed Tour: July 31 – Sept. 02
Satyricon Tour: Sept. 25 – Oct. 10
Black Dahlia Murder Tour: Oct. 13 – Nov. 13
Trois-Rivières Fest: Nov. 14
Helsinki, Finland: Nov. 26
Euro Tour (with Goatwhore and Skeletonwitch): Nov. 27 – Dec. 19
Links to check out:
http://www.myspace.com/toxicholocaust
http://www.emperorcabs.com/
http://www.blackouteffectors.com/
http://www.angelaboatwright.com/
www.myspace.com/trapthem
www.myspace.com/coliseum
ww.myspace.com/dcloneofficial
www.myspace.com/skeletonwitch
www.myspace.com/goatwhore
9 Comments:
I don't believe you could actually remember all that. - Jay-Mean
haha, aint that video "nuke the cross"? and aint "hang the pope" the lyrics of a nuclear assault track? fucking journalists!
I can't believe I remembered all of that either! And yes, the journalists screwed up. We covered "hang the Pope" on our demo and I guess they thought it was our song. IDIOTS!
Awesome article Joel. I saw you on the Canadian tour in Hamilton Ontario and had a blast! (I was so excited you were playing 10 minutes away from my house! haha). Thanks for the sore neck and come back to Canada after you get some rest dude!
Okay, I just watched that news clip and I think the real controversy is the fact that they attempted to use you guys to trick kids into christianity. As a parent, I'm appalled.
This was a pretty cool blog. Sounds like it was a good year. I'm a chistian but I don't mind Toxic Holocaust at all. I think Nuke The Cross is an awesome song. If I'm correct, I think Tom Araya of Slayer is Catholic and he doesn't mind all the lyrics he does. I try to live the same way. That shit they put on the news was bullshit too. Anyways, I'm hoping for the best for Toxic Holocaust this year. PS - Joel you're a fucking badass!
"I have nothing to do in Hell tonight so just figured I'd come over here and....say wassup."
*FWAAAAHAAAW HAAAW HAAW!* That amuses me to no end.
I'm Catholic too, but I see the humor and irony in all of this.
Ah yes, the very fabric of western society is collapsing, thousands are dying in Juarez Mafia wars, children are being sold into slavery, thousands of people around the world are living in crippling poverty with not even clean water to drink...
..but let's all go out and protest the devil music, YAaAAaAy!
You should piss off PETA next. That'll get you some interesting protests too.
Awesome! Thanks for the gig at Finland. I was in the front row, straight in front of you the whole gig and banged my head off! I'll surely be waiting for more.
I thought as many thought that you got mad at the people on the stage and someone said that it had been the reason why your set wasn't really long. Well, I don't know the basic Toxic Holocaust set length, but I'm really satisfied, you didn't dissapoint me and played a great gig!
I'll be surely waiting for your next assault in Finland!
Hail Toxic Holocaust, and keep nuking the fucking cross!
~Danxalic
toxic holocaust fucking blows dicks for copper pennies, joel should just go try to join motley crue or poison where he belongs. He's a fucking fatass cheeseburger thrasher faggot he could never thrash as hard as nuclear assault. He just plays shitty generic thrash to sell records to stupid teenagers. Just as bad as Bonded by Blood and all that other gay new shit.
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