Sounds Of Marshabaloosh Episode 1 - Manilla Road: A Metal Invasion

Savage Hippie

First of all, Marshabaloosh is the evil deity that makes you stub your toe, step on a nail, makes your wife divorce you, starts world wars and makes it snow heavily on the day of your important job interview. Indeed he's quit the nogoodnik, yet we worship him. Sounds of Marshabaloosh is the music and entertainment spin off of the Savage Hippie retardo propaganda machine, and for the first installment, I was granted the privilege of interviewing Mark "the Shark" Shelton and Bryan "Hellroadie" Patrick, guitarist/singer/songwriter and singer/roadie for legendary cult metal band Manilla Road. If you don't know 'em, you better wise up, sucker! They've been together in some way, shape or form since 1977 and have released a large and diverse body of work that ranges from heavy, progressive space rock, melodic epic metal, thrash, doom and even 12-string acoustic folky music, whose one uniting factor is Shelton and his penchant for fantasy, science fiction, horror and the occasional philosophical lyrics. Shelton, Patrick and I spend an hour talking about everything from Manilla Road's music (whoda thunk we'd talk about that?!), their various albums, encounters with other bands, potential label deals, the literature of Robert E. Howard, Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft and the time Manilla Road incited a brawl between Stryper's Christian fan base and their biker one... guess who won... I wish I had asked Shelton to elaborate on the Riddle Master project and about the legendary Herman Hill riots, but oh well... maybe next time? Here's a list of all of their albums if you want to check out their stuff, which you should, asshole. Invasion (1980) Metal (1982) Crystal Logic (1983) Open the Gates (1985) The Deluge (1986) Mystification (1987) Live Roadkill (1988) Out of the Abyss (1988) The Courts of Chaos (1990) The Circus Maximus (1992) Atlantis Rising (2001) Mark of the Beast (2002) (recorded 1981) Spiral Castle (2002) Gates of Fire (2005) Voyager (2008) After Midnight Live (2010) (recorded 1979) Playground of the Damned (2011) Mysterium (2013) The Blessed Curse (2015) Dreams of Eschaton (2016) (recorded 1981, remaster of Mark of the Beast) And Mark, if you're reading this, I downloaded all three Heavy Load albums! Thanks for the recommendation!