by Niklas Göransson

The mid-2000s brought Nuclear War Now! into a phase where its international ties overlapped with local alliances. Asunder and Bone Awl entered the fold, shaping a Bay Area nucleus in which austerity and excess moved along the same current.

 

YOSUKE KONISHI: During office hours, I’d spend more time typing emails for N.W.N! than working on anything related to biotech. Companies usually monitor activity on their machines, so I can’t imagine this went unnoticed. My performance must’ve been solid enough for them to let it slide.

Yosuke’s tech support position at Silicon Genetics did more than just keep the lights on. The travel required ultimately enabled his 2001 trip to Vancouver, where he saw BLASPHEMY live and captured the performance that would become “Live Ritual – Friday the 13th”.

Moreover, the company’s Redwood City office doubled as an unofficial production hub: copy machines and printers became Nuclear War Now!’s in-house press for flyers, booklets, envelopes, and inserts. Most importantly, Yosuke’s steady pay cheque underwrote many of the label’s early Die Hard vinyl editions.

YOSUKE: I needed to get paid, so I always took the work seriously on a professional level – but mentally, I’d often be somewhere else entirely. Most of the time, I was thinking about black metal, releasing records, and how to make that world a bigger part of my identity.

In 2004, Silicon Genetics was acquired by Agilent Technologies, and the working environment changed almost overnight – from small startup to global corporation. The new owners quickly deemed domestic tech support too expensive, outsourced Yosuke’s entire department, and rendered its employees redundant.

YOSUKE: This happened before I started a family, so I honestly didn’t care all that much. I wanted to keep my job, obviously, but it certainly wasn’t a life-or-death situation. Luckily, I had a half-Japanese boss, which probably worked in my favour – instead of being fired, I was promoted to tech support manager.

 

YOSUKE: At the time, ASUNDER were largely unknown outside the Bay Area. Musically, funeral doom is pretty far from what I normally listen to – almost the opposite of my usual preference for fast-paced material. Still, John Gossard was a good friend of mine, so I decided to give it a shot.

In 2000, two years after forming, ASUNDER recruited John Gossard – guitarist and primary songwriter of the recently disbanded WEAKLING. Autumn 2004 saw Nuclear War Now! release the band’s debut album, “A Clarion Call”, on LP. The CD came via Life Is Abuse, an Oakland label run by ASUNDER drummer Dino Sommese and Matt ‘Mauz’ Parrillo.

YOSUKE: Dino and Mauz were also active in a band called DYSTOPIA. Up to that point, Life Is Abuse hadn’t done any vinyl releases, which is how N.W.N! entered the picture. I’d always wanted to work with John, and ASUNDER were one of the strongest live acts around.

Really? A funeral doom band?

YOSUKE: I know – that kind of music being compelling live almost feels like a contradiction, yet ASUNDER genuinely pulled it off. Not a boring moment; they were captivating. It’s hard to describe… but something about the way those guys worked together as a unit made it click for me.

Do you listen to any other such bands?

YOSUKE: Only a handful, really… DISEMBOWELMENT, some of the Finnish bands like SKEPTICISM and THERGOTHON. Generally, I can’t stand funeral doom – it just doesn’t hold my attention. ASUNDER were the main exception; Gossard is a musical genius.

Around the same time, N.W.N! reissued BLACK GOAT’s self-titled debut, first released as a CD-R by Cybertzara in 1997. The record includes material John Gossard wrote during his tenure in the band.

YOSUKE: It had nothing to do with any link to WEAKLING or ASUNDER. I knew the members, so making their old album available again when the band got back together felt like a good move. BLACK GOAT also played a few shows I organised, which reinforced our connection.

 

YOSUKE: I’d been talking to Rob Death Dealer for years and wanted to work with VOMITOR very badly. Unfortunately, Nuclear War Now! was still too small when the time came to record an album, so they ended up on a Swedish label instead… hm, the one that also released FACE OF EVIL?

Formed in Brisbane, Australia, after Death Dealer left SPEAR OF LONGINUS, VOMITOR issued their 2002 debut album, “Bleeding the Priest”, through Metal Blood Music – a Gothenburg label run by an Irish metalhead. The next sign of life arrived two years later with “Outbreak of Evil”, a four-way split EP alongside BESTIAL MOCKERY, NOCTURNAL, and TOXIC HOLOCAUST.

YOSUKE: That seven-inch was released by Joel Grind’s (TOXIC HOLOCAUST) label, Witching Metal Records, and sold out within a few months. I knew he’d had the first pressing made at United – so, still really keen to work with VOMITOR, I asked if N.W.N! could reissue it.

After handling the original “Outbreak of Evil” run in 2004, Nashville-based vinyl factory United Record Pressing retained the lacquers, mothers, and stampers, allowing for a repress without repeating the most time-consuming and expensive stages of production.

YOSUKE: Witching Metal’s original version had black print on white paper. For the second pressing, I switched to red ink and added my logo – nothing else changed. From there, I went on to release several more volumes in what became a black/thrash-oriented EP series.

 

In conjunction with Nuclear War Now!’s 2005 “Outbreak of Evil” reissue, Yosuke began circulating flyers for future instalments, outlining the style he wanted and inviting suitable bands to send demos.

YOSUKE: Submissions started coming in right away. I remember the SPEAR OF LONGINUS and VOMITOR drummer, Big Lee, sending over one of his GRIPPIUD demos, and they ended up on a later volume. That’s also when Omid from Outlaw Recordings introduced me to MIDNIGHT.

At the time, Outlaw Recordings and MIDNIGHT were preparing a compilation CD. “Complete and Total Fucking Midnight” includes the Ohio speed metal band’s 2003 demo, an EP from the subsequent year, as well as several unreleased songs. One of the latter, “Turn Up the Hell”, was donated to the second volume of “Outbreak of Evil”, which also featured ABIGAIL, FORCE OF DARKNESS, and VILLAINS.

YOSUKE: I stayed with Lino (VILLAINS) when I went to New York City to see BLACK WITCHERY in 2001. He’s since become something like my heavy metal sensei. Many underground metalheads tend to shy away from traditional metal, and I was no exception. Lino more or less taught me everything I needed to know about the genre.

Do you remember his first recommendations?

YOSUKE: Probably ACID and Swedish bands like MERCY and GOTHAM CITY. Lino understood that, coming from a punk and extreme metal background, I’d gravitate toward rougher-sounding groups. Early-’80s Scandinavian heavy metal especially had that raw, almost amateurish feel – particularly in the vocals.

 

From ABIGAIL’s GG Allin and EAT MY FUK covers to MIDNIGHT’s rock ‘n’ roll hedonism and VILLIANS’ drunken death/thrash, “Outbreak of Evil Vol. 2” stands as a convergence of blackened punk and irreverent metal blasphemy. As someone who detests party themes and tongue-in-cheek humour in music, my enthusiasm is admittedly limited.

YOSUKE: The bands were all actively partaking in what they sang about, so at least there wasn’t any posing involved. Looking back now, though, romanticising this kind of drunken degeneracy is pretty retarded. I don’t know… maybe I was drawn to it as a form of projection.

How so?

YOSUKE: Those nihilistic themes probably appealed to my younger self because I secretly envied that lifestyle. I was a total square – always the sober guy at parties who didn’t engage in any craziness. Not by choice, but because I carry a genetic defect.

Like many East Asians, Yosuke lacks the enzyme required to metabolise alcohol. Even small amounts cause an immediate buildup of acetaldehyde, resulting in flushing, nausea, dizziness, and general physical discomfort rather than intoxication.

YOSUKE: Apparently, if you keep drinking regularly, your body adapts. Not me. I tried many times throughout adulthood just to fit in socially. Alcohol definitely loosens you up – greases the wheel, so to speak – and when I was single, I thought that’s what I had to do to meet a woman.

For Scandinavian introverts, the social lubricant aspects of alcohol are invaluable.

YOSUKE: For me, it’s just a shitty experience where I turn red, and my brain stops functioning. There’s a photo from my twenty-eighth birthday where I’m passed out on a pallet because I’d had one shot of whiskey; that was probably the last time I tried drinking.

 

In 2005, Nuclear War Now!’s collaboration with Klaxon Records expanded to include its house band. The short, repetitive assaults of BONE AWL’s early material had more in common with punk and noise than the ornate theatrics dominating much of black metal at the time, so it’s easy to see why it appealed to Yosuke.

YOSUKE: Brandon and Marco were among the very few genuinely like-minded people around, so their band felt perfect for my roster. The Bay Area didn’t exactly have a thriving black metal scene – it was basically me, the BONE AWL guys, John Gossard, and then MORBOSIDAD and the Satanic Hispanics.

Was this a conscious effort to build a roster of local bands?

YOSUKE: No, I wasn’t deliberately focusing on the Bay Area. However, the internet wasn’t as developed back then, which made it far easier to communicate locally – and that inevitably shaped what bands I worked with.

In April 2005, a cassette demo titled “Not for Our Feet” became the first release to grow out of this alliance. Yosuke xeroxed the J-cards at what was by then Agilent Technologies, while National Audio Company in Springfield, Missouri, handled the duplication. At the time, tapes were highly affordable – roughly a dollar per unit.

YOSUKE: What I love most about cassettes is how the format forces people to listen in a linear way. Skipping tracks isn’t easy, so you’re more or less compelled to sit through the music in its intended sequence. That’s especially good for demos, where you want the listener to experience everything in order.

 

In the wake of “Not for Our Feet” came another BONE AWL title: the “Lindow Man” seven-inch. Despite bearing all the hallmarks of a Nuclear War Now! release, the cover lists no label at all. The only clue is its catalogue number, CELL 001.

YOSUKE: That’s when I founded my secret label, Apoptosis. The idea was to issue very small runs of material not really meant for a broader audience. Maybe two hundred copies at most, with handmade DIY packaging, mainly intended for friends and close contacts.

What does the name mean?

YOSUKE: The term apoptosis came straight out of my biology background and refers to a genetic process that programs cells to die. I liked the idea because it felt fatalistic and terminal, which seemed appropriate for a label whose core philosophy revolves around extremely limited releases.