HORROR METAL SOUNDS: DEAD MEAT PRESENTS
HORROR METAL SOUNDS: DEAD MEAT PRESENTS
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Dead Meat Presents: The year of horror
Dead Meat Presents: The year of horror

1987: The year of Horror

1987 was a great year for horror novels. At that time I was heavily into metal, reading Fangoria and of course reading horror novel after horror novel. It was safe to say that I was a voracious reader at the time and since we are in the midst of a week-long salute to Halloween at HMS.

So let's get into it. I have picked out 5 horror novels that I remember reading in 1987 that impacted my imagination greatly – so let's dig into it!

Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon

Swan Song – Robert R. McCammon

A lot has been said about Stephen King's The Stand for apocalyptic horror, but there was another novel that came in 87' by author Robert R. McCammon. The book details the quest of an ancient evil that comes in the form of a man with a scarlet eye. He's a powerful entity gathering the forces of human greed and madness, in order to find the child called Swan. This was clearly a stunning piece of work of sheer fright and chilling vision of mankind's ultimate struggle.

Slob by Rex Miller
Slob by Rex Miller

Slob – Rex Miller

Here is a book that I loved, adored and devoured over and over. Rex Miller's debut and one that introduced us to Daniel Edward Flowers Bunkowski; otherwise known as Chaingang. He's a 500 plus lbs maniac dispatching victims with ease in the mean streets of Chicago. Can anyone stop this brutal monster? It's up to Chicago homicide detective, Jack Eichord to hunt down this behemoth and put a stop to his bloody carnage. This is a great read and one that I highly recommend.

Live Girls by Michael Slade
Live Girls by Michael Slade

Live Girls – Ray Garton

This was a book by Ray Garton that truly digs deep for nightmarish depravitvy. In fact this might be one of the most dirty and disgusting vampire novels of all-time. The story chronicles down and out Davey Owen who spends a great amount of time in the seedy streets of NY. He frequents a strip club in Time's Square where "Live Girls" beacons Davey through the doors. What results next is a journey of deprived sexuality and a ravishing woman, so insatiable and offering the kiss of demons; purely a gut wrencher and not for the faint of heart.

Ghoul by Michael Slade
Ghoul by Michael Slade

Ghoul – Michael Slade

Canadian horror author Michael Slade gave us a book that brought the worlds of heavy metal and horror together. This is the type of book which bears a cover of a melted vinyl album with a ghoulish face seeping through and it features a rock star that goes insane. This book is fiendishly wicked all the way through and Michael Slade doesn't hold back from the graphically disgusting violence. Slade got the idea after going to an Alice Cooper concert, so this is a must read for heavy metal fans.

Demogorgon by Brian Lumley
Demogorgon by Brian Lumley

Demogorgon – Brian Lumley

British horror author Brian Lumley took some time away from chronicling the adventures of Harry Keogh in the Necrscope series to turn his imagination on a straight up horror novel called Demogorgon. This one involves a thief named Charlie Trace who must match wits against Satan taking the form of a man in London's underworld. This book is quite similar to Clive Barker's Damnation game, but Demogorgon is every much as frightening and horrific as Barker's book. I highly recommend this to anyone who is familiar with the Keogh books to give this one a try.

Kenneth Gallant, HMS

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About the artist(s):

Robert Rick McCammon (born July 17, 1952) is an American novelist from Birmingham, Alabama. One of the influential names in the late 1970s–early 1990s American horror literature boom, by 1991 McCammon had three New York Times bestsellers (The Wolf's Hour, Stinger, and Swan Song) and around 5 million books in print.[1][2] Since 2002 he's written several books in a historical mystery series featuring a 17th-century magistrate's clerk, Matthew Corbett, as he unravels mysteries in colonial America. – Wikipedia

Rex Miller Spangberg (April 25, 1939 – May 21, 2004), known professionally as Rex Miller, was an American novelist. He wrote a series of novels detailing the investigations of Jack Eichord, a fictional homicide detective who specialized in tracking down serial killers. Slob, the first novel in the series, introduced the character of Daniel Bunkowski, a half-ton killing-machine. In 1987, Miller was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel for writing Slob. – Wikipedia

Ray Garton Jr. was born in Redding, California in 1962. He was adopted by Pat and Ray Garton,[1] the latter being a World War II veteran. Garton grew up in Anderson, California, where he only attended religious schools. Raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, he had left by adulthood, calling it a "pseudo-Christian cult." Garton married his wife, Dawn, around 1989. – Wikipedia

Michael Slade (born 1947, in Lethbridge, Alberta) is the pen name of Canadian novelist Jay Clarke, a lawyer who has participated in more than 100 criminal cases and who specializes in criminal insanity. – Wikipedia

Brian Lumley (born 2 December 1937) is an English author of horror fiction. He came to prominence in the 1970s writing in the Cthulhu Mythos created by American writer H. P. Lovecraft but featuring the new character Titus Crow, and went on to greater fame in the 1980s with the best-selling Necroscope series, initially centered on character Harry Keogh, who can communicate with the spirits of the dead. – Wikipedia

About the author:

Kenneth Gallant is the creator and Editor-In-Chief of horrormetalsounds.com. Ken originated the webzine as a column (on another Heavy Metal webzine) that paid homage to horror films incorporating the theme, or a soundtrack, of heavy metal music. Horrormetalsounds.com embodies his passion for horror films, comics and heavy metal music.

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