Sucking Her Love

Angela Boatwright and I went to the same high school in Columbus, Ohio. Actually it was this half-day career center downtown where we learned photography, and we went there different years. So we never met. But when I did finally meet her, she would rant on and on about heavy metal controversies with such intensity and depth of knowledge you would think she’s the one who got ripped off by Metallica or kicked out of Def Leppard. Besides being a walking hair-metal encyclopedia, Angela is also an uber-successful magazine and commercial photographer.

Vice: You think Metallica ripped off Diamond Head?

Angela: They totally did. I don’t think Diamond Head were particularly upset about it—at least in the press they weren’t—but the riff that really stands out to me is the one from Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy.” That riff, in my opinion, was taken from a Diamond Head song called “Sucking My Love.” They’re played in different keys, but if you listen to them it’s pretty obvious.

I remember you telling me about it one time being really mad.

Well, I don’t really want to come out in print and be like, “Those bastards!” Because every time I look on the internet the guys in Diamond Head are like super-psyched about Metallica and taking pictures of them and stuff. But I mean, what the fuck do you do when somebody rips off your riff? You either bitch about it and look like a total prick or you’re like, “Oh, thanks—homage!”

Do you think Metallica recorded that song thinking that Diamond Head would never hear it, like maybe they’d never become that popular?

From what I’ve read, Lars wanted to be the biggest rock star in the world. But I don’ t know, when you’re a bunch of 18-year-olds in the early 80s and all you care about is drinking beer, you just don’t give a fuck. There’s no internet, there’s no back-and-forth between metalheads across the Atlantic, you brought this tape over from Denmark and it’s pretty cool and you’ve been jamming to it for like a month straight and there you go, you know? Your riff is exactly the same as the one on the tape, but whatever.

Still, they never got any comeuppance, like even just being called out on it?

They ended up covering like five Diamond Head songs over the course of the years, and those were all credited to Diamond Head. I suppose to be fair, they did do their best to help people getting to know all those New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands. I would have never heard all those bands without Metallica, that’s for sure. I photographed Def Leppard last week and Phil Collen, one of their guitarists, saw this tattoo I have of old Diamond Head lyrics and he shit his pants. This guy grew up with them so he was all, “How did you hear about them, through Metallica?” And I was like, “Uh… yeah.”

So what’s the deal with the kids in the band photo?

They’re in this group called Rhodekill. They all grew up across the street from my friend Ryan’s house in Rhode Island. Ryan’s mom actually taught them all in school. He called me one day and was like, “You’ve got to come back to Rhode Island. There’s this sick metal band that’s all 14-year-old kids. You’re going to love them.” So I went up, and it was Nick’s—one of the kids from the band—14th birthday. They were playing at this Portuguese-American club in Jamestown, Rhode Island. There were like 150 of the band’s 13-year-old friends there. It was amazing. And they’re so sick too. I almost started crying.



Are they good for a bunch of 14-year-olds or for-real good?

For real. The two guitar players do dueling guitar leads—in octaves. So like, Nick will play in one key and the other guy Nolan will play in another but mimicking each other exactly. It’s insane. They play Children of Bodom covers dead on.

You were just out in Finland shooting Children of Bodom, weren’t you? What do you think of their last album?

It’s not nearly as good as their first few, that’s for sure. I don’t think it means that Alexi is any worse of a guitar player, but I just don’ t like the sound of it at all.

What do you think is wrong with it?

I think it’s kind of a hardcore thing. During the first few albums Alexi didn’t leave Europe much and I think maybe that’s what kept it good. You tour America and you see what all the kids like. I don’t know, I don’t think they’re that bad. They haven’t fallen off like Metallica. I mean Kirk Hammet won’t even noodle anymore on guitar solos, but Alexi still tears it up for sure. It’s like Appetite for Destruction vs. Use Your Illusion.

Did you see Some Kind of Monster where the guys in Metallica are all talking about how they don’t want to put guitar solos on the new album because it will date it, but then Kirk’s like, “Wait, not putting guitar solos on it dates it to right now.”

Totally. And like, even on …And Justice for All, you hear the guitar solo for “One” and it’s one of the best guitar solos ever. It’s just a fucking ripper. I don’t know how you can know how to play like that and choose not to.

What else do you think needs to go back into metal to revitalize it?

It’s tricky. I feel like metal was such a product of the 1980s and the Cold War, and all the things it dealt with, like the fear of nuclear holocaust, were really relevant topics at the time. The best metal now is coming out of Europe and all these countries where there’s still a lot of strife going on. They grew up under Communism, so you’ve got these bands out of like Poland that are just ripping.

I remember that Russian band Gorky Park.

They were horrible.

Sorry, I didn’t follow metal as seriously you did.

Yeah, well nobody followed Gorky Park. You weren’t missing out. Doc McGee put together that whole tour on MTV with them. It was like, “Let’s go to Moscow!” Then they get there and they’re like, “Fuck, we need a Russian metal band,” so they found those fucking dingdongs, you know? Whatever.


You can see more of Angela’s work at her site, Killer of Giants. For more inf’ on Rhodekill, check out their MySpace page.