Amerika

As the world recovers from the takeover by Leftism during the postwar and later post-Soviet periods, a culture wave of Right-wing art, music, literature, and philosophy effervesces through the battered, bullet-pocket landscape of post-twentieth century culture. One promising rock/jazz act infused with metal is Northern California’s Rotten Copper.

Emerging from the ashes of underground metal bands Dawning and Nothing Left, Rotten Copper takes a Joe Satriani approach to heavy metal and mixes in post-apocalyptic roadhouse rock, creating an album that a musician can appreciate as well as a fan of guitar-driven, thoughtful but passionate music.

Rotten Copper recently released its self-titled debut on compact disc, bucking an industry trend of relying on impermanent digital downloads alone. We were able to take a few moments to interview composer and performer Steve Cefala about the album.

Why release this on CD now, and did you make any changes to the layout or recording?

I waited to find a company that would allow me to make the cd’s affordable enough for my hard working blue-collar audience. Most people are stuck with car repairs and cant spend much on albums these days. It took a long time to find a good deal on professional cd duplication. Also there were many numerological signs hidden in plain view in the news lately, which were pointing me towards this release date.

As a musician, doing the lay-outs and re-mastering stuff is very challenging. Its like asking a carpenter to do plumbing. I rather spend my time trying to be the next Bitcoin gazillionaire, or trying to get Hilary locked up.

What genre is this music and who do you think it would appeal to?

This genre could be compared to the famous blender scene from Gremlins. Creative destruction would be a good way to phrase it.

This music is probably closest to death rock crossed with D Beat. However, it includes 60s influences, death metal, and some punk too.

Singing-wise I wanted to channel Iron Butterfly and Danzig, when possible. It was full speed ahead on guitar. I wished to avoid emulating, and wanted no limitations stylistically. The goal was just let everything hang out, only to stand back later and view the result.

You’ve gotten ignored by the industry for essentially being an anarcho-capitalist who favors a return to a Nietzschean-Machiavellian-Darwinian primal state of nature where conflict, dueling, violence, and predation remain. Why is it hard for realists, Right-wingers and libertarians — or just realists — to break into popular music?

I take pride in such a description. There is a lot of room in country music for conservatives, but the fine arts in contemporary terms are stuck as lib stuff. Country music assumes order. Like you will get up and cook breakfast and eggs, send your kids to school, and hug your wife ten times. But reality (which we saw in Vegas) is someone always wants to destroy your happy lifestyle and concert. Metal deals with reality, which is darker than the fiction people like to think is reality. It will sing about the things most people don’t want to face.

Someone such as myself will never fit neatly in a box, and cant honestly expect to ever become embraced. Am a bit too complicated of a person for most people. Because of this, I often now write lyrics as an adventure in the third person. Because everyone can use some adventure and escapism in their lives.

Do you think that society is going through some kind of change that will make your views more widely shared, or understood?

Americans are forced to do things by default, never by foresight. Look at marijuana legalization. It only happened because the war on drugs failed. Trump was forced to take the reigns because the deep state was causing the government to fail. Society is forced to change, forced to the right solutions, as (altruistic) things fail. What sounds good usually sucks. Relationships fail, so we build sexbots. International relations fail, so we are forced to build a wall. We must continually respond to failure, by trying other means.

That’s why a movie like DeathWish is still so popular and getting remade. Because its about realism and the average guy. Look at Bronson as an example.

Far from dancing to tropical house music, as the media would have you do, sometimes you have to fight just to survive already (in modern society). So even in terms of doing martial arts, I started in terms of dealing with muggers in alleys as a tourist in another country. Today martial arts is mostly a sport. Unfortunately, you cannot actually replicate a fight-to-the-death street fight in a controlled environment. Often, the best thing would be to either grab a larger weapon, or flee. Hand to hand is for when there aren’t other solutions such as those available.

You’ve spent time in mixed martial arts and are familiar with prepper lore. Will it be possible to survive the coming Age of Conflict and what advice do you have?

There’s a stock market melt up to Dow 40k and then a meltdown to like 5 k in the works according to Elliot Wave theory. So things will get bad. Alternative assets, such as precious metals and crypto-currencies will do well. Water, toilet paper, and canned foods are key.

Do not live in a city over 100k population. You will need to be close to a food supply, such as farms, or have your own crops too. Also, I think US will attack and kill the North Korean leader sometime in the next year, then forces them to dismantle.

Thanks to you Brett for mentioning about me, and to all your readers for staying true to liberty and the American way!

Tracklist:

1. Roadmap to Destruction (3:28)
2. Mortal Retaliation (2:06)
3. Quintet of Doom (3:42)
4. Dark Castle Walls (2:32)
5. The Green Nebula (3:30)
6. The Baroquen (1:16)
7. Rose Hild Witch (2:58)
8. Robokill Plaza (3:07)
9. Photophobia (2:48)
10. Odds of Survival (2:52)
11. Lizard Lords (4:23)

You can purchase the album through the Bandcamp link above or via eBay, where 25% of the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project. Or, you can download the MP3 for free with an optional small donation to keep this promising act moving forward.

Tags: jazz, metal, rock, rotten copper