Kevin Stewart-Panko is the author of a new book on the death metal band Immolation called “Into Everlasting Fire The Official History of Immolation” which will be coming out in November. I fired off some questions for him to answer about how he came to write a book on such an amazing band:
What were you like growing up? Were you into music and reading a lot?
KSP: I’ve always found it funny that historically TV, movies, and real life have generally attempted to establish a line in the sand between those inclined towards athletics, sports, and physical activity who are pitted against those who were studious and enjoyed what would be considered more “intellectual” pursuits, like reading. When I was growing up, I was heavily engrossed and engaged in both sides of this particular coin. I was a voracious athlete who played almost every sport and excelled at all of them. As a small handful of examples: I was part of an award-winning, record-setting 4×100 relay team even though long and middle-distance running was my forte; growing up in Canada I played hockey (of course) with the intent of being the next Wayne Gretzky; I was on a junior downhill ski racing team; and, chiefly, I always had dreams of being a pro tennis player. On the opposite end of all that physical activity, I was reportedly reading at a very early age, did so voraciously, and haven’t stopped since. Books and reading were a huge part of my upbringing and I read everything I could get my hands and eyes on. I remember reading by flashlight under the covers after my parents would call for lights out after the 20th time.
My mom and dad would regularly find me the next morning passed out with an open book resting on my face. Weaved into all of that was music. At first, soundtracks were my thing, specifically Star Wars, The Black Hole, Flash Gordon, The Lone Ranger, Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team, Miami Vice and countless other movies and TV shows. My parents weren’t very much into music so I was left to my own devices when it came to discovering the sounds that I enjoyed. There was a stereo in the house that even at like six or seven years old, I was the only person who would use with any regularity. Once I got a radio in my room, that was it…and the end of socialization — books and music in my own space! Who needed anything else? Who needed people? I would spend hours at home without leaving my room except to go to the bathroom.
My parents weren’t exactly the most doting or emotionally warm individuals, but they were smart enough to know that, had they put a TV in my room like so many of my friends had, they’d never see me. Before I hit double-digits chronologically, I was already spending all my allowance, and birthday and found money on records and tapes. My tastes were always eclectic: the first record I bought was the Star Wars theme 7”, then it was Men Without Hats, the Village People and a shit ton of disco and classic rock. Then, metal and hard rock stuff like Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Ratt, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Motorhead, etc. It was over once I discovered the world of underground music and extreme metal. Forty-plus years later not much has changed and here I am. In some cases, the content of my consumption has hardly changed.
How did you end up getting into heavy metal and then how did you get into underground metal? What are some of your favourite bands besides Immolation of course?
KSP: As I said, my parents weren’t musical or big music lovers, so I didn’t have a lot of subliminal or second-hand reference points of stuff that was being played around the house. My mom would occasionally tune the radio to the classical station and she’s originally from the Caribbean, so there was a bit of island music like calypso, reggae, etc. from her but not enough to make a deep impression on me. My dad would put on what we now call classic rock radio, but he always seemed to like the worst of all the ‘70s bands — he wasn’t even into good yacht rock bands! The stories of people discovering metal via an older brother or relative are familiar and well-worn tales in the world of metal, but I was the older brother so whatever wormed its way into my ears was on my shoulders. My story of metal discovery is not an uncommon one. I’ve always been interested in wide scopes of music, but always found myself gravitating to whatever the next heaviest thing was. A large part of me was searching out the next thing that was heavier and faster, which came with a couple of overnight metal shows on a couple of the local rock radio stations. That’s where I first heard the early works by bands like Oz, Exciter, Raven, Razor, Voivod, Witchkiller, Anvil, hardcore/punk like the Exploited, U.K. Subs, Discharge, Minor Threat, Bad Brains and so on as well as the usual suspects like Metallica, Slayer and Venom. Growing up in Scarborough, Ontario — an eastern suburb of Toronto — meant I was in natural proximity to bands like Sacrifice, Slaughter, Death Militia, Rapid Tears and Malhavoc, not to mention the healthy local hardcore scene. A huge factor in my development was the legendary college radio show Aggressive Rock hosted by Brian Taylor who was also an employee at the coolest record store in the city — Record Peddler — as well as the man who produced albums by Sacrifice, Slaughter, Infernal Majesty, Disciples of Power, Sudden Impact and so on. I was an obsessive fan of his show, angling my boom box’s antenna to catch the static-y signal every Tuesday night in the days before the station (CKLN) could afford a transmitter powerful enough to reach the burbs and beyond. Additionally, and often left out of the story, is that I always found the “metal” image more to my liking. Even though I only ever owned one jean jacket and one leather jacket throughout my entire life — though black band t-shirts, hoodies and jeans remain the only thing in my wardrobe to this day — my sartorial bent pushed towards the metal uniform and I found it was something more appealing to me than whatever else other kids were wearing. There was something to be said for seeing someone else walking down the street, at the mall or in a record store with a jacket with all sorts of patches or hand-drawn logos plastered all over the place and being able to stop and talk about all the bands that most of the rest of the world had no idea about. And even though I’m long beyond running up to strangers with patched-up battle jackets and striking up conversations, back then it was like our little secret society. And I was proud to be a member and happy to upload the stupid amounts of knowledge and tidbits I accrued from reading every magazine and fanzine I could get my hands on. As far as who my favourite bands are, I approach that from a bit of a different angle than most. I don’t necessarily have favourite bands, per se, instead, I have favourite albums. However, if a band consistently puts out albums that could be added to my list of favourites, by default, that band becomes one of my favourite bands. For example, the first four Metallica albums are about as important to my life as anything or person that I have ever crossed paths with since 1983 when Kill ‘Em All came out. From then until …And Justice For All, I was all about the band and everything their music taught me about playing guitar, songwriting, the personal-as-politics and even geography and countless other subjects you would have never have thought a drunk metal band from California could teach a kid on the other side of another country. But hardly anything they’ve done since Justice has clicked or connected with me and when someone asks me to list off my favourite bands, Metallica doesn’t immediately come to mind. I don’t know if that is logical to a lot of people, but that’s the way my brain works. In that sense, and as you’re holding a gun to my head right now, there are a few bands off the top of my head that vie for spots in the higher echelons of my top however-many-bands are in my favourite band list: The Beyond, KONG, Thought Industry, Anacrusis, Naked City, Blood Incantation, Graf Orlock, Melt-Banana, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Rotten Sound…feel free to give me shit about which ones of that list are and aren’t metal.
How did the writing bug hit you so to speak?
KSP: Writing is just something I’ve always done. Whether as a hobby, a profession, to pass the time or being that guy who always went way over word count in just about every high school and university essay I was ever assigned, I’ve always written. I remember as a kid writing fictional stories beyond my scope of understanding in the fields of completely made-up science, fantastical sci-fi, mystery, music and even erotica (you haven’t lived until you’ve read whatever the mind of a ten-year-old who hit puberty early but was destined to be a virgin for the years upon years up years to follow can conjure up on the topics of sex and sexuality. Possibly the true horror Joseph Conrad wrote about). I would break out an old typewriter when I was a teen to crank out issues of my cut-and-paste fanzine and whatever else popped into my head and came out my fingers. In that sense, I would imagine I emerged from the womb ready to write about whatever entered my brain in whatever capacity. There’s an interesting story about how I made the move to writing as a potential profession or career. Towards the end of my undergraduate degree, which is in psychology, the term assignment we had was to keep a reflective and incisive journal about what we experienced during the practicum we had to do as part of counselling training. At the time, I was heavily into the late P.J. O’Rourke who was probably my favourite gonzo journalist, humourist, satirist and political writer. I quite enjoyed the way he injected dry and dark humour into serious subjects. Of course, this was all before he became a right-wing shithammer. Anyhow, I wrote my journal assignment essay in a style heavily influenced by his style and the teaching assistant, who ironically and hilariously happened to be an ordained priest — though you would have never known unless he told you — pulled me aside to commend me on how much he enjoyed my work, telling me how good a writer he thought I was and whether I’d ever thought of writing professionally. Up to that point, even though I had been doing a fanzine for five or six years and had been contributing to other ‘zines for longer, I’d never thought of writing as any kind of profession. But once I dove into the possibilities, things took off, and again, here we are.
The Immolation book is your 2nd book. Tell me a bit about what prior magazines or webzines you have written for over the years.
KSP: My first fanzine was Keelhauled, the one I alluded to in the previous question/answer. I started that in ’87/’88. One of my best pals at the time was doing a zine of his own called Scrolls of Doom. We would talk on the phone virtually every day, yapping about what new albums we got our hands on, what tapes came in the mail given the fact we were both active tape traders, what we were working on for our next issues, etc. Being a little slow on the uptake, it took us a while before the light bulb went off and we eventually decided to combine forces into one fanzine. Hence: Doomhauled. After a few issues, he bowed out and I took over and with the help of a variety of skilled friends years later built it to the point where we were doing 10,000 free copies three or four times a year. It was around then, 1997 or so when I was contacted by the UK’s Terrorizer magazine who took me on as a freelancer. It was with my zine and writing for Terrorizer that I was able to start making a bit of money and when I thought about combining two of my loves and being able to make a bit of cash in the process, I jumped into the deep end head first at the prospect of being a freelance music writer. The interesting thing about doing so and the length of time I’ve been doing so is that in the process of writing Into Everlasting Fire, I pulled out the boxes and boxes of magazines and fanzines that are in my crawlspace/basement storage space in the hunt for old Immolation features and reviews for context and quotes. In those boxes of treasures were hundreds of magazines and fanzines that I have written for and collected over the years, the overwhelming majority of which haven’t survived and most of which I had forgotten I contributed and wrote for at one point or another. Even I am amazed at how much I was able to juggle! Add in the bunches of websites that have come and gone and the amazement grows. These days I write for Decibel, Metal Hammer, Outburn, Zero Tolerance, a British magazine called Metalhead, and a magazine based in Spain called This is Metal in addition to various liner note projects and being hired by labels to write bios for bands on the occasion of their new albums.
So you have written one prior book called “Do You Have Anything To Declare”? How did the idea come about to write this book? Tell the readers what it is about is it still for sale and how long ago did it come out?
KSP: That book came out in 2013 and was released via the book arm of Vitriol Records and was co-written by my pal Justin Smith. Justin also happens to run Vitriol Records, so putting two-and-two together in this instance isn’t difficult. “Do You Have Anything to Declare”? was/is an oral history-styled book about the band’s border-crossing stories and misadventures. The book itself has gone through two pressings and as far as I know is completely sold out and has been for a while, though that’s a question for Justin. I only have some version of it on a hard drive at home and one copy. As far as what birthed the idea, I’m going to be lazy and cut and paste the answer we gave Decibel when we were asked the same question in advance of its initial release:
“KEVIN STEWART-PANKO: I tell the story of what finally cemented the idea of doing this as a book. It’s in the first chapter and involves myself, fellow metal hack Jay Gorania and Cephalic Carnage’s John Merryman shooting the shit about the band’s border experiences while driving through Texas. That was 2010. But I guess this sort of thing has been something in the back of my mind most of my life. I’m mulatto — my father is a lily-white Canadian farm boy and my mom is dark-like-night, straight outta da Caribbean — and growing up I experienced a lot of fucked up, ignorant shit while crossing the border into the U.S. with my parents. We’d get a shit-ton of attitude from border guards about the whole mixed marriage thing and their racially mixed offspring on a far-too-regular basis. Sure, a mixed marriage may have been a lot rarer in the late 70s and 80s, but you can’t tell me you’ve never watched the fucking Jeffersons! More than a handful of times while going from Canada to the U.S., my brother and I have been asked straight up if my parents were my parents. Chronicling something about border crossing was probably something that was bound to come out of me at some point and it’s probably no surprise that it came out in the context of music and touring.
“JUSTIN SMITH: The idea [for me] began in the summer of 2010 while I was touring in Canada. Kevin and I spoke in Toronto about the mayhem and aggravation involved in crossing the border and some of the problems we had dealt with a few years prior…The conversation eventually turned into this project and, through a lot of seemingly fruitless activity, a book.”
How good of a writer do you think you are and what are some other writers you like?
KSP: That’s a loaded question and one in which the wrong comment taken the wrong way (or even the right comment taken the right way) is rife for small c-controversy on the smallest of scales. How good a writer do I think I am? Good enough, I guess. I get by. There are writers better than me, there are writers worse than me, there are writers on par and the same level as me. Some people enjoy what I write, some people think I’m a hack of the most uneducated proportions. I feel that most of the time I get my point across. I’m a much better writer than I am a talker. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of listening to me tell a story, chances are you left the fireside chat more confused and know less than before I started actually telling the story, especially once my Asperger’s kicks in and I start truly making no sense. Writing allows me to sit down and calmly and steadily wade through my thoughts and how to present them with the benefit of a delete key and the cut, copy and paste functions. And as far as a list of favourite writers goes, I approach that in the same way, I approach my list of favourite albums as opposed to favourite bands: I don’t have a running list of authors who I can’t live without. Compound that with the fact that I hardly, if ever, read fiction and that my favourite books are usually rooted in history, true crime, politics, sports, biography and music, my favourites usually end up being the products of someone who isn’t necessarily a prolific author like Stephen King or John Grisham. As for the world of music journalism, my favourite writers are the crop of colleagues at Decibel; they all rule and collectively are the best.
So now when did the idea come about to do a book on Immolation? How did you approach the guys about doing one and what were their reactions early on?
KSP: Actually, the idea for this book wasn’t even mine! A buddy of mine named Will Tarrant, who is an old friend of the band, messaged me one day. I think it was around the time Turned Inside Out, the Obituary book and David Vincent’s book were released and he was going off about how so-and-so has books written about them, why not Immolation? He listed out a bunch of reasons he felt Immo’s story should be captured in book form and because he knew me as a user of fancy written words and that I was also friendly with the band, how I should be the one to write about the band. Honestly, I wasn’t into the idea at first; this wasn’t because I disagreed with his reasoning and/or Immolation’s significance. My hesitation was because of the time it would take to do it and my lack of self-confidence in taking on a project like this. I’m a very busy and very lazy man! Will kept hounding me to where I essentially said, ‘If I mention the idea to Albert [Mudrian] at Decibel, will you please get off my back?’ I mentioned the idea to Albert, Albert was intrigued enough by my recycling of Will’s list of bullet points to ask me to throw together a loose chapter skeleton which I did and he was into it. At this point, I had the Mudrian advance green for the book, but I was still kind of wishy-washy about the project myself. I might not have all the details correct about the next part of the story, but it went something like this: supposedly, other people had been trying to get Immolation to commit to a chronicling of their history for several years and they always turned them down and said no for whatever reasons. At some point after Albert gave me the loose go-ahead, he was in touch with Bob and Ross and mentioned Decibel Books had someone who was going to write the Immo story. They still weren’t entirely on board until Albert revealed it was me who was going to author the book and then they were like, ‘Oh, if Kevin’s going to do it, then fuck yeah!’ From my perspective, it was like, all these people believe in me and are trusting me to do this, so I guess I’m doing this!
Now that the book is done, but not out as I type this, how long did it take you from when you started writing it until you finished it? How many pages is it?
KSP: I did my first book-related interview, with guitarist Alex Bouks, on June 27th, 2022 and submitted the final manuscript on July 1st, 2024. So, almost exactly two years. Of course, there was research, planning, contacting people about interviews and interview prep before that first interview. After I finished it and sent it in, it still had to go through several rounds of copy editing and revision, not to mention all the hard work involved by designer Mike Wohlberg to lay everything out, include and place photos and gussy it up with all the necessary imagery. As of my writing this, the book still hasn’t gone into the printing/manufacturing stage of the process (as far as I know, anyway), but I’ve been told it’s over 400 pages. My computer tells me the manuscript’s word count is 192,000 words.
Did any of the ex-members agree to be interviewed for the book and if so which ones?
KSP: I managed to track down and get most of the band’s ex-members to agree to be interviewed, everyone except for original drummer Neil Boback and original guitarist Tom Wilkinson. I came close with each, but for a variety of reasons, interviews with those two dudes didn’t happen. As I understand it, Bob ran into Neal somewhere in Yonkers sometime in the spring of 2024 and mentioned the book. He got the impression Neal was sort of into it, but when it came down to actually talking to me, he didn’t think there was much he had to add to the story. As far as Wilkinson goes…after he left the band, none of the other members had been in touch with him for 25 or so years. There was zero contact until the night he showed up at a NYC show in early 2022, which is central to the narrative of the book. I’ve heard so many rumours about why the relationship between Tom and the others disintegrated to that degree — good and bad, sketchy and boring, contentious and mutual — but the fact was that he dropped out of playing metal after leaving Immolation, so there wasn’t another band or much else tying him to the scene which meant it was easy for him to disappear as it was for the metal world to lose track of him. After a little bit of asking around/amateur detective work, I tracked down his email. When I finally got in touch with him, he seemed interested in being interviewed, going so far as to give me his phone number and a loose window of when he generally would be available to talk. The problem — one confirmed by Bob and Ross — is that Tom is a workaholic who knocks out 18-hour work days on the regular and that makes it tough to nail down a lengthy window or two of time to talk, even with my schedule being as flexible as it is. At one point, after being frustrated about him not following through on an agreed interview time, I just randomly called and got him on the phone, which in itself is a small triumph given that no one had seen or heard from him in a couple of decades. He said he was still into it, but I wasn’t able to nail down an interview time. After a couple more missed communiqués, I gave up. However, in talking with Bob and Ross about it, neither of them felt like there was a huge piece of the story’s puzzle missing by not having Tom’s voice included. Otherwise, I was able to talk to former drummers Craig Smilowski and Alex Hernandez, as well as ex-guitarist Bill Taylor. Both were down with participating and provided invaluable contributions to the story, especially Bill. He decided he wanted to do his interview via email, which we did in two parts, and the files totalled 50,000 words of incredible detail, everything from his own history and background and life pre-Immolation to some of the most fleshed out and awesome tour stories ever and his reasoning for why he left the band. It’s a shame I couldn’t have used and included everything he contributed, but I’ve read books shorter than the interview answers he provided!
I have known Ross, Bob, and Alex really well for easily over 20 years and the only member I don’t know very well is drummer Steve Shalaty, but I have met him a couple of times and he also seems very easygoing. Since the band has a long and huge history, how was that for you to do research early on?
KSP: Research for this was long, ongoing and at times very stressful, but also ultimately enjoyable and incredibly revelatory. As I mentioned above, part of the process was digging through boxes of zines and magazines that I had lying around to help piece together the band’s historical timeline. Talking to people, people volunteering their own stories and experiences with the band and the recollections the band themselves had all went into it. There were times when I thought I had the whole story down for a particular segment of their career only to have someone add, subtract, confirm or deny a new detail or I’d come across something that was only spoken of in an old magazine. One of the more frustrating things about this was when, for example, I’d talk to four different people about a particular incident or something that happened and I’d get four different recollections about what happened when it happened and why it happened. It’s pretty laughable when I sit back and think about it now, but when I was trying to be accurate, it did get pretty maddening at times.
Who were some of the non-members you interviewed or chatted with for inclusion in the book besides me?
KSP: I spoke to a whole host of friends, people the band had worked with and for, people who had worked for the band and other members from other bands who were loud and proud Immolation fans. These include, in no particular order: Anne Bowman, Nick Storch, Marco Barbieri, Jeff Tandy, Matt Medeiros, Robin Mazen, Mike Syzmanski, Tomas Fiala, Monte Conner, Harris Johns, Andreas Marschall, Brian Slagel, Travis Bacon, Lauren Merle, Danny Lilker and Paul Orofino as well as members of Blood Incantation, Morbid Angel, Nun Slaughter, Cannibal Corpse, Internal Bleeding, Cephalic Carnage, Gorguts and Black Anvil as well as everyone else I’m forgetting at the moment.
Looking back, was the book harder or easier than you thought it was going to be to write?
KSP: Harder than I thought, and I knew it was going to be pretty difficult before I even started working on it. There were several points along the timeline of the process that were ridiculously difficult and remained difficult — transcribing interviews has never been, and will never be, the sort of fun I look forward to — but there were far more moments that got easier and much more enjoyable as I figured how to work things out. Moving beyond the interview material and starting the writing was tough; it was something I stalled on a few times before I got into an operational method and groove that worked for me. The cutting and pasting of the raw interview material and adding a narrative and details around things was a lot of fun and something that got easier as I repeatedly refined my process. One difficult part was juggling the fact that I write for a good chunk of my living and juggling how to work on the Immo book after spending a day writing reviews, transcribing interviews and writing features. But probably the hardest part of the whole thing was how to approach the final chapter. Writing a book about a band that not only still exists but is right now probably and arguably at the apex of its popularity and methodology is a tough endeavour. My crystal ball is in the shop, so I have no idea what the future holds for the band and was concerned whether what I wrote was going to be relevant in the weeks, months, and years following. I rejigged the chapter a couple of times, spoke to Albert about what the hell it is I should be doing a couple of times and mulled over a giant handful of approaches until I settled on what I hope is something that works and neatly ties the band’s story up to now. Whether anyone else feels that way remains to be seen.
Were there many things that surprised you while interviewing the band members?
KSP: I don’t know if I’d say I was surprised, but it was a change of pace to have almost everyone I approached about being interviewed for the book super-happy and excitedly willing to be interviewed. There was little to none of the usual teeth-pulling that happens when trying to set up interviews with bands. The enthusiasm people had for Immolation was amazing and heartwarming. The willingness to share their stories about and love for the band was something I’ve rarely seen in an industry where jealousy and shit talking is rampant and people will slit your throat for a nickel. Also, the dudes in the band were remarkably positive which is amazing to think about when you think of all the missteps, mistakes missed opportunities and unmitigated bullshit they’ve endured over the years, is amazing and commendable as it is refreshing and infectious. This made it a marvellously positive experience all around and I hope that aspect of the collective Immolation personality and story comes through in the finished product.
Were there times while doing the book that you said to yourself, “What did I get myself into?”
KSP: Yes and no. Yes, because, as I said earlier, this wasn’t exactly my idea from the start and the busyness of my everyday life is only surpassed by how lazy I am. Plus, when you spend most of your days writing about metal, writing about metal is the last thing I want to do at the end of the day. No, because as much as I didn’t know what I was walking into, I knew what I was walking into, sort of. I like to think I’m pretty good at time management, even if other people do more with their wearing hours and might not agree with me on that. The only time I truly felt like I had bit off more than I could chew was when I agreed to write what ended up being a nine-chapter book for inclusion in the special edition of Blood Incantation’s new album. This coincided with the last couple of months I was supposed to be working on and putting the finishing touches on the Immolation book. That was a pretty crazy time, but somehow everything got done on time. Where there’s a will there’s a way!
When it was all done could you believe it was 400 pages plus?
KSP: For sure. It could have been longer if I had included all of Bill Taylor’s fully awesome and incredibly detailed tour stories and hadn’t made somewhat of an attempt to curtail my long-winded rambling. I’d like to point out that at the time of my writing this, between anything that the three copy editors and the band themselves did, I don’t know what sort of editing job has been done on what I submitted. Maybe it could have been longer.
Am I to assume you will not be writing another book anytime soon?
KSP: Not anytime soon. Writing and submitting two books within a couple of months of one another — while still contributing monthly to various magazines and embarking upon other writing projects — beat the crap out of me and what was left of my already sieve-like brain. It took me about a week before I wanted to listen to metal, let alone write anything. I’m still a little shell-shocked, not so much about writing, but sitting down to do interviews and go through the transcribing process. Not that that has stopped me haha. It’s the downside of continuing to live that piecework, freelance life, I guess. But I’m pretty used to it and I already have an idea for another book. Who knows if it will happen, if I’ll be able to pull it off, if I’ll get a go-ahead from anyone and/or people will be into it?
Now I saw that a bunch of people overseas were wondering if there is going to be any sort of distribution overseas because postage rates to get stuff mailed from the US would be as much as the cost of the book. To your knowledge is there going to be any?
KSP: Actually, someone sent me a screenshot the other day of an Instagram post saying that limited numbers of copies of the book have been made available for pre-order in Europe via Cult Never Dies
(cultneverdies.myshopify.com)
Given that Cult Never Dies is based in the UK, I don’t know if there are any Brexit rules and regulations that’ll have any impact on the shipping costs to locations outside of the UK, but I’m going to make an ignorant Canadian guess that they have things worked out efficiently and as best as possible over there.
Are there any parts that for some reason or other are not included in the book?
KSP: As mentioned above, I, unfortunately, left out a bunch of stuff that ex-guitarist Bill Taylor had to say and a handful of random stories from the band along the way either because of space considerations, because I couldn’t figure out a way to weave a particular story into the overall narrative flow or because the stories themselves seemed a lot more interesting when being talked about but didn’t translate well onto the printed page. For many of the same reasons, some stories are only briefly mentioned in the book that, in their raw interview form, are loaded with detail to an excruciating point. This isn’t to say that I scrimped on detail in the stuff that made it into the book or shied away from the bumps and warts that have been as much of Immolation’s career as the good stuff.
Do you think that there are going to be many or any things that Immolations fans are going to be surprised at when they finish this book?
KSP: When Bob and Ross were reading the final versions of the chapters as I was working on them, one of the things they said was that I made them and their story come across as a lot more interesting than even they thought! So, in that sense, I think people will be able to catch on to just how down-to-earth and humble they are as people; that their undisputed status as The Nicest Guys in Death Metal is not a public persona and those character traits have been there all along and even since they were kids. I know that in psychology circles the ‘nature-nurture’ debate will never, ever be decided one way or the other, but I gotta say that the Vigna, Dolan, Shalaty and Bouks parents raised some goddamn decent people. Also, I think people will be taken aback at how positive the band has been able to remain in the face of all the crap they’ve thrown at them and endured during their time in the music industry. For Immolation, even though self-deprecation is an art form, it’s always one step forward even when the dumbest and shittiest things happen to them.
Now is it also going to be for sale as a PDF file or downloadable release besides a paperback? Will the book be for sale in any book chains like Barnes and Noble here in the USA? How about Amazon?
KSP: Couldn’t tell you.
Please plug any websites that will have the book for sale.
KSP: Obviously, Decibel will have it for pre-order and sale at
Also, as mentioned above, Europeans who want to pay European shipping prices instead of the arm and a leg it’ll cost to send it overseas can order it from
I’m not entirely sure how Decibel Books’ distribution chain works and if they farm out copies to other websites or not, but I can tell you when Immo tours North America in the fall of 2025, they will have copies available for sale. Stop by the merch table and pick one up, you never know who’ll be selling them.
Kevin horns up for doing the interview. I am sure the book will be a huge success and I can’t wait to read it. Any last words to wrap this interview up?
KSP: Thanks for the interview, it was interesting and different being on the other side of the interrogation light. Also, thank you as well as for your participation and insights in being interviewed for the book yourself. Immolation’s story is an interesting one, but it’s interesting and compelling not because of anything salacious, fantastical or ribald. Their story is wholesome, borderline G-rated, the kind of thing you could share with non-metal folks and as an example of the dichotomy that exists between what the public sees and hears versus what goes on behind the scenes. It’s a story of hard work, friendship and love of music that continues to this day. I hope I was able to do that story and everyone involved in and with the band justice and that anyone who decides to pick up a copy of the book up enjoys it.
