From the pages of scrawlshop zine & THC Zine v.03
by: Rx Zenabi
In 1997, Gummo, a movie set in Xenia, Ohio by aspiring young director Harmony Korine was featured in Metal Maniacs. More specifically, the soundtrack, which was reviewed by Jeff Wagner, appeared on the OG metal magazine.
Featuring an eclectic and brutal lineup of death, black, doom, stoner, dark ambient, experimental, powerviolence, and classical music, it was like no other soundtrack and compilation before it. Although there have been major motion picture soundtracks that featured some underground metal or experimental stuff, none of it was as extreme as this, and on a major label at that.
Gummo was a weird indie film involving these two kids, Tummler and Solomon, and their misadventures with bizarre characters in Ohio’s rural area. It had snippets of them huffing paint, killing cats for quick bucks, encountering a prostitute kid with down syndrome, destructive tornadoes, bacon taped to the bathroom wall, among others. Interweaving in this lysergic trip was a bullied bunny boy and three sisters in the same neighborhood.
It also features a magnificent scene of these part-time cat hunters gliding a long sloping street with Sleep’s “Dragonaut” blasting in the background. Gummo is the ultimate stoner hesher’s flick while bombing huge bonghits in your hotboxed basement room.
Currently ranked in at 34% at rottentomatoes.com (now 39% in 2025), one review exclaimed “A glue-sniffer’s reverie and an aestheticized episode of Beavis & Butthead, explicitly and bracingly set up as an act of cinematic vandalism”. Oh and yeah for some reason it fn rules too in a primal, black metal, Neanderthal, total mindF through wrong imaging way.
The Soundtrack
Assembled in a once in a lifetime soundtrack disc is the elite club of noise makers deemed worthy enough for the unholy black disc of epic kvlt proportions. Of course the aforementioned Sleep is in here, this was pressed by London Records for chrissakes (who of course released the monumental “Jerusalem” CD), and also the label that would make them fold months later.
Most of the tracks in this soundtrack were recorded exclusively for the compilation. According to a scrawlshop zine interview with Spazz, they were requested by the producers to contribute one song, the payment for which, they used to go on tour after. Other songs such as those from Sleep, Bathory, and Mystifier, were taken from their most recognized cult classics.
Ahem,the mighty list of course is:
1. Absu – “The Gold Torques Of Ulaid”
2. Eyehategod – “Serving Time In The Middle Of Nowhere”
3. Electric Hellfire Club – “D.W.S.O.B (Devil Worshipping Son Of a Bitch)”
4. Spazz – “Gummo Love Theme”
5. Bethlehem – “Schuld Uns’res Knoch’rigen Faltpferd”
6. Burzum – “Rundgang Um Die Transzendentale Säule Der Singularität”
7. Bathory – “Equimanthorn”
8. Dark Noerd – “Smokin’ Husks”
9. Sleep – “Dragonaut”
10. Brujería – “Matando Gueros 97”
11. Namanax – “The Medicined Man”
12. Nifelheim – “Hellish Blasphemy”
13. Mortician – “Skin Peeler”
14. Mystifier – “Give The Human Devil His Due”
15. Destroy All Monsters – “Mom’s And Dad’s Pussy”
16. Bethlehem – “Verschleierte Irreligiosität”
17. Mischa Maisky – “Suite No.2 For Solo Cello In D Minor Prelude”
18. Sleep – “Some Grass”
19. Rose Shepherd & Ellen M. Smith – “Jesus Loves Me”
Despite a lot of weird and f’ed up imagery (and maybe total wrong-ness at times) the movie was some sort of a kvlt hit. It was one of the (then) rare times a semi major indie connects with the underground metal scene but in a major way: a solid collaboration of sorts.
The equally absurd imagery and situations perfectly sync in with the songs and background music (Brighter Death Now is not included on the soundtrack though but appears in the movie). Unlisted cameos in the movie were:
* Burzum – “Rite Of Cleansure”
* Almeda Riddle – “My Little Rooster”
* Buddy Holly – “Everyday”
* Madonna – “Like a Prayer”
* Brighter Death Now – “Little Baby”
* Roy Orbison – “Crying”
The ending of the movie totally disintegrates anything else you have left, whether it’s pure hate of the film or a guilty like of it. Roy Orbison’s “Crying” chronicles the final scenes of pure joy, and impending doom in the form of huge tornadoes about to sweep Xenia, Ohio to the ground and up.
There are 7 black metal tunes here, 2 Sleep tunes and a collection of more evil lurking sounds the best the late nineties had. It was a period when a lot of really intense metal was proliferating in the underground. Absu, Bethlehem, Burzum, and Mystifier were at their peak, Nifelheim was just pure fn metal. Eyehategod was starting to rot their way into sludge king position and notoriety. Ian Christe of Dark Noerd buzzed our ears too. The filthier, more evil and more DIY noise and metal were also starting to get traction. It was a perfect film and soundtrack combination that hasn’t been matched since.
Towards Harmonious Civilization Zine 
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