Municipal Waste's Ryan Waste Picks 5 Favorite Horror Films | Page 2 | Revolver

Municipal Waste's Ryan Waste Picks 5 Favorite Horror Films

Italian demons, shocking body horror and beyond
municipal waste ryan waste horror 1 for revolver, Ryan Waste
Courtesy of Ryan Waste

Revolver has teamed up with Municipal Waste for an exclusive, limited-edition white vinyl variant of their new album, Electrified Brain. Grab yours now before they're gone!

Municipal Waste are well known for loving the best things in life … like partying, professional wrestling, beer and, of course, thrash metal.

Since their 2003 debut, Waste 'Em All, the Richmond, Virginia crew have consistently dropped absolute crushing love letters to classic crossover thrash metal. Their seventh and newest installment, Electrified Brain, is due to arrive on July 1st (via Nuclear Blast), and — as you can hear below from the raging debut single "Grave Dive" — two decades into their career and their passion for thrash shows no sign of fading.

The band — vocalist Tony Foresta, guitarists Ryan Waste and Nick Poulos, bassist Philip "Landphil" Hall and drummer extraordinaire Dave Witte — are also pretty fucking enamored of horror movies. (I mean, have you seen the "Slime and Punishment" or "Headbanger Face Rip" videos?)

We recently caught up with Waste to get his picks for the five greatest horror flicks of all time. Read the guitarist's selections below.

5. Black Roses (1988)

The heavy-metal horror genre is by far my favorite, so much that I wrote an original screenplay which I plan to co-direct in the near future. There are a handful of films that stand out such as Trick or Treat, Rocktober Blood, Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare and Hard Rock Zombies, but I always come back to this one as the template. Made in the heart of the Satanic Panic, it's an age-old yarn that rock & roll is evil, yet wildly entertaining no matter who's side you're on. This one moves at a captivating pace, has killer practical effects, a heavy soundtrack and enough humor to also land it on my list of the top unintentionally hilarious horror movies.  

4. Society (1989)

A classy piece on the social elite, yet not for the faint of heart or any weak-stomached individual. This was my introduction to the F/X wizardry of Screaming Mad George which completely sucked me in.

3. Demons (1985)

An Italian horror masterpiece originally known as Démoni co-written by Dario Argento and director Lamberto Bava has always been a staple of mine. I even have a replica of the mask from the film and a tattoo to boot. I'm a sucker for any horror movie with heavy metal on the soundtrack and this one has several bangers, including Accept's speed-metal anthem "Fast as a Shark" and the relentless ripper "Night Danger" by Pretty Maids.

2. Videodrome (1983)

Cronenberg's twisted and provocative imagination left a lasting effect on me and proves how dangerous a VHS tape can be! Rick Baker's special makeup effects were a total inspiration for our music video, "Slime and Punishment" directed by Norman Cabrera. 

1. Phantasm (1979)

This untouchable classic will always be my number one. The tone, the characters, its haunting theme and genesis of the story, which came to writer/director Don Coscarelli in a dream, encompass everything that a ghastly film should aspire to be. Its shadow is forever cast on the headstone of horror, which is why we paid tribute by sampling it on our album Hazardous Mutation.