Armada. Thriving metropolis with a population including more than its healthy share of extreme heavy metal aficionados. Which is why this city is the ideal location to kick off the inaugural tour of mysterious death metal supergroup Undead Fleshcrave.
With a concert to play to a sold out venue the brutal metal collective have the metalhead denizens right in the palm of their hands, ready to unleash musical mayhem for Armada’s headbangers.
Among the capacity crowd are Seth, Mark, Julietta, Miranda and their friends, all of whom belong to a different metal community to the death metal crew, that of black metal. Nonetheless they all have more than a casual interest to witness the must-see show which has been the talk of the town for weeks.
Only this headbangers heaven isn’t going to be any ordinary concert. It is about to turn into headbangers hell.
Undead Fleshcrave have a little thing they call The Zombie Trigger which is going to be unveiled right here in Armada, and all true death heads are going to be treated to an orgy of bloody brutality and terror beyond any of the ultra-violent lyrics in the songs they adore.
Hopelessly ensnared in the crush of a concert turned cruel trap, Seth and company are just about to find Armada has been earmarked as the epicentre of a deliberately planned out undead apocalypse.
And this is only the beginning. Undead Fleshcrave have a calculated plan which will see them continuing their tour of terror all across the country, bringing the Zombie Trigger and its undead repercussions to every town they visit.
Unless somebody can figure out how to stop them.
Professional Reviews
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What happens when zombie fiction and the world of metal collide? Undead Fleshcrave: The Zombie Trigger, that's what! Jim Goforth's Splatterpunk style works brilliantly in this lengthy novel about a band (Undead Fleshcrave) who turn their audience into the living dead when they play 'The Zombie Trigger' luckily, group of friends mange to briefly escape the carnage of the show. Jim drops plenty of names and makes plenty of references in this no-holds-barred gorefest of a novel. His passion for heavy music and horror is what really makes this book shine and I can imagine he had a ball writing it. It's a large book but Goforth keeps the pace fast and furious. Gore drips from the pages in what is a more than welcome addition to the z-fiction genre. If you like Splatterpunk, metal and zombies, then you need this book. Heaps of fun. Loved it. 5 stars.
You're better off if you prefer your metal black
I am a long time fan of Jim Goforth's extreme horror novels and stories, having immensely enjoyed Plebs and With Tooth and Claw. Undead Fleshcrave continues the tradition of uniquely imaginative action-packed page-turners that he is becoming known for. The premise of the book is a genocidal conspiracy of the evil company Global Death, which has discovered a method of transforming death metal aficionados into ravenous zombies by incorporating an instrumental and vocal zombie trigger into the music of their new mega-band Undead Fleshcrave. While the zombie trigger is only capable of converting death metal fans, once these headbangers are transformed, their scratches and bites can convert any other person with whom they come in contact, regardless of the victim's musical leanings. By this means the zombie scourge is unleashed on the general population in epidemic proportions. Non-death metal fans in the concert audience provide fast food for the newly transformed zombies, making Undead Fleshcrave concerts gruesome affairs indeed.
Seth and several of his friends are black metal aficionados who innocently attend Undead Fleshcrave's debut concert in the doomed city of Armada. The zombie trigger is a hideous cacophony of noise that produces nausea and physical illness on non-death metal fans, but does not convert them into zombies. Seth's group is surrounded and attacked by the flesh eaters and several of them are torn to pieces and devoured. Several others are lost in the chaotic riot that follows the concert, while Seth and a few of his cohorts are rescued by Black, Tempest, and Blizzard, members of the black metal band Subversion. These band members, along with four militant female followers, have become aware of Gobal Death's apocalyptic conspiracy and formed a mission to prevent it by killing the members of Undead Fleshcrave.
Seth and his friends get sucked into the counter-conspiracy, and join the Subversion team in pursuing Undead Fleshcrave in their city-hopping tour of destruction. What follows is a story of non-stop action as the protagonists follow the trail of blood and mayhem and and move ever-closer to the Undead Fleshcrave band members. Seth finds his true love in Scarlett, one of Subversion's female followers, and in the rare interludes between pursuing the band and fighting zombies, an intense sexual relationship develops.
The reader never knows which character will die next. As in George R.R. Martin's books, being a protagonist is no guarantee that a character will live to see tomorrow. An enjoyable, but tension-ridden comaraderie builds between the characters replete with shifting loyalties that continually keep the reader guessing.
Readers who get squeamish at the prospect of fountains of gore and body parts littered across the landscape might be well advised to seek milder fare. But for extreme horror and zombie apocalypse fans, Undead Fleshcrave should be your cup of tea. Perhaps the most disturbing scene is when a group of renegade cops capture our protagonists at an out of the way gas station, and decide to execute them all on the chance that they might turn into zombies. But first, of course, they will enjoy the bounty of the sexy leather-clad hotties including Seth's flame Scarlett. At least that's their plan . . .
The final scenes present a suspenseful relentless escalation of the action as the pursuers close in on the pursued, who have no intention of going down without wreaking maximum havoc. This book is a great diversion and a lot of fun. I wish I knew more about the death metal and black metal sub-genres, because I sense there is a satire on the music scene incorporated into these pages. However, it's not necessary to be into heavy metal music to thoroughly enjoy this book.
All Hail The Zombie Trigger!!!
I received a copy of Fleshcrave directly from Jim Goforth in exchange for an honest review and all I really had at the time to go on was the cover art and the realization that Jim had a new book coming out. If you've followed my reviews on Goodreads or even here you're probably aware that his novel Plebs was one of my favorite novels of 2014. Now I'm looking at Fleshcrave and I can't help but think; What if it sucks? It's a valid question because even guys like Stephen King have a bad year right? Then I began to read it, and I breathed a sigh of relief because nothing has changed. This is one hell of a horror novel and while we all kid Jim about his huge word count the fact is I'm grateful for it. Jim writes novels the size of phone books and that's not a bad thing because the guy doesn't want to feel as if he's shortchanged his readers. His books easily top over 400 pages but there's a solid story that chugs along and the detail that Goforth gives strengthens his work. You're able to immerse yourself in the story and get to know the characters. A simple one hundred page book would not do us or Undead Fleshcrave any justice.
Zombie novels are a dime a dozen and while most stay true to the mythos, Goforth takes a wide left and injects a huge dose of originality into it. What he's done is merged his love of metal into his horror. If you're a fan of horror and metal you'll love this because as a fan you'll get the death and back metal influences, and if you're not it's okay. It's still a classic horror novel that reminds us that if done correctly you can make any genre seem fresh and new. Jim has given the zombie genre a much needed kick in the ass and has put his own stamp on it and it works. Fleshcrave is the kind of zombie novel that is violent and brilliant in its delivery and execution. As a writer Goforth knows exactly how to tell a story. As you read it your eyes remained glued to the pages.
All of his influences are present and accounted for so you know that when you read this it feels as if it could have been written in the 80's when horror was exciting and fresh It elevates itself above splatterpunk and just becomes a great horror novel. Goforth writes the kind of stuff that guys like Laymon used to create. It hits hard and fast and drags you along right up to its conclusion. This is a writer who loves horror and he writes for those who carry the horror banner even when it looks as if it's dying out. There are quite a few guys that write not because they think that horror is trendy. They write it because they love it and know that there are quite a few of us who remember just how great horror can be. Zombie purists may get a little butthurt that Jim doesn't follow the rules that others have created but what he's written is unique and a lot of fun to read. Zombie novels don't have to follow the rules. It's okay to be different and Goforth proves that with Undead Fleshcrave.
In the end they'll all be dancin'--all them ones that didn't die.... Dance with me in the shadows amidst the lightning and the thunder, and all that nu-cu-lar debris. See the big bang from the other side, and then open that cellar door. Go down into
The Butcher's Boy
- 2011 Readers Favorite Award Silver Medal Winner in Horror - Fiction
A Paranormal/Chiller by Michael Robb
Thirty-one years ago, Buxly the Butcher went to trial for killing h
