Grim – My Way To Hell

Getting GRIM: Carl Begai Takes On Heaven & Hell

Following is an excerpt from a very recent interview with Yers Trooly conducted by veteran and downright awesome author / musician Joel Gausten…

For more than two decades, Carl Begai has been a leading voice in Metal journalism. Whether he’s reporting on acts all over the world for BraveWords.com / Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles (BW&BK) or offering various musings on CarlBegai.com, he consistently provides an in-depth, unpretentious and often amusing take on the world of music. Now, he is preparing to steer his work in a GRIM new direction.

Boasting cover art by former BW&BK graphic artist Hugues Laflamme, GRIM – My Way To Hell is Begai’s first work of fiction and his first book since 2008’s Fire and Fame (with Bonfire’s Joerg Deisinger). He has been “dabbling” with GRIM since 2011, when he was inspired to start putting words together after watching The Devil’s Advocate with Al Pacino. In one pivotal scene, Pacino – in the role of The Devil – delivers a powerful speech on how God is “an absentee landlord” when it came to caring for humanity.

“That is my favorite Pacino moment,” Begai says. “That’s where the idea of the book came from.”

Fans of Begai’s work received their first tease of GRIM when he posted the book’s prologue on his website in 2012.

“The premise behind the book is that the world is such an ugly place and Hell is so busy that they decided to outsource in order to collect all the souls that need collecting. One specific guy more or less got sucked into doing the job, which goes against his own morals. He has real issues with that, and he has real issues with the idea of Heaven and Hell – plus the fact that people are looking for an easy way out by being willing to sacrifice their souls. It’s a first-person take on this seemingly ludicrous idea of God and the Devil, but it turns out that it actually does exist.” Continue reading Getting GRIM: Carl Begai Takes On Heaven & Hell

GRIM – My Way To Hell Kickstarter Campaign Underway… And It Needs A Boost

“You know all is not well when Hell resorts to outsourcing to close deals made with the Devil. Or in this case, a guy named Stan.”

That’s the tagline for my new would-be book, a work of fiction entitled GRIM – My Way To Hell. I launched a 30 day Kickstarter campaign a little over two weeks ago in an attempt to raise pre-order funds to finance its publication. If all goes well, the book will be released in October 2016.

Some people might remember, however, that I condemned the idea of crowdfunding in my BraveWords year-end write up back in 2014, which makes me something of a hypocrite. Funny how things come back to bite you in the ass when you least expect it. The problem is I’ve had this book burning a hole in my brain for the last few years, and real life being what it is, saving the funds needed to publish a book independently with a limited income is next to impossible. So, I’ve had to swallow my pride. We’re going to see what happens with this, and if the campaign fails I’ll have to go back and do things the hard way.

Cover art for the book was created by former BW&BK graphic artist Hugues Laflamme, while the video trailer above features music composed exclusively for the project by After Forever guitarist / death vocalist Sander Gommans. The voiceover was provided by Trillium / Avantasia vocalist Amanda Somerville. It was shot and edited by video director Andreas Spitz. Continue reading GRIM – My Way To Hell Kickstarter Campaign Underway… And It Needs A Boost

GRIM – Screenshots For One Hell Of A Video Trailer

So yeah, I’ve been all about trying to publish this book independently for the last few years and it has been a very slow process. The writing itself wasn’t an issue, although I discovered some fantastically awful grammatical errors when I went back to look at the manuscript some six months after the fact. I dragged my feet putting together a Kickstarter campaign to finance the book, as I have publicly denounced crowdfunding in the past, but realized that it’s the only way I’m ever going to (hopefully) secure the funds to publish. Back in January I foolishly announced March 15th as the Kickstarter launch even though I didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle assembled. My pride took a beating when those plans fell through and I’m still eating my words.

It was plan from the very beginning to have a video trailer to advertise the Kickstarter campaign. One thing the music biz has taught me is Promote Or Die, and video is seemingly the best way to go in this day and age. Finding someone to do the work proved to be a problem, however, as the one soul who promised big and brash and bold things took a powder when he realized I wasn’t kidding about going through with it. Either that or the music composed by Sander Gommans (After Forever, HDK) scared the bejeezus out of him and sent him running with his award-winning tail between his legs. Trying to find someone else to do the job took a few months of hair pulling, one profanity-laced rant on Facebook, and a phone call from Rock & Royalty photo god Heiko Roith who introduced me to a colleague we’ll call Spitz for the time being. Continue reading GRIM – Screenshots For One Hell Of A Video Trailer

GRIM – My Way To Hell: Kickstarter Campaign Launches March 15th, 2016

So, shit just got real.

Yes indeed, after months and months (and months) of dragging my Size 8 feet I’ve finally taken the plunge and decided to publish my first official book independently, or feel ridiculous in the attempt. And in spite of the fact I’ve dumbed down the concept of pledge campaigns like Kickstarter and GoFundMe, etc. I’ve been forced to out myself as a hypocrite and take that route if I’m ever gonna get the damn thing out there.

Folks that know my name probably picked it up fom BraveWords.com, where I’ve worked as one of the the key writers as a so-called authority on heavy metal for the last 20 years (dating back to when we were the most awesome print magazine, BW&BK). Either that or they remember bullying me in high school. Some of the bodies that know of Grim – My Way To Hell’s existence have asked me why I’m releasing a work of fiction rather than doing something better suited to my music journalist roots, and the short answer is that’s been covered by my esteemed peers like Martin Popoff, Joel McIver, Joel Gausten and a host of other rivet-heads. Not that I have anything against doing up a band / artist biography, but until a direct request comes from a musician to do so I believe I’ll stay out of that end of the pool.

But, if there’s one thing the music industry has taught me is that projects live and die by promotion. Thus, with a March 15th, 2016 date set for the launch of my 30 day Kickstarter campaign it makes sense to start attracting attention now. Thanks to the assistance of some ridiculously awesome friends, pieces of this puzzle are being assembled and will be unleashed over the course of the next two months. In addition, I will be making updates to this page every couple days offering book related odds-and-bits. Continue reading GRIM – My Way To Hell: Kickstarter Campaign Launches March 15th, 2016