[This is a first here on Smartass Radio - a guest blog. This is by author R.A. Riekki who is America's first real metal novelist. His debut novel, U.P.,is available from Ghost Road Press.The book is an insane romp through Michigan's Upper Peninsula. If you're sick of Chuck Palahniuk, or if you like metal, rap or punk, or if you have cerebral palsy, or if you grew up in the shitty part of town, or if you just like to read really good, original novels, this is probably the book you've been waiting a long time for. Go buy it. Now. - DJ]

I can understand why DJ asked me to do a top five metal list, he’d just read my novel U.P., which features a character who is a huge metalhead.  And Ghost Road is offering me a four book deal in which in 2010 Ghost Road will release my novella A Portrait of the Artist as a Boogey Man, about a schizophrenic John Denver/Slayer fan, which will then be followed by two more books (I Hate It Here and Hunger and the Ass) in 2011 and 2012 in which metal is referenced throughout.  But, still, when DJ asked me to do a top five list of metal albums from 1989, I initially got a bit nervous.  How do you narrow down to five?  On my web site, I started listing my top ten favorite artists I’m listening to right now and I haven’t been able to stop.  I’m over a hundred already.  And it’s a huge list–everything from Kerli‘s “Walking on Air” to At the Drive-in‘s “One Armed Scissor” to Lyle Lovett‘s “North Dakota” to The Fast Computers “Gravitylove.“  I just love music.  Always have.  Intensely.  I don’t fully know why.  I just do.

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R.A. Riekki‘s new book U.P. is available on Ghost Road Press. It’s really the best book I’ve read since the first time I read Choke. I’m not just blowing smoke up his ass, it’s really that good. What follows is a 45 minute interview conducted on December 18, 2008. We cover topics as diverse as his recent stint teaching lifers in an Alabama prison to how Slayer and Ice Cube helpd shaped the characters of the novel. It’s really one of our best interviews yet. You do NOT want to skip this one. You can purchase the book at Ghost Road Press, Amazon or at various retail outlets throughout the county.

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