BLOOD CULT

Nothing dominates Central Illinois like corn. Mile upon mile of leafy green rows spurt from the fertile soil here and in the fall, the wispy rattle of dried cornstalks fills the night air. Farming is the lifeblood of this peaceful placid domain.

But Stephen King told us that evil sometimes stalks those endless rows and the small towns that dot the landscape have dark secrets. Mr. J.R. Preston would agree. This multi-talented fellow has made a career of chronicling the darkness of rural Illinois with his “redneck black metal” project BLOOD CULT. Don’t expect to hear a blizzard of wintry tones or odes to Viking gods from this outfit. There’s a much more down home aspect to BLOOD CULT’s sinister tales. The kind generated by a place like Moweaqua, IL, the home of Mr. Preston.

The latest BLOOD CULT opus is “We’re Gonna Take Your Soul”, released on Preston’s own Illinoisan Thunder label. With me being a fellow inhabitant of the cursed Land of Lincoln, it was a natural step for me to track down J.R. and interrogate him about the story of BLOOD CULT. Which I will now reveal unto you...

WORMWOOD CHRONICLES: Greetings, J.R.! A fellow citizen of rural Illinois here...I grew up surrounded by cornfields and forests. How did your rural roots lead you to the heavy metal path?

J.R. PRESTON: Oh, a fellow Illinoisan! Hello, fellow dweller in hell. 

My older sister is responsible for my love of heavy metal. Metal was still big back when I was a little kid so I borrowed her QUIET RIOT, RATT, and TWISTED SISTER records. I figured if the older girls liked this shit, it must be the best music ever. I was convinced they had impeccable taste in everything. They teased their hair just as high as the bands did. 

I was fascinated. Each year I found heavier bands. It probably helped that I was raised Roman Catholic, and Christianity furled its collective brow at rock and metal. The Church considered it Satanic. If metal was good enough for Satan, and all the cool high school chicks, then it was good enough for me. It was a natural thing. Pure osmosis. Of course, later on, the kids that were rockers or metalheads morphed into hip hop, grunge, and pop country fans. I stuck to metal, and since it wasn’t big anymore, I was now an outcast! I lost friends over MERCYFUL FATE. It was so Satanic they never talked to me again. That’s a lot of power for music to have, so I figured I made the right choice sticking to the powerful music while everyone else quirkily danced their lives away to hells I’ve never experienced. 

WC: I would suspect you’re one of the few...if not the only...metalheads in Moweaqua. What are some of the pluses and minuses of this situation for you?

JRP: There were definitely metalheads in Moweaqua. Some of them were metalheads because I turned them on to metal! Moweaqua was a good place to grow up. It taught me what not to do. The cops followed me around town all the fucking time. I wore heavy metal shirts, so they fucked with me. You end up being driven crazy by that kind of stuff. They would straight up harass the fucking living shit out of the metalheads. 

Though I met a lot of good people who still remain my friends to this day, I can say 100% that town sucked. It was all a minus. The only thing I wanted to do was move. Couldn’t wait to get out of that hellhole. 

WC: I live in the far north of Illinois. It seems the further south you go in the state, the more folklore and eerie tales there are. What was some of the local folklore and ghost stories that influenced BLOOD CULT?

JRP: There were many strange stories I grew up with. A coal mine exploded in the 1930s and killed 54 men on Christmas Eve, so that led to all kinds of ghost stories and stuff. Moweaqua is a morbid little son of a bitch of a town. We lived in a few different houses directly on top of the vein that exploded, and I had personal experiences with what people would call ghosts or spirits. My family was religious but carried over the very old practices of spiritism from the 1800s. Dowsing, seances, mysticism, ouija, all that stuff. 

The prevailing legend was that a group of people that operated a cult that would meet out in the woods at night in the country. This was in Shelby County in an area called Camelight, right outside the town where I grew up. Since I went to school with a few of the kids that lived around that area, I heard a ton of stories about this cult. When we got old enough to explore the area on our own, we found out they were sacrificing animals and building big fires underneath a bridge. We even found a little walled area near a creek with Satanic symbols everywhere, and they weren’t just graffiti, you know? They were fucking painted with care! The fires out in the forest were visible from the road at the right spot on the bridge. What sent chills up all of our spines was when my friend, who lived near the bridge, found a decapitated goat in his backyard. The head was on the porch and the body was out in the yard. 

It had been done with a knife.  

WC: There is a theme on some of the tunes on your new album “We’re Gonna Take Your Soul” of peer pressure, “Satanic Panic” and unreasoning fear. Is this something you’ve had experience with personally?

JRP: Yeah… I grew up in the Satanic Panic era. I mentioned it before, how the church didn’t want kids listening to rock or metal music. Personally, I was horribly bullied by the cops and teachers, just because I listened to metal. There were a few older kids who tried to bully me over it too. 

I was used to it already, though.  I was Roman Catholic. The Christians in small towns consider Catholicism to be Satanic. They considered me a Satanist long before I was bringing the Satanic Bible to school to provoke everyone. My Literature teacher in high school told me I was damned because I was Catholic. The Christian Church down there had a stranglehold on everyone’s brains. The mental disconnect you must have to separate yourselves into different sects, all thinking the other guy’s Jesus is the wrong one, it’s way beyond comprehension. 

The anti-metal movement they tried to get going was laughable as it turned every one of us who wasn’t scared easily, into metalheads. It was all a fucking carry-over from the 1950s, when the white pastors didn’t want the little white children listening to rock music made by black people. These people are all garbage, racist, fucked up pieces of shit. Religion is a bitch.

“We’re Gonna Take Your Soul” is a song by song examination of the Satanic Panic era. I don’t know another way to put it. It’s a bit of a departure for BLOOD CULT, as we’re known as the guys who mix country and southern rock with black metal, and here’s this concept album full-on embracing every single piece of music I grew up liking, within the context of the negative side of growing up under the blood-soaked shit-eating banner of Christianity. I guess it was something I just had to get out of my brain.

WC: The press sheet describes the BLOOD CULT sound as “redneck black metal”. Are you comfortable with that description? What are some of the black metal influences on your sound?

JRP: Oh yeah, I’m okay with it. We play redneck black metal, that’s what we always did. Country rhythm, southern rock guitar solos and honky tonk piano mixed with black metal. We had a song called “Redneck Black Metal” on our debut album, and that title stuck. We created a little American space for ourselves within the confines of a very European genre. 

“We’re Gonna Take Your Soul” definitely still has touches of it while existing in its own concept album vacuum but if you really want to hear it redneck black metal on display in its purest form you have to go back an album to “Tomb of the Unknown Redneck” or even further to older stuff. My blackest influence was MERCYFUL FATE. People don’t consider them Black Metal, I do.  Second wave was started by BATHORY, so definitely they stick out as another of my blackest influences. VENOM. CELTIC FROST. The shit everyone likes. The bands I like most within the modern genre are SIGH, DARKTHRONE, MUTIILATION, FLEURETY, stuff like that. I loved DARKTHRONE way back - their first four albums were released when I was in high school. SIGH’s first album, MAYHEM’s best album, BURZUM’s bullshit, all that stuff came out when I was a teenager. It was highly incendiary music, and forward thinking, except for BURZUM, which was definitely not forward thinking at all. That dude set metal back 100 years. 

WC:Is there one particular song on the new album that you are especially proud of or that means a little bit more to you?

JRP: Nah, I can’t pick anything. I’m in love with all my music, otherwise I wouldn’t do it. I don’t know if I’m proud of any of of it. That’s a strong word that I wouldn’t relate to the experience of being a musician. I’m proud I’m not in prison! Some of my friends said “No Escape from Rock” is a good song. They have pretty good taste so, I’m not going to argue. 

WC: I understand you are ordained as a Gnostic minister. Can you explain a little more of your beliefs and what the Church of Tjolgtjar is about? Have you gotten any pushback locally on these beliefs?

JRP: I am an ordained minister who subscribes to a certain sub-sect of Gnosticism that is different from the mainstream version. I would be best described by a follower of any Abrahamic faith as a Satanist. I have gotten pushback on everything from outsiders. My close friends and family do not hold anything against me despite our extreme philosophical differences. Two priests from the local Diocese turned me on to Gnosticism. They’re dead now, so I feel okay saying that.I greatly respect them, but make no mistake: What I practice in the eyes of the church is Satanism, Black Magic, period. There’s no escaping it. 

Learning from them, I stylized my own rituals based for the most part around Crowley’s work. During a ouija session the word Tjolgtjar was repeatedly spelled, to the point that it got boring to see it. It just kept fucking going. Usually it’s the old SOSO or ZOZO that comes through in a BORING loop, but not a word like TJOLGTJAR.  This interested me, to the point I became obsessed. The lay Christian would most likely assert that in addition to being obsessed I became POSSESSED too. 

The Church of Tjolgtjar’s basic beliefs are that ouija, dowsing, channeling, music performance, automatic writing and electronic devices can be used to communicate with a specific group of beings. 

That’s another story for a different day.  

WC: There’s also some blues and Southern rock influences to be heard on “We’re Gonna Take Your Soul”. Who are some of the artists in these genres that inspired you?

JRP: Chuck Berry, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Albert King, Keith Richards, CREAM, AMBOY DUKES, John Fogerty, Hendrix, ALLMANSs, SKYNYRD before they were a tribute band, Chico Banks, THE DOOBIES, etc..

WC:. Is BLOOD CULT your only musical outfit or do you play in other bands/projects?

JRP: My other main bands are ENBILULUGUGAL, TJOLGTJAR, and XEXYZ. There are other projects too, which can be found at our label Illinoisan Thunder.  

WC:  I understand you’ve got a connection to pro wrestling! This is also a big interest of mine. Tell us a little more about this and what wrestlers you were involved with?

JRP: Pro wrestling was huge to me as a kid and I’m glad I have a connection to it. I made a series of cartoons for the Iron Sheik called “Little Iron Sheik” years ago during Sheik’s resurgence from… I think 2007ish, until now. Even though he’s gone he’s still influencing everyone. Hawk Tuah Girl, she stole his fucking gimmick! I also did a few cartoons for New Jack called “Little New Jack.” 

My gimmick in animation was making everyone little, like a little kid, and then I’d take what these wrestlers said in shoot interviews and tweak it so it sounded small. 

Rest in peace New Jack, Iron Sheik, and a guy I never made cartoons for but who was the coolest dude, Tracy Smothers. These guys didn’t know how happy they made me just by allowing me to be around them.That was such a fun time. I get extremely nostalgic thinking back.  

WC: Does BLOOD CULT play live or is it pretty much a studio only project? I know you play virtually everything on record, but is there a live version of the band?

JRP: BLOOD CULT started as a band in my mom’s garage when I was a teenager, and was a band until around 2019 when I took it over. No one from the old lineups wanted to join me for new albums. Metal is a hobby for most. I’m the only one left still playing music at this point. I didn’t want to start another band because I don’t need to. It was natural to do it all myself since I was doing that in TJOLGTJAR anyway. I want to play live again and if there are musicians who want to play my music, I will be back out there doing it.

WC: What are some of the art & animation projects you’re involved with? Is there a site where folks can see your work?

JRP: Little Iron Sheik and Little New Jack are on Youtube. I did videos for BLOOD CULT, TJOLGTJAR, XEXYZ. I worked on the 2014 Iron Sheik documentary film “Sheik.” Look for me in the credits beside such names as Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Jack Black, Hulk Hogan, Jimmy Hart, Howard Stern… such a weird existence!

I also like to paint, acrylic on canvas. I sell my work locally and online, in fact, your question reminded me I have a bunch of paintings I need to get moving on selling. They’re sitting in the garage calling to me. 

WC:. Have you got any idea of what’s next for BLOOD CULT after the current album cycle?

JRP: More music. I have a ton of TjJOLGTJAR stuff coming out, too. 

WC:If you could have dinner with any 3 people from history, who would they be?

JRP:I would like to travel to the 1600s, meet Matthew Hopkins, and kill him. 

I would like to cook, and eat, Stalin for dinner. 

I’d love to have a light breakfast with Edgar Cayce. 

WC:Any last words or messages for the faithful out there?

JRP: Thanks for listening to my music. 

BLOOD CULT