Formed about one year ago, Massive Nightmares started life first as a trio and now a quartet. The band members (Tom Ciesluk, Myke Doyle, Alex Heinz, and Pat Lavalle) have played in a variety of bands previously, including Great Lakes USA, No Trigger, Save Ends, and David New Joy. That experience shows on the band’s new album, a self-titled and self-released EP out Sept. 6.
The EP was record in February 2024 with Trevor Reilly at Anchor End Studio and, since Reilly is best known in the punk scene as the guitarist of A Wilhelm Scream, the band decided to share some of their thoughts about their producer’s own body of work.
Drummer Myke Doyle of Massive Nightmares presents: “My Top 5 Records by A Wilhelm Scream”.
5
Career Suicide
“Wipe My Ass With Showbiz” and “The Horse” are still two of my favorite AWS tunes. There are no bad AWS records, but one of them has to be number five. This is also one of their fastest and punchiest records, so it's no surprise that I was listening to it on a run when I tripped and fell so hard that a nearby teacher asked me if she needed to call 911 while her students stood behind her and laughed at me. I was fiinnne!
4
Lose Your Delusion
This came out in 2022 and I admittedly didn't listen to it for a year, which was pretty fucking stupid of me. Lose Your Delusion rips and is the most dynamic and maybe most complete AWS record from start to finish. It features some of their best non-thrashy stuff (“Acushnet Avenue at Night,” “I'm Gonna Work It Out”) and has a ton of harmonies and clean vox which helps it stand out from some of their earlier stuff. I'm not saying anyone I know I'm smokes weed or anything, but if I were ranking the best Wilhelm record to get baked to, this would be number 1.
3
Mute Print
This was the first record with the classic AWS/Blasting Room sound post-Smackin Isaiah. If Smackin Isaiah was the best skatepunk band in your high school, Wilhelm was Propaghandi. Mute Print has some of the most iconic jams I still scream along to in my Hyundai Tuscon (“Famous Friends,” “Anchor End,” “Rip”). It also probably helped that this was the first record they recorded at the Blasting Room with Bill Stevenson. This was also right around the time the Blasting Room was recording Rise Against, Descendents, Propaghandi, and Comeback Kid, so Bill was having a pretty good run. Aside from being a jam, Anchor End is also the name of Trevor's studio and I'm guessing is the part of an anchor you attach the chain or whatever to so you can pull it back up eventually.
2
Partycrasher
I distinctly remember, in 2013, talking to Alex about how stoked we were about a new full-length Wilhelm record coming out after like 5 or 6 years of waiting. Partycrasher dropped a few weeks later and blew our dicks off. This was the first record Trevor recorded post-Blasting Room and it sounded huge. The lyrics on Partycrasher also feel like they were written on the road and have a raw, self-deprecating tone. At this point, I feel like Wilhelm had been touring hard for like 10 years and with this one, you can feel the hangover and shitty pull-out couch in your back as you're screaming along in your Hyundai Tuscon, "’Til I'm dead to the world, I've got a show tonight!"
1
Ruiner
My favorite AWS record and one of my top 5 punk records ever. My first Gainesville Fest was 2008 (FEST 6?) and I remember seeing A Wilhelm Scream open up The Venue, the biggest room of The Fest until they got an outdoor stage. I had seen them at All About Records once or twice, but never somewhere with real sound and more than 50 kids. They opened with “The King is Dead” and I can still remember getting goosebumps when they started in with the picking intro part before shredding everyone in the building to death. I don't think they had played to the org-core crowd a ton at that point, so just about everyone in the room had a collective AWS baptism. Compared to the Fest standard bearers like Dillinger Four and Lawrence Arms, A Wilhelm Scream's songs were technical, performed super tight, and were catchy as hell, so it's no surprise they were all we could talk about that weeken
Honorable mentions
A Wilhelm Scream - self-titled EP
My second Fest was 2009 and I remember seeing the saw-shaped vinyl and thought, "How could I get that home in my luggage without it breaking?" I also didn't have a record player in 2009, so that's probably the main reason I didn't buy it. Australias rips, though.
Benefits of Thinking Out Loud
I think this came out when they were Smackin Isaiah and then got re-released by as a Wilhelm record. It's the first record of theirs I ever listened to and the first to feature the classic melodic, thrashy Wilhelm style. I feel like they still play a song or two off this record once and a while, but that might be a memory from 14 years ago.
