For David

My friend David Plumb passed away today. My primary relationship with Dave began only 3 or 4 years ago. We’d visit at the local coffee shop, drinking coffee and smoking – chain smoking in his case. We bonded over a mutual love of some old hardcore bands like the Cro-Mags, Neurosis and Articles Of Faith. Articles of Pleshie as Dave liked to call them. I turned him on to some other stuff I thought he would like. He was very honest and if he thought some band I had introduced him to was shit, he let me know it very bluntly. I very much appreciated that biting honesty. I gave him the At The Gates album Slaughter Of The Soul and I believe it became a favorite of his – it must have been because every time I saw David after that we always talked about that album.

One time I recall that we were sitting in the garage on Thanksgiving evening. It must have been 2005 because I was very sick at the time and I remember both David and I were huddling under massive amounts of blankets to stay warm in that meat locker of a garage he loved to be in. My body was quite deteriorated at the time, I think I had dropped about 35 pounds in just 4 months or so. So much so that David had trouble recognizing me at first. And although we had bonded over our love of metal and hardcore, I have always felt that we shared a different kind of bond in the way we had both had issues with our health. And through that we had shared an unspoken brotherhood. Something we acknowledged only by looking into each others weary eyes that I’m not sure anyone else around had perceived. It took no words to convey this feeling.

So the news of David’s passing is especially close to my heart in that way. David had such a unique character and I believe he’s made a big impression on all he’s come in contact with. His maddening persistence was at once frustrating and oddly endearing. And to see him crack up in laughter, those rare times that I did, was very rewarding to me and as clear now as the days it happened. Dave’s character lives on in everyone he effected in this way. And though it’s a sad time and that character will be missed, I nonetheless think on him in a beautifully fond way that even on this sad day makes me grin.

Rest in peace now my friend. Your brother in metal - AOD.