RAY "Black Metal" WALLACE -

RAY "Black Metal" WALLACE - "He Was A Leader In A Community Where Misfits Could Fit Right In"

Marc Weisblott at Eye Weekly remembers Toronto metal icon and close friend of BW&BK, Ray "Black Metal" Wallace:

Ray Wallace, who died on Nov. 27, 2007, from complications arising from a brain aneurysm at age 45, was defying stereotypes for as long as anyone on the local heavy metal scene knew him.

For one, he was as friendly as the music he lived for is generally perceived as not. And as a band manager, club booker and magazine publisher, he was a leader in a community where misfits could fit right in.

“We used to see this black guy all the time, and he had these awesome patches on his jean jacket and looked like he was into metal,” recalls Joe Rico, who fronted the thrash band SACRIFICE, which emerged from Scarborough in the mid-'80s. “We wrote a lot of our songs at Ray’s house. It was great for us because he was centrally located between our places. I’m still unsure why they let us do that, but I spoke to his mom just recently and she said that once we were gone from there she really missed us.”

Wallace was the manager of Sacrifice for the better part of a decade, and a fixture at just about every other metal gathering around the city, too. He gave himself the moniker “Black Metal,” after an album by the band VENOM, appropriating a Satanic reference as fodder for self-deprecation. And it stuck.

Black Metal was admitted to Toronto Western Hospital after collapsing at home, and spent two weeks in an induced coma. As word of his condition spread, musicians and other stalwarts of the scene lined up to visit, and Wallace’s mother learned just how many friends he made from metal.

The nurses, on the other hand, were confused about the kind of crowd Wallace was increasingly drawing to the hospital room.

“The attending nurse took me aside and asked, ‘Is Ray a rock star or something?’” recalls publicist Paula Danyelvich, who found herself directing the visitor traffic on the family's behalf. “I just smiled and said, ‘Pretty much.'"

When the prognosis for Wallace took the worst possible turn, his organs were donated to save a few other lives, and those gathered around the hospital room toasted his life with a bottle of champagne.

Funeral music included 'Fly To The Angels' by SLAUGHTER, 'Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door' by GUNS N' ROSES, and tunes from his beloved local acts like AVVIL, RAZOR and Sacrifice. A few of the 450 people in attendance slipped Argos tickets, drumsticks, backstage passes, and possibly even a joint or two, into his casket.

“It was just the way he would’ve wanted to go out,” says Danyelvich. “Standing room only. A sold-out show.”