I scream, you scream, we all scream for … extreme metal! An ice cream truck is making the rounds in northeast Minneapolis but all it’s serving up is heavy metal music.
According to City Pages, area residents have noticed a black ice cream truck cruising through the streets while blaring out extreme metal music. Even though it also plays a more traditional ice-cream-truck jingle and appears to have images of various ice cream choices on the side of the truck, it never stops for treat-seeking kids with money in their hands.
Turns out it’s the long-conceived brainchild of the driver, Matt Peterson, who purchased a rundown ice cream truck 10 years ago and tricked it out with heavy metal imagery. He calls the truck the Hell General, and there’s quite a backstory that goes along with the high-volume vehicle.
As Peterson explains on the Hell General website, he had a traumatic experience with an ice cream truck when he was a child. As a 10-year-old, Peterson ran soaking wet from his backyard wading pool when he heard an ice cream truck in front of his house. When he realized he had no money in his swimming trunks, he asked the ice cream man to wait while he went inside to get cash. From there, his story continues as follows:
“I found by the time I reached my front porch, he had already began to leave. I screamed and wailed for him to stop, pounding hard on the windows in our porch. I pounded so hard I eventually broke through the glass, cutting my wrist. Realizing what I had done, I stood there trembling as the ice cream man just kept driving away. I sat in my kitchen cleaning myself up, trying to keep my composure. I realized one thing at that moment; the Ice Cream Man was one sick motherf**ker.”
Now, as an adult, Peterson is taking his own torment out on unsuspecting kids. “Rather than indulge brats with over-price[d] cream pops, I mean to deny those looking to buy a cold tasty treat by playing my happy chimes through the streets,” he explains. “And when the children materialize in the streets? I will coast right past them with the sinister look of rejection.”
As for the truck imagery, the pictures of popsicle sticks and ice cream sandwiches actually contain heavy metal logos within them. And regarding the music that Peterson blasts from his truck, the Hell General playlist includes songs from Lamb of God, 1349, Slayer, Dimmu Borgir, Misery Index, and more.
See the Hell General in action, as captured by a local resident in the TikTok video below.
@ericalueth
