Music has always been a part of my life no matter the form or genre of it. I’ve been listening to extreme metal on and off since 1993 but only in the last 4 years has it becom my mainstay genre of choice. This definitely isn’t because there’s innovative band after innovative band coming out but because I love the rawness of the music and (mostly) heartfelt lyrics. With interests ranging from obscure underground black metal bands to top label hardcore and death metal, I don’t limit myself just to “all that evil stuff”. You can normally find me listening to either black metal or death metal, with more and more progressive black and more post metal/art metal making its way into my collection. An avid purveyor of something they enjoy does not merely limit themselves to a single facet of their passion.
Now, why did I choose to start writing reviews and publishing them? This stems from the fact that there’s a lot of people out there writing poorly and giving criticism-based journalism a very bad name and they’re getting published in magazines. I know I alone cannot stop this but I also know I’m not the only metalhead who’s tired of reading review after review of metalcore or someone reviewing an album in a genre they know nothing about! These guys are paid to write whether they like what they’re reivewing or not, and even though they like their jobs, I’ve found a portion of them to be performing badly at their craft. I’m not getting any revenue or mainstream exposure by writing my reviews, I’m not writing about music I don’t like (because I don’t have an editor to dictate me!), and I’m definitely doing my best to write a thorough review about both the album and the band. The music fuels what I do and my passion for it, nothing else. I might get paid to do this professionally one day but I won’t compromise my integrity to do so.
Rock may be dead but metal will live on forever.
