Q. Who are you?
A. Just a metalhead with a passion for the music. By day, I work at a Helpdesk but by night, I’m a regular metalhead like the rest of you.
Q. Why do you write and why should I care about what you have to say?
A. To answer the second part, you don’t have to care because it’s solely my opinion but I have a feeling you’re here with an intent to find out something about a particular album. To answer the first part, look here.
Q. Where do you get the albums you review?
A. I buy every single one of them with my own money. Sure, this has made my rent late a few times but you only live once right? I have not contacted any artists or labels about sending me press releases or requesting to go to junkets. It’d be nice to have press releases sometimes but then I wouldn’t have the fun of researching the release and the band therefore enhancing my own understanding of what I love.
Q. But do you accept that stuff? What about demos and promos?
A. Of course I accept it! But not without some requirements. First off, NO TAPES! Listen, it’s 2006 and putting your work on a CD is extremely cheap compared to what it was back in the ’80s. Not only are CDs cheap to mass produce, they’re also dirt cheap to keep reproducing even if you have to sit there and burn each CD-R yourself. If I’m going to accept a tape, it better be pro pressed and damn well worth it. Secondly, please send a press release in English even if it’s not your native tongue. I know I shouldn’t impose this on anyone but I have a pathetic understanding of most Scandinavian and Teutonic languages (I’m working on it though!). Lastly, don’t be offended if I don’t review your work but instead send you back some critiques on what I think can be improved. You, as a band, cannot get offended by this because you are asking me to give you my opinion whether you agree with it or not. If you wish to submit any material to me, email me at: editor [at] bnnbn.com.
Q. Why does this site have such a crappy layout?
A. I spent five years doing web design as a profession and I eventually figured out that simple layouts work best for getting your content across to your users. Usability, end user happiness, and getting my content out is more important to me than having a flashy design and tons of banners/ads all over the place. If I wanted something like that, I’d just do like every other major website and rip off someone else’s work and clutter it up. Newspaper-style layouts have been in existence for hundreds of years and there’s a giant reason they haven’t changed much: the format simply works.
Q. Will you ever get a “nice” design?
A. It all depends on what you define as “nice”. I’m not here to cram a bunch of useless junk into your head so I don’t want to clutter up the site and waste your bandwidth with cruft.
Q. Will you ever have ads?
A. At this juncture, I have no idea but if I do, there will be a separate section for it as to not distract from the content.
Q. Why are you emailing me?
A. Well, I figured you’d like to know what I said about your band. I try to contact every band or at least their label to let them know about my review but rarely do I ever receive contact back.
