Before we get started with all the fun, I thought it might make sense to introduce myself and give a mission statement of sorts for this space. First off, J. Skeleton is not my real name, which I really hope I shouldn’t have to say. The reason for the pseudonym is that, well, this isn’t my day job and I want to keep those two worlds separate. Furthermore, I don’t see this becoming a day job for the simple reason that this is not a money making venture for me. In the future, if this takes off, I can see doing a Patreon or something for different extras or benefits but this is and always will be, a free site. Any review, interview, or general jackassery will never be placed behind a paywall. I view this more as an online fanzine than anything else.
So, if this is not a money making venture, what the hell is this? Well, first and foremost, I am a fan just like you. I live, breathe, eat, and, occasionally when it doesn’t agree with me, shit metal. I’m a lifelong fan of metal, particularly of the extreme variety but there’s something to love in every genre. There is a ton of great metal writing out there in magazines, blogs, and fanzines but, I still find that there are a lot of bands, albums, and shows that just don’t get the coverage or respect that they deserve. There have been a lot of times when I’ve looked for an interview with someone, a retrospective, or a review and just came up empty. I want to change that or at the very least, highlight things that people might have missed or that haven’t gotten the respect that they deserve. With that in mind, I see there being three main areas of content that I want to provide to readers (at least at first): interviews, reviews, and editorials.
Interviews
The main aspect that I want to focus on is providing fans with interviews from their favorite bands as well as bands they might not have heard of yet. There are a ton of bands out there (duh) and a lot of them haven’t really had a ton of outlets banging down their doors for interviews. I want to change that. I also want to deliver interviews with bands that have been around for years too since, as a fan, I can never read too many interviews of bands that I love (you’d understand if you could see how many old Napalm Death interviews in magazines that I’ve tracked down on eBay for my collection). In the coming months, I hope to have some kickass interviews with bands that you’ve probably heard of as well as some on the rise that you may or may not have heard of. I have a background in journalism and years worth of interviews under my belt so I am hoping to deliver questions and answers that provide meaningful insight into the subjects of the interviews and that will interest my readers.
Reviews
The second aspect of the site will be reviews. Anything and everything metal is fair game. From my beloved death metal to power metal to doom and any other of the roughly 1,372 subgenres out there, I’m gonna provide my thoughts and takes on a bit of everything. In addition to reviewing new material, retrospective reviews, and live show reviews are part of the plans for this site as well. As of right now, I’m the primary reviewer so, at least for the near future, these are exclusively my thoughts so feel free to yell directly and solely at me for anything you don’t like on here.
Editorials
The final thing I want to post on here for now is editorials on metal. This could be editorials about the state of metal, my own takes on different aspects of different subcultures, musings on the news, and pretty much anything else on my mind. I love this music and am very passionate about it. As the primary writer for the site, I think it’s only fair that you know my thoughts on the genre so you can understand where I’m coming from or better tell me to piss off if you don’t like my reviews.
Going forward, things may change and different features could be added but, as for right now, those three are my main goals. If that interests you, please take this ride with me. The site will probably be a little rough to get started because, to be honest, it’s only my wife and I running this thing and it’s our first real website. If you have any tips, questions, comments, or requests for interviews, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at metalplaguemag@gmail.com.