About Me

I grew up listening to hair metal in the 80's thanks to my older cousins and later discovered Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Megadeth and the like on my own. Somewhere along the line somebody introduced me to Cannibal Corpse (Tomb of the Mutilated circa 1992) and I was pretty sure I had found the music I was meant to be listening to... until one fateful day when a friend of mine told me they had something I just had to hear. It was a cassette tape with a black and white photocopied "cover" the rips and scratches copied right along with the jagged barb wire band logo. I honestly have no idea who the band was and I can't be sure that my friend did ether. But he went on to inform me that it was some "serious Satanic shit" and that I would love it. He put the tape in his stereo and for the next 30 minutes I sat there listening to tinny drums and screeching guitars while someone screamed bloody fucking death in the background... I was hooked. It was the musical equivalent of finding your old mans porn collection, you knew you shouldn't be listening but you just can't stop. The rest as they say is history. About a week later I was at the record store and found Death... Is Just The Beginning Vol. II from Nuclear Blast. It was pretty much a straight shot to hell after that.

While most guys my age were into the grunge scene I was reading S.O.D. magazine and trying to figure out how to order a fucking Celtic Frost shirt without a checking account. As the years went by I went to my fair share of metal shows and amassed a rather impressive collection of black shirts with screen printed baphomets and upside down crosses on them. For a while I was metal as fuck. Now... not so much.

Today while I still enjoy black metal just as much (if not more) than I used to I'm not nearly as metal as I used to be. As I write this my 18 month old son is sitting on my lap eating goldfish crackers and slapping at the keyboard. For what it's worth I am wearing a Black Dahlia Murder shirt I got at their concert last summer. Obviously I still listen to plenty of black metal, right now I'm listening to Woe, Hopes Attrition, but I have headphones on so I don't wake up the rest of the house. I'm married, have a full time job and own my own home... next year I will be 40. Probably not what you would expect from somebody writing a blog about black metal right?

So why don't I just bullshit you and tell you I'm all about black leather, spiked bracers and corpse paint writing my blog while sitting on a throne of human skulls in a dungeon somewhere? This is the internet after all and I could make up anything I want and you would be none the wiser right? 

I didn't bullshit you because like the genre of music we all enjoy the fans of that genre are a wide and varied bunch of freaks and weirdos. I've met lawyers who are into Mayhem while at the same time I've met 19 year old kids wearing enough makeup and black leather to put most bands to shame but couldn't tell you the first thing about black metal.

In the end I'm just an average guy who lives and works and pays bills just like everyone else. I just also happen to be a longtime fan of extreme music and wanted to do something related to that interest. I don't worship Satan or spend my nights in graveyards. I enjoy the woods but I've never gone for a hike in corpse paint to get a cover photo taken. Honestly I'm probably like a lot of you reading this right now and that's pretty fucking cool if you ask me.

Cheers!

-Clint