Year of World Entry: 1981Current location on Earth: Boston, MA
Year of Metal Baptism: 1994
First Metal Buy: METALLICA - Ride The Lightning
First Extreme Metal Buy: SLAYER - Divine Intervention
First Metal Concert: Ozzfest '96 (And I'm embarassed about it)
Most Memorable Gigs: I don't go to concerts all that much.
Random Useless Information:
At 13 I picked up my first METALLICA album after hearing a song on the radio station WAAF, and it was all downhill from there. Bought my SLAYER album after being sucked into one of those record club deals, and it quickly spread to SODOM, which I encountered by random chance, and is probably eternally going to be my favorite band. By the time I was 16, I decided to take guitar lessons with the stereotypical dream of becoming a rock star, and heard about IN FLAMES from my guitar teacher. It spread to the growing Gothenburg scene, and I grew up alongside IN FLAMES, DARK TRANQUILLITY, and ARCH ENEMY. My hair grew longer, it's still regrowing after a father made me cut it at 16. I was reportedly the first DIMMU BORGIR freak in my high school (I went to a total of...four schools between 8th and 12th Grade), and subsequently corrupted, er, saved, a generation from the grips of the emerging SLIPKNOT and LIMP BIZKIT. While they may have overrun the scene where I am, I actively seek out lovers of extreme metal wherever they may be. I obsessivly hang out in conveniance stores, CD Stores, and an Electronics Boutique where I know there are people whom I can discuss my life's passion with. I first encountered The End Times quite by accident, it was during a search for a SODOM T-Shirt (Which, thankfully I finally found). The rest may be history.
Claims to fame? I speak fluent Japanese, I'm currently taking a year off during college, where I'm going (hopefully) to Brandeis to be able to make money off my writing, and I can honestly say, though I'm sure someone will soon make me eat these words: I have every piece of SODOM merchandise that has ever been made: every t-Shirt, every Poster, every promo standup, every album. I also won a $700 Guitar on a teen game show, ironically on a question about METALLICA.
Favorite Bands? SODOM, IN FLAMES, KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, ARCH ENEMY, CHILDREN OF BODOM, OPETH, DIMMU BORGIR, ARCTURUS, SLAYER, DARKANE, ICED EARTH, BORKNAGAR, SOILWORK, and to some extent EMPEROR. I never really liked the incredibly hardcore Black Metal scene, but I suppose I have a higher "tolerance" than others (Not to invalidate their opinions, I just happen to see music in selective corpsepaint).
I think that as we hit the new milennium, I personally think that the real metal scene, apart from all this Hardcore/Rap-inspired bulls**t, is in a rennaisance, and we really have nowhere to go but up.