I hate elitism. I hate tribalism. I really, REALLY hate self appointed gatekeepers. I don’t care if this is between rival political groups, arguing over who can fuck over the poor more efficiently or if its between groups of wrestling fans, shouting over the top of each other how the promotion they follow is the far superior one in the world of the predetermined sports. I. FUCKING. HATE. IT. But nowhere do I hate this self-righteous bullshit more than in music, and more specifically Heavy Metal music.

I have been a metalhead for well over 40 years now, ever since my asshole stepdad started playing Black Sabbath albums around the house, and I have seen a lot of stupid arguments between a lot of stupid people – inçluding myself when I was much younger – that their Metal is the true Metal and that nobody should be allowed to listen to it other than like-minded individuals. Which is, quite frankly, horseshit. But nowhere has that entitled sense of a closed shop been more prevalent than within the Black Metal genre.

I like Black Metal. In fact, I like Black Metal a fucking lot. There is something about the pure, raw anger and thunderous noise that echos the sounds in my head – which says a lot more about me than I’d like to admit – and I normally find that going back to any other music after listening to Black Metal makes the other music seem weak and hollow, but what I don’t like are the fans who act like Gollum whenever anyone else tries to ‘get into’ their thing. It’s childish, it’s immature, it’s hoarding all of the toys so nobody but a few of your spoiled friends can play with them as well, and it doesn’t help ANY of the bands these people claim to be fans of. Let’s face facts, as much as I love Euronymous, he was a hipster before it was cool.

I say fuck that. Black Metal is for the many, not the few, and I’m hoping that my little one man crusade can help change that just a small bit. So what is my agenda? Quite simply, I hope to be able to bring some of the bands out into the light, if only for a short while, and give them some exposure they might not have had otherwise. I plan to do the usual music writer shtick, with reviews, articles, deep dives into bands and – hopefully somewhere down the line – interviews, and if at the end of the day only one person who reads this discovers a new band to follow and spend their hard earned dollars on, then that’s one more fan than they had yesterday.

I said it earlier and I meant it. Black Metal is for the many, not the few.