A look back on a diversified and finally updated contribution history on the Metal Archives

Hello dear readers and visitors of my blog!

During summer time, I've been able to completely upload my blog with anything interesting I've done in the past years such as my old German newspaper articles I've already talked about before.

I would like to talk a little bit further about the reviews I've written for the Metal Archives. I am into metal music since 2003 or 2004 when I discovered German Medieval Rock bands such as In Extremo and later on Saltatio Mortis or Subway To Sally. A couple of years later, I bought some magazines in Germany to know more about the scene and stumbled over classic metal bands such as Iron Maiden. From then on, I discovered more and more bands and I especially appreciated European Power Metal around bands such as Amorphis, Edguy, Elvenking, Gamma Ray, HammerFall, Helloween, Saidian and so on when I was young. When I moved to Canada, I fell in love with more complex and progressive music from of that country by discovering avant-garde bands such as UneXpect or Voivod. I decided to join the Metal Archives to discover more music and make people discover what I like. I wrote my first reviews back in October 2010 and since then I have discovered many amazing bands from many intriguing countries. Until today in August 2012, I have written a total of 433 reviews which is quite a lot and I still continue discovering new styles. It was quite a lot of work to put all these reviews on my blog. I decided to include new comments, the cover artworks and as often as possible a song sample to give you an idea of the music. Of course, all rights are reserved by the artists and their labels and if there is any complaint, I will immediately take off the photos or samples. My only interest in updating this archive is to make people discover impressive music. I must admit that it's exciting to take a nostalgic look back at what I've listened to during the last two years. It's great to see that I've kept moving on to experience new horizons.

There are of course reviews of bands any fan should know and that can be considered as pioneers such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal or the American True Metal posers from Manowar or the Thrash Metal legends of Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica that are featured in some reviews.

But I also discovered a lot of underground bands from Québec and other countries which I have tried to support with my reviews. Let's cite a couple of intriguing bands from Québec such as the experimental Hardcore and Sludge band Les Ékorchés, the atmospheric Black Metal artists from Nocturnal Excision, the experimentally diversified Black Metal act Putamen Insula, the local Hard Rock heroes of Ryder, the more Death and Thrash Metal orientated local heroes of Seventh Section or the folk and nature influenced Black Metal act Triskèle. I started to get interested in genres I've thought I would never listen to a few years ago such as Melodic Death Metal or Symphonic Black Metal.

After a while, I wanted to know how metal music sounds in other and more exotic countries. I started with Japanese bands such as the very artistic X Japan, the technically stunning Heavy and Thrash Metal band Loudness (ラウドネス), the highly diversified The Gathering Of Yin And Yang (陰陽座) or the very open minded The Human Chair (人間椅子) that should please to any fan of music. I also fell in love with many Chinese metal bands, for example the famous Eastern Heavy Metal pioneers of Tang Dynasty (唐朝), the diversified Progressive Metal band The Last Successor (末裔) or the epic Melodic Black Metal groups Screaming Savior (惊叫基督) and Terminal Lost (天幕落) to only name a few. I even discovered completely exotic gems, for example the amazing and chilling Progressive Metal band Pantommind from Bulgaria, the traditional Heavy Metal band Threatening that comes from Uganda, the great Gothic Metal queen of Columbia called Nataly Kruger, the avant-garde Metal beginners Clair De Lune from El Salvador or the more commercial and ballad orientated bands such as Bức Tường from Vietnam as well as Artcell from Bangladesh. I even discovered bands from Iraq (Seeds Of Iblis), Nepal (Dead Mariners) and Taiwan (六翼天使, also known as Seraphim). By discovering all those bands, I really opened my mind for new artistic inspirations and I got more and more into foreign cultures. In times of globalization, arts get more and more diversified and I'm very glad to see that every band has developed its very unique definition of metal music.

As a summary, I have put all of these interesting reviews in ten different categories on this site. I hope you enjoy my reviews and maybe we can exchange on different discoveries, experiences or opinions. I think that most of what I've wanted to say is said after so many reviews. I will maybe complete the number of 500 reviews on the Metal Archives and put the new ones on my blog but I think it's time to move on. I will though continue writing for another Metal webzine called The Metal Observer from time to time and maybe a second and quite different site in the future. I'm open for new experiences and I think I may live quite some changes in the next years. I'm excited to see what's next.

Right now, I'm going to put some new concert footage on my blog from concerts and festivals (not necessarily metal stuff but rather bands from the Gothic scene) where I have been to this summer. There's always something new on my blog, so be sure to check it out and spread the name!

Thanks for your attention!

Sebastian

PS: Check also out the bands I have added to the Metal Archives:

- Drakarium (Viking Metal) from Jonquière, Canada

- Salmonhell (Metalcore) from Alma, Canada

- XspendX (Hard Rock) from Chicoutimi, Canada

- Attonitus (Medieval Rock) from Flensburg, Germany

- Bushfire (Stoner Rock) from Darmstadt, Germany

- TrollWar (Folk Metal) from Alma, Canada

- Inner Control (Progressive Thrash Metal) from Jonquière, Canada

- Unbeing (Instrumental Progressive Metal) from Montréal, Canada

- Harmahis (Ambient) from Moscow and Novovoronezh, Russia 

More bands (right now, I've tried to add three bands from Beijing, Chengdu and Hefei in China) should follow soon but are still in the band queue and wait for approval by the moderators. If there's something new, I'll let you know.