About us/FAQ

 
What is this webzine about, what are your inherited experiences, who are you, i.e. what are your contents?
This e-zine (ex-http://digilander.iol.it/ganzone666/index.htm & http://www.rockmetalbands.da.ru), mistreating or jinxing trendy, stupid, arrogant & crappy folks for fun or revenge since birth, professionally supporting worthy extreme or undistorted/uncompressed compositions, alternative flicks, antinomic essays or wise novels, and other underground fine arts since 1995 under different names and projects, was born from the ashes of Q.P.D.D. fanzine, is an interesting chance for a lot of worldwide bands/artists, mostly unsigned or underground from AOR to grind, including Heavy-classic-true metal, NWOBHM, NWOAHM, power, speed, tech(nical) metal, symphonic metal, orchestral metal, neoclassical metal, romantic metal, love metal, class-melodic metal, femme fatale-voiced metal, female-fronted rock, opera metal/rock, pomp metal/rock, pop-metal, new wave of Swedish pop metal, hair metal, street, glam, sleazy, hard rock, vintage rock such as 60's and '70's rock, flower power or any other sort of hippie rock, kraut rock, American rock, southern rock, FM rock, pub rock, epic rock/metal, Bay Area thrash, German thrash, metalcore, doom, drone/doom, funeral doom, sludge, old or new-school death, brutal death/black, NSBM/NSDM, Norsk Arisk Black Metal, Norwegian necro black, Norse black, low-fi black, suicidal/depressive metal, narcotic metal, mosh metal/hard core, extreme or melodic, old or new-school HM/HC, math/emo/screamo/crust/powerviolence/anarco/vegan/krishna/geek/fox hardcore or punk, surf punk, skate rock, oi!, mod, rap metal, nu-metal, stoner, acid (hard) rock, blues (hard) rock, gothic, weird metal, horror metal/rock/punk/core, murder metal, Pagan metal/rock/folk, Christian metal/rock, Satanic metal, Viking metal, pirate metal, Gaelic metal/rock, war/battle metal, post-rock, folk metal, guitar hero-based rock/metal, prog rock/metal, funky metal/rock, groove metal, groovy rock, crossover metal/rock, shock metal/rock, negative metal, mournful metal, happy metal, hate metal/rock/hardcore, different metal, experimental metal/rock/music, industrial, electro-metal, cyber metal, disco-grind rock, gabber/grind, trip(-hop) metal/rock, space metal/rock, psychedelic metal/rock, dreamy metal/rock, grotesque or absurd metal/rock, avantgarde metal/rock, garage rock/punk, indie-rock/independent metal, dramatic metal/rock, US west or east coast rock, acoustic rock, Scan rock, Vedic/eastern/oriental rock/metal, heavy British pop/rock, working class rock 'n' roll, combat rock, destructo-rock, dirt rock, lava rock, junk rock, psycho rockabilly, noise, dark-ambient, darkwave, dark metal, apocalyptical folk, black hole symphonies, grunge, atmospherical melodies, fairy tunes, invocation music, martial, ritualistic or minimalistic trance, abstract or meditative music, aristocratic/neoclassical folk/gothic, medieval Celtic music, noir, Pagan lounge, cinematic chamber and theatrical burlesque cabaret music, low-fi whiskey-sipping music and other genres in-between, usually neglected by mainstream media or somehow far from the norm…

They can be reviewed, interviewed, promoted to labels, distros, (web)zines, radios...), along with their detailed contact data, biographies and addresses. Why not dedicate ourselves to just a genre like death metal (which is one of our favourites, one of those we best know and the one we receive more material to review along with thrash and alternative metal/rock)? First because variety is the spice of life and we go through different moods and consequently require manifold musical stimulations, secondly as listening to diverse styles stresses more the impact while shifting from one genre to another, and thirdly since we're not so narrow-minded as many morons insisting on saying all the metal which isn't death metal sucks, is for queers, and so forth. Similar bugging speeches were heard about other genres and our motivations keep perfectly appliable too. Besides the fact that everyone has choices and usually more than one, the only thing we can do is just take note that they've made their choice, which is to ignore all other styles. We respect their view, yet a doubt pops up to our minds: isn't it that they are simply unable to understand them???...

What is your philosophy?
We wanted to break the old delusion that one can write about music without knowing it. Grammar has to be right but more importantly one needs to know what they are writing about; if you've been playing or singing in a band you can actually realize how difficult a music or vocal line can be, you can distinguish a pattern and describe it correctly, and if you can read music and have a fine ear, you'll be more trained to find out faults, qualities or even genius strikes! We endeavour to renew the whole concept of music journalism keeping the surfing as involving as possible; an irresistible mix of sense of humour (unlike Islamics) and hard passionated work. Finally, we're ourselves buyers, readers and fans and we try to avoid other people money and time wastes.

We're against the 'mafia' of the labels, distributors, magazines - big or small - that don't even answer us to trade links, send us CD's or magazine copies, and don't reply us to justify their reasons not to employ our services or something. WE WILL NEVER BE LIKE THEM! We may be slow, but we strive to always answer.

 We do it for passion, love for arts to ease the daily grind along with other noble activities, not for money. We need it, yes, but we didn't choose to live in this world and we didn't make the rules, so we also hate it, we know what it makes people do for others who own a lot, and we are also aware that we live in a shitty money-based, corrupted system where life is a bitch. We are not rich; we despise capitalism, although we are not communists at all, yet you have to realize that we were born in a country where music is seen as a luxury, as mere entertainment and not culture, so we get no financial help from our local governments. We're just aware that shitloads of greens would allow us to dedicate ALL of our free time to music and do everything far better and way quicker. If we did it for money, we would work with plastic people playing plastic music, and you know we live for metal and all the other genres with an attitude and a soul, damn!
Last but not least, a part of the possible proceeds (if ever!) will be re-invested into the webzine and another will go as charity to the homeless or poor people in Russia (especially Siberia) and Inuit, forced to die of hunger, alcoholism or suicide and not hunt for survival by WWF or Greenpeace, who don't know there are only 60,000 alive in Greenland, and THEIR OWN land is also melted by the heat caused by others and exploited for oil, gas and fish by Denmark and other 'democratic and civilized' nations; it seems everybody cares only for Africa, South America, South Asia, especially Palestinia, but in those countries you don't freeze to death or starve because it is imposed by the laws of other countries. And in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Transdniester over 5,000,000 people in 2002 were reported to be alcoholic homeless (sometimes young orphans because life hope is 58 years as an average for males) and many unpaid for months working in other Chernobyls, dangerous mines, or old submarines... (We catch the opportunity of spurring you to spread the word about this forgotten tragedy by the UN and other useless organizations). Because even in the north of the world life can be a calvary to many innocent individuals...

Remember, this POLITICALLY-INCORRECT, MORDANT D.I.Y. site was born to keep the rock/HM/punk/HC/dark, etc. scenes alive especially in these times where competition is strong and folks have less money to spend, and also to give voice to underground bands who need contacts or more specific exposure than the one offered by their own websites or portals such as www.myspace.com or for bands with big exposure that could gain more fans through us.









What is your policy and why do you dislike promos and prefer full original CDs?
Rock Metal Bands took a hiatus from accepting incomplete promos for a simple reason: 80% of what was getting sent was mediocre to pathetically bad. The majority were a drag to listen to a few times and then write a review. Nothing is worse than obligated music listening, which saps one's love for music right out of his soul. Don't be one of those bands or record companies who suck out souls and destroy music. So please follow these guidelines before contacting me about where to send submissions.
Not all the material will be reviewed. If it is mediocre or entirely generic, we're not going to waste our time coming up with a halfhearted review that is equally generic.
No CDrs or original Cds lacking a part or all of the artwork . If you're not going to take the time to send us the complete package that the CD buyer in the store sees, we're not going to take the time to review your album. Cardboard slipcase promos are acceptable, providing they have the full front cover artwork.
Copy protection, promos with faded or cut songs, incomplete albums and anything else designed to thwart online MP3 swapping will be ignored and discarded. You think we are thieves? Then perhaps you should find another way to publicize your release without insulting us.
Didn't get a review after sending in your promo? You probably violated one of the guidelines above.
So why put up with these guidelines? Many music journalists are afraid of being honest to avoid being 'shut off' from their promo supply, but we are truly not afraid to express our straightforward opinions about music and this is a way to improve your careers too, after all. Readers appreciate the frankness and refreshing honesty of the site. Besides, your promos are a tax write off and provide much needed publicity.
Still interested? E-mail me for a shipment address!
One more thing: please don't e.mail us your sound files or mail us asking us to go check out the sound files on your own websites, 46 other bands have done it before you already today, we haven't got time to check out any of them (we're already chcking out all the other things - we got My Space running over there, we got You Tube over here, we've got the CD plastic over on the left...) You know what we're about if you think it's worth sending a cd/whatever in then just do it....

Why a webzine instead of a paper zine?
 We come from a printed zine experience and we've been reading zines for a long while, so we do know we'll never replace the fascination a yellowed paper zine will always own; nevertheless we've made a choice trying to exploit the more and more advantages a virtual zine offers:
1) the largest, quickest, easiest, safest availability throughout the world.
2) the possibility of being read and contacted for free.
3) the possibility of updating, improving and correcting our data constantly whenever necessary.
4) the lack of space limits, therefore affording us to do several things more and better, like showing big pictures, or URLs that can be visited immediately.
5) the possibility of jumping from a link to another, whether you're looking for a band/label/whatever's official site, or if you wanna take contact with 'em immediately, or if you just wanna compare reviews or other stuff.
6) the possibility of downloading or uploading material, often for free seems a good to us.
Having said this, we keep reading, appreciating and admiring the few left well-done printed zines; we can both complete metal scene. Cooperation, not competition!


Why choose us?
a) We guarantee total commitment, seriousness and professionality (no rip-off); we review all the material we receive, but you must collaborate and send original CD's and not CDr's nor promoCDs (also read our guidelines).
b) We give honest unbiassed reviews, which is becoming more and more important in these days haunted with an excess of releases.
c) If you want us to work as publicists, we can contact specialized labels that might be interested to fill their roster with a band like yours or merely need a song for a comp. Working with us means to achieve lots of selected labels in a quicker way, better than sending tons of CD's to labels which mayn't answer or in the best case make you waste time some way, even if you already run a website of yours which may not be noticed by the right people.
WE GUARANTEE A MASSIVELY VISITED SHOP-WINDOW, SEVERAL WAYS TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC TO A SELECTED NUMBER OF PEOPLE. I'll never emphasize this enough: it is easy but also ineffective to boast a large mailing list. What a band needs is to let somebody else working on quality and not quantity, in order to really urge a label manager to listen to their songs and probably ask for more stuff.
ONLY if the band finds a deal THROUGH us they have to repay us all of the costs we'll have had to bear, which will refound the time, calls, faxes, e-mails, advertising, post fees, etc., but the band has to sign with us a deal to assign us an EXCLUSIVE task for mediation. That said, it is understood that bands with a manager can still contact us for our other services (reviews, interviews or placing MP3s or videos, or appearing on our home page, or mastering works).


What more can you offer than the others can't? What are the reasons of your unicity?
a) Markus has been long studying journalistic communication, including media strategies and acoustics issues.
b) Markus has been into professional extreme music, cinema & event journalism since 1995.
c) Markus owns an extraordinary bent for music that will probably make him keep on listening to more extreme and different things until his death. He is not going to get retired or give up this activity. Maybe he is not much of a business man, yet he just cannot live without music. You can always count on him for many years to come.
d) Markus is clinically certified to have a keen ear, educated and preserved despite the ageing, notoriously affecting many adults with high frequency hearing loss.
e) Markus has been making huge detailed archives of different music genres and disciplines during his life. The bands in his list are over 25,000 and growing.
f) Markus's matchless writing style makes every review or interview honest, clear to all, special, detailed and interesting, using lots of comparisons and likelinesses that many couldn't put together as they are just specialised in one or two genres, so that they aren't able to recognise similarities with albums of apparently distant areas.
g) Markus uses what experts define 2007's best reproduction system (see details at the Hi-fi/hi-end advice section), the Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche of hi-fi systems!
This way your efforts and details will not get lost, unheard or badly defined, while many reviewers utilizing poor systems will miss nuances and perceive a wrong general sound image, owing to the scarce system fidelity, the crappy room acoustics, the incapacity of finding the right listening position, and so on.
h) Markus takes time to listen to ALL of your songs first by hi-fi and later by laptop in different days to better assimilate. He dedicates more time to reviews than others and pays attention to the lyrics and artworks too, considering all equally important. That's why original full material is required.
i) Markus's collection amounts to more than 5,000 items, allowing him to possess a vast background and alphabetically-ordered source. How many can work with a similar promptly available catalogue?
j) Markus was a singer and also worked or dealt with all the possible fields and situations that music may concern, so he knows all the traps, tricks, methods and mechanisms within the music biz (rehearsing, recording, producing, editing, mastering, promoting, videoshooting, live organizing, acoustics, etc.) and does not randomly guess like someone is forced to do. (The only thing he can't do anymore due to lack of employmentt is reading the notes very well. He could but he forgot to, and that's a small limit but he isn't ashamed of making it known. Not all popular musicians can either).
k) Markus can fluently speak several languages, so when it comes to promoting, the messages always get more attention and results than the ones which are conveyed in a language which is not the receiver's mothertongue language. Misunderstandings are avoided and the other speaker can feel more at ease, without dreading to mean something diverse from what they originally wished to.

 After all, can you find somebody else with all of the above-cited characteristics running a website of this kind?


What are the labels/people in the music field you're closer to?
 Ablated (Lividity, Regurgitation, Reinfection…), Aftermath (Azaghal, Embraced, Hin Onde, Nocturnal Winds, Non Serviam, Opus Forgotten...), Alles Stenar (Thirst...), Altri Suoni (Matamachete,...), Amputated Vein ( Hybrid Viscery, Psychofagist, ), Andromeda Relics (Dark Quarterer, ), Around the Corner (Hjörtur, ), Aural Music Group = Code666/Goregorecords/Dreamcell 11 Entertainment/Amaranth (Abortus, Aborym, Aghora, Anubi (RIP), Atrox, Baratro, Bloodshed, Canaan, Carinou, Diabolicum, Dismal, Enid, Entity, Ephel Duath, Handful of Hate, Konkhra, Manes, Negura Bunget, Nordvargr, Rakoth, Thee Maldoror Collective, Undead, Unmoored, Void of Silence, ), Berger Platters (Renovators...), Beverina (Alkonost...), Bones Brigade (Drowning, Last Days of Humanity, Mindflair, Nefas...), BTOD (Death Dies), Butchery Music (Cacafonia, Enthrallment, Relentless, Urshurark), CD Maximum (Arda, Atra Mustum, Hatecraft, Legion (RUS), Natisk, Weeds In Vogue), Consytech Ltd. (Kingcrow, ), Cudgel Agency (Cerebrocide, Damnation, Damnable, Impending Doom, Jack Slater, Kadath, Maledictive Pigs, Mastic Scum, Profanity, Seirim, Sixth Incubator, Tears of Decay...), Desastrious records (Grafvolluth, ), ex-Tim Lynge (tack so mykket för all) and Diehard (Barcode, Captor, Centinex, Charon, Disrespect, Dominus, Grope, Infernal Torment, Ironlung, Konkhra , Necrophagia, Nozzle, Point of View Secondhand, Proboscis, Taetre, 2 Ton Predator, ), Dynamic Arts (Calvarium, Deathbound, Deathchain, Machine Men, Scorngrain, Shade Empire, ), Encore (Distraught, ), Engineer, Erebos (Deeds of Flesh, Disgorge (USA), Embolism, Obliterate, Suffocate...), Fat Togue (Gut, ), Gaia Disk (Trance of Mine, ), Grind Your Soul (Inhumate ), Heavy Fidelity (Crystal Eyes,), Hells Headbangers (Abigail, Atomizer, Bloodsick, Centinex, Cianide, Deceased, Desecration, Disgorge (Mex), Exhumed, Haemorrhage, Gospel of the Horns, Impaled, Korihor, Manticore, Morbosidad, Nunslaughter, Obsculum Obscenum, Scepter, Slaughter (Can), The Spawn of Satan, Toxic Holocaust...), Helvete (Abgott, ), Karmageddon Media (ex-Hammerheart/The Plague)/New Aeon Media (Aeternus, Ancient Rites, Danse Macabre, Dimension F3H, Dimmu Borgir, Dissection, Everdawn, Hearse, Impious, Incantation, Infernal, Macabre, Mercenary, Monstrosity, Morifade, Necrophagia, Necrophobic, Nile, Nocturnal Breed, Nocturnus, Occult, Old Man's Child, Sadus, Satariel, Scenteria, Septic Flesh, Severe Torture, Sinister, Soul Reaper, Septic Flesh, Torture Killer, Vond, Within Y...), Headfucker (RIP) (Retaliation, Wicked Innocence, ), Ketzer (Enid, Grabnebelsfürsten, Opus Draconis, Pest, Realm of Carnivora,...), Kodiak (CKN...), La Fiera dell'odio (Joseph C...), Lakeshore (Candiria...), Lunasound (3rd House of Beef, ), Mad Lion (Bestiar, Count de Nocte, Dark Disciple, ), Magik Art Entertainment (Twilight Is Mine, ), Metalism (Arbitrator, Holy Dragons, ), Napalmed (Napalmed...), Nasty Prick (St. Madness...), Neodawn prod. (Vinterriket, ), Nocturnal Brights Productions (Blodulv, Malignance, Sigma Draconis, Swastika, True Endless...), Not Common (Archaic, Bane of Existance, Command Presence, Disengaged, Immortal Sacrifice, Kevorkian's Angels, Muddy Animals, Red Invasion,...), Onyxia (And Then You Die, Exit Wounds, Luciferase,...), Ordealis (Mütiilation, ), Osmose (Abominator, Absu, Act of Gods, Angelcorpse, Antaeus, Arkhon Infaustus, Axis of Advance, Bestial Mockery, Bewitched, Dark Tranquillity, Dementor, Demonized, Detonation, Driller Killer, Enslaved (N), Exciter, Exmortem, Houwitser, Immortal, Impaled Nazarene, Imperial, Impiety, Inhume, Lost Soul, Malmonde, Marduk, Melechesh, Notre Dame, Obligatorisk Tortyr, Order from Chaos, Phazm, Raism, Ravager, Revenge, Ritual Carnage, Sadistik Exekution, Seth, Shadows Land, Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition, Swordmaster, Thornspawn, Tsatthoggua, Vital Remains, Yyrkoon, ), Overcome (Inside Conflict, Judoboy, Like Peter at Home, Nostromo,... ), Peace or Die (Pain Link, ), Pigeonshit Agency (Perversist, ), Pivotal Rage (Sonic Syndicate, ), Red Black (Cales, Dark Gamballe, Endless, Forgotten Silence, Insania, Root, Sad Harmony, Silent Stream of Godless Elegy...), Red Stream/Baphomet/Blood Fire Death (Agarthi, Bethlehem, Cabal, Dark Fortress, Forest of Impaled, Hidden, Judas Iscariot, Krieg, Krisanth, Necrophagia, Sear Bliss, Skepticism, Viking Crown, Violation,...), Rising Works (Atman, Kink, Labyrinth, Wonderland,...), Road Kill Recordings (Gravy, ), Road Show Prod. (Mystery Blue...), Rundown (Choke, Condemned, Honey for Christ, ), Saba (Byfist, ), Semen Demon (Abrasive, ), Several Bleeds (Sonny Red, ), Shindy prod. (Lunatic Gods...), Skull Fucked prod. (Byatis, Gerbe of Life, Punishment, Repudiate, 7th Nemesis, ...), Spitzenburg (Devious, ), Stygian Crypt prod. (Devil May Care, Little Dead Bertha...), Surgical Diathesis (Deformed, Parricide, Patologicum, ), Sudden Death (D.O.A., M.D.C., Modernettes, Pointed Sticks, Young Canadians, ), Terrorwolfe productions (Veil, ), Trendfabrik (Andrea Castelli, Magni Animi Viri, Mantra, ), Trostlos (Antique...), Valium (Gradinata Nord, Rebelde,), X-treme Rising (Anger, ), and a handful of others, Enrico Giannone, our true friends in Sigma Draconis + lots of unsigned cool bands, too many to mention, and cool people in metal, hardcore and other scenes, especially Arthur Huptas and the Ravensburg crew, James II from the Rolling Chaos, Burt from Beowolf zine & Treats from the Underground productions, Bo from Evilution magazine, George Pacheco (Unhallowed Zine and the Accursed) and Marcy Miller (Rock Bottom zine).

How do you contribute in helping bands and artists for a start?
Last but not least, in the next pages you find the probably biggest banner, festival, label, musical instruments, radio, TV, venue, zine, lists ever shown, with thousands of links, addresses, tel/fax numbers, etc., all patiently prepared, conceived and updated by Markus himself; very useful for unsigned bands, signed bands, promoters, zine writers, concert organizers, etc., in search of new customers, adepts, contacts, and of course music fans.
LOOK AT LABEL/ZINE LINKS IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE!!!


What Rock Metal Bands Webzine and management agency can do:
a) make interviews, reviews from/to English/German/Italian to bands, record/video companies, film directors, movies/videoclips. So don't hesitate to contact us to get the shipment address for your FULL ORIGINAL CD's (+ lyrics, artwork and biography), vinyls, demo-tapes , zines, stickers, flyers, posters, flags, bullets, spikes, necklaces, lighters, laser disks, VHS's/DVD's, and other promotional freebies and give-aways for concerts.
b) rent advertisement places to labels, zines, etc. interested at low prices.
c) trade demotapes, underground CD's, import/Japanese edition/rare CD's/vynils at fair conditions.
d) spread your videoclips throughout our video section.


Do you have any offer for publishing houses?
Any publishing company editor is welcomed to sponsor us to improve the site or offer a place of theirs to print, edit our old/new stuff.


Trading and promotion:
If you would like to link sites, download our banner and link it to: www.rockmetalbands.com
MORE INFO @ PROMOTION

Editor and CEO Markus 'Malevolent Grizzly' Ganzherrlich - Sep. 1999 - 2008

Executive and artistic editor/president:
DR. MARKUS GANZHERRLICH.

Copyright belongs to WWW.ROCKMETALBANDS.COM, aka the Inferior Culturephagy and the Stupid's Emethism Co.
All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication of any part of this website is a violation of applicable laws. © 1999-2008.