Ray Van Horn, Jr.: One great thing is getting free music, free tickets to shows, direct access to the bands via backstage, tour bus or telephone. You’ll be amazed how much money you’ll have to buy other CDs you’re constantly putting down because you can’t afford it all. The best thing about being a metal writer is when a band gives you an extensive interview with lots of thought put into their answers, and as I mentioned, when they give you a compliment for dictating a good interview, it’s a huge rush.
The worst thing, of course, is the lack of money for your services. You have to bust your tail to work your way up to the paying venues, just like anything else in life.
What’s your biggest pet peeve about other metal writers?
It’s not in me to slag my peers, but I do know of one interviewer who hands bands the same exact list of questions he does everyone, and there’s no depth or feel to his pieces because of it. It’s robotic, unprofessional, uncongenial and just plain lame, plus it does nobody a real service in the long run.
How and when did you first discover metal music?
At age 12, I used to listen to pop music on the radio and content with whatever MTV—which was brand spanking new in 1982—had to offer. My cousins by marriage one day tried to sway me over to their own music tastes, the one being into edgy California rock. The other cousin sat me down on his bed and played me Iron Maiden’s Killers, then Number of the Beast, then Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman then Dio’s Holy Diver. A new metalhead was born that very day.
What’s the best metal concert you’ve attended?
Judas Priest, Painkiller tour with Megadeth and Testament opening. Only Priest and Sonic Youth have left me standing in front of them with my mouth gaping wide open. Megadeth was supporting Rust In Peace on this tour and put to rest their stigma of being a bad live band; they shredded, as did Testament, though we missed a couple of their songs due to traffic. Second-best is Voivod with Soundgarden and Faith No More opening. The latter two bands were still up-and-coming, if you can believe it. Amazing show. Third best, Monsters of Rock, 1988. I had just graduated high school and instead of fearing the unknown, I got my eardrums blasted out at RFK Stadium. The Scorpions destroyed everyone on the bill. Metallica gave one of their last performances as a true thrash band just as they were breaking Jason Newsted in. This is the Metallica I choose to remember.
What genres of metal are your most and least favorite?
Sludge, doom and a lot of the layered art metal bands like Isis and Pelican are really grabbing me these days. I’ve always been a power metal and thrash freak, and as the years have progressed, I’ve really lightened up on some of the eighties fluff bands that I ignored back in the day. As Cinderella sang, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.
There’s a lot of rich and ambient black metal that I really enjoy, though a lot of it is cacophonous screeching and singular note strumming played against drum machines and I get a little weary of it when listening to it repetitive doses. I definitely need a break in-between those kinds of black metal.
But if there’s one subgenre that’s going to kill it all over again, it’s metalcore. All of these bands that feel the need to heap breakdown after breakdown after breakdown in their carbon copy tunes need to wake and realize they’re helping to bring the demise of metal back down again. I’ve been preaching this in my column and other places; the breakdown is bad for metal and will mean the end.
Who is the most underrated metal band?
Boris
Who is the most overrated metal band?
Metallica
What is your all time favorite metal album?
Iron Maiden – Powerslave
What are 5 essential metal albums every fan should own?
Iron Maiden – Powerslave, Megadeth – Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, Rainbow – Rising, Slayer – Reign in Blood, Judas Priest – Screaming For Vengeance.
What is the biggest misconception people have about metal writers?
That we get paid big money, just like bands, which is totally untrue in both cases! Most writing gigs do not pay at all, caveat emptor…
What suggestions would you have for somebody wanting to get into writing about heavy metal?
Just understand that there are tons of writers in this game now, whereas in the eighties there was a select few North American heavy metal writers, much less our British and German counterparts overseas. You fought harder to get into it and if you couldn’t, you started your own local ‘zine, which were the real lifelines to the metal community back in the day. Today, the internet makes it wide open for people to write about metal. This is both good and bad. You see blogs galore with heavy metal fans writing about albums and some are really good, some are just taking advantage of technology that wasn’t there twenty years ago. If you accept the fact that seriously writing about heavy metal—much any music form—in today’s market that has tripled the amount of participants, then go for it.
Anything else you’d like to mention?
Embrace this metal revival while it’s here. It left once before, and the United States is notorious for its cyclicism. Europe, Japan and South America have never lost their love of metal, mostly because they don’t have the gratuitous choices we have in the U.S. Americans are fickle, spoiled and as a whole, they treat music as a commodity, not a privilege. Live for this music and don’t ever lose sight of that inner headbanger inside; life comes at a brutal pace once you leave high school, so enjoy the moment as if you’ll never have it again.
