Craig Hayes

Craig lives on the wild South Coast of Wellington, New Zealand. He is old enough to have bought Twisted Sister's Stay Hungry on the day of its original release, and after listening to metal for a quarter of a century, he is well past the point of no return. Craig is partial to metal in all its flavors—aside from a life-threatening allergy to anything tagged "symphonic." Apart from metal, Craig is a huge fan of progressive rock, Krautrock and proto-electronica.

Craig began writing about music in his early teens during the heyday of '80s metal. For many years he wrote his own spectacularly awful 'zines extolling the virtues of various underground bands, before moving on to spend even more years writing semi-literate music reviews, poetry and articles for various punk, metal and experimental music zines.

He briefly endeavored to become a rock star, but his two major stumbling blocks — a complete lack of talent or charisma — soon put an end to that dream. Craig has organized gigs, hosted radio shows, and along with contributing to About.com Heavy Metal, he also writes for Hellbound.ca, PopMatters.com and maintains his own NZ-based metal blog, sixnoises.com. He is the music editor and feature writer for New Zealand skate magazine Manual, and contributes to its co-publication Spoke.

Craig has BA from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. He majored in political science/international relations and philosophy. Craig's intention is to one day return to academia and complete his MA on the varying philosophies of heavy metal. Just as soon as he wins the lottery.

Tēnā koutou. Ko Craig ahau. It's a privilege and an honor to be joining the illustrious ranks of About.com Heavy Metal.

Metal has been a constant, never-wavering companion throughout my life, but it is more than just my favorite style of music. Within metal's various sub-genres there are ideas, myths, tenets, philosophies, theories and concepts that have profoundly affected the way I live my life and view the world.

Metal is about endless possibilities, and the vital need to continually ask questions about ourselves, about the societies we live in, about what we believe is true, and about those who seek to govern our lives in any way, shape or form.

Metal is about independence, strength and tackling themes and issues that safe and complacent music avoids. Metal doesn't kowtow to decaying, anodyne norms. Metal is loud, proud and welcomingly obnoxious. I love it. Of course, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. But I'm very happy to be here at About.com Heavy Metal to write about why we love metal.

Kia ora