Ever wondered who writes all these ramblings on
Doommantia.Com? Well Sarp has put together this two part special of short interviews to the
Doommantia Writing Staff just so you, the reader can get to know us a little better. It is just a bit of fun and a bit of harmless self promotion.
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| Some Giger Art, Posted Just Because I like it. |
ED BARNARDWho are you and where are you from?
I am Ed Barnard, originally from Australia, now an American-Australian citizen. Been here on and off for a long while now.
What got you into music, and metal specifically?
I grew up surrounded by music. My parents listened to heavy, psychedelic and prog-rock every day of the week, and the television was rarely even turned on, so there was always music playing. So I think it was just natural for me to finish up a music fan. I got to heavy-rock as it was known back then, because those bands stood out from the rest. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and the singer/songwriter types of the era like Crosby, Stills and Nash did nothing for me, but Sabbath, Purple, Zepellin and bands like that sounded exciting and different, and that was where my love for metal started.
The real starting point was 1973 because that was when I first started getting an allowance, so I started spending all the money on records. “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” was one of the very first records I ever bought, it was a new release at the time. Why I have stuck with metal all these years is hard to say but I basically don’t like anything else except for some 70’s prog-rock and some psychedelia like Pink Floyd. Other genres of music just don’t do anything for me, so for some 40 odd years, it has been the heavy that has kept me a music fan.
How did you find your way to the genres that you cover in Doommantia?
I have always loved the slower, heavier bands, starting with Sabbath in the 70’s. In the 70’s I used to spend a hell of a lot of time browsing second-hand record stores looking for other slow and heavy bands, but it wasn’t until the mid-to-late 80’s that they started to appear more regularly. When Trouble released their debut, and The Skull, and then Saint Vitus and Candlemass appeared on the scene, it was when I became a concrete doom metal fan. I have listened and still do listen to other genres of metal, but nothing beats doom metal for me and I can’t see that ever changing. It is the heaviness, both musically and emotionally, plus the atmosphere of doom albums that do it for me. I just find the genre totally mesmerizing.
What made you decide to get involved and to start writing about the music?
I have been writing since the mid 90’s. I just like putting my thoughts down. It used to be me sitting at a typewriter, painfully typing away but with the birth of the internet, it became an avenue to put my thoughts to good use by posting blogs and writing for other websites, usually as just a guest.
How did you come to start Doommantia?
I started Doommantia because I got tired of waiting for other people and having to meet other websites’ demands and restrictions and rules. I got censored once by one website that shall remain nameless and that was the final straw for me. I had to do something myself.
You have three albums you can take with you to a desert island you are being condemned to. You’ll be given a disc player, unlimited batteries and will have new of the same three albums as they get worn out. What are those three albums?
I want to name just Sabbath albums really, they satisfy all my musical needs but for three different ones, I would have to include “Sabotage” by Black Sabbath (my favourite Sabbath album), Saint Vitus – “Die Healing” and Pink Floyd’s “Meddle”, I think that would work.
What other genres are you into? What do you sneak in between the covers at night, when you’re not drenched in doom and sludge and psych and drone?
I like 70’s prog such as King Crimson and Yes but generally, it is the more obscure bands that I like the most usually. Bands like Camel, Nektar and Gong. I’m a big fan of proggy hard rock from the 60’s and 70’s too, bands like Captain Beyond, Atomic Rooster and the later Argent albums. Psychedelia is big with me too, the trippier the better.
Any last comments?
Keep on viewing Doommantia. Not much else I can say except, thanks for all the support.
DR.DOOM METALWho are you and where are you from?
My name is Victor von Doom, but I am also known as Dr. Doom. Contrary to common belief, I was born in Greece but I currently live in Latveria.
What got you into music, and metal specifically?
It seemed like a nice idea getting Fantastic 4 and Iron Man while listening to Black Sabbath’s Iron Man. The cool t-shirts of these bands were also a plus.
How did you find your way to the genres that we cover here in Doommantia?
I am addicted to metal. I like music in general but metal takes most of my time, so I can’t really get into other kinds of music as much as I would like to. At some point around the late 90’s, I realized that downtuned music was my thing!
What made you decide to get involved and to start writing about the music?
An opinion is like an asshole, everybody has one. I just wanted to show my asshole… sorry, I meant, my opinion.
How did you come to write for Doommantia?
Ed contacted me! It was an honor.
How was your experience writing for other websites?
I wrote for various fanzines, mostly for underground thrash/black metal bands. It was a really expensive hobby at the time, as the ‘zines were printed on paper. The internet rules!
You have three albums you can take with you to a desert island you are being condemned to. You’ll be given a disc player, unlimited batteries and will have new of the same three albums as they get worn out. What are those three albums?
Is that disk player a DVD one? ‘Cause maybe then I could rip about 2000 albums to mp3’s and burn them on 3 DVD disks. Sorry if that’s cheating… I am evil by nature…
(I actually had never considered the possibility… huh. – Sarp)
What other genres are you into? What do you sneak in between the covers at night, when you’re not drenched in doom and sludge and psych and drone?
Thrash is good, death, black… I’m mostly extreme music, but not as much as I used to be.
We all know Ed Barnard to some degree, but still, tell us a little bit about the Man Himself for those out there who don’t.
If something you really like has offered you a good time, then you have to give something back… I believe Ed went by that rule when Doommantia was created… and he, in turn, inspired me to do the same.
Any last comments?
Doom over the World!
MARILENA MORONI AKA MARIWho are you and where are you from?
I am Marilena, Mari, and I live in Milano, Italy.
What got you into music, and metal specifically?
I love music in general and I dig many genres, although, yes, metal is one step ahead of the rest. I have been attracted to music since I was a little kid. Music was played and listened to at home in my birth valley, and old-school rock’n’roll was there. Moreover, my aunt was managing a soda shop, where one of the few jukeboxes of the valley was active. I am a kid of the 60’s, so I was a teen in the mid 70’s, when the first private radios started spreading tunes by the coeval, early psychedelic, hard rock and prog bands from the foreign and Italian scene. I was an early teen when I first heard Black Sabbath by chance on a tape, and I was struck immediately. Back in time I have been enjoying “old” hard, psychedelic and also prog rock a lot, much of it captured more from radios and less by buying LPs (those available in the shops were quite expensive.) I also enjoyed the first punk rock wave, when radios were flooded by tunes by primarily British and later US bands. What first dragged me into the more “brutal” metal, though, was the impact with early Sepultura. That was a shock and I discovered, or better I had to admit to myself, that I dug brutal and morbid sounds and terribly obscure, sepulchral atmospheres.
How did you find your way to the genres that we cover here in Doommantia?
Well, the early fire imprint by (early) Black Sabbath made me appreciate a kind of downtuned, oppressive and sinister sound coupled with groove, which was unique back in the day. So it was a pleasure to catch that sound again after some time, in bands like Saint Vitus and Pentagram. I must say that I worship early Black Sabbath only.
First scarring encounters with sludge came via Acid Bath and the early stuff of Eyehategod. Those were totally sick tunes…
Desert and stoner rock came somehow via the grunge wave, especially inspred by Alice in Chains and Mudhoney. Needless to say and, surely, quite unoriginally, the first albums I bought were by Kyuss…
What made you decide to get involved and to start writing about the music?
Ah, it was something completely casual and it came after some months of interaction with the Sludge Swamp bloggers, and by tenreing the writing team of the blog (after overcoming my huge shyness.)
How did you come to write for Doommantia?
Ed was a good friend of the Sludge Swamp for a long time and we at the Swamp were admirers of Doommantia. At a certain moment, Ed was kind enough to propose a collaboration with Doommantia to me. I still remember, it was in a thread about “early” Black Sabbath, heh… now that’s “dooooom”!
How was your experience writing for other websites?
Well, when Cheeto, the owner of the Sludge Swamp, wrote to me with the proposal to enter the Swamp team I couldn’t believe it, and I was a bit scared as well, hahaha! I love(d) music but, well, writing about it, and in a foreign language, was something else… Also, I am not a journalist, and my “real” job has nothing to do with music (I work as a geologist… okay I actually study rocks and metals, hahaha!) But those years at the Sludge Swamp have been simply great. I had massive time and I learnt a huge amount of things from my fellow bloggers and from the interaction with the bands.
I must say, it was another big emotion when Ed proposed to me to enter Doommantia. Well, I feel that, as an experience, it is quite different from a blog. Maybe I’m wrong, but for me, Doommantia was the “serious place”, the “temple” by definition, even though I did take the writing on the Sludge Swamp as a serious thing as well. I mean, at the Swamp we were joking a lot, but the blog was tough, otherwise it would not have grown and become popular also among many bands as it did.
You have three albums you can take with you to a desert island you are being condemned to. You’ll be given a disc player, unlimited batteries and will have new of the same three albums as they get worn out. What are those three albums?
Oh, too difficult! Instinctively, I would say:
Black Sabbath – S/T
Kyuss – Blues for the Red Sun
Celtic Frost – To Mega Therion.
But in such an extreme situation, after a while, I’d start to hate those albums so I probably wouldn’t take any.
What other genres are you into? What do you sneak in between the covers at night, when you’re not drenched in doom and sludge and psych and drone?
I also like death, black, thrash/speed metal and their sick/filthy/nasty hybrids, and some prog and gothic metal as well (or, better yet, some gothic rock a-la-Christian Death.) I like some technical metal, and I also like the hybrids between metal and free jazz. I like grindcore, old-school hardcore punk, crust/d-beat, crossover/metallic punk and punkish rock’n’roll a-la-Helicopter/Peter Pan Speedrock. I like a little bit of industrial metal every now and then, and I like some electronic music like in Prodigy, Mortiis or Combichrist.
I do like classical music (and to se opera at the opera theater,) some jazz and blues, world music (Arabic and Sufi music, some Indian music, African music, etc.) I have contrasting feelings towards post-metal/post-rock. I can’t stand symphonic gothic metal with sopranos singing, goregrind, emo/screamo and some mixtures involving melodic hardcore, though.
We all know Ed Barnard to some degree, but still, tell us a little bit about the Man Himself for those out there who don’t.
Well, for what I know and I have known of Ed in these years of Sludgeswamp/Doommantia interaction, I have always had the impression of him as being a very serious and dedicated man and a very kind person with a huge passion for music and great respect for the scene and the musicians, even when he gives negative reviews.
As of late I realized that this huge passion for music is a great help to make him hopefully overcome some difficult moments of life. I have the impression that Ed's writing style tells a lot of his character, or better, of his present attitude, which is sometimes poisoned by a little bit of pessimism. But he is tough!
Any last comments?
(Mari offered none.-Sarp)
SANDRIJN VAN DEN OEVERWho are you and where are you from?
I’m Sandrijn van den Oever, I currently live in the dirty South of Holland I’m 34years old. But I look young. Very young. I was born in the darker regions of Geleen, and I lived in Rome (Italy), Leuven (Belgium), Amsterdam, Heerlen, Sittard,Geleen and Maastricht (Holland.) I have two master’s degrees (arts & sciences, and literary studies) and one bachelor (education.) I was into literature and psychoanalysis, but nowadays I read everything, ranging from thrillers to literature. Besides ‘the arts’ I like walking, bicycling, jogging and cooking. People seem to like me because I am polite and am rarely late.
What got you into music, and metal specifically?
It all started with Meat Loaf, of course. I love Meat Loaf. In elementary school, I had a friend who was into Iron Maiden. I picked that up because of the rad music, but also because of the awesome shirts. At the beginning of high school I was into Maiden, Priest, Scorpions, Guns N’ Roses, AC/DC, Saxons and Pink Floyd, but unfortunately the whole ‘alternative’ rock thing happened, and I was getting more and more into Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. Even more regrettably I later got into the whole Epitaph punk thing, but luckily (musically, not morally) I steered towards (straight edge) hardcore. I’m still not a big fan of punk, I still think qua music punk hasn’t got a lot to offer. Conceptually, it is an okay movement, but musically disappointing to say the very least :P. I have the same thing with Jimi Hendrix, Iggy Pop, The Pixies, Sonic Youth: I just don’t understand what all the fuss was all about. But back to my musical journey. Being a vegan straight edge nerdario, I was very happy to listen to ‘metallic’ bands like Integrity, Strife, Bloodlet, Gehenna, Ringworm, One Life Crew, Sangraal, Acme, etcetera. I also got the basics around that time, like Slayer, Pantera and Dissection. After and during this hardcore thing I started listening to hip-hop and I got into more and more easier musical waters. I ended up catching up to the whole indie thing at the beginning and the midst of the 2000’s and then when Goatsnake’s Flower of Disease came out, I was hooked and sold.
How did you find your way to the genres that we cover here in Doommantia?
Accidentally. Integrity released Integrity (2000) at the time, and that’s when I dropped out of hardcore. Flower of Disease! (2000) Together with First Daze Here by Pentagram (2001): these actually were the first bands that really got me into what I called stoner at the time. Alongside these bands, I listened to QotSA, Kyuss and Fu Manchu, Desert Sessions, but when I look back, I think only Kyuss and the first QotSA are still very, very good. QotSA went the “Dave Grohl way” of making lots and lots and lots of money, which is a shame as far as the music is considered. But, I also dug and dig Brant Bjork, you gotta love the guy. Goatsnake and Pentagram both served as massive eye-openers to say the least. Then Staring at the Divine came in 2002, and what I liked about that release was the intensity and anger of Alabam Thunderpussy: a kind of hardcore vibe but sleazy, drenched in whiskey. For me, Goatsnake and Pentagram are still these cozy, laidback heavy rock, doom bands, especially Goatsnake with their special mix of groovy heavy rock. From then on I got into the lot of them: Orange Goblin, Hermano, Acid King, Dozer. Then, when I lived in Italy, I found Electric Wizard’s “Come, My Fanatics” in a flea market, and basically I stayed focused on that particular niche of doom. So first it was stoner, but right now I’m listening to a lot of retro, female-fronted doom, and occult/evil doom in general. What can I say, I just like the horror poetics of the occult doom. It doesn’t mean a bloody single thing to me, literally (what else is Satan but a nice metaphor, anyway?) but I dig it symbolically. Right now, I love The Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, Ancient Wisdom and those kinds of bands. The great thing is that, Ancient Wisdom actually features two members of Integrity, so how cool is that?
What made you decide to get involved and to start writing about the music?
When stonerrock.com went to shit, I started searching for other places to read reviews, and I ended up reading Doommantia a lot. At the same time, I was thinking about doing something more than downloading everything like a mongoloid I could come up with, and right about that time I saw a post by Ed, asking for writers of doom. I wrote a piece on the Devil’s Blood, and I was allowed on board. I didn’t write a word on music before Doommantia.
(A man after my own heart, I must say. –Sarp)
You have three albums you can take with you to a desert island you are being condemned to. You’ll be given a disc player, unlimited batteries and will have new of the same three albums as they get worn out. What are those three albums?
Probably “Bat Out of Hell” by Meat Loaf, “Taking Tiger Mountain by Srategy” by Brian Eno and “Sad Wings of Destiny” by Judas Priest. Oh, and “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.”
What other genres are you into? What do you sneak in between the covers at night, when you’re not drenched in doom and sludge and psych and drone?
Ambient (I think Brian Eno is a God), overall sixties and seventies heavy rock, psych because I think the most spaced out music was conceived in those decades (Hawkwind!) and notwithstanding the tremendous amount of nowadays awesome acts, I don’t think that particular standard and atmosphere have been captured since. And of course the eighties für my Metal!
The last year I really got into the origins of hardrock and heavy metal, and I haven’t lost interest since. I really dig Judas Priest, W.A.S.P., Dokken, Thin Lizzy, Manowar, Vandenberg, Girlschool, The Runaways, Motörhead, etc. But I also like the new occult metallers like Ghost, In Solitude, Cruel Force, etc. My vce of choice nowadays is (raw black metal), but I also like jazz, old R&B and R. Kelly a lot. When I look at my iTunes, these genious mixes are available (meaning I have a lot of that particular genre in my library): Classic Rock – Heavy Metal- Mainstream Electronics – Americana – Indie Rock – Jazz – Classic R&B – Singer/songrwriter – Contemporary Folk – Alternative Pop/Rock – Honky-Tonk/Outlaw – Punk. Damn. Still pun… but my punk mix on iTunes features Neurosis & Integrity!
We all know Ed Barnard to some degree, but still, tell us a little bit about the Man Himself for those out there who don’t.
I think Ed is a really supportive guy who shows a lot of love and interest in the music he loves and he dedicates his life to writing this great ‘zine which gets a heap of positive feedback. He’s really a nice guy as far as I can say, and he is also interested in the personal life of his writers. Hope to catch a beer with him sometime in the future!
Any last comments?
I hate it when bands contact me about a negative review: get over it and don’t be a bitch about it. After all, what do I know? It just sucks that the review got read by lots of people, though.
WES CUETOWho are you and where are you from?
My name is Wes Cueto and I was born in New York City and grew up there and in New Jersey. I currently live in Portland, Oregon, USA.
What got you into music, and metal specifically?
Music has always been there. I can remember dancing around to the Beetlejuice soundtrack as a very small child. I really wore that cassette tape out. When I was older, about 11 or 12, I discovered Black Sabbath and really latched onto them. That led me to get more into bands like Slayer during my teens.
How did you find your way to the genres that we cover here in Doommantia?
I was working at a record shop in Pittsburgh when “Witchcult Today” was released, and I have to say that when I first heard Electric Wizard as a 21 year old, it made me feel like I was 12 again, listening to Sabbath. Maybe it had something to do with the spooky occult give that got me so interested in the movie Bettlejuice when I was very young… Once I realized how much I was into Electric Wizard, I went back to discover older doom/stoner/psych bands that influenced them and through that I came to realize just how important doom and all of its related sub-genres are. Doom is the Blues and the Blues is everything.
What made you decide to get involved and to start writing about the music?
I was taking film classes at a local college while I was working back at that record store. I became a lot more interested in writing than filming so I took some writing classes and really enjoyed them. This led me to pursue writing more so than film related work but in all reality, I am interested in working with both.
How did you come to write for Doommantia?
I have never been a passive listener and since I was already listening to the music, I was reading about it too. Doommantia has been a well known source for news in the doom/stoner/sludge/psych scenes for a while. When I noticed I tended to gear my music journalism toward the Doom scene, like my first two interviews were with Orange Goblin and The Gates of Slumber, I figured I would contact Ed to see if he was accepting contributors – and as luck would have it, he was.
How was your experience writing for other websites?
When I first started doing music journalism, I Wrote for some more Grindcore, Punk and Thrash oriented ‘zines, which were great! I had a lot of fun working on those sites and collaborating with different people in addition to the work I do on my own blog (graveyarns.wordpress.com)
You have three albums you can take with you to a desert island you are being condemned to. You’ll be given a disc player, unlimited batteries and will have new of the same three albums as they get worn out. What are those three albums?
The Best of Chuck Berry
Black Sabbath – Vol. 4
Hellhammer – Demon Entrails
What other genres are you into? What do you sneak in between the covers at night, when you’re not drenched in doom and sludge and psych and drone?
I love it all: black metal, death metal, thrash, punk, hardcore, grindcore, noise, jazz, blues, funk, soul, hip-hop, reggae, electronic/ambient, latin and afro-beat,country, rockabilly, classical, you name it. Hail Hail Rock’n’Roll!
We all know Ed Barnard to some degree, but still, tell us a little bit about the Man Himself for those out there who don’t.
Well, I don’t know Ed very well, but in the short time I’ve been contributing to the site, he has been very open and encouraging of different ideas. It was really cool of Ed to accept me on his team of writers, given that I haven’t been doing this for very long at all and am still learning a lot about it, it’s a lot of fun and he’s been very cool with me along the way, which has really been inspiring. Thanks, Ed!
Any last comments?
When I got involved in music journalism, I was going through a very rough patch in my life and needed an outlet. I feel really privileged to be a part of this international community of amazing people who all share the same passion for the same music. Doom Over the World! Long Live Rock n’ Roll!
Article By
Sarp Esin.
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