Adam McAuley a.k.a. Victim of Deception
Adam recently completed his English Major at the University of Toronto, but his permanent residence remains Sudbury, Ontario. He hopes to become a writer for a publication like a music or videogame magazine, and is currently a writer for Avantgarde-Metal, Spirit Of Metal, Metal Underground, Metalbite, and PureGrainAudio. His other interests include reading, going for walks and playing piano. His current location has proven to be his most enjoyable of all his places of residence.
Current top 10 bands:
Iron Maiden
Overkill
Alice in Chains
Immolation
Carcass
Isis
Katatonia
Jethro Tull
Queensryche
King Diamond
Currently listening to:
Immolation - Shadows in the Light
Nick Cave - No More Shall We Part
WASP - Best of the Best
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Edge of Sanity - Crimson 2
Machine Head - The Blackening
Armored Saint - Delirious Nomad
Queensryche - Empire
Place of Skulls - The Black is Never Far
Anthony Lustmord aka LLCT (Ladies Love Cool Tony)
26 years old, from Phoenix Arizona. Spend my time going to concerts, working on my band Lustmordrunning Death Rape Inc. and trying to get into low budget horror film production and soundtrack work. I also work a day job in Hotel Management...so I can help touring bands with rooms!
Top ten bands:
Kalmah
Opeth
Burzum
NIN
Mortiis
Cannibal Corpse
Murder Squad
Kult Of Thorn
Six Feet Under
Lustmord
Currently listening:
Journey
Embalmer
Sins Of Thy Beloved
Gothic doom as background stuff
Brandon Peters a.k.a. swizzlenuts
Brandon is currently a senior in Chemical Engineering at Iowa State University, and will be starting graduate school in the fall. He spends his time listening to metal, heavy rock, progressive rock and ambient; brewing beer; drinking beer, whiskey and coffee; and reading. Brandon loves metal, but at the same times spends a great amount time talking and reading about science. He also loves listening to podcasts and audiobooks.
All time top 10 bands in no order:
Manilla Road
Pentagram
Pagan Altar
Warning
Demilich
Burzum
Demigod
The Chasm
Judas Priest
Mercyful Fate
Currently listening to:
Beardfish - Sleeping in Traffic: Part two
Anael - From Arcane Fires
Krallice - Krallice
Revelation - Release
Dreaming - II
Zemial - In Monumentum
Darkspace - Darkspace III
Yes - Close to the Edge
Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff
Cynic - Focus
Ellie McGee a.k.a Vikingess
Ellie, a creature of many and varied guises, is currently living in Birmingham UK with a degree in American Studies and English Lit., quite a few spiders, a violin and a much-loved Megadrive II. When she’s not playing with her multitude of alter-egos, Ellie can be found writing feverishly in one of the 60+ notebooks scattered around her desks, indulging her addiction to luxury stationary, goofing off in various forums, wandering off up mountains or, very occasionally, getting some work done. Her reading obsession has left her with an extensive library of the literary great and good (although rumours abound that she reads Sweet Valley High books in the bath) and her shady reviewing history has left her with an equally extensive collection of CDs, although there are plans to excavate a path to the outside world by 2011. Capable of inducing lethal levels of boredom when talking about spiders, the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and other selected authors, the merits of proper writing instruments, binomial nomenclature, and the joys of a good notebook. She feels very strongly that writing should involve a fountain pen, black ink and acid-free paper, and is best done on a mountainside in all weathers except excessive rain.
All time top 10:
Korpiklaani
Turisas
Stratovarius
SpeedTheory
Fist In Fetus
Camille Saint-Saëns
Cosmotheka
Matias Kupiainen (solo stuff)
Breed77
Steeleye Span
Currently listening to:
Solitudes
Turisas
Masato Nakamura
Matias Kupiainen (solo stuff)
Stratovarius
Lola Rennt OST
Breed77
The Wombles
The Wurzels
Alestorm
Jack Deming a.k.a TheTechnogoat
Jack hails from the frozen forests of New England, and is soon to be a English/Literature Major at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He divides his free time between reading, writing, enjoying music, watching films, and playing/writing music on guitar and other instruments. Jack hopes to someday move to a quiet, northern country with plenty of snow where he can live in peace, very far from all of the crazies and loud people who annoy him so very much.
Current top 10 bands:
Alestorm
Anaal Nathrakh
Finntroll
Fionn Regan
Joanna Newsom
Justice
Moonsorrow
Opeth
Sigur Ros
Yann Tiersen
Currently listening to:
Big Black - Songs About Fucking
Alestorm - Captain Morgan's Revenge
Yann Tiersen - Tabarly
Sigur Rós - með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Nevermore - Enemies of Reality
Agalloch - The White EP
Jason Jordan a.k.a. circus_brimstone
Jason Jordan is a writer from New Albany, Indiana, who always says he's from Louisville, Kentucky, because people actually know where that is. His favorite metal subgenres are black, death, grind, and avant-garde.
If you'd like to read more of Jason's reviews, check out Zero Tolerance Magazine, of which he is also a staff member. He was formerly with MetalReview.com and The Metal Observer. For more information about him, visit his blog.
Current top 10 bands:
Agalloch
Amorphis
Buried Inside
Death
Emperor
Enslaved
Extol
Gojira
Katatonia
Wolves in the Throne Room
Currently listening to:
Austere - To Lay Like Old Ashes
Long Distance Calling - Avoid the Light
Obscura - Cosmogenesis
Stand-Up Guy - Avenue Unawares
Kim Furness a.k.a. Axemaiden
Kim Furness is a nefarious goblin of doom currently residing in Wales, UK. She has many interests and when not burning things and maiming those around her can generally be found in the university library studying for her MA in Mythology and Folklore. She can also be found surgically attached to her guitar or bass, and generally spends a good proportion of her life being crushed in mosh pits. Kim has been listening to all things heavy since her time in the womb (proof, methinks that parents are occasionally worthwhile) and considers music to be her all consuming passion in life.
Current top 17 bands:
Alice in Chains
Pantera
(Old) Metallica
Carcass
Turisas
Amon Amarth
Black Label Society
Meshuggah
Bolt Thrower
Corrosion of Conformity
Enslaved
Korpiklaani
Rammstein
Slayer
White Zombie
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Days of the New
Currently listening to:
Heidevolk- Wodan Heerst
Metallica- Kill em All
Metallica- Ride the Lightning
Pantera- Far Beyond Driven
Rammstein- Sehnsucht
Amon Amarth- With Odin by our Side
God Dethroned- The Lair of the White Worm
Vried- Kraft
Enslaved- Isa
Neil Hauer a.k.a. optionthree
The man known as Neil Hauer is, to put it lightly, rather enigmatic in nature. Currently studying at the University of Calgary in the business program, his plans for the upcoming year include everything from traveling to Turkey, to changing his major, to flying around the continent in order to catch shows of those bands who have decided to forgo the frozen lands of Western Canada. A bass guitarist for many years, he is presently shopping around to determine the best usage of his talents in that field. Primarily enjoying the more progressive side of metal, he also makes extended forays into thrash, death, technical, and experimental metal territory.
Current top 10 bands:
Queensryche
Fates Warning
Judas Priest
Rush
Faith No More
Death
Atheist
Ozric Tentacles
Sepultura
Opeth
Currently listening to:
Agalloch - The Mantle
Psychotic Waltz - Into the Everflow
Samael - Above
Carcass - Necrotism
Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Paddy Walsh a.k.a. Bleakest Harvest
Paddy Walsh is a writer, historian, and self styled pantheist antichrist who enjoys ranting at the moon about everyone else's faults. During the rare moments of quiet introspection, he also enjoys writing reviews for this fair 'zine, reading a good ol' yarn, attempting to stay fit, irritating others via smug vegetarianism, listening to metal/rock/unlistenable music, and is an avid short story and fiction writer. He graduated not so long ago from an overblown Dublin university with a Masters in International Relations, yet hasn't been able to find any international based relations thus far. Paddy currently resides somewhere in the urban, grey depths of Ireland's rainy capital with his radically radical and most feminist girlfriend, but is hoping to move to Ireland's even rainier countryside by the end of 2009 so that he can listen to music louder.
Current top 10 metal bands:
Primordial
Opeth
Anaal Nathrakh
Negura Bunget
Reverend Bizarre
Katatonia
Virus
Warning (RIP)
Immortal
Meshuggah
Currently listening to:
Reverend Bizarre - Death is Glory...Now!
The Wandering Midget - The Serpent Coven
Warning - Watching From a Distance
Diagonal - Diagonal
Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
Primordial - To the Nameless Dead
Steve Wilson - Insurgentes
Virus - The Black Flux
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Russell Garwood
Russell lives in London with his girlfriend and their pet snake. He is studying for a PhD in palaeobiology at the Royal School Of Mines, Imperial College: this involves the use of CT scans to create three-dimensional computer reconstructions of rare fossils. As well as editing UM’s webzine he is the news & reviews editor of Zero Tolerance Magazine. In addition to his studies and journalism Russell loves movies and is an avid amateur photographer. His tastes are varied; if something is good, he’ll listen to it, anything from extreme metal to jazz, with a healthy dose of EBM, electronica, industrial, rock and many other styles thrown in. A big fan of world and transgressive cinema, his taste in films is nevertheless similarly wide-ranging, favourites including Battle Royale, Hana-Bi, Elephant, Oldboy, Requiem For A Dream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Versus, The Crimson Rivers, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Spirited Away and Ichi The Killer.
Russell’s website
Current top 10 bands:
Delerium
Emperor
Covenant
Katatonia
Kekal
Manes
Opeth
Type O Negative
Ulver
Between The Buried And Me
Currently listening to:
Ulver - Shadows Of The Sun
Hangman's Chair - (A Lament For…
The Addicts
Between The Buried And Me - Colors
Woods Of Ypres - Woods III
Covenant - Europa
Controlled Bleeding - Inanition
Ryan Starr a.k.a. genocide roach
Ryan is currently enlisted in the USAF and stationed in Colorado Springs. He enjoys long walks through the forest, candlelight dinners, and gory zombie movies. He also has a serious case of G.A.S. (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) and fancies himself a musician. For the last 7 years Ryan has been entrenched in the scene, whether in the US or abroad, playing in various bands, teaching guitar, and spreading the word of metal to all he meets.
Current top 10 bands (in order of preference):
Emperor
Enslaved
Blind Guardian
Bathory
Turisas
Edguy
Borknagar
Thyrfing
Negura Bunget
Carpathian Forest
Currently listening to:
Watain - Sworn to the Dark
Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors
Isole - Silent Ruins
Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow
Bathory - Hammerheart
Summoning - Lugburz
Nortt - Ligfærd
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Extol - Undeceived
Thyrfing - Hels Vite
Simon Brand a.k.a. TartanLlama
Simon is an inhabitant of Edinburgh, Scotland, currently preparing to go off to the University of St. Andrews to study Computer Science.
He spends most of his time based around either music or computers, more often than not with a cup of tea at his side. His music tastes range from metal (avant-garde, progressive, doom, black, death) to Jazz (free, avant-, fusion) all the way to folk (neo-, dark, pagan, martial) and over to compositional (romantic, 20th-century, medieval) and various other deviations.
Current top 10 bands:
Cynic
Ne Obliviscaris
Spiral Architect
Exivious
The Fractured Dimension
Scale The Summit
Jesu
Psychotic Waltz
The Mahavishnu Orchestra
Humanoid
Currently listening to:
Scale The Summit - Carving Desert Canyons
The Moon and the Nightspirit - Osforras
Amaranth - You Shine, Beyond Dawn
Ne Obliviscaris - The Aurora Veil
Animals As Leaders - s/t
Jesu - s/t
Adam recently completed his English Major at the University of Toronto, but his permanent residence remains Sudbury, Ontario. He hopes to become a writer for a publication like a music or videogame magazine, and is currently a writer for Avantgarde-Metal, Spirit Of Metal, Metal Underground, Metalbite, and PureGrainAudio. His other interests include reading, going for walks and playing piano. His current location has proven to be his most enjoyable of all his places of residence.
Current top 10 bands:
Iron Maiden
Overkill
Alice in Chains
Immolation
Carcass
Isis
Katatonia
Jethro Tull
Queensryche
King Diamond
Currently listening to:
Immolation - Shadows in the Light
Nick Cave - No More Shall We Part
WASP - Best of the Best
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Edge of Sanity - Crimson 2
Machine Head - The Blackening
Armored Saint - Delirious Nomad
Queensryche - Empire
Place of Skulls - The Black is Never Far
Anthony Lustmord aka LLCT (Ladies Love Cool Tony)
26 years old, from Phoenix Arizona. Spend my time going to concerts, working on my band Lustmordrunning Death Rape Inc. and trying to get into low budget horror film production and soundtrack work. I also work a day job in Hotel Management...so I can help touring bands with rooms!
Top ten bands:
Kalmah
Opeth
Burzum
NIN
Mortiis
Cannibal Corpse
Murder Squad
Kult Of Thorn
Six Feet Under
Lustmord
Currently listening:
Journey
Embalmer
Sins Of Thy Beloved
Gothic doom as background stuff
Brandon Peters a.k.a. swizzlenuts
Brandon is currently a senior in Chemical Engineering at Iowa State University, and will be starting graduate school in the fall. He spends his time listening to metal, heavy rock, progressive rock and ambient; brewing beer; drinking beer, whiskey and coffee; and reading. Brandon loves metal, but at the same times spends a great amount time talking and reading about science. He also loves listening to podcasts and audiobooks.
All time top 10 bands in no order:
Manilla Road
Pentagram
Pagan Altar
Warning
Demilich
Burzum
Demigod
The Chasm
Judas Priest
Mercyful Fate
Currently listening to:
Beardfish - Sleeping in Traffic: Part two
Anael - From Arcane Fires
Krallice - Krallice
Revelation - Release
Dreaming - II
Zemial - In Monumentum
Darkspace - Darkspace III
Yes - Close to the Edge
Van Der Graaf Generator - Godbluff
Cynic - Focus
Ellie McGee a.k.a Vikingess
Ellie, a creature of many and varied guises, is currently living in Birmingham UK with a degree in American Studies and English Lit., quite a few spiders, a violin and a much-loved Megadrive II. When she’s not playing with her multitude of alter-egos, Ellie can be found writing feverishly in one of the 60+ notebooks scattered around her desks, indulging her addiction to luxury stationary, goofing off in various forums, wandering off up mountains or, very occasionally, getting some work done. Her reading obsession has left her with an extensive library of the literary great and good (although rumours abound that she reads Sweet Valley High books in the bath) and her shady reviewing history has left her with an equally extensive collection of CDs, although there are plans to excavate a path to the outside world by 2011. Capable of inducing lethal levels of boredom when talking about spiders, the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and other selected authors, the merits of proper writing instruments, binomial nomenclature, and the joys of a good notebook. She feels very strongly that writing should involve a fountain pen, black ink and acid-free paper, and is best done on a mountainside in all weathers except excessive rain.
All time top 10:
Korpiklaani
Turisas
Stratovarius
SpeedTheory
Fist In Fetus
Camille Saint-Saëns
Cosmotheka
Matias Kupiainen (solo stuff)
Breed77
Steeleye Span
Currently listening to:
Solitudes
Turisas
Masato Nakamura
Matias Kupiainen (solo stuff)
Stratovarius
Lola Rennt OST
Breed77
The Wombles
The Wurzels
Alestorm
Jack Deming a.k.a TheTechnogoat
Jack hails from the frozen forests of New England, and is soon to be a English/Literature Major at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He divides his free time between reading, writing, enjoying music, watching films, and playing/writing music on guitar and other instruments. Jack hopes to someday move to a quiet, northern country with plenty of snow where he can live in peace, very far from all of the crazies and loud people who annoy him so very much.
Current top 10 bands:
Alestorm
Anaal Nathrakh
Finntroll
Fionn Regan
Joanna Newsom
Justice
Moonsorrow
Opeth
Sigur Ros
Yann Tiersen
Currently listening to:
Big Black - Songs About Fucking
Alestorm - Captain Morgan's Revenge
Yann Tiersen - Tabarly
Sigur Rós - með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Nevermore - Enemies of Reality
Agalloch - The White EP
Jason Jordan a.k.a. circus_brimstone
Jason Jordan is a writer from New Albany, Indiana, who always says he's from Louisville, Kentucky, because people actually know where that is. His favorite metal subgenres are black, death, grind, and avant-garde.
If you'd like to read more of Jason's reviews, check out Zero Tolerance Magazine, of which he is also a staff member. He was formerly with MetalReview.com and The Metal Observer. For more information about him, visit his blog.
Current top 10 bands:
Agalloch
Amorphis
Buried Inside
Death
Emperor
Enslaved
Extol
Gojira
Katatonia
Wolves in the Throne Room
Currently listening to:
Austere - To Lay Like Old Ashes
Long Distance Calling - Avoid the Light
Obscura - Cosmogenesis
Stand-Up Guy - Avenue Unawares
Kim Furness a.k.a. Axemaiden
Kim Furness is a nefarious goblin of doom currently residing in Wales, UK. She has many interests and when not burning things and maiming those around her can generally be found in the university library studying for her MA in Mythology and Folklore. She can also be found surgically attached to her guitar or bass, and generally spends a good proportion of her life being crushed in mosh pits. Kim has been listening to all things heavy since her time in the womb (proof, methinks that parents are occasionally worthwhile) and considers music to be her all consuming passion in life.
Current top 17 bands:
Alice in Chains
Pantera
(Old) Metallica
Carcass
Turisas
Amon Amarth
Black Label Society
Meshuggah
Bolt Thrower
Corrosion of Conformity
Enslaved
Korpiklaani
Rammstein
Slayer
White Zombie
Rodrigo y Gabriela
Days of the New
Currently listening to:
Heidevolk- Wodan Heerst
Metallica- Kill em All
Metallica- Ride the Lightning
Pantera- Far Beyond Driven
Rammstein- Sehnsucht
Amon Amarth- With Odin by our Side
God Dethroned- The Lair of the White Worm
Vried- Kraft
Enslaved- Isa
Neil Hauer a.k.a. optionthree
The man known as Neil Hauer is, to put it lightly, rather enigmatic in nature. Currently studying at the University of Calgary in the business program, his plans for the upcoming year include everything from traveling to Turkey, to changing his major, to flying around the continent in order to catch shows of those bands who have decided to forgo the frozen lands of Western Canada. A bass guitarist for many years, he is presently shopping around to determine the best usage of his talents in that field. Primarily enjoying the more progressive side of metal, he also makes extended forays into thrash, death, technical, and experimental metal territory.
Current top 10 bands:
Queensryche
Fates Warning
Judas Priest
Rush
Faith No More
Death
Atheist
Ozric Tentacles
Sepultura
Opeth
Currently listening to:
Agalloch - The Mantle
Psychotic Waltz - Into the Everflow
Samael - Above
Carcass - Necrotism
Gordian Knot - Gordian Knot
Opeth - My Arms, Your Hearse
Paddy Walsh a.k.a. Bleakest Harvest
Paddy Walsh is a writer, historian, and self styled pantheist antichrist who enjoys ranting at the moon about everyone else's faults. During the rare moments of quiet introspection, he also enjoys writing reviews for this fair 'zine, reading a good ol' yarn, attempting to stay fit, irritating others via smug vegetarianism, listening to metal/rock/unlistenable music, and is an avid short story and fiction writer. He graduated not so long ago from an overblown Dublin university with a Masters in International Relations, yet hasn't been able to find any international based relations thus far. Paddy currently resides somewhere in the urban, grey depths of Ireland's rainy capital with his radically radical and most feminist girlfriend, but is hoping to move to Ireland's even rainier countryside by the end of 2009 so that he can listen to music louder.
Current top 10 metal bands:
Primordial
Opeth
Anaal Nathrakh
Negura Bunget
Reverend Bizarre
Katatonia
Virus
Warning (RIP)
Immortal
Meshuggah
Currently listening to:
Reverend Bizarre - Death is Glory...Now!
The Wandering Midget - The Serpent Coven
Warning - Watching From a Distance
Diagonal - Diagonal
Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
Primordial - To the Nameless Dead
Steve Wilson - Insurgentes
Virus - The Black Flux
Bauhaus - In the Flat Field
Russell Garwood
Russell lives in London with his girlfriend and their pet snake. He is studying for a PhD in palaeobiology at the Royal School Of Mines, Imperial College: this involves the use of CT scans to create three-dimensional computer reconstructions of rare fossils. As well as editing UM’s webzine he is the news & reviews editor of Zero Tolerance Magazine. In addition to his studies and journalism Russell loves movies and is an avid amateur photographer. His tastes are varied; if something is good, he’ll listen to it, anything from extreme metal to jazz, with a healthy dose of EBM, electronica, industrial, rock and many other styles thrown in. A big fan of world and transgressive cinema, his taste in films is nevertheless similarly wide-ranging, favourites including Battle Royale, Hana-Bi, Elephant, Oldboy, Requiem For A Dream, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Versus, The Crimson Rivers, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Spirited Away and Ichi The Killer.
Russell’s website
Current top 10 bands:
Delerium
Emperor
Covenant
Katatonia
Kekal
Manes
Opeth
Type O Negative
Ulver
Between The Buried And Me
Currently listening to:
Ulver - Shadows Of The Sun
Hangman's Chair - (A Lament For…
The AddictsBetween The Buried And Me - Colors
Woods Of Ypres - Woods III
Covenant - Europa
Controlled Bleeding - Inanition
Ryan Starr a.k.a. genocide roach
Ryan is currently enlisted in the USAF and stationed in Colorado Springs. He enjoys long walks through the forest, candlelight dinners, and gory zombie movies. He also has a serious case of G.A.S. (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome) and fancies himself a musician. For the last 7 years Ryan has been entrenched in the scene, whether in the US or abroad, playing in various bands, teaching guitar, and spreading the word of metal to all he meets.
Current top 10 bands (in order of preference):
Emperor
Enslaved
Blind Guardian
Bathory
Turisas
Edguy
Borknagar
Thyrfing
Negura Bunget
Carpathian Forest
Currently listening to:
Watain - Sworn to the Dark
Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors
Isole - Silent Ruins
Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow
Bathory - Hammerheart
Summoning - Lugburz
Nortt - Ligfærd
Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Extol - Undeceived
Thyrfing - Hels Vite
Simon Brand a.k.a. TartanLlama
Simon is an inhabitant of Edinburgh, Scotland, currently preparing to go off to the University of St. Andrews to study Computer Science.
He spends most of his time based around either music or computers, more often than not with a cup of tea at his side. His music tastes range from metal (avant-garde, progressive, doom, black, death) to Jazz (free, avant-, fusion) all the way to folk (neo-, dark, pagan, martial) and over to compositional (romantic, 20th-century, medieval) and various other deviations.
Current top 10 bands:
Cynic
Ne Obliviscaris
Spiral Architect
Exivious
The Fractured Dimension
Scale The Summit
Jesu
Psychotic Waltz
The Mahavishnu Orchestra
Humanoid
Currently listening to:
Scale The Summit - Carving Desert Canyons
The Moon and the Nightspirit - Osforras
Amaranth - You Shine, Beyond Dawn
Ne Obliviscaris - The Aurora Veil
Animals As Leaders - s/t
Jesu - s/t
