The Contributors
Current/Active bloggers:
Plantera7 (A.K.A. Reggie) - I am a lifelong metal fan and proud of it. I got my start in metal somewhere around 1978 when I got a hold of one of my brother’s Kiss records; I was around 5-years old. Since then my taste of metal grew, narrowed, and then expanded to where I am today. I like to think of myself as a metal connoisseur. I like something from all the major genres of metal old and new. I don’t get too wrapped up in whether something is too fast, too slow, or too soft. If it’s good music, I listen to it.
I grew up in metal around the “Big Four.” I am a fan of good old American thrash. That is pretty much the foundation of my metal then it goes from there. I do not play musical instruments although I plan on starting after I finish school. My all-time favorite band is Megadeth. Let’s talk metal!
Here is a little Q & A about me.
Hometown – Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S.A; currently resides in Wyoming, USA
All-Time Favorite Bands – Megadeth, Dream Theater, Overkill, Opeth
Favorite Bands This Very Moment - Amon Amarth, Opeth, Dream Theater, Megadeth, Machine Head, Katatonia
First Ever Concert - Loverboy with special guests Dokken somewhere around 1986
Favorite Bands to See Live - Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Dream Theater, Megadeth, Slayer, Amon Amarth, Judas Priest (w/Halford), and Ghost.
Most Overrated Band(s) - Avenged Sevenfold, Deftones, Disturbed, Coheed and Cambria,
3 Albums to take to a deserted Island with Electricity- Megadeth (Holy Wars…Punishment Due); Images and Words (Dream Theater); Ghost Reveries (Opeth)
P.S. The picture above is me and Paradise Lost at the Waterfront in Norwich, England 2012.
My Gaming Preferences:
I have been playing videogames since I was about 7 years old. Back then it was Atari. Since then there has pretty much always been some kind of gaming device in my life. At the moment I am an avid Xbox 360 player and I also have a Nintendo Wii because I have kids although I do like to dabble in Wii adventures from time to time. I tried PC games for a bit and found that I prefer the consoles. And that’s the extent of my gaming…about 30+ years worth.
Favorite Games/Series: Resident Evil, Call of Duty, Command and Conquer, Need for Speed, Guitar Hero, Baseball, Golf, Medal of Honor, Hockey, Portal 2, Mass Effect 2, Super Mario Bros., Gran Turismo (when I used to own a Playstation 2), TOmb Raider (2013), and Bioshock Infinite.
Current Gaming Platforms: Xbox 360 (gamertag “MetlStateOfMind”), Nintendo 3DS.
Currently Playing: Call of Duty Black Ops II, Sleeping Dogs, Borderlands 2. I tend to play one game at a time. I recently finished playing Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider (2013), MLB 2K13, and Resident Evil 6…which sucked.
Will be Playing in the Near Future: Crysis 2
Atleastimhousebroken(A.K.A. Matt)- Knows how to not pee on the carpet, and really ties the blog together. Ok, all seriousness aside, I’m a huge metal fan and have been for as far back as my memory can take me. One of the things I love about metal is how passionate the fans of the genre are, you will never see a Kenny G. fan as pumped up for a concert or album as say an Iron Maiden fan would be, let alone get down to the nitty gritty on why they think a song, album, or band is as awesome as they think it is. And quoting Rob Zombie, “One thing you will never hear a metalhead say is “Remember that summer when we liked Slayer?” Metalheads love their music and are dedicated to it, it’s not a passing phase, and I’m proud to be part of the metal community.
I enjoy playing metal(not very well), but enjoy more sitting down and getting into a great metal album or song(I do tend to enjoy the more progressive bands out there) and when I really like something I feel it’s my duty to share my passion for what I’m enjoying with other people. Hence why I enjoy writing to you wonderful readers out there along with the “Metal State of Mind” team. Writing here also gives me the chance to discover some songs and bands I may have never heard and ultimately would end up liking, so if you think something is just badass, leave a comment.
Peace, Love, and Metal!
Hometown – Brick, NJ, USA; Currently living in Milan, Italy
All-Time Favorite Bands – Too many and a constantly revolving door. Some staples are Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Opeth, Dream Theater, Rush, Between the Buried and Me, Pantera, Moonsorrow, Bruce Springsteen, Clutch, Black Sabbath, The Sword
First Ever Concert - Pantera with Clutch and Neurosis in 1996
Favorite Bands to See Live - Iron Maiden(best concert ever, MSG, NYC Brave New World Tour), Blind Guardian(2nd best concert ever, Alcatraz, Milan At the Edge of Time Tour), Clutch(consistently awesome live, seen them about 14 times), Monster Magnet(hometown heroes), Dream Theater(needs no explanation)
Most Overrated Band(s) - Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Slayer
3 Albums to take to a deserted Island with Electricity- Seventh Son of a Seventh Son(Iron Maiden), Nightfall in Middle-Earth(Blind Guardian), Ghost Reveries(Opeth)
My Video Game Preferences:
Along with being a long-term metal head I am also a long-term gamer. Being born in the late 70′s let me be able to grow up around the start of gaming’s popularity as a young child I played around with the Atari in the house that I adored so much. But my big fall into gaming came with the inception of the world’s most popular gaming platform, the NES. Super Mario, Zelda, Castlevania, Mega-Man, those are the games where my heart is at in games, but I also do love modern gaming also with new technology really allowing me to immerse myself into a world like I have never been able to before.
Favorite Games/Series: Castlevania(in particular, Castlevania 3 and Symphony of the Night), Mega-Man(part 3 FTW), Super Mario Bros.(2, 3 and Mario World), Ninja Gaiden(both old-school and new), Day of the Tentacle, Legend of Zelda(A Link to the Past and Majora’s Mask), Warcraft III:Reign of Chaos, Starcraft, Portal, The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, Kings Quest, Final Fantasy(VI, IX, and Tactics in particular), Tetris, Ace Attorney Series, Guitar Hero, Resident Evil 1, 2, and 4, Red Dead Redemption, L.A. Noire, Limbo, and various indie games.
Current Gaming Platforms: PC (Steam username RiffRaff79), X-Box 360(gamertag RiffRaff79), Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, various emulators for my old-school gaming fix.
Currently Playing: Click here to see my PC gaming habits
Will Be Playing in the Near Future: Everything I haven’t played
Irmelinis (A.K.A Mik) - Always been a huge fan of music, and when I was younger I spent countless of hours listening, dancing, and singing along to The Beatles, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Dire Straits and music from the 60’s. In the 90’s MTV was my best friend after school.
My metal-days started a little over twelve years ago, when I was 21 years old and generally tired of mainstream music. A friend introduced me to power metal and I started to listen to Morifade, Luca Turilli and Stratovarius. But the band that really caught my attention and made me want to continue to explore metal was Edguy. That’s when I started going to concerts and metal festivals and I had found one of my passions in life.
Hometown: Somewhere in Sweden
All-Time Favorite Bands –Older favourites that have been knocked down a bit on my popularity-list are Bathory, Pain of Salvation, Opeth, Tool, Sepultura…. Because now I’m busy obsessing over Gojira, TesseracT, Negura Bunget, Textures and In Mourning.
First Ever Concert – Edguy and Labyrinth, even though I remember the hug I received from Labyrinth’s singer afterwards more than the actual concert…
I went to a big Paul McCartney concert when I was 10 years old too, it was actually quite unforgettable.
Favorite Bands to See Live – Dimmu Borgir, Opeth, Sepultura, Avantasia
Bands I’d love to see live – Gojira, Skyharbor, TesseracT , Anaal Nathrakh and probably most of all right now, Tool.
Most Overrated Band(s) – Slayer, Metallica and Nirvana
Most Underrated Band(s) – In Mourning, Negura Bunget, Nightmare, Primordial
3 Albums to take to a deserted Island with Electricity- One (TesseracT) , From Mars to Sirius (Gojira), Blackwater Park (Opeth)
My Video Game Preferences: Started with NES when I was little, continued with PC and now also Xbox 360. I tend to prefer playing on my PC and I enjoy many different types of games.
What I’ve been spending the most time playing, probably a total of over three years connection time (1 year and 16 weeks on my main character, oops), is on MUD’s, multi-user dungeons, real time virtual world, text-based game, and especially in the fantasy world of Merentha. In that world I’m running a mercenary guild, continually getting to know people from all over the world, that’s where I met my boyfriend from Australia 6 years ago, it’s where I’ve had the most fun with people that have become very dear friends.
Favorite Games/Series: The Elder Scrolls (they will always be the best) , Star Wars – The Old Republic, Minecraft, Devil May Cry, Final Fantasy, Starcraft (and Starcraft Tower Defense maps), Borderlands, Dragon Age, Test Drive Unlimited, Zelda, Diablo 2, Plants vs Zombies (so much fun!)
Current Gaming Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Ipad
Currently Playing: Mostly Minecraft right now. But also Torchlight II, Diablo 3, Skyrim, Lego Harry Potter and Guitar Hero
Will Be Playing in the Near Future: Borderlands 2, Lego Lord of the Rings, hopefully more Star Wars – The Old Republic again, possibly Guild Wars 2 and Bioshock
Will Never Play Again: Pretty sick and tired of Diablo 3 already. League of Legends is annoying. Games where you can’t solo, and have to party to get through the game is frustrating.
Former/Inactive bloggers
Yungvirticus- Hello all, thanks for reading our blog. My name is Joshua but I go by Yungvirticus (long story). I have been a metal fan for quite a while. I started to really listen to metal in my teens, and I haven’t looked back since. No other type of music has affected me as much as metal. I have a slightly different point of view of metal music than Plantera7, as I play guitar and bass, and have grown up around musical instruments my whole life. If anything, this has made my love for metal even stronger. I love the fact that no other genre of music elicits such an unique response from it’s fans. With very few exceptions, I have an interest in every type of hard rock and metal out there.
More will follow on my interests and my favorites (probably in the first blog), but I can tell you, I am really excited to reach out and talk to other fans of the greatest music in the world- Metal!
