Books update!

April 23rd, 2007 • education, reading

I finally received my latest batch of books on Friday! I’m still wading my way through The Devil: Perceptions… but I’ve just received three more books in the mail. One is the much anticipated Satan: The Early Christian Tradition which is the second volume of four of the same topic. I also received The History of Hell by Alice K. Turner and Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — And Doesn’t by Stephen Prothero.

I’m anxious to read the latter two as I’ve heard good things about Prothero’s book and Turner’s book should be interesting given her previous job as an editor at Playboy.

New reviews are coming

April 23rd, 2007 • blog, reviews, writing

Many of you probably do not know that I’m a huge metal fan. I love just about any genre I can find from black metal to doom metal to obscure things like pornogrind and horrorcore. I’ve been listening to metal since the ripe age of 12 and aside from abhorring it in my years after that due to immaturity, I’ve come full circle to the brutal music I love. What many of you also do not know is that besides rambling here about things, I also write reviews for metal albums over at Band Names Not Brand Names. I’ve been doing it for about a year with some breaks here and there due to work-related issues but I’m getting back into the swing of things.

My latest reviews have been for Norwegian black metal band Hordagaard and French black ambient master AEP. I’m pretty much positive that none of you have heard of either of these bands before and if you have, that’s awesome! I’m now in the final writing and editing processes for two new reviews for doom/death- and doom-based bands Novembers Doom and Mourning Beloveth respectively. Which discs of each band I won’t reveal just yet but feel free to take a guess. Here’s a kicker if you want to try and guess: I own 5 different Novembers Doom CDs and two Mourning Beloveth CDs to pick from and review. I actually have a sixth Novembers Doom CD on the way and it could potentially be that CD I review!

I’ve been trying to get published in popular metal rags and I’ve emailed a few magazines previously however, I’ve had little luck in trying to just get an “in” in how to get a review or two featured in a magazine. If any of you have tips on how to get published more easily, please let me know.