The Annie Christ Adventure - Part 1

You may or may not know the entire story of how Annie Christ really came to be. But it has a great deal to do with writing and learning as much as I can about this music that moves me, and sustains me.

And you may or may not know how serious I am about understanding metal– all genres and aspects. I want to know the history of every band, every album. I want to know why someone was moved to write some great lyric – or start a band – or a different sound. I want to feel it all – the good and the bad. That’s part of the reason I became a student of this thing – because it makes me feel something.

But you should know that I’ve been very lucky to have some of the best teachers in the world – people who are on the forefront of metal history, people who feel very deeply for the music they create. Almost from the beginning Mike IX Williams has been a mentor. He has guided me to bands I might not have tried – and he’s told me stories that put things in the kind of perspective that no other human being could explain. Ronny Sorkness has been another great teacher. Sometimes I will name some band and Ronny will not only tell me what they are all about, but will know all their albums and sometimes have a story about hanging out with them in Norway. (And yes, he’s tape-traded with them all.)

There are a few others who I should mention: Bobby Paranoize and M. Bevis of Paranoizenola.com have given me mix cd’s, copies of Paranoize, and so much of their time just to make sure I have a true perception of the underground New Orleans scene. Ryan Mckern and Lizard Messiah, also champions of the New Orleans metal scene, take it upon themselves to school me on every band that has ever played extreme music in NOLA!

My friends Suinelah, Odd, Mick, Jorge, Donovan, Eric, (and so many more) are always ready to offer a new band to list.

(And there’s still so much left for me to learn!)

So it is with these amazing people behind me that I being my next big adventure in writing about metal. I start interviewing next week on the official Mike IX Williams Biography I’m writing. I’m dedicating all of 2010 to this project.

I’ll be blogging from the road with stories and pictures of the interviews. And I’m going to start keeping a record of friends’ band suggestions too! So check back when you can. And thank you for helping me support (and learn about) underground metal.