Member Profile: bloodofheroes
Title Senior Reviewer
Real Name Joel N.
Location Chicago, IL, United States
About
My all time favorite band is Van Halen. Once Eddie started to finger tap while facing the audience, there hasn't been one metal band that doesn't want to be like him. The ease that he had at being a rockstar was amazing.
I like most genres of heavy metal: Classic metal, thrash, NWOBHM, power, death, metalcore, prog, nu-metal with female vocalists, black, it's all fantastic by me. The only genres I stay away from are drone and grindcore.
My favorite bands along with VH tend to rotate, but right now my top few are probably Testament, Metallica, Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Iced Earth, Megadeth, The Showdown and Omnium Gatherum.
A random sampling of eight consecutive bands on my general metal Pandora station: Dark Tranquility, Iron Maiden, Decapitated, Motley Crue, Theater of Tragedy, Iron Fire, Leaves' Eyes and Overkill. Outstanding.
When reviewing music critically I look for a few key elements: variation, originality, musicianship, melody, subtlety and songwriting. All great metal, from the highest choruses of Hammerfall to the lowest depths of Entombed have all six of these qualities in abundance.
When I'm not listening to metal (albeit rarely), I tend to favor groups and players like Rodrigo y Gabriela, California Guitar Trio, Charlie Christian and Chet Atkins.
Member Since January 21, 2009
Last Updated July 8, 2009