Back in 1995, some friends and I were on the way home from a MORBID ANGEL concert, and in talking about the show and the underground, they convinced me to start a fanzine. The next day, I wrote a few letters to some labels and soon the promos began to arrive. I wrote up a few interviews and sent them off. Things happened pretty quickly. I soon found myself standing at a photocopier running off copies of the first issue of Carcharoth mag.

"Carcharoth, you ask?" "What kind of name is that?" Well, like a lot of other metal fanatics, I took my inspiration from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. This was the name of a large wolf that went insane and killed a lot of people in the course of one of the stories contained in The Silmarillon. It was something different... it stood out from a lot of other fanzine names.

I ended up doing a total of eight issues of Carcharoth, spanning from 1995 to 1997. All of them were "pudgy little half-sizers," as Metal Maniacs once described it. I tried to cover many styles of underground metal music and related projects. Everything from pure metal like DECEASED or VENOM, to ambient projects like MORTIIS and BRIGHTER DEATH NOW. But over time I became dissatisfied and a little bored with what I was doing. What caused this boredom, I do not know. But I did know that something had to be done.

It was in late 1997 that the idea of Metal Nightmare was conceived. Over the last few years, a few events had taken place that convinced me that metal in the 90s needed a swift kick in the ass. What better place to find that kick than to go back to the 80s? Seeing bands like VENOM and W.A.S.P. who had the "old fire" were what got me going in this direction. Metal music has always been meant to be played by larger than life people. And it should be done on a grand scale. Just think back to IRON MAIDEN's Powerslave tour. I don't think you can get more metal than that, in terms of a stageshow. I wanted to put the emphasis back on bands that didn't look like they just rolled out of bed before a show. Almost as important, I decided it was time to stop doing xerox copies and convert to newsprint.

And so it was that Metal Nightmare was born. Why this title? Well, I decided to be a fist in the face, a "nightmare" if you will, to all bands that are tarnishing the once great and true name of METAL. MANOWAR once declared, "Death to false metal!" and now my intent was to try and see that through.

Part of the special focus of Metal Nightmare is to go back to the past and track down some of the greats who are no longer around. The first issue had the triple threat onslaught of POSSESSED, OMEN, and NASTY SAVAGE. It was an 80 page monster, a size that proved to be too costly to print and to ship. With the next issue, I cut things down to 48 pages but kept the same kind of intensity.

Unfortunately, I soon found that I still had to cut things down further. Metal Nightmare became 16 page free newsletter, but it was still crammed to the rafters. Usually there were only two interviews, and the rest of the content consisted of reviews. The good news is that in 1999 a website was born that enabled me to do more interviews once again. The print version would have the two best interviews, or maybe the most "cult," and the rest would be posted to the site. This format worked out extremely well at the time.

Also just as important was the fact that I took on a co-writer, one Goetz Vogelsang... aka Der Goetz. He's as much of a metal maniac as myself, although his tastes tend to focus only on early 1990s death metal. He's a true brother in arms, and I was proud to have him aboard. I had hoped to have him contribute to the interviews as well as the album reviews. However after my seventh issue, he asked to resign. I guess he's got more of a life than I do or something.

1999 also saw the creation of the original Metal Nightmare webpage, courtesy of Guen of NECROSIS MAGAZINE. It was pretty simplistic in nature, but that was just due to my wanting to keep it that way and make it easier on Guen... she's a really busy person, and she was nice enough to volunteer to do the page. She also created some of the custom graphics you see here on this new version. I took an HTML class in early 2000, and decided to take the over the page. So here I am with it, for better or worse.

In 2000, I decided it was time to just go full on webzine. The fact is that the real world finally caught up with me. I moved out to live on my own, and bought a condo. It's a pretty easy choice to make... pay the mortgage and eat, or keep the print mag alive. Obviously, I decided to end the print version, but continue with the web version.