Beth Jones – Owner/Editor/Reviewer/Live Reviewer/Photographer
(If you have a broom I can sweep the floor too…)

80190369_10221769915496333_8379594693301764096_o

Hi all! Welcome to Ever Metal. It was never my intention to run a webzine – that’s kind of happened by accident! So, who am I, and what am I doing here? (Apart from having an existential crisis by the sounds of things!)

With a background in Performing Arts and a love of both playing and listening to music from a very early age, especially live performance, I first discovered the metal and rock scene at the age of 13, when I listened to a battered vinyl of Queen ‘Greatest Hits’ at my best friend’s house.

Fast Forward 24 years and, after a ten year hiatus in the noughties, I rediscovered my love of all things rock and metal when I moved back to Wales in 2010.

I have always had a lot to say about it (well about most things to be honest!) but have never done anything about it. I have also always loved writing and in 2015, I realised that there was a frustrated writer inside me just looking for a way to get out.

My new found love of photography came about by accident, when my daughter decided to take photography at GCSE, and I decided it would be good to pick up a camera too, so we could have some mother and daughter time on projects. It turns out I was actually not bad at taking pictures! So here we are today – photographing and writing about what I really love – the euphoric feeling when you step over the threshold of a venue and feel the electric excitement in the air, and are swept up in the passion of the gathered fans ready to watch their idols shred it on stage.

I also love meeting people so will be interviewing anyone and everyone willing to talk to me! Strap me in, and let’s get this started!


Sheri Bicheno – Artist Liaison/Reviewer

Sheri Pic

Hey guys and girls!
My name is Sheri (AKA SheriHellsBells).
I have been floating around in the music scene for the last 10 years – starting out by helping artists and bands with various tasks. I was just lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and have a huge passion for the music scene.
I went from doing some bits and pieces for Underground metal bands to then getting more involved behind the scenes with music videos, album cover work, merchandise sourcing and designs, festival applications, helping bands on tour on the road, helping with online social media managing and promotional posts and hosting/helping to promote their gigs, most notably with bands such as Meta-Stasis and Courtesans.
In 2015 I was taken on at Mammothfest as the Marketing Director. Here, my roles were to help source sponsorship and endorsers, help create reach for Mammothfest by networking the brand through online media and physical promotion, managing the annual magazine, taking part in bookings, interviewing some of the bands and feature write ups. Plus sourcing and arranging Trader stalls for the warm up gigs and main event… and generally mucking in.
I am also part of the lovely teams at Rabidfest and Facebarmageddon, here taking part in Marketing too. Bringing what skills I have with Mammothfest into both of these awesome festivals… hopefully they find me useful! XD
I pride myself on keeping good relationships between projects I am involved with and others involved in keeping the scene alive…or pretty much anyone. I’m a friendly gal with a weird but positive outlook on life (bit of an earth child)…and have started putting gigs on independently.
I am madly in love with music. It is my life and always has been since I was very small… one of my best memories is of my mum dancing around in the kitchen with a very mini me, spag bol on the go, blasting out Motörhead, Guns n Roses, Black Sabbath, AC/DC and ZZ Top. 😀 Plus all the festivals and biker rallies my parents took us to.
I’m super excited about working with the guys here at Ever Metal and look forward to watching Ever Metal grow and taking part in the future for this amazing team! Thank you Rick, Beth and everyone for giving me a place here <3
Love and music xx


Victor Augusto – Reviewer / Artist Liaison Brazil

Victor

Hello Everyone
I am Victor Augusto, from Brazil. Since I listened to Heavy Metal for the first time, in 1994, when I was just 10 years old, I felt that music is part of my life and it forged a path to keep myself strong. After moving to other cities, I came back to the city where I was born to work in the Air Force as an Air Traffic Controller in 2007 and I could live the underground metal scene and support young and unknown bands here. After many years just going to the concerts and buying merchandise, I started to write albums and concert reviews in 2017 and I also started to send the band’s music to American and European Radio. I became friends with all those people and I discovered a true family. It is like being a new member from each group I work with.

After two years writing reviews, I realized that I need to change the way I was reviewing, so I decided to leave ‘Metal na Lata’ (a huge Brazilian site that was the first site I wrote for) and now I keep my focus just on bands that really work to be professional. I moved to Radio Rock Nation, that is half Brazilian and half Chilean. There, I can explore and go deeper with names that deserve a careful review. I felt that I could do better work out of Brazil too. I did a few reviews for the American Radio That Metal Station where I have a good partnership with DJ Sara McIntosh, from ‘Sare’s Invasion’, and that was the first person to ask me to write reviews in English. She also told me about Ever Metal and first I became fan of the work I saw here. I used to read the reviews to learn how to write well in a language that I am not fluent in.

After some time practicing to write and after some beer, I decided to contact Ever Metal and I asked if I could join the team. To my surprise, they answered me quickly and now I am a part of this team full of lovely people. More than just having ways to support underground bands from all around world, I found a new reason to stay strong.

Everything I do is just for love and passion about music. I have the best payment in the world and that is gratitude.

Thanks Ever Metal for being a part of this great family and thanks to all friends and partners that are with us for the same reason!


Alun Jones – Album and Live Gigs Reviewer

Alun

Music is a huge part of my life, and has been for a very long time. I listen to a wide variety of musical genres, or at least try to. In reality, it’s all about Rock, Metal and Punk in all their glorious, diverse forms. Besides listening to music and going to gigs, I enjoy collecting vinyl, watching low quality horror B-movies, beer and being a Dad. Despite being well into my forties, I am still obsessed with riding skateboards, which I do badly. I hate roast dinners, football and rain.


Dark Juan – Reviewer/Interviewer

Pic Dark Juan

“Rock, motherfucker. Rock, motherfucker. Rock, motherfucker, yeah!”
In the words of the inimitable (and surprisingly vertically challenged) Rob Zombie, we have the mantra I live my musical life by.
I am Dark Juan. I come to you from many years of mescaline fuelled preaching, exhorting the gospel variously of Satan, Metal, EBM, Pasta and Why You Shouldn’t Do That Thing With Your Hands. Yes, you, there. You know what it is. Pack it in.
Extreme music is my life. You will find my record collection and musical taste to be extraordinarily eclectic. 60s Satanic psychedelia? Got it. Power electronics? Got it. 80s Synthwave with Tim Capello (the sweaty guy in the purple spandex pants from The Lost Boys) playing guest saxophone? That will be Gunship’s last record. Brilliant. The fastest, most brutal metal ever committed to record? Got lots of it, ta. For the record, it’s The Berzerker’s debut album.
Anyway, I write stuff. You might like to read some of it sometime. I promise it will be at least passably entertaining as I disappear down some side path to what I was actually writing about and have to exert considerable effort to get back on track. I can promise tortured metaphors, brutal honesty (sometimes VERY brutal – ask Warrior Soul what I thought about their last album) and wry humour. Most of the time. Frothing outrage normally accounts for a good 30% of my output. But it’s something I enjoy doing and people are daft enough to keep giving me writing gigs so I can’t be too bad, can I?
I love discovering new metal. My favourite record of last year was Phlogiston Catharsis by P.H.O.B.O.S. I got into metal at age 13 when I swapped my Pet Shop Boys Best Of for a copy of Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son with my next door neighbour. I was lost to metal from that moment on. Although my love of metal has evolved alongside a 30 year obsession with the Sisters Of Mercy…
I have one test for anything I listen to: Is it interesting? If it is, I, and by definition you people possibly reading my words, you win. If it isn’t, well you’ve picked a loser with this one. Can’t take a joke, shouldn’t have joined…. that sort of thing. Anyway, bands I like range from David Lee Roth in his Skyscraper era, through the whole gamut of metal in all its forms through Maiden and WASP and the like, through Therapy? and Dinosaur Jr to thrash like Sodom and Sacred Reich and Sabbat and some black metal and Cradle Of Filth and off into my main love, which is industrial. Godflesh are my musical gods. Pitch Shifter were miles better when they did pure industrial grind rather than discovering pop music and Making Plans For Nigel.
Sod Nigel. He’s a right chancer. He’s 29 years old and it really is time he should be in his own flat.


Andy Jansens – Live Gig Reviewer / Photographer (USA)

ANDY J Pic

Hello to everyone! I’m glad to be part of the Ever Metal family, so let me tell you who the heck I am.
I’m Andy and I’ve been a Rock music fan since the mid-eighties, when I listened to my late dad’s records. I started off with The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Queen, progressing to the more popular, at the time, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, AC/DC… and it got heavier as time went along. Before you knew it I was into Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura and Megadeth. However I’m not just into one subgenre. Nowadays I listen to everything that we can put under the Rock or Metal flag, from Alternative Rock to Death Metal and from Classic Rock to Modern Metalcore.
I will spare everyone from naming my current favourite bands, the list is very long, and I guess you’ll get some hints from the gigs I work at.
Music always has been and is very important to me. It has helped me get through a lot of crap in my life. Sometimes even the heaviest song can calm me down or provide a much needed emotional lift. However, I’m one of those people who pays particular attention to the song’s lyrics. A song may have a catchy tune or a killer riffs, but if the lyrics are nonsense, it might not be for me. Great music with deep lyrics is more powerful than any medication, and can heal and lift you up.
Although my musical education is absolutely zero, as is my understanding of musical technicalities, some say I’m not too shabby with a photo camera. Hell yes, I must be. I’ve been sitting in a dark room since the age of eight, developing film and making prints. Now, of course, everything is digital. I’ve been published in daily newspapers and magazines and worked as a journalist (in my native Latvian language, so excuse my poor English in reviews). Right now my main project is my photo agency. My priority is music performances although sports, fashion and other areas are of interest too.
I like the fact that Ever Metal is new to the music scene as I am myself, and that we have a chance to grow together and achieve all that we hope for. I’ll have a drink to that. Cheers!


Arturs Feists – Photographer/Interviewer (Canada)

Hello RocknRollers, I’m Arturs;

First, I wanna thank Andy Jansons, fellow EM photographer and my schoolmate, for introducing me to Rick from Ever Metal. Rick – man, it is such a privilege to be part of the Ever Metal team. Thank you both!

I was born and grew up in the so called “Eastern Bloc”. In the late 80’s more and more rock/metal music records and even videos were available behind the “iron curtain” as the Soviet Union visibly struggled and finally collapsed.

As a teen, I got my Rock’n’Roll education from Queen, Alice Cooper, Whitesnake, Europe etc. Back then, my number one band was Van Halen. ‘Jump’ is still one of my favourite songs and in my opinion, one of the greatest rock songs ever. Who knew that one day I would see Van Halen, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar live!

I have been a musician in a few rock/metal bands even though I do not have any formal musical education. It’s impossible to name one particular band or artist as my number one now as there are so many talented musicians. Same with different styles – I enjoy bands from Soft Rock and Country up to Metalcore so new musicians are always being added to my playlist.

I have now been living in Canada for years. One step led to another and one day some guy I had never met before invited me to take some shots of the band he still is part of. Simply, that is how my life as a live music show photographer started. I’m studying photography and all its aspects are helping me to bring better and better photos to the audience, capturing the passion of the musicians for the public.

I am thankful for all the great people I have met as a live music photographer, including bands/artists, PR/Press people, managers, security personnel of the venues and any others I have dealt with.


Tsarina Wilson- Reviewer / Interviewer

Tsarina pic Ever Metal

Hi, I’m Tsarina.

I’m a crazy hard working lady who loves music and life, when not working I spend my time trying to get out to see new and local bands, my motto for life is live it or lose it!


Mark Pritchard – Reviewer

51701496_245790076298541_6764086837045624832_n

Hello There,

My name is Mark Pritchard. From a young age I have had mental health problems, where at the age of 22 I was told by a psychiatrist that I couldn’t work, before I was given an opportunity to do reviewing. I believe some may know me already, although most won’t have, but from around 2013/2014 to 2017 I wrote for the website AllHeavyMetal.net where I was one of the main reviewers! After 2017 I went off the radar due health problems, amongst other things, but I am back and doing the thing I enjoy and love. Ever since I was born I have enjoyed listening to Rock/Metal and the three main bands I was brought up listening to were Guns & Roses, ZZ Top and Meat Loaf which I still listen to today. My favourite band is Finnish band H.I.M. and if it weren’t for music I don’t know where I would be now.

Metal Forever \m/ L \m/


Martin Bennewith – Reviewer

Hi, I am Martin Bennewith

Originally from the outskirts of London, I moved to North Wales in my early 20’s.

I am a musician and have been playing the guitar since I was about 8 years old. I got more serious about it in my late teens, spending several hours a day studying and playing, for several years, mostly improvising over jam tracks, but also through listening and learning from acts like Pink Floyd, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, as well as anything else that had lead guitar on it.

My first job after I moved was teaching the guitar, and Soon after, I studied Performing Arts and Music for a couple of years at college, and for a very short time, Popular Music and Recording at university – but I decided to cut my hair and get a ‘proper job’ so I dropped out after only a few months.

That was all quite a while ago now, but I have always been close to music, and have from time to time been involved in recording and live performance, and recently embarked on producing trance music under the not very inventive artist name of ‘Martin Benn’.

I do like to listen to a wide range of music across all genres but tend to sway towards anything that has lots of guitar, especially progressive, hard and alternative rock, as well as music with lots of synths and effects such as psychedelic rock and electronic music.

As well as music, I have been involved in politics and campaigning, and I am slowly working towards a Social Science degree.

Oh, I nearly forgot – I now review the odd album or two for Ever Metal!


Simon Black – Writer, IT Professional and Beer Monster!

For those that do not know me, I used to do this sort of thing back in the early 1990’s, contributing to a regional midlands-based free music mag called Gig Central before starting my own web zine back when the music industry still did not know what the internet was. At first they were positive, because it was new and hip, then they dropped anything to do with it like a hot brick as the first dawning of file sharing began to be thought of as a thing (no mean feat in the days of dial- up networking, and with Napster still a few years away). Maybe they just recognised a digital coffin when they saw it. Given that it was not the right time, that a completely unplanned career in IT had suddenly taken off and I had split up with my partner who was the site photographer I decided that it was time to call it a day for a while.

23 Years whizzed by.

Then a chance encounter in a pub in Cardiff led me to start up again contributing to the Musipedia of Metal at the start of 2020 and then more recently here at Ever Metal. Nothing happens for 23 years and then two come along at once…!

So when I am not Project Managing ERP Implementations, I’m an occasionally happily married family guy, based in South Wales – although originally from Nottingham where I cut my teeth on this business as a Rock DJ, Journalist, promoter and Stage Lighting Technician. When not locked in by Global Pandemics, my work takes me all over the world, so I’m looking forward to covering gigs in random places at some point in the future, preferably in locations that understand what a good pint of beer should taste like.


Emma Torkington – Reviewer

Hi! My name is Emma, and I started writing reviews for live gigs a few years ago, as well as doing a few interviews for local artists. I always loved writing and live music was always something that made me happy. So combining both of those things made sense.

In my role here at Ever metal, having the opportunity to listen to artists’ work who I might not have otherwise come across is wonderful. A bit more about me… Well I am a short, tattooed, pain in the butt who is 33 but looks 19!.. I am also a published model, and have been doing that for over 8 years now.


Wallace Magri – Reviewer

Hi, everyone,

I’m Wallace, a natural born metalhead from São Paulo, Brazil. By the age of 8, I was already walking around the neighbourhood wearing my Kiss t-shirt and I was also learning to play Wasp songs on my electric guitar. That was back in mid-80’s, when my mum used to tell me that my interest in heavy, rebel music would fade away when I got older… 

During the late 80’s and the beginning of 90’s I played Guitar/Vocals in Heavy Metal / Hard Rock bands in Brazil’s underground scene, but I found out that I was a better lyricist than a guitar player. So I decided to quit the stages at 20 and, eventually, I became a lawyer, a professor of law, and a writer of law books for a living. But I kept myself listening to Hard Rock, Thrash Metal, Black Metal and Industrial Metal for inspiration, buying CDs and Metal Magazines, such as Metal Hammer, Kerrang, Terrorizer, etc.

Around 2015, by the age of 40, I had my midlife crisis and just got bored of my regular job routine. You might know what it feels like? I didn’t want to go to Court, to Law School, or to write the damn Law books anymore. I felt like something was missing inside of me.

So, I decided to reactivate my creativity and passion for living, by uniting both things that like to do most: writing and listening to Heavy Metal. That was when I started to write small articles and album reviews for a famous collab metal webzine in Brazil, called Whiplash.net. I realized that people liked to read my stuff, so I kept it going and asked a student from my past law school classes for a chance to write in another webzine called Metal na Lata, in 2016, where he also used to collaborate.

That was how I joined the Team Metal na Lata for nearly 5 years, reviewing more than 300 albums, and more than 50 live shows from 2018 until the pandemics era; my highlight moment was covering the 2019’s Rock in Rio Festival, where Sepultura, Anthrax, Slayer and Iron Maiden – among other bands – played in front of more than 100,000 people, in one of the largest music festivals in the world!

In 2021, I decided to challenge myself to move forward on my Heavy Metal mission, so I asked my old friend from Metal na Lata, Victor Augusto, if the guys at Ever Metal would give me a chance to write a review for them – that seemed like a good chance to connect to people from all around the world, and also to improve my English writing skills, while listening to Heavy Metal Music. 

I gave it a shot and here I am now, joining the Team Ever Metal since 2021, reviewing mostly Industrial Metal and Alternative Metal albums. But any music that is played heavy, loud, and raw is welcome for me to listen to and write about. 

So, bring it on! 

I got my engines fuelled with Metal and guts!


Rob Sutton – Live Reviewer

Hello everyone!

I am Rob Sutton, or Pastry Chef, depending on where you know me from. I have surrounded myself in the Metal culture from my early teens, going to small gigs locally, before branching out further afield. I have always had a passion for this genre, being a vocalist in bands since I was 14, and still doing so to this day. (Shameless Thrashatouille plug)!!

I’ve lived and breathed the metal scene, going to about 2 gigs a week, exploring all subgenres of this incredible genre, and collecting a silly amount of band merch. At the time of writing, I have 302 T-shirts, and over 300 CDs. Some may call it obsession, I call it passion! Alongside this, I have assisted in the organisation and running of gigs and festivals, most notably Rockwich and Lostock. After that, I started to create videos about anything Metal, though sadly they had the popularity of the Conservative government.

I started reviewing about 8 years ago, briefly, for another website, before losing the passion for writing about albums. However, in 2021, amidst the mess that was Covid, I found myself wanting to write about live shows more and more. So I drafted a review about a gig I went to, and sent it to Beth. And the rest, as they say, is history…


Rory Bentley – Reviewer

What up gang, my name’s Rory and I’ve recently joined the Ever Metal team as a reviewer.

I want metal to be the best it can be which is why I hold it to a very high standard. I don’t give high scores just because you turned up with your instruments in tune – I want to be blown away!

I have no interest in nostalgia and the closed-minded conservatism that plagues a big chunk of the metal community and I value innovation and song-craft above all else.

I have a Masters degree in English, which sounds more impressive than it actually and is, and I’ve been writing about bands for fun for years. My favourite bands are Nightwish, REM, Mastodon, The Smiths, Judas Priest and Converge; there’s hundreds more but I’ll stop myself there before I bore you to death!

I’m also the lead singer in a prog-metal band called Diceratops and I spent lockdown taking classical singing lessons much to the annoyance of my neighbours.

Outside of music I spend my time supporting my beloved Leicester City, watching wrestling, reading books, buying too much vinyl, and hanging out with my fiancé Abbie and our three cats Prince, Pumpkin and Ginny. I also like running (or at least I did), a pastime I urgently need to resume if I’m gonna fit into my wedding suit!

All reviews are just my opinion but if you want to fight me on Twitter I’m @r0ryb.

Eternal Hails etc

Rory


Richard Iggo – Reviewer

Where to begin? Oh…I know! Iron Maiden’s ‘Piece of Mind’, Saracen’s ‘Heroes, Saints & Fools’, and Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat out of Hell’. I was about nine or ten years old, and all three albums were in my older sister’s record collection. Their songs, lyrics, and cover art just grabbed me, setting me up for a life-long love of this music.

I have eclectic tastes, from punk trash like the New York Dolls to metalcore like Architects, ‘classic’ goths The Sisters of Mercy, New York Hardcore hooligans Madball, and antler-wearing pagans Heilung. I also love Duran Duran, but I doubt I’ll get to review them here!

I’ve been a DJ at a (long since closed) rock club, once had lovely long black hair, wore guy-liner, and had very skinny legs, with which I practiced my ‘Ian Astbury kick™’ on the dance floor. I also once provided ‘security’ for Def Leppard. Which was nice.

I’m now a slightly less svelte (more… ‘spherical’?) middle-aged marketing monkey, with less hair, no guy-liner, and a growing collection of vinyl. I live in the north of England in a house formerly owned by a literary legend. Hopefully, his spirit will guide my rambling reviews!


Paul Hutchings – Reviewer/ Live reviewer/ Photographer/ Interviewer

My name’s Paul, although many have called me Hutch since school (can’t think why).

I’ve been in love with Hard Rock and Metal since about 1980 when, as a ten-year-old, I was mesmerised by my best mate’s two long haired brothers, who were full blown headbangers. My first gig was Saxon at St David’s Hall in Cardiff in 1983 when I was 12 years old, and I then saw Thin Lizzy with Phil Lynott on my 13th birthday, followed by UFO a week later.

Suffice to say, my love of Classic Hard Rock is unbreakable. After missing music in the 1990s due to a young family, I’ve made up for it in the last 15 years, attending hundreds of gigs and festivals, as well as rebuilding my vinyl collection once more.

I’ve been writing, reviewing, and interviewing for the past decade, and count Musipedia of Metal and Powerplay Magazine amongst former positions, with a brief stint at Metal Temple as well. I’ve been writing for The Razor’s Edge for the past few years, alongside sporadic work for UK Thrashers. As well as Ever Metal, I’m now writing for Female Fronted Power and Moshville Times.

I’ve also been a rather average photographer for the past few years, although still a lot to learn. My favourite three bands are Rush, Opeth and Motörhead, with my favourite genres Thrash, Death, Progressive Metal and anything that doesn’t end in ‘core’ or sleaze.

9 thoughts on “The Team

  1. You guys and gals are wonderful at Ever Metal
    I am blessed to have your attention and very happy to be a part in what you do! Legion is very pleased with your review and I thank you very much!

  2. You are wonderful at Ever Metal “Dawn and Richard”
    I am blessed to have your attention and very happy to be a part in what you do! Legion is very pleased with your review and I thank you very much!

  3. Fabulous team who always do an amazing job. Love reading your reviews! Also gives me content to share when advertising my own shows. long live Ever Metal!

Leave a Reply