From Mark Madden, Production Engineer:

You might not know it to look at me, but I am seriously into heavy metal. I listen to it every day, spend way too much money on the music of obscure bands, and plan far too many social outings around it (which is tough, since not too many death or black-metal bands come to Williamstown, as you might imagine). I run a metal-news Web site with my friends, and we've interviewed the likes of Testament, S.O.D., and Overkill. I spend more time than I should working on the site and keeping it current.

I'm really into the bands that are taking traditional heavy metal and rock and warping and twisting it into a musical vocabulary of aggression, angst, and celebration. These musicians tend to alternate this powerful sound with beautiful guitar melodies and instrumental precision. Their vocal styles range from women's operatic to your standard death growl. Almost all of the bands that are popular amongst my friends are experimental in one way or another. These groups mix in sounds from electronica, rhythm and blues, classical music, and any other musical genre you can think of. They do this without losing the forcefulness that so many of us love. Their themes range from religious glorification and vilification to tales of swords and sorcery.

Perhaps what I like most about heavy metal is that there's a real sense of community amongst fans, bands, and industry professionals. Everyone wants to see the music succeed on both business and artistic levels. Fans have greater access to their heroes, and everything is generally down to earth — which is understandable, as band members are as much fans as they are musicians. It's fairly standard to see a band come offstage and join the crowd to watch the next band. A lot of these musicians have other jobs to make ends meet, so they're coming from the same place as their fans. Heavy metal may be experiencing resurgence, but there's still not much money to be made from the scene. That makes what a lot of these groups are doing very genuine.

Probably the best way to describe the heavy-metal scene these days is to view it as a grassroots movement that's slowly gaining momentum. You see a lot of the same people at different events, but there seem to be a few more fans each time. Used to be, I'd go to a show where everyone in attendance would be in their late twenties and early thirties; now there are a lot of younger people showing up, which is a good sign of things to come.

I still have a hard time understanding why heavy metal isn't more widely appreciated. Maybe people are still reeling from the glam-metal days.

— Mark