Hello, all in Maelstrom land,

Running a zine is like having a band. A few core people tend to remain, and important contributors come and go. Maelstrom has had some turnover lately, and I think we’re starting to get understaffed or over supplied. I’ve been packing far too many promos into our writers packages every month, and I think it’s time to alleviate some of the pressure.

Last month, we had broadcast that we were looking for someone to cover this year’s Wacken festival, and this month we’re looking for new writers. Ideally, I think we only need one. He or she will have to be able to write up to the standard we like to have. Open minded people who can cover most any genre objectively wins out over the specialist. Be prepared to receive some terrible albums to write about, especially at first. If you are interested, please send me a clip of a good and a bad review.

Also, we have a new issue! Fifty-three album reviews and two interviews, with Red Harvest and Eternal Flight.

For May, 2005, we're giving away copies of ABSENTIA LUNAE's Marching Upon Forgotten Ashes. We were into this black metal band's music. Check 'em out to see if you are, too, at absentialunae.com. Here's the contest question:

WHAT TOWN IS ABSENTIA LUNAE BASED IN? (you can read our interview or look it up on their site).

Good luck and thanks for reading!

- Roberto Martinelli

----Original Message Follows----
From: "Karl Haikara" <UTAH1400@peoplepc.com>
To: <roma@maelstrom.nu>
Subject: Hello
Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 22:19:25 -0600

Hi,

I am a black metal musician and reviewer, and I have to say I agree with your statements about politics in black metal. Personally I don't like the rascist "aryan" bands statements, though I like their music, like Graveland or Nokturnal Mortum. I think it is important not to decry something we don't agree with just because we've been told all our lives that it is wrong.

Black metal to me can be about traveling into those areas where we are uneasy and expanding the brain to concepts from all peple and bands and not to be narrow-minded and think that people should all be one thing.

Black metal to me is actualy about Nihilism, which I realized was the beliefs I had come by simply by thinking about the world, then I find reading anus.com that indeed those beliefs had a name: Nihilism. However I think black metal needs not be about hate I think it could easily be about just any theme of darkness, often to me it takes a Pagan concept for I am heavily interested in Norse mythology and mythology/folk(fairy) tales in general.

Somehow all concepts are united in one to my mind in all the various strains of black metal that I listen to!

Also I am going to send a demo of my project Taliesin, reading your site you are exactly the webzine I have been looking for for a good review of my music, somewhere open to real true black metal with the bleeding rawness of my soul put into every moment.

K. Haikara/ Taliesin

website I review at www.tmetal.com

I have no website for Taliesin.

Dear Karl,

Thank you for reading and for writing in. Finding the high ground in dealing with controversial political views was a tricky one for us. We don’t think we found the perfect solution, only the best possible marriage of integrity and honesty. We look forward to getting your demo.

----Original Message Follows----
From: "rau florin" <florinmetal@hotmail.com>
To: giorgio75@hotmail.com
Subject: metal poetry
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 06:32:25 +0000

Hello,Roberto.The very poetical approach you did on the Nordvargr/Drakh(god damn name they have!)r\album ead me to think of Dean R. Kootz and his novelistic way of writing. Are you into writing prose?

I myself am a senior student minoring English and have ,you can call it, a sense of the poetical language and not only;I tend to have a propensity toward prose and reading novels/novellas and the sort. All right, that is all for now and hope to hear from you.

Florin Rau.
Romania.

Dear Florin,

Thank you for your comments. I don’t think Bastiaan is a Koontz fan, but I’m sure he likes it that someone enjoys his reviews. This issue’s one on Sophia is pretty far out. I think you’ll like it.