Two very interesting subjects in one thread, since they're bound to get mixed up and hard to split apart anyway...
1. What were the FIRST signs of 80's Metal worship on the internet as we know it?
2. What was YOUR first encounter with obscure/forgotten/rare/unknown/just-bloody-awesome-&-underrated-Olde-Metal on the web?
Let's start with addressing #1 and we'll get to #2 in a page or two. I just discovered these old archive copies of what probably must have been one of the first digital Metal zines:
Apparently these ascii-files were published on various BBS's already back in 1988(!)
There's however a mention of some zines possibly predating this one:
Cross Of Iron wrote:We all know that the MetalliBasher's FanZine was the first 'puter
underground FanZine, and we also know that MBI is dead.
I got first interested "foreign" metal via spotting an totally awesome Pokolgép shirt on a scandinavian joke band's drummer. I dont remember the name, maybe it was Safari Bröd or an Impaled Nazarene related grind core project. I looked up on the archives and there was the Totalis Metal cover with the roman knight firing a lightning bolt up the sky which ricochets off it to a single, unfortunate, raven, setting it in flames, leaving it with a slightly pissed off expression. It was part and part to me and I absolutely had to get it asap (Yeah I know the bolts were meant to come from the sky than from the guy but it was my interpretation when seeing it first)
At the same time, I think even before Pokolgep I got introduced to czech Black Thrashers TÖRR by a random internet mag I dont recall the name of, it was also because of the cover, Armageddon and Institut, which look/ed total badass
now is the madness in hell
we're eat babies flesh
and suck the mothers blood next
we're perverse devils well
Fuckin Hell?? 1988!!??!? That's insane!
I actually started getting acquainted with the internet Metal world in 1994-1995 through the newsgroups. the famous alt.metal ones and stuff. Then on 1997, I found the Metal-Rules messageboard and met some cool people, most of whom I still talk on regular basis to this day! (Although I left the Metal-Rules forum one or two years later and went on to MetalGospel).
Well, I'm too young for that stuff. I didn't have internet home until this year, so what I used to do was looking for info in magazines and then go to a cyber and browse for that stuff. I remember the first thing I downloaded because there was no other way to get it here was a handful of Macabre songs (using Kaaza or however was it called). Shortly after that I discovered Metal-Archives and Soulseek. Then one day, searching for references of the newly discovered Uruguayan band Graf Spee I stumbled on this site and started to get more into occult stuff like Black Hole, Black Death, Parabellum, etc.
I only discovered metal in 1998 and back then I had no idea what internet was. When we got internet around 2000/2001 I got Napster and tried to download 'obscure' albums I couldn't get in my city, like Tyrants of the netherworlds from Desaster etc. But Napster at that time only had two or three Desaster songs. For hearing music mp3.com was actually more interesting, I got to know Destroyer666 through that (emberrasing fact: on mp3.com they called themselves D666, so untill I saw them live a year later I thought D666 and Destroyer666 were two different bands). But in those days my main point of interest was black metal so my regular playgrounds were Larm (the third reich of reviews) and the FMP forum (when it was still on ezboards, and not the crap gossip/flamewar territory it is today).
My first touch with obscure 80`s Metal was when I got a copy of the Desecration Of Virgin zine around 2000 I think...There was always a 2 pages special about forgotten (mostly) South American Metal, and so I got introduced (at least by name) to bands such as Gehenna, Cuero Y Metal, Antitese or even Malay bands such as Saxo or obscure European bands like Adramelch or Steel Angel. I always wanted to hear them but did not knew where to get it...
Humus, yep the FMP board became so funny years ago, I do not post there since ages.....recently I visited the board, and laughed my ass off reading something like "a capella Black Metal band nothing for wimps who like Slayer"...
Well, i can't answer the first question 'cause i've never done such a research.
As for the second one, can't remember the year exactly (surely after '99, i didn't have internet at home before), but the first sites dedicated to obscure 80s metal that i discovered were Metal Treasures, Metalpage and Steel Conjuring's website.
Good against Evil, Evil sure to win
"It really didn't matter if they liked it or not, i was going to give it to them straight down their throats" -John Stewart
The_Real_Mordred wrote:Fuckin Hell?? 1988!!??!? That's insane!
I actually started getting acquainted with the internet Metal world in 1994-1995 through the newsgroups. the famous alt.metal ones and stuff. Then on 1997, I found the Metal-Rules messageboard and met some cool people, most of whom I still talk on regular basis to this day! (Although I left the Metal-Rules forum one or two years later and went on to MetalGospel).
Forgot to say that in the days before internet, I used to know bands by word-of-mouth and by reading the fanzines of the day: METAL WARRIORS (amazing fanzine from 1985-1990, more or less! Still have some copies around here), which I REALLY have to mention! And a few portuguese ones, too.. Also SLAYER Mag, Morbid Mag and some others. Oh, and some French and english mags: ENFER, METAL FORCES, you know the lot...
I've got a vague memory of an early version of The Metalpage existing before Metal Treasures - anyone remember the details? I think this early Metalpage was my first encounter w/ old steel on the web, and shortly after that the mighty Metal Treasures. Reading all those reviews, checking out the weekly mp3 samples and the old message board was a lot of fun - and very educational.
Like a lot of posters, i only got internet at home around '99, with a dial up connection with a top speed of 4.7kbps on a good day.
I've used most of the p2p sites in my time trying to get my hands on stuff i haven't heard from GoZilla, Kazaa Lite, Win MX, Bearshare, Soulseek etc. Then came the blogoverse and more music, IRC, the music chans and bittorrent too.
I found Altavista's mp3 search engine function to be quite handy for tracking down odd mp3s too in the waaay back when days.
Like many others have mentioned, Vibrations Of Doom is an old favourite haunt, as was nwobhm info and Rock Detector.
It has to be said, although i have a certain fondness and nostalgia for those days, we're far better served by the net these days than we ever were then.
and part 
to me and I absolutely had to get it asap (Yeah I know the bolts were meant to come from the sky than from the guy but it was my interpretation when seeing it first)
