Chronicles of Chaos
Encyclopedia
Chronicles of Chaos is an extreme metal webzine. It focuses on artists that are generally outside the metal mainstream
, and occasionally covers other forms of extreme music as well. Online since August 1995, Chronicles of Chaos is one of the longest standing active websites of its kind, prompting Maelstrom webzine to label them "the grandaddy of metal ezines". Chronicles of Chaos has been a nonprofit publication since its inception. In addition to visiting the website
, Chronicles of Chaos readers can also benefit from a monthly e-mail
digest, an RSS
feed and WAP
access.
Gino Filicetti and Adrian Bromley in 1995, and started out in the shape of a monthly e-mail digest. Chronicles of Chaos (often referred to as CoC) was among the first Internet
-only heavy metal and extreme music magazines. PyroMusic.net have called it "one of the longest running, and best metal webzines you will find".
In its early years, CoC was one of the few to publish reviews and interviews on the Internet featuring bands such as Eyehategod
, Nevermore
, Strapping Young Lad
and Dimmu Borgir
before they were well known, as well as numerous other bands that were popular in the mid-Nineties metal underground, including At the Gates
, Fear Factory
, Dismember
, Dissection
, Brutal Truth
, Napalm Death
, Sepultura
, Hypocrisy
, My Dying Bride
, Type O Negative
, Cannibal Corpse
, Edge of Sanity
, Paradise Lost
, Amorphis
, Morbid Angel
, In Flames
, Sentenced, Therion
, Emperor
, Vader
, Bolt Thrower, Opeth
and Slayer
, among others. CoC also interviewed the leaders of labels such as Earache Records
, Peaceville and The End Records
, and to date continues to review and talk to current bands.
an contributor. In its early years, CoC was soon referenced as "Canada's most revered underground metal e-zine". Near the year 2000, the European contingent was expanded by three new writers, with representatives from the Asia
n and Africa
n continent
s joining shortly after. This led to a core staff of twelve writers in 2002.
In this period, founder Filicetti retired from his role as contributor, while co-founder Bromley moved on to form his own print publication, Unrestrained!, with fellow CoC contributor Adam Wasylyk. Meanwhile, various other writers departed or became part-time contributors due to other engagements. Some of Chronicles of Chaos' writing staff became contributors to magazines like Metal Hammer
, Terrorizer, Unrestrained! and more. As a result, the e-mail issues became less regular, with as much as three month gaps.
Between October 2002 and March 2003 the publication went on an unofficial hiatus for the only time in its history so far. Until 2003, the Chronicles of Chaos website served only as a static repository of plain text
back issues, with the latest digest available for hypertext
navigation.
-driven website. Older articles previously found only inside plain text files became immediately accessible, and the new system also allowed articles to be published more frequently and directly to the website. The e-mail digest returned to its original monthly schedule, gathering up the articles published on the website during that month.
The staff was gradually augmented between 2003 and 2008 with the addition of new European, American and Australia
n writers. This led to a current total of around twenty writers, although several of those are only sporadic part-time contributors who were previously an integral part of the publication pre-2003. In keeping with its international tradition, over a dozen different nationalities are currently represented in the staff. The Chronicles of Chaos archive currently contains over 6,000 reviews, interviews and opinion articles. More than 100 issues of the e-mail digest have been published to date, containing over 20 megabyte
s of text.
The metal scene has continued to recognize the influence of CoC, with Tartarean Desire voting them third best webzine of 2005 and Unrestrained! magazine describing them as still "formidable" twelve years after CoC's inception. In late 2006, recognition also arrived from outside the metal scene, when independent music publication RightRound recommended CoC as "beautifully designed, well-written" and "informative" in one of its Change of Scene columns.
In 2007, Chronicles of Chaos was chosen by sociologist
Keith Kahn-Harris to illustrate the development of webzines and their focus on reviews and interviews.
On December 7, 2008, Chronicles of Chaos co-founder Adrian Bromley died in his sleep aged 37. His passing prompted numerous tributes within the music industry.
Mainstream
Mainstream is, generally, the common current thought of the majority. However, the mainstream is far from cohesive; rather the concept is often considered a cultural construct....
, and occasionally covers other forms of extreme music as well. Online since August 1995, Chronicles of Chaos is one of the longest standing active websites of its kind, prompting Maelstrom webzine to label them "the grandaddy of metal ezines". Chronicles of Chaos has been a nonprofit publication since its inception. In addition to visiting the website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, Chronicles of Chaos readers can also benefit from a monthly e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
digest, an RSS
RSS (file format)
RSS is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format...
feed and WAP
Wireless Application Protocol
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
access.
History
Chronicles of Chaos was founded by CanadiansCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Gino Filicetti and Adrian Bromley in 1995, and started out in the shape of a monthly e-mail digest. Chronicles of Chaos (often referred to as CoC) was among the first Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
-only heavy metal and extreme music magazines. PyroMusic.net have called it "one of the longest running, and best metal webzines you will find".
In its early years, CoC was one of the few to publish reviews and interviews on the Internet featuring bands such as Eyehategod
Eyehategod
Eyehategod is an American sludge metal band from New Orleans who formed in 1988. They have become one of the most well known bands to emerge from the NOLA metal scene...
, Nevermore
Nevermore
Nevermore is an American heavy metal band from Seattle, Washington. Formed in 1991, they are known to incorporate elements from styles such as thrash, power, progressive, and neo-classical metal into their songs, and also makes use of acoustic guitars and a wide range of vocal styles.-Early years...
, Strapping Young Lad
Strapping Young Lad
Strapping Young Lad was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing...
and Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. Dimmu borgir means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The name is derived from a volcanic formation in Iceland, Dimmuborgir...
before they were well known, as well as numerous other bands that were popular in the mid-Nineties metal underground, including At the Gates
At the Gates
At the Gates is an extreme metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, and a major progenitor of the Gothenburg death-metal sound. Their early albums lean towards a death metal sound, but later albums sound more like melodic death metal.Initially active from 1990 to 1996, the band reformed in 2007 for a...
, Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...
, Dismember
Dismember (band)
Dismember was a Swedish death metal band that formed in 1988. They are well known in the death metal underground. They split up in October 2011.-History:...
, Dissection
Dissection (band)
Dissection was a black metal band from Strömstad, Sweden. The band was formed in 1989, by Jon Nödtveidt. The band released its first EP in 1991. They disbanded in 2006, after Nödtveidt's suicide.- Band overview :...
, Brutal Truth
Brutal Truth
Brutal Truth is an American grindcore band from New York City, formed by ex-Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Stormtroopers Of Death bass guitarist Dan Lilker in 1990. The group disbanded in 1999, but reformed in 2006 and continue to release new music.-History:...
, Napalm Death
Napalm Death
Napalm Death are a death metal band formed in Birmingham, England in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent for most of the band's ...
, Sepultura
Sepultura
Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte, formed in 1984. The band was a major force in the death metal, thrash metal and ultimately groove metal realms during the late 1980s and early 1990s, with their later experiments melding nu metal, hardcore punk and industrial.Sepultura...
, Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy (band)
Hypocrisy is a melodic death metal band from Sweden. It was formed in 1990 in Ludvika, Sweden by Peter Tägtgren.Musically, the band started off with a traditional death metal sound on their first albums, and soon drifted to become a melodic death metal band. The lyrics in their early stages -...
, My Dying Bride
My Dying Bride
My Dying Bride are an English doom metal band formed in 1990. To date, My Dying Bride have released eleven full-length studio albums, three EPs, one demo, one box set, four compilation albums, one live album, and one live CD/DVD release. The band released their tenth studio album, For Lies I Sire,...
, Type O Negative
Type O Negative
Type O Negative was a gothic metal band from Brooklyn, New York City. The band also incorporated elements of doom metal and thrash metal. Their dramatic lyrical emphasis on themes of romance, depression, and death resulted in the nickname "The Drab Four"...
, Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band from Buffalo, New York. Formed in 1988, the band has released eleven studio albums, one box set, and one live album...
, Edge of Sanity
Edge of Sanity
Edge of Sanity was a Swedish death metal band. Edge of Sanity are regarded alongside Opeth as being the first to fuse extreme metal styles like death and black metal with progressive rock.- History :...
, Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost (band)
Paradise Lost are a heavy metal band that formed in 1988 in Halifax, England.-History:Their first three full-length albums are examples of the death/doom style, although the latter two incorporated some melodic and gothic elements...
, Amorphis
Amorphis
Amorphis is a Finnish heavy metal band started by Jan Rechberger, Tomi Koivusaari, and Esa Holopainen in 1990. Initially, the band was a death metal act, but on later albums they evolved into playing other types of genres, which include heavy metal, progressive metal, and folk metal...
, Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida. UK music magazine Terrorizer ranked one Morbid Angel album in its “Top 40 greatest death metal albums”, with their 1989 debut Altars of Madness appearing at number 1...
, In Flames
In Flames
In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band from Gothenburg, formed in 1990. Since the band's inception in 1993, they have released ten studio albums and one live DVD...
, Sentenced, Therion
Therion (band)
Therion is a Swedish symphonic metal band founded by Christofer Johnsson in 1987. The word "therion" comes from the Greek therion , meaning "Beast," i.e., that of the Christian Book of Revelation...
, Emperor
Emperor (band)
Emperor was a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1991. They dissolved in 2001, but reunited in 2006 and again in 2007 for a few festival dates and brief US tours. The group was founded by Samoth and Ihsahn .-Biography:...
, Vader
Vader (band)
Vader is a Polish death metal band from Olsztyn, formed in 1983. According to Piotr Wiwczarek, the band's founding singer and guitar player, the band's name was inspired by Darth Vader from the Star Wars film series. Lyrical themes include stories by H. P. Lovecraft, WW2, horror and anti-christian...
, Bolt Thrower, Opeth
Opeth
Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...
and Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
, among others. CoC also interviewed the leaders of labels such as Earache Records
Earache Records
Earache Records is a heavy metal-oriented record label based in Nottingham, UK and New York, USA. It helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing many of the earliest grindcore and death metal records in the period 1988-1994.-History:...
, Peaceville and The End Records
The End Records
The End Records is an independent record label, founded in 1998 in San Diego. Founder Andreas Katsambas initially wanted to bring attention to some underground bands he admired. In 2002, The End moved to Salt Lake City, when his wife took a job at the University of Utah. The label moved...
, and to date continues to review and talk to current bands.
1995-2002
Initially composed of four contributors from Canada and the USA in 1995, the staff eventually reached a stable set of nine writers in 1997, including the first EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an contributor. In its early years, CoC was soon referenced as "Canada's most revered underground metal e-zine". Near the year 2000, the European contingent was expanded by three new writers, with representatives from the Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
n and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n continent
Continent
A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...
s joining shortly after. This led to a core staff of twelve writers in 2002.
In this period, founder Filicetti retired from his role as contributor, while co-founder Bromley moved on to form his own print publication, Unrestrained!, with fellow CoC contributor Adam Wasylyk. Meanwhile, various other writers departed or became part-time contributors due to other engagements. Some of Chronicles of Chaos' writing staff became contributors to magazines like Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer
Metal Hammer is a monthly heavy metal music magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and in several other countries by different publishers. Metal Hammer articles feature both mainstream bands and more unusual acts from the whole spectrum of heavy metal music...
, Terrorizer, Unrestrained! and more. As a result, the e-mail issues became less regular, with as much as three month gaps.
Between October 2002 and March 2003 the publication went on an unofficial hiatus for the only time in its history so far. Until 2003, the Chronicles of Chaos website served only as a static repository of plain text
Plain text
In computing, plain text is the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text....
back issues, with the latest digest available for hypertext
Hypertext
Hypertext is text displayed on a computer or other electronic device with references to other text that the reader can immediately access, usually by a mouse click or keypress sequence. Apart from running text, hypertext may contain tables, images and other presentational devices. Hypertext is the...
navigation.
2003-Present
From 2003 onwards, the publication adopted a databaseDatabase
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
-driven website. Older articles previously found only inside plain text files became immediately accessible, and the new system also allowed articles to be published more frequently and directly to the website. The e-mail digest returned to its original monthly schedule, gathering up the articles published on the website during that month.
The staff was gradually augmented between 2003 and 2008 with the addition of new European, American and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n writers. This led to a current total of around twenty writers, although several of those are only sporadic part-time contributors who were previously an integral part of the publication pre-2003. In keeping with its international tradition, over a dozen different nationalities are currently represented in the staff. The Chronicles of Chaos archive currently contains over 6,000 reviews, interviews and opinion articles. More than 100 issues of the e-mail digest have been published to date, containing over 20 megabyte
Megabyte
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage or transmission with two different values depending on context: bytes generally for computer memory; and one million bytes generally for computer storage. The IEEE Standards Board has decided that "Mega will mean 1 000...
s of text.
The metal scene has continued to recognize the influence of CoC, with Tartarean Desire voting them third best webzine of 2005 and Unrestrained! magazine describing them as still "formidable" twelve years after CoC's inception. In late 2006, recognition also arrived from outside the metal scene, when independent music publication RightRound recommended CoC as "beautifully designed, well-written" and "informative" in one of its Change of Scene columns.
In 2007, Chronicles of Chaos was chosen by sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
Keith Kahn-Harris to illustrate the development of webzines and their focus on reviews and interviews.
On December 7, 2008, Chronicles of Chaos co-founder Adrian Bromley died in his sleep aged 37. His passing prompted numerous tributes within the music industry.