You’ll have to excuse me, because it’s been a long time since my hands have graced the surface of this keyboard – at least in regards to writing, one might say. Nevertheless, the muscle memory is there and I still feel comfortable writing what is sure to be the most entertainment I’ve had on this site in quite a while.
So today I’ll be addressing “John The Heckler” who is not only an ignoramus who left his email and complete IP Address exposed in his comments, (that’s what WordPress does in order to filter out spambots and other malfeasance) but also got much of his information completely wrong. So much so to the point that my colleague Central Scrutinizer says he looks forward to pissing him off more in feature articles. After all, I haven’t personally written for The Grim Tower in quite some time as I had been working late night shifts and mostly focusing on podcasts, visual novel reading and more for a growing fanbase of degenerates. Several of them in Japan and other parts of Asia according to my analytics. I’ve said all this to say that you’ve been talking about the wrong guy – Central Scrutinizer has been writing most of the articles that you’ve been heckling.
Now that this bombshell has been dropped, let’s drop another. In the mid nineties, I was already ten years old, mate. I still remember getting my first Super Nintendo back in 1997. Before that, I enjoyed the big grey Nintendo Challenge Set and before that, the Atari 2600 with Pac-Man and yes, a copy of E.T. Which I can attest to the lack of quality on that particular cart. Do the math and you’ll find out that I am indeed an eighties baby and was born in 1985. Yes, I’m as old as many of the popular gaming franchises I love like Mega Man, Castlevania and Super Mario among others. I even remember the birth of Sonic and how astounding Sonic 2 was on the Genesis, not to mention the craziness surrounding the original Mortal Kombat. I remember when you had to put in the blood code. Gaming is a big part of my life, especially when it comes to the classics – so it’s easy for me to explain the era in which I grew up through this medium.
As far as music is concerned, I didn’t really get into metal until around the nu-metal era of 98’/99′. I still find myself traversing backwards through the early nineties, eighties and seventies releases of the genre – but I still have a great deal of Nu Metal in my playlist as that’s what I grew up on. As for my entrance into the industry, that would have started back in 2010 when I had been covering albums on a local message board. The blog soon became a thing and then of course I started writing for New Noise Magazine when they were first coming along (still going strong, by the way) and was approached by their editor for a website. He managed the website where of course I had access to practically every label and publicist necessary for coverage at the time. This amounted to an inbox that constantly filled with emails requesting I listen to albums and provide reviews or interviews of the bands, which I did. In fact, I have considered opening up a “Classic Interviews” section here on the site to repost all those old interviews, many of which were still read before the old site went down. Physical albums were also a mainstay. I have received hundreds of those over the years, some pretty rare presses and I’m quite thankful for that opportunity. I’ve been sent a lot of band merch over the years and I’m eternally grateful for it.
And yes, you learn a great deal about the industry through this work. Indeed, I am (though not tiny, I have an overactive thyroid condition here) and have been a retail worker for quite a while now. I see no real shame in it, I’ve worked for many different outlets and personally enjoy the work and camaraderie. The work helps me to be non-sedentary, which would have happened if I chose online work, though I may lean this way forward as I get older. However, when you work with many bands, publicists, labels and whatnot – you hear things. Sometimes they’re said openly in interviews, sometimes they’re private messages. Sometimes people get disgruntled and spill the beans altogether. But yes, I know what this industry is like as I had been a part of it over the past ten years now. I have received several emails over the past few years that are private and personal in regards to band drama and controversy, which we here at The Grim Tower are certainly privy to. Originally though, there were more of us. Spynal, Grim Princess, Bleak Bill (who I played in Torii with) and others have all contributed to making this site what it was and I appreciate all of those efforts.
As the original site got nuked a year or so ago, I decided to move the focus to something new and a certainly blossoming industry that I’m trying to strike the iron while it’s still hot – namely, the world of eroge novels and games or H-Games. In the past number of years, more interest has peaked within this industry than ever before and I already promote for several publishers within it like Jast USA and MangaGamer. In fact, there has never been a bigger time for this industry than there is right now and as it is filled to the brim with controversy (just like metal) it feels just right that we should hop into it as well. Within the realms of eroge there are very dark and sadistic themes, much like in the metal lyrics and imagery of old. However, most of this is looked at as “old hat” when it comes to metal, because a Cannibal Corpse album cover no longer frightens anyone, but when you have an animated image of a woman being tortured and violated throughout time, it may elicit some stares from the western morality police. Even Yamizome Revenger has an aesthetic where you corrupt the heroines into slutty sex slaves, something that even women have admitted they enjoy playing. It’s the fantasy of it, you see. With GOG even opening itself to these games now, completely uncut I might say – they’re also striking the same iron. This industry is not only hot and controversial, it’s also been something I’ve enjoyed since the days of Bible Black and Discipline in my twenties.
Finally, let me address one last thing here. I am not so bittersweet about my departure from Torii as some might think. Though I have yet to listen to the new self-titled (but definitely did buy it to support the band, of course) I’ve heard enough to confidently assess that Bill is doing the right thing with this one. I’m actually seeing it as the proper time to move on, especially considering the fact that I’ve just had surgery on my esophagus and have to be careful with my voice for a bit anyway. There has no doubt been a great deal of vocal scarring and it’s best that I let that heal up. Suffice it to say that I more or less am done making heavy metal music altogether. We put out four albums in ten years, they’re there for people, they will hopefully always be there for people and I think Bill and I are both proud of that work. I worked through a lot of things on those albums and they’re very special to me. I carry them on my phone all the time. We were never the biggest band, but we had fans and I had fun. It was therapeutic. My voice has gone in a new direction now and I’m thankful that people enjoy that too.
I don’t know who you are John, but I can assure you that I do not have any kind of odd schizophrenia over my past deeds. These are definitely things that I accomplished within my lifetime. I’m proud of them. I can look back and say that I’m thankful to have interviewed artists who I grew up listening to and received a lot of inspiration from in my own work. This may have been a response to an online heckler, but it feels like a retrospective of sorts as well as way for me to come back into this kind of work with a clear head. This is where I’ve been and it opens up to a new beginning in a different kind of industry. Oh, and I’ll approve your comments, because I do respect free speech after all.
– The Grim Lord