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Chronicles of Chaos
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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.
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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.
History
Chronicles of Chaos was founded by Canadians 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.
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 European 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 Asian and African continents 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.
2003-Present
From 2003 onwards, the publication adopted a database-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 Australian 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 megabytes 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 7th, 2008, Chronicles of Chaos co-founder Adrian Bromley died in his sleep aged 37. His passing prompted numerous tributes within the music industry.
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