I’m a music journalist and print journalism major at Hofstra University. Raised on classical and country, I wound up a metalhead that loves the banjos as much as death metal growls. At MindEqualsBlown I serve as a staff writer focusing on editorials and album reviews. I’m also a nationally published author both in print and online for Revolver Magazine. Radio is another passion of mine and I produce, engineer and deejay a metal show in the New York metro area. Recently I moved to the executive position as Program Director of Music there as well. Some anecdotes: when I drink coffee I can tell you where in the world the beans came from, I love Ayn Rand novels and I once lived in Russia for two months. My famous last words will be: “Let’s see what happens.”
The Scoop: Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman died Thursday, May 2 of liver failure at a hospital in Southern California. He was 49. Hanneman hasn’t toured with Slayer since ...
On May 3, 2013 / By Sammi Chichester“So on the first night we met you said well darling let’s make a deal/ If anybody ever asks us well let’s say that we met in jail/ ...
On May 3, 2013 / By Sammi ChichesterWhile there are some bands busy claiming they are saving rock and roll in an ironic fashion, there is truth to the point that rock’s lost its magic ...
On April 19, 2013 / By Sammi ChichesterYou’re going to love this record and not understand a word of it. Er, probably not anyway. Meir, the sophomore release from Norwegian hardcore band Kvelertak, is something ...
On March 21, 2013 / By Sammi ChichesterKids, get your vest and stitch those patches because This Is Hell has a new EP. The Enforcer EP is the Long Island, NY hardcore thrash band’s latest ...
On February 26, 2013 / By Sammi ChichesterApparently CNN found it pertinent to research hateful racist hardcore bands last year after the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting. Despite being a national news organization and if they ...
On January 29, 2013 / By Sammi Chichester10. Birds In Row – You Me & The Violence 9. Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage 8. God Seed – I Begin 7. Aborted – Global Flatline 6. The ...
On January 1, 2013 / By Sammi ChichesterIf sound was space, you could fall through it and never hit the bottom with Koi No Yokan. It is no longer sounds on tape or variations of ...
On November 13, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterYou have to admire A War You Cannot Win’s ability than to do at the very least maybe piss off whoever is listening to it. That’s a feat ...
On November 12, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterVocalist J.R. Hayes is holding a cigarette right in the press pictures. That’s burning, but so are these books. It’s been five years since the grindcore legends released ...
On October 22, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterAt least you don’t have to endanger your life by listening to this Dethklok. It seems insane that this cartoon death metal band from Metalocalypse is talked about ...
On October 18, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterUpon opening the Axe to Fall record it says, “We may get better/ We won’t get well.” Are you sure? It’s been over three years since Axe to ...
On October 5, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterI’ll be the first to admit I know nothing about pop culture. Last week’s Twitter rant for me was about certain metal bands’ insistence on taking Satanism seriously. ...
On October 1, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterIt is nice to have a plan. So I figured being prepared for guerrilla warfare on ears was the best approach. Actually, “Aimless Arrow” was a little more ...
On August 29, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterAt the beginning of this year on MEB I boldly wrote, “There is literally nothing to dislike about Birds In Row.” And I will not be corrected. There ...
On August 23, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterEarlier this week, tragedy struck a Wisconsin Sikh temple when a shooter opened fire on people at the service. The alleged shooter, Wade Michael Page, age 40, killed ...
On August 8, 2012 / By Sammi Chichester“So, like, why Russia?” That’s my cynically least favorite question I get about studying abroad in St. Petersburg for the next few weeks. Look, I get it. This ...
On June 15, 2012 / By Sammi Chichester“Laura! Laura! Laura!” The usual restless Against Me! crowd has waited long enough. They are ready to jump around. They are ready to shout the words to well-memorized ...
On June 14, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterI must admit that the real reason Xavier Rudd piqued my interest for his seventh album, Spirit Bird, is that it was released on SideOneDummy Records. I thought, ...
On June 6, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterThe rant starts out like this: Lars Ulrich, drummer of Metallica, basically says the metal community is up its own ass. This little tidbit obviously became the news ...
On June 1, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterThis Belgian hardcore isn’t going to give you a headache but it might rattle your brains enough to displace them. If you’re okay with that, Rise and Fall’s ...
On May 16, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterOh man, the ripping falsetto days. There once was a time when people were breaking the law with Halford and running to the hills with Dickinson. That time ...
On May 4, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterFrom party thrash to space thrash, we present Municipal Waste! The Richmond, Virginia crossover thrash band is back after quite the absence since 2009’s Massive Aggressive. The theme ...
On April 25, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterTim Barry…it’s like even his songs are sepia toned. The Carhartt-wearing Virginia artist’s next installment of train hopping songs is 40 Miler. That title is “ironic” as it’s ...
On April 17, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterThere is something about Lucero that just makes you feel… real. Okay, maybe the posters of a blue collar lady lighting her cigarette with a blowtorch aren’t realistic, ...
On March 25, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterI love technology. Otherwise this record, Painted, wouldn’t exist. Narrows’ hometown is Seattle and San Diego and London. Making an album in the same place sounds like a ...
On March 18, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterGerman metal means one thing to me: power metaaal. Except Caliban isn’t at all and that’s not the association worth worrying about. One minute into “We Are the ...
On March 2, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterThey teach you in J school (which is bad slang for one who studies journalism) not to talk about older folks as if they are “as lively as ...
On February 29, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterI should probably just turn in my metalhead card for this. Yeah, I listened to Hopes Die Last’s Trust No One and enjoyed myself. My defense is as ...
On February 22, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterIt’s a pronoun problem. Black Taxi is busy blowin’ up Brooklyn’s venues and creeping into other areas of life. Some songs have been featured on television shows on ...
On February 15, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterIt’s fairly obvious that Anthony Raneri doesn’t need advice or an introduction when it comes to his music. Therefore, Raneri’s collection of songs on New Catherdals is vast ...
On January 17, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterFor what many may think is a dead format, the fact is that sales of vinyl records are increasing year after year. Nielsen SoundScan projects vinyl in 2011 ...
On January 17, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterWhat kind of music do you like? “Oh, everything but country.” If that’s you described above, please move on because you’re missing out. If you’re still with me, ...
On January 10, 2012 / By Sammi ChichesterThere is literally nothing to dislike about Birds In Row. For a relatively unknown aggressive hardcore band from Laval, France, they have an amazing amount of power to ...
On January 8, 2012 / By Sammi Chichester10. Polar Bear Club – Clash Battle Guilt Pride 9. Bayside – Killing Time 8. Deafheaven – Roads to Judah 7. Glassjaw – Coloring Book EP 6. Thrice – Major/Minor 5. The Horrible ...
On December 25, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterClick, click. Chaos. That was the sound I would search for in the parking lot when I was nine years old and my sister would pick me up ...
On November 25, 2011 / By Sammi Chichester“These are unpleasant facts; I know it. But then most historical facts are unpleasant.” Remember reading the sci-fi novel by Aldous Huxley, Brave New World? It was a ...
On November 22, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterLuckily while looking at the bill, none of the band names mentioned are completely incomprehensible. There was a legitimate fear that they may be. This is Metal Suckfest. ...
On November 19, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterIt’s obvious this generation and the previous one need to stop ripping off Rocky Horror Picture Show and get our own cult-classic to copy. And like Rocky Horror, ...
On November 15, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterIt’s nothing but mystery concerning everything that surrounds Leviathan. Whether that is splendid or defective, that’s left up to the judge to decide (no pun intended- wait for ...
On November 8, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterThe aggressive guitar chords heard in the opening of Pennywise’s “F— Authority” are some of the most recognizable in punk rock. They’re also used in the beginning of ...
On November 5, 2011 / By Sammi Chichester25 years. When we think of an event being 25 years, it’s usually a huge life event like a wedding or a birthday. It’s a quarter of a ...
On October 31, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterRally up the punks because misery has never sounded this fun before. San Francisco’s Dead to Me has released Moscow Penny Ante like all select-honored rebels and it’s ...
On October 29, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterMost of us are used to words. Then you get about a 40-minute instrumental record and we’re not classical folk, nor are we always that classy. So we ...
On October 26, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterBeing from Brooklyn, reading novels, and playing music for 18 years is just who Kevin Devine is. He loves every part of the job that that he can ...
On October 26, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterThere has been a lot of chatter and hype about melodic hardcore band Counterparts, but is it justified? I’m not one to add unnecessary hype to musicians that ...
On October 25, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterThey’ve done it again, and yet it’s completely different. The Star Fucking Hipsters’ third release From the Dumpster to the Grave is so schizophrenic that it’s hard to ...
On October 24, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterThere is this preconceived notion that all Victory Records bands are crummy. But what if a band included all the aspects of a popular band within the genre? ...
On October 23, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterLace up your combat boots. Just five seconds into This is Hell’s Black Mass, you cannot sit still as vocalist Travis Reilly screams, “It burns like acid rain”(go ...
On October 11, 2011 / By Sammi ChichesterFor those of you who don’t frequent death metal, think Cookie Monster ate a frog, only on a whole new level. That’s a basic summary of Pathology’s new ...
On October 6, 2011 / By Sammi Chichester© 2013 Solo Pine Designs, Inc. All rights reserved.