Dave Brockie took the cake for coolest band member I've ever met. He had no problem walking around the venue out of costume and drinking/smoking with anybody that came up and recognized him. Still a damn shame he's not around anymore.

I've found most of the dickhead types are in bands that really aren't worth a second look. Maybe that's just been my experiences.

Dis Pater of Midnight Odyssey (local band for me) is a really nice, down to earth guy. I wrote to him and he was happy to reply and we met for a coffee where he gave an an advanced copy of 'Funerals' (this was 2011). We've hung out periodically every since, just a really nice, interesting guy!

It was also a similar experience with Paul Riedl (ex-Leech, Blood Incantation, Merkstave etc.), though I met him in a pizza shop in Boulder CO where he was working. I commented on his Autopsy hat and we've kept in touch ever since then, and he shares most of his new stuff with me. Legend!

Simen is really one of a kind, he treats everybody as they were his best friend!

Ergh. I dunno where to start really. I used to work at an underground venue.

The Dystopia guys are awesome. I helped with a coupla shows of theres in '98/'99 or something. Dino and Mauz (apparently his name is Matt) are really friendly, Todd was introverted but so what.

The Nazxul guys are freakin hilarious.

I used to live down the road from Sin Nanna of Striborg. His wife is really nice. He's kinda shy.

Kody from Wolves in the Throne Room was weirded out by Melbourne trendy dickheads at their show. Nice dude.

Dagon of Inquisition is great and super smart. I was suprised about all the 88MM racism hoo-haa, but political correctness is shit so...

Ian Mackaye drinks (but isn't in a metal band).

I'm really good friends with the guys from Thrall, and Hordes of the Black Cross. No duds there.

They are still predominately death metal, so much so that either term works (I'd say 80% death, 20% thrash). Similar to how you hear Sepultura's stuff from "Schizophrenia" to "Arise" getting called "death/thrash" and also "thrash" - both terms make sense. Obviously, it's not a universal thing, just a case-by-case scenario...Demolition Hammer and Defleshed, for example, really blur the line.



He was alright to me, I guess I picked up a bit of cockiness in how he acted about some small things (nothing that is really worth mentioning), but I've never heard any specific stories from my Richmond friends - just that they all are in unanimous agreement that he's a cunt.

I recently met Steve Asheim and Jack Owen. Both of them were really nice, I was really impressed by Jack Owen for actually taking the time out to come into the audience and check out the local openers. Not something you see very often. I never got a chance to talk to Glen, unfortunately, but I've heard both that he's super nice and also a super douche, oh well.

A buddy of mine said he met Mark Hunter of Chimaira, and he was apparently super cocky and thought the entire show was about him and how great his band was. And he apparently threw a hissy fit when my friend got fed up with it and told him, "I don't give a fuck about your band".

M (voclas) from Sulphur Aeon is a former colleague. We worked for the same company a couple of years before I switched jobs 3,5 years ago. He is a totally kind, nice and funny guy with an extensive collection and knowledge of kaiju movies. Over the years we talked a lot about music, movies, 80s toys and whatnot. So to say we were "company friends" but after I changed my job the contact got a bit lost. However we email every few months and he is still blown away how well Sulphur Aeon is recieved in the metal community.

And a few years ago I became "email friends" with Bal Sagoths's By ron Roberts. Sure, I can't tell how he's in real life but depending on the mails we wrote he seems like a very cool and down-to-earth guy. We both talked with enthusiasm about sword & sorcery stuff, Masters of the Universe, fantasy stuff, 80s video games etc.pp. Would be great to meet him one time in person.

The nicest guys that I have somewhat become friends with are Henry Vasquez from Saint Vitus and John Perez from Solitude Aeternus, they run the record store I go to most of the time now, and they're super cool dudes to just shoot shit and talk about metal with.
Recently I got to meet Jack Owen and Steve Asheim on Deicide's most recent tour (3rd time I've seen them), super nice dudes, seemed really open to questions, got to take a pic with Jack, overall good experience. The 2nd time I saw them was on that godawful metal alliance tour last year (which Jack says pretty much everyone on it was pissed off about because of all the shitty promoters not having money to pay the bands), and I met Glen for a brief few seconds, I could tell he was pissed off but I got to shake his hand and he thanked my friend and I for coming out to the show.
All the guys from Rings of Saturn are pretty chill dudes, got some autographs from Lucas Mann, took pictures with Ian Bearer, and the other guys were super nice to talk to as well. I thought Lucas was a fucking dick the first time I saw them, but the second time he seemed in a much better mood so it's all water under the bridge.
At 2014's Summer Slaughter I met John Longstreth from Origin, one of my drumming heroes, he sold me one of their shirts, got to ask him a couple of questions, overall nice and humble guy.
Conan from Exmortus was a super nice guy, even gave me a hug haha.
I never got to meet Goatwhore aside from James Harvey, who was really intimidating at first, but that's just because he's one big motherfucker, but super cool dude anyways, got to take a pic with him.
As far as online interactions, I got to talk to Scott Clendenin a few days before he died, no joke one of the most humble dudes I ever had the privilege of talking to. Chris Pervelis from Internal Bleeding is a super nice guy too, and that man loves his bourbon haha.
I'm forgetting a lot more of them, but they'll come to me eventually.

..i usually do not write in this kind of topic, (because people are people, connected at some extent) but i did see Dark Funeral when i lived in Tucson..
i noticed all the members had the hugest chip in their shoulders.. they were bumping everyone out of the way, and i saw no one looking to speak with them, whatsoever..
shame, because their set was pretty cool..

Wait, Ian MacKaye's off the wagon now? Thats kinda funny. Ironic, He was the most gung-ho straight edge guy out there for a while; heck that whole scene practically started with Minor Threat.

The main guy from Rotting Christ is super nice/chill/fan-oriented

He wrote the song "Straight Edge" when he was, what, sixteen? He's not a god, an icon, or a jock either. No offense, but it's hardly suprising. I met him in '95 or something. The song from Pailhead called Ballad is him pissed talking to sex line hookers according to AJ, and has much of a poetic license as he has, I believe in his Ministry.

Straight edgers suck, I heard him (Mackaye) say that. He is an arsehole though. I am one and I like them.

I also got to meet Joe Hasselvander and Raven, and Diamond Head's guitarist at the same show both bands played, years ago. All of whom are amazing gents.

As a lot of people have said, Mark "The Shark" Shelton is another great man. Saw Manilla Road last October and they were amazing.

As far as "Douches", Dark Funeral's merch girl: I saw Dark Funeral in 2006 w/ Naglfar. They played at this hole-in-the-wall venue, in a scary neighborhood in OKC called the Conservatory. Anyway, i was probably 15 at the time. I was standing on the side of the stage while they played their set, i took some pictures with a phone, and while doing so, someone tapped on my shoulder i turned to see who it was, and it was their merch girl getting in my face and being irate over me taking pictures, so i stopped after that, she went back to their merch table, i bummed out for a bit there, but the security saw what happened and told her that if she got up out of the merch area again, she is going back on the bus. She stayed there the whole show and glared in anger. Priceless.

Hehe. Most of the extreme ideological stances and social positioning we do when we're stupid teenagers goes unrecorded by history, but Ian MacKaye wasn't that lucky.

Even when he wrote the song, he wasn't telling anybody else to be celibate and drug-free. "(I) don't fuck / (I) don't drink"--he left out the 'I's because it sounded better or something.

Wow Catgirl, such good points. Never thought about it that way in the lyrical sense.

Moving on to METAL though... Morte of Naxzul... total wino and totally entertaining. Him doing vox with Rev Kriss Hades band was awesome, twice so 'coz of the nazis everywhere and Kriss' totally oversized guitar and him being on a milk box podium. I'd really like to say my country has some excellent pisstaking dynamics going on, especially when boneheads are totally taking this shit seriously. Also Dav Byrne (of Agonhymn) with his eight string bass wringing... Jesus, Mohammad and Satan all loved it.

"Serious people", not so.

Had some drunken escapades with ex-Katatonia members on a cruise (Daniel Liljekvist and the Norrman brothers). Nice guys that sure know how to party.

Also, the vocalist and guitarist (Olivier) from Benighted are super friendly

Ran into Gene Hoglan a few weeks ago before a concert in Boston. A really friendly an humble guy.

I've only really met a few and all have been really nice:

Blaze Bayley - I'll echo the sentiment a few have shared here already. Fantastic guy, really down to earth. I've met him about three times now and he was really down to earth and friendly throughout

Maurizio Iacono - I met him briefly during one of Kataklysm's gigs in London a few years back. Fleshgod Apocalypse were the first opener and I was watching by the side of the stage when I saw him come out from the backstage area. Very brief meeting but he was extremely welcoming

Ross Dolan - I met him very recently, again in London, when Immolation was playing a weekend festival called Incineration Fest. He came out to watch De Profundis play and stood right in front of me. Again, a quick meeting but he seemed really happy to say hello and have a photo taken with me

I don't get what it is about merch people, but they can all be such massive dicks. I know Alestorm's merch guy was an ass to me.

Met Webster, O'Brien and Mazurkiewicz. All of them were really dedicated to their fans, esp. Webster. We didn't recognise him because of the beard he had (weird) at first though heheh. O'Brien seemed totally spaced out, but was also cool. He offered to buy us a beer and in doing so, asked one of us if he was over 18 (he was) but didn't ask me (I'm not lol).

I met the Dimmu Borgir guys back in 2004. Vortex was the coolest dude and really friendly. Even offered me one of the beers from catering. The rest of the guys were total assholes and couldn't be bothered one bit.
Mikael Akerfeldt was really friendly when I met him in 2012.
Devin Townsend and his drummer Ryan were both super welcoming and awesome. Devin seemed pretty tired/hammered/stoned but was still awesome to talk to. This was back in 2006.
Lacuna Coil were quite friendly. I met them back in 2003 before they had really become the size they are now.
Neige from Alcest/Amesoeurs seemed really welcoming, but didn't speak much english at the time I don't think.

My best band interaction (related to metal at least) was meeting Danny cavanagh & Lee Douglas of Anathema (if you'd still consider them counting as metal). I talked to them for close to a half hour about just about the entire Anathema catalog and even other music they were into at the time. Danny was the best.

Everyone in Behemoth was cool, Nergal is the most talkative though, he probably understands english better too lol.

Sunn O))) was pretty cool too, Stephen is definetely more quiet (like me) Greg is more of the asshole. (My buddy was being a drunk asshole)

I can't say I've met Absu per se, but at one of their shows in NC the bass player was making out with and feeling up his groupies on stage, it was very distasteful and didn't fit the context of the show. Afterwords outside the venue some guy called him out and called his groupie a slut, the bassist then proceeded to punch the guy in the most awkward uncoordinated way imaginable then got punched himself in the eye, he walked away with his crying groupie and black eye. Very unmetal way to conduct yourself, but hey, Proscriptor is still a boss.

I don't think online interactions really count, but Teloch from Mayhem was very respectful whenever I ask him questions, he even apologised for putting the wrong show date on Facebook for the mdf. (I thought I was gonna miss them) Mayhem sometimes gets a nasty reputation but they all seem like pretty cool dudes.

Very nice people:

Don Anderson from ex-Agalloch. Nicest guy in the world. I've met him a few times, and the second time we talked he remembered my first name. The guy always hanged out in the venue before the show, talking with the fans and drinking local brews.

Julian Truchan from Benighted. Cool guy. I think he was very happy to see that Quebecers also liked their music, and he was happy to talk in French with fans across the Atlantic Ocean.

Nathanael Larochette from Musk Ox. Not really a metal band... but he always played the first part for Agalloch so... Great guy. Passionate about his music. A real people's guy, and always very gentle and respectful.

Jon Howard from Threat Signal. I've met him twice. The first time around, me and my friends promised him we would be at his next show with Dark Tranquility, and we actually met him at the venue before their set, and told him "Hey we're here!" and he recognized us. During their set one of my buddies picked me up on his shoulders right in front of the stage and Howard thought it was pretty funny and bumped my fist. Great stuff



Ok...

Nathanael is a great dude. I've actually played a show or two with him opening. Super friendly, warm guy.

Met the people from Triptykon at the WOA meet n greet. Vanja was a bit on the quiet side, but smiled nonetheless. Santura was pretty talkative and seemed to have fun checking out my running order list, and he seems an all round nice guy!
Tom Warrior was surprisingly friendly as well - He seemed genuinely happy and appreciative that people enjoy his music, and he answered a question I had more deeply than I would've expected.
Norman was busy talking to someone, so I didn't get to say hi to him.

^Brian?! That you dude?

Recently met a few new Band members (this was at the Carcass/Crowbar/Ghoul/Night Demon Show) :

Night Demon

All really cool and unique guys, I talked to them after the Carcass show and all were excited and remember me from the front row ( i was the only guy there at that show headbanging and getting into their music plus i got the guitarist pic), lets just say I became a big fan of theirs that night!

Kirk from Crowbar

Right when the gates open I went over to Merch booth and right next to Carcass booth was Kirk, I was kinda dumb founded at first but after getting my Carcass T Shirt and went up to Kirk and shook his hand, super friendly dude, I got my pic with him and talked with him for a few minutes. He was very nice and humble man.

Definitely

I've also randomly came across him at a Cynic show in Montreal. He was in the audience and my girlfriend recognized him from when we saw him opening for Agalloch prior to that. And so we talked. He was very friendly and definitely interested in both what we told him and what he had to share with us. He was actually there to see Scale The Summit, who were one of the few opening bands of the night, and he said nothing but good stuff about them. The guy is very authentic and it's always a pleasure to both talk to him and see him play his music.

Oh, and in what band/project were you playing when he opened for you. I'm curious.

The guys from Alcest were about what you'd expect: super friendly, meek, humble. I really enjoyed talking with them.

Years ago I met the guys from Becoming The Archetype and they are all very fun, friendly, intelligent, and seemed like all-around pretty quality fellas.

I interviewed Joe Lynn Turner on the phone earlier this year. He was a super nice guy, really into answering the questions as deeply as he could. He even asked me some stuff about my guitars after i asked him about his humongous collection. When I called him he was chatting with his wife about groceries or something, I heard a door closing and then he jokingly screamed "and don't forget the condons my dear!". A really funny bloke.

Jarvis Leatherby from Night Demon comes to mind: when I was in Chicago for Ragnarokkr, I stayed an extra day to see the Night Demon/Visigoth set. He saw the Night Demon patch I have on my vest and asked if I wanted to hear any covers, but being kind of drunk I couldn't think of any haha. I talked to him after their set the next day, and he was just a really nice guy, who clearly enjoys what he does.

Some others I've met are Mark Shelton, Randy Davis from Ashbury, and all of the guys from Visigoth. All really friendly, down to earth people.

Oh, and the surviving members of Cirith Ungol, excellent guys all around as well. They were all nice enough to sign my vest, and Flint (their bass player) joked about defacing the Canadian flag patch I have. I told him to go for it, and he seemed pretty excited about that haha.

The guitar player from Winterhorde gave me a beer because I've bought the last copy of their latest album in my country. And we had a talk about their discography too. He was pretty nice.

Met a few people from the local Aussie scene and the experiences have been good across the board. Andy from Lord seems to really enjoy interacting with the fans, chatted with him at one of their gigs and saw him at a Priest show in Sydney as well. Downed some beers with Evgeny of Ouroboros after a gig a while back... I also hung around after a Nervosa set at Summer Breeze last year and Fernanda took the time to shake hands with/talk to everyone who'd turned up. Absolutely one of the most friendly and down to earth people out there.

On the absolute short list of people I'd like to to meet is Abbath. My friend had a chance to interview him last year but she bloody declined!



I was at the same meet n greet! I also found them to be really nice, although given that it was at midnight, I was utterly wasted and they may well just have been smiling and nodding.
Tom pretty much just said hello, I actually found Vanja quite talkative, and stuck her hand out for a handshake and a smile as I was about to wobble away, which I appreciated. Santura humoured my vacuous suggestion that they visit Australia someday, which was really more than he had to do considering how spannered I was.

I gotta concur with Kirk being a super nice guy. Also super short...I tower over him in the pic I got with him and I'm not crazy tall (6'1"ish).
Alex Rudinger was super nice when I met him. For being I think 20 years old and super talented, he was super humble.
The guys from Soreption are cool despite not having the greatest English.
I met Phil Dubois, former drummer of Revocation when he was teching with Cannibal Corpse. Seemed surprised I knew who he was and was really friendly.
The folks from Melt Banana were really nice, especially considering I told them straight up I had no idea what to expect from them musically.
I know they're not in the archives, but Dan Briggs, the bassist for Between the Buried and Me is a nice guy. The last time I saw them, he made it clear he was gonna hang out and chat with some fans side stage right after their set finished but security threw us all out anyway.
An interesting case was Travis from Cattle Decap. Dude was a monster vocally but kept like hocking loogies straight up into the air (some landed on the stage, some landed on him). One accidentally hit a guy in the first row and Travis' face immediately fell and he gestured at the guy that he was super sorry about it, but he was kinda confrontational all night when it came to between-song banter, so chalk him up as a maybe in my book.

I've had a few Nevermore encounters.

Warrel Dane posts on the Ultimate Metal Nevermore message board. He's an odd bird.

Met Curran Murphy at NAMM in the Strictly Seven booth. I looked at his badge and said "Oh you were in Nevermore." He paused, seemed to think about it, and said "yes I was!" We had a nice chat for a bit and I had to move on, as did he. Cool cat.

About 8 or 9 years ago I was catching a train from Sydney and Matt Maurer (singer from Australian thrash legends Mortal Sin) got on the same carriage.

I said hi to him and he seemed shocked that I knew who he was. At first he was a little reticent but once he understood that I was pretty knowledgable about his band and old-school thrash in general he got real talkative. We chatted for an hour or so about his experiences across 20+ years, playing Wacken and touring with Metallica in the 80s, the internal politics of his band etc. He was having so much fun that he ended up missing his stop.

Was a great experience for a young wide-eyed thrasher.

I have had the pleasure to meet a lot of great people in the metal world. Don, Jason and Aesop from Agalloch are awesome guys and very easy to talk to surprisingly, John Haughm on the other hand was not the nicest guy, and he is really hard to talk to, I had a decent conversation with him about suicidal black metal briefly. I met the guys from Fen and had beers with them and they are the greatest people and incredibly funny and have a love for tabletop gaming! Chatted with Wrest from Leviathan and it was incredibly awkward, he is a real intense guy. Also talked to Michael Moynihan and that was quite the experience met him at a Krampus party in the middle of the woods in Vermont. So far I haven't really had a bad experience with the metal bands and their ilk, they are good-natured, open and normal like the rest of us!

Was just spinning An Absence of Faith earlier today and realized how damn solid it was for another old guard thrash band comeback album.

Loved Psychology of Death too! Fuck I wish they would get back together...

Not a classic, but definitely worth a few spins. I'm particularly partial to 'Deadman Walking'. Maurer has a great voice for thrash.

They are the kind of band that exist in every local scene - they've accomplished some great things, yet they are normal/relatable enough to also give off the inspirational "if those guys can do it, so can we" vibe.

*The bassist and the keyboardist of Embryo: Very nice, friendly and kind guys, even though the bassist looked a little tired.

*Karl Sanders: Well, he was distributing hand-shaked throught the crowd and I got the chance to greet him.

*Serrabulho, Raw Decimating Brutality, Nihility, Shoruyken and Analepsy: They were altogether on the same show and yes, very nice people to meet. I even had the chance to take a photo with Analepsy's vocalist.

In VOA, there were several bands playing, I didn't have the chance to talk or meet anyone, but they all were pretty interactive and friendly with the crowd.