Dear readers,

Thank you all for your support of Maelstrom. This, our 12th issue, marks our two-year anniversary. When Steppenvvolf and I started this project in 2001, we did it with serious intentions but had no idea that it would grow to what is has today. Just in that time we've had one url change, three web page overhauls, some staff changes and upwards of 1000 albums to review. With your continued enthusiasm, we plan to take it even further in the issues and years to come.

I would like to extend some appreciation by offering some goodies in exchange for spreading the word about Maelstrom. If you can get 10 people to sign up to the mailing list, we'll send you a Maelstrom t-shirt, featuring the artwork of the main page on the front. If you can sign up 20 people, we'll send you a Maelstrom long sleeve, which has totally different art on front and back, and stuff printed on the sleeves. The grandest prize for two lucky, determined people who can sign up 30 people to the list is an out of print Windham Hell 7". All while supplies last.

On to the issue at hand. Highlighting our interview section is a chat with Quorthon of the revolutionary band Bathory. Quorthon turned out to be one of the best interviews ever, so make sure to check that out. We're also featuring a talk with Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquility, whose latest record, Damage Done, is one of the best of the year. Also on the menu is a talk with Stratovarius' keyboard player, Jens Johansson, who talks about the huge process of the recording of the band's new records, the Elements series; Eikenskaden, whose kin, Mystic Forest, is some of the most artisitically interesting black metal out there today; and All is Suffering, whose come from nowhere album The Past: Vindictive Sadisms of Petty Bureaucrats is one of the most intense, meaningful albums of the year.

We also bring you discussions whith two very exciting young, up and coming bands, Structure of Lies and The Postman Syndrome. Both will make huge marks in their scenes in the years to come.

Maelstrom is just about supporting non-metal artists in the underground. With that vision we went out to bring you interviews with the unique Bohren und der Club of Gore, a German act that I've been burning to interview since I discovered them years ago; Star of Ash, the new project of Ihriel of Emperor; Steven R. Smith, who's mostly known as the guitarist of ethno-ambient group Thuja, but has released two excellent solo albums (reviewed in these pages, of course); and Karjalan Sissit, one of the best dark ambient projects to put out a record in 2002. This plus buckets of album reviews, a couple of live reviews (of Arch Enemy and the Nile/ Napalm Death/ Dark Tranquility/ Strapping Young Lad/ Berzerker tour), and some From the Vault entries.

And since this album marks the end of a year, please check out the end of this page to see some of our writers' best of 2002 lists.

Thanks for all your guestbook entries. One reader sent us this letter:

From: Greg (gferg@boydp.com)

Dear Maelstrom,

In the "Album Reviews" menu, which opens to reveal "Page 1, Page 2, etc...". It might help to group the reviews (and hence the pages) alphabetically, so that a person would see something like:

Album Reviews

A-C
D-H
I-M
etc.

Personally, I like to see some kind of scoring system applied to the reviews, although a lot of folks don't care for that. Just a thought, even if it's a letter grade (A+, B, C-, etc) or a range...

Dear Greg,

Thanks for your letter. Concerning your first point, about the album review menu, we thought about doing that, and you're right that it does make it easier to pinpoint. However, the problem is that band names overwhelmingly tend to begin with the letters A-E (A in particular is huge), so we'd end up having pages of "A" bands in themselves longer than pages of other letter bands. Our templates run 15 reviews each page, and it would get too complicated to keep that constant with the letter system. However, your advice is excellent, and I've gone back and found a happy medium between having page numbers and some alphabetical notation within the table. Check it out.

Concerning your point about including grades in our reviews, this has been a great debate since we began the zine. Although the first thing I look at in other zines are the ratings - as it means I don't have to necessarily read the article - a thing that I've noticed in just about all zines is that the numbers begin to get padded. Many zines will give an album a starting grade of 6/10 just 'cause it's metal! That's really lame. Most zines never go below 4 or 5/10. In the end, the numbers become meaningless, especially since up to 10 different people with different notions of what a 8/10 really is are writing. Also, we don't want people to skip over what we take the time to write!

- Roberto Martinelli (with Gene Hoglan, below)

Roberto Martinelli's totally great albums of of 2002

1. Dark Moor - The Gates of Oblivion
2. Ruhr Hunter - Torn of This
3. Lux Occulta - The Mother and the Enemy
4. Hopesfall - The Satellite Years
5. Empyrium - Weiland
6. Falconer - Chapters from a Vale Forlorn
7. Agalloch - The Mantle
8. All is Suffering - The Past: Vindictive Sadisms of Betty Bureaucrats
9. Sigur Rós - Sigur Rós
10. Dark Tranquility - Damage Done
11. Immortal - Sons of Northern Darkness
12. Leviathan - Verräter, The Tenth Sub-Level of Suicide and 15
13. Kåre João - Sideman
14. Manilla Road - Spiral Castle
15. Xasthur - Nocturnal Poisoning
16. Kinski - Airs Above Your Station
17. Tuatha de Danann - Tingaralatingadun
18. Oxbow - An Evil Heat
19. Karjalan Sissit - Karjalan Sissit
20. Wigrid - Hoffnungstod
21. Silencer - Death - Pierce Me
22. On the Might of Princes - Where You Are and Where You Want to Be
23. Red Harvest - Sick Transit Gloria Mundi
24. Mystic Forest - Waltz in the Midst of Trees
25. Beneath the Lake - Inside Passage
26. Bohren und der Club of Gore - Black Earth
27. Kemialliset Ystävät - Kellari Juniversumi
28. Postman Syndrome, The - Terraforming
29. King's Evil - Deletion of Humanoise
30. Knut - Challenger
31. Ship of Fools - Let's Get this Mother Outta Here
32. Rondellus - Sabbatum
33. Anorexia Nervosa - New Obscurantis Order
34. Seth - Divine X
35. Centurian - Liber Zar Zax

Honorary mention (for what would have been the best album of the year, if it hadn't techincally been released in 2000): Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris

~Vargscarr~

1. GRAVELAND - Memory and Destiny (Pol)
2. ECCLESIA SATANI - NS Satan (Pol)
3. WARHEAD - Defenders of the Blood (Pol/Ukr)
4. NILE - In Their Darkened Shrines (USA)
5. DUB BUK - I Go on You! (Ukr)
6. INFERNAL WAR - Infernal SS (Pol)
7. UFYCH SOMEER - For the Glory of the Great Octagon (Fra)
8. NACHTFALKE - Doomed to Die (Deu)
9. KING DIAMOND - Abigail - Part II (Den)
10. PANTHEON - Krihapentswor (USA)

Matt Smith (in not a very specific order)

DECAPITATED - Nihility
MESHUGGAH - Nothing
CANNIBAL CORPSE - Gore Obsessed
DJ SASHA - Airdrawndagger
DJ SHADOW - Private Press
JURASSIC FIVE - Power in Numbers
LIVING SACRIFICE - Conceived in Fire
UDERWORLD - 100 Days Off