Hails of exceeding mightiness to you, Maelstrom readers.

Just our way of saying, “hey!” Hey, and thanks for continuing to read our zine. This month’s (April, 2004) issue is an exciting one. We’ve got interviews with Opeth, Kinski, Lyzanxia (in English AND French), Explosions in the Sky, Saruman and Mantles. We welcome you to find out about these bands if you haven’t already.

We’ve also got a slew of album reviews for you, 75 to be exact. This and a very nice report from a Gathering performance in Holland.

Thanks to all that entered last month’s Cannibal Corpse/Gorerotted CD giveaway contest and making it such a success. We wish we could give all of you CDs. This month’s contest is again a double CD feature. The first is Apostasy’s Code 666, an album that is a lock for Dimmu Borgir lunatics the world over. The second is the technical, melodic thrash record Mindcrimes from up and coming French band Lyzanxia (who, as you know, is interviewed in this issue). Surf on in and try your luck at getting free stuff from us!

How can you get a jump on the free goods, you ask? Why, by signing up to our monthly, new issue notification. In Maelstrom.nu's world, some of the best things are free.

And here we have a letter from one of the winners from our first contest, in February, in which we gave away copies of Horse the Band’s R. Borlax. Thanks for your letters!

From: "Stephen Stewart" <dostewart@ic24.net>
To: "Maelstrom zine" <giorgio75@hotmail.com>
Subject: competition
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 10:17:46 -0000

Hi Roberto,

Just an email to say thanks for sending the horse the band cd that I won in your last competition. Although it's not the type of stuff I would have given much time to in the past, I've been really enjoying listening to it (at the expense of some of the more traditional stuff I've bought recently), so I guess my musical tastes have been widened yet again!

Keep up the good work on the Maelstrom site, I enjoy going through the interviews and (especially) the reviews every month. It's good to have a second opinion on new releases when a lot of the other magazines seem afraid to give many cds a lower mark than 7/10.

Thanks again,

Stephen Stewart

Dear Stephen,

Thanks for taking the time to write us. I was wondering if the contest winners had indeed gotten their CDs. So great you got it and so great you like it!

Thanks also for your encouraging words. They make all the difference for us, knowing that our efforts are appreciated. We started Maelstrom precisely for the reasons you detailed. You won't read interviews with inane, stock questions that tell you everything you could figure out for yourself merely by listening to the album. And you'll always get our honest opinion about albums. We expect our readers to have brains, and anyone with one knows it's merely impossible for all the albums that are released each month to be good, much less recommendable.

thank you, Stephen, for your readership.

Roberto Martinelli
Maelstrom Zine (http://www.maelstrom.nu)
3234 Clay St.
San Francisco, CA 94115 USA