Black Metal UK

So now that I've discussed the music and its makers, I think it's about time I had a look at the way BM's fans can interact. To do this, I'll focus on Black Metal UK, an online community with over 9,700 members.

The first thing that struck me about this site was how democratically it seems to be maintained. It is "run on a non-profit basis", and the submission of news articles, album and live reviews, interviews, etc. by its members is strongly welcomed (hell, the site RELIES on it). The site provides services and coverage related to practically every aspect of the black metal community - in addition to the archive of reviews, interviews and news articles, the site hosts an extensive image library, promotional tools and links to other websites of interest to the BM community (such as online stores, record labels, zines...).

Perhaps of greatest value, though, is the site's quite active forum. It provides a space for BM fans and artists to discuss recordings and live events, general issues, current events and, quite unusually, politics/religion/philosophy. There is also a dedicated "trading post" forum, in which members can organise the exchange of recordings, merchandise and musical equipment.

Though the "UK" in the site's name suggests that it might focus mostly on BM in the UK (hehe, abbreviation overload), this is not the case - tours of the US, Europe , even Australia are discussed on the forums, and reviews are by no means limited to UK bands. I suppose this is an indication of the increasingly global nature of BM, and of music fan cultures in general.

The existence of such open online communities as Black Metal UK clearly makes participation in fan cultures considerably easier than it was "back in the day". This can only be a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.