Mission Statement
Welcome to Metal With Reason, a blog about metal. This blog is a direct response to and rejection of the monetization of the Internet. Over the course of several years we have watched the journalistic integrity of publications devolve from a need to inform people to a need to drive income. Magazines that once served as the mouthpieces of subcultures have become a couple dozen pages of content supported by a much higher number of advertisements. Websites that used to deliver thoughtful responses to new albums and deep interviews with our musical heroes have become little more than clickbait sensationalist nonsense. The entire model for reporting/journalism has shifted, forcing publications to strive for reach over reason, clicks over content. Far too many times we've scrolled past a new headline from certain metal blogs and thought something like “Why does anyone care about this?” And the comments reflect the same sentiment. People are tired of bad reporting on things that don’t matter to us. Nick and I are among those people, so we decided to produce content in spite of all that. Here we will discuss music we want to share. We’re just two dudes who love metal and have a lot on our minds. We hope to produce a wide variety of content including album reviews, interviews, photography, and all sorts of op-eds. No clickbait. No gossip. No gotcha journalism. Just good metal.
Jake was born on Halloween and was henceforth doomed to become a metalhead.
In highschool, he booked and hosted local hardcore shows. In college, he hosted a metal radio show and started Metal With Reason's first iteration.
After college, Jake started working in IT against his better judgement. Now, Jake is a spy working in the tech industry as a secret metalhead, his identity only concealed by polos, khakis, and migraine medication.
Nick has a creative writing and media analysis background. With a weekly show, Evening Aggression, as part of Metal Mondays at his college radio station, he built a small following based on his taste and knowledge of extreme metal.
He learned to love extreme music early after seeing the music video for System of a Down's "Chop Suey" one day while home sick from school.
When he got into a highschool and a classmate gave him a mix CD with Aborted, Cannibal Corpse, and Vital Remains, his taste solidified.
His heavy rotation consists of death, black, doom, and grind.
He currently lives in Los Angeles.
