Born in 1976 Gouda (The Netherlands), but now I live in the eastern part of The Netherlands. Although my father did everything within his abilities to turn me into a decent rocking man. My taste has evolved at quite a young age. I really liked the power of bands like Iron Maiden and Accept. Yes, if you are ten years old in the 80's, you consider Maiden to be power.

My taste of music became increasingly more independent of my surroundings and I started to discover the club circuit. "Oh yes mum, I have been to a concert 150 miles from here, of Carcass". Long live adolescence. Every kind of metal came along, but particularly the old thrash bands such as Venom, Kreator and Dark Angel made deep impression on me and let me feel that this is where I belonged. Afterwards death metal rose in time. Though initially a little reluctant, but once I got to like bands like Death and Gorefest, soon Napalm Death and Entombed opened doors to what proved to be one of metal's nicest subgenres.

Particularly in the local metal scenes I discovered more and more bands that I really loved. I even had my own death metalband for some years. No, I am not going to bore you with that little history. What I still do write lyrics. Mostly for bands that do not master the English language up to expectations, or sometimes a band wrote a song that needs words to evoke a specific touch that they cannot describe properly themselves. In all honesty, it is quite cool to open a cd booklet and have your name above a song.

Metal is metal and music is just good when it is good. Nonetheless I really have nothing with punk and hardcore. On the contrary, I would say. Without wanting to offend someone, but it simply is not my thing at all. My proposition is on the other hand, however, every shitty band (can say I that here) is entitled to 1 good song. That permits me to enjoy songs that are actually not done. One of the most obvious examples is Savatage, which provides a nice track with 'Chance' in a boring repertoire. My main areas at LOM will be particularly death metal and grindcore. I try to emphasise as much as possible on CD's in own management, or brought out or at small labels. But apprehend, also your favourite bands I will provide with a value-free judgement. Cheers!

This month, Ramon proudly presents the following items:

reviews:

interviews:

Favourite albums 2008:

1. Children Of Bodom - Blooddrunk
2. Cradle Of Filth – Godspeed On The Devil’s Thunder
3. Metallica – Death Magnetic
4. Anathema - Hindsight
5. Destruction – D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N.
6. AC/DC – Black Ice
7. Tiamat - Amanethes
8. Hate Eternal – Fury And Flames
9. Insidious – Digital Disdain
10. Hail Of Bullets - ...Of Frost And War
11. Trigger The Bloodshed - Purgation
12. Unleashed – Hammer Batallion
13. In Flames – A Sense Of Purpose
14. Cliteater – Scream Bloody ***
15. Moonspell – Night Eternal
16. Dimension Zero – He Who Shall Not Bleed
17. Equilibrium - Sagas
18. Legion Of The Damned – Cult Of The Dead
19. Novastar – Almost Bangor
20. Porcupine Tree – Lightbulb Sun