Liam Guy- The Fallout Magazine

Firstly, congratulations on being nominated in the best magazine category for the 2009 Australian Metal Awards. Tell us how this all started for you and what your goal is with "The Fallout Magazine"?

Thanks a lot, it's an honour!

I started The Fallout in 2005 as a newsletter for bands in my city of Brisbane, but in the following year I expanded it to the current
magazine/fanzine format that it is today. My reason for starting The Fallout *Magazine* was virtually the same reason why you began your website "The Association for Australian Heavy Metal" - I felt (and still often feel) that Australia's metal community is overlooked in comparison to the US and European scenes. I think we have some brilliant metal bands here in Australia that sound like they should be doing bigger and better things on the world stage, but given our distance from the other metal centres this makes things a bit difficult. There are notable exceptions that have made significant impacts on the overseas markets, and that's great.

My other reason for starting The Fallout is because I love metal... so why not?

Who should be reading "The Fallout Magazine" and why?

If this magazine were meant for a niche market I'd probably say it was meant for "Australian metalheads who are fed up with current trends and fads". Almost any metalhead can pick up an edition and find at least one article on a band they *might* like, whether it be a band that plays extreme metal, thrash metal, or melodic metal.

There were announcements from you that "The Fallout Magaizine" was going to end. There was a lot of requests for you to keep going. What made you decide to end the mag and what made you change your mind?

My intentions to end The Fallout were simply because I didn't want to burn the zine out or make it feel like a chore, so I thought it'd be best to end it on my own terms before this would happen. Also when I began the mag in 2006 I had often thought about doing only ten editions then finishing it up.

Whatever the reason was, I knew in the back of my mind that even if I did end it, I'd only regret it and want to come back to it anyway! But one night I had a bit of a deep and meaningful conversation over the net with one of the lads from Obsidian Records - Jason is his name - and he was very encouraging in his email about how and why The Fallout should be continued. What was told to me gave me enough incentive to keep moving.

I've made a few changes to the zine since then. New editions will contain more pages and thusly will be filled with more content, but because of this they will be released less often as previous editions. Secondly, my new goal is to cover the local metal scene from other angles besides just putting in interviews with bands. I have a bit of an interest in cult films, the paranormal, comedy, and other things that an average metalhead can relate to, so I want to include more of that into the zine also.

How do you choose the bands or events that you write articles on and if a band wanted to submit something to you to review how would they go about it?

I'll usually interview a group when they're about to, or have just released a new album. Sometimes I'll even interview a band to see "what they're up to" if they haven't been releasing material or touring much in the past year or so. I like to focus more on Australian metal bands than overseas groups. Also in every edition I do a feature article on a legendary cult metal group that's been defunct for some time (most of these are Aussies too, like Nothing Sacred, Slaughter Lord, Armoured Angel, Iron Lightning, etc).

I normally choose bands that have already released an album or an EP, although I have some segments on bands that have released only demos. The bands I choose are the ones that I feel have something special to offer in their music and live shows, and not somebody who only has a few scratchy rehearsal demos on their Myspace page and will most likely break up in a week.

Bands can get in touch with me for reviews at thefalloutmagazine@gmail.com. All emails regarding reviews WILL be answered to.

In your opinion, based on all the articles and reviews you have done for "The Fallout Magazine", who would you rate as the top three metal acts in Australia?

That's a tough one. In no particular order Mortal Sin would have to be one, Dungeon would have to be another, and Armoured Angel and Sadistik Exekution can have a fight over the remaining spot...

How do you see the Australian metal scene as it stands today and where do you see the future heading?

As it stands today, Australia's metal scene is still a very "underground" culture, but I also think we have it pretty good in comparison to other scenes overseas. I've got a friend who recently moved to the UK (the home of many major metal artists), who told me how their metal club scene "just isn't the same" as that of Brisbane, which I thought was interesting. One thing that's also great about Australia's metal scene is that despite it being a small culture, the people who love the music are very dedicated and there's also a lot of mateship among bands and headbangers; a lot of musicians and bands, as well as zine writers help others out, and that's excellent. As for the music itself, we have so many quality acts, to name them would take me all night.

How can people get their hands on "The Fallout Magazine"?

The Fallout is distributed in various independent record and merchandise stores on the East Coast of Australia - in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. If any other shops from the other states are interested in stocking copies, please hit me up. Otherwise, you can order a copy by contacting me at thefalloutmagazine@gmail.com (which is a PayPal address), or www.myspace.com/thefalloutmagazine. Thanks a lot for the interview.