Guess what? NO CLEAN SINGING is four years old today. That’s right, we made our first post on November 21, 2009. There’s a word for metal blogs who are still around after four years. They’re called “survivors”. “Stubborn” and “too dumb to quit” would be alternative descriptions. Many other metal blogs who started around the same time we did (or even later) are no longer with us. We’re still very happy to be here.
My two original co-founders fell by the wayside long ago (though rumor has it, one may be making a guest appearance in the near future). In their place I’ve been very lucky to work with the four dudes who have helped keep the site going and growing over the last two or three years. For the hell of it, I went back and identified their first appearances at NCS.
Andy Synn’s first post was a review of Dimmu Borgir’s Abrahadabra on September 23, 2010. BadWolf’s first post came on November 15, 2010 — a review of Terraphobic by Dagon. TheMadIsraeli made his debut with a review of The Interbeing’s debut album Edge of the Obscure, published on May 11, 2011. And DGR’s first post was a series of year-end lists on December 28, 2011. I’m proud to call all of them friends as well as colleagues, and I’m so grateful they’ve hung in there with me.
We’ve also benefitted from a lot of guest writing in the last 12 months, and I want to thank everyone who has contributed. I’ve learned about a lot of excellent metal through all of our guest posts and been greatly entertained by the writing as well. Though our tradition is to make November and December a special time for guest submissions, they’re always welcome — and between now and year-end we’ll be seeing more from some of the writers who have begun appearing regularly at NCS, as well as some first-timers.
These anniversaries are also fitting occasions to thank the people who fuel what we do here. First, we are grateful to all of you who choose to spend part of your day with us, with an extra measure of thanks to those who interact with us through the comments on our posts. As much fun as it is for all of the writers to blather on about this and that, I suspect we’d stop in a heartbeat if no one cared. Knowing that people get something out of what we’re doing is what keeps this place going.
And of course, we thank all the metal bands (and visual artists) out there who have made our lives so much richer because of their creativity and talent. Supporting music we care about and doing what we can to spread it around is the site’s main mission.
And now for some statistics that will bore the shit out of you leave you breathless. Since we launched NCS four years ago, we’ve published 4,168 posts, including this one. We’ve posted something every single day since the site began, except for three, when I was laid low by hangovers so cataclysmic that even touching the keyboard was painful. At this writing, we’ve received 39,069 comments since the beginning, only about half of which are mine.
According to Google Analytics, we’ve had 480,877 unique visitors over the last year from all over the world, and since this time last year we’ve had 1,420,836 page views. As another measure of our support, our “likes” on Facebook have grown from 2,715 a year ago to 5,848 as of last night. This leaves us only 66,429,573 short of the FB page for Michael Jackson, who has been dead for five months longer than our site has been alive.
– Islander
72 Responses to “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US”
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Congrats everyone! Been reading since 2010 and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. To four more years!
It’s been great getting to know you through NCS. We all appreciate your loyalty for so many years.
Congratulations and thanks to the NCS Staff for putting so much effort into this website.
I’m one of the silent readers of this blog and have a hard time even keeping track with the velocity new material keeps popping up around here. I have no idea how you guys manage to do this in addition to whatever you do to earn your living.
I’ve tried several metal-related blogs and yours is the only “survivor” in my RSS feed list. For me, NCS manages to combine the extreme metal subgenre with intelligent, grown-up, unbiased, and open-minded people. That’s what makes you a gem.
Thanks for breaking your silence, and for such a wonderful compliment.
happy birthday guys, and thank you for introducing me to countless amounts of great bands from the underground. here’s to another four more years. cheers!
Great to see your name again! Thank you for sticking with us for so long.
“And now for some statistics that will bore the shit out of you leave you breathless. Since we launched NCS four years ago, we’ve published 4,168 posts, including this one. We’ve posted something every single day since the site began, except for three, when I was laid low by hangovers so cataclysmic that even touching the keyboard was painful. At this writing, we’ve received 39,069 comments since the beginning, only about half of which are mine.
According to Google Analytics, we’ve had 480,877 unique visitors over the last year from all over the world, and since this time last year we’ve had 1,420,836 page views. As another measure of our support, our “likes” on Facebook have grown from 2,715 a year ago to 5,848 as of last night. This leaves us only 66,429,573 short of the FB page for Michael Jackson, who has been dead for five months longer than our site has been alive.”
Ha, that is frickin’ funny. Say what you want about Michael Jackson, during the last years of his life or whatever, dude will always still be the King of Pop.
I wonder how many of those 66 million people know he’s dead. 🙂
Congratz for being so persistent and consistent over the years. You’ve brought up an amazing e-zine! Keep it ongoing. Cheers
Darkest regards,
-SBM
We will keep going as long as we can — thank you for your support.
Simply one of my faves, there are only a few other sites I hold in such high esteem, but even they pale in comparison! Here’s to 40 more years (haha)!!!!
Don’t worry, when Islander finally hangs up his spurs and goes off to find his missing head we’re going to force BadWolf to take over and run things (while I continue to pull the strings from behind the scenes).
Now that would be something!!!!
Pay no attention to Andy Synn. He’s a figment of my imagination.
If I remember correctly, we’re all a figment of Andy’s imagination.
It’s a difficult concept to grasp. I imagine the existence of someone named Andy Synn who imagines that he is real and the rest of us are creations of his own mind.
Seems reasonable. But then, he does actually have a head (perhaps one that you’ve imagined for him?), which is generally a necessary tool when one wishes to imagine things.
Best website out there, without a doubt. I’ve tried my best to emulate the writing style to the best of my abilities in my reviews for my job I got in August at sdmetal.com, as well as the guest posts I did here before that. My job’s where I’ve been post-wise by the way, if anyone’s been concerned/ not noticed.
Your writing has been a wonderful addition to the site. Want moar!
Is the Happy Birthday song I want to sing for you guys supposed to be growled or screamed?
It doesn’t matter, as long as there’s…
No clean singing…
Four more years! Four more years! Ahem, anyway…congrats guys. These days, this page and AMG are really the only metal blogs I check every day. There are precious few places where you find thoughtful metal writing on the web, so I appreciate NCS very much for that. Here’s to hoping you guys keep it going til the wheels fall off.
Thank you man. Have no fear, since our wheels fell off long ago, we don’t need them to keep going. It helps that we’re aimed downhill.
Congratulations to NCS and the great team that keeps NCS going as strong as a charge of vikings! This is really one of the only blog sites that has yet to let me down or seem to lose quality since discovering the site about a year and a half ago. I’m hoping to send in a guest post to you in the next week, so you may be hearing from me soon Islander. Again Congrats guys, and thanks for keeping one of the few quality sites alive and kicking on the internet!
Hope you follow through with the guest post. I’ve received 5 so far since launching my appeal — the more the merrier.
I wanted to do it sooner, but I’m hoping to send it in by Sunday.
Only 5? I’ve had a few half-brewed ideas, maybe I’ll brew them some more and see what happens.
Congrats on this amazing feat, guys. I discovered NCS when The Number of the Blog shut down and it quickly became my go-to site as soon as the laptop gets fired up. Thanks for all the reviews, recommendations, insights, entertainment, and respect you’ve given to this community. I am indebeted to you all.
Many thanks for those very kind words. (RIP TNOTB)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
THANK YOU!!!
It’s been a long and fruitful relationship. So be it for the coming years as well.
Mutually fruitful — you’ve turned me on to some great Finnish music (and helped with words from that language that I’m still not convinced is real). Thanks for staying with us.
Congrats guys! I have been with you bunch since 2011 and I do not intend to stop reading posts on this site on a daily basis for as long as you guys keep writing them. Thanks for all the awesomeness!
Thanks Arjan, both for this and for all your past comments.
Happy birthday NCS! I’ve been reading this site every day for several years now, and I want to thank you people for getting me into bands (and entire genres!) that I would’ve never heard of without you. Btw, I’m a serious lurker…this is my first post ever. I’ll try to change that as we move into 2014 😛
Cheers!
Thanks for coming out of the shadows on this auspicious occasion. Speaking of new metal genres, I came across a new one yesterday (at least new to me). I’m not sure this one is going to go over big, but I’m going with it anyway (later today or possibly tomorrow).
Happy Birthday little blog !
It’s been so nice to read your maniacal writings for almost a year now, and thanks to you and all of your dedicated comrades, I’ve discovered many and many awesome bands. So thank you Islander, and thank you all the writers of this blog, for the impressive work you’re doing for everyone out there.
Cheers then, and I hope this doesn’t stop !
Ah, I loved this comment Thanks for being part of our family of deviants.
Big thanks for the incredible metal blog. expecting many years to come.
Thank you for your good wishes for the future. All the years ahead will be exciting ones, because somehow this music continues to deliver excitement, and there is no reason to expect it will stop — and we won’t either.
Happy birthday to you “No Clean Singing” and thanks for the seriousness and passion in your artistic way to review the bands and their music. I’m a daily reader of this site since 2011 and I will keep reading your publications, so, keep it up an thank you anew!
Thank you for making us part of your daily life. We will do our best to keep you coming back here.
Happy Birthday to my favorite website! as my smartass son would say, you’ve benefited greatly from knowing me and my gift to you is that i shall allow you to keep reaping those benefits for another full year.
Gratz man…I found this site back in 2010, either through Steff Metal or Number of the Blog and Ive had a great time talking with people and watching it expand to cover such a wide variety of metal.
Im also stunned that Islander has yet to find a band he dosnt like 🙂
Keep it up guys…\m/
“Im also stunned that Islander has yet to find a band he dosnt like.” You aren’t the first person to express that sentiment. There actually are bands whose music I don’t like. I just don’t write about them. 🙂
Happy birthday guys. Don’t forget that the biggest reason you’ve lasted so long is because you’re better than just about all the rest. I found you guys after TNOTB went under, and I’m glad I did.
To many more years!
Thank you Kazz, and thanks for being such a frequent contributor to the dialogue in our comments. It’s probably a very selfish sentiment, but the days when we post things that don’t draw many comments leave me in a bit of a funk. I know people read what we do write who don’t leave remarks, and that’s cool. But our daily bread comes from the feedback.
Sweet! I’m excited for you. Because my voice is so dirty and fungal I had to create this lyrical paragraph.
‘TWas out of the ground that the creature emerged
Covered with filth from hatred that’s purged.
It walked the earth for all the minions to see
What an awesome sight death metal can be.
I don’t know… Just making stuff up.
Keep it up.
Doug
That ams pretty metals.
No shit — that’s a very cool ode.
Happy birthday to the best metal blog out there!
Thank you Pietro.
I found this site quite recently (this summer?) but it’s quickly risen to the best metal-reltated blog/site I know. Both for the lack of playground bullshit and intelligent, well-written material focusing on great bands and a plethora of unknown great bands.
I’m glad you found us, and that you’ve been willing to participate in our comment sections so much. Your comment has also spawned a new blog subheader. 🙂
Happy B guys. Keep up the good work. I love your site and my life isn’t the same since I’ve known your existence. You made me discover so much about bands I was unaware of (especially the most brutal and extreme), you’ve helped me made decisions about whether or not buying a metal album, and, sometimes when I had thoughts about how the world is a shitty place, you were there for me to read, to make me laugh, and to make me want to postpone my exit because I need to listen to the new Converge album for example, or to read another post of “That’s Metal but it’s not music”.
Life without metal is unthinkable. Long live NCS!
Cheers guys!
\m/
Exiting is not allowed! I’m glad we’ve helped brighten your days and really appreciate your very kind words.
Happy Birthday NCS!
Thank you sir! I hope you’ve been doing well.
Been doing very well. I keep telling myself that being smothered under a workload is better than having no work. Starting to get tired though 😉
Happy B’day! Does being 4 mean we’re past the poo and wee fixation stage?
But seriously thanks heaps for all you guys do. Like others have said, it boggles my mind that you manage this on top of all the rest of work and life. By the way, there’s a probably a few other trolls out there like myself who use ghostery or something similar to block google analytics, just out of a spirit of sticking it to the man or something. Of course, the side effect is that anyone relying on it for page views gets tucked as well.
We’re still not potty trained and are still having fun exploring what can be done with our dicks. It’s a very slow maturation process.
First time I’ve heard of ghostery or any other means of blocking google analytics counts. I will have to educate myself. Maybe this means that we are up in Michael Jackson territory already.
Happy Birfday!!!
Thanks for the birfday wishes. Hope all is good with you.
Four years? What is that, the plate of poop year? I bet it is…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/armchairdeity/3113856784/
Happy thing and many more years of it, I hope.
I’m so touched by the happy thing wishes and by the plate of poop photo. We couldn’t have had a proper birfday celebration without you.
Maybe next year I’ll get you a real present…
I’ll need your home address though. These boxes won’t go through the intertubes.
Send the boxes here:
Me
The place where I live
Seattle, WA 66666
Um, what’s in the boxes?
Well, it was going to be gold, but since you trust me so little you won’t tell me your real address, nevermind.
Sheesh, everyone knows Seattle isn’t real.
Okay, okay! Sorry I didn’t trust you. I could use the gold. Here’s the address:
Glorious Leader Islander
223 Up Your Butt
Nowhere and Everywhere
Great! Now I have somewhere to send all my nasal gold. You’ll love my boogers. They taste like french fries.
Fool’s gold. Unless garlic fries.