painting by the great Zdzisław Beksiński
On November 21, 2009, I made the first post at this blog. On the 21st day of every November since then (except one year when I forgot to do it until a few days later) I’ve made a post celebrating our birthday. And here I am doing it again, because we’ve survived another year.
In these annual posts I usually explain how I had no ambitions or expectations when I started the blog, nor any training or experience as a music writer, and that the sum total of my motivation was to create an enjoyable diversion for myself from the grind of daily life, and to indulge my burgeoning interest in heavy music. And there, I just did it again, albeit in fewer words than in many other years.
In these annual observances I also tend to reminisce about how many things about NCS have changed from the early days, and about how surprising it is to me that we’re still here. Some of you remember the early days, because you were here with us then and haven’t left. Others who have begun checking in here more recently might yawn if I indulged in that kind of nostalgia, so let’s just skip that, as I have the last couple of years, and get right into expressions of gratitude and the annual tradition of mind-numbing statistics (though they’re less mind-numbing this year)..
As for why we’re still here, still riding through the flames, and why our audience has grown, the most important reason (still) is that I was eventually joined by a group of other writers who seemed to care about the music as much or more than I did, and who completely bought into the guiding principles that I had adopted in starting NCS, the most important of which was that we would spend our time recommending music we believed in, and would simply ignore the music that we didn’t like or that we thought wasn’t very good, rather than tearing it down or making fun of the people responsible for it.
Many writers have drifted in and out of our cadre over these 14 years, some of whom have gone on to write for other publications or to focus on family and careers, and have remained good friends. A few hardy souls have hung in there almost as long as I have, and have become particularly close friends. And so, as usual, I’ll call them out to take a bow.
Andy Synn’s first post was a review of Dimmu Borgir’s Abrahadabra on September 23, 2010. And DGR’s first post was a series of year-end lists on December 28, 2011. They are very fine people, and for me, my friendship with them and with others who eventually joined our ranks has become the most important blessing to me of all for having done this. Their steadfastness in continuing to write for NCS without pay and despite being buffeted by the usual vicissitudes of life over so many years is something I greatly admire, and for which I’m again enormously thankful.
As I look back over the last year, thanks are also in order for the contributions of many other fine folks who have also been helping us for years — among them Comrade Aleks, Wil Cifer, Todd Manning, Gonzo, Axel Stormbreaker, Karina Noctum, and Neill Jameson. We also continue to benefit from the contributions of relative newcomers, including Hope Gould, Christopher Luedtke, and Didrik Mešiček — and recently we even got a return visit from our old friend Austin Weber. Thanks to all of you.
Another big reason why we’re still here is you, and others like you — people who find some value in our recommendations, people who enjoy the writing, and/or people who actually seem to care what we think about the releases that continue coming in a flood every week.
Even though we make no effort to make any money from NCS, I think it’s fair to say that none of us would have continued to do this if no one cared or paid attention or gave us any feedback. It’s a lot of work, and we might all have concluded that it’s time better spent in other ways if we were just yelling into a great void. Perhaps needless to say, we have a special love for people who leave comments, even if infrequently.
Of course, we’re also still here because an ever-increasing stream of bands, labels, and publicists exhort us to give their music a shot, and because we still get a lot of joy out of the process of exploring new music, and a lot of satisfaction out of helping spread the word about what we find that gets us excited.
And now for the annual round-up of boring statistics — but a lot fewer than usual!
Since we launched NCS 14 years ago, we’ve published 15,145 posts, including this one — and 907 of those have appeared in the 12 months since our last birthday, which is a bit more than last year and averages out to 2.48 posts per day, including weekends.
At this writing, we’ve received 85,777 comments since NCS began on this day in 2009, not counting spam and not counting the very, very few I’ve deleted because their toxicity exceeded even my usual hands-off attitude about comments. I still don’t reply to comments as often as I used to, but I read every one of them, and continue to be grateful for the insights, the recommendations, the humor, and the support — and for the fact that our commenters have almost always been civil to us and to each other, which continues to be a relative rarity in the realm of metal blogdom.
This is usually the point at which I use Google Analytics data to report how many people have visited us over the last year, where they’re located by country, total page views, and how all that compares to data from the year before. Sadly, I can’t do that this year.
It turns out that for reasons I haven’t tried to understand Google created a new system of data measurement called GA4, which last summer replaced the old system called Universal Analytics. Google automatically created a GA4 “property” for No Clean Singing, but Universal Analytics stopped collecting data on NCS on July 1, 2023, and there’s apparently no way to migrate historical data from Universal Analytics and combine it with what GA4 has been collecting. At least there’s no easy way for someone like me to do it. Which means I don’t have a data set that covers the last 12 months.
That sucks, because I’m always curious to see what these numbers show, and I know a few of you are too. Oh well. I guess that on this day next year I’ll have 12 months of data again, all of it from G4, unless I’ve failed to do everything I’m supposed to do to enable that.
(Frustrated, I did do some poking around to see if there were other services that might give me the data I’m missing, but all the ones I found wanted me to start paying after a free trial, and fuck that nonsense.)
Well, I can still provide the annual Facebook data. As of last night we had 51,143 people “following” our page, up from 49,219 followers at this time last year. But I don’t really care much about that because we only post on FB to provide links to new articles at our site, and the reach of those FB posts is pretty pathetic because I’m not going to pay Meta to boost the reach. They want to treat us like a business, but we’re not that.
As we now begin our glorious 15th year of survival, I’ll once again paraphrase from Blade Runner: I don’t know how long we’ll have together… Who does? I hope we’ll still be here at this time next year to celebrate the end of our 15th year, and I hope you’ll still be here with us. It’s been a hell of a trip so far, and all of us here at NCS are excited about continuing the ride.
Stay safe, and don’t let the bastards get you down.
– Islander
41 Responses to “HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY TO US!”
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I don’t stop in as often as I should, but I am always happy when I do, my wallet does not agree. Thanks for your awesome efforts!
Many thanks to you and your suffering wallet. 🙂
Happy birthday! I haven’t been commenting as much, but still read here daily. Thanks for the likely thousands of new bands you have introduced me to!
Congrats! I can’t tell you how many bands this site has opened my eyes and ears to but it’s been a lot! Visiting has been a daily habit for years now. Thanks for the commitment to a hell of a site.
Happy birthday gents ! As stated by renjin, you introduced me to tons of bands and I share that daily visiting habit. And, as stated by sixsicks6, my ears are eternally grateful, my wallet way less…
Just think…in two more years, you can finally drive*
…but congrats on sticking around for as long as you have. There’s not many independent metal blogs out there that can say the same.
*(OMG…I’m so old)
Thank you old friend. Driving is a scary thought, especially with all the drinking we’ve been doing in middle school.
Well, how else are you supposed to develop strong bones and teeth…and a fatty liver?
I shudder to think what that organ looks like now. Fortunately I’ll never see it.
Congrats!
Jan/Sammath/Kaeck
Thank you Jan!
I’m grateful everyone here still posts so much. Still checking out every band
Appreciate it Jimbo, and thanks for being such a regular commenter.
I haven’t commented in a long time, but I do want to chime in to express my gratitude. I’m glad to say I’ve contributed a few articles in the past and I’d be glad to contribute again, if possible. Thanks for sticking around and keeping me out of the weeds while trying to keep informed of the music coming out
Great to see your name again. You can find my e-mail via the CONTACT US tab at the top of the page.
I check in on your website every day.
Thank you Hans. We’ll keep doing our best to make the daily visits worth the time.
congratulations again! Came on here back in late 2011 or early 2012 to comment. Not a lot of that now, well that’s just life I guess. But I still do visit the site regularly. Cheers to the 15th!
Another old-timer surfaces! Glad you’re still finding it worthwhile to check in on us after so long.
Happy birthday! You guys are amazing! The volume, breadth, and quality of posts is unreal and unrivaled (and, let’s be honest, probably unhealthy!. Thank you!
JR
Thank you JR, for your comment and your continuing support.
Happy Birthday NCS! I simply cannot believe how fucking old we’re gettIng.
approximately five Goatwhore albums old
That’s going to be my new way of keeping time! GOATWHORE!!!
GOATWHORE! Was hoping you’d be here and write that. 🙂 Hope all is well with you and your loved ones.
All is well with the wife, kids and grandkids (old I say). I hope your family is well too. If I’m ever more than a day or two late with the birthday wishes the reaper got me lol.
“among them Comrade Aleks, Wil Cifer, Todd Manning, Gonzo, Axel Stormbreaker, Karina Noctum, and Neill Jameson. We also continue to benefit from the contributions of relative newcomers, including Hope Gould, Christopher Luedtke, and Didrik Mešiček — and recently we even got a return visit from our old friend Austin Weber.”
actual heroes. im just some nerd who writes too much that falls down youtube and bandcamp rabbit holes.
What people don’t realise is that ALL of them – including us – are just fragments of Islander’s own fractured psyche.
Wait! You finally agree with what I’ve been saying ever since first imagining you and DGR about 10 years ago! What a day…
Happy birthday for the nth time. This site is really an achievement. Even though I don’t chase new music as often, it is fun just reading through the blogs simply because they are interesting.
Nice to see your name pop up. It’s one of the best things about these annual birthday posts — realizing that some people out there have still been visiting us after so many years.
You’re amazing, Islander! Congratulations and keep it rolling.
Thank you!
I still read this blog every week, don’t comment much but I am here all the time (you might remember I even contributed a few things in the past, especially for the epic “That’s metal but not music” column).
Thanks for existing and keep up the great work.
Pietro
So glad to see your name again. Thanks for sticking with us… and for reminding me how much fun I used to have with the “That’s Metal!” Sunday column.
I find more interesting bands here than the other sites I check daily. You all are amazing.
❤️❤️❤️
Happy Birthday! Can’t get my head around how much effort goes into making this wonderful monster – amazing. And you mean a lot to the metal community as a whole, and me. So thanks a bunch. Cheers!!
We appreciate your kind words — a “wonderful monster” is exactly what we have tried to create, a work that’s still in progress….
Happy birthday once again!
Let me join in the choir of gratitude for your constant flow of great new music!
Especially for sticking with the rule of only posting music that can be recommended; one of the reasons I keep enjoying my daily trip here.
Good to see your name here again, and thanks for sticking with us for such a long time.