The History Of The BNR Metal Pages

The beginnings

Though these pages first went online in 1995, the original ideas and concepts go back much further. In the late eighties, I took a course in database design, and our project was to build a simple database. What better data to use than heavy metal bands? It was pretty basic stuff, but long after the code was submitted and forgotten, the data files remained. Years later, I started adding to those files, putting in album and member information, without an end goal in mind. Maybe a book someday? Maybe it was just for my own amusement, as I continued to use the files and code to hone my programming skills. Along came the World Wide Web, and it all made sense -- here was a way to present my information to the world. I had no idea if anyone would read it or care about it, but I decided to put it out there and see. That was December 1995, and the pages are still going strong!

The format

In the beginning, the Pages were less a true encyclopedia and more a personal account of my metal experiences. As they got to be more popular, I thought it would be better to turn them into an online reference for all things metal. Of course, I could never truly catalog every metal band in existence, but it seemed a worthy goal.

In recent years, noting that there are other bigger sites that do a better job with purely listing band information (Metal Archives is one), I've begun to slightly shift back to a more opinionated theme. I'll still list band information as I've done in the past, but I'm planning to someday supplement that with more personal opinions.

About the name

I've never been particularly proud of the name. And it's certainly not an ego thing, even though the name of the pages simply derives from my own initials. At the time, I simply couldn't think of a good name. Even after they first went online, I considered the name temporary, but eventually it stuck, and I don't think I'll ever change it.


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