We talked about this in the community (or something like it) and now I've done it, during today's five hour journey from Lowestoft to Brighton. This was fun! Do let me know if you feel the same way, because it will spur me on to do it again. 😊👊🤘

Welcome to Hell! Er, I mean, the COMMUNITY. I'm Jason Arnopp: veteran Kerrang! journalist, news editor, deputy editor and acting editor between 1988 and 2002. Let me congratulate you for becoming one of the first 666 members of Possessed By Metal, while it's still young and priced low. One of the great things about the Skool platform is that you'll pay this same monthly price for as long as you remain a member. So you've joined a community that values mutual respect, kinship and positivity among fans of all types of rock and metal. This means that we: 🤘 Exercise tolerance and realise our opinions are not facts 🤘 Are far more inclined to talk about what we love than what we dislike or hate 🤘 Leave political views at the door, along with our bullet-belts Note: this doesn't mean you have to love everything and never criticise rock and metal bands. If you don't enjoy an album, you're 100% free to say so, provided you don't judge a fellow metal fan who thinks it's the best ever. Generally speaking, though, if you're constantly angry about music, and about people with different opinions and/or lifestyles, then this won't be the group for you. (If you're unhappy about this, just DM me and I'll refund you.) But let's see, right? 🏫 New to Skool? Check out the mini course in the Classroom area (see the tab above) for some basic pointers 📚 You may be keen to grab your free download of my book How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else - exclusive to the first 666 members. 🎤 Usually priced at $15, this book gathers everything I ever learned about interviewing people across three decades. You'll find the book in the Classroom section. To download it, all you have to do is reach Level 2 in the community (see the aforementioned mini course to learn about the leaderboard or just ask me!) Here are three of the many ways you could score five points to reach Level 2: ✅ Introduce yourself in a comment on this very post! Tell us where in the world you are, your favourite metal era (80s? 90s? 00s? Now?) your favourite bands, your favourite gig ever or whatever you like.

New community! So much to think about! 🤯 Exciting. So here are my current thoughts on this topic. As with everything else in the community, they're likely to evolve. A lot of rock and metal folk have something they'd love to promote, whether that's a podcast, their band, their IG account or a delightful line of T-shirts. And that's cool. 🤔 To an extent. I'd like a degree of self-promo to be one of the benefits members gain from being here. But as I'm sure you agree, we must gently walk that line between members having the occasional opportunity for self-promo and it getting overwhelming for others. So here, as things currently stand, are the three ways that members can self promo: 📣 Once a month, each member gets to make ONE dedicated post about the thing they want to promote. Ideally, this will be done in a smart and slightly oblique way, rather than full-on BUY THIS THING. 😄 📣 To be clear, members are also okay to mention their thing in passing in a comment. It would be weird for instance, if someone in a band only felt able to mention their band once a month. As I'm sure everyone can appreciate, there's a big difference between mentioning something in passing in a comment and making a whole post about it. So mentions are fine, but let's keep them light. 📣 Your bio! If someone sees your post or comment and clicks on your name or avatar, they'll see your personal bio. So that's a great reason to optimise your bio text to mention Your Thing and also install any relevant website/social links into your bio. A note on point (1): there may cases when I develop a special arrangement with a member, which allows them to self-promo more often than once a month. This might be in exchange for them contributing something valuable to the community, for instance. So if you see a member promoting a thing more often than once a month, you can assume I sanctioned it. :) I think that's it. All sound fair? Any questions, fire away, either below or via DM. 😊🤘