If you've been on the net for any amount of time and have any interest in metal then chances are you have come across Mega's site once or twice... oh, okay, chances are you've come across Mega's site once or twice a day! There is a quick review of Mega's pages in Issue #4 of Tracks Of Creation. Since that time the appearance of the pages has changed quite a bit, a very nice improvement. So then why do we come back to look at this site once again? The answer is to give credit to a formidable name in metal, Mega.
Miika Kuusinen is the name that Mega will occassionally go by, but most people on the net, and many off of the net, will know him by the name of Mega. If you were hanging around on IRC in 1989 you may have seen this guy under the name of Megamosher.
Mega was introduced to metal in 1983 with the [in]famous KISS "Creatures Of The Night" album. This introduction to a new musical genre shone a new light on Mega. Cleaning out the non-metal from his collection and adding to it with the likes of Metallica and Anthrax ever increased his fondness for the 80's metal scene. He is still very fond of 80's metal and believes that the best metal was from that decade. Not sticking solely in the past Mega continues to explore all new areas of the genre and in recent years has taken a passion for doom and black metal such as Paradise Lost, Anathema, Burzum and Rotting Christ.
Enjoying the music so much, Mega felt in debt to the scene and wanted to give something back. To accomplish this he started doing the web pages as a method to support metal. "It is sort of my tribute to all those great heavy metal bands out there as they have put out a lot of [the] world's greatest music and this is my way of [rewarding] their efforts." Continually Mega receives praising comments for his site from its users and other magazines alike. Negative comments don't make many appearances in his inbox. Rightly so since Mega strives to mention the best of any band he reviews, and does pages for many bands and labels all in an excellent presentation.
His email address is mega@lut.fi.
The Asylum is the name of Mega's site on the net. It can be found at http://www.lut.fi/~mega/, or just click on the link to the page at almost every other metal site out there. In the Asylum you will find a great wealth of information, or at least links to a great wealth of information. Whether you are looking for other metal resources in Europe, a specific band page, or want to see which RATT songs are on the Jukebox, this is the place to go.
Although probably not of much interest to many people, Mega keeps a list of the items in his collection on line. Take a browse through the CDs, Tapes, or the LPs. His collection is massive and awe inspiring to say the least. Buying used CDs and trading a lot Mega manages to get buy with expenditures of less than $60US a month for CDs. As does anybody else with a large collection he struggles to find adequate storage space. Currently a bookshelf, desk drawers, and some space under the bed accompany the single CD tower that houses about 150 CDs.
The "Metalmap Europe" is an interesting feature of the site. Click on the various countries of Europe and you will be presented with a listing of the bands, zines, and other industry components known to be in that country, and that have a web presence. Surprisingly it didn't take very much time at all for Mega to put together the map.
The rest of the site is a variety of resources available on the net. There is a listing of companies, zines, and other related metal sites. The largest listing available is the band listing.
1100 is the number of links that Mega has various band pages and other related metal pages. Until recently when he created a script to automate the process, there was no way to validate all of the links other than wait for comments from users. The script needs only be run infrequently and Mega spends a good portion of his time adding new links and updating existing pages.
We realize that a lot of what Mega has to offer on his pages is the same that we have to offer at our site. Mega's band pages though are slightly different in nature, in that he only lists homepage style pages, whereas we just list everything we can find. The goal such pages as Mega's is to provide a valuable resource for those interested in metal. While being the best is always something to maintain, the purpose in this case is not to outdo the competition, but to give exposure to the genres of music that the masses tend just to pass over. Any honest effort towards this goal is a worthy one. The amount of work Mega has put into his site is amazing, his pages have had an impact on the metal community of the net. For this, we at Tracks Of Creation would like to thank Mega.
