Blabbermouth.net

Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal news, hard rock news, and album reviews, co-founded and run by Borivoj Krgin. While the idea of Blabbermouth.net was not conceived until early 2000, the website was actually launched in March 2001, and Roadrunner Records began hosting it in December 2001. Metal and rock fans can post comments on a selected news article or album review to contribute their thoughts and opinions, either in response to other user comments or in response to the article itself.

Criticism

Controversial News Articles

Blabbermouth.net webmaster Borivoj Krgin - often referred to as "Bori" by Blabbermouth.net's users - posts news articles everyday, some of which draw a lot of attention and debate from Blabbermouth's readers. In a Metal Sludge interview, Borivoj Krgin admitted to posting stories that he knowingly would (and often do) receive negative commentary from Blabbermouth users. Usually, these articles concern musicians and personas that are generally shunned by Blabbermouth.net's users and (to a lesser or greater degree) by the rock/metal community. These are a big draw for many of Blabbermouth's visitors, for not only are the articles amusing to read, but some of the user comments are humorous as well.

The controversial articles include (but aren't limited to) the following bands, musicians, and personas:

Metallica, Lars Ulrich, Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne, KISS, Gene Simmons, Guns N' Roses, Axl Rose, HIM, Ville Valo, Disturbed, David Draiman, Korn, Brian "Head" Welch, Megadeth, Dave Mustaine, Shawn "Clown" Crahan, Marilyn Manson, Scott Stapp, CKY, Varg Vikernes, etc.

News articles with musicians and personas giving their opinions on politics, current events, and Blabbermouth.net's users are frequently posted as well.

A minority of the news articles regarded as controversial are of serious or saddening nature, where less rant and debate occurs. An example would be the articles concerning Dimebag Darrell's murder.

Irrelevant Articles

Sometimes, news topics with no relevance to rock or metal music are posted. This is believed to be done for the same reason that webmaster Borivoj Krgin posts Metallica and Sharon Osbourne articles - to provoke response from Blabbermouth's users. Below are some examples of irrelevant articles posted on Blabbermouth.net:

SCOTT WEILAND Enjoys Orange Juice On Sunset Blvd.: Photos Available (posted July 2004)
KISS Frontman Goes Grocery Shopping In Hollywood: Photo Available (posted August 2005)
STATUS QUO Guitarist Misses Days Of Collective Masturbation (posted October 2005)
Disturbed Frontman: 'Sometimes I Get An Erection When I Perform On Stage' (posted October 2005)
GENE HOGLAN Announces He's Gay, Would Rather Spend Time With Sweaty Men Than Tits (posted November 2005)
SHARON OSBOURNE Planning Another Boob Job: 'They're Too Big' (posted December 2005)
OZZY OSBOURNE Stuck In Traffic Jam On Way To ELTON JOHN's Wedding (posted December 2005)
It's Official: DIMMU BORGIR Is The Home Of SANTA CLAUS (posted December 2005)
BLACK SABBATH Bassist Offers Reward For Return Of Missing Baby Penguin (posted December 2005)
GUNS N' ROSES Frontman Spotted At California BMW Dealership? (posted January 2006)
EVANESCENCE's LEE, SEETHER's MORGAN Split Up (posted January 2006)
These Boots Are Made For AEROSMITH (posted January 2006)
ANTHRAX Frontman And Wife Go Shopping In Minnesota: Photo Available (posted January 2006)
'MANOWAR' Golf Equipment Shot Down By Patent Appeals Board (posted January 2006)
METALLICA Drummer's Girlfriend To Star In 'Law & Order' (posted February 2006)
Report: TOMMY LEE Mistakenly Woos Man (posted February 2006)
KID ROCK, SCOTT STAPP Sex Tape To Hit Stores? (posted February 2006)
Does GENE SIMMONS Wear a Wig? (posted February 2006)
DAVE MUSTAINE Is Allegedly 'Too Metal' To Clean Up His Table At Hollywood Eatery (posted March 2006)
LINKIN PARK Singer Is New Father (posted March 2006)
AUDIOSLAVE Guitarist To Host Charity Bingo Game (posted March 2006)

Negative User Commentary

Hundreds and even thousands of user comments are posted on the website within any given 24 hour time period. Comments posted by users that are deemed negative, irrelevant, and/or immature by other Blabbermouth.net users are very prevalent, even to the point that these comments receive critical response from lurking, unregistered readers. The popularity of Blabbermouth.net is thought to be sending a bad image about metal and rock fans, but it is a select online community, so others advise not to take it seriously. Some of Blabbermouth.net's users have taken it so far as to criticize specific Blabbermouth.net users en masse. An example of this behavior is a poll conducted at the BigNewsDay Blog in February 2006, where users could vote for the "most hated Blabbermouth.net user". T-boner.com, a frequent Blabbermouth.net poster, won the BigNewsDay Blog poll.

Roadrunner Records Bias

For the reason that Blabbermouth.net is hosted by Roadrunner Records, users often accuse the website of having favoritism or bias towards album reviews and news that involve bands currently on the Roadrunner Records roster.

Advertisements

In the first half of 2005, the website implemented more advertisements. These advertisements, especially the full-screen animations, are regarded as annoying by some posters.

Artist Response

Many musicians read Blabbermouth.net, and some have been known to post on the website occasionally. Some of them have also talked about the website and certain articles in interviews, or on their message boards. However, most of the time it is a negative reply to comments posted by the website's users. An example of this is an interview with Kevin Dubrow of the band Quiet Riot, who wondered why Blabbermouth users were leaving comments about the Swedish metal band Meshuggah, instead of acknowledging Quiet Riot. The alleged reason for Kevin DuBrow's comment was that molotov, a frequent Blabbermouth.net user, always includes the text "MESHUGGAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" as a signature in his posts. This user most likely left a negative comment about Quiet Riot prior to the Kevin DuBrow interview, which would have likely sparked criticism from Kevin Dubrow.

Other examples of articles with emphasis on musician/band response to Blabbermouth.net are as follows:

FILTER's RICHARD PATRICK To Detractors: "I Make Music, You Make Me Sick" (posted June 2002)
EXODUS Guitarist Slams Internet 'Sh*t-Talkers', Proves Naysayers Wrong (posted November 2005)
METALLICA's LARS ULRICH: 'Next Album Will Have A Lot Of Fiddle On It' (posted December 2005)
Original JUDAS PRIEST Singer Says BLABBERMOUTH.NET Detractors Are 'Sad Bastards' (posted December 2005)
CHILDREN OF BODOM Frontman Alexi Laiho Slams Internet "Badasses" (posted December 2005)
NUCLEAR ASSAULT's DAN LILKER Slams BLABBERMOUTH.NET 'Sh*t-Talkers' (posted December 2005)
DISTURBED Frontman Says BLABBERMOUTH.NET Detractors Are 'Nasty Little F*cks' (posted February 2006)

External Response

Specific persons that are not musicians, but have some involvement in the rock/metal community - be it through radio, internet blogs, or web forums - have criticized Blabbermouth.net as well. A good example of this would be a particular online journal posting on Last.fm, where the user killj0y pinned Blabbermouth.net as a magnet for scum and idiocy, and criticized the website's tendency to post controversial articles.