Rick Patterfield

Rick Patterfield is a dedicated and experienced music journalist and columnist who specializes in Heavy Metal, Progressive, and NWOBHM genres. His name suggests a deep historical interest in British culture and his Anglo-Saxon medieval heritage.

With a career spanning over thirty years, Rick has contributed to numerous renowned music magazines, websites, and radio programs. He has earned a reputation for his insightful reviews and in-depth interviews with some of the biggest names in the metal scene. His passion for the genre is evident in his work, as he consistently delivers engaging content that resonates with die-hard fans and newcomers alike.

Beyond his written work, Rick is also a sought-after speaker at music festivals and conferences, where he shares his extensive knowledge and unique perspectives on the evolution of heavy metal and its subgenres. He is an experienced host a popular podcasts that delve into the intricacies of metal music, featuring exclusive interviews with artists and industry experts.

Rick's commitment to preserving metal's rich history while championing new talent has solidified his standing as a key figure in the metal journalism community.

Disclaimer:

Rick Patterfield is a fictional character resembling Suley Era Editorial collective.

His avatar image and his story were generated by using Ai and chatGpt prompts for entertaining purposes.

However, all his articles and other editorial and journalistic works are written by real humans, who are members of Suley Era editorial and contributor team with real press and media expertise with real personal insights, and with years of real professional experiences, which is reflected in Rick Patterfield's "bio". Editorial work published on Suley Era website and social media under Rick Patterfield pen name is often a result of collaborative work of two or more journalists.

Image was created with Bing DALL·E 3 Ai, edited with Adobe Photoshop

Tuesday, 08 July 2025 21:10

The Best Of NZM: An In-Depth Review of Nick Z. Marino’s Pivotal Works

The Best Of NZM (CD-R)

12 tracks = 44'38"

Written by Rick Patterfield

Do you remember US self-released hard rock / heavy metal CDs from the 1990s? Man, they were great things themselves, and far more often than not contained simply great music. Music for which record labels at that grunge times had no sympathy at all — but that music was still very interesting, not only for keen record collectors, myself included. Ask any respected hard’n’heavy lover about such CDs from early Seventh Omen or Vamp Le Stat, for example, and see (or hear?) what happens.

Published in Rock, Prog-Rock, Metal

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SOiL. Scream: The Essentials. Album Review

The first official, a non-promo compilation of Chicago modern metallers SOiL features the piece “The Hate Song,” among others. Originally it was released on the studio album Whole (2013), the band's reunion with vocalist Ryan McCombs. And it is very surprising that the harsh musicians did not dare to call the collection Hate Songs: such a title (or, Songs of Hate) would suit this quite monumental collection much more than the somewhat vague and neutral name of Scream.

You probably already think that this introduction will be followed by about 2,000 characters of reasoning about why the author of this review does not like SOiL as well as all modern metal, as in terms of the 90s?

Published in Rock, Prog-Rock, Metal

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JOHN IVAN 2024 GuitarSlinger: A Real Guitar Record For The 2020's

JOHN IVAN, GuitarSlinger

Hope you remember the days of triumph of the mighty US label Shrapnel Records — not only the first American metal label but, far more importantly, a kind of springboard for quite a number of guitar talents all over the US and the world. With a string of albums of such great players as Tony MacAlpine and Paul Gilbert (as a member of Racer X), that label and its boss Mike Varney, a good guitar player himself, wrote the modern rock formula of what an instrumental album of the 80s and 90s should be.

Sadly, such kinds of albums of little-known or even unknown guitar virtuosos are nowadays extremely rare, but a debut solo CD by Ukrainian musician and producer John Ivan Belousov has all the generic traits of those Shrapnel Records of old. Raised on a heavy diet of Yngwie Malmsteen and, eh, aforementioned US shredders, John was once a candidate for one of the last “true” line-ups of the legendary Russian thrash metal institution Master, although his own band Bestia, based in the city of Nikolaev in Ukraine, played a pure US power/speed metal and drew many comparisons with Racer X (again!) even back in the 90s.

Published in Rock, Prog-Rock, Metal

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