“As the sun goes down…”

On January 20th, 2020, when I made the first ever post on Defenders of the Faith, never in a million years could I have anticipated the journey it would take me on. Over 6 years, hundreds of interviews, album reviews, and concert reviews later, I sit behind my laptop at the same humble bedroom desk where I started this webzine, in eternal gratitude to every person who’s ever taken the time to check us out. It’s your words, motivation, and support that have singlehandedly kept me going all these years, eager to bring you all this content and dominate the heavy metal web-sphere, or whatever you’d like to call it. And I’d like to think I’ve done a pretty damn good job doing so. With that said, this brings me to the most personal post I’ve ever made, so whether you’ve been with us for a year or a week, if you’ve ever cared about Defenders of the Faith, this is for you.

For the better part of this webzine’s duration, I held a day job that was flexible, to say the least. Yes, shockingly, Defenders does NOT pay the bills in the slightest. Such is the case for most in the metal realm who aren’t named Metallica or Iron Maiden, but I digress. When I use the word “flexible”, I mean that I was able to evenly balance my daily workload with managing this webzine. I was also able to up and go to events like Psycho Las Vegas and Milwaukee Metal Fest, weekend-long extravaganzas, with virtually zero impact on my day to day way of life. Yep, those were the good ol’ days…

Unfortunately, said employer went out of business last summer, and the better part of 2025 was spent drifting in the wind, aimlessly looking for a new job. Well, that is when I wasn’t keeping up with this site and the day to day activities surrounding it. I also knew that when the time came for said new job, no matter what it was, I wouldn’t be afforded the same liberty I had in the past as far as being able to invest my full energy into what is essentially my baby. This brings us to where we are today.

At the time of writing, I come to you 6 years, 2 months, and 1 week older, and hopefully somewhat wiser, than I was on January 20th, 2020. I also come to you clean and sober (something I DEFINITELY wasn’t at the time), and with a boatload of responsibility I didn’t have in those early days. Most importantly, I come to you newly employed, excited to embark upon a fresh chapter of my life with a company who, in my heart of hearts, I truly believe in. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this excited about anything professionally, save for starting this here outlet and the adventures that came with it: An adventure that is NOT ending, but will be taking a slight detour…

If you’re a regular reader, you’re more than aware of our weekly programming, so to speak: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays: Reviews, Wednesdays: Top 10/From My Collection (alternating), Fridays: Interviews. This consistent routine is one of the many things I’ve prided myself on keeping afloat for such a longtime, especially considering this webzine remains a one man show…which has been a double edged sword. On one end of said sword, you get an outlet that is the vision of one man alone, for better or worse, never to be compromised by corporate interests, or worse yet, Gary Holt (Decibel, I KNOW you didn’t just give that new Exodus turd a 9/10…) On the other end, you have a man who no longer has the time or energy to pursue Defenders on the scale he’s ran it for all these years, at least not until God, Lemmy, or whatever powers may be invent more hours in a day.

Now for the sake of transparency, there is a part of me that says if I can’t run Defenders “Full Speed at High Level”, to quote Heavy Load, I shouldn’t be running it at all. And that’s fucking stupid. I’ve worked too hard for too long to abandon this outlet entirely, and don’t plan on doing so anytime soon. What WILL happen, however, is in the coming weeks and months, content will be scaled back drastically, and we likely won’t adhere as strictly to the weekly programming format. Whereas you might be used to us posting 2 to 3 album reviews a day, now you might get 2 album reviews a week. Whereas you were promised a new interview every Friday, now it might be a new interview every other Friday, or even one Friday a month. From My Collection and Top 10 will pop up here and there when I’m feeling like it, and so forth.

Oddly enough, I don’t consider all of this to be a con, but a pro. By pivoting our path, Defenders will become even more exclusive and special than ever. When you see us pop on your timeline, you’ll know it’s for good reason, or at the very least because your old pal Metal Joe mustered enough piss and vinegar after a shift to conjure 500+ words on whatever throwback act Dying Victims is hawking this week. Whatever the case may be, I refuse to abandon the tens of thousands of you worldwide, many of whom have reached out to me personally, who have supported this insane endeavor from the beginning, and live for this music the same way I do.

Those as obsessed with Judas Priest as I are more than aware that the title of this editorial comes directly from the band’s 1988 masterpiece, “Blood Red Skies”. It is the lyric that opens and closes what is, undoubtedly, the crown jewel on Ram It Down. And if you recall, right before Rob Halford ends the song with this lyric, he shouts, “Never surrender! Never surrender!” This has been the war cry for this webzine from the beginning, and continues to be so today more than ever. We WILL stand. We WILL fight. You WON’T take us under blood red skies. WE are Defenders of the Faith: Now, always, and forever.