Greetings! Its once again been a very long time since my last post. I do apologize for that, that was by far not my intention. If this is the first article you're seeing at all in close to a year and you're thinking, "Ariel, what on Earth are you talking about?" Please click here. 

If this is the first time you're coming across Immortal Music at all, then hello! Welcome to Immortal Music, a website made by a music fan, for other music fans! There's a lot of things I have done with this website, and a lot more I would like to do. Back in November, I posted about wanting to start sharing stories regarding music. Stories of concerts, memories that are connected to songs, ect. Those stories were going to come from myself, and anyone else that was interested.

However, not a single person expressed interest. I have actually shared a handful of stories, and many more photos over on Instagram, Just after posting that as well, despite all my intentions being there, life changed completely. In that article, I stated that I got a lot of personal gains during my seven month hiatus from Immortal Music, including a place to call my own. Well, just a few short days after that was posted, everything changed.

I ended up getting very sick from an allergic reaction, leaving me unable to breathe properly for close to a month. I also ended up moving, and very briefly had three jobs. All that changed, I went down to one job that actually allowed a lot of free time. But, not being able to breathe properly left me highly unmotivated. I also found myself greatly missing my social life, as it went from being abundant and pleasant, to virtually non existent. So rather than focusing on work, I found myself focusing on friendship and art. 

I've taken my camera out with my a few times now, though I have yet to take it to any kind of show. Local or other wise, though it is a goal. I've found such joy and relaxation almost from taking pictures of anything I could see. Some of my favorite pictures are actually from Epcot's Flower And Garden Festival, and of other people. Don't worry -those other people are not strangers! They're of friends, and my friend's daughter. Looking at the new pictures I've taken has had me reflecting on how much I've grown as a photographer. I've been sharing pictures I've taken between 2011 and now over on Instagram, and most of them are from shows I've covered. Not all, but most. 

Its made me miss covering shows again. Actually, a lot of things have made me miss shows. Part of it is probably because I was so active in the music world for so many years that I don't know much different. Most everything professional to me, gets related back to the music world because that's just what I know and am used to. Part of it is because I have found my love of music again, and for years my love of music always came with the journalism and wanting to share it with the world. 

I also still want to try to get people involved, and hear other people's stories, but I can't make people interact, you know? I think honestly I've just started missing everything again. I'm currently working two jobs and honestly don't really have a ton of time, but I sincerely really want to make things work. My issue is I have random bursts of being very ambitious.

In my head, I'm the kind of person that can handle two jobs, get a lead on a third, and transition into two full time jobs. I can do both of those, where I'm working probably around 50+ hours a week, manage an up and coming band from another country, cover shows all over the state, write, edit, post and promote it all, and film and edit videos as well. All while somehow finding time to have a social life, and learn to drive as well. 

Realistically, I know that's not possible at all. I don't say that to be negative, I say that because as I write this I am sick from working a lot and adjusting to such a busy life style again. And I know others are busier than me, and I am by far not complaining. That's actually where my optimism comes from, because I know there are people out there that manage to do 'it all.' Somewhere in my head, I do imagine it will all be possible, it just takes time.

I also didn't mean to go on a ramble here, if I'm being completely honest. I had a purpose for writing today and then it turned into whatever this is. The whole reason I started writing was because I do want to get the website active again. I want it to all look very nice, and I want to start posting everything again. Whether or not that really will happen, or how active it will be, who knows.

All I know is I do want to make an effort to post random blogs, stories, news, even reviews again. I have requests out to cover two shows, those are Sum 41's Does This Look Infected? 15th Anniversary with Seaway and SuperWhatevr, and the final Vans Warped tour. I'm really looking forward to both, and hope to be able to bring you guys along for either. The Warped tour date I've requested is the absolute last one ever on August 8, in West Palm Beach, and I am just hoping to hear back about it soon. 

Its been so long since I've even been to a show, and I miss the energy of the crowd. I miss the vibes and the fun, even the chaos that comes with covering a show. I miss it all. 

Hopefully the motivation stays put and everything works out as planned. Hopefully you guys are here for it as well. I look forward to speaking to everyone soon and trying to get active again. Here's hoping I can do it all and we will talk very soon. Stay tuned. 

Hi there!  Its been quite a while since the last time I posted on here, and I suppose I owe you guys an explanation on that. Maybe I don't, maybe nobody really cares, but honestly that doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is I feel like you guys deserve an explanation on this past year honestly. 

If anyone out there is still an active, or even somewhat active reader of Immortal Music, chances are they noticed the decline and sudden stop of content here on the site. It didn't start getting really spotty until the beginning of this year, but it was a bit slower toward the end of 2016. There's a lot of reasons for that, some of which I will not go into details about. I wrote a little bit about it last August, I discovered after looking back while revamping the website. I started hitting a burn out probably around mid 2016. At that point, I had been actively doing Immortal Music for five years, and had the Facebook page that's connected to the site for six. I had made it a goal to do everything and anything I could think of regarding this whole brand many years ago. 

But there's one slight issue that comes with such a goal. I made that goal before I had what I'm going to call 'A Day Job." When I fully started Immortal Music, I was 18. And while I had been actively applying for jobs left and right since I was about fifteen, nothing had stuck. No job stuck at all until I was 21, to be quite honest. So I went from being able to dedicate 8+ hours to planning, writing, editing, and promoting to making time. And despite what anyone says, this has been a job. I don't make money from it so many have said its just a hobby, but no. Its a lot of hard work, and it does get stressful sometimes. Especially when people start noticing.

I started pushing myself even harder just at the risk of never getting anywhere with it. I would see progress and worry that the press people that email me news updates regularly would just stop if I wasn't actively posting. 'Fans' would no longer interact with me. All my hard work would simply go to waste. So I started doing anything and everything I could. Reviewing albums I didn't like, and twisting my own thoughts so they didn't sound like I was hating on them. When honestly, I cannot tell you how many albums I listened to two or three songs from, used those as the songs I wanted to 'highlight' and posted it without giving it a second thought. This happened way too many times because I would hear just the style alone and completely hate it, but feel bad saying so because someone worked very hard on it. 

I started thinking the more content, the better. If I did an overhaul, people would notice. They would see my determination and realize I was serious and help me do the things I wanted to do. This sparked because of a festival in 2015 called Rock Allegiance. It was pretty much my dream lineup, and I wanted to go more than anything. Only problem was it was all the way in Pennsylvania, and I live in Florida. A friend of mine, whom I met through the Facebook page actually, and had been offering to help me for a long time, came up with the idea that we could work together to promote really well and maybe they would give me a pass for it. A pass, would also come with two tickets. One for me, one for her, and we would meet in person for the first time. This was a great plan to me, and I can't ever seem to do anything half-assed. 

So I proceeded to make a list of every single album or EP that every band on the lineup had. I don't remember how many there were now, so I'm going to guess around 20. I decided that we were going to make it a goal to review all of their albums, and EPs, post biographies and post any news that revolved around any of the artists, or the festival itself. Even with all that effort in mind, just due to the fact that I'm based out of a state fairly far away from where the festival is held, I figured I wouldn't get it. However, we did manage to get all of that content up, and I emailed the press woman for the festival about once a week with updates. 

We got it. We got the passes for the festival, but sadly didn't get to go due to some complications life likes to throw at you. I was disappointed for a little bit, but then a similar lineup was announced for Fort Rock. Which, if you've been around for a while, you're aware that I've now actually covered 3 Fort Rock festivals,and have been to all but one. I decided we had to do it all over again, just for this festival. 

I managed to write 120 album reviews, 22 biographies, and God knows how many news articles, and archived them all, all while working a retail job at holiday time. And this was in the time span of maybe a month and a half, I may add. All so I could cover a two day festival with a lineup I loved. I got it, and because of all that actually got that same festival this year with very little effort. 

The effort was fully planned, and started but the burn out was hitting very hard. Over 300 reviews are on this website, and admittedly most of them were written in that time. In the time, I was enjoying it for the most part, but for the wrong reasons. I liked feeling productive, and having that much content was definitely actually getting interaction that I had missed having. But I was no longer doing it for fun, or the love of music. I wasn't writing what I liked, I was doing what I felt needed to be written and in a timely manner. I made it a job, I suppose.

After so long of doing that, and a lot of things changing in my personal life, I stopped caring. I stopped wanting to do that. So I allowed myself a break and you know what I discovered? My fear of being dropped was proven to be dead wrong, This is the first time in 7 months I have posted on this website and I still get multiple press emails a day. That put my mind at ease, and allowed me to rest. I was able to focus a lot on personal gains, such as in that time I managed to purchase a brand new computer, my first DSLR, finally move out into my own space, and find my love of music again. 

That's something I definitely found myself getting detached from. I got to the point that I wouldn't listen to a new album until I had time (and drive) to review it. I can't even remember when that started, but I know it took me forever to get around listening to Death Of A Bachelor by Panic! At The Disco or anything by I Prevail past their cover of "Blank Space" because I wanted to have time to do reviews. I did eventually get around to doing I Prevail's entire discography, but I can't tell you if I ever did one for Death of A Bachelor. All of the albums involved though ended up being things I love and play on a near daily basis. 

So because of wanting to do so many reviews, and not really having the time or motivation, I was missing out on great music. I was pushing myself away from something that made me insanely happy because I turned it into work. That's not okay, and I think everyone can agree with that.

After taking my break, and seeing that no harm was coming from it whatsoever, it got me thinking. Back in the early days of Immortal Music, when it was mostly just fun interactions through Facebook, I didn't know what 'professionalism' was. I talked about what I loved, what other people loved, held discussions, shared lyrics, ect. I fully just celebrated music with other music fans. I didn't worry about thinking someone wouldn't take me seriously, or I would sound like a 'fangirl', if I went on too long about certain bands. I was just having fun.  To be quite frank, I think that's why people interacted back then. It was just fun for all, and for the love of music.

I can't even tell you when or why I started making it a business and watching what I said online. I just did, and my personality was no longer shining through. Immortal Music has always been a touch of me, but I think over time, you couldn't see who I am through it at all.

So, if anyone out there would like to support me in this, I would like to fully celebrate music. You may be asking what exactly that means, but hang on, I'll properly explain. I still probably will do a review here and there, and I probably still will post news on occasion. But its going to be things I'm actively interested in, or someone out there really expressed interest in hearing my real thoughts on. That's going to be the kicker too, I have to make it a point to be fully honest. If I hear an album and I really don't care for it, its entirely okay to say its not my taste. I've always hated disappointing people, so I would always put a positive spin on things. That's really not okay, because technically its lying. 

What I'm primarily going to do though, is share pictures and stories from now on. I discovered, through this site no less, that I absolutely love photography. I have literally thousands of pictures saved on an external hard drive, and a ton of them have stories to them. Some you may have heard, some you may not have. So I thought it would be fun to focus more on the photography, and stories. I also used to always make fun lists of songs that I loved, some with categories, some without, I would talk about how I got into certain bands and what they mean with me. Anything music related I talked about, and I know others do it too. That's where I really need your help. 

I know everyone out there has some story related to music in one way or another. Whether its a picture you took from a concert, along with some memory of that night, how you met a musician you adore, or simply what a song means to you. Anything music related, I would love to hear and share. I'm going to create a new page (it may already be up, check the menu, and if its not there yet, please stay tuned) just for you guys and your stories. 

If you feel like sharing your photos, stories, favorite songs, anything you want that's music related, please do! I haven't quite figured out how I want to do the posting system. If I'm going to do it once a day or how ever much I feel, but we'll work that out as time goes by. Before that though, you obviously need to know how to submit your stories, right? 

Email us at; immortalmusic527@yahoo.com with all of the following; 

• Your name / Alias 
• Age 
• General location 
• Your photo (if applicable) 
• Your story/ content
• Your favorite social media w/ link if possible (OPTIONAL) 

                                                 (Example: Ariel /24/ FL Instagram: @Immortalmusic ) 

Please make sure you only use the content that is yours. Do not go getting an image off of Google and claim it is yours. Please always give credit where credit is due, and get permission whenever possible when using someone else's work. Do NOT give your full name, or address. For your safety, we do not want any of that. We only ask for your name or an Alias so we can give you the credit for your work. I will try to get your stories up as quickly as possible, but bare with me. Nobody will be forgotten, and I will try to email everyone back with a link to their posted article. 

You are highly encouraged to share with your friends, family, co-workers, pets, aliens -whoever you want! The whole point is to share the love of music with others, so have fun with it. Your content will be shared in a timely manner, and in your words, though I may edit it a bit. I will make sure it is still your work, but some grammatical or spelling errors may be fixed. 

Hopefully you guys are excited for this revamped Immortal Music as I am, and I hope to hear your stories very soon. Please keep checking the Facebook page and of course the website for future content from me. I have a few stories already planned to share, one of which probably wasn't really ever talked about in the past.

I apologize for the long winded post after such a long break and I look forward to speaking with you all soon. 

Thank you very much for all your support, you are the best and I love you all.