I’ll be avoiding your blog.

Thank you for the courtesy of a reply and an in depth one at that. Thank you for clarifying your position and normally I would find it flattering that someone would use something that I wrote but it seemed flagrantly used, without a change made to the album’s run time and no credit given-
which made me quiet infuriated. Thus the abrupt and possibly undeserved post on the site. In this world of music journalism, being inspired from other writers comes with the territory. I have had a read of your actual review and it is well written and detailed. Really good effort!

First I’ll say that I’ve never heard of Sputnikmusic. It wasn’t until I saw this comment that I had ever seen the name to my recollection, and only then that I Googled it to take a look. It seems like a cool site, and I wish you the best of luck with it.

More substantially, your accusation is off base to the point that I have to wonder if you’re joking. If you weren’t so specific in citing the name of another site, I might have assumed you were a spambot and just deleted the comment, but it’s too direct for that to be the case. And anyway, most spambots offer generic flattery as I’m sure you know — “Love your site thanks for information,” etc. — and not blame for a crime perceived to have been committed.

It’s worth pointing out that this isn’t a review. It’s a news post and filed as such in the category of “Whathaveyou.” Reviews, not shockingly, are under “reviews.” If you’d like to read my review of De Vermis Mysteriis, it’s here: http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2012/03/12/highonfirereview-2/

You’ll notice the text in the part of the post you claim is yours is blue, where on the top it is grey. That is how I signify something written by someone other than me. If you look at the various columns on the site by outside writers, in-studio features, and even the review my wife did this past week, it all appears in blue. This is specifically something I’ve done since starting the site to avoid any perception of plagiarism.

All press releases posted are posted in that color as well, and the part you’ve highlighted as having been copied from what I assume is a review you wrote comes directly from a press release. I’ve adjusted it for formatting, bolded the band names and place names, but other than that, the copy is exactly as I received it from Action PR’s email list. Most press releases are attributed directly to “the PR wire,” and I see in reading my intro to this one that it is not, but with the copy in the different color and my introduction to it above, I guess I assumed my readers would understand that it wasn’t coming from me as something I’d expressly written. Seems to me if you have an issue, it might be one with the writer of the press release, who did not attribute your quote.

Again, my instinct here is to tell you to fuck off, or at least to do even the slightest modicum of research before you blatantly accuse someone of such a reprehensible thing — since I know for a fact I’m not the only one who reposted this press release — but I thought that given the weight of the accusation, I’d respond to you publicly here rather than in an email, which might have been a better way for you to have gotten in touch in the first place. I’ll expect no apology, but I will directly email this response to you as well, to give the added chance of you seeing it.

I feel comfortable challenging you to find any instance of completely non-attributed quotation on my site, because I know there aren’t any, from you or anyone else. But if you’re interested and so passionate to ensure the sanctity of your work, have at it, and thanks in advance for reading.

All the best from NJ,
JJ Koczan

This cover is a strange beast, but the song is a savage beast.

Ballou gave to Black cobra the best sound ever, i’m sure he did the same with HOF!!!

…and Reefer, maybe Arik was busy doin’ somethin’ else??? I think the cover is pretty rad…but far from their best.