The Lady Obscure Family

Led by the illustrious Lady Obscure, the music freak extraordinaire, Lady Obscure Music Magazine is a high-end production focusing on bringing together the musicians and the fans with real passion for everything that is music.

First envisioned to be the conduit through which the lights of inspiration flow, making the human soul whole with music, the Magazine is becoming the epitome of love for music with the collective passion and beautiful souls of its family members.

The Lady Obscure Family are…

  • Phoenix (CEO) Phoenix has been immersed in music her whole life, from “naming that tune” at the age of 1.5 through being classically trained in several instruments through adulthood. She was introduced to the metal genre in late elementary school/middle school by a friend and after a childhood of the top 40, has never looked back since. First exposed to the progressive genre of metal via Dream Theater’s “Images and Words” album, Phoenix has been an avid fan of prog metal ever since. Her love of heavy metal and classical music mix well in the progressive, melodic, symphonic, power, and neo-classical styles of metal. An ever-learning student of the field, she loves to learn of new, innovative, and intelligent music in this genre and relishes having the chance to actually review albums to share and to learn about with her fellow metal family. Phoenix is an art therapist by day and amateur musician by hobby, and currently plays flute, alto flute, oboe, and bass guitar in various ensembles.
  • Kinslayer (COO) Failed musician, amateur bass and guitar player; Kinslayer has been in love with music since he was a wee lad. His introduction to metal occurred in the early nineties with albums such as Angra’s “Angels Cry” and Sepultura’s “Chaos A.D.” and quickly started to get inmersed in the deep waters of metal. While currently enjoying literally almost every sub genre of metal, his soft spots are prog, power, and symphonic metal. He has joined the fine ranks of Lady Obscure Music Magazine since February 2018 with the review for Tesseract’s “Polaris.” Editor and reviewer Kinslayer strives only for the pleasure of the reader and the excellence of the magazine.
  • Buğra Orman: An avid theater lover, music buff, plays the trumpet, tries to write short stories and essays, is an innovative amateur art enthusiast.
  •  Mehmet Pozam: Guitarist / Composer / Teacher / Writer / Book Lover / Animal Lover / Human Hater / Grumpy / Stucked in the mind of a six years old boy
  • Berkay Demier (CSO) is 35 years old and has made his life with 3 entirely different professions up to now.  First teaching, then software development, and now he works in a large corporation’s strategy and business development department. One thing he has been consistent with, though, is listening to and playing metal music.  He used to be very passionate about modern metal music in the 2000s.  Then by the 2010s he had the impression that it is not progressing much anymore. Boy, was he wrong.  And this is exactly how he came here.
  • Lonestar As a practicing chef of 20+ years experience, he realizes in an intimate way what it means to have taste satisfied, and that’s how he chooses his music. Throw all the fluff, pomp, and trimmings out the window; he wants the works that satiates his soul. When he finds it, he likes to share it with everyone, sharing and celebrating that feeling of wondrous serenity that only music can deliver.
  • Honey Badger He is a lifelong fan of hard rock/metal since he discovered his childhood idols KISS. Music is his passion and progressive and power metal are his favorites in the subgenres of heavy metal. He also works for the premier metal festival in the U.S,. ProgPower USA, as a co-admin for their official Facebook page. In his spare time (what little he has of it!), he enjoys working out.
  • Diamond Dave (CTO) has been a fan of music for as long as he can remember. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, he had been immersed with a number of rock and roll bands that are world famous, but found his calling with heavy metal only later in life. However, he is making up for lost time and is listening to as much metal as he can. Dave likes a number of metal genres such as progressive, power, symphonic, melodic death, and even some thrash metal for good measure. Dave is also a long time sponsor the well-known ProgPower USA festival. When Dave isn’t listening to metal and writing reviews, he spends his time attempting to work as a computer engineer on some cutting edge hardware and software technologies.
  • Andrew Bennett At Lady Obscure, he follows in the tradition of our favorite music by combining exquisite technical detail with raw, immersive emotion and acute sensitivity. He writes to encourage the growth of bands that devote their careers to sharing their knowledge, wisdom, and strength, and by so doing, share the knowledge, wisdom, and strength that have molded him throughout these years. When you read his writing, you are reading a reflection of the very heart of who wrote it just as much as of who wrote the music.
  • Rich Sullivan-Jones Lover of music, originally from London, and now based in St Albans in southeast England. His tastes take him far and wide and cover a huge range of musical styles. Most of his contributions here will be rock and metal, but he can’t promise he won’t throw in the occasional curveball as well!
  • Rocio Flores Singer / Composer / Writer / Storyteller / Enjoyer / Kitten’s hypnotist / Sexy beast / Bad hunter.

Our extended family:

  • Progradar A good salesman from the North of England with too much time on hishands, I have listened to and obsessed about all genres of rock music since I could walk straight! However, hisfirst love is prog rock and all it’s different sub genres and, thanks to The Lady herself, joining the select band of brothers and sisters as an LO author gives me an outlet for hisobsession. Mad, wacky but kind and loving with it, hisglass is forever half full and hisreviews should mirror this! Hisother obsessions are any form of sport and computer games, oh and I do like the odd drink too!
  • jingle.boy At 14 years old, hearing Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog” for the first time, music all at once became an incredibly passionate part of his life. It gave him wonder, appreciation, awe, inspiration, amazement, desire, drive, determination, and probably a whole host of other emotions. It breathed life into him; gave him a purpose; made him a fan of something. Nowadays, he doesn’t do anything without music. He doesn’t have much love for death metal, electronica, or any genre requiring “post” or “core” in its name. He knows what he likes, and he’s a Classic/Glam/Melodic/Progressive Rock kinda guy. Splash a little metal and symphonic rock along with it, and those are his tastes.
  • Sean Parker Sean is a writer, musician, artist and promoter, relocated to Chichester in August 2014 after ten years living and working in Istanbul. He was born in Exeter in 1975, and holds an MA and Bachelors in Fine Art from the University for the Creative Arts in Surrey, specialising in abstract painting, video art, and cultural theory. Parker currently writes for the Multicultural Guide (Turkey), Louder Than War, and Monolith Cocktail amongst others, writing on music, politics, and culture, and has held over 35 interviews with writers and musicians from Julie Burchill to Danny McNamara to Dave M. Allen. In the past he and his work have appeared in Time Out Istanbul, Cosmopolitan, USA Today, Uncut.co.uk and NME.com. In 2013 he gave a TED Talk at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University, titled ‘Stammering and Creativity’ which can be watched on YouTube, and in the same year gave a talk titled ‘Turkiye, the UK and Body Language’ at the Navisalvia conference at Istanbul University. Sean has released 4 original albums, one with experimental artist Ettuspadix, a mini album by writer/musician Chris Roberts’ “Clocks Go Forward,” an EP and 4 compilations by other artists, mostly released on his own Seraglio Point Productions label. He has made over 150 stage performances at venues and festivals with six groups and solo, including appearances with Ed Harcourt, The Membranes, and Replikas, and appeared on European radio and Turkish TV a number of times. He presented a number of Istanbul ‘Pen Pal’ reports on Bethan Elfyn’s show on Amazing Radio in 2014, is also UK booking agent for Istanbul-based Major Music and Entertainment, and a music promoter at various venues in Chichester. In September 2014, his factual/fictional book ‘Salt in the Milk – Ten Years in Istanbul’ was published by Kindle worldwide.
  • debrancherenzym Dentist, Prog Metal/Metal listener, Guitar Player/Vocalist/Composer, National Rugby Player, Fiction Novel WIP
  • Orkun Dokmeci Passionate performing-arts lover, Jazz, Latin, Modern and Tap dancer and dance tutor, proud Harley rider, car collector, sports freak; loves travelling, creating, and sharing precious moments!
  • Matt Benton Recent ex-student. A long time fan of all things metal, from Death to Prog and Melodic, and anything in between. You’ll find me listening to BTBAM or Porcupine Tree relentlessly, or discussing the merits of Opeth’s return to the 70s. Currently working for Basick Records/Destroy Everything, running their social media and taking over the internet one step at a time…
  • James Hunter Having completed his undergraduate degree in Classics at the University of Oxford, he is currently undertaking a Masters in Roman Archaeology at King’s College, London. he has very diverse music tastes – gigs he has attended in recent years range from Opeth and Pain of Salvation, to M83 and 65daysofstatic. He’s not averse to a bit of pop either – He doesn’t mind admitting he’s seen Katy Perry, Paramore, and Jessie J in concert!
  • Tyler Charles He’s a recent graduate of Kent State University with a major in Computer Techonlogy.  He loves computers, whetehr it be fixing them, programmin them, or anytihng else to do with them. Another hobby of his is video games.  He collects video game consoles, and he loves the symphonic soundtracks that many modern games have.  Of course, his biggest passion is music.  He loves prog, symphonic, folk, and some death metal.  His favorite bands are Dream Theater, Haken, and Nightwish.
  • Prog Snob Music is his true passion. He loves to listen to it, play it, read about it, talk about it, you get the idea.  He discovered prog back in 1992 when he first heard “Pull Me Under” on the radio.  It was a breath of fresh air among the mediocrity common to the radio in those days.  Since then, his musical taste has expanded to classical, jazz, standards, big band, and opera.  However, prog – the most diverse of musical styles in his opinion – remains at the top.
  • Evermind He’s a Russian helicopter design engineer working at Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant. While being neither a musician of any sort, excluding some random moments he found himself with a guitar in hands, nor a professional writer, He loves discovering new music and sharing his thoughts about it, mostly in rock and metal genre, as expected. He’s also fond of skiing and numismatics.
  • Lucas Biela A French citizen born in Poland, he is fond of music in any genre. He respects any kind of music as long as it is played with heart and soul, and his reviews reflect his feelings toward the music rather than how the artist/band compares to other names within the same musical style. Not a musician himself, his reviews are not technical by any means, they often include many references to other musicians/bands and provide description of the material both on a general and more detailed levels. He moved to reviewing music through his collaboration with the website ProgArchives that started in 2004, first occasionally, then more regularly since 2013, a year that saw his commitment with the Dutch web radio ISKC and contacts with bands/artists via Facebook for review and broadcast of their music on the web radio. For a living, he works full-time as clinical project manager. And regarding his hobbies, he likes to run, besides listening to music.
  • Anıl Ergin At age 9, he started rocking with Twisted Sister’s “Stay Hungry.” He never gave up Twisted Sister. A few years later, with the release of “Who Made Who,” he discovered AC / DC. The Bon Scott era has always been his favorite. His great love for Iron Maiden has started with “Infinite Dreams.” The very first concerts he saw were in 1991, BB King and Jethro Tull in Ankara. In 1997, he watched Iron Maiden for two consecutive nights at the Harbiye Open Air Theater. In the same year, he skipped  his final exam to watch Marillion vocalist Fish’s concert in Ankara. He benefited from the rising MP3 epidemic but never stopped investing his money in CDs and concerts. He was always there, right in the front row when  Dio, UDO, Stratovarius, Blind Guardian, Page / Plant, Judas Priest, Accept, Deep Purple, Maiden, and Whitesnake came to town. In 2014, he became one of the active journalists in Ankara. But even in the corridors of the council, his mind has always been circulating AC / DC andJudas Priest rhythms.
  • George Andrade George Andrade wrote the book & lyrics and was Co-Producer for “AIRS – A Rock Opera” (Fencesound Music). He also wrote the concept & lyrics and was Executive Producer for “Back from Being Gone” by the progressive metal band The ANABASIS (10T Records). More recently, he has helped develop the concepts and written lyrics & narratives for the Norwegian rock/metal vocalist and songwriter PelleK on his albums “Ocean of Opportunity” and the soon to be released “A Marvelous Method of Reclusion”.
    He has written novel reviews for Horrornews.net, reviewed albums for Progarchives.com, and has provided critical readings of screenplays for independent screenwriters (most notably by the produced Sean Ryan). He is listed in both the Locus Magazine Author’s Index and the ISFDB (Internet Speculative Fiction Database) for his short story “Clowns”, which appeared in HAUNTS Magazine #18 (Spring 1990).
    He has also been an Artist-In-Residence for Very Special Arts Rhode Island, where he taught screenwriting at Dorcas Place in Providence, RI, whose mission is to assist low-income adults in realizing their full potential through literacy, employment, advocacy, and community involvement. He also wrote, produced and directed the short film “Supports” for Vision Cable in Pawtucket, RI, which won a RI Cable Award for “Best Entertainment/Variety” in 1992.
    When last seen in the “private sector” (where they expect results), George was an assistant football coach at Mt. Hope High School in Bristol, RI (2012-2015) and before that managed the Children’s, Teen, Family & Childcare, and Education Departments at Barnes & Noble in Middletown, RI.
  • Conor Fynes Music is one of the few things that makes sense to him.
  • James Campbell I’m a linguistics PhD student and a life long aficionado of all things music related, rocking out on a regular basis in a hard rock group, ‘The Cultural Other’ based in the UK. It’s a pleasure to be on board @ Lady Obscure. Follow me and the band on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CulturalOther