Headbanger fanzine - Bob Nalbandian

To say the truth, I started relatively late interesting in the fanzines, I discovered them only around '97 or so, but since then I started collecting as much as I can. With the help of the internet, I discovered a lot of fanzines and editors from the '80s and I was lucky enough getting in touch some of them with. Legendary L. A. based fanzine editor's Bob Nalbandian tells us the story about those times. Let you read some metal history with the help of Mr. Nalbandian!

So Bob, when and how did you get in touch with Metal music? What made this kind of sound so attractive for you?
Well, I guess I would have to thank my older cousin Harry for that. He's about 5 years older than me and he turned me on to all the great hard rock/metal bands of the early '70s when I was around 8 or 9 years old. He used to make me compilation tapes (cassette and 8-track!) featuring bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Ten Years After, Humble Pie, and others. And from that point on I became a die-hard fan of hard rock and metal music.
For how long have you been involved in metal?
Well, as I said I first got into metal when I was 9 or 10 and I'm 45 now so that would mean I've been involved in metal for over 36 year! (Damn I'm old!)
What were the first songs, records, shows etc. that had the biggest effect on you and you decided dedicating your life for the metal scene? Which groups did you experience for the first time?
Well, when I first heard Zeppelin and Sabbath they instantly had a huge affect on me. I also loved the band Bachman-Turner-Overdrive when I was a kid. I still think the "No Fragile" album is one of the greatest metal albums from the '70s. I was also a big Deep Purple fan but when Blackmore formed Rainbow and released the Rainbow Rising record, that literally changed my life. THat is probably my all-time favorite metal album, along with Black Sabbath's "Sabotage." As far as shows, the first metal concert I saw was AC/DC on the Highway to Hell tour when I was 15 (with Bon Scott!) and that still today was one of the best shows I've seen in my life and had a huge affect on me!
You were born and growing up in Los Angeles, do you still remember, how did the whole L. A. metal scene start and develope step by step? How about the early footsteps of the L. A. scene, with bands such as Slayer, Metallica, Shellshock (later known as Dark Angel), Abattoir, Vermin, Sceptre, Armored Saint etc.?
Yes, I remember all those bands you mention! It would take a whole book to answer that question! But I truly think ARMORED SAINT were the first TRUE European sounding metal band from LA that didn't follow the LA trends (glam, pop-metal etc) and they literally started the headbanging scene in LA. I saw this first hand back in '81 - '82. This was before Metallica were playing the LA clubs (and they were playing covers only of NWOBHM bands then), and a at least a year before Slayer, Abattoir, Dark Angel and any of the thrash bands formed.
Would you say, that the L. A. scene was divided into two parts? There were the aforementioned underground groups and in opposite of the were the glam/hair ones, such as Ratt, Mötley Crüe, W. A. S. P., Dokken etc.?
Yes, like I said you had Armored Saint who were influenced by British groups like Priest and Maiden. You also had bands like Malice and Warrior that were also European metal influenced and didn't sound like your typical LA glam-metal. This was also the starting of doom-metal and bands like St. Vitus were starting out in LA and then of course you had Metallica and later Slayer but they hadn't yet made an impact in LA (when Ratt and Motley were playing the clubs). But the scene wasn't really separated because bands like Armored Saint, Malice and even Metallica and Slayer would open up shows for bands like Ratt and WASP since back in the early '80s if you wanted to play Hollywood clubs like Troubadour, Whisky or Roxy you had to play alongside with all the glam/hair metal bands.
What about the club scene? Which clubs did start opening their doors for metal? Was it easy for the underground groups getting shows in the clubs and making name for themselves at this point?
Not many clubs in LA really catered to metal. They catered more to the glam-metal bands. The Troubadour was really the only Hollywood club to play if you were a metal band in early '80s. It was the clubs in Orange County (where I grew up) like The Woodstock, Radio City and Concert Factory that had most the heavier metal bands. That's where Metallica and Slayer started out, as well as Dark Angel, LA Kaos (who became Hirax) and other big OC bands like August Redmoon, Dante Fox (who became Great White but had Tony Richards on drums and Don Costa on bass and were much heavier), Leatherwolf and others. Also clubs in Pasadena like Ice House and Pookies were where Pasadena/ East LA bands like Armored Saint, Abattoir, Tyrant and others would play.
Were you rather into the underground bands or rather into the commercial, popular ones? How deep you did you dig yourself in the scene? Did you take part in the tapetrading network?
I loved the underground bands but I also loved the popular metal bands like Priest, Sabbath, AC/DC etc. I was a huge tape-trader and one of the first to send out all the underground LA metal demos/live tapes (Armored Saint, Metallica, Slayer, etc) and I would get all the great metal demos & live tapes out of Europe in return.
At which point did you decide to bring Headbanger into being? Who came up with this name?
I started Headbanger in '82. I came up with the name because all the other magazines had the word "metal" in the title and I wanted something different. I was really inspired by Brian Slagel's zine "New Heavy Metal Revue" but even more so by Ron Quintana's "Metal Mania" zine which really made me decide to start up The Headbanger.
Was it the very first fanzine in L. A. and in the surrounding of L. A.?
Brian Slagel's "New Heavy Metal Revue" I think was the first. I started The Headbanger a few months after that.
Was the whole metal scene in its infancy at this point?
Pretty much, at least here in the US. Metallica were a garage band and Motley Crue and Ratt were still playing the clubs and the NWOBHM was just starting out so the only really big metal bands in the US then were the '70s icons like Sabbath, Priest, AC/DC, Scorpions etc.
Did you have any experiences considering making a fanzine?
Not really, I did a little bit of writing for Ron Quintana's Metal Mania fanzine before starting The Headbanger. In fact, my friend Pat Scott and I did one of the first LA HM revues for Metal Mania which ended up featuring the first articles ever written on Metallica and Armored Saint.
Did you start it alone or did you have other contributors (co-workers) right from the start?
I started it with my friend Mike but did most of it myself in the beginning. A few issues into it I had a contributing editor Fid who did a lot of the articles and reviews and he helped out a lot and was a great writer!
Headbanger was one of the first US fanzines along with Ron Quintana’s Metal Mania and Brian Slagel’s The New Heavy Metal Revue, wasn’t it? Did you know Ron and Brian by the way or at least have you heard of them?
Yes, I knew them both. I had met Brian when he was selling records at the Hollywood Record Swap Meet (this is before he worked at OZ Records). I also was penpals with Ron, since he lived in San Francisco and I lived in Orange County so we never met, just penpals and tape traders.
Were you aware of, that by the mid-1960s, several fans active in science fiction and comics fandom recognized a shared interest in rock music, and the rock fanzines were born and Paul Williams and Greg Shaw were two such SF-fans turned rock zine editors?
Wow, you know your history! That was way before my time. I know the names but never met these people. Again I lived in Southern California (OC/LA) and they were all in Northern California (SF) so I really didn't get to know that scene.
Are Williams’ „Crawdaddy!” (1966) and Shaw’s two California-based zines, „Mojo Navigator” (full title, „Mojo-Navigator Rock and Roll News”) (1966) and „Who Put the Bomp?” (1970) among the most important early rock fanzines? Did you know these fanzines at all?
I remember the names of those zines but never actually collected them. I was never really into Sci-Fi or comic books, and only was into metal zines.
Did you know, that „Crawdaddy!” quickly moved from its fanzine roots to become one of the first rock music „prozines” with paid advertisers and newsstand distribution, while „Bomp” remained a fanzine, featuring many writers who would later become prominent music journalists, including Lester Bangs, Greil Marcus, Ken Barnes, Ed Ward, Dave Marsh, Mike Saunders and R. Meltzer?
I didn't know that. But I did read Lester Bangs work in Creem Magazine (which was after Crawdaddy). I grew up reading Creem and Circus Magazine and also Hit Parader, which were the big US music magazines at the time. But when Kerrang! came out in England, that became my Bible!
Bomp was not alone; an August 1970 issue of Rolling Stone included an article about the explosion of rock fanzines: other rock fanzines of this period include „Flash” 1972, edited by Mark Shipper, „Eurock Magazine” (1973-1993) edited by Archie Patterson and Bam Balam, written and published by Brian Hogg in East Lothian, Scotland, beginning in 1974, and in the mid-1970s, Back Door Man and denim delinquent, so would you name it the start and the turning point of the underground scene?
I guess you can call it the turning point for the underground scene. Again, this was way before my time and I didn't get into fanzine until the early '80s, and most of the mags/fanzines I read were from Europe like Kerrang! of course and also Aardschok from Holland, Metal Forces from UK, Enfer from France and many other metal zines from Europe.
Do you still remember how did you do the first issue of Headbanger? How did issue #1 clog together exactly? I mean what kind of articles, reviews (demo, Lp, tape, live) were featured in issue #1? Who was on the front cover?
Yes I remember. I had Girlschool on the cover because they had just come to the US for the first time (when "Screaming Blue Murder" just came out) and idd a show at the Whisky so I put them on the cover. The quality for my first issue was very low budget! I Xeroxed all the copies of that issue on a small Xerox machine.
What were the criterions for choosing the bands to feature in Headbanger?
If I had contributors that wanted to do an article or and interview I always welcomed it and also Fid pretty much had full reign of band he wanted to review or interview. We tried to do a lot of the underground metal bands to give them exposure but also like doing the bigger bands and often put them on the cover since they would sell more issues than the underground bands. But Headbanger was probably the first fanzine or magazine to ever do articles or interviews on Slayer, Dark Angel, Celtic Frost, and many other groundbreaking bands.
Did you have European penbangers, friends at this time? Did you know what’s going on in Europe? I mean, have you heard of the NWOBHM and the German metal movement, that started at the late ’70s/early ’80s with bands, such as Iron Maiden, Diamond Head, Jaguar, Raven, Accept etc.?
Yes, I knew all about the British and European metal bands. I traded tapes with people in UK, Germany, Holland, Brazil, Australia, Belgium, France and many other countries so I had all the killer underground metal albums and demos from all over the world!
Were you concentrating on supporting the underground scene?
Yes, we totally supported the underground scene.
Did you often get demos and rehearsals from underground groups? How did you enter into relations with the bands? Were you aware of the newer bands via flyers or…?
Yes, mostly through penpals or reading about these bands in underground fanzines or mags like Kerrang! (The Armed & Ready section introduced me to tons of classic NWOBHM bands!) Metal Mania, Aardschok, Enfer, Rock Brigade (Brazil), and others.
How did you do the issues of the fanzines and how much did take to do each issues? Did you have enough material for each issues? Were there any materials that left out?
The first 5 or issues I xeroxed at a local copy center. I xeroxed I think 200 of the first issue (very rare free issue) and 300 for the next couple issues and #5 and #6 I think I xeroxed 1,000 each. By the time I did #7 I used a professional printer and #7 thru #11 i believe I printed 2,500 to 3,000 of each issue. I don't think there was much material left out, maybe a few reviews that didn't fit.
Did you do the issues with typewriter? What about the production of the fanzines as a whole?
I first 3 or 4 issues were done on a typewriter, I think by #5 or #6 I started using a computer but it was a basic computer (this was back in 1984) so the font was very small. Production was all cut and paste and ruff off letters! No computer graphics back then - couldn't afford that!
What were the early issues like and how were the responses to them? How many copies did you print and was it hard to get rid of them?
Refer to question #1. I pretty much got rid of all of the issues by now I don't have barely any left! They actually sold really good, I had Greenworld and Important (LA & NY) as my primary distributors and they did a great job getting them out in the stores. I also had a big subscription list of a lot of overseas fans and also traded my fanzine with tons of other fanzine publishers as well as metal radio shows worldwide so most the under metal heads and tape collectors had copies of my zine.
Did you also try to get in touch with labels as well? Do you still remember what were the labels that you got in touch with?
I didn't really have luck with the major labels back then but all the new indie metal labels that were coming out at the time - Metal Blade, Shrapnel, Megaforce, Combat, as well as a lot of the European labels would service me their product and were really good about setting up interviews and getting me passes to their shows. Fanzines like The Headbanger worked hand and hand with all the indie metal labels at the time since none of the major US magazines really covered metal bands at that time.
Did they start sending you promos? On what kind of format did you get the advance or promotional stuffs?
Yes, they would send me vinyl and sometimes advance recordings on cassette.
What do the issues cost back then? Did you also change, trade with other fanzine editors?
The cost was only $1.00! So I really didn't make any money since it cost me almost a dollar to print! I think by issue #7 I started charging $1.25. But like I said I traded fanzines with most the fanzine editors worldwide. There was no competition between us, we were all friends and respected one and other.
How did you distribute, spread the fanzines? Were you in connection with penbangers from all over the world?
Yes, I had a pretty big subscription list and I went to a lot of the local LA and OC records stores that sold metal myself. And as i said i had distributors like Greenworld and Important (who later become Relativity) distribute my fanzine nationwide.
What about the promotion of Headbanger back then? How and how much promotion did you make for Headbanger? I mean, did you sell it alone or was it available at shows, record stores etc.?
I would bring a lot to shows, when Maiden, Sabbath, Priest, AC/DC etc would play Long Beach Arena, we were in the parking lots before the show selling Headbangers! And they sold like crazy!
Did you send from the paper to those bands, which were interviewed in the fanzine? Did the bands get a copy from the 'zine that were interviewed?
Yes, I sent free copies of the Headbanger to all the bands that were featured in the issue.
As for the ’80s, both the tape trading scene and running fanzines were very popular, they were at their peak those times, would say, that running fanzines was a chain reaction back then? I mean, the editors draw inspiration from each other or…?
Yeah, totally, we worked together - we all were tape traders, the people that ran fanzines or that ran indie metal labels (like Slagel) or the dj's from college radio stations that had metal shows. It was kind of like a chain reaction.
Was a competition between the fanzines editors or was a unity among them? With which fanzine editors were you in touch back then? Which fanzine was the best back in the day in your opinion?
Total unity. I traded with all of them... Metal Mania, Northwest Metal, Aardshock (Holland), Headbanger (Holland), Shock Power (Germany), Enfer (France), Metal Forces (UK), Kick Ass Monthly (NY), Rock Brigade (Brazil), and tons of other zines! (Too many to list)
Do you think that fanzines played, play and will play an important role in the Metal scene? How can mags/’zines support the career of bands?
I think unfortunately those days are gone now with the Internet and everything else, there are tons of killer metal websites out there where people all over the world can access for free so metal fanzines are now a thing of the past for the most part.
As fanzines were produced in ever greater volumes and developed into new areas of subject matter, a form of culture also developed around them, a "fanzine scene" is referred to by zine producers, do you agree with it?
Yes, it was definitely a scene. But it was truly out of the love for metal, not because it was trendy or to make money. Most fanzine editors from the '80s did it because they wanted to promote these great underground metal bands.
What do you think about, that a major problem that fanzines have is their seclusion and isolation away from the general public?
I think that was the special thing about the Fanzines, it was for a very underground breed of metal heads that loved metal music.
How do you view, that along with Tampa, Florida, New York and Bay Area the Los Angeles scene was widely attributed as a starting point of American thrash metal?
I totally agree, the fanzines didn't necessarily "start or create" thrash metal but we were at the time the only source of media (apart from certain college metal radio stations) that were giving any publicity or media attention to thrash metal.Most the major labels and major mags despised thrash metal at the time so it was only the fanzines that gave these bands exposure.
Do you agree with, that as different thrash metal scenes began to develop starting around the early/mid-80's (I think of Texas, L. A., Bay Area, New York/New Jersey) each had their own distinct sound that differentiated the bands from other bands on the scene?
I think in the beginning that was true, but toward the mid-80s a lot of the thrash bands started sounding alike and cloning one and other.
In your opinion, were there any borders between the styles (black, thrash, death etc.) back in the day or was it a common underground scene? Would you say, that the rise of the extreme metal began with acts, such as Mantas/Death, Massacre, Possessed, Slaughter, Death Strike/Master etc.?
Yes, although I think VENOM really were the band that started Black/Death Metal (even though it was at it's very primitive stages musically). And some will say Destruction, Sodom, Hellhammer were also responsible for the more extreme metal before the bands you mention above. It's all a matter of opinion.
You published 11 issues of The Headbanger from 1982 through 1985 and you gave a big chance to the unsigned L. A. bands through the paper, would you say, that you helped them making a name for themselves? Were they thankful for your job during the years?
Yes, my fanzine was one of the first to feature METALLICA, SLAYER, ARMORED SAINT, MEGADETH etc and I still talk to all those bands today and I think they see the importance of fanzines like The Headbanger in the beginning of their career.
Did Headbanger play an important role considering the developing of the L. A. underground scene?
I think it did, issue #7 and & #8 featured a two-part LA Metal special that featured some of the very first interviews/features of many of the groundbreaking LA metal bands including Slayer, Megadeth, Warlord, WASP, Dark Angel, Abattoir, etc...
How were your views on the mid ’80s L. A. scene, when a lot of thrash/death bands started popping up, such as Archenemy, Death Force, Viking, Recipients Of Death, Sadistic Intent, Terrorizer etc.? Were all of them influenced by the first wave of thrash metal, such as Slayer or Dark Angel?
I think they were all definitely influenced by the first wave of thrash whether it be Slayer, Dark Angel, Exodus or Megadeth. I think those bands will admit that too. I'm not really so into those bands, I'm mainly into the original first wave of thrash.
Do you agree with, that the extreme metal scene started being saturated at this point?
Yes, I totally agree with that. Although there are a lot of great talented extreme metal bands, they tend to all sound the same after a while - not much originality these days with extreme metal.
At which point and why did you stop doing Headbanger? Lack of motivation, money or…?
It was more financial, I wasn't really making that much money and it would have cost too much money to bring the fanzine to the next level (make it full-size w/ color cover). So I started writing and contributing to other fanzines that were able to reach the "magazine" level, like Metal Rendevous where i was their LA editor. I am still very good friends with publisher John Strednansky.
Were you satisfied with the selling of the fanzine by the way? Did it have a big influence on the underground scene? Did it introduce your name for other fanzine editors back in the day?
Yes, I was very satisfied and the influence was overwhelming i believe. Even today people tell me my fanzine introduced them to bands like Armored Saint, Slayer, Raven, Metallica, Megadeth etc. I used to get fan letters from Jason Newsted (back when he was in local Phoenix band THE DOGZ) and the Pantera guys back when they put out Metal Magic. So I know The Headbanger influenced tons of metal musicians back in the early-mid '80s. And people still remember my name today from The Headbanger! So I think it was Extremely influential in metal music.
In the early ‘90s, you landed guitarist Marty Friedman in the multi-platinum group Megadeth and soon after you headed the west coast office of Roadrunner Records working closely with many of the labels cutting-edge artists at the time, including Sepultura, Type-O Negative, and Last Crack. What can you tell us about this period?
It was a good time in my life. Roadrunner was the first record label I worked with so it was all kind of new to me but it was a lot of fun.
Did you work with Monte Conner together?
Not directly, I was the only person working the Los Angeles (West Coast) office and of course Monte and the rest of the RR staff were all in New York. I also didn’t do much in the A&R dept but I did send a lot of demos from West Coast bands over to Monte every week or two. And I would visit the NY office occasionally as well but never really worked together with Monte.
What were your daily tasks?
West Coast Publicity, Retail, and Radio. I would mostly call up Magainzes and newspapwers, record stores and commerical and college radio stations on the West Coast and promote the latest RR bands. I would occasionally visit them as well
Would you say, that at this point the metal scene and the music industry changed a lot compared to the ’80s?
I was there in 1991 so it started to change with the emergence of grunge and alternative music but that really happened more toward the mid-90s.
As for Roadrunner, the label seems/seemed to be a kind of trend label for me, how do you explain this? I mean, they were invilved in thrash, death, grunge etc.
Like any record label, whether major or independent, it’s a business so you need to sign bands that will make money otherwise you go out of business. I think RR always stayed pretty loyal to metal music although at the time they also had a alternative label called Emergo which was a division of Roadrunner but they kept it separate.
How long did you work at Roadrunner?
I believe a little over a year.
After Roadrunner, you went on to Bizarre/Straight Records (Rhino/WEA) assisting label president Herb Cohen (who co-founded the label with Frank Zappa in the ‘60s); their roster specialized in diverse artists such as Alice Cooper, Ted Nugent, Captain Beefheart, Tim Buckley, Lenny Bruce, Screaming Jay Hawkins and Tom Waits, any comments about it?
It was great to work alongside Herb Cohen who had quite a history in music!
You worked both catalog and new artists for the label, did you like this work compared to your previous ones?
Bizarre/Straight was a lot more laid back than Roadrunner. Roadrunner had several different bands/albums I was working at the same time while Bizarre only had a few. And most the catalog releases (the reissues through Rhino) really sold on it’s own so I didn’t really work them a lot.
You also acquired several license deals through the years with major international companies such as: Century Media, Enigma/Restless, Roadrunner, JVC/Victor, Music For Nations, Bandai/Apollon, Jigu, Polystar, High Vaultage, Dream Circle/Polydor, and Reality/Sony…
Yes, that’s true. It’s good to see someone has read my bio!
Currently you are the VP of press and publicity for HardRadio.com, a top-rated Internet radio station where you also produce Shockwaves Magazine On-line and Shockwaves/HardRadio Podcast which features interviews with some of the greatest performers in hard rock/metal music, tell us more please about it?
The Shockwaves/HardRadio podcast I’ve been doing for a few years now. You can hear it on HardRadio.com (go to the Shockwaves page) and you can also read old interviews and reviews I did. I also have a second podcast I do called the Shockwaves Skullsessions Podcast which you can download and listen to on Roadrunner Records site (RoadrunnerRecords.com/skullsessions). Both are also available for free on iTunes.
Are there many metal radio stations in the US these days?
None of them in Los Angeles where I live, all we have here is complete shit. I’m sure there are still some college stations that still have metal shows and of course there is now satellite and Internet Radio with HardRadio.com being one of the leaders in Internet radio as far as metal goes.
Over the years you were a contributing editor to several well-known music publications including; Creem, Music Connection, Hit Parader, BAM, Foundations, Loud, Metal Rendezvous, New Rave, BURRN! (Japan), Rock Hard (Germany), and Fachblatt (Germany) and publisher/editor of Shockwaves Magazine (now online at HardRadio.com) as well as associate editor for several national men’s magazines, what kind of experiences did you gain during the years?
I always liked to do freelance writing, it was sometimes a lot earier than working exclusively for one publication where it gets too political. It was all good experience and gave me a chance to write about a lot of different things.
Did you leave your mark on the scene? Do you consider yourself (and the band, fans too) an influential writer?
I think so, especially during the Headbanger Fanzine days as I was one of the first ever to write stories on bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Armored Saint and Slayer back when very few people even heard of these bands. My writings gave bands like these international recognition for the very first time. When I was publishing The Headbanger I was also getting several fan letters from a lot of people who ended up being in famous metal bands like Jason Newsted (when he was in The Dogz) and the guys in Pantera (just before they released their first album Metal Magic).
How do you view the present „metal world”?
It’s good. It’s great to see a lot of younger kids getting into metal these days, even classic metal. I think the present metal scene today is very healthy.
Do you follow the fanzines these days? Do you know some fanzines/magazines, such as Snakepit? What's your opinion about it? What about webzines? Do you willingly read them?
I don't really follow the fanzines these days but I do try to check out metal websites and will read Blabbermouth, BW&BK etc and the only music publication I currently read is really only Classic Rock Magazine.
Would you say, that being involved in the underground, in the tapetrading/fanzine network, the gates of a totally new musical world have been opened for you? Did it succeed in building up a lot of friendships with the help of the metal music?
Yes, the fanzine and tape trading definitely opened up a totally new musical world for me and I made lots of friendships with people all over the world from it. I still am in contact with many of the old fanzine writers and tape-traders I traded with 25-30 years ago! In fact I just did a Shockwaves Skullsessions episode (which should soon be posted at RoadrunnerRecords.com/skullsessions) which included Ron Quintana (Metal Mania), John Strdnansky (Metal Rendezvous), KJ Doughton (NW Metal) and Steve Hammonds (Metal Forces, UK) regarding the early days of fanzines and tape-trading.
What do you think about downloading and the mp3 files? How do you view that the labels nowadays are sending their promo materials via ipool, mp3 etc. instead of promotional, physical cd-s?
Well, I guess that’s the way of the future, and the way of the present. I think bands and labels need to be current with todays market and public demands and the downloading of mp3 files is the new way of promoting and selling music. Although I still prefer CDs as I like to have the physical product but I’m not opposed to mp3’s and I understand the conveniece of it.
If you would own a label, what would be its name and what would be the records or re-releases, that you would release?
I actually never considered that. Not sure what I would name it, maybe Shockwaves just because it’s my magazine and podcast name. I would likely release classic metal bands.
Have you never thought about establishing an own label?
No, not really. I think nowadays there are so many record labels out there and most are really struggling.
What about your musical collection? What are your rarest stuffs? Do you buy regularly cd-s, dvd-s etc. these days too?
As far as my collection, I sold all my vinyl collection years ago as well as most my other stuff I sold or got rid of so I don't have much of a collection these days.
What are the 10 most influential, most classic records that changed your life and your musical taste? Would you comment them?
That would take a lot of thought.... off hand I would say the early metal albums that I first heard when I was very young changed my like and influenced me the most like the whole Black Sabbath catalog (up through Born Again), but Sabotage probably changed my life the most. Also all the Led Zeppelin albums, Rainbow, particularly the Rising album which is my favorite of all time. And albums from AC/DC (Bon era), Deep Purple (mostly In Rock), UFO (Obsession, Lights Out), Scorpions (Love Drive and the early Uli albums) and Bachman-Turner Overdrive was always a favorite of mine when I was a kid, particularly the Not Fragile album. Also a lot of the NWOBHM albums namely Motorhead’s Ace of Spades, Saxon’s Wheels of Steel and the debut’s from Iron Maiden, Angelwith, Diamond Head, Tygers of PanTang and several others...
Bob, thanks a lot for your patient, please fell free sharing us/me your final thoughts…
I appreciate the fact that you took the time to put together all these questions Leslie and it was a pleasure to do this for you. I’m still very much into heavy metal music and still a big fan of the music. I appreciate all my friends and fans that have supported me over the years and those who continue to support the Shockwaves/HardRadio podcast and Shockwaves Skullsessions podcast. Cheers!

The Top 10 list of 2010 by Bob Nalbandian

1. Armored Saint: La Raza
2. Accept: Blood Of Nations
3. DIO: Dio At Donnington UK: Live (1983 & 1987)
4. Megadeth: Rust I Peace (Live)
5. Heaven & Hell: Neon Nights - Live In Europe
6. Broken Teeth: Viva La Rock, Fantastico!
7. Texas Hippie Coalition: Rollin'
8. Pretty Maids: Pandemonium
9. Halford: Made Of Metal
10. Exodus: Exhibit B: The Human Condition