''Metal Injection'' is an American online music publication focusing on hard rock and heavy metal. It was founded in 2003 by Frank Godla and Robert Pasbani in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, and officially launched on January 1, 2004. It was initially established as a public-access TV show, but quickly transitioned to online video interviews and content. Since 2022, the site has been owned by The Orchard, a subsidiary of

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

History

2003–2005: Formation and launch

''Metal Injection'' was established in the summer of 2003 by Frank Godla and Robert Pasbani in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. Pasbani got into rock music through watching wrestling, and majored in TV & Radio production. Both had known each other in high school but did not reconnect until many years later, when Pasbani accompnied a friend to a job interview at a telecommunications company Godla worked at. Pasbani later approached Godla with the idea of establishing a public access TV show focusing on heavy metal, and the two formed a partnership. Pasbani came up with the name ''Metal Injection''. "I just tried to come up with a name that had the term 'metal' in it and sounded cool, and including 'Injection' evoked so much imagery that I thought it would be perfect." ''Metal Injection'' was officially launched on January 1, 2004. The TV show originally aired on Saturdays at 3:00 am, whilst its website was originally a news site. The programme featured music videos, live footage from VHS tapes, and some skits between videos. A few weeks after its launch, Godla and Pasbani decided to move the ''Metal Injection'' show online and began uploading the full 30-minute episodes to the website after realising its "reach on the Internet was far greater than a local public access channel", according to Pasbani. ''Metal Injection'' soon stopped publishing episodes and began focusing on uploading clips instead.

2006–2021: Continued growth and expansion

In January 2007, over 30 hours of archival footage was uploaded to ''Metal Injection'' "Video Vault" for a limited time. In April 2008, the site was relaunched featuring a new forum and gallery, alongside the ability for users to upload their own videos onto the site. The site's user community was affectionately known as "junkies". In 2010, six years after its launch, ''Metal Injection'' finally became a profitable operation, allowing Godla and Pasbani to quit their daytime jobs to focus solely on running the website. By 2012, the site had developed its own 24 hour radio network, Metalinjection.fm, and expanded into audio podcasts (such as the weekly Metal Injection Livecast) and had an

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

application. In 2008, ''Metal Injection'' launched the New England Metal Fest TV series to provide coverage of the 2008 New England Metal and Hardcore Festival. In 2012, ''Metal Injection'' partnered with fellow heavy metal blog

MetalSucks MetalSucks is an American heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a Music genre, genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With roots in blues rock ...

to hold a

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

showcase featuring

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, KEN Mode, Early Graves, and Encrust. From April 2012 until May 2015, ''Metal Injection'' produced the ''On the Record'' series, which focused on the impact of the internet on heavy metal music and culture. In May 2016, the site launched the "Taste of Metal" series with chef Brian Tsao, in which featured artists prepared meals inspired by their music. In 2017, ''Metal Injection'' partnered with MetalSucks to launch the

advertising network An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with the advertiser' ...

Blast Beat Network. Between 2020 and 2021, Frank Godla organized the monthly Slay at Home "virtual music and art festival" series amidst the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The first edition of the festival took place between May 29 and 30, 2020, and was livestreamed on the ''Metal Injection'' YouTube channel. A second edition of Slay at Home was held in December 2020, and its third and final took place in June 2021.

2022–present: The Orchard acquisition

In 2022, ''Metal Injection'' was acquired by The Orchard, a subsidiary of

In 2023, ''Metal Injection'' held the first-ever Metal Injection Festival, which took place between September 16–17, 2023, at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California. In June 2024, ''Metal Injection'' launched their own

Pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Brewery. History ...

brand, Neck Breaker, in collaboration with Thin Man Brewery.

Recognition

In 2012, ''Metal Injection'' won the "Beyond the Blog" award at the MTV O Music Awards. ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'' listed it as one of the ten best "Online Resources for Metal Knowledge" in 2013.{{Cite web , last=Roche , first=Jason , date=March 21, 2013 , title=Our Top Ten Online Resources for Metal Knowledge , url=https://www.laweekly.com/our-top-ten-favorite-online-resources-for-metal-knowledge/ , access-date=June 25, 2024 , website=

References