Greetings, friends of Serious Black-

It's been a while since the first Serious Black newsletter and quite a bit has transpired in the last 9 months. The last newsletter went out to nearly anyone who had any contact with Serious Black. This one is a bit more selective, going only to those who've either purchased, reviewed, played or helped to promote Serious Black in some way.

First the big news- Serious Black has a pulse-racing new track not found on Barbican and you'll be given an exclusive link to it at the end of the newsletter. I'm very happy with it and I'd appreciate any feedback you'd care to give.

Serious Black has been reviewed in issue #45 of Side-Line Magazine ! http://www.side-line.com/ For those of you unfamiliar with the publication, it is the most prestigious of Goth-Industrial music publications in the world, published in Brussels, Belgium. Although it is available at a number of outlets in the U.S. (Tower Records, DSPB http://gemm.com/q.cgi?rb=IRB&seller=DSBP and better Goth-Industrial CD shops and the Side-Line site itself )http://www.side-line.com/ I still don't have my own copy of the review yet. Suffice to say, based on the strength of that review I've gotten a number of requests from European sources for promotional copies of the Barbican CD.

For reviews of Barbican you may have missed, check out the exhaustive and excellent review of it by Mike Ventarola of Legends Magazine at http://www.legendsmagazine.net/134/serious.htm . There are also recent reviews at Grave Concerns http://www.angelfire.com/ny2/graveconcerns/index.html Celebrity Cafe http://thecelebritycafe.com/cd/full_review/1489.html and South Of Mainstream http://www.southofmainstream.com/reviews/seriousblack_review.html Not every review is stellar and glowing, but considering a couple of these sites cater to a wider audience than Goth-Industrial, there are some very good positive points made.

Have you heard about the Random Infliction zine/CD compilation? It's a new combination glossy magazine and compilation CD featuring some of the best "new" Goth-Industrial artists around, including Serious Black. Random Infliction features a group known to many of you (Collide), and other talented up & commers. Random Infliction is being distributed at Tower records throughout the U.S. and on the Internet at CD Baby http://www.cdbaby.com/randominfliction where you can play track clips. It's a real bargain at under five bucks so pick it up while it's still available because it won't last forever.

There is also a new distribution outlet for Serious Black in the form of SINister Records out of Seattle, WA. http://www.nightmareboy.com/sinister/ For anyone who hasn't already picked up a copy of Barbican, I'd recommend you purchase it there. So far, they've been very supportive of Serious Black. Speaking of being supportive of Serious Black, I'd like to dole out a few personal notes of thanks in no particular order. First and foremost, to my wife Maryann. Please visit her wonderful bed & bath products site, Luxuries of the Privy-Chamber at www.privychamber.com She makes great soap, herbal sleep-masks, neck wraps and more all with a Rennaisance theme. Next I'd like to thank my webmater, Leo Haggerty for putting up with me and my multitude of requests, changes, etc. If you need a website done efficiently and reasonably, visit his site, Web Boss design Studio at http://www.thewebboss.com/ Serious Black would also like to thank Jett Black for continued advice and support. If you happen to be involved in a dark music project of your own, or you just enjoy dark music you need to check out Jett's Nocturnal Movements site- http://www.NocturnalMovements.net I also can't thank Rich LaVere enough for all the things he's done for me. In fact, Rich provided the webspace for my new track. If you need a video done expertly for any occassion and you're within an hour or so of Elmira, NY contact him at his website, LaVere Media- http://www.discauthors.com/ While I'm handing out thanks, I'd like to thank Kristina at SINister Recods http://www.nightmareboy.com/sinister/ BUY FROM THEM! Bob Westphal (The One Bob) Shape Of Things To Come http://www.theonebob.com/ at WFDU, Theresa Fredeick, Dark Horizons Radio, Tampa http://www.darkhorizonsradio.com/index.htm Jonathan Feltner, Cryocon Radio http://cryocon.aggravatedstatic.com/ , SEETHER at Covet Radio http://www.live365.com/stations/303429 and Jean-Francois Fecteau of Le Vestibule http://www.nnr.to/levestibule.html in Quebec- support non-mainstream media- listen to their shows! Last and not least thanks goes out to Creston Baker http://www.allaymusic.com/pages/1/index.htm for conceiving and delivering the Random Infliction zine/comp CD (gets better every time I listen to it) , Trevor Lyman from musicSUBMIT http://www.musicsubmit.com/ domain for peaking some interest in Serious Black, Jamie in Florida for trying to get some SB promo material inside The Castle, Ezra Thay for his auction-promotion and my man Jack in London, UK who may be a busy SB PR guy if the postal strike ever ends. Thanks to everyone who bought the Barbican CD too. You are really what I live for.

Enough commercials, on to what you plowed through this email for- the link to the unreleased, brand-new Serious Black track- Infectious Rhythm http://homepage.mac.com/rlavere2/seriousblack/index.html

Thank you one and all. If anybody out there knows anyone with lots of money to sink into Serious Black (does the word "LIVE" send a chill up your spine?), please let me know.

All the best,

Steve Mecca
Serious Black