With the deepest regret we have to announce that the leading lady of Rockezine, our dedicated editor and photographer Marcia Gransbergen, has passed away on the night of January 15th. Marcia has helped to develop RocKEzine over the last ten years, maintaining close contact with labels, bands, venues and fans. No matter which gig you visited, there always seemed to be at least a dozen of people who knew Marcia. Our main memory of her will always be her passion while she was talking about the bands she loved, the musicians she met, the pictures she took and of course RocKEzine. Our thoughts are with those she left behind. We, as RockEZine, are very grateful to Marcia because she, while living through the common hardships of life, found the will to invest time and energy to remain in touch with the metal scene and keep up the enthousiasm for this site, even though it being a completely voluntary effort. Which is even more painful, as her last editorial message showed a clear love of the life she was living. Suddenly confrontationally significant, we'll leave it here as a memorial:

Hey Party People, Times are changing. While welcoming Yasmine and Sander within our crew, we also have to say goodbye to our veteran Roy, who has decided to explore new possibilities. We'll definitely miss him and wish him all the best for the future. One of the things that has certainly changed is that I was able to see a movie about metal in the cinema. Something that was not considered possible until `A Headbangers Journey', a movie covering the history of metal entwined with the makers' own. A feast of recognition! Watching the bands of twenty (or something) years ago featured makes you realise how much this genre has developed over time. Besides the familiar faces, there is also room for sociologists, psychologists, historians and anthropologists to give a scientific point of view on this musical culture. Everything is put into work to show how underrated this musical genre is. Or maybe I should say: was. Reminiscing with this movie, I realise that times have positively changed. Nowadays I can't even imagine that in my teenage years I had to travel around the country to see my favourite bands. And that was only for a couple of times a year. The rest of the time we spend in obscure attic rooms or barns to listen to our heroes with some friends. And don't get me started about the lack of distribution of metal albums in the regular stores. Makes you appreciate that we live in a metal Walhalla this day and age. Plenty of choice in albums, concerts, merchandise and festivals. Just think about all the rereleases and band reunions. Something the market certainly picked up; obviously money also makes the world go round in metal. But if a good market share is necessary to be taken seriously, I'll gladly invest my money, time and energy in our metal lifestyle. CU @ the rock scene Marcia Gransbergen