The Rock’n’Roll party HOUSE OF NOIZZ was started by Max Thrasher on Access Community Radio, 104.6 Planet FM in March 2001.
Max, who moved to New Zealand from Moscow (Russia) in the end of 1998, has been involved in the broadcasting industry for well over 10 years. Professional musician and Rock journalist, Thrasher was one of the key-figures in the Russian Metal underground, and was forced to leave his motherland due to the political difficulties he had been experiencing in post-communist Russia.

MAX: “Let’s just say, I wanted music to be what it always was meant to be -an unregulated, unstoppable voice of resistance, the way to freedom. Not in a political way, but rather as freedom of speech, freedom of choice… freedom to be an individual, if you like. And in a country where everything has to be ‘as told’ I wasn’t welcome pushing forward this spirit of rebellion. So I took off.”

Arriving in New Zealand, where his family had lived since the early 90s, Thrasher tried to interest commercial stations in his ideas, but as it turned out, the “spirit of rebellion” was even less popular here than in bureaucracy-dominated Russia. “I was simply told that I have no chance of getting a job here, unless I’m related to somebody in the industry.” Max says. “But music was the only thing I wanted to do, so I found the way out!”

The way out was a non-commercial community radio station called Planet FM, who gladly took the rebel on board.

The first edition of HOUSE OF NOIZZ went on air on April 5, 2001. Max was accompanied by a young communication student called Melissa Rewi, who kindly agreed to help out.

"Originally I wanted to work with a girl. I thought it would be a good idea to build the show on a contrast between a female voice with good English and me with my fucked-up accent! (laughs)”

Melissa held for about 9 months, taking off in the end of 2001. Max was left on his own, but not for too long. A few weeks later HOUSE OF NOIZZ introduced to its growing audience the new co-host - Stine

MAX: “I knew Stine for a while before she joined in. She had been working in Real Groovy Records, the music store, and if you wanted some European Metal in New Zealand - Real Groovy was the place to go. The Metal community was pretty narrow, so as long as you were out in the scene, one way or another you were going to see people, and get to know them. So I’d been hanging out there one day, when Stine came over, asking if I wanted to buy a Helloween flag. I didn’t want the flag. Instead I wanted the girl! As I said, I spoke to Stine before and she seemed like exactly the person I needed. I mean, how often to you get to meet a girl whose favorite bands would be Immortal, Deicide and Sepultura?! Stine was an expert in Black/Death Metal and she was a cool, smart and open-minded lady. The moment she came over with that flag, I knew that she was the one for the show. So I said: ‘Hey, wanna run a Metal show on the radio?’ And that was it.”

STINE: “I came across Max by chance and radio work was something I had never tried. So once asked I plunged into taking the advantage to spread as much evil as possible to whom ever would be listening!”

Stine brought to The House fresh blood. Altogether it was a whole new dimension of music that the show missed. The usual play-list consisting of Helloween, Motley Crue, Manowar and In Flames was now completed with the likes of Old Man’s Child, Carpathian Forest, Marduk and Behemoth.

“I never was a big fan of that sort of stuff and Stine literally opened my eyes for many Death and Black bands.” Max continues. “It turned out to be a whole new scene! I actually started buying Nile, The Haunted and Dimension Zero albums and really enjoyed them! The whole show became some kind of ‘Transylvanian’, vampyric broadcast, sounding as iif we were doing it from the dungeon of some ruined castle.”

STINE: “Once I joined Max, the choice of music genres expanded immensely. With both of our powers combined we were able to address a larger field of metallers and so I feel the crowd response fed and grew from this unusual mish mash of musical extremities. Two heads are better than one, huh?”

With Stine co-hosting, the show went to a new level, becoming one of the leading portals of Heavy Metal in New Zealand. Max and Stine conducted numerous interviews with such bands as Finntroll, Axxis, Grave Digger, Rage and Skyclad. Competitions, on-air games, together with multiple premieres of new releases became a casual business. The show also made friends with European Metal leaders “Sanctuary Records Group”. In December 2002 HOUSE OF NOIZZ received a Planet FM award for “Best Production.”

MAX: “It was kind of funny when we got that award. We tried to be as disgusting as we could, because that’s what Rock’n’Roll is about. While every other local music show was praising themselves being ‘New Zealand’s Best,’ we thought: Fuck it! We’ll be the very worst! We’ll be the garbage, the nightmare of New Zealand broadcasting, so while those guys are fighting over the title of ‘The Best,’ we’ll just be left alone to do our thing! The motto which has remained with us ever since.”

STINE: “Max is a bunch of funny stories all wrapped up in one. If I could list all the things he’s done to make me crack, you would just eventually get bored. Highlights? Max questioning the Stripper, Sugar, in the winter of 2002. You should have seen his face! Making callers in 'actually' sing us Halloween songs on air! Suckers! Watching Max accept his Production award at the Planet FM Awards in true Ozzy style! Nearly fell over too! Max's stalker. Bound to end up his wife! (laughs).”

Unfortunately, as nothing is forever, the bad as well as the good, in the beginning of 2003 Stine decided to leave the show.

“Stine was working full-time and late nights on Thursdays and early mornings on Fridays didn’t go well for her. I begged her to stay for a while, until I could find somebody else, but to find a girl who would be a pro in Metal seemed to be task next to impossible. So Stine was gone and I stuck on my own for almost 9 months. For me it was really the 9 months of decadence - I felt frustrated, depressed and unable to move this thing on my own. But I guess people adapt to everything. So instead of a show the way it was with Stine, I worked out my own way of running things. I just turned it into a non-stop Metal marathon and somehow learned to operate it without any additional support.”

That’s the way it went until Brendon Williams, the Manowar maniac, was introduced to the listeners in October 2003.

BRENDON: “Before I got involved with the show, I had only ever seen one Manowar t-shirt being worn by a member of the public besides myself. And the poser who was wearing it didn't even know who the fuck Manowar was! So when I saw a dude outside Real Groovy Records wearing a Manowar shirt one day, I spun the car around to give the guy some shit. I thought he wouldn't know anything about the band either. Turns out he was a big fan. John (aka Devilwolf) was one of the participants/organisers of the weekly House Of Noizz Metal gathering in Auckland City. He grabbed me a flyer for the radio show which sparked my interest and turned me onto the website, and in turn the radio show.”

MAX: “It’s not too often you get to meet people who share your perception of things. Be it music, lifestyle, whatever. And Brendon is the case. We love the same music, we love doing radio, we love to go out and party, and have a litre of vodka ‘Russian style’! I guess that Manowar shirt was something like Divine Intervention. These kind of things really make you wonder if there’s something up there…”

BRENDON: “When I first heard the show I thought it was weird that the DJ (Max) was playing songs I had in my personal collection that I thought only a select few in NZ owned or listened to. Material from Annihilator's "Set The World On Fire" and WASP's "Headless Children". Songs from Twisted Sister's "Love Is For Suckers" and Motley Crue's self titled album just to name a few. The overall impression was "Wow...I'm not the only one into this music after all!" The great feeling of knowing that there are other people out there who I haven't met that have picked up and loved these same albums is very rewarding.”

The rest is history. Brendon was accepted on board in October 2003 and has been co-hosting the show ever since. In the beginning of December 2003, HOUSE OF NOIZZ got another award - this time for the “Best Music Show”. “That was just out of hand,” Max comments. “I mean, I literally wanted these guys to invent an award for ‘The Worst Radio Show in the History of the Station’! But, what do you know?! We got ‘The Best’ one again! It’s a curse, really!”

Later in December 2003 the show celebrated its first step into the live arena - the NOIZZ FEST! The gig took place in one of the small clubs in Auckland, but turned out to be a huge success nobody saw coming! The gig gathered a huge crowd of people who came to mosh, drink and support Heavy Metal.

MAX: “Brendon rang me up at 3 AM. I was at home, suffering from some wicked sort of flu. I couldn’t make it to the gig, but I couldn’t sleep either, although I was packed with antibiotics and sleeping pills. So, Brendon rings me up and goes: ‘Dude, you won’t fucking believe it! The gig was awesome! It was packed!’”

BRENDON: “It was pretty much a night for anyone involved with House Of Noizz to celebrate being part of an underground Metal movement. Somehow it’s not given the attention it deserves by NZ metalheads and the general public alike. It made many people associated with the NZ metal scene sit up and take notice... whether they liked it or not. Although it was the first NOIZZFEST, it wasn't the last!”

Chapter Four: Kings Of Metal

2004 was arguably the most important year for Max and Brendon. They managed to score interviews with artists that had been given little or no publicity at all in New Zealand. For once, the public could tune into House Of Noizz one week and hear an interview with Eric Adams of Manowar, then the next week The Great Kat, then King Diamond, then Phil Anselmo of Pantera, and so on... the stream of great interviews with the world's greatest Metal artists was growing as the guys' ambition took over and they really started to see what they could accomplish for the promotion of Metal.

BRENDON: “I was really pleased with where we were heading. However, I was also a little depressed that once the interviews we were conducting were aired on the radio, they seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. There was no permanent documentation of the often important conversations with Metal Masters. So I decided to throw together a magazine, or 'fanzine' so that these interviews could at least be cemented into history as they deserved to be".

November 2004 saw the release of Slaughterama, Issue One. This was a milestone both for House Of Noizz and also for New Zealand Heavy Metal. The magazine was an overnight success and is still going to this day. Many Metal fans from throughout the world have since caught on...

MORE ADDITIONS TO THE HISTORY OF HOUSE OF NOIZZ COMING SOON!!!