IAN O'ROURKE

AKA, "MARSHALL RIFFLORD"

MMROC correspondent and founding member of the CNY band MOTORLORD, but most importantly I’m a music fan, musician and Metalhead for almost 40 years. From my first exposure to Kiss as a kid, to discovering Van Halen to Def Leppard, to the explosion of Metallica and everything else in between.

I live, eat and breath metal!

Whether its writing songs, practicing guitar, providing objective opinions on bands and the music along with my brothers in metal at the MMROC, I take it seriously and love every damn minute of it! As the seasoned musician of the MMROC crew, I tend to see things from a different angle, which makes me viewpoint on things somewhat different and unique at times (come on you guitar geeks, you know where I’m coming from!).

Hey while you're at it, check out  Motorlord on YouTube  if you don’t mind (this of course only after you’re done listening to this weeks’ weekly Podcast episode).

WHY ARE YOU A METALHEAD FOR LIFE?

I am a true believer in the power of ROCK music and rock music spans the spectrum from Power Pop to Heavy Metal to Thrash and beyond. No matter what, these all fall under the umbrella of Hard Rock. As this powerful force in music was constantly growing and evolving before
our ears, I have spent a lot of time discovering at times re-discovering bands and material that has spanned a period of 50+ years at this point!. I get the charge from listening to, discussing and playing this thing we call Metal. Bring it on!

WHO ARE YOUR MT. RUSHMORE OF BANDS?

Bands: Van Halen, Metallica, Thin Lizzy, Rush, UFO-Top 5. (I have so, so many)
Metal Albums: Black Sabbath's Master of Reality; Rainbow's Rising; Judas Priest's In After Sin; Van Halen's Women and Children First;
Metallica's Master of Puppets.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT METAL MAYHEM ROC?

The always informative, entertaining and enjoyable interaction we have isnwhat I enjoy most. Whenever we have material to discuss, it has always prompted me to dig into somenresearch and I always leave with some "Heavy Metal Homework" regarding something I might have not known about. All in all, it's a celebration of this thing we call Heavy Metal and all that encompasses it.