For a self-proclaimed dead guy, David Necro, editor of the new Las Vegas-based webzine Cryptmagazine, sure is fussy. After I offer to buy him lunch at Pink Taco in the Hard Rock, he wants to know if we can go to Mr. Lucky's instead. "Mexican food," he says, crinkling his fleshy face with distaste.
At Mr. Lucky's, it takes him a full 30 minutes to decide what to eat. The waitress checks back three times. Forced to finally order, Necro has something close to a panic attack. When the frustrated server finally departs with our order, Necro is almost satisfied. "They could have hired a hotter waitress," he says.
After the food arrives, he is unhappy about his fries ("they taste hollow"), so the waitress obligingly brings another basket of fries. But Necro barely touches his meal. I can't help wonder if he was this finicky in this life as he is now in the next.
You see, as Necro tells it, just before moving to Las Vegas and starting his webzine, he came back from the dead. He says he left this mortal realm for the first time back on February 9, 1974, after being killed in a car accident driving home from the final gig by the legendary Iggy and the Stooges in Detroit. "My mortal life ended that night. I died of internal bleeding. Now I am back from the grave to tell people what rock 'n' roll is really about."
I look Necro over closely. Though his face reminds me a bit of Gene Simmons, little else about him seems corpselike. In fact, when the conversation turns to Cryptmagazine, Necro gets downright animated. "It is a rock 'n' roll magazine. But it is a conglomeration of three things: sex, horror and rock 'n' roll. These are my passions."
This last category (with the emphasis strongly on metal, goth and punk acts) is covered in the premiere issue (www.cryptmagazine.com) through concert reviews, disc reviews and, most impressively, by Necro's interviews, which are far more lengthy and detailed than print magazines have space for. Necro says the original Creem magazine inspired him, and it shows. Most of the interviews and live reviews are accompanied by lots of original photography, which fans of these artists will appreciate. As one would expect from a fan, Necro is a sympathetic interviewer, but he is also thorough, and he uses his enthusiasm to disarm and draw out his subjects. "We do in-depth coverage of the artists. We pick their brains," Necro says. Among the better-known interview subjects in the first issue are Glen Danzig and GBH's Colin Abrahall. But the emphasis is on more cultish fare, like an interview with the fetish group Genitorturers and a conversation with the Norwegian death-metal pioneer Mortiis (the one- time bass player for Emperor). Outside of music, there is an extended interview with a follower of Anton LeVay's Church of Satan.
Of course, for those who think that these sorts of bands and interests are for guys without girls, the absence of the sex part of Necro's Cryptmagazine trilogy is a bit glaring. "It's a little embarrassing," Necro admits. The page where girls can send in photos to be selected as "Cryptgirls" is empty—not a chick in the crypt—and Necro admits his website's warm and fuzzy call for ladies to volunteer as "promo bitches" has also gone largely unheeded.
"I am not Hugh Hefner. I know I am not going to get nines and 10s. That's fine. But any female reader out there can send her photo, and I will evaluate the photo. Women have a tendency to play games. But I am slowly but surely bringing them under my spell, and eventually they will come to me."
It is a good thing, being undead; he has an eternity to wait for that to happen. Of course, Necro knows that Cryptmagazine isn't close to perfect yet, but he sees a need for better coverage of the things that interest him. So Necro isn't going to let the absence of Cryptgirls stop his webzine from being realized.
"There is such a great challenge in creating something. The way the site looks now will not be the way it will look in the future."