The 25 Most Important People in Metal: #9, Jose Mangin
As much as metal is a genre of music and a lifestyle, it is also a community. And like all communities, it has its leaders — men and women whose work, be it by design or circumstance, affects all lovers of extreme music on a regular basis.
Throughout November, MetalSucks will celebrate these industry leaders by counting down The 25 Most Important People in Metal one per day. To be clear, this is a list of the people we believe are most important to metal today, in 2016 — not necessarily the most important people overall in the entire history of the genre. Some of them are musicians. Many of them are not. Some of them are people you’ve heard of. Many of them work behind the scenes and do not routinely get to take a bow. But they all have one thing in common: more than just cogs in a machine, they are truly, undeniably irreplaceable.
Spare us your uneducated lecture on how radio isn’t important anymore. Sure, it may not have the driving power it once did, but radio still reaches a massive audience in a place where their attention is most captive, with the least distraction: their cars. And no single person is more important to metal than Jose Mangin, the director and on-air host for SiriusXM channels Liquid Metal and Octane.
When Jose gets behind a band, he fully gets behind them, using all of his might to will their success into existence. Gojira, Twelve Foot Ninja, Byzantine and Five Finger Death Punch are just a few of the bands for whom Jose’s efforts have been hugely consequential. Even at its default, exposure for a band on either of SiriusXM’s two metal channels is massive: we’re talking about millions of people reached in one fell swoop.
But more than simply a radio DJ, Mangin is a personality. His voice is instantly recognizable by any metalhead, his excitement and passion for the genre palpable in every word. And that, more than anything, is why he’s one of the most important people in metal today.
The biggest (really only) complaint I’ve heard lodged at Jose is that his seemingly larger-than-life, SUPER STOKED personality is a put-on, a cartoon characterization of what it means to be a metal DJ amped up to its logical conclusion. Folks, let me tell you something: nothing about Jose is a put-on. HE ACTUALLY IS THAT GUY. Jose is just as stoked about metal in person, one-on-one, as he is on air, or live in front of 70,000 people introducing a Metallica performance. His passion for metal runs deep and permeates every single element of his life, while everything he does — from the way he speaks about metal, how he acts, and yes, even the Affliction jackets he wears — comes from a place of 100% sincerity. He’s the guy that knows every single word to Pantera’s entire catalog, and still gets just as excited when “Medicine Man” comes on the bar jukebox as he did when he was 10 years old hearing the song for the first time.
Nobody embodies the passion we all feel for metal moreso than Jose. To that end, he’s become something of a cultural ambassador for the genre. And who would be any better suited for the job? We can say with the utmost certainty that Jose Mangin is one of the biggest — probably THE BIGGEST — lover of metal that we know. He’s a national treasure and does a true service to our entire community — even if you don’t see eye-to-eye with his tastes — that we’d all be worse off without.
THE LIST SO FAR
#25: Mark Riddick
#24: Robb Flynn
#23: Rob Scallon
#22: Kim Kelly
#21: Fenriz
#20: Rob Halford
#19: Ash Avildsen
#18: Steve Joh
#17: Karim Peter
#16: Misha Mansoor
#15: Dan Rozenblum
#14: Joey Sturgis
#13: Randy Blythe
#12: Amy Sciarretto
#11: Dimebag Darrell
#10: Corey Taylor
