by Brett T, Charlotte G, Jon R, Karen L, Sharon L

Welcome to the home of damned souls -- 710 068 of them to be precise!! Since the beginning of time, on 5 December 1996, here they gather, one by one. This is www.dewn.com/mm -- the doorway to the cyber lair of Mr Anti-Christ himself -- Marilyn Manson. It's slick, it's sick, even scary, and it certainly doesn't appeal to everyone, including some of our reviewers in this month's feature on the Top 10 sites for performing artists.

Sevenmag's top hits list has been compiled and reviewed by five independents -- who they are and how they did it is explained at the end of this article. If you think we're off course, and have overlooked a really mindblowing site, email us at sevenmag@ozemail.com.au and we'll feature it in a future Readers' Choice article.

[ SEVENMAG'S TOP 10 SITES ]
Sevenmag's Top 10 performing artist sites, in alphabetical order, are:
David Bowie: www.davidbowie.com
Garbage: www.garbage.com
George Michael: www.aegean.net/aegean/artists/george_michael
Jamiroquai: www.jamiroquai.co.uk
Madonna: www.madonnafanclub.com
Marilyn Manson: www.dewn.com/mm/acs1.html
Ozzy Osbourne: www.ozzynet.com
Radiohead: www.radiohead.co.uk
Joe Satriani: www.satriani.com
Steve Vai: www.vai.com

[ SLICK & STYLISH ]
While all the sites on this list are there because of their excellence, a few stand out -- Garbage and David Bowie rated high on nearly all counts. Other sites such as Radiohead and Marilyn Manson excited the senses but also provoked some agitation, even panic (*I've clicked my mouse and I can't get out!!!*). As might be expected, browsing was sometimes hindered by software quirks and server glitches-- the Garbage site appears to have some compatibility problems with Internet Explorer and the Steve Vai site was intermittently inaccessible over a number of days.

[ GARBAGE: www.garbage.com ]
Jon: Clear, bright, easy to manoeuvre about. Great photos section with really large blowups from the thumbnails. Videos, music, extensive easy-access fan info (newsgroup, chat room etc.). Great use of 'mouseover' design to increase button information without cluttering the page. Total package!
Sharon: Nice clean layout, very easy to navigate, nicely interactive and good sound clips.
Karen: Cool, consistent design and concept, easy navigationals and good animated effects which are not too overdone. Some nice pics of the band too.
Brett: This site was excellent. It boasts a great range of features for fans including downloadable video clips and sounds. The graphics were stylish and simple. Navigation through the site was a highly enjoyable experience. However, this site seems to have a compatibility problem with Internet Explorer and it was not able to tell me this when I tried to log on, which I find highly unacceptable. For the total experience you do need to use the Shockwave plug in, but even without this plug in, the content was excellent.

[ DAVID BOWIE: www.davidbowie.com ]
Sharon: The Bowie site has a lot to offer fans in the way of content. Its presentation is interesting, the interview clips and music clips were terrific and easy to access, and the art gallery was a major bonus.
Jon: Straightforward with deconstructivist styling; offers all features of the other top sites.
Brett: This site melded well with Bowie's current look of the past two albums. This site has two special features, one being the ability to download CD quality sound files of a remix of one of Bowie's songs, the other was an interesting cut and paste story written by fans themselves.
Karen: Nice photoshop images. Kinda dull contents for Bowie.

[ MORE SEDUCTIVE SIGHTS AND SOUNDS ]
(in alphabetical order)

[ GEORGE MICHAEL:
www.aegean.net/aegean/artists/george_michael/ ]
Karen: Clean simple interface, a bit too plain compared to his over-the-top-videos.
Sharon: Looked fab, but navigation is its weak point. Loved the scrolling visuals for the song clips and the way they presented his biography.
Jon: Certainly has the look of George Michael and though very simple in style offers some great features including a slick 'Liquid Audio' interface for CD quality playback.

[ JAMIROQUAI: www.jamiroquai.co.uk ]
Karen: Pretty straightforward navigationals and site design, but slick button design (embossed silver) and bright colours that go quite well with the sleeve designs of his CDs. Also pretty good content, videos and interviews. Not damaging to his image.
Jon: Points for bold marketing prowess; Jamiroquai's site requests that you subscribe to the mailing list as the first point of entry. Site offered a mixed array of methods for music downloads, but resulting quality of all were less than that of other sites like Garbage and George Michael. A few potentially interesting categories on the site had been removed and as yet had not been replaced with anything (cosmic world and competition).
Sharon: Just seemed mediocre to me.

[ MADONNA: www.madonnafanclub.com ]
Charlotte: The Madonna site had a beautiful animation/still from "Frozen" (though the general design was poor) and was jam packed with information. Nice personal touch on the home page.
Sharon: Lovely opening visual, being small site didn't get too complex, lots of fan goodies to buy.
Karen: Not worth the wait. Pink header overkill. Very damaging to artist.
Jon: Very slick point of entry which doesn't hold up inside, text-heavy and light on multi-media features.

[ MARILYN MANSON: www.dewn.com/mm/ ]
Jon: A place where you can immerse yourself in the anti-christ, Marilyn Manson also hands out 'cookies'; a brief statement at the top of the entry page lets you know how many times you have raped an angel (i.e., personally entered that site). Sometimes the blood coloured text was difficult to read on black backgrounds. The most fun were the automatic disclaimers which popped up from time to time requesting that you not blindly follow the devil and please don't post meaningless drivel on the message boards like *I want to sniff your butt*.
Charlotte: The Marilyn Manson site is 100% appropriate in my opinion (i.e. sick and scary). The picture browser was impressive where you scroll down on the LHS and the picture appears on the RHS. Very user friendly.
Karen: Suits the cultists in us all, scary.
Sharon: Too much small text bullshit to read through -- the satanists probably love the dark look of it -- I hated it!

[ OZZY OSBOURNE: www.ozzynet.com ]
Sharon: Navigation its strong point.
Karen: Pretty funny but that's about it.
Jon: 'Comic' appeal. Visually exciting with info to match.

[ RADIOHEAD: www.radiohead.co.uk ]
Charlotte: Personal favourite where I actually went through and looked at every single page. It made me laugh, though doubtless would infuriate fans.
Karen: Perfect interpretation of what Radiohead is all about, cynical, self-deprecating, naive, cryptic. It's great to have a different experience to other sites. A linear path of clicks with few choices that manages to keep your interest till you get to the end of the site, in the mean time, taking you through doodles, lyrics and cryptic messages. Also fast download but that isn't always a huge priority if the graphics and concept are worth waiting for. It shows another way of representing performing artists without just presenting in a straightforward way, the music, CDs and videos.
Jon: Interesting art piece in cyber torture. *I've clicked my mouse and I can't get out!!!*
Brett: This site was intriguing, yet after a while highly confusing, however it fitted in with the Radiohead persona and so it worked.
Sharon: I liked the way one set of words was the link to the next and the opening lured you in, but other than that I found the content and look totally uninspiring.

[ SATRIANI: www.satriani.com ]
Karen: Too many buttons to choose from.
Sharon: Great for guitar buffs.
Jon: Dull.

[ STEVE VAI: www.vai.com ]
Sharon: Also great for guitar buffs -- terrific content in terms of hints for players, and chords etc. Excellent guitar photos, terrific fan interaction with chat, art etc.
Karen: Nice splash page, lots of content.
Jon: Can't seem to access website at all.
Brett: I could not get into this site, I kept on getting address not known messages.

[ WHO? ]
Sevenmag asked five independent people to scan the web, nominate sites and review them. Each has either extensive design or web experience, or both: Charlotte G (professional print and website designer), Karen L (creative director with website design company), Sharon L (magazine editor and layout artist, also currently undertaking a website design course), Jon R (professional multi-media designer), Brett T (Arts student, Webbie and Webmaster).

[ HOW? ]
Each viewer was asked to assess each site on a 20 point system: visual design (5), navigation and user friendliness (5), content (5) and webwisdom or imaginative use of the Internet as a medium (5).