When our fearless leader sent me this promo, I was not happy about the prospect of grind/punk bands doing covers of my favorite band, Type O Negative. In my inbox, it sat. Then, I thought about it, and remembered the hardcore roots of Peter Steele and how he infamously said multiple times regarding their next […]

Documentary by Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell This 2009 feature documentary covers the lurid beginnings of the Norwegian black metal scene in the early 90s: the murders, the church burnings, and the media panic that accompanied them. Many of us are familiar with these stories, but this is the first time I’ve heard these accounts […]

These days, if you want to find out about a band – or a whole label’s roster – there are plenty of options. Websites, Myspace, streaming e-cards, YouTube, you name it. The days of picking up a compilation are pretty much over. So it was a pleasant surprise to receive Better Undead than Alive 2, […]

For those that don’t know, John Peel (RIP) was a BBC radio DJ who championed the extreme and the underground. While BBC Radio 1 and 2 (back then), was busy playing The Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Mel and Kim and other pop chart topping tripe, Peel and his late night Sunday radio show was playing […]

You’ve got to respect what Markus Eck and his German webzine have accomplished with the fifth installment of their Metal Message folk/pagan/Viking compilation CDs. For this lavishly packaged release, legendary artist Ed Repka (Megadeath, Death, Atheist, 3 Inches of Blood) has provided the cover and the DVD packaged material is full of endearing artwork, including […]

There’s Pink Floyd, and then there’s Syd Barrett. My first Pink Floyd album was 1987’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and I worked backwards from there, so the early Floyd/Barrett stuff has always been kinda exotic and unfamiliar to me. Admittedly, it’s also never been my favorite – a proto-version of the pompous, extravagant sonic […]

Maybe it’s unmetal, but I love Christmas. When the end of November rolls around, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra records and a few others will hit my CD player, I’ll be putting up lights around the house and looking for a tree. Heck, I’ve got my TSO tickets in hand already. But when it’s sunny, 85 degrees […]

First, let me get my bitching and moaning out of the way. Megadeth has been a favorite band of mine for several years now – they were one of the first “real” metal bands I discovered. I’ve seen them live twice, once with crappy support, and once with Exodus, but unfortunately, I missed them. Since […]

It’s no surprise that Earache took the liberty of releasing a compilation of strictly new school thrash ‘revivalists’, as their roster boasts more of these bands (Bonded by Blood, Evile, Municipal Waste, SSS, Gama Bomb, and Violator all appear here) than any other major metal label. Thrashing Like a Maniac, just as any good comp […]

What is Pagan/Viking/Folk Metal? Well according to Nuclear Blast and their recently released CD/DVD compilation to promote the upcoming 2008 Pagan Fest tour, it’s a number of things; It could be veterans of chunky death metal with plundering Viking lyrics (Amon Amarth’s “Victory March”, Unleashed’s “The Long ships are Coming”), it could be epic hymns […]

Recorded live at the Worcester Palladium in April of 2007, this 29 track DVD features most of the ‘popular’ Metal Blade artists. But while I have no problems with production or fairly bare bones but entertaining back stage interviews, I have issue with the fact Metal Blade went withtracks from teh likes of Beyond The […]

Tribute albums bring out the best and worst in fan opinions: the love/hate continuum wildly diverges between tunes that mimic the original band perfectly—and those that’re so far from the originals that their most endearing qualities have vanished. Ultimately, it comes down to personal preference, but this second installment of Sucking the ’70s from Detroit’s […]

Magna Carta, famous for their prog-rock roster, truly pushes the envelope with their annual Drum Nation compilation. This year, however, the label foregoes the Brufords and the Portnoys of past volumes to embrace today’s top metal drummers and their creative instrumental showcases. All contributors are outstanding within the discipline, though there are a few that’ll […]

Though this nice 2CD/DVD combo will only appeal to the Hot Topic Crowd, (5% of the profits from this DVD go to the Hot Topic Foundation), it’s still a well put together package that feature most of the bands that today’s kids are digging.The 2 CDs (38 tracks in all) contain nothing too special, mostly […]

Ah, the tribute album. It seems like everyone’s got one these days, from the most deserving legendary performers to one-hit wonders that have been around for less than five years. Usually, the performances are all over the place, from the occasional interesting interpretation to straight up karaoke versions to someone royally fucking up a great […]

I always thought it was a little silly when I saw people crying their eyes out over a celebrity that they’d never even met. I’d never mourned a celebrity, even ones I really liked and respected. But that changed on Dec. 8, 2004. It was my birthday, of all days, in one of the shittiest […]

The Wacken Festival held annually in Germany is perhaps the best known and most loved of all of the outdoor, open air, Heavy Metal Music Festivals in all the world. Metal Fans come in droves from all corners of the globe to bask in the brain-bashing, ear-splitting, neck-snapping glow of loud, live Heavy Metal. So, […]

Quite frankly, the angelic soprano singing over metal riffs is getting a little old to me. Most of the time the bands that are doing it are doing it in an attempt to offer something different (at this point, it’s not really) and the vocals don’t really jibe with the music. But I know there […]

Let’s put aside the pretentious subtitle of this record because it’s almost to easy to take shots at it. (And considering the quality of most tribute albums, how hard is it really to be the world’s greatest?) In fact, it may live up to its billing. It’s certainly the best of the several Ozzy tributes […]

When Magna Carta’s first Rush tribute, Working Man, came out in 1996, fans frothed at the premise of the day’s best progressive musicians taking cracks at the venerable Canadian pioneers. Excepting Devin Townsend’s unforgivable vocal trashing of the sacred “Natural Science,” every track was a radiant impression of the individual player: Cynic’s Sean Malone, Mr. […]

No, I’m not going to spend a lot of time explaining why grindcore is so excellent; if you tend to get sick of my polemicizing, believe you me, I get sicker quicker. So I’ll confine myself to remarking that grind roolz, and death metal (for the most part) droolz. Now on to the album at […]

Impetigo were considered by many to be the kings of true underground death metal when they broke up in 1993. This band played a large role in furthering the expansion of the underground during the tape trading days of old. They also remain a huge influence on our current international death and gore metal scene. […]

For those of you who aren’t up on current events, or just don’t care enough to research the metal market outside of your own community, the Brazilian death metal scene is blowing up. While the country is still best known for its street-sweeping execution squads, its death metal scene has slowly evolved into one of […]

Subtitled The Dark Metal Compilation, this double-disc European compilation collects the top acts in goth metal and others who’ve forsaken their heavy roots for the love of money. Aesma Daaeva’s “O Death (Rock Me Asleep)” is reminiscent of old Paradise Lost but colder and with female vocals. Tiamat and resident freak Johan Edlund check in […]