Talkin’ Metal II: The Van Halen Years
While I was out X-massing the shit out of some holidays, the best-prepared interviewer in the land Mark Strigl posted our all-Van Halen interview...
Happy New Year 1994 from Shellac
Most folks, including me, are probably more familiar with the name Crawldaddy than the actual contents of the late-'60s magazine of rock. Well the...
Ride the Spider
Unlike Iron Maiden, not every metalhead can afford their own custom commercial jet airliner. But if you got a mondo jumbo Erector set this...
Up, Up and Away the Irons!
If you have no qualms about riding in a jet decorated with a cartoon corpse, British Airways is renting the freshly-painted Iron Maiden 2008...
Anvil Drops on Sundance
For some glorious reason, I thought Sam Dunn was following up his Metal: A Headbanger's Journey metalmemoirmentary with an documentary on Anvil. I was...
Woman of Dark Desires
My work on publishing the US edition of Daniel Ekeroth's amazing Swedish Death Metal is almost finished. I'm starting to worry about where I'm...
True Botswana Black Metal: Wrust Never Sleeps
As any Necros fan can tell by the name, Conquest for Death are a blazing American hardcore thrash band. Singer Devon Morf is a...
Sweet Sound of Guitar Pedal Cakes
I've heard of drooling over gear, but this is ridiculous. Click to see the Ibanez Tube Screamer and a DeArmond Square Wave, also in...
Rotting Corpse: The Original Rotting Cowboys From Hell
The fertile Texas metal scene has always been a tight-knit fraternity that welcomes every type of banger from Lone Star knuckleheads to brainy prairie...
Giant Fly Attacks Mount St. Helens
Blame global warming, blame the pesticide-laden sewage flowing from a nearby McDonald's, blame Godzilla if you want...all I know is a 100-yard housefly just...
They Say the Pen is Mightier Than the Sword
Here Tom Araya from Slayer's immortal 1985 tribute to the great Bob "Kick*Ass" Muldowney. I needed to see this clip again in light of...
When Ronnie Met Ozzy
No love lost. At first I thought Dio was averting his eyes from Ozzy's paunchy nipples and mullet while they discuss this new-fangled thing...
A Heavy Lather
And the first early-90s band from the Earache Records roster to use their name to sell soap is North Carolina's Confessor. How folksy! Pictured...
Bob "Kick*Ass" Muldowney, RIP
Ulrich, Muldowney, and Zazula, circa 1984
Bob Muldowney, former editor of the pioneering independent metal magazine Kick*Ass Monthly, died Monday, November 5, 2007 after succumbing...
Vishnu Baby Goes Under the Knife
Laksmi Tatma is a cute 8-limbed Indian toddler apparently born on a day of celebration for the 8-limbed Hindu god Vishnu. Not surprisingly, she's...
Le Book Jolie Nouveau Est Arrivée
Salut France, Quebec, Belgium, New Orleans, Haiti et les Suisse-Romands -- the French translation of Sound of the Beast is finished and ready for...
Worshipping the Blue Devils
My old high school has redesigned its Blue Devil team mascot using sophisticated computer rendering (see above). If you run a small semi-bootleg record...
An Eye for an Eye, A Ewe for an Itune!
Enslaved makes black metal music, while Norwegian political party leader Lars Sponheim raises sheep. Sponheim has been making a lot of noise about declaring...
Big Rock 2007: The ADD Edition
This fast-forward flip through Van Halen's entire 10/16/07 show in Chicago is the best-looking and best-sounding YouTube evidence of what's going on out there....
Obscurity: 1987, The Year Death Metal Killed
While getting the manuscript for Daniel Ekeroth's Swedish Death Metal ready for print, I picked up a good copy of Obscurity's 2nd demo, "Damnation's...