Celtic Frost, R.I.P.?
"Celtic Frost singer and guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer has left Celtic Frost due to the irresolvable, severe erosion of the personal basis so urgently required to collaborate within a band so unique, volatile, and...
Wherefore Art Thou, Iron Man?
Taking advantage of the occasion of the new Iron Man movie, The Boston Globe has posted an awesome long-form multimedia inquest into the origins of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." Delving way beyond "Can he...
New Van Halen Book Interview
Thanks to Neil Daniels for posting a brief, to-the-point interview with me about my Van Halen book at GetReadyToRock.com. Somehow, he broke me down and got me to confess my burning desire to...
Anialator: Sons of Sons of Slayer
Back in the day, there wasn't enough Slayer to go around, so a few enterprising thrashers worked out how to whip up a batch of homemade Slayer-metal in the garage. One of the most...
Who Are You? #3
So you figured out the faces in Who Are You? #1 and #2. Next in our ongoing series of semi-embarrassing early photos of classic metal bands (because it's a lot easier than digitizing old...
Black Metal Snow Joke
From the A-Z band biography reference section in Swedish Death Metal:
"SPORTLOV -- The natural end result of the black metal movement. In 2000 some musicians from Uppsala heard about the German band Vintersemestre (which...
Life Imitates Shirt
"Corpse paint on shirt...corpse paint on face," writes Pat D. It is a little uncanny, like a hall of mirrors. Give it a few seconds to start to bang around in your brain...
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Gary Gygax, R.I.P.
If you've ever played World of Warcraft (or any other sword and magic role-playing game), or listened to Manowar (or any other sword and magic headbanging band) your imagination owes a real thank you...
Machine Dog: This Dog Didn’t Get Its Day
Though this tape has been the source of so much fun and fascination over the years, I have little to say about Machine Dog's obscure Sic 'Em demo. This is the first of...
Out of Love Again?
"Jump," Ft. Lauderdale train wreck--Roth and backing keyboard track are fine, but is Eddie playing Merzbow?, 2/20/08
Word on the streets of Los Angeles is that Van Halen are canceling hotel rooms and going...
The Torture Playlist
I guess if anybody hates Christianity more than Glen Benton, it's al-Qaeda. My former patrons (briefly) over at Mother Jones have compiled a streaming audio playlist built from leaked interrogation logs from U.S. military...
Hurt & Burny
Okay, Job for a Cowboy are now officially unemployed--Spongebob can dry up and blow away. This Sesame Street edit by YouTube user HATW1R3 is a true blasterpiece, based on a song by defunct Dutch...
Swedish Death Metal Awaits…
The demo digitization program has slowed a little lately while I prepare the the US edition of Daniel Ekeroth's outstanding Swedish Death Metal for press. This is the first book through my new...
Who Are You? #2
I have nothing to say here that wouldn't be a dead giveaway. The two guys on the right are still in this band, and note that the young buck in the fancy middle eastern...
Who Are You? #1
This mystery arrived in my mailbox today. I thought the dude in middle with the nasty homemade codpiece might be "Evil Chuck" Schuldiner circa 1983, but no dice. Please comment first, then think later--this...
Terror: Snuffing Out Terror From Gothenburg
Thanks to recently-reactivated At the Gates drummer Adrian Erlandsson (also ex-Cradle of Filth) for posting three great demo songs recorded in two days in 1994 by his Terror project. Fulfilling some kind of...
Spill the Blood Onto the Red Carpet
Yippee for Slayer, they made King Diamond, Machine Head, As I Lay Dying, and Shadows Fall eat hot wet mud tonight by taking home the Grammy for Top Metal Performance. And there to accept...
Rooster on Rye
This "heavy" 1972 session by proto-metal bangers Atomic Rooster is legendary because replacement singer Chris Farlowe casually chomps a sandwich throughout the duration of the song. The early '70s were all about unconventional technique...
When Worlds Collide…
...Guitar World and MacWorld, anyway. You're looking at PocketGuitar, a six-string emulator for iPhone and iPod touch, and it sure looks to me like dude is doing some right-hand tapping on the A-string
Dude, Where’s My Band?
Thanks to everybody who sent over the stripped DLR vocal from "Runnin' With the Devil" this week. All of you. Thanks. And you and you and you. I appreciate it. I feel a little...
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Bloody Roots of Analog Synths in Metal on Sirius XM
Ominous drones, piercing squelches, and shimmering waves of circuitry in tracks by Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Sigh, Amorphis, Ufommamut, Zemial, Hammers of Misfortune, Ihsahn, John Carpenter, and others.
