Metal and Hardcore

Gene Hoglan on The Early Days of L.A. Thrash Metal

Gene Hoglan is one of the most in-demand drummers in metal. The virtuoso is currently juggling duties in animated metal greats Dethklok and Bay Area thrashers Testament, along with pinch-hitting gigs when other metal greats are in a bind. His drumming style is a dizzying blend of maximum speed and p ... More >>

A Kick-Ass DIY Metal Booking Agency

As usual, Ryan Avery had a hundred other things to worry about that night. He had booked two touring sludge bands at a small venue in downtown L.A. All night the bartender was rude to audience members trying to buy drinks, loudly complaining about the quality of the bands. Then the bouncer, who had ... More >>

Iron Maiden and Megadeth - San Manuel Amphitheater - September 13, 2013

Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and others San Manuel Amphitheater September 13, 2013 Better Than: Commemorating the day by playing the shitty NES game, Friday The 13th. Some of our fondest live metal memories have occurred in basements, garages, and even sushi restaurants. But for our money, there is stil ... More >>

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson Is Brewing Beer and Fixing Up Airplanes

Legendary British metallers Iron Maiden return to Southern California tomorrow, headlining San Manuel Amphitheater with Megadeth, Anthrax, and Testament. Now 35 years into their career, they continue to transcend the heavy metal scene. From a tour stop last week in St. Louis, Iron Maiden vocalist ... More >>

Music Picks: Mad Decent Block Party, Weeknd, Cold War Kids

The Best Los Angeles Metal Shows To See In September

Friday, September 13 Iron Maiden San Manuel Amphitheatre For many months, "The Battle of San Bernardino" has been the most hotly anticipated metal concert of the summer. The undercard of thrash titans Megadeth, Anthrax and Testament is mighty impressive, but the main reason 45,000 metalheads are mak ... More >>

Hair Metal Arrives at the Smithsonian

Hair metal band Nova Rex landed on the Sunset Strip at the height of the cock rock craze but, despite the requisite feminine duds and sexual conquests, didn't achieve wide fame. Their lead singer Kenny Wilkerson moved back to his native Indiana in 1991, and eventually bought some tanning salons in F ... More >>

There Exists a Yasiel Puig-Inspired Metal Band

Who among us is not a fan of Dodger rookie phenom Yasiel Puig? His acolytes certainly include the members of new grindcore band Puig Destroyer. You can hear their delirious track, "One Man, Five Tools" below. We'd imagine it's the first metal ode to the talented Cuban defector. The group formed du ... More >>

Robb Flynn's Balls Are Feeling Just Fine

Seeing as the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival kicks off at San Manuel Amphitheater this weekend, we thought it high time to catch up with Robb Flynn, lead singer and guitarist of veteran Oakland metal band Machine Head. Besides touring in support of band's seventh album (Unto the Locust), he's ... More >>

The Balloon Boy Is Now in a Metal Band

By Jay Stephens Hey, remember the Balloon Boy from 2009? Falcon Heene, the-little-Fort-Collins-boy-that-could-fly-OOPS-nevermind-he-was-in-the-garage-the-whole-time-and-his-dad-went-to-jail is now the lead singer of what is being (self-)proclaimed as "the world's youngest metal band," Heene Boyz, c ... More >>

Ten Metal Albums to Hear Before You Die

By Alex Distefano When you're talking about something as all-encompassing as heavy metal, you might as well be talking about something as infinitely complicated as the universe. It's that vast, and the amount of territory to cover is seemingly limitless. From black metal and thrash, death metal to ... More >>

The 10 Metal Bands Most Beloved By Geeks

By Adam Steininger Geeks love metal more than the computers on which they listen to it. They yearn for heavy metal that was forged by Orcs in the mountains of Mordor, smuggled halfway across the universe on Serenity and then discovered by Silver Surfer while scouting for delicious planets. The te ... More >>

The Time Axl Rose and Steven Adler Nearly Killed Each Other

Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal, by Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman comes out today. It's an amazing account of the four-decades-old genre -- more than 700 pages long, with hundreds of interviews, many of them with essential players. It gets into everything from the mu ... More >>

Jeff Hanneman Remembered By Titans of Metal

Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman passed last week. He died of liver failure, at the Hemet Valley Memorial Hospital. He was 49. Although the rhythmic heart and soul of one of the heaviest bands in modern music, Hanneman was known as a soft-spoken, easygoing dude. See also: Our Jeff Hanneman obituar ... More >>

RIP Jeff Hanneman: Slayer Guitarist Is Dead

Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman has died. The cause was liver failure; he passed at an area hospital near his home this morning. He was 49. Hanneman has not been active in Slayer for the last few years, since suffering a flesh-eating bacteria from a spider bite. No word yet if that caused any c ... More >>

Our Top Ten Favorite Online Resources for Metal Knowledge

The bar has closed. You are standing outside with friends. You have failed at attempts to hook up for the evening. But just as you have given up hope for the night, you encounter a hot metal chick or dude that has just left the metal show at the venue next door. Drunken conversation has started, but ... More >>

The Best L.A. Metal Concerts to See In March

Saturday, Mar 2 Meshuggah The Wiltern "I Am Colossus" is both the title track of Meshuggah's 2012 album Koloss, and the mission statement of the Swedish metal group -- after all, their off-kilter polyrhythmic riffs and drums have influenced dozens of bands. Their sound is anchored by the fantastical ... More >>

Death-Metal Band The Faceless Draws Criticism for Becoming Less Death-Metal

By Jason Roche When music from Los Angeles metal group The Faceless' newest album, Autotheism, began to leak out into the blogosphere last summer, fans were divided, and so were critics. "A botched experiment of sorts," opined SputnikMusic.com; "razor sharp," countered ThePRP.com. The group's prev ... More >>

Metallica: A Tale of Squandered Potential

No band has ever failed to live up to its own potential quite like Metallica. While the other three quarters of thrash metal's "big four" (Testament, Megadeth and Slayer) still cut records and tour for receptive audiences, Metallica moved on to Kid Rock and Nickelback territory. We're used to it now ... More >>

The Best L.A. Metal Concerts To See In February

Sat, Feb 2 Testament House of Blues Hollywood Many metal fans think that the Bay Area's Testament belong next to metal's "Big Four" (Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax). Indeed, classic albums like The Legacy and newer output like 2012's Dark Roots of Earth provide strong evidence for this arg ... More >>

The 20 Greatest Metal Albums in History: 20-11

If you count Black Sabbath's 1970 self-titled debut as heavy metal's birth, the genre is now over 40. It can no longer be called a fad. It can have adult children, and it can run for president. (Insert "presidental metal of freedom" joke here). See also: Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums: The Complete List ... More >>

The Best L.A. Metal Concerts to See in January

Fri, Jan 4 Neurosis Fonda Theatre Oakland's Neurosis have spent 25 years crafting haunting eight-to-ten minute opuses; their tracks slowly build until they explodes in an emotional crescendo. Band leaders Scott Kelly and Steve Von Till tell harrowing tales of apocalyptic plagues and other disasters. ... More >>

Random Notebook Dump: The Year In Metal 2012

A lot of monumental things in metal this year. Some of them involved actual music. Many did not. In honor of the year's end, we gave our notebook a good shaking to help us remember the most important stuff. Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums of All Time -Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe was jailed for a mo ... More >>

Why Are There so Few African-Americans in Metal?

Long Beach-based metal band Hirax has a unique sound, blending the galloping beats of the new wave of British heavy metal with the intensity of thrash. Katon W. De Pena's operatic and aggressive vocals lead the way. Since 1984 De Pena, who is 49, has fronted the legendary thrashers. See also: Top 2 ... More >>

The Power of the Riff - Fonda Theater - 12/20/12

The Power of the Riff Fonda Theater 12/20/12 Better Than... counting down your Mayan advent calendar at home alone. Despite the US Government's attempt to convince us otherwise, we attended metal festival The Power of the Riff last night hoping that the end was, to quote 28 Days Later, "extremely ... More >>

Top Ten Los Angeles Metal Albums of 2012

Twenty twelve was another strong year for Los Angeles metal bands. What's especially cool is that we're not just kicking ass in one kind of metal -- L.A.'s got it going on in just about every metal sub-genre. Without further ado, then, here are our top ten Los Angeles metal albums of 2012. See also ... More >>

Metal Blade Records Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary

A look back at the little metal label that could

Suicide Silence Singer Mitch Lucker Is Dead From a Motorcycle Accident

Mitch Lucker, vocalist for revered Riverside extreme metal band Suicide Silence, died early this morning from injuries sustained in a motorcycle crash in Huntington Beach last night. He was 28 years old. See also: The 20 Worst Hipster Bands Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums According to the Orange County ... More >>

The Creepiest, Goriest, Most Terrifying Heavy Metal Album Covers

Halloween is the time where it's acceptable to wallow in the creepy, the crawly, the dark, and the macabre. Sounds like the themes of heavy metal, year-round! Here then, are those most spine-tingliest metal album covers, for your All Hallow's Eve viewing pleasure. Step inside... Helloween Better Th ... More >>

Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums: The Complete List

When it comes to discussion of the top metal scenes, Los Angeles never gets its due. Maybe it's because we're not known for being pioneers of a single subgenre (Bay Area thrash and Florida death metal for example), but there's still no doubt that the city has been vital in the evolution of metal. ... More >>

Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums: 10 - 1

See also: Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums: 20 - 11 Top 20 Greatest L.A. Punk Albums The Ten Most Unreadable Metal Band Logos 10. Slayer Seasons in the Abyss (1990) Seasons in the Abyss is nothing fancy, just pure, sore-neck, eardrum-stripping metal. Full of brutal drum barrages, massive caliber guitar as ... More >>

Top 20 L.A. Metal Albums: 20 - 11

When it comes to discussion of the top metal scenes, Los Angeles never gets its due. Maybe it's because we're not known for being pioneers of a single subgenre (Bay Area thrash and Florida death metal for example), but there's still no doubt that the city has been vital in the evolution of metal. ... More >>

Saint Vitus: Addiction Still Fuels Their Fire

When their 1986 album Born Too Late was released, it's fair to say not many had picked up on the genius of Saint Vitus. Check this YouTube clip of a performance at the Palm Springs Community Center that year, for example. It appears to have been attended by fewer than a dozen people. Today, Born T ... More >>

The Best Metal Concerts to See in L.A. This Month

Fri, Oct 5 Gypsyhawk The Viper Room Pasadena's Gypsyhawk deftly blend metallic guitars and fantasy/science-obsessed lyrics with a rock and roll boogie swagger. On the group's new album Revelry & Resilience, the raspy shouts of bassist/vocalist Eric Harris and the blistering yet warm solos of guitar ... More >>

Hardcore Deathmatch: Cro-Mags vs. Beowülf

[Editor's note: Deathmatch pairs two artists who have something in common, and determines who is better. It's a concept we sort-of ripped off from MTV, except that instead of claymation it's the printed word!] See also: Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records Harley Flanagan, founding bassist of New Y ... More >>

You Can Bro Your Own Way: The Best Brocore Bands

*Everything You Wanted to Know About Metal but Were Afraid to Ask *Top Five Best Post-Hardcore Records What is "brocore," you ask? Well, brocore bands are usually white guys wearing baggy clothing and, often, gauged earrings. Their screamed lyrics are aggressive or brooding, and they tend to pace, ... More >>

Everything You Wanted to Know About Metal but Were Afraid to Ask

Subgenres explained, from thrash to pornogrind

Top Ten Metal Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Metal

See also: *Top Ten Jazz Albums for People Who Don't Know Shit About Jazz *Top Ten Rap Albums For People Who Don't Know Shit About Hip-Hop Ever heard about the guy at a party who overheard other guests talking about how much they enjoyed metal? And then about how he tried to fit in by mentioning ho ... More >>

Top Ten Metal Frontmen (and Women) Under 30

See also: The Top Five Metal Guitarists Under The Age of 30 Many of the most famous metal bands -- not to mention many of our favorites -- have been around for decades. (Some of them are even still putting out strong material.) For this reason it's easy to forget about the newer bands on the rise, ... More >>

Opeth, Mastodon, Ghost - Gibson Amphitheatre - 4-26-12

Opeth, Mastodon, and Ghost Gibson Amphitheatre 4-26-12 Better than...being stuck in a Tenth Avenue Freeze Out. We had a bit of trepidation about seeing Mastodon live last night. We've seen them put on a great show, we've seen them put on a lackluster show; you never know for sure which Mastodon yo ... More >>

Overkill

The Best Supergroups in Metal

Bereft's debut album, Leichenhaus, was released this week. Featuring members of Abysmal Dawn and Intronaut, and an ex-member of The Faceless, the group plays snail-paced doom-metal inspired by 90's U.K. acts like Paradise Lost and Anathema. Since it came out just this week, it is still too early to ... More >>

Marilyn Manson, Slash, Evanescence - Club Nokia - 4/11/12

Revolver Golden Gods Club Nokia 4-11-12 Better than ... Any hard rock show you'd see on the Sunset Strip nowadays. Music awards shows generally suck. They are most often excuses for industry people to slap themselves on the back and perform crappy performances of songs you don't want to hear anywa ... More >>

The Museum That Roared

Megadeth - Gibson Amphitheatre - 2-24-11

Timothy Norris​See also: Dave Mustaine's Advice for Starving Women in Africa: "Put a Plug in It" Megadeth Gibson Amphitheatre 2-24-12 Better than...putting a plug in it. Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine has gone on a tear making controversial statements in interviews recently. At least he has ... More >>

Top Ten Best Replacement Singers in Rock and Metal

Dio-era Black Sabbath​See also: *Top Ten Worst Replacement Singers in Rock and Metal *Ozzy Osbourne vs. Ronnie James Dio: Who's Better? One of the biggest stories in metal this year is the revolving door for vocalists. Jesse Leach has returned to Killswitch Engage. Iced Earth played their fi ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: DragonForce Gives Power Metal a Good Name

Metal isn't supposed to be cheerful. Metal is supposed to be brootal. As a general rule, if it's not Van Halen's "Jump," it should not involve synthesizers. If lyrics don't tend toward evil, they should at least be depressing. Major keys should be used sparingly, at most. Vocal harmonies? Proceed wi ... More >>

Ozzy Osbourne vs. Ronnie James Dio: Who's Better?

​[Editor's note: Deathmatch pairs two artists who have something in common, and determines who is better. It's a concept we sort-of ripped off from MTV, except that instead of claymation it's the printed word!] A singer's voice impacts a band's sound so much that a replacement basically creates a ... More >>

Guns N' Roses - The Forum - December 21, 2011

Timothy Norris"Do you know where you are?"​See also: *Our slideshow of the concert *True Story: Axl Once Threatened To Skip A Concert, So Barry Fey Got His Gun *Tommy Stinson Interview: Guns N' Roses' Bassist Compares Axl Rose And Paul Westerberg *Top 20 Hair Metal Albums Of All Time: The Comp ... More >>

Fuck Guilty Pleasures: Winds Of Plague And Their Endless String Of Hot Chick Keyboardists

Winds Of Plague​[Editor's Note: Fuck Guilty Pleasures celebrates the over-produced, commercial, artless, lowbrow music that we believe is genuinely worthwhile. Like, among the best music ever.] Everyone has that one friend with whom intelligent conversation is a strain. You'll never share you ... More >>