Alex Distefano

L.A.-based extreme metal guitarist Charles Elliott makes playing death metal look easy. Elliott formed death metal band Abysmal Dawn in 2003 and within four years they were raging alongside such bands as Goatwhore, Emperor, Hate Eternal and Immortal. Though Elliott is the sole original founding member, in recent years he......

With his band The Mendenhall Experiment, Brandon Mendenhall is out to shatter people's preconceptions about living with a disability....

Ah, to be a teenager (or early 20-something) and in constant angst again. There's no time in life that is simultaneously more enjoyable and more utterly miserable. With such sentimental emotions often comes darker, more intense and heavier music. That's where, for many of a certain generation, nu-metal came in......

As a nu-metal head in the late '90s at Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, I was probably the only one displaying a love for bands like Korn, Slipknot and Fear Factory in a sea of Black Flag, Pennywise and Circle Jerks shirts and patches. I was well aware......

Nowadays, if you talk to anyone about such far-out topics like UFOs, who really shot JFK, the Illuminati or the truth behind 9/11, you're just as likely to be embraced or ridiculed. Even if you don't believe in any given conspiracy theory, the fact is that such topics have been......

It’s a common scene throughout L.A., day or night: You jump into your Uber, which just arrived, and take off toward your destination. But when you hop into the vehicle, what music, if any, is playing? Has your driver opted to mute the speakers, leaving room for an actual conversation......

There’s no denying that L.A. has strong metal and hard rock scenes. The city is also a hot center for lucha libre wrestling events, including the popular Lucha VaVoom series, which mixes Mexican wrestling with burlesque and comedy. But for the first time, L.A. will be presented with an event......

As Saturday night progressed, the gray clouds turned to droplets of rain and the streets of downtown L.A. filled with puddles of water. On North Main Street, just down the road from Chinatown and Dodger Stadium, a warehouse and photography studio called East Dog Town Studio was transformed into a......

In the early-to-mid-1980s, heavy metal music began to broaden beyond the first era of bands like Maiden, Priest and Dio. It evolved into darker, faster territories with thrash metal like Slayer, Exodus, Kreator and many others. A somewhat new phenomena began to root itself in an even more extreme sound......

Fans of punk and metal nowadays take it for granted that the two genres often manage to intermingle. It isn't uncommon to spot a Black Flag T-shirt at a metal show, or a Metallica T-shirt at a punk show. But during the early-to-mid-1980s, such camaraderie between hardcore punk and heavy......