The Magazine

4 chapters

Heavy Metal History

Before it had fifty names it had one standard, run up over 1970 by four musicians from Aston. From a motorcycle song and a critic's sneer through Judas Priest's leather, the young British wave, the MTV arenas, the flannel of 1991, the faithful years in German fields and the last bow at Villa Park, every faction carried...

By Declan Rourke · latest chapter Jan 22, 2026

1. Before It Had Fifty Names: The Story of Heavy Metal, from Birmingham to Everywhere
2. What Heavy Metal Actually Is, and Where It Began
3. The New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and the Second Wind It Gave the Genre
4. The Eighties: Sunset Strip, Hairspray and the Glam Metal Explosion

1 chapter

Thrash History

Thrash did not arrive. It was assembled, over about three years, out of parts that were lying around in England: Motörhead's speed, the second-hand riffs of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, the noise Venom made in Newcastle, and the beat the punks were playing in Stoke. This is where the parts came from.

By Declan Rourke · latest chapter Sep 7, 2025

1. Roots: NWOBHM, Motörhead, Venom, Hardcore and the Tape Traders (1979–1982)