The Magazine

2 chapters

Death History

A sixteen year old in the East Bay gave the music its name. A teenager in central Florida gave it a method four years later. Neither of them invented death metal on his own, and the argument about which one did has outlived almost everybody who was in the room.

By Rafael Quintero · latest chapter Jan 17, 2026

1. Origins: Possessed, Death and the Break From Thrash (1983-1987)
2. The Nineties: The Peak, the Slump and What Survived

1 chapter

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 5, 2026

1. Before It Had Fifty Names: The Story of Heavy Metal, from Birmingham to Everywhere

9 chapters

Thrash Metal History

The foundry teenagers built in thirty months, where heavy metal stopped being about power and started being about velocity. A demo tape that crossed a continent, a mortgage on the first album, four scenes, one impossible year, and a song that broke into the charts thirty six years late.

By Declan Rourke with Saint Sylveszter · latest chapter Dec 14, 2025

1. Velocity Over Power: The Complete History of Thrash Metal
2. Roots: NWOBHM, Motörhead, Venom, Hardcore and the Tape Traders (1979–1982)
3. The Bay Area: El Cerrito, Ruthie's Inn and the Birth of a Sound (1982–1986)
4. Los Angeles, New York and the Big Four (1983–1988)
5. Teutonic Thrash: Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and the Ruhr (1983–1990)
6. Brazil, Canada and the Rest of the World (1984–1991)
7. Crossover: Where Thrash Met Hardcore (1984–1990)
8. The Golden Years (1986–1990)
9. The Fall and the Revival (1991–Now)

1 chapter

Black History

Venom printed the words on a sleeve in 1982 and the music that deserved them arrived nine years later in another country. Between those two dates sit six bands in five countries who never sounded like each other, and the genre was assembled afterwards out of what they left behind.

By Eirik Solvang · latest chapter Oct 11, 2025

1. The First Wave: Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and the Word Itself (1981-1987)