The Magazine

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

5 chapters

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 Nov 2, 2025

1. Roots: NWOBHM, Motörhead, Venom, Hardcore and the Tape Traders (1979–1982)
2. The Bay Area: El Cerrito, Ruthie's Inn and the Birth of a Sound (1982–1986)
3. Los Angeles, New York and the Big Four (1983–1988)
4. Teutonic Thrash: Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and the Ruhr (1983–1990)
5. Brazil, Canada and the Rest of the World (1984–1991)

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)