Explainers

Acid Bath playing under blue stage light, the singer at the front and a guitarist with a flying V, a crowd filling the floor

Is Acid Bath Sludge Metal?

Ilse Brandt · Apr 5, 2026

Night Demon performing live on the full stage at the Marble Factory, Bristol, 14 February 2025

Traditional Heavy Metal

Declan Rourke · Apr 3, 2026

The six members of Oceans of Slumber on a dark bare stage, singer Cammie Beverly standing at the front

Progressive Doom Metal

Ilse Brandt · Apr 3, 2026

Rata Blanca's singer and guitarist playing at the front of the stage under red and white lights, a wall of amplifiers behind them

Power Metal Around the World: The Regional Scenes

Julien Vasseur · Apr 2, 2026

Dee Snider of Twisted Sister performing live, screaming into the microphone in a black leather jacket

Heavy Metal on Trial: Censors, Courts and the Moral Panic

Declan Rourke · Apr 2, 2026

Rivers of Nihil on stage

Progressive Death Metal

Rafael Quintero · Mar 29, 2026

The sleeve of Deathcrush, Mayhem, 1987

What Was the Inner Circle?

Eirik Solvang · Mar 28, 2026

Metallica on stage at the Monsters of Rock festival, Tushino Airfield, Moscow, 28 September 1991, a floodlight sweeping across a crowd stretching to the horizon

Heavy Metal Around the World: The Scenes That Shaped the Sound

Declan Rourke · Mar 26, 2026

Lemmy Kilmister playing bass live at Wacken Open Air, Germany, 2013, fretting hand gripping a chord shape on the neck

The Power Chord

Declan Rourke with Julien Vasseur · Mar 25, 2026

Dave Murray playing guitar and Steve Harris playing bass side by side at the front of a festival stage

Is Iron Maiden Power Metal?

Julien Vasseur with Declan Rourke · Mar 24, 2026

Chuck Schuldiner rehearsing with Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert during the Human sessions, 1991

Heavy Metal vs Death Metal

Declan Rourke · Mar 23, 2026

The five members of Kamelot standing together in a candlelit gothic interior for an official band portrait

US Power Metal vs European Power Metal

Julien Vasseur with Declan Rourke · Mar 23, 2026

The five members of Deafheaven standing together in a black and white portrait

Blackgaze Explained

Eirik Solvang · Mar 22, 2026

Ronnie James Dio in a black and white photograph, sitting on the front wing of a limousine at night with a lit tree behind him

Is Dio Power Metal?

Julien Vasseur with Declan Rourke · Mar 22, 2026

A festival crowd with arms and horns raised in the foreground, the lit stage beyond them and fireworks bursting overhead

Why Power Metal Belongs to Europe

Julien Vasseur · Mar 20, 2026

Sabaton performing live at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow, 18 April 2023, band members in camouflage stage fatigues on a war-themed set with a mounted gun barrel, sandbags and flame jets along the barricade

What Heavy Metal Sings About: War, Myth, Madness and the Road

Declan Rourke · Mar 19, 2026

The three members of Rage standing in a derelict greenhouse, Peavy Wagner in the middle with both hands raised towards the camera

Teutonic Power Metal: The Sound of the German School

Julien Vasseur · Mar 17, 2026

Krisiun performing live on stage

Why Death Metal Declined in the Mid Nineties

Rafael Quintero · Mar 15, 2026