Genre Histories

Napalm Death performing live on a festival stage

The Death Metal Festivals That Shaped the Genre

Rafael Quintero · Jul 23, 2026

Fans in cut-off denim and patches outside a venue

Thrash Fashion: The Battle Vest, the Bullet Belt, the High Tops

Declan Rourke · Jul 22, 2026

Mike Muir of Suicidal Tendencies singing live

The Venice Scene: Suicidal, Beowülf, No Mercy

Declan Rourke · Jul 21, 2026

Ronnie James Dio raising the horned hand on stage in November 2007, Tony Iommi behind him

The Devil Horns

Declan Rourke with Julien Vasseur · Jul 21, 2026

Kataklysm band portrait

Canadian Death Metal

Rafael Quintero · Jul 21, 2026

Sadistik Exekution's The Magus beside Destroyer 666's Unchain the Wolves

Australian and New Zealand Black Metal

Eirik Solvang · Jul 20, 2026

A Queensryche guitarist leaps mid-air before a packed crowd at Monsters of Rock, Donington, UK, 17 August 1991, during the Empire tour

Why Radio Ignored Heavy Metal

Declan Rourke · Jul 20, 2026

Gawthrop's four members playing in a low basement club covered in posters, the singer shouting into the microphone, in black and white

Korean Doom Metal

Ilse Brandt · Jul 20, 2026

Sepultura on stage at Metalmania in 2007

Cogumelo Records: The Label That Built Brazilian Extreme Metal

Declan Rourke · Jul 19, 2026

Sinmara as dark figures in a forest clearing

Underground Black Metal Now

Eirik Solvang · Jul 19, 2026

Rotting Christ on stage at the Tons of Rock festival in June 2024, the band logo on the drum heads

Greek Heavy Metal

Declan Rourke · Jul 19, 2026

An aerial view of the Ravenscraig steelworks at Motherwell in the 1960s, rolling mills and blast furnaces across the whole site

Working-Class Rage

Declan Rourke · Jul 18, 2026

A Studer A800 twenty four track tape machine with a reel loaded and the whole meter bridge lit above it

The Analog Tape Era

Declan Rourke with Curtis Vance · Jul 16, 2026

The four members of Cough standing under red and white patterns projected across their faces and jackets

The Doom Metal Tattoo

Ilse Brandt · Jul 15, 2026

Mortuary Drape in hooded robes

Italian and Iberian Black Metal

Andrzej Sawicki · Jul 14, 2026

Cirith Ungol on a festival stage

Metal Massacre: The Compilation That Launched Metallica and Metal Blade

Declan Rourke · Jul 13, 2026

Suffocation on stage

The Death Metal Fanzines

Gareth Llewellyn · Jul 13, 2026

Uriah Heep at Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith, 2022. Photo: Aggie Anthimidou

Heavy Metal Subgenres by Decade

Declan Rourke · Jul 13, 2026