The Magazine

5 chapters

Power Metal History

A phrase on a 1982 demo tape, a sound fixed in Hamburg between 1985 and 1988, a heavier American school, a lean decade kept alive by Europe and Japan, the 1997 revival, a video game and a run of number one albums: the whole story, in order.

By Julien Vasseur · latest chapter Mar 26, 2026

1. Swords Raised at Full Speed: The History of Power Metal, from Hamburg to the World
2. What Power Metal Is, and Where It Came From
3. Hamburg, 1985: How Europe Built Its Own Power Metal
4. American Steel: US Power Metal, the Heavier Branch
5. From the Grunge Years to the Charts: Power Metal Since 1990

8 chapters

Black Metal History

Black metal was branded in 1982 by a band who could not play it, forged alone in a Stockholm suburb, then hammered into doctrine in Norway by teenagers who burned down part of their own country's history on the way. The first wave and the second, the fires and the court records, the Nordic and European scenes, America,...

By Eirik Solvang · latest chapter Feb 14, 2026

1. Named Before It Existed: The Complete History of Black Metal
2. The First Wave: Venom, Bathory, Hellhammer and the Word Itself (1981-1987)
3. Norway: Helvete, the Inner Circle and the Second Wave (1991-1994)
4. The Churches, the Killings and the Press That Came With Them
5. Sweden, Finland and the Rest of the North
6. France, Poland, Greece, Iceland and the Scenes That Followed
7. America: USBM, Cascadia and a Long Argument About Authenticity
8. After the Second Wave: 2000 to Now

8 chapters

Doom Metal History

Doom, sludge and stoner went down the way everything goes into a tar pit, each layer sinking onto the last, starting from a single day in a London studio in 1969. From Black Sabbath and the eighties faithful through Cathedral, death doom, sludge, stoner, funeral doom and drone to the records of the 2020s, nothing that...

By Ilse Brandt · latest chapter Feb 8, 2026

1. The Slowest Music in Metal: Doom, Sludge and Stoner, from Black Sabbath to Now
2. Origins: Black Sabbath, Pentagram and the Decision to Slow Down
3. The Eighties: Saint Vitus, Trouble, Candlemass and Epic Doom
4. Stoner Metal: Kyuss, the Desert Generators and the Fuzz
5. Sludge Metal: New Orleans, the Melvins and the Ugly Half of Doom
6. Death Doom: Peaceville, Winter and the Slowest Extremity
7. Funeral Doom: Thergothon, Skepticism and Music at Walking Pace
8. Drone Doom: Earth, Sunn O))) and the Riff Held Until It Breaks

8 chapters

Death Metal History

Torn out of thrash with the melodies cut away and the tempo left running, death metal was laid on the slab within six years and opened by six scenes into six different musics. The whole story, from a demo tape that named the genre by accident in 1984 to an album of the year in 2024: the break from thrash, Florida and M...

By Rafael Quintero · latest chapter Feb 7, 2026

1. Thrash With the Melodies Cut Out: The History of Death Metal
2. Origins: Possessed, Death and the Break From Thrash (1983-1987)
3. Florida: Tampa, Morrisound and the Boom (1987-1993)
4. Sweden: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Two Different Sounds
5. New York, Brutality and the Rise of Slam
6. Britain, the Netherlands, Poland and the Rest of the World
7. The Nineties: The Peak, the Slump and What Survived
8. The Revival: Old School, Caverns and the Modern Underground

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

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)