Essential Albums

Marc Hudson of DragonForce leaping across the stage past the dragon-head kick drums, Kentish Town Forum, London, 8 November 2019.

The Heavy Metal Video Games

Declan Rourke · Jul 2, 2026

The sleeves of Taking Over, Practice What You Preach and Fabulous Disaster

The Big 8 of Thrash: Exodus, Testament, Overkill, Death Angel

Declan Rourke · Jul 1, 2026

Sedimentum in a band portrait among trees

The Best New Death Metal Bands

Rafael Quintero · Jul 1, 2026

Behemoth performing live on stage

Black Metal Bands Everyone Names First

Eirik Solvang · Jun 30, 2026

Necrobutcher of Mayhem on stage in 2014, the bass player on Deathcrush

Deathcrush: The EP That Started It

Eirik Solvang · Jun 29, 2026

Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy at the microphone with his mirrored bass at the Manchester Apollo in 1983, the band around him

Heavy Metal Bands with Black Singers

Declan Rourke · Jun 29, 2026

The sleeves of Stormcrowfleet by Skepticism, Earth 2 by Earth and Turn Loose the Swans by My Dying Bride laid side by side

The Doom Metal Albums That Define the Genre

Ilse Brandt · Jun 29, 2026

Entombed performing live on stage

The Best Death Metal Albums of the 1990s

Rafael Quintero · Jun 28, 2026

Cryptopsy band portrait

None So Vile: Cryptopsy and the Canadian Extreme

Rafael Quintero · Jun 27, 2026

Pure Holocaust, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, In the Nightside Eclipse and Storm of the Light's Bane

The Iconic Black Metal Album Covers

Eirik Solvang · Jun 26, 2026

Arsonists Get All the Girls on a club stage in Minneapolis in April 2011, a bassist leaning over his instrument in red light while a vocalist in a wolf mask works the keyboard stand

The MySpace Deathcore Bands

Jonah Pike · Jun 26, 2026

Metal Church in a band portrait

The Best Thrash Albums of 1986

Declan Rourke · Jun 25, 2026

Avatarium singer Jennie-Ann Smith on stage with both arms flung wide, the keyboard player behind her

The Doom Metal Bands With Female Singers

Ilse Brandt · Jun 25, 2026

The sleeve of Piece of Time, Atheist, 1990

Piece of Time: When Jazz Fusion Met Extreme Speed

Rafael Quintero · Jun 24, 2026

Sacred Reich on stage at Wacken

Sacred Reich, Flotsam and Jetsam, Heathen: The Second Tier That Deserved Better

Declan Rourke · Jun 23, 2026

Suicidal Tendencies on stage at Rockharz in 2024

Excel, Attitude Adjustment, Wehrmacht, Cryptic Slaughter: The Second Tier

Declan Rourke · Jun 21, 2026

Agalloch posing together in a forest

The Best Atmospheric Black Metal Albums

Eirik Solvang · Jun 21, 2026

The sleeves of Kill 'Em All and Show No Mercy

The Best Thrash Albums of 1983

Declan Rourke · Jun 19, 2026