Promoting metal as art and culture

Lydia Laska

Ego Death by Voldswagen A hedonistic mixture of all things weird and dangerous! Our musical tastes go far and wide, so we throw in everything we like and cook ourselves a witches brew of proto-punk, krautrock, psychedelia and old school black metal. Not so much black metal perhaps, but it’s lurking there in the background.…

King Apathy

Wounds By Matthias King Apathy is a melodic metal band from Germany. Everyone knows that we are destroying the earth, but hardly anyone fights against this blatant injustice. Plain and simple: a KING called APATHY rules our everyday life. The musicians share interests in the ideas of environmentalism, anarchism and veganism and are criticizing capitalism…

Crone

Godspeed By Phil Jonas Crone is a dark rock band from Northern Germany, led and shaped by Secrets of the Moon mastermind Phil sG Jonas and Markus Renzenbrink (Embedded). ‘Godspeed’ is the group‘s first full-length LP and follow-up to Crone‘s 2014 debut, ‘Gehenna’, an EP hailed as “morose, thick, melodic music for cloudy days”. A…

Brainoil

Singularity to Extinction By Greg Wilkinson & Nathan “Nate” Smith Sludge and Doom are often used to describe Brainoil. To us Brainoil has always been a blend of punk, metal, rock with elements of doom, sludge, crust, hardcore. HMA: What can you tell us about your latest release and writing process? NS: Singularity to Extinction…

Beldam

Pasung By Grahm Reynolds Beldam hails from Tacoma, Wa., playing sludge/doom with blackened touches. With influences like Sleep, Eyehategod, Graves at Sea and Black Sabbath, they pair primordial, buzzsaw guitars and massive low-end bass with earth-shattering drums and intense vocals/lyrics invoking death and despair. Beldam is a Pacific Northwest sludge metal band that incorporates both…

Infera Bruo

Cerement by Galen Baudhuin Black Metal from New England. Formed in 2009 by members of the Boston and New England metal scenes who sought to create unique and epic blackened metal with a wide array of influences drawn from the diverse backgrounds of each member. Infera Bruo released their 3rd full-length September 7th 2018 on…

Foscor

Les irreals versions by Fiar Catalan atmospheric metal band Foscor has never shied away from exploring the lines between reality, poetry and the beyond. With ‘Les Irreals Versions’, the band seeks to intensify their music and give new meaning to it. Departing from their black metal roots of the first three records and building on…

Grenouer

Ambition 999 by Andrey Ind Grenouer is a Russian metal band, that was formed already in the early 90s. Initially a death metal combo, Grenouer gradually evolved into radically different, decidedly melodic forms of metal. Grenouer never chanced to experience a meteoric rise to the top of the charts, yet always kept recording albums, releasing…

Seven Sisters

The Cauldron and The Cross By Kyle McNeill Born in the depths of West London, Seven Sisters are a four-piece band forged from the same steel as the NWOBHM acts of yesteryear. Over the past three years they’ve gathered a reputation as a stellar act in the heavy metal scene; earning their stripes playing shows…

Sadist

Spellbound By Trevor Nadir Sadist is a band active since 1991, we are a death metal band. We love to combine aggressive music, heavy riffs with equally violent lyrics. We were the first band in Europe to include keyboards in death metal, but this certainly didn’t affect the sound that remained very aggressive and obscure.…

The Crown

Cobra Speed Venom By Magnus Olsfelt We started back in 1990 as 14-year-olds. Got a record deal in 1995. We released six albums and we took a break for some years 2004. 2010 I believe we returned again and have made three full albums since. So in total of nine albums. The latest release was…

Insect Ark

Marrow Hymns By Dana Schechter Combining elements of horror-film soundtracks, psychedelic doom metal, and atmospheric noise, NYC/Portland-based instrumental duo Insect Ark is comprised of Dana Schechter (bass, lap steel guitar, synthesizers) and Ashley Spungin (drums, synthesizers). Insect Ark’s uncommon sound is in part the amalgamation of these two women’s passions: Schechter’s sinister bass lines and…

Wolcensmen

Songs From The Fyrgen By Dan Capp Wolcensmen began as a small project in 2013 with the release of the demo (though my intention to make this kind of music goes back to the late ’90s). Between 2013-2016 just two songs were written and recorded for compilations, but in 2016 the debut album Songs from…

Halcyon Way

Bloody but Unbowed by Jon Bodan Hello Heavy Music Artwork, thanks for having us in the Masterpieces 2018 book, Travis totally nailed it on our album artwork as he always does. Hard to condense our history down to a short form, I started the band back in 2001 for really just fun. We wrote a…

Roadkiller

Lemmy made the world a better place The Philly punk scene is a powerful thing. It should come as no surprise that this bastion of hard-hitting punk rock would be a lodestone for some of the best punk rock talents in the world. Such was the case for the mysterious Australian born guitarist of California…

Spectrale

Triangle by Jeff Grimal Spectrale is Jeff Grimal’s solo project started in 2014. It is the result of long-term work on acoustic, hypnotic and esoteric music exploration. The band released a demo in May 2016 on “Inductive Oppression Records”, but also a Split on “Emanations” with the help of Jean Baptiste Poujol for some tracks…

Sikth

Sikth and Destroy Sikth formed in 1999 in England and immediately became one of the most influential bands in the progressive and djent genre. Their music was innovative and without a doubt ahead of their time, and this gained them recognition, acknowledgement and respect between the prog-metal fans scene. The band started touring the world…

Arstidir

Nivalis By Daníel Auðunsson Árstíðir is a three-piece band from Reykjavík Iceland. Involuntary intertwined to the Icelandic calendar of big events, Árstíðir was founded in the same month as the 2008 stock market crash, and the band embarked on its first international tour in the same month as the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010. After years…