Artist

Chris Krovatin is the author of two young adult novels, Heavy Metal & You and Venomous. He is currently working on multiple new writing projects, as well as new material with his local New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a contributing writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone's collective ass.

Hey, Skid Row, man, it's Chris, how are you? What? Oh, I'm fine, thanks. Nah, no, I've really been a stranger lately. What? Well, yeah, that's why I'm calling... Come on, man, don't be like that. So, yeah, OK, yes, some people have seen me around town with Bjork, but it's not... No, look, it's not about you! She's just helping me sort some personal shit out, OK? It's hard, just booting and rallying over and over, buying all these tight jeans and gold chains—sometimes I just have to sigh in a warehouse apartment somewhere, OK? She's really cool and ethereal—if you met her, you'd probably get…Well, maybe not. What—no, dude, wait. Skid Row, please—hey. Hey. Listen. What about tonight—are you busy? No? Let's meet up at Freddy's, man. We'll crush a few brews and dominate the jukebox. You know you're my one and only.

As a metalhead, I love some big, riffy, dick-swinging, face-punching cock rock. Nothing gets me more jacked up that a wailing guitar, a thick and simple drum beat, and a spandex-clad madman singing about driving fast and hunting strange. But as a human being, I can't deny that you gotta get in touch with you feminine side. I'm serious—any dude who lives too long without getting his sobs out becomes a hideous zombie beyond saving (what up, Diamond Dave!). So for those independent women who want to get shirtless and disgusting, and for those crotch-grabbing party animals who need to cry in a huge T-shirt, I present by Six Best Cock-Rock and Chick-Rock Songs. And I'm talking chick rock—no L7, no Kittie, no Hole. Straight-up OG singer-songwriter Lilith Fair shit.

The Six Best Cock-Rock Songs:

1. Guns N' Roses, "My Michelle" Unlike GN'R's many songs about boozing, using, and coozin', "My Michelle" focuses on that one chick you can't leave alone, that undeniable bad girl who will rock your world every time (provided you pay for the drink and drugs). She drives her friends crazy with her life's insanity. You know that chick.

1. Warrant, "Cherry Pie" The old ways are best. For instance, sex is good, but teenage sneaking-around counting-the-seconds sex is better. Hence, "Cherry Pie," the world's most recognizable war cry for bad behavior. It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing.

1. Mötley Crüe, "Too Young To Fall In Love" A good cock-rock song always has an awesome riff behind it, and this slow, death-march riff is one of the Crüe's best forays into macho muscle-flashing. Throw this on your headphones when walking through midtown New York—people will be darting aside to avoid your giant balls.

1. Great White, "Rock Me" Not your typical cock-rock anthem, "Rock Me" takes its time, building into an awesome fist-pumping chorus that details the art of begging a chick to ride you until you cough up a lung. Gotta gives these guys props: song-writing is a 10, even if pyrotechnics is a 2.

1. W.A.S.P., "Animal (Fuck Like A Beast)" What else is there to say? Blackie Lawless scared the Hell out of second lady Tipper Gore with this song, and why not? It's about the sex you never want your mother to know you have, the one involving all that leather stuff and rope in your nightstand drawer. Just, agree with me that when you lick your chops, they're TAAASTING GOOOOOOOD.

1. Jackyl, "She Loves My Cock" What—WHY ARE YOU READING THIS? You saw the title! You know where this is going.

The Six Best Chick-Rock Songs:

1. The Story, "The Gilded Cage" Fronted by Lilith Fair veteran Jonatha Brook, the Story played intense emotional acoustic chick rock. But they, or at least Brook, had not time for bullshit religion. "The Gilded Cage" is as anti-church as any Deicide song, and utilizes some heartbreaking minor chords to boot. You might've lied…

1. Alanis Morisette, "A Man" While Alanis' "You Oughtta Know" is the anthem to pissed-off chicks everywhere, "A Man" is her masculine anthem, told from the point of view of an intelligent modern man confronting his vilification at the hands of our world's FemiNazis. A smart and intelligent role reversal by Canada's second-most important export. (Sorry, Alanis, Devin Townsend wins the trophy.)

1. Tori Amos, "Strong Black Vine" Does your frau like to get kinky in the bedroom, but isn't a big fan of Danzig and Blackie Lawless? This bass-heavy, wryly-sung tribute to unorthodox lovemaking in the face of Christian society will get her in the right mood. And come on—this chick covered "Raining Blood." She's legit.

1. Melissa Etheridge, "I'm the Only One" Not only does this song have a big, hard, southern rock guitar line at its center, but the lyrics come from the heart of a truly metal chick, calmly explaining how hard she would blow your mind compared to the ditzy cashier you're now bedding. Let's be honest: Your girlfriend likes you, but Melissa Etheridge does that thing with her tongue.

1. Fiona Apple, "Slow Like Honey" In both its subject matter and flavor, this song is not terribly metal, but, and I mean this, it will get you laid. I'm serious—this sultry, grinding, bestial lust song should be on every Valentine's Day mix you ever make. It rules, every time. For once in your life, trust me, bro.

1. Joan Baez, "Diamonds and Rust" Yeah, it's a heartbreaking story of confronting a lost lover. But after its creation, it was a Judas Priest song. You've got nothing on this.

Chris Krovatin is the author of two young adult novels, Heavy Metal & You and Venomous. He is currently working on multiple new writing projects, as well as new material with his local New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a contributing writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone's collective ass.

I love old religion. Raised Irish Catholic, I was from an early age enamored with the grandiose power of old Christian art, specifically the depictions of saints. These holy men were usually martyrs, and so they're often represented as bearing the awesome devices involved with their violent demises—you get roasted, so you carry a grill; you get your teeth knocked out, you sport pliers. Sure, I love seeing Jesus get his through the Stations, and I'm always down for a woodcut of a hellmouth, but the saints have a weird superheroic quality to them. They're the rock stars of faith, and that's pretty metal.

What my Catholic upbringing has also instilled in me is a love for freaky, hardcore sex. From schoolgirl uniforms to water torture, my preferences for filth are broad, unorthodox, and entirely shameful. Thankfully, there are people out there who tackle these urges, creating filth so that I don't have to: porn stars. These mavens of fantasy hold sway the collected loins of the world with almost vampiric power, changing our understanding of What Gets Us Going with their every smile and strut. So to recognize the main figures of my faith, both religious and extremely secular, I present to you my list of the Six Most Metal Saints and the Six Most Metal Porn Stars. Say seven Hail Marys after reading it, and maybe you won't go blind.

The Six Most Metal Saints

1. Bartholomew the Apostle Bartholomew (pictured, right) is the patron saint of tanners, meaning he's God's watchman over metal's most vital raw material: leather. More importantly, he obtained this position because he was skinned alive. That's right—dude's depicted as walking around draped in his own skin. That shit's raw.
2. Margaret of Antioch After being tortured and imprisoned for refusing to marry some pagan king, Margaret was visited by Satan in the form of a dragon. But when he devoured her, the huge cross she carried fucked with his stomach, and she managed to tear free. She chick gave the Devil indigestion. Brass balls on this broad.
3. Catherine of Alexandria Catherine's sometimes known as Catherine of the Wheel, and is often depicted walking around with a hunk of spiked wheel. Because after being tortured for ages, she was strapped to and martyred on a giant spiked wheel. I think Vital Remains wrote this song.
4. Denis When most martyrs get beheaded, they lay down and die. Not Denis. Denis picked up his head and walked for six miles, preaching all the way. Patron saint of headaches (fucking hilarious), he's definitely the spookiest saint, depicted as walking around his head under his arms. Rob Zombie, eat your heart out.
5. Lucy Patron saint of the blind, Lucy was tortured by having her eyes gouged out, which is unto itself pretty fucking gnarly. What's cooler is how she's depicted—a sweet-looking woman with a sword and a tray with her eyes on it. At least the blind don't have to look at this creepy biblical figure. Shudder.
6. Dunstan A weird ascetic monk covered in swelling tumors, Dunstan was once visited by the Devil on a weary night. Rather than be tempted, Dunstan yanked his silversmithing tongs from the fire and held Satan by the nose until he begged for his freedom. That is gangster. Got your nose, bitch!

The Six Most Metal Porn Stars

1. Sasha Grey Not only had Sasha Grey (pictured, right) gone from making some of the most hardcore porno out there to starring in Steven Soderbergh films, she's also a member of experimental industrial goth band aTelecine and an avowed metalhead who has DJ'd the after party of Swans concerts. Plus, she's done interviews for Roadrunner Records on the Revolver Golden Gods Black Carpet. Porn, noise, and a season of Entourage under her belt—what have you done today?
2. Joanna Angel Queen of punk-rock porno, Joanna's company Burning Angel has taken alt porn to new heights (and lows), forsaking the softcore antics of Suicide Girls in exchange for real good tattoo- and piercing- and hairdye-saturated filth. It doesn't hurt that she is a smoking hot mousey punk-rock porn-star herself, but the stable of women she works with is every metalhead's wet dream.
3. Belladonna Throughout all of history, gap-toothed women are presented as nothing but trouble (think Chaucer's Wife of Bath). Case in point, Belladonna, an ever-evolving dream of a sex goddess defined by her penchant for the extreme and her gapped front teeth. Even talking about her is… I'll be back in five.
4. Nina Hartley Heavy metal exists in a time warp, where modern underground acts can easily open for legendary veterans. That's why Nina Hartley's on this list: She's been doing it for almost 30 years, and still does it today, and she's still hot as hell. If she were a band, she'd be Motörhead.
5. Mei Mara You think you're kinky? Own some handcuffs, a blindfold with "Sssh" embroidered on it? You're clown shoes, pal. You'd get a 3 out of 10 in the face-slapping contest. Mei Mara's sex life is an uncompromising insane asylum where madness makes living dolls quiver and metal pronged-agony is the truest form of love. You ever listen to Today Is The Day? Like that, only sexier.
6. Bridget the Midget She's a hard-rocking little person whose had more sex than you'll ever rub one out to. Need I say more?

Masked metal marauders Slipknot will be returning to the U.S. this summer on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, for their first North American trek since the passing of bassist Paul Grey. Prior to that they have been playing some shows abroad, including one at Australia's Soundwave Festival in late February. Photographer Nic Bezzina was there to capture the bedlam as it happened. Check out what he saw below.

Chris "Howard's End" Krovatin is the author of two young adult novels, Heavy Metal & You and Venomous. He is currently working on multiple new writing projects, as well as new material with his local New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a freelance writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone's collective ass.

An idea exists that metalheads don't like to read, that we're too busy pounding brewskis and sacrificing housecats to Satan to enjoy a good book, or that our stimuli-raped brains can't take in media more intelligent than Robocop. Which, of course, is bullshit. Any hesher who has spent a night hunched over some Lovecraft knows that literature is metal as fuck, it's just that a lot of "highbrow" literature is not terribly exciting, and a lot of it was forced on us in school. (I, for example, will never like E.M. Forster thanks to having to read Howard's End in high school.) But headbangers shouldn't despair—there are plenty of options out there. So for the discerning literary metalhead, I present these, my picks for the Most Metal Books of 2011, each one matched up with a song from 2011 that suits its atmosphere.

1. The Last Werewolf  by Glen Duncan The Berliner is dead—Jake Marlowe is now the last werewolf on earth. And even if he's not being attacked by government-funded monster hunters and vampire illuminati, he still has his ever-present hard-on and nonstop diet of good scotch and smokes to deal with. In this smart, sexy, and darkly grandiose novel, Duncan (who looks like he just survived the goth apocalypse) brings us a charming definitive take on one of horror's most underappreciated monsters. (Recommended Listening: The Black Dahlia Murder, "Moonlight Equilibrium").

2. Black Metal Vol. 2 by Rick Spears and Chuck BB In the follow-up to last year's graphic novel sensation, Spears and BB continue the story of the Brothers Stronghand, twin corpse-painted Hell barons who wield an ancient sword they discovered by playing a black metal record backwards. But now, in their attempts to reclaim the throne of Hell, they are faced with an unexpected foe: Satan himself. This slim volume of cartoon violence and mayhem is a fitting tribute to black metal's ravishing grimness. (Recommended Listening: Midnight, "You Can't Stop Steel").

3. Crimes In Southern Indiana by Frank Bill America is not all cheesesteak and NASCAR. In the bubbling ancient cauldron of Heartland USA, terrible things go down—lovers murder each other brutally, meth is sold and consumed by the pound daily, guns go off randomly, human life is weighed cheaply. In this collection of short stories, Bill (gotta love an author with two first names) paints a picture of the dark means of survival that run through the gritty cut-throat underbelly of our own backyard. (Recommended Listening: The Atlas Moth, "Perpetual Generations").

4. Murder In The Front Row: Shots From The Bay Area Thrash Metal Epicenter by Harald Oimoen and Brian Lew In this photographic diary, Oimoen and Lew chronicle their upbringing at Ground Zero of the thrash-metal movement in California, giving readers an insightful glimpse of a gritty, too-real world of speed and rebellion that created the entire concept of extreme metal. Includes words by Gary Holt and Machine Head's Rob Flynn, as well as rad pictures of everyone's favorite headbangers—Holt's band, Exodus, Slayer, Testament, Anthrax, Vio-Lence, Possessed, Megadeth, and, of course, Metallica. (Recommended Listening: Toxic Holocaust, "Nowhere To Run").

5. Zone One by Colson Whitehead Spend three days in the life of Mark Spitz, a lone disillusioned marine attempting the clean up of Chinatown in New York—now known as "Zone One"—after the zombie apocalypse. But sometimes it's not even the walking dead that are the problem, but the infrastructure, the sponsor corporation's new rules, the gossip between your fellow sweepers (though, in the end, it's really the walking dead that are the problem). In a bold attempt to make a lowbrow genre literary, Whitehead presents a new kind of horror story, one drowned in great drifts of mediocrity, depression, and inevitable doom. (Recommended Listening: Machine Head, "Locust").

6. Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries by Jon Kristiansen In late-'80s and early-'90s Scandinavia, one zine ruled the scene: Slayer, a thorny DIY mag dedicated to only the darkest of underground metal. Showcasing bands like Mayhem, Emperor, and Napalm Death long before they were big names, Metalion made Slayer a huge sensation among extreme metal's forerunners; now, these awesome relics of extreme metal's history can be yours in one fat, badass volume. (Recommended Listening: Ash Borer, "Rest, You Are The Lightning")

7. Overkill: The Untold Story of Motörhead by Joel McIver McIver, author of books about Slayer, Cliff Burton, Randy Rhoads, and a number of other metallic subjects, here takes on the tale of the original speed-metal band, chronicling their rise to stardom in the '70s and '80s and the high-octane life and habits of its frontman, one Lemmy Kilmister. Full of humor and insight, Overkill is an intelligent and well-worded telling of a band's life outside of the spotlight, accentuating the seamless merge of hilarity and personal drama that too often epitomizes the life of a band. (Recommended Listening: Skeletonwitch, "Of Ash and Torment")

8. Everybody Loves You When You're Dead by Neil Strauss The author of Hammer of the Gods and The Dirt takes you on a whirlwind tour of the rock climate, pulling unpublished excerpts from interviews with everyone from Lady Gaga to Slayer's Tom Araya. Ride dirty with Snoop Dogg, rants mindlessly with Clown from Slipknot, take a white power walkabout through Skullbone, Tennessee, or just kick back and listen to Julian Casablancas from the Strokes give The Worst Interview Ever. It's all right here, in this hyperactive ransom note of rock's favorite reporter. (Recommended Listening: Necrocomicon, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World")

9. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver In this exciting and saddening family drama, we follow the unfolding story of Eva, a woman trying to get a glimpse into the mind of her son Kevin, who has just committed a brutal school massacre. The book looks into the horror and insecurity of being near, but unable to reach, a sick and terrifying mind, and let's the reader get a bit more tangible grasp on the inner workings of both a poisoned family and a sociopathic killer. (Recommended Listening: Tombs, "To Cross The Land")

10. Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven and Hell With Black Sabbath by Tony Iommi and T.J. Lammers In this tell-all volume, the guitarist who invented heavy metal tells the story of how it all began. Though a little light on the journalistic facts and sometimes maybe too forgiving (Iommi's cocaine use in the '80s is often written off as a little bit of fun), Iron Man is a familiar and engaging story about the all-too-human life of one of metal's gods. (Recommended Listening: Hammers of Misfortune, "The Grain").

As the glass-shattering shrieker fronting Soundgarden, Chris Cornell became an underground hard-rock sex symbol before the term "grunge" existed. He's since wielded his powerful pipes and six-string skills in Audioslave, and, after a stint in drug rehab, in his solo career. He recently released the acoustic album, Songbook, and is in the process of working on a new Soundgarden record. Of the new album, he says, "To me, it's a really organic sounding, next-phase Soundgarden album. It definitely isn't retro or nostalgic. It sounds like we've picked up where we left off, really."

REVOLVER What's the definition of a rock star?
CHRIS CORNELL I've always looked at Iggy Pop as being absolutely the ultimate rock star. His personality, his persona, every molecule of him embodies that which is a rock icon. He was completely irreverent, completely indifferent to what we think of as the social rules of American society or any society, period.

Would you apply any of those qualities to yourself?
I think I started out completely in that Iggy Pop direction of what was referred to as the quintessential "angry young man": shirtless, screaming, aggressive, didn't care if I sang on key, sort of unrestrainable in a live situation. But there was always another side to me, intellectually, that wanted other things.

When did things come to a head between those personalities?
I had an identity crisis in the early '90s. I was the first guy sort of running around climbing up into the rafters, like a jungle boy, and smashing guitars and crowd surfing. And then I started seeing it [in other bands] a lot. I remember one day going in my closet and seeing that all my clothes essentially looked like what everyone in Alice in Chains wore. So I shaved my head, changed what I wore and, from that point on in, like, 1992, delved into a different character and tried to find different aspects of my personality through the music more than anything. And I kind of shed that guy, whoever he was.

Chris "Weird Biker" Krovatin is the author of two young adult novels, Heavy Metal & You and Venomous. He is currently working on multiple new writing projects, as well as new material with his local New York metal band Flaming Tusk. He is a freelance writer for Revolver and generally comes off as a good-natured pain in everyone's collective ass.

December is the harvest time for metal journalism. That's when all of us misanthropic black-clad fucks put together our end-of-year lists, going over our entire musical diet for the last 12 months in an attempt to compile a decent final 10. And while it'd be easy to do a best/worst list, I want to take the high ground and not point out a Worst Album list. That's just petty. (My 10 best of 2011, if you're wondering, are: All Pigs Must Die, the Black Dahlia Murder, Tombs, Origin, Toxic Holocaust, Ash Pool, Revolting, Vreid, Hate Eternal, and the Atlas Moth.)

Artwork, however, is different. If your album is bad, fine. You know who you are, probably. When it comes to the music, let's let it die—everyone's made a Cold Lake in their lives, so let's be the bigger man about it.* But there's no excuse for shitty artwork. In fact, if your album sucks, the least you can do is put something really fucking amazing on the cover (for instance, I've always been 50-50 on Lair of the Minotaur, but their covers are damn cool). And unlike your music, which we all know sucks, your stupid choice of artwork is fair game for public condemnation. So here are my picks for this year's Six Best and Worst Album Covers.

The Six Best Album Covers of 2011

1) Book of Black Earth, The Cold Testament Yes. With this cover, Seattle's death-metal masters found a perfect image to describe their enthralling brand of fuzzy blackened death metal. If this doesn't become a back patch soon, someone has to die.

2) All Pigs Must Die, God Is War You know what's great? When your favorite album of the year has hands-down one of the coolest covers of all time. My No. 1 record of 2011, ladies and gentlemen, and it bears this breath-taking cover, courtesy of artist Florian Bertmer. It's good to be the king.

3) Autopsy, Macabre Eternal This is one of those covers that's comical to describe: Two zombies carry a giant stone skull towards an almost-completed statue of the Grim Reaper. Best part? That's pretty much what the album sounds like.

4) Mhorgl, Heresiarch Until recently, I hadn't heard of Australia's Mhorgl, but not only is their brand of black thrash totally badass, the cover of their new record is a Miltonian flurry of demons, devils, wraiths, and fallen angels. When you stare into this abyss, it screams, "Charge!"

5) Chthonic, Takasago Army There's something about a soldier carving a symbol into his forehead with a huge knife that touches me deep inside. The question is, what character is he carving? This album's about Taiwanese soldiers, who spoke Mandarin Chinese, fighting for the Japanese! Then again, it might just be an inverted cross.

6) Mastodon, The Hunter Here, the Georgian metal titans left the world of over-the-top van-side illustration and had themselves a Communist Party. I mean, come on, how cool is this 3-D multi-jawed beast-creature? And look at the new logo—insane!

The Six Worst Album Covers of 2011

1) Cradle of Filth, Evermore Darkly Do you guys remember the Cradle of Filth I remember? The band that would put bathtubs full of blood and nude women on their albums, who put out the 'Jesus is a cunt' shirt? Remember that? So why does this album have a chick on a park bench for its cover?

2) Wayne Static, Pighammer You know what, I love this album title. It has so much potential to inspire a good cover—oh. Oh, you…you just want a picture of you, with scars, in a kimono. Oh, that's, that's cool…no, really, it shows a lot of…erm. Well.

3) Decapitated, Carnival Is Forever Yikes. I don't know where they were trying to go with this cover, but Decapitated really fell short here. It seems like it's really trying to say something, but…I dunno. It's like a parody of a nu-metal album cover. Not a fan.

4) Sebastian Bach, Kicking and Screaming You really have to wonder about these hair-metal dudes sometimes. Like, was it the drugs? Was it the weird biker/homegrown sexuality being bred in the '80s? What happened, once upon a time, that made them possibly think shit like this looks cool?

5) Limp Bizkit, Gold Cobra I like it when album art says something. For instance, when an album features a morbid sigil by Wes Benscoter, it says, "Good times ahead." When it's covered with Vince Locke's unholy zombiescapes, it says, "This is a Cannibal Corpse record." And, in the instance of Gold Cobra, it says, "Urinate here."

6) Lou Reed & Metallica, Lulu To be fair, I've never heard this album, only the criticism of it, so for all I know the music rules. But man, how much did they pay the beret-wearing Sarah Lawrence sophomore who made this piece of shit? (Answer: Too much.)

*Actually, I have to be a dick about the new Morbid Angel. Sorry guys, big fan of your stuff, but you really shat the bed with the lights on with this new record.

Mistress Juliya is best known for her work on Fuse TV hosting such metal-themed shows as Uranium, Metal Asylum, Let It Rock, and Slave to the Metal. She has also made appearances at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and Rock on the Range. She currently co-hosts the Top Twenty Countdown on Fuse premiering at 5 P.M. every Tuesday. Email your advice questions for her to AskJuliya@revolvermag.com and check back every Wednesday for her latest column.

I have been in love with this girl for seven years. We have been through many things including my going to prison for over four years. Now we are 2,500 miles apart and will have to be for two years. We talk and text a lot and things are good as can be. We talk of getting married and having a family. My family does not care for her too much though, which makes things harder. Do you think we'll make it and live happily ever after?
—John

Dear John,
This is clearly a complicated situation. This is what I will say: The opinion of your family is only important for your own reflection. Why do they dislike her? Are they correct or just judging? Those are things for you to think about and form your own opinion about.

On the rest of the issues, there are two ways to look at it. You guys have been together for a long time and have endured many very hard times. That's heavy. That means you two clearly love each other and have a deep level of dedication. That is definitely something very important and worthy in a relationship that is to last a long time. In these seven years, you guys have not really been "together" that much. As you said, you spent more then half of that time in prison, and now you are a very very long distance apart. Perhaps this is a sign that life does not want you to be together even though you guys keep trying. If seven  years later, you seem further apart then ever, then perhaps you were never meant to go the distance, even though you care deeply for each other. From my life experience (and I've had some dark ones) love is not enough. There are many factors that are required to allow people to stay together long enough to have a family, be happy, and not separate down the line. Honestly, you cannot check these factors via a long-distance relationship. You need to be around each other a lot and really see if you gel in every day mundane life. Also, long-distance love is more torturous to both parties then pleasurable. Most importantly, love should bring pleasure and fulfillment, instead of pain and emptiness.

With all this said, love is a personal matter of the heart and mind. So think very seriously about all of these things, and decide what is best for both of you. If you really love each other, you would want each other to be happy. Sometimes that means muscling through tough times, and sometimes it means letting go, and letting yourself and the other find their true path.

Mistress Juliya is best known for her work on Fuse TV hosting such metal-themed shows as Uranium, Metal Asylum, Let It Rock, and Slave to the Metal. She has also made appearances at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and Rock on the Range. She currently co-hosts the Top Twenty Countdown on Fuse premiering at 5 P.M. every Tuesday. Email your advice questions for her to AskJuliya@revolvermag.com and check back every Wednesday for her latest column.

I am a huge rock-and-roll fan! People always call me and ask who sings this song or whatever, and I always get asked what is the difference between hard rock and heavy metal? How would you answer that question?
—Jameson

Dear Jameson,
First of, your name alone is very rock and roll! To answer your question: Rock and Roll has its roots in blues and jazz. It has vocals that entail singing, for the most part, even though the vocals are often raspy and involve some screaming. There is a lot of groove...and you can dance to it. While I'm not sure exactly where metal started—some will argue it was with Black Sabbath with their spooky heavy riffs and bass tones, others will argue it started with the Beatles version of "Helter Skelter." Regardless, it's much heavier, faster, with vocals that are raw, loud, and mostly screaming. The guitars definitely have a thicker sound with solos that are much faster, and the drums are much faster, especially with the double bass. Also, it often has a lot of distortion—the distortion is strong as the overdrive is sustained longer creating a deeper, heavier sound. To me, rock and roll is groovy and Funky, while Metal is brutal, raw, and abrasive. But again—this is my perception.

The Buried Alive Tour, featuring Avenged Sevenfold, Hollywood Undead, Black Veil Brides, and Asking Alexandria kicks off in late November, and Revolver is celebrating early with Buried Alive–related videos for the rest of the week. We're kicking things off with this never-before-aired video of A7X frontman M. Shadows winning the Best Vocalist award at this year's Revolver Golden Gods for his work on the band's Nightmare, which we've posted below. Also, don't forget to enter our ginormous Buried Alive Tour Contest

Sebastian Bach recently swung by the MLB Fan Cave to reflect on this year's Most and Least Metal Moments in Major League Baseball. Check out the Baz-narrated highlight (and lowlight) reel below.