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Some will forever blame grunge for, at least temporarily, killing thrash and glam metal in the Nineties. Others credit it for welcoming in a nu wave of alternative rock and metal. No matter how you look at it, grunge was a revolutionary form of heaviness that defined a generation and changed the worlds of music, fashion and more, while still remaining remarkably relevant today. Seattle was ground zero, of course, but bands based in L.A., Chicago and elsewhere also spearheaded its earthshaking charge. Here are 15 essential albums to come out of the movement.

Alice in Chains - Dirt 

Facelift established Alice in Chains as the darkest and most metallic of Seattle's leading grunge bands, but their 1992 masterpiece, Dirt, certified them as legit rock all-timers. From opener "Them Bones" to classics like "Rooster," "Would?" and "Down in a Hole," the album is filled with exceptional songwriting, dirgy riffs and downtrodden lyricism that hit audiences hard then and still resonates strongly with them now — and forever.

Green River - Dry as a Bone

Green River would send members to Pearl Jam and Mudhoney, so this is a no-brainer. A bloody Stooges-Aerosmith collision, Dry as a Bone (and the band's swaggering swan song, Rehab Doll, also included in this EP's 1990 reissue) is a punk-fueled exploration of bluesy riffs and hard-rock bluster.

Hole - Live Through This

Hole's Kim Gordon-produced 1991 debut was a gnarled, noisy and decidedly uncommercial ruckus, but their 1994 follow-up, Live Through This, sanded the edges and added brilliant punk-pop hooks to their sound without sacrificing any of Coutney Love's biting intensity. When it comes to grunge's catchier side, it doesn't get much better than this. 

L7 - Bricks Are Heavy

Hailing from the City of Angels, L7 played their nasty, dirty, metallic take on grunge like devils. Produced by the band and Nevermind boardsmith Butch Vig, the group's magnum opus, 1992's Bricks Are Heavy, has its poppy moments — notably, the bouncy hit "Pretend That We're Dead" — but mostly, the acid-tongued Donita Sparks and Co. aim to crush those on their shitlist.

Melvins - Houdini

There's an evergreen argument to be made that the Melvins are more of a catchy sludge-metal act than anything else, but Houdini is one album of theirs that definitely deserves the grunge tag. After notoriously influencing Nirvana, the Washington weirdos enjoyed a brief stint on Atlantic Records that began with their 1993 effort — a freewheeling, untamed and unapologetically heavy assortment of glorious, sludgy pop songs co-produced by Kurt Cobain.

Mother Love Bone - Apple

Singer Andrew Wood's death by heroin overdose looms large over Mother Love Bone's one and only album, as does the fact that the band's Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard would go on to play in both Temple of the Dog and Pearl Jam. But 1990's Apple is way more than a grunge history footnote: Glammy, bluesy and oozing swagger, it echoes of vintage Led Zeppelin and set the stage for the Seattle rock explosion soon to follow.

Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff

This six-song 1988 EP defines early grunge. Vocalist-guitarist Mark Arm wails like Iggy Pop while guitarist Steve Turner nearly snaps an ankle giving his wah-wah pedal a furious workout. Adding to its cred, Skin Yard guitarist and Sub Pop's go-to engineer Jack Endino (who helmed seminal recordings by Nirvana, Soundgarden and others) captured Mudhoney here in all their filthy glory.

Nirvana - Nevermind

Nevermind kicks off with the immortal four-chord guitar intro of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" that introduced grunge to the masses. Although Butch Vig's production cleaned up some of the musical rough edges evident on the band's noisy debut, 1989's Bleach, the songs still pack an almighty wallop — almighty enough to change the face of popular music almost instantly.

Pearl Jam - Ten

Pearl Jam put grunge's lyrical angst and Seventies hard-rock core on proud display on their moody multi-platinum 1991 debut. Ten also notably introduced the world to vocalist Eddie Vedder (a San Diego transplant to Seattle) who immediately became the voice and face of the Seattle scene worldwide, along with Kurt Cobain.

Screaming Trees - Sweet Oblivion

The Screaming Trees are basically the Testament of grunge: a highly respected, fiercely beloved and indelibly influential band who never quite reached the commercial heights of their genre's big four. Their most popular release, 1992's Sweet Oblivion, should be heralded like the rest of this list, as it features some of Mark Lanegan's most refined dusky croons and tight-as-hell instrumentation that hits the sweet spot between jammy, groovy and hard-hitting. 

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream

While many of the quintessential Pacific Northwest bands were drawing from noise-rock and proto-metal, Smashing Pumpkins' take on grunge was more inspired by the celestial textures of shoegaze and dream-pop and the more cerebral, restrained elements of heavy metal. Their first masterpiece, 1993's Siamese Dream, is one of the genre's prettiest and most poignant highlights, while still boasting its fair share of towering build-ups and gnashing solos. 

Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger 

Soundgarden didn't compromise any of their Sabbathian heaviness on their breakthrough third album, 1991's Badmotorfinger, which nonetheless saw them hit MTV, rock radio and the Billboard 200 chart. Vocalist Chris Cornell established himself as a major-league howler on tracks like "Jesus Christ Pose" and "Slaves & Bulldozers," while Kim Thayil redefined the role of guitar hero with his snaky riffs and angular solos.

Stone Temple Pilots - Purple

Led by the electrifying croon of the serpentine Scott Weiland and the idiosyncratic playing of guitarist Dean DeLeo, San Diego's STP leapfrogged off the success of their debut, 1992's Core, with their 1994 follow-up, Purple. Debuting at No. 1, the album is stacked with alt-rock anthems, from the propulsive "Vasoline" to the soulful "Big Empty," the latter making its first appearance on the era-defining soundtrack to The Crow.

Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog

Ranking among rock's greatest supergroups and greatest one-and-done bands, Temple of the Dog were conceived by Soundgarden's Chris Cornell as a tribute to his late friend Andrew Wood, of Mother Love Bone. The group's lone LP, 1991's self-titled offering, features future members of Pearl Jam including a then-little-known singer named Eddie Vedder, and as such, it's a landmark grunge classic. Immortal songs like "Hunger Strike," "Say Hello 2 Heaven" and "Call Me a Dog" don't hurt either.

Tad - Inhaler

One of grunge's founding fathers, Tad Doyle, fronted this super-heavy band through the mid-Nineties. Their massive 1993 opus, Inhaler, produced by Dinosaur Jr.'s J. Mascis, was the most fully realized recording of Tad's flannel-draped, mountain-man rock, a feral version of grunge that relied on primal drumming, wire-taut guitars and Doyle's rough-hewn wail.

pantera dimebag darrell GETTY, Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
photograph by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images

This story was originally published in 2014.

When Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was murdered onstage while performing with his band Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa nightclub in Columbus, Ohio, it left a massive hole in the heart of heavy metal. Dime was not only a trailblazing shredder with a knack for infectious, grooving riffs and lightning-struck solos, but he was also one of the biggest and most exuberant personalities in the scene. An early champion of Pantera, Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford would come to befriend Dime, collaborate with him and, after his death, mourn and remember him. Here, the Metal God pays tribute to the late, great guitar hero.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST MEET DIMEBAG DARRELL?
ROB HALFORD
Priest was in Canada rehearsing for the Painkiller tour. I was doing an interview from the hotel room and I turned the telly on to [Canadian music-video channel] Much Music. The sound was turned off, and I saw this guy and he's got a British Steel T-shirt on. So I quickly finished the interview, and I turned the volume up and he's just talking about his band, Pantera, and Cowboys From Hell. And just watching him and listening to him on the television, you just felt like, This is a great guy. Firstly, I saw a clip of the band. I was like, My God, this guitar player is fucking phenomenal, besides the rest of the band. And then just hearing him talk I thought, I really would like to meet this guy. So I called up Much Music and I said, "Was that Darrell? Is he still there?" It wasn't Dimebag in those days, it was Diamond Darrell. They said, "Yeah, he still is." And he was like, "Oh my God, I can't believe it, I'm wearing a Priest shirt." And I said, "Yeah, I've just seen you on the Much Music." He said, "Oh man, I'd love to see you. We got a show tonight at the club in Toronto." I'm pretty much sure that it was Pantera and Stryper.

So I went down there, and we had a great time together, and we just talked about metal, this, that and the other. I think jammed "Metal Gods" with them. It's a bit blurry — it should be more significant than this, but this is 1991. I was clean and sober then, but you know how things get jumbled up in your brain. So that was the start of that. And I told [Judas Priest guitarists] Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing specifically after that: "I've seen this band. They're absolutely fucking amazing and they are going to be huge. They are going to be huge!" And I said, "We should try to get him on the tour." So, to cut a long story short, we brought them with us on the Priest Painkiller tour of Europe and nobody had a clue who they were. They had no distribution as far as I understood in Europe. So they went out blind, in front of Germans and French and whatever. I used to watch every show, and the first reaction fans gave them was, Who the hell is this? And it was like, Oh my fucking God, what's going on in front of my eyes? They would just win an audience over in 30, 40 minutes. From playing fresh, new music that nobody had heard before. The communication was instant with that band. So, there it was. So, by the time we'd done the European tour, and they went back to the states, Cowboys was shooting up the charts. And that was it, they were off and running. They were just launched into the stratosphere on that first release.

YOU MENTIONED DIME'S BRITISH STEEL SHIRT. HE USED TO WEAR A RAZORBLADE NECKLACE IN HONOR OF YOUR ALBUM, TOO. DID HE EVER TELL YOU ABOUT THAT?
Yeah, and he had it tattooed on his leg, as well. He loved that record. It meant everything to him. It was one that he said was very inspiring to him as a guitar player and as a musician in general. That's great, isn't it?

SHORTLY AFTER YOU TOURED WITH PANTERA, YOU WORKED WITH DIME ON THE SONG "LIGHT COMES OUT OF BLACK," FOR THE BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SOUNDTRACK. HOW DID THAT COME TOGETHER?
I was away from Priest. Sony were working on the soundtrack. They wanted Sony artists and asked me to write a song. I hadn't written as a solo writer for years and years and years. But it's one of those things where you don't know what you can do until you put your nose to the grindstone. So I wrote "Light Comes Out of Black," and I was stuck. And I got Dime's number, and I called him up and I said, "Here's the deal." And he goes, "Let's do it. Just get in the plane and come down to Dallas." So, that's what I did the next day, went to the studio, laid the track down in a very short space of time. Phil [Anselmo] wandered by, said "Oh, how's it going, 'Metal God'?" So, I told him and he said, "You got a spot for me?" I said, "Pfft, here's the mic." So Phil joins me on the back end of the song. And it turned out really good. It's amazing to think that that's a Pantera song really. It is Pantera with me on lead vocals, and Phil obviously doing the outro sections. But it's a Pantera song really.

DID YOU PLAY GUITAR ON A DEMO AND SEND IT TO HIM ORIGINALLY?
Yeah, I put my very primitive ... I just don't have the mental capacity to do what guitar players do.

WHAT WAS EXCEPTIONAL ABOUT WORKING WITH DIME?
His interpretation of the song. His phrasing, the feel was unique. Let's face it. You look at rock & roll. You've got Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, you've got Eddie Van Halen. I'm just going through a list off the top of my head — you obviously got Dimebag. Obviously, Glenn [Tipton, Priest guitarist], [Iron Maiden's] Adrian Smith and Dave Murray, all of these significant lead heavy-metal, hard-rock guitar players. And Dimebag ... I'm mentioning them now because they're very influential. All of those guitar players have been very influential to not only music but specifically to other guitar players around the world. And there's no doubt that Dimebag's impression was just monumental. If you took Dimebag out of the equation, metal would sound totally different right now. Without a doubt it would, definitely.

WHAT WAS THE LAST TIME YOU TALKED TO DIME?
I'm pretty certain it was Aladdin in Las Vegas on the Halford Resurrection tour with Iron Maiden. It might have happened maybe once, twice after that.

rob halford dimebag darrell pantera

WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU HEARD DIME HAD DIED?
I was in my house in Phoenix. I think somebody texted me or somebody called me, and my legs went from underneath me. I just hit the deck. This can't be real. I put the TV on, and it was actually on CNN. I just sat there in disbelief. And then I bawled like a baby, like you should do. I just cried my eyes out. And you just don't know what to do. You're full of confusion, you're full of anger, you want to fucking smash things to pieces. You want to play the music. You want to call Phil. All of these things are going on in your head. And obviously, Pat [Lachman] was singing for Damageplan at the time. I wanted to call Pat. Do you call? Do you not call? What the fuck's going on? Just a bazillion things are going around your head at the same time. But it was just terrible. It's just seems inconceivable. I don't think, now, that's never happened to anybody else, has it? I mean, we lost people through self-induced things, like booze and drugs. We've lost people like Ronnie [James Dio] with the kinds of illnesses. But to be fucking brutally murdered is just insane. Absolutely insane. John Lennon is the only other person, isn't it? They're both in good company, as far as what they mean and how they've lived on in our lives. How Dimebag will always live on. That's the only bit of solace you've got. It's that the work that they made will live forever. That's the blessing.

This story was originally published in October 2011.

A burst of thunder, three drumbeats and lightning-strike guitars — the opening riff to Slayer's "Raining Blood," from 1986's Reign in Blood, is undeniably one of the most monumental moment in metal history. So monumental, in fact, that its influence has resounded far beyond extreme music: Artists as diverse as pop-punks Reggie and the Full Effect and Dirty South rapper Lil Jon have used the riff (not to mention about eight million hardcore bands), and the song has been covered by everyone from piano-playing singer/songwriter Tori Amos to YouTube-star kid sisters jamming out on Rocksmith. We talked to Slayer's Jeff Hanneman, the classic cut's main songwriter, about his and the band's definitive song, its origins, evolution and lasting legacy.

WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT WRITING THE MAIN RIFF TO "RAINING BLOOD"?
JEFF HANNEMAN
I just remember when I came up with it, I thought, This is pretty good. I instantly grabbed my little mini-recorder or whatever I had at that time and recorded it so I wouldn't forget it. I had no idea that the fans would react to it as much as they do. Still, to this day, when we play that song, they go nuts. It's just unbelievable. At concerts, you know the drum buildup before we start playing that riff? It's almost like an eerie calm going on in the audience. But once it starts, when we start playing that riff, they fucking go crazy. I think its success is that it's so simplistic. It just sticks in your head. It embeds itself in your brain, and you sing it in your head all day and the only cure is to play the song again. Kids go nuts for that song. Like I said, I knew it had something that was really eerie about it or whatever, but I didn't know it was going to be as big as it was. In fact, I played it for Kerry [King, Slayer's other guitarist] on my little 8-track, and Kerry was like, "So." And I'm like, [laughing] "Dude, c'mon this is cool!"

WHAT DID THE OTHER GUYS THINK OF IT?
Fuckin' Dave [Lombardo, then–Slayer drummer] loved it. Tom [Araya, vocals, bass] loved it. Kerry was the only one that was like, "Huh, what?" Of course, he loves it now.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW IT SOUNDED IN DEMO FORM?
I came up with the riff and I had some stuff to go after it. Not what is actually on the song now, but I did the whole buildup. The whole "bomp bomp bomp" and the eerie guitar sounds, and I put it down on my little 8-track with my drum machine. And I thought it sounded great. 

WHAT ELSE DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT WRITING THE SONG?
I pretty much started the lyrics and I hit a roadblock and I think Kerry finished them up. Then I came back and did the ending part. The whole "Raining Blood." That part. But it pretty much came together easy. It's a short song.

WHAT WERE YOUR MUSICAL INFLUENCES AROUND THAT TIME?
I think pretty much punk. I think those were still my big punk days. Wasted Youth, T.S.O.L., Minor Threat.

HOW DID YOUR PRODUCER, RICK RUBIN, REACT TO IT?
I think on that song he just said, "It's done. It's perfect." That's pretty much how Rubin works. It's either, "Oh, this sucks." Or "It's perfect." [Laughs] Then he'll throw in his two cents. Our big thing is we'll either listen to him or if we think it's dumb, it's dumb, and we won't do it. But his big contribution to that album was the sound. That was the first time we ever sounded that in-your-face. The past records were all a lot of reverb, too much reverb. We didn't know exactly what we wanted. But looking back it's like I don't know why we even put up with that much reverb. But we were kids. And Rubin just said, "Fuck the reverb," and said, "Let's just put it straight." Like it would be, I guess, live or whatever. After that we were like, "Yeah, let's keep it this way."

HAVE YOU EVER GOTTEN SICK OF PLAYING "RAINING BLOOD"?
Not really, because it's a great song. It's short and the kids go nuts. Every night when we play it, once the kids go off like they do, it gives you goosebumps. You go off. It's still fun to play.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT HOW IT HAS BEEN EMBRACED IN THE SPORTS WORLD?
Yeah. I finally heard it, God, they played it in a hockey arena. I couldn't believe that. I love hockey, and I go to a lot of the games. And I was like, Why don't they ever play Slayer? And then they finally played "Raining Blood," and I was like, "Yes!"

WHAT DID YOU THINK OF TORI AMOS' COVER OF "RAINING BLOOD"?
I would have to say her version was the most original. Is this our song? It's like, why would you even do that song? Something about the rag? I don't know. She just asked if it was OK, and we said, OK, knock yourself out. And that was the end of it. The only cool thing about it is, I guess, because she did that song, we were playing over in Europe and we were really late and we were going on before her. We were super late and she just said, "No problem." We got there late, our flight was late or whatever, and she said, "No problem. Play your whole set." Like, Wow. I thought she was gonna be a bitch.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF HOW SOME PEOPLE USE THAT RIFF AS THEIR RINGTONE?
[Laughs] Yeah. That's pretty cool. I actually would think that would be goofy, but that is pretty cool.

DID THE SUCCESS OF THAT SONG INTIMIDATE YOU AS A BAND IN ANY WAY WHEN YOU WERE WRITING YOUR NEXT ALBUM, SOUTH OF HEAVEN?
It was just like, we're not going to be able to top that whole album. We're not going to be able to beat that. That's why we did South of Heaven and Seasons, we just kind of mellowed out a little bit. Not mellow, but slowed down. Maybe this new album [World Painted Blood] will be… I don't think anything can beat Reign in Blood. [Laughs] Who am I kidding?

Below, see Anthrax, Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown honor Slayer's Jeff Hanneman in 2013 by closing their rendition of Pantera's "This Love" with the iconic opening of "Raining Blood":

iron maiden bruce dickinson 2004 GETTY, Stephen Lovekin/FilmMagic
Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, 2004
photograph by Stephen Lovekin/FilmMagic

This story was originally published in the May 2004.

There are few frontmen in metal as iconic as Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson. But while this means that even your parents might know that Dickinson is an avid reader who likes to fence and fly airplanes, there's a lot about this man that remains a mystery. Like, for instance, his favorite book, his favorite beast, or his favorite science fiction movie.

1. FAVORITE OFFSTAGE REFRESHMENT: Beer
"I'm a big fan of independent local breweries. My favorite beer is brewed about 500 yards from my house, Fuller's Extra Special Bitter. It's not something you want to drink a lot of — a couple of pints will make you quite happy. More than that and you're doing damage."

2. FAVORITE BEAST: Tigers
"They're beautiful, they're elegant, they're intelligent, and they're really wonderful predators. They're the great white sharks of the land."

3. FAVORITE BOOKS HE NEVER WROTE A SONG ABOUT: The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkein
"We just thought it's such a huge book that it would be silly to write a song about it. It's almost as daft as imagining you could make a movie out of it. Though, of course, someone did that rather well."

4. FAVORITE FENCING FOIL
"You tend to customize your own equipment when you start fencing competitively, so I prefer a medium-to-firm stiffness blade with a Hungarian handle and a German point."

5. FAVORITE AIRPLANE
"If it flies, I'm interested. For jet airplanes I would pick the English Electric Lightning, the SR71 Blackbird, the Concorde, of course, and the Comet, which was the world's first jet airliner. In terms of piston-engine airplanes, I would pick the De Haviland Mosquito, which was a twin-engined light bomber, and the Lancaster Bomber, which bombed Germany flat in the second World War."

6. FAVORITE AIRLINE: Astraeus or British Airways
"I actually fly for Astraeus — I'm flying a load of people tomorrow morning. But if I'm a passenger, I tend to choose British Airways, because I know a few pilots there, and I know the airplanes are well-maintained."

7. FAVORITE SCI-FI MOVIES: Forbidden Planet (1956), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) and Quartermass and the Pit (1967)
"They're quite deep movies, all three. The human element and the plot are strong in all of them, though the science element in all of them is pretty cool, too. They're all fairly predictive of possible futures."

8. FAVORITE IRON MAIDEN-INFLUENCED BAND: Dream Theater
"I just think they write some pretty cool tunes and are a very good live band. They do their own thing without sounding like Iron Maiden."

9. FAVORITE NON–IRON MAIDEN–INFLUENCED BAND: Deep Purple circa 1971
"They were just awesome. From their instrumental virtuosity and soloing to their offstage antics and craziness, they were the most amazing rock band on the planet."

10. FAVORITE LUXURY CAR: Bentley Continental GT
"It' a monster, basically. It goes like shit on a shovel. But I'm never likely to buy one. It's a waste of fucking money."

Slayer released their fourth album, South of Heaven, 30 years ago today, July 5th, 1988. The record marked their second collaboration with hip-hop impresario Rick Rubin (whose earth-shattering production on 1986's seminal Reign in Blood paved the way for the California shredders' mainstream takeover), and their highest-charting effort at the time: It reached No. 57 on the Billboard charts and went Gold in the United States.

Of course, at the time South of Heaven was also an album laden with controversy: the songs were slower, the guitars cleaner, the vocals more refined. And yet, despite the knee-jerk reactions of many fans and critics, the LP nonethless stands as a powerful testament to the band's enduring brutality, and more importantly, their willingness to take risks and defy the static expectations forced upon them by thrash metal purists.

While Tom Araya and Co. may have dialed back their tempos on South of Heaven, they didn't sacrifice an ounce of strength: If anything, their mammoth sound merely underwent a growth spurt, leaving us with a lumbering, lethal beast that feels just as deadly almost three decades later. Nowhere is this more evident than in the band's performance of South of Heaven's "Mandatory Suicide" at London's Hammersmith Odeon in 1988, just after the album's release.

Along with the title track, the song's been a fixture of Slayer sets ever since its release, and for good reason. Between Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King's dueling riffs, Araya's bloodthirsty screams, and Dave Lombardo's nonstop percussive assault, it remains one of their biggest shows of force, even if it lacks the fleet-footedness of "Raining Blood," "Angel of Death" and the like. See for yourself below, accompanied by Slayer's abrasive run-through of the title track in New York City (also filmed in '88).

Here's one for all you guitar heads and 'Tallica fanatics out there. In the following video, shot by our buddies at Guitar World at Metallica HQ in 2006, Kirk Hammett shows you how to play some of the many classic "RIFFS!" on the band's watershed album Master of Puppets. The title track, "Battery," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," "The Thing That Should Not Be" — it's a master class (pun intended) from the master shredder himself.

"Master of Puppets is my favorite album," Hammett told us in a 2017 interview, "because we culminated as a band on Master of Puppets. Really! Everyone was kind of settled into their roles; everyone was playing well. We knew what we were striving for, we knew what we could do, we knew each other's playing well, we knew our strengths. And it just kind of all culminated on this album."

Below, watch Metallica blast through an epic rendition of Master of Puppets' "Disposable Heroes" live at the 2013 Revolver Golden Gods.

New Hampshire metal outfit Vattnet Viskar are back — but not as you remember them.

Consider Nick Thornbury, the band's co-founder and former frontman, the catalyst. Following Vattnet Viskar's tour behind Settler, 2015's excellent Century Media debut, Thornbury parted ways with the group, leaving the remaining members — guitarist Chris Alfieri, bassist Casey Aylward and drummer Seamus Menihane — at a creative crossroads. Nevertheless, the trio soldiered on under a shortened name, Vattnet, with Aylward as their new frontman. "There is a lot of self-realization when you go through that process," Alfieri says of the shift. "You take an inventory on yourself. We got into the shed a week after and just started writing songs."

Vattnet emerged from that experience with the skeletal compositions that would eventually comprise their new self-titled LP, which is scheduled for release on September 15 via New Damage. The eight tracks on Vattnet are a significant departure from Settler's highly technical black metal, and by extension, Vattnet's musical M.O. writ large. Where their sound was once dominated by tremolo picking and blast beats, Vattnet leans on clean vocals and prog-inflected fretwork à la Isis. After unveiling their new sound with last month's "Dark Black," Vattnet are showcasing their heavy hypnotic sound yet again, today, by way of a mesmerizing visual for "Spun." Check it out below, and pre-order Vattnet here.

Here's what Aylward had to say about "Spun":

"Spun" was the last song I wrote for the record and also the last song we recorded and put together. Conceptually it's about being uncomfortable and very unhappy in your situation at the time, feeling helpless, feeling like it won't ever end. The video touches on this theme by using the idea of searching for light within a world of darkness. While some choose to accept or live within the blackness, others try to find or create a light to see their way out. Definitely a song that poured out of me, as if I needed it exorcised from me. When it was done I knew it had to be the first song on the record, and I'm happy Shay and Chris shared that vision. I feel like it perfectly introduces what you can expect to hear from the rest of the record, albeit it on a pretty dark note.

Slayer were musical guests on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night. In addition to ripping through a killer performance of their watershed song "Raining Blood," the icons took part in the show's "Tales From Tour" segment.

The series finds artists looking back at their wildest times on the road — and, man, have these four seen (and done) some shit. Kerry King recalled the band's unsuccessful search through the streets of Amsterdam for a very stoned friend, whom they ended up abandoning (don't worry, there's a happy ending). The band members also shared tales of botched free throws, leaving drum techs behind Roy Rogers truck stops and — because this is Slayer we're talking about — awe-inspiring acts of projectile vomiting. Check out their performance and interview above and below.

Shortly after their 'Fallon' appearance, Slayer headed to nearby Madison Square Garden for the New York stop on their North American headlining tour. The group's latest round of shows behind last year's Relentless continues tonight in Baltimore, Maryland, with dates scheduled through late August. Check here to view the full itinerary of Slayer's summer trek, which features support from Lamb of God and Behemoth.

Speaking with Revolver earlier this month, King revealed that Slayer have new music in the works. "Funny thing is, Repentless isn't even two years old yet, though it seems like it is — but from that session, there are six or eight songs that are recorded: some with vocals, some with leads, but all with keeper guitar, drums and bass," he revealed. "So when those songs get finished lyrically, if the lyrics don't change the songs, they'll be ready to be on the next record. So we already have more than half a record complete, if those songs make it."

"This is actually the most prepared we've ever been for the next record in our history; there's no reason to not do more work, because it's already more than halfway done," he continued. "Just write four or five new songs, and give the others some attention, and we'll be good to go. If we get a down period of time, which I know is coming at the end of this year, maybe we'll focus on that and get to it."

grave pleasures

Grave Pleasures, the Finnish death-rock outfit formerly known as Beastmilk, have unveiled the turbulent new anthem "Infatuation Overkill." It's the first single off the band's sophomore album Motherblood, which hits shelves later this fall. The bruising cut finds the group picking up where last year's Funeral Party EP left off, delving into the insanity of modern times by way of an ear-splitting, post-punk fever pitch. 

"Obsession and omnipresent violent lust have become the norm as mania begins to seep into our intrinsic make-up," vocalist Mat McNerney said of the track in an interview with Decibel. "We attempt to portray the feeling of being pulled apart as the volcano erupts on our species and the dawn of man begins to draw to a close." The frontman's self-directed, black-and-white video for "Infatuation Overkill" takes the song's arduous, existential tug-of-war in an appropriately frenzied direction, splicing performance footage with dramatic, darkly sensual scenes which showcase human contact at its most lethal and alluring. 

Check out Grave Pleasures' "Infatuation Overkill" song and video below, and pre-order Motherblood digitally here ahead of its September 29 release date via new label home Century Media. (Physical pre-orders will become available July 29.) 

Grave Pleasures provided the following explanation of the record's themes (and eye-catching cover art) last month:

Like the great sacrament of ancient times that was the blood sacrifice of the mother, we too have laid down our most holy flesh at your feet. This record, which is a bold re-definition of death-rock and our totemic challenge to our pretenders, shall be our most grand and sordid testament. If you have never danced with the skeletons, then this album is your gateway drug to all the nihilistic pleasures of the grave. Apocalyptic post-punk never sounded so desperately bleak and wild yet never grinned so maniacally and writhed so fervently with tongues that whip the tombs. The Kali figure of our cover is the eternal icon of nuclear fear. She presides over the religion of an apocalyptic future. A desolate future we proudly celebrate with caustic music of the most furious punk. Come imbibe and wash your mind in our Motherblood. We're dancing in the lion's mouth. The elevator only goes down.

august burns red

August Burns Red have just announced a new record, Phantom Anthem, and premiered the album's first single and potentially nightmare-inducing video, "Invisible Enemy."

A first glance it appears that director Samuel Haileen has just filmed the Pennsylviana band performing the explosive song in a range of extreme backdrops, from snow fields to packed concert halls. What's so scary about that, you ask? Well, for starters, it's not actual humans we're staring at, but rather their marionette counterparts: a pack of creepy, dead-eyed homunculi whose eerie appearance, however badass, can't help but stir up uncomfortable flashbacks of that one dummy from Goosebumps, or perhaps 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" video by way of Child's Play.

Phantom Anthem, the follow-up to 2015's Found In Far Away, hits shelves on October 6 via Fearless, and was produced by Carson Slovak and Grant McFarland, who manned the band's last three full-lengths. Watch below (if you dare), and scroll down to check out Phantom Anthem's artwork and tracklisting, plus August Burns Red's upcoming tour dates. Pre-order the album here.

Phantom Anthem Track Listing

1. "King of Sorrow"
2. "Hero of the Half Truth"
3. "The Frost"
4. "Lifeline"
5. "Invisible Enemy"
6. "Quake"
7. "Coordinates"
8. "Generations"
9. "Float"
10. "Dangerous"
11. "Carbon Copy"

Jul. 28 - London, England – Underworld
Jul. 29 - Bristol, England – The Fleece
Jul. 30 - Manchester, England – Sound Control
Jul. 31 - London, England – Underworld
Aug. 1 - Cologne, Germany – Essigfabrik
Aug. 3 - Copenhagen, Denmark – Pumpehuset
Aug. 4 - Oslo, Norway – John Dee
Aug. 5 - Stockholm, Sweden – Fryshuset
Aug. 7 - Helsinki, Finland – Tavastia
Aug. 8 - Tallinn, Estonia – Tapper
Aug. 9 - Riga, Latvia – Melna Piektdiena
Aug. 10 - Warsaw, Poland – Proxima
Aug. 11 - Josefov, Czech Republic – Brutal Assault
Aug. 12 - Bildein, Austria – Picture On
Aug. 13 - Rasnov, Romania – Rockstadt Extreme
Aug. 14 - Sofia, Bulgaria – Mixtape 5
Aug. 16 - Budapest, Hungary – Durer Kert
Aug. 17 - Dinkelsbuehl, Germany – Summer Breeze
Aug. 18 - Allstedt, Germany – Destruction Derby
Aug. 19 - Hamburg, Germany – Elb Riot
Aug. 20 - Stuttgart, Germany – Universum
Aug. 21 - Zurich, Switzerland – Earshakerdays
Aug. 22 - Dornbirn, Austria – Conrad Sohm
Aug. 23 - Aschaffenburg, Germany – Colas Saal
Aug. 24 - Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
Aug. 25 - Sulingen, Germany – Reload Festival
Aug. 27 - Antwerp, Belgium – Trix Club
Aug. 28 - Paris, France – Petit Bain
Oct. 7 - Camden, NJ – Rock Allegiance Fest
Oct. 15 - Spring, TX – Houston Open Air Festival
Oct. 21 - Sacramento, CA – Aftershock Festival

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