Bathory: Bathory’s self-titled debut record marked the true birth of the black metal sub-genre, transforming black metal from the tongue-in-cheek occult posturing of Venom into a sober, artistic pursuit. Lo-fi production values, epic Viking lore, eerie atmospheric passages – Bathory’s enigmatic founding member Quorthon (RIP) almost singlehandedly forged a template that would inspire legions of Scandinavian black metal bands.

Possessed: Ratcheting up metal’s evil quotient with ultra-low guttural vocals, songs about ritual sacrifice and images of giant flaming upside-down crosses and blood-splattered human skulls, Possessed made their 80s Bay Area thrash metal counterparts look like half-assed part-timers. Not to mention that the final track on their seminal debut Seven Churches, “Death Metal,” would coin an entire sub-genre to be.

Carcass: Featuring over-the-top song titles like Genital Grinder, Cadaveric Incubator of Endoparasites, Crepitating Bowel Erosion – Liverpool’s Carcass introduced a brand of extreme metal was at once absurd and clinically precise, and sent most 80s extreme metalheads to their local medical libraries to find out exactly what the hell “crepitating” meant. Pioneering so-called “grindcore” along with fellow Brits Napalm Death and Bolt Thrower, Carcass’ sound was brutally raw, impossibly fast and indeed grinding.

Death: Death leader Chuck Shuldiner (RIP) was the Bach of extreme metal. Eschewing the primitive for the progressive, Chuck and Co. took the brutality of Bathory, Posssessed, Autopsy etc. and added complexity, virtuosity and lyrical depth, proving that extreme can also be elegant. And with album titles like Spiritual Healing and Human, death metal was now about more than decapitation and limb dismemberment: it was a social commentary.

Enslaved: Who said extreme metal couldn’t be spiritual? Hailing from the fjords of Norway’s rugged westcoast, Bergen’s Enslaved began their career amidst the pack of Norwegian black metal bands that exploded in the early 90s. But by decade’s end they had matured into an eccentric blend of black-meets-prog-meets-folk metal, with lead growler/bassist Grutle Kjellson recounting Norse mythology in long-extinct dialects. Recent albums Ruun and Axioma Ethica Odini demonstrate that extreme metal can be a vehicle for both savage aggression and oral history, suggesting a brave future for metal’s most transgressive sub-genre.

Want to see a special “lost” episode of the Metal Evolution series dedicated to nothing but extreme metal? Check out www.indiegogo.com/extrememetal to see what killer perks you can get for helping make it a reality!

Brandon Geist
Editor in Chief

Morbid Angel, Illud Divinum Insanus
“It doesn’t come out til June 7, but, dude, the new Morbid Angel album, their first with original vocalist David Vincent in 16 years, is fucking awesome—and wacky as all shit. There are classic-sounding church-burners like ’10 More Dead’ and ‘Nevermore,’ but then there are also stripped-down, almost nu-metally chant-alongs like the totally badass ‘I Am Morbid’ and Rob Zombie-ish industrial-metal stompers like ‘Radikult.’ You gotta hear it to believe it.”

Sixx:A.M., This Is Gonna Hurt
“I was pretty much hooked on Sixx:A.M.’s hit single, ‘Life is Beautiful,’ as soon as I heard it back in 2007. It’s just too damn catchy. And this new album is full of similarly hooky, hard-rock anthems that have already been stuck in my head for weeks just from hearing them in demo version. In particular, the title track and ‘Live Forever,’ which has a soaring chorus worthy of Muse, are pretty much irresistible.”

Down, NOLA
“Wow, how bummed I am about missing Down’s recent NYC show? Phil Anselmo gets his head sliced open by Pepper Keenan’s guitar during their second song and ends up performing the whole show with blood-streaming down his face, GG Allin-style. Bad. Ass. (I hear that after the show Phil was told he needed to get staples but refused them.) Relistening to Down’s classic debut album is small consolation for missing the gory epicness, but holy crap, does it still crush. ‘Hail the Leaf’!”

Bathory, Blood Fire Death
“Every few months I come back to this album and it always blows me away—a Viking metal classic, through and through. My favorite track is ‘Dies Irae.’”

Morbid Angel, Illud Divinum Insanus
“That’s right. I’ve heard it. Some of it will absolutely knock your socks off. And the song with the Celtic Frost referencing title—’I Am Morbid’—is a reverent nod to extreme metal’s forefathers.”

Sister, “Bullshit & Backstabbing”
“We premiered this track by the Swedish sleaze metallers earlier this week, and I gotta say—I can’t get it out of my head. It reminds me of ’80s Swedish glam metallers Shotgun Messiah right before they became an industrial-metal group.”

Josh Bernstein
Creative Director

Municipal Waste, Hazardous Mutation
“From ‘Bangover’ to ‘Guilty Of Being Tight,’ Virginia’s Municipal Waste, lay waste to 15 thrash-crossover classics here. Fast, aggressive, precise, and actually fun. With a cover painted by Ed Repka, how can you lose?”

Sex Pistols, The Great Rock & Roll Swindle
“After getting to meet the coolest Sex Pistol ever at the Golden Gods (hint: not Johnny or Sid), I had to dig out my old Great Rock & Roll Swindle album and check out some of the deeper cuts. For a band that only released one real album, this collection of B-sides, demos, covers, and oddball disco and classical versions of their hits is truly insane and should find a home in anyone’s music library.”

FEAR, The Record
“Their first, their best. Lee Ving still sounds dangerous, insane, racist, and frankly one of the best and most compelling frontmen ever. I can see why the SNL execs freaked out in 1981 and banned them for life…”

Josh Hart
Web Producer

Explosions in the Sky, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
“It’s amazing in this age of short attention spans that a band that routinely writes 8-10 minute long instrumentals could have a Top 20 album, just over a month after a headlining show at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. ‘Trembling Hands’ and ‘Be Careful, Creature’ are favorites.”

Atomic Rooster, Atomic Rooster
“Progressive (don’t let that word scare you off) rock from the early ’70s featuring members of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Later releases may have been heavier, but the first album will probably always be my favorite.”

Eisbrecher, Eisbrecher
“Those unfamiliar with the German industrial music scene (what, are you living under a rock?) might be surprised to know there are actually quite a few bands in the Rammstein vein floating around Deutschland. There are definitely more than a few copycat albums that will send you running for your copy of Mutter, but Eisbrecher’s self-titled effort ain’t half bad, even by Rammstein standards.”

Jimmy Hubbard
Photography Director

A Storm Of Light, As The Valley of Death Becomes Us, Our Silver Memories Fade
“Fourth record from A Storm of Light and easily my favorite. After three great records, it sounds like these guys really figured out their own sound and it’s a lot different than I was expecting. Still has a lot of the Neurosis, Isis vibe, but kind of has a cool industrial thing going on. These guys touring with Tombs is going to make an awesome bill.”

Indian, Guiltless
“Another awesome band from Chicago and another awesome sounding album produced by Sanford Parker (Nachtmystium, Minsk, Buried at Sea). Great, brutal doomy metal, great organic sounding record. Band also features Will Lindsay of Wolves in the Throne Room and Nachtmystium.”

The Black Dahlia Murder, Ritual
“I have been listening to a lot of Black Dahlia Murder recently, mostly because we just finished an awesome feature on them. (Wait ’til the next issue!) But, yep, as I expected, this record is great! Sounds like BDM, with a bit more black metal influences, sounds like someone has been listening to a little Deathspell Omega….”

70,000 Tons just got heavier! The metal cruise festival just added Bathory tribute supergroup Twilight of the Gods to its lineup. The all-star band includes Alan Nemtheanga from Primordial, former Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir drummer Nick Barker, former Mayhem guitar and bass player Blasphemer, Frode Glesnes of Einherjer, and Patrik Lindgren of Thyrfing. The metal cruise also includes Amon Amarth, Fear Factory, Iced Earth, and more! Click here for more details.