UPDATE: The poll is closed. For the result, click here.

5. Fear Factory, The Industrialist
“Dino and Burton are the industrial-metal dream team and The Industrialist proves how great and tenacious they are.”

4. Cynic, The Portal Tapes
“I’ve been waiting over 10 years to witness the album see the light of day. I’m so thrilled the Cynic guys got on this and put it out. It’s a true gem–one of my faves for sure.”

3. Aborted, Global Flatline
“The new Aborted album further strengthens their place in modern death metal. An amazing album with some of the best artwork and packaging I’ve seen all year.”

2. Dying Fetus, Reign Supreme
“Dying Fetus. That’s all I have to say. They are death-metal overlords. Just listen to the track, ‘In the Trenches’ and see why.”

1. Napalm Death, Utilitarian
“Anything Napalm Death outs out is the best grind. I love them–they ALWAYS deliver!”

Chris Krovatin is the author of three young adult novels,

OK, here’s what I’m thinking: I want the band name, you know, Meatball Grinder, only I want “Meatball” to be done as, like, splatters of human intestines against a brick wall on a hot day, right? But then “Grinder” should be made of big jagged pieces of riveted metal with kind of a chrome look. But here’s where it gets important: I want the intestines in the “M” to be pulled into kind of a chute, right, and then have the “R” have a spout that’s spitting out this furious barrage of ground meat, just a repulsive spray of chunky remains. And can we put an inverted cross in there? What if the “T” in “Meatball” is an inverted cross? No one’s done that, right?

Creating a truly cool band logo is hard, especially in metal where everything is done to death. But if you nail it, then damn, you’ve done good. Sometimes, your band says enough that you don’t need a logo, just a font (Motörhead, Pantera). Sometimes, your band is down to change their shit up album to album, the awesome band name doing most of the graphic designer’s job (Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard). And sometimes, you decide to have your band logo look like a Vidalia onion (Naglfar). But for the elite few, that logo remains as perfect symbol for that band’s awesome sound and atmosphere. Likewise, if your band logo sucks, I will never 100 percent dig you. Nothing personal, but it matters. So, dear readers, here is my list of the Six Coolest and Lamest Metal Band Logos.

The Six Coolest Metal Band Logos:

1. Slayer HELL yes. No other logo even touches the Slayer logo. It has a sharp old-school thrash-metal vibe to it (and, let’s all quietly admit, a slightly fascistic quality with that “S”), but remains edgy and modern. Perfect for tattoos, graffiti, yarmulkes, socks, shot glasses, rolling papers, and whatever else you can think of. Put it on everything.

2. Iron Maiden With its classic red block lettering, this is easily one of the most identifiable band logos in metal. It immediately invokes the traditional concept of the genre—long hair, pumping fists, black sleeveless shirts, war. Predictable, perhaps, but undeniable in its eternal power. Hail.

3. Metallica Yeah, we gotta do it. Say what you want about them as a band, Metallica has one of the cooler logos in music. What makes it so awesome is its simplicity—just make the ends of the word sharp, like fangs. Every time a death-metal band designs a wholly unreadable logo, they should stop and consider this one. Damn near perfect.

4. Napalm Death All too often, death-metal bands err on the side of spiky logos (Death, Morbid Angel) or dripping gory logos (Cryptopsy, Autopsy, all the “-topsies” really). Napalm Death found a perfect medium, their shredded, scrawled skeleton of a logo standing as a symbol of all things insane, repulsive, and enraged. Rock this on a shirt while stomping a Nazi’s face in.

5. Mayhem The Emperor logo’s more regal and the Darkthrone logo’s more cult, but the Mayhem logo has it all—spikes, crosses, bat wings, and “the true” written atop it. This is the standard that every black-metal band wanted to follow, a mutated outgrowth of overdriven evil. God, just LOOK at it.

6. Nine Inch Nails White box. “N,” “I,” backward “N.” Simple, elegant, hardcore, solid, undeniable, awesome.

Honorable mentions: Opeth, Carcass, Emperor, Venom, Death, Morbid Angel, Anthrax, Nile, Twisted Sister, Wolves in the Throne Room, and that Sepultura “S” made out of bones.

The Six Lamest Metal Band Logos:

1. Killswitch Engage Though I’m not a diehard Killswitch fan or anything, I don’t hate these guys, but–yikes! There’s just so many bad things going on here—the pouty half-skull, the weird semi-wings over it, the crown, the ultra-distressed type. This logo is confused more than anything else. A confluence of bad metalcore imagery.

2. hed PE As far as nu-metal bands go, I actually really like these guys. “Waiting To Die” is awesome, and their cover of “Sabra Cadabra” on Nativity In Black II is a solid revision of a classic tune. But man, those parentheses are infuriating, and that upside-down lower-case “E” just puts the killing rage in me. At least the backwards “R” in the Korn logo has a childish thing to it—no one writes an upside-down “E.”

3. Saxon Is the “S” supposed to be a battle-axe? Is that what’s going on here? Because otherwise, this logo is an odd mix of a 1970s rock font and a weird 1980s prog-metal  script. And honestly, even if it is an axe, it’s not very good. Sorry, guys, but I got no love for this.

4. Morbid As much as I love Per “Dead” Ohlin and early black metal, I’m sad to report that this logo eats the thick veiny one. The weird little cutsey-goth bat shape, the lower-case “D” at the end… It all looks clumsy and unnatural. Obviously, it was redeemed by the Mayhem logo, but still, look at it. Blech.

5. HIM The heartagram sucks. Period. End of story. It is grade-A lame. Even when I listened to this band a lot—that’s right, they have some silky gothic grooves, man—I never rocked that heartagram logo. It’s Satanism filed down. It’s the beast with Mickey Mouse ears. Fuck this logo.

6. Megadeth Huh…look at how the first and last letters have those spiked corners. It reminds me of another, more successful band logo, but I forget which… Oh.

“I’ve been wanting to tour with Napalm for ages,” said Waste vocalist Tony Foresta. “I’m so glad this is finally a reality. Waste and Napalm hand-picked all of the openers. We’re beyond stoked that all these great bands wanted to be a part of it. We’re really excited!”

Support on the tour will come from Exhumed, with either Vektor, Dayglo Abortions, Attitude Adjustment or Speedwolf opening each date of the trek.

Tour dates are as follows:

with Vektor
10/26/12 Empire – Springfield, VA
10/27/12 Gramercy Theater – New York, NY
10/28/12 El N Gee – New London, CT
10/29/12 Middle East – Boston, MA
10/31/12 Les Foufounes Electriques – Montreal, QC CANADA
11/01/12 The Opera House – Toronto, ON CANADA
11/02/12 Fun Fun Fun Fest – Austin, TX**
11/03/12 Reggie’s – Chicago, IL***
11/04/12 Station 4 – St Paul, MN*

with Dayglo Abortions
11/05/12 Osborne Village Inn – Winnipeg, MB CANADA
11/06/12 Riddell Centre – Regina, SK CANADA
11/07/12 The Pawn Shop – Edmonton, AB CANADA
11/09/12 Rickshaw Theater – Vancouver, B.C. CANADA

with Attitude Adjustment
11/10/12 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA w/ Martha Splatterhead’s Revenge
11/11/12 Hawthorne Theater – Portland, OR
11/13/12 DNA Lounge – San Francisco, CA
11/14/12 Observatory – Santa Ana, CA w/ Repulsion
11/15/12 House Of Blues – Hollywood, CA w/ Dwarves
11/16/12 Rocky Point – Tempe, AZ
11/17/12 House Of Rock – El Paso, TX*

with Speedwolf
11/18/12 Rail Club – Fort Worth, TX***
11/20/12 Exit In – Nashville, TN
11/23/12 Kingdom – Richmond, VA
11/24/12 The Casbah – Charlotte, NC
11/25/12 The Valarium – Knoxville, TN
11/26/12 Zydeco – Birmingham, AL
11/27/12 Siberia – New Orleans, LA
11/30/12 Terminal West – Atlanta, GA
12/01/12 Orpheum Theater – Tampa, FL
12/02/12 Grand Central – Miami, FL Barge To Hell Pre-Party**
12/03-07/12 Barge To Hell Cruise**

* = MUNICIPAL WASTE, Napalm Death, Exhumed only
** = MUNICIPAL WASTE & Napalm Death only
*** = Napalm Death & Exhumed only

Aerosmith
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Between frontman Steven Tyler’s day job on American Idol and his onstage shoving matches with his Toxic Twin, guitarist Joe Perry, last year, if someone had asked us whether the biggest-selling American rock band of all time was about to get back in the saddle again and record a new album, we probably would have answered, “Dream on.” But by all accounts Aerosmith are going to drop their 15th studio record later this year—according to Tyler last September, maybe even as soon as “March—hopefully.”

Alice in Chains
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
With 2009′s Black Gives Way to Blue, Alice in Chains pretty much pulled off the impossible: Create a completely authentic new album 14 years after their previous, self-titled record and seven years after the death of iconic lead singer Layne Staley. As such, Black Gives Way to Blue was named Album of the Year by the Revolver staff and later was voted on by the fans to win the same honors at the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods. Needless to say, we’re very excited to see what they do for a follow-up, which we know they’re working on, and which we’re hoping will be ready for release this year.

Phil Anselmo
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
As if Phil Anselmo, of Pantera, Down, Arson Anthem, Superjoint Ritual, and Christ Inversion, et al, didn’t have enough projects to his name, the dude is about to drop his first-ever solo album later this year. Backing him is Houston-based guitarist Mazi Montazeri, of whom Anselmo says, “If Ozzy Osbourne had his Tony Iommi and then found his Randy Rhoads when he went to do his solo stuff, I have found my Randy Rhoads.” The singer promises a “fucking very aggressive record”—and this is coming from the guy who sang “Fucking Hostile.” Consider us fucking stoked.

As I Lay Dying
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Fall
Last year these metalcore stalwarts celebrated 10 years together, releasing the anniversary EP Decas, which featured covers of Judas Priest and Slayer. If those are the influences these guys are carrying into their second decade, album No. 6 should be a doozy.

As-yet-unnamed Project Featuring Soulfly’s Max Cavalera and Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Late 2012
Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato hit it off so well with former Sepultura main man Max Cavalera when his band toured with Cavalera Conspiracy—the Brazilian metal legend’s current project with his brother, Iggor—that the two joined forces to record an album together. From what Puciato tells us, it follows in the vein of Cavalera’s mid-’90s industrial-thrash side project, Nailbomb, with Fudge Tunnel’s Alex Newport. Nailbomb ruled, so we’re really hoping this lives up to the hype.

Asking Alexandria
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: September
2011 was a monster year for Asking Alexandria: The band rocked the Revolver Golden Gods, became bosom buds with one of their heroes Sebastian Bach, relocated to LA, opened for Guns N’ Roses and Avenged Sevenfold, got schooled by the Ultimate Warrior, and pretty much claimed their spot as one of the top young metal outfits on the planet. According to frontman Danny Worsnop, their next album will be “a musical baby of Mötley Crüe and Slipknot.”

Baroness
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: May
They released Revolver‘s 2007 Record of the Year, Red Album, and have since toured with Metallica and been taken on by Metallica’s management, QPrime. So to say that Savannah’s Baroness are groomed for something big would be an understatement. Word on the street is that “something big” is just what the band is going to deliver: a double-disc prog opus that recalls Boston as much as it suggests Mastodon.

Biohazard
TITLE: Reborn In Defiance
RELEASE DATE: January 20
Rap-metal pioneers Biohazard split with founding frontman-cum-porn star Evan Seinfeld last year, but not before recording their final record with him. We’ve heard it and it’s just the sort of Brooklyn hardcore beatdown fans would want from the band that made ’90s classics like Urban Discipline and State of the World Address. Look for the album later this month to be released stateside via unconventional channels.

Black Sabbath
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Fall
Over three decades since they released their last album, the original lineup of Black Sabbath—vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward—announced late last year that they are working on an LP of new songs with producer Rick Rubin (Metallica, Slayer, Slipknot). When the news broke, a mini-riot of jubilation broke out in the Revolver office, such that we had to name this the Story of the Year. Since then, it was announced that Iommi is battling lymphoma but is forging ahead with the writing process nonetheless. Iron Man, indeed.

Cannibal Corpse
TITLE: Torture
RELEASE DATE: March 13
Grisly death-metal stalwarts Cannibal Corpse have been on an winning streak over their past few records—their last release, Evisceration Plague, even landed a spot on Revolver‘s Top 20 Albums of 2009—so this next disc has a lot to live up to. Thankfully, we know they’ve been practicing—especially guitarist Pat O’Brien who stood in for ailing Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman on a few of the thrash legends’ tour dates last year.

Converge
TITLE: All We Love We Leave Behind
RELEASE DATE: Late spring/early summer
Over a decade after the eardrum-battering Massachusetts-based band turned hardcore and metal fans on their collective ears with the genre-defining metalcore classic Jane Doe, Converge hasn’t let up in extremity since. Following up 2009′s stellar Axe to Fall, the group is recording All We Love We Leave Behind this month.

Crosses
TITLE: EP ††
RELEASE DATE: January 24
The free digital debut EP from Crosses—A.K.A. Chino Moreno of Deftones and Shaun Lopez of Far—was one of the best musical surprises of last year. (The duo also released the stellar track “The Years” on the Batman: Arkham City soundtrack). Though not metal and barely rock, the group’s lush, atmospheric dream-pop got plenty of play around Revolver HQ. EP No. 2 will likely get put on repeat play, as well, as soon as it comes out.

Dillinger Escape Plan
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
These spazz-metal maniacs’ last album, 2010′s Option Paralysis, was their first on their own label, Party Smasher Inc., and it earned them the Best Underground Band award at the 2010 Revolver Golden Gods. Since then, they’ve toured with Deftones and Mastodon and, late last year, started seriously working on studio album No. 5. As guitarist Ben Weinman commented in December: “Billy and I have been locked up in the Dillinger compound and things are starting to boil… The neighbors are definitely getting pissed, but we couldn’t be more excited.” Ditto.

Down
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Late winter
The last Down record, 2007′s Over the Under, was a beast. Since then, the southern stoner-metal supergroup—featuring the aforementioned Phil Anselmo, Corrosion of Conformity’s Pepper Keenan, Crowbar and Kingdom of Sorrow’s Kirk Windstein, and Eyehategod’s Jimmy Bower—have split amicably with bassist Rex Brown (now of his own supergroup, Kill Devil Hill, with erstwhile Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice), brought on Pat Bruders (Goatwhore, Crowbar, Outlaw Order), and announced plans to release a series of EPs. The first of these will be a six-song mini-album of what Anselmo describes as “pretty pure doom.”

The Faceless
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
In May last year, tech-death outfit the Faceless—led by guitarist Michael Keene—posted a debut of a new song, “The Eidolon Reality,” on YouTube, promising their third full-length in the fall. Autumn came and went. No album. But now, with a new lead vocalist, Geoff Ficco, and a new bassist, Evan Brewer of Animosity, the band is set to finally drop the follow-up to 2008′s acclaimed Planetary Duality this spring. Watch your head.

Goatwhore
TITLE: Blood for the Master
RELEASE DATE: February 14
This NOLA gauntleted brigade—led by Soilent Green’s Ben Falgoust and Acid Bath’s Sammy Duet—never fails to deliver when it comes to blistering, satanic blackened thrash. Their forthcoming fifth album should be perfect music for sacrificing goats, whores, virgins, or just your own neck to a few days of aching whiplash.

Godflesh
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
When British industrial-metal groundbreakers Godflesh reunited to play shows in 2010, it was great news—more than a few extreme-music fans, including a couple editors at Revolver, were crushed when the band canceled its 2001 U.S. tour and then broke up the following year. (Godflesh play their first American gig in forever at this year’s Maryland Death Fest.) But news that main man Justin Broadrick & Co. are working on a new album, 10 years after the release of their swansong, Hymns, well, that’s a whole other level of mind-blowing.

Gojira
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
It’s no secret that we love environmentally minded prog-death outfit Gojira over here at Revolver. We’ve been championing the French “green metal” crushers ever since we heard the behemoth opening track of their 2005 opus, From Mars to Sirius. Their first record on new label Roadrunner, Album No. 5 should hit like a force of nature.

Halestorm
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Led by one of our favorite rocker babes—and advice columnists, for that matter—singer-guitarist Lzzy Hale, this Pennsylvania-bred breakout band promise a more personal album for their follow-up to their smash 2009 self-titled debut. But don’t expect them to get all sappy on us. There should still be more than enough of the band’s now signature raucous attitude and righteous riffs for any headbanger to get off. And if Hale ever assembles the all-girl supergroup featuring Alice Cooper guitarist Orianthi, Sick Puppies bassist Emma Anzai, and Skillet keyboardist Korey Cooper and drummer Jen Ledger that she has said could be in the works, our heads might just literally explode.

Hellyeah
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
After two albums that saw the hard-partying supergroup—featuring Pantera’s Vinnie Paul, Mudvayne’s Chad Gray and Greg Tribbett, and Nothingface’s Tom Maxwell—dabbling in southern rock, blues, and even country music, the band is making what Paul calls “a balls-out metal record” for their third offering. “It was fun and enlightening thing to open up and cover these other styles of music,” Paul says. “But when we finished this last tour, we said, ‘All right, with this next record, let’s just go fucking balls out and see what happens.’ It’s very heavy. It’s very abrasive. I think it’s maybe going to be what people envisioned this band being like from the start.”

High on Fire
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: Spring
Since the release of their last album, 2010′s Snakes for the Divine, stoner-thrash titans High on Fire have survived not one but two earthquakes—the February 22, 2010 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the quake and resulting tsunami in Japan on March 11. Whether this influenced the sure-to-be cataclysmic sound on their forthcoming record is unclear, but the band, led by Sleep guitarist Matt Pike, do promise a new album that is “direct, eye-opening, and powerfully supernatural.”

Judas Priest
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
The Metal Gods may have announced their departure from the stage, which they commemorated with 2011′s triumphant Epitaph Tour, but the members of Judas Priest swear we haven’t heard the last of them. With the addition of new guitarist Richie Faulkner, who replaced K.K. Downing when he retired last year and made his debut with the band supporting James Durbin on American Idol, the band is currently working on a reported 12 to 14 new songs that they hope to release in 2012.

Killswitch Engage
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
In mid-December, Killswitch Engage guitarist Mike D’Antonio posted on his Facebook page that the metalcore band was convening around Christmastime to write a new record. He added, “Even Howard is coming,” referring to frontman Howard Jones, who had missed some of the group’s 2010 shows, supposedly due to back pain. Then, on January 5, the band announced Jones had left the band citing personal reasons as the cause. Their statement said, “He has left big shoes to fill, so we certainly have our work cut out for us to find the next singer of Killswitch, something we plan on making priority #1 going forward.” So we’re still holding onto our hopes that there will be a new Killswitch record in 2012.

Kiss
TITLE: Monster
RELEASE DATE: TBA
For the second release on the makeup-slathered hard-rock legends’ own Kiss Records, vocalist-bassist-Demon Gene Simmons promises a “meat and potatoes” kind of record, a Kiss record you can depend on. Next year will be the group’s 40th anniversary, and with Monster, they want to prove they can still rock and roll all night and party every day in style. Also, be on the lookout this year for an official book about the band that will be four feet tall!

Lacuna Coil
TITLE: Dark Adrenaline
RELEASE DATE: January 24
Frontwoman Cristina Scabbia promised a heavier new direction with the sixth album from her Italian goth-metal outfit, and judging from lead single, “Trip the Darkness,” she wasn’t kidding. Lacuna Coil hit the U.S. in support with this winter’s Gigantour, alongside Megadeth, Motörhead, and Volbeat.

Lamb of God
TITLE: Resolution
RELEASE DATE: January 24
Every album from these Virginia leaders of the New Wave of American Metal is an event. But this latest is particularly momentous: It sees the band expanding their signature thrashy sound in surprising directions and doing it well, from the Eyehategod-ian slow-mo sludge of opener “Straight for the Sun” to the Dimmu Borgir-esque orchestral strings and operatic female backing vocals of closer “King Me.” Still, Resolution never really sounds like anyone other than Lamb of God.

Marilyn Manson
TITLE: Born Villain
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Released seemingly out of nowhere last year, the disturbing music video for this album’s title track (and it was disturbing not just because it was directed by Transformers star Shia LaBeouf) raised more questions than it answered. But if it proved anything, it reconfirmed that Mr. Antichrist Superstar is anything but boring, so we look forward to the answers—and the album, the first on Manson’s own label—when they come.

Meshuggah
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: March 27
In 2011, a strange, barely pronounceable onomatopoeia, “djent,” became the hot new buzzword in underground metal, a catch-all term to describe a breed of young bands who, essentially, share one major characteristic: They sound like Meshuggah. Having inspired a whole nerdy little subgenre, the Swedish tech-death overlords return in 2012 to show Generation Djent just how it’s done, and we’re guessing that they not only pick up where they left off with 2008′s obZen, but that they take their existing sound and destroy, erase, and improve it.

Metallica
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
On the heels of a triumphant run headlining the Big Four festivals in 2011 as well as an experimental album with Lou Reed, the metal giants are working on the follow-up to 2008′s Revolver Album of the Year, Death Magnetic. From what guitarist Kirk Hammett has said about the record, it will be like “a heavier ‘Black Album.’” Read more about it in the article here.

Ministry
TITLE: Relapse
RELEASE DATE: March 30
Ministry’s breakup never seemed particularly set in stone. After all, their “final” album, 2007′s The Last Sucker, was followed by not one record of covers and remixes but two—not to mention a 2009 live album. Still, it was hard for any fan of the seminal industrial-metal band not to be excited when main man Al Jourgensen announced in August that the group would not only be touring in 2012 but releasing a new, original studio album, fittingly called Relapse. Politically charged lead single “99 Percenters,” which hit iTunes on just before Christmas, bodes nicely.

Napalm Death
TITLE: Utilitarian
RELEASE DATE: February 28
The death-metal and grindcore greats titled their last record Time Waits for No Slave, and that appears to be the motto for the band whose members have hardly rested on their laurels since the album’s release in 2009. Frontman Barney Greenway has lent his powerful vocals to music by Volbeat, bassist Shane Embury re-joined the supergroup Lock Up, and the band released a new song in the memory of Extreme Noise Terror vocalist who once fronted Napalm Death. All things considered, they have a lot to work from for this new record, which will be anything but utilitarian.

Neurosis
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
The members of psych-metal firebrands Neurosis have been busy in the years since they released their last record, 2007′s return-to-heavy-form, Given to the Rising, putting out solo albums and collaborations. Perhaps those tangents have bled into the main band because vocalist-guitarist Steve Von Till has been saying their forthcoming record will be unlike anything they’ve done in the past.

Periphery
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: May
While the originators of “djent,” Meshuggah, will drop their new symphony of destruction in March, the band responsible for the proliferation of the term, Maryland-based prog metallers Periphery, will follow with their latest in May. According to guitarist Misha Mansoor, it will be the first of two albums the band is working on, which will have completely different sounds and approaches. Sounds nerdy—and awesome.

Pig Destroyer
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Virginian speed demons Pig Destroyer—featuring guitarist Scott Hull, also of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and new drummer, Misery Index’s Adam Jarvis (not pictured), who joined in 2011—rarely play live and record sporadically, but when they do drop a record, it’s pretty much always the grindcore album of its year. Expect sick, surreal lyrics and even sicker riffs.

Rush
TITLE: Clockwork Angels
RELEASE DATE: TBA
In the time since Canada’s best progressive hard-rock power trio released their last disc, 2007′s Snakes and Arrows, they’ve celebrated their 40th anniversary and seen their story told in the documentary Beyond the Lighted Stage. For their 19th(!) LP, they’ve worked with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters, Evanescence, Alice in Chains) and written songs—two titles of which have been released, “Caravan” and “BU2B”—which guitarist Alex Lifeson describes as “very dynamic.”

Saint Vitus
TITLE: Lillie: F-65
RELEASE DATE: March 27
In 2008, doom-metal heroes Saint Vitus re-formed three quarters of their classic ’80s lineup—vocalist Scott “Wino” Weinrich, guitarist Dave Chandler, and bassist Mark Adams, currently joined by drummer Henry Vasquez—and now they’re putting out their first album of new material since 1995′s Die Healing. Rumored to contain seven songs, Lillie: F-65, is named after a downer drug that was popular in the ’80s. Is this a sign of good things to come?

Shinedown
TITLE: Amaryllis
RELEASE DATE: March 27
The last album from these southern hard rockers, 2008′s platinum-selling The Sounds of Madness, made history with each of its six singles hitting No. 1 in the radio airplay ratings. The lead single, “Bully,” from this follow-up should keep that streak going. Of the other tracks, frontman Brent Smith promises a mix of “bone-crushing” numbers like “Adrenaline” and more contemplative ballads such as “Through the Ghost,” a song about the strains of constantly being on the road and away from home.

Slash
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Feeling reinvigorated after touring with Alter Bridge vocalist Myles Kennedy in support of his self-titled solo album—a disc that featured different singers ranging from Ozzy to Fergie singing songs—Velvet Revolver and former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash set to work on an LP that features just Kennedy and his impressive range. Considering the guitarist was still recording the disc in December, around the time Guns N’ Roses’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was announced, we can only imagine the adrenaline that will be surging through the album.

Slayer
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Thrash metal’s Angels of Death had a triumphant 2011 in spite of a few setbacks. After guitarist Jeff Hanneman was sidelined due to contracting a flesh-eating bacteria, the group toured throughout most of the year with Exodus axman Gary Holt and Cannibal Corpse fret-burner Pat O’Brien filling in for shows with their peers in the Big Four—Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax. The word is that Hanneman is recovering and writing new songs for the album due out this year.

Soulfly
TITLE: Enslaved
RELEASE DATE: March 13
Between Soulfly, Cavalera Conspiracy, and his aforementioned new band with Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato, former Sepultura frontman Max Cavalera apparently does not sleep. Which is fine by us considering the consistent ferocity of his output. This eighth Soulfly album comes out as the band celebrated its 15th anniversary and features guest turns by Dez Fafara of DevilDriver/Coal Chamber and Travis Ryan of Cattle Decapitation. Sounds like it should be too much brutal goodness for us to refuse or resist.

Soundgarden
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
One of the heaviest bands to emerge from Seattle’s grunge scene, Soundgarden came together again in 2010 to tour. Now, 16 years after releasing their last record, Down on the Upside, the band—whose frontman, Chris Cornell, played with Audioslave and put out solo albums, and whose drummer, Matt Cameron, joined Pearl Jam in their years away from Soundgarden—are working on an album Cornell has described as the band’s next logical step, musically.

Testament
TITLE: The Dark Roots of the Earth
RELEASE DATE: TBA
Although thrash titans Testament never really broke up, their 2008 album The Formation of Damnation—their first with a mostly original lineup, including guitarist Alex Skolnick, since the early ’90s—seemed like a triumphant comeback record. In recent months, the band has been working with producer Andy Sneap on the follow-up, The Dark Roots of the Earth, which Skolnick has said will have more variety than previous albums and his fellow guitarist Eric Peterson has called darker than usual. We just hope they practice what they preach.

Tool
TITLE: TBA
RELEASE DATE: TBA
The rumor mill had Tool’s fifth album coming out last year. Clearly that did not come to pass. And while frontman Maynard James Keenan has been seemingly preoccupied reuniting with A Perfect Circle, putting out Puscifer records, and squashing grapes, the prog-metal prestidigitators’ U.S. tour this winter proves that there is, indeed, movement in Camp Tool. So we’re holding out hope that they will finally put out a new album this year—and until they do, we’re prepared to be teased, tortured, and titillated by more rumors and misinformation, much of it doubtlessly spread by Tool themselves.

Van Halen
TITLE: A Different Kind of Truth
RELEASE DATE: February 7
Realigned with their original frontman, David Lee Roth, in 2006, hard-rock gargantuans Van Halen played a number of successful reunion shows in the years since. Now the group—which also features guitarist Eddie Van Halen, his brother, Alex, on drums, and his son, Wolfgang, on bass—is putting out their first new album in 14 years and their first with Roth in almost three decades. Judging from “She’s the Woman,” a song they rejiggered from their 1977 demo sessions that they played at an intimate New York City show earlier this month (see photos from the night here), it sounds like they haven’t missed a step…or a high kick.

Gary Moore
Thin Lizzy
Died February 6
Guitarist for Irish rockers Thin Lizzy during several periods, Moore is more renowned and revered as a solo blues axman, whose playing reverberates in the six-string work of everyone from Slash to Opeth’s Mikael Åkerfeldt. Metallica’s Kirk Hammett even cites him as one of his top five guitar influences, pointing to the solo in “Master of Puppets” and riffs he wrote for “The Unforgiven” as being inspired by Moore.

Phil Vane
Extreme Noise Terror
Died February 23
Vane made his name as the absolutely ferocious vocalist of pioneering UK crust-punk outfit Extreme Noise Terror, with whom he helped spearhead the late-’80s grindcore movement. He even briefly fronted grindcore originators Napalm Death, switching places with singer Barney Greenway, who appeared on ENT’s Damage 381 before returning to NP.

Mike Starr
Alice in Chains
Died March 8
The original bassist of Alice in Chains, Starr’s tense, throbbing bass lines underpinned classic grunge-metal albums like Facelift and Dirt. After splitting with the band while it was touring in support of the latter album, Starr formed supergroup Sun Red Sun alongside former Black Sabbath members Ray Gillen and Bobby Rondinelli, and later toured with Days of the New.

Scott Columbus
Manowar
Died April 4
Columbus was the longtime drummer of battle-metal barbarians Manowar, and his playing style was fittingly brutish: The skinsman pounded what he called the “Drums of Doom,” a kit made of stainless steel because his hit so hard that when he used standard kits, they had to be replaced too regularly.

Seth Putnam
Anal Cunt
Died June 11
The sick genius/retard behind Anal Cunt and grindcore micro-blasterpieces including “Women: Nature’s Punching Bag” and “Body by Auschwitz,” Putnam was extreme metal’s shock-rock provocateur bar none. He also famously feuded with Cannibal Corpse/Six Feet Under vocalist Chris Barnes (culminating in the AC tune “Chris Barnes is a Pussy”) and provided backing screams to songs on Pantera’s The Great Southern Trendkill.

Mario Comesanas
December Aeternalis, Low Road
Sirius-XM Liquid Metal, Revolver magazine
Died June 13
Hired in 2006, Comesanas was Revolver‘s longtime promotions director and our man on the road with Mayhem Fest from 2008 to 2010. A DJ on Sirius-XM’s Liquid Metal channel, he was a diehard champion of heavy music, as well as a musician in his own right, singing for death-metal outfit December Aeternalis and hardcore band Low Road, which was recording its debut with producer Joey Z, of Life of Agony, at the time of Comesanas’ passing.

Michael “Würzel” Burston
Motörhead
Died July 9
Guitarist for the mighty Motörhead from 1984 to 1995, Würzel laid down the licks on rumbling punk-metal landmarks like Orgasmatron and Rock ‘n’ Roll. He got his nickname while in the army, but Lemmy gave him the umlaut. At the time of his death, he was working on an album with his new band, Leader of Down.

Jani Lane
Warrant
Died August 11
One of the great frontmen of ’80s glam metal, Lane will probably be best remembered for the song and video, “Cherry Pie,” if not for bedding and wedding the clip’s smokin’ starlet, Bobbi Brown. In more recent years, the vocalist had gone solo, appeared on VH1′s Celebrity Fit Club 2, and toured with Great White.

Cory “Flattus Maximus” Smoot
Gwar
Died November 2
Adopting the role of Gwar’s red-faced, white-dreadlocked, dinosaur-shoulder-padded alien guitarist, Flattus Maximus, in 2002, Smoot was considered by fans as the “True Flattus” since he was the longest serving axman to play the character. He was also a major songwriter on the four Gwar albums he played on. After his death, bandleader Oderus Urungus announced that the character Flattus Maximus would be retired.

REVOLVER Dying Fetus have covered Napalm Death and Integrity in the past, but you haven’t done that many covers lately. Why did you decide to do a covers EP?
JOHN GALLAGHER Well we don’t want to build a career on doing covers because I think too many covers can start being cheesy. With History Repeats… the band and I wanted to give our fans something special to hold them over to our next full length due to come out in April 2012 And it’s always good to remain active and record as much as possible because each time we record and visit the studio we learn more about refining our sound.

How did you pick the bands and songs that you covered?
We wanted to do some songs that we have listened to and enjoyed over the years. I have always been a fan of Broken Hope so I wanted to do one of their songs and also to commemorate the passing of Joe Placek . “Gorehog” seemed like a suitable cover because of its bruality and slam. “Unchallenged Hate” from Napalm Death has always been a classic to us and fits with our style so I thought that was a suitable selection. The Dehumanized’s “Fade Into Obscurity” cover demonstrates the sound of the mid ’90s New York Slam genre. We used to play alot of New York gigs with these dudes back in the day and had many good times. “Unleashed Upon Mankind” is just a killer death metal song with a memorable main riff so we thought that would be a ripper. The Cannibal Corpse song was recorded in 2001 for a Cannibal Corpse cover album which never came out so we threw that and the Pestilence song on it as a bonus. The Pestilence song was originally on the War of Attrition CD as a Japanese bonus track.

Did any songs “almost make the cut?”
I wanted to do some more hardcore covers from Blood for Blood, Madball, No Innocent Victim, and 25 ta Life, but we didn’t get a large enough recording budget from Relapse to do them all. So I thought it would be best to just go with some good solid death-metal songs. In the future I might approach a hardcore label to do a hardcore tribute album but it’s just a thought at the moment.

What’s your favorite cover another band has done of a Dying Fetus song?
That’s a good question, I’ve heard some good covers of “Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog” and “Grotesque Impalement” but I can’t remember the name of the bands who did them. Just kinda ran into them on YouTube and whatnot. It would be cool to see a glam band do a cover of our joke song “North Forest Trolls of Satan” I bet Steel Panther could do a good job with that.

Ever since that creepy witch woman stared out from that field on the cover of Black Sabbath's first record, album cover art has been a vital part of the heavy-music scene–that’s why any diehard fan has at least a few T-shirts or posters emblazoned with their favorite cover images. In Revolver's new "The Art of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal" Special Issue–available on newsstands now–we’ve tracked down and interviewed the artists behind the covers of such landmark records as Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell, Queen’s Queen II, Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, Pantera’s Far Beyond Driven, Korn’s Korn, Nine Inch Nails’ The Downward Spiral, Ministry’s Psalm 69, Lamb of God’s Ashes of the Wake, and many, many others. We’ve also unearthed all kinds of rare sketches, photo shoot outtakes, and alternate versions, taking readers through the whole creative process behind these iconic album covers. And we've profiled noted metal artists Ed Repka (Megadeth), Paul Romano (Mastodon, the Red Chord, Trivium), Arik Roper (High on Fire, Sleep), and Wes Benscoter (Slayer, Mortician, Dio, Nile).

And with your copy of the issue, you get to enter for a chance to have Benscoter paint your band's cover art. Click here, enter your info with a link where the Revolver editors can listen to your band, and make sure you have your copy of the "Art of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal" Special Issue handy. Good luck!!!