Genre: Brutal Death Metal / Technical Death Metal / Slam Before Slam ExistedFormed: 1988 – Long Island, New York, USA 🇺🇸Known For: Inventing the breakdown in death metal, fusing technical wizardry with primal brutality, and Frank Mullen’s ridiculous hand chops. 🧟 WHO THE HELL ARE SUFFOCATION? Long Island. Late ’80s. While the West Coast was […]
Genre: Progressive Sludge / Psychedelic Doom / Post-Metal Rock ArtFormed: 2003 – Savannah, Georgia, USA 🇺🇸Known For: Colour-coded concept albums, layered heaviness, big emotions, and gig posters that belong in a gallery.Bonus Fact: Frontman John Dyer Baizley paints their album covers – and half the metal scene’s too. 🖌️🔥 🎨 WHO THE HELL ARE BARONESS? […]
Genre: Extreme Gothic Metal / Symphonic Black Metal / Vampiric Baroque FilthcoreFormed: 1991 – Suffolk, England 🇬🇧Known For: Shrieking, symphonic chaos, corsets, candles, controversy, and an unapologetically filthy aesthetic.Also Known For: Making the Daily Mail panic and Hot Topic rich. 🦇 WHO THE HELL ARE CRADLE OF FILTH? Founded by the pint-sized, pitch-black prince of […]
Genre: Progressive Black Metal / Viking Metal / Psychedelic NorsecoreFormed: 1991 – Haugesund, Norway 🇳🇴Known For: Marrying Norse mythology with mind-melting prog journeys, otherworldly soundscapes, and bloody glorious riffage. 🌒 WHO THE HELHEIM ARE ENSLAVED? Founded by Ivar Bjørnson (guitar wizard) and Grutle Kjellson (growly Viking lord), Enslaved started as a young, furious black metal […]
Genre: Grindcore / Death Metal / Political Noise TerrorFormed: 1981 – Meriden/Birmingham, UK 🇬🇧Known For: 1.3-second songs, anti-capitalist fury, weaponised noise, and being harder than a Greggs pasty left out in the sun.Claim to Fame: Invented grindcore. Then made it even angrier. ⚠️ WHO THE HELL ARE NAPALM DEATH? Picture this: It’s Thatcher’s Britain.Unemployment, injustice, […]
Genre: Melodic Death Metal meets Metalcore (a.k.a. Deathcore with a PhD and a pickaxe)Formed: 1996 – Saalfeld, Germany 🇩🇪Known For: Militant breakdowns, political fury, throat-shredding vocals, and the most cardio-demanding live shows in Europe. 💣 WHO THE HELL ARE HEAVEN SHALL BURN? Heaven Shall Burn aren’t just a band – they’re a damn movement.Named after […]
Genre: Blackgaze / Post-Metal / Shoegaze / Art Metal / Crycore (yeah we said it)Formed: 2010 – San Francisco, California 🇺🇸Known For: Blending soaring shoegaze melodies with black metal screams and looking like sad baristas from Brooklyn.Also Known For: Triggering the kvlt elite and making metal pretty – in the best way possible. 😵 WHO […]
Genre: Progressive Death Metal → Progressive Rock (with growly ghosts still lurking)Formed: 1990 – Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪Known For: Lush soundscapes, monstrous growls, mystical lyrics, 10-minute epics, and the ability to punch you in the soul and then kiss it better.Also Known For: Trolling the audience by switching from face-melting death to soft jazz mid-song. Legends. […]
Genre: Black Metal / Black ‘n’ Roll / Post-Black / Avant-Garde DarknessFormed: 1991 – Oslo, Norway 🇳🇴Known For: Fusing second-wave black metal with groove, doom, industrial and absolute menace.Vibe: Bathory meets Bowie in a burning cathedral. 😈 WHO THE HELL ARE SATYRICON? At the core of this sinister duo are: 🦇 Satyr (Sigurd Wongraven) – […]
Genre: Power Metal / Thrash Metal / Heavy Metal OperaFormed: 1985 (as Purgatory) – Tampa, Florida 🇺🇸Known For: Thunderous riffs, horror-tinged concept albums, and enough lineup changes to fill a Game of Thrones scroll. ⚙️ WHO THE HELL ARE ICED EARTH? At the heart of it all is Jon Schaffer, rhythm guitarist and riff tyrant […]
🧬 CARCASS – FROM MORGUE TO METAL MASTERCLASS Genre: Grindcore → Death Metal → Melodic Death Metal → Surgical Groove MachineFormed: 1985 – Liverpool, England 🇬🇧Known For: Inventing goregrind, perfecting death metal, and then making it catchy AF.Also Known For: Being banned, misunderstood, and utterly essential. ⚰️ WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE CARCASS? Originally a […]
Genre: Death Metal, Brutal Death, Gore-Soaked MayhemFormed: 1988 – Buffalo, New York ☠️🧟Known For: Insane album covers, guttural vocals, relentless drums, and lyrics that make your nan faint. 🧛 WHO THE BLOODY HELL ARE CANNIBAL CORPSE? Back in the late ‘80s, while hair metal was still spraying its fringe, five lunatics from Buffalo decided to […]
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal / Black Metal / Astral DarknessFormed: 1991 – Notodden, Norway 🇳🇴Known For: Elevating black metal into a majestic, symphonic, complex force of nature — and sounding like Sauron fronting a philharmonic. 🧠 WHO THE UNHOLY HELL ARE EMPEROR? Founded by teenage riff necromancers Ihsahn and Samoth, Emperor erupted from the Norwegian […]
Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Melodeath / Guitar Hero Soundtrack From HellFormed: 1995 – Halmstad, Sweden 🇸🇪Known For: Melodic chaos, powerful female vocals, politically-charged lyrics, and solos so fast they melt Viking helmets. 🧠 WHO THE HELL ARE ARCH ENEMY? Arch Enemy were born when Michael Amott (ex-Carcass shred machine) decided that melodic death metal […]
Genre: Metalcore, Melodic Metalcore, Heartcore ChaosFormed: 1999 – Westfield, Massachusetts 🇺🇸Known For: Emotive screams, melodic choruses, biblical breakdowns, and the best damn singalong choruses in metalcore history. 🧠 WHO THE BLEEDING HELL ARE KILLSWITCH ENGAGE? Born out of the ashes of Overcast and Aftershock, Killswitch Engage took the heaviness of hardcore, the melody of classic […]