Blue Öyster Cult is an American rock band formed in Stony Brook, New York, in 1967, best known for the singles "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Burnin' for You", "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll", and "Godzilla." They have sold 25 million records worldwide, including seven million in the United States alone. The band's music videos, especially "Burnin' for You," received heavy rotation on MTV when the music television network premiered in 1981, cementing the band's contribution to the development and success of the music video in modern popular culture.
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emphasis on atmosphere. Artists often appear in corpse paint and adopt pseudonyms.
Dimmu Borgir is a Norwegian symphonic black metal band from Oslo, Norway, formed in 1993. The name is derived from Dimmuborgir, a volcanic formation in Iceland, the name of which means "dark cities" or "dark castles/fortresses" in Icelandic, Faroese and Old Norse. The band has been through numerous lineup changes over the years; vocalist Shagrath and rhythm guitarist Silenoz are the only original members who still remain, with lead guitarist Galder being a longstanding member.
Darkthrone is a black metal band from Kolbotn, Norway, formed in 1986 as a death metal band under the name Black Death. In 1991, the band embraced a black metal style influenced by Bathory and Celtic Frost and became one of the leading bands in the Norwegian black metal scene.
At the Gates is a Swedish death metal band from Gothenburg. The band was a major progenitor of Gothenburg-style melodic death metal. They were initially active from 1990 to 1996, reforming in 2007 for a tour between April and September 2008. In 2011, they reformed again and have since continued to perform. They released At War with Reality, their first album in 19 years, in late 2014.
Living Sacrifice is an American heavy metal band formed in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1989. The band has released eight studio albums, out of which the first three were recorded under R.E.X. Records with their original vocalist Darren Johnson as a more thrash metal and death metal oriented band. The band evolved into a groove metal and metalcore style beginning with Reborn (1997) under Solid State Records with the original guitarist Bruce Fitzhugh on vocals. In 2003, the group split up, due to other projects and later their label, Solid State, released their best-of album, In Memoriam (2005). In 2008, Living Sacrifice reformed and released a two-song digital only single called Death Machine. They then began working on The Infinite Order which was released on January 26, 2010. Lance Garvin and Bruce Fitzhugh are the two remaining original members.
Avenged Sevenfold is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Synyster Gates, bassist and backing vocalist Johnny Christ, and drummer Brooks Wackerman.
Vegard Sverre Tveitan, better known as Ihsahn, is a Norwegian multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer. He is best known for his work with the Norwegian black metal band Emperor. Tveitan is also a founding member of Thou Shalt Suffer, where he played guitar and keyboard in addition to vocal duties, and Peccatum, a project in collaboration with his wife and fellow musician Heidi Solberg Tveitan, also known as Starofash. Since 2006, Tveitan has primarily devoted himself to solo albums and occasional guest appearances.
Mastodon is an American heavy metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 2000. The group is composed of Troy Sanders (bass/vocals), Brent Hinds, Bill Kelliher, and Brann Dailor (drums/vocals). Mastodon has released seven studio albums, as well as a number of other releases. The band's 2002 debut album, Remission, garnered significant critical acclaim for its unique sound. Mastodon's second full-length release, Leviathan, is a concept album based on the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. Three magazines awarded the record Album of the Year in 2004: Revolver, Kerrang! and Terrorizer.
Cult of Luna is a Swedish heavy metal band from Umeå founded in 1998. They are known for post-metal music similar to the contemporary bands Neurosis and Isis. The band was signed to Earache Records in the early 2000s and released five albums, including the commercially successful albums Salvation (2004) and Somewhere Along the Highway (2006). After an extended period of inactivity, Cult of Luna returned with its Indie Recordings debut Vertikal (2013) and companion EP Vertikal II (2013), both drawing inspiration from Fritz Lang's 1927 film, Metropolis. In 2016 the band released their space-themed seventh album, Mariner, featuring American vocalist Julie Christmas.
King of the Dead is the second album by the American heavy metal band Cirith Ungol. It was self-produced by the band and released in July 1984 on Enigma Records. It was re-released in September 1999 on Metal Blade Records.
Powerwolf, often stylized as POWERWOLF, is a German power metal band founded in 2003 in Saarbrücken by members of Red Aim. The band consists of vocalist Karsten Brill as "Attila Dorn", lead guitarist Benjamin Buss as "Matthew Greywolf", bassist/rhythm guitarist David Vogt as "Charles Greywolf", keyboardist Christian Jost as "Falk Maria Schlegel" and drummer Roel van Helden. The group uses dark themes and images, musically and lyrically, contrary to traditional power metal music, as well as corpse paint, gothic-tinged compositions and songs about Transylvanian werewolf and vampire legends.
William Control was an American electronic music project founded in 2008 in Seattle, Washington. It was the side project of Aiden's William Francis before Aiden's hiatus, and he later operated as William Control full-time. 'William Control' therefore refers to both the band as a whole and to Francis as his stage name. Francis was signed to Victory Records before starting his own independent label Control Records, and, as William Control, has released five full-length albums, an EP, two acoustic albums, two live DVDs and a remix album (Remix). The first part of Revelations, The Pale, was released on October 14, 2016. The second EP The Black followed on February 17, 2017, and the third, entitled The Red, followed that with a release date of July 14 of the same year. The album was completed by The White on November 24.
Ghost, also formerly known as Ghost B.C. in the United States, is a Swedish rock band that was formed in Linköping in 2006. In 2010, they released a three-track demo followed by a 7-inch vinyl titled "Elizabeth", and later their debut full-length album Opus Eponymous. The song Ritual was chosen by Kerrang! as one of "The 50 Most Evil Songs Ever." The Grammis-nominated album was widely praised and significantly increased their popularity. Their second album and major label debut, Infestissumam, was released in 2013, debuted at number one in Sweden, and won the Grammis Award for Best Hard Rock/Metal Album. The band released their third studio album, Meliora, in 2015 to much critical acclaim and high record sales, reaching number one in their home country of Sweden, and number eight in the United States. Its lead single, "Cirice", earned them the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. The band released their fourth studio album, Prequelle, in 2018.
Opus Eponymous is the debut studio album by the Swedish rock band Ghost. It was released on October 18, 2010, on the independent record label Rise Above. It was released in North America on January 18, 2011, and in Japan on April 6, 2011. The album was recorded in the band's hometown and produced by Gene Walker. Opus Eponymous was nominated for a Grammis Award. The Japanese release contains an additional bonus track: a cover of the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun". The album cover bears a close resemblance to the poster artwork of the 1979 horror miniseries Salem's Lot which is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King.
Winterfylleth is an English black metal band from Manchester, England. Since their inception in 2006, the band has released seven studio albums and have become a popular act in both the English underground metal scene and the wider international metal arena. Winterfylleth are self-described as "English Heritage Black Metal" and is often considered to be musical 'brothers-in-arms' with fellow English black metal band Wodensthrone owing to the common lyrical and aesthetic themes they share. The band takes its name from the Old English word, 'Winterfylleth' which translates into modern English as 'Winter Full Moon', and is signified by the arrival of the first full moon of winter - which is usually in October.
Finnr's Cane is an atmospheric black metal band from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, founded in 2008.
Cane Hill is an American heavy metal band formed in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2011. The band consists of vocalist Elijah Witt, guitarist James Barnett, bass guitarist Ryan Henriquez, and percussionist Devin Clark. In 2015, the band signed to Rise Records, releasing their debut EP, Cane Hill. They released their debut full-length studio album, Smile, on July 15, 2016. On January 19, 2018, their sophomore album Too Far Gone, was released, again via Rise Records. "Too Far Gone" reached number 1 on Billboards Heatseakers Chart.
Wanderlust is the debut studio album by Canadian atmospheric black metal band Finnr's Cane. It was released in 2010 by Frostscald Records and re-released in 2011 by Prophecy Productions. The re-release includes a demo version of the song Snowfall, one of the first tracks composed by the band.
Bad Wolves is an American heavy metal cover band formed in 2017. Initially finding fame from their first single, a cover of the Cranberries' 1994 hit "Zombie", the band proceeded to find further success with a number of songs topping the Billboard Mainstream Rock songs chart, including "Remember When", "Killing Me Slowly", and "Sober". To date, the band has released two studio albums, Disobey (2018) and N.A.T.I.O.N. (2019).
