Suffocation is an American death metal band formed in 1988 in Centereach, New York, currently consisting of lead guitarist Terrance Hobbs, bassist Derek Boyer, rhythm guitarist Charlie Errigo, drummer Eric Morotti, and vocalist Ricky Myers. The band rose to prominence with their 1991 debut album Effigy of the Forgotten, which became a blueprint for death metal in the 1990s. Since then, Suffocation has recorded eight albums. These feature growled vocals with downtuned guitars, fast and complex guitar riffs and drumming, open chord notes and occasional breakdowns.
Samael is a Swiss metal band formed in Sion in 1987. Their current lineup includes founding members and brothers Vorphalack (Vorph) and Xytraguptor (Xy), guitarist Drop and bassist Ales. A few other members have been part of the band throughout the years: Rodolph H., Kaos, Mas and Makro.
Blood Duster was an Australian grindcore/stoner rock band from Melbourne. Their name came from the song "Blood Duster" by John Zorn, from the 1989 album Naked City.
Leng Tch'e is a Belgian grindcore band. The band describes their style as "razorgrind", a combination of grindcore with death metal, stoner rock and metalcore. The band's name is an alternate romanisation of "língchí", a method of torture and execution originating from Imperial China that is also known as "death by a thousand cuts". Death by a Thousand Cuts is also the name of one of the band's albums.
Spawn of Possession was a Swedish technical death metal group, which formed in 1997 in Kalmar. The band have collectively released three studio albums. A fourth album was planned, but in 2017 the band announced their split up.
Psycroptic are an Australian technical death metal band formed in Hobart, Australia in 1999. Mainstay members are Dave Haley on drums and his brother Joe Haley on guitar. Their lead vocalist, Jason Peppiatt, joined in 2004. In 2008 they signed to Nuclear Blast. As of August 2022, the band have released eight studio albums. They have undertaken Australian national tours supporting international acts, Incantation, Decapitated, Origin and Misery Index. Psycroptic have also toured Europe with Nile and with Deicide. In February 2019, the band started a co-headlining tour alongside Aversions Crown and support bands Within Destruction, Hadal Maw and Hollow World across Europe. They also headlined a 2019 tour in the United States in support of their album As the Kingdom Drowns.
Venomous Concept is an American hardcore punk band formed by Kevin Sharp of Brutal Truth and Shane Embury of Napalm Death in 2004. Sharp and Embury were joined by Danny Herrera and Buzz Osborne, who was later replaced by Danny Lilker. They have released three albums: Retroactive Abortion (2004), Poisoned Apple (2008), and Kick Me Silly VCIII (2016). They have also released two split albums: one with Japanese grindcore band 324 (2006), and the other with Australian extreme metal band Blood Duster (2008). The band's name is a play on Poison Idea, in the style of name-mangling Japanese hardcore acts.
3 Inches of Blood is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in 1999 in Victoria, British Columbia, reunited in 2024 after disbanding in 2015. Returning with Cam Pipes, Justin Hagberg, Shane Clark, Nick Cates, and Ash Pearson. Their music was strongly influenced by the new wave of British heavy metal movement.
Roger Rasmussen, better known by the stage name Nattefrost, is a Norwegian musician, best known for being the vocalist and a founding member of black metal band Carpathian Forest. He also fronts the side projects World Destroyer and Kreft, and since 2003, his own solo project.
The Amenta are an Australian extreme metal band formed in 1997 as Crucible of Agony. By 2002 the line-up was Cesium 137 on lead vocals, Diazanon on drums, Ethion on guitar, Endrin on bass guitar and Chlordane on keyboards. In 2009 the line-up had Miehs and Pope joined by Cain Cressall on vocals, Dan Quinlan on bass guitar and Robin Stone on drums. The group has issued three studio albums, Occasus (2004), n0n (2008), and Flesh Is Heir (2013). The group went on an indefinite hiatus in 2013, but reunited in 2020.
Metal for the Brain was Australia's largest heavy metal music festival. The event was held in Canberra annually, usually towards the end of the year, and featured Australian bands almost exclusively. The festival was established in November 1991 as a charity event for the National Brain Injury Foundation and continued as such until the final event in November 2006.
Sean Kelly is a Canadian musician living in Toronto, currently playing guitar with Nelly Furtado, Coney Hatch and Lee Aaron. He founded the Toronto-based glam rock band Crash Kelly, and is the band's lead singer and guitarist. Kelly was a member of Canadian rock band Helix, playing bass guitar. He stayed with them for most of 2009 at which time joined Furtado's band on guitar. He is also guitarist for the Toronto rock group 69 Duster, which he co-founded with the ex-singer for Images in Vogue, Dale Martindale. He has done session guitar work for other bands as well, including Neil Leyton's 2003 album, Midnight Sun, and was a member of Jeff Pearce's band Rye. Kelly has also collaborated with Gilby Clarke, Rough Trade, Rudy Sarzo, Coney Hatch, and Canadian Brass.
Abramelin is an Australian death metal band, which formed as Acheron in 1988 and were one of the first such groups in the country. They were a main influence on the development of Australian heavy metal music in the early 1990s. The name change occurred in 1994 to avoid confusion with a similarly named international group; the new name was adopted from The Book of Abramelin, which concerns a mage of the same name. Members of Abramelin have also been in Blood Duster, The Berzerker, The Amenta, and Akercocke. Abramelin supported tours by Napalm Death (1995), Paradise Lost, Cathedral and Cradle of Filth (2001). They released two studio albums, Abramelin (1995) and Deadspeak (2000), before disbanding in 2002. Abramelin reformed in 2016. In May 2020 the band released their third album Never Enough Snuff.
Marcin "Novy" Nowak is a Polish musician, composer, the author of texts, vocalist and instrumentalist. Marcin Nowak is known primarily as a bass guitarist, popularity brought him performances in Behemoth and Vader, as well as Devilyn and Dies Irae, in which he also served as a vocalist and the author of the texts. Nowak also cooperated with such music groups as: Nader Sadek, Spinal Cord, Against the Plagues, Condemnation, Thy Disease, Crucified Mortals; and musicians of the metal scene including Derek Roddy, Steve Tucker, Run (Mayhem), Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy), Glen Benton (Deicide), Jack Owen, Richie Brown. Since 2010, he creates own project under the name Road's End.
Matt "Skitz" Sanders is an Australian extreme metal drummer and musician. In 1989 he founded a "hatecore" band, Damaged. He has played with many Australian heavy metal bands including King Parrot, Blood Duster, Abramelin, Walk the Earth, Suicide Bombers, Deströyer 666, and Sadistik Exekution. In 2006 he formed Terrorust with members of previous bands.
The Isle of Disenchantment is the self-released debut album by Australian death metal band Psycroptic. It was released in August 2001.
Australian heavy metal music has its roots in both the Australian hard rock and pub rock tradition of the 1970s and the American and British heavy metal scenes. Since the mid-1980s, Australian heavy metal has been particularly influenced by foreign bands, particularly Swedish death metal, American thrash metal and black metal from Norway. Within Australia heavy metal has always remained part of the underground but since the mid-1990s many Australian metal acts have found widespread acceptance in overseas markets, particularly in Europe.
Switchblade were an Australian five-piece metal band from Sydney, Australia, who formed in 2001 and disbanded in 2011. During their career they released two albums, and played support for bands such as Slayer, Machine Head, Exodus, Trivium and Nevermore during their respective Australian tours. They also appeared at Metal for the Brain and the Come Together Music Festival.
Ruins is an Australian black metal band, based in Hobart, Tasmania. The band was formed somewhere between 2000 and 2002 by Alex Pope and Dave Haley.
Revenge is a Canadian war metal band formed in 2000 by James Read following the collapse of his previous outfit Conqueror. Revenge's chaotic black metal sound represents a direct continuation of Read's previous band's direction. Although sometimes referred to as war metal the band has never referred to themselves as war metal and has always called themselves black metal, chaotic black metal or black death metal. They have released six full-length albums to date. The band's lyrics explore among other things various militant themes of anti religion, anti humanity, self ascension and the collapse and rebuilding of mankind.
