Venom are an English extreme metal band formed in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne. Coming to prominence towards the end of the new wave of British heavy metal, Venom's first two albums—Welcome to Hell (1981) and Black Metal (1982)—are considered a major influence on thrash metal and extreme metal in general. Venom's second album proved influential enough that its title was used as the name of the extreme metal subgenre of black metal.
Graveland are a Polish pagan metal band which was formed in 1991 by Rob Darken. It began as a black metal band, before adopting a pagan and Viking metal style. The lyrics and imagery of Graveland are strongly inspired by European mythology, nature, winter and war. Their early work focused on Celtic and Slavic mythology, while their later work focuses on Norse mythology and Wotanism.
Pinback is an indie rock band from San Diego, California. The band was formed in 1998 by singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow, who have been its two consistent members. They have released five studio albums and several other releases.
Steve Ramsey is a British guitarist who began his career with the British heavy metal band Satan in the early 1980s, releasing a single and an album, a second album under the band name Blind Fury, an EP and another album after changing the band name back to Satan and two more albums after renaming the band name once again - to Pariah.
Officium Triste is a death-doom band from Rotterdam, The Netherlands. They refer to their style often as "Rotterdoom". It is largely inspired by bands like My Dying Bride and early Anathema, but the last album is slower and more melodic. The vocals are mostly intelligible death grunts but with occasional clean vocals. Their home-venue is Baroeg in Rotterdam.
Doom are an English hardcore punk band from Birmingham whose first lineup were together from 1987 to 1990. Despite its short existence, the band is considered pivotal in the rise of crust punk, a punk rock style that fuses extreme metal with anarcho-punk. They recorded for Peaceville Records and are cited as an early precursor to grindcore. Doom were also a favourite of BBC Radio DJ John Peel.
Iniquity was a Danish death metal group. Established in 1989, the band released three full-length albums before parting ways in 2004.
Agalloch was an American black metal band from Portland, Oregon. Formed in 1995 by frontman John Haughm, they released five full-length albums, four EPs, two singles, one split single, two demos, four compilation albums and one live video album. They announced their disbandment in May 2016.
Burning Witch was an American doom metal band from Seattle, Washington, active between 1995 and 1998. Aside from EPs and split releases, the band released a compilation album called Crippled Lucifer, which had songs of their early EPs.
Autopsy Torment is a Swedish death metal band, formed in 1989. The band was started by Thomas Karlsson, Autopsy Torment's frontman and singer, with Onkel on guitars. In 1991, the band became a trio with Karl Vincent on drums and Daniel Nilssen on guitar, and made the demo Darkest Rituals. Then followed a period of constant personnel changes, with Thomas Karlsson and Karl Vincent as the core members.
Jarno Salomaa, also credited as J.S,, is a Finnish musician. He formed the funeral doom metal group Shape of Despair in 1995 under the name Raven. Salomaa's first role was guitars and synth in Raven's Alone in the Mist, the first demo they made, although this demo was not released to the public. Salomaa then proceeded to appear in the first CD produced under the name Shape of Despair called Promo Tape 1998. While not a very grand name, the album contains the well-received songs of Quiet These Paintings Are and its outro entitled Outro.
Abaddon Incarnate are an Irish deathgrind band.
Church of Misery is a doom metal band from Tokyo, Japan, formed in 1995. Church of Misery's musical style melds early Black Sabbath-style doom with psychedelic rock; most of the band's songs are about serial killers and mass murderers.
Machetazo was a grindcore/goregrind band from A Coruña, Spain formed in 1994. They were one of the few surviving bands from the Spanish underground extreme music scene of the nineties.
As Friends Rust is a punk band from Gainesville, Florida.
Immortal Souls is a melodic death metal band from Kokkola, Finland, formed in 1991. They released a split album and their debut on Little Rose Productions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2002 Immortal Souls signed with Dutch label Fear Dark which released their second and third album as well as a compilation. They have performed at Tuska Open Air Metal Festival. Their musical style is characterized by their use of melodic guitar riffs and singing which shifts between growls and shouting. Their music has been called winter metal since Immortal Souls utilizes frosty metaphors in their lyrics and usually creates a cold, wintry atmosphere. The album Wintereich was released in 2007 in Europe on Dark Balance and in the USA through Facedown Records.
Avulsed is a death metal band from Spain, formed in August of 1991 in Madrid, Spain by Dave Rotten
Toxic Holocaust is an American thrash metal band from Portland, Oregon.
Ancestral Legacy is a Norwegian gothic metal-band, started in 1995 as Permafrost.
Darkestrah is a Kyrgyz pagan metal band, formed in 1999 in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Throughout their career the band has blended folklore music with metal elements. In its lyrics and in musical composition, the band uses national folk musical instruments, such as the komuz and kyl-kyak, and references shamanism and Tengrism. The band also takes influence from genres such as progressive rock and post-rock, generally constructing lengthy, rhythmically complex songs that often feature several discrete movements.
