Kirk Lee Hammett is an American musician who has been the lead guitarist of heavy metal band Metallica since 1983. Prior to joining Metallica, he co-formed the thrash metal band Exodus in 1979. In 2003, Hammett was ranked 11th on Rolling Stone's list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2009, Hammett was ranked number 15 in Joel McIver's book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists.
Devin Garrett Townsend is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also had an extensive solo career and has released a total of 28 albums across all of his projects as of 2022.
Jeffrey John Hanneman was an American musician, best known as a founding member and guitarist of the thrash metal band Slayer. Hanneman composed both music and lyrics for every Slayer album until his death in 2013. He had his own signature guitar, the ESP Jeff Hanneman Signature model.
The baritone guitar is a guitar with a longer scale length, typically a larger body, and heavier internal bracing, so it can be tuned to a lower pitch. Gretsch, Fender, Gibson, Ibanez, ESP Guitars, PRS Guitars, Music Man, Danelectro, Schecter, Jerry Jones Guitars, Burns London and many other companies have produced electric baritone guitars since the 1960s, although always in small numbers due to low popularity. Tacoma, Santa Cruz, Taylor, Martin, Alvarez Guitars and others have made acoustic baritone guitars.
Alex Skolnick is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist and one of the songwriters of the thrash metal band Testament and has played with several other bands, including The Alex Skolnick Trio, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Savatage and the heavy metal supergroup Metal Allegiance.
Chthonic is a Taiwanese heavy metal band, formed in 1995 in Taipei. They have been called "the Black Sabbath of Asia." The group incorporates influences from traditional Taiwanese music, including adaptations of folk songs and the use of traditional instruments, most notably the erhu. Their stated goal is to use their music to bring ancient history and mythology into the modern era especially to build awareness of the myths of Taiwan and tragic events in that country's history.
Kostas Karamitroudis, better known as Gus G, is a Greek heavy metal guitarist. He currently plays with his band Firewind. He has also played in Mystic Prophecy, Nightrage, Arch Enemy, Dream Evil and Ozzy Osbourne's band.
Turbo is a Polish heavy metal band. It was started in January 1980 in Poznań by Henryk Tomczak. Turbo has been described as one of the most important bands in Polish heavy metal. Turbo's most famous album is Kawaleria Szatana, considered an opus of Polish heavy metal. The band is best known for the tracks "Dorosłe Dzieci", "Jaki był ten dzień", "Żołnierz fortuny" and "Wszystko będzie ok".
"We're Not Gonna Take It" is a song by the American band Twisted Sister from their album Stay Hungry. It was first released as a single on April 27, 1984. The Stay Hungry album was released two weeks later, on May 10, 1984. The single reached No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, making it Twisted Sister's only Top 40 single. In addition, it is also the band's highest-selling single in the United States, having been certified Gold on June 3, 2009, for sales of over 500,000 units. The song was ranked No. 47 on 100 Greatest 80's Songs and No. 21 on VH1's 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80s. It also received criticism when the Parents Music Resource Center included the song on its "Filthy Fifteen" list for alleged violent lyrical content, allegations that were repudiated by lead singer Dee Snider.
"Round and Round" is a song by American heavy metal band Ratt from their 1984 album Out of the Cellar. It was released as a single in 1984 on Atlantic Records.
Michael Vescera is an American heavy metal singer for various bands and projects like Loudness, Obsession (Marshall Law, Scarred for Life, Methods of Madness, Carnival of Lies, Order of Chaos), Yngwie Malmsteen, Dr. Sin, Roland Grapow (Kaleidoscope) or his own band MVP.
Mei Nakabayashi, better known by her stage name May'n, is a Japanese singer from Nagoya. Aspiring to become a musician since childhood, she began her music activities in 2003 upon passing an audition held by talent agency Horipro International. She made her major debut in 2005 under the Universal Music label with the release of her first single "Crazy Crazy Crazy". She would release two more singles under Universal Music, before transferring to Victor Entertainment in 2008. That same year, she had her break as the singing voice of the character Sheryl Nome in the anime series Macross Frontier.
Monte Lee Pittman is an American musician and studio musician based in Los Angeles, known largely as Madonna's long-time guitarist and for playing for heavy metal band Prong. He has also worked as a solo artist.
Periphery is an American progressive metal band formed in Washington, D.C., in 2005. Their musical style has been described as progressive metal, djent, and progressive metalcore. They are considered one of the pioneers of the djent movement within progressive metal. They have also received a Grammy nomination. The band consists of vocalist Spencer Sotelo, guitarists Misha Mansoor, Mark Holcomb, Jake Bowen, and drummer Matt Halpern.
Kobra and the Lotus (also initialized as KATL) is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in 2009 by lead vocalist and songwriter Kobra Paige.
Kazha is a rock band founded in 2009 by a Japanese singer/songwriter Kazuha Oda and a guitarist Hideki Matsushige, categorized in Hard Rock and sometimes in Heavy Metal. It used to be a 4 piece band but became 3 piece with Kazuha Oda being a bass/vocal.
Dorothee Pesch, known professionally as Doro Pesch or simply Doro, is a German heavy metal singer and the former frontwoman of heavy metal band Warlock. Dubbed the "Metal Queen", Doro's contributions to music and culture made her a global figure in metal culture for over three decades. The name Doro has also been associated with the touring band accompanying the singer, whose members have continuously changed in more than 20 years of uninterrupted activity, the most stable presences being those of bassist Nick Douglas and drummer Johnny Dee.
Thomas Youngblood is an American metal guitarist, songwriter, and founding member of power metal band Kamelot.
Lovebites is a Japanese power metal band, formed in 2016 by former Destrose members Miho and Haruna. Its lineup currently consists of Haruna on drums, Midori and Miyako on guitar, Asami on vocals, and Fami on bass. After signing to Victor Entertainment, the group released both their debut EP and their first album in 2017, The Lovebites EP and Awakening from Abyss, before performing their first overseas concerts at the end of the year. With another EP and album released in 2018, Battle Against Damnation and Clockwork Immortality, Lovebites quickly garnered international attention and won that year's Metal Hammer Golden Gods Award for Best New Band. Following the releases of Electric Pentagram (2020) and Glory, Glory, to the World (2021), bassist Miho left the band in August 2021. After a year-long hiatus, Lovebites recruited Fami on bass and released Judgement Day, their fourth album, in February 2023. It is their highest-charting record to date, reaching number 5 on both the Oricon and Billboard Japan charts.
Hideki Matsushige is a Japanese musician, guitarist, composer, and producer, known for being the co-founder, lead guitarist for the Japanese rock band Kazha. He has been working with Japanese singer-songwriter Kazuha Oda for over a decade. They released their first album Overture in 2010. He has released 2 EPs, 3 albums, and 1 single with Kazha. He has appeared and performed at numerous anime and comic conventions with Kazha as guests of honor.
