Emperor is a Norwegian black metal band formed in 1991, regarded as highly influential by critics and emerging black metal bands. The group split up in 2001, but reunited from 2005 to 2007 for a few festival dates and brief US tours, and again reunited in 2013 to 2014. Emperor reformed for the third time in 2016. The group was founded by Ihsahn (guitar/vocal) and Samoth.
Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup from Stockholm, formed in 1998. The band has released six full-length albums, two EPs and two DVDs depicting their performances at Wacken Open Air and Bloodstock Open Air. The group consists of Martin Axenrot (ex-Opeth), Anders Nyström (Katatonia), Jonas Renkse and Nick Holmes.
Kai Michael Hansen is a German musician who is the founder, lead guitarist and vocalist of power metal band Gamma Ray. He is also one of the co-founders of another power metal band Helloween, which he rejoined in 2016. He is a prominent figure in power metal and has sold millions of albums worldwide. He is regarded as "the godfather of power metal", having founded two seminal bands in the genre. In 2011, he joined the band Unisonic featuring former Helloween vocalist Michael Kiske. Hansen and Kiske reunited with Helloween in 2017 for a world tour with all current members, celebrating the 30-year anniversary of release of the albums Keeper of the Seven Keys Parts I and II.
Krokus is a hard rock/heavy metal band from Switzerland. They were popular in North America during the 1980s.
Destruction is a German thrash metal band formed in 1982. They have been credited as one of the "Big Four" of the German thrash metal scene, the others being Kreator, Sodom and Tankard. In addition to helping pioneer black metal, Destruction was part of the second wave of thrash metal in the mid-to-late 1980s, along with American bands like Testament, Sacred Reich, Death Angel and Dark Angel. For most of the 1990s, the band was not signed to a record label and was forced to self-produce their albums until they signed a contract with Nuclear Blast in the early 2000s.
Rage is a German heavy metal band formed in 1984 by Peter "Peavy" Wagner. They were part of the German heavy/speed/power metal scene which emerged in the early to mid-1980s, and have been referred to as one of the country's so-called "big four" of power metal, along with Grave Digger, Helloween and Running Wild.
Michael Kiske is a German singer and co-lead vocalist for the power metal band Helloween. Kiske has released four solo albums, two albums with the hard rock band Unisonic, has participated on various metal and rock related projects, such as Avantasia, Place Vendome and Kiske/Somerville and has also performed with numerous bands as a guest vocalist.
Black Stone Cherry is an American rock band, formed in 2001 in Edmonton, Kentucky. They were signed to Roadrunner Records until 2015; the band is now signed to Mascot Label Group. The band consists of Chris Robertson, Ben Wells, Steve Jewell and John Fred Young. Black Stone Cherry has released seven studio albums as well as two EPs, and have charted seventeen singles on the US Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. Their latest album, The Human Condition, was released in 2020.
Children of Bodom was a Finnish melodic death metal band from Espoo. Formed in 1993 as Inearthed, the final line-up of the group upon their split in 2019 consisted of Alexi Laiho, Jaska Raatikainen (drums), Henkka Seppälä (bass), Janne Wirman (keyboard), and Daniel Freyberg. The band released ten studio albums, two live albums, two EPs, two compilation albums and one DVD.
Savage Messiah are an English heavy metal band formed in May 2007 in London. The band was formed by guitarist and lead vocalist Dave Silver and also consists of guitarist Joff Bailey, bassist Míra Sláma, keyboardist Carlos Alcalde De Lema and drummer Charly Carretón.
Infected is the eighth studio album by Swedish power metal band HammerFall, released on 20 May 2011 in Europe and 7 June 2011 in North America. It was their first album produced by James Michael and the HammerFall guitarists Oscar Dronjak and Pontus Norgren. To promote the record, the song "One More Time" was released as the first official single on 6 April 2011. On 8 April 2011, Nuclear Blast Records released a limited edition picture 7" version of the single "One More Time"; the vinyl was limited to 500 copies. The album entered the Swedish charts at number two.
Unisonic is the debut album by the hard rock/power metal band Unisonic. It was released in 2012 on earMUSIC. The album is the group's first full-length studio release and since Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2 (1988) by Helloween the first album to feature both Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske performing on all songs.
Unisonic was a German hard rock/power metal supergroup, founded on 10 November 2009 by Helloween singer Michael Kiske alongside Dennis Ward and Kosta Zafiriou from Pink Cream 69 and Mandy Meyer, formerly in Asia and Gotthard. In 2011 the band was joined by Gamma Ray leader and Helloween co-founder, Kai Hansen.
Texas Hippie Coalition is an American heavy metal band from Denison, Texas.
Battle Beast is a Finnish heavy/power metal band established in Helsinki in 2008 by Anton Kabanen, Juuso Soinio and Pyry Vikki. The initial line-up consisted of guitarists Soinio and Kabanen, and drummer Vikki, who were high school friends. The rest of the original lineup, bassist Eero Sipilä, keyboardist Janne Björkroth and lead singer Nitte Valo, joined the band after auditions.
Beyond the Black is a German symphonic metal band formed in 2014 in Mannheim. Their debut album Songs of Love and Death became popular immediately after the release, and entered the German and Austrian national music charts.
Cyhra is a Swedish heavy metal supergroup formed in 2017. The band is made up of lead vocalist Joacim "Jake E" Lundberg (ex-Amaranthe), rhythm guitarist Jesper Strömblad, the German drummer Alex Landenburg, Finnish lead guitarist Euge Valovirta (ex-Shining) and currently also guitarist Marcus Sunesson (Engel).
Oomph! is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band from Wolfsburg, formed in 1989. The band pioneered the Neue Deutsche Härte movement. Their work contains lyrics in both English and German, with a shift towards German exclusively on recent albums.
United Alive in Madrid is the fourth live album by German power metal band Helloween, released in 2019. The recordings took place during the band's Pumpkins United World Tour (2017–2018), with former members Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen joining Helloween's line-up. The main concert was recorded on 9 December 2017 at the WiZink Centre in Madrid, Spain and the bonus tracks in Chile, Brazil, Czech Republic and Germany.
The Wacken Worship is the first video album by German power metal band Powerwolf. The album contains live footage of their show at Wacken Open Air on 2 August 2008.
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