Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands in 1981. None of the band's original members have been in the group since 1986, but since Utopia Banished (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris, drummer Danny Herrera and lead vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway has remained consistent through most of the band's career. From 1989 to 2004, Napalm Death were a five-piece band after they added Jesse Pintado as the replacement of one-time guitarist Bill Steer. Following Pintado's departure, the band reverted to a four-piece.
Lightning Bolt is an American noise rock duo from Providence, Rhode Island, composed of Brian Chippendale on drums and vocals and Brian Gibson on bass guitar. The band met and formed in 1994 as students of the Rhode Island School of Design. Lightning Bolt were listed 8th in Metacritic's Artists of the Decade 2000–09.
Ancient is a Norwegian black metal band from Bergen, formed in 1992. The band released six full-length albums released by Metal Blade Records to date and a variety of mini-albums, EPs and special releases. Ancient used to have the classic raw black metal sound, similar to Darkthrone's works. Beginning with The Cainian Chronicle, they moved towards a more Nordic/atmospheric black metal sound, akin to Emperor and a cleaner production. After a period of turmoil concerning their line-up, they went on to add gothic-style instruments such as violins, a female vocalist, and synthesizers to their music.
Nicholas Menza was an American musician who was the drummer of the thrash metal band Megadeth from 1989 to 1998. He recorded drums on four of Megadeth's albums: Rust in Peace (1990), Countdown to Extinction (1992), Youthanasia (1994), and Cryptic Writings (1997).
Cryptopsy is a Canadian technical death metal band from Montreal, formed in 1988.
Beheaded is a Maltese death metal band. They were formed in 1991 by guitarist David Bugeja, and drummer Chris Brincat. They have performed in Malta, Europe, and the US, and have released several albums.
Fleshcrawl is a German death metal band formed in Illertissen, Bavaria, in 1987. Their most recent album, Into the Catacombs of Flesh, was released in 2019 under Apostasy Records.
Necrophagist was a German technical death metal band founded and fronted by guitarist and vocalist Muhammed Suiçmez. The band used baroque music-influenced compositions paired with extreme metal drumming.
Brujeria is an American extreme metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1989. The band has Spanish lyrics with topics such as Satanism, anti-Christianity, sex, immigration, narcotics smuggling, and politics. Brujeria portrays Mexican imagery, with several members being Hispanic and Latino Americans, while the band's name stands for brujería.
Cruachan are an Irish folk metal band from Dublin that have been active since the 1990s. They are recognised as one of the founders of folk metal, and have been acclaimed as having "gone the greatest lengths of anyone in their attempts to expand" the genre. With a specific focus on Celtic music and the use of Celtic mythology in their lyrics, Cruachan's style of folk metal is called Celtic metal.
Asphyx is a Dutch death metal band formed in Oldenzaal, Overijssel in 1987.
Hirax is an American thrash metal band from Cypress, California. Starting in 1984 under the leadership of vocalist Katon W. De Pena, the band played in Los Angeles and San Francisco with several of their thrash metal peers such as Metallica, Exodus, and Slayer. The band was an early example of thrash metal, speed metal and crossover thrash, yet inspired by cross-genre influences including blues vocalist Sam Cooke, who De Pena once cited as "the greatest vocalist [De Pena] has ever heard."
Malevolent Creation is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York in 1987 and later based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The band's original members were rhythm guitarist Phil Fasciana, vocalist Bret Hoffmann, lead guitarist Jim Nickles, bassist Jason Blachowicz and drummer Dennis Kubas. Fasciana is the only founding member who stayed with the band consistently.
Novembers Doom is an American death-doom band from Chicago, currently signed to Prophecy Productions. Along with Evoken and Rigor Sardonicous, Novembers Doom is one of the earliest American death-doom bands still active today.
Disfear is a Swedish crust punk band that formed in the early 1990s and recorded sporadically over the years. After releasing the albums Soul Scars in 1995 and Everyday Slaughter in 1997, the group did not release another album until 2003 with a 12-track album, Misanthropic Generation, featuring vocalist Tomas Lindberg of At the Gates and The Great Deceiver and Uffe Cederlund of Entombed. They later worked with Converge's Kurt Ballou for their album Live the Storm.
Theatres des Vampires is an Italian gothic metal band, mostly noted for the predominant theme of vampirism within their lyrics. The band's early material was credited as melodic black metal or symphonic black metal, but the group completely abandoned all black metal influence by the mid-2000s. Theatres des Vampires have released eleven full-length albums.
Holy Blood is a folk metal band from Kyiv, Ukraine, formed in 1999. The band is notable for being one of the few Christian bands in its genre, and the fact that they are the most successful group on its label Bombworks Records, and the band has been noted worldwide despite being an underground group. Holy Blood has released six albums: The Wanderer, Waves Are Dancing, The Patriot, Shining Sun, Day of Vengeance and Voice of Blood.
Austrian Death Machine is an American thrash metal side project from San Diego, California, founded by As I Lay Dying vocalist Tim Lambesis to be a parody of and tribute to Arnold Schwarzenegger's films.
On Thorns I Lay is a Greek death-doom metal and gothic metal band founded in Athens in 1992. The group has gone through different stylistic facets throughout its career, starting with brutal death metal in their early days, then transitioning to a blackened death doom symphonic style with their first EP, and later embracing atmospheric doom-death in their early albums and later gothic metal with their subsequent albums. On Thorns I Lay is among the bands of the first major gothic doom wave that systematized the principle of contrasting vocals known as the "beauty and the beast" style that became popular in the late 1990s. Towards the end of the first part of their career in the early 2000s, they shifted towards a more stripped-down and introspective rock-metal style. The band went on hiatus in 2006, for almost ten years. They reunited in 2015 and gradually returned to the doom-death style of their beginnings. They have released four albums since their reunion, the most recent of which was released in October 2023. It is noteworthy that the group experienced a split in 2021-2022. Several of its members, including the singer, guitarist, and former drummer, left the band to reform their original band, Phlebotomy, thus reactivating a previous incarnation of the group under which they also released a record in 2023. Through the years the band's played in Greece and in Europe together with Dream Theater, In Flames, Anathema, Amorphis, Katatonia, Tiamat, The Gathering, Satyricon,Septic Flesh and many more.
Luna Mortis, formerly The Ottoman Empire, was an American heavy metal band based in Madison, Wisconsin.
All information for this article is based on different interviews with Mary Abaza and Alex Ioffe. Merlin's biography from the official MySpace page was used as well. These interviews you can find on following websites:
