Manowar is an American heavy metal band from Auburn, New York. Formed in 1980, the group is known for lyrics based on fantasy and mythology, as well as numerous songs celebrating the genre and its core audience. The band is also known for a loud and emphatic sound. In an interview for MTV in February 2007, bassist Joey DeMaio lamented that "these days, there's a real lack of big, epic metal that is drenched with crushing guitars and choirs and orchestras... so it's nice to be one of the few bands that's actually doing that". In 1984, the band was included in the Guinness Book of World Records for delivering the loudest performance, a record which they have since broken on two occasions. They also hold the world record for the longest heavy metal concert after playing for five hours and 1 minute in Bulgaria in 2008. They also have been known for their slogan "Death to false metal".
Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard rock music was produced by the Kinks, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Cream, Vanilla Fudge, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In the late 1960s, bands such as Blue Cheer, the Jeff Beck Group, Iron Butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Golden Earring, Steppenwolf, and Deep Purple also produced hard rock.
Prong is an American heavy metal band formed in New York City in 1986. The band is fronted by guitarist/vocalist Tommy Victor, Prong's sole constant member. To date, they have released 13 studio albums, one live album, four EPs, one DVD and one remix album.
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).
In Flames is a Swedish heavy metal band, formed by guitarist Jesper Strömblad in Gothenburg in 1990. Their lineup has changed several times, with vocalist Anders Fridén and guitarist Björn Gelotte being the only consistent members since 1995. Alongside At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity, In Flames has pioneered the genres known as Swedish death metal and melodic death metal, and as of 2008, has sold over two million records worldwide.
Creeper are an English rock band from Southampton. Formed in 2014, the group originally featured vocalist Will Gould, guitarists Ian Miles and Sina Nemati, bassist Sean Scott, and drummer Dan Bratton. The band independently released their self-titled debut EP in 2014, before signing with Roadrunner Records and issuing follow-up The Callous Heart the next year. At the end of 2015, Nemati was replaced by Oliver Burdett and touring keyboardist/second vocalist Hannah Greenwood became an official band member. A third EP, The Stranger, was released in 2016 and reached the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart top ten.
Blood Stain Child is a Japanese melodic death metal band from the city of Osaka. The band's musical style combines melodic death metal with electronic and trance. The band formed under the name "Visionquest" in 1999, but changed their name to Blood Stain Child in 2000.
Volbeat are a Danish rock band formed in Copenhagen in 2001. They play a fusion of rock and roll and heavy metal. Their current line-up consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Michael Poulsen, drummer Jon Larsen, and bassist Kaspar Boye Larsen. The band is signed to Dutch label Mascot Records and has released eight studio albums and one DVD. Their second album Rock the Rebel/Metal the Devil received platinum status, and their 2010 release Beyond Hell/Above Heaven was subject to widespread international critical acclaim, receiving triple platinum in Denmark and Austria, double platinum in Sweden, platinum in Canada, 5x Gold in Germany, and gold in both Finland and the United States. Volbeat's most recent studio album, Servant of the Mind, was released in 2021.
Idolator is the third album by the Japanese metal band Blood Stain Child. Idolator combines melodic death metal similar to the In Flames albums released before this album with electronic and industrial metal influences similar to Machinae Supremacy, particularly on "Nuclear Trance". "Embrace Me", has a piano section both at the beginning and at the end of the song. In 2006, the band signed to Dockyard1 and released the album in Europe on November 27, 2006. The album was released in the United States on July 17, 2007.
Blood Stained Love Story is the fifth studio album by American rock band Saliva which was released on January 23, 2007. This is their first album with rhythm guitarist Jonathan Montoya after the departure of Chris D’Abaldo. The song "Ladies and Gentlemen" was the official theme song for the WWE PPV WrestleMania 23. It also has appeared on many other sporting event telecasts. The song "King Of The Stereo" was modified and featured as ESPN Varsity Inc's Theme song, under the name "King Of The Stadium" with appropriately edited lyrics. The original title for the album was The Rise & Fall Of The Glorified Kingdom.
Blessed by a Broken Heart is a Canadian rock band from Montreal, Quebec. They released three albums, the last of which, Feel the Power, was released by Tooth & Nail Records and made the Billboard Christian Albums and Heatseekers Albums charts.
Mozaiq is the fourth studio album by the metal band, Blood Stain Child. It was released on July 18, 2007 in Japan and was released on 20 July 2007 in Europe. Mozaiq contains 11 tracks plus an extra track that differs; for Japan "Ez Do Dance" a cover after TRF and for Europe "Cosmic Highway".
Powerwolf is a German power metal band founded in 2003 in Saarbrücken by members of Red Aim. The band consists of vocalist Karsten Brill as "Attila Dorn", lead guitarist Benjamin Buss as "Matthew Greywolf", bassist/rhythm guitarist David Vogt as "Charles Greywolf", keyboardist Christian Jost as "Falk Maria Schlegel" and drummer Roel van Helden. The group uses religious themes and images, contrary to traditional power metal music, as well as corpse paint, gothic-tinged compositions and songs about werewolf and vampire legends.
Misanthropy Pure is the third studio album by hardcore punk band Shai Hulud, released on May 26, 2008 in Europe and May 27 in the U.S. through Metal Blade Records, the band's first record release by that label. It has been described as the blender between 1997's Hearts Once Nourished with Hope and Compassion and 2003's That Within Blood Ill-Tempered, by Shai Hulud's guitarist, Matt Fox:
The sound.. it's hard for me to answer it accurately, it would be better to ask somebody who is listening to it. If you ask me, when I listen to 'Hearts Once Nourished..' our first album, I think it's very rhythm based. It's very very melodic, but it's definitely more rhythm based. When you listen to 'That Within Blood Ill-Tempered', it's clearly more melody based... so a lot of my friends said: 'If you guys could combine the drive, the rock, and the aggression of "Hearts" and the structuring, the melody and the intelligence of "That Within Blood Ill Tempered", you might have my favorite album of all time.' So again, because I can never answer a question just directly, to answer your question directly, what we try to do is combine both albums. We wanted to make it smart, and heavy, we wanna make it sound great. We wanted to give something to people where they could groove along to it and rock for more than a second and a half without changing, but we also wanted to maintain some technical intelligent aspect, and the melodic nature of our last album. So if you take both those albums, throw them in a blender, I think you might have something that resembles 'Misanthrophy Pure'.
"It's faster, slower, more metal, less metal, more rock, more progressive, and less progressive than anything we've ever done. It's like that movie 'Deep Blue Sea'. The tagline on the DVD box is 'Bigger. Faster. Smarter. Meaner.' That's how this record is. Is it the best thing we've ever done? I don't know. We'll leave that to those who listen."
Thomas Kronenes, best known by the stage name Pest, is a Norwegian black metal musician, mainly known for his work in the band Gorgoroth. While a part of Gorgoroth he performed vocals, and also played guitar in the group for a very short time in 1996.
Chandana Chitral Somapala, aka Chity Somapala, is a Sri Lankan hard rock and heavy metal vocalist and a music director. He is known for his work with European power metal bands Firewind, Power Quest, Avalon, Faro, Red Circuit, and Civilization One. Somapala gained popularity in his home country due to his Sinhala track "Nadee Ganga" which was released in 1998.
Ice Nine Kills is an American heavy metal band from Boston, Massachusetts, who are signed to Fearless Records. Best known for its horror-inspired lyrics, Ice Nine Kills formed in its earliest incarnation in 2000 by high school friends Spencer Charnas and Jeremy Schwartz. Charnas is currently the only remaining founding member.
Blood Mantra is the sixth studio album by Polish death metal band Decapitated. It was released on 22 September 2014 in Poland via Mystic Production and later in September via Nuclear Blast Records in other regions. Blood Mantra was produced by Wojtek and Sławek Wiesławscy. It is the band's first album to feature drummer Michał Łysejko and their only album to feature bassist Paweł Pasek. The song "The Blasphemous Psalm to the Dummy God Creation" was released as a single on 8 August 2014. Two days earlier, the single was released as digital stream on Nuclear Blast YouTube profile.
The Wolfsnächte Tour 2012 was a European concert tour by German power metal band Powerwolf. Supporting the release of their fourth studio album Blood of the Saints, the tour ran from 9 December 2011 to 21 July 2012, taking place in Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Croatia, Italy and Czech Republic.
Season of Ghosts is an electronic metal band formed in 2013 by Greek singer Sophia Aslanides, former vocalist of the melodic death metal band Blood Stain Child. Season of Ghosts combines metal, trance and electronic sounds. Formed in Tokyo, Japan, the group has been based in London, England since 2018.
