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DARK SECRETS: Slayer | Rare Historical Photos

“We weren’t after our version of Iron Maiden’s Eddie, but it needed to be striking.” The story behind Slayer's grim Reign In Blood album artwork

Slayer intended to make pop fans "ill" with their grotesque representation of hell. It worked…

Metal Hammer

"On our first tour one of the venues burned down, and the cops would shut things down." Police raids, venue fires and murderous rednecks: the story of Converge, the band who defined metalcore for a generation

Before Killswitch Engage, Bring Me The Horizon or Architects brought metalcore to new commercial heights, Converge were shaping the genre for the future

Metal Hammer

“They gave me an MRI and said it looked like I’d been in a car crash”: Gary Holt once gave himself clinical-grade whiplash because he headbanged to his riffs too hard

The guitarist says he “dodged a bullet” by avoiding surgery

Guitar World

From analysis to the latest developments in health,
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‘We built a castle on stage complete with battlements’: how 80s German thrash bands pushed metal to new extremes

As Metallica et al broke through, Kreator, Sodom and Destruction were forging an even harder sound. They recall gigs in coalmines, sessions in steelworks – and boozing with Slayer

The Guardian - UK

"It's a way of life. I love my job, so working isn't a problem." Gary Holt has seen it all with Slayer and Exodus – and he's not ready for it to end yet

Thrash guitar hero Gary Holt on life on the road with Slayer and Exodus

Metal Hammer

"I love the sleazy, lustful side of Motorhead." Severed heads, strip clubs and baptism by whisky: Why the metal world loved Lemmy Kilmister, the ultimate rock'n'roll rebel

We asked some of metal's biggest names to share which Motorhead songs mean most to them

Metal Hammer

"The LAPD chased down some of the miscreants and beat them to the ground with their nightsticks." How one of the worst riots in the history of music got a legendary metal band banned from a major Hollywood venue

Slayer were used to controversy, but when they rocked up to play the Hollywood Palladium in 1988, they didn't expect this.

Metal Hammer

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"It was super duper heavy!" The story behind the Dave Grohl song that Ozzy Osbourne rejected, which found a home on one of the most unexpected heavy metal albums ever released

My Tortured Soul could have been a very different song

Metal Hammer

"If there was another way around this, I would swallow my pride and say, 'I was able to find some miracle cure.'" Heavy metal legend and Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine on why now is the right time to say goodbye

Dave would love to continue Megadeth even longer, but it just isn't on the cards

Metal Hammer

Doom devs including John Romero respond to terminally ill fan spending his final days playing Doom: The Dark Ages: "You are not alone in that hospital room"

"You are the reason Doom exists"

GamesRadar

“Every song we came up with was like the greatest thing. Every time we’d write another it was like, ‘Oh my god’”: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, Anthrax and more remember how thrash metal took over the world 40 years ago

1986 was the year where thrash metal broke through. We got the genre’s leading bands to look back on those whirlwind 12 months.

Metal Hammer

“I’m taking care of myself for the first time ever”: Metallica, Slayer and Kiss members appear in new trailer for Paul Di’Anno documentary Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer

Written and directed by Lemmy’s Wes Orshoski, the rock doc is due to come out later this year

Metal Hammer

"The police and the army were all carrying guns. There was a real edginess to it all." How a "feral" Ozzy Osbourne crowd, an onstage meltdown, and some ill-advised nudity on live TV sparked a police manhunt for a British rock star in South America

"I don't think I'd have enjoyed a stay in a South American prison"

Metal Hammer

“People were saying that the style we were playing would mean we never got signed”: Sounding nothing like anyone else, how System Of A Down overcame the odds and started their climb to dominance

1998 single Sugar brought the future nu metal superstars to the dance – and they were weird as hell

Metal Hammer

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Metal Hammer

"I remember us saying, ‘Well, if the band doesn’t make it, we’ll join the Marines.’" The story of the song that gave thrash metal its name

Metallica, Exodus and Slayer might've been defining thrash on the West coast, but it was in New York the genre finally got its name

Metal Hammer

"The first time I heard his voice it was like, ‘Does this guy smoke 40 cigarettes at once?!’" Metallica, Judas Priest, Halestorm, Body Count members and more pick the ultimate Motorhead playlist

We asked some of metal's biggest names to share which Motorhead songs mean most to them

Metal Hammer

"It was the perfect tragedy. Heavy metal albums found in their rooms, antisocial behaviour." How Lemmy, Corey Taylor, Henry Rollins and the metal community united to save three teenagers at the heart of a murder case that shocked America

The story of the West Memphis Three captured the attention of the metal world - and some of its biggest artists took action

Metal Hammer

“I thought it was frat boy stuff...it's my least favourite record of our history.” The story of thrash metal legends Slayer 'going nu metal' and regretting it almost immediately (and why that album is much better than you remember)

When Slayer began to dabble with contemporary influences in the 90s, it didn't end well for them

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Metal Hammer

According to Glenn Hughes and Slayer's Kerry King, the rock and metal talent pool is drying up

Former Deep Purple man Glenn Hughes and Slayer's Kerry King can't name any new rock or metal artists that excite them

Metal Hammer

“When the first riff came together, we locked in and played it for 100 hours.” How a song about a big angry whale helped four Southern misfits hang with Slipknot and Slayer - and become 21st century metal trailblazers

Making a snarling concept piece about Moby-Dick doesn’t sound like a move for mainstream appeal, but that’s exactly what Mastodon found with the lead single of 2004 masterstroke Leviathan

Metal Hammer

Slayer’s Kerry King prefers Metallica over Megadeth because “Metallica has a singer”

“Sorry, Dave!”

Metal Hammer

“I asked them, ‘What’s it like to be famous?’ and they all said, ‘We hate it’”: The story of the landmark grunge album that paved the way for Nirvana’s Nevermind but set the band that made it on the path to darkness

A year before Nirvana broke out with Nevermind, Alice In Chains Seattle’s grunge scene on the map

Guitar World

“Me and Chino rowed a lot when we were working on it. It was a really abrasive process”: Deftones' White Pony was one of the first metal masterpieces of the new millennium. Its creation was anything but smooth sailing

Resident riffmaster Stephen Carpenter minced no words in this 2000 interview, rolling his eyes at “our friends” Korn, and even – before walking it back – calling his bandmate's guitar-work “awful.” Still, though, he was proud of the band's “really awesome record”

The Conversation

The five most terrifying songs ever recorded

As plastic skeletons enter the shops, pumpkin spice flavourings spread through coffee houses like Japanese knot-weed and jumpers are dug out of drawers, music fans’ playlists also begin to shift, with “spooky sounds” replacing “sunshine mixes”. And, just as Christmas means endless repeats of Mistletoe Wine and Fairytale of New…

Metal Hammer

“We thought, ‘Wow, that’s really cool – this was the guy that did all those crazy, terrible things’”: How Slayer made Angel Of Death – the fastest, freakiest and most controversial song in thrash metal history

The opening song from 1986’s Reign In Blood affirmed Slayer as thrash metal’s scariest scare-mongers

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