A brief primer on the joys of pre-DragonForce power metal, starting with Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side. [more inside]
posted by jbickers on May 6, 2009 - 16 comments

Spinal Tap reforms to record a new album. Entire planet quivers in anticipation.
posted by chuckdarwin on Feb 5, 2009 - 42 comments

How to properly wash metal shirts, what to do with bar soap, stitching etiquette and care, and other tips from the Black Metal Atmospheric Kitchen.
posted by Navelgazer on Feb 4, 2009 - 25 comments

Mingei is a transcultural word which combines the Japanese words for all people (Min) and art (Gei). The site has a flash interface and features over 5,000 high resolution, zoomable objects. More information on the Mingei Movement.
posted by tellurian on Jan 27, 2009 - 13 comments

In 1952, Bernard and François BASCHET reveal a new acoustic principle. They manage to amplify the internal vibration of metal, thus founding a new acoustic instrumental family : The Sound Structures [more inside]
posted by Grangousier on Jan 21, 2009 - 4 comments

Gregory Brotherton. Figurative metal sculpture. Often shiny. Some using discarded machine parts.
posted by Slithy_Tove on Dec 9, 2008 - 9 comments

Driving Off the Map by James Clinton Howell is a formal analysis of Metal Gear Solid 2. If you played this game — even if you didn't like it (especially if you didn't like it) — you need to read this to learn what you actually played. If you've never played Metal Gear Solid, it's still an excellent example of serious video game scholarship.
posted by cthuljew on Dec 8, 2008 - 37 comments

Metallica released a new album, Death Magnetic, but people are still celebrating their first four albums. Grindcore bands Psyopus and Fuck the Facts team up every Friday on their current tour to play a Metallica cover. Their fans, most of which were probably born after the first four were released, go apeshit over it. [more inside]
posted by ignignokt on Sep 22, 2008 - 54 comments

Heavy Metal Jr is an amusing & sweet little documentary about a heavy metal band called Hatred, average age 11.
posted by dydecker on Sep 16, 2008 - 32 comments

(Happy birthday, Neil) Did you enjoy VH1's rockin' Passover special, "Matzo and Metal?" How about "Matzo and Metal II: Back to the Desert?" Then you're going to love "RUSH HASHANAH!!!!1!1!!"

As the Rolling Stone article points out, the title is not just an excrutiating pun, or an excuse for a 24 hour Rush marathon. Challah Fame member Geddy Lee is also a child of Holocaust Survivors.
posted by ericbop on Sep 12, 2008 - 42 comments

Iraqi heavy metal? Sure, there's Acrassicauda. They're named after a scorpion. The Guardian has an informative article about them. There's been a movie made about them, which the New York Times has written about. Four members of the group, more recently based in Turkey, were seeking refugee status. Are they any good? I dunno, I guess so, but I''m not all that keen on metal, myself, so I'm not the best person to ask. Just go listen to 'em at their MySpace page.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Sep 11, 2008 - 14 comments

An article by Johann Hari (a remarkable columnist) in today's Independent about the substantial Heavy Metal movement in the Muslim world inserted a flicker of hope into my normally gloomy outlook on the current situation. I know that in my youth I used Heavy Metal (old school) as a hammer to tell my parents, my teachers and the world in general that I was different from them and did not accept their rules, judgements and values. If that is happening in Tehran, Morocco, Egypt and Pakistan then I'm with the kids. Go Metalheads! Rock the Mullahs! Tarantist look and sound the part but the listing on their YouTube page of 'Home town - Tehran/Los Angeles' is a bit worrying. How the hell do they work that gig? [more inside]
posted by surfdad on Sep 8, 2008 - 18 comments

Things To Say During Sex [more inside]
posted by carsonb on Sep 5, 2008 - 92 comments

Last weekend, (22-24 August 2008) saw the fantastic Reading Festival take place (dodgy timeline). Emerging from the National Jazz Festival in 1961, it mutated into the National Jazz, Blues and Rock Festival festival in the 70s, and on into the eclectic festival it is today. My personal faves were 1989 and 1992, but the best moment was seeing Meatloaf bottled off stage in 1988! Due to the combined force of the BBC and the interwebs, most of this year's performances - many complete - are available online for your delictation... [more inside]
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar on Aug 27, 2008 - 19 comments

Like shiny things? Bill Owen has a step by step tutorial on getting a mirror paint finish on objects with paint and wax.
posted by Mitheral on Aug 14, 2008 - 35 comments

Gorbachov the music video, contains basically everything I've ever wanted in a music video.
posted by mock on Jul 8, 2008 - 40 comments

Introducing Project Pop (Formerly Indonesia's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-suling metal-dangdut-comedy folk sextet). Their hit "Dangdut is the music of my country" [youtube link--music starts at 0:58] code-switches between pop metal and dangdut, affectionately mocking the cheesy pop of their parents' generation. Here is a great play-by-play translation of the details of the video. [more inside]
posted by umbú on May 9, 2008 - 12 comments

New England's best metal site has now gone national.

Thrash out!
posted by auralcoral on Apr 21, 2008 - 75 comments

Everyone's favorite fictional band (no, not that one) plays an awesome live show - including such hits as Because, It's Midnite and Trogdor.
posted by LSK on Apr 9, 2008 - 15 comments

The One Man Band has evolved. No longer will the one man band be burdened by the weight and bulk of backpack drum kits, guitars, or accordions - or knowing what notes to play. Behold! Beamz by The Sharper Image. Give your nearest buddy a high-five and catch a glimpse into the future of music performance and one of the most hilarious promotional videos you might ever see.
posted by hellslinger on Apr 8, 2008 - 60 comments

Ed explains how to be Metal. Lordi shows how not to be metal. Metalocalypse makes Kitties Metal. (Obnoxious, Youtube, Metal!)
posted by Lord_Pall on Apr 3, 2008 - 46 comments

Cope pipe without a jig. Enter a few parameters and get a pdf that will give you a printable pattern that will allow you to notch tubing for welding or brazing to another pipe.
posted by Mitheral on Mar 15, 2008 - 35 comments

Bert and Ernie perform "A Divine Proclamation for Finishing the Present Existence" by Last Days of Humanity. Turn your speakers down if you're at the office. [Single link, YouTube.]
posted by beaucoupkevin on Mar 14, 2008 - 52 comments

Massive, sprawling, jarring, yet soothing, intimate, and inescapable. Listening to Giant Squid is like waking up to find yourself trying to escape from underneath a mile-wide sheet of lake ice. Featuring stark contrasts between soothing instrumentals and oceanic heavy riffs, intertwined with male/female vocal harmonies that are alternately calm and frantic, Giant Squid creates a dynamic that is haunting and irresistible. [more inside]
posted by baphomet on Jan 16, 2008 - 13 comments

Free Bird on piano [YouTube]. The 14-year-old musician, who calls himself UnclassicalPiano on YouTube, currently has 16 other selections, including Stairway To Heaven, Behind Blue Eyes, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Message In A Bottle and Black Sabbath's Paranoid (his main interest is metal), all of which he says he learned to play by ear.
posted by amyms on Jan 15, 2008 - 41 comments

A few examples of high-quality re-creations of medieval armor. Much of this is created using historical techniques (youtube,) by men (slightly NSFW) who can only be called masters. But it ain't cheap. [more inside]
posted by agentofselection on Dec 7, 2007 - 11 comments

This cheesy 1979 promo film from the group, Blackjack, offers a glimpse into the hard rock past of balladeer Michael Bolton, which also includes a co-writing credit for a Top 40 hit by Kiss. Similarly, Bill Joel disavows the days when he posed in medieval armor next to slabs of raw beef on the cover of the self-titled album by Joel's heavy metal duo, Attila, although Julian Cope is a fan of the album and its Deep Purplish vibes (check out Holy Moses and Wonder Woman). To round out the trifecta, we have Tori Amos who got marketed as the metal-chick frontwoman of Y Kant Tori Read (check out the video for The Big Picture). On the other hand, metalheads have the opposite problem of hiding their pop past. Examples include the industrial metal band Ministry's early days as a new wave synth act and Tommy Iommi's brief tenure as a member of Jethro Tull before becoming lead guitarist of Black Sabbath. Meanwhile, Bon Scott, the late lead singer of AC/DC, is probably spinning in his grave over the YouTube footage of him as an Australian teen idol and a bearded hippie with a recorder.
posted by jonp72 on Nov 26, 2007 - 70 comments

Kevin DuBrow dead at 52. The lead singer of the 80's metal band Quiet Riot found dead at 52 in Las Vegas. Break out your leather and studs...and hockey masks?
posted by spish on Nov 26, 2007 - 40 comments

Hello Chococat, Oh No! Doom, Sludge, Noise(warning: ewwtube): the music of Monarch (warning:murdochSpace); they're from Bayonne.
posted by geos on Nov 22, 2007 - 11 comments

The printing press lives on—in Akron, Alabama, at least, where computer programmer-turned-letterpress printer Amos Kennedy uses metal type to create lots and lots of posters. [Found here.]
posted by tepidmonkey on Nov 20, 2007 - 12 comments

von Trier/Van Halen
posted by geos on Nov 8, 2007 - 31 comments

Who knew being metal (or a Texas Longhorns fan) could actually be evil?
posted by nímwunnan on Nov 3, 2007 - 38 comments

"In the streets on Halloween, there's something going on ..." What better day to celebrate the German power metal band Helloween?
posted by jbickers on Oct 31, 2007 - 9 comments

Live Loud Acts: archives and playlists for The Pat Duncan Show on WFMU. Hour upon hour of expertly curated punk rock radio. Pat's Myspace page has more info. [more inside]
posted by milquetoast on Sep 26, 2007 - 9 comments

Jake E Lee shreds, Steve Vai shreds, Eddie Van Halen shreds, many others shred.
posted by hellbient on Sep 19, 2007 - 59 comments

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Throwdown have a message to impart. [One Link YouTube Post, NSFW Language.]
posted by beaucoupkevin on Sep 14, 2007 - 18 comments

Devolution: Nature's U-Turn is a new music video concept by rock band KoRn for their single Evolution. The premise? Mankind isn't evolving, it's devolving... getting dumber by the day. Wait. Haven't we seen this before? We have, and Devo's Gerald V. Casale isn't happy. "We denounce this as impostors playing with fire." he says of Korn on the Club Devo website. He elaborates in a new interview with Rolling Stone, including a possibility of their first new record in 20 years. Devo's also put out a new song, "Watch Us Work It", which appears in a commercial for Dell laptops [youtube link], with a official music video and single release to come.
posted by SansPoint on Jul 26, 2007 - 59 comments

Because of booming economies in China, India and elsewhere the price of metals, such as copper and aluminum, have reached all time highs. Empty beer kegs for example can be sold for up to $27. Washington DC is experiencing a crime wave of metal thieves who are stripping everything from lamp posts, gutters, catalytic converters and bleacher seats.
posted by stbalbach on Jul 25, 2007 - 49 comments

I am Murloc. Cool World of Warcraft music video. (Note: Impressed me, but I've never played WoW. Might not impress WoW players, I dunno. Won't change your mind if you already hate WoW. Horrible vocals.)
posted by bugbread on Jul 17, 2007 - 51 comments

Khanate.
posted by hama7 on Jul 15, 2007 - 38 comments

LOLMETAL
posted by dame on Jul 6, 2007 - 70 comments

"Full House" -- not funny. Things related to Full House -- hilarious! Both are vids, first link language nsfw.
posted by chinese_fashion on Jun 7, 2007 - 17 comments

Metal! [Flickr set] Slayer! Metallica! Girlschool! Quiet Riot! Megadeth! Maiden! And many, many more.
posted by psmealey on May 11, 2007 - 89 comments

Every year, the quiet northern German farming village of Wacken becomes the site of the largest metal festival in Europe. South Korean documentary maker, Sung Myung Cho, recently went along to see how the locals deal with this annual weekend of metal mayhem. Here's the trailer of the film that resulted.
posted by jodrell banksmeadow on Apr 28, 2007 - 14 comments

Metal by Numbers by Brian Posehn
posted by psmealey on Apr 19, 2007 - 31 comments

Listen to 'Year Zero', the new Nine Inch Nails album for free. Album main page. Via nin.com
posted by slimepuppy on Apr 5, 2007 - 67 comments

The 10 Ugliest Men In Heavy Metal History. Well, Metal was never meant for the beautiful people, anyways.
posted by jonmc on Mar 31, 2007 - 61 comments

Learning to scream safely as a metal, hardcore or screamo vocalist can "take approximately a year", apparently. Handy tips offered here include "practice screaming into a pillow", and "scream along with music, especially songs in which screaming is already taking place." Bizarrely comprehensive, and probably useful, if you're into, uh, screaming.
posted by rhodri on Mar 13, 2007 - 32 comments

"Once Were Kings" Some call them 1980's pop icons, others the Kings of Heavy Metal. Regardless, Van Halen has announced a 2007 tour with David Lee Roth. But without Michael Anthony, will it be worth paying to see? While Dave's current fan base is huge, others feel he has not aged gracefully. Well, it could be worse.....(youtube, ytmnd, and bad 80's haircuts warning)
posted by peewinkle on Feb 3, 2007 - 74 comments

"To me, I've always looked upon the stage as a much-hallowed place, a place of worship for real artists, as I said just before. That doesn't just stem from rock n roll days; to me, Judy Garland was a real artist, Al Jolson was a real artist, people like that gave their all and everything for the stage and most of them finished up dying for it as well. In my view, nobody should be allowed to stand on a stage unless they can present the total professional thing, unless they really can sing and really can play. Punk was a total anti-attitude towards music."NWOBHM: How a now-little-known nostalgic reaction to punk called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal changed the world.[much, much more inside]
posted by koeselitz on Jan 10, 2007 - 40 comments