Ian Christe

Metal and hardcore spent the 1990s bouncing around between glory days and rock bottom. Miles apart from high-maintenance death metal gods and pop punk pariahs, the resolutely distrustful and scornful DIY movement called powerviolence remains a relic and a curiosity of that decade...

Recently, my wife directed MELLODRAMA: The Mellotron Story, a documentary about a California inventor who unveiled an organ in 1956 that could replay the sounds of other instruments using magnetic tape. His idea was lifted by an employee and sold abroad, and soon the Mellotron caught fire and became a rock music staple, championed by everyone from the Beatles (on "Strawberry Fields Forever&qu

Beyond the goofy glitz of "Gangnam Style," mountains of scorching spicy kimchee, and futuristic video game culture, South Korea has offered an unsung chain of hammering and haunting metal bands for over 25 years. The nation's recent outpouring of ultra-modern crime and horror films like Oldboy, I Saw the Devil, and Thirst should make it small surprise that this bustling country, still fa

I've never understood why people spend so much time at the end of each year debating the merits of music released by the best-known names in metal. Although it happens, only rarely does a band with an established, branded style break away and surprise everyone with a rule-breaking, game-changing sound...

Among the many mighty metal milestones of 2012, the 30th birthday of Metal Blade Records stands as an amazing testament to the strength of metal devotion. Label founder Brian Slagel became a businessman almost by accident.

Every August, the lakefronts and shorelines of America swell to the bursting point with sun-crazed vacationeers, plenty of them in black T-shirts. Unfortunately, for some reason the default soundtrack at beaches everywhere seems to be a washed-up flotsam of brain-dead pop hits, lame Jimmy Buffett songs, and useless reggae ...

When I wrote Sound of the Beast almost ten years ago, I described the evolution of heavy metal as a kind of global game of catch. A heavy iron ball was forged in Birmingham, England, around 1970, thrown to the United States, passed back to Britain for the NWOBHM, and then back to the U...

In honor of French National Day, please put on your spiked black leather beret and hold high your goblet of blood-red Bordeaux wine in honor of the country's recent heavy metal victories. France has supplied a surprising slew of formidable bands in recent years, breaking open an metal arsenal of free-thinking bands that range from the ultra-extreme to the sublime...

Heavy metal by its nature is defiant and rebellious, a threat to law and order. Black Sabbath's early records were loaded with protest songs about war, drugs, and ecology. Even the ancient and Biblical blood raining from the lacerated skies above Slayer has a radical effect; and no matter what Lemmy sings about Motörhead is a three-man social revolution in motion. Th...

Metallica stood on stages in 2011 alongside Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. In 2012, they are asking more of their loyal fans. Their inaugural Orion Music + More festival in Atlantic City on June 23 and June 24 will present a slew of metal's latest attractions, including Ghost, Charred Walls of the Damned, Landmine Marathon, and Baroness...