(TheBRHM.com) Do you have a favorite band or musical group that broke up, went on hiatus, are between albums, or released an essential member of their sound? I believe we all do. Three acts I love—Judas Priest, Slayer and Immortal—had at least one of these occur and the artist released ...

(TheBRHM.com) I’d opted to explore other debut albums from bands of varying importance and genres before finally getting to Metallica’s 1983 debut Kill ‘Em All. When I first listened to this album in 2006 and read about its importance to thrash metal and U.S metal at the time, I couldn’t ...

(TheBRHM.com) While listening to Invincible Shield, I realized that I hadn’t done a review or album dive into Redeemer of Souls or Firepower for The Black Rock and Heavy Metal. Now, I find it very easy—and even relaxing—to look at older albums from decades ago and decide what albums were ...

(TheBRHM.com) Running into fellow Black metalheads is always a surprise and a pleasure. It’s not so much that there are so few of us—we are legion—but actually coming across another Black person who enjoys the Sound of the Beast in person or even online can be a chance encounter. My ...

(TheBRHM.com) When I first started to frequent online heavy metal communities, one of the things that was constantly praised or focused on was the band demo. Now, I tend to focus on full-length releases and sometimes live albums, but demos were something I was never particularly big on. I won’t ...

(TheBRHM.com) While discussing demos and how Sodom’s Victims of Death got me to appreciate demo releases, Skelator and their Give Me Metal or Give Me Death came up as the other release that really helped. We’ll get around to Victims of Death as it’s a great demo but Give Me Metal ...

(TheBRHM.com) We’ve only done one “Head 2 Head” at this point and there are so many bands to compare! This time we’re looking at Motorhead and Venom, two bands with similar sounds and speeds of play. I’m excited about this one since speed metal and thrash are my favorite genres ...

(TheBRHM.com) New York-based act Riot V is a band that I discovered after delving into the act’s days as Riot and discovering Thundersteel. Released in 1988, Thundersteel would’ve made for a tremendous topic for our “Greatest Debut Albums” segment because of how strong of an album it is from start ...

(TheBRHM.com) Metallica is one of the legends of heavy metal as the band that really took the genre mainstream. Coming out of the 1980s Bay Area thrash scene, Metallica has seen a few changes in members and sound but always maintained the core songwriting duo of singer/rhythm guitarist James Hetfield ...

(TheBRHM.com) Speed metal is a subgenre of metal that I’d place between old school, more traditional heavy metal and just before power metal and thrash. It always existed alongside heavy metal as it wasn’t unusual for bands to kick up the speed a bit. A band I really enjoy—Riot—started out ...