AC/DC

AC/DC are well known as one of the world's biggest and most influential hard rock bands. They may not be a metal band, but they have contributed massively to the genre. The band was formed in 1973 in Melbourne, Australia by brothers Angus (lead guitar) and Malcolm Young (rhythm guitar/backing vocals). After undergoing several line-up changes, they finally settled with Phil Rudd (drums), Mark Evans (bass/backing vocals) and Bon Scott (lead vocals). They enjoyed a healthy run of success for 7 years until the band was struck by tragedy when in 1980, Scott, after a night drinking with his friends, died. The band decided to move on and recruited new vocalist, Brian Johnson to record a new album: Back In Black. The bands sound heavily focuses on power chords and simple moderate tempo beats. They have rarely ever strayed from the "intro - verse - chorus - verse - chorus - bridge - chorus" formula and their lyrical themes are always about one of four things: fucking, rocking, drinking or fighting. Their style of playing has never changed since their debut, except the differing vocal styles. AC/DC have contributed massively to rock and metal and many high profile bands cite them as major influences.

Recommended Works
They've never made a bad album, but a few I'd recommend would be:

Back In Black: The no-brainer. This was the first album to feature Brian Johnson on vocals and was made as a tribute to the late Bon Scott. It sold incredibly well, eventually becoming the second biggest selling album ever, topped only by Michael Jackson's "Thriller", making it the biggest selling rock album of all time. It's easily AC/DC's most well-known and for good reason. There's not one boring song on this, and it includes many fan favourites.

Highway To Hell: Again, one of their most well-known albums. This one was the last album Bon Scott recorded with the band and remains one of my favourite albums ever made. The title track is often said to be their greatest song, and is always played in encores at live shows, often as a tribute to Bon.

High Voltage: This was their debut album, featuring many songs that have become well-known rock anthems and setting the tone for the long career ahead of them.

Let There Be Rock: The title track is one of the best rock songs ever written, no question, and on the first listen, Whole Lotta Rosie is, quite frankly, hilarious.

Current Members
Brian Johnson - lead vocals
Angus Young - lead guitar
Malcolm Young - rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Cliff Williams - bass guitar, backing vocals
Phil Rudd - drums

Former Members
Dave Evans - lead vocals
Bon Scott - lead vocals
Mark Evans - bass guitar, backing vocals
Simon Wright - drums
Chris Slade - drums

Essential Tracks
Back In Black
Highway To Hell
Thunderstruck
Whole Lotta Rosie
TNT

Links
Wikipedia
Last.fm

Metallica

Metallica is regarded as one of the most known metal bands in existence. They have contributed a great deal; in recent years, not so much, but as for their first 4 or 5 albums, they helped to define the metal world into what it has become. They are one of the “big 4”, bands that started thrash metal, along with Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. They have gone through several line-up changes, but rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, drummer Lars Ulrich, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett are still contributing to the band after being together since 1983. Whether you like thrash or not, Metallica have a permanent spot in the metal hall of fame, having paved the way for countless bands. Now comes the difficult part where I have to recommend songs to listen to. Here goes nothing:

Recommended Works
Kill ‘Em All (LP)
Ride the Lightening (LP)
…And Justice for All (LP)
Master of Puppets (LP)
Metallica (LP)

Any album onward I cannot be bothered with.

Current Members
James Hetfield – rhythm guitar, lead vocals
Kirk Hammett – lead guitar, backing vocals
Robert Trujillo – bass, backing vocals
Lars Ulrich – drums, percussion

Former Members
Cliff Burton – bass, backing vocals
Jason Newsted – bass, backing vocals
Ron McGovney – bass
Dave Mustaine – lead guitar, backing vocals

Essential Tracks
Blackened
Hit the Lights
Orion
For Who the Bell Tolls
My Friend of Misery

Links
Wikipedia
Last.fm


There they are; Metallica.
-Brute-

Arghoslent

Ever since their inception in 1990 amid the Roadrunner led surge of death metal, Arghoslent have always stood out from the crowd. Courting controversy with lyrics of semi-veiled racism, ties to white supremacist groups and sporting aliases such as Pogrom, has earned them little love from the media. Infamy aside, Arghoslent also stand apart from their peers with their unique style of play. Forgoing technical masturbation or brutal chugging, instead allowing a simple love of NWOBHM to permeate their fine song crafting skills, replacing blast beats with more traditional metal drumming to complement the fantastic guitar melodies: creating sublime metal that is surprisingly accessible to even the most timid metal head, making labels somewhat redundant. A twenty year career with just three full length albums may seem skimpy, but quality always beats quantity and quality is one thing Arghoslent do not lack for. If you worship at the altar of the almighty riff, you’ll find a lot to like in this band.

Recommended Works
Galloping Through the Battle Ruins (LP): their first full length effort and fan favourite, showcasing all the traits they are known, loved and hated for.

Send Forth the Best Ye Breed (Split): after the disappointing release of “Hornets of the Pogrom”, they bounced back, showcasing their talent to the full with perhaps their best songs to date. Album partners, Martial Barrage, are worth a listen too.

Incorrigible Bigotry (LP): my personal favourite album, awash with perfect guitar harmonies and amazing riffs. Among the greatest death metal albums written.

Current Members
Ulfhedinn - Vocals
Pogrom aka Gelal Necrosodomy - Guitar
Holocausto - Guitar
Einzelganger - Bass
Aktion T4 - Drums

Former Members
The Genocider, Gravedigger, Von Demonicus - Vocals
Kommando (Thom Huff) - Bass
M. S. (Mark Stauffer), Alienchrist aka The Gulag (Matt Sylvester) - Drums

Essential Tracks
Tar-Skinned Pygmoids of the Dense Bush
Fall of the Melanic Breeds
The Purging Fires of War
Fodder for the Shoah
Quelling the Simian Surge

Links
Metal Archives
Wikipedia
Last.fm

Sonata Arctica

Sonata Arctica is a power metal band founded in 1995 by drummer Tommy Portimo, guitarist Jani Liimatainen, and bassist Marko Paasikoski. In the early years, Sonata Arctica's style was more of a hard rock, but transformed into the straight up power metal sound that their early albums are known for. But over the years, Sonata Arctica's style has changed even more, combining their power metal sound with elements of progressive metal, and even ocassionally symphonic metal (most notably on the bonus disc for The Days of Grays). After a few line-up changes, including the departure of Jani Liimatainen and keyboardist Mikko Härkin, the band's style began to undergo these changes. Sonata Arctica is a very notable band in the power metal genre because their dynamic style has given us some albums that are truely wonderful and unique. This is definitely one of those bands that has a slightly different sound each album. Being one of the most popular and accesible bands in the genre, Sonata Arctica is a fantastic gateway into power metal.

Recommended Works
Ecliptica (LP)
The band's first album. Ecliptica is a power metal masterpiece. It features fast and agressive songs as well as slower and more melodious songs. It's definitely the best place to start with this band.

Reckoning Night (LP)
This is the album that transitions the band into a more progressive style. It's a mixture of the early and later albums.

The Days of Grays (LP)
Building on the band's newer style introduced in Reckoning Night, The Days of Grays is a fantastic album. This album was released in 2009 and was incredibly impressive, as it showed that the band had matured a lot in their songwriting. The songs are much more complex, albeit harder to get into for newcomers to the genre. Regardless, it is amazing after a few listens.

Current Members
Tony Kakko
Elias Viljanen
Tommy Portimo
Marko Paasikoski
Henrik Klingenberg

Former Members
Jani Liimatainen
Mikko Härkin
Janne Kivilahti
Pentti Peura
William Weatherall

Essential Tracks
Unopened
Fullmoon
The Cage
Paid in Full
Flag in the Ground

Links
Metal Archives
Wikipedia
Last.fm

"Keep in mind what you have heard today
You might find that you are not so brave"

Kalisia

Hailing from the land of garlic and pretentious moustaches, Kalisia formed in 1994 under the leadership of Brett Caldas-Lima who garnered the talents of Auspex’s Elodie Buchonnet amongst others. After releasing a couple of well received demos over a two year period, work commenced on their first, and so far only album, “Cybion”. They would proceed to spend over ten years crafting a 70 minute single track concept record of astonishing scope. Unhindered by boundaries, Kalisia produced a land mark in the field of progressive metal, combining the best of Dream Theater’s progressive wonderings with death metal’s pure assault, Lima even going so far as to create his own language to flavour the album’s intriguing story. Unjustly consigned to the underground by labels who think you’re too stupid and Ritalin dependent to appreciate this masterpiece, the band self released the album to great acclaim from the lucky few who knew what was coming. Be sure to check these guys out, because it maybe another 10 years before we hear from them again.

Recommended Works
Cybion (LP): The album comes complete with the previously released “Skies” demo and 4 cover songs. You need to set aside 70 minutes of quiet time to absorb this, but god damn is it worth it. Paul Masvidal approved.

Current Members
Brett Caldas-Lima - Vocals, Guitars, Programming
Laurent Pouget - Keyboards
Thibaut Gerard - Bass
Brun's (Bruno Michel) - Guitars
Elodie Buchonnet - Female Vocals, Flute, Saxophone

Former Members
Loic Tezenas - Guitars
Laurent Bendahan - Drums

Essential Tracks
Cybion
Lost Soul
A Fortune in Lies (Dream Theater Cover)
How Could I? (Cynic Cover)
I Am The Black Wizards (Emperor Cover)

Links
Metal Archives
Wikipedia
Last.fm

Welcome!

Okay, so this blog is going to be a joint effort from many different kinds of metalheads. We will try to cover each side of the spectrum of metal, and even some things that aren't metal (but are questionably related to metal). I hope you find this information valuable, you'll see some things and think "Wow, I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of that!" and you'll most likely see some things that you have never heard of in your life. You will also probably try some things and despise them, but the goal of this blog is to provide information on some of our favorite metal artists. If you enjoy the blog, please check out the Metal & Entertainment forums, found at http://metalisfav.forumsmusic.com/forum.htm. We have literally every kind of metal head imaginable there, so if you like any metal at all you will fit in.

The Black Sabbath post before this was just a test/example post, so don't expect every post to look exactly like that. I doubt we will be doing another Black Sabbath post though (unless I can find a way to delete it). Be sure to comment on things you like/don't like, and feel free to throw up some constructive criticism.

This blog is in the beginning stages, so don't be surprised if you see some things changing. We're just getting all of the formatting and everything set up. Thanks for viewing!