Metal
Here you'll find album histories, birthdays, and anniversaries connected to the artists who built metal and its branches, along with vinyl reissue news as titles reappear. Metal has a particularly active underground pressing culture: independent labels regularly issue small runs in colored or splatter vinyl, and older catalog titles get reworked into box sets and remasters aimed at longtime fans rather than casual listeners. The stories here follow how specific records came together — band lineups, studio choices, the scenes around them — and note when a reissue gives an older album a reason to be discussed again.
196 STORIES
How Cactus Made a Heavy Blues-Rock Stand with Restrictions
On October 18, 1971, Cactus released Restrictions, a third album of heavy blues rock recorded at Electric Lady Studios and produced by Geoffrey Haslam.
· 3 min read
How Iron Maiden Sent Their Oldest Songs to Hell
Iron Maiden's A Real Dead One, released on 18 October 1993 through EMI, sent the band's oldest songs back to 1975. The live album turned that history into a charting present.
· 3 min read
Tony Iommi's Iommi: The Album That Tried Everything
Tony Iommi's first solo album Iommi arrived on 17 October 2000, four years after sessions began, with a different vocalist on each of its ten tracks.
· 3 min read
How Slipknot’s .5: The Gray Chapter Turned Grief Into a Number One
Slipknot released .5: The Gray Chapter on 17 October 2014, the band's first album without bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
· 4 min read
How Cradle of Filth Fought a Cover Ban on Thornography
Cradle of Filth had to alter the Thornography artwork after Roadrunner Records rejected a nude figure. The album arrived on 17 October 2006 with a more guitar-led sound.
· 3 min read
Rammstein's Liebe ist für alle da and the Censorship Fight
Rammstein's sixth album Liebe ist für alle da was released in 2009. Germany's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons placed it on its list of materials dangerous to minors.
· 4 min read
How Ozzy Osbourne's Down to Earth Became a Platinum Surprise
Epic Records pushed Ozzy Osbourne back into the studio for Down to Earth. Released on 16 October 2001, the album became a platinum success in the US and Canada.
· 3 min read
Led Zeppelin Remasters: The 1990 CD Cash-In
Atlantic Records rushed Led Zeppelin's catalogue onto compact disc with Remasters. The three-vinyl set arrived on 15 October 1990, drawn from eight of the band's nine studio albums.
· 3 min read
Why Savatage's Streets: A Rock Opera Almost Didn't Happen
Savatage released Streets: A Rock Opera on Atlantic Records on October 15, 1991. The album grew out of a Broadway play producer Paul O'Neill had written in 1979 and left in a drawer.
· 5 min read
How Did Motörhead Survive Losing a Guitarist?
Motörhead released Overnight Sensation on 15 October 1996 as a trio after guitarist Würzel left. That lineup stayed together longer than any other in the band's history.
· 3 min read
Korn's Life Is Peachy: Chaos Forged a Nu-Metal Landmark
Korn's second album, Life Is Peachy, arrived on October 15, 1996, through Immortal and Epic, and entered the Billboard 200 at number three.
· 3 min read
Why Alcatrazz's Debut Still Matters in Metal
Alcatrazz released No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll on October 15, 1983, with Graham Bonnet on vocals and a young Yngwie Malmsteen on guitar.
· 3 min read
Why Did Yngwie Malmsteen Record Only Covers on Inspiration?
Released on 14 October 1996 through Music for Nations, Inspiration was Yngwie Malmsteen's ninth studio album and his first recorded at his own Studio 308.
· 3 min read
How Overkill's The Years of Decay Changed Thrash
Overkill released The Years of Decay on October 13, 1989, a progressive thrash album that pushed the band beyond its earlier sound and influenced Pantera.
· 4 min read
Hypocrisy's Osculum Obscenum Turns 33
Hypocrisy recorded Osculum Obscenum at Studio Rockshop in March 1993, and Nuclear Blast released the death metal album on 12 October 1993.
· 4 min read
How Come Taste the Band Almost Saved Deep Purple
By the time Deep Purple started work on Come Taste the Band, the band had already lost its most famous face. The tenth studio album from the British hard rock g…
· 4 min read
How Thin Lizzy's Chinatown Survived a Band in Chaos
Thin Lizzy began recording Chinatown at Good Earth Studios in January 1980. The sessions were torn apart by touring, lineup changes and a teenage keyboardist finding his place.
· 3 min read
John Entwistle, the bassist who made The Who louder than anyone
John Entwistle turned the bass into a lead instrument for The Who. He stood behind the 126-decibel concert that entered the Guinness Book of Records in 1976.
· 4 min read
Slayer's Seasons in the Abyss Risked It All
Slayer released Seasons in the Abyss on October 9, 1990, a record that had to balance the speed of Reign in Blood with the slower mood of South of Heaven.
· 4 min read
How Venom Rebuilt Without Cronos on Prime Evil
Venom released Prime Evil in 1989 as their first album without Conrad 'Cronos' Lant, built around new bassist and vocalist Tony Dolan of Atomkraft.
· 3 min read
Why Did Bon Jovi's Bounce Miss Platinum?
Bon Jovi released Bounce on Island Records on October 8, 2002. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, yet became the band's first album to miss platinum certification in the United States.
· 4 min read
Why Did Korn Need The Paradigm Shift?
Korn's eleventh album The Paradigm Shift brought guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch back after eight years away. The record debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200.
· 3 min read
Terry Balsamo: The Stroke That Almost Silenced His Guitar
Terry Balsamo, born in Florida in 1972, joined Evanescence in January 2004. He co-wrote most of The Open Door with Amy Lee before a stroke nearly ended his playing career.
· 4 min read
Iron Maiden's Raw Turn on No Prayer for the Dying
Iron Maiden recorded their eighth album, No Prayer for the Dying, in a barn in Essex in the summer of 1990. Producer Martin Birch worked the desk of the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio.
· 3 min read