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.
202 STORIES
Cliff Burton: Why His Bass Still Haunts Metal 40 Years On
Cliff Burton's four years in Metallica redefined what a bassist could do inside a thrash band. His effect-pedal solos on Kill 'Em All and his final show in 1986 still haunt metal.
· 4 min read
Why Did Rammstein Cut 6 Songs From Reise, Reise?
Rammstein's 2004 album Reise, Reise cut six of seventeen recorded songs, and those leftovers became the basis for the follow-up Rosenrot.
· 3 min read
Why did Gojira leave Mars for Sirius in 2005?
Gojira's 2005 album From Mars to Sirius turned environmental collapse into a concept album. It forced metal critics to reconsider what extreme music could carry.
· 4 min read
Meat Loaf: The Cop's Son Who Sold 100 Million
Meat Loaf, born Marvin Lee Aday in Dallas in 1947, sold over 100 million albums worldwide, led by the enduring success of Bat Out of Hell.
· 3 min read
Mastodon's The Hunter Debuted at No. 10 Fifteen Years Ago
Fifteen years after its release, Mastodon's The Hunter remains a pivot point. Born from grief and recorded at Sound City Studios, it was their first album to crack the American top ten.
· 3 min read
The 31-Year-Old AC/DC Album That Brought Back Phil Rudd
AC/DC's 1995 album Ballbreaker, which turns thirty-one this September, marked Phil Rudd's return. It ended an eight-year absence and a five-year studio silence.
· 5 min read
Why Did Black Sabbath Abandon Doom on Technical Ecstasy?
Bill Ward sang lead on 'It's Alright', the first Black Sabbath song ever sung by someone other than Ozzy Osbourne. Fifty years on, Technical Ecstasy remains their strangest pivot.
· 3 min read
Seven Days for One Song and the Birth of Rammstein
Herzeleid, Rammstein's debut album, turns 31 this year. The record was born from a seven-day recording process and a language barrier that nearly broke the studio sessions.
· 4 min read
Why Does Mercyful Fate's 1982 EP Have Three Covers?
Mercyful Fate's debut EP, released on November 8, 1982, had three different cover frames. Each marked a separate pressing, showing the band's early history.
· 4 min read
Shawn Crahan: Why Slipknot's Clown Built Metal's Most Physical Mask
Michael Shawn Crahan, born September 24, 1969, co-founded Slipknot in 1995. He has spent three decades turning percussion into a contact sport, from severed cow heads to directing the band's videos.
· 4 min read
Why Did Iron Maiden Put 34 Tracks on One Vinyl Box?
Iron Maiden's 1996 compilation Best of the Beast spans three formats with different tracklists. The four-vinyl edition's 34 tracks make it the band's longest release ever.
· 5 min read
Why did the Rolling Stones release Out of Our Heads twice?
Out of Our Heads arrived twice in 1965 — a US edition with "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" via London Records and a British version without it via Decca.
· 4 min read
Why Did Rush's Caress of Steel Nearly End the Band?
Rush's Caress of Steel, released on September 24, 1975, sold poorly and nearly got the band dropped. It also marked their first full embrace of progressive rock.
· 4 min read
Why Did Sepultura Release a Live Album After the Split?
Roadrunner Records dropped Sepultura, then released their live album anyway. Under a Pale Grey Sky captures the band's final classic-era performance at Brixton Academy in 1996.
· 5 min read
Blood Sugar Sex Magik: The Day Funk Metal Learned to Whisper
In September 1991, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released Blood Sugar Sex Magik, recorded in a Hollywood mansion with Rick Rubin. The album's quiet intimacy transformed their sound and career.
· 4 min read
Love You Live: The Rolling Stones' 1977 Double Album
A 1977 double album recorded partly at a small Toronto club. Love You Live captured the Rolling Stones across three tours and marked Ronnie Wood's debut on an official live release.
· 3 min read
Why Did Iron Maiden Reissue Their Live Albums in 1998?
Iron Maiden's 1998 reissue A Real Live Dead One combined two 1993 live albums into one package, released alongside the band's remastered discography.
· 4 min read
Why did Queens of the Stone Age's debut almost never happen?
Josh Homme and Alfredo Hernández recorded Queens of the Stone Age's 1998 debut in a California desert room. The road to release nearly collapsed before a label deal landed.
· 3 min read
Why Did Amon Amarth's Sixth Album Finally Crack America?
Amon Amarth's sixth album, With Oden on Our Side, recorded in Örebro in 2006, became the Swedish band's first release to chart in America.
· 4 min read
Alice Cooper: How Constrictor Slithered Back to the Top
In 1986, Alice Cooper released Constrictor, his sixteenth studio album and ninth solo effort, after a three-year silence from a horror film detour.
· 3 min read
AC/DC: Thunderstruck at Little Mountain
Thirty-six years later, AC/DC's The Razors Edge remains the comeback that reset the band's commercial grip and anchored their live set.
· 4 min read
Why Did Scorpions Refuse to Write Another Wind of Change?
In 1993, Scorpions released 'Face the Heat', their twelfth studio album. The band refused to follow 'Wind of Change' with another ballad, instead embracing a heavy, confrontational sound.
· 3 min read
The Day Thin Lizzy Found Their Roar
On September 21, 1973, Thin Lizzy released Vagabonds of the Western World, a third album that captured the band discovering exactly what it wanted to be.
· 4 min read
Led Zeppelin's Second Box Set Hid a Song No One Knew
In 1993, Jimmy Page pulled a previously unreleased studio track, "Baby Come On Home," from the vault for Led Zeppelin Boxed Set 2. The discovery turned a routine compilation into a collector's debate.
· 5 min read