Metal and Hardcore

The ten best concerts in Denver this week

THE DEAR HUNTER @ MARQUIS THEATER | TUES, 4/16/13 The Dear Hunter was a side project launched in 2005 while Casey Crescenzo was touring with his now-former band, the Receiving End of Sirens. He had been writing songs on his laptop and recording them in his spare time. Crescenzo eventually devoted fu ... More >>

Eric Greif, Death's longtime manager, on the significance and influence of Death on metal

Founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner, Death helped to codify the aesthetic of death metal alongside early pioneers like Possessed. Schuldiner was sixteen when the band formed and twenty by the time the outfit's debut album, 1987's Scream Bloody Gore, was released. The sonic brutality of the first two ... More >>

Dirk Verbeuren of Soilwork on playing a homemade drum kit made of cardboard boxes

Soilwork formed in Helsinborg, Sweden, in 1995 and developed out of the Gothenburg melodic death metal mold, incorporating aspects of NWOBHM and other styles of music to forge an angular yet flowing sound of its own. Though clearly rooted in prog, there is enough of punk frayed edges in the band's m ... More >>

The ten best metal shows in Denver this April

KVELERTAK @ LARIMER LOUNGE | TUES, 4/30/13 Kvelertak formed in 2007. Completely disregarding a line between metal and punk, the Stavinger, Sweden-based act brings the sonic intensity and violent and frayed dynamics of bands like Breather Resist. The band's song "Mjød" appeared in the end credits fo ... More >>

Cephalic Carnage will fill the Bluebird with epic metal

Tom Hunting of Exodus on how building a song is like building the best sandwich possible

Exodus was founded in 1980 by a group of high school friends that included a pre-Metallica Kirk Hammett and Tom Hunting, the sole remaining original member of the act. The classic line-up also featured Paul Baloff on vocals and Gary Holt, who moved over to guitar when Kirk joined Metallica, just pri ... More >>

The ten best metal shows in Denver this month

There's a wide range of metal on tap this month that will appeal to an equally wide range of metal fans, from doom and grindcore to death metal and industrial, from local heroes to renowned international acts, in big and small venues. Keep reading to see what shows should be on your calendar this mo ... More >>

The six best metal shows in Denver this month

So you like your music hard and heavy, do ya? Good news: You're in for some serious brutality this month. There's a ton of shows happening in February, all of which are listed in our concert calendar, but here, we've singled out the six best metal shows in Denver (well, and one in Colorado Springs). ... More >>

Kinky Mink Loves the ’80s

Dying Fetus

Saturday, December 15, Marquis Theater, 866-468-7621.

Shadows Fall

Friday, November 30, Fox Theatre, Boulder, 303-443-3399.

Dethklok

Tuesday, November 20, Fillmore Auditorium, 303-830-8497.

The 25 creepiest metal album covers

Halloween is the time where it's acceptable to wallow in the creepy, the crawly, the dark, and the macabre. Sounds like the themes of heavy metal, year-round! Here then, are those most spine-tingliest metal album covers, for your All Hallow's Eve viewing pleasure. Step inside... See also: - The 25 ... More >>

The Deftones

Friday, October 19, Fillmore Auditorium, 303-830-8497.

Cannibal Corpse

Monday, August 20, Summit Music Hall, 866-468-7621.

Charlie Benante is looking ahead rather than reflecting on Anthrax's thirtieth anniversary

See Also: Sunday: Anthrax at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre Joey Belladonna talks about Married...With Children and rejoining the band Scott Ian on Worship Music, comic books, Doctor Who and interviewing Ozzy Photos: Anthrax at Summit Music Hall, 10/19/11 Review: Anthrax at Summit Music Hall, 10/18/10 ... More >>

Iconocaust

Excidium De Gratia
Self-released

Japandroids

Tuesday, June 19, Larimer Lounge, 303-291-1007.

Ministry guitarist Mike Scaccia on Rigor Mortis, Psalm 69 and his friendship with Al Jourgensen

See Also: Ministry's Al Jourgensen on his ties to Colorado: living in Breckenridge, attending Greeley High School and his ill-fated attempt at a rodeo career Ministry (due Sunday, June 17, at the Ogden Theatre) got its start when Al Jourgensen moved from Colorado to Chicago, where the Wax Trax labe ... More >>

Steel Blades of Vengeance cut loose at 3 Kings on April 12

David Ellefson of Megadeth: "We had punk attitude with metal chops"

Megadeth (due tonight at the Fillmore Auditorium) may be one of the Big Four of thrash, but in many ways, its frontman Dave Mustaine is largely responsible for the sound and aesthetic of three of the Big Four. As a member of Metallica before that band recorded its first full-length, Mustaine's name ... More >>

Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth: "The chemistry in the band is better than it's ever been"

Iced Earth (due tonight at Summit Music Hall) came out of the rich heavy metal scene in Tampa Bay, Florida in the late '80s. At a time when melodic heavy metal, especially the glam variety, was on the wane, Iced Earth came in with the wave of metal that produced a melodic speed metal as well as the ... More >>

Reed Bruemmer and Richie Tice of Speedwolf on "Denver 666" and having a sense of humor

​The members of Speedwolf (due tonight at the Marquis Theater) specialize in brand of no frills metal in the vein of Motorhead and Venom, played with the playful ferocity of a hardcore band. The guys are not necessarily carrying the torch for that older style of heavy music as much as they'r ... More >>

Scott Kelly

Saturday, December 3, hi-dive, 720-570-4500.

Review: Judas Priest at the 1STBANK Center, 11/5/11

Eric GruneisenRob Halford of Judas Priest: Still going strong after nearly 40 years. More Judas Priest Denver photos.JUDAS PRIEST, THIN LIZZY, BLACK LABEL SOCIETY At the 1STBANK CENTER | 11/5/11Somewhere early in the set, Rob Halford told us that the band was going to play material from all roughly ... More >>

Judas Priest

Saturday, November 5, 1STBANK Center, 303-830-8497.

Motörhead returns to Denver February 28 with Megadeth

Timothy NorrisMotörhead in March in LA.​Stop showering now. You may be almost sleazy enough to enjoy Motörhead when the legendary NWBHM band returns to Denver in the February cold for Megadeth's Gigantour with Volbeat and Lacuna Coil. The show is slated for Tuesday, February 28, at the Fill ... More >>

Opeth

Tuesday, October 25, Ogden Theatre, 1-888-929-7849.

Chuck Billy of Testament on the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise, Reign in Blood and Gene Hoglan

Testament​Testament (sharing a bill tomorrow night at Summit Music Hall with Anthrax and Death Angel) is one of the bands that make a strong case for expanding the Big 4 to the Big 5 (or Big 6, if the often overlooked Exodus were included). The Bay Area act was part of the original thrash move ... More >>

Queensryche

Saturday, September 17, Ogden Theatre, axs.com.

Top five Headbanger's Ball videos

​Headbanger's Ball started on April 18, 1987, and ran for nearly eight years. With little regard for a narrow definition of what constituted metal, the show's programmers seemed to embrace it all. So you would see a Poison video, something from Motorhead and then something from the Cult. The e ... More >>

Photos: Megadeth, In Flames, Kingdom of Sorrow and more at Mayhem Fest

In Flames​Our ace photographer and man on the metal front, Brandon Marshall, set up shop yesterday at Comfort Dental Amphitheatre for the local stop of Rockstar's Mayhem Festival -- featuring Megadeth and Machine Head, a pair of acts (the latter of which gave us a track-by-track breakdown of i ... More >>

Megadeth's David Ellefson on the new album, Big 4, corporate sponsors and the band's legacy

Brandon Marshall​When Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica, he decided to from his own band that would be bigger, faster and heavier. So with that in mind in 1984, he enlisted the help of an eighteen-year old Minnesota transplant named David Ellefson on bass and formed Megadeth. Over the ... More >>

Tonight: Liturgy at the hi-dive

​It is hard to believe black metal band Liturgy (playing tonight at the hi-dive with Collapse and Barnacle) has only been around for a handful of years. The Brooklyn quartet -- led by Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, whom we spoke with in advance of this evening's show -- sounds like it has put decades of ... More >>

Danzig at the Boulder Theater, 5/3/11

Dane Cronin DANZIG 05.03.11 | Boulder Theater The first time I went out to see Danzig over a decade ago as a teenager in the Pittsburgh, the concert was inexplicably canceled minutes before show time, and I returned to my '89 Pontiac Sunbird to find it towed. Last night in Boulder, I feared some s ... More >>

The Deftones at the Ogden Theatre, with Funeral Party and the Dillinger Escape Plan, 4/22/11

Aaron ThackerayChino Moreno of the Deftones up close and personal. See more photos from last night. THE DEFTONES With Funeral Party and Dillinger Escape Plan 04.22.11 | Ogden Theatre See the photo slideshow Funeral Party got the evening started, and after enduring its set -- one in which ear plug ... More >>

Top ten retro metal bands currently melting faces and minds

​The world of heavy metal can be an exercise in absurdity and uninspired imitation played at blistering volume. With the relatively recent (and fading) popularity of "stoner-rock" and "doom metal," as evidenced by tours including the reunited line-ups of Sleep, Saint Vitus (read our recent int ... More >>

Elitist

Thursday, February 24, Rhinoceropolis, 303-641-9809.

3 Inches of Blood

Friday, February 11, Marquis Theater, 866-468-7621.

3 Inches of Blood

The Big 4: Four reasons to extend your stay in Indio after Coachella that rhyme with Metallica

Old school metal fans across the country are no doubt peeing themselves right now over The Big 4 (we certainly are). In case you happened to miss the big announcement on Facebook earlier today, four of the metal's venerable titans are going to be together on the same stage for the first time since ... More >>

The 20 bands that inspire tattoos like no other

An average Misfits fan.​Personally, it's been the "One Bad Album" rule. That's all it takes for a band's musical reputation to be asterisked forever, which makes getting a tattoo of that band, well, risky. You have to wonder how often thirty-somethings across the land hear "Nice Chi' Pep's tat ... More >>

Max Cavalera of Soulfly talks about his history and darkly humorous song titles

​As the leader of Sepultura for over a decade, Max Cavalera helped put Brazil on the map. From the beginning, the outfit was clearly influenced by punk rock as much as it was by other metal bands, as evidenced by its socially conscious lyrics, its grassroots efforts to get its music out into t ... More >>

Danzig at the Ogden Theatre, 11/12/10

The Danzig camp enforced a strict no photos policy last night at the Ogden. Pshaw! Who needs pictures when you've got Noah Van Sciver?​ DANZIG With Withered • Toxic Holocaust • Marduk • Possessed 11.12.10 | Ogden Theatre Atlanta's Withered set the stage for much of what was to follow ... More >>

Hail, Satan! The ten best metal songs about Hell

1981: A vintage year for devil-worshipping heavy metal.​Of the countless contributions heavy-metal music has made to modern society -- leather pants and corpse paint not least among them -- perhaps the finest addition to this often crunchy, driving genre of music has been the focus it's put on ... More >>

Win tickets to see Sonic Youth on October 4 at the Ogden Theatre

Update: The answers are as follows. If you think you won, check your email right now. Thanks for playing, let's do it again sometime.

High On Fire's Des Kensel about the origin of band's moniker and his massive drum sound

Travis Shinn​ After Sleep broke up in 1998, singer/guitarist Matt Pike formed High on Fire with drummer Des Kensel and bassist George Rice. Initially evoking more of a doom rock sound, High on Fire evolved into being more of a straight ahead metal band without either dumbing down the music or ... More >>

Mega Metal

Meet nine-year-old Ezra Lux, your new favorite metal blogger/critic

​Behold nine-year-old Ezra Lux, possibly the world's first (and greatest) pre-teen metal blogger. Over at his barely a month old metal blog Crud Wizard (which is also the best name for a metal blog we've heard in a long, long time), Ezra is dropping some serious wisdom, such as this gem of an ... More >>

Members of Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax remember Dio

It was almost six weeks ago that metal legend Ronnie James Dio died and the tributes keep rolling in. Yesterday, a video appeared online that featured members of thrash mainstays Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax sharing their memories of the man. The video was originally recorded and broadc ... More >>