Metal mayhem rolled into Emo's again on Saturday evening as Swedish metal outfit In Flames torched the stage after an energetic set by Orlando-based Trivium. Photos by Ryan Pollack. more ›

The roots of black metal stretch back to Norway and to a group of friends and musicians who milled around or worked in a record store called "Helvete" - hell. In 1987, a band called Mayhem that formed out of this milieu released the Deathcrush EP, twenty minutes that laid out the path for the genre. Much has been written with regard to these early days of the band - its history is dominated by murder, suicide, and arson - but despite a difficult (and criminal) past, Mayhem has survived and evolved. more ›

You may not have heard of it, but last month San Antonio promoter Aaron Mendiola and partner Tim Pittides staged a daring, ostentatious three-day metal festival called the Goregrowler's Ball, a summation of their talents as bookers and cheerleaders of local metal shows. Held at a venue called The Korova, the festival boasted fifty bands and was headlined by Brutal Truth, Exhumed and Suffocation. While strong on local acts, the festival also managed to tempt an international roster of artists. The festival took place on November 18th-20th after months of preparation and ticket sales that included a three-day pass that went for just $60 if purchased in advance. more ›

The relentlessly heavy Massachusetts band Unearth released Darkness In The Light this summer, and the solid, aggressive effort fully played on the band's strengths of interchangeable lead and rhythm guitarists Ken Susi and Buz McGrath, paired up with a pummeling and tough vocal performance from Trevor Phipps. more ›

The death of guitarist Cory Smoot (a.k.a. Flattus Maximus) of Gwar at the beginning of the month threw the band's current tour - if not future in general - into uncertainty. This major loss for the band did not result in a tour cancellation after all, and Gwar is continuing their trek with a stop in Austin tonight. more ›

For the second year in a row, the Texas Metal Collective and the Helping Horns - the latter being an extreme music-themed charity out to prove that "Metal heads DO care!" - are plotting a live music showcase this weekend to benefit the Austin Food Bank. more ›

Brian Posehn is apparently a drug addict and a roustabout--if you believe everything the internet says. In reality, this actor/writer/comedian/musician/Dad is about as well-rounded as you can get and he has a résumé to prove it. Some of you may know him from “The Sarah Silverman Program” where he played one of the un-gayest gay men ever seen on television or you know him from one of 100 other things he’s been in or written or voiced. We had a nice colloquy with one of our favorite funny men about his real life story, his activist future, and his desire to help everyone be just a bit more metal. (Psst…Part 2 of this Interview goes up after Fun Fun Fun Fest so stay tuned for more about comedy, poop, and the real 99%.) more ›

Described by one YouTube user as "Melodic-death-core-new age-thrash-core-zombie-core-ST­FU-core," Michigan band The Black Dhalia Murder flirt with technical and tough metal as they quietly ingrain themselves into at least a sliver of public consciousness - their last album, Deflorate, cracked the Billboard top 50, and their new album Ritual reached up to #31. Still running a victory lap from that album release this summer, the band are hitting Austin with heavy support. more ›

Yup, it's on the calender and everything. Their new album Worship Music comes out the 13th of this month. Joining them at this stop are Testament and Death Angel. more ›

If you've been to heavy shows in Austin, maybe you've looked up through a row of black shirts to see a “No Control” banner hanging above the mayhem, and maybe you've already experienced the selfsame radio show with host Chuck Loesch. From 10pm to 1am on Friday nights, Loesh plays a smattering of heavier stuff from across the metal spectrum, and he has recently expanded into a 24/7 HD radio station at 107.1. We talked with Loesch about big plans for the HD station (including genre-specific metal shows), the growing heaviness of music, and the appeal of musicals. more ›

Red 7 will be blowing it out in a very heavy way on Saturday night. They’re bringing the legendary Saint Vitus back to town, staging Dixie Witch as anticipation builds for their forthcoming release, and hosting the very last show ever for The Roller. If you’re looking for a raucous metal party this weekend, Red 7’s got your ticket. more ›

Chaos in Tejas 2011 is saturating the River City in so many different varieties of noise the people in Round Rock are going to need earplugs. For our money, the sleeper show this year is the Liquid Sludge Fest at the Scoot Inn. The big news on this bill is the return to Austin of Orange Goblin, one of the finest British hard rock bands in the underground. Fronted by the imposing but personable Ben Ward, the quartet has blasted out a sextet of fine records that dig for the sweet spot between Sabbath and Slayer. Because it’s been a while since the band has either released a record (the last one was 2007’s Healing Through Fire) or visited Austin, expect some new tunes as well as acknowledged classics like “Quincy the Pig Boy” and “Your World Will Hate This.” more ›

So many shows, so much time. This is a big week for our music writer friends at the Austin Chronicle. On Wednesday Audra Schroeder will be reading a music-related piece at Five Things (more on this event later) and on Thursday the magazine is launching their Paper Cuts Live Music Series with a performance from Foot Patrol at the Palm Door. more ›

While it could be argued that the Chaos in Tejas festival has really come into its own in the last couple of years, the genre-bending but primarily extreme music focused/multi-day festival was conceived by one-man powerhouse Timmy Hefner seven years ago. 2011's edition of the summer brouhaha spans Beerland, The Beauty Bar, Emo's, Red 7, The Mohawk, The Scoot Inn, Antone's, and coordinates a few record store shows at End of an Ear and Trailer Space. Oh, and then you have the after parties at The Broken Neck. more ›

With Chaos in Tejas heading our way like an out-of-control freight train, it’s nice to be reminded of our fair city’s homegrown heavy rockers. Especially considering the relative rarity of a hometown show from Dixie Witch - the hardworking buttrockers spend most of their time on the road. But whenever the trio hits a local stage, you’re assured an old-fashioned, balls-to-the-wall hard rock show, all big-ass riffs, sternum-rattling bass and the inspiring sight of Trinidad Leal singing with barrel-chested abandon while beating his drum kit like it kicked his dog. With three studio LPs in the past decade and a new one on the way from faithful label Small Stone Records, the Witch has plenty of asskickers in its holster to throw down in front of hip headbangers. A guaranteed good time. more ›

After headlining 2009's Fun Fun Fun Fest Danzig and his band summarily skipped Austin in lieu of San Antonio on their last, "Blackest of the Black" tour, but they're back. more ›

Greek black metal band Rotting Christ arrived in Austin on Monday night "for first time in our career!" according to lead singer and guitarist Sakis Tolis. The band has been performing in some capacity since 1987, and released their first album Thy Mighty Contract in 1993. The group's last album was 2010's Aealo, out on Season of Mist. Four other bands were touring with Rotting Christ, including the Polish group Hate and the "Mesopotamian metal" Melechesh. more ›

Heavy music has long been dominated by power trios and the classic rock combo of two guitars-bass-‘n’-drums, but don’t bother mentioning that to Jucifer. Guitarist/singer Gazelle Amber Valentine and drummer Edgar Livenhood make plenty of racket without backup - indeed, the cochlea-obliterating volume of their live shows has become legendary. The couple has stripped their career down even further by abandoning their former Athens, Georgia base and living out of their RV, preferring a life of constant gigging and recording to anything so bland as a fixed address. more ›

“We came all the way across the galaxy from Venus to come party with you guys!” declared Valient Thorr, lead singer of his eponymous act on Saturday afternoon. The Thorr family’s version of Venus looks suspiciously like North Carolina, but never mind. The five-piece physically embodied the cliché of '70s heavy metal: jean jackets, beards, Flying V, Les Paul, Marshall and Orange amplifiers, a drummer wearing nothing but a vest on his hairy chest. But the group’s wild-eyed doomthrash owed more to the '80s wave of underground metal, if this performance is any indication. more ›

Floor inhabited a tenuous existence from 1992 to 2003, undergoing various lineup changes and touring only sporadically. This was before bands could Twitter themselves into the collective subconscious. more ›

High On Fire might describe themselves as “stoner metal,” but there’s no lack of focus. This year’s Snakes For The Divine is a pummeling cycle of labyrinthine songs that are jaw-dropping in their technical virtuosity. Yet the Oakland trio never let fleet fingers get in the way of a punishing riff. Their Fun Fun Fun Fest appearance is sure to leave the stoners grinning and a quite a few converts in their wake. more ›

Esteemed Californian stoner-metal outfit Fu Manchu is scheduled to rock our town later this week (Thursday at Emo’s), but more significantly pressingly, our very own metal gods The Sword will commemorate the release of a third full-length Warp Riders with a performance in the Waterloo Records parking lot this evening at 7. The Sword embarks on a tour of Australia and New Zealand (in support of Metallica) next month, returns for a quick U.S. jaunt in October, and then heads to Europe through the end of the year. Wish the band bon voyage, crack a couple of Heavy Metal Parking Lot jokes, and of course, enjoy the technically adroit, conceptually genius, and unerringly brilliant metal magic we’ve come to expect from these talented local lads. more ›

Metal used to thumb its nose at academics, but a growing audience means that the genre - once solely reserved for testosterone-fueled, angry social pariahs - is, these days, spanning into the worlds of literature, film and graduate student’s dissertations faster than you can say “Force Fed Broken Glass.” more ›

Austin's The Sword have been busy. In 2008, after the release of Gods of the Earth (Kemado) the band toured extensively with bands like Machine Head, Lamb of God and Clutch. They also did dozens of dates with Metallica, supported them on the 2008 European Vacation Tour. more ›

If it's too loud, you're from out of town. more ›

And here they come, one of the very few modern rock bands capable of opening for death metal bands while still receiving perfectly legitimate Foo Fighters comparisons. more ›

Vegetarians all, the San Diego quartet have managed to build a broad following among the more general metal faithful through the combined virtues of virtuosic musicianship, steady touring and a consistently high-quality output of albums. more ›

We caught up with Dead Earth Politics (also a part of the evening’s line-up), and quizzed singer Ven Scott on the current state of metal music in Austin, among other things. more ›

Steve Austin founded Today Is the Day back in 1992 in Nashville, quickly getting a good reputation in the metal/hardcore underground for their debut, How to Win Friends and Influence People. more ›

Hip hop isn’t the only genre to get excited about this week -- metal is holding its own as well. There’s the highly anticipated Torche show at Red 7 tomorrow, and tonight, head to Stubb’s and take in screeching guitars, vocals that break the silence like only Queensrÿche once could, lyrics that hark back to the glory days of Manowar, Iron Maiden-esque “woh-oh-oh” chants, and general metal mayhem. This ain’t your father’s Twisted Sister or the RATT in your cellar. This is DragonForce and you too can bow to their heaviness tonight. Stubb’s opens its doors at 5:30 p.m. this evening; Turisas and Powerglove precede DragonForce on stage. more ›