With Black Label Society, guitarist and one-time Ozzy sideman Zakk Wylde found a lasting home for his ferocious metal picking. Formed in the late '90s, the outfit features a rotating lineup and Wylde taking on the bulk of the instruments. At its heart a Southern metal band, BLS melds the whiskey-soaked spirit of '70s rockers like Lynyrd Skynyrd with the unleashed chaos of '80s thrashers such as Slayer…
Born Caroline Catharina Müller in the Netherlands, she moved with her family to Germany in the late '70s. In 1980, she became a member of the girl quartet Optimal, who issued two singles. During one of the band's concerts in Hamburg, she was approached by songwriter/producer Dieter Bohlen who had just taken the continental charts by storm with his duo Modern Talking…
Considered by many to be the first heavy metal band, Black Sabbath was formed in 1968 by Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward…
Sam Phillips didn't record anybody else the way he recorded Jerry Lee Lewis. With other artists, he pushed and prodded, taking his time to discover the qualities that made them uniquely human, but with Jerry Lee, he just turned the tape on and let the Killer rip. There was no need to sculpt because Lewis arrived at Sun Studios fully formed, ready to lean back and play anything that crossed his mind. Over the course of seven years, that's more or less how things were run at Sun: Lewis would sit at the piano and play, singing songs that were brought to him and songs that crossed his mind, and Sam never stopped rolling the tape.
Lacrimosa is a gothic duo led by German Tilo Wolff, the main composer, and Finn Anne Nurmi. They are currently based in Switzerland, but originally from Germany. Originally counted among the bands of the Neue Deutsche Todeskunst genre, Lacrimosa have developed their style more towards powerful metal, but gothic elements still remain.
Their current musical style mixes gothic rock and heavy metal, along with violin, trumpet, and more classical instruments, although their musical development throughout the years has also led to changes in instrumentation.
In 1975, vocalist Ken Shields, keyboard player Daryl Gutheil and bassist Kim Sinnaeve formed the band Wascana. After being renamed Witness, the group became Streetheart when guitarist Paul Dean and drummer Matt Frenette joined in 1977…
An American hard rock/heavy metal outfit with a rotating cast of players, the aptly named Lynch Mob is the brainchild of guitar virtuoso – and sole permanent member – George Lynch. Emerging in 1990 with Wicked Sensation, the band spent the bulk of the remaining decade on hiatus, but returned in the early aughts with their muscular blend of hard rock, R&B, and blues intact. Since then Lynch Mob has released a slew of acclaimed efforts, including Smoke and Mirrors (2009), Rebel (2015), and The Brotherhood (2017)…
German rockers Pink Cream 69 caught the tail-end of the '80s party-metal boom before adopting a more traditional European hard rock/power metal approach that they would cultivate into the next century. Founded in 1987 by vocalist Andi Deris, guitarist Alfred Koffler, drummer Kosta Zafiriou, and bassist Dennis Ward, the band released their eponymous debut long-player in 1989 via Epic. Deris left the group in 1994 to join Helloween, and was replaced by British vocalist David Readman, who made his first appearance on the group's fourth LP, Change. The band became a five-piece in 2003 with the arrival of second guitarist Uwe Reitenauer, who was hired to help out Alfred Koffler, who was struggling with Focal Dystonia, a neurological condition that made playing difficult - Reitenauer made his debut on 2007's In10sity…