Heavy Metal

California glam metal jokesters STEEL PANTHER will release their fifth studio album, "Heavy Metal Rules", on September 27. The disc, which is described in a press release as a "heavy metal version of a self-help manual and ultimate party album combined," was once again produced by Jay Ruston, who collaborated with the band on all of its previous recordings, including its latest LP, 2017's "Lower The Bar". The band says in a statement: "'Heavy Metal Rules' is the ultimate party album. Anthem after anthem and hook after hook, the songs will provide the soundtrack to your new bitchin' heavy metal life. The first single, 'All I Wanna Do Is Fuck (Myself Tonight)', is the ultimate song about self-love and having a positive personal self-image. It is the kind of song you put on to get yourself in the mood whether you're getting ready to have sex with yourself or 17 girls in a row."

Morgul Blade's sophomore album delivers righteous headbanging anthems. Songs like the title track and "Beneath the Black Sails" lean into their love of Tolkien lore, with the arena rock attitude inspired by Dokken and the Scorpions. Other tracks like "Frostwyrm Calvary" attack with the ice cold speed of classic black metal. More ambitious yet are "Razor Sharp" and "Neither Cross Nor Crown," which speak to the band's working class attitude and disdain for zealotry. "Heavy Metal Wraiths" is an instant classic blackened epic heavy metal album.

Heavy Metal Love may seem like a strange title, but it actually is named after a Helix song that is included on this ten-track budget-line collection. All of the songs on Heavy Metal Love are power-ballads – and in case you're unfamiliar with that term, a power ballad is ballad adorned by heavy guitars. One of the prototypes for the style, Kiss' "Beth," is included, but most of the album consists of '80s power ballads like Europe's "Carrie," Yngwie Malmsteen's "Dreaming (Tell Me)," Vinnie Vincent's "Love Kills," April Wine's "Just Between You and Me," Great White's "Lady Red Light" and Vixen's "Edge of a Broken Heart." There aren't many classics here, but these lesser-known cuts may be of interest to hardcore fans of the genre.

Get your leathers on and your head banging for this superlative collection of 'New Wave Of British Heavy Metal' anthems. The heavy, heavy sound of 1979 onwards into the 80s was incredibly influential, inspiring the biggest metal bands in the world - to play loud and fast. Heads down, see you in the pit!

Documentary profiling the history of British heavy metal, with the emphasis on the godfathers of the genre, Iron Maiden, along with other bands of that ilk, including Samson, Saxon, Diamond Head and many others.

By the end of the 1970s, the original triumvirate of hard rock heroes Zeppelin, Purple and Sabbath had either graduated to the arenas of the world, or even split up, whilst the second wave of British heavy rockers, including UFO, Motörhead and Judas Priest, were beginning to fill theatres across the land. Punk exploded in 1976 and 1977, and the DIY ethos that sprang up in its wake soon influenced the grassroots metal bands who had yet to leave their local bars and clubs. Often independently released, some of the bands in this set never made more than one now highly prized and collectable 45 or one-off EP.