Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
With yesterday’s passing of The Doors’ keyboardist Ray Manzarek, it got us thinking about the most maligned instrument in metal: the keyboard. While synths and keyboards aren’t the core part of a stereotypical “metal” band, there are definitely a decent amount of heavier bands that are what they are because of their use of keyboards. With that in mind, here’s our completely not all-encompassing slightly more than top five list of bands featuring keyboards.
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Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
It’s safe to say that the first thought on everyone’s mind when hearing that Tim Lambesis been arrested for hiring a hitman to kill his estranged wife was “Wait, what did he get arrested for?!” Even as details continue to unravel, it’s still hard to fathom that he was arrested for such an act. As the week went by, though, we started to think about other infamous arrests in the hard rock world that made us think “WTF?!” So with that in mind, click on the page numbers below to see which arrests left us speechless.
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Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
It’s a safe bet that a majority of metal heads spent the past weekend blasting Slayer nonstop in honor of the late Jeff Hanneman. Pulling out our old Slayer records reminded us of something: that Slayer are among the few bands who released three stellar albums in a row. In this instance, we’re speaking of 1986’s Reign In Blood, 1988’s South Of Heaven, and 1990’s Seasons In The Abyss. That got us to thinking about other bands who accomplished a similar goal. And that’s how we came to this week’s list. Click on the page numbers below to see our top 5 bands who released three classic albums in a row (minus Slayer, even though they are certainly top 5 worthy).
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Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
Last week, Dave Mustaine revealed that David Draiman’s Device will be playing Gigantour 2013. Shortly after, the group Death Division (featuring ex- Hellyeah/Nothingface bassist Jerry Montano and Morbid Angel/ex-Divine Heresy drummer Tim Yeung, and who just so happen to be managed by Dave’s son Justis) was confirmed for the touring festival. And then earlier today, Black Label Society’s current drummer Chad Szeliga (formerly of Breaking Benjamin) let it slip that they would be opening for Megadeth this summer (making them the latest rumored band). While only two groups aside from Megadeth have been officially confirmed for the fifth Gigantour, all three do fit the category Mustaine revealed about the bands playing his festival, saying:
“Each one of the other bands on there, they’re new bands comprised of a person who was a major celebrity from a really large band that went on to do something new.”
With that in mind, we determined the top five bands with famous members that could potentially play this year’s Gigantour. Click on the page numbers below to see who we picked.
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Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
It’s been revealed that Battlecross recruited ex-Black Dahlia Murder drummer Shannon Lucas to record drums on their forthcoming new album. This comes after the group also announced that Kevin Talley (Six Feet Under and formerly of many other great bands) would be filling in behind the kit for drummer Mike Kreger, who left the group to pursue other opportunities and attend to personal matters. Seeing Battlecross recruit such well-known temp drummers got us to thinking about other established musicians who filled in on tour or in the studio for other bands. With that in mind, click the page numbers below to see our top 5 famous fill-ins and temporary members.
Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
Before anyone starts to freak out about the imagine seen off to the side: no, we ARE NOT reporting about My Chemical Romance’s demise. However, the news of the break up got us to thinking about other bands whose disbandment saddened many (or at least came as a surprise). So with that in mind, we determined the top five most surprising break ups in hard rock and metal.
First, though, let’s go over a few guidelines we held while compiling this list:
1) The band had to officially disband for at least a year, and not just go on an extended hiatus (i.e. System Of A Down or Motley Crue)
2) The band could not simply split with key members and continue under their original name (i.e. Guns N’ Roses or Van Halen)
3) The band did not disband specifically due to a member’s death (i.e. Nirvana)
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, check out which five break ups made it onto our list.
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Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
31 years ago today, one of metal’s most gifted and promising guitarists was killed in a plane crash. Randy Rhoads was only 25 years old when he passed, but having played in Ozzy Osbourne’s solo band as well as Quiet Riot’s first two albums, he already built up an impressive resume before his life and talent was cut short. With that in mind, we’re taking a look at the top five other guitar players (with Randy and automatic first in both bands) that were in bands he played in.
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Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
Buzzfeed is one of the most popular sites on the internet. It’s also one of the laziest. Throwing together endless lists and stupid .gifs in a transparently blatant (yet completely effective) attempt to grab traffic, it’s kind of like journalism for people that get their news from USA Today and are too ADD-riddled to read a whole tweet. Yet as link bait goes, it’s hard not to click on some of them. Such was the case with a story that ran today, “13 Mellow Acoustic Covers of Hard Rock Songs.” It was brought to our attention by Trivium’s Paolo Gregoletto, who tweeted their inclusion of Matt Heavy covering Opeth’s “Harvest” (see video above). That was a warning flag right there, as the Opeth song itself was acoustic. And while there are some worthy inclusions on the list, we knew we could do better, so without further ado, here are some of the better versions of metal songs that are much more stripped down than their original versions:
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Last year, Australia’s The Beards caught our attention with the video to “You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man.” And tomorrow (March 6), this group of rugged men who only sing songs about the greatness of beards will release their third album Having A Beard Is The New Not Having A Beard in America. On top of that, The Beards will be making their U.S. live debut this month, playing shows in L.A., New York and at SXSW.
With The Beards on the verge of bringing beard-madness Stateside, we thought that there was no one better to give advice to bearded metal heads than singer Johann Beardraven. So check out Beardraven’s top five pieces of advice to epic beard wearers after the jump. Read more »
NYC music scene vets Howie Abrams and Sacha Jenkins recently joined forces to pen The Merciless Book Of Metal Lists. To be released on April 9, this book is comprised of 208 pages, presented in the form of dozens of factual, random lists. The book also features a forward from Slayer’s Kerry King, an afterword from Philip Anselmo, and contributions from the likes of Anthrax’s Scott Ian, Exodus’ Gary Holt, Soulfly’s Max Cavalera and many others. With that in mind, who better to determine the top 5 best books of lists than Abrams?
Why do people love lists so much? Fuck if we know, but one can only assume it’s because they are such amazing catalysts to the world’s grandest arguments and debates. Truth-be-told, that’s why we wrote The Merciless Book of Metal Lists in the first place. We thrive on instigating, and causing best friends to fight about everything, and Metalheads know this better than most. We can’t help ourselves. Who’s the best this or that? Who sold-out? What band used to be great, but now sucks donkey ‘nads… We live for it, so when the fine folks here at Metal Insider asked us to throw out some of our favorite books of lists, we couldn’t contain our excitement. Check out our list after the jump. Read more »
Metal Insider’s Top 5 is a column where we count down the top five of…well basically anything.
Posted by Zach Shaw on Tue, May 21, 2013 at 5:10 pm
Top 5