Speaking with Kriscinda Lee Everitt and Shawn Macomber for a behind-the-Monsters look at what it takes to put together such a righteous benefit anthology, which now spans two volumes!

Scream Bloody Gore
Eternal howl
dB rating: 9/10

A Piece of the End compiles four songs that coalesced unexpectedly during rehearsal, and Vidian have decided not to sit on them until the next album is ready, which is good, because sitting on anything this spiky-lumpy-grumpy would not be good for the posture.  Check it all out right here.

Guitarist/vocalist Jason Mendonça is excited and filled with positivity. And you should be, too. 

Digital artist Stephan Dreadford accidentally fell into the craft of animating famous heavy metal cover art. The single incident, which involved doing animated cover art for social media for his brother’s band, has now pushed Dreadford down a very cool path. Over a very short time, Dreadford has animated numerous cover paintings, turning them into moving pieces of awesome–by such artists as Ed Repka to Andreas Marshall–from static greatness. Dreadford’s vision has put into–well, actual–motion covers by Judas Priest, Sodom, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Pantera, Kreator, and many more. He sees the art like we all do… Living, breathing covers, but instead of using our imaginations to see where, for example, Mark Wilkinson (cover artist for Painkiller) wanted go, Dreadford does it for us. Read on as we extol the virtues of Dreadford’s GIF prowess.

Nick Menza — best remembered for his time in Megadeth — was one of the drummers that earned fierce love and respect. Menza died after collapsing on stage on Saturday, apparently from heart failure. Menza’s style, approach, and effortless invention were as essential to Megadeth as Bill Ward’s quirks and fills were to Black Sabbath or Dave Lombardo’s ferocity was to Slayer. 

Close out this week with your palms skyward via new trad metal from Canada’s Spell.

Audioslave: Part Deux? Not so fast.

On this week’s Demo:listen, our jaws drop and our eyes widen in utter disbelief of the anachronistic death-thrashings of Seattle’s Hexenslaught.

Death/doom from Finland inspired by 19th century tyrants? Vainaja and Decibel have got you covered.