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.

Get the scoop the new Blekkmetal film and Enslaved‘s Ivar Bjørnson’s BardSpec project.

Vancouver’s Without Mercy is a prime example of how putting in a little bit of elbow grease can result in advantageous outcomes.

Mos Generator are a well-dressed band. 

Worried that you might not find fitting way to mark the twentieth anniversary of Cannibal Corpse’s Vile that doesn’t require being, say, devoured by vermin, mummified in barbed wire, or eaten from the inside? Were you hoping to celebrate George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher’s debut via a more metaphorical than naturalistic orgasm through torture?

Black metal duo Inquisition deliver first new song in nearly three years, and Decibel‘s got it.