Slipknot (band)

Slipknot is an American nu metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, formed in 1995. Slipknot consists of nine members, the current band members are Sid Wilson, Joey Jordison, Paul Gray, Chris Fehn, Jim Root, Craig Jones, Shawn Crahan, Mick Thomson, and Corey Taylor. Each member of the band wears a unique mask.

Slipknot formed in 1995 and underwent several line-up changes following the independent release of their first demo Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. in 1996. That album featured original lead vocalist, Anders Colsefini. Their self-titled, major label debut, Slipknot, was released in 1999, featuring permanent new lead vocalist, Corey Taylor, and was followed by Iowa in 2001 and Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) in 2004. On August 25, 2008, the band returned to release their fourth studio album, All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 charts. The band has released three DVDs, including Disasterpieces, which was certified quadruple-platinum in the United States.

James Hetfield

James Alan Hetfield (born August, 3, 1963) is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and co-founder of the American heavy metal band Metallica.

Birth

James Hetfield was born on August 3rd, 1963 in Downey, Los Angeles County, California. He is of English, German, Swedish and Irish descent.
Hetfield's father, Virgil (a truck driver who later left the family) and mother, Cynthia (a light opera singer) were strict adherents to Christian Science, and accordingly, much of James' young life revolved around Christian Science.
In accordance with their beliefs, Hetfield's parents strongly disapproved of medicine or any other medical treatment and remained loyal to their faith even as Cynthia was dying from cancer.

Personal life

When he is not writing, singing or playing, Hetfield enjoys a variety of outdoor activities including hunting, skateboarding, snowboarding, water and jet-skiing; sketching, working in his garage customizing cars and motorcycles, watching his favorite football team the Oakland Raiders, and going to hot-rod shows. He also collects vintage guitars—particularly those from 1963—and enjoys working on classic automobiles. Among his favorites are a '74 Chevy Nova, which he helped restore, and "The Beast", an all-terrain four wheel drive Blazer. He put his 1967 Chevrolet Camaro up for sale on eBay, with the proceeds going to a Music for Schools program. The car was used in the video for "I Disappear" and was given to him as a gift upon the video's completion. Years later, James donated the car to the Hard Rock Cafe which is featured in the movie Hard Rock Treasures. Hetfield has several tattoos, including one which shows flames encasing four cards, - ace (1), 9, 6 and 3 - representing the year of his birth, and the words "Carpe Diem" ("seize the day", also part of the title of the track "Carpe Diem Baby" off ReLoad). The flames from the tattoo are reportedly[citation needed] in reference to the pyrotechnic accident from which he suffered in 1992. He has also tattooed an 'M' on his right hand which stands for Metallica and 'F' on his left hand which stands for his wife Francesca. Aside from these pursuits, Hetfield says he is often happiest spending time with his wife Francesca and their three children: Cali (June 13, 1998), Castor (May 18, 2000), and Marcella (January 17, 2002). Hetfield married his wife Francesca Tomasi on August 17, 1997. During an interview[citation needed] on NPR's Fresh Air, Hetfield stated that his wife had helped him to mature and learn to deal with his anger issues more constructively, explaining that after they met, his destructive tendencies embarrassed both of them. The Hetfield family currently resides in Marin County, CA.

Band members of DragonForce

Current members

* ZP Theart – lead vocals (1999–present)
* Herman Li – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1999–present)
* Sam Totman – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, backing vocals (1999–present)
* Frederic Leclercq – bass, guitars, backing vocals (2005–present)
* Vadim Pruzhanov – keyboards, backing vocals, keytar, theremin (2001–present)
* Dave Mackintosh – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2004–present)

Former members

* Adrian Lambert – bass, backing vocals (2004–2005)
* Didier Almouzni – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1999–2003)
* Diccon Harper – bass, backing vocals (2001–2003)
* Steve Williams – keyboards, backing vocals (1999–2000)
* Steve Scott – bass, backing vocals (1999–2000)

DragonForce discography

The discography of DragonForce, an English power metal band, currently consists of one demo album, four studio albums and four singles.
DragonForce formed in London, England in 1999, under the name of "DragonHeart", and released their first and only demo, Valley of the Damned, independently in 2000. This earned them a record deal with Noise Records with whom they released their début studio album Valley of the Damned in 2003, after renaming to "DragonForce", and their second studio album Sonic Firestorm in 2004 followed by their first single "Fury of the Storm" in 2005. They then signed to Roadrunner Records and released their first charting album and single, Inhuman Rampage and "Through the Fire and Flames", in 2006 followed by "Operation Ground and Pound" later that year. Their remixed and remastered version of Valley of the Damned was set for release in October 2007, but has since been postponed while their fourth studio album Ultra Beatdown and its preceding single, "Heroes of Our Time", were released on 25 August 2008 and 4 July 2008 respectively.

Wallpapers

Wallpaper Logo Of Metallica

Wallpaper Cradle Of Filth

Dark Wallpaper Of Nightwish

Chuck Schuldiner

Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner (May 13, 1967 – December 13, 2001) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and musical genre innovator.
Schuldiner was the singer, songwriter, rhythm and lead guitarist of the band Death, which he founded in 1983, initially under the name Mantas. He is often referred to as "The Father of Death Metal", and his obituary in the January 5, 2002 issue of UK's Kerrang! magazine stated that "Chuck Schuldiner was one of the most significant figures in the history of metal." Schuldiner himself was modest about his part in the history of death metal, noting 'I don’t think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I’m just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band'."

Early Life Of Chuck Schuldiner

Chuck Schuldiner was born on May 13, 1967 on Long Island, New York to a Jewish father of Austrian descent and a mother from the American South, a convert to Judaism; both his parents were teachers. In 1968, his family moved to Florida. Chuck was the youngest of three children. He had an older brother named Frank and an older sister named Bethann.
Schuldiner started playing guitar at the age of 9. His 16 year old brother had just been killed in an accident and his parents bought him a guitar, thinking it would help with his grief. He took classical lessons for less than a year in which his teacher taught him "Mary had a Little Lamb", which he didn't like very much, and almost stopped completely, until his parents saw an electric guitar at a yard sale and bought it for him. The young Schuldiner immediately took to the instrument. After getting amps, he never stopped playing, writing and teaching himself. Schuldiner was known to spend the weekend in the garage or his room playing his guitar, but was limited to three hours on weekdays when school was in session. Schuldiner first played in public in his early teens.
Schuldiner was originally inspired by Iron Maiden, Kiss and Billy Idol, among others. He was particularly interested in the metal movement known as NWOBHM - New Wave of British Heavy Metal - and cited bands of that genre among his favorites. He frequently cited French band Sortilège as his personal favorite metal group[2]. Slayer, Possessed, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond and Metallica were later influences he would apply more to his own band. Later in his career, Schuldiner frequently cited progressive metal bands such as Watchtower and Queensrÿche as influences. Official Schuldiner website, Empty Words, quotes Chuck's mother making the claim that he enjoyed all forms of music except country and rap. He also apparently particularly enjoyed jazz and classical music in addition to metal and British alternative acts such as Lush.
Schuldiner performed well in school, however, he became bored with education and eventually dropped out. He later regretted this decision.
Schuldiner was not afraid to take on controversial lyrical subjects such as the anti-drug sentiments of "Living Monstrosity" and abortion in "Altering the Future"

Death (metal band)

Death was an American death metal band founded in 1983. The band's founder, Chuck Schuldiner, is considered a "pioneering death metal vocalist/guitarist." The band split up after Schuldiner died of brain cancer in 2001.
Death is considered one of the most influential groups in death metal. The band's debut, Scream Bloody Gore, has been described as "death metal's first archetypal document".One music biographer has referred to Schuldiner as the "Father of Death Metal" while another has claimed that Schuldiner is "readily acknowledged as the true founder of the U.S. death metal scene". Music biographer Garry Sharpe-Young considers Death "a genre breaking band...centred upon frontman Chuck Schuldiner" and that the band "would become one of the prime instigators of the death metal movement".
However, Schuldiner dismissed such attributions by stating, in an interview with Metal-Rules.com, "I don’t think I should take the credits for this death metal stuff. I’m just a guy from a band, and I think Death is a metal band".
As of 2008, Death have sold over 2 million albums worldwide, with over 500,000 copies sold by December 2009 in the US alone (excluding the numerous sales before the SoundScan era) making them one of the top-selling death metal bands.

Black Metal Sacrifice

Black Metal Sacrifice is the second release by the black metal band Watain. It was recorded as a live album and was independently released in 1999. It was re-released on CD format in 2007.
Track listing
1.The Walls of Life Ruptured - 4:17
2.On Horns Impaled - 2:41
3.Midnight Possession - 4:01
4.Angelrape - 3:52
5.Sons of Fucking Hell - 2:07
6.Essence of Black Purity - 4:08
7.The Mightiest of Maledictions - 5:52

Live Performances Of Dream Theater

Throughout their career, Dream Theater's live shows have gradually become bigger, longer, and more diverse. The most obvious example of this is their rotational set list policy. That is, every single night of every tour has its set list devised by Portnoy using a meticulous process that ensures its uniqueness. Factors such as set lists from previous cities are taken into account to ensure that people who see Dream Theater multiple times within the same area will not see the same songs performed twice, and even the set list from the last time the band was in a particular city is taken into account for the benefit of fans who see the band on successive tours.
For this to be possible, the band prepares to play the majority of its catalogue at any performance, depending on what Portnoy decides to program for that night. This process also requires the employment of a complex lighting system to load pre-configured lighting cues based on the individual songs.
Some of Dream Theater's more notable touring partners include Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, King's X, Marillion, Megadeth, In Flames, Pain of Salvation, Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Queensrÿche, Riverside, Spock's Beard, Fear Factory, Enchant, Symphony X, and Yes. In 2005, Dream Theater toured North America with the Gigantour festival, co-headlining with Megadeth, and have played with Megadeth and Iron Maiden physically on stage.
The band's full world tours, since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, have predominantly been so-called "Evening with..." tours, in which the band performs for at least three hours with an intermission and no opening act. The show that was recorded for Live Scenes From New York was nearly four hours in length, and resulted in Portnoy almost being hospitalized after acquiring severe food poisoning from the food he ate before the show.
There is also a significant amount of humor, casualness, and improvisation attached to a Dream Theater concert. In the midst of "A Change of Seasons" it is quite common for themes such as those for Major League Baseball and The Simpsons to be quoted, and Rudess routinely modifies his solo section in the song and others, often playing the ragtime section of "When the Water Breaks" from Liquid Tension Experiment 2. Several songs included on Once in a LIVETime include snippets of others' pieces, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee." Other quotations include "Mary Had a Little Lamb" during "Endless Sacrifice" on the Gigantour, a calliope-inspired break between verses of "Under a Glass Moon", a quote of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina"'s main melody played by Petrucci while performing the intro solo of "Through Her Eyes" in Buenos Aires, the Turkish March at a concert in Istanbul, and the opening riff of Rush's "A Passage to Bangkok" at a show in Bangkok, Thailand. On the most recent "20th Anniversary World Tour" Rudess has even thrown in a short "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" theme in a break during "Endless Sacrifice", and during a concert in Israel he started a spontaneous "Hava-Nagilla" later accompanied by the rest of the band.
Occasionally, a member of the audience is picked at random to perform on stage, an example of which can be seen during Portnoy's drum solo on the Live at Budokan DVD. There have also been many impromptu renditions of "Happy Birthday" when a member of the band or crew has a birthday corresponding to a tour date, which normally results in a birthday cake being thrown at the subject.
Perhaps the best example of Dream Theater's unpredictable concert structure is that during Derek Sherinian's time with the band. At selected shows the band members all swapped instruments and performed an encore as the fictitious band dubbed Nightmare Cinema. They usually performed a cover of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers", and, on one occasion, Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution". At some shows, Sherinian, Petrucci and Portnoy would take the stage together under the name "Nicky Lemons and the Migraine Brothers". Sherinian, wearing a feather boa and novelty sunglasses, would perform a pop-punk song entitled "I Don't Like You" with Petrucci and Portnoy backing. In Chaos in Motion tour, in several concerts before "Trial of Tears", Portnoy and Petrucci would change positions and play Van Halen's "Eruption".
Dream Theater's largest audience as a headlining act was 20,000 in Santiago, Chile on December 6, 2005. This was during their first tour of South American countries other than Brazil (which they had visited in 1997 and 1998). The show was released on DVD through Portnoy's YtseJam Records.
In the Score and Chaos in Motion DVDs, an animation has accompanied certain parts of the songs, showing the band playing along to the music as cartoon characters. On the Score DVD, during the song Octavarium, the band is seen performing in an octagonal shaped maze. As the animation continues Jordan Rudess spontaneously turns into Santa Claus and John Petrucci catches fire. In "The Dark Eternal Night" from the Chaos in Motion DVD, the band battles against a monster by shooting fireballs from guitars, throwing drum sticks, and screaming.
In 2008 Dream Theater started the "Progressive Nation '08" tour, along with Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, and 3. The tour is the brainchild of Mike Portnoy, who stated, "I've been wanting to assemble a package tour like this for many years now. With all of the festivals and package tours that go through America, I've been talking with our manager and agent for over 10 years now about doing something that focuses on the more progressive, musician-oriented side of hard rock and metal. I decided it was time to stop talking the talk, lace up and finally walk the walk."
On February 13, 2009, Dream Theater announced the official line up for their Progressive Nation 2009 tour. The tour was originally set to feature bands including Swedish bands Beardfish and Pain of Salvation, as well as Zappa plays Zappa. On June 22, 2009, Mike Portnoy announced that Pain of Salvation and Beardfish would not be touring the North American leg of the Progressive Nation 2009 tour due to record label complications. In the same announcement, Portnoy stated that the bands Scale the Summit and Bigelf would replace Pain of Salvation and Beardfish on the tour. This lineup change has put Bigelf on both the North American and European legs of the Progressive Nation 2009 tour. The tour's North American leg ran throughout July and August 2009. On March 26, 2009 it was announced that Dream Theater would take the Progressive Nation tour to Europe for the first time alongside Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect. The tour ran throughout September and October 2009.

Dream Theater

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Myung, John Petrucci, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, before they dropped out to support the band. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remain today along with James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess.
Dream Theater has become a successful progressive metal band. Although the band has had one successful hit ("Pull Me Under" in 1992, which received extensive MTV rotation), they have remained relatively out of the mainstream.
The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Dream Theater's members have collaborated with many other notable musicians. Guitarist John Petrucci has been named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist, following in the footsteps of Eric Johnson and Robert Fripp. Drummer Mike Portnoy has won 23 awards from Modern Drummer Magazine and is also the second youngest person (at the age of 37) to be inducted into the Rock Drummer Hall of Fame.
The band's highest selling album is the gold selling Images and Words (1992), which reached #61 on the Billboard 200 charts. Both the 1994 release Awake and their 2002 release Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also entered the charts at #32 and #46 respectively and received mostly positive reviews. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also led to Dream Theater becoming the initial band reviewed in the Music Section of Entertainment Weekly during its opening week of release, despite the magazine generally preferring more mainstream music. In 2007, Systematic Chaos entered US Billboard 200 at #19.[1] Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the U.S., and over 8 million records worldwide. The band's tenth studio album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, was released on June 23, 2009. It entered the US Billboard 200 at #6 and Eurochart Hot 100 at #1, marking their highest entry on either chart.

Early Years Of Nirvana

Cobain and Novoselic met in 1985. Both were fans of the Melvins, and frequented the band's practice space. After a couple of false starts at forming their own band, the duo recruited drummer Aaron Burckhard, creating the first incarnation of what would eventually become Nirvana. Cobain later described the sound of the band when they first started as "a Gang of Four and Scratch Acid ripoff." Within a few months, Burckhard was fired from the band. He was temporarily replaced by Dale Crover of the Melvins, who played on the band's first demos. Dave Foster then began a brief tenure as the band's drummer.
During its initial months, the band went through a series of names, including Skid Row, Pen Cap Chew, and Ted Ed Fred. The band finally settled on Nirvana in early 1988, which Cobain said was chosen because "I wanted a name that was kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk rock name like the Angry Samoans." Nirvana played their first show under the name that March. A couple of months later, the band finally settled on a drummer, Chad Channing.
Nirvana's first release was the single "Love Buzz/Big Cheese" in 1988 on Seattle independent record label Sub Pop. The following year, the band released its first album, Bleach. To record Bleach, the band turned to noted local producer Jack Endino, who had recorded the band's first studio demos. Bleach was highly influenced by the Melvins, by the heavy dirge-rock of Mudhoney, 1980s punk rock, the Pixies, and by the 1970s heavy metal of Black Sabbath. Novoselic noted in a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone that the band had played a tape in their van while on tour that had an album by The Smithereens on one side and an album by the black metal band Celtic Frost on the other, and noted that the combination probably played an influence as well. Bleach became a favorite of college radio stations nationally, but gave few hints of where the band would find itself two years later.
The money for the recording sessions for Bleach, listed as $606.17 on the album sleeve, was supplied by Jason Everman. Everman was introduced to Cobain by Dylan Carlson, but had known Channing since the fifth grade. Everman began hanging out with the band, and offered to lend the money to them for the recording. Though Everman did not actually play on the album, he was credited for playing guitar on Bleach because, according to Novoselic, they "wanted to make him feel more at home in the band." After the album was completed, Everman had a brief stay with the band as a second guitar player, but was fired following their first US tour.

In a late 1989 interview, Cobain noted that the band's music was changing. He said, "The early songs were really angry ... But as time goes on the songs are getting poppier and poppier as I get happier and happier. The songs are now about conflicts in relationships, emotional things with other human beings." In April 1990, the band began working with producer Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin on recordings for the follow-up to Bleach. During the sessions, Cobain and Novoselic became disenchanted with Channing's drumming, and Channing expressed frustration at not being actively involved in songwriting. Not long after the sessions were complete, Channing left the band. After a few weeks with Dale Crover of the Melvins filling in, Nirvana hired Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters, with whom they recorded the song "Sliver". A few weeks later, Buzz Osborne of the Melvins introduced them to Dave Grohl, who was looking for a new band following the sudden break-up of D.C. hardcore punks Scream. A few days after arriving in Seattle, Novoselic and Cobain auditioned Grohl, with Novoselic later stating, "We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer."

Gothic Guitars

Nirvana

Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the longest-lasting being Dave Grohl, who joined the band in 1990.
With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from the band's second album Nevermind (1991), Nirvana entered into the mainstream, bringing along with it a subgenre of alternative rock called grunge. Other Seattle grunge bands such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden had also gained popularity, and as a result, alternative rock in general became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the United States during the early-to-mid-1990s. As Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the "spokesman of a generation," with Nirvana being considered the "flagship band" of Generation X. Cobain was uncomfortable with the attention and placed his focus on the band's music, believing the band's message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, challenging the band's audience with its third studio album In Utero (1993).
Nirvana's brief run ended with Cobain's death in April 1994, but the band's popularity continued in the years that followed. In 2002, "You Know You're Right," an unfinished demo from the band's final recording session, topped radio playlists around the world. Since their debut, the band has sold over twenty-five million albums in the US alone, and over fifty million worldwide.

Adrian Smith

Biography

While at school, Adrian befriended Dave Murray and formed his first band Urchin as lead singer and lead guitarist. Adrian had bought his first guitar from Murray, a Woolworths' Top 20, for five quid (later he painted it silver and sold it again for 12 quid, as he states in the Early Days DVD). Murray left Urchin to join Iron Maiden, the new band of another local musician, Steve Harris. Smith continued to front Urchin, with limited success, until joining Maiden in early 1980 for the Killers album (released in 1981), replacing Dennis Stratton. Smith first wrote songs for Maiden on the 1982 album The Number of the Beast, and was the band's secondary songwriter from then on (often in co-operation with Bruce Dickinson). Smith and Dave Murray combined playing dual lead guitars helping to forge the trademark sound of Iron Maiden. Some notable lead duets are "The Duellists", "2 Minutes to Midnight", "The Trooper", "Alexander the Great" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". Notable solos include "Wasted Years", "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "The Wicker Man".

Adrian's solos are usually composed rather than improvised. His legato playing is very smooth and fast and typically even his very fast passages have a musical function and relationship to the chord structure behind the solo, drawing from modes and arpeggios which are more often from blues licks.

Smith released a solo LP with the band ASAP (Adrian Smith And Project) titled Silver and Gold in 1989. Following its release, Smith departed from Iron Maiden in 1990 when recordings for the No Prayer for the Dying album were about to start, and was replaced by Janick Gers. After releasing the experimental Somewhere in Time and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son albums, Steve Harris had decided to take the band back to a more traditional hard rock direction which can clearly be heard on the No Prayer for the Dying album. This album featured one last song co-penned by Adrian with Bruce Dickinson, "Hooks in You".

Bruce Dickinson's comment on Adrian:

"When he left the band in 1990, I think everybody was a bit surprised at how much we missed him and certainly, I don’t think anybody had realized how much the fans would miss him - big time. I wouldn’t have rejoined Iron Maiden if he wasn’t in the band. I just don’t think it would have been complete without Adrian, and now, it’s great having three guitarists."

In 1996, Adrian joined forces with former Helloween vocalist, Michael Kiske on Kiske's solo album Instant Clarity. He plays guitar on a few tracks and co-wrote a few songs.

Later, Adrian formed his alternative rock-influenced band Psycho Motel. This band was a progression from an earlier music project of his, The Untouchables, which had featured some of the members from ASAP and Jamie Stewart (former bassist of the rock group The Cult). The band recorded two albums, State of Mind (1996) and Welcome to the World (1997). Smith would also play on Bruce Dickinson's Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding albums. The influence of this more progressive direction, as well as Adrian's heavier rhythm guitar playing, on Iron Maiden's own performances since he rejoined the band is clear.

On 22 August 1992 Smith made a brief appearance onstage with Maiden to play "Running Free" during the Castle Donington 'Monsters Of Rock' Festival.

In 1999, Smith re-joined Iron Maiden for the "Ed Hunter tour", a tour in support of the video game of the same name. Since then, Iron Maiden have released 3 studio albums, Brave New World in 2000, Dance of Death in 2003 and A Matter of Life and Death in 2006. He remains with the band to this day.

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath are an English rock band, formed in Birmingham in 1968 by Ozzy Osbourne (lead vocals), Tony Iommi (guitar), Terry "Geezer" Butler (bass), and Bill Ward (drums and percussion). The band has since experienced multiple lineup changes, with a total of twenty-two former members. Originally formed as a heavy blues-rock band named Earth, the band began incorporating occult- and horror-inspired lyrics with tuned-down guitars, changing their name to Black Sabbath and achieving multiple gold and platinum records in the 1970s.
As one of the first and most influential heavy metal bands of all time, Black Sabbath helped define the genre with releases such as quadruple-platinum Paranoid, released in 1970. They were ranked by MTV as the "Greatest Metal Band" of all time, and placed second in VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" list, behind Led Zeppelin. They have sold over fifteen million records in the United States alone. Rolling Stone has identified the band as 'the heavy-metal kings of the '70s'.
Vocalist Ozzy Osbourne's drinking led to his firing from the band in 1979. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Ronnie James Dio. After a few albums with Dio's vocals and his songwriting collaborations, Black Sabbath endured a revolving lineup in the 1980s and 1990s that included vocalists Ian Gillan, Glenn Hughes, Ray Gillen and Tony Martin. In 1992, Iommi and Butler rejoined Dio and drummer Vinny Appice to record Dehumanizer. The original lineup reunited with Osbourne in 1997 and released a live album, Reunion. The early/mid 1980s line-up featuring Iommi, Butler, Dio, and Appice reformed in 2006 under the title, Heaven & Hell.

Cradle of Filth

Cradle of Filth are an extreme metal band from Suffolk, England formed in 1991. The band's musical style evolved from black metal to a cleaner and more "produced" amalgam of gothic metal, symphonic black metal and other extreme metal styles, while their lyrical themes and imagery are heavily influenced by gothic literature, poetry, mythology and horror films. The band has successfully broken free from its original niche by courting mainstream publicity (often to the chagrin of its early fanbase), and this increased accessibility has brought coverage by the likes of Kerrang! and MTV, frequent main stage appearances at major festivals such as Ozzfest, Download and even the mainstream Sziget Festival, and in turn a more "commercial" image. They have sometimes been perceived as Satanic by casual observers, although their outright lyrical references to Satanism are few and far between, and use of Satanic imagery has arguably always had more to do with the shock value than any seriously-held beliefs.
Cradle of Filth's first three years saw three demos and a rehearsal tape recorded amidst the sort of rapid line-up fluctuations that have continued ever since (Cradle has generally had around half a dozen members at any one time, but can boast more than twenty musicians in its history). The band also recorded an unreleased album entitled Goetia prior to the third demo and their style shift. Goetia was set for release on Tombstone records, but all tracks were wiped when Tombstone went out of business and could not afford to buy the recordings from the studio. The band eventually signed to Cacophonous Records and their debut album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, was also Cacophonous's first release in 1994. A step up in terms of production from the rehearsal quality of most of their demos, the album was still nevertheless a sparse and embryonic version of what was to come, with lead singer Dani Filth's vocals in particular bearing little similarity to the style he was later to develop. The album was well-received however, and as recently as June 2006 found its way into Metal Hammer's list of the top ten black metal albums of the last twenty years.
Cradle's relationship with Cacophonous soon soured; the band accusing the label of contractual and financial mismanagement. Acrimonious legal proceedings took up most of 1995, and the band finally signed to Music for Nations in 1996 after only one more contractually obligated Cacophonous recording: the EP Vempire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein which, it has since been conceded, was hastily written as a Cacophonous escape-plan. Despite the circumstances of its release however, its handful of tracks are staples of the band's live sets to this day, and "Queen of Winter, Throned" was listed among twenty-five "essential extreme metal anthems" in a 2006 issue of Kerrang! magazine. The EP also marked Sarah Jezebel Deva's debut with the band, replacing Andrea Meyer, Cradle's first female vocalist and self-styled "satanic advisor". Deva has appeared on every subsequent Cradle release and tour, but has never been considered a full band member, having also performed with The Kovenant, Therion and Mortiis, and fronted her own Angtoria project along with Cradle's current bass player, Dave Pybus.
2004's Nymphetamine was the band's first full album since The Principle of Evil Made Flesh to not be based around any sort of overarching concept (although references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft are made more than once). Thornography, was released in October 2006. According to Dani Filth, the title "represents mankind's obsession with sin and self... An addiction to self-punishment or something equally poisonous... A mania." On the subject of the album's musical direction, Filth told Revolver magazine, "I'm not saying it's 'experimental', but we're definitely testing the limits of what we can do... A lot of the songs are really rhythmical - thrashy, almost - but they're all also really catchy." A flurry of pre-release controversy saw Samuel Araya's original cover artwork scrapped and replaced in May 2006, although numerous CD booklets had already been printed with the original image. Thornography received a similar reception to Nymphetamine, garnering generally positive reviews, but raising a few eyebrows with the inclusion of a cover of Heaven 17's "Temptation" (featuring guest vocals from Dirty Harry), which was released as a digital single and accompanying video shortly before the album. According to a 2006 issue of Metal Hammer magazine, they are the most successful British heavy metal band since Iron Maiden.
Long-term drummer Adrian Erlandsson departed the band in November 2006. According to an official Roadrunner press release, Erlandsson left with the intention of devoting his energies to his two side projects Needleye and the now-defunct Nemhain: "I have enjoyed my time with Cradle but it is now time to move on. I feel I am going out on a high as Thornography is definitely our best album to date". He was replaced on the 2007 world tour by Martin Škaroupka.
Cradle of Filth announced in early 2008 that their eighth studio album was underway: "The world tour for the Thornography album, which last saw COF in Russia, Ukraine, UK, Romania, Slovakia and North America with GWAR is now complete [and] the band has returned home to start writing for a new record over the dark months in the rehearsal room.
The band's official message boards revealed parts of an interview with Paul Allender, the lead guitarist, conducted by MédiaMatinQuébec: "We already have four new songs ready and I have to say that they are... much faster than the songs on Thornography. [They] sound like old Cradle of Filth... A mixture of Midian and Dusk. . ." and the album was released on October 27, 2008. Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder is a concept album about the legendary 15th Century murderer Gilles De Rais, a French nobleman who fought alongside Joan of Arc and accumulated great wealth before becoming a satanist, sexual deviant and serial killer. In an interview published in February 2009, Dani talked about Gilles De Rais, and how his story manifests on Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder':
In an interview with Metal Hammer, Dani Filth confirmed that a new album was in the early stages of development. A couple of songs are ready to go and the band will begin recording in November 2009, with a release planned in May or June 2010. Its sound is described as "creepily melodic, like Mercyful Fate or a dark Iron Maiden

Opeth

Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. While the band has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force since joining promptly after its inception.
Isberg and Åkerfeldt recruited drummer Anders Nordin, bassist Nick Döring, and guitarist Andreas Dimeo. Unsatisfied with the band's slow progress, Döring and Dimeo left the band after their first performance, and were replaced by guitarist Kim Pettersson and bassist Johan DeFarfalla. After the next show, DeFarfalla left Opeth to spend time with his girlfriend in Germany, and was replaced by Åkerfeldt's friend, bassist Peter Lindgren. Lead guitarist Pettersson left following the band's next performance, and Lindgren switched to guitar. After losing interest in the band, Isberg quit in 1992 too because of creative differences.
With three members in the band, Åkerfeldt took over vocal duties, and the trio spent the next year writing and rehearsing new material. The group began to rely less on the blast beats and aggression typical of death metal, and incorporated acoustic guitars and guitar harmonies into their music; developing the core sound of Opeth. Stefan Guteklint joined on bass in 1993, but was dismissed by the band after signing its first record deal with Candlelight records in 1994. The band initially employed former member DeFarfalla as a session bassist for the recording, and he went on to join on a full-time basis following the release of Opeth's debut album in 1995.
After a few live shows in the United Kingdom, Opeth returned to the studio in March 1996 to begin work on a second album, again produced by Dan Swanö. Morningrise was released in Europe on June 24, 1996. With only five songs and lasting 66 minutes, the album featured Opeth's longest song, the twenty-minute "Black Rose Immortal". Morningrise was a huge success, with Allmusic giving the album four stars. Opeth toured the UK in support of Morningrise, followed by a 26-date Scandinavian tour with Cradle of Filth. While on tour, Opeth attracted the attention of Century Media records, who signed the band and released the first two albums internationally in 1997.
The band added bassist Martin Mendez shortly before recording, but due to time constraints, Åkerfeldt played bass on the album. My Arms, Your Hearse was released on August 18, 1998, to critical acclaim. As Opeth's first international release, the album exposed the band to a wider global audience. My Arms, Your Hearse marked the beginning of a shift in the band's sound, focusing less on guitar harmonies and more heavily on progressive metal riffs.
In 1999, the ownership of Candlelight Records changed hands, with owner and friend of the band Lee Barrett leaving the company. Opeth signed with UK label Peaceville Records in Europe, which was distributed by Music For Nations. Opeth reserved time at Studio Fredman to begin work on its next album, but recording was postponed while the studio was relocated. Due to time constraints, the band was able to rehearse only twice before entering the studio. Delays with the album's artwork pushed the release back an additional month, and Still Life was released on October 18, 1999.
Opeth released its fifth studio album, Blackwater Park, on February 21, 2001. Allmusic called Blackwater Park "astounding, a work of breathtaking creative breadth", noting that the album "keeps with Opeth's tradition by transcending the limits of death/black metal and repeatedly shattering the foundations of conventional songwriting". In support of Blackwater Park, Opeth embarked on its first world tour, headlined Europe for the first time, and made an appearance at the 2001 Wacken Open Air festival in Germany, playing to a crowd of 60,000.
Deliverance was released on November 4, 2002, and debuted at number 19 on the US Top Independent Albums chart, marking the band's first US chart appearance. Allmusic stated, "Deliverance is altogether more subtle than any of its predecessors, approaching listeners with haunting nuances and masterful dynamics rather than overwhelming them with sheer mass and complexity."
Opeth was scheduled to perform in Jordan without a crew due to the fear of terrorist attacks in the Middle East. Opeth's tour manager distributed 6,000 tickets for the concert, but before the band left for Jordan, drummer Lopez called Åkerfeldt stating he was having a anxiety attack and could not perform, forcing the band to cancel the show. In early 2004, Lopez was sent home from Canada after more anxiety attacks on tour. Opeth decided against cancelling the remainder of the tour, and Lopez's drum technician filled in for two concerts. Lopez promised that he would return to the tour as soon as he could, but two shows later Opeth asked Strapping Young Lad drummer Gene Hoglan to fill in. Lopez eventually returned to Opeth for the Seattle show on the final leg of the Deliverance and Damnation tour. Per Wiberg also joined the band on tour to perform keyboards, and after more than a year on tour, Opeth returned home to start writing new material in 2004.
After nearly 200 performances in support of Ghost Reveries, Opeth entered Fascination Street Studios with Åkerfeldt producing, in November 2007. By January 2008, Opeth had recorded 13 songs, including three cover songs. The finished album, Watershed, features seven tracks, with cover songs used as bonus tracks on different versions of the album. Watershed was released on June 3, 2008. Åkerfeldt described the songs on the album as "a bit more energetic". Opeth has planned tours in support of Watershed, including headlining the UK tour Defenders of the Faith with Arch Enemy, an appearance at Wacken Open Air and the Progressive Nation tour with headliner Dream Theater.
Opeth are currently on a worldwide tour in support of the album. However, gigs in Spain and Portugal had to be cancelled due to the Burning Live Festival being cancelled, and four concerts from June 26 to June 29 had to be cancelled due to Mikael Åkerfeldt having chicken pox. Two of the festivals Opeth were supposed to play at were Hovefestivalen and Metaltown in Sweden. Their replacement for both the absences was Satyricon. From September to October, Opeth toured North America again backed by High on Fire, Baroness, and Nachtmystium. They recently returned to tour Europe for the rest of the year with Cynic and The Ocean..
On 25 January 2009, Opeth played their first show in India at IIT Madras's cultural festival Saarang. On March 6, 2009 the band played in the Middle East at the annual Dubai Desert Rock Festival in Dubai. On March 26, 2009 it was announced that Opeth would take part in the first European Progressive Nation tour alongside Dream Theater, Bigelf and Unexpect. On 24 April 2009, Opeth will headline the first day of Metal Hammer Magazine's first UK metal music festival HammerFest. As of May 2009, the band was touring North America with Enslaved. On May 16, Åkerfeldt (at a show in Hollywood) stated that the band will continue touring until the end of 2009, take a little break, and then start working on a new album.
During a show on November 25th 2009, at the Palace Theater Melbourne Australia, Åkerfeldt, whilst conversing with the crowd, discussed that the band had been around for 20 years in 2010, and that they wouldn't be returning to Australia for 2-3 years, as they had an album to record in 2010.
From March 30th through April 9th 2010, Opeth is doing a 6 show, worldwide 20th anniversary tour called "Evolution XX: An Opeth Anthology." They will play the Blackwater Park album in its entirety, and a number of other songs; said Mikael Akerfeldt: "It seems like we’ll pull out a few songs we’ve never played before, some of which fans all over the world have been demanding to hear for years and years."

Paul Bruce Dickinson

Paul Bruce Dickinson was born in the small mining town of Worksop, Nottinghamshire(born 7 August 1958).Paul Bruce Dickinson is an English singer, TV presenter, airline pilot, radio show host, record producer, fencer, author, and songwriter best known as the vocalist of the metal band Iron Maiden.
Dickinson performed for some local bands including Styx (not the American band of the same name) in 1976, Speed, (1977-1978), and Shots in early 1979. He then joined hard rock band Samson later in 1979, where he gained some popularity. In this band he went by the name of "Bruce Bruce." He left Samson in 1981, citing musical differences. Shortly afterwards, in 1981, Dickinson was hired as Iron Maiden's new vocalist, debuting for that band with the 1982 album The Number of the Beast.[1] During his time in that band, they issued a series of high impact releases,resulting in Dickinson gaining worldwide fame, and becoming one of the most acclaimed heavy metal vocalists of all time.
Dickinson quit Iron Maiden in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career, being replaced by Blaze Bayley. Dickinson's solo work ranged a wide variety of heavy metal and rock styles. Dickinson rejoined Maiden in 1999 along with guitarist Adrian Smith. Since then, Dickinson has only released one more solo album, Tyranny of Souls. He is the older cousin of Rob Dickinson, lead singer of British alternative rock band Catherine Wheel. In his personal life, he is known for his strict abstinence from drug use.

Dani Flith

Dani was born to Susan Janet Moore and Lawrence John Davey in Hertford and is the oldest child of four. Dani has two sisters; Amanda (b. 1975) and Rachel (b. 1978); and a brother, Phillip (b.1981).[1] He married his girlfriend Toni, on October 31, 2005 in Ipswich. The two have a daughter, Luna Scarlett (b. February 8, 1999), the couple lives in Suffolk, England.
His earliest bands were Carnival Fruitcake, The Lemon Grove Kids, PDA and Feast on Excrement, and he named Judas Priest, Venom, Emperor, Destruction, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Sabbat, The Misfits, Paradise Lost and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas among his major influences. At the age of eighteen, Filth took up a job at a Chinese restaurant. He later chose his career in music over an internship at a newspaper, although his "Dani's Inferno" column ran for two years in Metal Hammer during the late 1990s.
He has last working on co-writing The Gospel of Filth with Gavin Baddeley. The book, which Dani describes as an "occult study", features contributions from Clive Barker, Christopher Lee, and Ingrid Pierson[4]. He'd been accused many times of being a Satanist, but has denounced such rumors, claiming instead to being "more of a Luciferian."
Away from Cradle, Dani appeared on the Roadrunner United CD in 2005 (contributing vocals to "Dawn of a Golden Age"), and his high profile has also led to a handful of film and television roles. In 2003 he provided the voice of the eponymous main character in the feature-length animation Dominator.
He was ranked 95 in the Hit Parade's Top 100 Metal Vocalist of All Time.
Filth recorded a song with Claudio Simonetti and Simonetti's band Daemonia, the song "(She's) The Mother of Tears (Mater Lacrimarum)", is on the soundtrack of the film The Mother of Tears.
In 2000 he appeared in the movie Cradle of Fear as The Man - a deranged psychopath taking revenge on his father's persecutors. The film also starred David McEwen, Edmund Dehn, Emily Booth, Eileen Daly, Rebecca Eden and Emma Rice. A homage to the cult Amicus anthology Asylum, Cradle of Fear unfolds four stories all linked by the thread of an incarcerated child killer wreaking vengeance on those responsible for his imprisonment. The movie's tagline on some posters was, "It's not if they die... It's how!"

Pantera

Pantera was an American heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, formed by the Abbott brothers, Vinnie Paul (drums) and "Dimebag" Darrell (guitar), then known as Diamond Darrell, in 1981.Bassist Rex Brown then known as Rex Rocker would join in 1982, with vocalist Terry Glaze. In 1987 Phil Anselmo would become the group's lead vocalist, completing the band's most successful lineup that would remain together for 16 years.
Pantera's style changed by the late 1980s. The band subsequently became a key formulator of the post-thrash metal subgenre of groove metal. It would not be until nine years after forming that the band saw its first piece of commercial success in its 1990 major label debut, Cowboys from Hell. From there, Pantera became one of the most celebrated heavy metal bands of the 1990s.
Despite the generally cold reception of the band's first four albums from the 1980s, critics have lauded Pantera's style thereafter; Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic.com states that "there was no greater metal band during the early to mid-1990s than Pantera." The band has received accolades such as ranking 45th on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" and fifth on MTV's "Top 10 Greatest Heavy Metal Bands of All-Time."
Pantera began to suffer from mounting tensions between band members in the mid-1990s, largely due to Phil Anselmo's rampant drug abuse. Anselmo had had a back injury for several years and decided, instead of getting proper treatment, to begin using heroin as a painkiller. As a result his behavior became erratic and volatile, his performances suffered and he began to distance himself from his bandmates, who were initially unaware of his addiction.
In 2001, the band went on hiatus and was never able to successfully reunite, with the Abbott brothers unable to communicate with Anselmo, who was immersed in several side-projects, chiefly Down and Superjoint Ritual. Pantera officially disbanded in 2003 and a war of words ensued, with Phil and Vinnie Paul trading inflammatory comments and blaming one another for the break-up of Pantera via the media. Any hope of the band members ever reconciling their differences and possibly reuniting was lost in 2004, when "Dimebag" Darrell was shot and killed on-stage at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio by a mentally ill gunman named Nathan Gale while performing with Vinnie and his new band, Damageplan.

Some European Power Metal Bands

Originating from New Wave of British Heavy Metal, European branch of power metal emerged in 1980s with Germany's Helloween and Finland's Stratovarius in the 1990s, with a strong focus on melody and uplifting, positive themes. Helloween mixed fast palm muted speed metal riffs with high-pitched clean vocals and guitar. The album Keeper of the Seven Keys Part 1 was an album that made a staple for the birth of power metal. Stratovarius further developed this melodic direction by making heavy use of keyboards and neo-classical guitar solo duels which are now prevalent in almost all power metal. This genre branched and spread over Europe and into most of power metal's subgenres, incorporating further influences from classical and folk music and reinforcing the high fantasy imagery as well as sometimes developing a more emotional, romantic edge. The style has become one of the largest metal subgenres and its popularity is far from waning. The United States also has its share of European style power metal bands, an example of which is Kamelot. It should be noted that some other power metal bands put less emphasis on speed.

Pantera

Power Metal is the fourth studio album by heavy metal band Pantera, released in 1988 on Metal Magic Records. The album showcases a style closer to thrash metal rather than hard rock, which formed the basis of the band's previous three albums; although traces of glam metal can still be heard.
Notably, Phil Anselmo makes his first appearance on vocals (having replaced former vocalist Terry Glaze), as well as guitarist Diamond Darrell, who performs vocals on "P·S·T·88" (he later provided vocals for the songs "Caged in a Rage" and "Heard It on the X", from the soundtracks to Supercop and ECW: Extreme Music, respectively).
"Proud to Be Loud" was written and produced by Keel guitarist Marc Ferrari and was originally intended to appear on that group's self-titled album, Keel (1987); however, Keel would not record a version of the song until 1998. Pantera's version was used as the party song in the theatrical cut of the 2001 film, Donnie Darko, credited to "The Dead Green Mummies". Glaze also helped to co-write "Down Below", with an earlier recording of the song appearing on Pantera's third album, I Am the Night (1985).
Like that of their previous albums, having not been reissued by the band since its original release on CD, vinyl and cassette, official non-bootlegged editions of the album have become rare collectors items, with any that exist often being circulated through online auction websites such as eBay.

Robert Trujillo

Robert Trujillo is an Indigenous man (Native American heritage), born on October 23, 1964 and grew up in Culver City, California. His mother is from León, Guanajuato, México. Trujillo attended Culver City High School.
He played in a few local bands before joining Suicidal Tendencies (in 1989) and fellow Culver City native, Rocky George, the guitarist for the band at the time. Trujillo replaced the band's second bassist Bob Heathcote. He is responsible for adding in funk influences to the band seen prominently on albums Lights...Camera...Revolution! and especially on The Art of Rebellion. He eventually turned bandmate Mike Muir on to funk music, and the two formed Infectious Grooves to play more funk-oriented music.
He was a member of Ozzy Osbourne's band for a number of years starting in the late 90s. Trujillo was the subject of controversy for re-recording Bob Daisley's bass tracks for reissued versions of Osbourne's albums Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman due to Daisley's claim of not receiving proper royalties. (Similarly, Osbourne's drummer Mike Bordin re-recorded drum parts originally done by Lee Kerslake, who was also involved in the royalty dispute.) This achieved additional notoriety for giving no notice to the buying public on the outside of the CD that they were not purchasing an original recording.
Robert Trujillo became Metallica's bassist on February 24, 2003 after auditioning for the band and fitting in with fellow band members James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich, and Kirk Hammett. Trujillo received one million dollars from the band as an advance on the percentage he would earn by being in Metallica. His audition and hiring appear in the documentary film Some Kind of Monster.
Also in 2003, Trujillo was seen playing an upright bass in the Nickel Creek music video, "Smoothie" Song. However, he did not play bass for the band during the song's recording.
Robert is married and has two children; a 5 year old son and 3 year old daughter. His wife Chloe did a pyrography (woodburning) design of the Aztec Calendar for him on his bass. Years later when Rob heard Chloe had moved to Los Angeles, he called her from a pay phone while on a surfing trip in Tahiti in a determined effort to reconnect. They have been together for the past seven years and are now married. His wife has her own site called "Chloe in art".
Trujillo is primarily a fingerstyle player, but has been known to play with a pick in some recordings and while playing live with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society. In order to achieve the attack and speed of pickstyle playing with his fingers, he has developed a fingerstyle technique which involves using both plucking fingers in an down-and-up motion, or sometimes using three fingers to attack the strings instead of the more usual two. It should be noted that Trujillo's predecessor in Metallica, Jason Newsted, was almost exclusively a pickstyle player (he used his fingers for a part of "One" and on softer songs or ones that required a fretless bass, such as Nothing Else Matters), while Cliff Burton, Newsted's predecessor and bassist on Metallica's first three albums, played fingerstyle exclusively.
Trujillo is also a very skilled slap bass player, as demonstrated in his work for Suicidal Tendencies and Infectious Grooves, where he used the technique extensively. At many of the shows during Metallica's 2004 Madly in Anger with the World Tour, Trujillo would often play an extended bass solo (dubbed "Jungle Essence") in which he utilized many of his different playing techniques and various effects.
In a Mission: Metallica video, it is shown that Trujillo has experience in Flamenco guitar playing.
With Metallica, he is most often seen playing Fernandes Guitars Gravity 5-string basses, particularly a model with a silver finish, blue flame decals, and EMG pickups. He also has a signature bass model, the Sonus RT, manufactured by Zon Guitars. Prior to Metallica, he was most often seen playing Tobias, ESP and MusicMan basses (all 5-strings), as well as a Fender Precision Bass with Black Label Society and Ozzy Osbourne. Trujillo has also recently been seen in concert playing a Yamaha TRB5-P2 5-string bass, a customized green Rickenbacker 4001/4003 4-string bass fitted with EMG pickups, and a classic Fender Precision Bass as well as a black Warwick Streamer Bass, most probably customized. For amplification, he uses Ampeg amplifiers and cabinets. Also, Trujillo recently collaborated with Jim Dunlop to create his new Icon signature bass strings - these strings are taper-core stainless steel, in gauges 45-130 (5-string). Trujillo uses a Morley Mark Tremonti Wah pedal on songs such as "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
Trujillo's pedal board consists of an Electro Harmonix Q-Tron, SansAmp Bass Driver DI, SansAmp XXL, Boss OC-2 Octave Pedal, all powered by the Voodoo Lab Pedal Power.

Anette Olzon

Anette Olzon (born 21 June 1971) is a Swedish soprano from Helsingborg, best known as the lead singer of Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish.[1] Olzon was formerly the vocalist in the Swedish AOR band Alyson Avenue. After her admission in Nightwish, Anette played with several bands, in studio and live, including Brother Firetribe and Pain.
In 2008, Anette recorded one track with Brother Firetribe at their second album, Heart Full of Fire, the duet with The Rasmus, titled October & April, was played for the first time in October 9, 2009 on a Finnish radio and will be released digitally on November 11, 2009. [2] In August 13, Anette sang two Nightwish songs, "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan and "Meadows of Heaven", with the Stockholm Symphonic Orchestra, at the Suomi Safari, the event was in celebration of Sweden and Finland relations.[3] During the break after Nightwish's 2009 Hartwall Areena concert, Anette has stated that she wishes to release a solo album. As of October 19, 2009, songwriting for this album has begun.[4]
Olzon is a fan of Sharon den Adel (from Within Temptation) and Simone Simons (from Epica), who are both symphonic metal vocalists. [5] She has also mentioned Carola Häggkvist, Sarah Brightman, Natalie Cole and Celine Dion as being her inspirations in singing. She has said she enjoys other metal bands such as Sonata Arctica, Amorphis, Tarot and Within Temptation. [6] Anette lives with her boyfriend and son, born July 2001, and cats, Gremlins and Stjärnan. She has, in total, seven tattoos, including one on her left arm, which says "Leave Me Alone", and has plans to get more.

Nightwish

Nightwish is a symphonic power gothic metal band from Kitee, Finland, formed in 1996 by songwriter/keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen. Nightwish is Finland's most successful band with more than 7 million albums & singles sold worldwide, 1 silver award, 11 gold awards and 30 platinum awards
Although Nightwish has been prominent in their home country since the release of their first single, “The Carpenter” (1997) and debut album Angels Fall First, they did not achieve worldwide fame until the release of the albums Oceanborn, Wishmaster and Century Child, which were released in 1998, 2000 and 2002 respectively. Their 2004 album, Once, which has sold more than 1 million copies, led to Nightwish video clips being shown on MTV in the United States and inclusion of their music in US movie soundtracks. Their biggest US hit single, “Wish I Had an Angel” (2004), made it onto three US film soundtracks as a means to promote their North American tour. The band produced three more singles and two music videos for the album, as well as “Sleeping Sun”, from the 2005 “best of” compilation album, Highest Hopes, prior to vocalist Tarja Turunen’s dismissal.
In May 2007, former Alyson Avenue frontwoman, Anette Olzon, was revealed as Turunen’s replacement, and in the autumn, the band released a new album - Dark Passion Play. The supporting tour started on October 6, 2007 and ended on September 19, 2009. A new E.P./live album, Made in Hong Kong (And in Various Other Places), was released in March 2009 as a MCD/DVD, and a seventh studio album is in production, set for release in 2011.

Metallica (album)

Metallica, informally known as The Black Album, is the fifth album by the American heavy metal band Metallica, released August 13, 1991 through Elektra Records. The album features songs that are considered today as Metallica's most well-known tracks, with songs such as "Enter Sandman", "The Unforgiven", "Nothing Else Matters" , "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad but True". It spent four consecutive weeks at number one on Billboard 200. Metallica is the band's best-selling album to date, with over 15 million copies sold in the United States and over 25 million copies worldwide.[citation needed] It is the second best-selling album of the SoundScan era.
The album cover features only the band's logo, angled against the upper left corner, and a coiled snake (derived from the Gadsden flag) on the bottom right corner, both in a dark shade of gray in order to be made out against the black background. The motto of the Gadsden flag, "Don't Tread on Me", is also the title of a song featured on the album.
The cover is very reminiscent of Spinal Tap's Smell the Glove album, something the band jokingly acknowledged themselves in their A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica documentary (where members of Spinal Tap appeared and asked them about it).
Metallica DVD-Audio 5.1 mix was released in 2004 through Elektra Records.

Logo

{{Non-free fair use rationale Description=The cover of the album Metallica, by Metallica. It features only the band's logo, angled against the upper left corner, and a coiled snake (derived from the Gadsden flag) on the bottom right corner, both in a dark shade of gray in order to be made out against the black background. The motto of the Gadsden flag, "Don't Tread on Me", is also the title of a song featured on the album. Article= Metallica (album) Portion=Image of the front cover of the audio recording. Portion reproduced is a small chunk of the entire copyrighted recording, which includes other cover art and the singles themselves. The use here of the front cover image does not preclude the copyright holder from profiting on or marketing the album. Purpose=For informational purposes - to illustrate the article Metallica (album), which describes the album. Resolution= Yes Replaceability=No. Album cover is copyrighted, thus non-free alternatives cannot be produced.

AC/DC

AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Although the band are commonly classified as hard rock and are considered a pioneer of heavy metal, they have always classified their music as rock and roll.
Brothers Malcolm, Angus and George Young were born in Glasgow, Scotland, and moved to Sydney with most of their family in 1963. George was the first to learn to play the guitar. He became a member of the Easybeats, one of Australia's most successful bands of the 1960s. In 1966, they became the first local rock act to have an international hit, with the song "Friday on My Mind".Malcolm followed in George's footsteps by playing with a Newcastle, New South Wales, band called the Velvet Underground (not to be confused with the New York–based Velvet Underground).
Malcolm and Angus Young developed the idea for the band's name after their older sister saw the initials "AC/DC" on a sewing machine. "AC/DC" is an abbreviation for "alternating current/direct current". The brothers felt that this name symbolised the band's raw energy, power-driven performances, and a love for their music. "AC/DC" is pronounced one letter at a time, though the band is popularly known as "Acca Dacca" in Australia.
In 1976, the band signed an international deal with Atlantic Records and toured extensively throughout Europe. They gained invaluable experience of the stadium circuit, supporting leading hard rock acts such as Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Kiss, Styx and Blue Öyster Cult, and co-headlined with Cheap Trick.
The first AC/DC album to gain worldwide distribution was a 1976 compilation of tracks taken from the High Voltage and T.N.T. LPs. Also titled High Voltage, and released on the Atlantic Records label, the album sold three million copies worldwide, partly because of its popularity with a British punk audience. The track selection was heavily weighted toward the more recent T.N.T., and included only two songs from their first LP. The band's next album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, was released in the same year in both Australian and international versions, like its predecessor. Track listings varied worldwide, and the international version of the album also featured "Rocker" from T.N.T. The original Australian version included "Jailbreak" (now more readily available on the 1984 compilation EP '74 Jailbreak or as a live version on the 1992 Live album). Dirty Deeds was not released in the US until 1981, by which time the band were at the peak of their popularity.
The band's next album, For Those About to Rock We Salute You, was their first album to reach number one in the United States. AC/DC declined in popularity soon after drummer Phil Rudd was fired in 1983 and was replaced by future Dio drummer Simon Wright, though the band resurged in the early 1990s with the release of The Razor's Edge. Phil Rudd returned in 1994 (after Chris Slade was asked to leave in favour of him) and contributed to the band's 1995 album Ballbreaker. Stiff Upper Lip was released in 2000 and was well received by critics. The band's most recent album, Black Ice, was released on 20 October 2008.
As of 2008, AC/DC have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, including 71 million albums in the United States. Back in Black has sold an estimated 45 million units worldwide, making it the highest-selling album by any band and the 2nd highest-selling album in history, behind "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. The album has sold 22 million in the US alone, where it is the fifth-highest-selling album. AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" and was named the seventh "Greatest Heavy Metal Band of All Time" by MTV.[11] In 2004, the band was ranked number 72 in the Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".
Bronze statue of Bon Scott, unveiled in Fremantle, Western Australia, in October 2008 AC/DC were a formative influence on New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands who emerged in the late 1970s, such as Saxon and Iron Maiden, in part as a reaction to the decline of traditional early 1970s heavy metal bands.
The 1978 release of Powerage marked the debut of bassist Cliff Williams, and with its harder riffs, followed the blueprint set by Let There Be Rock. Only one single was released for Powerage, "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" and gave AC/DC the highest mark at the time, reaching #24. An appearance at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow during the Powerage tour was recorded and released as If You Want Blood You've Got It, featuring such songs as "Whole Lotta Rosie", "Problem Child", and "Let There Be Rock", as well as lesser-known album tracks like "Riff Raff". The album was the last produced by Harry Vanda and George Young with Bon Scott on vocals and is claimed to be AC/DC's most under-rated album.
The major breakthrough in the band's career came in their collaboration with producer "Mutt" Lange on a sixth album Highway to Hell, released in 1979. It became the first AC/DC LP to break into the US top 100, eventually reaching #17, and it propelled AC/DC into the top ranks of hard rock acts. Highway to Hell had lyrics that shifted away from flippant and comical toward more central rock themes, putting increased emphasis on backing vocals but still featured AC/DC's signature sound: loud, simple, pounding riffs and grooving backbeats. The final track, "Night Prowler", has two breaths in quick succession at the start of the song, intended to create a tone of fear and loathing.

Megadeth

Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1983. Founded by Dave Mustaine following his departure from Metallica, the band has since released twelve studio albums, six live albums, two EPs, twenty six singles, thirty-two music videos, and three compilations.
As a pioneer of the American thrash metal movement, Megadeth rose to international fame in the 1980s, but experienced numerous line-up changes, due partly to the band's notorious substance abuse problems. Two months after lead guitarist Dave Mustaine was fired from Metallica due to drinking, drug use, violent behavior and personality conflicts, Mustaine, bassist David Ellefson, guitarist Greg Handevidt, and drummer Dijon Carruthers formed Megadeth in Los Angeles. Mustaine later said, "After getting fired from Metallica, all I remember is that I wanted blood. Theirs. I wanted to be faster and heavier than them".
According to Mustaine, the name "Megadeth represents the annihilation of power. We spell the name phonetically because the meaning to us is the same as you get out of the dictionary; it's hypothetical body count after a nuclear fallout. It's a million deaths, and we want to leave our audience shell-shocked wherever we go." Though Megadeth is the first band to use this name, Pink Floyd in their early years used the name with a variation in the spelling (Megadeaths).
Fueled by the desire for revenge, Mustaine elevated the intensity of Megadeth's music, speeding up existing songs such as "The Mechanix", which Metallica's new line-up adapted into the slower paced "The Four Horsemen". After unsuccessfully searching for a vocalist for nearly six months, Mustaine decided to handle lead vocal duties himself, while also serving as the band's primary lyricist, main songwriter, and co-lead and rhythm guitarist.
Early in 1984 Megadeth recorded a three song demo, featuring Mustaine, Ellefson, and Rausch, which contained early versions of "Last Rites/Loved to Death", ( sample (help•info)) "Skull Beneath the Skin", and "Mechanix". Kerry King (of Slayer fame), covered a handful of live dates while a permanent replacement was sought. After just a few shows in 1984, Lee Rausch was replaced by fusion drummer Gar Samuelson. On the strength of their three song demo, Megadeth signed with the New York based independent label Combat Records, and in December added second guitarist Chris Poland, a friend of Gar's from the fusion scene.
But From 1983 to 2002, Mustaine and bassist Dave Ellefson were the only continuous members of the band. After finding sobriety and securing a stable line-up, Megadeth went on to release a string of platinum and gold albums, including the platinum-selling landmark Rust in Peace in 1990 and the Grammy nominated, multi-platinum Countdown to Extinction in 1992. Megadeth disbanded in 2002 after Mustaine suffered a severe nerve injury to his left arm. However, following extensive physical therapy, Mustaine reformed the band in 2004 and released The System Has Failed, followed by United Abominations in 2007; the albums debuted on the Billboard Top 200 chart at #18 and #8, respectively. Megadeth, along with their new lead guitarist Chris Broderick, released their twelfth studio album, titled Endgame, on September 15, 2009.
Megadeth is known for its thrashing, distinctive guitar style, often involving complex, intricate musical passages, and trade off guitar solos. Mustaine is also known for his "snarling" vocal style, as well as his recurring lyrical themes, often involving politics, war, addiction, and personal relationships.
Megadeth has had commercial success worldwide and has sold near 25 million albums,[1] with six consecutive albums being certified platinum in the USA. The band has also received great critical acclaim with seven consecutive Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance. In the band's 24 active years, Megadeth has had 20 official members, with Dave Mustaine remaining as the driving force, main songwriter, and sole original member following the end of his musical partnership with David Ellefson in 2002, due to personal disagreements. In the mid-late 1980s, Megadeth became one of the "Big Four of Thrash," along with Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax, who were responsible for creating, developing and popularizing the thrash metal sub-genre.