Ayreon in 1995, Avantasia in 2001, Aina and Avalon after them: the metal opera hands one story to a cast of hired singers, and the hand-over between voices is the music. What a cast can do that one band's concept album cannot.
By Julien Vasseur
10 November · 11 min read
Explainers
Lorna Shore is symphonic deathcore with blackened elements: black metal leads from Psalms on, an orchestra pushed to the front from Immortal on, and a breakdown that has never once been cut.
By Jonah Pike
Explainers
DragonForce is power metal: the European melodic school with the tempo pushed to its limit, a clean high voice on top and an eight-bit colour in the leads that changes the sound, not the gen...
By Julien Vasseur
Explainers
Neoclassical metal spent the eighties as a bumblebee with no prince inside it: Malmsteen's runs and Mike Varney's Shrapnel stable played for the stopwatch, until Stratovarius, Rhapsody and G...
By Julien Vasseur
Eirik Solvang
Black Metal
The Black Metal Records Collectors Chase
Andrzej Sawicki
Blackened Death
Viking, Folk and Everything Else Death Metal Absorbed
Rafael Quintero
Death Metal
The Death Metal Records Collectors Chase
Gareth Llewellyn
Grindcore
The Underrated Sludge Metal Albums
Ilse Brandt
Doom Metal
What Doom Metal Actually Means
Declan Rourke
Heavy Metal
Did Joseph Quinn Actually Play Master of Puppets?
| Date | Band | Album | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Nov 2026 | Crescendium | DRAC | Full-length |
| 11 Nov 2026 | Canticum Diaboli | Compendium Horribilis | Full-length |
| 12 Nov 2026 | Asgrauw | Solips | Full-length |
| 13 Nov 2026 | Artificial Brain | Antillia | Full-length |
| 13 Nov 2026 | Iron Savior | Deathbringer | Full-length |
| 13 Nov 2026 | Cro-Mags | The Age of Quarrel: 40 Years of Quarrel | Full-length |
| 13 Nov 2026 | Cutterred Flesh | The Shapes of Hidden Malice | Full-length |
| 13 Nov 2026 | Sinister | Lucid Nightmares | Full-length |
| 13 Nov 2026 | NervoChaos | Chaosmongers | Full-length |
Can we count your visit? We'd like to use Google Analytics cookies to see which stories get read, so we know what to write more of. No ads, nothing sold. You can change your mind any time under Cookie Settings at the bottom of every page. Cookie Policy
The Weekly Dose
One email a week. One click to leave, on every one.
You're on the list
The next Weekly Dose lands in your inbox at the end of the week.
