Darkest Hour

Here's somethin' about me, kids: if you name your band for a classic Megadeth song, you'll definitely get a fair listen from me, but you'd better rock at least as much as Darkest Hour or I'll just hate you for wasting a good band name.  CRANK IT!

Flashback - Diamondhead and Budgie

FLASHBACK - DOUBLE FEATURE!   Just in case you didn't know, without the British bands Diamondhead and Budgie, there would never have been any... what are those guys called again? - oh, now I remember: Metallica.  You may well be surprised that some of your favourite early Metallica songs are actually Diamondhead and Budgie covers.  Let's just ease you in with "Blitzkrieg" and "Crash Course In Brain Surgery" - CRANK 'EM!

(P.S.: Can you can hear that James Hetfield has really just been doing a Sean Harris impression all these years?)

Lifelover

Ok kids, so here's a genre that exists: depressive suicidal black metal, or DSBM; yeh, read that one again.  Was black metal already depressing enough for the completely-backwardsly-named Swedish band Lifelover?  No!  We also need to wear masks and shriek about hopelessness while we play ambient metal.  As if that isn't sad enough, the guys managed to make four actually-pretty-good-if-you-dig-listening-to-metal-in-the-dark-while-contemplating-sacrificing-your-wrist-integrity-to-Satan albums before the primary songwriter died of a prescription drug overdose - in his sleep.  Which, now that I think about it, sounds like a peaceful way to go.  Now, wait, don't run away - somehow, the tracks are not all that depressing; they're cool, don't really sound anything like black metal, and a lot of 'em kinda rock.  Which, if the band was going for depressing, is kind of depressing.  Oh, the humanity!  It's Lifelover - CRANK IT!

Russian Circles

Holy crap, kids - it's Russian Circles!  Russian Circles is three guys from Chicago who play instrumental ambient/metal; think Isis or Pelican, but less "Bwaaah!" and more "djent djent djent djent djent dunhdunhdunhdunhdunhdunhdunhdunhdunh!" - er, well just CRANK IT! for yourself.