There are a lot of good places to go for heavy metal news,
and likewise a lot of bad places. The most notable heavy metal news site around
is Blabbermouth. Blabbermouth is basically the online CNN for heavy metal and every metalhead knows about it. The site is a fairly objective news
source and focuses on what is going on with popular heavy metal acts.
If metalheads go to
one place on the internet for heavy metal news, Blabbermouth should probably be
it. The site is filled with many garbage interviews that no one really cares
about, but after sifting through the uninformative interviews and news stories,
there ends up being a lot of simple, objective articles that get information
across efficiently. The site does a good job at reporting about upcoming album
releases and tours, and is a good place for fans of less obscure heavy metal bands
to go.
The album reviews on Blabbermouth are pretty hit and miss.
The site frequently overrates albums, and is often misleading in terms of
describing album quality. I have observed that the site does a better job
rating albums by more underground bands than they do with mainstream metal
groups. The reviews are always well written, though, despite the fact that
sometimes they aren’t that thorough. All in all, read the album reviews for fun
if you want, but don’t take them seriously.
For those who want a more comical news source, MetalSucks is
a great place to go, and is the home of frequently mocked writers, Axl
Rosenberg and Vince Neilstein. They do a
great job of making heavy metal news funny, and often provide great
commentaries to ridiculous stories. All of the writers on MetalSucks are very
opinionated, and they aren’t afraid to make that known, however the site posts
about bands of all types. MetalSucks is actually my favorite news source. I
find their articles to be entertaining, and they cover a pretty wide spectrum
of bands.
For those who want objective news like Blabbermouth, MetalStorm, Metal Injection and Metal Hammer are also good places to go. I
particularly find myself being constantly redirected to Metal Injection to
check out album reviews and song/album streams.
The only other site I frequently return to is Gun Shy Assassin, a metal news site run by Chris
Harris, who has written for many other bigger music news sites. GSA is a good
news site, covering a fairly wide spectrum of bands. The site also has some
blogs that are run by really excellent musicians. The only major problem I have
with GSA is that Harris often provides inconsistent commentaries within news
stories. Sometimes Harris is really funny and has great things to say. Other
times he comes off as being really whiney. That being said, he is usually more
funny than whiney, and his stories about getting into fights with various
mainstream metal musicians are often pretty great. He is very opinionated, but
his site is all in good fun, and is certainly worth following.
For those who are trying to keep up with a specific, more
obscure heavy metal band, the best place to follow them is probably on Facebook.
Also, becoming a fan on Facebook of specific record labels (no matter how
obscure) is a great way to keep up with bands. Checking the websites of those
labels for press releases is similarly a good idea.
For those who are looking for good heavy metal review sites,
I personally recommend MetalSucks, Metal Injection and Angry Metal Guy. Angry
Metal Guy is really opinionated and often disagrees with what the majority of
heavy metal critics have to say. His reviews are very well written,
and he is a fairly well recognized reviewer online. What he has to say is
always insightful and of good character, and his reviews are a pleasure to
read. MetalSucks and Metal Injection tend to agree more with what the majority
of critics have to say.
General music sites are also really good for heavy metal
reviews. Allmusic, Sputnikmusic, and Spin particularly do a good job of
reviewing heavy metal albums when they choose to. Pitchfork is more hit or miss. Never expect a good thrash or death metal review from Pitchfork, but good
black metal, sludge metal, doom metal, post metal and stoner metal reviews are
common and worth reading.
One final site that is important to mention is The Metal Archives. The Metal Archives has a file on almost every heavy metal band out
there that has gotten their feet off the ground. It’s a great site to look for
band information. The user album reviews on the site are also often very
good and worth reading. The Metal Archives is an extremely important heavy
metal website and has a lot of information when explored in depth. For
information about specific metal bands, such as band histories and current
activities, I recommend visiting their personal Facebook, Bandcamp and Wikipedia
pages along with The Metal Archives.
There is no one website that is particularly good for heavy
metal information. However, when using a good combination of reliable metal
news sites, review sites and informative sites, it is very easy to keep up
with the heavy metal genre of music.
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