Articles by Dayal Patterson

“We have a Grammy-winning producer, a trained Shakespearian actor and a carpenter”: The death and resurrection of Hell, the occult metal pioneers that history forgot

By Dayal Patterson published 15 March 25

How cult early 80s metallers Hell bounced back from tragedy nearly 30 years later

Entombed posing for a photograph in 1990

“Once you heard death metal, there was no turning back. Thrash was out of the window. It seemed silly, music for wimps”: The chaotic story of Nihilist, Unleashed, Entombed and the bloody birth of Swedish death metal

By Dayal Patterson, Dom Lawson published 23 February 25

Death metal began in the US - but the early 1990s Swedish scene gave it a run for its money

Killswitch Engage posing for a group portrait in 2009

“Killswitch has always been strong and positive. We wanted something a little darker, a bit more personal, spiritual almost”: how Killswitch Engage reinvented themselves with their divisive self-titled fifth album

By Dayal Patterson published 30 June 24

The story of Killswitch Engage’s controversial self-titled album – released 15 years ago today

“We kept getting bigger and we realised we had to take things seriously or throw it all away“: how Bring Me The Horizon changed the game and silenced the haters with There Is a Hell Believe Me I've Seen It…

By Dayal Patterson published 24 May 24

In 2010, BMTH released There Is A Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret. - the album that set them on the path to becoming one of metal’s most forward-thinking bands

A press shot of Voivod in their early days

“We were living with cockroaches, writing crazy concept albums and touring the planet”: how prog metal visionaries Voivod invented a whole new genre

By Dayal Patterson published 14 March 24

Canadian prog metal icons Voivod released their classic second album Rrröööaaarrr on this day in 1986. Drummer Away looks back on a career like no other

Zakk Wylde: 10 albums that changed my life

By Dayal Patterson last updated 14 January 21

The records that made the Black Label Society and Ozzy Osbourne guitarist the man he is

Meshuggah’s Destroy Erase Improve: the tech-metal masterpiece that reinvented noise

By Dayal Patterson last updated 20 December 20

How Meshuggah’s second album Destroy Erase Improve changed the face of extreme metal

Famous Firsts: Amon Amarth‘s Johan Hegg on three day benders and blood-drenched drumkits

By Dayal Patterson last updated 2 September 20

“We were stumbling drunk for three days”: Amon Amarth’s Viking warlord Johan Hegg on the events that shaped his life

The Top 10 best metal bands from Iceland

By Dayal Patterson last updated 24 August 20

It may be the land of ice, snow and Bjork, but Iceland has a vibrant metal scene. These are the 10 bands keeping the Viking flame burning

10 essential proto-black metal albums

By Dayal Patterson published 3 August 20

Diving back to the birth of black metal and the records that have stood the test of time.

The top 10 metal bands from Italy (that aren’t Lacuna Coil)

By Dayal Patterson last updated 2 June 20

There's more to Italian metal than Cristina Scabbia and co

10 of the best metal bands from Finland

By Dayal Patterson last updated 27 April 20

A press shot of Darkthrone taken in 2016

Darkthrone's Fenriz: 2016's most surprising metal celebrity?

By Dayal Patterson published 28 November 19

We look back at when Darkthrone's Fenriz had fifteen minutes of mainstream fame as a politician and his band continued to confound expectations, not least their own, with 2016's Arctic Thunder

Hellfire and black metal: The story of 1349

By Dayal Patterson published 16 October 19

An exclusive excerpt from Black Metal: Into The Abyss on Norwegian black metallers 1349

Gaahl steps away from his black metal roots in new album GastiR - Ghosts Invited

By Dayal Patterson published 5 June 19

The black metal icon takes a turn for the unexpected with the new album from Gaahls Wyrd

Why Behemoth’s The Satanist is the greatest extreme metal album of the 21st century

By Dayal Patterson published 3 February 19

Behemoth's masterpiece not only marked Nergal's return from the brink, it served as extreme metal's crowning achievement

Mayhem: Grand Declaration Of War (2018) album review

By Dayal Patterson published 13 December 18

Black metal pioneers Mayhem bring their most contentious album back from the cold

Rotting Christ: Their journey from anarchist punks to black metal pioneers

By Dayal Patterson published 20 November 18

The story of Rotting Christ's beginnings in the Greek punk scene, taken from Dayal Patterson's new book Non Serviam: The Official Story Of Rotting Christ