Metalunderground.com has obtained an exclusive track premiere of Rotten Sound's "Choose," which you can stream at the site. "Choose" is off the Finnish grind band's upcoming album, entitled "Cursed," which is due out on March 15th via Relapse Records. The album, which is a follow-up to 2008's "Cycles," was recorded at Nordic Audio Labs.

Check out the song on Metal Underground.com.

Besides being black history month, February also happens to be black metal history month at Metalundergound, and we’ve already taken looks at bands like [url=http://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=65455Emperor and Immortal. Each week with Unearthing the Metal Underground we look at several quality acts that haven’t managed to make it big yet. To get the month back to its originally intended purpose, we’ll know delve into a series of underground metal bands composed primarily or even entirely of black members.

Heavy metal, of any sub-genre or style, is a worldwide musical phenomenon that easily crosses racial and ethnic boundaries. While it would seem that…

The Grammys have been awarded, February is winding down, and we are officially late with our Best Of Year in Metal acknowledgments. So let's get to it. Like every year, I polled our diverse staff of metalheads to obtain their picks in several categories for 2010.

2010 was an interesting year in metal. Was it good? Yes. But not what one might expect at the outset. There were a lot of releases by big names, but most did not make the splash one would expect. Iron Maiden, Rob Zombie, Fear Factory, Dark Tranquility, and Living Sacrifice…

Each week in Unearthing the Metal Underground, we'll be putting a few quality underground bands in the spotlight in an attempt to get the word out about them. Some time ago, I offered some suggestions on bands to check out in the Chinese metal scene. Well, China is a big and indescribably populous country, so it should be self evident that the nation has a few more hidden gems interspersed amongst its many teeming megalopolises. Let's kick off the Chinese New Year with three more Chinese metal bands worth a listen: Renchei, Explosicum, and Autopsia.

Read more…

Legendary Northern Irish blues rock guitarist Gary Moore has unfortunately passed away. The former Thin Lizzy guitarist reportedly died in his sleep while on holiday in Spain in the early hours of this morning. He was 58 years old. Moore made a name for himself in the rock world after performing in a band named Skid Row in the late 1960s and released his first solo album in 1973, before joining Thin Lizzy for periods of time and collaborating with such other legendary artists as Ozzy Osbourne, B.B. King and George Harrison.

Discuss on Metal Underground.com.

With ladies like Angela Gossow and Vibeke Stene fronting bands with primarily male members, the heavy metal scene has shown that women can just be as bad ass as men. While the female fronted band has gone from curiosity to accepted member of the metal kingdom, heavier acts still tend toward having mostly men among their ranks. Breaking that trend are a few groups that buck the established norm and bust out the girl power. With this week’s edition of the Unearthing the Metal Underground column we’ll take a look at three bands that rock out 100% wang free.

This…

Most unsigned bands I talk to, regardless of their location, seem to uniformly agree on one thing: their local scene sucks. While I'm sure that's sometimes the case, I'll bet that it often isn't; it's a commonly held misconception by struggling bands that somewhere in the world there are magical cities where ordinary folks flock to see local bands in droves. While this is a nice little fantasy, such a place doesn't actually exist, but it doesn't mean that all of your local scenes suck. Bands are just looking at it the wrong way. Any strong scene is made up…

From the very beginning, heavy metal has been about rebellion against established norms and restrictive social institutions. That theme has never prevented metal from being influenced by the greatest of mankind’s various systems of organized repression, however. Using a guitar and a microphone to express discontent over the actions of parents and governments inevitably led to bands expressing their disgust with the beliefs behind those actions. Whether musicians are singing about it, railing against it, or just simply partaking of it in their free time, religion has an undeniable role to play in nearly every sub-genre of heavy metal.

Plenty…

The big names in metal get a lot of press and are famous for a reason, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a treasure trove of high quality metal bands hiding out in the underground. Each week with the Unearthing the Underground column we take a look at unknown bands in a specific genre or location that deserve to be heard by a wider audience.

Metal is unique in the musical world for the many different varieties to be found within it’s overall borders. “Experimental” or “Avant-Garde” metal bands are those groups that head outside the…

Metalunderground.com has obtained the exclusive premiere of the song "Scumbag In Disguise" from Denver-based thrashers Havok. You can check it out in the player below. The track is off the band's upcoming new full-length entitled "Time Is Up," which is slated for a March 29th release via Candlelight Records. The album, a follow-up to "Burn" (reviewed here), was mastered by James Murphy and features ten tracks of pure thrash metal. Listen to the song on Metal Underground.com