Metal and Hardcore

The Best St. Louis Metal Shows in May

Looking for a good place to see flashy and exciting music played at high volume, have your mind blown by dark and powerful sounds, or just stomp around like a drunken goon with your shirt off? Then a heavy metal concert might be just the place for you. Each month I'll be offering my top picks of the ... More >>

RIP Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman: Does This Mean the End of Slayer?

As a lifetime die-hard Slayer fan, I had to do a double-take when I got a text from RFT Music editor Daniel Hill asking if I'd like to write a piece on the passing of Jeff Hanneman. "Fuck yeah I'd like to write something about Slayer," I thought. But wait a minute... WHAT? I had not yet heard of h ... More >>

Iron Maiden and Megadeth are Coming to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on September 8

British heavy metal legend Iron Maiden is coming to St. Louis, and bringing one of thrash's "Big Four," Megadeth, along for the ride. Verizon Wireless Amphitheater has yet to make the announcement official, but we saw it listed today on the metal news website Blabbermouth.com. We will update this po ... More >>

The Best St. Louis Metal Shows in April

Looking for a good place to see flashy and exciting music played at high volume, have your mind blown by dark and powerful sounds, or just stomp around like a drunken goon with your shirt off? Then a heavy metal concert might be just the place for you. Each month I'll be offering my top picks of the ... More >>

The Best St. Louis Metal Shows in March

Looking for a good place to see flashy and exciting music played at high volume, have your mind blown by dark and powerful sounds, or just stomp around like a drunken goon with your shirt off? Then a heavy metal concert might be just the place for you. Each month I'll be offering my top picks of the ... More >>

The Best St. Louis Metal Shows in February

Looking for a good place to see flashy and exciting music played at high volume, have your mind blown by dark and powerful sounds, or just stomp around like a drunken goon with your shirt off? Then a heavy metal concert might be just the place for you. Each month I'll be offering my top picks of the ... More >>

Tony LaRussa's Wife: Huge Metalhead?

Lita Ford, Doro Pesch, Elaine LaRussa. Names that come to mind when thinking of the top heavy metal babes of all time? Not exactly, but it seems the wife of the man who led this city's baseball team to two World Series championships may prefer the mosh pit over the dugout herself. See also: - The 2 ... More >>

Why You Should Listen to Music Outside Your Wheelhouse: The Jazz and Metal Connection

Art and life co-habitate, informing, imitating, and enriching each other constantly. Each week in Better Living Through Music, RFT Music writer Ryan Wasoba explores this symbiotic relationship. Every few months, Edwardsville's downtown dive bar The Stagger Inn hosts a show featuring locals The Go ... More >>

Getting Bored and Angry at Lamb of God: Review and Photos

Lamb of God | Hatebreed | In Flames | Sylosis The Pageant November 7, 2012 Before I start trashing one of the most popular metal bands on the planet, let me offer my credentials: In 1989, I saw Sepultura at the Bridgeton Soccer club at just nine years old. I got in trouble for spray painting the S ... More >>

The 25 Creepiest Heavy Metal Album Covers

Halloween is the time where it's acceptable to wallow in the creepy, the crawly, the dark, and the macabre. Sounds like the themes of heavy metal, year-round! Here then, are those most spine-tingliest metal album covers, for your All Hallow's Eve viewing pleasure. Step inside... By Jason Roche See ... More >>

The Six Best Non-Metal Songs About Heavy Metal

Songwriters love riffing on folklore, be it nursery rhymes or Biblical parables. Over the years, heavy metal has developed its own brand of legend, so much so that stylistically disparate musicians have used it as a springboard for creatively disparate songs. Here are the six best non-metal songs ab ... More >>

The Ten Best Shows In St. Louis This Weekend: July 20 to 22

Happy Friday, St. Louis! Before we get to the festivities, it's been a little while since we've explained our shows-pickin' blog-postin' strategy, so here it is again for the uninitiated and the forgetful: Every Monday we do a blog post called "Out Every Night" that lists shows the RFT Music staff p ... More >>

Rockstar Mayhem Festival featuring Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax and Slipknot

1:30 p.m. Friday, July 20. Verizon Wireless Ampitheater, 14141 Riverport Drive.

Swastikas, Lemmy and Screaming Christians: Picking the Winner of the Mayhem Festival

This Friday, the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival rolls through our fair city, bringing fifteen purveyors of heavy music to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre. The scope of artists ranges from old-timers like Anthrax and Motorhead to young guns like The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria. These b ... More >>

((Thorlock))

10 p.m. Sunday, July 8. Lemmons, 5800 Gravois Avenue.

Win Queensrÿche Tickets

Myriam Santos​Progressive metal mainstay Queensrÿche will be at the Pageant on Tuesday, and we have a pair of tickets just waiting to find a heavy home. Kelsey Whipple, writing about the band in this week's Critic's Picks, said, "Queensrÿche originally opted for the purely metal umlaut to ... More >>

Tom Huck On His Roots Phrenology Cover and Motorhead

Photo by Jon Scorfina​Many artists have used the album cover as a vehicle for greater mass exposure. Robert Crumb transitioned from the obscurity of underground comics to mainstream consciousness with his cover of Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills. Derek Riggs made his mark o ... More >>

Deftones at the Pageant, 4/26/11: Review

Photo by Todd Owyoung​Deftones/Dillinger Escape Plan/Funeral Party The Pageant April 26, 2011 Check out a full slideshow of Deftones at the Pageant The Deftones crowd favorite "My Own Summer (Shove It)" has a false ending right before its final chorus. Last night at the sold-out Pageant, the ... More >>

Deftones' Frank Delgado on Changing Perceptions and Chi's Current Health

​A scant seven months after serving as the meat in an Alice In Chains/Mastodon sandwich at Scottrade Center, the Deftones will be headlining a very sold-out show at the Pageant with the Dillinger Escape Plan and Funeral Party. We caught up with Deftones turntablist Frank Delgado via phone from ... More >>

Deftones

8 p.m. Tuesday, April 26. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard.

Review: Motorhead, Clutch and Valient Thorr at Pop's, Sunday, February 20

Todd Owyoung​At precisely 9:15 p.m., the lights at Pop's went dark. The sold-out crowd, which had been drinking (and/or tailgating) for hours, crackled up several notches as rock gods Motörhead took the stage. Lemmy Kilmister commented that it had been about ten years since the trio had last ... More >>

The legendary metal singer Lemmy shows surprising, different sides in a new documentary

Deftones, Dillinger Escape Plan Tour Hitting St. Louis

Todd OwyoungDeftones at Scottrade Center, October 1, 2010​On Tuesday, April 26, Deftones and Dillinger Escape Plan are playing at the Pageant. Bring your earplugs. DEP hasn't been to town since an appearance at Pop's in December 2009, but Deftones by all accounts slayed at the Scottrade Center ... More >>

Alice in Chains/Deftones/Mastodon

7 p.m. Friday, October 1. Scottrade Center, 1401 Clark Avenue.

Big Three, Plus One

One Night Only! Metallica, Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth Come to a Movie Theater Near You

Todd OwyoungJames Hetfield in St. Louis in 2008. More photos here.​Tickets are on sale now for what's being dubbed The Big Four Live -- a.k.a. the June 22 movie-theater simulcast of the Sonisphere Festival appearances of thrash legends Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. (Now I can't stop ... More >>

R.I.P. Metal Legend, Metal Gentleman Ronnie James Dio, 1942-2010

(Editor's note: D.X. Ferris is a frequent RFT contributor and the author of the 33 1/3 book on Slayer's Reign in Blood. He was kind enough to write this obituary yesterday.) Ronnie James Dio, R.I.P.​His band mates didn't invite him to the induction, but let's face it: Ronnie James Dio might b ... More >>

Local metal soldiers Anacrusis were ahead of their time, and now they're back

Skeletonwitch/Howl

7:30 p.m. Sunday, February 28. Fubar, 3108 Locust Street.

Interview Outtakes: Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta

Hatebreed, with Jamey Jasta in the middle.​In this week's issue, D.X. Ferris chats with Hatebreed frontman Jamey Jasta, who just might be one of the nicest dudes in rock. The Connecticut metallic hardcore band plays at Pop's tonight with Born of Osiris, Unearth, Cannibal Corpse and Hate Eterna ... More >>

Extreme Close-up: The busiest man in heavy music, Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta, takes time to chat

Three hard-rock/metal shows in one week means Arma-Friggin'-Geddon for St. Louis

Lemmy Entertain You: Twenty questions With Motörhead's Lemmy Kilmister

Ravage

8 p.m. Thursday, August 13. The Library, 706 Lafayette Avenue.

St. Louis Video: Slayer, "Mandatory Suicide," 1994

Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Killswitch Engage and a ton of other bands are at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater today as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival. In last week's paper, Phil Freeman spoke with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, in part discussing the band's forthcoming album, World P ... More >>

With a summer tour with Marilyn Manson and the forthcoming LP World Painted Blood, metal gods Slayer show no signs of slowing down

Interview Outtakes: Sunn O))), Playing Tonight at the Firebird

One of the summer's more anticipated shows happens tonight at the Firebird: Drone-metal legends Sunn O))). Paul Friswold interviewed the band Greg Anderson's this week. Here are some outtakes from the interview. ideologic.org Paul Friswold: Who first thought of doing the album with the acoustic e ... More >>

Heavy Metal Parking Lot: Judas Priest Then and Now

The more things change, the more they stay the same. This old adage was proved true last night in the parking lot outside the Judas Priest/Whitesnake show at Family Arena in St. Charles, as this slideshow here proves.Steve TruesdellA Judas Priest show now. More photos from last night here.Sure, the ... More >>

Drone Henge: Ambient drone-metal band Sunn O))) makes a rare live appearance in St. Louis

Van Halen

8 p.m. Saturday, April 26. Scottrade Center, 1401 Clark Avenue

Napalm Death

Vince Neil

7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 17. Bottleneck Blues Bar at the Ameristar Casino, 1260 South Main Street, St. Charles.

Machine Head

6 p.m. Sunday, October 7. Pop's, 1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois.

Harptallica

8 p.m. Sunday, September 9. Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, 3301 Lemp Avenue

Danzig with the Stars

The coolest guy you know named Glenn finds Lost Tracks.

Cannibal Corpse

7 p.m. Thursday, May 3. Pop's (1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois).

Sunn O))) & Boris

Altar (Southern Lord)

Hatebreed

6 p.m. Sunday, September 24. Pop's (1403 Mississippi Avenue, Sauget, Illinois).

Devil in the Details

New books document heavy metal's ugly history

STORM WARNING

The Stormtroopers of Death return to set heavy metal straight