In the early 1990s, the burgeoning black metal scene in Norway was plagued with jealousy, violence, arson, and eventually murder. Lords of Chaos, named after Michael Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind's excellent non-fiction book, is a new film coming to theaters February 8 that tells the story of those loud, weird, dark times. Jonas Åkerlund directs and the cast includes Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Jack Kilmer, Sky Ferreira, and Valter Skarsgård.

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There's a Seinfeld-themed hardcore metal band from New York City (of course) called Grindfeld.

Born out of a mutual love of Death Metal, comical observations, coffee and Hardcore, Grindfeld is a project built on the existential dread hidden just under the surface of daily life.

Yes, they're real and they've got "5 Songs About Nothing." The first is a loud little ditty called "The Contest":

The other four songs -- The Soup Nazi, The Limousine, The Bizarro Jerry, and The Letter -- are available from their $5 digital album. They also have merch.

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Psychology professor William Forde Thompson of Australia's Macquarie University and his colleagues have published a series of scientific papers about the appeal of death metal. The scientists were surprised to learn that death metal fans aren't particularly angry or violent people and actually in a happy place whilst head-banging to the likes of Morbid Angel (above) and Cannibal Corpse (below). The research reminds me of how my dad was always so surprised at my love for goth music even though I was a generally happy teen. From Scientific American:

“It’s the paradox of enjoying a negative emotion that I was interested in,” says Thompson, a professor at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. “Why are people interested in music that seems to induce a negative emotion, when in everyday life we tend to avoid situations that will induce a negative emotion?” A number of studies have explored the emotional appeal of sad music, Thompson notes. But relatively little research has examined the emotional effects of listening to music that is downright violent.

Thompson’s work has produced some intriguing insights. The biggest surprise? “The ubiquitous stereotype of death metal fans—fans of music that contains violent themes and explicitly violent lyrics—[is] that they are angry people with violent tendencies,” Thompson says. “What we are finding is that they are not angry people. They’re not enjoying anger when they listen to the music, but they are in fact experiencing a range of positive emotions...."

Chris Pervelis, a founding member and guitarist of the band Internal Bleeding (whose songs include Gutted Human Sacrifice [below] and The Pageantry of Savagery), is confident that the positive emotions he experiences when he plays and listens to Death Metal are the real thing.

Since Halloween is nearly here, Norwegian musical artist Leo Moracchioli (previously on BB) made a metal cover of Danny Elfman's "This is Halloween" from Tim Burton's 1993 classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. Prepare to headbang with a devil puppet.

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Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo were in Prince's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this week. To pay tribute to The Purple One, they played a metal rendition of his 1984 Purple Rain hit "When Doves Cry." I have to agree with what The Awesomer writes, "The whole thing is pretty cringey, but it’s worth watching for its sheer novelty."

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A version of this song that doesn't make me want to burn down my surroundings? Yes please. Read the rest

I'm always surprised when these oddball mashups work, but sometimes they just do, like with this Wham! and Slayer one by YouTube mashup guy Bill McClintock called "Careless Whisper in the Abyss."

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Since everyone's doing posts about their favorite cover of Toto's "Africa," here's my frontrunner, because it's very Norwegian: metal and ironic and funny all at once. Read the rest

At Vintage Cassettes, "you will find the beatiful pictures of sealed compact cassettes."

Cassettes from 1970-1990 are covered the most. Collecting vintage cassettes is a great hobby and brings all good memories back. Cassettes are organized by brands and then the years they were produced. We concentrate on the most important brands. This site try to cover three markets: US, Europe and Japan. We also added the History of Compact Cassettes located to the right.

When I was a kid I wondered if METAL meant that it was specially made for taping, like, Megadeth.

The companion site (with better images) would be The Tape Deck, which posts pictures of the cassettes themselves.

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Erika Rejka creates intertwined metal shapes into sculptures that can be manipulated by the viewer. Read the rest

Cody from Cody's lab had some elemental tin and a new rolling press, so he decided to craft a tin can from actual tin. Read the rest

Musician Rob Scallon thought it would be cool to one-up the vinyl hipsters and record some metal on century-old Edison wax cylinder recording equipment. And he was right! Read the rest

'Fast' Eddie Clarke, guitarist for Motörhead during their best years, has died at 67 while in the hospital with pneumonia. With his death preceded in 2015 by Phil “Philthy Animal” Taylor and Lemmy Kilmister, the classic Motörhead lineup is now gone. From Rolling Stone:

It was during Clarke's tenure with the band that Motörhead got the reputation of being one of the loudest bands in rock. "Man, it wasn't our fault," he recalled in the band's biography Beer Drinkers and Hell Raisers. "I was forever trying ... to hear myself, so I was forever adding fucking amps over my side, and Lemmy was just adding more and more on his side, and then Phil [Taylor] had bigger monitors. It was ... each one of us, because we never interfered with each other's stuff."

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Jared Dines demonstrates several weird drum setups that not only sound good, but look pretty cool, too. Read the rest

Rolling Stone magazine asked the Prince of Darkness to list his ten favorite metal albums. Here are five of Ozzy's sure-shots:

AC/DC, 'Highway to Hell' (1979)

"I love Brian Johnson but to me my good friend, the late Bon Scott, was the best singer AC/DC ever had. This album was like an addiction to me."

Guns N' Roses, 'Appetite for Destruction' (1987)

"One of the greatest debut albums of all time. There's not a weak song in the bunch. I never get tired of hearing it."

Led Zeppelin, 'Led Zeppelin IV' (1971)

"I've always been a huge Led Zeppelin fan. All of their studio albums are classics but this is one of my all-time favorites."

Metallica, 'Master of Puppets' (1986)

"I took Metallica on tour with me after the release of Master of Puppets. The album was a milestone for the band and for heavy metal."

Motörhead, 'Ace of Spades' (1980)

"The album that put Motörhead over the top. The title track "Ace of Spades" is Motörhead's "Paranoid." It's one of the great metal anthems and, to me, a band hasn't made it until they have their own anthem. This is theirs."

Ozzy Osbourne: My 10 Favorite Metal Albums (Rolling Stone) Read the rest

I believe the track is called "Limerent Death," by The Dillinger Escape Plan. [Thanks, Mr. Raccoon!]

Previously at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Mob-style beating at Chuck E. Cheese's Chuck E. Cheese targets moms with lattes, salad, and more wine and beer Chuck E. Cheese owner agrees to $950 million buyout Chuck E. Cheese Rock-afire robots in MGMT music video Cheese fight at Chuck E Cheese's The Original Fight Read the rest

Somehow I ran across this music, I liked it, and it wasn't recorded 30+ years ago!

I've been enjoying Halestorm's 2015 release Into the Wild Life. Read the rest