As Metal Director/DJ at WRUV, plus owner of this website, I get sent a metric shit ton of new music every year. I was once able to house my entire MP3 collection on a 160 GB iPod Classic, but as the inevitable digital shift progressed, my virtual library grew exponentially.

MetalMattLongo addresses females in heavy music, largely inspired by a thread that appeared on the Within Temptation official forum.

The included list of bands are an alphabetical order by band name rather than order of appearance, either on the live show or on my list posted here on MindOverMetal.org… guess you’ll need to listen and/or read up to find out!

I thought continuing the top 13 was a good way to go, but for every album I thought of, a parallel arose. So the list turned out as it did (with top slots held by bands found on few metallic year-end lists). Plus more stuff came to mind in the process—perhaps categories will be in order next year.

Rating: 4.5/5

When listening to ’342′, the best advice I can impart was once given to the White Rabbit by The King of Hearts: “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” It is exhausting yet exhilarating art, passion without pretense.

‘342’, the stunning second album from French avant-garde metal masters Pin-Up Went Down is now available through Ascendance Records. This daring duo features former Carnival In Coal live drummer, Alexis Damien!