Disfear is a Swedish heavy metal/crust punk supergroup. The band, which has been active off and on since the early ’90s, includes members of At The Gates and Entombed. Their most recent release was the 2008 masterpiece Live the Storm, which was produced and engineered by Converge mastermind Kurt Ballou.

German thrash titan Kreator is set to kick off 2017 in epic fashion with the release of its fourteenth studio album Gods of Violence. The album arrives January 27th via the Nuclear Blast label and is the follow up to 2012’s excellent Phantom Antichrist.

Polish death metal titan Vader is set to release the twelfth studio album of its legendary, 33-year career on November 4, 2016. This disc is entitled The Empire.

The record comes via the Nuclear Blast label and harkens back to the thrash sound of Vader’s very earliest days as a band. The first single to be released is the blistering “Prayer to the God of War,” which also happens to be our selection for this week’s Massive Metal Monday.

Swedish Metal juggernaut Meshuggah has just released its eighth studio album, The Violent Sleep of Reason, via Nuclear Blast Records. The album is true to the band’s pummeling, polyrhythmic pedigree. Definitely not easy listening, but well worth the journey for the truly progressive metalhead.

“Clockworks,” the album’s jarringly massive opening track, clocks in at over seven minutes, so naturally they made it also the first official video. The visually morphing landscape of the clip is a perfect analogy for the music that accompanies it. But then trying to describe either the music or the visuals is roughly equivalent to trying to describe the power and devastation of a hurricane to someone who’s never been through one.

Thirty years ago tomorrow, September 27, 1986, the metal world lost one of its brightest stars. While on tour in support of their magnum opus Master of Puppets, Metallica were involved in a tragic bus accident that claimed the life of their 24-year-old bass prodigy Cliff Burton.

Burton was asleep in a top bunk near the open escape hatch when the drive of the tour bus lost control on an icy road, causing the bus to flip over. The bassist was ejected through the hatch and crushed by the rolling vehicle. It was a tragic end to a brief but stellar career for a man that many consider to be the greatest metal bassist of all time and the unquestionable heart and soul of one of metal’s most beloved bands.

So, to commemorate this somber anniversary, this week’s Massive Metal Monday is dedicated to the memory and legacy of the immortal Cliff Burton. Here is the master performing his signature song live in 1983. This is “Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth).”

If you like traditional, clean-vocal heavy metal like Judas Priest, Queensryche, Dio, and Iron Maiden, have I got a treat for you! I stumbled across a band called Charred Walls of the Damned while downloading the advance copy of another band’s album from Metal Blade Records. I decided to check these guys out based solely on their name and, man I could not be more pleasantly surprised! It turns out that CWOTD is a metal supergroup consisting of drummer Richard Christy (ex-Iced Earth, ex-Death, and The Howard Stern Show), singer Tim “Ripper” Owens (ex-Judas Priest, ex-Iced Earth), bassist Steve DiGiorgio (his list of credits is as long as your arm and includes Iced Earth, Death, Autopsy, Testament, and Obscura), and guitarist (and metal super producer) Jason Seucof.

It also seems that this is their third record. How on Earth I’m just now finding out about this band is beyond me because their new album Creatures Watching Over the Dead (all of their record titles follow the CWOTD motif) is absolutely amazing! It’s out this Friday (September 23, 2016) and you should definitely check it out.

Lizzy Borden may not be the most famous band to emerge from L.A.’s Sunset Strip glam metal scene in the ’80s, but it is certainly one of the longest-running and most influential. Starting out in 1983 and first gaining notoriety when their track “Rod of Iron” appeared on Metal Blade Records’ Metal Massacre IV compilation, the shock rockers would go on to create some of the greatest and most influential and enduring metal of the era.

Despite numerous lineup changes (including those brought on by the deaths of two members in separate traffic accidents), the singer and mainstay who also happens to be named Lizzy Borden (after the notorious 1800’s figure Lizzie Borden who was accused and later acquitted of killing her parents with an axe) continues to write, record, and tour to this day.

Meshuggah is widely considered to be one of the most important bands in the extreme metal world. Amongst the first bands to use eight-sting guitars and featuring chaotic polyrhythms and dissonance, Meshuggah’s music has redefined what it means to be “heavy” in the 21st century.

It has been over four years since the Swedish powerhouse has graced us with a new record. But that’s all about to change on October 7, 2016 when the eighth album of their nearly 30-year career drops. The disc is titled The Violent Sleep of Reason and will be released via the Nuclear Blast label.

You know it’s going to be a good week whenever there is a new Darkthrone track. When said track is a return to form that harkens back to the band’s ’90s heyday, you know it’s going to be a great week. And that is where today finds us. The Norwegian gods of black metal have gifted us with the first single from their upcoming sixteenth studio album Arctic Thunder, which will be released on October 14, 2016 via Peaceville Records. After nearly a dozen year diversion, Darktrhone have decided to cast off the black-n-roll and crust punk diversions and get back down to their black metal roots.

Los Angeles shock rockers W.A.S.P. burst onto the scene in 1984 with what remains to this day one of the greatest debut albums in metal history. The self titled disc was raw, powerful and visceral. This, combined with their legendary live shows, seemed to make the band an overnight sensation.

In reality, the foursome were long-time veterans of the L.A. metal scene. Leader Blackie Lawless had once been Johnny Thunders’ replacement in the New York Dolls and later been a member of legendary underground bands Sister (which also included future W.A.S.P. guitarist Randy Piper) and London (also featuring future Motley Crue leader Nikki Sixx). Guitarist Chris Holmes had grown up with the Van Halen brothers in Pasadena and had even loaned Eddie Van Halen many of the guitars with which he was photographed for many of the early VH promo photos.