If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool metal fan like me, you need no introduction to independent label Relapse Records. For the last quarter of a century the Philadelphia record label has been home to some of the most revered acts in the metal world. Their roster reads like a who’s who of influential and beloved artists: High On Fire, Mastodon, Pig Destroyer, A.C., Death, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Dying Fetus, Obituary, Nile, Suffocation, Neurosis, Voivod, Revocation, and many, many more have called the label home at one point or another.

So, imagine my excitement when I heard that, in celebrating their 25th anniversary, Relapse has posted a 184-song sampler to their bandcamp page and it is a 100% FREE download. Yeah, you read that right — 184 tracks for free!

Wayne Static, the former guitar player singer of the industrial/nu metal band Static X passed away Saturday, November 1st at the age of 48, according to his publicist. No cause of death has been stated at this time, but several of Static’s friends and associates are indicating that drugs were a factor.

Watch the official video for Static X’s song “Push It” from their 1999 debut album Wisconsin Death Trip.

Right now, the upcoming reissue of Death‘s album Leprosy is streaming online for free.

Listen to the entire album here below! You can also listen to one of the live tracks that will be available only on the Digital Deluxe version, and watch a video of the unboxing of the deluxe set.

The Leprosy reissue from Relapse Records will be released in the United States on April 29, 2014 on Deluxe 2-CD set, Vinyl, as well as digital MP3. You can pre-order it now.

Deluxe 2-CD edition contains 50 minutes of previously unheard and unreleased Leprosy demos and rehearsal material housed in an embossed o-card package with a 24-page booklet featuring unseen pictures of the band as well as brand new liner notes from Ian Christe (Sirius/XM) and Jeremy Wagner (Broken Hope).

If you’re a death metal fan, then chances are you know Florida’s Massacre and their 1991 debut album From Beyond. Although the band itself has been mostly absent from the scene since the mid-1990s with its members involved in other projects, Massacre is poised to make a triumphant return with their new album, Back from Beyond, which will be released in the United States by Century Media on April 1, 2014.

Our metal brethren over at Century Media, knowing that we here at Geeks of Doom are true metal people, have asked us to exclusively premiere the video for the title track in advance of the album’s release. Check out the video here below of Massacre’s “Back From Beyond”!

Author Clive Barker, whose books launched the Hellraiser and Candyman film franchises, is also an accomplished artist. His artwork has accompanied several of his books, like Thief Of Always and the Abarat series.

Today, Barker posted a photo of a painting he did called “Death of the Endless” based on the character Death from Neil Gaiman‘s popular comic book series, The Sandman. A black and white version of this painting was the frontispiece for the 1996 short-story anthology novel, The Sandman: Book of Dreams.

Check out the full-color version of the painting here below.