The name Tosin Abasi should be familiar to anybody with their ear remotely tuned to the world of progressive metal in the past four years. Voted Metalsucks.net's second greatest modern metal guitarist in 2011, the driving force behind prog metal outfit Animals as Leaders is already something of a legend in the genre
This trio of metal warriors remind me why I love heavy metal. The album is tight, the lyrics are drenched in images of bloodshed and African myth. Quite frankly, this is the kind of album that would not feel out of place between your old Manowar, Warlord and Iron Maiden vinyls
So... wow! What an absolute pleasure and privilege to have been able to review what will probably be referred to as the most important gig thus far in the history of South African metal. Not so much in the sense of who won or why, but rather in that it was about so much more than just entertaining the masses; it was about raising the bar for all performers of metal music in this country, for now and for always
There must be something in the Nile waters. So far every band that I've heard from the deserts of Egypt has been really slick
Playing grandiose black metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir and Septic Flesh, Diabolus Incarnate from Johannesburg, South Africa appeared on my radar earlier this year. Their catchy tremelo picked riffs, hyperblast drums and
The "Cape of Storms" has certainly lived up to it's namesake over the weekend past and now this weekend coming promises to deliver another Cape Town 'storm' of somewhat different proportions as three local metal bands prepare to take the stage at The Rabbit Hole in Durbanville.
Winter has come! Now in it’s seventh year, choosing a line-up for WinterFest’13 has proven as challenging as ever. Also, providing an unexpected extra hurdle, is the South African leg of the international Wacken Metal Battle hosted by our northern allies at MK Ondergrond. Yet somehow we have still managed to fulfill our aims
The Holy Grail of Rock has remained UCT Radio's resident rock and metal show and will celebrate their fourth birthday this year
Cecil John Rhodes, colonial bastard that he was, fantasized about creating a railway linking "The Cape to Cairo" - a holy grail of trans-continental travel that back in the 19th century would have been at the pinnacle of engineering feats. It never came to be, but now more than a century later, there is a ton of metal that promises to link Egypt and South Africa on a completely different level
Go out on almost any night in Cape Town and you're sure to find live bands playing somewhere. And if it's not indie rock, then it's probably metal! Live gigs have become something of a convenience for many metalheads, where the lure of seeing their favourite locals bands on stage is completely shattered by the sheer saturation of events. There's always the comfort that the same band will probably be playing the same venue next month and so (in my personal experience) support for live events has begun to wane
From the idyllic setting of a traditionally styled English pub, located near South Africa's Cape Town, we set out on an unlikely journey to explore vast expanses of uncharted science and cosmic mystique. My travel companions included Ruan Jordaan (guitarist) and Thomas Theron (vocalist) of the city's eight-stringed metal phenomenon, Megalodon. With the launch of their debut album only days away, it was time to learn more about the bands origins and to discover what energies have driven Ruan, Thomas, and their band mates, to this point in time and space
