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Nothingness x 56 Brewing: Hopslaughter
Hopslaughter is a limited-release collaboration beer between Minneapolis death metal band Nothingness and 56 Brewing, poured to celebrate the band's third full-length album, Godslaughter. It debuted at a release party in 56 Brewing's Barrel Room on Friday, October 2, 2026

Randall Wilburn
5 days ago4 min read


Have Metal, Will Travel: Runar Pettersen and the Map of Metal
Three decades of festivals, pubs and graveside detours have turned one Norwegian Iron Maiden fan into the metal world's most obsessive travel agent. We talked to Metal Travels founder Runar Pettersen about tracking down album-cover locations, dodging fake "metal bars" and the one Motörhead pilgrimage we both still owe ourselves.

Randall Wilburn
Sep 308 min read


TRIVAN: Discipline After Collapse
TRIVAN could have vanished for months and returned with a finished record. Instead, the Zagreb black metal outfit is building Eternal Shore single by single, in full view of everyone listening — grief, discipline, and one anti-Christmas song at a time.

Randall Wilburn
Sep 287 min read


From Beer Authority to the Sunset Strip: Eddie's Dive Bar Nears the End of Its First USA Run
Iron Maiden's Eddie's Dive Bar pop-up crossed the Atlantic for the first time this September, landing at Beer Authority in Hell's Kitchen with a new Lagunitas-brewed Trooper West Coast IPA and the brand's first-ever paid "Beer Roadie."

Randall Wilburn
Sep 239 min read


RAW Metal Bar: Munich’s No-Frills Refuge for Heavy Music
Munich may be internationally defined by beer halls, brass bands and Oktoberfest, but several blocks north of the historic center there is another side of the city’s drinking culture—one built around distorted guitars rather than oompah music.

Randall Wilburn
Sep 235 min read


The Studio Under the Radiator: How Munich Helped Build Heavy Metal Without a Scene of Its Own
Munich never built a scene to rival the Ruhr Valley's, but a basement studio, a handful of homegrown bands, and a run of festivals and arena shows gave the city an outsized role in metal history — with a packed fall 2026 calendar still to come.

Randall Wilburn
Sep 185 min read


Iron Maiden Pub Quiz: Michael Legge and Dan Mersh Turn Maiden Fandom into a Conversation
There are Iron Maiden podcasts devoted to news, album rankings, setlists and exhaustive musical analysis. Iron Maiden Pub Quiz does all of those things—at least occasionally...

Randall Wilburn
Sep 1412 min read


Mastodon Unleashes Poisonous Weapons Hazy IPA with Crosstown Brewing
Beer of the week: A new Mastodon beer Hazy IPA based on the song "Poisonous Weapons" the thier 9th album " Marrow Deep".

Tim McShane
Sep 96 min read


Four Shades of Bay Area Heavy: Marrower, Theya, Kings Beneath and Prima Materia Descend on The Hub
Prima Materia, Kings Beneath, Theya and Marrower didn't simply give Redwood City four metal bands. They demonstrated four very different answers to the same basic question: just how heavy can heavy become?

Randall Wilburn
Sep 312 min read


Holy Goat Brewing Finds a “Rainbow in the Dark”
There are beer names that happen to sound metal, and then there are beers whose heavy-metal intentions are almost impossible to misunderstand. Dundee, Scotland’s Holy Goat Brewing has unveiled Rainbow in the Dark, a new 6.66% ABV release whose title points directly toward one of Ronnie James Dio’s most enduring songs. Holy Goat teased the beer publicly on August 29, 2026, pairing the unmistakable title with an equally unmistakable alcohol content: 6.66 percent. For a brewery

Randall Wilburn
Aug 314 min read


Four Bands, Two Countries: The Hub's August 18 Trad-Metal Bill
Space Vacation, Tower Hill, Adamantis and Hands of Goro brought four different interpretations of old-school heavy metal to an unlikely Peninsula stronghold on Tuesday, August 18. That night ,in downtown Redwood City, the distance between the Bay Area, the Canadian Prairies and Boston suddenly became very small...

Randall Wilburn
Aug 2113 min read


Doing Time, Drinking Well at Slowburn Co-Op Brewery
How does an American spend the Fourth of July in 2026, the 250th anniversary of the country's founding? Not with the usual hollow celebration via flag-waving, dog terrorizing explosions, and gluttonous consumption of food, but with the freedom to ignore it completely and go drink some damn good beer inside a decommissioned prison. That was the plan on Saturday, July 4th, one day after I'd spent a night working through The Zeppelin Bar and Left Hand Path downstairs, where I

Randall Wilburn
Aug 1813 min read


Camden Town: Metal, Punk and Independent Beer in London’s Loudest Neighborhood
The Black Heart, The Devonshire Arms, Werewolf Beer, and The Underground form a compact Camden circuit where visitors can move from locally brewed beer to a metal pub, an upstairs gig room and, finally, a full-volume Sunday-night show.

Randall Wilburn
Aug 136 min read


Beer, Metal and a Little Balance: MetalYoga at the Cart & Horses
On Tuesday, July 7, 2026, those who had signed up and made the trek to London’s legendary Cart & Horses were presented with a combination that, on paper, sounds almost deliberately contradictory: yoga, heavy metal and beer. In this context, it made considerable sense.

Randall Wilburn
Aug 105 min read


Up and Down in Copenhagen: The Zeppelin Bar and The Left Hand Path
Copenhagen has no shortage of great beer or heavy music—but sometimes the best stories only appear when you walk through the right door.

Randall Wilburn
Jul 296 min read


Eddie Takes Over Paris: Inside Iron Maiden's 2026 Eddie's Dive Bar
And, for one weekend in Paris, Eddie didn't just rule the stage.
He had his own bar.

Randall Wilburn
Jul 287 min read


Discovering Malmö: A Journey Through the City’s Unique Stops
A walking tour of Södra Förstadsgatan in Malmö: the Disgusting Food Museum, Science Fiction Bokhandeln, and Arsenik Bistro, in order down the same street.

Randall Wilburn
Jul 256 min read


Phrenetix: Forged by Loss, Driven by Thrash, and Still Moving Forward
Lina Vaštakaitė of Phrenetix playing at Kilkim Zaibu 2026

Randall Wilburn
Jul 248 min read


Down the Stairs and Into the Labeerynt: Gdańsk's Underground Haven for Craft Beer and Heavy Music
Hidden beneath the streets of Gdańsk's historic center, Labeerynt combines Polish craft beer, shadowy cellar-bar atmosphere and a rock-and-metal sensibility that feels refreshingly unpolished.

Randall Wilburn
Jul 198 min read


Out of the Mists: Ūkanose on Folklore, Folk Metal, and Fourteen Years of Kilkim Žaibu
A late-night interview with Ūkanose guitarist Linas Petrauskas in Kaunas — the band's formation in Vilnius, the folk-metal balance behind Šiaurum Vėjum, the record heat of Kilkim Žaibu 2026, and the mead he brings on tour.

Randall Wilburn
Jul 913 min read
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