If a man's character can be judged by what he's got on his iPod then Protest the Hero bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi is a card-carrying member of the counterculture, a self-avowed fan of things no one else has heard of and but a dabbler in the domain of heavy metal. Of the 20 tracks on his Random Shuffle list, only Black Sabbath is metal. Rush are kinda metal and we haven't got a clue what two-thirds of the rest of the songs are. Okay, we've heard of about half the artists, but we couldn't point them out in a police lineup. On a scale of 100, we give this Random Shuffle a 60 for sheer curiosity value, and a probable 40 for listenability -- unless you're an elitist, indie, artsy Spin reader with an ivy league education, in which case you've probably heard all this stuff on NPR and you'd give the list a strong 90. But if that's the case, what are you doing here? Click "more" to see the full list and watch a video from one of the artists: Read more...

Metal isn't the only thing lurking on Unearth vocalist Trevor Phipps' iPod, but judging from this random sample, if he's gonna listen to thrash, it's gotta be old-school: Hence Slayer's "Black Magic," Entombed's "Hollowman" and Anthrax's "N.F.B." Phipps is also into more cutting-edge stuff like Protest the Hero and Scissorfight, not to mention quirky alternative music including Portishead, Bjork and Flaming Lips. Plus, there's some cool punk, country, crooner music and classic rock. The only embarrassment we see is Dave Matthews' "Trouble." We hope we're reading that wrong and it's really a song by Trouble called "Dave Matthews," but that seems really unlikely. Bonus points for George Carlin's "Familiar Expressions," which kinda evens out the Dave Matthews thing. On a scale of 100, we give Phipps' Random Shuffle a 90 for openminded metal fans and a 70 for metalcore purists. Click "more" to see the list and watch a video by one of the artists -- not Dave Matthews! Read more...

MTV2 will be teaming up with Revolver magazine to present the premiere hard rock and heavy metal awards show, the first annual Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards, which will storm through Los Angeles' Club Nokia on Tuesday, April 7. The event will feature Ozzy Osbourne, Killswitch Engage, Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan and more, and will be aired on MTV2 as a one-hour special on Saturday, May 2.

"We're working really hard to make this an event worthy of the music it celebrates," Revolver editor in chief Tom Beaujour tells HeadbangersBlog.com. "Metal deserves this and deserves to have it done f---ing right." Read more...

By now you've seen all those top ten rock and metal lists featuring Metallica, Guns N' Roses, AC/DC, Gojira, Nachtmystium, Enslaved, Opeth, Amon Amarth, All That Remains, Trivium, Meshuggah et al. So here's a list of ten slightly more indie acts that might not be on your radar yet, but which you owe it to yourself to check out:

10. Arsis - We Are the Nightmare (Nuclear Blast)
Technical death metal is rarely this inspiring. A breathtaking blend of speedy unconventional guitar work, abrupt rhythm shifts, double-bass drum thunder and real honest to goodness hooks.

9. These Arms Are Snakes - Tail Swallower and Dove (Suicide Squeeze)
Post-hardcore insanity merges with strong songwriting on this Seattle band's third full album. Direct and uncompromising, TS&D blasts through challenging math rock progressions, battering ram rhythms and bizarre grooves that'll remind you equally of Fugazi and Blood Brothers. But what else would you expect from former members of Botch and Kill Sadie?

8. Abigail Williams - In The Shadow of a Thousand Suns (Candlelight)
Honestly, we're not sure why this modern black metal album didn't crack more critics' year-end lists. The band even has a super-cute chick on piano/orchestration -- and the girl knows how to compose better than a lot of classical musicians. In The Shadow of a Thousand Suns is epic, brutal and shudders with horrific beauty -- like a haunting blend of Cradle of Filth and Immortal. (Click "more" to see our seven other choices.) Read more...

Poor Rody Walker. The Protest the Hero frontman still believes in the transcendent power of music, but now that he knows what goes on behind the scenes, especially with the new wave of Internet-spawned bands, he's become depressed, disillusioned and discouraged. With any luck, such antipathy with result in another batch of devastating songs when the PTH finally return to the studio to record the follow-up to 2008's blazing Fortress. For now at least, we can hopefully do something about Walker's heavy metal blues by giving him the following guest blog to vent:

I don't understand music anymore, and I don't really care to. It seems to me the way to get a name for yourself in music was once traveling your ass off and playing as many shows as possible. It was good ol' fashion hard work, passed down from our father's father. That's the only way I've ever known to achieve even so much as a meager level of underground success. However, it would appear the up coming generation of lazy-no-good-soda-guzzling-gluttonous-crap-factories have an easier plan -- a plan that involves them sitting on their fat asses in their parents' computer rooms and achieving a much more significant level of success than I have ever known. Read more...