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When it comes to thunderous drums, razor blade guitars, and screams hellbent on curdling blood, nowhere has had an impact like our dear old United States of America. In the spirit of July 4th and celebrating another year of American metal dominating the dirtiest corners of music, Gimme Metal asked our newest contributor and self-proclaimed “king of the basement pit,” Coop, to put together his Top Ten American Metal Albums list.

In 2015, the world was introduced to Brown Acid: The First Trip. Fast forward to 4/20/2024, there have been eighteen trips, each one a wild ride through the best of '60s and '70s heavy rock. As the founder of Gimme Metal, I took on the daunting task of distilling the essence of this series into a single LP. The result? Eleven killer tracks for this month’s vinyl of the month.

From UFO's PHENOMENON to Sabaton's HEROES, read more about the biggest metal releases of May!

Hailing from the land of Creepsylvania (fine, they’re actually from Oakland, California), the maniacs from Ghoul have been ripping & shredding the scene for over 20 years now. They’ve got a knack for storytelling, dark humor and all things nasty, gory and gruesome. And that right there is the winning combo for me; it’s like Exhumed and GWAR had a thrasher lovechild.

Mixing metal genres can be tricky alchemy. Each listener brings multiple sets of preferences, prejudices, and expectations to the table. For example: While death-doom or blackened crust are chocolate-and-peanut-butter delights to these ears, the blending of black metal with shoegaze or post-rock hits me like toothpaste and orange juice.

With so much awesome music at our fingertips, we are truly living in a time of infinite possibilities for fans of underground metal. There’s so much coming at us - new releases, tour announcements, dream festival lineups getting dropped nonstop - that sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming.

Big & notable 1970 releases!

Check out our selection of the best rock albums from the 1980s!

In New Jersey, where I’m from, Bruce Springsteen is considered to be the musical voice of the state, the songwriter who captures its working-class grit. “The Boss,” some people call him. Twenty-four years in Jersey and I never got one paycheck from this guy, so I say funk dat. Especially when Lodi, NJ, birthed not just New Jersey’s but, in my sincere opinion, America’s greatest songwriter: Glenn Danzig.

If you look back with fondness at the symphonic black metal that rose to prominence in the mid to late ‘90s-—and I certainly do, as this stuff was my personal gateway to the genre as a whole—Hulder’s second LP Verses in Oath captures this era with such precision that it evokes hyper-specific sense memories: Necropolis Records sampler CDs, Red Stream mail order catalogs, Century Media Black’s Firestarter compilation with the wooden match in the spine of the jewel case.

February might be the shortest month but it definitely has not been in short supply of sick metal releases throughout the years.

"Rhymes Records in New Haven was my first real record store. It was located on the second story above an art-house, independent movie theater, the York Square Cinema , and below a vintage clothing store. It was small. Crammed with new and used vinyl, walls of cassettes, zines from all over the world, and, later, a few cds. I was only about 13 when I started going there weekly, and it was my favorite place on the planet. "

"Almost 8 months after Gimme’s demise (which left a hole in the heart of the metal community), Gimme rises from ashes. We are excited to announce that the Gimme store reopens its virtual doors today, with the same goal of community engagement & customer satisfaction."