Jeff Wagner
Contributor
Jeff Wagner was born in Seattle, raised in the midwest, made his way east and now resides in North Carolina. Wagner has worked at Relapse, The End and Century Media Records, was an editor at Metal Maniacs magazine from 1997 to 2001, and wrote the first-ever book on progressive metal: Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal. He tries hard to be vegan and loves his cats very much.
10 Best Heavy Metal Compilations
eBay.com (2) Metal compilations have been pumped out in extraordinary numbers since around 1980, but few are worth paying for and listening to regularly. K-Tel put out a comp of mainstream metal ...
10 All-Time Best Heavy Metal EPs
Amazon (2) While they haven't exactly gone the way of the CD Single (ie. pretty much extinct, if we're talking physical CD Singles), the EP (Extended Play) seems to be a dying breed. Used to ...
10 All-Time Greatest Metal Live Albums
Amazon (2) Is a live album really ever live? Most are manipulated in some way, either in the mixing stage or the overdubbing of guitar leads or vocal passages. The greatest of them all, KISS ...
10 Best Progressive Albums of 2012
Amazon (2) With total respect to Witchcraft, Deftones and Cattle Decapitation, who recorded albums that list highly on my year-end favorites (especially Witchcraft's mighty Legend), Noisecreep ...
Heavy Metal's Greatest Guitar Teams
Kevin Winter, Getty Images With the exception of Black Sabbath, early heavy metal was built upon a foundation of two-guitar bands. Whether it was the sturdy rhythm/lead axis of Scorpions' ...
10 Best Heavy Metal Instrumentals
Amazon (2) You can tell a story in a song, but that doesn't mean you need words to convey that story. Music is a language all its own, and oh god yes, heavy metal is our favorite language. Where ...
Metallica: Best Cover Band Ever
Andrew Caballero, Getty Images In his latest installment of his 'Mean Deviation' column, music historian Jeff Wagner tells us why he thinks Metallica is the ultimate heavy metal cover band. ...
