Metal Brainiac

Few progressive metal bands of the past decade have crushed it as consistently as Intronaut, and the larger metal world is taking notice. Their fifth disc, "The Direction of Last Things" (in stores Nov. 13), offers up technical precision, layered guitars, polyrhythms, dynamic sweeps and a foundation of heaviness. On the eve of upcoming tours supporting Mastodon and Between the Buried and Me, vocalist-guitarist Sacha Dunable talks about the band's history, the creative process behind Intronaut's new album and the quick growth of his own company, Dunable Guitars.

While bands such as Queensryche and Dream Theater have enjoyed more popular success, the New Jersey band Symphony X has been right behind them, helping to define progressive metal for more than 20 years. Guitarist Michael Romeo has been the heart of the band, both as the key songwriter and as a jaw-dropping soloist. In this interview, from the band's tour bus during a September 2015 stop in Cleveland, Romeo details the creative process behind the band's newest disc, "Underworld," and talks about the challenges of earning a living in the era of Spotify and pirated music.

The Seattle band Queensryche defined smart, progressive metal for a generation of fans during the 1980s and 90s. But after the band's main creative force left the band and music altogether, Queensryche foundered through a series of tepid albums, culminating in a long, contentious split with vocalist Geoff Tate. Behind new singer Todd LaTorre, Queensryche has found a creative and energetic rebirth.

In this interview, recorded backstage during the band's Sept. 23 appearance in Cleveland, founding guitarist Michael Wilton reflects on the band's past, discusses the transition to making music and performing with LaTorre and the creative process behind Queensryche's inspired new album, "Condition Human."

All-instrumental prog-metal quartet Scale the Summit are releasing the least metal album of their career ("V" is due Sept. 18 on Prosthetic Records). Co-founding guitarist Travis Levrier talks about this, the band’s creative process and his musical relationship with the band’s co-founding guitarist, Chris Letchford.

Despite being widely hailed as one of the guitar gods of thrash metal, Alex Skolnick of Testament has never had an easy relationship to the culture of metal. In this exclusive interview, Skolnick talks about his love/hate relationship with performance, the life and limitations as a member of Testament and the creative process behind Metal Allegiance, his new supergroup side project with drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist Dave Ellefson.

Jake Dieffenbach was born with a hearing disability, and his hearing is only worsening with time. In this podcast, for the first time anywhere, the Rivers of Nihil vocalist reveals and details his disability and its impact on both his work at the microphone and in his life, at large.

After four albums and many world tours as the drummer of Megadeth, Shawn Drover left the band and, soon after, guitarist Chris Broderick followed him. The two have formed a new thrash outfit called Act of Defiance, bringing on bassist Matt Bachand (Shadows Fall/Times Of Grace) and vocalist Henry Derek (Scar The Martyr).

With the release of the band's aggressive debut, "Birth and the Burial," Drover spoke at length with Metal Brainiac about leaving one of the world's most established metal bands to build something from scratch, give himself a consistent outlet for his songwriting and the challenges for new acts in selling albums in the digital era.

Kobra Paige talks about her classical vocal training, growing up metal in Calgary, Canada; the importance of KISS' Gene Simmons to her ascending star and the story behind her adopted name of Kobra. Kobra and the Lotus are releasing "Words of the Prophets," a new EP of songs made famous by other Canadian rockers.

Three years after breaking the concept album barrier with “The Parallax,” the North Carolina prog-metal band Between the Buried and Me are back with another concept album, “Coma Ecliptic.” Tommy Rogers, the band's founding vocalist and keyboardist, unpacks everything about creating the new record and the simple approaches the band takes to its complex compositions.

When the singer of Staind decided to take a turn at country music, the band's guitarist, Mike Mushok, kept his creativity and career alive by pairing with former Three Days Grace frontman Adam Gontier to form the heart of a new supergroup, Saint Asonia. Mushok talks about the leap on the heels of the band's self-titled debut album.