Author Archives: Kim Sanders

With “Black Ice,” AC/DC’s first studio album since 2000’s “Stiff Upper Lip,” the question was whether the band was back in black or just on thin ice.

For tattoo artist and television personality Kat Von D, music and tattoos have always gone hand in hand.

From the title, one would expect “The Black and White Album,” the latest release from The Hives, to be a cross between the seminal albums from The Beatles and Metallica.

In recent years, it has become increasingly obvious that the task of defending the sleaze-rock tradition that came crawling out of the gutters of the Sunset Strip in the 1980s has fallen to Sweden.

The local opening band wouldn’t have known it, but the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Label Society came out in full force Friday.

A bit of advice: Stay away from poison ivy. And don’t smear it on anything.

In Iceland, the Dimmu borgir is a lava formation that, according to folklore, connects earth and hell. In Norway, Dimmu Borgir is a band that links the operatic melodies of classical symphonies with the demonic growling and blast beats of black metal.