In 1996, Hellbound’s Sean Palmerston was offered the chance to do the first ever in-person North American radio interview with Quorthon, leader and visionary behind legendary Swedish black metal act Bathory. They also went out for dinner together beforehand, and here are Sean’s memories of that fateful night some seventeen years ago, shared in public for the first time since.

Today we published the TOP 20 ALBUMS OF 2012 list, as voted by the writers of Hellbound.ca. Here are the individual Top 10s that were submitted by our writers for your personal enjoyment…

“If you’re a fan of extreme metal and you live in North America, it’s likely that you have a strong impulse to attend the continent’s biggest annual festival: Maryland Deathfest. Actually attending the fest, however, isn’t always possible, especially if you live thousands of miles away.”

Part two of Jay H. Gorania’s recap of Maryland Deathfest 2012, with live photos by Albert Mansour.

After my proclamation earlier this year that Liberteer’s debut album, “Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees” is the front runner for my favourite album of the year, I’m standing by those words 150-fucking-percent. (And yes, I still say that even after fucking Palmerston took like four months to run this second part of this interview!) I’ve been spinning the album a few times daily since last week and am loving it more and more each time. So, I got in touch with main man (well, only man) behind Liberteer’s all-awesome awesomeness, Matthew Widener, for another round of word association. Here’s the resulting silliness.

Kevin Stewart-Panko plays the word association game with Liberteer’s Matthew Widener on the eve of the release of his new project’s debut album, Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees, set for release on Relapse Records on January 31st.

When The Screams Come is a great visual document of the band that will be as entertaining to longtime fans of the band as it will be to newcomers. It’s not the flashiest, it’s certainly a warts-and-all type performance, but it captures a historically important band in their background getting the kind of adulation they deserve.

The first and most obvious question you’re probably asking yourself after seeing that Hellbound is reviewing the Fat Wreck re-issues of the first five albums by these Goleta, California’s melodi-punk heroes is whether or not the version we’re reviewing here is the box-set edition or simply the individual releases reviewed as a collective. I believe what Grand Wizard Palmerston has provided here are the individual releases, seeing as they are strewn across my desk and there’s no box provided that might maintain any amount of order in the slightest…

Since Hellbound.ca is a Canadian-owned and operated metal publication, we do things a little bit different than most. While 2011 was coming to a close we asked all of our contributors to pick their Top Canadian metal albums of the year. We then tabulated up their responses and have created our third annual Top 10 Canadian Metal Albums writers poll.

Please check out what our writers feel to be the best Canadian metal albums released in 2011.