Have you ever had one of those conversations, where the topic inevitably turns to what type of music you listen to and the only response you know they'll understand is ‘um…heavy fucking metal’?

Well, we've decided it was high time that we put together a list of our top picks for the uninitiated. Next time you're trying to get somebody into metal, just show them these bands to kick-start their descent into the all-evil, totally unreal world we live in.

Since its Australian Music T-shirt Day, we figured what better way to pay homage to this yearly event than to list some the most controversial and downright unwearable shirts in music history? From Metallica to Cannibal Corpse, these shirts range from somewhat questionable to spew-in-your-mouth disgusting. Enjoy! 

Metallica – Metal Up Your Ass

Mastodon’sBill Kelliher was recently interviewed byFace Culture and talked about the first time he heardMetallica!We’ve all had those moments where a particular album has really cut through, andBill said that

Our new favourite Tumblr isjbetcomfor the awesome animated classic album gifs that this dude has made. Check out our selection below and make sure you head over to his blog!

Cannibal Corpse - Butchered At Birth

Bad Religion - Suffer

Photo Credit: Jim Rinaldi

On our further travels through the internet, we’ve found an entire Tumblr dedicated to swapping guitars with giant slugs. We’ve picked out our favourites for you below!

James Hetfield (Metallica)

Eddie Van Halen

Angus Young (AC/DC)

Avenged Sevenfold’s drummer Arin Ilejaydoes a pretty solid job, there’s no denying that! Behind every great musician though, is a great set of influences. Arin shared his top 9 drumming hero’s with Music Radar, is there anyone awesome that he’s missed?

Dave Weckl

It is not long at all until we are hopefully all hanging out with Trivium at Soundwave festival and I cannot wait to see their live show! The band’s bassist Paolo Gregolettohad a chat with StereoBoard.com about how the band’s sound has progressed, haters & being dubbed the next Metallica!