Metalhead Mark the Beast (Mark Evans) is the Brooklyn-based studio musician, guitarist, engineer and DJ you need on your radar. When not penning hits for high profile artists like Prodigy or Mobb Deep, he’s producing high quality dubstep and drum & bass with a shredded edge. With magnificent outings on Uplink Audio, UKF and Subhuman, Mark remains busy as he closes out the Blood Sweat & Bass tour alongside Downlink and Dieselboy. As he looks ahead to his next release on the mighty Circus Records, he also has something else up his sleeve: a bass music EP focused on fusing the melodic with the heavy.
Speaking of heavy, we couldn’t help but encourage Mark to reflect on his affinity for metal, a sound that inspired him from an early age and continues to inspire the heavy-duty, highly detailed works you’re head-banging to at the rave today. Without further ado, Mark the Beast presents his Top 5 heavy metal tracks of all time.
I saw Lamb of God with Slayer maybe seven or eight years ago and it was the only mosh pit I’ve ever been scared to enter.
Between the Buried and Me “Selkies: the Endless Obsession” (Victory, 2005)
Between the Buried and Me has always been a huge inspiration to me growing up. I love their technical sound and the way their songs progress without much repetition. Their album Alaska, which this tune is on, is probably my favorite. These guys live are also so on point. The mix of different time signatures and musical progressions into heavy metal is something I’m really into.
Get it at iTunes
Lamb Of God “Now You’ve Got Something To Die For” (Epic, 2004)
This came out on Ashes of the Wake—the whole album is fucking awesome! I love the trashy energy of Lamb of God, but in this song, the vocals always got me with how high energy they are and how the drums are so driving, heavy and tight. I saw Lamb of God with Slayer maybe seven or eight years ago and it was the only mosh pit I’ve ever been scared to enter.
Killswitch Engage “When Darkness Falls” (Roadrunner, 2004)
This was another group that was very special to me growing up. I used to listen to this song and the album The End of Heartache all the time while on my way to school or on vacation with my parents and just tune everything else out. It was kind of like the soundtrack to my life at the time. (I was 14.) Also, if I remember correctly, the guitarist in Killswitch Engage is the one who engineers their music—at least at the time of this album—which growing up as a guitarist and aspiring audio engineer/producer I always looked up to. This song is just all around heavy and melodic; really beautiful in my opinion.
Necrophagist “Stabwound” (Relapse, 2004)
This shit is just nuts; these guys are technically insane. The main guitarist, Muhammed Suicmez, writes all of the music, which I think is amazing. This song is really heavy and technical. As a guitarist I would always practice this song to try to get down my sweep picking skills. (I had this song down at one point but would probably have to brush up on it a bit now.) But yeah, Necrophagist—awesome heavy German death metal. I’m into it.
As Blood Runs Black “In Dying Days” (Mediaskare, 2006)
This is another one of those really heavy anthemic songs. Mid-song there is this breakdown where the music drops out and the vocal comes in with “IN DYING” and it drops right there into a fucking heavy breakdown. I’ve probably listened to this song a thousand or more times and it still gets me every time. This whole album just sounds really raw to me. I’m really into that raw, organic heavy sound that doesn’t sound too over-produced.