Roy Wilkinson of U.K.'s The Guardian reports: This year sees the 30th anniversary of one of our most thoroughly titled musical genres: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, abbreviated to NWOBHM, and pronounced "nuh-wobbum". It's a realm of rapid-fire riffs and heroic declarations about motorbikes, the Charge of the Light Brigade and sticking it to the boss. It's also a place of much bathos and human fallibility. One NWOBHM group toured in a van bearing the trademark of its previous owner: Sid Cummings - Tripe Dealer. Another band's drummer played inside a cage while wearing what was often referred to as a "rapist mask". He called himself Thunderstick, though his parents knew him better as Barry Purkis.

Read the entire article from The Guardian.