HeavyGuide has always been about discovery — one band, one song, curated by hand. Today that idea gets a visual dimension. The new Videos section is now live, and it does something simple but satisfying: it puts an official YouTube video next to the music you already love browsing here.

How It Works

Every band in the database can now have an official music video linked to their entry. The system works in two ways:

  • Manual curation — a specific video ID is chosen and locked in. This is used when a band has one defining visual that belongs here.
  • Automatic search — when no video is manually set, the system searches YouTube via the official API and picks the most-viewed official clip for that artist. Bands with fewer than 50,000 views on their top result are excluded, keeping the quality bar high.

The search logic is careful about accuracy. If the YouTube results include unrelated videos with similar names — which happens more than you'd think in metal — the system prioritises clips where the band name actually appears in the video title. No "Oceans (Spirit Lead Me)" showing up for ...And Oceans.

All videos are embedded using youtube-nocookie.com, which means no tracking cookies are loaded unless you actually press play.

Browse by Genre

The Videos page supports the same genre filtering you'll find elsewhere on the site. Click any genre tag at the top of the page to narrow down to Black Metal, Death Metal, Doom, or any of the other categories represented in the database. More videos will appear as bands are added and matched over time.

Other Sections Worth Knowing

If you haven't explored the full site yet, here's what else is available:

Releases

The Releases section tracks new and upcoming heavy music — organised by date, filterable by label and genre. A good place to check when you want to know what just dropped or what's coming next. Recent additions include releases from Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Season of Mist and many more.

Shoutbox

The Shoutbox is exactly what it sounds like — a live feed for quick reactions, recommendations and metal chat. Spotted a great new release? Heard something that destroyed you? Say so.

Forum

For longer conversations, the Forum is the place. Threads on albums, bands, genres and whatever else the community wants to dig into. No algorithms, no feeds — just posts in order.

HeavyGuide.no is built slowly and deliberately. Every feature gets added because it makes the music easier to find, hear and talk about. Videos felt like the right next step.