Born on October 29, 1955, in Hollywood, California, Kevin DuBrow became the brash, big haired voice of Quiet Riot, the band guitarist Randy Rhoads and bassist Kelly Garni formed in 1975 before recruiting him and drummer Drew Forsyth. After Rhoads left to join Ozzy Osbourne and died in a 1982 plane crash, DuBrow rebuilt the band around a Slade cover, "Cum on Feel the Noize," and the title track "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)," pushing 1983's Metal Health to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the first heavy metal album ever to top the US charts, a breakthrough that helped crack the door open for the entire LA metal scene that followed. DuBrow's outspoken mouth, criticizing other bands in interviews, helped get him fired from his own band in 1987, though he returned in 1993 and fronted Quiet Riot until his death in 2007.

Born Peter Allen Greenbaum on October 29, 1946, in Bethnal Green, London, Peter Green built his reputation as a guitarist's guitarist, first replacing Eric Clapton in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers on A Hard Road before founding Fleetwood Mac in 1967 with drummer Mick Fleetwood. His haunting instrumental "Albatross" rode its way to No. 1 on the British singles chart, while "Black Magic Woman" later became a hit for Santana and "Oh Well" and "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" showcased his darker, heavier turn. Green walked away from the band in 1970 at the height of its success, struggling for years afterward with mental illness before a late career comeback. Rolling Stone later ranked him among rock's greatest guitarists, and Fleetwood Mac inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Duane Allman, founder and slide guitar architect of the Allman Brothers Band, died on October 29, 1971, at age 24, after his motorcycle struck a flatbed truck that stopped suddenly at an intersection in Macon, Georgia, throwing him into the pavement where the bike landed on top of him. He had formed the band with his brother Gregg in Jacksonville in 1969, building a sound rooted in blues and jazz improvisation that helped define Southern rock. A sought after session player, Allman had only picked up slide guitar in 1968 but quickly lent his tone to Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, and most famously Derek and the Dominos' Layla, trading licks with Eric Clapton. Rolling Stone later ranked him the second greatest guitarist of all time, behind only Jimi Hendrix, and the Allman Brothers' Eat a Peach takes its title from one of his own sayings.

On October 29, 2012, Cradle of Filth released The Manticore and Other Horrors through Peaceville Records in Europe, its tenth studio album and the only one recorded as a stripped down trio of Dani Filth, guitarist Paul Allender, and drummer Martin Škaroupka. Conceived as a bestiary of monster tales, the record leaned back into strong melodies and female vocal harmonies, pairing gothic horror with punk edged riffing across songs like the title track, inspired by a man eating beast of Indian folklore, and the fairy tale flavored "For Your Vulgar Delectation." Recorded at Grindstone and Springvale Studios in Suffolk, it reached No. 96 on the Billboard 200 and marked Allender's final album with the band before his second departure in 2014. Produced by Scott Atkins, Dani Filth, Paul Allender, and Martin Škaroupka.