Articles by Ben Myers

Articles by: Ben Myers

“My totalitarian rule might not be cool, but at least we’ve made interesting records. At least we polarise people”: It took The Mars Volta three years and several arguments to make Noctourniquet

By Ben Myers published 26 March 25

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez challenged himself to stop aiming for perfection, and challenged old friend Cedric Bixler-Zavala to write direct lyrics. It wasn’t easy for either of them

Megadeth posing for a photograph in 2013

“Metal fans are still stigmatised. So I try and write lyrics with meaning, rather than standard metal lyrics”: How Megadeth‘s Dave Mustaine set out to bust a few myths with Super Collider

By Ben Myers published 18 January 25

A 2013 audience with an unexpectedly calm and approachable Dave Mustaine

Karnivool posing for a photograph with mirrors

“No one ever interferes with us creatively and we’d like to keep it that way”: The story of Karnivool, prog metal’s most elusive band

By Ben Myers published 6 October 24

It’s been more than a decade since Karnivool released an album – this is the how they became the prog metal fan’s favourite cult prog metal band

Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde brandishing his bullseye guitar

“The doctor told me if I carried on drinking at the same pace I’d start bleeding out of every orifice”: How Zakk Wylde kicked the booze and saved his own life

By Ben Myers published 5 October 24

Zakk Wylde was one of rock’s great wildmen – until he was told to kick the booze or die

“In a world of dunces, everything bad is blamed on the devil. Yet it’s the Church who promote a lot of things that are genuinely bad for mankind”: how Ghost kicked things to the next level with Infestissumam

By Ben Myers published 14 July 24

In this classic 2013 interview, Ghost mainman Tobias Forge talks ambition, success and Satan

Glenn Danzig wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket

“Elvis had attitude. So did Iron Maiden and Danzig. Put today’s bands in front of me and I wouldn’t know who they are”: an interview with Glenn Danzig, rock’s dark lord

By Ben Myers published 23 June 24

Guns, goths and politicians - the world according to Misfits frontman and goth-punk icon Glenn Danzig

“The fact that he managed to mix the political with the comical and the absurd, without comprising his output, is a big influence”: Frank Zappa is Serj Tankian’s prog hero

By Ben Myers published 22 March 24

System Of A Down vocalist hails the Mothers Of Invention leader for more than just his ambitious approach to making music

“These songs owe more to rhythmic, krautrock mood-makers and post-rock and drone exponents as any early hip-hop influence… it’s not background music for middle class dinner parties”: The prog credentials of Massive Attack’s Mezzanine

By Ben Myers published 10 February 24

Out-and-out progressive rock it isn’t, but the 1998 record’s shared values influenced Steven Wilson, Anathema, Radiohead, Dream Theater, Katatonia and many others

“She has managed to maintain her position without ever once being sucked into the creative vacuum of celebrity culture”: The less we see of Kate Bush, the more we want to know

By Ben Myers published 22 January 24

Supported by established artists, secured in a family business and a star by the age of 21, her vision and clarity made her prog’s first pop star (and pop’s first prog star)

“The proggiest pop song to reach the top spot since Marillion’s Kayleigh... and that only actually reached No.2”: Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know and its parent album, Making Mirrors

By Ben Myers published 14 January 24

Wally De Backer’s Grammy-winning 2011 record proves he’s more Brian Eno then Ed Sheeran

“Though quintessentially punk records, their first two albums featured tricky time signatures, a four-part musical suite, and songs that clocked in at seven minutes”: The Stranglers were always more prog than you thought

By Ben Myers published 19 November 23

Third album Black And White is Exhibit A in a case that also includes Robert Fripp, Peter Hammill, Steve Hillage and Nik Turner

“A standard teen rebellion story - on paper, at least… But this is a musical concept, where pieces join to form a narrative in which things get weird”: Why The Who’s Quadrophenia is a prog epic

By Ben Myers published 3 November 23

Triumphant sixth album may be nostalgia for a previous decade, but it stands with the work of other bands who helped make 1973 the genre’s most vintage year

“Like no one else… Theirs was the sound of a progressive new future for rock”: the prog roots of Jane’s Addiction major label debut Nothing’s Shocking

By Ben Myers published 23 September 23

Where other bands flirted with the dark side, listeners just knew this band were living it

“A subversive and musically schizophrenic infiltration of mainstream America”: Faith No More’s The Real Thing was more prog than many realised

By Ben Myers published 27 August 23

Notoriously dysfunctional band’s 1989 album – their first with Mike Patton – made them much more than a cult rock oddity

There Goes My Hero: The Gallows Pole writer Ben Myers on Joey Ramone, the ultimate punk

By Ben Myers published 1 June 23

Novelist Ben Myers (The Gallows Pole/The Offing) salutes Joey Ramone, the king of the underdogs

Public Image Ltd's Metal Box: "The entire concept was progressive"

By Ben Myers published 14 November 22

How Public Image Ltd shifted from post-punk to a more progressive sound on 1979's Metal Box

The Who's Quadrophenia: It's prog Jim, but not as we know it...

By Ben Myers last updated 14 September 22

"We're closer to prog rock than, say, Led Zeppelin," Pete Townshend once said. Ben Myers reckons he was spot on when it comes to Quadrophenia

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain: it's up there with any traditional prog release

By Ben Myers last updated 22 July 22

Funkadelic's Maggot Brain has a solo that sounds like Rick Wakeman being dumped in the ghetto at midnight and told to play for this life!

10 of the greatest uses of bagpipes in rock'n'roll history

By Ben Myers published 10 March 22

Some people love bagpipes, some people don't, but no one can deny the part they've played in painting rock'n'roll's magnificent tapestry

Why The Clash's debut album is no classic

By Ben Myers published 8 April 20

It's gone down in history as a classic, but The Clash's self-tiled debut album offered a thrilling but limited blueprint for the future

Did The Stranglers go prog on Black And White?

By Ben Myers last updated 22 January 20

They certainly did, argues Prog writer Ben Myers...

Wolf People at The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge - live review

By Ben Myers published 24 May 17

Not yet rated

Psychedelic Brits wow at a very unlikely venue

Simon Reynolds - Shock & Awe: Glam Rock And Its Legacy book cover

Simon Reynolds - Shock & Awe: Glam Rock And Its Legacy book review

By Ben Myers published 26 September 16

Not yet rated

Wonderfully weighty study of all that glittered – and no small debt to prog from Simon Reynolds

Jesse Hughes from Eagles Of The Death Metal performs at 2016 Lollapalooza at Autodromo de Interlagos on March 12, 2016 in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Opinion: Maybe it's time for Jesse Hughes to take a break

By Ben Myers published 23 May 16

The Eagles Of Death Metal frontman should stop using the media as therapy following the Bataclan attacks

The Futureheads album artwork for The Futureheads

It's Prog Jim: The Futureheads

By Ben Myers published 6 May 16

The Futureheads (679 Recordings/Warners, 2004)

1
2
3
4
5
View Archive

Ben Myers

Get the Louder Newsletter