Dave Everley

Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

Articles by: Dave Everley

Big Big Train in 2019

“Life is to be lived, and lived well… there’s a feeling of carpe diem across the whole album”: Big Big Train loaded Grand Tour with intergalactic ambitions

By Dave Everley published

Inspired by journeys across 250 million years, Gregory Spawton and the late David Longdon intended the band’s 12th album to be bigger in scale than anything they’d done before

Kerry King: From Hell I Rise cover art

Kerry King's From Hell I Rise: The best Slayer album Slayer never made

By Dave Everley published

On solo album From Hell I Rise Kerry King sounds like he's having more fun than he had in years with his old band

A montage of Freddie Mercury, Kurt Cobain, David Bowie and Jim Morrison

The first and last lyrics sung on record by 20 legendary bands

By Dave Everley published

From The Beatles and Bowie to Freddie Mercury and Kurt Cobain and, these are the first and last lines sung on record by rock’s biggest bands

Slayer Metal Blade Promo 1983

"We were like, ‘These guys are just like us, this is crazy! We want to hack things up with machetes with them!’” Members of Metallica, Megadeth, Ghost and more talk the years that made Slayer into the ultimate thrash icons

By Dave Everley published

Slayer might not have been the first band in thrash metal, but they became the genre's ultimate champions

Oliver Wakeman

“I’ve been writing these pieces over the years… I thought, ‘They sound pretty good.’ Then you end up rewriting half the stuff!” Oliver Wakeman’s Anam Cara began in 2002

By Dave Everley published

Celtic-themed album, featuring Hayley Griffiths and, Troy Donockley, is spiritual successor to his collaboration with Steve Howe

David Gilmour, Syd Barrett and Roger Waters

The Pink Floyd solo albums you should definitely own

By Dave Everley published

Freed from the rivalry and constraints within Pink Floyd, the band members held nothing back on their solo endeavours – and here are their best albums

Kris Barras looking angry

"It's such a limiting genre": After three albums of blues-rock, the Kris Barras Band have ramped up the heaviness

By Dave Everley published

Kris Barras on the people in power, top advice from Billy Gibbons, and being a "Poundshop version" of Richie Kotzen

Soundgarden

“Some of our peers thought, ‘Are they going to be corporate sell-outs?’ I don’t know if was jealousy or a feeling of betrayal”: the rise, fall and return of Soundgarden

By Dave Everley published

In 2014, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil sat down with Metal Hammer to look back over his band’s rollercoaster career

Bily Morrison press portrait

"I didn't do a thing in the music industry until I was twenty-nine": Billy Morrison is a success story 30 years in the making

By Dave Everley published

Taking time out from playing with big names, Billy Morrison has made an album of his own, with Ozzy and more guesting

Live studio portrait

"People used it to mourn to": In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, one song captured the mood of a nation and turned Live into unprepared superstars

By Dave Everley published

Live's heartfelt anthem became a beacon and spirited Throwing Copper to the top of the charts: Not bad for a small-town band from Pennsylvania

OU band press shot 2024

"OU frequently sound like they’ve beamed in from the 25th century." Devin Townsend-approved Chinese metallers OU take prog metal into strange new worlds on II: Frailty

By Dave Everley published

Hailing from Beijing and sounding like they come from outer space, China's OU are pushing boundaries with new album II: Frailty

Joe Elliott at Sister Ray Records in London

"Me, Bono and Bowie hijacked a Mini and drove to this restaurant where the Edge was to sing him Happy Birthday": What happened when we went record shopping with Joe Elliott

By Dave Everley published

We gave Def Leppard's Joe Elliott £50

Ou, Hawxx and Mountain Caller

"What is this band about? I’m not sure. I like that it’s a mystery to me.” Meet five excellent young bands inspired by Tool

By Dannii Leivers published

Hawxx, Ou, Mountain Caller, Wheel and Every Hell are channelling current Metal Hammer cover stars Tool in a variety of weird and wonderful ways

Richie Faulkner and Rob Halford onstage, and a studio portrait of Rob Halford

"You look at all these people who are giving you the horns, from Eminem to Lionel Ritchie, and you think: Is this really happening?": Judas Priest on awards shows, Invincible Shield and the beauty of cats

By Dave Everley published

With Invincible Shield their third genuinely great album in a row, Judas Priest's late-career purple patch continues

Steve Howe

“We didn’t force a connection, it just happened.” Steve Howe remembers a fledgling Yes supporting Jethro Tull in America in 1971

By Dave Everley published

Supporting an already-established Jethro Tull in America helped Yes in their way to star status

White Zombie in 1994

“Drugs were everywhere in New York. Everybody knew at least five people who had OD’d. I always learned from other people’s mistakes”: the unlikely rise and sudden fall of White Zombie

By Dave Everley published

White Zombie’s final album Astro-Creep: 2000 was released on this day in1995. Rob Zombie looks back on the band’s unlikely success

A montage of metal musicians with their pets

“Anyone who doesn’t talk to their pets is a psychopath!” We asked a bunch of metal stars to tell us about their pets on International Pet Day

By Dave Everley published

Dogs, cats, ponies, goats, ducks – to mark International Pet Day, we asked members of Killswitch Engage, Amon Amarth, Green Lung and more to tell us about the animals they share their lives with

Marillion group portrait

"At one point an aggrieved producer threatened to attack them with a machete": Say what you want about Marillion's second album, but it was not easy to make

By Dave Everley published

Buoyed by the success of Script For A Jester's Tear, follow-up Fugazi was a victim of extremely difficult second album syndrome

Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen

“It was inspiring to see how Metallica worked. I had their posters before I had my first guitar”: how Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen stepped up to metal’s big league

By Dave Everley published

The story of Volbeat’s Outlaw Gentlemen & Shady Ladies album

Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson onstage in 1994

“I believed we would not get back together. I thought Rush was a place Neil was not going to be able to go back to emotionally”: how Rush survived the 1990s and early 2000s

By Dave Everley published

Rush refound their rock spirit in the 1990s – only to be blindsided by personal tragedy

A promo shot of Rick Astley with insets of AC/DC’s Bon Scott and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor

“I fell in love with Highway To Hell when I heard it in my dad’s pick-up truck. Bon Scott had a cheek to him”: pop superstar Rick Astley on his love of AC/DC, Slipknot, Yes and Foo Fighters

By Dave Everley published

From AC/DC’s Highway To Hell to Foo Fighters’ Everlong, these are the song Rick Astley is never gonna give up

Devin Townsend

"Prog music, or heavy music in general, is a very conservative scene. When you are willing to expose yourself emotionally, it’s a vulnerable place to be." Devin Townsend tackles The Prog Interview

By Dave Everley published

From his early days with Steve Vai to battling through mental health problems and explaining to Prog just why he prefers Beefheart over Zappa, there’s much to cover in this therapeutic discussion…

A promo shot of Slayer in 1983

This 41 year old video is the oldest known footage of Slayer, and it proves they were brilliant from the start

By Dave Everley published

Watch a pre-fame Slayer play a show in Anaheim, California several months before debut album Show No Mercy came out

Mick Mars studio portrait. He's wearing a cap and smiling

Mick Mars put together the most hedonistic band of their era and has the scars to prove it: Now out of Mötley Crüe, he's starting a solo career. Lived a life? You bet

By Dave Everley published

Mick Mars looks back on his career, from his early days on Sunset Strip to his years as an unlikely metal superstar

Taylor Hawkins

"You have to manifest your destiny. You have to think about what you want to do, then do it": A celebration of the life of Taylor Hawkins

By Dave Everley published

Two years on from the death of Taylor Hawkins, we remember and celebrate the life of the Foo Fighters drummer, natural showman and perennial 'Mister Fanboy'