The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
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“It’s their first time listening to prog, and they like it!” Ross Valory on his solo album
Bassist recalls the AOR giants’ progressive early years and explains why he thinks the genre is getting stronger all the time
Even though Kate Bush refused to produce Gavin Friday’s Virgin Prunes, he still loves her
Composer, actor and painter explains why her work is high art in the style of influential writer James Joyce
The song that transformed Dire Straits' fortunes and set them on the path to global fame
Inspired by watching a hopeless jazz combo play in a deserted pub, Sultans Of Swing sent Dire Straits on a journey to superstardom
How Queen + Paul Rodgers resurrected one of rock’s most iconic bands
The story of Queen + Paul Rodgers’ one-and-done album The Cosmos Rocks
How Nita Strauss became a modern guitar hero
She's shared a stage with Jim Carrey and outrun a tornado, but Nita Strauss's proudest achievement is inspiring the next generation of guitarists
How Iron Maiden’s epic Somewhere Back In Time tour took them where other metal bands dare not go
In 2008, Metal Hammer climbed aboard Ed Force One to join Iron Maiden on the tour of a lifetime
How Ozzy Osbourne rediscovered himself with the Scream album
In 2010, Ozzy Osbourne released his eleventh solo album Scream – and he had reality TV, reunions and “Jesus Freaks” on his mind
1977 was the supposedly the year punk killed prog. The truth is very different
Exploding the myth that progressive rock’s ‘dinosaurs’ were finished off by punk
Stephen Stills’ wild stories of Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Public Enemy
He’s jammed with Hendrix, hung out with Peter Sellers and ribbed Bob Dylan – you name them, Stephen Stills knows them
The unbelievable story of Def Leppard’s 80s hard rock masterpiece Hysteria
Four years, one near-fatal car crash and an ocean of booze in the making, Def Leppard’s Hysteria is the 80s hard rock album against which all others should be measured
Black Sabbath albums ranked, from worst to best
Some Black Sabbath albums are epoch-defining classics, some are average, some downright embarrassing, and we've ranked them – from woeful worst to brilliant best
When William Burroughs gave Daevid Allen permission to call his band The Soft Machine
A key moment in the Canterbury band’s history came when the future Gong mastermind made contact with his former collaborator in 1966
"I’d listen to that song and dream about my future": The soundtrack of Luke Spiller's life
Luke Spiller picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance, and reveals the classic album he might record new vocals for
How Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine revitalised metal
Trivium's Ascendancy and Bullet For My Valentine's The Poison were released eight months apart. They would become instant metal classics - and usher in the next generation of metal bands
Jerry Cantrell on riffs, Alice In Chains and extreme metal
Ever wondered what extreme metal bands Alice In Chains jammed to? Jerry Cantrell has the answer
Nine albums by the members of Guns N' Roses you should listen to... and one you should ignore
The members of Guns N' Roses will always be defined by the music made with the band, but that's not all they've done
The story of the greatest Metallica live album you’ve never listened to
In 2008, eager to mend fences with fans after the Napster debacle, the biggest band in metal played one of the tiniest shows of their lives
Uriah Heep's Mick Box on why he's calling time on Uriah Heep as a touring act
Veteran rockers Uriah Heep are saying farewell to the road, but it’s not the end of the band
