Features archive
April 2025
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126 articles
- April 26
- April 25
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- "I hit a wall. I am not built to do that." Ghost's Tobias Forge reached burnout in 2024. This is how Skeletá brought him back to life
- These are the 12 new metal songs you need to check out this week
- I sing anti-fascist songs in a thrash band – why aren’t more metal musicians angry about the state of the world?
- "Everybody tells me that it's a happier experience": Daryl Hall on life without former "business partner" John Oates
- April 24
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- “People think we sing about Vikings. We don’t and we never did. We’re concerned with nature and our relationship with nature”: If other Nordic folk bands overtake Wardruna, Einar Selvik doesn’t mind
- "An immense heart-soaring rush of exuberance": What happened when I took a Bon Jovi superfan to an intimate Bon Jovi show
- “It’s overwhelming – you wanna go on, you wanna live off the music, but maybe not everyone in the band can do that”: Katatonia ended a phase of doubt and gave shape to their Dead End King on 11th album City Burials
- April 23
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- “They can steal pretty much everything. They haven’t figured out a way of stealing the live experience. And they still have to pay for that!” Adrian Belew on survival, orchestra music and Frank Zappa
- “Only the stoner fuzz intro was played on the show. I spoke about dreamy ambient passages, a variety of tones and textures... I wasn’t invited back”: Captain Sensible tried and failed to tell the world about Egg
- "There were a helluva lot of drug issues and bad feeling in the air": How doomed Beach Boy Dennis Wilson made his solo masterpiece Pacific Ocean Blue
- "He knew something that I didn't know, that nobody knew: that he wouldn't live too long" How Johnny Thunders reached for the stars – then threw it all away
- April 22
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- "The record company should’ve offered counselling - we could've been the next Journey!" The high hopes and shattered dreams of melodic rock's nearly men, Giuffria
- "We were just hanging out on the beach and sipping cool libations; Keith Richards was totally living the rock’n’roll lifestyle": Billy Gibbons’ wild tales of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters and Ministry
- “Onstage everything had to be exaggerated. I took that to heart and overdid it… I was like Benny Hill with a flute!” Ian Anderson on Jethro Tull’s one-legged hammy past – and potential future as a stripped-down four-piece
- April 21
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- "Chris Cornell was the first rock star to consume the contents of my stomach." How Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and Soundgarden's Chris Cornell inspired the youth of America to drink vomit in the early '90s
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- “Whether any illicit cigarettes were involved isn’t clear, but this is the sound of Maiden floating in space”: Four Iron Maiden songs that sound nothing like Iron Maiden
- "She’s survived it all with grace and grit": The Bonnie Raitt albums you should definitely listen to, and one to avoid
- “To keep a standard up so long is an achievement. This album crowns that. Now people can play something other than A Whiter Shade Of Pale!” Procol Harum didn’t expect 50th anniversary album Novum to be their last
- April 20
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- “I had to focus on something or I wouldn’t get through those next few months. I thought of Lennon wearing his army jacket: I went to war against the illness”: The turbulent story of The Alarm, the band who could have been the new U2
- “Everyone in our circle was listening to a lot of West Coast hip hop, and it was minor key and dark. If you could take that to the next level, you could make it heavy metal”: How hip hop changed metal forever
- “He thought that the band should be a democracy, and it was more like a brutal dictatorship as far as he was concerned”: The tangled story of Dire Straits, the million-selling band who quit at the height of their fame
- “Everything I’m doing is purposely very different. If I’d wanted to keep doing what Dream Theater do, I’d still be in Dream Theater”: How Mike Portnoy reinvented himself after the trauma of leaving two massive bands
- “It was a great antidote to American earnest rock bands who seemed to think it was all about them”: Supergrass on the making of their timeless Britpop classic I Should Coco
- April 19
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- “Driven by a mammoth riff that could give Black Sabbath a run for their money, they never recorded anything so primitive or heavy again”: Four songs that will make you rethink everything you know about Queen
- “We blew this whole scene open, I don’t care what anybody says. We did all the work, and now all these other bands are popping up”: How Korn changed up their sound and left the copycats behind with Follow The Leader
- “They sounded like screams of anguish, screams of war, screams of where humanity is headed – they were perfect”: The feral story of Discharge’s Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing, the punk album that changed metal
- “In walked this clown, dressed in silk pyjamas, huge shades on. I shouted, ‘Get out!’ and pushed him into the corridor. That was Steven Tyler”: Randy Bachman‘s wild tales of Pete Townshend, Neil Young, Little Richard and Frank Sinatra
- “I had a massive animosity towards those fans”: Soundgarden’s manager thought it would be a great idea for them to support Guns N’ Roses, the band disagreed
- April 18
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- “I was always hoping that I would be taken away by aliens at some point”: The strange story of Devin Townsend’s Ocean Machine: Biomech, the album which launched his solo career
- "I grew up loving watching Roy Keane!" Linkin Park on their new football-inspired remix of Numb, their upcoming Champions League final show, Lionel Messi, Roy Keane, and America's chances of winning the next World Cup
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- “I don’t think anybody can be prepared for how big the crowd was. A sea of denim and leather as far as you can see”: The epic story of Monsters Of Rock, the greatest heavy metal festival of them all
- “I’ve had dreams about a meteor hitting us. It’s only a matter of time. We deserve it, to be honest”: Doom high priests Electric Wizard are the perfect band to soundtrack the end of the world
- “He was, without question, the best rock drummer in the world”: What Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward really thought of Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham
- "He threw me in the lake and I had to learn to swim": Remembering Dickey Betts, southern rock pioneer
- “When my friend turned to me with a face as scrunched-up as Jim Carrey’s Grinch, I knew this band were special”: Why you need to care about Glassing
- “What angle have we missed on this? Ah yeah, getting some other ****er to sing it!”: the 10 best Manics songs featuring a guest singer (and the odd bassist and guitarist)
- "We were essentially a blues band with adventurous leanings": Every Free album ranked, from worst to best
- April 17
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- “Out of nowhere, all these frat kids are all doing this weird dance, all in lines. ‘You’re ruining my band!’ Then it was no longer ours”: From bitter experience, Maynard James Keenan conspires to keep knuckleheads away from his music
- From ecology to the occult: the dark secrets of Led Zeppelin IV
- “He says he’s mediocre. I understand – I say the same thing. But he’s a great musician, and that has nothing to do with ability”: What Mikael Åkerfeldt’s peers really think of him
- "The guy who was in charge of the label hated us": Black Spiders' 20-year career has been littered with hurdles and drawbacks, but now they're back
- April 16
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- “We’d stay up all night drinking, chasing girls, partying – and our pilot was with us. The next morning he was flying the plane!” The rise, fall and rise of AOR superstars REO Speedwagon
- The 50 greatest Iron Maiden moments
- “The lyrics just blew my mind. That song changed the way I write. I think Steven Wilson is really poetic”: Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach loves Porcupine Tree
- "Wildhearts fans have come to my aid. And it's a two-way street": Ginger Wildheart on beautiful connections, our beautiful planet, and his beautiful new album The Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts
- April 15
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- “Clever flurries of musical activity keeping multiple balls in the air. Then it all goes, against expectations, a bit King Crimson”: A prog band won last year’s Mercury Prize. Did you notice?
- Ever wanted to go to an incredible metal festival near the home of Dracula? Rockstadt Extreme Fest is about to change your life
- "There is a big difference between being funny and being ridiculous." Why Electric Callboy don’t want to be known as metal’s silliest band
- "People started to leave. I was terrified": The story of Elton John's favourite Elton John album and the calamitous stadium show that followed
- "The truly terrifying voice of a psychotic Republic": How Jimi Hendrix's iconic Woodstock performance was an expression of national nervous breakdown
- “Rush fans know Alex Lifeson has moved away from soloing. You probably wouldn’t know it’s him unless you were told”: What happened when Tiles’ Chris Herin gathered Peter Frampton, Martin Barre and others for his first solo album
- April 14
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- These 2005 metal albums are so incredible that they should have been chart-toppers
- “I saw my life flash by. I found myself as an orb of energy… I was out of my mind on a couch somewhere and somebody was afraid I was dying”: Claudio Sanchez reveals the truth behind some of Coheed And Cambria’s latest songs
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- "I never thought I’d make my living playing heavy metal." How Sabaton's Joakim Broden became the singer of the biggest power metal band in the world
- “A strobe light mounted on a replica of the album art had this amazing psychedelic effect. Especially if you were tripping – as a lot of people were”: When Curved Air released the first rock band picture disc
- April 13
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- Watch Montrose play a sizzling version of Bad Motor Scooter on the Midnight Special in 1975
- “We’ve always been true to ourselves. Motörhead has never told you a lie. And that’s very important to me”: A classic audience with Lemmy, rock’n’roll’s greatest warrior
- “We opened for the New York Dolls in 1974. The crowd was excited to see them. Not so much us”: An epic interview with Rush‘s Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee about the rollercoaster career of ‘rock’s biggest cult band’
- “The record label took a million dollars from us. There was nothing we could do because it was our fault”: How Deftones helped create nu metal – then escaped it
- April 12
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- “We asked Perry: ‘Do you want to write a new record?’ ‘No, no, no.’ At that point you’re wondering, why did we even bother putting Journey back together?” How Journey found a brand new singer on YouTube and banished the ghost of Steve Perry
- “We ended up getting into the punk rock scene ’cos the metal people hated us. We were this weird, crazy, slow band that played to punk crowds”: The tangled story of Saint Vitus, the US misfits who helped give birth to doom metal
- “Ringo Starr set down rules for us to follow. There was to be no riding of motorbikes on the grounds – so we did that. What do you expect from a heavy metal band?” The crazy story of British Steel, the album that turned Judas Priest into superstars
- “I remember sitting on the piano next to Steven Tyler while he was learning the song. Hearing that voice was one of those moments I’ll never forget”: The epic career of Diane Warren, the songwriting genius behind some of rock’s greatest hits
- “It deals with depression, girlfriends, substance abuse – all that stuff. We exorcised some demons”: How Lamb Of God turned from political fury to personal darkness on Sacrament
- “I tried to write songs with Paul McCartney, but it was impossible, because every idea I had sparked him off and every idea he had sparked me off”: Donovan’s transcendental tales of The Beatles, Dylan, Hendrix and David Lynch
- April 11
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- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- I went to my first ever Tallinn Music Week - here are 6 things I learned (and the best new band I discovered)
- We got rock and metal's best bands to pick the greatest Ozzy Osbourne (and Black Sabbath) songs ever
- No, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs don't regret choosing that name, and yes, that is El-P from Run The Jewels on their new single. Be advised: when Black Sabbath bow out this summer, this lot will officially be Britain's best stoner/doom/psych band
- Strange Fruit: The forgotten British psychedelic bands whose records might help pay off your mortgage
- “There are two sides to him – It was totally alien… I learned a lot of things about my voice and how to use it”: What happened when The Struts’ Luke Spiller worked with Mike Oldfield
- April 10
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- Biff Byford on Lemmy, inspiring thrash metal and the greatest heavy metal riff ever written
- "I hated everybody. I had no friends." The wild, unapologetic life of punk rock's forgotten hellraiser, Casey Chaos
- “Don’t be afraid. Realise it’s a learning process – nothing will ever be perfect. Be stubborn. Demand respect”: Kate Bush’s advice for forging a career
- "I know that sooner or later I won’t be able to do this any more": Driven by desperation and enthusiasm, Ian Anderson is leading Jethro Tull through a late career productivity burst
- April 9
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- "I’m uncontrollable when I drink, so I don’t know what happens next." How Jinjer's Tatiana Shmayluk found peace after years of unrest and turmoil
- “He was riding a bicycle on stage. I had my camera on a tripod and, gee, what a coincidence – almost every night he’d knock it over!” Tony Levin on the differences between Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp
- “We’d all seen The Wall; we knew there were good rock movies out there”: Inspired by Pink Floyd, Marillion made a film out of their 1994 concept album Brave. It didn’t go well
- "This band has always been out of sync with whatever is going on": The Black Crowes albums you should definitely listen to, and one to avoid
- "Ozzy jumped from one subject to another with astonishing rapidity, like some frantic pigeon": A mind-mincing encounter with Black Sabbath on the Sabotage tour
- April 8
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- “I’ve gone from having the greatest time of my life, to wanting to kill myself.” An audience with a tired, homesick, and somewhat irritable Red Hot Chili Peppers on the final night of their One Hot Minute world tour
- “It was so inspiring to see them put animosity to one side and just go on stage to play”: Sepultura’s Andreas Kisser explains his love for Yes and Steve Howe
- “They’re outlaw bad boys who’ve got no business with fanciness or politeness!” Amon Amarth, Grand Magus, Wardruna and more explain why metal loves Vikings so much
- "I got taken in by a group of older witches." How Bambie Thug went from ballet and Catholic school to witchcraft, Eurovision and touring with Babymetal
- "We were always badass, if by that you mean sex, drugs and rock'n'roll... we were very bad": The wild story of Canned Heat, the badass blues band that death couldn’t kill
- “Satanized is a song about love”: Ghost’s Tobias Forge breaks down every track on new album Skeletá
- "What I learned from Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy is that they're real people, and they'll be like that until they die": Ice-T on his heroes and the music he loves most
- April 7
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- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- "It seemed to sum up the existential crisis I was having." Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan on the Metallica song that saved his life
- Here are the famously ‘terrible’ metal albums we can’t get enough of
- An introduction to John Lee Hooker in nine essential albums
- “Certain things force you to progress… I’m free to do other things, but how much of a leap do I take?” Matt Berry on whether he prefers making music to comedy
- "We haven’t adjusted it for the taste of modern kids. This is how it's meant to be heard": An interview with the makers of Becoming Led Zeppelin
- April 6
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- “We started performing rituals to conjure entities. From that point on it was all about making music that would please these gods”: The unholy story of Morbid Angel and the birth of death metal
- “If somebody offered me something I’d take it first and ask afterwards what it was. I’d swallow a pill and have to be carried back to my room”: The life and death of Jimmy Bain, the bassist who brought the rock’n’roll to Rainbow and Dio
- “I saw right away that he wrote a lot about urban culture, youth culture and violence. That inspired me to create moodier songs”: The story of Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith’s forgotten 2010s side project
- “People condemned us, attacked us because we weren’t the hip of the hip. But we held our course”: The epic story of Journey‘s Escape, the early 80s masterpiece that changed the course of rock
- The 10 best grunge album openers: a definitive list that is irrefutably correct so you're not allowed to argue with it
- April 5
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- “What did I know at the ripe old age of 22? I knew comics, horror and sci-fi. I couldn’t really write about heartbreak or a horrible upbringing”: How an iconic comic book character inspired Anthrax to write a thrash metal classic
- “It’s obvious that one day this’ll all die out, just like every sort of music does. There is no point in worrying about it”: How Bring Me The Horizon made their mark from the start with Count Your Blessings
- “I don’t want to sound pro-drug or anything, but there is something about being high that makes you look at things differently”: How Aerosmith made their first great chemically-fuelled masterpiece Toys In The Attic
- The best metal albums of 2025 (so far)
- “I told Jimmy Page: ‘Come on! People want to see Zeppelin back together!’ I won’t say I was responsible, but after that they did play that reunion gig”: Mick Fleetwood’s wild tales of Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards, Arnold Schwarzenegger and more
- “Once James Hetfield said he liked the album, that was it. He said that it kicked his ass”: How Machine Head’s The Blackening became their own Master Of Puppets
- “It’s such an interesting life he led”: The Waterboys’ Mike Scott on why he’s written a whole album about Easy Rider star Dennis Hopper
- April 4
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- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- I asked a death metal supergroup to name the most brutal death metal albums of all time – this is what they came up with
- How power couple Paula and Dave Lombardo traded thrash metal for sultry alternative: "Venamoris is a rebirth."
- Every Bleed From Within album ranked from worst to best
- These 9 metal bands paved the way for Sleep Token
- April 3
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- "Our manager gave us each $1000 and put us on the plane, economy class. We later found out we had received $250,000 for the show: he kept it all." The true story behind Black Sabbath's biggest show ever
- "Quitting alcohol cost me friends, but quitting nicotine was much harder": Bob Mould on addiction, reconnecting with his audience and social media confusion
- “I thought, ‘This is boring. I play these songs all the time! Where’s the audience to cheer me up?’” Richard Thompson’s battle against barking dogs, overhead planes and leaf blowers to make Acoustic Classics
- April 2
- April 1
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- “It’s getting ridiculous. We’re the last men standing, unless some new wave of rock comes along…” The rise, fall and resurrection of The Darkness, the band on a mission to save rock
- 4 brilliant new metal bands you need to hear this month
- "So much happened during those 12 months that it's hard to pack the impact into mere words": The greatest year in heavy metal history, revisited
- A beginner's guide to Sweet in 10 brilliant songs, from chart hits to deep cuts
- “With deference to everybody in Beat, my function is to amuse myself and hopefully you. I can’t do music from 45 years ago”: Why Bill Bruford demoted himself from the King Crimson, Yes and Genesis league
- "The thing about rock, if it’s real, is that it will always be relevant": Kula Shaker's Crispian Mills on mass psychosis and the best way to solve writer's block
- "There's not a doubt in my mind that when I'm gone that song will live on forever": Dee Snider on the Twisted Sister song that transcended its era
