Features archive

April 2024

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221 articles

April 30
- "I was terrible to work with, I was unsympathetic, aggressive, mean, selfish, egotistical." The Police were never friends, so Sting's power plays on Ghost In The Machine were always going to end badly
- "You can hear Aphex Twin homages all over Hybrid Theory." Mike Shinoda: 10 songs that changed my life
- "I wanted to see the world and shoot as many people as possible": Before he joined Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne tried to join the British Army. His application was not accepted
- “It’s about keeping rich people rich and poor people poor… that’s the reason we’re in perpetual war”: When Roger Waters was asked to take on the mantle of Pink Floyd, it rejuvenated him
- The label that introduced Southern rock to the masses: The albums on Capricorn Records you should definitely own
- “Fast Eddie was a great example of what this business can do to you, good and bad”: Toby Jepson has some stories to tell
- "There was a strong sense of catharsis. I had to blink away some tears": How Big Big Train picked up the pieces after tragedy
- Some people run away from home to join the circus: Genevieve Glynn-Reeves ran away from the circus to start a band
April 29
- Watch German pop duo Cindy & Bert perform a Sherlock Holmes-themed version of Black Sabbath's Paranoid with a cute dog in 1971
- Can headphones cause hearing loss? "It's more than likely that you are listening to your favourite bands at ear-damaging levels, and you might not even be aware of it"
- “A lot of the things we were doing 25 years ago seemed so new." Kittie broke the mould in the male-dominated world of nu metal. Now they're back for an almighty victory lap
- "When the entire crowd is singing it back at me, it's such a glorious feeling": The Waterboys classic Mike Scott wrote to prove how easy it was to write songs
- "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
- "There were guitar players weeping. They had to mop the floor up": How Jimi Hendrix invented everything we love
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including The Hot Damn!, Tuk Smith, The Inspector Cluzo and more
April 28
- “If you drop people in these high-pressure environments too early on, you kill them before they’ve had a chance to flourish”: You Me At Six frontman Josh Franceschi on his concerns for the next wave of rock hopefuls
- “Every time I see him, he goes, ‘Am I still a Vampire?’”: Alice Cooper on initiating Paul McCartney into Hollywood Vampires
- “Initially, we signed it away for $500 because we didn’t have a very savvy manager”: Alabama 3 on how their song Woke Up This Morning became the theme tune for The Sopranos
- “I’m 16 and they were my heroes… They started to laugh because I was also playing the echo parts. I didn’t know they were a special effect”: Obsessive attention to detail was always Eddie Jobson’s superpower
April 27
- “I don't say it's looking rosy up there in rock band land”: Metallica manager Peter Mensch on the current state of rock music
- “Trent would play it in the car and we’d drive round New Orleans”: Nine Inch Nails producer Alan Moulder on the record that reminds him of making The Fragile
- "The clock is ticking so we’d better enjoy the ride while we can": Accept's track-by-track guide to their outstanding new album, Humanoid
- “It takes me into the condition that I like best of all, to be the hunter, the student, the geek”: Robert Plant on the record he likes to start his day with
April 26
- Here are the 12 best new metal songs you need to hear this week
- “Are these your questions?” When Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan interviewed Nick Cave for MTV at Lollapalooza 1994, it did not go well
- 5 essential record player maintenance and care tips to keep your deck spinning for longer
- Cool new prog you realy should hear from Marjana Semkina, Dave Foster Band, Pallbearer and more
- “Concept albums are considered old hat these days, but I made a career out of it and I don’t see why I should stop now.” Alan Parsons and The Secret
- From natural selection to sex-crazed lizard demons: Meet Refestramus, the Chicago proggers who leave no topic off the table
- “I realised I'd made a big mistake.” The night that Blondie's Debbie Harry accepted a lift from serial killer Ted Bundy
- “It was a contractual obligation album, not a serious release. It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be!” Alan Parsons is a punk with no regrets – well, not many
April 25
- "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
- "I made it about the sexual cry of love." How The Rolling Stones and a dancer from Hot Gossip inspired one of Billy Idol's greatest hits
- "A lot of American men were messaging me saying that they were going to kill me." Meet Delilah Bon, the self-proclaimed 'brat punk' raging against misogyny with genre-splicing bangers
- "Who could have guessed that a band that hide behind masks would be so mysterious?" Everything you need to know about Slipknot's chaotic year - and what comes next
- The Jeff Beck albums you should definitely own
- “The book is quite dark, but never complete evil. It’s misunderstandings, and that’s what evil and sin are supposed to be”: How a Terry Pratchett Discworld novel became a Steeleye Span album
- "In hindsight I had problems, but at the time I really enjoyed the chaos I was creating": The Pete Townshend song that savaged a pair of music writers
- Cyril Davies was a grumpy, balding panel beater who "drank bourbon like a fish": He also inspired a generation of rock musicians – and has been all but airbrushed out of history
April 24
- "You're talking to a person that's never heard an Iron Maiden record." Watch Better Lovers frontman and former Dillinger Escape Plan man Greg Puciato take on the most daunting (and ridiculous) metal true or false quiz ever
- Can wearing earplugs damage my ears?
- “My role in the black metal scene is probably exaggerated, because I was a visible frontman… In many ways I was just the nerd making music”: Ihsahn has never stopped progressing, and can’t understand why others did
- “We used humour – you could do that then; there’s no humour in chart music now”: Graham Gouldman on the 10cc song he wouldn’t write today and the gizmo that broke up the classic line-up
- "I like to make women happy. I don't play for guys": That time Carlos Santana made an album of classic rock covers including songs by AC/DC and Led Zeppelin
- "Kids tell me: 'I wanna be a rock star.' I say: 'Nah, get a job in a clothing store instead'": Steve Miller on LSD, boredom and salvation
- The Genesis albums you should definitely own
- They share the same influences as Jimmy Page, but one of them is a New Orleans vampire: Meet Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse
April 23
- "Teenage optimism, joyful romance and delightfully nerdy Star Wars references": Every Ash album ranked from worst to best
- “Quite often I would wake up in the middle of the night, and David Longdon would be kind of with me… I’d get very upset because I was on my own”: Big Big Train’s battle back from their frontman’s death
- “Your band cannot stand you. You have got to get your self together!” Inside the tour that almost destroyed Kings of Leon
- “Not even in the territory of prog metal – closer to dyed-in-the-wool prog rock”: Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son remains their best prog album
- The man who inspired BB King, Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix: The T-Bone Walker albums you should hear
- Drunken shenanigans. MTV-upsetting videos. Furious Brazilians. Sun City: With The Works, Queen returned to their rock roots, and annoyed a lot of people
- Swedish Metal Aid: The point where charity, hairspray and a singing horror show collide
April 22
- "It's a song for the losers!" How Halestorm's Here's To Us became the ultimate underdog anthem - and ended up being covered by everyone from Slash to the cast of Glee
- "I was like, 'This stuff is Undertaker music!'" WWE World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest on the many ways that heavy metal changed his life
- “Nobody cares if someone says ‘I don’t like that sound’ or ‘Actually play it right next time!’ That last one generally only comes my way”: The Pineapple Thief aimed to escape their comfort zone, and it worked
- Space-rock swagger, explosive rock ’n’ roll, psychedelic wig-outs and a ridiculous amount of in-fighting: Your essential guide to every album by The Verve
- "The bigger I got as a solo artist, the more we had to pay the Mob": Peter Frampton looks back over an extraordinary six-decade career
- “We weren’t even talking for a while. Creatively it was just a mess. I didn’t like the scene we were part of and I wanted away from it all”: Where Primus went in 2000 and how they came back
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Blues Pills, Bill Fisher, Demon and more
April 21
- Eight albums (and two EPs) from 2024 that show metalcore is absolutely killing it right now
- "Somebody has to be the kind of songwriter who doesn’t give a shit if he gets called pretentious." Ian Anderson on the inspiration behind Jethro Tull's RökFlöte
- "If you're in my band you can't have too much of a sense of dignity": The surreal moment America caught its first sight of "Weird Al" Yankovic
- “I don’t filter my opinions. I filter whether I’m being kind or not”: how David Crosby turned into a master of the Twitter putdown in his final years
April 20
- “It might be as close as we came to being a four-piece rock band and I say that with no regret”: Michael Stipe on his favourite R.E.M. album
- “Even Bowie must have thought, ‘Hang on, these guys have appeared out of nowhere, how did that happen?!’”: Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera on the meteoric rise of the glam-rock trailblazers
- “We wore silly hats, but in those days, you did silly things”: Listen to the doo-wop bands Ronnie James Dio sang in before becoming a metal star with Black Sabbath and Rainbow
- “We took influences from the New York hardcore scene. Our stuff was faster than in the Bay Area”: the 100mph story of East Coast thrash
- “I remember seeing my first rock legend snorting cocaine in the bathroom, like, ‘Oh, I’ve heard about this’”: Foo Fighters’ Nate Mendel on the night they played at David Bowie’s epic 50th birthday bash
- “I started watching people like the Pope - when he turns up you know he’s in the room!”: Skindred frontman Benji Webbe on how he became metal’s most flamboyant frontman
- “Keyboards were the new thing. There was this attitude: ‘They sound big and they sound cool’”: how Rush swapped guitars and kimonos for synths and mullets in the 1980s
April 19
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- New proggy sounds you must hear from Maybeshewill, MONO, Eye and more in Prog's Tracks Of The Week
- “Rock’n’roll is about guts… there’s no rules!”: The Hives’ Pelle Almqvist and Nicholaus Arson on punk rock, sharp suits and the seal of approval they got from Taylor Hawkins
- “I plan to do a more melodic, straight-forward heavy metal side-project”: How Death’s Chuck Schuldiner broke free from extreme metal with prog powerhouse Control Denied
- “We got hit with tax bills our former manager hadn’t paid. I was so skint that I got a job as a labourer… Then one day I picked up a guitar again”: The money Caravan spent, and the money they never received
- "Jimi Hendrix lived a block from me in New York. We jammed together a lot": Al Kooper's stories of the Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh and more
- "If I was young now, I'd probably be stalking Taylor Swift. We have affairs, we make it dramatic and write hit songs about it" - Stephen Stills on the romance that drove a classic and the making of his first solo album
- "Spandau Ballet, Visage, Ultravox… there's some good music going down": In 1981, Rush's Geddy Lee was ready to blow the boundaries of progressive rock wide open
April 18
- Every Bathory album ranked from worst to best
- "It was very mixed – we could get some lovely nuns as well as rockers": The story of Sky, the least rock’n’roll band of all time
- "I used to hate the sight of Ozzy. I couldn’t stand him, and I used to beat him up whenever I saw him": Tony Iommi in conversation with James Hetfield
- "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
April 17
- "We both wanted to rock out, so we started coming up with those kinds of pieces and it made us all feel great so we just kept going." Glass Hammer and the making of Dreaming City
- "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
- “If a musical piece lasts for 6 minutes 30 seconds, it usually means it took me that time to create it”: Vangelis on how the natural, positive force of music got corrupted
- "Rock'n'roll has given me bipolar weirdos, addicted, beautiful souls, the madness, and the sadness. It’s just too much": Chris and Rich Robinson tell the story of the Black Crowes
- "Everything up to then had been about climbing the mountain. With Powerslave it felt like we were looking out over the rest of the world": How Iron Maiden grew up
April 16
- Every Judas Priest album ranked from worst to best
- “Edge smacked me. It was a full-on rumble.” The night that U2 guitarist The Edge punched Bono in the face onstage
- For a year Tommy James was bigger than The Beatles. Then the mafia ruined everything
- "One demo was of a guy playing one finger piano on Black Night": When the call went out to replace Ian Gillan in Deep Purple, only one man got an audition
- "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
- “We never did any TV-throwing – I’d rather nick ’em than throw ’em out the window”: Jeff Lynne recalls how easy it was for ELO to take over the 70s
- "We locked the doors, then called security. Skip arrived in a taxi, with an axe, in his pyjamas": The wild genius of Skip Spence
April 15
- Every Blink-182 album ranked from worst to best
- “We didn’t force a connection, it just happened.” Steve Howe remembers a fledgling Yes supporting Jethro Tull in America in 1971
- “Not dissimilar to the sound Radiohead would later explore on King Of Limbs”: With the help of Brian Eno, Coldplay dipped into prog with Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
- "If you just stay in your comfort zone all the time, you keep writing the same type of songs over and over again": The Pineapple Thief are rejuvenated, regenerated and on a roll
- "I don't know if what I'm about to do has significance or whether I'm about to make an idiot of myself": William Shatner, progressive rock icon
- The Stranglers' albums you should definitely own
April 14
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Tyler Bryant, The Lemon Twigs, Joanne Shaw Taylor and more
- "He was one of those people that I knew I would listen to”: Muse's Matt Bellamy on the time they worked with Mutt Lange
- “Grindcore really resonated with Americans. Our bands were being noticed before they’d even gone over there”: the ear-splitting history of Earache Records, the label that changed metal
- “We came up very fast and we went down fast. We were carried away on that wave of euphoria”: how Motörhead made their two most controversial early 80s albums
- "I wrote this thing that sounded like a mix of W.A.S.P. and Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row": prog metal veterans Evergrey are looking on the bright side of life for new album Theories Of Emptiness
- “I would do meth in the private bathroom in the back. At the time, I was out of my mind”: the dark confessions of Korn’s Jonathan Davis
- “It marked Jethro Tull as being quite different to most bands… Led Zeppelin didn’t do comedy. Well, not intentionally”: Ian Anderson kept up the silly and sarcastic on solo album Homo Erraticus
April 13
- “This is the best record I’ve ever done in my life. Montrose and Van Halen led up to this”: the story of Sammy Hagar’s Chickenfoot, the greatest rock supergroup of the 21st century
- "Metallica is huge everywhere, but extra-huge in Mexico because Robert Trujillo’s like a saint." Suicidal Tendencies might be one of metal's most influential bands, but Mike Muir is thankful they never became celebrities
- “Metallica would jam on their stuff in rehearsals, songs like Black Night and Highway Star”: Lars Ulrich on his lifelong love of Deep Purple and the genius of the Machine Head album
April 12
- "You couldn’t go to an MMA show without hearing this one about 10 times in a night." The ultimate heavy metal gym playlist, by Kris Barras
- The 14 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- “I was just lying in my own self-pity for months”: How an unlikely collaboration with Post Malone helped revive Ozzy Osbourne’s career
- Enchanted Duo are ripping up their own rulebook for their ambitious, spiritual new album, Werifesteria - and you can help them bring it to life
- "Y'know, I never realised how much I really love my band": Steven Tyler talks American Idol, dysfunctional behaviour, Johnny Depp and the history of Aerosmith
April 11
- "I don’t think there are too many other genres of music that have fans so loyal and devoted like this..." The story of Australian prog
- "It’s always fun to write odysseys. You go on this little musical adventure.” How Motorpsycho made Still Life With Eggplant
- "If I were stuck on a desert island, I wouldn’t take Never Mind The Bollocks, it'd be Meddle or Foxtrot." The prog roots of Echo & The Bunnymen guitarist Will Seargent and Poltergeist
- "I think of the band as a progressive band because, with every record, we’re evolving and changing." Coheed And Cambria and the Year Of The Black Rainbow
- "There’s certain prog fans who just want the comfy old slippers. That’s got its place and that music is timeless but they can’t accept anything new." How Pendragon proved they weren't "comfy" with Passion
- “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
- "Death is something we think about a lot." Metz have always found happiness in the darkest places, and new record Up On Gravity Hill sees them contemplating The End with joy in their hearts
- “We didn’t go ‘That’s your job’ – we’d say ‘Why don’t you have a go?’ I can remember playing solos on Stylophone… In some places it was like 'the Martians have landed!‘” How Family made Bandstand, and where it took them
- "Dev Patel was like 'this is Indian, but metal as ****'" Bloodywood just soundtracked 2024's most epic fight scene in new action thriller, Monkey Man
- “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
- "At the end, Jimmy says to me: 'I want you in my band'. I say: 'But I've got a maths exam in the morning!'": Rick Wakeman, and the blues records that changed his life
- “The priorities of the first Asia were to make it a success. Yet when we had it, we were so stupid it was unbelievable:” How the supergroup admitted mistakes and worked them out via their patchy Phoenix album
- "Carlos Santana told me I was like a shaman on stage and he wanted to do a band with me": Gavin Rossdale's stories of Keanu Reeves, David Bowie, Bono and more
- "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
April 10
- "They've gotten me back into music. They touched me in a way that made me excited about music again": How the San Francisco Giants saved Steve Perry
- Heavy music hit Tallinn Music Week like a blizzard: here's our guide to the seven best alternative bands we saw in Estonia
- "Not everyone can say they played with David Bowie and Jimmy Page." Drummer Michael Whitehead on working with two giants of British music
- "Minor Threat were like The Beatles. I saw Ian MacKaye write Straight Edge on his mother's piano": Henry Rollins on Black Flag, Minor Threat, The Stooges, Green Day, Beyoncé and the meaning of punk
- Every cover song by Nightwish ranked from worst to best
- “I caved in and said: ‘Okay, I’ll put out Wuthering Heights, if only to teach you not to interfere with our choices’”: The decisions and coincidences that helped make Kate Bush a superstar
- "We walked into the control room to listen to the first track, and everybody was grinning, like: 'Okay, this will work'": Charlie Starr on music, life, and two decades of Blackberry Smoke
- "We'd play small islands on the west coast of Scotland rather than stadiums": Echo & The Bunnymen wouldn't play the game, but that didn't stop them from creating "the greatest song of all time"
April 9
- "People aren’t used to hearing vocal melody over a wall of ‘blackened progressive deathgrind’ or whatever the hell you call it." Cattle Decapitation might be playing arenas, but they're still one of metal's most extreme bands
- Every Bleed From Within album ranked from worst to best
- “Often derided as a huge error by the NWOBHM heroes, it’s the start of an artistic journey that was never taken further”: Diamond Head’s dalliance with pure prog on Canterbury
- “If you’re putting all these Beavis and Butt-Heads in the parking lot, where are you going to park the cars?” What happened when Metallica battled the city of Philadelphia to perform in a car park
- “The fans understood I was the price they had to pay to hear the band they loved, so they put up with me. It’s not like you’re joining the Sex Pistols”: Trevor Horn on fronting Yes – and how it later made 90125 possible
- "It was a pretty low time. We weren't sure of the kind of band we wanted to be": How time took its toll on Rush as they worked on the follow-up to Signals
- The Frankie Miller albums you should definitely own
April 8
- "All of a sudden we play at blinding speed and unbearable intensity, and everyone starts to take notice and stand up": How King Crimson got started
- "We're not defined by the five worst days in our lives": Scott Stapp has had dark days, but he knows the world we live in is not all unicorns and rainbows
- "When thousands have been killed and millions have fled their homes, moaning about the absence of a band member who left 37 years ago is churlish at best." How Pink Floyd surprised the rock world with Ukraine charity single Hey Hey Rise Up
- "I think we’ve got a reputation locally as having done something pretty awesome." From taking over hospital wards to setting pianos on fire, While She Sleeps are still doing things their way
- Every Slowdive album ranked from worst to best
- “Robert Fripp played the solo and we didn’t like it. He said, ‘You’re wrong.’ Steven Wilson said, ‘This is how wrong we are,’ and deleted it”: How No-Man prospered by refusing to ever fit in
- “A lot of guys can play awesome guitar but there’s very few super-shredders like that”: members of Slayer, Nightwish, Mastodon and more salute the genius of Alexi Laiho
- "We're all messed up! You know what I mean? There's no such thing as a normal person, is there?" The Bring Me The Horizon song inspired by Oli Sykes' ADHD diagnosis
- "The path of witchcraft has brought me so much joy." We explored LA's weirdest and most wonderful book store with goth-doom queen and practising witch, Chelsea Wolfe
- R.E.M.'s Reckoning: raw, mysterious and strangely melodic, refracting their influences through a murky Southern prism
- “When working on material we could ask, ‘What would we have done in the days of Close To The Edge?’ Maybe sometimes we didn’t ask that question enough”: Steve Howe’s favourite Yes songs
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Black Country Communion, Orange Goblin, The Warning and more
April 7
- "We’ve never done a proper, real tour together. Which is nuts, because we’ve toured with everyone!": How Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine have teamed up for 2025's biggest metal event
- Hanoi Rocks' final album set them up for stardom, but fate had other ideas: Instead, it fuelled Axl Rose and inspired Appetite For Destruction
- “This happened to us and Layne’s family. If we can be OK with it, why can’t you?”: how Alice In Chains silenced the doubters and rose from tragedy with epic comeback album Black Gives Way To Blue
- “I don’t know that much about folk music, except that most of it bores me to tears”: the incredible life of Michael Chapman, the greatest singer-songwriter the world never knew about
- The manager said, ‘Ian Anderson and the boys don’t want you in the band so you’ve been fired.’ I replied, ‘How can you fire me when I quit three weeks ago?’” Mick Abrahams’ life after Jethro Tull
- The Judas Priest album title that became heavy metal's definitive statement of intent
April 6
- "Our contract with EMI allowed us complete control. When we signed, they had to make a donation to the Miners' Strike": Fired up by frustration, New Model Army's Vengeance is as relevant now as it was 40 years ago
- Recorded in the wake of tragedy, The Pretenders' Learning To Crawl was an indestructible triumph of sheer will
- “He phoned up the Jesus Army and claimed I was possessed by demons and needed help!”: how Cathedral dragged doom metal into the 1990s with their landmark debut album Forest Of Equilibrium
- “I lived with this false hope that Weiland was one day gonna get it together. I kick myself because we let it go on for so long”: how Chester Bennington helped rebuild grunge icons Stone Temple Pilots
- "He was drunk out of his mind and he asked me to make out with him": Billy Corgan on how he became a fan of The Cure... and the first time he met Robert Smith
- “We were coming back and taking no prisoners”: every Kittie album in their own words
- “It was so embarrassing, it was terrible”: Muse on their most galling onstage malfunction
- “We started out with an aim to annoy!”: Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil on the band’s early days
- "We've got maybe another 10, 15 years? Playing a Dragonforce set is not easy": Guitar hero Herman Li talks technique, helping popularise power metal and the next generation of shredders
- “People said, ‘Oh, you’re a metal band’. I thought that was kind of lame”: the story of Tool’s Undertow, the debut album that introduced the world to a new kind of noise
- “It’s been a blessing to have been underdogs for so long. It’s kept us hungry. I’m ravenous”: the late ’80s fall and early ’90s rise of Motorhead
- Moby Dick began life as a modest instrumental showcase for John Bonham: Played live, it took on an epic, often drug-fuelled life of its own
April 5
- The 15 best new metal songs you need to hear this week
- “I was like, ‘Oh, my God! That sounds much better. It sounds how it should!’” Jane Weaver accidentally pushed herself out of her comfort zone for Love In Constant Spectacle
- Cool new proggy sounds to enjoy from Transatlantic, Wheel, Hats Off Gentlemen and more in Tracks Of The Week
- “He did one track… then went off with some famous singer to do another album”: Hawkwind’s collaboration with William Orbit didn’t happen on this album - but they hope it will on the next
- "I play the drums like I drive - crazy": The epic life and tragic death of Cozy Powell
April 4
- “I’m always ready for a kitty cat!” We gave Judas Priest legend Rob Halford a load of kittens to play with and asked him about heavy metal, becoming a gay icon and (sort of) being Dolly Parton's BFF
- “Anyone with an alternate viewpoint is liable to get burned at the stake”: Queensryche made an 80s metal classic with Operation: Mindcrime. Nearly 20 years later, they tried to match it with a sequel
- Best beginner skateboards 2024: We break down the very best skateboards to get you shredding
- From Ozzy Osbourne and the British Bulldogs to Edge's legendary Slayer entrance, here are 12 times heavy metal ruled WWE's biggest show, Wrestlemania
- “Basically I’d been set up. I woke up the following morning and wondered, ‘Did I just rejoin?’” How Pallas repaired the angry split with Alan Reed to deliver their eighth album in 48 years
- "The major metal magazines slaughtered Emperor's early albums." How black metal icon Ihsahn ditched corpsepaint and church burnings to become a prog master
- "We all did shots with him!" The Hollywood icon that left Guns N' Roses "very wobbly" while shooting one of their most famous videos
- “When I drank, I was going to be the best drinker in the bar, or take the most drugs or whatever. When I did give up the drink I was going to be the best at that:” The bottom-end drive that made Danny Thompson’s name
April 3
- "It was the only place that Satan wouldn’t be hanging out": Twisted Sister were a long way from home, but Jimmy Page's bathroom was a songwriting refuge
- “He's never done a band like us; he’s done a lot of heavy metal. But I thought the two could mix": How AC/DC's producer and synthesisers reinvented The Cars
- Hey Joe, where you going with my cod & chips? Unravelling the truth behind Jimi Hendrix's historic visit to a fish & chip shop in the north of England
- "Things were gloriously easy back in 1969 because we only had two albums. Things are now much more tortuous": Ian Anderson on touring, bedbugs and Martin Barre
- "I was just shut down. I remember trying to make myself cry and I couldn’t": Dave Grohl on the final days of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain
- The isolated bass track from Metallica’s Orion proves that Cliff Burton was a master of his instrument
- “I don’t like praise. ‘This record is flawed and has good intentions, but I look forward to something better’ – that’s a great review”: Richard Thompson doesn’t believe in the ‘perfect album’
- Taylor McCall studied wildlife management at university: Now he writes deeply personal songs inspired by the Vietnam War and tours with Robert Plant
- "I ordered Chinese food and beer for them, and we just sat there and talked": Metallica, Ride The Lightning, and the meal that got them signed
- "I could stand up with four cardboard cut-outs and still be a star": Steve Harley spent four years of his childhood in hospital and grew up to hate journalists, but all he wanted was an audience
April 2
- "Sounds like someone broke Satan's heart": seven hit singles that sound like doom classics when slowed down to 33rpm
- "It serves as a testament to doing what entertains you with no borders." How Trent Reznor created a masterpiece with Nine Inch Nails' timeless The Downward Spiral - and influenced everyone from Korn to Johnny Cash in the process
- “He’s like, ‘Ed, I got an idea... first song, AC/DC Highway to Hell, you take a verse, I take a verse....’: It's now been 10 years since Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder rocked Australia with their covers of a Bon Scott-era AC/DC classic
- “Such a spectacle: 80,000 fans, eight-way spatial audio”: Did Roger Waters top Pink Floyd at Desert Trip in 2016? His guitarist Jonathan Wilson thinks so (and he wasn’t in the band at the time)
- "You cannot underestimate the impact of seeing a woman blaze a trail right before your eyes." Why Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow means so much to me – and to women in the metal scene
- "This is about 17 minutes long and it's my favourite ever chill-out track": The Prodigy's Liam Howlett on the Pink Floyd classics that changed his life
- “Others’ expectations kept me from taking it seriously for a long time… Some will say, ‘What is this old prat on about?’ but I don’t give a damn”: Why Ian Anderson took the risk of making Thick As A Brick 2
- Suck: A tribute to the brilliant acting career of Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson
- "I woke up singing this song about being in jail waiting for the electric chair": Medicine Head's John Fiddler on inspiration, love, and the perils of getting older
- "MTV was the first time that technology became a rock star": The story of 1984, the year everything changed
April 1
- "I had a real sense that he was lonely and alone. I felt the same way": On April 1, 1994 two world-famous rock stars were seated together on Delta Airlines flight 788 from Los Angeles to Seattle. It would be the last flight one of them would ever take
- "If I feel I have accomplished something that was set out before me, then I will be vocal about it." How grime-punk duo Bob Vylan became one of the UK's unlikely success stories (and why they're refusing to be humble about it)
- “Certain people I knew from the scene wouldn’t speak to me after I got a hit. But it’s all music… I just had a great time”: Brian Auger warned Jimi Hendrix off drugs, lent money to Rod Stewart and learned what prog was from Keith Emerson
- “It’s about a beautiful ménage à trois and you can’t beat that, can you?” Perry Farrell on what he thinks is Jane’s Addiction's most underrated song
- “I’m happy we’ve had hits. But I do wish the record label had put out some of our challenging songs as singles”: Some only know them as ‘That Africa band,’ but how prog are Toto?
- “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
- "It's our mission to keep the rock alive. It's important to keep the torch burning": The Gems were born out of solidarity, and now they want to invigorate classic rock
- "It pays all the bills, it's paid for everything we've ever done since": Modern English didn't set out to write commercial songs, but they're not complaining
- "We have all been robbed, and it's still going on. It's bringing the country to disaster": 40 years down the road, New Model Army are as uncompromising as ever
- "Everybody wanted to get in on the action. I wasn't letting that happen": Dio's first platinum album could have been very different
- How Bruce Springsteen's most rage-filled, despairing and misunderstood album was helped into the pop charts by a song he didn't want to write and a future star of Friends
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Mdou Moctar, Wytch Hazel, Marjana Semkina and more