It’s a glorious summer’s day in rural England, and there’s a party of Japanese tourists outside Tony Iommi’s house. Instead of pointing their smartphone cameras at his place, they photograph the honey limestone walls and horse chestnut trees lining this picturesque village street, unaware that the godfather of heavy metal is nearby.

As a tour guide corrals the party back to their bus, Black Sabbath’s guitarist appears, defying the glorious sunshine in his all-black garb, and offers a firm handshake and a cheery “Alright?” in his soft Brummie burr.

The tourists don’t bother Iommi. However, any overzealous fan rifling through his dustbins might be in for a surprise. The teenage Tony famously lost the tops of two fingers in an industrial accident, and fashioned their first replacements from a melted-down washing-up liquid bottle. These days he gets his bespoke ‘thimbles’ via his local hospital’s prosthetic department. God bless the NHS and all that.

“But the thing is, they send me a whole rubber arm,” he says, cracking a smile. “I’ve asked them: ‘Why not just send a hand?’ But apparently they can’t do that. And they sometimes send me five arms at a time. So I chop the fingers off and throw the arms in the bin. The dustmen must be thinking: ‘What the bloody hell’s going on here? Has he bumped someone off?’”

Iommi overcame his damaged fingers to become one of the world’s greatest hard rock guitarists and songwriters, with Black Sabbath defining the genre’s sound and iconography. War Pigs, Children Of The Grave, Heaven And Hell, the inverted crosses, the gothic script, those riffs – Iommi and Sabbath invented it all. Visitors are reminded of Iommi’s high standing when they enter his home studio.

The kitchenette is lined with awards and photographs – Tony and fellow guitar hero Jeff Beck, Tony with Dracula actor Christopher Lee – and a poster advertising the 1963 horror movie Black Sabbath. “This is the NIGHT of the NIGHTMARE!” it screams, and shows four terrified women gazing at a horseman carrying his own severed head. More dismembered body parts, then.

The studio door eases open to reveal an Aladdin’s cave of guitars and more memorabilia, including figurines of the classic Sabbath but as a five-piece with an extra Tony (“That would have been better”). Even the Dark Lord has the occasional day off, though, and in one corner hangs a VIP laminate for the virtual pop show ABBA Voyage.

The studio console bears Iommi’s signature cross, and a similar image graces the artwork for his new album, From The Dark, his first studio release since Black Sabbath’s 13 in 2013, and the follow-up to 2005’s Fused solo record.

While full of Iommi’s trademark riffs, From The Dark also sounds like a band album, due largely to Norwegian vocalist Jørn Lande, whose performance evokes good stuff like Die Young, Children Of The Sea and The Sign Of The Southern Cross from the Ronnie James Dio era of Black Sabbath.

From The Dark was made in this studio, but has unusual origins. In 2021, Iommi collaborated with the Italian perfume house Xerjoff to create his first signature fragrance, Tony Iommi Monkey Special (named after his 1964 ‘Monkey Special’ Gibson SG guitar), and recorded an instrumental, Scent Of Dark, to advertise the product.

“The owner of the company [Sergio Momo] was a fan,” Iommi explains. “He asked if I’d do a charity record with them, but I couldn’t at the time. But by then he’d sent over a box of perfumes, and I felt so guilty I phoned him up.”

During their conversation, Momo asked if Iommi would consider launching his own aftershave range. “He knew I had this hobby of collecting perfumes when I was touring the world. I was surprised but agreed to do it, and he told me to write down a list of the smells I liked – coffee, roses, bergamot, leather…”

So well received was Monkey Special that Xerjoff launched Tony Iommi Deified in 2024 (where “the warmth of saffron meets accents of spiced apple”, according to their website), which Iommi advertised with an instrumental of the same name.

“So that was a starting point for the album,” he says. “I was considering making it an instrumental album, maybe with an orchestra. But for a while I didn’t know what to do. Should it be instrumental? Should I have guest vocalists?”

The pieces gradually fell into place. Iommi and his long-time collaborator, co-writer and co-producer Mike Exeter discovered the drummer who plays on the album, Karl Brazil, through an unlikely source: Robbie Williams.

“I have a place in Sandbanks,” says Iommi, referring to the Dorset peninsula – nicknamed ‘Millionaires’ Row’ – where a number of famous names own property. “I was walking down the road and this chap came up to me and said: ‘How are you, Tony?’ I said: ‘Yeah?’ He said: ‘It’s Karl.’ I didn’t have any idea who he was, but he said he knew Mike Exeter and played with Robbie Williams.” In May 2025, Iommi added some oomph and a solo to Williams’s single Rocket. “I think Robbie wanted to go a bit heavier,” he suggests.

It’s these offbeat projects that led to From The Dark. With Black Sabbath laid to rest after 2025’s Back To The Beginning charity show and Ozzy Osbourne’s death, there was no pressure to make an album at all: “I didn’t even have a deal when we started.” Instead it happened slowly and organically. And there’s a Birmingham connection too. Karl Brazil was born in Solihull, and the album’s bass guitarist Becky Baldwin lives in Sabbath’s home city.

“I like the idea of it being a Birmingham project,” says Iommi, who considered having ex-Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler play on the record. “But I think Geezer was doing something else. Mike knew Becky and she’s got Geezer’s style of playing, and it’s been great having her involved."

Iommi began working with Jørn Lande (who had previously worked with the operatic supergroup Avantasia, among others) in 2010. That summer, Lande sang in Iommi and Butler’s band Heaven And Hell at a tribute to their late singer, Ronnie James Dio, at London’s High Voltage Festival. But Lande had been on Iommi’s radar for years. “I considered having him sing on Fused,” he says.

Much like Dio’s delivery, Lande sings everything on From The Dark like he’s trying to raise the dead, and, like Geezer Butler’s lyrics for Sabbath have done, Lande’s address pollution, nuclear war and crooked politicians. “Fifty, sixty years later, and I’m looking at the world and thinking: ‘Oh fuck, we’re still dealing with the war pigs,’” says Iommi.

Regardless of writing credits and contributions, it’s Iommi’s name on the cover, though. He once said that the main drawback with being a bandleader is that “you always become the arsehole”. Did that happen here?

“No, because I always knew it was my album,” he says, grinning. “But it was a pleasure to work with musicians who’d do a take and then say: ‘I can do a better one’, rather than: ‘Oh god, do I have to do another?’ They wanted to make it better. But then I’m also very self-critical.”

Have you always been like that?

“Yes. Mike Exeter would give me a copy of what we’d done, I’d go home and come back the next morning and want to change it. You tend to think if it comes too easy it’s not good enough. But that’s not always the case. Look at Paranoid, the throwaway song that became the hit.”

Like a doomsday survivalist hoarding provisions for the approaching apocalypse, Iommi has been stockpiling riffs since the last century. “I’ve got CDs and cassettes full of them, thinking that if I ever get stuck I can go back and get one. But I rarely do. Though saying that, I’ll probably never come up with another riff.”

Don’t jinx it.

“No, don’t.”

“The thing is, I don’t have to do this,” he stresses. “It’s not about the money, because we don’t need the money. But this…” He gestures towards the studio. “This is what I do. I just can’t get away from it. I have things I want to say.”

Tony Iommi’s journey from his first group, 1964’s The Rockin’ Chevrolets (who played Buddy Holly covers and wore red lamé suits) to Black Sabbath took just four years. In December 1965, the 17-year-old was about to quit his job as a sheet metal welder to become a professional musician when a machine sliced off the tips of two fingers. The story of how he discovered a new way to play guitar is well documented. And it illustrates the resourcefulness that has helped define Iommi’s career.

Within a year of the injury, he’d joined local group The Rest, whose other guitarist was also missing the top of one digit (“I thought: ‘Bloody hell! Both in the same band?”), and whose drummer Bill Ward was so skint he couldn’t afford new drumsticks and often played with broken ones.

By 1968, Iommi and Ward had moved to Carlisle, joined a band called Mythology, and the Buddy Holly covers had long been usurped by blues and progressive rock. Mythology broke up after being busted for dope, and Iommi and Ward skulked back to Birmingham to face their parents. “But Bill and I stuck together.”

Among the new members in the pair’s next adventure, the Polka Tulk Blues Band, were bassist Terence ‘Geezer’ Butler and vocalist John ‘Ozzy’ Osbourne. Iommi, Ward, Butler and Osbourne then became Earth, until December 1968 when Iommi left to join Jethro Tull. But that didn’t last long.

It was certainly a life lesson. On his first day, Iommi sat down in the studio canteen to eat lunch with vocalist, flautist and band boss Ian Anderson, only to be told by his bandmates that he’d broken protocol and to sit with them instead. Iommi stayed long enough to appear with Tull in the Rolling Stones’ Rock And Roll Circus movie before leaving.

“It just wasn’t for me,” he says. Although he learned a valuable lesson. “Ian had us rehearsing at nine in the morning, and god help us if we were late. I don’t think any of us in Earth were even awake at nine in the morning, but I realised that’s what we needed to do.”

Earth’s four dysfunctional musketeers reunited, changed their name to Black Sabbath and started to rehearse more. “Tony was definitely the alpha male,” recalled Geezer Butler.

Today, a 120-foot Sabbath mural and a mechanical bull named Ozzy greet visitors to Birmingham’s New Street Station, and a stainless steel bench on the city’s Broad Street bears stony-faced images of them all. The band were given the Freedom Of The City award in 2025, and Iommi the Lord Mayor’s award earlier this year. “Black Sabbath has become Birmingham,” he says.

Back in 1969, however, the city didn’t want to know them. “We couldn’t get arrested,” recalls Iommi. “Well, we could… but not in the way we wanted. There was nowhere for us to play – maybe the occasional blues club. But what we were doing was so different to pop or soul or what you heard in clubs. So we ended up going to Europe and trying to get gigs there.”

In August 1969, Black Sabbath began a residency at Hamburg’s Star Club, where The Beatles had served their apprenticeship. “The first time we played, there were half a dozen people in, but by the end of the run it was sold out,” Iommi remembers. “It was all word of mouth, and we built a reputation with pockets of people everywhere.”

The critics were rarely on side, though. “Cliché-ridden… a conglomerate of occult hype,” carped Rolling Stone’s review of Sabbath’s self-titled 1970 debut album. “Oh god, we had everything against us,” Iommi sighs. “We got pounded by the press.”

This hostility fuelled Iommi’s determination and cast Black Sabbath as perennial outsiders. But there were enough “pockets of people” to put the album in the Top 10 in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.

Iommi’s guitar playing was the cornerstone of Black Sabbath, and is still the dominant force on From The Dark. He’s always used lighter-gauge strings as they were easier on his damaged fingers, but compensated by cranking up the distortion and volume. He also deployed the ‘devil’s interval’ tritone on some songs. Known historically as the ‘diabolus in musica’, it’s that tense, ominous interval that made songs such as the first album’s title track and N.I.B. sound positively evil.

The title track of Sabbath’s second album, 1970’s Paranoid, propelled by one of the most famous riffs in popular music, gave them a UK No.6 hit. “It all took off after Paranoid, and it didn’t matter that people knocked us,” says Iommi. “And then America stepped in.”

Black Sabbath were four twenty-somethings from post-war, working-class England eager to explore everything the so-called Land Of The Free had to offer. ‘Smoking and tripping is all that you do,’ Ozzy sang on Fairies Wear Boots. But in the States, dope and LSD took a back seat to cocaine, the drug du jour in showbiz circles. “America changed us,” says Iommi.

The making of Sabbath’s fourth album, 1972’s Vol. 4, supposedly racked up a £55,000 coke bill. The wheels started to come off soon after, when Iommi collapsed with exhaustion at the Hollywood Bowl. Doctors prescribed Valium and told him to go home. Sabbath returned to Birmingham like wounded soldiers: Bill Ward had contracted hepatitis, and Geezer Butler had been misdiagnosed with Vietnamese syphilis, which turned out to be kidney stones. Incredibly, Ozzy was unscathed.

Regrettably, what happened in America didn’t stay in America. In November 1973, Iommi married his first wife, Susan. Led Zeppelin’s drummer John Bonham was his best man, and arranged a stag night so riotous the groom wondered if either of them would make it to the wedding. On the day, Susan’s mother asked Tony why his friends kept slipping out of the church every few minutes. “They were round the back sniffing and snorting,” he says, laughing.

Drug habits, ruined marriages, incredible wealth and subsequent financial ruin all became part of Black Sabbath’s chaotic existence. Today, Iommi recounts these war stories with a knowing grin and a raise of the eyebrows. The good old bad old days are long behind him.

Iommi’s friend Sir Brian May recently visited Tony’s studio, and played on the new album’s Death Watch. “I’d already done a solo, but I took mine off,” Iommi says. “Before then, I got the CDs out with the riffs on – five hundred, six hundred riffs. Brian couldn’t believe how many I had.”

It was a different story when Iommi experienced writer’s block making 1973’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, though. He eventually found his inspiration, and Sabbath’s fifth LP included pianos, harpsichords, an orchestra, and Tony playing bagpipes. This catholic approach continued on 1975’s Sabotage, which featured the English Chamber Choir. “There’s a bit of choir on this new album too, like on Sabotage,” he says. “I’ve always liked to experiment.”

Has he ever written anything and thought it was too experimental for a Sabbath or Tony Iommi album?

“Probably, if it was a bit too lightweight. But then Sabbath used to get criticised for the acoustic stuff we did. I wrote a couple of acoustic things for this album, but we didn’t have room for them. It’s odd. I end up writing things like Fluff [Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’s piano and acoustic guitar interlude] all the time, but I don’t like playing acoustic. I find it too fiddly with my fingers.”

On cue, Iommi picks up a worn-looking Golden Virginia tobacco tin from the side of the studio console, and reveals his collection of thimbles. Some look brand new, others like he used them at the Hollywood Bowl in 1972. There’s a lot of history in that box.

There’s a song on From The Dark called Stormwatcher, in which Jørn Lande sings: ‘My ship is loaded with darkness, the years of our world in demise.’ It’s the sort of lyric one could imagine Ozzy’s Sabbath replacement, Ronnie James Dio, belting out on 1980’s Heaven And Hell. As successful as it was, Dio-era Sabbath lasted only three years, and Ozzy re-emerged as a solo star just as Sabbath’s star began to wane.

Iommi recalls Kiss’s producer Bob Ezrin overseeing auditions for Dio’s replacement. “Otherwise, me and Geezer would have been sitting there like a couple of spare dinners.”

Apparently, future superstar balladeer Michael Bolton made it through the first round with sterling renditions of War Pigs and Neon Knights, but went no further. “Now Michael denies he ever auditioned for Sabbath, but I still have the tape here somewhere.” Instead, Sabbath brought in ex-Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan for 1983’s Born Again. “We had a lot of fun with Ian. But that line-up had a short shelf life.”

The rest of the 80s were not good for Sabbath. On 1986’s Seventh Star, even Butler was gone, leaving Iommi the last man standing. He’d wanted the album to be a solo project, but bowed to record company pressure, hired another member of the ‘Midlands mafia’, ex-Purple bassist/ vocalist Glenn Hughes, and called it Black Sabbath.

“In hindsight we should have changed the name,” Iommi allows, “but the name had weight.”

After that Iommi spent the next 10 years overseeing a dizzying number of line-up changes. “Geezer’s been in and out I don’t know how many times. [Drummer] Vinny Appice’s been in and out, [bassist] Neil Murray’s been in and out, and [vocalist] Tony Martin…” He pauses. “Oh, it’s been a right old game.”

In his autobiography, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath, Iommi admitted to having little in common with some of his younger bandmates, and resenting them saying: “I’m in Black Sabbath” when they hadn’t done any of the groundwork. He was also sick of refereeing disputes between band members.

When Dio returned for 1992’s Dehumanizer, his former Rainbow bandmate Cozy Powell was still Sabbath’s drummer.

“Cozy and Ronnie did not see eye to eye,” Iommi says. “I used to drive to rehearsals with Cozy, and he’d be going: ‘If that little c**t says anything to me I’m going to smash him in the face.’ I’d think: ‘Oh god, don’t ruin it,’ and of course Ronnie would say something.”

It took summer 1997’s long-awaited reunion with Ozzy and Bill Ward for the good ship Black Sabbath to right itself. Times had changed, though. Ozzy’s solo success, later transition into a reality TV star, and his wife/manager Sharon’s iron grip shifted the balance of power within the group, while ill health and business disputes sidelined Ward. Still, the chemistry was there, and three quarters of the classic Sabbath was better than one quarter.

Iommi was also reminded of his legacy when Sabbath joined the Ozzfest touring charabanc, and he heard his riffs repurposed by younger acts on the bill. “I thought it was great, and those bands admit they were influenced by us. People like Metallica and Dave Grohl have always boosted us up.”

In 2000, Iommi invited Grohl, Ozzy and Billy Corgan, among others, to sing on his self-titled solo album. “I wanted Chris Cornell too, but there was an issue with management,” he recalls. “It was also a bit embarrassing because Eminem was going to do a track, and I said: ‘Who’s Eminem?’” Iommi says, with another raise of the eyebrows. “Same with Kid Rock…”

Iommi has previous form, though, having had Madonna ejected from Black Sabbath’s Live Aid rehearsals. “I didn’t recognise her,” he protests. “It was a big room, it was dark and it was meant to be private. Afterwards, my guitar tech said: ‘You do know who that was?’ Oh, bloody hell…”

Iommi brought in Glenn Hughes to sing on 2005’s Fused. But that had its challenges. “Glenn’s one of the few singers of his age that can still hit the notes,” he says. “But I’m amazed he can after what he put himself through.” Former addict Hughes has been sober for decades, but it only took a hit of caffeine to set him off.

“It was like he’d done a line of coke,” Iommi says, laughing. “Glenn’s wife rang me and said: ‘You didn’t give him a cup of coffee did you?’ We didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to have coffee. We made that album at Rockfield [Studios, in Monmouth], and I ended up driving home to Birmingham every night, because once Glenn started talking he wouldn’t stop.”

In December 2011, Iommi experienced another life-changing moment when he was diagnosed with lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. He was about to start work on 13.

“It was a big shock,” he says softly. “I didn’t think I was going to make it through the album. I thought that was it.”

Sabbath’s tour dates were rearranged so he could return to the UK every few weeks for treatment. “I look at life differently now,” he adds. “It changes you.”

In 2016, with his cancer in remission, Black Sabbath bowed out with The End tour. In recent years Iommi has raised more than £50,000 for the University Hospitals Birmingham Charity by raffling guitars. “It’s good to give something back, trying to make the rooms nicer for cancer patients,” he says. “Because they’re sitting there for hours having chemotherapy and it’s boring.”

As far as Iommi was concerned, Black Sabbath ended with that farewell tour. Others disagreed. In the early 2020s, Andrew Watt, now Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones’ go-to producer, contacted him about making a Sabbath album with the original lineup (Rage Against The Machine’s drummer Brad Wilk played on 13 after Ward objected to what he called “an un-signable contract”).

"I’d met Andrew Watt when he was producing Ozzy,” Iommi recalls. “He was very keen and a bit too excited. He also didn’t know what it was like working with the original Sabbath, working with Bill,” he adds drolly. “Also, we’d done 13, and I didn’t like the idea of: ‘Now here’s another album.’”

Iommi was similarly dubious when Sabbath were asked to reunite for last year’s Back To The Beginning concert at Villa Park. Metallica, Pantera, Guns N’ Roses and Tool were among those lining up to play a tribute to Black Sabbath, with proceeds going to several charities.

“I said to Ozzy: ‘I don’t think we should do it.’ I said: ‘We should just let the other bands play our stuff, and us come out at the end and say thank you. But it was for a good charitable cause, and eventually we said okay.”

Iommi had last seen Ozzy when the two of them performed Paranoid at the closing ceremony of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The singer had already been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and his condition had worsened.

“I hadn’t seen Ozzy for a bit, and it was difficult seeing him like that,” Iommi remembers. “Fucking hell…” His voice tails off.

Iommi didn’t want Ozzy to play a solo set before Sabbath’s closing performance either. “Because I was concerned he was going to blow himself out, and by the time we came on he’d be struggling.”

Ozzy ignored misgivings, and even showed up when the other three were rehearsing. “We needed to rehearse with Bill, because it had been twenty years and he couldn’t remember how to play some of his stuff. We wanted to do the song Black Sabbath on the night but it was too difficult for him. But Ozzy would arrive with this gang of people carrying him up and down. We’d say: ‘Oz, you don’t have to be here today, go home.’ I was concerned about his voice. But he wanted to be there. There was no stopping him.”

Did Sabbath fall back into their old ways as soon as the four of them were in a room together?

“You mean moaning?” Iommi deadpans. “Oh yes. And taking the piss. Bill bore the brunt of it even after all these years.”

On the night, July 5, 2026, Ozzy performed a solo set and struggled to remain seated – for his own safety – on his customised throne. He then joined the rest of Black Sabbath for a victory lap of War Pigs, N.I.B., Iron Man and Paranoid. Still on the throne, like a heavy metal king at his coronation, he went out with a grin on his face and, ever the showman, still trying to stand up.

“The adrenaline carried Ozzy through,” says Iommi. “And I’m so glad we did it. But of course we didn’t expect him to go so soon.”

Ozzy died 17 days after the show and, at the time of this interview, has been gone for a year. “Can you believe it? A year?” Iommi sighs. “But it was so good that we got to do that one last thing together – and for a good cause."

For all the doom and pestilence on his new album, Iommi seems at peace with the world. He’s been married to his fourth wife, Maria, since 2005, and credits her and his family for helping him “come through the other side”.

Earlier this year the couple returned from holiday to find what Iommi presumed was a speeding ticket. “It looked official,” he says. In fact it was a letter from the government telling him he’d been awarded an MBE (Member Of The British Empire) for services to music. “I’ll be going up to Buckingham Palace at some point, but I don’t know when.”

MBEs, Lord Mayor Awards, charity raffles, his own range of fragrances… Besides his new record, these are the accolades and offbeat projects Iommi enjoys. “I’ve just done a track with [veteran Star Trek actor turned singer] William Shatner,” he divulges, as we get up to leave.

What, one wonders, would 78-year-old Tony Iommi say to his 17-year-old self about to embark on a musical career? “Break all the barriers and do what you believe in,” he replies firmly. “Everything is a test. Being told I wasn’t going to play guitar again was the first test; Sabbath being rejected was the next. Stick with it and keep on.”

With his words of empowerment ringing in our ears, we swap the studio’s darkness for blazing sunshine. By the studio door stands Tony Iommi’s bin. Disappointingly, there isn’t a dismembered arm poking out from under the lid.

From The Dark is out now via BMG.

Cheap Trick have reportedly cancelled next year's scheduled tour dates and are to go on hiatus. While the band have not publicly confirmed that they're taking a break, several venues scheduled to host shows in 2027 have cancelled those performances.

Cheap Trick are scheduled to resume their All Washed Up tour next week in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and wrap things up on November 22 in Detroit, and these dates remain listed on the band's website, with tickets still on sale.

However, next year's schedule is looking much less certain, with several venues announcing cancellations.

“After many years of touring, and a much-needed break, Cheap Trick has decided to take an unspecified amount of time off,” reads a statement released by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee, NC, where the band were scheduled to perform in February. "Therefore, this event has unfortunately been cancelled.”

Similar announcements followed from the Thunder by the Bay Music & Motors Festival in Sarasota, FL, the Seminole Casino Hotel in Immokalee, FL, and from the Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, Georgia.

The announcements come just days after founding Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen revealed he was in good health following a show in Aurora, IL, in September, when he'd experienced breathing difficulties and left the stage for several minutes.

"Let everybody know I took an MRI last week," Nielsen told Eyewitness News at a Breast Cancer Awareness event in the band's hometown of Rockford, IL. "I have no cancer, so that’s good news."

Cheap Trick, who cancelled four concerts and postponed three others in June, citing "circumstances beyond our control", are scheduled to return to the road at the Clyde Theatre in Fort Wayne, IN, on November 5. Full dates below.

Cheap Trick: All Washed Up tour 2026

Nov 05: Fort Wayne Clyde Theatre, IN
Nov 08: Madison The Sylvee, WI
Nov 11: Kansas City Uptown Theater, MO
Nov 12: St. Louis The Factory, MO
Nov 14: Davenport Capitol Theatre, IA
Nov 15: La Vista The Astro, NE
Nov 18: Milwaukee Landmark Credit Union Live, WI
Nov 19: Cincinnati Taft Theatre, OH
Nov 21: Northfield Park Racino, OH
Nov 22: Detroit Sound Board Theater, MI

Find Cheap Trick tickets.

Despite having released only one single by that point, by the spring of 1977 The Sex Pistols were the biggest news in British music. And yet the punk movement’s most high-profile standard bearers still had to prove to a lot of rock fans that punk had some musical substance to back up the hype. The Clash, The Damned, The Jam and several others already had debut albums out, and The Pistols were being swamped by their own self-created chaos.

They’d recently sacked bass player Glen Matlock, and when they went into the studio in March 1977 with his replacement, Sid Vicious, they found that he couldn’t play the required parts.

While the band signed and then unsigned to A&M records after being dropped like a hot potato by EMI, guitarist Steve Jones stepped into the breach to play the bass bits, and eventually, once the band finally inked a deal with Virgin, Never Mind The Bollocks… made it into shops on October 28, 1977.

A less than promising background then, but as it turned out, it was worth the wait.

12. Seventeen

Side two’s opener proved to be one of the less focused tracks on this most sharp-eyed of records. There’s a certain weary, can’t-be-arsed quality to it, which, I guess, suits its subject matter. The final rabble-rousing chant “I’m a lazy sod” is one of the few times on this first album that they manage to sound indistinguishable from Sham 69. They could do better, and did.

11. Liar

This one can sound pretty, well, vacant at times, with vague, incoherent lyrics, but the fieriness of Rotten’s delivery, along with some of Paul Cook’s most splenetic drumming and the trademark snarling riff assault, lifts this track above mere filler status.

10. New York

Any group with Johnny Rotten on the mic is always going to sound pretty ferocious, but if anything, the Pistols suited the fast and furious approach that defined punk in the first place, which meant that this slower, sludgier track didn’t stand out as much as some of its neighbours.

9. Submission

Reputedly the result of Malcolm McLaren suggesting the band write a song about S&M, instead they wrote about being on “a submarine mission for you baby”, by way of a two-fingered salute to their beloved svengali. “I can’t figure out your watery love,” growls Rotten, to a slow, sludgy soundtrack. No, us neither, but the track still retains a certain sleazy menace.

8. EMI

Songs about ‘the industry’ are rarely enervating stuff for the listener, but the Pistols had already had enough run-ins with labels to last a whole career. Lyrically, this final, ‘fuck you and goodbye’ track is satisfyingly stinging – “You do not believe that we’re for real, or you would lose your cheap appeal” – and the refrain “Who? EEE-EMM-IIIII!’ always packs a punch. it’s rant first, song second, but few have ever ranted better than Johnny Rotten.

7. No Feelings

A wired, urgent rocker that spews the Pistols’ world-view all over the pavement, and asks us what we’re going to do about it. “I got no emotion for anybody else / better understand I’m in love with myself,” he hollers. Meanwhile, the vim and fizz of the performance suggest otherwise – nihilists or not, they still aim to thrill.

6. Bodies

By the standards of a band who would later release a song called Belsen Was A Gas, a song about a “girl from Birmingham / she just had an abortion” should be relatively easy-going fare. But the brutal judgement served on this woman (“Pauline”, allegedly a real Pistols fan who told them of abortions she’d had) in Rotten’s lyrics make for wince-inducing listening..

Yet it’s one of the strongest tracks on the record, partly because it’s so disturbing – I mean, you weren’t under the impression punk was meant to tread carefully around such topics were you? Pretty much the definition of Uneasy Listening.

5. Problems

Lit up by Steve Jones’ slashingly simple but brutally effective guitar riff, this high-octane rocker could quite easily have been a fifth single from the album, had the band not near-imploded by that point. One of the heaviest tracks on the record and, aside from the singles, certainly among the best.

4. Holidays In The Sun

The Pistols’ first post-Matlock composition, and the album opener, began with the sound of jackboots marching and ended with Rotten wibbling incoherently about wanting to go “under the Berlin Wall”, by which point, we were too busy pogoing to question what he was on about.

The main riff may have sounded suspiciously similar to that of The Jam’s In The City, but you make your own rules in the punk game. Lines such as “a cheap holiday in other people’s misery” would prove to be among the best Rotten ever wrote, and the fascistic chant of “Reason, reason, reason” gave it a dystopian edge that only added to the sense of Year Zero that punk loved to promote.

3. Pretty Vacant

The Pistols’ third single is lifted to greatness chiefly by one of Johnny Rotten’s finest vocal performances, in which he snarls, sneers and roars an anthem of defiance for a blank generation while sounding anything but vacant – rather he seems to be storing up enough angry energy to fuel Britain’s wind farms for decades to come. As ever it’s built around a blindingly simple base – a handful of chugging power chords, a chantalong chorus and a few well-chosen lines (“You’ll always find us… out to luunch!”), but its powerful enough to shake any laid-back muso out of their complacency.

2. Anarchy In The UK

There can’t have been many more hair-raising couplets in rock history than “I am an anti-christ! I am an anar-kyste!”, and its impact has hardly been dulled with time or repeated listens. The scattershot references to the IRA, UDA, NME and council tenancies, and vows to “destroy passers by” made their singer sound genuinely unhinged and capable of doing serious damage to anyone within gobbing distance, while the pounding, relentless rock rhythm section underneath it make resistance futile.

1. God Save The Queen

Claiming to be an anti-christ, and indeed, an ‘anar-kyste’ were startling enough claims for a rock’n’roll frontman to make, but to then publicly dismiss our reigning monarch, observing “she ain’t no human being” in the year of her universally celebrated Silver Jubilee, represented a whole new level of provocation to the establishment. In terms of timing alone, this is a work of spittle-flecked, petulant genius.

More importantly, though, it’s also a roaring, swaggering firecracker of a rock’n’roll song, the like of which we’ve rarely heard before or since. One that sets your pulse racing just as thrillingly as “A Wop Bob A Loo Bop, A Wop Bam Boom” did 20 years previously

And that coda of “No future, no future for you” summed up much of the uniting sentiments that drew together punk’s audience of disaffected youth in the first place. Punk may have been dismissed as a novelty back then, but they’ll be playing this one long after her majesty is dead and gone.

Sex Pistols Quiz: Never Mind The Bollocks...Here's The Sex Pistols

When Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood formed a band for this year's Fealess tour, he returned to two of the musicians who played on his 1974 debut solo release, I've Got My Own Album To Do: bassist Willie Weeks and drummer Andy Newmark.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone Brazil, Wood reveals one of his concerns regarding putting the band together: he didn't know if the musicians were still alive.

"I didn’t even know the guys I started with, Andy and Willie, I didn’t even know if they were still playing," he says. "And to find that they were still alive and still playing is even better. And they were grooving better than ever before."

In addition to the very-much-alive rhythm section, Woods' Ammo band was completed by Taj Mahal’s guitarist Johnny Lee Schell, longtime keyboardist Andy Wallace, and vocalists Imelda May and Chanel Haynes.

Newmark and Weeks also played on Woods' 1975 album Now Look and on 2001's Not For Beginners, as well as on the 1974 live recording The First Barbarians: Live from Kilburn.

"While the Stones have a breathing space, while they have a little break, then I figured I must keep my hands and my chops together," says Wood. "There’s no better way to fill in a few months than to get my own band together and keep playing because I love to keep playing. I know Mick [Jagger] does too."

Woods and the Ammo Band completed a dozen European shows in the summer, and kick off a short run of South American dates this weekend, where Woods says, "we may record a live album." Full dates below.

Ronnie Wood: Fearless tour 2027

Nov 01: São Paulo Espaço Unimed, Brazil
Nov 06: Buenos Aires Movistar Arena, Argentina
Nov 08: Rosario Teatro Metropolitano, Argentina
Nov 10: Santiago Teatro Caupolicán, Chile

Lita Ford has released her first new music in more than a decade. The former Runaway, who hasn't released an album since Time Capsule, 2016's album of lost recordings, has launched a new, Halloween-friendly single, Dracula, and promises more to follow.

"Dracula is a song about an entity that represents seduction and control, eventually draining you of your life and everything in it," says Ford. "But there’s something fun about flirting with disaster, making Dracula a playful fantasy. The moaning slide guitars take on a life force all their own. Menacing!"

The new single was produced by Gary Hoey, who worked on Ford's 2012 album Living Like a Runaway, and was performed by Ford, Hoey and drummer Bobby Rock, who's been touring with Ford since 2013. It's also Ford's first release since signing to Italian label Frontiers Music Srl, a deal announced earlier this month.

"It’s been a long journey to create this magical dark fairytale album for everyone to enjoy," said Ford when the contract was signed. "I needed the perfect team to make that happen and to help give this powerful record a life it deserves. I am so happy to say I have officially sealed the deal with Frontiers Music Srl, as we are thrilled, excited and ready to rise with the first new single."

“We are incredibly proud to welcome Lita Ford to the Frontiers Label Group family, " said Jeff Stevenson, GM of Frontiers Label Group. "Lita is a true rock icon – an artist whose influence, musicianship, and unmistakable attitude have inspired generations of fans and musicians around the world.

"Beyond her extraordinary legacy, what excites us most is that Lita continues to look forward creatively. We’re honoured that she has chosen Frontiers for this next chapter, and we can’t wait for fans to hear what she has in store."

Ford will celebrate Dracula's release with two shows this weekend. The first will take place at the Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, NV, on Friday, and on Saturday night she'll play at the Ladies of Rock Festival at the Agua Caliente Resort Casino in Rancho Mirage, CA, alongside Vixen and Orianthi. She's also scheduled to support the Gene Simmons Band at Ferg's Sports Bar & Grill in St. Petersburg, FL, on January 30.

U2 guitarist The Edge might not be everyone's idea of a conventional 'guitar hero', but the 65-year-old musician has influenced generations of guitar players with his unique approach to the instrument, and his admirable determination not to rest on his laurels as a musician.

"We genuinely think that we might just write the best song we’ve ever written next week," he told the New York Times recently. "That's why I'm still in this band."

Reflecting on his personal approach to his instrument, The Edge added, "I've always made it a point to try and find a way to make the guitar sound different and to to play the guitar in a different way.

"I think that was born of the fact that we emerged as a band in that moment after punk rock. Punk rock kind of pulled everything down, and started from ground zero again... We took advantage of that opportunity to to start something new. The cycle is Order, Disorder, Reorder, and we arrived just at the beginning of that reorder phase."

In a 1992 interview with US magazine Musician, the guitarist (real name Dave Evans) spoke about his approach to the guitar, and about the importance of finding one's own distinctive voice as a musician. In conversation with trusted US journalist Bill Flanagan, the guitarist revealed the thought process that led to him developing his own style.

"I suppose it really starts with picking up the electric guitar, age 15, and playing cover versions. Knowing a few Rory Gallagher licks or whatever," The Edge began. "Then suddenly you're in this band and there's all this fantastic music coming at you that challenges everything that you believed about what the electric guitar was for. Suddenly the question is, 'What are you saying with it?' Not 'Can you play this lick?' or 'What's your speed like?' It's, 'What are you saying with your instrument? What is being communicated in this song?'

"Suddenly guitars were not things to be waved in front of the audience but now were something you used to reach out to the crowd," he continued. "If you were in the fourth row of the Jam concert at the Top Hat Ballroom in Dunleary in 1980, when Paul Weller hit that Rickenbacker 12-string it meant something and it said something that everyone in that building knew. There were other bands, other guitar players. They all sounded different, but they all had that thing in common which was that there was something behind what they did which was communicating.

"I had to totally re-examine the way I played," he reflected. "It was such a challenging thing to hold up your style against this and say, Well, what are you saying? What is this song about? What does that note mean? Why that note? So much of this bad white blues barroom stuff that was around at the time was just guitar players running up and down the fretboard. It was just a kind of big wank. There was nothing to it, it was gymnastics. I started trying to find out what this thing around my neck could do in the context of this band... I was not going for purity, I was going for the opposite. I was trying to fuck up the sound as much as possible, go for something that was definitely messed with, tampered with, had a character that was not just the regular guitar sound.

"Then I started to see a style coming through. I started to see how notes actually do mean something. They have power. I think of notes as being expensive. You don't just throw them around. I find the ones that do the best job and that's what I use."

U2's new album Carnaval de Luz, the follow-up to 2023's Songs Of Surrender will be released on November 15, and is available to pre-order now.

The Edge describes Carnaval de Luz as “a messy, provocative, sacred collection of songs”, while frontman Bono promises listeners will enjoy “loud guitars, deep bass, some ecstatic rhythms."

Kiss are to release a new documentary covering their farewell tour.

Directed by DJ Viola, Kiss: End Of The Road will debut on the band's web site KissOnline.com with a special live streaming event on November 19.

The band's farewell tour began on January 31, 2019 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada, and ended on December 2, 2023, at Madison Square Garden in New York. In total the tour took in 250 shows.

A press statement for the documentary reads, "With unprecedented access to Kiss' historic "End Of The Road" world tour, Kiss: End Of The Road chronicles the final live chapter of one of rock's most legendary bands, capturing the camaraderie, conflicts, challenges, and emotion behind their journey to one last performance at Madison Square Garden, while also exploring how the band plans to carry its legacy forward in the years ahead."

"The End Of The Road world tour was the culmination of fifty years of touring to elevate the live concert experience for fans old and new," says guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley. "A defining moment in Kiss history. The documentary takes everyone along with us to see and be a part of all the unseen moments that made this last tour one of the wildest, most memorable rides of our career. We can't wait for the world to see it through our eyes for the very first time and relive the magic of these shows."

Bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons adds: "This documentary showcases the closing chapter of our touring career, back in New York where it all started for us. The Madison Square Garden shows were full of raw energy and the film gives an inside perspective for the very first time. We can't wait for everyone to see it and experience the world of Kiss in a way they've never seen before."

Watch the trailer below.

Band co-founders Simmons and Stanley have already began talking up the forthcoming Kiss avatar show, which is set to launch in Las Vegas in 2028.

The production, co-created by KISS and Pophouse Entertainment, the Swedish music investment firm co-founded by ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus, was teased at Kiss' final show at New York's Madison Square Garden, and will be hosted in a bespoke theatre in 'Sin City', with avatars created by the George Lucas-founded visual effects company, Industrial Light & Magic.

Simmons and Stanely discussed the as-yet-untitled show in the May 2026 issue of Pollstar magazine.

"It will be a true immersive experience that really magnifies the band and the iconic nature of what we’ve built for 50 years," said Paul Stanley. "It’s very different from anything else that’s been out there. It has really no connection to some of the experimental holograms that were tried in the past, which were really very primitive. This will be virtually seeing us. My avatar looks just like me, not a cartoon or an artist rendition. The great thing about being an icon is you can stay young forever."

"Pophouse is a terrific bunch of entrepreneurial futurists," Simmons added. "They did buy our makeup and the tunes, yes, but what they’re deep into is planting seeds for the future to make it even bigger.

"The fans should start to think about this as not the end of anything," he said. "This is the phoenix rising out of the ashes. As a form of life, caterpillars aren’t very impressive, but they survive, and then it looks like they’re dying as they go into a cocoon. But then you get a beautiful butterfly that sprouts wings and goes to places and soars above that the caterpillar never imagined. This is not the end. This is the beginning."

Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has helped usher in Halloween by reading The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe.

On Tuesday (October 27), San Francisco’s thrash metal giants got their lead guitarist and resident horror hound to chill fans with the 1845 poem, long a staple of Gothic literature, soundtracked by the song Inamorata from their 2023 album 72 Seasons. Watch below.

Hammett has made no secret of his lifelong love for horror. He has an array of ESP KH-2 guitars decorated to feature iconic scary film figures, with respective models depicting Boris Karloff as Frankenstein’s monster, Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula and Elsa Lanchester as The Bride in Bride Of Frankenstein.

Another model is designed to resemble a Ouija board: a fixture of horror films since one was used to inadvertently summon the demon Pazuzu in the 1973 classic The Exorcist.

In addition, Hammett, 63, hosted the horror convention Kirk Von Hammett’s Fear FestEvil from 2014 to 2015. The events featured live performances, signings and panels all rooted in the guitarist’s passion for the spooky.

During a 2022 interview with Gibson Guitars, Hammett spoke about how 1974’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre “truly” frightened him growing up.

“There was a buzz on the street and everyone was talking about it,” he said. “I remember going to see it and truly being frightened because there hadn’t been a film like that up to that point that was so graphic and violent in its brutality. There wasn’t anything like that. I remember me and my friends leaving the theatre shaking our heads going, ‘Wow’, and looking at each other wondering, ‘Did we just see that?!’ It was a real experience.”

He also spoke about The Exorcist, explaining how it affected him as a Catholic kid: “I thought the perpetrators of that film were coming after me next,” he said. “It was an honest fear when we were kids. For the next four months I slept with the lights on every single night.”

Hammett joined Metallica in 1983, shortly before the recording of their 1983 debut album Kill ’Em All, and has been with the band ever since. One of the biggest acts in heavy metal, they’ve sold more than 150 million albums worldwide and won 10 Grammy Awards.

The four-piece are currently putting on a residency at Las Vegas multimedia venue the Sphere, scheduled to continue on Thursday (October 29), then on Halloween night itself on Saturday. Whether Hammett will dress up to mark the occasion remains to be seen.

Korn have returned to the British Isles for the first time since headlining Download festival in June 2025.

The Bakersfield nu metal pioneers put on their first of six shows in England and the Republic Of Ireland on Monday (October 26), where they played an 18-song set including such 90s hits as Blind, Freak On A Leash and Falling Away From Me at First Direct Bank Arena in Leeds.

They also dusted off 1996 rarity Chi, which before this tour hadn’t played since 2013, and Kill You, unplayed since 2007. See the full setlist and watch videos below.

Korn are still touring to promote their 2022 album Requiem, though they haven’t played any songs from the record on this run. However, they have been performing Reward The Scars, the single they put out in April in collaboration with role-playing videogame Diablo IV.

Whether the song will make the tracklisting of the band’s next record, their 15th overall, remains to be seen. Last month, Ray Luzier’s technician revealed that the drummer has recorded his parts for the release.

Korn’s 15th album will be their first without co-founding bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, who parted ways with the band shortly after completing his work on Requiem. Roberto “Ra” Díaz has been filling in live since late 2021. This year, Fieldy explained why and his former bandmates parted ways, revealing that it came down to his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and his resultant inability to tour internationally.

“COVID happened,” he told the Shady Characters podcast. “That’s it. I’m like, ‘I’m not going out there.’ That’s what happened, ’cause it was new. Now. I didn’t get vaccinated or anything – but when you reflect on it, that’s what happened. They’re like, ‘We’re going to Florida,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m not going to get vaccinated. I’m not going.’ I go, ‘People, this is weird right now.’”

Korn’s UK/Ireland tour continues on Thursday (October 28) at Utilita Arena in Birmingham, then will proceed through Manchester and Dublin before concluding at London’s O2 Arena on November 4. They’ll return to mainland Europe on November 8, when they play the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam. The tour will wrap up at Unipol Forum in Assago, Italy on November 21.

Korn setlist: First Bank Direct Arena, Leeds – October 26, 2026

1. It’s On!
2. Here To Stay
3. Reward The Scars
4. Got The Life
5. Rotting In Vain
6. Twist
7. Chi
8. Kill You
9. A.D.I.D.A.S.
10. Shoots And Ladders
11. Coming Undone
12. Did My Time
13. Make Me Bad
14. Y’All Want A Single
15. Falling Away From Me
16. Blind
17. Twisted Transistor
18. Freak On A Leash

Jenna Ortega and Amy Adams, the stars of director Taika Waititi’s new film Klara and the Sun, have been undertaking an extensive promotional campaign for the film in the UK, presumably to help distract potential cinema goers from some of the appalling reviews the film has received.

As part of their media chores during a recent visit to London, Ortega and Adams were filmed played a game called Agree to Disagree for LADBible, sharing their deeply held convictions on what we're informed are The Internet's Biggest Debates, including topics such as 'Would you survive a zombie apocalypse?', 'Should good singers do karaoke?' and 'Can you admit when you're wrong?'

As part of this fascinating discussion, the Hollywood duo were asked for their thoughts on the ethics of wearing band T-shirts, or more specifically, a debate dear to the hearts of tiresome, tedious gatekeeping men worldwide, whether an individual should be allowed to wearing band T-shirts if they don't know the band in question.

Ortega, who in previous promotional interviews has referenced bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Deftones, discussed her love of experimental US hip hop duo Death Grips, and revealed the influence of punk icon Siouxsie Sioux on horror icon Wednesday Addams, has obviously been subjected to some attention on this subject before, as she tells Adams, "What I don't agree with is when someone tries to do the, 'Name three songs' [question]. It's like, why do you care? Why do you care that much?"

Ortega also factors in some purely practical reasons as to why one might be wearing a band T-shirt, pointing out that someone's choice of apparel on any given day could be dictated by random acts of chance, such as the possibility of being forced to change outfits if "a bird did its business on you" or "someone threw a drink at you". And you thought living in Hollywood doesn't throw up real world problems? More fool you.

Amy Adams, meanwhile, says that she understands that fans of musical artists "kind of feel proprietorship" when it comes to wearing T-shirts, but cites an example from her own life as to why this kind of gatekeeping can actually harm bands.

"It's interesting," she says, "because my daughter really liked band T-shirts when she was younger, and didn't know the bands, but it introduced her to the bands, because she was like, 'Who's this? Who’s that?' Sshe's now very into the bands of the T-shirt she wore when she was like nine."

Ultimately, the pair are in agreement on the matter, offering the shared opinion, "Just let the person wear the T-shirt".

So that's that settled then. Thanks everyone. NEXT!

Watch the duo's discussion below.

Punk rock sensations Turnstile have raised more than $200,000 (£150,000) for humanitarian efforts in Gaza, Sudan and Lebanon following a benefit concert near the Washington Monument, which was attended by an estimated 60,000 people.

The Baltimore Grammy-winners put on a free show at the National Mall in Washington DC on Saturday, October 24, where they played 19 songs before a vast crowd. They partnered with Human Concern International for the event, and according to The PRP, raised $150,000 (£112,700) for the Canadian charity before even taking the stage.

The fundraiser is ongoing and nearing its $350,000 (£262,000) goal. Donate via the LaunchGood website.

Turnstile’s performance came shortly after the end of their latest North American tour, which kicked off at The Rave in Milwaukee on September 9 and concluded at the Observatory Grounds in Santa Ana, California on October 18.

The support acts varied concert-to-concert and made for a truly genre-smashing list, including pop singer/songwriter Slayyyter, hardcore veterans Hatebreed, hip hop duo Clipse and many more. Electronic musician Yves Tumor was originally slated for two September shows but withdrew following allegations of sexual assault and abusive behaviour (Tumor denies any wrongdoing). One of Tumor’s replacements for the tour was death metal aggressors Obituary.

The US tour and the HCI fundraiser continue what has been a banner 2026 for Turnstile. In February, the five-piece won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album with last year’s Never Enough and took home the Best Metal Performance trophy thanks to their single Birds.

In August, they released the remix album Never Enough: Versions, featuring a roster of guest stars including Elton John, Hayley Williams and Dying Fetus, among many others. Louder gave the album four stars out of five and called it “one of 2026’s boldest and most entertaining releases”.

Meanwhile, the band’s former guitarist Brady Ebert remains in custody after being charged with first and second-degree murder for allegedly driving his car at William Yates, the 79-year-old father of frontman Brendan Yates. After insisting in court that he “did not commit a crime”, Ebert was ordered to undergo a competency evaluation, to determine whether he has the mental capacity to understand the charges against him.

Turnstile will play the Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in November and are booked for the US and European festival circuit next summer. After playing Sonic temple in Columbus in May, they’ll cross the Atlantic to make appearances at Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park in Germany, Primavera Sound in Spain and Tons Of Rock in Norway, among others. See their full itinerary via their website.

Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson has announced a string of European and UK tour dates for summer, autumn and winter 2026.

The mercurial frontman will hit the road with his solo band on the Psychogod tour from June to July, where he’ll play headline dates and a number of festival sets. He’ll return to the road from November to December for a headline run where he’ll be supported by Swedish prog/power metal band Evergrey.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, October 30. See dates below.

Dickinson comments: “What we do is real and that’s so important right now. A real drummer, a real bass player, real guitarists, real keyboards – A.I. can only copy, it can only pretend. It can never be in love, and it can never play. This band? They can really play!”

The singer’s live lineup will be rounded out by guitarists Chris Declercq and Philip Näslund, bassist Tanya O’Callaghan, keyboardist Mistheria and drummer Dave Moreno. The tour comes after the group spent much of 2026 recording Dickinson’s upcoming solo album, the follow-up to 2024’s The Mandrake Project. Press materials say that the newly announced shows will “showcase a whole range of new material, alongside fan favourites and deep cuts spanning his entire solo career”.

Dickinson told VSX over the summer that his new album will be out next year and is “heavy as shit”. It was recorded live in the studio in early 2026, with tracking taking place at Studio 606 in Los Angeles, the space owned by Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Members of Brazilian heavy metal greats Sepultura are set to appear.

As well as touring with his solo band, Dickinson will hit the road with Iron Maiden next year, despite the band previously stating their ongoing 2026 dates will be their last until at least 2028. The British institution will play a string of North American dates in the spring to conclude their 50th-anniversary Run For Your Lives world tour, including a headline slot at Columbus festival Sonic Temple.

Maiden are currently playing across South America and will take the stage at Nubank Parque in São Paulo tonight (October 27). Their full 2027 itinerary can be found below.

Bruce Dickinson 2027 tour dates:

• Jun 14: Belfast Ulster Hall, UK
• Jun 16: Dublin The Academy, Ireland
• Jun 22: Milan Alcatraz, Italy
• Jun 23: Zurich Volkshaus, Switzerland
• Jun 25: Zagreb SRC Salata, Croatia
• Jun 26: Belgrade Luka Beograd, Serbia
• Jun 28: Sofia Vidas Art Arena, Bulgaria
• Jun 29: Istanbul Bonus Parkorman, Turkiye
• Jul 02-04: Cartagena Rock Imperium, Spain
• Jul 07: Luxembourg City Den Atelier, Luxembourg
• Jul 07-10: Ballenstedt Rockharz, Germany
• Jul 08-11: Vizovice Masters Of Rock, Czechia
• Nov 10: Warsaw Stodola, Poland
• Nov 12: Helsinki Black Box Jäähalli, Finland
• Nov 14: Stockholm Annexet, Sweden
• Nov 16: Oslo Sentrum Scene, Norway
• Nov 17: Copenhagen Store Vega, Denmark
• Nov 19: Hamburg Inselpark Arena, Germany
• Nov 20: Berlin UberEats Music Hall, Germany
• Nov 22: Munich Zenith, Germany
• Nov 24: Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Halle, Germany
• Nov 25: Amsterdam AFAS Live, Netherlands
• Nov 27: Lincoln The Engine Shed, UK
• Nov 28: Glasgow O2 Academy, UK
• Nov 30: Manchester O2 Apollo, UK
• Dec 01: Bristol O2 Academy, UK
• Dec 03: London Eventim Apollo, UK
• Dec 04: Birmingham O2 Academy, UK
• Dec 07: Lyon Le Radiant-Bellevue, France
• Dec 08: Toulouse Le Bikini, France
• Dec 10: Paris L’Olympia, France

Iron Maiden 2027 tour dates:

• Apr 14: Tacoma Dome, WA
• Apr 16: Vancouver Rogers Arena, Canada
• Apr 18: Portland Moda Center, OR
• Apr 20: Wheatland Toyota Amphitheatre, CA
• Apr 22: Chula Vista North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre, CA
• Apr 24: San Bernardino Glen Helen Amphitheater, CA
• Apr 26: Phoenix Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, AZ
• Apr 28: Dallas Dos Equis Pavilion, TX
• May 01: Tampa Benchmark International Arena, FL
• May 02: West Palm Beach iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, FL
• May 05 Atlanta Lakewood Amphitheatre, GA
• May 07: Raleigh Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, NC
• May 09: Hartford The Meadows Music Theatre, CT
• May 11: Belmont Park UBS Arena, NY
• May 14: Sonic Temple, OH
• May 16: Boardwalk Rock, MD

The Flaming Lips released 16th album American Head during the confusion of Covid in 2020. It was their second LP in 18 months, but there was been a period of silence until they announced the 2027 arrival of The Teardrop Throbs. Back at the turn of the decade, band leader Wayne Coyne explained the autobiographical nature of their then-new music.

“I don’t know if this album is prog rock, but it’s certainly in a classic rock style that could easily be considered prog.” Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne is discussing where his group’s current album, American Head, fits into the musical landscape. If ever there was a band that made up their own rules, genres and stylistic templates, it’s the shape-shifting, psychedelically charged mavericks he’s fronted through countless experiments, detours, collaborations and reinventions since 1983.

One thing that American Head has that Prog readers will instinctively understand is an over-arching concept – or at the very least a strong thematic basis knitting its 13 tracks together. And happily, it comes wrapped in some of the strongest, most evocative songs they’ve written in years.

The seeds were planted when heartland rock icon Tom Petty passed away in 2017. “It affected us a lot,” says Coyne, “just like when Bowie died. But the thing that got my imagination going was that before the Heartbreakers they were called Mudcrutch, and they recorded sessions in Tulsa in the early 70s, just up the road from where we grew up in Oklahoma City.

“I would have been 12, 13 or so, and my older brothers would go back and forth to Tulsa all the time – they knew drug dealers, bikers, all kinds of colourful people. So it’s kind of a fantasy of mine that my older brothers could have run into Mudcrutch. What if they’d stayed in Tulsa, got waylaid by the seedier side of the scene, and never become the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers that we know? What would that album be like? Then we thought: what if we make it?

“The band already had “a couple of tracks that were like an Eagles record – the kind of gentle classic rock we always liked,” but at the same time they opted not to go fully down the method-acting route, and put some of their own identity in there too. “We wanted to veer away from the macho lyrics of that era,” says Coyne, “and maybe sing sad songs about our fucked-up families, about what might have happened in our own lives if fate had taken different turns, y’know?”

The “we” he speaks of encompasses his long-time lieutenant and co-songwriter Steven Drozd, who has a not dissimilar background to Coyne, with several wayward older siblings involved in countercultural shenanigans as far back as the late 60s. “We asked, ‘Is this really gonna work?’” says Coyne. “But then we said, ‘We can do what we want – we’re The Flaming Lips!’”

There certainly seems to have been no limits to this band’s sense of adventure in the past. They’ve collaborated with everyone from Miley Cyrus to Yoko Ono, issued experiments such as Two Blobs Fucking – 12 YouTube videos designed to be played simultaneously – and presented The 24 Hour Song Skull, a day-long song on a memory stick presented inside, yes indeed, a skull.

Last year’s album King’s Mouth was built around the tale, narrated by The Clash’s Mick Jones, of a giant monarch who saved his subjects from an avalanche, and whose head was then cut off and cast in steel. Obviously. American Head’s themes are less cerebral and surreal, even if there’s a distinct dreamlike quality to them.

That’s because their lyrics are partly rooted in real events and people from Coyne and Drozd’s lives. Mother Please Don’t Be Sad, for instance, puts us in the place of a teenage Wayne as he apologises to his mum for not dropping by her house... because he’s about to die in an armed robbery. For several years, Coyne worked as a cook in Long John Silver’s fast food takeaway in Oklahoma City, and they were held up several times. The most terrifying incident is recalled on this song.

“So you’re 17, just thinking it’s a normal dumb summer night. Then within a second, adrenaline is flying through you, your heart’s beating out of your chest and someone’s screaming, ‘Get on the floor, motherfuckers, get on the fuckin’ floor!’ And I really did lie on the floor thinking, ‘I’m gonna die. This is the end of my life.’ I thought about my mother – I would stop by on my way to or from work and drop off my uniform there, and she’ll worry where I’m at. And I thought, ‘Oh no, the police are going to show up and say, ‘I’m sorry, he was killed in a robbery.’

“So the song is me letting her know nothing can be done, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time... but of course, then I got to live! Which is the greatest gift you could ever have. And actually I thought anything was possible after that. It exposed me to how fucked up the world could be – but also how wonderful it can be. I think it kind of erased the insecure pettiness of being a teenager and I was able to think, ‘Fuck it! I’m gonna try to be a musician, an artist, and if people don’t like it who gives a fuck!’ Which is a very powerful way to be.”

Other scenarios presented on the album include semi-autobiographical visions such as At The Movies On Quaaludes, Watching The Lightbugs Glow and You N Me Sellin’ Weed, reflecting roads not fully taken by the young Coyne and Drozd, as they grew up viewing early 70s counterculture through very young eyes.

“I clearly remember when 2001: A Space Odyssey was out,” Coyne says. “A couple of years after, it was still playing in movie theatres. I remember my older brothers talking with one of their supposedly wiser druggy friends, and they all dismissed even having a job because in the future we’re just going to live in outer space and listen to The Beatles; and being eight or nine years old, I bought into that utopia!

“But while I got more into the music, my brothers got more immersed in the drug culture side of things. The song You N Me Sellin’ Weed is about when I was 16, and everyone was smoking and doing drugs. We knew some of the more organised pot dealers, and it just seemed like this is the way we’re all gonna make money – this isn’t wrong.

“But there’s a whole other side of violence and greed and it’s horrible and destructive. Seeing the effects on some of our brothers and their friends – people dying in motorcycle accidents, put in jail, drug deals gone bad... I would say to myself, ‘I’m just not that tough; I’m not going to be some street thug and have a fist fight every day. I just wanna play music.’”

It’s fair to say that criminality’s loss has been music’s gain, but these visions of an alternate history lend American Head a vivid nostalgic colour, and their roots in real life add emotional weight to some powerful tunes.

Coyne turns 60 in January, but shows no signs of slowing down his and The Lips’ creative output. His latest project is a plan to circumvent the current Covid restrictions on live shows in a style glimpsed in the video to this album’s lead single, Flowers Of Neptune 6, where he walked around in a giant bubble.

“We’ve been thinking about doing shows in space bubbles – Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, where the Sex Pistols once played, is a big venue we were thinking of trying. If we can’t do normal shows for the foreseeable future, could we do them with everyone in sealed bubbles?”

Inspired by their bubbled performance on The Late Show, the band trialled the idea at the Criterion in Oklahoma City in October and, at time of press, had two full concerts scheduled for December at the same venue. If anyone can pull it off, they surely can. For now, though, there seem like few better places to be than inside his uniquely inventive American head.

Last month, Eddie Vedder and Friends headlined the opening night of Vedder's Ohana Fest in Dana Point, California, but the Pearl Jam frontman returned to the festival the following night to guest with country and rock singer-songwriter Stephen Wilson Jr.

Much to the delight of those lucky enough to be in attendance, Vedder sidled onto the stage during Wilson Jr.'s set to share vocals on a stunning version of Hunger Strike, the classic Temple Of The Dog single originally fronted by Vedder and late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell. The collaboration has now been officially released on pro-shot video.

"Thank you, Temple Of The Dog!" exclaims Wilson Jr. at the song's climax. "What the hell just happened?"

Instigated by Cornell, Temple Of The Dog were formed to pay tribute to late Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood by recording two songs Cornell had written in 1990 after the death of his former roommate.

After hooking up with Mother Love Bone guitarist Stone Gossard and bassist Jeff Ament, plus Mike McCready, the guitarist from their fledgling new band Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, the proposed single swiftly became a full album.

Hunger Strike, the album's standout, was only written because Cornell didn’t like that the number of songs the band originally wrote – nine – was odd. And so a classic was born.

Wilson Jr. is currently on tour in Europe, having completed a British and Irish tour at the weekend. He's scheduled to play a run of US dates in November and December, ending with a show at the Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, OK., on New Year's Eve. Full dates below.

Stephen J. Wilson tour dates

Oct 27: Paris Le Trianon, France
Oct 29: Zürich Volkshaus, Switzerland
Oct 30: Köln Theater am Tanzbrunnen, Germany
Nov 01: Utrecht TivoliVredenburg, Netherlands
Nov 03: København VEGA, Denmark
Nov 04: Johanneshov Fållan, Sweden
Nov 05: Oslo Sentrum Scene, Norway

Nov 20: St. Petersburg St. Pete Country Fest 2026, FL
Nov 21: Birmingham Avondale Brewing Company, AL
Dec 02: Pittsburgh Citizens Live at The Wylie, PA
Dec 03: Indianapolis Old National Centre, IN
Dec 05: Cincinnati The Andrew J Brady Music Center, OH
Dec 09: Atlanta Coca-Cola Roxy, GA
Dec 11: Nashville The Truth, TN
Dec 12: Nashville The Truth, TN
Dec 31: Durant ChOctaw Casino & Resort, OK

Jan 20 - 23: Cancun Dave & Tim Riviera Maya, Mexico

Apr 03: Fort Lauderdale Tortuga Music Festival 2027, FL
Apr 24: Indio Stagecoach 2027, CA
Aug 14: Oshkosh XRoads41 2027, WI

Find Stephen J. Wilson tickets.

Singer-songwriter Neil Young has sued one of US President Donald Trump's political action committees, Trump 47 Committee Inc., over its use of his song Rockin' In The Free World at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, earlier this month.

According to the lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond, VA, the use of Rockin' In The Free World to usher Donald Trump onstage violated the terms of an agreement reached in 2020 with another PAC.

"In 2020, Young sued another corporation formed by Trump, Donald J. Trump For President, Inc., for copyright infringement of Rockin' In The Free World along with another song [Devil's Sidewalk] written by Young," reads the lawsuit. "Donald J. Trump For President, Inc. asserted no defence and immediately settled shortly after it was served, promising that it would never again use Rockin' In The Free World without a license and permission from Young."

The lawsuit says that by playing the song in Youngstown, the committee "acted willfully and in conscious disregard for Young's rights", and that he "suffered damage to his reputation and brand as a result of the implication that he supports Donald J. Trump in any way."

Young, who is seeking $10,000,000 in damages plus costs, is a longtime Trump adversary and released Big Crime, a song critical of the president, in 2025.

"Wake up, people!" he wrote the same year. "Today the USA is a disaster. Donald Trump is destroying America bit by bit with his staff of wannabes, people with no experience or talent, closet alcoholic wife beaters, inexperienced leaders who only know how to lie to keep favour with Trump’s falseness so they can hold their unearned positions in his inept government, a Congress full of Republicans acting like idiots with no conscience. He has divided us."

Neil Young & the Chrome Hearts recently released a video for Earth Girl. Taken from Second Song, Young's 50th studio album, it's a tribute to his wife, the actor, director and activist Daryl Hannah.

"I just wanted to say it to her now," Young told NPR. "You know, I don't look at it like it's going to be too late. It's never too late. It's not too late; it's just a different time."

Drummer Anika Nilles has revealed how she had to transform her technique as she learned to play Neil Peart's iconic drum parts in advance of Rush's ongoing Fifty Something tour.

"I love to be challenged," says Nilles, in a video filmed for Rolling Stone Canada. "So for me, it was just like I wanted to make it right. I was up to let go of what I have studied for so many years to improve my own style and my own character on the drums to make them feel good and feel at home in their own music.

"And when that means I have to let go of certain things which I trained on for many years to be perfect in that, but it doesn’t fit to the music, then that’s the task. So I do that. And by that I learned so many things [for] my own playing at the same time, which I can in the end, after this, I can put everything together. I think that makes me an even better musician in the end."

Nilles, who rehearsed with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee for a full year before beginning the Fifty Something tour, also talks about the specific challenges of performing Rush's classic Tom Sawyer.

"That song requires a really specific feel to feel right also to Alex and Geddy," says Nilles. "What happens playing-wise is doable. You have to get it into your DNA. But the feeling of all of those parts is really special, and it’s also hard because I had to let go some of my technique, which I usually use when I play those sneaky 16th notes.

"And to make the feel right and the sound right, I had to let go of that. I have to play more out of muscle power and less of technique to make that sit right. And that’s a last song in the set on most of those nights! And so I was really like, 'OK, let’s do that. Let’s focus.'"

The next show on Rush's Fifty Something tour is this evening (October 27) at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. The tour is currently scheduled to finish in Europe next April.

Rush: Fifty Something tour 2026

Oct 27: Washington Capital One Arena, D.C.
Oct 30: Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena, CT
Nov 01: Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena, CT
Nov 05: Hollywood Hard Rock Live, FL
Nov 07: Hollywood Hard Rock Live, FL
Nov 09: Tampa Benchmark International Arena, FL
Nov 11: Tampa Benchmark International Arena, FL
Nov 15: Pittsburgh PPG Paints Arena, PA
Nov 20: Charlotte Spectrum Center, NC
Nov 22: Charlotte Spectrum Center, NC
Nov 25: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA
Nov 27: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA
Dec 01: Glendale Desert Diamond Arena, AZ
Dec 03: Glendale Desert Diamond Arena, AZ
Dec 10: Edmonton Rogers Place, AB
Dec 12: Edmonton Rogers Place, AB
Dec 15: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC
Dec 17: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC

Rush: Fifty Something tour 2027

Jan 15: Buenos Aires Movistar Arena, Argentina
Jan 22: Curitiba Arena da Baixada, Brazil
Jan 24: São Paulo Allianz Parque, Brazil
Jan 26: São Paulo Allianz Parque, Brazil
Jan 30: Rio de Janeiro Estádio Olímpico Nilton Santos. Brazil
Feb 01: Belo Horizonte Estádio Mineirão, Brazil
Feb 04: Brasília Arena BRB Mané Garrincha, Brazil
Feb 19: Paris La Défense Arena, France
Feb 21: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany
Feb 23: Amstersam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Feb 25: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany
Feb 28: Cologne Lanxess Arena, Germany
Mar 02: Hamburg Barclays Arena, Germany
Mar 04: Stuttgart Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Germany
Mar 08: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Mar 10: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Mar 12: Manchester Co-op Live, UK
Mar 14: Manchester Co-op Live, UK
Mar 16: London O2 Arena, UK
Mar 18: London O2 Arena, UK
Mar 21: London O2 Arena, UK
Mar 27: Kraków Arena Kraków, Poland
Mar 30: Milan Unipol Dome, Italy
Apr 01: Basel St. Jakobshalle Basel, Switzerland
Apr 04: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark
Apr 06: Oslo Unity Arena, Norway
Apr 08: Stockholm Avicii Arena, Sweden
Apr 10: Helsinki Veikkaus Arena, Finland

Find Rush tickets.

Psychedelic Oklahomans The Flaming Lips have announced The Teardrop Throbs, their 17th studio album and their first since 2020's American Head. The album will be released via Third Man Records on January 22, and is the band's first since the departure of longtime members Michael Ivins in 2021 and Steven Drozd three years later.

The Teardrop Throbs was produced by the band with Taylor Johnson, Dave Fridmann and Scott Booker, with additional production from Jon Fridmann and Mike Fridmann. The band have also released the first single from the new album, the typically transcendent God Will Control The Werewolves.

"Control The Werewolves started as a little story about my two boys (Bloom and Rex) and me playing hide and seek at the park as it was getting dark outside," says Lips frontman Kevin Coyne. "We had all become very aware of the moon cycles when we stayed at an ocean view Airbnb about a month previously.

"The full moon had sucked all the water out of this ocean cove area, and we walked a quarter mile out on the seabed, seeing strange ocean creatures attached to the rocks. But yes... because of the moon, we had this amazing adventure, so it was fresh in our minds, and on this evening of hide-and-seek, it was luckily another full moon.

"Bloom asked me if, while he and Rex were hiding, the werewolves would get them (they had also watched a few werewolf movies and knew that the full moon was the time when the werewolves were out and about), and I told him God would control the werewolves for a little bit while we played hide-and-seek.

"The way I heard the song sounding (in my head) was kind of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side Of The Moon, but Syd Barrett is still in the band. Ha!"

The Flaming Lips will celebrate the release of The Teardrop Throbs with a run of UK and US dates in January, February and April, performing pairs of unique shows in five different cities: Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and London. Full dates below.

The Teardrop Throbs is available to pre-order now.

The Flaming Lips: The Teardrop Throbs tracklist

Throb
God Will Control The Werewolves
Titan
Every Teardrop Cried
Hooray
Instructions On How To Draw An Eyeball or How To Deal With A Loved One Who Is Addicted To Drugs
You See You In Me
You’ve Got Brain Damage
At The End Of The Day
The Trees Are Getting Their Leaves / Ceasefire In The City Of Singing Flame
Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell Part Two
A Sunset Far Away
Now I Understand

The Flaming Lips: 2027 tour dates

Jan 22: Nashville Brooklyn Bowl, TN
Jan 23: Nashville rooklyn Bowl, TN
Jan 26: New York Irving Plaza, NY
Jan 27: New York Irving Plaza, NY
Feb 23: Los Angeles The Bellwether, CA
Feb 24: Los Angeles The Bellwether, CA
Feb 27: Chicago Metro, IL
Feb 28: Chicago Metro, IL
Apr 02: London O2 Shepherd’s Bush, UK
Apr 03: London O2 Shepherd’s Bush, UK

Find Flaming Lips tickets.

Santana have launched a world tour for 2027. The Planet of Free Will Global Tour will launch with a run of European shows in June and July, kicking off at the O2 in London on June 30 and wrapping up at the Kaivopuisto Blues in Helsinki on July 31.

"Our intention, motives and purpose is to awaken a deeper awareness that this is the Planet of Free Will, and that each of us has the power to choose unity over division, harmony over conflict, and love over fear," says Carlos Santana. "At every Santana concert, we bring and share unity, harmony, and oneness with every note and we remind everyone that we have the free will to choose a higher consciousness and live for the highest good of all."

A presale for O2 tickets for O2 and Virgin Media broadband customers begins at 9.30am UK time this Wednesday, 28 October, while the general sale starts at the same time on Friday.

Santana's London date is part of the O2's 20th birthday celebrations, which also includes shows by Kings Of Leon, Jack Johnson and country star Brad Paisley.

"As we celebrate 20 years of The O2, we're delighted to welcome Carlos Santana to the venue," says Emma Bownes, Senior Vice President of Venue Programming, AEG International. "Few artists have had the global impact and longevity that Santana has achieved. For more than five decades, he has inspired audiences through his unique fusion of rock, blues, jazz and Latin music, creating some of the most memorable and influential music of his generation.

"He's a true icon, and we're thrilled that he'll be part of our anniversary celebrations."

The newly announced dates are in addition to Santana's ongoing residency at the House of Blues inside Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. Full dates below.

Santana: Planet of Free Will tour 2027

Jun 30: London The O2, UK
Jul 07: Paris Accor Arena, France
Jul 08: Kestenholz Festival St. Peter, Switzerland
Jul 10: Monchengladbach SparkassenPark, Germany
Jul 14: Wiesbaden Brita Arena, Germany
Jul 17: Pordenone Capitale italiana della Cultura, Italy
Jul 18: Lucca Summer Festival, Italy
Jul 21: Klam Burg Clam, Austria
Jul 22: Slavkov u Brna Zamecka Zahrada, Czech Republic
Jul 24: Krakow Tauron Arena, Poland
Jul 25: Halle Freilichtbuehne Peissnitz, Germany
Jul 28: Oslo Spektrum, Norway
Jul 31: Helsinki Kaivopuisto Blues, Finland

Find Santana tickets.

An Intimate Evening with Santana: Greatest Hits Live residency

Nov 04: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Nov 05: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Nov 07: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Nov 08: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Nov 11: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Nov 12: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Nov 14: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Nov 15: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 20: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 21: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 23: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 24: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 27: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 28: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 30: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
Jan 31: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 12: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 13: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 15: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 16: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 19: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 20: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 22: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV
May 23: Las Vegas House of Blues, NV

Find Santana Las Vegas tickets.

Tedeschi Trucks Band have announced the details of next year's annual residency at the Beacon Theatre in New York. The collective will play ten nights in March and April, kicking off on March 16 and wrapping up on April 3.

"We’re excited to return to The Beacon for 10 nights next year and can’t wait to see you there!" say the band.

A Fan Club presale will commence at 10am ET on October 28 (unregistered fans can still sign up online), with a local presale beginning 24 hours later and the general sale kicking off on Friday. Platinum and VIP options are available.

The 2027 run at The Beacon Theatre will bring the total number of Tedeschi Trucks Band shows at the 2,894-capacity venue to 84. The band first played a single show at The Beacon in 2011, and have played every year since, with the exception of 2020, when pandemic restrictions scuppered live plans.

The New York shows are in addition to the band's previously announced July run at the Red Rocks Ampitheater in Morrison, CO, and their own Sun, Sand, and Soul Festival in Miramar Beach, FL, where they'll be joined by Earth, Wind & Fire, Lukas Nelson, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Sierra Hull, The Wailers, and Samantha Fish. They also play six nights in Japan next month. Full dates below.

Tedeschi Trucks Band tour dates

Oct 26: Chicago The Chicago Theatre, IL
Oct 27: Chicago The Chicago Theatre, IL

Nov 05: Nagoya Comtec Portbase, Japan
Nov 16: Osaka Festival Hall, Japan
Nov 18: Tokyo Ariake Arena, Japan
Nov 19: Tokyo Ariake Arena, Japan
Nov 21: Tokyo EX Theater Roppongi, Japan

Mar 16: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Mar 17: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Mar 19: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Mar 20: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Mar 24: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Mar 26: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Mar 27: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Mar 31: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Apr 02: New York Beacon Theatre, NY
Apr 03: New York Beacon Theatre, NY

Apr 15: Miramar Beach Sun, Sand, and Soul, FL *
Apr 17: Miramar Beach Sun, Sand, and Soul, FL *

Jul 29: Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre, CO
Jul 30: Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre, CO
Jul 31: Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre, CO

Sep 9-12: Las Vegas, NV: Big Blues Bender *

* = Festival date
Find Tedeschi Trucks Band tickets.

John Lydon has announced the forthcoming release of Archive, a new photographic memoir documenting his life and career.

Available for pre-order from the singer's website, the book provides "an unprecedented, deeply personal retrospective spanning five decades of cultural revolution", according to a press statement.

The statement adds: "Archive brings together exclusive, previously unseen photographs from Lydon's private collection, opening a window into his childhood before guiding readers through the maelstrom of punk and beyond. Alongside rare visual documentation, the book features raw, candid commentary and reflection from Lydon on the groundbreaking legacy of the Sex Pistols, the fearless sonic exploration of Public Image Limited, and intimate tributes to the two cornerstone figures of his life: his late wife, Nora Forster, and his longtime best friend and manager, the late John Rambo Stevens.

Lydon adds, "This isn't a nostalgia trip. It's a record of real life - the good, the chaos, the quiet moments, and the people who stood by me through it all. Looking back over 50 years, it was time to open up the personal collection and set the story straight."

The book will be available in two formats: a Luxury Edition, costing £49.99, and a Superluxe Edition (Ultra-Limited Collector’s Set), priced at £149.99 .

The Luxury Edition is presented in a premium, hard-shell slipcase box and features hundreds of rare, unseen photographs and exclusive commentary, plus a hand-signed bookplate.

The Superluxe Edition (Ultra-Limited Collector’s Set) includes the complete signed coffee table book plus an exclusive companion book featuring further unreleased photography, a copy of PiL Alive, the new live album from Public Image Limited,and two art prints.

Lydon is currently on a spoken word tour in the UK.

John Lydon - I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right tour

Oct 26: Lancaster G5and Theatre
Oct 27: Harrogate Theatre
Oct 28: Prescot Shakespeare North Playhouse
Oct 29: Southport The Atkinson
Oct 30: Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall

Nov 01: Greenwich Theatre
Nov 03: Hereford Courtyard
Nov 04: Shrewsbury Buttermarket
Nov 05: Brecon Brycheiniog
Nov 06 Blackwood Miners Institute
Nov 07: Caerphilly Workmens Hall
Nov 11: Stirling Albert Halls
Nov 12: Paisley Town Hhall
Nov 13: Dunoon Queen's Hall
Nov 14: Barnard Castle The Witham
Nov 16: Stockton Arts Aentre
Nov 17: Blyth Phoenix Theatre
Nov 18: Whitby Pavilion
Nov 20: Blackburn Darwen Library Theatre
Nov 22: Kettering Lighthouse Theatre
Nov 24: Tunbridge Wells Assembly Rooms
Nov 26: Neath Gwyn Hall
Nov 27: Bridgwater Mcmillan Theatre
Nov 28: Worcester Huntingdon Hall
Nov 29: Southend Palace Theatre

Red Hot Chili Peppers are the subject of a revealing new book from leading British photographer Tony Woolliscroft, who has been given unparalleled behind-the-scenes access to the band for over 25 years.

Published by Cassell, Red Hot Chili Peppers: 25 Years Unseen on Tour collates more than 200 images of the band from Woolliscroft's archive, the majority of which have never previously been published.

More than just stunning photography, it's a collection of personal stories, candid moments, and never-before-heard anecdotes that reveal the band not only through Tony's lens but through his eyes.

In this exclusive extract, Woolliscroft recalls being backstage - and onstage - with the Los Angeles band at the troubled Woodstock '99 music festival.

"The Chili Peppers arrived at the festival site mid-afternoon," Woolliscroft remembers, "and were immediately whisked away to do various interviews set up for them with magazines and MTV.

"Afterwards, they retired to their dressing room, where [frontman] Anthony [Kiedis] began working out their set list for the evening show, and [bassist] Flea decided to have a quick nap.

"In the early evening, Flea had a visitor. Jimi Hendrix’s sister popped into the dressing room to ask a special favour. She asked if the band could finish their set that evening with the Hendrix song Fire, after the band said that a hologram of Hendrix would be shown on stage playing a song to round off the weekend."

"The Chili Peppers had regularly performed Fire in their live sets of the 1980s and had recorded it twice - as a B-side in 1987, and again for Mother's Milk in 1989. But as of 1999, they had not performed it for nearly eight years. So a quick meeting was called and after three quick rehearsals of the song in the practice room, Fire was duly added to the end of that night’s set."

"The band then went through their rituals of some yoga stretches and vocal exercises before they took to the stage under a glorious red sky sunset. Flea made the decision to play the whole show completely naked, which considering it was being televised live on a pay-per-view channel was quite a risk, and could have led to his arrest.

"Towards the end of their set you could see from the stage that some disturbances were starting to break out at the back of the crowd. During the last song - with unfortunate irony, the cover of Hendrix's Fire - various catering and vending carts been had set alight by some crowd members who were protesting against the organizers' overpricing of basic food and water."

"The band finished their set and were whisked away to beat the traffic and get to New York. Meanwhile, the crew and I witnessed a full-scale riot in progress at the festival, and we were unable to leave until well into the early hours of the morning when order was restored.

"Of course, the next day's newspapers claimed that the Chili Peppers played Fire as the crowd rioted. Nothing could have been further from the truth, and most of the press were unaware why the band had really decided to perform the song."

You can see more exclusive images from Red Hot Chili Peppers: 25 Years Unseen on Tour in the next issue of Classic Rock magazine.

The book can be purchased here.

The current issue of Classic Rock is onsale now.

Peter Gabriel recently announced that he will release his latest studio album, o\i, on November 27 through his Real World label.

And he's just shared the latest single from what will be his eleventh studio album, Who Are We Talking To?.

"Who Are We Talking To? was conceived as something that might encourage activism," Gabriel reveals. "It might be naive, but I still believe that people have real power for change if they can get together in large enough numbers. Politicians will respond - democracy or not.

“My hope is that we start thinking of ourselves as global citizens and that we work together to bring about change on a global scale. These issues that we're looking at, whether it's climate change, AI, pandemics… these are all things that can’t be effectively dealt with on a national level - only globally. A country can have all the bright intentions that it wants, but it's pretty meaningless unless we have everyone working on it at the same time.

“Many people feel powerless, oppressed and scared at the increasing divisions in the world. At the same time, I would argue that those all-powerful nations that think they are invincible are actually totally vulnerable now. Everybody's hackable. I think we're learning that with the right AI, and once we get quantum computing cutting through cyber security, we're all open to attack and the only sensible course of action would, of course, be to work together.

“I really want to see big popular movements that are not about dividing us, with immigration, into them and us, but just the whole messy mass of humanity working together to deal with the things that may very well destroy us soon if we don't. So, this song is a plea for activism."

The art that accompanies Gabriel's latest single is Bloques by Spanish artist Juan Genovés.

“The artwork this month is by a Spanish artist called Juan Genovés and this piece Bloques," Gabriel adds. "When I saw it I felt it hit the spot. Somehow, like many of the images across the album, it beautifully illustrates some of the ideas within the music. His thoughts on political oppression and resistance show lots of little people standing against these big geometric environments.

“I imagine the title Bloques refers to these big physical blocks within the painting that seem to represent the barriers that divide people and make it harder for them to come together. I think he believed that these blocks were a power, a force, which could be employed for good or for evil - so appropriate for this song.”

o\i will be available as a four-CD pack featuring both the Bright-Side mixes by Mark ‘Spike’ Stent and the Dark-Side mixes by Tchad Blake of all 13 tracks, as well as separately as double vinyl albums. The digital-only Dolby Atmos In-Side mix is again shaped by Hans-Martin Buff, who won Best Immersive Mix Engineer at the Grammys for his work on i/o.

Pre-order o\i.

Phoebe Bridgers has been announced as the first headline act for next year's All Poiints East festival in London.

The US singer/songwriter's debut performance at Victoria Park in East London on Friday August 27 will be the biggest headline show she has ever undertaken.

The supporting bill will feature Caroline Polachek, Kelsey Lu, Danielle Ponde and jasmine.4.t, with more artists yet to be announced.

Tickets for the event will be available from 10am on October 29, here.

Bridgers scored her first UK number one album during the summer, when her third solo album Lost Weekend topped the charts in August. The album included a cameo appearance from industrial metal and post-metal pioneer Justin Broadrick (Godflesh), as Bridgers is a fan of his side band Jesu.

Branching out, this week Bridgers will be seen making her acting debut in the A24 drama Primetime, directed by Lance Oppenheim and starring Robert Pattinson, release on October 30. She also contributed the film’s end title song, On Video.

The 2026 edition of All Points East welcomed headliners Jorja Smith and Tems (August 21), Lorde (August 22), Deftones (August 23) Tyler, The Creator (August 28 and 29) and Twenty One Pilots (August 30).

Further headline acts for 2027 will be revealed in coming weeks.

Steven Wilson has shared a video for his new single, A Basket Of Bees, which is the third track he's released from his upcoming ninth studio album, Requiem For A Village, which he released through Fiction Records on November 6.

The video is part of a series of “Village Hall Sessions”, which sees tracks from the album recreated in an appropriately retro studio environment by Wilson, Randy McStine and Russell Holzman, and all captured on film by regular collaborator Miles Skarin, who worked with Wilson on last year's The Overview.

At the same time, Wilson also announces a very special one-off event in London to help tell the story behind the album.

He will sit down with comedian and Prog Awards host Al Murray for an evening’s conversation at the Bush Hall in Shepherd's Bush, where the pair will talk about Requiem For A Village and the wider world that the album sits in. Wilson will sign copies of Requiem For A Village after the talk. The event takes place at 8pm on Tuesday 10th November. Get tickets.

Requiem For A Village will be available on CD, Blu-Ray, 140g two 12” black vinyl, oxblood coloured two 12” vinyl and as a boxset featuring 2 CDs, Blu-Ray disc packaged in a 96-page hardback book box. Limited quantities of signed CDs will be available through Amazon, and CDs with exclusive packaging will be available through HMV.

Pre-order here.

You can order a special dark green vinyl variant of Requiem For A Village, plus a 12" x 12" exclusive art print, plus a copy of the latest issue of Prog with Steven on the front cover, with our new and exclusive bundle. Order yours here.

In 2012 Prog stated the case for The Who’s Quadrophenia to be seen as a prog concept classic alongside the genre’s other great releases of 1973.

The Who’s sixth album is many things to many people. To some it’s the musical comedown that followed the R&B-infused mod scene of the early 60s. To others it’s the template for the subsequent film, which was more of a late 70s period piece. Then there are those who consider it to be The Who hitting a creative peak that would never be topped.

One thing is certain: for all its nostalgia for a previous decade, Quadrophenia is a product of the early 70s prog scene, influenced in scope and structure by emerging bands who helped make 1973 arguably the genre’s most vintage year.

ELP, Genesis, Caravan, Yes, Rick Wakeman and Gong all put out key albums within weeks either side of Quadrophenia, while earlier that year saw the release of Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon – beside which The Who’s opus sits comfortably as a progressive, occasionally pastoral, often challenging and quintessentially English work.

Conceived by Pete Townshend as “hard and grandiose music,” it tells the story of young Jimmy, a restless, working-class “mountain of paranoia” struggling against a backdrop of unemployment, parental pressures and excessive amphetamine use.

Mod culture and trips to Brighton provide an identity before the real Jimmy pushes out from behind the armour of his fashionable accoutrements into a total mental breakdown.

So far, so standard teen rebellion story – on paper, at least. But this is a musical concept, where separate pieces join to form a cohesive narrative in which opera meets prog and things get weird.

Another prog conceit: the album takes us on two journeys, external (from the city to the sea) and internal (from youthful arrogance to despondency and despair), which coalesce into a dramatic musical conclusion.

Drunk and high, Jimmy steals a boat and ends up rain-soaked and marooned on a rock in the English channel, as described in the instrumental The Rock and the final plea for help of Love Reign O’er Me.

Musically, the album is certainly complex enough to be part of the wider prog world. Excursions into ethereal, psych-folk melodies on The Punk And The Godfather rub up against thunderous rock bombast; where the fantastical soloing and strident synths of the title track lead into snippets of seaside sounds or a snatch of Sousa’s late 19th-century military march The Thunderer (on The Dirty Jobs).

Quadrophenia is as its name suggests: a multi-faceted creature whose title refers to both the then-emerging quadraphonic sound technology and the alleged four personalities of a certain member of The Who. It’s a prog-related conceptual classic.

Sonic Temple was The Cult in their pomp, their ultimate bid to become the biggest band on the planet. They didn’t manage it, but they did leave behind this glorious monument to lyrical hubris and sonic excess.

Produced by Bob Rock, their fourth album took their usual preoccupations – glamorous losers on Edie (Ciao Baby), the suffering of indigenes on American Horse – and turned up the noise. Soul Asylum was pure Zep worship, Fire Woman their wailing, throbbing apotheosis, while Sun King seemed to acknowledge that The Cult knew they’d reached their limit (‘This is where it all ends’).

"It was a little careerist, for sure," guitarist Billy Duffy told us. "I don’t think Ian [Astbury, frontman] resisted that, but I don’t think he viewed it from the same perspective, either. I think he saw it as being more psychedelic.

"I think he saw it as having more of Cream, Disraeli Gears sorta vibe, more than my sort of ultimate schoolboy rock album idea. You know, no-holds-barred, punk is finally over; I just want to have a full-fledged rock album while I’m at the prime of my powers kinda thing. So maybe I took the lead on this one."

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Every week, Album of the Week Club listens to and discusses the album in question, votes on how good it is, and publishes our findings, with the aim of giving people reliable reviews and the wider rock community the chance to contribute.

Join the group now.

Other albums released in April 1989

• Beneath the Remains - Sepultura
• Blue Murder - Blue Murder
• Twice Shy - Great White
• Doolittle - Pixies
• Buzz Factory - Screaming Trees
• Blue Blood - X Japan
• Full Moon Fever - Tom Petty
• Headless Cross - Black Sabbath
• Sea Hags - Sea Hags
• Best Wishes - Cro-Mags
• Repeat Offender - Richard Marx
• Mr. Music Head - Adrian Belew
• 1,000 Hours - Green Day
• The Black Swan - The Triffids
• The Headless Children - W.A.S.P.
• Slippery When Ill - The Vandals

What they said...

"Sonic Temple finds the Cult trying several different metal styles, from crunchy Electric-era '70s grooves and the fuzzy, noisy psychedelia of Love, to mellow ballads and commercial '80s hard rock. Not all of the experiments work, as some of the songs lean toward ponderousness, but enough of them do to send Sonic Temple into the Billboard Top Ten, due to the exposure provided by the hit single Fire Woman." (AllMusic)

"This is the past recycled. Which is quite different from revamping it. It's the definitive Cult LP, Astbury tells us, and Sonic Temple, what with its supposed references to their drippy spirituality and granite hard rockisms, is the definitive title. Soul Asylum is Astbury at prayer, at one with his 'precious child', the 'sweet warm goddess', proving himself the only rocker brave enough to admit to not pulling the wings off little insects." (Record Mirror)

"Though they’ve run a bit short on good riffs this time, it’s possible to put Sonic Temple on and have a perfectly fine time with the big beat (this was cut with studio drummer Mickey Currey before new drummer Matt Sorum joined), big guitar noise and Ian Astbury’s ragged, not-too-high-pitched vocal histrionics, if you don’t think too hard. But sheesh , is it stupid." (Los Angeles Times)

What you said...

Nick Tedds: Following the psychedelic/goth infused Love and the raw, hardened edginess of Electric came the third in the trilogy of what I consider to be The Cult's best work. Sonic Temple blends some of the finest elements from the previous two albums, mixed with a dollop of Bob Rock-crafted sheen, leading to one of the stronger rock albums from the late eighties.

The opening tracks, Sun King and Fire Woman, set the tone and a very high bar indeed; all big riffs, played at a blistering pace. When affairs settle down a little, mid-tempo, atmospheric, bluesy numbers such as Soul Asylum offer balance but no let-up in terms of quality. I admit that Edie (Ciao Baby) was a little bit of a slow burner for me at the time of release, but I now appreciate the full glory of this emotional ballad, whilst the catchy Soldier Blue gallops along to a pounding beat as matters begin to draw to a close.

Billy Duffy is on fire throughout, revelling in the freedom offered by songs that often hit home instantaneously and have, for the most part, stood the test of time. There are also not many vocalists that can match Ian Astbury on his day, in terms of range, swagger and all-round wailing ability.

Brett E Wells: This album was released during the final weeks of my senior year of college. It was responsible for the destruction of the woofers in my dorm room speakers. All these years later, I still play it loud.

Chris Downie: Few bands in the classic rock era were more aptly monikered than The Cult, being as they were one of the biggest and best cult bands of the era, one that reinvented itself multiple times, to often enthralling effect. From their psychedelic goth-punk roots as Southern Death Cult, to the AC/DC, Cream and Rolling Stones worship of 1987's Electric and the indie-rock-inflected self-titled 1994 effort, they never stood still and remained as hard to pigeonhole as they were to predict.

For many fans, however, their peak is usually argued as a toss-up between the gothic alt-rock of 1985's Love and 1989's arena rock masterpiece Sonic Temple. While the former had the smash hits of Rain and She Sells Sanctuary and brilliant deeper cuts like Hollow Man, the latter saw them shamelessly rock out in a manner that perhaps should have seen them reach even greater commercial heights; from the MTV hits like Fire Woman to the mini-epic of Soul Asylum (arguably a nod to Zeppelin's Kashmir), there is barely a weak moment to be found here.

It could be argued their eclecticism, while undoubtedly one of their strong points - if not the strongest - was also their biggest drawback, in that their refusal to stand still and choose a lane, as it were, saw fans of many subgenres come and go over the years. Sonic Temple remains perhaps their most accessible, mainstream offering, but one they struggled to live down since; 1991's Ceremony was a spirited follow-up and the aforementioned 1994 eponymous release an experimental stab at modernisation, while the metallic sounds of their 2001 comeback saw a renaissance that continues on and off to this day, but they never again sounded this huge.

Bob Rock deserves huge credit for bringing out the arena rock in them, and if there's only one criticism to be had, it's in the way it tails off in quality over the last three tracks. Had Wake Up Time been dropped to B-side status and the 11 tracks trimmed to 10, you would have a practically flawless classic. In any case, this is one of at least three albums in their canon that stand the test of time and affirm their brilliance. 9/10.

Brian Carr: My preteen and teenage years were mostly in the 80s, so MTV was a tremendously important part of my musical education. I still have tremendous fondness for that era, but in hindsight I can also see how the visual could be a detriment to budding young musical minds. The Cult were on my periphery with the albums Electric and Sonic Temple, but I have a suspicion that something about their image struck me as a little weird, at least compared to my favourite bands of the time. Or maybe I just didn’t dig Ian Astbury’s voice. Whatever the reason, while I didn’t hate the tunes that I heard from those two records, there wasn’t enough at the time to make me want to listen deeper.

Which turns out to be a shame, because Sonic Temple is a damned fine rock record. First and foremost, Billy Duffy’s guitar playing is fantastic on this record. I know The Cult went through different musical sounds/stages in their career, and Duffy probably didn’t always play as he does here, but this is definitely in my wheelhouse, and certainly justifies the cover artwork. As for Astbury’s voice, it’s interesting - his vocal delivery reminds me of Andrew Wood from Mother Love Bone, not in tone, but in his phrasing. And I loved Mother Love Bone. And it turns out that grown-up me is just fine with his voice.

So with this week’s Album choice, I’m going from two rarely listened-to songs in my Apple Music library to the entire record being added, with the likelihood of more attention on my part. And it only took 37 years for me to get there!

Greg Schwepe: So, readers, raise your right hand (as Billy Duffy is doing) if the first time you saw the cover of Sonic Temple you immediately said to yourself (or out loud!) “Hell yeah! I bet this album f***ing rocks!” Right? This is a case where you can judge an album by its cover, and you get it 100% right. There’s Billy, feet splayed, arm raised high to windmill a power chord on his Les Paul Custom. Just like Pete Townshend. And the same pose that Jack Black instructed his young guitarist protege to make in School Of Rock.

When you make a statement like that on the cover, you better deliver, correct? And The Cult totally delivered on Sonic Temple. Almost an hour of crunching riffs that keep coming. There’s no letup, and not one song I don’t like. As I listened multiple times again today, it was a steady stream of “damn, that one’s good too” as I went through the tracks. And I found this happening at the tail end of the album, where a lot of times a band seems to lose its steam. I might venture that the second half of the album is stronger than the first half. But then again, the first half is pretty damn good too!

My first encounter with The Cult was via MTV, and not radio. And I will admit, they kinda confused me. They were kind of a contradiction in styles. Watching the video for Fire Woman, you had this kick-ass mainstream rock song. But you had a wall of amps in the performance video that screamed metal, but the hairstyles screamed goth or punk. And the bell bottoms Ian Astbury was wearing kind of said 70s hippie. I sure as heck couldn’t pigeonhole this band, but I sure as heck liked them. FM radio around me was slow to embrace them because they couldn’t be put in a specific box. But once you get a kick-ass track like Fire Woman, that finally fit in nicely with the normal Midwest FM radio AC/DC/Zeppelin/Aerosmith/ZZ Top rotation they were playing.

This is my go-to Cult album (with Electric being a close second). Again, the tracks are just relentless, and the energy never lets up. 8 out of 10 on this one for me. Buy it for the cover vibe, stay for the music that backs it up.

Philip Qvist: A friend of mine gave me the best description of The Cult during their 80s peak by stating that they acted as though they were behind and ahead of the rock music curve, both at the same time. This confused both the casual listener and record companies. I mean, how do you pigeonhole a band that refuses to listen to the rules? In addition, they never seemed to hold onto a drummer for more than six months.

Despite all that, though, in the space of four years they released three absolute classics: Love in 1985, the superb Electric in 1987 and arguably their peak with Sonic Temple in 1989. And this neatly brings us to this week's review.

The album includes three iconic singles: Fire Woman, Sweet Soul Sister and Edie (Ciao Baby), their tribute to the ill-fated Edie Sedgwick and easily my favourite ever song from The Cult. But it is the other tracks such as Sun King, American Horse, the epic Soul Asylum and Soldier Blue that always bring me back to Sonic Temple. Yes, it does run out of a bit of steam after Soul Asylum, but that is relative, as many bands would have loved to have had a New York City or Automatic Blues on their record.

You can argue over which is the band's best album, and Electric definitely runs it close, but for me Sonic Temple was their peak. Bassist Jamie Stewart would depart from the band a year later, while the relationship between the band's songwriters, mainly singer Ian Astbury and (the underrated) guitarist Billy Duffy, would begin to sour, with a corresponding drop in quality on later albums (they were still good though).

Sonic Temple rocks and it has great songs on it. It is my favourite Cult album for a reason. 9/10 from me.

Mark Herrington: Undeniably, Sonic Temple is a very good rock album, but the Cult had lost something by this point. I had started out listening to Southern Death Cult, then Death Cult and those initial albums of the Cult, which still retained much of that mystical strangeness that typified them.

It's probably why I prefer Fire Woman and Sweet Soul Sister most here, as they retain a flavour of that earlier stuff. The rest here is very good, but lacks much of their unique Goth character. For that, I would always choose Love over this.

Craig Glenn: Not a bad album, but I think they nailed it on the previous album, Electric, which was full-on rock. They should have stuck with Rick Rubin instead of switching to Bob Rock as producer. They got back on that Indian spiritual stuff with this, then went full-blown with it on Ceremony, which is far from their best.

Paul Cropper: After trying to be AC/DC on Electric (another great album), The Cult turn into a bombastic American arena rock group. Love it.

Mike Chronakis: By far their greatest album for me. So many great songs on there, especially Fire Woman and Sun King.

Mike Ginsberg: An incredible album following another incredible album, both of which are underrated classics.

Joe Cogan: Their best album, with the epic Soul Asylum as their artistic pinnacle.

Adam Ranger: As a callow youth, I saw this band when they were supporting Sisters of Mercy. They were Southern Death Cult back then, of course. At the time I liked goth, and I liked rock, but I have to say I was a bit dismissive when they became the Cult and went full rock band.

However, as I have aged, I have (generally) become less dismissive of such things and have learnt to appreciate the Cult for what they are. A great, sky-punching, anthemic, stadium rock band.

This album starts strongly with Sun King and continues in much the same vein. It perhaps becomes a bit samey after five tracks, but many bands are just as culpable of this.

The real star here is Billy Duffy. Just a great guitar performance all the way through. Really easy to enjoy this album.

Brad Summers: Amazing album, one of my favourites of all time. Edie (Ciao Baby) is one of the greatest songs ever, but all songs have aged really well

John Davidson: The first half of this album is wall-to-wall classic rock. They maintained their slightly gothic medicine man vibes but infused them with the spirit of Led Zeppelin too, deftly managing to land on the side of homage rather than ripoff.

I'm always wary of bands that don't have a stable lineup, but Astbury, Duffy and Stewart managed to create three classic rock albums in a row without holding on to a drummer so what do I know?

If the album stopped with Soul Asylum it would be short but perfect. As it stands, the remaining tracks bar Soldier Blue are all serviceable B-sides rather than essential.

Mike Canoe: When Sonic Temple came out, I remember thinking that if a band's going to sell out, this was the way to do it. A big walloping arena-sized sound that brought together the best elements of the previous two albums, the psychedelic goth of Love and the frenzied AC/DC worship of Electric. (First studio album Dreamtime was in the import bin and out of my price range.)

Side one (as those of us born in the mid to late 1900s call it) was damn near perfect. It kicked off with the one-two punch of Sun King and Fire Woman and then picked things up by slowing them down with the absolutely massive-sounding American Horse, that also served as a callback for Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury's fascination with the American West. Edie (Ciao Baby) was a solid if dark-tinged ballad that had my friends and me trying to find out everything we could about Edie Sedgwick and Andy Warhol's Factory scene in the pre-internet dark ages.

And then there's Sweet Soul Sister, which is, to my mind, everything that's great about the Cult compressed into one song. Astbury takes his male gaze fetishism of women to a religious level, while the opening organs and closing choir sell the "sonic temple" concept better than anything on the album. She Sells Sanctuary as a Love Removal Machine.

Side two was a pretty big letdown, with raver New York City being the only song that merited repeated listens from me once I upgraded my cassette to CD. I may be one of the few Zeppelin fans on earth who thinks Kashmir is just OK, and so it goes with Soul Asylum, which was obviously inspired by it. The last three songs sounded like serviceable imitations of what came before.

"This is where it all ends..." The opening lines of the album seemed to be prophetic for the Cult. The band always had a drummer problem almost as bad as Spinal Tap's, but with the loss of bassist Jamie Stewart, the band became a "band" of Duffy and Astbury and whoever else. And while they may have released an occasional banger and could still put on a great show, Sonic Temple was the only time the Cult were a mainstream religion.

Final score: 8.45 (101 votes cast, total score 854)

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Our Tracks Of The Week contest has been a fixture on this website for more than 13 years, bringing you somewhere north of 5000 different tracks, and this week, it was Erk Grönwall's turn to celebrate as his new single Written In The Scars became the latest track to triumph in rock'n'roll's premiere weekly song contest. So congratulations to him.

Congratulations also to Cardinal Black, whose Saving Grace single wasn't too far behind, and to The Jailbirds, whose Where Is The Rock N’ Roll? offering positioned them on the podium for the very first time. This week, eight more Monsters of Rock are ready for your ears. Enjoy them.

Ayron Jones - Glad You Came

Oooooh hello Alice In Chains! Or rather, 21st-century Seattle star Ayron Jones, though there’s a very generous nod to Cantrell and co in this thumpingly oomphy, roughened hard rock beefcake. Brooding, groovy and shot through with Jones’ soul-gravel voice and strident, Kravitz-y guitar soloing, it’s a seriously appetising first taste of his next album, Excuse Me – his first in three years, and due out in the new year.

Nicotine Dolls - Gimme Sympathy

One of the on-the-rise groups worth having on your radar, Nicotine Dolls make a deliciously cool, filthy racket on Gimme Sympathy, all thick swaggering guitars, stomping drums and, in frontman Sam Cieri (he hit the spotlight via America’s Got Talent, but don’t let that put you off), a singer with the raw power and drive of a prize-fighter pushing hard for his first title. Need a hit of straight-shooting, punchily executed rock’n’roll? You could do a lot worse than this.

Joanne Shaw Taylor - Never Gonna Please ‘Em All

We love Joanne’s ballads (smooth yet nuanced affairs with feet in pop and soul, at least as much as the blues), but it’s toe-tapping bluesy rock’n’rollers like this that tend to really stick with us. Never Gonna Please Em All rocks, rolls and struts like Stevie Ray Vaughan trading licks with Joe Bonamassa – capped with the kind of classy, powerful Telecaster solo of which she’s a master at this point. Nice.

Eddie 9V - Satisfy The Way I Do

The Atlanta-bred Auerbach protege channels his sunkissed Al Green side on this soulful lil’ number from his excellent upcoming album, Down Here. Smooth yet toe-tapping and naturally packed with cool colour (swampy funk, blues rock’n’roll, RN’B…) it affirms him as one of Nashville’s current crop of smart, rootsy voices to keep an eye out for – maybe even catch him live, when he comes to the UK in March 2027.

Floor Jansen - Everything Is Moving On

Out of Nightwish and diving into a new solo chapter, symphonic metal’s own Xena Warrior Princess punches high and hard on this latest single – think leather-booted theatre, strings and heavy guitars, with a swooping, stirring pop melody at the heart of it all. “For me, this song is about being awake to the life you have now,” Floor says. “We so easily tell ourselves we’ll do something later, but life keeps moving. Enjoy it, take the chances that matter to you, and make choices that feel right for who you are and where you want to go. Sometimes that also means letting go of things that no longer feel right.”

Scarlet Rebels - God’s Honest Truth

The Welsh rockers continue to up their game on this pensive, mid-tempo banger from their next album Flawed By Design. Written as singer/guitarist Wayne Doyle processed the death of a friend, contemplating “what the point of it all was”, it marries emotive, nuanced melody with big driving guitars. Contemporary rock’n’roll with an old school heart and dashes of grunge in its veins.

The Lemon Twigs - Look For Your Mind

The Lemon Twigs' most recent album Look For Your Mind arrived in May, and now the title track has received single status. It's exactly what you'd expect from the D'Addario brothers, with a lolloping Ticket To Ride-style pop-psychedelic sound augmented by the kind of apparently effortless songwriting that's become their trademark. Throw in some Byrds, some Nazz, even some Monkees, and you've got the gist. Lovely stuff.

Henge - Brains

And now for something completely different, as celestial rave-proggers Henge conjure up a squelching, demented hunk o' disco space rock. The spectral magnificence of Brains is accentuated by a video which finds the band performing inside an actual brain, which must surely be a first for any type of music, including that produced by musicians from another planet. "The human brain is truly a thing of wonder," says frontcreature Zpor. "And I naturally felt compelled to write an ode to it." We presume that the rest of the band – Goo, Sol and Nom – agree.

Greta Van Fleet frontman Josh Kiszka has reflected on the dismay with which his band's early success was greeted by some members of the rock fraternity.

In an exclusive interview in the current edition of Classic Rock magazine, Kiszka recalls the reaction to GVF's breakthrough, when the band's soaring popularity was accompanied by a very vocal minority who hated what they were doing.

"When we came along, I think people were so concerned we were going to penetrate their hallowed rock'n'roll world, y'know, their religious temple, this bunch of snot-nosed kids wanting to change things up," he says. "But it was quite the antithesis. It was our respect for the genre. We just wanted to do something new, to move things along."

Kiszka goes on to reveal how some of the attacks affected him personally, so he did the most sensible thing.

“I stopped reading them," he says. "I’m fairly sensitive, so I thought, ‘This is weighing on my consciousness.’ I don’t even know the name of the publication, but someone said we were a bunch of talentless musicians who don’t know how to write a song or perform it. Things like that stab you where you’re tender. Some of that I carry. But I don’t believe it.

“I had a vocal coach come to our show in New York,” he continues. “It was our first outdoor amphitheatre/arena-type thing. She saw the show, then told me backstage she was one of those people who thought, ‘How dare they!’ But she said: ‘You deserve everything that is coming to you, and thank you for carrying the torch.’ So her tune changed very quickly."

GVF's Into The Beginning tour will launch on February 3, 2027. Full dates below.

To read the full interview with Josh Kiszka, get issue 359 of Classic Rock.

Greta Van Fleet: Into The Beginning tour 2027

Feb 03: Savannah Enmarket Arena, GA
Feb 05: Tampa Benchmark International Arena, FL
Feb 06: Jacksonville VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, FL
Feb 09: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA
Feb 10: Nashville Bridgestone Arena, TN
Feb 12: Rosemont Allstate Arena, IL
Feb 13: Omaha CHI Health Center, NE
Feb 15: Minneapolis Target Center, MN
Feb 17: Green Bay Resch Center, WI
Feb 19: Louisville KFC Yum! Center, KY
Feb 20 - Pittsburgh PPG Paints Arena, PA
Mar 02: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI
Mar 03: Cleveland Rocket Arena, OH
Mar 05: Boston TD Garden, MA
Mar 06: Albany MVP Arena, NY
Mar 08: Brooklyn Barclays Center, NY
Mar 10: Philadelphia Xfinity Mobile Arena, PA
Mar 12: Charlotte Spectrum Center, NC
Mar 13: Knoxville Food City Center, TN
Mar 15: Fort WorthDickies Arena, TX
Mar 16: Tulsa BOK Center, OK
Mar 19: Anaheim Honda Center, CA
Mar 20: Phoenix Mortgage Matchup Center, AZ
Mar 22: Reno Reno Events Center, NV
Mar 24: Seattle Climate Pledge Arena, WA
Mar 25: Portland Moda Center, OR
Mar 27: Boise ExtraMile Arena (BSU), ID
Mar 29: Salt Lake City Delta Center, UT
Mar 30: DenverBall Arena, CO

May 15: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany
May 16: Milan Unipol Forum, Italy
May 18: Hamburg Barclays Arena, Germany
May 19: CopenhagenRoyal Arena, Denmark
May 21: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany
May 22: Prague O2 Arena, Czechia
May 24: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Holland
May 25: Brussels Forest National, Belgium
May 27: Paris Adidas Arena, France
May 28: London O2 Arena, UK
May 30: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK
Jun 01: Manchester Co-op Live, UK
Jun 02: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Jun 04: Dublin 3Arena, Ireland

Jul 05: Vancouver Rogers Arena, BC
Jul 07: Edmonton Rogers Place, AB
Jul 08: Calgary Scotiabank Saddledome, AB
Jul 10: Winnipeg Canada Life Centre, MB
Jul 13: Kansas City T-Mobile Center, MO
Jul 14: St. Louis Chaifetz Arena, MO
Jul 16: Columbus Nationwide Arena, OH
Jul. 17: Noblesville Ruoff Music Center, IN
Jul 20: Raleigh Lenovo Center, NC
Jul 21: Columbia Merriweather Post Pavilion, MD
Jul 23: Hershey Giant Center, PA
Jul 24: Uncasville Mohegan Sun Arena, CT
Jul 26: Gilford Bank NH Pavilion, NH
Jul 28: Laval Place Bell, QC
Jul 29: Toronto RBC Amphitheatre, ON
Jul 31: Grand Rapids Acrisure Amphitheater, MI

Find Greta Van Fleet tickets.

Internet sensations Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp have released their most terrifying video yet. The pair's latest Sunday Lunch video finds them in full Halloween mode, with Willcox dressed as a witch and Fripp wearing the kind of mask that suggests he'd be up for replacing Jim Root in Slipknot.

The lively pair choose an appropriate song to celebrate All Hallows' Eve, a typically ragged version of Donovan's Season Of The Witch, first released in 1966 and a hit for Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity the following year.

"Heeeargh a nassssy wicksy perssson," says Fripp at the song's climax, his voice muffled through his mask. "Today and every season of the year, here at Toyah and Robert's Sunday Lunch!"

Elsewhere, King Crimson's partnership with streaming service Nugs continues to bear fruit, with eight shows from the band's first trip to Japan – in December 1981 – now available to download on DGMLive or buy on CD through Nugs.

The shows featured the much-loved Crimson lineup that recorded Discipline, Beat and Three Of A Perfect Pair, with Fripp joined by Adrian Belew (guitar and vocals), Tony Levin (bass, stick, backing vocals) and Bill Bruford (acoustic and electronic percussion).

Toyah will release a 24-CD box set on December 4. Twenty-Four From Toyah includes every single and EP she released between 1979 and 1987, plus a selection of mixes, rarities, outtakes and live recordings. It's available to pre-order now.

Toyah also has four Christmas Party shows lined up in Liverpool, Sunderland, London and Birmingham. Full dates below.

Toyah: Toyah’s Christmas Party 2026 dates

Dec 04: Liverpool The Tung Auditorium, UK
Dec 05: Sunderland Fire Station, UK
Dec 06: London Union Chapel, UK
Dec 07: Birmingham Town Hall, UK

Find Toyah tickets.

On April 21, 2025, Cancer Bats woke to the sound of jets. They were staying at a hotel next to Indianapolis airport after a sweaty show at the city’s Black Circle Brewing Company. They were just four days into a 26-date tour and everything was going great. Well, it was until the band walked outside and saw a large empty space where their van and trailer had been parked just hours before.

The Canadian hardcore band – vocalist Liam Cormier, bassist Jaye R. Schwarzer, drummer Mike Peters and their new guitarist Jackson Landry – had become used to rolling with the punches on the road, but this theft was a sucker punch and a half. The airport hotel was supposed to be safer than downtown.

“It’s almost par for the course,” Liam shrugs now. “You deal with little things: a smashed van window, a stolen bag, or getting your laptops and passports taken. It sucks, but you figure it out. Twenty years into the game, though, this was the biggest one. A big part of the vibe we’ve cultivated is that there’s no point in freaking out. That’s just the Zen of touring. You can be miserable, or you can laugh it off.”

Police quickly recovered their van, but it was in a shocking state: a smashed window, catalytic converter cut out, and the ignition was, in a word, fucked. Their trailer had been emptied, too.

Luckily, things began to fall back into place as quickly as they’d fallen apart. A friend of Jackson’s was in the city working with the Cadillac racing pit crew, who offered to repair their van. Then another friend who worked for a musical equipment distributor in the state stepped in to assist. Within 24 hours, the band’s GoFundMe seeking help to replace tour essentials had reached its target.

“Bands like Billy Talent and Alexisonfire reached out and sent us money, too,” smiles Liam. “We got new merch made, drove to the next show, and showed up ready to play. Seeing so many people come through with that much love and support made us realise we couldn’t stop.”

Back in their early days, the band looked to Henry Rollins’ Black Flag-era journal Get In The Van as a bible-cum-life manual. But where the Californian punk trailblazers originally managed a decade on the road, something has compelled Cancer Bats to keep going hard after two.

Liam Cormier is full of beans. Powered by pizza slices, veggie kebabs and strong coffee, he exudes the demeanour of a punk rock party machine, despite being sober for 25 years. He attributes his clean-living lifestyle to finding his tribe when he was 21 during an extended visit to Kitchener–Waterloo, twin cities 65 miles west of Toronto.

“I just needed a change and I had met all these kids who were straight edge,” he explains. “I’d already done lots of partying and I really liked the idea of something you held yourself to forever. I wasn’t going to smoke cigarettes and I wasn’t going to drink anymore. That wasn’t the direction I wanted to go in. Everyone was super-positive and really into music. I wanted to be part of that.”

During his stay, he’d watch bands such as Buried Inside and Miles Between Us, as well as immersing himself in the skateboarding and BMX scene. He mixed with a ton of creative people – zine writers, photographers, artists. Six months later, he returned home, inspired by his visit.

He initially began playing drums for a power-violence band and would sell demos from his backpack at DIY shows. It was around this time he caught a band called At The Mercy Of Inspiration, who played what he describes as “black metal, but with emo lyrics”. He befriended their guitarist, Scott Middleton, and the pair eventually started working on ideas for a band of their own.

With Liam moving on from drums, the duo decided their band would sound like, or at least have the energy of, bands like Misfits, Black Flag, Refused, Led Zeppelin, Down and Entombed. Maybe someone mentioned cult hardcore outfit Zao. Either way, the influences were all mixed into a sludgy, punk metal soup. Christening themselves Cancer Bats, they expanded into a four-piece, joined by bassist Andrew McCracken and drummer Mike Peters in time for their 2006 debut, Birthing The Giant, and played whenever and wherever they could.

“Toronto had such an awesome scene,” remembers Liam. “In the suburbs, people would rent out pool halls or literally anywhere with floor space. People would find places and figure out how to put a show on. We played lots of those and, as much as you’d play in the city, it felt like the hardcore scene was built in the suburbs with the kids.”

Fellow Canadian bands Alexisonfire, Billy Talent and Comeback Kid offered them a leg up early on, inviting the band to join them on tour across the country. Scott had a van, and, through sheer thriftiness, they’d always have enough petrol to get to the first gig.

“There were always lots of bands who didn’t have their shit together and couldn’t drop everything to go out for two weeks across the country,” explains Liam. “We could, and that was a big motivation for us. We learned a lot.”

When they weren’t on tour, Liam would think of ways to promote the band, even if it meant stuffing envelopes and waiting in line at the post office to send them.

“I was living as cheaply as possible so I could work on the band,” he admits. “Even before the Birthing The Giant record came out, I went to our record label [Distort Entertainment] every single day and asked them what I could do. I was keen to figure it all out because I really wanted this to be my life.”

Andrew eventually left to focus on his graphic design business. Enter Jaye, a kind man with ‘MAJOR RAGER’ tattooed on his hands, who possesses an utterly terrifying presence onstage. Their work ethic became even more relentless. Get in the van? They were already in it, mate.

“We were all 24 or 25 and I felt like we had to make up for lost time,” says Liam. “We had zero back-up plan and definitely had no money. We learned a lot the more we toured and just had to hustle. Later on, we’d realise these bands from California had their parents investing in the band. I like that we had to carve it all out on our own.”

That hustle paid off. After touring the absolute arse off their 2008 album, Hail Destroyer, the idea to throw a Beastie Boys cover into their set during a sweltering Japanese festival gave Cancer Bats a bigger boost than they ever dared imagine.

Their souped-up cover of Sabotage was released as an EP, then later included on their 2010 album, Bears, Mayors, Scraps and Bones. It became something of a secret weapon for the band, particularly during festival sets. Releasing a fun promo video before a run of cross-Canada hockey arena shows with Billy Talent did nothing to harm their momentum either.

The following year, Cancer Bats received an offer to play at the UK’s Sonisphere festival. They were asked if they’d consider performing a second set in the party tent after that night’s headliners had finished. The only stipulation was that it had to be covers of songs by one band. It was a no-brainer.

“Black Sabbath!” says Liam.

They were billed as Bat Sabbath, the first time they performed under that alter ego. “We assumed that everyone would know it was us, but the rumour mill started and people began saying it was going to be the Foo Fighters. The tent was packed.”

The set was a riot. Sometime between the band leaving the UK and touching down in Toronto, the footage went viral. Upon landing, their phones began to vibrate with offers for more Bat Sabbath shows.

Their profile began to grow on their own merits, too. Their fourth album, 2012’s Dead Set On Living, was bolder and more confident. They launched the album with six sweaty club shows in one day around London, plotted in the shape of a pentagram. Perhaps bands whose names began with a ‘B’, with a release titled Sabotage in their back catalogue, were proving to be a lucky omen.

“We had to meet all these expectations and it felt like Sabotage pushed us to be a bigger band,” says Liam. “It felt like a perfect storm and it was so much fun.”

Around a decade ago, Cancer Bats left Distort and signed with major label BMG. Much like The Dillinger Escape Plan a few years previously, they founded their own imprint (Noise Church, later Bat Skull Records) and kept control of their DIY operation. Crucially, it afforded them time to take a break from touring and learn to be “real people”, before working with Slipknot producer Ross Robinson on their 2015 album, Searching For Zero.

“Nu metal is just part of his story,” says Liam of Ross. “When I hear his name, I immediately think of Norma Jean, Glassjaw and The Blood Brothers. After speaking with him on the phone, I thought his vibe was awesome.”

On the label’s advice, the band spent three weeks at the producer’s Venice Beach studio, recording their parts live rather than working to a sterile click track. In the vocal booth, Liam channelled his inner Ozzy and sang some actual melodies on album number five. All eyes were on the clock – their budget did not allow for fucking about, even if they were close to the beach.

“Ross told us it was the shortest time he’s ever worked on an album,” explains Liam. “We realised it could have been so different if we could have written the record with him. We learned so much.”

While their partnership failed to yield commercial success, it was a positive experience for the band, who co-produced their follow-up with Winnipeg studio owner John Paul Peters. The Spark That Moves was nominated for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year at the 2019 Juno Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the BRITs, but ultimately lost out to prog metal legends Voivod for The Wake.

As with every other band on the planet, the pandemic impacted Cancer Bats. Founding guitarist Scott Middleton opted to leave at the end of 2021, his place eventually taken by Jackson Landry, who quit his construction job to join the band (they recorded 2022’s Psychic Jailbreak as a three-piece, with bassist Jaye Schwarzer pulling double duty).

Four years later comes Give Me Dirt, their eighth album. Despite the bumpy roads they’ve had to navigate in recent years, they sound just as hungry as the 20-somethings who hustled their way around the Toronto DIY scene with a backpack full of cassettes. Perhaps it’s the addition of 29-year-old Jackson, who, aged nine, received his first guitar and a copy of Birthing The Giant as a gift for doing well at school. It’s a full-circle moment that is not lost on Liam,
who is technically old enough to be Jackson’s dad.

“It’s funny that he grew up learning to play guitar to our first album,” Liam laughs. “He wrote one particular riff for Give Me Dirt and we said it reminded us of old Bats, and he said, ‘Yeah, back when you were kicking ass!’”

The line-up may be as solid as a breeze block wall once again, but by Christ, Cancer Bats seem to enjoy not making things easy for themselves. Nowadays, the band are spread across three different provinces: Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia. If you load up on Tim Hortons coffee, poutine and whatever else Canadians eat, and drive due west from Liam’s home in Halifax on the Atlantic coast, it would take 36 hours of continuous driving to get to Mike’s house in
rural Winnipeg. There’s no popping over for a rehearsal. It’s a mission to do absolutely anything at all.

Yet, somehow, they make it work. They have to make it work. Liam, now 46, has invested literally half of his life into Cancer Bats and can’t imagine ever stopping.

“I still have the same fire,” says Liam. “I feel thankful that I have this weird energy that hasn’t vanished, and I’m stoked I still get to do this.”

Give Me Dirt is out now via Marshall Records

Jack Osbourne says he shoulders the blame for the backlash to controversial plans to produce an AI version of his late father Ozzy.

When the digital Ozzy was announced, Jack said his father "would be into" it. He and his mother Sharon later stressed that it was not the ghoulish cash grab that some fans had branded it, saying instead that it was about ensuring the Black Sabbath icon would be remembered.

Now in a new interview for Great Company With Jamie Laing, Jack insists the digital version of his dad won't be used for anything tacky like selling cell phones and admits his naivety was to blame for the backlash.

Jack, 40, says: "The backlash, it was my own fault. We'd just kind of figured this thing out, that we were gonna do it, and I guess I wasn't properly armed with the way to properly explain what it was.

"And I think people thought that next thing it's gonna be Ozzy Osbourne selling cell phones. No."

He adds that they family wanted get out in front of the rapidly growing artificial intelligence landscape by making sure they retained the rights to Ozzy's digital IP (intellectual property).

"A lot of people are doing this now," he says. "Creating the AI model and creating the digital fingerprint of whoever – whether it's my father or Bob Marley's people are doing it, and Michael Jackson's team are doing it.

"By kind of creating this digital fingerprint, you ultimately will own the digital IP and image of that person. And so as to what it can be used for now, yeah, there's a handful of things.

"But down the road, it's where things are going. It's no different than saying, 'I wanna own my images of my father. I wanna own his intellectual property,'

"It's just another avenue. And the fact that AI is what it is, it's not going anywhere, it's not changing. It was our choice to go, 'Hey, we should be out in front of this, and we should not be on the back foot with having this kind of new pillar of entertainment properly locked down.'"

The digital Ozzy plan sees the family teaming up with Hyperreal for the project they are calling The Enduring Legacy of a Rock Icon and His Family: Ozzy Osbourne and The Osbournes.

Let us gather, beloved congregation, and kneel before the sacred altar of fact and trivia.

How much do you know about Ghost? Do you know who's who when it comes to the long lineage of those named Papa Emeritus?

Will your devotion to being correct reward you with a place in The Clergy or will you be suffer the ignominy of excommunication?

Now it's time to play...

Late last year, extra-curricular activities, personnel departures and concert cancellations inspired rumours that Haken might be no more. Fortunately they were false: the band are returned with new EP In A Fever Dream, their first new music since 2023’s Fauna, which features some very special guests. Vocalist Ross Jennings tells Prog about the band’s latest chapter.

Sometimes an EP can be a standalone project that allows artists to experiment with concepts, creativity and tone; to have a little fun and let off steam with ideas they might not carry through to their next full album. Haken’s In A Fever Dream feels like a far more pivotal release than that. It certainly plays with new sounds and approaches, but it’s more of a stepping stone than a standalone exercise. ‘I’m finding a way to say goodbye/A new day rises from the ashes,’ sings Ross Jennings on Bleeding Sky.

“The whole EP is about transformation,” says the singer; “a transformational period in a relationship, or maybe you’re changing your life in some way. Reflecting on the band as well, we’re going through some stylistic changes and it serves as a kind of bridge to what we might be working on in the future. All without trying not to alienate people too much – not throwing too many changes at our fans in one go. We’re really excited to be drawing on new influences and shifting how we work in some way.”

Haken have certainly dealt with major changes recently. At the start of the year they announced the departures of longtime guitarist Charlie Griffiths and bassist Conner Green. That came soon after the band pulled out of a tour supporting Coheed And Cambria, citing only “reasons beyond our control” and spurring fan gossip. Haken still aren’t looking to wash their dirty linen in public, and Jennings is keen to pay tribute to the pair’s previous contributions.

“The situation was quite raw for all of us – Charlie and Conner were monumental fixtures in the band,” he says. “They contributed so much to the songwriting and the sound of the band. So it was a really hard time to navigate; but some things were necessary. Change is hard; and the band is like any marriage. But this is life: to move forward and deal with these things appropriately and keep positive.”

As a result, there were changes in the way Haken approached the songs on In A Fever Dream. There are still plenty of progressive touches and intricate rhythms in there – but elements have been pared down, with a wall of sound production and dense, emotional heft replacing some of the more complex dynamics fans have become used to. Part of the shift might have been imposed by the abridged line-up, but there’s also an intentional evolution at play.

“We’re down one guitarist so we’ve had to rewrite material to lend itself to just Rich Henshall playing, working more with collaborations between guitars and keys rather than that extra guitarist to fill gaps,” Jennings says. “It’s totally reshaped how we approach new songs.”

Another change was their decision to work with an outside producer for the first time in their near-20-year career. George Lever is known for his work with bands from the djent side of prog metal, including Monuments and, most prominently, Sleep Token. It didn’t take long for fans to jump on that – and it’s safe to say not everyone is on board. “That’s been a monumental shift in how we work, how we record; having that outside viewpoint that we never had,” Jennings says. “I’ve noticed in some comments about how different it’s sounding. That was intentional.

“A large part of what drew him to us, and us to him, was because he’s a fan of some of the older Haken stuff. We obviously love what Sleep Token have done; we’re huge fans. We didn’t want to copy too much, but naturally there’s going to be an element of the sounds and sound design that he integrated into those records. For better or for worse? I don’t know.”

He assures us that Haken won’t be taking to wearing masks, but they’re certainly not averse to taking inspiration from a new generation of bands who have taken modern metal with progressive touches to huge audiences. It can be a difficult balance for any artist to take on new influences while retaining their core identity, as he acknowledges: “The jury will be out on that. I don’t think we can really say if we’ve achieved that or not, but that ’s certainly the intention. We’re definitely inspired by a lot of modern metal bands coming up doing great things.

“Obviously we want to keep our audience young; but we don’t want to alienate our longstanding loyal fanbase, whom we love. There’ll always be a bit of the classic prog in there, and the way I sing is never going to change drastically. So there will always be that link – but we’re an ever-evolving band that never wants to get stagnant.”

On the subject of his vocal performance, there are moments on the title track and closer Lotus where he accentuates his heavier elements with harsh singing. he’s done it before, albeit in small doses, on debut album Aquarius and in live performances; but he says: “I was never truly satisfied with how those parts came across, and for a while I didn’t really enjoy singing in that way. But certainly since we recorded Vector onwards and started leaning more into the heavier aspect of our sound, I started to think about reintegrating some of that. This project felt like the perfect time to do that.”

Jennings credits co-vocalist Pipi Gogerl from side-project Novena with helping him make sure his “growling game was up to scratch,” and adds that there may be “bits and pieces” of the style on future records. What there won’t be, at least for the immediate future, are full-time replacements for Griffiths and Green.

“We’ve decided to continue as a four-piece and live with a session bassist for now,” he explains. “We’re happy with the dynamics on the EP. Connor’s shoes are hard to fill – he was a great bassist. We don’t want to rush into filling that spot, but eventually we’ll land on someone.”

In A Fever Dream features contributions from Aristocrats bassist Bryan Beller – who’s also worked with James LaBrie, Dweezil Zappa and Joe Satriani – and former Periphery man Adam ‘Nolly’ Getgood. “We thought it was cool to invite a couple of players that we’re inspired by and are friends with,” Jennings says. “Bryan came to mind. He’d worked with Ray Hearne, our drummer, before. The bass parts were essentially all written by us, but we gave him licence to add his spin on it, and he did a really solid job. Nolly mixed Vector and Virus, so there’s a bit of history between us. He’s a solid bass player; we had songs in mind that required his style, so that collaboration worked perfectly.”

It will be Haken’s 20th anniversary next year, but don’t expect any major celebrations. “I don’t think I’m in a place to be celebrating 20 years like an old dog,” says Jennings with a laugh. “We still feel young as a band and we feel there’s so much more of that mountain to climb – the mountain we were singing about however many years ago,” he adds, referring to 2013 album The Mountain and its precipitous metaphor for life.

In retrospect, their most recent album, 2023’s Fauna, could come to be seen as the end of one Haken era and the beginning of a new one, with 2024’s career-spanning An Evening With Haken tour making a spectacular bookend. The shows featured Fauna in its entirety followed by a set of fan favourites, with the London stop also immortalised as a live album.

“We wanted to represent everything we’d done to that point with the classic prog stuff and the metal stuff and also nods to the future, a bit like we’re doing now,” Jennings reports. “It felt right to tour it as An Evening With... It was a lot of fun, an amazing tour, and I’m glad we documented it in our hometown.”

That’s the past, though, and Haken are now looking firmly towards the future. Jennings reveals that they already have “an album’s worth” of new music besides the EP, and that the “mixing and final tweaking stages” are underway. “I’d expect it in 2027,” he adds when pushed.

There’s a good chance it will divide fan opinion – but he’s unrepentant about Haken’s refusal to stand still. He’s also happy to take a few cues from bands like Sleep Token.“That’s what we want to see really: that people who listen to straight-up metal can open their minds to the stuff that we do,” he says.

“Every band wants to progress and grow their fanbase. If we’re just doing the same stuff with every release, we’re going to see ourselves playing the same venues in 20 years’ time to the same lovely fans that we have. We’re hoping to keep the momentum going.”

In A Fever Dream is on sale now.

U2 recently announced the forthcoming release of their 16th studio album, Carnaval de Luz, and the first dates of their provocatively titled The Carnaval De Luz Presents: The Greatest Show On Earth world tour.

While the name of the tour is a very deliberate and knowing flex from the Dubliners - "It's a dare, to ourselves as much as anyone, to try and have the best night of anybody's life" they admit - it also speaks to the hunger and ambition of the Irish quartet as they celebrate their 50th year together.

In a new interview conducted with the New York Times, frontman Bono and guitarist The Edge both stress that they still have the desire to prove to themselves, and to the world at large, that U2 remain one of the world's great rock bands.

“We genuinely think that we might just write the best song we’ve ever written next week," insists The Edge, "or do the best show we’ve ever done next tour... That's why I'm still in this band."

"I’m jealous when suddenly we’re left out of the pop charts," Bono admits. "That’s a personality flaw, because, yeah, 66 and wants to storm the pop charts, somebody should throw some cold water over this fella.! But actually, deep down, it’s because I don’t want those ideas to be left out of the mainstream because my favourite artists stormed the mainstream."

“We’re still creatively extremely inspired and active," The Edge adds. "And there are lots of songs that have yet to be released and yet to be finished... So I can’t see that ending anytime soon."

In reference to the quartet's longevity as they gear up for another mammoth world tour, Bono predicts, "I think if we kept playing live, till we drop, there’ll be people."

"But we have one problem in this regard," he adds. "Which is, we pledged to each other when we were 18, 17, 16, whatever, that we would never, ever walk onto a stage without it being everything. And we haven’t betrayed that yet. We’ve had physical fistfights on stage. We’ve had them backstage. We’ve had madness. But we’ve never betrayed that.

"It never was entertainment to us, ever," The Edge agrees. "It was always something with a lot more importance and meaning."

"It’s the thing that they [specifically legendary Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly] said about football," Bono says in conclusion. "They can say it about music. Which it’s not a matter of life and death, it’s something much more serious than that.”

Watch the NYT interview in full below.

Carnaval de Luz, the follow-up to 2023's Songs Of Surrender will be released on November 15, and is available to pre-order now.

Deluxe editions will include physical copies of the digital EPs U2 released earlier this year, Days Of Ash and Easter Lily. Customers placing orders at the UK store will receive a ticket pre-sale code for UK dates, which are expected to be announced shortly.

The owners of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders have taken legal action against My Chemical Romance after the emo band brought a troupe of ‘gun’-toting lookalike dancers onstage at a recent gig.

The stunt occurred midway through the first show of the band’s five-night residency at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The dancers, clad in the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders’ (DCC) signature blue-and-white outfits, appeared during Teenagers.

The troupe, carrying cardboard rifles, rescued singer Gerard Way from a group of masked men holding the frontman at gunpoint (with firearms also made of cardboard). The display was part of the show’s concept, centred around the fictional totalitarian Draag regime.

Not everyone was impressed. Silver Star Ltd., the company that owns of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders brand, filed a temporary restraining order and injunction against the band over trademark rights.

The company stated: “Audience members and online commentators understandably believed that the performers were the real Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and said so in social media posts that continue to circulate.”

“Silver Star is not litigious, and it takes no issue with MCR’s music, its artistic ambitions, or any message Defendants seek to convey.

“Silver Star does not ask Defendants to change their setlist, narrative, politics, choreography, or even their decision to put gun-toting performers on stage.

“Silver Star asks only that those performers not wear the DCC Uniform while doing it. The universe of alternative costume designs is effectively unlimited.”

My Chemical Romance have yet to comment on the legal action. According to reports, the cheerleaders have continued to appear at subsequent shows, wearing the DCC uniform.

July 11 this year was a red-letter day for Ricky Warwick. Not only did he get to play in front of tens of thousands of rock fans with The Almighty at Iron Maiden’s spectacular Eddfest at Knebworth, it was also his 60th birthday. Few 60-year-olds in rock’n’roll look so good – “It’s wonderful what a bit of hair dye and beard dye can do,” he jokes – and few have retained their passion for music to the extent that the County Downborn singer/songwriter/guitarist has, 46 years after first picking up a guitar.

Over the course of his travels with The Almighty, Circus Diablo, Thin Lizzy, Black Star Riders and his various solo bands, Warwick has met plenty of famous faces, and as long as they’re able to hold a conversation about football, he’s never been shy about saying hello. Most recently, he’s released a new solo album, Fire & Vengeance.

Lemmy

Motörhead were a massive influence on The Almighty, and when we started coming to London we’d bump into Lemmy in places where he hung out, like the St. Moritz club. He was brilliant with me straight off the bat, very friendly, very funny, and he always offered loads of advice. Then in 1991 we got offered the 1916 album tour, which was huge for us.

Before that started, we got asked to go out to Los Angeles to play a music conference called the Foundations Forum, that Motörhead were playing too, and Lemmy said: “Whenever you come out, give me a shout and we’ll get together.”

So we arrived at the hotel, and Lemmy had left a note for me, saying: “I’m in room blah blah blah, come up.” It’s, like, three in the afternoon, and I’m jet-lagged to fuck, but I knock on this door, and there’s a full-on party going on. Through the smoke I see Lemmy in his denim cut-off, his tight denim shorts and a cowboy hat. They’d just finished mixing 1916, so he sat me down, racked me out the biggest fucking tramline of whatever the fuck it was, poured me a pint of Jack Daniel’s and Coke, put headphones on me, and goes: “Listen to this.”

I’m buzzing, I’ve got the new Motörhead blasting, and Lemmy keeps topping up my glass. I’m trying to be cool, but as it’s coming to the end of the album the room is spinning, and I’m thinking: “Fuck, I’m in a bad way here, this isn’t good.” So I get up to tell Lemmy what I think of the album, and my legs just go, I fall flat on my face on the floor, the pint glass shatters and cuts my fucking eyebrow when I land on it, and I throw up at the same time.

"So I’m lying there in a pool of blood and vomit and glass and snot, and then I feel this acrid breath close to my face, and it’s Lemmy going: “Warwick, you’re a fucking lightweight, you’ll never make it.”

So then we did the 1916 tour, and we couldn’t have been treated better. Lemmy and all the guys in Motörhead were just fantastic. I miss them a lot.

David Bowie

My second gig ever with New Model Army was opening for David Bowie in West Berlin, in front of eighty-five thousand people outside the Reichstag. It was 1987, so the Berlin Wall was still there, and there were maybe another fifty thousand people listening on the other side of the wall. My mind was already blown, and then Bowie walked into the dressing room to say: “Hello. Thanks for doing the show, hope you enjoy it.” That was just probably the first moment where I thought: “Fuck me, this is mental, this person is real, he’s not an alien.”

Years later, Bowie was rehearsing in a place called The Factory in Dublin for two or three months around the time of his Earthling [1997] album, and I was practising in the same place with my band, and Bowie put on a special gig for people who worked at The Factory, and that was the first night I met Joe Elliott from Def Leppard, who’s now one of my best friends.

Joe Elliott

Joe actually walked up to me that night at The Factory and said: “I really like your band.” I was like, fuck me, Joe Elliott, you’ve not done too bad yourself! As usual we started talking about music and football, and he said: “There’s a game on Friday night if you fancy coming over to the house to watch it. Give me your number and I’ll give you a shout.” I went away sorta thinking: “As if Joe Elliott is going to call me. I’ll never hear from him again.”

But, sure enough, he called the next day and said: “Here’s my address, come up about seven. And what Chinese food do you like?” Joe has never forgotten being a working-class boy from Sheffield, and he’s just the most down-to-earth and brilliant company. Def Leppard were in Belfast a few weeks ago, so I popped in to see them. You couldn’t meet a nicer bunch of guys, and I love hanging out with them.

Steve Harris

Steve was a fan of The Almighty. He used to come down to the Marquee to see us play, and we just got on really well. I think we connected initially talking about football, and then he started offering us shows with Maiden. I remember one night we were in Marseille in France, and Steve said: “We’re going out for a drink tonight, meet me in the lobby.” I came down, and Steve’s there on his own. I said: “Where’s everybody else?” And he goes: “It’s just me and you.”

We went to this bar, drank beer, and had the best night. Nobody recognised Steve, and we were left alone to have a really good natter for three hours. It was a brilliant night, and there were definitely moments where I was thinking: “Fuck me, I’m drinking with Steve Harris!”

Alice Cooper

When The Almighty toured with Coop, we’d play our set and then we’d go into catering and have our dinner. Alice would have to walk through catering to get to the stage, and every night as he walked by to go on stage he’d hit me in the back of the head with his whip and go: “Alright Ricky?”

We were treated brilliantly, and he was super friendly. I’ve met him a few times since, and I’ve had to apologise for stealing his guitar players, as I’ve stolen two. He’s the real deal. When he’s not Alice Cooper he’s Vincent Furnier, just really down-to-earth and a lovely guy.

Billy Duffy

Billy and Ian [Astbury] from The Cult came down to check out The Almighty early on at the Marquee, around ’89, when we were first starting to get a bit of a buzz, and again we just hit it off. We stayed in touch, and when I moved to LA in 2005 Billy and Billy Morrison took me under their wings. To this day I’ll meet up with Billy for breakfast at Mel’s on Sunset, and we’ll have a chat. Being in Circus Diablo with Billy was huge for me. I’d be like: “Fuck me, I’m on stage in LA with Billy Duffy!”

Scott Gorham

It’s funny, my sisters were in love with Scott back in the day, and I remember them going all gaga over him when Thin Lizzy were on Top Of The Pops. I first got to know Scott because my ex-wife, Vanessa, worked with Scott’s wife Christine at MTV Europe in the early days. One day she came home and said: “You know I work with Christine Gorham? Well her husband plays in a band too.” I said: “Not Scott, by any chance?” She said: “Yeah, Scott Gorham.” I was like, I have to meet him! This was maybe ten or eleven years before he ever asked me to be in Thin Lizzy.

Guns N' Roses

Thin Lizzy supported Guns N’ Roses in the UK and Ireland in 2012, but as much as I’d like to tell you about wild nights out with Axl it wasn’t that kind of tour. Tommy Stinson and Richard Fortus were in the band then, and Richard had played in Lizzy the previous year after Viv Campbell went back to Def Leppard, so that gave us an immediate connection, and we’re still good friends now. Later I met Duff McKagan through Del James, who’s been with Guns from day one, and was tour managing them at the time.

Metallica

The Almighty played with Metallica at Milton Keynes in 1993, and those guys were cool. We hung out that night, then again when they did a secret show in London at the Astoria II before they headlined Donington in ’95. Later, when we were touring in the States and had a day off, Kirk [Hammett] invited us over to his house in the Bay Area. I used to be quite friendly with Lars too in the nineties, but I haven’t heard from him in a while. Lars was probably friendly with a lot of people in the nineties, to be fair.

Midge Ure

I was a massive Ultravox fan as a kid, so meeting Midge was another ‘pinch me’ moment. I met him first in 2016 when Scott Gorham and I did the Rock Meets Classic tour, which Joey Tempest, Doro Pesch and Midge were also on. Obviously we had the Scottish connection, and the Thin Lizzy connection, with Midge sitting in with the band in 1979, and we just hit it off. Obviously when you meet someone who meant something to you growing up it’s a very cool thing, and while you still want to relate in a face-to-face way there’s always still a part of you that’s an excited fanboy.

Dave Grohl

The guy who looks after Dave’s studio 606 is a mate of mine, and one day he said to me: “Dave is hiring a bus to go to see Heaven And Hell, and you’re invited.” To be honest, I’m not sure if we saw much of the gig, we spent most of the night in the parking lot getting hammered. I ended up going back to a little dive bar in Northridge, where Dave was living, with him and my mate Scott, and the three of us were there till four or five in the morning.

Then in 2019 I was doing the Rock For Ronnie [Dio] charity thing, and Dave came down and played drums. We did Bomber by Motörhead and Jailbreak by Lizzy, and it was fucking amazing. I’ve ended up recording at 606 myself a couple of times, and Dave’s brilliant, a great guy to hang out with.

Ricky Warwick's Fire & Vengeance is out now via Earache. Warwick tours the UK and Ireland from November 5 to 26. For dates and tickets, visit the Ricky Warwick website.

Steven Wilson has weighed in on Angine de Poitrine, the Canadian math rock duo whose rapid rise to fame this year has been accompanied by an equal amount of naysaying.

The pair, who perform under the noms du rock Khn de Poitrine and Klek de Poitrine, went viral in February this year after filming a session for Seattle Radio station KEXP, and have since become one of the hottest properties in live music. Their current tour, which ends in mid-December, has sold out, and a world tour in 2027 takes them to more countries and into significantly bigger venues.

"I think it's genius," Wilson tells Classic Rock. "I think the guitar player particularly is unbelievable. I love it. I think they pulled off the magic trick, because they have become they've crossed over to a mainstream audience playing atonal math rock with... You know, he's playing a microtonal guitar here. He's bringing microtones to the masses. Fucking hell! No one's ever done that before. What a Trojan horse. I think it's amazing. I mean, they're racking up millions of hits online.

"I think they've crossed over to an audience that don't even like rock. Probably a lot of fans of electronic music and dance music are digging it, some sort of math rock, prog rock, post-rock fans really digging it. Again, for some of the old-school classic rock fans, it's probably too dissonant, too angular, not melodic enough. And I get that. The people who like more pentatonic music and the blues scale, it won't resonate with them.

"But I think one of the great things about really interesting music is it is divisive. By definition, it is divisive. I think that's why people start hate campaigns against bands that are doing something different."

Our interview with Wilson, whose upcoming album Requiem For A Village will be released on November 6, will appear in an upcoming issue of Classic Rock. He plays two shows with the Parallax Orchestra next week at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Limited tickets are available.

Steven Wilson: 2026 dates

Oct 28: London Royal Albert Hall, UK
Oct 29: London Royal Albert Hall, UK

Angine de Poitrine: Vol II 2026 tour (sold out)

Oct 22: Paris Élysée Montmartre, France
Oct 24: Lyon L'Épicerie Moderne, France
Oct 25: Antwerp Trix, Belgium
Oct 27: Berlin Astra, Germany
Oct 28: Hamburg Molotow, Germany
Oct 29: Heidelberg Metropolink, Germany
Oct 31: Amsterdam London Calling, Netherlands †
Nov 01: Groningen VERA, Netherlands

Nov 05: Toronto History, ON
Nov 06: Quebec City Impérial Bell , QC
Nov 14: Montreal Club Soda, QC
Nov 16: Brooklyn Brooklyn Steel, NY
Nov 17: Brooklyn Brooklyn Steel, NY
Nov 18: Brooklyn Brooklyn Steel, NY
Nov 19: Boston Roadrunner, MA
Nov 20: Philadelphia Franklin Music Hall, PA

Nov 22: Mexico City Corona Capital CDMX, Mexico †

Nov 25: Atlanta The Eastern, GA
Nov 27: Nashville Brooklyn Bowl, TN
Nov 29: Chicago The Salt Shed, IL
Nov 30: Chicago The Salt Shed, IL

Dec 01: Minneapolis First Avenue, MN
Dec 02: Minneapolis First Avenue, MN
Dec 04: Los Angeles The Wiltern, CA
Dec 05: Los Angeles The Wiltern, CA
Dec 07: San Francisco The Castro Theatre, CA
Dec 08: Oakland Fox Theater, CA
Dec 10: Portland McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, OR
Dec 11: Portland McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, OR
Dec 12: Seattle Showbox SoDo, WA
Dec 13: Seattle Paramount Theatre, WA

Angine de Poitrine: Concerts de Musique 2027 tour

Mar 04: Melbourne Forum, Australia
Mar 06: Meredith Golden Plains, Australia †
Mar 07: Adelaide WOMADelaide, Australia †
Mar 09: Sydney Enmore Theatre, Australia
Mar 13: Buenos Aires Lollapalooza, Argentina †
Mar 14: Santiago Lollapalooza, Chile †
Mar 19: São Paulo Lollapalooza, Brasil †
Mar 21: Bogota Estéreo Picnic, Colombia †

Mar 28: Calgary Grey Eagle Event Centre, AB
Mar 29: Calgary Grey Eagle Event Centre, AB
Mar 31: Ottawa History Ottawa, ON
Apr 01: Ottawa History Ottawa, ON
Mar 06: Winnipeg Burton Cummings Theatre, MB
Mar 07: Winnipeg Burton Cummings Theatre, MB

May 02: Washington The Anthem, DC
May 03: Boston MGM Music Hall at Fenway, MA
May 05: Pittsburgh Stage AE, PA
May 06: Detroit Royal Oak Music Theatre, MI
May 07: Columbus KEMBA Live!, OH
May 08: Nashville The Truth, TN
May 10: Dallas The Bomb Factory, TX
May 11: Austin Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Park, TX
May 15: Denver Mission Ballroom, ES

Jun 3-5: Barcelona Primavera Sound, Spain †
Jun 05: Paris We Love Green, France †
Jun 12: Neuchâtel Festi’neuch, Czech Republic †
Jun 14: Milan Magnolia Estivo, Italy
Jun 18-20: Scheessel Hurricane Festival, Germany †
Jun 18-20: Neuhausen Ob Eck Southside Festival, Germany †
Jun 24: Halifax The Piece Hall, UK
Jun 28: London O2 Academy Brixton, UK
Jun 29: London O2 Academy Brixton, UK

Jul 18: Toronto RBC Amphitheatre, ON
Jul 30: Chicoutimi Zone Portuaire, QC

Find Angine de Poitrine tickets.

In 2014 Prog explored former Cream member Jack Bruce’s third solo album, 1971’s Harmony Row, viewing it from the perspective of a concept album that took him far away from the blues rock he’d prevously been known for.

“I sat at my Blüthner piano and played the thing from top to bottom,” said Jack Bruce, explaining how his third solo album arrived almost fully formed one inspirational afternoon. “The songs just came tumbling out as a complete entity in pretty much the same order as they appear on the album.”

While his 1969 debut Songs For A Tailor had mopped up material originally intended for Cream, with 1971’s Harmony Row he wiped the slate clean and delivered a sequence of songs that took him out of the mainstream.

Several pieces traverse a jazz-rock undertow and utilise unorthodox chords which owed more to classical avant-garde composer Olivier Messiaen than the blues-based rock he helped pioneer, and which he remained associated with.

After working with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, and what he called their “big” sound, Bruce wanted something more intimate and personal in nature. He co-opted Chris Spedding (guitar) and John Marshall (drums) from British jazz-rock pioneers Nucleus to flesh out these poetic vignettes alongside his own bass, keyboards and vocals.

“Lyricist Pete Brown had this mad idea that the songs were kind of like a big show on ice – not exactly like an operetta, but a kind of concept album in a way,” said Bruce.

Not unlike an interlinking song cycle rooted in his working-class upbringing, the album title references a tenement block in his native Glasgow, describing drifters, early-morning commuters, grinding poverty, yearning love songs and the yawning possibility of death or rebirth at each sunset.

Harmony Row’s cinematic contrasts provide starkly lit close‑ups during the reflective prelude of Can You Follow?, before rushing into the wide-open vistas of Escape To The Royal Wood (On Ice), bustling with quick-fire time signatures, abrupt vocal jump cuts and layers of processed guitar glistening in spectral reverb.

Meanwhile, on Folk Song, Bruce multitracks his own voice into an ethereal choir to devastating, poignant effect. He recalled: “It was engineer Andy Johns who came up with that idea. It was the only way we could get the kind of texture we were after. We called those voices The Jackettes!”

Harmony Row’s willingness to go beyond expectations highlights Bruce’s interest in experimentation and his contrarian disposition. This is emphatically not the work of the blues bruiser some supposed him to be, but rather a sensitive and sophisticated composer who understands how to box clever, an expert in judging precisely when to hang back and when to hit hard.

Harmony Row is an album of which, understandably, Bruce remained very proud. “All of my early solo albums are really diaries of where I was at musically at the time,” he said. “Listening to it now, I think it still stands up.”

Slayer’s Reign In Blood is one of metal’s all-time Hall Of Fame Albums. Released in the United States on October 7, 1986, it was darker, colder and more malicious than anything that had come before, including Metallica’s equally monumental Master Of Puppets, which arrived earlier that year. Its scalpel-cold sonics and diabolically depraved lyrics set a new bar for how far metal could go – and it remains there to this day. Forty years on, here are 40 facts that every self-respecting metal fan should know about this black-hearted masterpiece.

1 One of the most malevolent albums ever made was partly written in a bedroom in Kerry King’s parents’ house. The guitarist was still living at home with his folks when he was writing the songs for Reign In Blood, and would hunker down with a cassette recorder to capture his ideas – including Piece By Piece, the first song he wrote for the album.

2 Guitarist Jeff Hanneman wrote his Reign In Blood songs using a drum machine. “He started recording his own demos complete with the basic drum pattern, guitar riffs, some arrangements,” Dave Lombardo, the actual human drummer who played on the finished album, later recalled. “And then he would present us with cassettes. It was awesome, because it gave us a clear picture of where he was going.”

3 Rick Rubin is often credited as Reign In Blood’s producer, which isn’t strictly accurate. He’s officially the album’s co-producer, along with the band themselves.

4 The majority of the music for Reign In Blood was written and demoed before the band met Rick Rubin. The original instrumental demo version came in between 33 and 34 minutes – five or six minutes longer than the finished record.

5 Rick Rubin grew up listening to punk rock, before pivoting towards hip hop and founding Def Jam Records. He hadn’t heard of Slayer until a friend who worked at MTV took him to see them play New York club The Ritz on September 27, 1985. “Megadeth played before them, and [another band] before that,” recalled Rick, who poached the band from their original label, Metal Blade, making them Def Jam’s first non-hip hop signing. “I don’t recall much of anything that night before Slayer. They totally annihilated.”

6 Reign In Blood was recorded at LA’s Hit City West studio on West Pico Boulevard. Run by Reign In Blood engineer Andy Wallace, the studio’s previous clients included Mötley Crüe, soul star Bobby Womack and Mike Love of The Beach Boys.

7 Rick played Andy Wallace an unspecified Metallica album to highlight what he thought was wrong with typical metal production. “If the music you’re playing is fast and the sounds are big, there’s not enough space for those big sounds to happen next to each other,” the producer said in 2024. “There’s no punctuation; it becomes a blur.”

8 Reign In Blood was the first time Slayer could afford to record during the daytime. Kerry told Guitar World in 2011 that the band tracked 1983’s Show No Mercy and 1985’s Hell Awaits from “10 at night to 6 in the morning, just because that’s when we could get the time cheapest”.

9 Opening track Angel Of Death features one of the greatest screams ever committed to tape, courtesy of Tom Araya. “Jeff was like, ‘We need something here, do a scream,’” the vocalist told Metal Hammer. “I said, ‘What kind of scream?’ They couldn’t really explain it, so I’m like, ‘OK…’, and I did this scream. When we listened back, I went, ‘OK, I know what to do, let’s do it again.’ We did it a couple more times, three or four times in total, but we were like, ‘Forget it, we got what we wanted with the second one.’”

10 The Altar Of Sacrifice riff was written for an abandoned Show No Mercy-era track called Ice Titan. Kerry later dismissed Ice Titan as “a bunch of teenage gibberish”, but a live version from 1983 surfaced on the band’s 2003 box set, Soundtrack To The Apocalypse.

11 The album’s closing song, Raining Blood, was a collaboration between guitarists Kerry and Jeff. The concept came from a dream Jeff had, then Kerry finished the lyrics under supreme time pressure. He was still writing lines while the other members were in the studio, recording their parts for the song.

12 The songs weren’t supposed to be as fast as they ended up. According to Dave Lombardo, the band sped up as they recorded new takes. “It takes you a couple takes to get to that point where the music is extraordinary,” he remembered. “Then you reach that peak. After that, you’re just exhausted.”

13 Despite the velocity of the music, no illegal drugs were consumed in the studio. Instead, Rick Rubin would ply Dave Lombardo with candy and Gatorade to keep his energy levels up. “What else were we fuelled by? Nothing. I didn’t even drink yet. It wasn’t a party,” Kerry told Hammer.

14 When the band recorded the album and shaved off those five or six minutes from the demo version, Rick had to reassure Tom that 28 minutes was an acceptable length for an album. “His only reply was that it had 10 songs, verses, choruses and leads, and that’s what constituted an album,” Tom told Hammer. “He didn’t have any issue with it.”

15 The finished album was so short that the original cassette release featured the whole thing on both sides. “Hour-long records seem to be the trend these days,” Kerry told Decibel. “You listen and it’s like, ‘You could lose this part, you could cut this song completely and make a much more intense record.’”

16 Super-producer Ross Robinson cites Reign In Blood’s second track, Piece By Piece, as proof of the album’s brilliance. “So you’ve got one of the greatest metal songs ever in Angel Of Death, right?” he tells Metal Hammer. “Then it continues – the next song is just as good! It’s the real sign that you’re not gonna be able to stop without listening to this whole fucking record. People put their best first or whatever, but having a second track that can slam just as hard is incredible.”

17 The fastest song on Reign In Blood is Necrophobic, which comes in at 248bpm. Our condolences to your neck.

18 Necrophobic was the source of simmering beef between Slayer and Napalm Death after the latter’s bassist, Shane Embury, boasted that Napalm were faster than Slayer’s speediest song. “I said some things in the media that I regret, to be honest,” Shane tells Hammer. “I’m sure I said something along the lines of, ‘We’d never slow down like Slayer,’ which is absolute bullshit because we did! But Kerry King’s forgiven me, I think.”

19 Dave Lombardo’s favourite Reign In Blood song? The penultimate track, Postmortem. “That piece is just monstrous,” he told Metal Hammer. “Postmortem into Raining Blood! It’s epic how it flows from one song to the other.”

20 The controversial album cover was painted by US artist Larry Carroll, who had previously contributed illustrations to the New York Times and The Village Voice. Larry deliberately used “banal” colours to make the image off-putting, though he did add several subtly provocative elements, including a pair of giant erections and a dismembered penis. Contrary to popular belief, the demon carrying the chair wasn’t based on Prince Charles, though there is a resemblance.

21According to Larry Carroll, the band initially disliked the image. “But then someone in the band showedit to their mother, and their mother thought it was disgusting, so they knew they were onto something,” he told journalist D.X. Ferris.

22 No one knows where the original Reign In Blood painting is today. Larry Carroll gave the piece to a fan who seemed to genuinely want it, only for them to subsequently sell it. Larry called the person a “schmuck”, and who can blame him?

23 Angel Of Death proved a major flashpoint for the record. Al Teller and Walter Yetnikoff – respective heads of Def Jam’s distributor Columbia and its parent company CBS – were both Jewish and objected to the song’s lyrics. There were business concerns too: “My shareholders are all Jewish!” Yetnikoff reportedly proclaimed. He refused to distribute the record.

24 The situation could have been averted if Slayer had simply removed Angel Of Death from the album, as CBS demanded they do. “We were never, ever tempted to do that,” Tom told Hammer. “We felt we hadn’t done anything wrong. They said, ‘Take that song off the album.’ Rick said, ‘No.’ And he went and found someone else to release it.”

25 Jeff Hanneman always protested that Angel Of Death wasn’t a glorification of Nazi physician Josef Mengele and the atrocities at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Not everyone agreed with him. “I’m reading the lyrics and my first impression is like, yes, it 100% is,” Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda told Noisey in 2018. “I’m not a fan of that at all.” He likes the music, though.

26 Reign In Blood was finally released on October 7, 1986 in the US. However, the controversy meant that Def Jam struggled to find a European distributor, meaning it wasn’t actually released in the UK until six months after it dropped Stateside.

27 By the time Reign In Blood was released in Europe, Dave Lombardo had quit and rejoined the band. He initially left in December 1986, at the end of the first leg of the US tour in support of W.A.S.P. “I had been going on tour and I was coming back with no money to pay my basic bills. I was like, ‘Fuck this, man,’” Dave later revealed to Hammer.

28 One of the people who tried out to replace Dave was future Megadeth drummer Nick Menza. “As I recall, he didn’t have the dedication,” said Kerry King.

29 The man who did succeed Dave was Tony ‘TJ’ Scaglione of New Jersey thrashers Whiplash. “I was only 18 years old at the time, so it was a bit overwhelming,” he said. His time in Slayer was brief, lasting just 25 shows. By April 1987, Rick Rubin had persuaded Dave to return to the band. “We swept whatever was under the rug and carried on,” said the sticksman.

30 Dave’s reunion with the band, in April 1987, wasn’t tension-free. The drummer insisted his wife joined them on the tour bus and the couple got their own dressing room – something that rest of the band weren’t overjoyed about. Kerry, for one, wasn’t sure whether the drummer’s return would be permanent. It was… at least until Dave left again in 1992.

31 Despite being on a successful hip hop label, and playing the solo on Def Jam labelmates Beastie Boys’ 1986 single No Sleep Till Brooklyn, Kerry was sniffy about the genre. “Was I a fan of hip hop? I wasn’t, no,” he said bluntly.

32 The feeling wasn’t necessarily mutual. Several hip hop acts sampled tracks from Reign In Blood, including Public Enemy, who used the riff from Angel Of Death in their 1988 track She Watch Channel Zero?!. “Slayer, that was like the dark side,” said Hank Shocklee of Public Enemy’s production team The Bomb Squad. “They were enigmas.”

33 Other rap artists to sample Reign In Blood songs include crunk king Lil Jon (Raining Blood on 2004’s Stop Fuckin Wit Me), Ill Bill (Raining Blood on 2007’s Awaiting The Hour) and Fat Nick and Lil Peep (uh, Raining Blood on 2016’s Oh It’s Lit).

34 Speaking of Ill Bill, the New York rapper was the only other musical act Reign In Blood artist Larry Carroll painted a cover for. He painted the cover for 2008’s The Hour Of Reprisal, whose title was a Raining Blood lyric. The album also featured a song called U.B.S. (Unauthorized Biography Of Slayer).

35 One of the most remarkable cover versions of a Reign In Blood song was Tori Amos’s near-unrecognisable take on Raining Blood from her 2001 album Strange Little Girls. “Covering that was a message for the patriarchy, especially back in 2001,” she told Classic Rock earlier this year. “My concern for women then, and now, was having so few freedoms, so few rights, and being controlled by a type of poisonous state. When I heard Raining Blood I had a vision of this huge vagina in the sky that was dripping blood everywhere, like the elements were rising up to combat this force of malevolent, patriarchal force. [Slayer] sent me a fabulous box of t-shirts for that, they were so lovely about it.”

36 The first time Angel Of Death appeared in a film was in 1990s’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch. The song soundtracks a scene where the malevolent Mohawk Gremlin turns into a spider after chugging back a weird chemical drink.

37 Angel Of Death also appeared in 2002’s Jackass: The Movie, and Jackass star Steve-O used Raining Blood as his entrance music during his comedy tours. “As the tune broke, I’d start smashing [Budweiser] cans on my head until they broke and then I’d spray beer all over the crowd,” he told Hammer in 2019.

38 Reign In Blood helped shape one of the most iconic albums of the 1990s. Kurt Cobain picked Andy Wallace to mix Nirvana’s mega-breakthrough, Nevermind. “I didn’t know it at the time, but I later read that the thing that interested Kurt Cobain was me mixing the Reign In Blood album,” Andy later said.

39 If there’s one song Tom Araya would have taken off the album, it’s Epidemic. “That was the one, at the time it was really great and cool, but when you sit back and look at all the lyrics on the album, that’s the one that I could live without,” he told Hammer.

40 Like most right-minded people, Tom rates Reign In Blood as Slayer’s greatest album. Asked why it’s so celebrated, he told Hammer: “Maybe it was because at the time that record came out, everybody was doing really slow stuff. Maybe the controversy. Maybe the fact that we came out on a rap label. Maybe that it was only 28 minutes – nobody felt short-changed. I can’t answer that.”

Additional Sources: Slayer’s Reign In Blood by D.X. Ferris (33 1/3)

“We always want to do something different with each record – to try to evolve, and see if we can bring something new to the table,” says Ingo Dassen, guitarist with Dutch art-prog collective Lesoir. Their new album, Tomorrow Is Now Today, marks the next leap forward in the group’s musical journey.

Dassen describes 2024’s Push Back The Horizon as “more of a rocky record, more straightforward. Before that we released the Babel EP, and before that we did Mosaic, which was more progressive, with more Pink Floyd-ish influences.

People liked those records, so we had the idea of finding some combination between them – expanding with extra instruments and extra dimensions. We always try to create, record and write a song that the fourth or fifth time you listen to it, you discover a new detail. I think we’ve succeeded.”

If Push Back The Horizon found Lesoir in rock mode, “now we’re more into an electronic, beat-driven phase.” The elements that define their music – the layered guitars embellished with keys, flute and pedal steel – remain, but Dassen says they’re more focused on the rhythms this time, “which is cool; it gets you moving.”

Tomorrow Is Now Today was produced by John Cornfield, who they’ve worked with since 2011’s Transience. The producer captures the full breadth of Lesoir’s sound, eschewing a keep-it-simple mentality.

“John is a dear friend,” says Dassen. “He always says, ‘More is more’ – which in fact is the case. He’s just a legend. After all these years, we don’t really have to discuss it. He knows what we want.”

On their earliest recordings they played live in the studio. Now they track drums and bass together, then the guitars; but they’re not looking for perfection.

“We don’t do much by way of repairs,” says Dassen. “We always go for the golden take, and for us that take is not necessarily perfectly played.

“It’s the take that has the most emotion and gives the best vibe to the song. You hear us laugh, you hear us coughing, and sometimes you’ll hear us slip up on a string. It makes it human.

“We like to have a record that you really hear us playing, not over-produced or over- processed.”

Tomorrow Is Now Today is on sale now.

Shaun the Sheep's latest foray into Hollywood might have been significantly more metal if Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi had agreed to write the theme music.

Iommi has revealed he was approached to contribute to the score for this year's movie Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, but had to turn it down because he was too busy.

The in-demand musician was working on a track with Robbie Williams when the request came in last year. And he was also getting ready to work with William Shatner on his heavy metal project, as well as his own new solo album From The Dark.

With all of that to contend with, Iommi simply didn't have the capacity to get involved in the hugely successful animation franchise.

Asked about the most "bizarre thing" he had ever worked on in his career, Iommi tells Planet Rock: "Apart from Sabbath you mean? I was asked to do Shaun the Sheep as well. I didn't do that!

"They were doing a movie and they wanted some theme music for it. But no, we'd got too much on. I'd done the Robbie thing and trying to do my own album, then the William Shatner thing. That's enough for now!"

Iommi joked that he wouldn't rule out taking on a project like Shaun the Sheep in the future, adding that "it'll be Peppa Pig next."

He also discussed Sabbath's 1983 album Born Again with Ian GIllan on vocals. Widely considered the band's most controversial album, fans – and Gillan himself – have spoken about the quality of the record's production.

Iommi says he does plan to have the album remixed.

He says: "Yes, there is a plan. To be honest, we couldn't find those tapes for a long time. They disappeared.

"But they were in some record company storage. And anyway, we've gotten them back and they were transferred. So they are ready to start work on."

The full interview can be viewed below.

Slipknot emerged from a darkened Des Moines basement over 30 years ago. In that time, they've caused total chaos, broken bones, and huffed jars of festering crows on the road to becoming a band to define a generation.

But how much do you know about the Des Moines mob? Do you know more than the average Maggot? Put your knowledge to the test by taking the quiz below!

Canadian prog metal elders Protest The Hero have returned with what’s described as their most expansive and ambitious work yet, after more than half a decade of unplanned absence. Within explores their revised line-up via a series of cinematic arrangements, orchestral interludes and bold melodic experimentation. Vocalist Rody Walker and guitarist Luke Hoskin discuss breaking ties with their management and their reinvention as a fully independent band.

“As above, so below; as within, so without; as the universe, so the soul”: With this axiom as their guiding light, Protest The Hero have emerged from the wilderness after six long years of wandering, a new offering titled Within held up to their eager acolytes for examination.

“Yes, the title’s based on the Hermetic maxim, but that’s like a whole bunch of pretentious nonsense,” says vocalist and lyricist Rody Walker with a grin. “When I’m sitting and typing what shit is about, I’m just incredibly dramatic about it. Ultimately, I wanted to write this record about how all of the bigger things affect us individually, in our little inner worlds. That went really well with ‘as within, so without’ – conceptually, it’s about the larger world affecting the individual, specifically in relation to myself and my life.”

The lyrical outlier is lead single Mouthpiece which provides an explosive reintroduction to the prog metal luminaries. It still fits within the general theme, but with more of an external viewpoint. “We have all these voices in our ears telling us what to think and it’s causing us to fight with our families and friends and excommunicate one another,” Walker explains. “People who were more conservative and people who were more progressive could have this communicative nature where we could discuss things and maybe not agree. It wasn’t so fucking hostile.”

The song – like most of the album – bursts from the speakers in a flawless welter of intertwining guitars, sinuous rhythms and vocals that veer from larynx-shredding screams to clean, soaring peaks. In short, it’s nothing unfamiliar to longtime fans. “Oh God, no, dude. It’s the same thing we’ve always done: fast, complicated bullshit,” the singer says with a laugh.

“We leaned back into our punk roots and I think that’s really important for us because it’s the one thing musically we all agree on,” adds guitarist Luke Hoskin. “The songcraft is great and there’s so much melody in it that sometimes metal doesn’t offer, so you’ll hear a lot of that on this record too.”

There’s certainly songcraft and melody on offer, but the busy, blazing technicality that helped define the modern progressive metalcore sound is right to the fore. And, while there might not be too many stylistic deviations on this particular outing, it seems like there might well be more to come from the band soon.

Within comprises just six full tracks plus two strategically placed orchestral interludes titled i: above and ii: below. Hoskin reveals they “hint at something else that’s not on the album.” The pair decline to provide details, but the guitarist adds: “There’s more than meets the eye with this release. The themes on those orchestral pieces are things that no one’s heard yet, but they’ll be able to connect them later.”

Reddit-dwelling superfans have theories – but at the very least a companion piece seems likely. Asked if we can definitively expect more music to follow this in less than six years, Hoskin replies with a laugh: “Oh, yeah. Probably four and a half. A lot of what is coming is either done or in the works, but there’s still work to do.”

A duology or more would help make up for the long wait for this album, which Walker seems largely at a loss to explain. “We released Palimpsest during the pandemic and then what else did we have to do other than drink whisky in the basement? We should have been locking in, but we just didn’t. And then life kind of happened. A handful of us have kids, some of us are working other jobs now; but there’s no real excuse.”

When it did come time to start writing, it was Hoskin who began the process while his bandmates were on one of the number of sporadic tours they’ve continued to play. Protest The Hero never went on a hiatus or disappeared entirely, but the guitarist announced he was stepping away from live shows in 2021.Asked whether he regrets that decision, especially with a new album to take out, he replies in the negative.

“Especially playing new material because at some point that became a huge source of anxiety for me,” he adds. “I do miss hanging out with the fellas and the constant laughter and being able to disconnect from the real world for a bit. But I wouldn’t say I have any regrets; I like the situation we’re in now where there’s a division of labour. While those guys are out touring, I can be at home working on new riffs and the business side of things.”

That division of labour is marked, with there essentially being two different iterations of the band at this point in time. Hoskin and Walker are joined on the album by longtime collaborator Cameron McLelland on bass and Intervals drummer Nathan Bulla. The vocalist is the only common thread between that line-up and the live band, which also features guitarist Ben Davis, bassist Henry Selva and drummer Matt Kidby. Longtime guitarist Tim MacMillar will also be out on the road, but wasn’t involved in the recording process.

“Our friend Milen [Petzelt-Sorace] is a composer, and he and I are a little writing team,” Hoskin explains. “It just ended up that Milen and I dug into it a little more and a little faster, and when I talked to Tim about recording, he was like, ‘This is your thing, so just go and do it.’”

“We also want the live experience to be a little looser and that’s why we get to bring in guys like ‘HK’ [Kidby] on the drums, who’s a more punk drummer in his heart,” Walker adds. “It’s not as rigid. Sometimes the songs are a little faster than they should be. It’s interesting how the division has been created, but it all works to create this bigger idea.”

When it comes to the business side, Hoskin needs all the extra time he can get. The band previously crowdfunded 2013’s Volition and released a series of tracks on a subscription format that were later gathered together as 2016’s Pacific Myth. This, though, is the first time they’ve released an album entirely independently.

“We’e spent every moment since we were tied to some label in some way,” Walker says. “I’m not speaking ill of any of those labels, because a lot of the situations were great, but we are finally free from any obligation.”

“We don’t even have management now,” Hoskin adds. “It’s created a lot more work, but it’s cool because now we’re in control of our success or failure. It’s very empowering, but it has been a lot.”

It’s an exciting time for fans of the modern breed of progressive metal. Many of its originators have re-emerged, with the likes of Textures breaking hiatus and Paul Ortiz, aka Chimp Spanner, teaming up with TesseracT vocalist Daniel Tompkins in Prince Of Failure.

“What I really like about the scene is that the older guys are still coming out with great music and pushing prog forward,” says Hoskin. “I’m thinking Opeth and Devin Townsend and Haken. Devin’s new record is a masterpiece, but he’s his own thing and he always has been.”

And are Protest The Hero happy to take on the mantle of prog metal elder statesmen? “Oh fuck, is that what we are?” says Walker, laughing.

“We’ll own it,” says Hoskin. “I’m just satisfied being alive and making music, so if someone looks at us as being an older band now, who cares?”

Fireball is often treated as the awkward middle child of the Deep Purple Mark II catalogue, sandwiched between the twin classics In Rock and Machine Head. Yet it was with Fireball, written and recorded amid relentless touring, mounting commercial expectations, personal frustrations and a determination not to repeat themselves, that Deep Purple tested just how far they could push the boundaries of hard rock. Encompassing foundational heavy metal alongside elements of progressive, jazz, psychedelic and even country rock, it was the band’s first album to top the UK chart and became another of their million-sellers.

Work on Fireball began in September 1970, barely three months after the release of In Rock. Martin Birch was again behind the recording desk, while production remained firmly in the band’s own hands. There was no stockpile of finished songs waiting to be recorded. Like its predecessor, Fireball would emerge gradually from the group’s collective writing sessions, taking shape over the following nine months at De Lane Lea and Olympic studios in London between an increasingly punishing schedule of British, European and American tour dates.

In this regard, the band’s success had become both a blessing and a burden. “In Rock succeeded so magnificently that it’s kept us working from that day to this,” Jon Lord reflected in early 1973. “We’ve really not had a chance to take stock since then.”

If In Rock had finally confirmed Deep Purple’s true musical identity, Fireball found them refusing to be confined by it. Lord recognised the change before the album had even been released.

“This album is more mellow than Deep Purple In Rock,” he told the NME in August 1971. “When we recorded that, we were a bit angry at the world because nobody had taken any notice of us.”

Instead of repeating or refining the formula that had transformed their fortunes, Fireball placed greater emphasis on the musicians’ collective strengths while pushing the emerging hard rock genre into unfamiliar territory.

The opening title track repurposes the momentum of Speed King (from In Rock), and takes its exhilarating sense of controlled chaos several steps further. Propelled by Ian Paice’s relentless – and revolutionary - double-bass drum pattern and Roger Glover’s elegantly striding bass line, it remains one of the most startling, high-energy performances of the Mark II era. Glover’s lunatic, fuzzed-up bass break, where you might reasonably expect a guitar solo, underlines the point that this is not a conventional guitar-hero album, so much as the work of five exceptional musicians discovering just how powerful they could be as a group.

Released as a single in October 1971, Fireball’s title track reached No.15 in the UK chart, a populist triumph which also pushed the hard-rock musical vocabulary towards territory that later generations would come to recognise as speed metal. After seeing Deep Purple in Copenhagen in 1973, a nine-year-old Lars Ulrich bought the album the next morning. “I started with that and I didn’t look back,” the future Metallica drummer recalled.

If the title track establishes a new high-energy benchmark, The Mule confirmed the band were working on a far broader canvas than straightforward hard rock. One of only three tracks on the original album’s second side, it unfolded like a musical odyssey, shifting between crashing, crushing riffs, eerie electronic effects and stretches of improvisation. The stereo mix accentuated its dreamlike quality, sounds darting between left and right channels in a way that owes more to the studio experimentation of progressive rock than to the direct attack of In Rock. Ian Gillan’s vocal is sparsely applied before giving way to an extended instrumental section, with Ritchie Blackmore supplying some wild, wang-bar soloing propelled by Glover’s muscular bass and Paice’s immense drumming. Little surprise that in concert it quickly evolved into a platform for Paice’s celebrated drum solo, a feature of the band’s live show for many years.

The exploratory spirit continues through the album’s second side with Fools, which stretches beyond eight minutes. Beginning with a long, quietly haunting refrain, it blasts into a monster Sabbath-style riff before dissolving into something strange and atmospheric. Blackmore coaxes eerie, violin-like sounds from his guitar, Lord responds with waves of Hammond organ, and the music drifts into an unsettling soundscape. Gillan’s nihilistic lyric (“I am of the dead… You don’t know the pain I feel”) takes the whole piece well over the top, producing an air of apocalyptic melodrama.

By contrast, No One Came closes the second side on a more exuberant note. Built around one of Glover’s most infectious bass lines and driven by Lord’s exuberant organ-playing, its free-associative lyric suggests a band still willing to experiment without taking itself too seriously, an appropriate conclusion to an album that consistently chooses curiosity over caution.

Other songs which pull the album in a more traditional direction still incorporate a subtle twist in the tale. No No No combines a woozy, almost narcotic slide guitar with one of Gillan’s most contrary lyrics – a string of questions (“Do we love each other?” “Is it getting better?”), all answered with an emphatic “No. No. No.”

Demon’s Eye is built around a deceptively simple blues-based riff, with a groove that showcases Glover’s agile bass lines. Lord sets off on an exuberant Hammond solo, and when it’s his turn Blackmore responds with a concise flurry of quicksilver blues licks, peppered towards the end with his signature whammy-bar flourishes. American audiences never heard this track on the original album, from which it was omitted to make room for the UK hit single Strange Kind Of Woman, creating two different versions of Fireball on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

The biggest surprise, musically, was Anyone’s Daughter, recorded during the very first sessions for the album. A light-hearted country shuffle complete with honky-tonk piano and a laddish lyric - “I won’t get no more eggs and water/Now I’ve laid the farmer’s daughter” – it divided opinion at the time and still does.

Lord dismissed the criticism with characteristic good humour. “It’s something different,” he said. “Why not?” Given the intensity of the rest of the material, the song indicates a band confident enough to puncture its own seriousness.

Released several weeks before Fireball and included on all subsequent CD and other reissues of the album, Strange Kind Of Woman hit No. 8 in the UK and became one of Deep Purple’s defining hit singles. It demonstrated the band’s ability to produce commercial records without diluting their musical ambitions. The song’s working title was Prostitute and Gillan’s lyric, said to be about a woman that he knew at the time, has not held up so well: “Her name was Nancy/Her face was nothing fancy…”

Critical opinion of the album was divided at the time. Melody Maker praised Fireball for possessing “all the consistency which was lacking in the brash rawness of In Rock, making for a much more satisfying album as a whole.” Disc enthused that the title track arrived in “blistering fashion... packing more into three minutes than most albums manage in 40.” The Rolling Stone reviewer, however, complained about passages of “aimless, extended studio jamming”, suggesting that In Rock had struck with greater force.

The band had mixed feelings about the album. “The impetus is never as strong as it is when you’re starving,” Paice told NME in January 1973. “When you’ve got nothing, you work your balls off. Around the time of Fireball we got a little too comfortable. Everybody had got to the stage where they had nice cars and houses. There wasn’t so much impetus to work and it showed on the album.”

Speaking in June 1973, Blackmore was regally dismissive of the way Fireball had been made. “It was a bit of a disaster,” he said. “It was thrown together in the studio. Managerial pressure - we had no time… ‘You’ve got to play here, here, there, then you’ve got to make an LP.’ I told them, ‘If you want an LP, you’ve got to give us time.’ But they wouldn’t. I just threw ideas to the group that I thought up on the spur of the moment.”

Gillan came to a different conclusion, later describing Fireball as his favourite Deep Purple album of that period because it opened up “tremendous possibilities of expression”, allowing Deep Purple to bring “the funk, the blues, the soul, the jazz and some of the psychedelic thing from our early days” into their hard rock framework.

Lord agreed. “The fact that it wanders slightly doesn’t worry me at all,” he said. “I love Fireball. I think it does good things. I think it goes to places that the band wasn’t expected to go to.”

History has largely vindicated the positive perspective. Fireball confirmed that the success of In Rock was no fleeting breakthrough and established Deep Purple alongside Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as part of the triumvirate of British hard rock bands of the early 1970s. Fireball continues to cast a long shadow as a stepping stone in the development of the band. As Jon Lord later observed: “You couldn’t have Machine Head without Fireball.”

Originally published in Classic Rock Presents: Deep Purple – buy it here

Steven Wilson has revealed how he persuaded former Doctor Who star David Tennant to appear on his new album.

Tennant, who played the Tenth Doctor between 2005 and 2010, adds narration to the Porcupine Tree frontman’s ninth solo album, the folk horror-inspired Requiem For A Village.

“In my head, I wanted an Irish or Scottish voice for it,” Wilson tells Prog. “My first thought was that [Scottish poet and humourist] Ivor Cutler would be perfect for it, but then I realised he was dead, so that made it a bit tricky.

“I’d tried a few voiceover artists, but they sounded like they were reading a script,” he continues. “We needed someone with gravitas. I vaguely remembered seeing a photo a few years ago where David Tennant was wearing a Raven That Refused To Sing T-shirt. My manager contacted his agent and he came back straight away and said he’d love to do it.”

Tennant was away filming, so Wilson talked to him on the phone and sent him the script of the narration. “Literally within 24 hours, he’d recorded it and sent it all back to me. I mean, I think I’ve got a pretty good work ethic, but that’s something else.”

The narration for Requiem For A Village was written by former XTC frontman and semi-regular Wilson collaborator Andy Partridge, centres around the mysterious, eerie village at the heart of the album’s concept and the strange people and happenings that occur around it.

“It encapsulates everything – the nostalgia, the question of whether the village really exists, and does it really matter?” says Wilson. “It’s about immersing yourself in this world, and the feeling of something beautiful yet a little bit scary, a little bit weird.”

Requiem For A Village was partly inspired by ’70s folk horror kids TV show Children Of The Stones.

“It’s an absolute classic and it was fucking terrifying,” says Wilson of the show, which was filmed around Avebury, Wiltshire, famous for its trio of Neolithic stone circles. “The story revolves around a kid who goes to live in a village with his dad, who is an archaeologist there to study a stone circle. It turns out that all the people in the village have this weird relationship with this stone circle. Without wanting to spoil it too much, it transpires that this stone circle has some kind of direct connection to alien life.

“What appeals to me – and this comes back to the whole idea of the album – is that it’s a village in our country an hour away from here, but it exists in this little insular bubble of fucking weirdness. To me, something about that is the scariest thing ever: that places like this can exist without you really knowing.”

Requiem For A Village is released on November 6. Wilson plays the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 28 and 29.

Read the full interview with Wilson in the new issue of Prog, on sale now.

“A great guitar album makes me want to pick up my guitar, crank my amp and play," says Halestorm leader Lzzy Hale. "Not necessarily to learn a particular song; it’s more of an unquenchable desire to hear the break-up of the amp’s speakers, feel the strings press into my fingers and make my right hand bleed from the impact of chugging. A great guitar album fuels me with instant inspiration, leaving me with no choice but to grab an axe and write something."

What is your criteria for a great guitar album?

“A great guitar album has to give me a certain kind of feeling. It’s more of an emotional connection to the tones and the way the riff moves your body. The guitar playing doesn’t have to be complicated – take any Neil Young record, for example. Even the simplest solos and riffs can have balls – and inspire you to write.”

Do you sit down and try to learn riffs from guitar records?

“In addition to my top five guitar albums, some other records that never fail to inspire me are Alice Cooper’s Schools Out, Metallica’s ‘Black Album,’ Holy Diver by Dio, Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf and Mastodon’s Once Around the Sun.

Are there any guitar-oriented albums that you didn’t "get" at first, but they grew on you and went on to become favourites?

“One guitar record I didn’t ‘get’ at first was Jeff Buckley’s Grace, but it’s only because, as a singer myself, I was overly distracted by his amazing voice. At first, I considered it more of a vocal album. But as I dug in, I realised that the man was an absolute genius on guitar.”

Lzzy Hale's Epiphone Explorer is available now. Below, Lzzy Hale reveals her five essential guitar albums.

Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell (1980)

“This album has never left my heart. Every time I listen to it, it moves me forward. These are the riffs that get stuck in your head and change your life.”

Cinderella – Night Songs (1986)

“Tom Keifer never gets mentioned in rock guitarist countdowns. I think he’s very underrated. There’s an art to writing a riff that complements a vocal melody. Tom is also an amazing slide player – he has that ‘heartbreak tone’ that literally stings your soul.”

Neil Young with Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)

“You may not see this one on many guitar album lists either, but Neil Young is a huge influence in how I perform as a guitarist. There’s a real ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude in his approach to the guitar, along with a rawness that puts this picture in my mind of Neil just walking into a smoky bar at three A.M., plugging into whatever rig and just bringing the house down.”

Soundgarden – Badmotorfinger (1991)

“Another hugely underrated guitar album. Those riffs are present and ballsy, and they match Chris Cornell’s fervour on vocals. The Outshined riff is one of my all-time favourites.”

Judas Priest – Sin After Sin (1977)

“One of the band’s earlier records, Sin After Sin really displays the raw power of the famous Glenn Tipton-K.K. Downing guitar team. Dissident Aggressor is punishing, and Diamonds & Rust is timeless.”

The original version of this feature first appeared online in September 2018.

As his new solo album From The Dark proves, Tony Iommi remains the king of the riff. The Dark Lord laid won the blueprint for an entire genre with the immortal riff that opens Black Sabbath’s eponymous 1970 debut album, an he’s not stopped since.

When Metal Hammer conducted a poll in 2018 to find the greatest riff of all time, it was no surprise that he was behind the one that came out on top. To be fair, any number of Sabbath riffs could have stolen it – Iron Man, Sweet Leaf, Hole In The Sky, Paranoid, Black Sabbath itself… the list goes on.

But the actual winner? The monumental riff that powers Symptom Of The Universe, the classic track from Sabbath’s 1975 album Sabotage. We asked the man behind how he created this immortal noise.

Can you remember where you were when you came up with the riff for Symptom Of The Universe?

Tony Iommi: “Oh my god, it was a long time ago. I can’t remember, to be completely truthful. I imagine we would have probably been in rehearsal.”

Is that how you used to come up with riffs – in rehearsal?

“Generally, yeah. Sometimes I’ve come up with stuff at home and taped it just to remember it, but I don’t really work things out as such.”

You make it sound easy…

“Dare I say it, but yeah, I’ve not had much trouble coming up with riffs. Now I’ve said it, I’ll probably never come up with another one. But I’ve got hundreds of them from over the years on various CDs. Some of them go back to the original Sabbath, some from the Dio era, bits and bobs from when [Deep Purple’s] Ian Gillan or [former vocalist] Tony Martin were in the band. I don’t even know what’s on there. I keep threatening to sit down and listen to them all one of these days when I get the chance.”

Back when you were writing Symptom Of The Universe, which guitarists were you in competition with?

“Me. I was in competition with myself. I would always try to come up with more and more inventive ideas – different tunings, changing the amps, just fiddling about with the guitars really. I would constantly be trying to improve things and change things. I didn’t really listen to other people, just in case I started playing someone else’s riff by mistake.”

The second half of Symptom Of The Universe heads off into weird, prog-jazz territory. Was that you deliberately setting out to write an early prog metal song?

“No, that was just us jamming together. It was something I came up with and Geezer [Butler, bass] and Bill [Ward, drums] followed, and then Ozzy came in. But then a lot of Sabbath’s stuff went to places you didn’t think they would go. I remember when we had Ronnie Dio with us, I played him the track Die Young [which ended up on Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell album]. It went into this completely different tempo, and he went, ‘You can’t do that!’ I went, ‘Of course we can. It’s what we’ve always done.’”

What are your memories of making Sympton Of The Universe’s parent album, Sabotage?

“Oh, it was a nightmare. We had a court case with our ex-manager, Patrick Meehan, while we were in the middle of making the album. We’d get a writ and we’d end up having to go into bloody court in the morning, all dressed up, then try to get back to the studio afterwards to carry on working. It was hard to come up with things. You had to have two heads.”

Did that aggro feed into the album?

“Certainly with Geezer’s lyrics. He wrote one song called The Writ, so it influenced him, that’s for sure. I think the aggression definitely came out in the music when we played together. There is some really heavy stuff on that record.”

Is it true that The Writ was inspired by a lawyer unexpectedly turning up at the studio to serve you with legal papers?

“That’s exactly what happened. They used to turn up all the bloody time. We never knew they were coming. If we did, we’d have disappeared sharpish.”

Sabotage took nearly a year to record. Was there ever a point where you thought you might not make it to the end?

“No, I’ve never felt like that. We’ve always fought through whatever was there. Without the music, we’d have all gone bloody loony. I think it actually it brought us all together as a band. Whenever we went through problems, we’d just fight through it together.”

The Sabotage album cover. What’s going on there?

“Ha ha ha! A guy who worked for us who was an artist, he came up with a great idea – us reflected in a mirror, stuff like that. But when it got to the day, somebody said to Bill, ‘What are you gonna wear?’ And he was, like, ‘I dunno.’ So he turned to his wife and said, ‘Can I borrow your tights?’ So he put on this pair of his wife’s red tights. And I think he might have borrowed Ozzy’s underpants, too. It looked bloody ridiculous. It definitely didn’t come out like we wanted it to.”

When was the last time you came up with a riff and thought, ‘Ooh, that’s a bit tasty’?

“Well, I’ve got a few that I haven’t used yet that were good. There’s about four or five from the last Sabbath album [13] I that we didn’t use. I listened to a CD with them on recently. I thought, ‘Blimey, that’s good, why didn’t we use it?’”

We’ve talked about Symptom Of The Universe. But what’s your favourite Tony Iommi riff?

“Oh my god, that’s difficult. I like Into The Void. And I like some of the stuff we did with Dio – Heaven And Hell was a good riff, Neon Knights. There’s so many I like. I like pretty much all the stuff we’ve done.”

Apart from your own, what’s the greatest riff of all time?

“That’s even harder. There’s so many great riffs out there from the past, and up to date stuff. But you’ve got to have Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water. And of course there are a lot of Zeppelin songs. Jimmy Page has some great riffs.”

Have you ever had a riff come into your head while you’ve been sitting on the toilet?

“Ha ha! Oh yeah. I have riffs that come in all the time at different times, different places. You never know when the magic’s going to strike.”

This interview originally appeared in Metal Hammer issue 311

Nicko McBrain has revealed that he dabbled with heroin in the late 1970s.

The former Iron Maiden drummer, who has just released his autobiography, Hello Boys And Girls!, tells Classic Rock that he used the drug, but that he was “lucky” to never become addicted.

“This was a period where I was introduced to the higher echelons of people in the music industry and in other walks of life, shall we say,” he says. “I never put it in my arm, I just chased the dragon, as we used to call it – put it on silver paper and fire it up, then puff it up through a straw.”

While Nicko doesn’t specify a time period when he used the drug, he confirms that he had kicked heroin by the time he joined Iron Maiden in late 1982.

“Here’s the thing: God blessed me with this gene where I could just turn that tap off,” he tells Classic Rock. “Same with smoking, same with drinking. Anyone who’s struggling with substance issues, go get help – there’s people out there to help you. It’s not admitting defeat.

“But I was lucky enough to have this gene, so when I stopped, I didn’t go cold turkey – I got a bit antsy, and I got the cold sweats and the shivers, but I was very fortunate not to get really deep into the rabbit hole. I’d already knocked that on the head prior to getting the offer to come on board with Maiden in 1982.”

McBrain replaced former Maiden drummer Clive Burr, who was fired following the tour for 1982’s The Number Of The Beast album. In Hello Boys And Girls!, Nicko reveals that he was initially approached by Maiden’s co-manager Rod Smallwood while Burr was still in the band and put on retainer as “back-up” – something the latter was furious about when he found out.

“About a week had gone by when I got a phone call from Clive,” recalls McBrain. “‘You fucking arsehole!’ he screamed. ‘You motherfucking cunt! You’ve had my gig!”

Nicko pacified Burr and suggested he clean up his act in order to remain in the band, which he temporarily did. But by the end of 1982, Burr was out of the band for good.

While McBrain praises his predecessor – who died in 2013 – as an “amazing drummer” and acknowledges his part in Maiden’s success, he recalls a tense moment during a drum clinic in the mid-80s, attended by Burr

“After doing a solo, which I thought was pretty good, I got up and asked if anyone had any questions, and someone shouted, ‘How big’s your willy?’” he writes. “I thought, ‘What kind of question is that?’, and although I didn’t see who asked it, I swear blind it was Clive. It was definitely his voice, and it wasn’t said in a light-hearted way; it had a hint of aggression about it, as if the person was pissed off at me.”

McBrain adds: “When I asked Clive if it was him many years later, he changed the subject.”

Nicko’s autobiography, Hello Boys And Girls!, is out now. Read the full interview with him in an upcoming issue of Classic Rock.

For Mastodon, 2025 should’ve been a celebratory year. The American metal heroes embarked on a tour of Europe and the States to mark their 25th anniversary, a schedule that included London’s Finsbury Park bonanza with Slayer and Anthrax, plus Black Sabbath’s grand send-off Back To The Beginning. But everything changed in late August, when they landed in Alaska for their final date: “When we got to baggage claim at the airport, to go to our hotel, we found out that Brent [Hinds, former Mastodon lead guitarist/vocalist] had died,” explains singer/ drummer Brann Dailor. “We were in shock. We really didn’t know what to do next.”

Hinds had quit Mastodon, in acrimonious circumstances, five months earlier. His death, at just 51, was the result of a motorcycle accident. The band’s gig at the Alaska State Fair, on 22 August, instead became something of a requiem. At the end of their set, Dailor addressed the crowd in sorrowful tones: “We lost somebody very special to us yesterday. Brent Hinds, one of the most creative, beautiful people that we’ve ever come across in this world, tragically left us… We loved him so, so very much.”

Returning home, Mastodon took stock of the in-progress tracks for their next album. Conceived a year earlier as a return to the mythological realms of their classic works like Blood Mountain and Emperor Of Sand, the songs had already taken on a more personal theme following the sudden death of Dailor’s mother, Michele, in February 2025. Hinds’s passing compounded the album’s new direction.

“I honestly thought, going into writing a couple of years ago, that we might actually be able to go back to singing about Pegasus and Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster,” Dailor says dryly. “But fate had other plans, as fate often does. Directly after I lost my mom, the whole turmoil with Brent leaving the band went down, then a few months later he passed. All that together was really a tough stretch.

"The fact that Brent passed without reconciling was a real gut punch. I had that kind of heavy weight of grief already draped over me, and I was having a hard time personally. What helped a lot was having Mastodon music to work on. It gave me a focus. So we went over to our practice space and got right into it.”

The resulting Marrow Deep, their ninth studio album, is as fierce as anything Mastodon have put their name to. Guitars burn with savage intensity, drums pound like hammering heartbeats, unusual textures simmer and flash, the alternating lead vocals of Dailor and bassist Troy Sanders are never less than utterly committed.

The band have processed grief and loss elsewhere on record – most notably on 2009 album Crack The Skye, which addressed the suicide of Dailor’s sister, and 2021’s Hushed And Grim, an extended homage to Nick John, Mastodon’s late manager and guiding force – but not quite like this.

“Hushed And Grim felt very much like its title,” Dailor says of Marrow Deep’s immediate predecessor. “It was a bit of a slog at the end of the day, an emotional one for us. And it’s an hour and a half, whereas this one has a lot of different flavours. We didn’t want to make it completely doom and gloom, because we’re still here and very much alive. It’s just that when it comes to writing music, Mastodon has become this eternal dumping ground for all of life’s hardest moments.”

Hinds’s replacement, Canadian guitarist Nick Johnston (initially brought in for Mastodon’s live dates in May 2025), is now a full-time member, locking in with rhythm king Bill Kelliher.

“Replacing Brent is a tough spot for anybody, and Nick’s such a tender soul,” notes Dailor. “But he’s taken everything in his stride. In the studio, he and João [Nogueira, the band’s new keyboard player] provided the crown moulding. Those guys made sure the transitions were as cool as they could be. They’re good at building pre-choruses and being like: ‘What about this crazy jazz chord?’ Nick co-wrote things like They’re Coming For You, but the next record will have a lot more of him in it.”

For the most part, though, Marrow Deep was written by Dailor, Kelliher and Sanders. Lead-off single Your Ghost Again – a raw manifestation of despair, helplessness and regret – sets the charged emotional tone of the album. While recording the song in the studio, Dailor kept seeing Hinds in the corner of his vision, holding his guitar. Or thinking he did.

“Your mind plays tricks on you,” he says. “You think you see somebody, then you look and remember they’re gone for real. It was the same with my mom; I keep seeing her. I was just singing about seeing ghosts.”

Dailor’s mum was a profound influence on his choice of vocation. A classically trained pianist, she fronted a local rock band, called Kaper, in the Rochester, New York suburb where Dailor grew up.

“She was the first person I saw singing on stage, and I was in awe of her,” he recalls. “They did covers of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Rush, Boston, Styx, Cheap Trick, you name it. They practised in our basement just about every night, so there were all sorts of cool dudes hanging at our house with handlebar moustaches and leather vests, and Hells Angels, just blastin’ tunes. It kind of looked like a casting call for Boogie Nights.

“She was a huge Soundgarden fan. When we played with them, she just couldn’t believe it, or that Kim [Thayil, Soundgarden guitarist] had done a solo on Hushed And Grim. She was always excited to hear that I was meeting Alice In Chains and all these big grunge people.”

The significance of Marrow Deep’s title mirrors the extent of Dailor’s relationships with both his mum and Hinds. Mastodon formed when he and Rochester pal Kelliher, with whom he’d played in noisecore bands Lethargy and Today Is The Day, moved to Atlanta in early 2000. They soon hooked up with Hinds and Sanders, bonding over a shared appreciation of Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy and sludge metal avatars Melvins, among others. By the following year, they’d landed a deal with indie label Reptilian, who put out debut EP Slick Leg.

“My mom will always be with me, because the deepest relationship that I will ever have was with her and my dad,” says Dailor. “But Brent got really close. There’s twenty-five years of living with this guy. When you have this otherworldly bond, this really deep emotional place together through music, it’s an elevated relationship.

"But when we did the Ashes Of Leviathan tour [2024, marking the 20th anniversary of prog-metal breakthrough Leviathan], I could finally see that it had run its course with him. We needed some kind of change, because it was dragging everybody down. It became really hard to get Brent to commit to anything. He just wanted to go do his own thing, ride his motorcycle and be a free spirit.”

Officially, Hinds left by mutual consent. He claimed he was kicked out, and delivered some public parting shots – “I won’t miss being in a shit band with horrible humans” – in the aftermath.

“He was a man scorned,” says Dailor. “He said some hurtful things, but I know he didn’t mean it. I was always hopeful that he was going to call me at some point and be like: ‘Dude, I’m done being a ding-dong. Can I come back? I have a riff…’ We were a hundred per cent sure he would’ve done that.”

One of Marrow Deep’s key songs is Snakes For Dinner. Taking its title from a random move that Dailor’s hippie parents once undertook – catching a bus to Arizona after sticking a pin in a map, and having to eat rattlesnakes somewhere along the way – it was fashioned largely by Dailor and Kelliher.

“The lyrical sentiment of ‘When you left you took the moon and stars’ is a reflection of how you feel the day after someone extremely close to you passes,” the drummer explains.

A hard-paced, often melodic piece with a wild keyboard solo, Snakes For Dinner also features guest vocalist Josh Homme. “We’re pals,” says Dailor. “The day after Brent died, Josh called me in my hotel room in Alaska. He didn’t say a word about Brent. He talked about some delicious food that he’d eaten, and that he was upset with me that I never told him how good this particular dish was, that I’d been hiding it from him. He just wanted to maybe make me laugh and check in on me and make sure I was okay. I really appreciated it. So I had him on my mind when we were in the studio: ‘Hey man, I got a part for you…’”

Another old friend, Neil Fallon, returns to growl a spoken-word passage on The Three Fates, a three-part epic that feels like a clamorous psych-prog suite. The Clutch frontman first guested with Mastodon on 2004’s Leviathan opener Blood And Thunder. But perhaps the most telling outside contribution on Marrow Deep comes from a familiar source of inspiration: Black Sabbath. Geezer Butler plays a lengthy, reliably imposing bass intro to The Vanishing.

Fittingly, Dailor is wearing a Sabbath vest – black, of course – while talking to Classic Rock at the band’s hotel in Copenhagen, where they’re in the midst of a run of European festivals.

“There’s a place nearby that we always go to when we’re here, called War Pigs,” he tells us. “They specialise in Texas barbecue. This vest is the one I wore at Back To The Beginning last year. My mom got it for me. She passed before the concert itself, but she was so excited that we were doing it. She was crying when I told her.

“Mastodon has always been immersed in Sabbath, but around the Back To The Beginning concert, and even much prior to that, we were listening to them non-stop,” Dailor explains. “Watching Sabbath at that show, I was like: ‘Man, Geezer is crushing it, he’s so good. He needs to start a new band tomorrow!’ Mom was such a huge Sabbath fan. And Geezer, in particular, was one of her favourites. I didn’t even tell him any of that. I just asked: ‘Do you want to do this?’

“The Vanishing was very Planet Caravan, with the vocals being affected through the Leslie [rotating] speaker in a similar way,” he continues. “For me, the song is basically about going into the cosmos, into outer space, and seeing my mother and my sister as two constellations. And making sure that my mom’s constellation found my sister’s. That’s wishful thinking, but I thought it was a romantic and beautiful sentiment.”

As you may have surmised, there’s a lot to unpack on Marrow Deep. Mastodon have been through a lot in the past couple of years alone – further drama informs the powerful In The Ruins, about the destruction of Sanders’ house in a Florida hurricane – but making music together continues to act as both emotional release and creative communion.

“We love writing music together, and I’m still excited about what’s around the corner, the next riff to get stoked about,” affirms Dailor.

For now, though, Mastodon are readying themselves for the Poisonous Weapons tour of the US this autumn. Beyond that, says Dailor, “the goal is to have a big old European go-around that’s not festivals. And we’re currently kicking around the idea of bringing a special guest along to do some Brent songs. I think that would be cool.

"We can’t not play The Czar or The Last Baron or Colony Of Birchmen or Oblivion. All those songs that Brent blessed us with his beautiful voice. But going on stage feels good right now, playing Your Ghost Again and dedicating it to Brent, just kind of getting everything out in the open. I think we’re all feeling a lot better”.

Marrow Deep is out now via Loma Vista.

Slaughter To Prevail frontman Alex Terrible has shared how his attitude to masculinity has evolved, and says that he wants to inspire others to confront their weaknesses and fears.

Terrible, who lists bear-wrestling and bareknuckle fighting among his hobbies, has previously espoused ideas about masculinity which have attracted controversy: a 2023 video from the singer titled '4 Rules Of Real Man' drew complaints from the LGBTQIA+ community for statements such as "the real man eats woman pussy, he likes."

But in a new instagram post, Terrible declares, "FUCK ALL THIS MASCULINITY BULLSHIT!"

"Let’s talk about masculinity," the post begins. "When I was a kid, I absolutely loved action movies with guys who knew how to fight and looked intimidating. Muscles, fighting skills, physical strength. They inspired fear in others, but seemed to fear nothing themselves.

"That image became deeply programmed into my mind, and I told myself: I want to become just like them!

"So I started working on my body, pushing myself through challenges and overcoming obstacles. Because getting into great physical shape and developing real fighting skills requires character, discipline, and mental toughness. And all of that takes years to build.

"But eventually, I realized something.

"The entire masculinity industry wasn’t actually what I had been chasing from the beginning.

"Today, I look at so many guys who have incredible physiques, impressive fighting skills, perfect discipline, and everything else.

"But then I started thinking about fear.

"And that’s when I finally understood what had truly inspired me as a child when I watched those action movies.

"Those characters were fearless. Or rather, they weren’t fearless at all. They felt fear, but they overcame it.

And then I started noticing people who were physically fragile, yet possessed an absolutely unbreakable spirit.

"People who could look death straight in the eyes and say: 'Come on then, motherfucker. You think I’m going down without a fight?'

"And that’s when it hit me.

"FUCK ALL THIS MASCULINITY BULLSHIT!

"I WANT TO BE STRONG IN SPIRIT."

"I’m still going to train my body," Terrible points out. "I’m still going to practice martial arts and develop my fighting skills.

"But more importantly, I’m going to confront my own weaknesses and fears. That’s where my real battle begins.

"And I want to become someone who inspires others to do the same.”

Captioning his post, Terrible adds, "Nobody will ever witness the most important battle of your life. Because your greatest enemy exists only for you. He’s always inside your head.

"I’m still afraid of death. I’m still afraid of the dark, of the unknown. But goddamn it, I will look those fears straight in the eyes!

"And you know what? That’s more powerful than any physique, any fighting skills, fame, money, or even sex! 😬

"When you overcome your deepest, darkest fears — the ones that literally make you shit your pants — THAT is true pleasure!"

Slaughter To Prevail are set to round off their year with two shows in Mexico in December.

The band will play the Teatro Estudio Cavaret in Guadalajara on December 18, and the Velodromo Olimpico in Mexico City on December 20.