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January 2026

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145 articles

January 15
- "We went to his place, had a jam, and then he asked if I’d ever played with a Ouija board." Ball lightning, a freak house fire and the occult: how one classic 80s anthem officially crowned the queen of heavy metal
- One of the world's best and most diverse metal lineups in the heart of one of Europe's coolest cities? Here's why you need to be at Mystic Festival 2026
- "Eric Clapton wrote Wonderful Tonight at ours, sitting on a wheelbarrow": What happened when the bassist with one of the UK's biggest bands quit rock'n'roll for life on the farm and a travelling musical carnival
- “You probably wouldn’t think of us sounding like Pink Floyd. But we’ve got a lot of stuff live that’s quite trippy, influenced by them”: Feeder’s Grant Nicholas on having dinner with Alex Lifeson and trying to sing like Jon Anderson
- "If you break the song down, it's really not that original. But I thank God every day that I wrote it": How one radio play turned the Undertones' intended final release into a brand new beginning
- “Somebody threw a toilet roll at Peter Gabriel. He threw it back and it landed just below me. I had that bog roll on my windowsill for years!” Marc Riley’s prog world
- "He might not rank alongside Kiss, Aerosmith or Van Halen, but he was arguably more influential": Nine albums you need to listen to by Ronnie Montrose and one to avoid
- "We've lasted so long because we were never friends": Fifty years in, Cheap Trick might not hang out with each other, but musical glue binds them together
January 14
- Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea announces first North American, UK and European solo shows in support of his debut solo album, Honora
- "The thing that influenced me most was the news. We are in some kind of ‘post empire’ now, where people just disappear." Sonic Youth legend Kim Gordon announces new album Play Me, shares new single Not Today
- “I said, ‘Listen, I don't think you should die!’” How Dave Grohl realised that the end was near for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana
- "Calvin Klein asked us to do an advert. We were like, 'f-you, no way!' That would have been huge." From touring with Slipknot to turning down iconic fashion designers, the story behind Kittie's classic nu metal anthem, Brackish
- "The only reason you look in the rearview mirror is to see how cool you look going forward." This is what happened when Metallica's Lars Ulrich interviewed one of his heroes, Iron Maiden legend Steve Harris
- Peter Gabriel announces physical release of live albums In The Big Room and Live At WOMAD 82
- "I nearly died at Download Festival. When I took that mask off it was like upturning a bucket." From a panic attack in a Rolls-Royce to being metal's hottest new masked band: an interview with President
- “It’s the worst thing you can imagine – a song written by the rhythm section. I have to fit a guitar part over this?” How Rush made Grammy-nominated instrumental YYZ
- "The song means as much today as it did then - kids trying to break out of their town to find something to do": Influenced by Aleister Crowley and toothache, the song that introduced new wave still strikes a chord
- "Someone spat at our saxophone player, so Tim kicked this guy in the mouth – absolutely perfectly in time to the music": A brief history of Cardiacs, the UK's most adored detested band
January 13
- “I’m so glad he got to hear what happened. His son told us it made it easier for him to let go”: The last message of a prog giant who hoped his band would outlive him, 48 years after it began
- "My god, we were such impatient boys." How a David Bowie screw-up and some dramatic miming on British TV helped Queen secure their first hit single
- “If it leads to success we don’t have anything against it. We still have the death metal vocals, after all – those put a lot of people off”: Amorphis steered surprisingly close to pop-rock on their latest album. But they’re not selling out
- Get the new issue of Metal Hammer with an exclusive Megadeth cover and a copy of the band’s self-titled final album
- "We get off stage and I haven’t seen him like that in 20 years. He was livid." How Metallica's crazy team-up with Lady Gaga started with an A-list dinner party and almost ended in total chaos
- “I said I’d sing it on the condition that I could record a song of my choice as well. That song flopped and theirs was a big hit!” How a future Mike Oldfield collaborator wound up with a glam rock chart-topper
- “It was a strange time. We didn’t have a manager and the base of the band had fallen out”: How Sepultura came back to life with Choke
- "When I'm peeling the sprouts, it's nice to hear Cannibal Corpse or Obituary just to maintain a bit of edge": Justin Hawkins on Christmas, being back in arenas, supporting Iron Maiden, brother Dan being a rock star, Yungblud and more
- "There was a rocky section with an avant‑garde solo, then some brass, and of course a complete piss-take of 50s doo‑wop": How a 40-year-old Glaswegian out-weirded David Bowie to become the most unlikely pop star of 1973
- "I was on top of the world... and then I'm back where I started, on the ground": The man who became Boston's singer but wasn't allowed to tell anyone has finally broken his silence
January 12
- "We're celebrating the legacy of the music and bringing it to a whole new generation of fans": Sammy Hagar promises "deep dive into the Van Halen years" on Best Of All Worlds tour dates with Rick Springfield
- "It was like sleeping with your ex-wife." Why a one-off reunion convinced one of the world's best-loved bands to turn down a $250 million offer to tour again
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: January 12, 2026
- "He was trying to get his life off the ground, and he's handed this $100,000 check." The story of the unknown musician who helped Axl Rose write a Guns N' Roses classic
- “We are still getting compared to artists that have nothing to do with us. And not always good or talented artists”: Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk takes aim at the term “female-fronted band”
- “What happens when a guy can decide everything when he owns everything?”: Elon Musk inspired the bad guy on the new album by synthwave maestro Carpenter Brut
- "Every time I opened Rolling Stone there was a picture of him in his underpants." How Mariah Carey, Cher, Whitney Houston, Courtney Love, Michael Stipe and more got savaged by one of the 90s' most brutal diss tracks
- "It's gotta have some kind of sexuality and alcohol abuse and some kind of looseness to it": The story of Queens Of The Stone Age's signature tune, a still-mysterious banger powered by Dave Grohl and a truly whacked-out video
- "We're faking it until we make it, and that seems to be working for us so far!" Blending Fleetwood Mac’s bluesy etherealness with Led Zeppelin’s grit, multi-national rockers Luna Marble are just getting started
- "Sprawling. Atmospheric. Cinematic. Enthralling": Chris Rea finds friends among fans of Mark Knopfler and J.J. Cale on The Road To Hell
January 11
- “AC/DC started calling me ‘Batgirl’. Every day I’d go into my dressing room and there’d be a little bat rubber ducky”: AC/DC threw Taylor Momsen a bat-themed birthday party, after she got bit halfway through a show
- "I had to stick my head in the low bins - it got blown off when Bill Ward was hammering the kick drum." Alex Van Halen praises the impact of seeing Black Sabbath for the first time
- “I was about to sign the form when the recruiting inspector asked a question”: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson was once seconds away from becoming a cop instead of a prog star
- Grateful Dead founding guitarist and singer Bob Weir dead at 78
January 10
- Renaissance drummer Terry Sullivan has died
- "A profoundly modern album - puzzling, but endearingly so." Dry Cleaning continue to charm and confuse with excellent, expansive third album, Secret Love
- "We’ve not got too many years left so every gig is sacred...you appreciate it more." Iron Maiden legend Steve Harris on 50 years of heavy metal - and what comes next
- "This is the end, my friends. To balance out the bad news, they've kindly made one of their strongest albums of the 21st century." Heavy metal legends Megadeth are going out on a high with a killer final album
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "He sang it to me and I thought it was beautiful. But he was emphatic: 'No, this isn't what we do!'" The story of the classic song Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't want to record and its unexpected impact on Middle America
- “Thank you for the good times. They will never rot”: David Bowie’s final message to Brian Eno – which he didn’t understand at first
January 9
- "Something has to change this. We know what to do. Rise up." One of rock music's most respected voices says that Donald Trump is "destroying America" with the support of "idiots with no conscience"
- Rick Wakeman, Steve Hackett, Asia, Caravan, Focus and more lined up for huge new prog cruise taking place this summer
- “It was Michael Jackson’s label. The people that worked there mostly thought that alternative, heavy music was garbage”: How cult fixtures Prong found their brief mainstream moment
- “We were supposed to sign our contract, but we had so much champagne celebrating that we forgot”: The story of Human Waste Project, the lost nu metal band who should have been huge
- “He was grateful just to play some music rather than just dwell on death”: When two members of Yes and one member of Led Zeppelin got together, anything could have happened. Sadly, very little did
- “People were saying that the style we were playing would mean we never got signed”: Sounding nothing like anyone else, how System Of A Down overcame the odds and started their climb to dominance
- "Nazis popped out of a U-Haul van, walking around the city." The craziest break-up ever, political black metal and Zakk Wylde's wingman: the best new metal bands you need to hear this month
- "Towering riffs come to them as easily as dreaming does to the rest of us": Alter Bridge are at their most Alter Bridge on the unwaveringly confident Alter Bridge
- "I was naked in the vocal booth. At first, I did it as an experiment to see if it would help, then it became a tradition": The story of the spandex-clad classic that launched its creators into the stratosphere
- “If you’re talking dazzling sleight of mind, radical ideas and a willingness to create shock-art for the masses, there was no one more brilliant”: Revisiting David Bowie’s career from a prog perspective
- "I was Catholic when I put the album on. Midway through, I became a full-blown Satanist": Watch the first episode of the eagerly-awaited series Tony Iommi - The Godfather of Heavy Metal, starring Rob Halford, Zakk Wylde, Brian May, Tom Morello and more
- "Rich brought a spontaneity to the record that I can't describe, but it's the best s*** he's ever done": The Black Crowes announce new album - listen to the first two tracks now
January 8
- "In the mid-80s, to get your record played, you had to take the guitar solo out." Radio stations tried to cut Eddie Van Halen's solo from one of his most iconic songs
- "Any money I will make I will happily give away to others. Print that, because I will stand by that!" He said it would be "counter-productive" if his band's debut album was a huge success. Then it sold 20 million copies
- “Playing in space would be a fitting climax!” Megadeth are on the cover of the new Metal Hammer
- Arena singer Damian Wilson to leave the band at the end of this year. Paul Manzi to return...
- "Sweat was dripping off the walls!" Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood looks back on the '60s, shares memories of The Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and Deep Purple's Jon Lord
- "I remember us saying, ‘Well, if the band doesn’t make it, we’ll join the Marines.’" The story of the song that gave thrash metal its name
- Halsey, Iron Maiden, Gorillaz, Limp Bizkit and Bring Me The Horizon to play Rock For People 2026 – day splits announced
- Queen Quiz: How much do you know about A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races?
- "The beauty of it is that it's two minutes long. It's not like it's Free Bird where you have to suffer through 10 minutes of playing it every night": The story of the psychotic debut single that kick-started the grunge revolution
- "Wildest night out? I'd have to say Lemmy. I don't think we got much sleep": Danko Jones on meeting AC/DC, playing with Marty Friedman and a wild night out in London
January 7
- Pat Smear to miss upcoming Foo Fighters shows after "bizarre gardening accident"
- "After he died, his body was dug up and moved seven times because people thought his fingers were possessed by the Devil": Bruce Dickinson's unreleased rock opera may be the greatest untold story of them all
- How Pope John Paul II forced Queen to cancel a planned appearance at Manchester United's 'Theatre Of Dreams'
- "Metallica seek raw, rowdy 'n' gutsy frontman." That time Metallica launched a worldwide search to find a new vocalist via an ad in a British music magazine
- "At school I did a presentation about Black Sabbath! I knew I wanted to move to the UK." Jack Black, angry nuns and Duolingo: the strange story of metal's weirdest new stars, Calva Louise
- "It did surprise us. People started calling us sell-outs." How Metallica wrote the metal power ballad that saved Miley Cyrus - and that Elton John called 'one of the best songs ever written'
- "I looked around and nobody was happy. And I was thinking: 'This is going to be rough'": What happened when Bruce Dickinson made the decision that changed his life
- “Originally a career-staller, this version really is essential”: Ultravox’s The Collection – Deluxe Edition
- “We started each day by doing yoga and breathing exercises. Then we took mushrooms and it got a little too psychedelic!” The prog duo who lost their label for being too weird, and decided to get even weirder
- "The record company barely even knew who we were. When we took the demos into them, they said: 'You're Super-Who?'": The story of the Supertramp classic the band eventually found too difficult to play
- "Purple Rain is like Stairway To Heaven. It's non-religious, but people feel reverent about it": The story of Prince's Purple Rain, this year's viral Stranger Things needle drop
January 6
- “War is senseless, it’s stupid, and in the end you could end up dead… but in some ways it is glorious”: From the Crimean War to the Stranger Things finale, the story of Iron Maiden’s The Trooper
- “I feel despondent about the world of humans.” Queen legend Brian May reveals the fears that keep him awake at night
- "We'd like to discuss a chart position." How a secret $70,000 cash payment to Italian gangsters secured a British rock band their first US hit single
- “I lost a lot of hair when Lemmy blasted his bass. You’d see big bikers at the front of the house throwing up”: Watch Motörhead drummer react to fans’ stories about the heavy metal trailblazers
- Gong kick off the New Year with video for blissed out new single The Wonderment
- "The band started that album cycle as ones to watch and emerged as one of rock’s new leaders." Every Halestorm album ranked from worst to best
- Steve Harris reveals the song he wants to bring back to Iron Maiden’s setlist: “It’s difficult to do a set from any part of our career and not miss things out”
- “I hope they get sued. It’s a shameless ripoff. They should be slapped on the wrist for that”: How Tool attracted mainstream attention – and the ire of one of rock’s greatest frontmen
- "We weren't seen as enigmatic as some bands. I do feel that we were kind of under-appreciated": Ben Ward looks back on three decades in the Orange Goblin trenches
- “I’d never played a professional gig. To suddenly be aboard a cruise ship surrounded by real prog legends was just surreal”: How Haken’s last line-up change powered seventh album Fauna
- "I see them as the greatest ever rock'n'roll band. How can it be a bad thing to be compared to the best there is?" Airbourne on AC/DC, non-annoying Christmas songs, and why their new album had to be exactly right
- "We set out to make the ultimate Priest album. It could be the most successful failure we'll ever have!" A classic encounter with Judas Priest as they prepare to unleash the album that saves them
January 5
- David Lee Roth announces extensive North American tour
- "The collective mood is influenced by the combination of loud, fast music, synchronized with bright flashing lights, and frequent intoxication." What the science behind mosh pits can tell us about human behaviour
- "It is unlikely that extreme metal musicians are trying to increase mating success through their music." A study suggested that men who play guitar in extreme metal bands mainly do it to impress other men
- "A powerful tribute to the unbreakable connection between music, tradition and the human spirit." Depeche Mode’s acclaimed concert film M to premiere on Netflix this week
- The day that one of BritPop's biggest and best-loved stars shocked Glastonbury festival by joining hard rock legends Spinal Tap for a controversial celebration of plus-sized female buttocks
- Haken part ways with Charlie Griffiths and Conner Green
- "I probably should have retired years ago but I really love keeping the band alive": Ten Years After are down to one original member but there's still gas in the tank
- "I live in my childhood home, so the studio's right there. It's what I need to watch and protect, for the rest of my life": Wolfgang Van Halen on 5150, battling demons and the good ship Mammoth
- “I say, not entirely jokingly, we’re mapping out the architecture of eternity”: Every year the most unlikely prog supergroup spend three days shaping weirdo music. Their third album proves it’s working for them
- "Frequently melancholy and austere, this is music that rewards active listening rather than offering up easily consumed hooks or sing-alongs": Steven Wilson seeks the sweet spot between pop precision and progressive wizardry on Hand. Cannot. Erase.
January 4
- Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones is auctioning off a load of studio equipment including a bass amp with speakers that were blown after being left at Dave Grohl's house
- “She said, ‘Mick wants to speak to you.’ It was Jagger asking if I was free to tour with the Stones”: He produced the Sex Pistols, played with Bryan Ferry and Tom Waits, and turned down the Rolling Stones. But he remains one of rock’s best kept secrets
- “We identified with bands like Metallica because they came in with this punk rock energy. But back then the biggest songs were Love In An Elevator and Still Of The Night”: The unexpected rap metal hit that saved a band’s career and ushered in the 1990s
- “An immersive emotional ride, showing that music makes us feel whole again”: Airbag’s Dysphoria Live
- “If you lived in LA, in the trenches, you could relate to it. And knowing Axl, I could relate to exactly where it was coming from”: The electrifying early Guns N’ Roses song written in a basement that signposted how huge they would become
- “They combine emotional intensity with rapidly evolving progressive chops”: EBB’s The Mirror
- "I'll never forget it. It still brings goosebumps." System Of A Down's Daron Malakian on being asked to fill in for injured James Hetfield on Metallica's Summer Sanitarium tour in 2000
- Watch Billy Joel perform live for first time since being diagnosed with rare brain condition – as he surprises tribute band and audience in Florida
January 3
- "If he had survived that period, he would be one of the biggest stars in rock now, making records with Bono and Bon Jovi": The 12-month struggle for the life of Phil Lynott
- “With strange chords and enigmatic lyrics, it fed the metal mainstream with some of its most prog-friendly material in years”: In the desperate moments before grunge, this British band offered an ambitious alternative direction
- “I was living on my own. Things had gone off the rails a bit, drinking too much”: It was in a weird time signature and their old singer struggled to play it, but this huge hit helped turn a 70s prog band into 80s pop stars
- “If anything makes me regret not pursuing more of an artistic career, it’s looking at Brian Eno”: Still, BJ Cole didn’t do too badly with David Gilmour, The Orb, Bill Nelson, Scott Walker and others
January 2
- "They did okay without me." Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith looks back on his unsuccessful 1991 audition for one of the biggest bands in the world
- "To watch one of my idols work on something that I had written was one of the greatest honours of my life. " Watch Yungblud team up with Smashing Pumpkins for a reworking of 2025 single Zombie
- Our pick of the best band t-shirts you can get your hands on right now
- “I spent four days arguing about what could be done with an orchestra.” The story of a Smashing Pumpkins classic, aided by The Who, the cast of Titanic and SpongeBob SquarePants
- The return of the Prog Magazine Progcast, discussing the Prog writers' Albums Of The Year lists
- "I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it." Peter Gabriel announces surprise new album and single
- "It felt nice to infiltrate things our way. We haven't gone begging to any ****er ever. People have always come round to our way of thinking." How Simon Cowell and a Christmas Number One helped turn a Scottish rock trio into household names
- Phil Lynott, 40 years gone: A celebration by his bandmates and friends - only in the new issue of Classic Rock
- "People say it's a masterpiece now but at the time, we all thought: 'Jeez, this could be the thing that finishes us!'" Steve Hogarth on creative risks, bad advice, and his first 30 years with Marillion
- "Van Halen were opening for us and they were killing us every night. But they made us a better band!" How Journey found Steve Perry and made Infinity, the album that set them on the road to superstardom
- Iron Maiden, Metallica, Rush, Bon Jovi and more: 26 things we're looking forward to in 2026
- "All of our relations, our uncles, dads, granddads, they've banged on about this place for years": What happened when Massive Wagons played the first rock shows at a historic venue in 40 years
- “Working with him would have been a dream. If I could go back in time, I know exactly how it would go”: Perturbator aka James Kent on why Vangelis’ music endures
- “I told Kurt Cobain that I was going to write a song that had more 'yeahs' in it than anything he’d written.” How a joke between R.E.M. and Nirvana's mercurial frontmen resulted in a 90s classic
- “Kate Bush gave me a copy of Aerial at a party. I knew it was a gentle, emotional record. She said, ‘Don’t fall asleep while listening!’” Simon Drake’s career as a magician was inspired by prog
January 1
- Sum 41 frontman Deryck Whibley gives "major health update" and reveals his body is operating at level of someone 8 years younger
- Guitar God Nita Strauss announces 'miracle' pregnancy as she and husband look forward to welcoming their first child
- "I said, 'I think we should write the best song in the world.' Jack Black said, ‘You can’t do that!'" How Dave Grohl, Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk and Maynard James Keenan helped Tenacious D bring the greatest tribute song ever to the world
- “I don’t think Janis was living a life with the inevitability of death. She was getting cleaner and stronger”: The turbulent story of how Janis Joplin tried and failed to get off the rock’n’roll rollercoaster
- "I'm not a punk rocker. I don't make punk music. I don't walk around calling myself punk." How Shania Twain, Christina Aguilera's songwriters and an iconic neck tie helped Avril Lavigne launch her career-defining song
- “We didn’t make music for radio. But I thought: ‘Why not try it this time?’”: Sampled by Michael Jackson and namechecked in The Simpsons – the surprise hit that transformed a washed-up 70s prog group into 80s superstars
- “Once James Hetfield said he liked it, that was it. He said that it kicked his ass”: Nineteen years ago, this US metal band released their sixth album. Today it sounds like a Master Of Puppets for the 21st century
- Radiohead, Pulp, Alice Cooper, Johnny Cash and Lana Del Rey: the surprising list of artist who made James Bond themes only to have them rejected
- "Really, the whole scene was very Spinal Tap. It was almost beyond parody": The true story of Hear 'n Aid, the heavy metal Band Aid
- "We'd stay up all night drinking, chasing girls, partying – and our pilot was with us. The next morning, he was flying the plane!" The rise, fall and rehabilitation of REO Speedwagon
- "I don’t think I have to forgive them. They replaced me when I was sick and said I ruined the band" Styx fired Dennis DeYoung in 1999, but he still wants a reunion for the fans
- The 20 best prog reissues of 2025
- The 31 best rock reissues and deluxe editions of 2025
- "In 2026 I shall have definitely, definitely have my solo album out": Tony Iommi films New Year message, reflects on the "Summer of Sabbath"