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April 2024

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April 20
- “We wore silly hats, but in those days, you did silly things”: Listen to the doo-wop bands Ronnie James Dio sang in before becoming a metal star with Black Sabbath and Rainbow
- “We took influences from the New York hardcore scene. Our stuff was faster than in the Bay Area”: the 100mph story of East Coast thrash
- “I remember seeing my first rock legend snorting cocaine in the bathroom, like, ‘Oh, I’ve heard about this’”: Foo Fighters’ Nate Mendel on the night they played at David Bowie’s epic 50th birthday bash
- “I started watching people like the Pope - when he turns up you know he’s in the room!”: Skindred frontman Benji Webbe on how he became metal’s most flamboyant frontman
- “Ewan Pearson and Mogwai are by far the best, while the Manic Street Preachers remix is misguided”: Steven Wilson’s Record Store Day special, Harmonic Divergence
- “Keyboards were the new thing. There was this attitude: ‘They sound big and they sound cool’”: how Rush swapped guitars and kimonos for synths and mullets in the 1980s
April 19
- “Stay tuned, freaks”: Halestorm and Evanescence are teasing a tour together (probably)
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "Orange Goblin have made the journey, and they're very much the real thing." London's stoner metal legends finally reach New Zealand and put on a magnificent rock 'n' roll show
- Hear Lacuna Coil get ridiculously heavy on new single In The Mean Time, featuring Ash Costello from New Years Day
- Square, a multi-city showcase festival in Portugal, is seeking international musicians to perform at their 2025 event - here's how to apply
- Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine announce extra Ascendancy / The Poison 2025 tour dates, plus stellar support act
- New proggy sounds you must hear from Maybeshewill, MONO, Eye and more in Prog's Tracks Of The Week
- Swedish prog rockers Nightingale to have back catalogue remastered and reissued
- Get the best sound for Record Store Day 2024 with these 4 unmissable turntable deals
- “If you enjoy anything from Architects to Deftones, metalcore to pop, there’s something here for you”: Unpeople’s self-titled EP is UK metal’s most promising first impression of 2024
- “Rock’n’roll is about guts… there’s no rules!”: The Hives’ Pelle Almqvist and Nicholaus Arson on punk rock, sharp suits and the seal of approval they got from Taylor Hawkins
- An Evening With Haken comes to the UK and Europe in September
- “I plan to do a more melodic, straight-forward heavy metal side-project”: How Death’s Chuck Schuldiner broke free from extreme metal with prog powerhouse Control Denied
- “We got hit with tax bills our former manager hadn’t paid. I was so skint that I got a job as a labourer… Then one day I picked up a guitar again”: The money Caravan spent, and the money they never received
- "Jimi Hendrix lived a block from me in New York. We jammed together a lot": Al Kooper's stories of the Rolling Stones, The Who, Bob Dylan, Joe Walsh and more
- "If I was young now, I'd probably be stalking Taylor Swift. We have affairs, we make it dramatic and write hit songs about it" - Stephen Stills on the romance that drove a classic and the making of his first solo album
- "Spandau Ballet, Visage, Ultravox… there's some good music going down": In 1981, Rush's Geddy Lee was ready to blow the boundaries of progressive rock wide open
- Glen Campbell left us seven years ago, but his new album of duets suggests that the end isn't the end it once was
- "He tackles wars, political turmoil, crime and weather, in another compelling affirmation of his irrepressible muse": Ian Hunter shows no sign of erosion on Defiance Part 2: Fiction
- "They've gone out of their way to turn up the dial and make things as heavy as possible": Pearl Jam sweep the pretenders away on Dark Matter
April 18
- In what's turning out to be a bumper year for Led Zeppelin fans, more unseen live footage has emerged
- Dickey Betts, Allman Brothers Band founding guitarist, dead at 80
- Alcest share stunning new video for Flamme Jumelle
- "The song is about the push and pull of mismatched love and the lengths you’d go to make it work": PVRIS drops vibrant new track Oil & Water
- St. Vincent's superb All Born Screaming offers up thrillingly unfiltered reflections upon life, death, and all the chaos that occurs between those two inevitabilities
- Slipknot are teasing something special with mysterious billboard and website
- ZIO announce new live album and August tour dates
- Every Bathory album ranked from worst to best
- “There’s plenty to sustain and even expand the myth of their mission to reconstruct rock music”: Faust’s Momentaufnahme III
- Ian Anderson, Al Di Meola, John Helliwell, Simon Phillips and more guest on new Mandoki Soulmates album
- “Cannae beat a bit of AC/DC man!” Watch football legend Ally McCoist’s hilarious reaction to hearing Hells Bells on stadium speakers
- “We’ll see you next year”: Letlive are reuniting for a “proper” farewell tour in 2025
- "Tarantula Heart is the best Melvins album since the 90s": They shaped sludge metal and inspired Nirvana, but Melvins are still punk metal weirdos on new album Tarantula Heart
- "It was very mixed – we could get some lovely nuns as well as rockers": The story of Sky, the least rock’n’roll band of all time
- "I used to hate the sight of Ozzy. I couldn’t stand him, and I used to beat him up whenever I saw him": Tony Iommi in conversation with James Hetfield
- "I've ripped up my fingers to shreds, they bled, they blistered": Watch Nina DiGregorio's jaw-dropping version of Van Halen's Eruption, played on 7-string fretted violin
- "Me, Bono and Bowie hijacked a Mini and drove to this restaurant where the Edge was to sing him Happy Birthday": What happened when we went record shopping with Joe Elliott
- Pearl Jam calm down a bit on new single Wreckage
April 17
- "We both wanted to rock out, so we started coming up with those kinds of pieces and it made us all feel great so we just kept going." Glass Hammer and the making of Dreaming City
- "I'm fascinated by falling in love at the end of the world": Fontaines D.C. share details of their new album Romance, drop explosive single Starburster
- “SYSC will take over, so get on board or get out of their way.” Seeyouspacecowboy spread their wings and shed their demons on magnificent new album Coup De Grâce
- “It shows every member of the band doing what they did best – Gillan’s vocals, Jon Lord’s keyboards”: the In Rock classic that’s Tony Iommi‘s favourite Deep Purple song
- "What is this band about? I’m not sure. I like that it’s a mystery to me.” Meet five excellent young bands inspired by Tool
- “I’m stronger and louder than I have ever been”: Julie Christmas announces first album in 14 years, releases ultra-catchy single Supernatural
- Watch Megadeth perform a secret acoustic set outside a hotel in Buenos Aires
- “Without him, there would be no Metallica.” See James Hetfield’s new Motörhead tattoo with Lemmy’s ashes in it
- “If a musical piece lasts for 6 minutes 30 seconds, it usually means it took me that time to create it”: Vangelis on how the natural, positive force of music got corrupted
- "Rock'n'roll has given me bipolar weirdos, addicted, beautiful souls, the madness, and the sadness. It’s just too much": Chris and Rich Robinson tell the story of the Black Crowes
- "Everything up to then had been about climbing the mountain. With Powerslave it felt like we were looking out over the rest of the world": How Iron Maiden grew up
April 16
- The Beatles' original Let It Be movie has been restored by Peter Jackson
- Clutch and Rival Sons announce Two Headed Beast tour with Fu Manchu and Black Stone Cherry
- Can share new live clip from 1977 line-up featuring Rosko Gee
- Prog supergroup Six By Six announce first ever live show
- Public Service Broadcasting announce full UK and European tour for October and November
- Every Judas Priest album ranked from worst to best
- "I honestly can’t find the inspiration to write": Don't hold your breath if you're hoping for a new Jinjer album in 2024
- Kerry King announces UK headline debut with tiny London show
- “The humorous interludes may prove divisive; it’s strongest when they dig hard into a groove”: Trifecta control the fusion in The New Normal
- “Edge smacked me. It was a full-on rumble.” The night that U2 guitarist The Edge punched Bono in the face onstage
- For a year Tommy James was bigger than The Beatles. Then the mafia ruined everything
- "Between this and Dune: Part Two, 2024 is already proving a spotless year for fans of bat**** cosmic maximalism": Dvne's Voidkind is the best album about desert-dwelling space worms you'll hear this year
- "One demo was of a guy playing one finger piano on Black Night": When the call went out to replace Ian Gillan in Deep Purple, only one man got an audition
- "Few bands can compete for sheer atmosphere and elegiac beauty": Doom metal legends My Dying Bride stay the course on gorgeous - if a little predictable - new album A Mortal Binding
- "You look at all these people who are giving you the horns, from Eminem to Lionel Ritchie, and you think: Is this really happening?": Judas Priest on awards shows, Invincible Shield and the beauty of cats
- “We never did any TV-throwing – I’d rather nick ’em than throw ’em out the window”: Jeff Lynne recalls how easy it was for ELO to take over the 70s
- Duff McKagan announces solo UK and European tour
- "We locked the doors, then called security. Skip arrived in a taxi, with an axe, in his pyjamas": The wild genius of Skip Spence
April 15
- Oceans Of Slumber share daring new video for brand new song Where Gods Fear To Speak
- "It felt like horror movie music, so dark and aggressive and dangerous." Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda on the three hip hop acts that changed his life
- The Hunna, Employed To Serve, Blackgold, Saint Agnes amongst first names for Misery Loves Company festival 2024
- Big Big Train announce additional London headline show
- Every Blink-182 album ranked from worst to best
- "After multiple foiled attempts, words cannot describe how excited we are." Motionless In White announce UK and European headline tour
- Catfish And The Bottlemen just announced their biggest headline show ever
- “We didn’t force a connection, it just happened.” Steve Howe remembers a fledgling Yes supporting Jethro Tull in America in 1971
- “A handy reminder of why he’s revered as a player, tickling the ear with pleasurable sounds”: Anthony Phillips’ Strings Of Light reissue
- "Achingly beautiful, haunting music that marks Big Brave out as so much more than just another doom metal act": Big|Brave transcend boundaries on new album A Chaos Of Flowers
- “Not dissimilar to the sound Radiohead would later explore on King Of Limbs”: With the help of Brian Eno, Coldplay dipped into prog with Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
- "If you just stay in your comfort zone all the time, you keep writing the same type of songs over and over again": The Pineapple Thief are rejuvenated, regenerated and on a roll
- "I don't know if what I'm about to do has significance or whether I'm about to make an idiot of myself": William Shatner, progressive rock icon
- The Stranglers' albums you should definitely own
- "Sometimes its songs are a gentle caress, sometimes its songs are a maelstrom": Melissa Etheridge mixes it up on Brave And Crazy
April 14
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Tyler Bryant, The Lemon Twigs, Joanne Shaw Taylor and more
- Chino Moreno set to record vocals for "invigorated" new Deftones album
- No Doubt roll out greatest hits and surprise guest Olivia Rodrigo at Coachella comeback
- "He was one of those people that I knew I would listen to”: Muse's Matt Bellamy on the time they worked with Mutt Lange
- “Grindcore really resonated with Americans. Our bands were being noticed before they’d even gone over there”: the ear-splitting history of Earache Records, the label that changed metal
- "This was no mere warm-up; this was a declaration that Bruce Dickinson is still a force of nature in the metal universe." Iron Maiden's irrepressible frontman played his first solo show in over 20 years - and it was a triumph
- “We came up very fast and we went down fast. We were carried away on that wave of euphoria”: how Motörhead made their two most controversial early 80s albums
- "I wrote this thing that sounded like a mix of W.A.S.P. and Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row": prog metal veterans Evergrey are looking on the bright side of life for new album Theories Of Emptiness
- “I would do meth in the private bathroom in the back. At the time, I was out of my mind”: the dark confessions of Korn’s Jonathan Davis
- “It marked Jethro Tull as being quite different to most bands… Led Zeppelin didn’t do comedy. Well, not intentionally”: Ian Anderson kept up the silly and sarcastic on solo album Homo Erraticus
April 13
- "Jimmy's very lucky to be even playing tonight": Watch an ailing Jimmy Page lead Led Zeppelin through a truncated show as unseen live footage emerges
- “This is the best record I’ve ever done in my life. Montrose and Van Halen led up to this”: the story of Sammy Hagar’s Chickenfoot, the greatest rock supergroup of the 21st century
- Devin Townsend Terria vinyl reissue announced
- "Metallica is huge everywhere, but extra-huge in Mexico because Robert Trujillo’s like a saint." Suicidal Tendencies might be one of metal's most influential bands, but Mike Muir is thankful they never became celebrities
- Watch awesome front row footage of Iron Maiden legend Bruce Dickinson rocking the Whisky A Go Go in LA last night for his first full solo show in 22 years
- “Metallica would jam on their stuff in rehearsals, songs like Black Night and Highway Star”: Lars Ulrich on his lifelong love of Deep Purple and the genius of the Machine Head album
- “There’s no questioning the quality of this collection… but is it truly essential?” Carl Palmer’s Fanfare For The Common Man box set
- “Transportative music… a deeply cosmic record that might be out there with their very best”: Hawkwind’s Stories From Time And Space
- The Struts announce Pretty Vicious tour dates
- Slash and Chris Stapleton hook up for extremely lively version of Fleetwood Mac's classic Oh Well
April 12
- Former Saxon bassist Steve Dawson sentenced to six years in prison for child sex offences
- "You couldn’t go to an MMA show without hearing this one about 10 times in a night." The ultimate heavy metal gym playlist, by Kris Barras
- The 14 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- “I was just lying in my own self-pity for months”: How an unlikely collaboration with Post Malone helped revive Ozzy Osbourne’s career
- With the swagger of Happy Mondays and the politics of Crass, Kid Kapichi's sold out Birmingham show hints they might be Britain's next breakout stars
- “It felt weird – that’s my song!” Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor reveals his first reaction to Johnny Cash’s Hurt cover
- “Bitches stay mad ’cause I slay everyday!” Listen to Scene Queen’s pounding new single, Stuck
- Dutch proggers Lesoir announce new album Push Back The Horizon
- Haken guitarist Richard Henshall will release new EP Mu Vol. 1 in June
- One of Linkin Park’s heaviest songs is now available to stream for the first time ever
- Enchanted Duo are ripping up their own rulebook for their ambitious, spiritual new album, Werifesteria - and you can help them bring it to life
- Tenacious D have recorded a 30-song cover album – and you’re never going to hear it
- “I think fire goes hand-in-hand with the devil, and I’m no stranger to talking about the devil...” Slayer guitarist Kerry King releases new single Residue and incredibly fiery music video
- How Jethro Tull broke America is the cover of the new issue of Prog, on sale now!
- “A much better testimony to ELP’s legacy than the original incarnation’s risible swan song Love Beach”: Emerson, Lake & Powell’s The Complete Collection
- Oasis launch previously unreleased live version of Supersonic recorded on the day Definitely Maybe went to number one
- “More aggressive but with a parallel tranquillity… they continue to separate themselves from the post-rock pack”: Sleepmakeswaves’ It’s Here, But I Have No Names For It
- Watch Procol Harum play a majestic version of A Whiter Shade Of Pale in the Biba Department Store in London in 1973
- "Gorgeous songs, sung in a voice that sounds like it's lived a life that's full": Mark Knopfler repeats his formula to great effect on One Deep River
- Getting harder and heavier with each album, Devon’s Kris Barras Band come flying out of the blocks on Halo Effect
- "Sounds like a band remembering where they buried the treasure": Gun have stalled in the past, but on Hombres they sparkle
- "Y'know, I never realised how much I really love my band": Steven Tyler talks American Idol, dysfunctional behaviour, Johnny Depp and the history of Aerosmith
April 11
- Heart appeared on the Howard Stern show and talked about their iconic cover of Stairway To Heaven: then they played another Led Zeppelin classic
- "I don’t think there are too many other genres of music that have fans so loyal and devoted like this..." The story of Australian prog
- "It’s always fun to write odysseys. You go on this little musical adventure.” How Motorpsycho made Still Life With Eggplant
- "Let the party begin!": A Sammy Hagar-themed pool and tiki bar complex is opening in Las Vegas
- "If I were stuck on a desert island, I wouldn’t take Never Mind The Bollocks, it'd be Meddle or Foxtrot." The prog roots of Echo & The Bunnymen guitarist Will Seargent and Poltergeist
- "I think of the band as a progressive band because, with every record, we’re evolving and changing." Coheed And Cambria and the Year Of The Black Rainbow
- "I want to keep the attention on Ukraine." Watch the moving new video for Within Temptation's latest single A Fool's Parade, filmed in Kyiv
- Evergrey detail brand new album Theories Of Emptiness
- Rendezvous Point announce third album Dream Chaser
- "There’s certain prog fans who just want the comfy old slippers. That’s got its place and that music is timeless but they can’t accept anything new." How Pendragon proved they weren't "comfy" with Passion
- Jethro Tull announce six-disc Bursting Out - The Inflated Edition
- "You have no idea the personal battles I was going through." Ash Costello reveals deeply personal reasons New Years Day pulled out of festivals in 2023, fires back at fans who criticised them
- “Drugs were everywhere in New York. Everybody knew at least five people who had OD’d. I always learned from other people’s mistakes”: the unlikely rise and sudden fall of White Zombie
- "Death is something we think about a lot." Metz have always found happiness in the darkest places, and new record Up On Gravity Hill sees them contemplating The End with joy in their hearts
- “We didn’t go ‘That’s your job’ – we’d say ‘Why don’t you have a go?’ I can remember playing solos on Stylophone… In some places it was like 'the Martians have landed!‘” How Family made Bandstand, and where it took them
- "Dev Patel was like 'this is Indian, but metal as ****'" Bloodywood just soundtracked 2024's most epic fight scene in new action thriller, Monkey Man
- Alex Lifeson guests on new Trifecta single Once Around The Sun With You
- Jean-Michel Jarre to team up with Brian May for biannual Starmus concert
- "This is the quartet’s darkest, most varied and heaviest album by some margin." Symphonic metalcore mavericks Imminence have stepped out of the shadows of their influences in style with The Black
- “Anyone who doesn’t talk to their pets is a psychopath!” We asked a bunch of metal stars to tell us about their pets on International Pet Day
- "Every song feels like it’s ripped from the diary of the coolest girl you know." Pop superstar Olivia Rodrigo salutes the rock star who changed her life
- "At the end, Jimmy says to me: 'I want you in my band'. I say: 'But I've got a maths exam in the morning!'": Rick Wakeman, and the blues records that changed his life
- “The priorities of the first Asia were to make it a success. Yet when we had it, we were so stupid it was unbelievable:” How the supergroup admitted mistakes and worked them out via their patchy Phoenix album
- "Carlos Santana told me I was like a shaman on stage and he wanted to do a band with me": Gavin Rossdale's stories of Keanu Reeves, David Bowie, Bono and more
- "At one point an aggrieved producer threatened to attack them with a machete": Say what you want about Marillion's second album, but it was not easy to make
April 10
- "All our shows have become a celebration for us and the fans." Kerbdog announce special tour to mark the 30th anniversary of their self-titled debut album
- "They've gotten me back into music. They touched me in a way that made me excited about music again": How the San Francisco Giants saved Steve Perry
- Aerosmith announce new Farewell Tour dates as Steven Tyler returns after vocal injury
- Gen Z superstar Girl In Red has lived and learned between albums, and I’m Doing It Again Baby! gleams with new perspectives
- Midas Fall share live video for In The Morning We'll Be Someone Else
- MONO share video trailer for brand new album Oath
- Watch live footage of Sleep Token’s first concert of 2024
- Heavy music hit Tallinn Music Week like a blizzard: here's our guide to the seven best alternative bands we saw in Estonia
- Bruce Dickinson is playing a “secret show” at a legendary venue this Friday: “Not so secret anymore.”
- "Not everyone can say they played with David Bowie and Jimmy Page." Drummer Michael Whitehead on working with two giants of British music
- The Tangent share new video for aptly titled The Single
- Louise Patricia Crane details her brand new album Netherworld
- Everyone that left Delain in 2021 will perform on singer Charlotte Wessels’ next album: “This is the album I want to re-introduce myself with, and I’m so glad to do it with this amazing team.”
- Airbag announce brand new album The Century Of The Self
- "Minor Threat were like The Beatles. I saw Ian MacKaye write Straight Edge on his mother's piano": Henry Rollins on Black Flag, Minor Threat, The Stooges, Green Day, Beyoncé and the meaning of punk
- "Love lies bleeding in my hands - OOH YEAH!" Watch full HD footage of Elton John looking on in delight as Metallica rock their brilliant cover of Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
- Every cover song by Nightwish ranked from worst to best
- System Of A Down and Deftones announce stacked one-night-only co-headline show
- “I caved in and said: ‘Okay, I’ll put out Wuthering Heights, if only to teach you not to interfere with our choices’”: The decisions and coincidences that helped make Kate Bush a superstar
- "What a find!" In 1973 Humble Pie played a set at a trendy department store in London: That footage is now online
- "We walked into the control room to listen to the first track, and everybody was grinning, like: 'Okay, this will work'": Charlie Starr on music, life, and two decades of Blackberry Smoke
- "We'd play small islands on the west coast of Scotland rather than stadiums": Echo & The Bunnymen wouldn't play the game, but that didn't stop them from creating "the greatest song of all time"
April 9
- In case you missed it, Heart played Total Eclipse Of The Heart on a New York rooftop with Jimmy Fallon during the actual total eclipse
- Deep Purple and Yes join forces for North American tour
- Twisted Sister have almost been offered enough money to reunite
- Leprous announce new album Melodies Of Atonement will be released in August
- Listen to new Architects single Curse, produced by ex-Bring Me The Horizon member Jordan Fish
- "It’s over." Liam Gallagher has finally accepted that an Oasis reunion will never happen. Not this week, anyway
- Ozzy Osbourne is starting a new internet show about “aliens, drugs, conspiracies and rock ’n’ roll”
- “We’re proud metal fans and this music is like an invincible shield!” Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner explains how their new album helped him recover from heart issue
- "People aren’t used to hearing vocal melody over a wall of ‘blackened progressive deathgrind’ or whatever the hell you call it." Cattle Decapitation might be playing arenas, but they're still one of metal's most extreme bands
- Wardruna announce lengthy world tour for 2024-2025
- Every Bleed From Within album ranked from worst to best
- “Often derided as a huge error by the NWOBHM heroes, it’s the start of an artistic journey that was never taken further”: Diamond Head’s dalliance with pure prog on Canterbury
- MWWB singer Jessica Ball shares atmospheric new video for In Your Night as Eye
- Watch Tom Morello perform two long-unplayed songs with Bruce Springsteen live in Los Angeles
- "Her expression seems to say, if you even try to take this child from me, I will kill you": Family Values is a beautiful, tender and moving document of the love shared by Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and their most precious creation
- “If you’re putting all these Beavis and Butt-Heads in the parking lot, where are you going to park the cars?” What happened when Metallica battled the city of Philadelphia to perform in a car park
- “The fans understood I was the price they had to pay to hear the band they loved, so they put up with me. It’s not like you’re joining the Sex Pistols”: Trevor Horn on fronting Yes – and how it later made 90125 possible
- "It was a pretty low time. We weren't sure of the kind of band we wanted to be": How time took its toll on Rush as they worked on the follow-up to Signals
- The Frankie Miller albums you should definitely own
- John Fogerty and George Thorogood's Celebration tour has been significantly extended
- Nearly an hour of previously unseen Led Zeppelin footage from 1975 has been posted online
April 8
- "All of a sudden we play at blinding speed and unbearable intensity, and everyone starts to take notice and stand up": How King Crimson got started
- "We're not defined by the five worst days in our lives": Scott Stapp has had dark days, but he knows the world we live in is not all unicorns and rainbows
- "When thousands have been killed and millions have fled their homes, moaning about the absence of a band member who left 37 years ago is churlish at best." How Pink Floyd surprised the rock world with Ukraine charity single Hey Hey Rise Up
- "Sir Elton helped cover Nothing Else Matters, and tonight, you can see us return the favor!" Watch a clip of Metallica performing a rollocking cover of Elton John classic, Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, with Elton looking on approvingly
- "I think we’ve got a reputation locally as having done something pretty awesome." From taking over hospital wards to setting pianos on fire, While She Sleeps are still doing things their way
- "An edgier, cooler and more affordable option, particularly if guitar music is your jam": Marshall Motif II A.N.C. review
- Every Slowdive album ranked from worst to best
- Bill Nelson announces new "loud, edgy" new album Powertron
- Dream Theater announce UK and Europe dates for 40th Anniversary tour
- "We felt like we were playing with our hands tied behind our backs. That will drive a person insane, and it did": Shirley Manson reveals how being pitched against No Doubt almost destroyed Garbage
- “Robert Fripp played the solo and we didn’t like it. He said, ‘You’re wrong.’ Steven Wilson said, ‘This is how wrong we are,’ and deleted it”: How No-Man prospered by refusing to ever fit in
- “A lot of guys can play awesome guitar but there’s very few super-shredders like that”: members of Slayer, Nightwish, Mastodon and more salute the genius of Alexi Laiho
- "We're all messed up! You know what I mean? There's no such thing as a normal person, is there?" The Bring Me The Horizon song inspired by Oli Sykes' ADHD diagnosis
- Teramaze announce new concept album Eli: A Wonderful Fall From Grace
- "The path of witchcraft has brought me so much joy." We explored LA's weirdest and most wonderful book store with goth-doom queen and practising witch, Chelsea Wolfe
- R.E.M.'s Reckoning: raw, mysterious and strangely melodic, refracting their influences through a murky Southern prism
- "Look at my eyes, this is do or die!" Watch Motionless In White bring the metal and play Rhea Ripley to the ring in style at Wrestlemania 40
- "This has to be the album against which every rock album that followed should be measured": Led Zeppelin attain peak Led Zeppelin status on Led Zeppelin IV
- “When working on material we could ask, ‘What would we have done in the days of Close To The Edge?’ Maybe sometimes we didn’t ask that question enough”: Steve Howe’s favourite Yes songs
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Black Country Communion, Orange Goblin, The Warning and more
April 7
- Firehouse singer CJ Snare dead at 64
- Rosalie Cunningham announced for Summer's End Festival
- Orange Goblin announce first album in six years, confirmed as headliners of new UK rock festival
- "We’ve never done a proper, real tour together. Which is nuts, because we’ve toured with everyone!": How Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine have teamed up for 2025's biggest metal event
- Hanoi Rocks' final album set them up for stardom, but fate had other ideas: Instead, it fuelled Axl Rose and inspired Appetite For Destruction
- “This happened to us and Layne’s family. If we can be OK with it, why can’t you?”: how Alice In Chains silenced the doubters and rose from tragedy with epic comeback album Black Gives Way To Blue
- “I don’t know that much about folk music, except that most of it bores me to tears”: the incredible life of Michael Chapman, the greatest singer-songwriter the world never knew about
- The manager said, ‘Ian Anderson and the boys don’t want you in the band so you’ve been fired.’ I replied, ‘How can you fire me when I quit three weeks ago?’” Mick Abrahams’ life after Jethro Tull
- The Judas Priest album title that became heavy metal's definitive statement of intent
April 6
- "Our contract with EMI allowed us complete control. When we signed, they had to make a donation to the Miners' Strike": Fired up by frustration, New Model Army's Vengeance is as relevant now as it was 40 years ago
- Recorded in the wake of tragedy, The Pretenders' Learning To Crawl was an indestructible triumph of sheer will
- Blink-182 cancel three Mexico shows as bassist Mark Hoppus hit by throat infection and "severe bronchitis"
- Watch remastered HD footage of Bon Scott-fronted AC/DC performing Jailbreak live in London in 1976
- “He phoned up the Jesus Army and claimed I was possessed by demons and needed help!”: how Cathedral dragged doom metal into the 1990s with their landmark debut album Forest Of Equilibrium
- "We went to the promoter and said, Can we go home? They were, like, 'Yeah, you can go home! But first you're gonna have to give me two millions dollars!'": Lollapalooza '92 celebrated alt. rock taking over the mainstream. But for one band, it was hell
- “I lived with this false hope that Weiland was one day gonna get it together. I kick myself because we let it go on for so long”: how Chester Bennington helped rebuild grunge icons Stone Temple Pilots
- "He was drunk out of his mind and he asked me to make out with him": Billy Corgan on how he became a fan of The Cure... and the first time he met Robert Smith
- “We were coming back and taking no prisoners”: every Kittie album in their own words
- “It was so embarrassing, it was terrible”: Muse on their most galling onstage malfunction
- “We started out with an aim to annoy!”: Biffy Clyro frontman Simon Neil on the band’s early days
- New Fruupp box set A Twilight Adventure to be released in June
- Iamthemorning added to A Sunday In September bill
- "We've got maybe another 10, 15 years? Playing a Dragonforce set is not easy": Guitar hero Herman Li talks technique, helping popularise power metal and the next generation of shredders
- “The sonic aggro and infectious licks are there in spades”: For better and worse, Slash strips rock to its basest elements at Wembley Arena
- “People said, ‘Oh, you’re a metal band’. I thought that was kind of lame”: the story of Tool’s Undertow, the debut album that introduced the world to a new kind of noise
- “It’s been a blessing to have been underdogs for so long. It’s kept us hungry. I’m ravenous”: the late ’80s fall and early ’90s rise of Motorhead
- Moby Dick began life as a modest instrumental showcase for John Bonham: Played live, it took on an epic, often drug-fuelled life of its own
April 5
- "Half Living Things is a record that satisfies that mosh-hungry hardcore itch." Alpha Wolf mix rampaging heaviness with injections of vulnerability on album number three
- "I pushed the veil, back into dark again." See Jamie Campbell Bower - AKA Vecna from Stranger Things - embrace his heavy side with the first video from his new post-hardcore band, BloodMagic
- The 15 best new metal songs you need to hear this week
- “I was like, ‘Oh, my God! That sounds much better. It sounds how it should!’” Jane Weaver accidentally pushed herself out of her comfort zone for Love In Constant Spectacle
- How to watch Wrestlemania 40: The WWE Universal Championship is on the line this weekend - don’t miss out
- Cool new proggy sounds to enjoy from Transatlantic, Wheel, Hats Off Gentlemen and more in Tracks Of The Week
- Wardruna return with brand new single, the suitably mesmeric Hertan
- "There was more security on the catering backstage than on any band's dressing room. We were told, If they see the Hard Rock Cafe's cheeseburgers and French fries, there will be a riot": Jon Bon Jovi recalls playing in Russia for the first time
- Kavus Torabi shares video for new single, the epic, trippy Heart The Same
- “It was just good to have that early on.” Tool's Maynard James Keenan reveals the essential advice punk rock legend Henry Rollins gave him at the start of his career
- Listen to Jakko Jakszyk and Mel Collins' new version of I Talk To The Wind
- New UK prog quartet Age Of Distraction announce debut album
- "I was very excited to get involved, it's one of my favourite books of all time": watch Muse's Matt Bellamy work on a dramatic new original score for George Orwell's 1984 at Abbey Road Studios
- Pendragon announce new reissue of 1996 album The Masquerade Overture
- "The work of a band on the form of their career": Fresh from supporting Bad Omens and Northlane, unsung metalcore heroes Erra step up to the big leagues with new album Cure
- “He did one track… then went off with some famous singer to do another album”: Hawkwind’s collaboration with William Orbit didn’t happen on this album - but they hope it will on the next
- “I play the drums like I drive – crazy”: the epic life and tragic death of Cozy Powell
April 4
- "He's unhinged, super smart, super talented and willing to upset": British pop superstar Robbie Williams hails the one rock star he thinks is lighting up 2024's "boring", danger-free music scene
- “I’m always ready for a kitty cat!” We gave Judas Priest legend Rob Halford a load of kittens to play with and asked him about heavy metal, becoming a gay icon and (sort of) being Dolly Parton's BFF
- German power metal force Powerwolf announce new album Wake Up The Wicked
- “Anyone with an alternate viewpoint is liable to get burned at the stake”: Queensryche made an 80s metal classic with Operation: Mindcrime. Nearly 20 years later, they tried to match it with a sequel
- “It’s great if you’re Drake, it’s not great if you’re Grizzly Bear.” Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor says streaming has “mortally wounded” many musicians
- Best beginner skateboards 2024: We break down the very best skateboards to get you shredding
- Ghost share cryptic new trailer, teasing the end of Papa Emeritus IV and a potential movie release
- The Holy Family announce release of 2022's acclaimed Roadburn set
- From Ozzy Osbourne and the British Bulldogs to Edge's legendary Slayer entrance, here are 12 times heavy metal ruled WWE's biggest show, Wrestlemania
- “So funny, so personable, so goofy”: Metallica’s Kirk Hammett remembers hitching a ride from David Bowie
- “Basically I’d been set up. I woke up the following morning and wondered, ‘Did I just rejoin?’” How Pallas repaired the angry split with Alan Reed to deliver their eighth album in 48 years
- Another Korn/Adidas collaboration is coming next month
- "I call Bill Bruford and blurt out 'how would you like to be in a rock band again?' Bill says, 'And do what? Sit around a luggage carousel all day?' But he gave us his blessing." Adrian Belew opens up on the formation of Beat
- "The major metal magazines slaughtered Emperor's early albums." How black metal icon Ihsahn ditched corpsepaint and church burnings to become a prog master
- "We all did shots with him!" The Hollywood icon that left Guns N' Roses "very wobbly" while shooting one of their most famous videos
- "Exactly how you’d hope Korpiklaani to sound in 2024 if your expectations revolve around zippy, accordion-driven tavern metal.": Folk metal's biggest party band have found the sweet spot on new album Rankarumpu
- “When I drank, I was going to be the best drinker in the bar, or take the most drugs or whatever. When I did give up the drink I was going to be the best at that:” The bottom-end drive that made Danny Thompson’s name
April 3
- "It was the only place that Satan wouldn’t be hanging out": Twisted Sister were a long way from home, but Jimmy Page's bathroom was a songwriting refuge
- “He's never done a band like us; he’s done a lot of heavy metal. But I thought the two could mix": How AC/DC's producer and synthesisers reinvented The Cars
- Hey Joe, where you going with my cod & chips? Unravelling the truth behind Jimi Hendrix's historic visit to a fish & chip shop in the north of England
- "Things were gloriously easy back in 1969 because we only had two albums. Things are now much more tortuous": Ian Anderson on touring, bedbugs and Martin Barre
- "I was just shut down. I remember trying to make myself cry and I couldn’t": Dave Grohl on the final days of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain
- “Some of the biggest and most powerful companies are, without permission, using our work to train AI models...This assault on human creativity must be stopped”: Pearl Jam, The Cure, R.E.M. attack “predatory” use of AI in music
- A death metal recording studio is being recognised as a historical landmark in Florida
- Lzzy Hale will “most likely” front Skid Row for even more concerts, says becoming a full-time member “sounds like a pretty good gig for me”
- “When James comes in, there’s a presence”: Metallica producer explains what James Hetfield and Johnny Cash have in common
- Metalcore darlings Misery Signals announce farewell tour: “It’s time for us to close this chapter of our lives and explore new opportunities individually.”
- Damian Wilson, Simone Simons and Anneke van Giersbergen all star in new Ayreon live video for The Day That The World Breaks Down
- The isolated bass track from Metallica’s Orion proves that Cliff Burton was a master of his instrument
- “The world is ready for us now.” Why nu metal heroes Kittie are finally ready to grab the limelight once again
- “I don’t like praise. ‘This record is flawed and has good intentions, but I look forward to something better’ – that’s a great review”: Richard Thompson doesn’t believe in the ‘perfect album’
- Taylor McCall studied wildlife management at university: Now he writes deeply personal songs inspired by the Vietnam War and tours with Robert Plant
- "I ordered Chinese food and beer for them, and we just sat there and talked": Metallica, Ride The Lightning, and the meal that got them signed
- "We get halfway through, just before the solo, and all the power goes off on stage": The night a furious Ray Davies cut a Yes set short before aiming blows and kicks at Rick Wakeman
- "I could stand up with four cardboard cut-outs and still be a star": Steve Harley spent four years of his childhood in hospital and grew up to hate journalists, but all he wanted was an audience
April 2
- Slipknot, Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed to headline Rocklahoma 2024, Evanescence, Lamb Of God, Halestorm, Kerry King and more also confirmed
- "Sounds like someone broke Satan's heart": seven hit singles that sound like doom classics when slowed down to 33rpm
- “We are all blown away and extremely excited!” Mike Portnoy has finished recording drums for the next Dream Theater album
- "It serves as a testament to doing what entertains you with no borders." How Trent Reznor created a masterpiece with Nine Inch Nails' timeless The Downward Spiral - and influenced everyone from Korn to Johnny Cash in the process
- “He’s like, ‘Ed, I got an idea... first song, AC/DC Highway to Hell, you take a verse, I take a verse....’: It's now been 10 years since Bruce Springsteen and Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder rocked Australia with their covers of a Bon Scott-era AC/DC classic
- Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello announces super-intimate London gig
- Watch Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale fill in for Ann Wilson of Heart by performing Don’t Tell Me live with Disturbed
- New King Crimson outfit Beat detail North American tour
- “Such a spectacle: 80,000 fans, eight-way spatial audio”: Did Roger Waters top Pink Floyd at Desert Trip in 2016? His guitarist Jonathan Wilson thinks so (and he wasn’t in the band at the time)
- "You cannot underestimate the impact of seeing a woman blaze a trail right before your eyes." Why Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow means so much to me – and to women in the metal scene
- “I bought it with lawnmowing money!” Tool’s Danny Carey reflects on the first album he ever paid for himself
- “It was the loudest thing I’d ever heard in my entire life”: Jet’s Nic Cester on the time he auditioned to be the new singer in AC/DC
- “As soon as we get past the arguments, we can get **** done!” Tool are on the cover of the new Metal Hammer
- Ultravox bassist Chris Cross has died, aged 71
- "The world will see that Scottish crowds are some of the loudest, craziest and most passionate on the planet." WWE announces major Clash At The Castle show taking place in the UK this June
- "This is about 17 minutes long and it's my favourite ever chill-out track": The Prodigy's Liam Howlett on the Pink Floyd classics that changed his life
- “Others’ expectations kept me from taking it seriously for a long time… Some will say, ‘What is this old prat on about?’ but I don’t give a damn”: Why Ian Anderson took the risk of making Thick As A Brick 2
- Suck: A tribute to the brilliant acting career of Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson
- "I woke up singing this song about being in jail waiting for the electric chair": Medicine Head's John Fiddler on inspiration, love, and the perils of getting older
- "MTV was the first time that technology became a rock star": The story of 1984, the year everything changed
- Gerry Conway, drummer with Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull, Pentangle and more, dead at 76
April 1
- 2024 may be remembered as the year in which Robert Fripp got naked and pretended to open an OnlyFans account
- "I had a real sense that he was lonely and alone. I felt the same way": On April 1, 1994 two world-famous rock stars were seated together on Delta Airlines flight 788 from Los Angeles to Seattle. It would be the last flight one of them would ever take
- "If I feel I have accomplished something that was set out before me, then I will be vocal about it." How grime-punk duo Bob Vylan became one of the UK's unlikely success stories (and why they're refusing to be humble about it)
- “Certain people I knew from the scene wouldn’t speak to me after I got a hit. But it’s all music… I just had a great time”: Brian Auger warned Jimi Hendrix off drugs, lent money to Rod Stewart and learned what prog was from Keith Emerson
- Devin Townsend joins OU for video of new single 淨化 Purge
- “It’s about a beautiful ménage à trois and you can’t beat that, can you?” Perry Farrell on what he thinks is Jane’s Addiction's most underrated song
- "A charcuterie board of delightful music, with all sorts of flavours, textures and surprises": Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel keep it leisurely on Timeless Flight
- “I’m happy we’ve had hits. But I do wish the record label had put out some of our challenging songs as singles”: Some only know them as ‘That Africa band,’ but how prog are Toto?
- “It was inspiring to see how Metallica worked. I had their posters before I had my first guitar”: how Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen stepped up to metal’s big league
- "It's our mission to keep the rock alive. It's important to keep the torch burning": The Gems were born out of solidarity, and now they want to invigorate classic rock
- "It pays all the bills, it's paid for everything we've ever done since": Modern English didn't set out to write commercial songs, but they're not complaining
- "We have all been robbed, and it's still going on. It's bringing the country to disaster": 40 years down the road, New Model Army are as uncompromising as ever
- "Everybody wanted to get in on the action. I wasn't letting that happen": Dio's first platinum album could have been very different
- How Bruce Springsteen's most rage-filled, despairing and misunderstood album was helped into the pop charts by a song he didn't want to write and a future star of Friends
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Mdou Moctar, Wytch Hazel, Marjana Semkina and more