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August 2026

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334 articles

August 31
- "Frenzee is an outburst of adrenaline." Meet the Greek-Australian siblings running on red wine, darts and very high acid reflux
- Mastodon's Brann Dailor ran up $800 phone bill texting movie quotes to Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison
- Watch Billy Idol join members of Green Day and Blink-182 in star-studded performance at Ramones 50th anniversary celebration
- “The label staff just assume the artists get rich. I told a girl in the office what we earned. Her jaw hit the floor”: Steve Hogarth recalls Marillion’s bad old days before crowdfunding
- "It breaks my heart that Miss Murder will always represent us." AFI's Davey Havok on selling out, his surprise love for glam metal and why the band weren't part of 2000s emo
- One of the great 'what if' moments in rock history: Ace by Dee Snider's Desperado. "Had this been released in the early 80s, it would have gone down a storm"
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 31, 2026
- The 'terrible' metal albums (that aren't nearly as bad as people make out)
- “Phil Collins played the drums then did his backing vocals. I said, ‘I don’t suppose you’ve ever thought of going solo?’”: Trevor Horn’s fun adventures with Yes, Genesis and Mike Oldfield, and sneaking prog into the pop charts
- Toyah and Robert Fripp make triumphant return to Sunday Lunch action
- Watch Sebastian Bach sing We're Not Gonna Take It at debut show with Twisted Sister
- "I don't have any regrets." Original Slipknot singer is fine not to be the voice that made the band huge
August 30
- Bruce Dickinson mocks Donald Trump's 'Lake America' stunt on opening night of Iron Maiden's Run For Your Lives Tour in Toronto
- “Our fans agree with Yngwie Malmsteen – more is more!”: What Leprous learned when they wrote a song with their audience
- "It's doom, but with the added vibe of a winter burial on the outskirts of a desolate industrial town." Nintendocore, unblack metal and some of the weirdest metal subgenres you never knew existed
- "We’re the Arctic Monkeys trying to play Slayer." Meet Ronker, the Belgians who ditched indie for thumping hardcore
- Five Finger Death Punch’s Zoltan Bathory opens up about his volatile relationship with Ivan Moody: “Sometimes I want to kill him. Sometimes I’m making plans, thinking about what supplies I need, where I hide the body”
- The strange story of Brian May, Eddie Van Halen, a kids’ TV theme and the most unlikely collaboration of the 1980s: “It was like going down a really challenging ski run. I was very much conscious of his talent and his incredible aura”
- “We’d be compared to bands like Queen, but that was written before I ever heard a Queen record.” Dennis DeYoung reveals the surprising stories behind 10 iconic Styx songs
- “It was rough. There was no money. I was on the balls of my ass”: Aerosmith were one of the biggest American rock bands of the 1970s. And then it went to hell
- “Nobody was more surprised than I was when we started doing it, and today it’s my main activity”: Perfect but unplanned timing sent the Alan Parsons Project touring galaxies far, far away with I Robot
- "She's all that and a bag of chips." Onstage pranks prove Anika Nilles is unfazed by life as Rush drummer
- How Bon Scott's devilish grin and gallons of fake blood secured the AC/DC legend. "Artists who don't know who they are are the ones who give you trouble. AC/DC never had that problem"
August 29
- "Looking forward to tearing it up with The Who again." Zak Starkey and Roger Daltrey confirm drummer's return
- "This girl and I have been through the fire." Aged 15, Mikaela Mayer was playing alongside Nita Strauss in an all-girl metal band touring America with Avenged Sevenfold and My Chemical Romance. Tonight she's fighting for three world boxing titles
- "Thank you for always making this feel like home." Turnstile strengthen and expand their UK Love Connection at feel-good All Points East show
- "David Bowie may have saved my life." How a head-hunting phone call from David Bowie helped one of alternative rock's most influential musicians pull back from the abyss during his darkest hours
- “Their song titles left them open to detractors. Like all true pioneers, their hats were shot through with arrows”: The progressive power of Cocteau Twins’ Treasure
- “There were certain guidelines, and that was to stay away from long hair and guitar solos”: How Led Zeppelin, The Doors and Hendrix inspired a rule-breaking post-punk band to write one of rock’s greatest anthems
- Fear Factory have just released their first new song in five years – and there’s a secret Terminator connection: “We've always sung about the relationship between man and machine, and now it's caught up to reality”
- The story behind Oasis' finest hour, the generation-defining Definitely Maybe. “We were a punk band with Beatles melodies. We had no effects, barely any equipment, just loads of attitude, 12 cans of Red Stripe and ambition."
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: August 28 2026
- The inside story behind the celebrations of Syd Barrett's 80th birthday. "Syd emerged from the womb fully formed. There was no lead-in period - it was bang!"
- "My mind got the better of me after being a half-mile closer to the centre of the earth. An epic rock 'n' roll death – what a way to go." What happened when Queens of the Stone Age played a tiny show deep inside a German salt mine
- In 1990 Epic Records released nine rock albums on the same day: The stunt was doomed, but a lost classic was born
- “I don’t think he needs to hear what I think about his music”: When Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmailyuk saw Opeth’s Mikael Mikael Åkerfeldt, she was too scared to talk to him
August 28
- Every song on Pearl Jam's Ten ranked from worst to best
- “I wound up on the bill with them in Malaysia, where I got escorted offstage by police with automatic weapons”: Despite the drama, Joe Satriani still loves Jethro Tull
- Brian May and Billy Gibbons hook up on posthumous Steve Cropper single My Angels Are Calling
- How Ozzy Osbourne conquered personal demons and bitter contract wars to eclipse Black Sabbath. "Part of me wanted to say to them, you fired me, and now I don’t need you, so f*** you"
- Fontaines D.C. announce expansive UK and Europe arena tour
- Turnstile have somehow managed to unite Elton John, Hayley Williams, Slayyyter and Dying Fetus and actually make it work. Never Enough: Versions is one of 2026's boldest and most entertaining releases
- “A catchy, spirited and uplifting reincarnation”: Beartooth’s Caleb Shomo vanquishes his demons on Pure Ecstasy
- Great new prog tracks from Chimpan A, Polyphia, Dikajee and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- “Mike Portnoy said, ‘This is the first thing we’re going to play in 10 years. Guess what it is.’ He started playing. I came in with the wrong song!”: John Petrucci hired ex drummer for his 2020 solo album, but didn't want him back in Dream Theater
- Mastodon surmount personal tragedies to deliver stellar ninth album. "Marrow Deep is a defiant album... Not laughing in the face of death, but not crumbling under it either."
- Pearl Jam celebrate Ten's 35th birthday with rare live performance on vinyl
August 27
- “Had there been a more sensitive or more efficient producer, it could have been much better”: The album that inspired prog’s most English movement was made in America in four days
- From rags to riches: How Dolly Parton's story embodied the American Dream. "If you really want to know who I am, my life is in my songs"
- "We had to push people to the side, whether gracefully or violently." The story behind Queens Of The Stone Age's masterpiece Songs For The Deaf
- How to watch Fontaines D.C. headline this weekend's Reading Festival
- "She said she could become a rock star - and I watched her do it." Stevie Nicks pays tribute to Dolly Parton, and recalls "best week ever" recording with her in Nashville
- Metal For Nepal launch emergency fundraising appeal following devastating flash flood which left 332 dead, with more than 900 people still missing
- "I think it surprised a lot of people!" Tears For Fears announce Deluxe Reissue of 1989's The Seeds Of Love
- “She spent so long in the water that she contracted mild hypothermia. She recovered and carried on”: When Kate Bush returned to the stage Before The Dawn, 35 years after her only tour
- "We wanted to be bright and funny." How Slipknot, Linkin Park and the Backstreet Boys helped turn a car salesman and a nurse into metal's biggest party-starters, Electric Callboy
- "Not for the first time, they have snatched joy from the jaws of heartbreak." Mastodon triumph over tragedy with Marrow Deep
- “He and Eddie Van Halen were the only two I really stayed in touch with”: Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi on collaborating with Queen guitarist and “best friend” Brian May for new solo album From The Dark
- Watch Stevie Nicks sing fan favourite Stand Back on Jimmy Kimmel Live
- Miss Chile delivers crushing death metal vocal during Miss World pageant. "Getting to bring metal to the Miss World stage was an incredible experience"
August 26
- Tom Scholz reveals the secrets of Boston's masterful debut album. "I don't know what's wrong with me... I've spent six months making a recording of a song that I've thrown out"
- “A lot of it is first takes and demos. Because of what had happened to Neil we didn’t want to re-record – the songs felt too precious”: Rush fans had to wait 11 years for Vapor Trails to become the album it deserved to be
- Want to make music like Sleep Token? Bassist III and guitarist IV show off new signature instruments with vocal-free version of Vore
- “We could bring Pink to the dark side”: Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale reveals her dream non-rock collaborators
- 17-disc Soft Machine box set, Slightly All The Time Recordings 1970-1974, due in October
- "Thank you, Dolly, for a lifetime of giving back and making the world a little brighter." Watch Jack White pay tribute to Dolly Parton onstage in London by covering Jolene
- “I watched it and I thought, ‘That’s similar.’ I watched it again and thought, ‘That’s really similar!’ She sent me a big apology… it was pretty cool”: Prog metal prodigy Plini’s laid-back reaction to a pop star stealing his solo
- After 50 years of pioneering heavy metal, Accept are in the mood to celebrate. "I wouldn't even have thought we would last five years, to be honest, let alone fifty"
- "You're going to see an oversized bat eat the head off of a human." Take a look inside Universal Studios' Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house
- “A blur of Rhinestones sparkling in the spotlights”: Ghost offer a rare, stylish glimpse behind the curtain with concert film/documentary 2 Big To Rig
August 25
- Soundgarden announce return to the stage with The Pretty Reckless's Taylor Momsen and Pearl Jam's Mike McCready
- "I had an A&R guy at one label tell us that we were the next U2." The story behind Helmet's Meantime, the alt.rock masterpiece that even Beavis and Butthead thought was "cool"
- How Dolly Parton corralled a Who's Who of rock royalty to record her landmark Rockstar album: "There's more aggression in rock'n'roll – you've got to treat it with respect"
- Nightwish have six songs written for their next album: “Every time I sit in front of my keyboard, I’m like, ‘Ah yeah, this is great!’”
- "Every song sounds like it's from a different world." Queens Of The Stone Age announce details of ninth album Perfecth, share new single Insignificant Other
- "She goes, 'I love your beard' and starts to clean it!" What happened when country icon Dolly Parton met Judas Priest frontman and heavy metal legend, Rob Halford
- Dolly Parton dead at 80
- “It would be awesome to do it one night – the guys ask, ‘Where did he go?’ And I text them, ‘Couldn’t do it. Too nervous’”: Enslaved will be finished if Ivar Bjørnson stops getting stage fright
- “Jaw-droppingly immersive, to the point that I might have cried”: Why Arctangent is my favourite festival ever – and how the 2026 edition proved it all over again
- “I’m 16 and they were my heroes… They started to laugh because I was also playing the echo parts. I didn’t know they were a special effect”: Obsessive attention to detail was always Eddie Jobson’s superpower
- Marshall expand their Jimi Hendrix anniversary range with Purple Haze-infused hardware line-up
- Get the Airbourne x Classic Rock bundle – includes vinyl LP and handwritten and signed lyric card
- “This is going to be one hell of a bill”: Trivium and In Flames announce huge co-headline tour, Paleface Swiss and Vola supporting
- Nine Levellers albums you should listen to and one to avoid
- Crowdfunding campaign set up to support Television guitarist Richard Lloyd as he battles cancer
- Mike Portnoy has filed his review of Rush's Fifty Something tour. "Was able to spend some time with the Queen before the show!"
August 24
- “The label boss said: ‘I don’t know how much longer I can fund records like this.’ We realised it was the last bastion of prog as we knew it”: What really changed in the year of punk? Rick Wakeman and JJ Burnel were there
- "We avoided being seen together at the airport." The messy story behind Nightwish's Bye Bye Beautiful - the most controversial song of their career
- Deftones dazzle in front of 50,000 fans at their biggest ever UK headline show at All Points East Presents Outbreak
- "We were conscious of not wanting to f*** this up." Loathe are one of the most hyped young British metal bands of the 2020s. So why has it taken them six years to release new album A Stranger To You?
- Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen admits that super-producer 'Mutt' Lange was "about 99%" responsible for the phenomenal success that the English hard rock band enjoyed in the 1980s
- "I needed hope and he gave me it." The vital advice Iron Maiden legend Bruce Dickinson gave Megadeth's Dave Mustaine during his cancer battle
- “We don’t care about technology. Only the result matters”: Just before AI began to rise, Jean-Michel Jarre shared his vision for the future of music. Was he right?
- Rush ascend to prog rock nirvana on the superhuman but radio-ready Moving Pictures. "The crowning achievement in one of the greatest consecutive album runs in music history"
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 24, 2026
- Bret Michaels cancels all upcoming shows on doctor's orders. "I may have just chosen to go sooner than I should have"
August 23
- “The label said, ‘That’s never selling!’ and made us translate a song into English. I said, ‘You’ll get a villa in Spain out of this!’”: Clannad’s brushes with prog stars Peter Gabriel, Marillion, Nightwish, King Crimson, Genesis and more
- Carmine Appice names the forgotten rock drummer who “started everything”: “The playing, the showmanship, the twirling – he was a monster player and never got credit”
- "It's not made for radio, it's not made for MTV, it's just made for rock and roll." Forget what critics and sales stats might tell you, Flick Of The Switch is the finest AC/DC album since Back In Black
- "We did a Ouija board ‘cause we wanted to speak to the Devil." From idolising Hendrix to touring with Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, this is Richie Faulkner's life story, told through the songs he loves the most
- "I very much connect to shadow." How three family tragedies and the surprise support of Alice Cooper saw Holy Wars make one of 2026's most emotional metal albums
- Ministry pull no punches in anti-Trump video for We Hate. "We just felt it necessary to give 'Trumplethinskin' a dose of his own medicine"
- “He tore the whole thing to shreds and was very unkind, harsh and cruel … It was very upsetting to have someone you admire being so nasty about your work”: Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull’s War Child, and 1974
- Biff Byford reveals why he thinks Metallica have never covered a Saxon song – and it involves at incident at their second ever show: “They must have realised it was a bit stupid”
- "It's with a heavy heart that I'm announcing my retirement from drumming." Former AC/DC man Chris Slade calls time on career at 79
- Watch a young Black Sabbath confuse the hell out of stoned European hippies one week before Paranoid became a hit single
August 22
- “We had a good run and did some great things. That wasn’t one of them”: Abandoned songs, a broken foot and footballer-size egos destroyed a Yes album
- "It was dark and cool, really different. Beth Gibbons was one of my greatest vocal and musical inspirations." The story behind Portishead's Dummy, the album that change everything for Evanescence's Amy Lee
- Inside Kings Of Chaos, rock’s billion dollar supergroup: “I called Keith Richards about doing it. His manager said: ‘Keith has already got a band. They’re called the Rolling Stones’”
- “He was the real Voice Of Rock. Warm, rich, sonorous, resonant, deeply soulful”: James Dewar was the greatest rock vocalist you’ve probably never heard of
- Green Day: The A-Z of pop-punk's most important and influential band
- “We were on tour when my wife died. I flew back, arranged the funeral, did the wake, and continued with the tour. I ended up on the same psychoactive drugs as she did”: Tears For Fears’ Roland Orzabal and his songs of pain
- “The paganism was never a problem. All of us shared an interest in that side of things”: The story of Sabbat’s cult pagan-thrash classic Dreamweaver: Reflections Of Our Yesterdays
- "If I could start again, I'd pick up a saucepan rather than a guitar." CJ Wildheart on his new album, career choices, and his relationship with Ginger
- Ronnie Wood interview: The Stones' new album, a new Faces album, and Einstein. "We have to be honest about the sickness in the land. There's a lot of bad things going on"
- All members of Buckcherry safe after tour bus involved in fatal crash
August 21
- “These young kids put on Jurassic Shift. He said, ‘They don’t know we’re here. They don’t know what this is. But they’re loving it!’”: A truck of marijuana, a synth at Stonehenge, gigs with Gong – and Ozric Tentacles’ Ed Wynne
- Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver legend Scott Weiland on his 10 favourite Scott Weiland songs: "For me, it’s absolutely essential not to get stagnant creatively and to keep re-inventing things"
- MTV have scrapped the ‘Best Rock’ category at their Video Music Awards after 37 years
- A week in the life of the Metal Queen, Doro Pesch. "I had no friends, so reading helped me through some pretty tough times"
- Get an exclusive Ghost puff print t-shirt and Metal Hammer cover variant with this limited edition bundle to celebrate their new concert film 2 Big To Rig
- Cool new prog from Lonely Robot, Eivør, Colin Moulding, Cult Of Luna and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- "I would hope that whoever told you that you are ugly is not anyone you would call a friend." Evanescence's Amy Lee shares some beautiful advice with a fan - and explains why "being an Instagram star" is not the important part of making art
- "We are to Vikings what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are to turtles." Eihwar have brought chaos to the European folk metal scene with their Viking war trance - could they be its next big thing?
- Nickelback release epic power ballad Leave Me Behind. "There's a lot of weight in this song, but there's also a lot of hope"
- Fundraiser set up to support guitar great Chris Spedding as he battles lymphoma
- “The Rolling Stones and The Beatles paid for theirs. I see no reason why you shouldn’t pay for yours”: When Keith Emerson tried to blag a £55,000 synth for free
August 20
- "Our style has always been defined by the fact that we sound a little like Pink Floyd, Genesis and Marillion": Mystery and the making of One Among The Living
- Ghost share performance of Umbra from forthcoming Skeletour concert film 2 Big To Rig
- "I'm a pussycat but I'm also a fan of mischief, misdirection and manipulation." Greg Dulli looks back on 40 years of laying bare man's desires, duplicity and deviance with The Afghan Whigs
- Enslaved share transcendent new single, Solar Will, as they announce new album, Mið
- "I did a donor transplant. Unfortunately, it didn't stick. So the cancer has returned." Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell's cancer has returned, but he's refusing to live in fear
- “I ground myself to the bone for this record." Motionless In White celebrate 20 years with their first ever Metal Hammer cover
- “He’d got rid of Lemmy and it was me next… That’s when we decided to get rid of the others instead”: The civil war that left Dave Brock as captain of Hawkwind
- How The Who overcame internal strife and a drummer behaving like a 'Saudi prince' to make their most poignant album. "Roger punched me once, and I’m sure I asked for it"
- How Led Zeppelin created the impossible-to-copy rhythmic swing of Black Dog. "I wrote it on a bit of paper on the train"
August 19
- Meet The Gnomes: Your new favourite Aussies digging garage rock, Merseybeat, 12-string jangle, fuzz pedals and moustache care
- “There’s nothing I like more than finding our back catalogue in the prog section alongside Yes and Genesis… we wanted to show off every aspect of what we could do as artists”: Call them what you like, but Chicago know they’re a prog band
- What happened when the Frankie Miller Band played San Quentin Prison. "The guys all signed a form to agree that if they were attacked, kidnapped or killed, the prison was not responsible"
- "I didn’t kill anybody, I didn't bully anybody. I just made some stupid mistakes - and I am not a Nazi." Alex Terrible addresses the controversies surrounding Slaughter To Prevail
- Demon Hunter vs KPop Demon Hunters: Christian metal band sue Netflix alleging copyright infringement over hit animated movie
- “Pink Floyd were difficult, but everyone else was really friendly. We closed the first half and Hendrix closed the second. You wouldn’t want to follow him onstage”: The Move could have been massive, but three things stopped them
- Queen to show Budapest concert film as "one-day-only, live-gig-style experience. "It's going to be definitively the most real experience ever of us, Queen, in our glory days"
- Frank Beard was the enigma at the heart of ZZ Top. "I never wanted to quit ZZ Top. And I never wanted to get fired"
- "To wear this scent, you must resist tradition, fight conformity, and disregard aromatic conventions." That time the Sex Pistols launched their own perfume to "feed your inner rebel"
August 18
- ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard dead at 77
- "I'm like, Oh my God, this is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! God is on my side." The story behind Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit video, by those who were there
- From coffee-house folkie to genre-juggling experimentalist: Nine Joni Mitchell albums you should listen to - and one to avoid
- “We feel that we have been seriously misled and let down”: GoFundMe launched for Indonesian metal bands stranded in Ireland after being allegedly abandoned by promoter
- “That was incredibly disingenuous of Radiohead. But I have to acknowledge that perhaps it was very wise”: Steven Wilson and the war between prog and pop
- Lonely Robot issue call to arms with new single Show The Way
- The best metal albums of 2026 (so far)
- Megadeth have at least two songs left over from their final album – but Dave Mustaine isn’t sure he’ll release them: “If I could play old songs, why wouldn’t I want to focus on new songs instead?”
- Ozzfest confirms return to Birmingham’s Villa Park next year
- Fontaines D.C. announce "mind-altering" fifth album Dopamine Chamber. "This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning"
- How a kooky B-52s song about undersea life became a new-wave dance classic. "Even when we were singing about lobsters and volcanoes, we always sang like our lives depended on it"
- "I don't trust bands that wear shorts on stage." After twenty years in the punk rock trenches, The Menzingers have learned a thing or two
August 17
- “I was just lying on a stretcher with intravenous liquid going in”: Ghost’s Tobias Forge remembers the severe food poisoning that forced him to cancel Mexico gig last year
- “Atmospheric soundscapes building into metal workouts, the abrasiveness replaced with a desire to break boundaries”: How Tool, slowly but surely, went prog rock
- Audio-Technica AT-ERP5 earplugs review: absurdly transparent gigging earplugs from an audio tech titan
- “I was 18 when I recorded it, so we didn’t know anything about writing, about recording, about singing”: Nightwish’s Floor Jansen on her worst album – and the prog metal deep cut which makes her cry
- “We’ve got a problem with the other band who registered the name and are trying to stop us from going to Germany. We’re trying to deal with that now”: How Nektar resurrected themselves with The Other Side
- Queens Of The Stone Age announce new album title via bloody game of five-finger fillet. "Does it hurt? Of course it hurts!"
- "The album's brevity is its biggest advantage. There is no chance of getting bored." J.J. Cale keeps it short on the easygoing Okie
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 17, 2026
- "I was there to heal any wounds." Ritchie Blackmore reflects on "emotional" onstage reunion with Deep Purple
August 16
- “I sometimes dread the get-togethers. It’s either ‘Your dad owes me money’ or ‘He slept with my wife!’”: A prog icon’s daughter rebelled against music, then returned and made an album with a punk legend
- “That‘s what I sang when I opened my mouth that day. It’s like verbal jazz”: How Phil Collins turned a moment of improvisation into the massive hit single that launched his solo career
- “At times I’ve taken the band something I consider to be a really heavy riff, and they’ve said, ‘That sounds like Billy Joel to us!’ I have to be careful how I present my ideas”: How misfit Jordan Rudess found his space in Dream Theater
- Abbath drummer apologises to fans as frontman abandons festival set after two minutes
August 15
- “I’ve been struggling to free my mind. I’ve learned so much. Finally it’s happening”: How Tarja Turunen brought a decade of development to bear on diverse album Frisson Noir
- “He said, ‘How about Slayer with special guests Slayer?’ We went, ‘Wow, that could be crazy’”: The bizarre story of Slayer vs Slayer, the 80s metal Battle Of The Bands with only one winner
- Phil Collins opens up about the chances of releasing new music: “There are some things I could finish. And other things which are finished”
- “I’m at work in the petrol station and I read that the album is at No. 23. I’d last heard it at a playback in George Martin’s studio”: Stackridge’s Monty Python-like experience with The Man In The Bowler Hat
- A rebel with a taste for booze, bad drugs and run-ins with the law: Nine Steve Earle albums you should listen to and one to avoid
- The gospel according to Peter Frampton: "Being chased and having your clothes ripped off by girls is all very exciting, but it gets old pretty quickly"
- The story behind Kiss's ultimate party anthem, Rock And Roll All Nite. "Every night we play it, it brings on a euphoria and a feeling of abandon in the crowd"
August 14
- Slipknot confirm Sid Wilson is no longer in the band in since-deleted social media posts
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: August 14 2026
- "It was the closest thing to anarchy I've ever seen. I didn't like it one bit." How Green Day's performance at the second festival of peace and love ended in chaos and violence
- “They brought glamour to a nation descending into gloom”: Roxy Music and the invention of sci-fi rock, just when it was needed most
- EMF keyboardist Derran 'Derry' Brownson dead at 55
- The day that Metallica trolled the world
- "I’m not supposed to talk about it. But it’s in the can." Weezer will release their own movie starring Keanu Reeves next year
- Hot new prog from Asia, Maiah Wynne, Jonas Bjerre and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- Get your grunge on this weekend with 25% off Nixon’s eye-popping Nirvana watches - but be quick
- "He said, You’re gonna be attacked from every side." Motorhead legend Lemmy offered brilliant career advice to one of rock's hottest new bands when they were starting out
- “This is a new sound, you’re going to see some freaky-looking dudes going nuts onstage!’” How Korn launched nu metal – and got in legal hot water – with their incendiary debut single Blind
- The unlikeliest collab of the year? Hear Godflesh frontman Justin Broadrick play guitar on new song by pop superstar Phoebe Bridgers
- Pink Floyd: The inside story of the tour that killed the band - only in the new issue of Classic Rock
- Big Country Redux guitarist Bruce Watson picks the soundtrack of his life. "The Rolling Stones are the quietest band on stage I've heard in my life. You can actually talk over the top of them playing"
- Deep Purple are in their seventh decade. They've sold 120 million albums. And they still have things to say. "There was no joy, no happiness on stage. I don't blame any one person for it, but I think we know who we're talking about"
August 13
- “Robert Plant sat at the back. You could see his brain ticking away, thinking, ‘I should do this.’ That’s what I like”: What drives the prog veteran who’s been compared to God?
- "I’d sit behind my dad and watch him play and watch people just go crazy. As a kid, you think that’s the coolest thing in the world. Because it is." Taylor Hawkins' son Shane is giving his late father's classic rock covers band a new lease of life
- "I wasn't feeling much of anything by the time it was released." Failure's brilliant third album Fantastic Planet should have made them superstars. Instead, it broke their hearts and split the band
- Louder Than Life has announced set times - get planning on how you'll be spending your time at America’s largest rock and metal festival and grab tickets while you still can
- “I don’t dislike the albums we made after that. Some of them are very good. But there was a wonderful innocence about that time”: Steve Howe’s favourite Yes songs are mainly from the 1970s
- “They got kicked out of their band because they wanted to shave their heads and call it Turd”: The story of Mr Bungle – how Mike Patton’s ex-high-school band made one of the strangest debut albums in heavy metal history
- Dave Grohl, Slash, Ringo Starr, Gene Simmons & more spill the beans on LA's notorious party pad, the Sunset Marquis - here's how to watch If These Walls Could Rock from anywhere
- Roxy Music share previously unreleased 1971 demo of Grey Lagoons as they announce For Your Pleasure Deluxe Edition
- “Managed to avoid dying, so that was a good start”: Gofundme launched for beloved Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Prog writer Dom Lawson following heart attack at Bloodstock festival
- Slipknot’s producer explains why he recorded Iowa with a broken back: “It put a very next-level diligence into those guys”
- "I believed we would not get back together. I thought Rush was a place Neil was not going to be able to go back to emotionally": How Rush survived the 1990s and early 2000s
- Watch "The Great Legend, the Immortal" Ritchie Blackmore return to the stage with Deep Purple for the first time in 33 years
- Queen's Roger Taylor releases I See You Now, a love song dedicated to his wife
August 12
- "The idea of the movie is to create the new American hero." The story behind Roadie, the chaotic 1980 cult movie featuring Meat Loaf, Blondie, Alice Cooper and Roy Orbison
- Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes and Spiritbox’s Courtney LaPlante to team up on new, original song If The Sun Burns Out Tonight
- The explosive story of Ritchie Blackmore’s bitter exit from Deep Purple: “Ian Gillan has got a strange obnoxious side to him which is a side I don’t like”
- “John Lydon had had a few beers. He was being completely over the top, saying how much he loved Aqualung”: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson quizzed by Yes, Genesis, ELP stars and others
- “I tried to write the heaviest thing I could think of”: From Enter Sandman to Nothing Else Matters, the stories behind every song on Metallica’s Black Album
- “Knowing how close I got to not being here, my appreciation for life is something I can’t even explain.” Blink-182’s Travis Barker bares his soul in his new film – here’s how to watch Travis Barker: Louder Than Fear from anywhere
- Ritchie Blackmore is planning on playing with Deep Purple tonight, an occurrence more rare than today's total solar eclipse
- “It could be more amazing than U2’s triumph in Las Vegas. I think you could even blow that out the water”: Can Youth persuade David Gilmour to stage a live show with The Orb?
- “I lost the tips of two fingers in an accident when I was 17. Doctors told me that I had no hope of playing guitar again. I refused to accept that”: The life and times of Tony Iommi, metal’s indestructible dark lord
- Thunder frontman Danny Bowes announces Under Pressure spoken word tour – and it's going to be entirely unscripted
- Rival Sons' frontman Jay Buchanan announces solo acoustic tour. "I'll be running lean and mean out to see my country and telling some stories"
- Rod Stewart cancels upcoming tour dates after undergoing heart surgery
August 11
- Neil Peart documentary No One's Disciple will premiere at Toronto International Film Festival next month
- Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker recalls his suicidal thoughts following the horrific 2008 plane crash in which his security guard and assistant died: "There was no light at the end of the tunnel"
- “It was never funny or clever. I was uncomfortable recording it”: Barclay James Harvest, The Moody Blues and one of prog rock’s few diss tracks
- “He felt like a metal uncle, and it’s so sad that he got taken away at such a young age”: Orbit Culture pay tribute to late At The Gates singer Tomas Lindberg
- Amazon Stir It Up by spinning up to 30% off one of my favourite House Of Marley turntables
- Bulgarian media stir up “Satanic black metal” fears as murder suspects wear heavy metal t-shirts in court
- “I don’t think the underground or extreme metal scene will ever dig us. It’s elitist”: How Trivium defied the gatekeepers and split the critics with The Crusade
- Sonja Kristina looks back over half a century of Curved Air. "I was wearing my green corduroy hippie outfit and Polaroid glasses. They played such stunningly beautiful music"
- “The peak had passed. But some albums kept the flame alive”: What did the 80s ever do for prog?
- The story of the anthem that broke Free in America - then broke up the band. "I'll never forget Koss's reaction. He slumped like he'd been hit in the stomach"
- "I wanted to get Jeff Beck in the band. Then I wanted to get Keith Moon. I went for the big time." George Thorogood is at peace with not being Bob Seger or Steve Miller
August 10
- Sopranos star Steven Van Zandt has written a TV show about three brothers - a rock star, a gangster and a FBI agent - and he wants Johnny Depp to take a starring role
- Oasis: The story of a very British phenomenon in 12 songs
- AC/DC's Highway To Hell made Hollywood superstar Javier Bardem a metalhead for life
- “It could have been a huge record, but they buried it… It was his time but the boat just sailed away”: Despite his label's disinterest, Roy Harper’s Stormcock refused to die
- “I said, ‘I quit!’ He said, ‘Take six months off, then I’ll call and find out if you’ve still left.’ When he called I couldn’t remember what we’d been arguing about”: Steve Hogarth, Marillion and several false starts
- Fantasy metal sensations Castle Rat prove why they're being touted as heavy metal's next big thing with epic Bloodstock set
- Judas Priest get an almighty homecoming as they close out Bloodstock Festival 2026
- "It's heavy as ****!" Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson gives update on new solo album
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 10, 2026
- "A master at bringing the guitar to life and giving it a voice." Fifty years on, Robin Trower's Bridge Of Sighs is still an all-time blues rock classic
- How Pete Townshend turned youthful disgust into The Who's biggest hit. "I didn't like being confronted with money and the class system and power"
August 9
- "This song is not a rebel song." The story behind U2's emotional, controversial, and often misunderstood, protest anthem Sunday Bloody Sunday
- Geddy Lee tells of spooky Neil Peart-related bird encounter. "I'm not a guy who believes in all that mumbo jumbo. But it was a remarkable moment"
- “They’d say, ‘I guess you’ll be retiring? There won’t be any more tours?’ I’d write it down and bite my lip”: The Anchoress had a baby, not a lobotomy, and wrote a satirical song about it
- Cult prog metal heroes Nevermore return to Bloodstock after almost 20 years - and after a patchy start, they put on a hell of a show
- “I feel like Scotland have just won the World Cup!” Scottish metal heroes Bleed From Within just proved why they deserve to be given a chance as Bloodstock headliners one day
- Dimmu Borgir went from arming themselves against potential murderers to the biggest band in black metal. "We heard people were starting to wear knives and weapons, so we did the same."
- "Suggestions that they'd pull the smallest headline crowd in the festival's history are laughably wide of the mark." Slaughter To Prevail pass their big Bloodstock test with flying colours (and lots of breakdowns)
- "I don't believe in making full-length records anymore." If you were hoping for a new Motley Crue album, Nikki Sixx says don't hold your breath
- “We were all pushing each other. We all had ideas as to where it should go. It was an intense time”: The Pineapple Thief asked how the world went off-script with It Leads To This
- In 1988, Blue Oyster Cult made the weirdest album of a very weird career and nearly sank the band: “I know that the aliens lived underwater”
- How Gregg Allman turned late-night despair into the classic Whipping Post. "I didn't know exactly what I was doing. I just did it."
August 8
- “It was early days for the band. We’d gone out on a limb… it was by no means certain that the response would be positive”: Genesis’ early fears for Foxtrot
- “We’d order eight pitchers of margaritas and by the time the gig started we were out of our heads and barely able to finish the show”: How a group of rock’n’roll outcasts made the first great debut album of the 1990s
- Paul Di'Anno stands alone as the only legendary frontman of Iron Maiden, at least according to Blaze Bayley
- “People might be surprised, but I was heavily inspired by progressive music. Roxy Music influenced Celtic Frost”: Extreme metal pioneer Tom G Warrior’s prog roots
- The mad genius of The Beatles’ Revolver, the album that changed the 1960s: “Paul turned up in his pyjamas, carpet slippers, and a jacket over his pyjama top.”
- Metal legends Sepultura are bowing out in style as they steal the show at Bloodstock 2026
- Lamb Of God are still setting the bar for live heavy metal as they crush it with an explosive, deceptively fun performance for Bloodstock's 25th anniversary
- Lindsey Buckingham hints at a new project with Stevie Nicks: “Quite a few things will reveal themselves.”
- “We had been on the road pretty heavily and we were burned”: How Bad Company karate chopped their way through burnout to make their great ‘lost’ album
- From Avenged Sevenfold to Neurosis and Stray From The Path, why more and more metal bands are surprise-releasing albums: “At what point do people critique success on sales rather than how big your balls are?”
- Sevendust's 30-Year odyssey: Success, near-bankruptcy and new purpose: "It's been tough. We survived what many people wouldn't have survived."
- “Bands like ELP, Yes and Genesis were seen as over-the-top, showing-off kinds of performers. And to some extent I felt that, too”: Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson decided to lampoon prog and ended up making “the mother of all concept albums”
August 7
- Mercyful Fate, Electric Callboy and Motionless In White announced as Bloodstock 2027 headliners
- “There’s going to be a feeling of loss but a huge sense of relief… I’ve had my time with them. I’m finding new friends now and they can move on”: When David Gilmour auctioned 123 of his guitars for charity
- “Prog taught me to do whatever the hell you want – go in any direction you want”: 10 times Iron Maiden went shamelessly all-out prog
- Blur, No Doubt, Madonna producer William Orbit dead at 69
- Former Korn, Limp Bizkit, Smashing Pumpkins, Ministry manager Peter Katsis dead at 69
- Opeth's prog metal majesty is a triumph at only UK gig of 2026: "It looks like they've opened a portal to another dimension."
- "You could very easily die in there." Slaughter To Prevail, bare-knuckle boxing and brain injuries: Inside the bloodiest, most brutal metal gig ever.
- Alex Lifeson on the battle behind Rush's most divisive song, Subdivisions. "I was sitting there thinking, I can't hear guitar"
- "If AOR fans want a long-lost cult-classic, Night Of The Crime most certainly fits the bill." The story of Icon's stunning melodic metal masterpiece
August 6
- Heart have finished recording their first album in a decade. "It's what we were born to do, and do together"
- "The Beatles are the gods of rock!" How four Japanese schoolboys fell in love with The Beatles 50 years ago and fulfilled a dream by visiting the UK for their own magical mystery tour
- The story of the day Bono and Jimmy Buffett went out for chicken and were almost killed by Jamaican police. "It was absolutely terrifying, and I honestly thought we were all going to die"
- "Louder Now represents a huge milestone for me and to know it has made an impact on so many other people’s lives as well is something I still struggle to get my head around": Taking Back Sunday reveal Louder Now deluxe reissue
- “I asked Frank Zappa, ‘Are you sure I can do this?’ Like a good father he kicked me out of the nest”: Beat’s new boy Terry Bozzio on his transition from American to British prog
- “Drugs at our age? You don’t have to take them forever. Once you’ve opened the doors of perception you can see what’s going on; you’ve got the ideas”: Dave Brock on Hawkwind’s late-period purple patch
- Excide don't want to be Turnstile or Knocked Loose. They want to create something new: "Post-hardcore just meant trying new and different things."
- Guitar virtuoso Eric Johnson picks the songs that soundtrack his life: "That record was over my head. I wasn't even sure if I liked it. But the more I listened, the more I realised how great it was"
- How Photograph transformed Def Leppard into global pop-metal megastars: "I was this geeky twat who liked music and wasn't living in the real world. All I ever wanted was to be a star."
August 5
- "I have no desire to be a survivor. I’d rather accept, absorb, adapt, fight and break that which seeks to break me." Henry Rollins announces "searing" memoir Bait Dog Boy
- “We got lost in the dark. My wife said, ‘This is a turnaround situation.’ Rather than helping with the predicament I sang, ‘Turnaround situation lately,’ and there it was!”: Yes and the endless inspiration that led to Aurora
- Pre-order Classic Rock’s ultimate Europe fan package: magazine with exclusive cover, marble vinyl of new album Come This Madness plus signed lyric sheet
- Cardio, corpse paint and Carolina Reapers: Venom frontman Cronos opens up about his brilliantly bizarre double life
- Hear Ghost’s Tobias Forge sing on a brand-new re-imagining of Accept’s classic heavy metal deep cut Save Us, featuring Anthrax bassist Frank Bello and Korn drummer Ray Luzier
- The Cure's video director Tim Pope reveals how working with disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein on cult gothic horror film The Crow: City of Angels scarred him for life
- “Surely it’s the greatest psychedelic rock song ever recorded… It makes the whole God thing seem plausible!” Kavus Torabi’s Guide To Cardiacs
- Linkin Park announce new documentary Unshatter and tie-in album; watch trailer and live footage of Somewhere I Belong here
- Electric Callboy hit the apex of their dance-metal era on floor-filling new album Tanzneid – with a little help from Babymetal and The Offspring: “It may not represent a dramatic reinvention, but it doesn’t need to”
- Every Dream Theater album, ranked from worst to best
- Glenn Hughes announces retirement from live performances: "I really have no option and no choice"
August 4
- Eagles extend record-breaking residency at Sphere in Las Vegas yet again
- Nine Van Morrison albums to listen to and one to avoid: "An astonishingly deep catalogue"
- Addiction, Doris, Riots and Tub Tarts: An A-Z Of Metallica
- Watch Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and U2 frontman Bono perform at the funeral of Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard: "Everyone who met him, they just remember the day they met him."
- “We were all over radio and MTV with an eight-minute song. That hadn’t happened since the days of Yes and ELP”: Dream Theater, Voivod, Watchtower and the explosion of prog metal
- Get the new issue of Metal Hammer with an exclusive Dominum cover, brain stress ball and signed art card
- King Crimson unveil 2014 (The Complete US Tour) double Blu-ray set
- Brighten up your music room with the colourful and eye-catching Majority Stylo and Folio turntables
- System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian says drummer John Dolmayan is tired of Donald Trump despite past support of US president: “I know so many Armenians in Los Angeles who voted for Trump and now regret it”
- "It shows off the rockier side of our collaboration." Hackett & Rothery up the tempo on new single, Red Dragon
- Slipknot’s Sid Wilson reportedly sacked for mistreating bandmates, ex-fiancée Kelly Osbourne tears into the DJ: “I want to be happy and I have a beautiful son to raise. Leave me alone.”
- “I was struggling at home and struggling on tour. I’ve had a real problem with alcohol again”: Inspired by a Neil Peart quote, Napalm Death’s Shane Embury embraced his prog tendencies to search his soul
- More than 80 minutes of historic 1970 Led Zeppelin footage emerges online: "This is a monumental addition to the Led Zeppelin canon"
- Foreigner launch thousand-dollar VIP tickets that allow fans to sit onstage during shows
August 3
- Superstar magician Penn Jillette has a wild secret rock 'n' roll past that no-one ever talks about, and the "bloody scars" to prove it
- "They draw a crowd size which would have once been reserved for Iron Maiden or Metallica." Burning keyboardists, flying tanks and free suncream - inside Wacken Open Air 2026
- Twelve incredible live performances just uploaded to the internet, including The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy, King Crimson, Tom Waits and more
- Get the new issue of Metal Hammer with an exclusive Electric Callboy cover and art print
- Five Finger Death Punch, Helloween, Electric Callboy, Knocked Loose, Dragonforce and many more announced for Wacken Open Air 2027 lineup
- Megadeth announce first UK headlining tour since 2015 plus European dates, Black Label Society and Testament supporting
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: August 3, 2026
- "There was a guy shooting at us from his balcony. It turned out he’d been sniffing glue." The story of the UK's only top-10 nu metal hit
- “He confounded his fans and his record label. Most of his band jumped ship after it”: When Arthur Lee steered Love into uncharted waters
- "Fun, feisty, fast and furious. Grunge with a punk-metal heart." L7's Bricks Are Heavy - A breath of fresh air in a scene that quickly became stale
August 2
- “He and I really came to an impasse. We were both unhappy and we both kind of quit”: Mike Portnoy and Neal Morse had a furious spat that spawned their greatest record
- “The others realised they couldn’t stop me because it was too close to the show… I got away with it, although it was a close-run thing”: How Peter Gabriel developed his Genesis frontman act
- Sharon Osbourne gives an update on Ozzfest – and confirms there will be a Back To The Beginning film: “Ozzy’s legacy isn’t fading”
- "They called me the woman that was sent by Satan to destroy them." Christian cults, boat orgies and terrorist accusations: Hawxx are screaming for liberation
- "He was centre-half and you didn't go near the man. He was dangerous!" How AC/DC’s Brian Johnson ended up playing on the same football team as Chuck Norris
- Phil Collins reveals that he nearly died in 2024: “My kidneys were packing up, my organs were just seizing up. People were coming to say goodbye”
- "I probably should've put them through hell." Tarja reflects on her public dismissal from Nightwish in 2005
- Ross Robinson reveals that Slipknot were talking about splitting up just before they made Iowa: “We’re just not getting along. We’re gonna break up.”
August 1
- “Joe stayed up for three days drinking bottle after bottle of brandy, berating everyone around him for their weaknesses, and just really losing it”: Bust-ups, busking and the last days of The Clash
- "Rock and metal is one of the few genres that has kept a certain quality." Lacuna Coil singer says metal bands are maintaining higher standards than most in the face of industry challenges
- “If someone says they don’t like something, that makes me embrace it even more”: Steve Harris defends Iron Maiden’s No Prayer For The Dying album – and names the one radical thing he’d change about if
- “In the wake of all the frustration and banging our head against, it felt like everything aligned perfectly. I don’t think a lot of people get that moment in their life”: The two millennial classics that turned Jimmy Eat World into low-key emo royalty
- “It really seriously disturbed me, singing my songs about peace and love and there’s fighting in front of me. But it was very good for the album”: Steve Hillage’s career in and out of psych prog icons Gong
- "One of the things that Bruce Dickinson and Paul Di’Anno didn’t have was, they’d not seen Iron Maiden as a fan." Blaze Bayley on heart attacks, being banned by the church and his legacy with 'metal's greatest band'
- “Some bands you see and you just know. The Beatles were one. The Stones were one. AC/DC were one”: This is what Lemmy really thought of AC/DC and their legendary singer Bon Scott
- Jim Root responds to rumours that Sid Wilson has been fired from Slipknot: “Don’t believe everything you read. Stop. Think.”
- "They liked the Butthole Surfers, they liked Iggy Pop, they liked us… we were keeping good company." How Beavis and Butt-head's approval of Thunder Kiss '65 turned White Zombie into a million-selling band
- “If he felt the bass parts while he was singing, it could only be a matter of time before it crept down from his head into his fingers”: How Boz Burrell saved King Crimson when Robert Fripp had lost hope
- “I had a creepy feeling things were going against us”: The chilling prophecy and unthinkable tragedy that overshadows one of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s greatest albums