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August 2026

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161 articles

August 15
- “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