Dave Everley

Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

Articles by: Dave Everley

Candlemass 1986

"Solitude is Candlemass's Paranoid": How a killer hangover inspired one of doom metal's most epic tracks

By Dave Everley published

Recorded in an old bomb shelter, Candlemass's Solitude was less about deteriorating mental health than it was an ode to killer hangovers, but nonetheless set the tone for the epic doom to come

Code Orange in 2023

Code Orange's The Above is everything modern heavy music should be but all too often isn’t. If this is "selling out", more bands should try it

By Dave Everley published

Code Orange continue their streak as one of the most exciting and ambitious bands in all of modern metal

Soft Machine in 1970 and Whitney Houston in 1986

“The interesting thing is that she copies Robert Wyatt’s phrasing exactly”: the weird connection between Whitney Houston and the 60s UK prog scene

By Dave Everley published

How an obscure 60s prog-jazz cover gave Whitney Houston her big break

Christopher Lambert as Connor Macleod in Highlander

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Freddie Mercury is cooking me breakfast”: how Queen and James Bond turned Highlander into one of the great cult movies of the 80s

By Dave Everley published

Director Russell Mulchay looks back on the classic 80s movie Highlander and its Queen soundtrack

Pearl Jam in 1992

Every Pearl Jam album ranked from worst to best

By Dave Everley published

Dismissed by many of their peers as grunge interlopers, Pearl Jam have out-written, out-sold and outlived most of those detractors – here we guide you through their albums

AC/DC with (inset) Rick Nielsen

"They were the kind of guys you’d see drinking and fighting on the docks on a Friday night": Why I ❤️ AC/DC, by Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen

By Dave Everley published

Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen on jamming Chuck Berry songs with AC/DC and introducing Bon Scott to Mexican food

Dug Pinnick and the cover of AC/DC's If You Want Blood You've Got It

"They were everything I wanted to hear at that moment. I fell in love with them": Kings X frontman Dug Pinnick on the moment he discovered AC/DC

By Dave Everley published

King’s X frontman Dug Pinnick on the magic of AC/DC's If You Want Blood You’ve Got It – and jamming with Brian Johnson.

Gareth Ainsworth in leather jacket and shades

By day he's the manager of football's Queens Park Rangers, by night he sings in a rock band: These are the 10 albums that changed the life of Gareth Ainsworth

By Dave Everley published

"I felt different on the pitch, I felt like I was unique. That’s what the music does to you" – QPR manager and Cold Blooded Hearts frontman Gareth Ainsworth picks the albums that have guided his path through life

Akio Sakurai onstage

"There's nothing original about me, it’s all about him": Inside the mind of guitarist Akio Sakurai, the Jimmy Page fan whose devotion is the subject of a new film

By Dave Everley published

The captivating and peculiar story of Mr Jimmy is in theatres now

Corey Taylor 2023

"All the dramas in my life caught up with me." Corey Taylor on Slipknot, sobriety, and going solo

By Dave Everley published

Almost 25 years since Slipknot's self-titled debut, Corey Taylor might be suffering, but he's by no means throwing in the towel as he prepares for his second solo album CMF2

Papa Emeritus IV on stage

The final show on Ghost’s US tour is an absolute triumph - and one big question about Papa Emeritus IV's immediate future is answered

By Dave Everley published

Ghost play to more than 30,000 people over two nights in Los Angeles – but did Cardinal Copia/Papa IV make it out alive?

Someone throwing the horns in a crowd

The 50 best live albums ever

By Fraser Lewry published

The best live albums are defining moments in any band’s career, when the music, the performance, and the atmosphere generated between band and audience are captured on tape

Rush in 1982

“They had their own code… They would communicate with each other via eye contact and head movements. It was amazing how many long, nuanced phrases they could play that way”: How Rush made Signals

By Dave Everley published

The trio’s ninth album was born amid tension over synths and mixes and a concern about disappointing long-term fans - but it proved to be the band’s transition into the 80s and beyond

Corey Taylor in 2023

"You get one chance at grabbing lightning": Corey Taylor says Stone Sour were "never going to have the same impact" as Slipknot

By Rich Hobson published

Corey Taylor opens up on the relationship between Stone Sour and Slipknot in an interview in the new issue of Metal Hammer

Wolfgang Van Halen lying on a basketball court

"It was something I didn’t know how to handle. That did a lot of damage to me" Wolfgang Van Halen on Eddie, Mammoth II, and his time as "the biggest enemy of every forty-to-fifty-year-old man" in the world

By Dave Everley published

Life isn’t always a bed of roses when you’re following in a famous parent’s footsteps, but Wolfgang Van Halen is escaping his father’s shadow and succeeding on his own terms

Wolfgang Can Halen added to the cover artwork of Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

"Big Balls made my dad laugh so hard": Wolfgang Van Halen on how he bonded with dad Eddie over Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

By Dave Everley published

Wolfgang Van Halen on Malcolm Young: "The groove that man had was untouchable"

Segments of the sleeves of five underrated prog album

The most underrated albums by 10 major prog bands

By Classic Rock published

Showing a little love for the overlooked classics by prog giants Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Rush and more

Segments of four Iron Maiden single covers

The 20 most underrated Iron Maiden songs

By Dave Ling, Dave Everley published

Everyone knows the anthems – but these are the songs that Maiden connoisseurs know rule

P.O.D. in 2001

“I look into the eyes of young people and there's still a disconnect – there's tragedy, there's hurt." How a tragic school shooting inspired P.O.D. to write nu metal's most affecting anthem with Youth Of The Nation

By Dave Everley published

Christian nu metallers P.O.D.'s hit single resonated deeply with an American public seeing gun violence escalating in schools, and rocked by the tragedy of 9/11

Joe Elliott and David Bowie

“David Bowie kidnapped us!”: the unlikely story of Joe Elliott, Bono, Bowie, a hijacked taxicab and the most unlikely version of Happy Birthday ever

By Dave Everley published

When a starstruck Joe Elliott met David Bowie at a party at Bono’s house, he didn’t expect to be accused of kidnapping Ziggy Stardust

Blue Oyster Cult’s Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma duelling guitars onstage with an inset of Angus Young of AC/DC

“I was p**sed off and I proceeded to stomp”: the time Blue Oyster Cult declared war on AC/DC at an 80s music festival

By Dave Everley published

How a long-standing grudge between Blue Oyster Cult and AC/DC boiled over at the legendary Monsters Of Rock festival

Rush in 1982

"I was sitting there thinking, I can’t hear guitar": Alex Lifeson on the battle behind Rush's most divisive song, Subdivisions

By Dave Everley published

Sonically, Subdivisions took Rush further into the world of synthesisers – and guitarist Alex Lifeson wasn't happy about it

Murderdolls

"Joey got to take the mask off and be a different person": how The Exorcist, quoting Airplane! and Joey Jordison's mum turned Wednesday 13 from Hot Topic clerk to glam punk star

By Dave Everley published

Joey Jordison had already found acclaim with Slipknot, but horrorcore glam-punks Murderdolls let him flex an entirely different side to his music

Elegant Weapons

“Will I be borrowing the Harley? Nah, they’ve given me a moped!": Richie Faulkner's Elegant Weapons are the supergroup trad metal needs in 2023

By Dave Everley published

How emergency heart surgery, COVID and a love for trad metal led to Richie Faulkner's Elegant Weapons, featuring members of Judas Priest, Rainbow and Pantera

A montage of album covers picked by famous musicians

30 musicians on the album that changed their life as a kid

By Classic Rock published

Members of Kiss, Black Sabbath, Guns N’ Roses, Def Leppard, Rage Against The Machine and more reveal the albums that set them on the path to rock stardom