Latest articles by Dom Lawson
"Musical insanity comes in many forms. Igorrr are attempting them all at once."
Avant-garde maniacs Igorrr are breaking brains with a little help from Mr. Bungle's Trey Spruance
"Everything about this band rules hard." Fantasy doom metal heroes Castle Rat have made one of 2025's most epic metal albums in The Bestiary
Looking like they've stepped out of the world of Conan The Barbarian, Castle Rat are one of metal's most vibrant new bands
“Genuinely shocking, and uninterested in the post-rock status quo”: Jo Quail’s Notan
The cello champion defies comparison as her compositional skills continue to develop and impress
Nosound’s rush return after seven years with To The Core
Giancarlo Erra had been avoiding guitar in favour of synths in solo and collab projects. Then he realised he’d assembled enough music to form a release, and had a good reason to do it quickly
Jean-Michel Jarre predicts music will follow video games into immersive universes
The death of a mentor and the world-pausing Covid event gave the eternal pioneer a chance to discover another new approach to his art: “The visual field for a human being is 140 degrees, but the audio field is 360 degrees”
One of the nastiest cult thrash metal bands you might never have heard of just made one of their best albums
New Desaster album Kill All Idols is more proof they should be way bigger - but maybe music this deathly and monstrous needs to live in the shadows
“Brought back to life with tremendous care”: Cardiacs’ On Land And In The Sea
The late, great Tim Smith’s prog-punk magnum opus returns on vinyl for the first time since 2007
Every Megadeth album ranked, from worst to best
Dave Mustaine has announced the metal icons’ final album – here’s how they got here
"If the bleak world is too much, hole up here”: Auri’s III – Candles & Beginnings
Tuomas Holopainen, Troy Donockley and Johanna Kurkela offer beautiful distractions in a collaborative set of soundscapes
How Mark Wilkinson’s artistic genius helped define Marillion’s image
With the Market Square Heroes sleeve acting as a successful audition, his partnership with the neo-prog icons meant he joined them in being free to create whatever art they wanted to
"My ambition is always to try to make the perfect album. I haven’t yet, but I’m still trying!” Jacob Holm-Lupo tells the story of Norwegian proggers White Willow
As their back catalogue reissues campaign reaches the halfway point, White Willow mainman Jacob Holm-Lupo explains the evolution of the Norwegian proggers
Jinjer, Blood Incantation and Rivers Of Nihil on the rapid evolution of progressive metal
Members of Jinjer, Blood Incantation and Rivers Of Nihil explain the current rapid evolution of a genre that broke out 40 years ago
Katatonia’s new era begins with Nightmares As Extensions Of The Waking State
Sweden’s melancholic masters successfully navigate recent choppy waters to deliver their lucky 13th album
How prog metal icons Dream Theater went full nerd-mode with epic concept album The Astonishing
There’s big, and then there’s Dream Theater’s 2016 prog metal blow-out The Astonishing
The rise, fall and resurrection of Armored Saint, the cult band who should have been as big as Metallica
Armored Saint were one of the greatest 80s metal bands never to hit the big time
Machine Head's Unatoned has so many crushing riffs that it should come with a health and safety certificate. This is a band back in peak condition
Machine Head's epic bounce back continues with the brilliant Unatoned
The Devin Townsend albums you should listen to... and one to avoid
Canadian enigma Devin Townsend’s catalogue spans extreme metal, sublime prog-scapes, colossal riffs and extra-terrestrials. Where to begin?
How an iconic comic book character inspired Anthrax to write a thrash metal classic
The story behind a comics-inspired thrash anthem
How Machine Head’s The Blackening became their own Master Of Puppets
The Blackening remains Machine Head’s masterpiece
How Heaven & Hell resurrected Black Sabbath’s other classic line-up with The Devil You Know
Heaven & Hell’s The Devil You Know was a Dio-era Sabbath record under any other name
Debauched prog revivalists to internet pioneers: The Marillion albums you should listen to
Since picking up the progressive rock baton from Genesis in the 80s, Marillion have recorded one of prog’s most impressive catalogues, and these are their best albums
The unbelievable rise of Opeth, the band who went from death metal no-hopers to prog royalty
Inside one of the most remarkable success stories in modern metal
“We took it badly – ‘No one wants us any more!’ We’d never been through the school of hard knocks. We didn’t know what it meant to work hard”: When ELP collapsed, Carl Palmer’s career-long lucky streak ended. But he didn’t give up
Born into a musical family and a pro by his teenage years with a real-life education in backstage realities, the passionate drummer has seen dreams come true with Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, Asia, Mike Oldfield and others
