Latest articles by Dom Lawson
The “really evil” bandleader who was more challenging than Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp
Despite a huge range of experience, bassist easily identifies the person he found most difficult to work with
The story of Machine Head’s Burn My Eyes, the game-changing album that revitalised 90s metal
Machine Head’s Robb Flynn looks back on the making of his band’s classic debut
How a deteriorating DevilDriver made Clouds Over California
Even as Dez Fafara’s melodeath riff-slingers were falling apart, they masterminded one of their era’s most enduring singles
The pioneering European metal queen loved by Dio, Lemmy and Gene Simmons
The life and times of Doro Pesch
If you can’t connect Sunn O))) with King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis, let them explain
If you can’t connect the drone metal heroes with King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis, allow co-founder Greg Anderson to explain
“I saw Frank Zappa sit in with Pink Floyd. He was terrible”: Swans’ Michael Gira
The lifelong experimental rocker believes only the first three Mothers Of Invention albums are worth listening to, because after that Zappa succumbed to “unfortunate prog tendencies”
Mikael Åkerfleldt still doesn’t know what Storm Corrosion is about, and won’t ask Steven Wilson
When the Porcupine Tree and Opeth leaders got together in 2012, they were prepared to defy fans. And Åkerfleldt only wanted one thing out of the collaboration: a copy of their record
How Mikael Åkerfeldt fell in love with prog, even though his friends hated what he was doing
Making up for childhood poverty, the Opeth mastermind championed classic bands of the 70s when no one else cared – which made him a strange figure on the 90s Swedish metal scene
It took nearly 50 years for Happy The Man to hear their music the way they’d intended
Tripped up by record company machinations, the American pioneers – who nearly became Peter Gabriel’s backing band – didn’t think their first two records would ever sound like they had in the studio
Peter Gabriel wanted to hire them. They preferred their own music
The ex-Genesis singer wanted them to be his backing band exclusively, leaving them to choose between his ambitions or their own
The turbulent story of Anvil, the band who claim to have brought heavy metal to North America
Anvil should have been huge, but fate had other plans
"We were like, ‘What if we take speed? Maybe we can play even faster!’ We were definitely better without the drugs." How Europe's biggest thrash band went from getting their mum to sign deals to satanic metal mastery
"When we heard Venom, all our songs became satanic."
Every Megadeth album ranked from worst to best
The metal icons have released their final album and are on their last-ever tour – here’s how they got here
The trailblazing German thrash queen who inspired a generation of female singers
Holy Moses’ Sabina Classen is one of metal’s great pioneers – but she rarely gets the credit she deserves
“If I find him haunting me, I’ll know I did something wrong”: How Cardiacs completed late leader Tim Smith’s album LSD
A brother who took over the band, a singer who struggled to keep the secret and a determination to do exactly what their late leader would have wanted led to the end of an 18-year journey
“Ghosts, rustling, scraping at the window… happening every full moon”: The creepy tale of Camel’s Moonmadness
Charged with matching The Snow Goose’s surprise success, Andy Latimer’s band wrote a record about themselves – disguising their vocals because they’d been told they couldn’t sing
Every solo album by Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson ranked from worst to best
Even if you take The Beast out of the equation, Bruce Dickinson has had a magical career. Here are his seven albums in reverse-order of excellence.
“I could have ‘guitarist for Genesis and Yes’ on my CV”: Why Steve Hackett didn’t take up Chris Squire’s Yes offer
Hackett was in reflective mood when he released 2019 album At The Edge Of Light – which he described as not remotely progressive, explaining why that was a good thing
The 80s metal anthem that turned the band who wrote it into global superstars – and the X-rated title it nearly had
Things could have turned out very different if the drummer had his way
“I was 100 per cent sure I was going to die”: Leprous’ Einar Solberg faced his teenage demons on solo debut 16
Abandoning attempts to dial down his own drama, he delivered a moving and multifaceted collection of collaborations in 2023. He immediately wanted to do it again
"We went to his place, had a jam, and then he asked if I’d ever played with a Ouija board."
Recording outside Germany for the first time, Warlock's swansong would also launch an international metal icon
This is the end, but Megadeth are leaving us with an absolute killer of a final album
Megadeth will be missed, but what a final record to leave us with
Every year the most unlikely prog supergroup spend three days shaping weirdo music. It works.
The trio have refined their approach to a project they only started for fun, admitting it’s exploded beyond any of their expectations and changed they way they look at their more usual activities
