
Joe Daly
Hailing from San Diego, California, Joe Daly is an award-winning music journalist with over thirty years experience. Since 2010, Joe has been a regular contributor for Metal Hammer, penning cover features, news stories, album reviews and other content. Joe also writes for Classic Rock, Bass Player, Men’s Health and Outburn magazines. He has served as Music Editor for several online outlets and he has been a contributor for SPIN, the BBC and a frequent guest on several podcasts. When he’s not serenading his neighbours with black metal, Joe enjoys playing hockey, beating on his bass and fawning over his dogs.
Latest articles by Joe Daly

“We wanted to challenge all the ideas. We had no rules, no limits, no laws”: why Oliver Stone’s The Doors is the most influential rock biopic ever made
By Joe Daly published
Oliver Stone’s The Doors divided the critics – and the surviving band members. But it made Jim Morrison a star all over again and laid down the template for the modern rock biopic

“I played Sweet Home Alabama, and that became part of Metallica’s The Four Horsemen”: The Four Horsemen vs Mechanix – how Metallica and Megadeth released two warring versions of the same song
By Joe Daly published
Megadeth leader and ex-Metallica guitarist Dave Mustaine wrote a thrash metal classic called The Mechanix in the early ’80s. Today, both bands lay claim to vastly different versions of the song.

The 10 best cover songs by Ghost
By Joe Daly published
Metallica, Tina Turner, Abba – here are 10 times Ghost completely owned someone else’s song

"All the things that happen during any revolutionary time brings out the best music": Vintage Trouble's Ty Taylor is ready for the revolution
By Joe Daly published
They’ve been off the radar for a while, but Vintage Trouble have returned with new album Heavy Hymnals, and this time their blazing rock’n’soul is fuelled by heartbreak, social commentary and racial injustice. Just don’t call it a comeback

9 legendary bands who are playing farewell tours in 2023
By Joe Daly published
This year will be your last chance to see Kiss, the Eagles, Foreigner ever play live

10 metalheads in movies and TV that break all the cliches
By Joe Daly published
Hollywood likes to portray metalheads as either bullies or dimwits. These 10 movie and TV characters smash all the stereotypes.

“He gave metal bands the exposure that a mainstream act would murder for”: Why Conan O’Brien is metal’s greatest unsung champion
By Joe Daly published
From spotlighting Linkin Park and Lamb Of God in their prime to pulling pranks on a Slipknot crowd, the former Late Night host truly is one of us

10 metal b-sides and bonus tracks so perfect that they should have been classics
By Joe Daly published
These bangers by Metallica, Linkin Park and more never got an album or single release – but, in hindsight, they really deserved one

Ten songs that fought back against the PMRC
By Joe Daly published
In 80s America, the Parents Music Resource Center sought to censor music by imposing a series of draconian rules. Here’s how a group of rock, metal and punk bands fought back

The 50 greatest Guns N’ Roses songs ever, and the stories behind them
By Dave Everley published
Guns N' Roses changed the shape of rock'n'roll when they emerged in the mid-eighties. Here's a half-century of their very best, and the stories behind them.

The night The Beatles were guarded by Christ and Moses
By Joe Daly published
In August 1966, The Beatles played their second to last show at LA’s Dodger Stadium – and they had a couple of familiar names on their security team

Demons, hair metal and Ozzy Osbourne playing a priest: Why Trick Or Treat is the 80s’ unsung metal horror classic
By Joe Daly published
In 1986, director Charles Martin Smith made an underrated horror movie lambasting the PMRC – and he got Gene Simmons, Ozzy Osbourne and Motörhead to help.

The strange story of the song that some people thought ‘inspired’ Enter Sandman (but probably didn’t)
By Joe Daly published
In 1991, some people noticed a similarity between Metallica’s Enter Sandman and a skatepunk song that had come out two years earlier

Hostile Tool crowds, a demonic Dave Grohl, pirvate jet rides with Slash and pissing off Lemmy: How Tenacious D became the world's most successful comedy metal band
By Joe Daly published
Jack Black and Kyle Gass look back on how Tenacious D became pop culture phenomenons - and reveal the real inspiration behind Tribute

"I'm really starting to get the itch. I want to headline arenas" - Rival Sons on the album that should take them to the next level
By Joe Daly published
After six albums in 15 years and touring alongside a raft of A-listers, new album Darkfighter finds Rival Sons ready to take it to the next level

Before she became one of the planet’s biggest pop stars, Taylor Swift collaborated with Def Leppard: “She heard our music in her mother’s womb”
By Joe Daly published
Remembering the time a pre-megastardom Taylor Swift ended up playing a gig with Def Leppard

How Tenacious D's satanic stoner comedy The Pick Of Destiny went from box office bomb to cult classic
By Joe Daly published
What Tenacious D's comedy rock opera The Pick Of Destiny lacked in box office returns, it made up for in heart and star cameos

Here are Metallica's ten fastest songs, ranked by BPM
By Joe Daly published
Here's all the proof you need that when they fancy it, Metallica know how to put the pedal to the metal

We got Tenacious D to interview Ozzy and it turns out even Jack Black gets star struck
By Joe Daly published
Metal, movies and Randy Rhoads – this is what happened when Tenacious D interviewed Ozzy Osbourne

Here are the hardest songs to play by each of the Big 4, as chosen by one of thrash metal’s greatest drummers
By Joe Daly published
Jon Dette has played with two of the Big 4, so he knows exactly which songs by Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth are toughest to nail

Immortal’s War Against All: thrilling riff-powered noise from Norway‘s black metal crusaders
By Joe Daly published
Album review: one-man army Demonaz delivers the black metal goods on Immortal’s new album War Against All

“Metallica loved it”: why Hesher is the greatest Hollywood movie ever to be inspired by Cliff Burton
By Joe Daly published
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt channelled late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton as the nihilistic title character in cult movie Hesher

Ozzy Osbourne reveals his favourite horror movie ever: "we were *****ing ourselves!"
By Merlin Alderslade published
Ozzy Osbourne reveals his favourite horror movie of all time in an exclusive new interview with Metal Hammer
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