Articles by Mike Rampton, Freelance writer

Mike Rampton is an experienced London-based journalist and author, whose writing has also featured in Metro, Maude, GQ, Vice, Men's Health, Kerrang!, Mel, Gentleman's Journal, NME, and Mr Hyde. He enjoys making aggressively difficult puns, drinking on trains and pretending to be smarter than he is. He would like to own a boat one day but accepts that he probably won't.

Articles by: Mike Rampton

Every Blink-182 album ranked from worst to best

By Mike Rampton published 15 April 24

From their OG goofy classics to the Matt Skiba era and the Second Coming of Tom DeLonge, we rate Blink's full career so far

Rancid's Tim Armstrong, No Doubt's Gwen Stefani, Sublime's Bradley Nowell

One Step Beyond: How Rancid, Sublime, No Doubt and a generation of US ska-punks spread the Two Tone gospel to the world

By Mike Rampton published 22 February 23

No Doubt's Don't Speak hit the number 1 spot on the UK singles chart on February 22, 1997. Here's how the foundations for the Californian band's phenomenal global success were laid

Blazing squad: A deep dive into Rammstein’s fiery cameo in xXx

By Mike Rampton published 9 February 23

Dudes, remember that time Rammstein got all fired up in that seriously gnarly, kick-ass extreme sports /secret agent movie xXx? That was, like, sick

The weird but true story of Ministry's unlikely friendship with Steven Spielberg: "He thought we'd be baby-eating, satanic goat herders!"

By Mike Rampton published 5 December 22

A deep dive into Ministry’s unlikely cameo in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and their unlikely 'bromance' with film legend Steven Spielberg

A needlessly deep dive into The Offspring’s cameo in cult horror film Idle Hands

By Mike Rampton published 31 October 22

Ever wanted The Offspring's appearance in 1999 US horror flick Idle Hands dissected in frankly unnecessary detail? Step this way ghoul friend, we got you

Every Blink-182 album ranked from worst to best

By Mike Rampton published 12 October 22

Blink-182's 'classic' line-up are back in business: here's the legacy they're building upon, reviewed and ranked

A needlessly deep dive into Blink-182’s cameo appearance in American Pie

By Mike Rampton published 5 August 21

What happened when pop-punks Blink-182 appeared in 1999 teen comedy American Pie

A montage of famous faces screenshotted from videos they appear in

10 music video cameos by people who went on to become super famous

By Mike Rampton published 29 July 21

We can't all start at the top, and once upon a time music videos were fertile ground for training up soon-to-be-A-listers – as these 10 cameos prove

A deep dive into Cannibal Corpse’s appearance in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

By Mike Rampton published 26 July 21

What happened when death metal legends Cannibal Corpse appeared in Jim Carrey's 1994 film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

A heartfelt tribute to Wes Borland’s extremely silly band Big Dumb Face

By Mike Rampton published 22 July 21

We look back at Big Dumb Face, the brilliantly bonkers and impossible to categorise side project from Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland

A montage of pictures of various ska punk bands

The 10 best songs by 10 ska punk bands you’d forgotten ever existed

By Mike Rampton published 24 June 21

Ska punk has long suffered from a credibility problem – but these 10 forgotten anthems prove it's a genre that deserves way more love than it gets

Why Guy Fawkes Night is more metal than Halloween

By Mike Rampton published 5 November 19

The week begins with Halloween and ends with fireworks, which we think you'll agree is way more metal than prancing around as the Joker

How to have the most metal Christmas ever

By Mike Rampton published 19 December 16

Christmas isn't very metal, is it? Well that's all about to change.

Video Breakdown: Linkin Park – One Step Closer

By Mike Rampton published 10 December 16

That Linkin Park video in a tunnel featuring flying monks

Queens Of The Stone Age get into a fight with a deer

Video Breakdown: Queens Of The Stone Age – No One Knows

By Mike Rampton published 3 December 16

Watch a deer punch Josh Homme in the mouth

Limp Bizkit's Break Stuff video features Korn, Snoop Dogg and more

Video Breakdown: Limp Bizkit – Break Stuff

By Mike Rampton published 26 November 16

That video all about the he-says-she-says bullshit

Video Breakdown: Marilyn Manson – Tainted Love

By Mike Rampton published 19 November 16

This Marilyn Manson video is definitely not safe for work

Check out his clown from Mastodon's Blood and Thunder video

Video Breakdown: Mastodon – Blood and Thunder

By Mike Rampton published 12 November 16

Are you frightened of clowns? You'll absolutely hate this Mastodon video.

This is Lamb Of God's video for the song Redneck

Video Breakdown: Lamb Of God – Redneck

By Mike Rampton published 5 November 16

Lamb Of God are the world's most unlikely children's party booking

10 crowd gimmicks bands should implement

By Mike Rampton last updated 21 September 22

Sitting on the floor and jumping up again is getting a bit overused, so what else can we do?

10 reasons why David Brent is punk as fuck

By Mike Rampton published 28 July 16

In the run up to the release of David Brent: Life On The Road, we've realised that Slough's finest is a punk Trojan Horse in the corporate world...

A picture of Metallica's James Hetfield playing guitar on the moon

Metallica on the moon? 8 festivals science will eventually make possible

By Mike Rampton last updated 20 September 22

Shredding on the sea bed? Partying hard on Hoth? It's only a matter of time before science makes our festival dreams a reality

1
View Archive