Classic Rock Features

The record industry claimed he "wasn't black enough or white enough" to become famous - this is how the funk-rock superstar proved them wrong.

After his tenures in Rainbow and Sabbath ended in disarray, Ronnie James Dio was determined to create his own legacy. With Holy Diver, that's exactly what he did

They don't look like The Beatles. They don't dress like The Beatles. They're Dutch. There's five of them. But they sound exactly like the real thing

The hirsute Texan rockers have an extensive track record – here we pick out the ZZ Top records essential for any collection

Devil horns, hailing Satan, a song called Black Sabbath. No, it’s not a metal highlight reel: they were all found on Coven's unsung classic from 1969

The Seattle legends’ emotional tribute to Layne Staley would require them to dig deeper than ever – and get some unexpected help from Sir Elton John

The British band have written some of the great heavy metal anthems. But these are the connoisseur’s choices

Start your week with the latest and greatest new rock tunes, then vote for your favourite...

We talk to Herring & Herring, the photography company who have shot some of music’s biggest names

The album that turned a bunch of gnarly Swedes into flag-bearers for prog-metal in the new millennium

Michael Starr and Satchel on the track that made Steel Panther superstars

From hillbilly music and R&B’s first scuffles down a dusty dirt track, country rock had a long, meandering and colourful trip from birth into adulthood

Rock-rap was no longer virgin territory, but by 1991 things were ratcheted up a notch by the teaming of trash-culture metalheads Anthrax with militant rappers Public Enemy.

Thrash metal icon. Party monster. Cancer survivor. Overkill frontman Bobby ‘Blitz’ Ellsworth has done it all and lived to tell the tale

The classic T.Rex style and records are cloaked with glitter and stardust, and stand up with the very best rock’n’roll

As Lenny Kravitz prepares to tour the UK and Europe, we doff our caps to one of rock music’s most flexible and forward-thinking megastars…

Heavy metal doesn’t come more gloriously over-the-top than the self-proclaimed kings and defenders of ‘True Metal’ – here we round-up the albums essential to any record collection

In March 2007, Metal Hammer talked to Peter Steele about Type O Negative’s new album Dead Again. No one knew it would be his swansong

10 southern standards from Jacksonville, Florida's second-most famous sons, Molly Hatchet