Features archive

June 2025

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69 articles

June 14
- “When the hits dried up they made a poignant, multi-layered swansong for the 60s”: The Zombies’ final album Odessey And Oracle is a proto-prog classic
- “You wonder if any other drummer could have glued together all the impulses and influences at play”: Alan White’s 10 best performances with Yes
- "Trying to work it all out, that's what makes us human": Those Damn Crows and the search for meaning in uncertain times
June 13
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- Great new music you need to hear from Chimpan A, Whispers Of Granite, Leoni Jane Kennedy in Prog's new Tracks Of The Week!
- "My mother didn't particularly like the look of me and my dad didn't like the sound of me": Pete Townshend and the lifelong search for answers
- “He was disillusioned by wealth clashing with his principles. His fans thought riches were a good thing. Their reaction was the basis of everything else he did”: Roger Waters as seen via his Pink Floyd lyrics
June 12
- We went to Poland's biggest metal festival Mystic - this is what it was like
- The 10 best Sleep Token songs ever
- "Edge left. He was feeling that he couldn't serve both god and man. I decided I couldn't either. So we both quit." How Bono and The Edge's faith in Jesus almost destroyed U2
- “I saw us in a direct line from big band or modern jazz – but with complex interactive rock rhythms plus improvised solos”: Five Colosseum songs that prove the jazz-rock pioneers’ pedigree
- "It's purely experimental, with zero regard for commercialism": How Brian Wilson recorded Pet Sounds and reinvented music
June 11
- Brian Wilson interview: "I don’t like SMiLE any more. I got so tired of it and did it so many times I've forgotten it"
- "Everybody on the black side of my family was like, What is your problem?" In 1990, Slash broke his silence and shared his true feelings about Guns N' Roses' most controversial song, One In A Million
- “When are we going to stop with this Pink Floyd stuff and start playing some metal?”: The story of the most ambitious song in death metal history
- “There were arguments. But they weren’t personal – they were musical. They helped make it what it is”: How Yes defined themselves with Fragile, before success went to their heads
- "We went platinum and Warner Brothers told us we owed them two million dollars": How Van Halen followed one of rock's greatest-ever debuts
- "The police car rolled down a nearby slipway into the river": Wild times on the road on Rory Gallagher's most iconic tour
- “That’s the real boot in your privates – you’re focused on an album and then you’ve got to do two!” Mostly Autumn don’t just make records. They also make full-length, full-quality limited-edition companion records
- "I went upstairs to show the person how to play the riff... and it was John McEnroe!" David Bowie on the art and process of songwriting
June 10
- “We started out as a Pink Floyd tribute and evolved from that. Artists who claim to be original are lying through their teeth”: Airbag’s Bjørn Riis used classic prog inspirations to chart a nervous breakdown
- "Metallica rented our equipment but the sound guy wasn't up to his job." Former Nightwish bassist Marko Hietala on the 10 songs that changed his life
- “Bad songs do not go viral in metal – that may happen in other genres, but not in metal”: The Bloodywood guide to internet fame
- “Amnesiac was seen as having all the tracks that weren’t good enough for Kid A. But I loved it”: Charlotte Wessels hails Radiohead, although she doesn’t listen to them often
- “I really like Frantic! Killer song!” Wrestling legend Adam Copeland names his favourite track on each Metallica album
June 9
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- "People need to know the sacrifices bands are making to play a live show.” UK metallers Vexed are showing everyone just how much it costs to be a touring band - and the numbers are eye-watering
- “Suddenly we’re at a 24-hour Esso garage with a red TR7. Pickled Onion Monster Munch and Quatro for everyone!”: Jeff Wayne didn’t just fight Martians – he sold you the 80s via his TV music
- “The first time I played Rush’s YYZ I almost broke my fingers!” Epica bassist Rob Van Der Loo’s prog timeline, from Jon Lord to Dream Theater
June 8
- “Not the work of the blues bruiser some supposed him to be, but of an expert in judging precisely when to hang back and when to hit hard”: Jack Bruce’s Harmony Row
- “This one was really hard, we had massive arguments”: Radiohead on the making of Hail To The Thief, the record that got away from them
- “The reason Rush could rock while referencing Bertrand Russell and Elizabethan drama”: Neil Peart’s most powerful lyrics
June 7
- “He saw what everybody saw: they could play, they had a ton of energy and they were authentic”: The weird story of Frank Zappa and AC/DC
- “No, man! If we had had this level of success in the 70s we would not be here now. We would never have survived it”: The wild story of Aerosmith’s Pump, the album that turned them into superstars all over again
- “Sometimes I think, ‘This has become so big that I can’t handle this monster any more.’ I have some trouble comprehending it”: How Nightwish became the planet’s most epic symphonic metal band with Endless Forms Most Beautiful
- “We went on our lunch break and when we got back, Tony had come up with the Paranoid riff. It was literally 25 minutes of work. People went nuts about it!”: How Black Sabbath made Paranoid, the iconic album that rubber-stamped their greatness
- “Nothing in this band does what it's supposed to do”: how R.E.M. showed the world they were the real deal on 1985’s Fables Of The Reconstruction
June 6
- The 12 new metal songs you need to hear this week
- "Me and Ozzy were a team. I never thought, 'What about me?'" We chat to Sharon Osbourne about growing up in the music industry, her "confrontational" father, feuding with Iron Maiden and Billy Corgan and a whole load more
- Cool new proggy sounds from Jakko Jakszyk, We Lost The Sea, Raphael Weinroth-Browne and more in Prog's new Tracks Of The Week!
- "Ma, I'm real sick. I need help. I got to come home": The trauma and triumph of Stevie Ray Vaughan
- “In the last 10 years no one has stepped up. Being the sole songwriter is sometimes very lonely”: Jonas Renske hopes Katatonia’s new era includes more input from his bandmates
June 5
- Fistfights with John Lydon, sword fights with the Sisters of Mercy, gangsters, goth and Ferris Bueller: The epic story of Flesh For Lulu
- "There were multiple shows that I would show up for fully black-out drunk. I don’t remember them." From addiction and alcohol abuse to parenthood and poetry, here's everything The Used's Bert McCracken has learned
- "I can allow myself to be a bit sexier and say what’s on my mind": How Taylor Hawkins and a nameless girl inspired The Struts frontman Luke Spiller to make his brilliant and beguiling solo album
- “They’ve always ignored the rule book in favour of new, often over-the-top ideas”: These are Muse’s proggiest moments
June 4
- “It still doesn’t feel real that we’re supporting Slayer”: Neckbreakker released one of 2024’s most exciting metal debut albums. Now they’re about to live their biggest dream.
- "We went to abandoned cemeteries at night, stole everything we could find." Black magic, human skulls and Aleister Crowley – the twisted story of Tobias Forge’s favourite cult horror-metal band, Death SS
- "Shave my head, let’s just go for it!" How Hollywood superstar Matt Damon channelled his inner Henry Rollins to make a surprise cameo as an obnoxious punk rock singer in cult teen comedy EuroTrip
- “We never ever wanted a hit, so it was irrelevant”: Quantum Jump didn’t write the longest prog single, but they took the longest word in the dictionary to Number 5 via their 1979 track The Lone Ranger
- "Eddie Van Halen literally ran away from me!" Yngwie Malmsteen's wild tales of Lemmy, Ronnie James Dio, Metallica and more
- On the road with America's loudest survivors: Aerosmith, Kiss, and the making of Honkin' On Bobo
- A beginner's guide to 70s AOR in 10 essential albums
June 3
- The pretentious gatekeeping around Sleep Token points to a toxic heavy music culture - as a metal guitarist of over 25 years, I've seen this movie before
- "He's got a way of reaching into my soul": The soundtrack of Samantha Fish's life
- "We didn't want to become known as a ballad band. That's how you become Air Supply": Night Ranger look back on their sudden rise, equally sudden fall, and return to mid-level happiness
- “My hand ran off the keyboard… I ground to a halt, threw my hands in the air, and everyone looked at me. My father thought I was taking a bow and was very proud!” Genesis’ best and worst moments on stage
June 2
- "It’s a completely different thing to a band where I’m hiding in the back." Lars Fredrik Frøislie and the story of his debut solo album Fire Fortellinger
- "Partially responsible for hastening the demise of nu metal." We've ranked every Killswitch Engage album from worst to best
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- "We had already split up and still had to do a tour." How Within Temptation became one of symphonic metal's biggest success stories
- "There would be shootouts down the street." Machine Head's Robb Flynn takes us on a tour of Oakland, California - and 30 years of metal history
- “Knowingly progressive and endearingly archetypal in a way that only two young pop historians could fathom”: If you thought Ween were taking the piss with The Mollusk, you were wrong
- "Ritchie Blackmore gave me a wave as he fell backwards. That was my cue to do a ten-minute keyboard solo": Don Airey on Rainbow, Deep Purple and his awesome solo album Pushed To The Edge
- “In 1989 I paid a scalper $400 for a ticket to see The Who play Tommy. It was worth every cent”: Mike Portnoy on his top prog songs and artists, and why the Rolling Stones have the greatest-ever prog album sleeve
June 1
- "It took Bring Me The Horizon 10 years to get into arenas. Sleep Token did it in less than five." Inside the rise of Sleep Token, by those who were there
- “I thought you really had to work to make a song great. That’s actually a load of crap – the best songs I’ve written took 10 minutes”: When The Pineapple Thief began to break through with Someone Here Is Missing
- 4 brilliant new metal bands you need to hear this month
- “Rock'n'roll is a volatile thing... this is not an accounting office”: the story of Rated R, Queens Of The Stone Age’s strange, brilliant breakthrough record