Features archive
January 2026
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121 articles
- January 18
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- “I was 100 per cent sure I was going to die. They were slamming my head against a railway track”: Leprous’ Einar Solberg faced his teenage demons on his solo debut 16 – and enjoyed the experience
- “We did it all ourselves. We used vinyl instead of leather, and our bondage outfits were held together with Velcro and glue”: The 70s art-rock provocateurs who stole Alice Cooper’s crown as America’s most deviant band
- “One of the guy’s friends came at Joacim from behind and smashed a glass in his face. Then they all ran away like scared rats”: The violence and defiance behind the 2000s metal anthem that accidentally inspired an Olympic gold medal
- “Here was a song I’d written, and it sounded absolutely magnificent. If I was to fall down a hole and never play again, I’d have that”: The legendary punk single that beat the Sex Pistols out of the gate by a month
- “When I look back, there’s never been any one thing that’s been normal about this band. I’m used to strangeness in my world!”: The controversial dance band who lit a fire under the 90s metal scene
- “Dream Theater have been completely unchallenged until now. There’s only so much room at the top of prog metal. We intend to have our thrones put in there”: How supergroup Sons Of Apollo flew before they fell
- “He hit me and he started crying and I remember thinking, ‘Weak as I am, I’ve got no tears for you, I’ve got tears for myself’”: The harrowing moment from a toxic relationship that this singer turned into a 90s rock classic
- January 17
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- “He was recovering from a broken jaw and was suffering chronic pain, but he was determined to endure”: How an ailing country icon made one of music’s greatest comebacks – with help from Rick Rubin, Tom Waits and Glenn Danzig
- “Kurt was a mess, drug-wise. I didn’t feel it was anybody’s business, I just wanted him off the project”: Kurt Cobain was supposed to produce these underground metal icons’ major label album – but they still made a classic without him
- “As we were leaving, Keith handed me this 1964 Gibson Hummingbird acoustic. ‘That’s not mine,’ I said. He said, ‘It is now. It’s yours’”: The incredible story of the cult British rock’n’rollers who happen to be one of Keith Richards’ favourite bands
- “After scrapping two albums I went to the accountant to find out how many pennies were left in the piggy bank. The answer was not many”: How Bruce Dickinson gambled everything on his second solo album – and ended up leaving Iron Maiden because of it
- “He phoned me up at seven in the morning and played about ten seconds of the EP over the phone. That was the moment”: Twenty-five years ago, five rowdy New Yorkers released a three-song EP that changed the course of rock’n’roll
- “My mother was a witch’ was a great opening line. His mum probably took offence, but she’s probably forgiven him now”: The lost NWOBHM classic that Metallica turned into one of metal’s most famous songs
- January 16
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- Metal Hammer reader's poll - the best metal albums of 2025
- "What’s the last thing a drummer says before getting kicked out of the band? 'Hey guys, I have a song that I think we should play!'" The story behind the forgotten Nirvana song that Dave Grohl was too nervous to include on their final album
- "We were brothers and I was trying so hard that I was choking him. That’s how I was taught to control things: intimidation and rage." Inside the depressing night Metallica split with Jason Newsted
- "The police and the army were all carrying guns. There was a real edginess to it all." How a "feral" Ozzy Osbourne crowd, an onstage meltdown, and some ill-advised nudity on live TV sparked a police manhunt for a British rock star in South America
- "I heard something on an ABBA record and it inspired the riff I needed. I said, ‘Guys, I’ve got it!'" The Sex Pistols, pop legends, Danny Boyle and the Olympics: the unlikely story of one of the most important punk songs of all time
- Ghost, Lamb Of God and Black Label Society: the best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "Playing a full set of Motörhead songs with Phil Campbell stood next to me is a bit nerve-racking": With a new deal and friends in the right places, Fury are ready to move up a level
- The Beatles Quiz: How much do you know about Help!?
- “It felt like the best thing we’d ever done. I was shocked when it wasn’t received well. The record company definitely didn’t like it”: Inspired by King Crimson, this 80s band pioneered a new kind of rock – and paid the price
- “Metal has always been a very tribal thing - some felt we were provocative merely for existing": The story of the Living Colour song that namechecked Stalin and Mussolini and inspired Tom Morello to form a band
- January 15
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- Prog's Tracks Of The Week is back with cool new proggy sounds from Big Big Train, Soen, Charlotte Wessels and more
- "The Minotaur has the face of his father. He has to decide whether or not to kill it." The true story behind Minotaur, the mythical Tom Jones/Black Sabbath concept album that shook the world of rock
- Debate: Will the return of Rush be the biggest prog event of 2026?
- "We went to his place, had a jam, and then he asked if I’d ever played with a Ouija board." Ball lightning, a freak house fire and the occult: how one classic 80s anthem officially crowned the queen of heavy metal
- One of the world's best and most diverse metal lineups in the heart of one of Europe's coolest cities? Here's why you need to be at Mystic Festival 2026
- "Eric Clapton wrote Wonderful Tonight at ours, sitting on a wheelbarrow": What happened when the bassist with one of the UK's biggest bands quit rock'n'roll for life on the farm and a travelling musical carnival
- “You probably wouldn’t think of us sounding like Pink Floyd. But we’ve got a lot of stuff live that’s quite trippy, influenced by them”: Feeder’s Grant Nicholas on having dinner with Alex Lifeson and trying to sing like Jon Anderson
- "If you break the song down, it's really not that original. But I thank God every day that I wrote it": How one radio play turned the Undertones' intended final release into a brand new beginning
- “Somebody threw a toilet roll at Peter Gabriel. He threw it back and it landed just below me. I had that bog roll on my windowsill for years!” Marc Riley’s prog world
- "He might not rank alongside Kiss, Aerosmith or Van Halen, but he was arguably more influential": Nine albums you need to listen to by Ronnie Montrose and one to avoid
- "We've lasted so long because we were never friends": Fifty years in, Cheap Trick might not hang out with each other, but musical glue binds them together
- January 14
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- “I said, ‘Listen, I don't think you should die!’” How Dave Grohl realised that the end was near for Kurt Cobain and Nirvana
- "Calvin Klein asked us to do an advert. We were like, 'f-you, no way!' That would have been huge." From touring with Slipknot to turning down iconic fashion designers, the story behind Kittie's classic nu metal anthem, Brackish
- "The only reason you look in the rearview mirror is to see how cool you look going forward." This is what happened when Metallica's Lars Ulrich interviewed one of his heroes, Iron Maiden legend Steve Harris
- "I nearly died at Download Festival. When I took that mask off it was like upturning a bucket." From a panic attack in a Rolls-Royce to being metal's hottest new masked band: an interview with President
- “It’s the worst thing you can imagine – a song written by the rhythm section. I have to fit a guitar part over this?” How Rush made Grammy-nominated instrumental YYZ
- "The song means as much today as it did then - kids trying to break out of their town to find something to do": Influenced by Aleister Crowley and toothache, the song that introduced new wave still strikes a chord
- January 13
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- “I’m so glad he got to hear what happened. His son told us it made it easier for him to let go”: The last message of a prog giant who hoped his band would outlive him, 48 years after it began
- "My god, we were such impatient boys." How a David Bowie screw-up and some dramatic miming on British TV helped Queen secure their first hit single
- “If it leads to success we don’t have anything against it. We still have the death metal vocals, after all – those put a lot of people off”: Amorphis steered surprisingly close to pop-rock on their latest album. But they’re not selling out
- "We get off stage and I haven’t seen him like that in 20 years. He was livid." How Metallica's crazy team-up with Lady Gaga started with an A-list dinner party and almost ended in total chaos
- “I said I’d sing it on the condition that I could record a song of my choice as well. That song flopped and theirs was a big hit!” How a future Mike Oldfield collaborator wound up with a glam rock chart-topper
- “It was a strange time. We didn’t have a manager and the base of the band had fallen out”: How Sepultura came back to life with Choke
- "When I'm peeling the sprouts, it's nice to hear Cannibal Corpse or Obituary just to maintain a bit of edge": Justin Hawkins on Christmas, being back in arenas, supporting Iron Maiden, brother Dan being a rock star, Yungblud and more
- "There was a rocky section with an avant‑garde solo, then some brass, and of course a complete piss-take of 50s doo‑wop": How a 40-year-old Glaswegian out-weirded David Bowie to become the most unlikely pop star of 1973
- January 12
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- "It was like sleeping with your ex-wife." Why a one-off reunion convinced one of the world's best-loved bands to turn down a $250 million offer to tour again
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: January 12, 2026
- "He was trying to get his life off the ground, and he's handed this $100,000 check." The story of the unknown musician who helped Axl Rose write a Guns N' Roses classic
- "Every time I opened Rolling Stone there was a picture of him in his underpants." How Mariah Carey, Cher, Whitney Houston, Courtney Love, Michael Stipe and more got savaged by one of the 90s' most brutal diss tracks
- "It's gotta have some kind of sexuality and alcohol abuse and some kind of looseness to it": The story of Queens Of The Stone Age's signature tune, a still-mysterious banger powered by Dave Grohl and a truly whacked-out video
- "We're faking it until we make it, and that seems to be working for us so far!" Blending Fleetwood Mac’s bluesy etherealness with Led Zeppelin’s grit, multi-national rockers Luna Marble are just getting started
- January 11
- January 10
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- "We’ve not got too many years left so every gig is sacred...you appreciate it more." Iron Maiden legend Steve Harris on 50 years of heavy metal - and what comes next
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "He sang it to me and I thought it was beautiful. But he was emphatic: 'No, this isn't what we do!'" The story of the classic song Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't want to record and its unexpected impact on Middle America
- “Thank you for the good times. They will never rot”: David Bowie’s final message to Brian Eno – which he didn’t understand at first
- January 9
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- “It was Michael Jackson’s label. The people that worked there mostly thought that alternative, heavy music was garbage”: How cult fixtures Prong found their brief mainstream moment
- “We were supposed to sign our contract, but we had so much champagne celebrating that we forgot”: The story of Human Waste Project, the lost nu metal band who should have been huge
- “He was grateful just to play some music rather than just dwell on death”: When two members of Yes and one member of Led Zeppelin got together, anything could have happened. Sadly, very little did
- “People were saying that the style we were playing would mean we never got signed”: Sounding nothing like anyone else, how System Of A Down overcame the odds and started their climb to dominance
- "Nazis popped out of a U-Haul van, walking around the city." The craziest break-up ever, political black metal and Zakk Wylde's wingman: the best new metal bands you need to hear this month
- "I was naked in the vocal booth. At first, I did it as an experiment to see if it would help, then it became a tradition": The story of the spandex-clad classic that launched its creators into the stratosphere
- “If you’re talking dazzling sleight of mind, radical ideas and a willingness to create shock-art for the masses, there was no one more brilliant”: Revisiting David Bowie’s career from a prog perspective
- January 8
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- "In the mid-80s, to get your record played, you had to take the guitar solo out." Radio stations tried to cut Eddie Van Halen's solo from one of his most iconic songs
- "Any money I will make I will happily give away to others. Print that, because I will stand by that!" He said it would be "counter-productive" if his band's debut album was a huge success. Then it sold 20 million copies
- "I remember us saying, ‘Well, if the band doesn’t make it, we’ll join the Marines.’" The story of the song that gave thrash metal its name
- Queen Quiz: How much do you know about A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races?
- "The beauty of it is that it's two minutes long. It's not like it's Free Bird where you have to suffer through 10 minutes of playing it every night": The story of the psychotic debut single that kick-started the grunge revolution
- "Wildest night out? I'd have to say Lemmy. I don't think we got much sleep": Danko Jones on meeting AC/DC, playing with Marty Friedman and a wild night out in London
- January 7
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- "After he died, his body was dug up and moved seven times because people thought his fingers were possessed by the Devil": Bruce Dickinson's unreleased rock opera may be the greatest untold story of them all
- How Pope John Paul II forced Queen to cancel a planned appearance at Manchester United's 'Theatre Of Dreams'
- "Metallica seek raw, rowdy 'n' gutsy frontman." That time Metallica launched a worldwide search to find a new vocalist via an ad in a British music magazine
- "At school I did a presentation about Black Sabbath! I knew I wanted to move to the UK." Jack Black, angry nuns and Duolingo: the strange story of metal's weirdest new stars, Calva Louise
- "It did surprise us. People started calling us sell-outs." How Metallica wrote the metal power ballad that saved Miley Cyrus - and that Elton John called 'one of the best songs ever written'
- "I looked around and nobody was happy. And I was thinking: 'This is going to be rough'": What happened when Bruce Dickinson made the decision that changed his life
- “We started each day by doing yoga and breathing exercises. Then we took mushrooms and it got a little too psychedelic!” The prog duo who lost their label for being too weird, and decided to get even weirder
- "The record company barely even knew who we were. When we took the demos into them, they said: 'You're Super-Who?'": The story of the Supertramp classic the band eventually found too difficult to play
- "Purple Rain is like Stairway To Heaven. It's non-religious, but people feel reverent about it": The story of Prince's Purple Rain, this year's viral Stranger Things needle drop
- January 6
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- “War is senseless, it’s stupid, and in the end you could end up dead… but in some ways it is glorious”: From the Crimean War to the Stranger Things finale, the story of Iron Maiden’s The Trooper
- "We'd like to discuss a chart position." How a secret $70,000 cash payment to Italian gangsters secured a British rock band their first US hit single
- "The band started that album cycle as ones to watch and emerged as one of rock’s new leaders." Every Halestorm album ranked from worst to best
- “I hope they get sued. It’s a shameless ripoff. They should be slapped on the wrist for that”: How Tool attracted mainstream attention – and the ire of one of rock’s greatest frontmen
- "We weren't seen as enigmatic as some bands. I do feel that we were kind of under-appreciated": Ben Ward looks back on three decades in the Orange Goblin trenches
- “I’d never played a professional gig. To suddenly be aboard a cruise ship surrounded by real prog legends was just surreal”: How Haken’s last line-up change powered seventh album Fauna
- "I see them as the greatest ever rock'n'roll band. How can it be a bad thing to be compared to the best there is?" Airbourne on AC/DC, non-annoying Christmas songs, and why their new album had to be exactly right
- "We set out to make the ultimate Priest album. It could be the most successful failure we'll ever have!" A classic encounter with Judas Priest as they prepare to unleash the album that saves them
- January 5
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- The day that one of BritPop's biggest and best-loved stars shocked Glastonbury festival by joining hard rock legends Spinal Tap for a controversial celebration of plus-sized female buttocks
- "I probably should have retired years ago but I really love keeping the band alive": Ten Years After are down to one original member but there's still gas in the tank
- "I live in my childhood home, so the studio's right there. It's what I need to watch and protect, for the rest of my life": Wolfgang Van Halen on 5150, battling demons and the good ship Mammoth
- “I say, not entirely jokingly, we’re mapping out the architecture of eternity”: Every year the most unlikely prog supergroup spend three days shaping weirdo music. Their third album proves it’s working for them
- January 4
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- “She said, ‘Mick wants to speak to you.’ It was Jagger asking if I was free to tour with the Stones”: He produced the Sex Pistols, played with Bryan Ferry and Tom Waits, and turned down the Rolling Stones. But he remains one of rock’s best kept secrets
- “We identified with bands like Metallica because they came in with this punk rock energy. But back then the biggest songs were Love In An Elevator and Still Of The Night”: The unexpected rap metal hit that saved a band’s career and ushered in the 1990s
- “If you lived in LA, in the trenches, you could relate to it. And knowing Axl, I could relate to exactly where it was coming from”: The electrifying early Guns N’ Roses song written in a basement that signposted how huge they would become
- January 3
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- "If he had survived that period, he would be one of the biggest stars in rock now, making records with Bono and Bon Jovi": The 12-month struggle for the life of Phil Lynott
- “With strange chords and enigmatic lyrics, it fed the metal mainstream with some of its most prog-friendly material in years”: In the desperate moments before grunge, this British band offered an ambitious alternative direction
- “I was living on my own. Things had gone off the rails a bit, drinking too much”: It was in a weird time signature and their old singer struggled to play it, but this huge hit helped turn a 70s prog band into 80s pop stars
- “If anything makes me regret not pursuing more of an artistic career, it’s looking at Brian Eno”: Still, BJ Cole didn’t do too badly with David Gilmour, The Orb, Bill Nelson, Scott Walker and others
- January 2
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- Our pick of the best band t-shirts you can get your hands on right now
- “I spent four days arguing about what could be done with an orchestra.” The story of a Smashing Pumpkins classic, aided by The Who, the cast of Titanic and SpongeBob SquarePants
- "It felt nice to infiltrate things our way. We haven't gone begging to any ****er ever. People have always come round to our way of thinking." How Simon Cowell and a Christmas Number One helped turn a Scottish rock trio into household names
- "People say it's a masterpiece now but at the time, we all thought: 'Jeez, this could be the thing that finishes us!'" Steve Hogarth on creative risks, bad advice, and his first 30 years with Marillion
- "Van Halen were opening for us and they were killing us every night. But they made us a better band!" How Journey found Steve Perry and made Infinity, the album that set them on the road to superstardom
- "All of our relations, our uncles, dads, granddads, they've banged on about this place for years": What happened when Massive Wagons played the first rock shows at a historic venue in 40 years
- Iron Maiden, Metallica, Rush, Bon Jovi and more: 26 things we're looking forward to in 2026
- “Working with him would have been a dream. If I could go back in time, I know exactly how it would go”: Perturbator aka James Kent on why Vangelis’ music endures
- “I told Kurt Cobain that I was going to write a song that had more 'yeahs' in it than anything he’d written.” How a joke between R.E.M. and Nirvana's mercurial frontmen resulted in a 90s classic
- “Kate Bush gave me a copy of Aerial at a party. I knew it was a gentle, emotional record. She said, ‘Don’t fall asleep while listening!’” Simon Drake’s career as a magician was inspired by prog
- January 1
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- "I said, 'I think we should write the best song in the world.' Jack Black said, ‘You can’t do that!'" How Dave Grohl, Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk and Maynard James Keenan helped Tenacious D bring the greatest tribute song ever to the world
- “I don’t think Janis was living a life with the inevitability of death. She was getting cleaner and stronger”: The turbulent story of how Janis Joplin tried and failed to get off the rock’n’roll rollercoaster
- "I'm not a punk rocker. I don't make punk music. I don't walk around calling myself punk." How Shania Twain, Christina Aguilera's songwriters and an iconic neck tie helped Avril Lavigne launch her career-defining song
- “We didn’t make music for radio. But I thought: ‘Why not try it this time?’”: Sampled by Michael Jackson and namechecked in The Simpsons – the surprise hit that transformed a washed-up 70s prog group into 80s superstars
- “Once James Hetfield said he liked it, that was it. He said that it kicked his ass”: Nineteen years ago, this US metal band released their sixth album. Today it sounds like a Master Of Puppets for the 21st century
- Radiohead, Pulp, Alice Cooper, Johnny Cash and Lana Del Rey: the surprising list of artist who made James Bond themes only to have them rejected
- "Really, the whole scene was very Spinal Tap. It was almost beyond parody": The true story of Hear 'n Aid, the heavy metal Band Aid
- "We'd stay up all night drinking, chasing girls, partying – and our pilot was with us. The next morning, he was flying the plane!" The rise, fall and rehabilitation of REO Speedwagon
- "I don’t think I have to forgive them. They replaced me when I was sick and said I ruined the band" Styx fired Dennis DeYoung in 1999, but he still wants a reunion for the fans
- The 20 best prog reissues of 2025
- The 31 best rock reissues and deluxe editions of 2025
