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May 2025

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136 articles

May 24
- “The time was right. Metal had died a horrible death, grunge had killed the mainstream off, so it felt like a revolution”: The unholy story of Cacophonous Records, the underground 90s label that changed black metal
- “David Coverdale’s had to become a pop singer to get success. There’s your glamour bands and your denim-clad groups. And your denim-clad groups survive”: How AC/DC swam against the 80s hair metal tide and made an underrated gem in Blow Up Your Video
- “I’d have been in the corner with a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a mound of coke. I was out of my tree. I needed help”: How Judas Priest rose above darkness and death to make Turbo, their most divisive album
- “That day was probably the most important day of our lives”: the story of the first ever gig by the Appetite For Destruction-era Guns N’Roses
May 23
- All 20 Ronnie James Dio album ranked, from worst to best
- "I was afraid something inside of me was dying. Leaving was an act of survival": Life in the fast lane and the turbulent tale of the Eagles
- "The rock gods gave me gifts": Love/Hate frontman Jizzy Pearl on new album Punk Rock Fiesta and rock'n'roll's magic carpet ride
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- “Nothing Else Matters exposed the vulnerability behind what previously seemed to be a bulletproof heavy metal machine”: The five least metal Metallica songs
- Cool new proggy sounds from Jakko M. Jakszyk, Phase Transition, Barrens and more in Prog's new Tracks Of The Week!
- "That scene really embraced me, but I never really felt I fitted into that box": Chantel McGregor may have been welcomed by the blues scene, but her next step may surprise them
May 22
- Derided by critics as nothing more than a circus act, Kiss didn’t sell 100 million records by fluke: Every Kiss album ranked, from worst to best
- "We build dreams." How Tobias Forge and Beyonce's lighting designer Tobias Rylander joined forces to make Ghost's spectacular Skeletour the greatest show on earth
- "Intense. Beautiful. Devastating." Seven bands who defined Desertfest London 2025
- “Our style of music has an in for a type of personality like Steven Wilson and Robert Fripp – let’s call it the ‘control freak madman’”: How Caligula’s Horse searched for a new direction and new message with Rise Radiant
- "Some people say it's too personal but I owe my fans the truth": Michael Schenker and the appetite for self-destruction
May 21
- “Our tracks for film and TV are purposefully minimal. On our own albums, everything needs to work as a standalone rock song”: How Mogwai reached number one with As The Love Continues
- “The only time I went out of the house was when we had a show.” Alt Blk Era have put every bit of time and energy they have into their music. The results have got rock fans raving (literally)
- 10 songs we need to hear at Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath's farewell gig
- "We need pets – they make us live longer." Korn's Jonathan Davis teams up with fashion designer Ashton Michael to raise money for a dog shelter with his pet brand Freak On A Leash
- “Mick told Freddie Mercury who he was. As Mick walked away, Freddie shouted: ‘We’ll be bigger than you one day’”: The epic story of Sweet, the 70s glam icons who burned bright and refused to fade away
- “I love change. That’s what one should do with music. But I know it’s cost me a lot of fans… the music business rewards repetition”: Pink Floyd, King Crimson and Blue Öyster Cult DNA lies within Mike Scott and the Waterboys
May 20
- "I was driving, Steven Tyler had a gun and we were on some mission": The scandalous story of Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies
- “When asked about his family, Jim would often explain that his parents – still very much alive – were dead”: How The Doors’ Jim Morrison went from from drunken teen rebel to leather-clad 60s rock god
- “This band have tried their hand at everything from death metal to synthpop, but they’ve never once done it with a smile”: We rank every Paradise Lost album from worst to best
- “Everyone says Vienna was an electronic track, but it’s mainly piano, violin and viola. Those strange combinations made us what we were”: You may think Ultravox were a synth-pop band. They know they were prog
- I founded Brighton's first rock and metal Pride event. Here's why it's important that rockers in the queer community feel represented
- “Gary was so talented it actually haunted him. He wasn’t really in control of what was coming through him. That sort of thing always comes at a price”: How guitar icon Gary Moore snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with his early 80s solo albums
- “I even received death threats – ‘Communist Swede, you think you’re so fantastic. Come to America!’ I’ve been there; the way it’s going now is not good”: If the new Flower Kings album offends you, Roine Stolt can live with that
May 19
- "I was doing a ton of crack. And I took pills to try and calm down": The growing pains and artistic rebirth of Billy Idol
- "When Nirvana ended, I wasn't finished. I'm still not finished": Every Foo Fighters album ranked, from worst to best
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- “The world was my oyster, but when I opened it there was a turd inside… When my wife said, ‘I want half of everything,’ I said, ‘Write me a cheque for 450 grand and you can have half the debt!’” Fish on his three-decade solo career
- We've ranked every Ghost album from worst to best
- “Working with Nick Mason built my confidence. People recognised me as the guitarist I am”: How Gary Kemp came back from his post-pop wilderness to join the Pink Floyd family, and what Saucerful Of Secrets might do next
May 18
- “I have my own ways of ritual magick, but not in the typical way that most people would imagine. We’re not all Victorians, are we?”: The otherworldly story of goth mystics Fields Of The Nephilim
- “I was in a club and Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon came up to me and said, ‘I hear we’re in the running for the prize for spending the most time and money in a studio!’”: The epic story of Foreigner 4, the AOR masterpiece that helped shape 80s rock
- “Explicitly Satanic and utterly primal, their ritualistic assault influenced many later groups”: These 4 obscure black metal bands deserve to be as big as Emperor and Dimmu Borgir
- “This has been far from a singular endeavour”: your guide to every player who’s ever passed through Nine Inch Nails, from Pretty Hate Machine to now
May 17
- “He does worship the Devil. It’s his religion. The rest of us are really worried about what forces he may unleash, without meaning to do so!”: My weird night sleeping on King Diamond’s floor surrounded by human skulls and a Satanic altar
- “He got up, smashed the table and said, ‘I’ve got the power and I’m never gonna give it up!’ I prayed for sales to bomb. I was happy to see the thing die”: The turbulent story of Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry, the 80s metal classic that tore the band apart
- "You can hear how much bigger it sounds!" How Amorphis went large with 2018's Queen Of Time
- “The sex session did happen. What you hear on the song is real porn action”: The debauched story of Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction, the album that electrified 80s rock
- “A wolf in sheep’s clothing, full of smart and deceptive songwriting… oddball dispositions lurk in every darkened corner”: You may not have realised, but Deftones’ Diamond Eyes is a cunning prog masterpiece
- “I will retire before I become a human-jukebox caricature of myself”: How American guitar icon Bonnie Raitt helped carry the blues into the 21st century
- “We exhausted ourselves trying to help Scott and be a friend. He wanted no part of that”: the story behind Stone Temple Pilots’ ill-fated sixth record, as told by the band themselves
- “The depression lasted quite a long time. At the end of it, when I felt I was coming out of a long tunnel, I wrote God Gave Rock And Roll To You”: The epic story of Argent, the forgotten early 70s band who inspired one Kiss’ biggest hits
May 16
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "I see this lump in the bed, and I go, Oh God, who's this?" The day Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher woke up to find British light entertainment legend Alan Partridge in his hotel bed
- "I was on the floor, and he had his boot on my throat. I was like, That's great Elvis, that's great." The surreal story of the night Alice Cooper met Elvis Presley
- It's Prog's Tracks Of The Week!! Essential new proggy sounds from Peter Baumann, AVKRVST, Raphael Weinroth-Browne and more...
- "It makes me just want to die!" The Kate Bush song that makes Kate Bush cringe with embarrassment
- We rank every Architects album from worst to best
- "Nobody has ever sung a heavy metal song better than Ronnie did": A tribute to Ronnie James Dio
- “It was such a foundational thing. It helped me start my record collection. I’d really love to hear the original jam”: Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood hails The Edgar Winter Group’s Frankenstein
- "Driving in the middle of the night in North Ontario, someone flags us down. At that same moment, I smell smoke": Six things you didn't know about The Damn Truth
May 15
- “We need him much more than he needs us. Prog as a genre owes him a huge debt of gratitude”: The lasting impact of Brian Eno, the glorious anomaly who’s a genre unto himself
- “At that point in our life the party never stopped. It usually degenerated into a drunken brawl by the end of the night”: The wild story of Goo Goo Dolls’ A Boy Named Goo, the album that turned three punk kids into A-list stars
- “It’s time to restore a dynamic vision for the future that’s not just about recycling our garbage and all that”: Disillusioned by the 21st century, Jean-Michel Jarre aims to inspire a new hope
May 14
- "I lost a daughter, the only child I ever had and I didn’t want to deal with that." Randy Blythe explains how his new book is all about making peace with trauma and strife
- “I never write about people I know. I’ve always been against the idea of betraying any kind of confidence”: Are the touching tales of Jethro Tull’s Minstrel In The Gallery really just fiction?
- “If you’ve experienced failure and rejection, how can you possibly be anything but elated?”: How Bush’s Gavin Rossdale channelled frustration and loss into epic grunge ballad Glycerine
- "We’ve even got a video of Harper screaming her ABCs." Harper is metal's youngest star - and has Download Festival's main stage in her sights
- One note is all it takes: The unbelievable story of B.B. King
- “I’d have been up for having Slash on the album – but I’d have insisted he played the xylophone!” Steve Hogarth and Richard Barbieri pushed each other hard on their first album Not the Weapon But The Hand
May 13
- “People on their mobiles, getting bombarded with this information – it’s kind of like brainwashing”: Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen are waging a two-man war on the modern world with Smith/Kotzen
- “They played us The Things We Do For Love. We thought it was beige. They said, ‘We need a weird one, a slushy one and humour.’ I said, ‘We don’t work to order’”: How Godley and Creme quit 10cc and went to play with their Gizmotron instead
- "Being thrown out of recording sessions is a badge of honour!": The wild times and true confessions of Michael Des Barres
- "We got escorted out of town the next day because the big lawnmower went into the swimming pool": Grunge may have burst the big-hair bubble, but it saved Heart
- “It’s related to Won’t Get Fooled Again – the other side of the coin. We won’t get fooled again? Yes we will! This is Cloud Cuckooland”: Roy Harper tried to retire in 2013, but returned with Man & Myth instead
May 12
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- "I love technology, but not when it takes away time from the real world": Lacuna Coil's Cristina Scabbia on tech, Depeche Mode and new album Sleepless Empire
- “I had a white MkIII Cortina with the Warrior On The Edge Of Time poster on the back. Anyone who got in had to listen to Hawkwind”: Paul Hardcastle once used the space rockers’ titles for his own songs
May 11
- “Brent had an Iron Maiden jacket on so I went over to him to talk to him and he was like, ‘Hey you’re that crazy drummer dude’”: The chaotic birth of prog metal giants Mastodon
- Vikram Shankar’s Five Favorite Instrumental Prog Albums
- “I cherish the band, but I don’t expect anyone else to”: it’s nine years since the last Radiohead record and I accidentally got the only interview for it
- “The whole prog movement is about fairies and elves and we’re proud of that. But there are no fairies and elves on this album”: How prog metal icons Dream Theater went full nerd-mode with epic concept album The Astonishing
May 10
- “When we came to England, all the headlines said: ‘Crash-boom-blitzkrieg, the Krauts are here!’”: The epic story of the Scorpions, the German band who smashed through the barriers to conquer America
- “I thought we were going to die every time we hit the road. There were a lot of short fuses in the band”: The rise, fall and resurrection of Armored Saint, the cult metal band who should have been as big as Metallica
- “Partly a tribute to a fallen bandmate, it’s as emotionally raw as thrash ever got”: 10 epic ballads that show thrash metal’s emotional side
- "John made himself out to be the big working-class hero: he was the least working-class in the group." In 1984, revisiting his work with The Beatles, Paul McCartney shed new light on his relationship with John Lennon in his most revealing interviews ever
- “The whole world of rap-metal is just pathetically ridiculous. It makes me wanna throw up. It’s a horrible place to be”: How Incubus fought back against nu metal with Morning View
- “Dismissed as bland, complacent and of the establishment, it was now outsider music. If you wanted to be a true rebel, you came out as a prog fan”: Five essential neo-prog albums of the 80s
- “Iggy ran from one side of the stage to the other and head-butted the wall. I was covered in blood, because he’d come up and danced around me”: The Pretty Things singer Phil May’s wild tales of Hendrix, Zeppelin, Iggy Pop and Judy Garland
- As Oasis get ready to start rehearsing for their reunion tour, here’s what the setlist needs to be
May 9
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- “You ride into town with your gang, stealing money, drinking as much as you can and being gone before the law catches you”: How Bon Jovi hit the jackpot with Slippery When Wet, the album that turned them into the hottest hard rock band of the 80s
- Photo gallery: we threw a big party for Metal Hammer's 400th issue
- "System Of A Down made me feel like I belonged in the metal scene." Lowen's Nina Saeidi: 10 records that changed my life
- "If we’d kept things together and stopped arguing, we could have all been multi-millionaires!" The story of Hawkwind's most prog-friendly album, Warrior On The Edge Of Time
- "I really hate America. If Adolf Hitler came back and said 'I won't raise taxes', he'd win in a landslide." In 1988 R.E.M. were so disgusted with the state of the US that guitarist Peter Buck said he felt like shooting people, starting with President Bush
- It's back! Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week!! Cool new proggy sounds from Katatonia, Nosound, Hedvig Mollestad Trio and more...
- “I don’t know how anyone can be in that band for more than a couple hours”: The story of Slayer guitarist Kerry King’s short but whirlwind stint in Megadeth
- "On stage, I'd surrender to the ritual. It was like a meditation": Robby Krieger and John Densmore remember life with Jim Morrison and tell the acid-fuelled story of The Doors
May 8
- "I had an idea for an album about people bottling Jesus's vomit." Rivers Of Nihil's Adam Biggs on concept records, working with Cannibal Corpse and not buying the hype for Metallica and Rush
- "The director was like, ‘Hey, you guys want a porn star in your video?’" How Atreyu's Right Side Of The Bed helped create modern metalcore
- "The hype was so great that we were never going to be able to fulfil it." The "nightmare" birth of the Stones Roses' wildly-expensive and long-delayed second album Second Coming, by those who were there, and those who quit
- "There was a lot of rejection, because I was a skinny Black girl trying to be the singer of a rock band." How Skunk Anansie's Skin went from Bob Marley-attended basement parties to a Glastonbury-headlining Britrock icon
May 7
- “Van Halen were opening for us and they were killing us every night. But they were making us be a better band”: How Journey found Steve Perry and made Infinity, the album that set them on the road to superstardom
- 7 bands that defined Incineration Festival 2025
- "We’re the last ones standing from the scene." Employed To Serve are fostering the next generation of British metal talent
- “You can see we were stoned. Dave and I were completely out of our brains”: The epic story of Pink Floyd’s Live At Pompeii, the prog classic recorded next door to a volcano
- “I remember wondering how many people could get into this progressive, extreme violin metal”: How Ne Obliviscaris became the first band to successfully crowdfund a world tour
- "On arrival Izzy had to be loaded into a baggage cart to be wheeled through Customs and Immigration": Behind the scenes on Guns N' Roses' first trip to Japan
May 6
- "I chased him down the hall with my d**k in my hand." How an epic fistfight with racist skinheads turned hip-hop superstar Ice Cube and Ministry's Al Jourgensen into unlikely allies
- "I could have done a poor imitation of Brian May, but I just figured it would be better to get the real thing": Bumblefoot on wrangling famous guitarists, his new album, and the celebrity hot sauce community
- “I’ve heard Robert Fripp say no to everybody. David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, you name it, he always has an excuse not to play… He’s a wonderful husband but professionally it’s done me no favours”: Toyah Wilcox is more than just Mrs King Crimson
- "It's the life of the artist. You never retire. You become relentless": The Pretenders albums you should listen to... and one to avoid
- "I'm very clear on what I want to do, which can be really annoying for other people": Steven Wilson on being a control freak, the wonder of space, Porcupine Tree and more
May 5
- Meet Gore.: the metalcore group featuring a NASA space walk engineer and aiming for the stars
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- “All the time he was ill, he had it in his head that he was going to finish it when he got home. He never made it home. I guess we owed it to him”: Tim Smith’s Cardiacs story will end with final album LSD
- "You might hate us, but at least you've heard of us." How Cradle Of Filth became Britain's most iconic black metal band
- “The biggest challenge was not to come off like Tenacious D. It could easily be interpreted as some form of parody”: How Primus made an album about goblins and rainbows while trying not to mention goblins and rainbows
- “It was my own personal hell”: the story of Pearl Jam’s most difficult record as it turns 25
May 4
- “If you’re a Zep fan and really want to go see Zeppelin, you might as well go and see one of the better tribute bands”: The epic life and career of John Paul Jones, the heartbeat of Led Zeppelin and so much more
- “Metallica were still a local band. It made no sense for me to say, ‘I’m out of here, I’m going to join them”: The man who was asked to replace James Hetfield as singer in Metallica – and turned it down
- “This is my first band since Deep Purple. It’s out of this world – I’m back in a rock band, a real rock band”: How Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and a modern blues icon came together to form Black Country Communion
- “I’m super-proud of everything Rush accomplished, but it’s what I did. I’ve moved on. I’m excited to be one of the folks in Envy Of None”: Alex Lifeson loves working alone in his home studio – and he’s even brought the guitar solos back
- “It was like a renewal or a reawakening”: Dave Grohl was struggling after Kurt Cobain’s death. Then he wrote This Is A Call and everything changed
May 3
- “We did get very wild and crazy at points. I remember thinking, ‘Why aren’t we getting arrested?’”: The violent, bloody birth of the Bay Area thrash scene
- “Van Halen were a pale, washed up imitation of the band they once were”: Dave Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar? A forensic examination of who was Van Halen’s best singer
- "I said yes, but only if I could criticise the Constitution." Wardruna's Einar Selvik on nature, black metal and the importance of having a message
- “We had no commercial ambitions. This introverted Norwegian attitude is what enabled us to create something that no one else had done”: How Emperor made black metal masterpiece In The Nightside Eclipse and changed metal forever
- “We were drug addicts dabbling in music, rather than musicians dabbling in drugs”: The unhinged story of Aerosmith’s Draw The Line, the album that sent them crashing off the rails
- “Most singles are about love in one way or another… and this one is beautiful”: Geoff Tate explains how Silent Lucidity became Queensrÿche’s biggest hit (second time around)
May 2
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- “I went to Genesis on Friday, bought the album on Saturday, then went to the show again on Sunday, and I knew all the words”: A glimpse into the prog world of Lifesigns’ John Young
- "I’d just want to tell Randy Rhoads how great he is and how much I love him." Zakk Wylde on shredders, movies and his favourite Ozzy Osbourne moment
May 1
- Fancy a weekend of amazing metal and prog in one of Europe's nicest holiday destinations? You need Malta Metal Weekend 2025 in your life
- “Everybody said we couldn’t play like the American and English groups. We didn’t want to play like them”: Irmin Schmidt isn’t surprised that Can’s music has endured for so long
- 4 brilliant new metal bands you need to hear this month
- "That's me, that's Ian Gillan, that's Ian Paice… Jesus, why is my name in there?!" Deep Purple guitarist Simon McBride picks the soundtrack of his life
- "We had a deal one day and it was gone the next, but we still had the money in the bank": The dashed hopes and early trauma of White Lion
- The five most metal Sleep Token songs
- “Fans were tetchy about the future. When they heard these twisting rhythms and proggy sounds, all fears were allayed”: 11 great Rush songs from the 90s and beyond