Features archive

October 2026

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148 articles

October 29
- “I saw The Faces on telly. Rod Stewart was obviously pissed and having a fantastic time. I thought, ‘That’s something I could do!’”: Fish and the making of Marillion
October 28
- “I went to the US to record Keith Emerson. He couldn’t do it – It was heartbreaking. But now I’ve done Genesis, ELP, Yes and King Crimson. It’s very cool”: Arjen Lucassen’s rules for his Ayreon album guest lists
- “My wife can send me to get milk and I’ll come back with a handbag! My brain is just too full”: Adam Wakeman on working with his dad Rick, playing Black Sabbath jazz style, War Of The Worlds, and loads of bands
- "This is what I do. I just can't get away from it. I have things I want to say." Tony Iommi looks back on Black Sabbath's stormy history and forward to his latest solo adventure
- "Unhinged and capable of doing serious damage to anyone within gobbing distance." Every song on the Sex Pistols' classic debut album Never Mind The Bollocks ranked from worst to best
October 27
- “We thought, ‘What if they got waylaid by the seedy side and never became Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers? What would that album be like?’ Then we thought, ‘What if we make it?’”: The dreamscapes and space trips behind the Flaming Lips’ American Head
October 26
- Musical comedown? Movie template? Untoppable creative peak? Whatever it is, The Who’s Quadrophenia is a prog-related concept classic
- Classic Rock Tracks Of The Week: October 26, 2026
October 25
- “We assumed everyone would know it was us, but the rumour mill started and people began saying it would be the Foo Fighters”: Cancer Bats have survived everything the music industry has thrown at them. Their secret to survival is simple
- Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott joined Papa Emeritus IV for a re-recording of an Impera song. But which one was it? Find out how much you know about Ghost on this tricky trivia quiz
- “It was a really hard time. Change is hard. But this is life – to deal with these things appropriately and keep positive”: Two members down, Haken’s latest EP is a hint at where they’re going next. They hope you’ll go with them
- "I'm lying there in a pool of blood and vomit and glass and snot, and then I feel this acrid breath close to my face, and it's Lemmy." Ricky Warwick's wild stories of Lemmy, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Guns N' Roses, Metallica and more
- “He wiped the slate clean and took himself out of the mainstream”: When Cream’s Jack Bruce went prog with drifters, commuters, poverty, yearning love and the possibility of death or rebirth
- “I said some things in the media that I regret. I said, ‘We’d never slow down like Slayer’! But Kerry King’s forgiven me, I think”: Chaos, controversy and beefs – the secret history of Slayer’s Reign In Blood
October 24
- “You hear us laugh. You hear us cough. Sometimes you’ll hear us slip up. It makes it human”: The Dutch art-prog band who believe more is more – including studio mistakes
- Slipknot sampled a Slayer classic on their 1999 self-titled debut album. But which song? Test your knowledge with our quiz, maggots
- “What else did we have to do but drink whisky in the basement? We should have been locking in, but we didn’t. There’s no real excuse”: Protest The Hero can’t explain why it took six years to release Within
- “It was a bit of a disaster. It was thrown together in the studio”: The overlooked Deep Purple album that Ritchie Blackmore hated and Ian Gillan loved
- “I saw a photo a few years ago where David Tennant was wearing a Raven That Refused To Sing T-shirt”: How prog icon Steven Wilson got a former Doctor Who to appear on his new album – and the cult figure he originally wanted
- "These are the riffs that get stuck in your head and change your life." Halestorm's Lzzy Hale picks her five essential guitar albums
- “I would always try to come up with more inventive ideas – different tunings, changing the amps, just fiddling about with the guitars”: Tony Iommi on writing metal’s greatest riff
- “I never put it in my arm – I just chased the dragon”: Ex-Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain opens up about using heroin – and how he kicked it
October 23
- "You think you see somebody, then you look and remember they're gone for real." How Mastodon coped with the grief of two deaths and made their most cathartic album
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: October 23 2026
- "We were invisible and insignificant. When nobody pays any attention to you, you realise how mortal you are. That’s why teenagers that are troubled are drawn to death." The story behind My Chemical Romance's world-conquering masterpiece The Black Parade
- “I wasn’t a fan of the Beatles, but going into that audition, I said, ‘This has been my dream forever!’” Folk-prog hopefuls Kalandra on studying at Paul McCartney’s university – and the nightmares behind their new music
- "Its the scariest song ever written – Stephen King said that too." Horror icon John Carpenter picks the 10 records that changed his life, from The Beatles and Metallica to The Supremes and Beach Boys
- "I was told by a psychic that I was burned in my last life as a witch." How Maria Brink went from trailer park theatre shows to fronting one of metal's most theatrical bands, In This Moment
- Bon Jovi are making their long awaited return to American Express Presents BST at Hyde Park next summer. Here's why you need to be part of a show over a decade in the making
- “The guitar attracts people who like to be flamboyant, and out there making a lot of noise. We were looking for exactly the opposite”: How Genesis recruited Steve Hackett after nearly breaking up
October 22
- “He asked if we were interested in doing another album. The rest of us had been waiting for it to happen. We said yes immediately”: Prog supergroup Transatlantic and their unexpected return with The Whirlwind
- "I said, Do you want me to tell those guys that we’re going to break up? We can if you want." The story behind the Foo Fighters' cursed, unreleased Million Dollar Demos
- "Freddie resonated with the madness… he wasn't afraid of it." Murder, obsession and Victorian art: the story of Queen's The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke and the painting that inspired it
- "The ASPCA would turn up like, ‘You cannot set a German Shepherd on fire in this show.' Are you kidding?" Rehab, religion and slaughtered chickens: an audience with Alice Cooper
- “I don’t know what people were complaining about online. I thought they nailed it”: Dragonforce’s Herman Li loves every version of Dream Theater
October 21
- "It's like Heathcliff digging up Cathy's corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight." The strange tale of the outrageous "erotic" 80s power ballad that Broadway legend Andrew Lloyd Webber called "the greatest love song ever written"
- “The music of mythical England at its bloodiest, plugged into an alternative national grid of stone circles, ley lines, political dissent and wanton hedonism”: Julian Cope’s Fried is punk in approach but prog in outlook
- “They transplanted themselves to the world of krautrock, complete with motorik beats, droning backing notes and minimalist leads”: The Human League’s Dare is a prog album hiding in plain sight
October 20
- “I got fed up with the whole Western thing and went to Thailand. I came home, camped out in the studio and I had the album at the end”: What Ozric Tentacles’ Ed Wynne learned after his music teacher gave up on him
- “The jokes and stories start to flow. You become invested in the whole thing. You realise: ‘This is a band! We should go and play this for the world’”: When Stewart Copeland, Adrian Belew and Mark King created prog punk group Gizmodrome
- "I love that band. I feel like they've never made anything bad." Rival Sons' Scott Holiday picks the soundtrack of his life
- Direct from the Delta to Dartford and beyond: The 30 greatest British Blues Rock albums ever
October 19
- “It pulled the whole album together and gave us an idea around which to hang the broader concepts”: How Pink Floyd made High Hopes
- "There's so much about heavy metal as a subculture that has similarities to religion." Six things you need to know about rising UK doom metal heroes Green Lung
- “A lot of people say, ‘We came for him, but stayed for the trio.’ That’s encouraging”: How to bring Yes and King Crimson giant Bill Bruford out of retirement, by the guy who did it
- Classic Rock Tracks Of The Week: October 19, 2026
October 18
- “Every record is a success. If you can get more than one person on board with an idea, that’s success. It’s hard to get people to agree on anything”: When Geoff Tate looked back on Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime and its sequel
- "We write about life, the joyous and tragic events." Triggerfinger are huge in Europe, and some people say they sound like sex
- “Plenty of outliers were ready to hitch intelligent music to rich narratives”: Even in the 90s the concept album refused to die, as David Bowie, Radiohead, Mansun, Camel, and others proved
October 17
- Iron Maiden wanted a horror icon to appear on The Number of the Beast, but rejected his £25,000 fee. Who was it? Test your knowledge with our quiz
- “The audience would be hardcore skinheads at violent shows. They certainly didn’t want a female. You name it, it happened to me”: What kept Jarboe with Swans until she was stupefied with exhaustion?
- "We've spanned continents. We're like migratory birds." Meet Getdown Services, the self-proclaimed best band in Britain
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: October 16 2026
- “The flute felt stupid. I forgot all about it. Then I saw Thijs van Leer of Focus do all the things I’d been told not to”: They call Bobbie Dazzle a glam rocker, but she calls herself prog too
October 16
- "And there were Barack and Michelle Obama saying, 'Oh, Rodrigo and Gabriela!' and hugging us." Rodrigo Y Gabriela on the new album, outrunning the long arm of the law, and the pleasures/perils of busking
- “I always felt a bit sorry for Peter Gabriel. We would gang up on him, and Tony Banks was at the forefront”: How Genesis ex Anthony Phillips helped build the band, lost his mojo, quit and started to rebuild himself
- "Prince said, I just would like to talk guitar. I said, You've come to the right place." ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons on his first meeting with Prince, and the astonishing performance which made him re-think everything he thought he knew about Prince
- "I'm about amps, guitars, singing. As long as I can sing and write and play guitar, the sky's the limit." A tribute to Ace Frehley, the teen wannabe who became a global superstar with Kiss
- “It is personal. It’s not just another album. It’s an awful thing to say, but in theory it could be the last thing you leave”: Why Rick Wakeman made Return To The Red Planet
- "I hope this works, because we're two-point-eight million dollars down the pan already." The true story of Pink Floyd's The Wall tour: Power grabs, bad blood, sackings and bitter dysfunction
October 15
- “I’m slightly afraid of him. I’d never have the nerve to introduce myself, and I’m sure he’s never heard of Spandau Ballet”: Gary Kemp’s respect and fear for Robert Fripp, the higher-plane pioneer who “turned up the weird”
- "That’s what Nightwish does: it keeps surviving." Chart-topping albums, bitter public break-ups and some of the most epic metal songs ever created: Tuomas Holopainen reflects on 30 years of Nightwish
- “I was 18 when I recorded it, so we didn’t know anything about writing, about recording, about singing”: ex-Nightwish singer Floor Jansen on her worst album – and the prog metal deep cut which makes her cry
October 14
- "I told myself the dream was over many, many, many times." How Alter Bridge and Slash frontman Myles Kennedy learned to embrace rock stardom in his own way, thanks to some wise advice from his step-father
- “We were trying lampshades on our heads. A shop assistant said, ‘Are you mad?’ I replied, ‘He is but I’m not. Get us a mirror.’ And she did!” What it’s like to be in Jethro Tull, by some of those who’ve done it
- "I thought people were probably gonna hate it." How Nimrod, and its surprise hit single Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), taught Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong to stop caring about dumb punk rock rules
- "I felt a snap and a real sharp, searing pain, and I thought, 'That's it. That's the end of it.'" Ian Hill discusses the on-stage injury that ended his time with Judas Priest
- “We did big, interesting stage productions which cost a lot. When we did a tour we simply couldn’t get the figures wrong”: Genesis built their reputation as a live band, but tickets were so cheap it took them 10 years to break even
- "Queen never really wanted to be overtly political. We looked upon ourselves as entertainers." Roger Taylor on Queen's wild party days, big-money deals, Sid Vicious, his new solo record and why the idea of retirement is horrific
October 13
- "Hetfield and Ulrich were determined, as ever, to re-draw the blueprints of what Metallica could be." The best Metallica songs of the 90s
- “Their disconnect was echoed by transmitter static. Songs swapped moods as if governed by a random dial”: A roots band created an album so progressively ironic that a label paid for it twice
- "It’s the hottest burning high-passion piece I’ve ever heard in my life." Queen legend Brian May on his favourite guitar solo of all time, and the Queen guitar solo he considers his finest work
- The Kinks' Dave Davies: The 11 blues songs that changed my life
- "The spark was still there." More than 30 years after Shotgun Messiah’s final shot, Zinny J Zan and Harry Cody return with a new project
October 12
- "We're not mass appeal yet, hopefully we're still irritating." Why Placebo stopped spilling "blood and spunk" across the planet, and grew up
- "When our first record started to sell, it was weird, and really stressful. Everybody was insecure and tense." How Pearl Jam's intense, combative second album Vs. saved the band's soul
- “You love life so much that you’re going to keep going… the spirit hangs tough, hangs in there”: Yes icon Jon Anderson was close to death in 2008. Naturally, he made an album about it
- Classic Rock Tracks Of The Week: October 12, 2026
- "One of the most exquisite songs I've ever heard." How a song about a crazy moonshine arrest turned into a multi-million-seller for Bonnie Raitt
October 11
- “As soon as we got over the laziness, we realised it was a very cool song”: If Kansas’ Kerry Livgren had written Carry On Wayward Son one day later, it might never have been made
- "Luckily, the police chief had never heard of them, and he said, 'OK, that sounds fine.'" How Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and the California Jam banished Altamont's demons
- The wild 1970s glam rock classic inspired by The Beatles, Wagner… and Humphrey Bogart: “We all got the chance at the end to do our own thing. It’s a mad journey with lots of energy and it’s so exciting”
- Rick Wakeman is exploring Mars, performing a piece based on the lectures of Stephen Hawking, and playing a concert for rescued bears in Vietnam. What on earth is going on?
- “They were always putting my records down and saying I was the Antichrist. It turned out they weren’t so holy after all.” How Ozzy opened No Rest For The Wicked with an almighty diss track against a disgraced preacher
- “Some of the finest moments in progressive music as a whole”: King Crimson were only around for half of the 70s. Here’s what they did with the time
October 10
- “We were broke, simple as that. While we were recording the album, the money dried up”: How Judas Priest made the iconic album that saved their career
- Tom Morello on the future hair metal star who blew him away: “I remember thinking: ‘This is one of the best guitar players in the world, and he’s a high-school kid’”
- Beyond Nirvana: how Sub Pop shed its grunge origins to become one of the world's most daringly disruptive record labels
- “She patiently smiles whenever prog comes up”: Yes’ Jon Davison discovered the Moody Blues when he married John Lodge’s daughter. But she’s not a fan of either band
- "It’s hopeful and joyous and uplifting, and I can cry my eyes out to it." Why In Rainbows is national treasure Charlotte Church's favourite Radiohead album
- "I still can’t believe that an 18-year-old kid wrote some of that." How Stereophonics' gritty, poetic debut album Word Gets Around set the small-town trio up for a big, bright future
- Metal Hammer's Tracks Of The Week: October 9 2026
- "We were invited round to Iggy Pop's for tea. We were the first thing John Paul Jones did after Led Zeppelin." Wayne Hussey looks back on The Mission's debut album, God's Own Medicine
October 9
- Blackie Lawless on what Kiss got right, why rock'n'roll is disappearing, and the price of fame: "Somebody tampered with the wheels on my car and I nearly crashed on the freeway – I got shot at twice"
- "We want to keep his name alive." Power Trip are honouring fallen frontman Riley Gale with their first new songs in almost a decade
- “He considered himself to be made of sound, biologically. Crazy, but realistic – it was very interesting”: The characters and contraptions that inspired Jean-Michel Jarre’s Oxygène
- “We thought to treat it like a pop or rap release”: why blackgaze masters Deafheaven just surprise-released their two-and-a-half heaviest songs – and what to expect from their next album
- "We thought they were joking about subliminal messaging. Next thing we knew, we were on a plane to appear in court." Ian Hill on the Judas Priest songs that have defined his career
- Top new prog from Alcest, Boss Keloid, Scardust and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- "Christian street protesters told us to not go in, that it was Hell in there." Ed Gamble on nu metal, weird subgenres and which metal singer would make the best Celebrity Traitor
- “David Byrne had a lot of tantrums when he got to be a star. Fame overwhelmed him. It wasn’t a sane time”: Talking Heads made it big despite themselves, with an ideology that’s undeniably prog
October 8
- “I do ponder... since he’s not here, could we use AI to put lyrics to some of his music? New lyrics generated from his own lyrics”: The Alan Parsons Project’s Eric Woolfson is gone. His daughter ensures he’s not forgotten
- "Morrissey brought an arch sense of the hopeless romantic to the scene." A beginners' guide to 1980s British indie rock
- "As long as our plane doesn't go down we'll be around for ever!" Aerosmith look back over two decades of chaos, heavy addiction and their triumphant sober comeback
October 7
- “People in Israel’s government have said that we should wipe out Gaza. It’s disturbing that they represent me.” Orphaned Land’s Kobi Farhi on meeting Metallica, falling out with Disturbed’s David Draiman – and his 35-year quest for peace
- "My dad and I would drive to his military drills jamming out to Billy Ocean." From the beloved 80s kids movie that made him a fan of Diana Ross, to The Commodores song that describes heartbreak, Sleep Theory's Cullen Moore picks the soundtrack to his life
- “Someone said every band has a quiet one. But if he’d had been any quieter you’d have put out a missing persons alert”: The undervalued solo work of Pink Floyd’s Richard Wright
- “If I were you, I’d get a haircut and disappear”: When author William Burroughs gave Daevid Allen permission to call his prog icons The Soft Machine
- "I first played that on a car bumper from a '49 Buick." The story of the acid classic that psychedelicised black American folk music
October 6
- “Greg Lake said, ‘I can’t believe they played Schizoid Man like this. I want to see them – I know how hard it is’”: When their promoter wouldn’t announce them, these Italian proggers pulled a trick that got them a record deal
- "I usually do it as a special treat." How Angus Young used to whip up excitement at early AC/DC shows by unleashing 'The Human Kangaroo'
- "There are no rules. You have 12 notes… do whatever you want with them." Eddie Van Halen, the life and times of a guitar god
- "I've got messages from people in the hospital saying this is giving them hope." How a one-man black metal project about a pony from Lord of the Rings became one of the most essential and surprisingly emotional listens of 2026
- “Robert Fripp just got bored with me fluffing around with it. He picked it up and turned it into a proper tune”: How King Crimson created Starless, complete with the “death of prog” solo
- "You only get caught when you're successful... that's the game." The tangled story of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love
- Every Killing Joke album ranked from worst to best: how four men on a mission to recreate "the sound of the earth vomiting" influenced Metallica, Nirvana, Faith No More, Ministry and more
October 5
- Led Zeppelin III: 25 facts only hardcore fans know
- “We’d been paying Rick Wakeman £25 a week and Yes offered him £100… We had his son Oliver with us for a while, and he left for Yes too!” Dave Cousins and the life and times of Strawbs
- “Elvis is prog rock. He’s even wearing capes by the end of it. He came onstage to Also Sprach Zarathustra – how much more prog could you be?”: Pub Landlord Al Murray didn’t want to be just another punk fan
- Classic Rock Tracks Of The Week: October 5, 2026
October 4
- “It annoys me to this day. The public didn’t like it either. I’m glad I did it though”: Ian Anderson’s guided tour of Jethro Tull – Ritchie Blackmore, Steve Harris, Benny Hill, Spinal Tap and the other side of Christmas
- "If you’re too tough for clean singing, then that’s cool." Ov Sulfur might be deathcore brutes, but they've got grand ambitions
- “Guards walked the corridor with dogs. Sometimes I had to bring my own dog to the studio. The producer stopped my vocal takes so many times because the dogs were fighting”: How Katatonia became Sweden’s answer to Tool
- "Limp Bizkit, System Of A Down, Papa Roach… they were all opening bands for us." One of nu metal's most underrated bands are making a comeback almost 30 years after tragedy derailed them
- The British glam punk rebels people loved to hate: “We could never understand bands like Poison and Warrant. They’d sing about cruising down Sunset on a Harley. We were rotting in a bedroom in Wales”
- “We were into soul, rock’n’roll and country music. There was no such thing as prog in those days”: This classic 1967 album laid the foundation for progressive rock. Why has it been forgotten?
- "It's a statement. It's revenge. I pity them and hope they will be helped some day." The story behind Death's 1991 genre-defining album Human
October 3
- "I’ll take a shot or two before we play." Roman Candle are bringing screamo back with a nu metal twist
- “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
- “Lindsey had a Winnebago in his driveway. That’s where Stevie and I would go with our wrecking crew. The party never stopped”: How Fleetwood Mac made their craziest album – a decade after Rumours
- “I’m super-proud of everything Rush accomplished, but it’s what I did. I’ve moved on”: Did Alex Lifeson know something we didn’t as he talked up Envy Of None’s second album?
- "Why can't we sleep forever?" I slept my way through a classic Tool gig and it still bothers me almost 30 years later
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: October 2 2026
- How Tom Cruise ended up singing Def Leppard songs in a disastrous hair metal musical: “If we say yes to this, Tom Cruise is going to do Pour Some Sugar On Me – this is the Mission Impossible dude!”
- "Like Bon Scott, Brent Hinds understood that there was a cost attached to the party." How AC/DC impacted the life of Mastodon's founding lead guitarist
October 2
- Last man standing: Buddy Guy looks back on the bluesmen who inspired him. "That was Chicago: you walked down a street and you'd find Muddy, Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy doing his thing"
- "I was in the zone, where everything I was writing was meaningful." Noel Gallagher's track-by-track guide to (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the album that made Oasis superstars
- Kid A: the story behind every song on Radiohead's game-changing masterpiece
- "I was terrible to work with, I was unsympathetic, aggressive, mean, selfish." Why Sting's ego-driven power plays on Ghost In The Machine spelled trouble for The Police
- Cool new prog from Steven Wilson, Annicke Shireen, Arabs In Aspic and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- The first reactions to Metallica’s massive show at the Sphere are in: “Epic would be an understatement!”
- "I will keep on doing this until the universe forces me to stop." Blues legend Walter Trout is 75 years old but he's not thinking about retirement
- “We’d found solace listening to him in that difficult time… Hearing him belting out my lyrics was incredibly intense”: Here’s proof that Peter Gabriel is one hero it’s safe to meet
October 1
- Cardio, corpse paint and Carolina Reapers: Venom frontman Cronos on his brilliantly bizarre double life
- “Our albums could have been recorded in any order. I think they’re reasonably timeless”: This nearly-invisible prog duo sold 50 million records. How was it done?
- "I was nervous that the metal fans would hate me." From Miss World Chile to animal rescues and beating depression with death metal, Decessus' Ignacia Fernández is fighting to make the world a better place
- A blockbuster lineup, an incredible atmosphere and a festival at sea like no other - here's why you need to set sail at 70000TONS OF METAL 2027, the original, the world’s biggest heavy metal cruise
- "The band was irrelevant, or even over. We stuck together, but it was tough." As Blaze Bayley embarks on an Iron Maiden-themed UK tour, he looks back at his time with the Irons