Features archive

May 2025

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63 articles

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
- “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
- “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
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