Features archive
September 2026
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101 articles
- September 18
- September 17
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- A beginner’s guide to stoner metal
- “They can steal pretty much everything. They haven’t figured out a way of stealing the live experience. And they still have to pay for that!” Adrian Belew on survival, orchestra music and Frank Zappa
- How a Bruce Hornsby song about deep-seated racism in the South became an unlikely No.1 with an unexpected afterlife. "It was a complete fluke. Nobody thought it was gonna be anything"
- “I like a picture that makes you uncomfortable. It’s gross, but you look anyway”: Tool’s first 20 years of being regarded as freaks, malcontents or psychopaths
- “We don’t write fast – that’s the nature of progressive metal. We’re not going to put an album out every 18 months. So we wanted to make this as big a deal as possible”: When TesseracT went super-conceptual with War Of Being
- September 16
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- “We all grew up with The Kinks, Beatles, Stones: three-minute blasts. It’s just we weren’t very good at it!” Phil Collins recalls Genesis’ surprise when 23-minute track Supper’s Ready actually worked
- “What I feared most when parting ways with Brent was that he’d pass away”: How Mastodon survived two of the worst years of their lives and rebuilt the band from the ashes of tragedy
- “He had a cast of a human skull, because he was interested in the occult”: the life and legacy of At The Gates’ Tomas Lindberg, the godfather of melodic death metal
- September 15
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- I experienced the new Ozzy Osbourne Haunted House attraction at Universal Studios, and it's far from the lazy cash-in you might have feared
- Every Deftones album ranked from worst to best: three decades of brilliance from the world's sexiest metal band
- “We still have to decide if it’s any good. It’s been very interesting to come back to work”: Could a cult prog band with Roxy Music, Gong and Robert Wyatt connections return five decades on?
- Why the Flamin' Groovies will never forget the night they met the Sex Pistols. "They stole our passports, five thousand pounds in cash and my fuzz-tone pedal"
- "I’d go into a record shop and I’d want Blodwyn Pig and Wishbone Ash and Traffic and Soft Machine – but which one do you choose?": Punk pioneer Captain Sensible loved plenty of prog... but had to hide it
- Billy Morrison's wild tales of Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Billy Idol, Nick Cave and more. "Inbetween soundcheck and the gig, he takes some mushrooms and smokes the strongest weed"
- September 14
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- "Sometimes peaceful protest is not enough. Kicking a few shop windows in helps as well." How Muse aimed to fight the power with The Resistance
- The bizarre ’80s supergroup that links the Misfits, Yngwie Malmsteen and Skid Row: “We wanted Bruce Dickinson to sing for it!”
- “They were forming chords from tapping beer bottles, tearing newspapers for a rhythm, letting off aerosol cans for a hi-hat”: Was Pink Floyd’s attempt to make an album from found sounds just a delaying tactic?
- “It’s very much a band, which is sometimes a frustration. That’s why I do solo projects as well”: When Porcupine Tree made The Incident
- Every Oasis album ranked from the worst to the best: the Gallagher brothers' songs that will live forever
- "My first crush was this little Amish boy." Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger talk covers records, hair care and the Halestorm songs they've definitely played too much
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: September 14, 2026
- September 13
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- “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
- The chaotic birth of Guns N’ Roses and the wild road to Appetite For Destruction: “If Axl thought someone was looking at him weird, he would just haul off and smack ’em”
- “A lot of people think they’ll lose their jobs if they get creative. But our career is based on doing what we want”: When Opeth gambled on their future by ditching metal and embracing prog on Heritage
- “David Bowie said to me, ‘Don’t let any promoter, agent or manager tell you what to do. They don’t have the imagination’”: The classic Rick Wakeman album inspired by a mythical king, Ziggy Stardust and a heart attack
- Zombie metal lunatics Dominum are here for everyone who loves Sabaton, Ghost and The Walking Dead: “There’s pirate bands, there’s Viking bands, why is there no zombie band?”
- The unhinged techno-rock anthem that sounds like ‘Satan’s own spin class’ and saved a rock legend’s life: “We were originally supposed to be doing the song with Axl Rose, but he didn’t turn up”
- "Whatever they're on, I want some!" That time Slade legend Noddy Holder reviewed Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, Nick Cave and more for a UK music magazine
- In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, the Chinese Army turned on student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, and Steve Hogarth replaced Fish in Marillion
- Flesh & Blood: the story of the short-lived melodic rock supergroup who made a classic blues-rock album then disappeared
- September 12
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- "Overcoming darkness is a beautiful thing": How My Chemical Romance battled ghosts, addiction, the Daily Mail and Kasabian to take over the world with The Black Parade
- “We were one of the first bands to take punk and mix it with glam and metal. We started a whole new trend”: How Motley Crue created the album that invented 80s hair metal with help from an ex-construction worker and Queen’s producer
- "There was a giant, red welt on my chest, and at my feet there was a huge pig’s foot with a big toenail on it." How the world's weirdest band went from cult outsiders to MTV mainstays
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: September 11, 2026
- “The album sold poorly, partly because the band didn’t tour it – it was impossible to play live”: The genius of Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden
- What Motörhead legend Lemmy thought of AC/DC icon Bon Scott. "Some bands you see, and you just know. The Beatles were one. AC/DC were one of those bands."
- Steve Rothery on playing Pompeii, side projects and the future of Marillion. "At our ages, I don't see us working beyond six more years"
- “It’s really ironic. The spirit has been missing for some time, though we did a good job of camouflaging it”: Mike Portnoy was right – Dream Theater needed to change. No one thought they’d do it without him
- September 11
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- “Things come more difficult to him than to anyone I’ve ever met…he doesn’t con himself into thinking he knows what he’s doing”: Peter Gabriel, in the words of his collaborators and admirers
- "We simply refuse to play into the hands of these terrorists.” The story of Slayer's God Hates Us All and the darkest day in American history
- "We almost ended up in a Prague prison." I Prevail's Eric Vanlerberghe on card games, working with Lzzy Hale and finding strength after losing his best friend
- Top new prog from Lonely Robot, Kompendium, Giant Sky and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- “I don’t mess with mescaline any more. I did enough acid back in the day.” How Mastodon made a psychedelic prog metal masterpiece with Blood Mountain
- September 10
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- “Brand name is everything. Roger Waters found out the hard way when he left Pink Floyd!” When Steven Wilson took a big risk on his first solo tour
- How Descendents' Milo Goes To College created the blueprint that Green Day, The Offspring, Blink-182 and more took to the bank
- Every Slipknot album ranked from worst to best: over 25 years of heavy metal's angriest band
- “I was transfixed by what was happening before my eyes. My mind was racing, telling me to dig out my keyboard, which I hadn’t touched for five years”: Yes co-founder Tony Kaye’s 20-year journey to release his album about 9/11
- A beginners guide to '90s hardcore
- September 9
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- “In the early days of Genesis, audiences walked out during songs that later became classics. For artists, life is a coconut shy with yourself as the coconut”: Steve Hackett’s stoic reaction to the solo track that split his fans
- Why Queens of the Stone Age's second album Rated R is a modern classic
- "Give it some big heavy metal balls." Rob Halford opens up about the classic tracks, the hard times and the lack of compromise that forged Judas Priest's identity
- Every Metallica album ranked from worst to best: 45 years of the biggest band in heavy metal history
- R.E.M.'s New Adventures In Hi-Fi turns 30 today. Here's why it's Michael Stipe's favourite R.E.M. album
- “Prog was a dirty word. But so much music of the time was inspired by Yes, Genesis and King Crimson, and no one was talking about it. So I spoke up to buck that trend”: Elbow only made it by reconnecting with their progressive roots
- "By 12th grade, people gave us a certain amount of respect. But we were never rock stars, just the weird guys who did music." The story of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo's high school prog metal band Avant Garde
- September 8
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- “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 Willcox is more than just Mrs King Crimson
- "We were so loud. You could see blood coming out of people’s ears." The strange but true story of Attila, Billy Joel's pre-fame metal band, and "the worst album ever made"
- Did Phil Collins really just click with Genesis? “In their school they weren’t allowed a guitar. At mine, I’d bring my records in and the teacher would say, ‘Can you hear me over this music?!’”
- More than just a speed merchant: Why you should listen to Yngwie Malmsteen's Odyssey
- September 7
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- "Most bands are scared of ridicule - we embrace it." Every Muse album ranked from worst to best
- “People say, ‘Musicians are mad because they can’t gatekeep any more.’ I don’t want to gatekeep anything. The joy is the creative process, not likes and comments”: TesseracT and Chimp Spanner side project is a battle against AI and mental issues
- “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
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: September 7, 2026
- September 6
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- “I wanted to retrieve my late grandma’s voice for my mum. Then I realised what she was really talking about”: How The Anchoress found a new way of dealing with trauma from a long-lost tape
- "You could buy them at any novelty store. Nobody tried to name him. He just became the Not Man." The story of the '80s toy which accidentally became Anthrax's iconic mascot
- "I’m the only guy who wears a mask but still has a face." From black metal pioneer to dungeon synth's resident goblin, this is what it's like to be Mortiis
- “Had we started a little earlier we might have survived. Yes and Genesis got through punk, but we hadn’t gotten to that point”: Gryphon, the unique band who forgot about themselves
- "Mal said, C’mon, let’s go and find the Loch Ness monster!" The night that AC/DC's Brian Johnson and Malcolm Young tried to lure mythical beast 'Nessie' out of hiding
- The story of Jimi Hendrix's unforgettable Voodoo Child (Slight Return). "Don't forget that I had an artist who was an absolute genius, so it made life a lot simpler"
- How Mark Kozelek turned Bon Scott's AC/DC songs into haunted folk ballads. "Malcolm Young heard the record and liked it. Brian Johnson was supportive of it as well"
- September 5
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- "The producer didn’t like the song. He thought it was boring trite rock – like a Swedish ZZ Top or something." How The Hives re-released a two-year-old single and became overnight stars
- "We wanted to be Black Sabbath without the parts that suck." How Soundgarden's Louder Than Love ruined my love life, but opened my mind
- "We were looking to help Norway burn some more churches." Glass wounds, grief, and a broken back: The brutal creation of Slipknot's Iowa
- A metal fan’s guide to hard rock pioneers Deep Purple: “You needed something to stick out those days, and loud worked”
- Metal Hammer's tracks of the week: September 4 2026
- “I’ve never done hallucinogenic drugs, but now it feels like I have”: Metal Hammer writers name their best festival sets of the summer
- “He was always trying to leave. We took him to court a few years ago and it was actually quite nice to see him”: If you’re reading this, Roger Hodgson, your old friends from Supertramp would love to hear from you
- “Everybody knows who Michael Jackson is – and I feel like Ozzy is pretty close to that too”: The iconic metal album Jason ‘Jay And Silent Bob’ Mewes wishes he had made
- Meat Loaf's Bat Out Of Hell: The story behind rock's most crazed death ballad. "Dire Straits may be good, but it just doesn't do it for me. I was attracted to Hieronymus Bosch"
- September 4
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- “We were the band nobody wanted to book”: the twisted story of the first American black metal band
- “Mindblowing antithesis of the era’s knuckleheaded rap-rock”: When Candiria’s sound of New York City played Tool, Meshuggah and Devin Townsend at their own game
- Every Iron Maiden album ranked from worst to best: 50 years of the greatest heavy metal band on the planet
- Cool new prog you need to hear from Downes Braide Association, Clive Nolan, North Sea Echoes, The Ocean and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- “We said, ‘You can’t release it. This is his album, not ours. It will ruin our career.’ And that’s exactly what happened”: This 1969 experiment went horribly wrong – but it deserves to be reconsidered
- The Sheepdogs: On the road with a band who wield retro tastes like superpowers. "I wish we could play in '73. But that's not gonna happen, so we'll just keep rocking and finding our people"
- "Everyone is tired of these fake personas and people glorifying lifestyles that seem unobtainable." Headwreck have the cure for a world burned out on algorithms
- September 3
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- “My role in the black metal scene is probably exaggerated, because I was a visible frontman… In many ways I was just the nerd making music”: Ihsahn has never stopped progressing, and can’t understand why others did
- "The tempos are often breakneck and the dense arrangements tumble like bricks into hot cheese." Here are the 10 best songs from John 'Speedo' Reis' 10 bands including Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, Sultans and Drive Like Jehu
- "We were trying to poison the mainstream." How a 17-year-old schoolboy who played guitar "like the devil" saved one of Britain's best-loved bands, and stole David Bowie's heart
- “I thought it would never amount to much, and it certainly wouldn’t interfere with the band. How wrong I was!” Steve Howe’s pre-Yes band were derailed by a single their vocalist was never meant to sing
- September 2
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- 10 obscure but brilliant 70s bands who should have been huge
- “When you’re friends first and the music comes later, you know it’s non-competitive”: Steve Hackett and Steve Rothery aimed to prove two guitarists can share a studio without dissolving into a duel of overplaying egos. Did they do it?
- "His dad would come home from his night job and he had to sleep in the daytime. When he and his brother were too loud, his dad would give them military punishment." What exactly is Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl whispering on Everlong?
- "Shared generational trauma was the only thing that was ever going to come out of us." How djent, gospel and personal turmoil inspired the UK’s most exciting new post-hardcore band
- “We got dropped by our manager, our publisher and our label. The grand project suddenly didn’t seem quite right”: Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness once gave themselves an hour to write a No-Man song. Another time, they took 25 years
- The story of Roundabout by Yes and the record company interference that made it successful. "We were shocked at first, but now I think it was a gift"
- September 1
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- "When I came back, my desk was covered in flowers. That's who Bon Scott was." The story of a friendship with a golden-hearted charmer
- “I was keen to get a new audience. It took me until album number three before I found an identity”: The adventure of Peter Gabriel’s first four solo records
- The 10 heaviest metal breakdowns of all time
- “All the faders had been moved and knobs turned, despite the studio being locked and alarmed. Somebody – something – had moved everything”: Jethro Tull’s early 80s featured a haunted studio, nuclear evacuation cars on standby, and a tasteless stage trick
