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June 2025

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144 articles

June 30
- Everything you need to know about Back To The Beginning, Black Sabbath’s reunion and Ozzy Osbourne’s final concert
- Red Arrows, mosh pits and goth kings: our 8 favourite moments from Glastonbury 2025
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- “As a composer I’ve needed and wanted to evolve. As I grew, hopefully my writing was growing too”: Five great Al Di Meola albums
June 29
- “As great as it undoubtedly was, the bug-eyed insanity of thrash was nowhere to be heard in any of its songs”: How Metallica’s Black Album killed thrash metal
- “Wrapping this era-defining talent and power in a cloak of mystique only supercharges the legacy”: Jimmy Page or Tony Iommi? A heated debate over who is the best guitarist
- “We became the pariahs of the Christian community. They hated me. I still get mail going: ‘Come back to Christ’ There’s no way I’m going back to that”: The incredible story of King’s X, the greatest band the world doesn’t know about
- “We never thought of ourselves as pioneers. But we grew up in a parallel universe to our peers”: Voivod weren’t trying to invent prog metal – they were just trying to be like Van der Graaf Generator
- Here’s the line-up of every major festival in 1995… and it actually isn’t very different to how they’ve shaped up 30 years later
June 28
- “He said, ‘I’ve never seen so many women in my life. We just get men at our gigs”: The night Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris joined Def Leppard to cover Creedence Clearwater Revival
- “The English press used to call us ‘hate metal’. It fit the music”: How Kreator made Pleasure To Kill, the vicious 80s classic that put German thrash on the map
- “He was the kind of guy who liked confrontation, and I would always give it to him”: This is what Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore really thought about Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham
- “The pursuit of immortality, I’ll chase that as hard as the next guy”: The epic story of Born In The USA and Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s
- "We refused to believe we didn't have something special." From triumph to tragedy and triumph again, how Linkin Park became the first true metal breakout of the 21st century
- “To have Kurt’s beautiful voice over one of my songs would have been amazing”: the story behind every track on Foo Fighters’ monumental debut album
June 27
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- Great new prog you must hear from Karnivool, Nad Sylvan, Sonechko and more in this week's Tracks Of The Week
- "Baba Yaga is my spirit animal." How Hollywood star and horror icon Vera Farmiga discovered a love for metal with The Yagas
- "I knew that if it failed then I would have no one to blame but myself": How Boston were almost pulled apart by turmoil and tragedy
- “After King Crimson ended there was a kind of inertia. I’d lost confidence musically, like, ‘Who am I now?’”: Jakko Jakszyk’s return with solo album Son Of Glen
- “He was bedrock to the Yes sound; an incredibly creative player who has inspired so many. It’s unlikely that we’ll see his like again”: Chris Squire’s greatest musical moments, by bandmates, friends and fans
June 26
- I have my Glastonbury weekend TV schedule sorted - here's how to plan ahead so you don't miss a thing
- “My uncle would drink, say he was possessed and run after people with knives”: Why heavy metal is turning its back on booze
- "It made me feel empowered!" That time pop superstars Beyoncé, Britney Spears and Pink dressed up as gladiators and covered Queen's anthemic classic We Will Rock You now seems like a weird fever dream
- "I don't sit around listening to Metallica." Kirk Hammett has a new book, a new album in the works and absolutely no plans to retire
- "He's the real deal. He came in reeking of pot": Johnny Van Zant on Lynyrd Skynyrd's new live album, life without Gary Rossington and new music
- The 50 best Led Zeppelin songs
June 25
- The 10 best artists to see at BST Hyde Park, London this summer from Olivia Rodrigo and Beabadoobee to Neil Young and Stevie Wonder
- "My mom was a shaman." Japan's Kuunatic mix doom, psychedelia and folk with sci-fi concepts - and are one of the most brilliant bands you'll hear this year
- "After I saw him live I wanted to give up playing the guitar. It took me about a year to get over that": This is the soundtrack of Robin Trower's life
- "I could have died three times since 2010": It's been 18 years since the last King Diamond album and he's getting impatient
- “I don’t worry about labels and I’ve ended up in the premier prog band of all time. If I’d listened to haters I’d have stopped after my first record”: Billy Sherwood’s journey to Yes started with the wayward World Trade
June 24
- “Why not go out swinging with the angriest sounds you can?”: Metal Hammer writers name the albums they’d listen to during a zombie apocalypse
- “It’s scary putting your voice on something when people are attached to hearing someone else. There will be people who won’t come with us – that’s totally fair”: Black Country, New Road battled steep odds to make Forever Howlong
- "We decided to stream on Saturdays, have a drink and pretend we were playing a gig": Six things you need to know about When Rivers Meet
- "That's evil, beyond any concept I can relate to": John Lydon on the haters who buy tickets just to abuse him
- “We both understood from the beginning that this was a journey into long-form music. It’s time for this kind of music again. It elevates you”: How Jon Anderson and Roine Stolt made Invention Of Knowledge
- "They've got a sound that lifts your heart up": Every Steely Dan album ranked, from worst to best
June 23
- "One of the most vital creatives working in the metal scene right now." A guide to every Poppy album so far
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- 12 alternative acts you should try and watch at Glastonbury 2025
- "We could have ended up as mementoes bricked up in his walls": The night The Kinks partied at John Wayne Gacy's house
- “We recorded with him, but the song was demoted to a bonus track. I’ve had to add him to the list of people who’ll never speak to me again”: Dan Hawkins hates how The Darkness treated Ian Anderson
June 22
- 10 brilliant songs that prove Johnny Marr is one of the most influential guitarists of his generation
June 21
- “Perhaps the strangest recording session of the era”: Peter Gabriel, Robert Fripp, Sandy Denny, Phil Collins and the novelty single no one talks about
- “Their version was very Middle America”: The Kinks could never fully get on board with Van Halen’s cover of You Really Got Me and here's why
June 20
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- Six of the newest, coolest proggy sounds around from Sam Vallen, Heather Findlay, Esoterica and more in Prog's Tracks Of The Week
- “The ultimate anti-everything symbol”: How heavy metal found its fashion sense
- "It's been a mission statement from day one": Why Sparks continue to do things other bands don't
- “In Nazareth the crew do everything for us. But he’s there himself half the day, for the sheer love of his instrument”: Carl Sentance isn’t much of a prog fan, but his respect for Don Airey is limitless
- "It was a very slow descent, but it was a descent - we were going in the wrong direction": How Skunk Anansie saved themselves from sickness and uncertain times
June 19
- "Its perfection is that it loves the cracks that we all fall down." U2 frontman Bono on the Lady Gaga song that saved his life
- 10 classic rock and metal tunes you (probably) forgot were released as movie tie-ins
- “Someone made up something and said, ‘If you believe in this, you’ll be better off when you die’”: Paradise Lost won’t offer any religious enlightenment on new album Ascension
- The Blue Stones: How the films of Christopher Nolan and the Netflix drama Suits helped create a big Canadian noise
- "It was some extreme magic": How Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham saved Fleetwood Mac
- “Obviously there’s some songs you get bored with. We go off on tangents, then come back into the old vocal refrain. That’s the way out”: What’s left for The Mighty Hawkwind to achieve? They have a few ideas
June 18
- The 16 greatest Glastonbury Festival performances ever
- “It’s not about fame or money. It’s about fulfilling your dreams, and if someone gets joy from it, you’ve won”: Solstice’s 45-year journey to success with their positive prog
- Meet Erja Lyytinen, the Finnish blues guitarist inspired by seventies classic rock, eighties thrash and the pursuit of happiness
- "I was terrified that Ed was going to kill himself": Chaos and carnage with Pearl Jam at Lollapalooza 1992
- “The band had already drifted from its original vision. The group broke up…Somehow we absorbed the fact and kept going”: The story of King Crimson’s remarkable Beat era
June 17
- "The radio reported a terrible tragedy in which we all died": Heart's Ann Wilson on the show at which everyone thought her band had been killed
- I'm a Glastonbury Festival veteran of over 20 years - here are 5 things I never go to Worthy Farm without
- 8 things we learned at Download Festival 2025
- "It was pretty awful." Before she found fame fronting Blondie, Debbie Harry was in a 'baroque folk rock' band called The Wind In The Willows. Listen to the never-released Suzy Snowflake, the first professional recording she ever made
- "My dad has a cupboard full of gold and platinum records and he doesn’t have a pot to piss in": A bathroom full of snakes and Slash's road to compromise
- “Journalists who’d said we were Genesis copyists suddenly went, ‘This is a happening band!’” One TV smile made Marillion’s name, and made Misplaced Childhood a hit
June 16
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- “We did the whole album at festivals – the opposite of what you’re supposed to do. In some ways there was boldness, but it was also self-sabotage”: The Decemberists’ prog credentials
- "The world needs some good rock'n'roll music at the moment": Why Split Dogs could be the new/old sound of punk to come
- “I told Chris Squire, ‘I really owe you for being an influence.’ He said, ‘Well, pay up, mate!’” When Styx ex Ricky Phillips met his hero, it all went well
June 15
- "How many times do you say you're gonna give something up and you don't?": Aggression and anger on the road with Thin Lizzy across America and Europe
- “The more successful we become, the lonelier it gets”: Why your favourite British metal bands are breaking up
June 14
- “When the hits dried up they made a poignant, multi-layered swansong for the 60s”: The Zombies’ final album Odessey And Oracle is a proto-prog classic
- “You wonder if any other drummer could have glued together all the impulses and influences at play”: Alan White’s 10 best performances with Yes
- "Trying to work it all out, that's what makes us human": Those Damn Crows and the search for meaning in uncertain times
June 13
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- Great new music you need to hear from Chimpan A, Whispers Of Granite, Leoni Jane Kennedy in Prog's new Tracks Of The Week!
- "My mother didn't particularly like the look of me and my dad didn't like the sound of me": Pete Townshend and the lifelong search for answers
- “He was disillusioned by wealth clashing with his principles. His fans thought riches were a good thing. Their reaction was the basis of everything else he did”: Roger Waters as seen via his Pink Floyd lyrics
June 12
- We went to Poland's biggest metal festival Mystic - this is what it was like
- The 10 best Sleep Token songs ever
- "Edge left. He was feeling that he couldn't serve both god and man. I decided I couldn't either. So we both quit." How Bono and The Edge's faith in Jesus almost destroyed U2
- “I saw us in a direct line from big band or modern jazz – but with complex interactive rock rhythms plus improvised solos”: Five Colosseum songs that prove the jazz-rock pioneers’ pedigree
- "It's purely experimental, with zero regard for commercialism": How Brian Wilson recorded Pet Sounds and reinvented music
June 11
- Brian Wilson interview: "I don’t like SMiLE any more. I got so tired of it and did it so many times I've forgotten it"
- "Everybody on the black side of my family was like, What is your problem?" In 1990, Slash broke his silence and shared his true feelings about Guns N' Roses' most controversial song, One In A Million
- “When are we going to stop with this Pink Floyd stuff and start playing some metal?”: The story of the most ambitious song in death metal history
- “There were arguments. But they weren’t personal – they were musical. They helped make it what it is”: How Yes defined themselves with Fragile, before success went to their heads
- "We went platinum and Warner Brothers told us we owed them two million dollars": How Van Halen followed one of rock's greatest-ever debuts
- "The police car rolled down a nearby slipway into the river": Wild times on the road on Rory Gallagher's most iconic tour
- “That’s the real boot in your privates – you’re focused on an album and then you’ve got to do two!” Mostly Autumn don’t just make records. They also make full-length, full-quality limited-edition companion records
- "I went upstairs to show the person how to play the riff... and it was John McEnroe!" David Bowie on the art and process of songwriting
June 10
- “We started out as a Pink Floyd tribute and evolved from that. Artists who claim to be original are lying through their teeth”: Airbag’s Bjørn Riis used classic prog inspirations to chart a nervous breakdown
- "Metallica rented our equipment but the sound guy wasn't up to his job." Former Nightwish bassist Marko Hietala on the 10 songs that changed his life
- “Bad songs do not go viral in metal – that may happen in other genres, but not in metal”: The Bloodywood guide to internet fame
- “Amnesiac was seen as having all the tracks that weren’t good enough for Kid A. But I loved it”: Charlotte Wessels hails Radiohead, although she doesn’t listen to them often
- “I really like Frantic! Killer song!” Wrestling legend Adam Copeland names his favourite track on each Metallica album
June 9
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- "People need to know the sacrifices bands are making to play a live show.” UK metallers Vexed are showing everyone just how much it costs to be a touring band - and the numbers are eye-watering
- “Suddenly we’re at a 24-hour Esso garage with a red TR7. Pickled Onion Monster Munch and Quatro for everyone!”: Jeff Wayne didn’t just fight Martians – he sold you the 80s via his TV music
- “The first time I played Rush’s YYZ I almost broke my fingers!” Epica bassist Rob Van Der Loo’s prog timeline, from Jon Lord to Dream Theater
June 8
- “Not the work of the blues bruiser some supposed him to be, but of an expert in judging precisely when to hang back and when to hit hard”: Jack Bruce’s Harmony Row
- “This one was really hard, we had massive arguments”: Radiohead on the making of Hail To The Thief, the record that got away from them
- “The reason Rush could rock while referencing Bertrand Russell and Elizabethan drama”: Neil Peart’s most powerful lyrics
June 7
- “He saw what everybody saw: they could play, they had a ton of energy and they were authentic”: The weird story of Frank Zappa and AC/DC
- “No, man! If we had had this level of success in the 70s we would not be here now. We would never have survived it”: The wild story of Aerosmith’s Pump, the album that turned them into superstars all over again
- “Sometimes I think, ‘This has become so big that I can’t handle this monster any more.’ I have some trouble comprehending it”: How Nightwish became the planet’s most epic symphonic metal band with Endless Forms Most Beautiful
- “We went on our lunch break and when we got back, Tony had come up with the Paranoid riff. It was literally 25 minutes of work. People went nuts about it!”: How Black Sabbath made Paranoid, the iconic album that rubber-stamped their greatness
- “Nothing in this band does what it's supposed to do”: how R.E.M. showed the world they were the real deal on 1985’s Fables Of The Reconstruction
June 6
- The 12 new metal songs you need to hear this week
- "Me and Ozzy were a team. I never thought, 'What about me?'" We chat to Sharon Osbourne about growing up in the music industry, her "confrontational" father, feuding with Iron Maiden and Billy Corgan and a whole load more
- Cool new proggy sounds from Jakko Jakszyk, We Lost The Sea, Raphael Weinroth-Browne and more in Prog's new Tracks Of The Week!
- "Ma, I'm real sick. I need help. I got to come home": The trauma and triumph of Stevie Ray Vaughan
- “In the last 10 years no one has stepped up. Being the sole songwriter is sometimes very lonely”: Jonas Renske hopes Katatonia’s new era includes more input from his bandmates
June 5
- Fistfights with John Lydon, sword fights with the Sisters of Mercy, gangsters, goth and Ferris Bueller: The epic story of Flesh For Lulu
- "There were multiple shows that I would show up for fully black-out drunk. I don’t remember them." From addiction and alcohol abuse to parenthood and poetry, here's everything The Used's Bert McCracken has learned
- "I can allow myself to be a bit sexier and say what’s on my mind": How Taylor Hawkins and a nameless girl inspired The Struts frontman Luke Spiller to make his brilliant and beguiling solo album
- “They’ve always ignored the rule book in favour of new, often over-the-top ideas”: These are Muse’s proggiest moments
June 4
- “It still doesn’t feel real that we’re supporting Slayer”: Neckbreakker released one of 2024’s most exciting metal debut albums. Now they’re about to live their biggest dream.
- "We went to abandoned cemeteries at night, stole everything we could find." Black magic, human skulls and Aleister Crowley – the twisted story of Tobias Forge’s favourite cult horror-metal band, Death SS
- "Shave my head, let’s just go for it!" How Hollywood superstar Matt Damon channelled his inner Henry Rollins to make a surprise cameo as an obnoxious punk rock singer in cult teen comedy EuroTrip
- “We never ever wanted a hit, so it was irrelevant”: Quantum Jump didn’t write the longest prog single, but they took the longest word in the dictionary to Number 5 via their 1979 track The Lone Ranger
- "Eddie Van Halen literally ran away from me!" Yngwie Malmsteen's wild tales of Lemmy, Ronnie James Dio, Metallica and more
- On the road with America's loudest survivors: Aerosmith, Kiss, and the making of Honkin' On Bobo
- A beginner's guide to 70s AOR in 10 essential albums
June 3
- The pretentious gatekeeping around Sleep Token points to a toxic heavy music culture - as a metal guitarist of over 25 years, I've seen this movie before
- "He's got a way of reaching into my soul": The soundtrack of Samantha Fish's life
- "We didn't want to become known as a ballad band. That's how you become Air Supply": Night Ranger look back on their sudden rise, equally sudden fall, and return to mid-level happiness
- “My hand ran off the keyboard… I ground to a halt, threw my hands in the air, and everyone looked at me. My father thought I was taking a bow and was very proud!” Genesis’ best and worst moments on stage
June 2
- "It’s a completely different thing to a band where I’m hiding in the back." Lars Fredrik Frøislie and the story of his debut solo album Fire Fortellinger
- "Partially responsible for hastening the demise of nu metal." We've ranked every Killswitch Engage album from worst to best
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now
- "We had already split up and still had to do a tour." How Within Temptation became one of symphonic metal's biggest success stories
- "There would be shootouts down the street." Machine Head's Robb Flynn takes us on a tour of Oakland, California - and 30 years of metal history
- “Knowingly progressive and endearingly archetypal in a way that only two young pop historians could fathom”: If you thought Ween were taking the piss with The Mollusk, you were wrong
- "Ritchie Blackmore gave me a wave as he fell backwards. That was my cue to do a ten-minute keyboard solo": Don Airey on Rainbow, Deep Purple and his awesome solo album Pushed To The Edge
- “In 1989 I paid a scalper $400 for a ticket to see The Who play Tommy. It was worth every cent”: Mike Portnoy on his top prog songs and artists, and why the Rolling Stones have the greatest-ever prog album sleeve
June 1
- "It took Bring Me The Horizon 10 years to get into arenas. Sleep Token did it in less than five." Inside the rise of Sleep Token, by those who were there
- “I thought you really had to work to make a song great. That’s actually a load of crap – the best songs I’ve written took 10 minutes”: When The Pineapple Thief began to break through with Someone Here Is Missing
- 4 brilliant new metal bands you need to hear this month
- “Rock'n'roll is a volatile thing... this is not an accounting office”: the story of Rated R, Queens Of The Stone Age’s strange, brilliant breakthrough record