Features archive

May 2024

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132 articles

May 19
- “The paganism was never a problem. All of us shared an interest in that side of things”: the story of Sabbat’s cult late 80s pagan-thrash classic Dreamweaver: Reflections Of Our Yesterdays
- “What am I supposed to do? Kiss your ass?”: did Bowie really completely drag one of his own fans on a messageboard?
- “It was an intense process being in this band. By the end, everyone was, like, ‘I don’t need to see you again, ever’”: the rise, fall and spectacular resurrection of Faith No More
- "There wasn't an option to go and hide in the shadows any more": How Peter Gabriel made So and became the world's biggest-selling cult artist
- The 10 most underrated Pete Townshend songs
May 18
- "All of the prog-related material goes to Gungfly. Gungfly is changing."How Rikard Sjöblom resurrected Gungfly with On Her Journey Round The Sun
- “That was the end of it on the album”: the band favourite that Billy Corgan pulled from Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie… at the last minute
- "This is a more outgoing album. It’s noisier, it’s got lots more musical ideas crammed into it." The story of Gazpacho's Soyuz
- “I think of our music as the soundtrack to the Norwegian forest.” The story of Wobbler's Rites At Dawn
- "Don’t call your band Nine Inch Nails when you have a three-inch one": the many, wild feuds of Courtney Love
- “He has that incredible baritone and that haunted, tortured persona”: these are Chris Cornell’s five favourite singers, in his own words
May 17
- The 14 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- Top new prog you really must hear from IZZ, MONO, Pijn, The Decemberists and more in Prog's Tracks Of The Week
- “I could be onstage in front of thousands of fans singing my music back to me, and I’d feel empty and miserable”: the dark and twisted history of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails
- “Life is to be lived, and lived well… there’s a feeling of carpe diem across the whole album”: Big Big Train loaded Grand Tour with intergalactic ambitions
May 16
- “Somebody told me you people are crazy, but I'm not so sure about that. You seem to be alright to me.” On June 13, 1978, The Cramps played a riotous gig for the residents of a Californian psychiatric hospital. They didn't want to leave
- “He was the real Voice Of Rock. Warm, rich, sonorous, resonant, deeply soulful”: James Dewar was the greatest rock vocalist you’ve probably never heard of
- “I’m climbing out of the ashes of Slayer”: Kerry King’s exclusive track by track guide to his new album From Hell I Rise
- “My discipline is doing what needs to be done, whether you like it or not… Robert decides what to do and Fripp has to go and do it”: How to survive over 50 years of King Crimson, by the only person who’s been there
- "The five of us wrote that song together in the castle’s crypt… it felt magical": Glenn Hughes' six favourite Deep Purple songs
- "I insist upon being great. You don’t always reach that pinnacle, but I insist upon it": The A-Z of Ronnie James Dio
May 15
- A beginner's guide to Warp Records in five essential albums
- Psych-rock wizardry, trippy dance punk and flaming heaps of fun: the five best bands we saw at 2024’s Focus Wales festival
- How do earplugs for musicians work? How to ensure every note and tone is discernible but at a safer volume
- In 1971 Pink Floyd played a show at Crystal Palace in London. Hundreds of fish died as a result
- “The punk thing happened and all I saw was this skinny guy shouting. Suddenly it was all the rage and they were calling me rude names”: Bewildered and reclusive, Mike Oldfield just wanted to make double albums
- "It was all a bit exhausting and emotionally draining": Meet the man who auditioned to replace Bon Scott in AC/DC and Paul Di'Anno in Iron Maiden
May 14
- Best budget hi-fi speakers 2024: Amazing audio without breaking the bank
- Watch Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi and Phil Collins serenade the Queen with Black Sabbath’s Paranoid in 2002
- "I've always been a believer. I never felt it was a mass hallucination": The mystery of the Led Zeppelin show that may never have taken place
- “A lot of it is first takes and demos. Because of what had happened to Neil we didn’t want to re-record – the songs felt too precious”: Rush fans had to wait 11 years for Vapor Trails to become the album it deserved to be
- The label that reinvented progressive rock: 10 albums on Kscope you should definitely listen to
- "When I say it was a shit gig, they were literally throwing faecal matter from the porta-potties they'd turned over": Sheryl Crow on a lifetime of battles, triumphs, hardships and hopes
May 13
- “I was side-of-stage and said, ‘You’ve literally just written that, and you’re going to perform it?’ It was a beautiful rendition… much better than on the album!” The Wilson & Wakeman comedy duo get serious(ish)
- "I'd never been able to see what other people liked about us. Suddenly I understood": Roger Glover's seven favourite Deep Purple songs
- "People chucked pesetas at us, bottles, you name it": How Gun survived Spanish crowds, an X-rated video and that "strange cookie" from INXS, then hit the bullseye again
- “They’d been to university, they had bank accounts; two of them were teachers; they had a car; they’d got a bank loan to buy a PA!”: Phil Manzanera always knew Roxy Music were going to make it
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Mike Campbell, Orange Goblin, Battlesnake and more
May 12
- "They came to my house, we jammed together in my studio, they even played with my dog." How System Of A Down's Serj Tankian almost signed a young Muse to his own label - but was "screwed over"
- “We needed a female vocal and Katy Perry was hanging around the studio. She came in, did it… then she got big!”: the greatest P.O.D. collaborations, in their own words
- “You can just see the decline”: The time that Creed bassist Brian Marshall went to war with Pearl Jam
- “We were both big ELP fans, and I’m sure if you look at our record collections back then you’d have seen Yes, Greenslade, King Crimson…” How electronic music duo Underworld grew up with a world of prog
- 10 brilliant, bizarre and utterly WTF Lemmy collaborations
- “Metallica can play 60 more Lulus. They’ve earned the place to do whatever they want”: how Jason Newsted escaped the shadow of metal’s biggest band to forge his own career
- “She continues to be a beacon in the darkness”: Garbage’s Shirley Manson on why Patti Smith is one of her heroes
- “Every time Steve Winwood put fingers to a guitar or piano, something came out that transcended the normal. He has his failings as a person, but I guess you can’t have everything”: The story of Traffic
May 11
- “We didn’t want to be some huge rock’n’roll band. We wanted to make music for the people”: the inside story of Kyuss’ Blues For The Red Sun, the classic album that changed the course of stoner rock
- Witch trial protest anthems, zombie-folk, Ouija-pop, mullets and Rammstein riffs: five acts to look out for at Eurovision 2024
- "It was a perfect moment of rock’n’roll bedlam”: the inside story of the night Jarvis Cocker wiggled his bum at Michael Jackson at the Brits, by the man who took him
- “We’re open to trying some things that maybe we don’t do in some of our other projects.” The story of melodic prog duo Silent Skies
- “It must be hard for him when people write, ‘How could you leave Gwen, she’s so great": Gwen Stefani wrote a whole album about her bandmate dumping her, and it made No Doubt huge
- “He had this mystique to die for. There were rumours of him being nasty and mean. But he could play his ass off”: Steve Vai salutes the genius of Ritchie Blackmore
- “Don’t like it? Go ****king listen to something else!” how Linkin Park rediscovered rock and came out swinging with The Hunting Party
May 10
- The first and last lyrics sung on record by 20 legendary bands
- “I thought we were going to be taken seriously as the next Nirvana. I was shocked to find that the press story was Revenge Of The Nerds.” Rivers Cuomo always dreamt of becoming a rock star, but the success of Weezer's 'Blue' album freaked him out
- "My love of real heavy thrash riffs comes from slaying beasts in Doom". Made by metalheads and beloved by bands including Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein and GWAR, 1993's Doom was the first true metal videogame
- The 13 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- Cool new proggy sounds you really must hear from Richard Henshall, Evergrey, Reliqa, Rendezvous Point and more in Prog's Tracks Of The Week
- "With the discovery of Tupac, Death Row found the voice of a generation." A beginner's guide to Death Row Records in five essential albums
- “There’s a power in making decisions, even understanding I’ll still make mistakes. At least I’m taking responsibility for my own life”: Chelsea Wolfe’s addiction battle informed her most intimate album yet
- "It’s a responsibility but also a privilege to share this same kind of consciousness with new generations of people." The fantastic return of Banco del Mutuo Soccorso
- "We were like, ‘These guys are just like us, this is crazy! We want to hack things up with machetes with them!’” Members of Metallica, Megadeth, Ghost and more talk the years that made Slayer into the ultimate thrash icons
- "Who am I really? Where do I go from here?" Born intersex, Raven van Dorst has struggled with gender norms. With Dool, they're changing the conversation - with the help of devastating progressive metal
- “I’ve been writing these pieces over the years… I thought, ‘They sound pretty good.’ Then you end up rewriting half the stuff!” Oliver Wakeman’s Anam Cara began in 2002
May 9
- "If Graham Norton ripped into me, I would totally respect it." Ireland's Bambie Thug explains why Eurovision is great for metal and alternative communities
- “It’s not a question of spirituality; it’s a question of right or wrong… he’s playing songs he didn’t even like at the time!” Supertramp co-founder Roger Hodgson’s beef with Rick Davies
- "There's no better catharsis than being at a thrash-metal show, screaming along with the band and banging your head": Scott Ian on why you should still go and watch Anthrax
- "Our heyday was ninety-five per cent musically fulfilling and joyous and full of fun and laughter": David Gilmour on the past, the present and the future of Pink Floyd
May 8
- “I’m at work in the petrol station and I read the album is at No. 23. I’d last heard it at a playback in George Martin’s studio”: Stackridge’s Monty Python-like experience with The Man In The Bowler Hat
- “He expressed being upset by my horrible remix, which made me even more proud of it!” Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore once mixed a quote from Oasis' Noel Gallagher into a Blur song purely to annoy bassist Alex James, a petty gesture we can all respect
- “Men screaming – not singing, screaming!” Watch the chaotic time extreme metal antagonists Cradle Of Filth took a Christian mum on tour
- "I had to be there for my daughter's birth - even if it meant cancelling a show with Metallica.“ From touring with Metallica to his surprising breakdancing skills, Michael Poulsen shares what he's learned in his time with Volbeat, Asinhell and beyond
- “They’re not interested in pleasing their label or fans – just themselves. That’s what I try to do too”: Ihsahn and his wife want you to listen to Radiohead
- "I think the blues can be very beneficial on a medicinal level": Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks pick the blues albums that are good for your health
- Gary Clark Jr. thought about quitting music to open a BBQ restaurant: Instead, with a little help from Stevie Wonder, he made the best album of his career
- "It's almost like a template of how a hard rock band playing a rock'n'roll tune should be": Ian Paice's eight favourite Deep Purple songs
May 7
- "He told me 'I'm giving all the magic stuff up and I’m just going to play.' A few days later he was dead": The apocalyptic life of Graham Bond, one of British music's great lost talents
- “As far as the 80s are concerned, we’re in for some very good heavy metal years”: Judas Priest’s Rob Halford predicted the future of metal in 1979
- “The producer was able to see through me to be like, ‘You don’t sound like you believe any of this.’ I love that psychology”: District 97’s Leslie Hunt took singing lessons before she tracked Stay For The Ending
- “I didn’t realise how much Him meant to people”: Ville Valo on the legacy of Him, finishing up with VV and the music that comes next
- “Nothing was too crazy. Nothing was too outrageous. Once we had a beautiful part, we thought we should make it evil and disturbing”: Powered by red wine and bored with prog metal, Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt made Storm Corrosion their way
- "Roy Thomas Baker would organise food fights and set fire to the mixing desk": How Bill Nelson built up then broke up Be-Bop Deluxe
- That time Roger Waters hooked up with Foo Fighters to cover a Pink Floyd classic
- The Pink Floyd solo albums you should definitely own
May 6
- Every Tesseract album ranked from worst to best
- Listen to the only non-Metallica song that Lars Ulrich has ever recorded drums for
- “When I go to see a good concert from a metal band, it’s exhilarating. Like nothing you’ve ever heard before”: when Sir Christopher Lee met Tony Iommi
- "It's such a limiting genre": After three albums of blues-rock, the Kris Barras Band have ramped up the heaviness
- “The bassist was found with serious wounds, screaming that Vander had caused him to tear his own chest open”: The mystery and mythology of Magma founder Christian Vander
- Robert Plant loves them. So does Joe Bonamassa: Meet Ferris & Sylvester, the award-winning folk-blues rock'n'rollers with a psychedelic soul
- "I can't be Dave Grohl or Ryan Reynolds." We spent the day with Tool and, can we shock you? They're still weird as hell.
- The best new rock songs you need to hear right now, including Black Country Communion, Mdou Moctar, The Picturebooks and more
May 5
- "We got to see up close how things work in this country.. It didn’t kill us, but it was quite an experience": Eddie Vedder on Pearl Jam's battle with Ticketmaster, 30 years on
- “Some of our peers thought, ‘Are they going to be corporate sell-outs?’ I don’t know if was jealousy or a feeling of betrayal”: the rise, fall and return of Soundgarden
- “I got phone calls from my friends saying, ‘What the f*ck is up with that sh*t?!’” Listen to the Slayer cover of Born To Be Wild that Slayer really don’t like
- “Let’s play a little Soundgarden…”: hear a recording of Pearl Jam’s first ever UK show
- “I have to prove that I’m capable of doing it, and I wasn’t just being done a favour by Deep Purple”: the two forgotten David Coverdale solo albums that sowed the seeds for Whitesnake
- “There were opportunities for us to break into the Metallica league. But we never took advantage of them”: the story behind Testament’s debut album The Legacy, an overlooked thrash classic
May 4
- “When the line-ups changed I thought it was getting a bit stale. But they reinvented themselves… what an incredible thing”: Steve Stevens has loved Yes since he was 14, and always will
- “I’m a good actor. I’m the Jack Nicholson of rock’n’roll! I can do the one expression and people still believe it”: how Ville Valo became one of rock’s last great stars
- Watch new Slipknot drummer Eloy Casagrande smash his way through The Heretic Anthem back in 2021
- "In a way, I can hear that song now as the end of an era": Billy Corgan on the Smashing Pumpkins classic that put a stop to one era of the band
- The 20 most metal videogames ever
- “They couldn’t get the chicken feathers and blood cleaned up quick enough”: the epic story of Motorhead in the 21st century
- “People think of them as a heavy metal band, but they swing. It‘s not just bash bash bash”: how Deep Purple changed Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith’s life
- “Everybody hated punks in the 80s. It made it cool. It weeded people out”: how skate punk changed metal forever in the 1980s
- "I miss playing those songs, I miss being that drummer": Dave Grohl on the time Nirvana reunited at Cal Jam 2018
May 3
- Every Leprous album ranked from worst to best
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "For some people, we'll always be that band that lived in that house the police would always come out to." Scream's brilliant DC Special album is a love letter to a city and a punk scene that continues to inspire outsider art worldwide
- Over-ear headphones vs earbuds: Which should you buy?
- "Public Enemy gave the establishment something to fear, an intelligent, angry, politicised, uncompromising voice for disenfranchised black America." A beginner's guide to Def Jam Recordings in five essential albums
- Awesome new prog you really should hear from Trifecta, Eivør, Oh Hiroshima and more in Prog's Tracks Of The Week
- “I didn’t even speak English but I could tell Operation: Mindcrime had atmosphere and intelligence… You can’t just replace Geoff Tate with someone who has a great range”: Tobias Sammet says classic Queensryche were fully prog
- "When Peter Gabriel played Red Rain I started sobbing - it makes me think of my dad": The soundtrack of Wolfgang Van Halen's life
- "Whether it has anything to do with being sober I don't know – but I needed a release": Slash tells the story of his star-studded debut solo album
May 2
- "Prince Andrew turned up at my door at 1am wanting to party." Watch Courtney Love share stories about Prince Andrew, Madonna, heroin and nudity on a 2006 talk show, then give the host a lapdance while dressed as Queen Elizabeth II
- Klone guitarist Guillame Bernard chooses his favourite Riverside songs
- "I’m not positive I’ll be part of it, but there are plans to make Bloodmoon 2." Chelsea Wolfe answers your questions on horror movie soundtracks, witchcraft and if she'd front Type O Negative
- “To promote an album and play some football, it’s the ultimate for me”: The bizarre story of the time Iron Maiden became a football team
- "Tommy Lee and Billy Idol liked our band; we were doing pretty well." Milquetoast could have made Helmet MTV superstars, but they weren't interested
- “No-one understands why Maynard James Keenan chooses blue body paint or why Adam Jones creates such disturbing art. They just pretend to”: The enigma of Tool up to 10,000 Days
- "I listened to Pornography and Disintegration one weekend. I got very drunk": How Robert Smith completed The Cure's Dark Trilogy
- In the late 1970s NASA asked Peter Gabriel if he'd like to go into space: Then the Shah of Iran was deposed
- Watch David Gilmour wring every ounce of emotion from the guitar solo on Prince's Purple Rain – with Tom Jones
- "Jamming out – I call it jerking off": Why Honeymoon Suite's new songs will not be messed with when they're played live
May 1
- "Our style has always been defined by the fact that we sound a little like Pink Floyd, Genesis and Marillion." Mystery and the making of One Among The Living
- "Dad was the guy that would get us Christmas presents and then steal them back to pawn them." Tragedy hasn't stopped Texans Frozen Soul from finding warmth in old school death metal
- 4 brilliant new metal bands you need to hear this month
- “We got pretty eclectic and threw some stuff in that we shouldn’t. We wanted to expand our fanbase – but the effort didn’t really pay off”: When Spock’s Beard went back to basics with X
- Dion may be 84, but that hasn't stopped him recording a duet that reminds him of *that* scene in When Harry Met Sally
- "Without a doubt, the best experience I've had making an album, ever": How Rush made Snakes & Arrows and learned to love recording again