Features archive
September 2025
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139 articles
- September 30
- September 29
- September 28
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- “I don’t try to point out stupidity, and I don’t like to make people feel bad – unless they annoy me”: The Beatles-inspired 90s song that finally gave these thrash heavyweights the mainstream hit that had eluded them
- “This is it, folks. The start of a genuine phenomenon”: The best metal debut album from every year of the 1990s
- “The first thing I did in the morning was take a fix… I don’t know why I started. I suppose it was to overcome my insecurity”: He was a member of one of the most famous supergroups of the late 60s. But this forgotten great died in poverty aged just 43
- “She builds songs like Roman roads. She won’t let the hills and rivers of convention or compromise get in the way. It’s a straight line from her heart to yours”: Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love, by some of the artists it inspired
- September 27
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- “It was prophetic. Right after that exploded, Limp Bizkit, all of these groups, was doing what was being done on that record”: This 1993 action movie was a bomb. But it produced one of the most revolutionary soundtracks of the decade
- “It’s damn near impossible to adequately explain the impact of this album. We didn’t know what hit us”: The best rock debut album from every year of the 1980s
- "I always thought power metal is cheesy. We are not cheesy, **** that." Pumpkins, power metal and the most unexpected reunion in metal: Helloween are better than ever
- “We opened with it and the crowd broke through the barrier. We had to stop midway because people were getting hurt”: The game-changing late 80s single that put an obscure band from San Francisco on the map and helped ignite the alt rock explosion
- From Taylor to Turnstile and more... Hayley Williams' seven best guest spots
- “You cannot visit the scene. The scene is now in the bedroom. There isn’t a group of people forcing each other to improve”: Roy Harper wants to hear new ambitious music, but knows why he’s struggling
- September 26
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- “We stand for something more than a faded sticker on a skateboard”: Every Propagandhi album ranked from worst to best
- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "I liked heavy metal because everyone hated it." Paradise Lost's Nick Holmes on dodging plant pots, nearly-severed fingers and why nu metal ruined metal
- September 25
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- "I really did spells, like ***ing on a churchyard." From discovering black metal and magic to meeting Mayhem, Witch Club Satan's Nikoline Spjelkavik on the 10 records that changed her life
- 5 brilliant new metal bands you need to hear this month
- "We're not trying to make sexualised music." Deftones' Chino Moreno on the nu metal revival, conspiracy theories and whatever the hell Baddiecore is
- “It’s weird when I look at the list. If you go folk or blues or jazz or rock, I’ve actually been there”: Danny Thompson covered more ground than even he thought possible in a career spanning seven decades
- September 24
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- “As soon as he hit the stage, everything changed.” Farewell to Ozzy Osbourne: Metal's first - and greatest - icon
- “People really go ape*** for the dance tracks”: saluting New Order’s imperious 2015 album Music Complete as it turns 10
- "What does it feel like to be a legend?!?": An awkward encounter with a grumpy, nicotine-craving Ozzy Osbourne
- "That song is actually the answer to the big question - it's got real power": The story of the post-punk classic that defined a band and inspired a Hollywood movie
- “I was familiar with air guitar. I had a giant mirror and a tennis racket. But I’d never conceived that 20,000 humans in a room would be playing air drums!” Ugly Kid Joe’s Whitfield Crane loves Rush
- "The 80s were our most successful period, but soulless, shallower, and less musically rewarding": How Heart made their rock'n'roll dreams come true and the price they paid
- September 23
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- Imposter syndrome. Burnout. Therapy. How Biffy Clyro almost fell apart – but came back stronger
- "Nightwish, Him and Lacuna Coil all bow before them." Ranking every Paradise Lost album from worst to best
- “He’s the only rock star who’s never done anything to be embarrassed about. He’s never put a foot wrong”: Why Peter Gabriel was the ideal inspiration for fictional prog icon Brian Pern
- "Call us tarts or a bunch of cheap Rolling Stones imitations – we're still together and we still love to rock": Wild and weird weekends with Aerosmith's Toxic Twins
- "He made the show feel like a party. So that's what we try to do": Greta Valenti picks the soundtrack of her life
- September 22
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- “I was not expecting how open and honest Sharon Osbourne was”: From Randy Rhoads to Chuck Schuldiner, new docuseries Into The Void is bringing heavy metal’s human stories to the mainstream
- Debate: who are the greatest black metal band of all time?
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: September 22, 2025
- "When people watch us, it's like somebody checks a box that says ‘anything is permissible’. We've had limbs thrown on stage, wheelchairs…" Five hilarious minutes with Gwar front-thing, Blöthar The Berserker
- "We met somewhere in the crossroads and learned a lot from each other": Rodney Crowell on country royalty, loving Southern rock again and new album Airline Highway
- “Proof they can go for the heart as well as the head, encouraging thought and emotional commitment”: Marillion’s 20 best songs as chosen by Prog readers (the band can’t believe Number 7)
- “We were shocked it went so well! But this music has lived within us for a long time – it makes sense for it to be natural”: Auri have finally come to life with III: Candles & Beginnings
- September 21
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- “You could never call us pretentious. We were a rock’n’roll band. A rock’n’roll band that liked to experiment”: The wild story of Family, the British hellraisers that John Lennon loved and Middle America hated
- “Huge, tattooed men were crying”: Joey Jordison’s sisters reveal how they helped one of the late Slipknot drummer’s unreleased albums see the light of day
- “David Byron refused to be helped. On one occasion he slapped me round the face, kicked and screamed at me. We couldn’t take it any more”: The stellar rise and chaotic fall of Uriah Heep, the 70s rock giants who tore themselves apart
- “Hard rock needed a miracle and it found one in this masterpiece”: The best rock debut album from every year of the 1970s
- “The bad blood was there from the start. There was no cohesiveness and the atmosphere between certain people was very toxic”: Trevor Rabin was trapped in hell with Yes as they made Big Generator
- “My first instinct was shock at how much like Pink Floyd it sounded. But I can’t deny how important that record is”: Radiohead, Yes, Can and Peter Gabriel feature in Rock Hall boss Jason Hanley’s record collection
- September 20
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- “We want to inspire the next generation." From playing Glastonbury to get the sel of approval from Tom Morello Nova Twins are smashing barriers
- “He just started drinking. We left his drunkenness in there, and it became a thing for us: drink and shred”: How a cult power metal band and an insanely successful video game brought shred guitar heroics to a new generation
- “We were the new outrageous band in town. We were dirty and nasty and had naked girls on stage”: The satirical 70s shock rock anthem that gave Kiss and Alice Cooper a run for their money
- “Nine Inch Nails, man…”: Jeff Bridges speaks for all of us on the excellence of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s Tron: Ares soundtrack
- September 19
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- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "In some ways it's a miracle that we even had a career at all": With better timing, things might have turned out completely differently for Harem Scarem
- "If we gave up now, it would destroy our scene." Botswana's death metal cowboys Overthrust are flying the flag for African metal
- Nine classic deep cuts Iron Maiden need to dust off for their 2026 Run For Your Lives shows
- Debate: who are the big four of death metal?
- Debate: Who is the greatest guitarist of all time?
- “The sound universe that Soft Machine opened before me was almost unfathomable. It was a revelation, a musical epiphany”: Meet the Canterbury scene’s international next generation
- September 18
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- Lorna Shore don't want to be deathcore's biggest band - they want to be the biggest band in metal
- The best metal albums of 2025 (so far)
- "There was just Ozzy and me at my own private show in the middle of a desert": I took photos of Ozzy Osbourne for decades – these are some of my favourite memories
- “I said, ‘I’m not writing another song until you’ve written one.’ I find it hard to get him to do it. He’d rather wash the car”: Polly Samson on cajoling David Gilmour into work, Pink Floyd’s awkward silences, and the words she refused to write
- September 17
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- “Often times, I’m motivated to write by some amount of melancholy”: revisiting Chris Cornell’s final album as it turns 10
- "To Carry The Weight might be one of the most gutwrenching songs that I’ve ever written." Killswitch Engage's Jesse Leach on buried projects, ska records and how he once met the cast of Friends
- Six reasons to get excited about music in 2026 from the Coachella line-up
- "It’s a massive family of geeks, freaks and weirdos." Satanic rituals, burlesque and cowbell - what it was like at Ghost Con, the world's only dedicated Ghost fan convention
- “We’re definitely still a progressive band. Listen to the detail in what we do and the musicianship behind it – it all comes from that legacy”: When Soen’s songs got shorter but not shallower on Memorial
- September 16
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- "There were loads of bands happy to make mediocre records. We never saw this as an option." The story of At The Gates' Slaughter Of The Soul - the album that revolutionised death metal
- "Songwriting pulls you out of whatever you're going through": Warren Haynes reveals how the blues can rescue you from misery
- 13 absolute bangers from Status Quo's Frantic Four lineup
- "He'd argue with me till six in the morning - he'd do whatever was needed": How Jeff Lynne built the Electric Light Orchestra
- “For the first time I was meeting resistance artistically. People were saying, ‘She’s gone mad now.’ I was a complete wreck – I’d wake up in the morning and I couldn’t move”: How Kate Bush answered her critics with Hounds Of Love
- September 15
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- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: September 15, 2025
- "I noticed a guy in a wheelchair swinging his prosthetic leg around in the air!" How Arch Enemy wrote a revolutionary anthem for the masses with Nemesis
- "I started going to rituals when I was 13. My mother made me robes and I had my own staff." Midsommar metal is officially a thing: say hello to Forlorn
- "I'm trying to put a little bit of love and just realness into rock music": De'Wayne's been working for 10 years, but people are finally paying attention
- “I’m not a massive fan of all things prog. But I must have listened to the Tarkus album a million times down the years”: Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French wants Emerson, Lake and Palmer to be remembered for ever
- "It's karaoke time and I understand that": Graham Bonnet on the "berserk" response to Rainbow's Since You've Been Gone
- “I hoped we could go somewhere, with all of us making a living. I don’t have that hope any more”: Stubbornness, repurposed Kansas songs and letting a long-held ambition go helped Spock’s Beard make Noise Floor
- September 14
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- All the essential new metal albums coming out in 2025 – and where to buy them
- “Drug dealers and freaks and crazy people left over from the 60s – all defiant and distorted”: The story behind the Rolling Stones’ iconic Exile On Main Street album cover
- 10 terrible early 00s movies with killer nu metal soundtracks
- “I thought, ‘What would people do if they only had five months to live?’ One song is called Shagathon…” Arjen Lucassen decided to be an egomaniac, and the result is Songs No One Will Hear
- Half the world away: what ex-members of Oasis are up to whilst their former group embarks on their triumphant comeback tour without them
- September 13
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- “I remember looking up at this big billboard that said, ‘God loves you all.’ I thought, ‘He sure as hell doesn’t like me right now!’”: The prophetic Slayer song that marked the end of one of thrash metal’s greatest songwriting partnerships
- “God? Maybe he’s gone senile”: Lemmy was once asked what he thought about God and religion, and he didn’t hold back
- “At first it felt like a bit of a novelty song. It was a shock that it became so popular”: How an unknown American trio scored a huge hit with the greatest Neil Young song Neil Young never wrote
- "It was the four of us against the world." Behind the curtains of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne's historic farewell gig
- The 10 best B-side albums
- September 12
- September 11
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- 'We’ve proved ourselves wrong so many times and got so much bigger than we ever thought we would." Ten years on, the story of That’s The Spirit, the album that sent Bring Me The Horizon stratospheric
- “Some fans want him to make The Raven That Refused To Sing over and over again. Most know he won’t repeat himself”: Chantel McGregor admires Steven Wilson’s risky approach to music
- September 10
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- Who are Acid Bath? The chaotic, tragic story of the cult metal band supporting System Of A Down and Queens Of The Stone Age next summer
- "The three of us were put on this planet to make different kinds of music": Stewart Copeland on why it's unlikely The Police will ever reform
- "I don't think she liked my music at all – which is why we bonded": What happened when Joe Bonamassa and Joanne Shaw Taylor were interviewed together for the first time
- “The album happened not unexpectedly – but it was like, ‘Wow, we have enough songs!’” Nosound’s rush return after seven years with To The Core
- “His response to seeing a wilderness being bulldozed, he can’t resist also mentioning Bonnie Prince Charlie, Vikings and an ill-fated brontosaurus”: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s Tomorrow Belongs To Me is a prog epic
- September 9
- September 8
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- The man who invented everything cool in rock'n'roll: Alice Cooper albums ranked
- "It's been very crazy." How Radiohead, Coldplay, Gorillaz and more came together to make history with an album that went on sale just one day after its songs were recorded
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: September 8, 2025
- "A bank robber put a gun in my face and stole my motorcycle." Nervosa's Prika Amaral picks the 10 songs that changed her life
- “It was like we’d climbed the mountain. My head was spinning every time I sang it”: Yes created longer songs than Close To The Edge, but none with as much impact
- September 7
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- “Roger Waters’ Amused To Death is something you have to pay attention to. If it had Pink Floyd on the cover, it would have sold millions”: BBC chief football writer Phil McNulty’s prog record collection
- "People should get off their asses to topple us. Here’s a guitar – blow us away if you think you can." The track-by-track guide to Metallica's Load
- “There are three more songs somewhere on a hard drive. I will release them before I die!” The story of the star-studded EP Gojira have been sitting on for 15 years
- Six Britpop bands who will never reunite
- “Using sci-fi stuff worked for us – there are no boundaries and you can use all your goofy sounds. There are Marshall stacks and Serbian guitarists using echo machines in space!” The poems, movies and sheep that inspired Rush’s A Farewell To Kings
- September 6
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- The 12 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- I'm a singer in a metal band living with HIV. Here's how my diagnosis has impacted my life and career so far
- "Crime scene teams tested the entrails - they thought they were human." How Florida became the world death metal capital in the 90s
- I’m a lifelong deathcore hater, but these five bands are actually giving me faith in the genre
- “The song was haunted! Dropouts, disks failing, the channels on the desk would stop working. The guitar had just gone. It wasn’t one of my favourite albums”: Marillion producer Dave Meegan’s fight to deliver Afraid Of Sunlight
- It’s been seven years since the last Radiohead tour – here’s what each member has been up to since
- September 5
- September 4
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- “It’s written from the point of view of being older; mortality is the constant.” The inspiration that helped David Gilmour create Luck And Strange
- “We were the antithesis of Britpop – we really hated all that kind of thing." Every Idlewild album in the band's own words
- "The entire world could burn and we would still absolutely love each other and love what we do." How Lzzy Hale beat her demons with a little help from her Halestorm bandmates on new album Everest
- “I felt the stage fright because the band just wasn’t good enough. I said, ‘This will be our last record.’ Then things began to take off”: Even lockdown couldn’t dampen The Pineapple Thief’s spirits when they released Versions Of The Truth
- "It's so broad a concept that it's impossible to answer objectively": We asked who the 'big four' of classic rock were and you did not hold back
- "I look round and there's puke all over the place, and I thought, this is not going well": How Rainbow's classic lineup came together then fell apart
- September 3
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- “It was such a shame to leave A Secret Wish on its own. The band still had such great potential – it was unfinished business”: Claudia Brücken and Susanne Freytag couldn’t dump Propaganda and their prog roots in the past
- "We’re not just into camels and palm trees." 20 years ago, Amine Hamma was arrested for playing death metal. Now he’s helping build Morocco’s metal scene
- “There are two types of bands. One is s**t. The other is The Hives”: 45 minutes with the world’s greatest band, The Hives
- Life on the precipice: How Audioslave gave Chris Cornell hope
- 25 complicated concept albums explained as simply as possible
- “I once played with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. You can imagine how I was feeling… I got through YYZ. They told me I was playing too fast!” Taylor Hawkins’ love for prog stars Rush, Genesis, Yes and more
- "The stench of success was horrible for a lot of people": Whipping boys of the music press in the 90s, Bush are still fighting back
- September 2
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- The A-Z of Britpop Anthems
- “We were virtually given free rein. In fact, they spent so much money on studio time, there was very little left for promotion”: How Caravan’s In The Land Of Grey And Pink became an unheralded prog classic
- Hayley Williams is low-key taking over the world, and the misogynist music industry can't do a damned thing about it
- "One song took about seven weeks to do. It was insane": The Moody Blues on their best and worst albums, Charles Manson, and the mood-altering magic of Nights In White Satin
- “He said, ‘We can’t use this – people will think we’re a Christian rock band!’ I went and got myself a drink. There was no arguing with that kind of thinking”: Marillion’s battle over the cover for Afraid Of Sunlight
- "We want to appeal to everybody and get rich quick. We want to be millionaires": How AC/DC's plan to conquer the world began in the back of a squalid bus
- September 1
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- "We dreamt of coming here for such a long time." How Bleed From Within went from British metalcore underdogs to Slipknot-endorsed international metal stars
- "Nobody wanted to sign us, because we didn’t sound like Korn or Limp Bizkit." How Daron Malakian went from nu metal misfit to international metal star with System Of A Down and Scars On Broadway
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: September 1, 2025
- “Life changed. Time healed wounds. No more feeling alone or depressed – it’s like, ‘Let’s do something positive. Let’s fight’”: When Mariusz Duda escaped the darkness on Lunatic Soul’s Through Shaded Woods
- British metal has ruled the world this summer – just this once, I’m actually proud of my country
- “Mr Blue Sky is the song I always go back to. It’s such a feelgood track and it’s never aged”: The ELO classic led Crobot’s Brandon Yeagley to Frank Zappa, Protest The Hero and a whole world of prog
