Lacuna Coil singer Andrea Ferro says the challenges facing bands in today's world of short attention spans is making it harder for artists to make an impact – but he believes metal and rock bands are going a great job of maintaining high standards in their work.

The Italian vocalist discusses the differences facing musicians today compared to when Lacuna Coil were starting to make their name in the 1990s in a new interview with Rock Hard Greece.

He says that grabbing and holding people's attention gets harder all the time. But in his view, metal still sounds great compared to a lot of other genres where quality is sacrificed for quick wins,

Ferro says: "The system of how you find out about bands, how you sell the records or the music has changed completely.

"When we started, it was still the magazines and then the little bit from the TV, a little bit from the radio and the webzine. And nowadays these things don't exist. Nowadays it's all about the social media.

"Some magazine are still surviving, but it's also harder for them. People want to read the news the minute they come out. They don't have any patience anymore to go in the store and buy the mag.

"I love to go in the bookstore and buy the magazine and then read it at home. But now that doesn't exist anymore.

"Everything is way faster and shorter, and the attention span of the people is way less. So you can be a very famous band very quickly, but you can also disappear with the same quickness, because people have always want something new, something fast, and it's very hard to get their attention for more than a minute.

"I think rock and metal is one of the few genres that has kept a certain quality. Different maybe, but still quality all along, compared to other musical styles."

Ferro is grateful to have come onto the scene with Lacuna Coil when the process set them up for longevity rather than instant success.

He adds: "We're lucky that we grew up in a different time, and we made the most of our fanbase in times where you could still go door by door and tour every city and open for this band and that band and convince everybody through playing every show – so in the classic way.

"I think nowadays it's way easier and faster but also way more complicated to build something solid that is gonna last."

Lacuna Coil have a number of festival dates coming up in 2026 and a string of shows planned for 2027.

Is No Prayer For The Dying up there with your favourite Iron Maiden albums? If the answer is ‘yes’, you’re in a fairly select group. It would be a massive stretch to say the record, released in 1990, is as beloved as such nailed-on classics as The Number Of The Beast, Powerslave, Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son or A Matter Of Life And Death.

But if you are willing to go into bat for the metal legends’ eighth album then you’re in good company. One person who really loves it is Maiden bassist Steve Harris himself. Speaking to Metal Hammer as part of a feature on supposedly rubbish metal albums that are nowhere as bad as people say they are, ’Arry leaps to No Prayer For The Dying’s defence – and reveals the one thing he’d change about it that would have cast it in a completely different light.

“I think it’s a really strong album,” he says, pointing out that it came on the back of a run of increasingly ambitious albums and tours. “At the time, we had gotten so big, with all the grandiose shows, that we were trying to go back to basics a little bit.

“If I'm totally honest, I think it was slightly influenced by Bruce's solo album, Tattooed Millionaire [also released in 1990], where he was trying to get a bit more basic,” continues Steve. “There are a couple of songs on there where he sings a bit rougher. I was thinking I could write something where he could sing with that gruff delivery as well.”

This commitment to stripping things back extended to recording the album in a converted barn in the grounds of Steve’s house. And the one change he would make if he could do it again? Well, it’s a pretty major one.

“We were trying to make it sound like a live album, which is why we got the Rolling Stones Mobile studio in to record live in the barn. We probably should have put audience noise on it, because it would have sounded more like a proper live album – we did that with the Tailgunner video, and it made a big difference.”

Ironically, one of the more derided songs on the album is its most epic-sounding: Cossack-metal anthem Mother Russia. “Mother Russia got really slagged off, but I listened to it recently and I thought, ‘This is really good,’” says Steve. “I was going for a [20th century Russian composer] Sergei Prokofiev kind of vibe, which I felt I got, but it got slagged off anyway.”

Not that Steve Harris is bothered by whether you like No Prayer For The Dying or not. “I don't care about that kind of stuff,” he says. “I remember when Jethro Tull's album A Passion Play got slagged off, [Tull mainman] Ian Anderson didn’t want to play the UK anymore,” he says. “If it were me, I would have embraced it. I would have gotten all the journalists into one room, and piled into them – not physically, but verbally. If someone says they don’t like something, that makes me embrace it even more. You’ve got to believe in what do, don’t you?”

You can check out the list of albums that are nowhere as bad as people say they are – also featuring Judas Priest, Metallica, Machine Head and more – in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, onsale now.

Sid Wilson has reportedly been fired from Slipknot.

According to a report on TMZ, a source close to the Iowa outfit reports that DJ and keyboard player Wilson was ejected from the band on Friday. No reason for his apparent departure was given.

However, the band’s guitarist, Jim Root, has alluded to the story in a post on Instagram Stories..

Root wrote: “Don’t believe every thing you read. Stop. Think. Take a breath. Sit with it for awhile. Maybe. Just maybe even wait until there’s more information.”

While the post doesn’t mention Wilson, the timing has prompted fans to speculate that Root’s is referring to his bandmate’s departure.

Neither Slipknot or Wilson have confirmed his departure.

Wilson joined Slipknot in 1998, just before they recorded their self-titled debut album with producer Ross Robinson. He was the ninth member of the band, hence his number, 9.

He has appeared on every Slipknot album from the debut to 2022’s The End So Far, as well as the ‘lost’ album credited to Look Outside Your Window, which was finally released earlier this year.

As well as Slipknot, Wilson – who was engaged to Kelly Osbourne until their relationship ended earlier this year – has also performed under the name DJ Starscream and SID, as well as Miami Vice Crack.

Following Wilson’s apparent departure, only four members of the line-up that played on Slipknot’s debut alum remain – percussionist Shawn Crahan, singer Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root and Mick Thomson.

Greta Van Fleet have announced details of their forthcoming fourth album Palace For The People, and shared a new single Saw You Stand.

Earlier this year, the band alarmed fans by posting the message "Thanks for the wild ride" on their social media channels, leading many to speculate that the Michigan quartet were breaking up. These fears were allayed in May when the group released the single Play Your Games.

Recorded in Tennessee in the spring of 2026, Palace For The People was co-produced by the band and Mike Elizondo (Turnstile, Fiona Apple), and will be released on Republic Records on October 9.

"As much as it is a Greta Van Fleet record and a rock and roll record at its core, in its heart, it's a very modern record," says guitarist Jake Kiszka.

A press release for the record reveals that its title was inspired by iconic London venue Alexandra Palace, which the quartet headlined in 2022.

"A friend explained that the elaborate grandeur of this Victorian-era 'palace', originally named 'The Palace Of The People', was created as a gathering place for the public," the statement reads. "Unlike most lavish buildings of the time, this one wasn't created for the Monarchs nor the wealthy aristocrats of the day, but for everyone to 'escape and wonder', a truly modern concept for the time. Fast forward to 2026, Greta Van Fleet began to wonder: what would a palace for the people mean today? And how do we get there?

"I can't tell you how many people have come up to me and said, 'This is my best friend. We met through your music or at your show,' explains bassist/keyboardist Sam Kiszka, "and we realized, the music is our palace!"

"We love each other just as much as ever, if not more, because we've got to spend quality time together off of the road," his brother Josh adds. "We've grown closer, and we have more to say and share than ever."

"The minute the four of us step into a room with the shared goal of creating, there is very little that can stop us," says drummer Danny Wagner.

Watch the video for Saw You Stand below.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi has revealed that his good friend Brian May is the only guest musician to feature on his forthcoming solo album From the Dark.

Queen guitarist May makes his appearance playing the guitar solo on a song called Death Wake, which Iommi describes as "doom".

In conversation with Rolling Stone, Iommi says that he didn't want any other guests on the record, which finds him joined by vocalist Jørn Lande (Masterplan, Avantasia, etc.), bassist Becky Baldwin (Mercyful Fate) and drummer Karl Brazil (Robbie Williams) because he "wanted to keep it basically like a band".

Asked by writer Kory Grow if May plays on any other songs on the record, Iommi replies, "No. I did say to him, Do you want to play on something else? He said, 'No, no. Your solos are good. I don’t need to play'."

"But it was great that he did," he adds. "I just played him a couple of things, and he’d done it here at the studio in my house. Then of course he’d play something and go, 'Oh, I don’t know about it'. I go, I like it."

Iommi and May have been close friends since the early '70s.

In 2022, the guitarist spoke to Classic Rock about rumours that the pair were set to collaborate on new material.

"We’ve talked about it for years, we really have, and the pandemic smacked everything up," Sabbath's guitarist revealed."Brian came here to my house just before all that happened, and it was a lovely day, we sat outside in the courtyard and played riffs. I played him some of the stuff I’d got, and he said: 'Oh, great, you’ve gotta do something with this.'

"And we’ve talked about it on and off. It would be nice one day to do that. He’s really busy now doing all sorts of things, and it’s great that he’s kept active. You can never say what’s gonna happen. It would be nice. I’m open for a lot of things now, really."

Last Christmas, May gifted iommi a bespoke replica of his iconic homemade Red Special guitar.

Iommi took to Instagram to express his delight and gratitude at receiving the present from his "best friend", posting "Christmas came early!"

Iommi attempted to launch a solo career in 1986 with the album Seventh Star, although record label obligations led to it being released under the banner of “Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi”. He went solo in earnest with 2000’s Iommi, which featured a large cast of guest musicians including Ozzy Osbourne, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Type O Negative’s Peter Steele.

His second and thus-far latest solo outing, 2005’s Fused, featured the more concrete lineup of Iommi, Deep Purple and former Sabbath singer/bassist Glenn Hughes and drummer Kenny Aronoff.

The first taste of the guitarist's new record, single World Alone, was released earlier this week.

The Anchoress releases her brand new album, As We Once Were, through Last Night From Glasgow Records on August 7.

And Prog has teamed up with Catherine Anne Davies to offer readers an exclusive t-shirt bundle that you won't be able to purchase anywhere else! You'll get a fantastic Anchoress As We Once Were t-shirt, exclusive to Prog readers and one you won't find on merch stands or other webstores, a lyric sheet for Stop The World from the new album, signed by Catherine herself, and an issue of Prog 172, with a bespoke Anchoress front cover.

Get yours here before they sell out!

As We Once Were is The Anchoress's third studio release, following on from the acclaimed Confessions Of A Romance Novelist (2016), for which Catherine won the Limelight Award at the 2016 Progressive Music Awards, and The Art Of Losing (2021), which Prog writers voted their album of the year!

As We Once Were is a thought-provoking and intelligently crafted set of progressive-flavoured songs that saw her working on some of Pete Townshend's vintage synthesisers

“There was also this sort of dual congruence through my old recordings and these old analogue instruments from the ‘70s and ‘80s,” Catherine tells Prog in the new issue. “When you work with an old analogue synth, it can take two and a half hours to get to a specific sound. There's a really long, extended coda section of What You Did– with modern synthesisers, you can save your preset and go back to it, but with these older analogue synths there’s this sense of grabbing onto gold dust as it’s coming through your fingers.

“These instruments’ circuits are so unstable – nobody else could get exactly the same sound as you, and it feels like if you don’t record it in the moment it’s going to disappear. Which felt so conceptually resonant."

Get your Anchoress bundle here!

Writer and director John Hamburg has shared his memories of working with Rush on his hit 2009 bromance I Love You, Man, starring Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Rashida Jones.

In the film, Rudd's character Peter Klaven is struggling to find an appropriate best man for his upcoming wedding to his fiancée Zoeey Rice (Jones) until he meets new best friend Sydney Fife (Segel), a fellow Rush fan. In pivotal scenes in the film, after bonding over their shared love of the Canadian prog rock trio, the two men jam on Rush songs, and attend a Rush gig together, much to the bemusement of Klaven's fiancée, who isn't entirely sure whether or not to accept her beloved's offer to have Neil Peart "all up" in her.

"It felt like the perfect band to have these two guys bond over," Hamburg tells Vulture in a new interview. "Rush is iconic and everybody knows them, but they’re not the Rolling Stones or the Beatles where everybody is a fan. A Rush fan is a certain type of person, and obviously there’s millions of them out there, but there’s a certain connection between Rush fans where even though they’re huge, you still feel like you’re part of a secret club. That’s what felt right for the movie."

To get Rush's blessing for the film, Hamburg wrote to the band, explaining that he was a big fan, and assuring the trio that referencing them in his film was based on respect and admiration.

"Once they understood that, they were onboard," he tells Vulture. "They’re funny Canadian dudes. They have goofy senses of humor."

"They couldn’t have been nicer and cooler," he adds. "What I learned was they got it. You know what I mean? They understood what the scene was about and where the comedy was. I knew from their short films that appear at their concerts that they do have great senses of humor. They go in makeup and as these crazy characters. It’s obviously different from I Love You, Man, but it’s all under the umbrella of embracing comedy and the absurd. I would say Neil was the surprise. He’s pretty intimidating. First of all, he’s Neil fucking Peart. He’s the GOAT. People think he’s super-serious, but he could be the goofiest one out of all of them."

The film-maker goes on to say that filming the band at the Avalon theater in Hollywood for the movie "was the most fun I’ve ever had on a set"

In addition to the film, Hamburg later shot an additional short forFunny Or Die in which Rudd and Segel actually meet Rush.

"The movie came out and did well," he recalls. "It certainly introduced Rush to new audiences. It was just a win-win for everybody - and we all got along. They were going on the Time Machine Tour and asked if we would do a film to end their concerts. Of course we were like, 'Hell yeah'.... It was funny to watch them interact with Paul and Jason, because in the movie, they never interact."

Following Neil Peart's death in 2020, Paul Rudd paid tribute to the drummer in a statement shared with Rolling Stone.

"When I first met Neil, I was intimidated as I certainly knew him to be a serious and private person," Rudd said. "Within two minutes, we were cracking up and quoting lines from Team America. I’m missing him as I write this. Being the greatest drummer on the planet was only a part of Neil. He was a thunderbolt of a human being, and he’ll live forever."

Watch the Funny Or Die sketch below.

The Alan Parsons Project are on the cover of the new issue of Prog, which is on sale now!

As the band celebrate their 50th anniversary we look at how the combination of studio guru Alan Parsons and songwriting business brain Eric Woolfson, who never played live during their commercial heyday, went to sell of 50 million. albums and counting! We also look at the making of their Tales Of Mystery & Imagination debut album, also 50 years old this year, and talk to Eric's daughter Sally, keeper of the APP flame!

Phil Collins popped by to discuss his career on a recent visit to London; Supertramp members John Helliwell and Bob Siebenberg discuss the new Crime Of The Century live release and more; surviving members of Popol Vuh talk about the band's unique sound; The Anchoress chats about album number three; and sadly we say goodbye to both Dave Greenslade and Dee Palmer.

Kristoffer Gildenlöw, Phideaux, Ian Neal, Sleeping Pulse, Plini, Jarboe, Blueneck and Alberto Rigoni tell us all about their latest releases, and we review the new Hackett & Rothery album and BEAT live in London! All this plus a great sampler from Melodic Revolution Records and an Alan Parsons Project art print too!

Also in Prog 172...

Dave Greenslade - remembering the Greenslade and Colosseum musician, who died in June.

Dee Palmer - we bid adieu to the former Jethro Tull arranger and keyboardist.

The Anchoress - it’s a family affair for Catherine Anne Davies’ new album, As We Once Were.

Supertramp - John Helliwell and Bob Siebenberg look back at Crime Of The Century and more.

Kristoffer Gildenlow - from Pain Of Salvation to solo artist, the story of his latest album, [Humanised].

Popol Vuh - an exploration of one of the most unique German bands of the 70s and 80s.

Prince Of Failure - TesseracT’s Dan Tompkins and Chimp Spanner’s Paul Ortiz on music as therapy.

Ian Neal - UK progger reveals the secrets of the Genesis-inspired This Gemlike Flame.

Phideaux - the TV director and prog musician is back with Automoto Animus.

Sleeping Pulse - Antimatter’s Mick Moss and Paint It Black’s Luís Fazendeiro tell us about their return with Dreams & Limitations.

Plini - Aussie guitarist takes a new direction on An Unnameable Desire.

Jarboe - the experimental musician on her love of Pink Floyd and how she fits in to prog’s musical spectrum.

Blueneck - the band's Duncan Attwood on how the band’s latest album, Moonlighting, is a triumph over adversity.

Phil Collins - a fit and healthy-looking Phil Collins discusses his career while he’s in London, on the eve of being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.

Alberto Rigoni - prog bassist Alberto Rigoni on a world full of Dream Theater, Ark, Steve Vai and Mario Guarini.

Plus reviews of new releases and reissues by Lonely Robot, The Anchoress, King Crimson, ELP, Gentle Giant, Frank Zappa, Kevin Ayers, Steve Hogarth, Protest The Hero, Long Earth, Hawkwind, Muse, Shearwater, Popol Vuh and loads more!

And reviews of Ankea Festival and gigs by BEAT, Tim Bowness & Butterfly Mind, Lesoir, This Will Destroy You, Kraftwerk, The Aristocrats and more.

Buying Prog Magazine made easy...

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* Single print issues of Prog can be purchased online from Magazines Direct and also Burning Shed.

Click on the corresponding cover on the single issue page at Magazines Direct for payment options.

It's likely that Threatin, the band fronted by Jered Threatin, will go down in history for all the wrong reasons. Back in 2018, a chaotic UK tour made headlines after no one showed up to his shows. It transpired that Threatin had faked a significant online presence to encourage promoters to book his band, and the venues, quite naturally, weren't happy.

His band members quit, there was legal activity and plenty of mud-slinging, but instead of apologising, Jered turned the situation on its head by insisting the whole thing had been an elaborate set-up – and that the 'joke' was actually on us.

“What is Fake News?" he tweeted. "I turned an empty room into an international headline. If you are reading this, you are part of the illusion."

A year after the cancellations, Threatin returned to London to play a poorly attended and somewhat shambolic show at the Underworld, then ceased activity until the release of Die Young in early 2025. The single and its rather grim video documented Threatin's experience undergoing emergency open-heart surgery following a series of heart attacks.

Now, it appears that Jered Threatin is on the mend, with a new single, The Shadow Box, out now. The instrumentation has something of the flavour of Ennio Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold, so perhaps it's no surprise that the video appears to show Jered lying dead inside some kind of desert burial box before riding to safety atop a goods train.

The Shadow Box was mastered at Abbey Road in London, and comes from Threatin's upcoming second album, the appropriately titled The Meaning of It All. No release date has been confirmed.

Metal Hammer has teamed up with Merseyside avant-garde metalcore crew Loathe to put together an exclusive bundle.

Available exclusively via the Louder webstore, it features the new issue of Metal Hammer with a cover not available in the shops, as well as a t-shirt designed by the band’s bassist, Feisal El-Khazragi. Order yours now while stocks last!

Inside, the four-piece talk all about their brand-new album A Stranger To You: their first studio release in more than five years. They also open up about their story so far, from the British underground to the forefront of modern metal, touring with Korn, Gojira and plenty of other big names.

“When I was younger, I felt very angry at the world,” guitarist/vocalist Erik Bickerstaffe admits. “I had a ‘fuck everyone’ attitude, and a lot of music would be me putting all this resentment out there. I’ve definitely been more self-centred in the past. I was a bit selfish. As I’m getting older, I’m becoming more of a human in the world.”

The issue also features a huge review of A Stranger To You. “Throughout A Stranger To You, Loathe seem hellbent on wildly changing dynamics with daring regularity, such as when the quiet, industrialised, gothic soundscape of (Athena) leads immediately into the mathy rage of Revenant and the sun-kissed dream pop of the funky The Way It Breaks,” writes journalist Stephen Hill.

“It’s to their credit that these sharp left turns feel coherent and consistent with Loathe’s overall vision as a band.”

Elsewhere, we talk with German electro-metal unit Electric Callboy about their new album Tanzneid and how they built their reputation as one of metal’s greatest party-starters.

“At its peak, we had 80 people in this tiny flat. People that we didn’t know were ringing the doorbell,” co-singer Nico Sallach tells us. “They treated our flat like shit. I wanted to go to bed, and there were drinks and liquids that I couldn’t identify all over my bed! Very good memories, even if it doesn’t sound like it.”

We also talk to veteran Slipknot producer Ross Robinson about the 25th anniversary of the nine-piece’s landmark second album, Iowa. “We were looking to help Norway burn some more churches,” he says. “We wanted to join that extreme metal club!”

All that, plus we send a writer into an escape room with zombie-metal sensations Dominum, give I Prevail singer Eric Vanlerberghe your burning questions, discover Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner’s personal playlist, talk to Sharon Osbourne about her efforts to preserve Ozzy’s legacy, and much, much more.

Only in the new Hammer – now available with that Loathe cover and t-shirt! Gets your now while stocks last.

Los Angeles Satanic doo-wop' duo Twin Temple made their US late night TV debut on The Daily Show last night (July 29) and called for "a little more Satanic Panic" in the modern world.

The husband-and-wife duo, Zachary and Alexandra James, were booked on the show to perform Haunt Me from their forthcoming third album, Doomed Lovers, and to talk about their controversial removal, earlier this month, from two shows with country musician Charley Crockett, who objected to their Satanic presentation.

"We were pretty shocked,” Zachary James admits to host Jordan Klepper.

"I feel like it’s time for maybe a little more Satanic Panic," adds Alexandra James. "Like, let’s get it going again.”

When Klepper asks the duo what it means to be Satanists in the modern world, Alexandra James replies, "I think a lot of people think that Satanism is going to orgies and you're nude under the full moon, drinking chalices of blood and hanging out with goats. And, I mean, we're here to say that's absolutely true. That's what Satanism is."

"I think, on the daily, it's like living wilfully," adds Zachary James. "Every day is the day we wake up and we get to live our true will. We get to make art. We get to do what we love. So to us, that is Satanism, being the individuals we are, like, know thyself, and being able to carry that out every day."

Twin Temple will release Doomed Lovers, produced by Shooter Jennings at LA's legendary Sunset Sound studio, on October 9 on their own label, Pentagrammaton Records.

"We poured everything into this new record," the duo said in a press statement when announcing the record. "We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could - of course with our dark spin on things.

"The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives," the pair added. "We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life."\

Watch their performance of Haunt Me below.

And watch their interview with Jordan Klepper below.

It's been seven years since No-Man, the art rock duo made up of Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness, released any material, but, according to Bowness, that's about to change!

The pair last released an album in 2019, the prog-disco-tastic Love You To Bits, itself the pair's first album in 11 years, following 2008's Schoolyard Ghosts.

Writing on social media, Bowness revealed that "the belated follow-up to Love You To Bits is now well underway. There’s a lot of recording and writing still to be done, but we've already created interesting templates for a couple of album projects.

"SW has been experimenting with solo material of mine; I’ve written melodies and lyrics to music Steven presented me with, and we’ve also been re-recording some of the band’s older works. While we’re covering many a No-Man approach (from poignant ballads to twisted pop to electronic excursions to art rock heart of darkness), the completed album is going to have a structure and sound all of its own. It’s a fantastic and somewhat surreal sensation being able to hear the band’s DNA coursing through new songs in the late 2020s.

"The upshot is that No-Man studio album #8 is coming and with any luck it'll arrive in time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of my first meeting and recording session with Steven (June or July, 1987, in case you’re wondering)."

At the same time, Bowness offered an update on his next solo album, which will be titled 30 Year List and is a continuation of the story started on 2017's Lost In The Ghost Light.

"The album is the polar opposite of Powder Dry," he says. "Co-written and co-produced with Bobian Hulse, it’s mostly rich in arrangement, coherent in approach, consistently melancholy in nature, and awash with gifted guest players. It also features a 20-minute track."

30 Year List is expected to be released in early 2027.

Hot on the heels of last month’s Global Beatles Day comes news that a previously unreleased John Lennon track titled Little Girl will be included on the reissue of The Beatles' Rubber Soul, which is due to arrive on October 2 via UMG and Apple Corps Ltd.

The demo appears to have been hidden away in the vaults for decades before being unearthed when plans for the re-issue were being drawn up.

Producer Giles Martin tells Rolling Stone: “It was surprising. It was one of those things that came from the Lennon Estate – I think it was Sean. It was one of those things where they say, ‘Oh, and then there’s this.’”

The record has been newly mixed by Martin and engineer Sam Okell and, alongside the original mono mix, you’ll also find a new stereo mix sourced from the original four-track masters. There’s also a Dolby Atmos mix and the original Capitol US version is also included. The expanded album will also include previously unreleased home demos and studio recordings.

For Beatles’ enthusiasts, the main draw will likely be the Super Deluxe editions of Rubber Soul which will be released as 4CD and 5LP box sets. These contain a total of 68 tracks, with the vinyl box set featuring a 7-inch single with Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out.

There’s also an 88-page hardback book with an introduction written by Paul McCartney and a foreward complied from John Lennon’s own words. The book also includes track notes, photographs and an in-depth look at the background of the album.

Rubber Soul will also be released in limited-edition orange vinyl and zoetrope vinyl, 1CD and 1LP standard editions, and 2CD and 2LP deluxe editions.

To mark the announcement, you can watch a visualiser featuring Michelle (Take 1) below.

Rubber Soul: Special Edition Super Deluxe: 5LP + 7” single box set

LP1: New stereo mix

Side A
1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. The Word
7. Michelle

Side B
1. What Goes On
2. Girl
3. I'm Looking Through You
4. In My Life
5. Wait
6. If I Needed Someone
7. Run For Your Life

LP2: Sessions, demos and the single (Disc 1)

Side A
1. Wait (Take 3 – instrumental backing track)
2. Run For Your Life (Takes 1-5 – instrumental backing track)
3. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (First version –Take 1)
4. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second version –Take 2)
5. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Third version – Take 3)
6. Drive My Car (Takes 1 and 2 – instrumental backing track)
7. Day Tripper (Songwriting work tape)

Side B
1. Day Tripper (Take 1 – instrumental backing track)
2. Day Tripper (Takes 2 and 3 – instrumental backing track)
3. If I Needed Someone (Take 1 – instrumental backing track)
4. In My Life (Take 1)
5. In My Life (Extract with unused organ solo)
6. We Can Work It Out (Paul’s demo)
7. We Can Work It Out (Take 1 – instrumental backing track)

LP3: Sessions, demos and the single (Disc 2)

Side A
1. Nowhere Man (First version – Take 2)
2. Nowhere Man (Second version – Take 5 – instrumental backing track)
3. I’m Looking Through You (First version – Take 1)
4. I’m Looking Through You (Second version – Take 2)
5. I’m Looking Through You (Second version – Take 3)
6. Michelle (Guitar rehearsal)
7. Michelle (Take 1)

Side B
1. What Goes On (Take 1 – instrumental backing track)
2. The Word (Takes 1 and 2 – instrumental backing track)
3. Girl (Take 2 – instrumental backing track)
4. Beatle Talk (Think For Yourself vocal overdubs)
5. Little Girl (John’s demo)

LP4: Mono

Side A
1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. The Word
7. Michelle

Side B
1. What Goes On
2. Girl
3. I'm Looking Through You
4. In My Life
5. Wait
6. If I Needed Someone
7. Run For Your Life

LP5: US Album

Side A
1. I’ve Just Seen A Face
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Think For Yourself
5. The Word
6. Michelle

Side B
1. It’s Only Love
2. Girl
3. I’m Looking Through You
4. In My Life
5. Wait
6. Run For Your Life

7” single
1. Day Tripper
2. We Can Work It Out

AFI were encouraged to collaborate with rap megastar 50 Cent in the mid-2000s.

Talking in the new issue of Metal Hammer, the Platinum-selling goth/punk band’s singer Davey Havok says that their A&R suggested the idea as a way to get the attention of Jimmy Iovine, the head of their then-label.

“We had signed to Dreamworks, but they sold it to Interscope. Bummer,” Havok recalls.

“Our A&R guy was hellbent on trying to get Jimmy Iovine – who had expressly claimed in the press that rock is dead – to pay attention to AFI, and so it was suggested that we collab with Jimmy’s great love at the time, which was 50 Cent.”

He adds: “I have nothing against 50 Cent, but what does that even mean?!”

Havok claims that this wasn’t the only desperate idea around that time, despite the band having just made their commercial breakthrough with their 2003 Dreamworks debut Sing The Sorrow.

“Even worse was this was the era when ringtones were the new technology craze,” he continues. “I love this man [their then-A&R] and I still see him once a month at the least, but this motherfucker says to me, ‘What if you were to be the first band to write a ringtone album?’”

AFI, formed by Havok and drummer Adam Carson in 1991, signed to Dreamworks in 2002. Sing The Sorrow lifted them from the punk underground to the American mainstream, reaching number five on the Billboard 200 charts before going Platinum in the US and Canada and Gold in Australia.

Their 2006 album, Decemberunderground, consolidated their success, topping the Billboard chart and going Platinum in the US, Canada and Australia. The album’s lead single, Miss Murder, was a radio hit that reached number 24 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, in the Hammer interview, Havok says, “It breaks my heart that Miss Murder will always represent us.”

“I don’t dislike Miss Murder, it’s a pretty good song!” he explains. “But never, even when we wrote it, did I think that it was the greatest song. I even voted to not put it on the record, but that experience really proved to me that it was all about marketing, because everything after Decemberunderground is better than Decemberunderground. I have campaigned to keep it off the setlist and recently succeeded.”

AFI are now signed to Boston independent label Run For Cover and released their 12th album, Silver Bleeds The Black Sun…, in October. It received positive reviews, including four-and-a-half stars from Metal Hammer’s Stephen Hill, who called it “their best album in over a decade”.

AFI will tour Europe next month and play their first UK shows since 2017. From September to November, they’ll play across North America. See dates and get tickets via their website.

Read the full Havok interview in the new issue of Hammer. It features electro-metal party-starters Electric Callboy on the cover, as well as an interview with super-producer Ross Robinson about 25 years of Slipknot’s Iowa and our report back from an escape room with zombie-metal sensations Dominum. Order your copy now and get it delivered directly to your door.

The music world has taken to social media to pay tribute to Irish singer-songwriter and actor Glen Hansard, who was killed in a motorcycle accident on the outskirts of Dublin in the early hours of yesterday morning.

Hansard, whose latest solo album Don+t Settle - Transmissions West was released last month, was the frontman of The Frames, one half of folk rock duo The Swell Season, and a member of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder's solo band The Earthlings.

A book of condolence has been opened by Dublin Mayor Daryl Barron.

Bono: "He really was who you thought he was. He could never walk by a person living rough without checking they were OK, and more than that, he worked very hard so that fewer people had to live on the streets in the first place. Of all the grand and gigantic venues he and The Frames played, you sensed the street was his most favoured place to perform. And street people, his favourite audience. For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case."

Bob Geldof: "Glen was wonderful. The universe lacks mercy or justice that such a sweet, thoughtful, burstingly talented man should be so wantonly and violently killed on an early Irish morning backroad.

"Tragedy does not do justice to this terrible calamity for his family, the world of music and Ireland itself. For we have lost one of the great ones. A person and a songwriter and singer and musician and performer of great depth, understanding, compassion, daring and bravado."

Catherine Connolly (President of Ireland): "Glen was one of the vital driving influences of the Irish music world, bringing people together in the sharing of live music. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him or experienced his work."

Andrew Watt: "You will never be forgotten. How lucky was I to spend as much time both on and off the stage with you? Studios, dressing rooms, bathroom floors, long car rides, guitar stores... your ability to move people with that bellowing Irish tenor of yours is unparalleled."

Amanda Palmer: "Glen was a fellow busker, a soul-scraper of a songwriter, a breath-exploding powerhouse on any stage. He strummed the guitar like he was killing something; he played and sang with this whole body, he shook the audience awake. His songs were screams into the heart of the matter. He emanated uber-human presence. He blasted feelings; like Nick Cave, like Ani. He was one of my favourite live performers. He never phoned it in."

Nels Cline (Wilco): "I only met Glen Hansard a few months ago, working on what will at some point be a new record by him. It was a marvellous experience, and I had the feeling that we would be collaborating or at least running into each other in the years ahead. I’m pretty sure everyone who came into contact with this man felt his warmth, passion, and massive talent. I sure did."

Lukas Nelson: "I’m so grateful to say that the understanding between us left nothing unsaid. It was just a few months ago we were talking about meeting up in Ireland and playing in his favourite little pub out there. My heart is broken. I hope to chat soon in dreams, Glen."

Elvis Costello: "We only sang together a couple of times but I was always glad to see his face and hear his voice. I'll never forget an incredible evening at the Royal Albert Hall on the occasion of the first State Visit by an Irish President with Glen and the great Donal Lunny leading the assembled chorus."

Thomas Walsh (Pugwash): "I'm truly shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic death of Glen Hansard. I was the first to give him a good slag when he'd overdo the Irishness, but boy he was such a lovely guy. Always with a smile, always with a kind word, always proud to be Irish (don't overdo it though, Glen!). I'm terribly upset. He was my age, 56. What a sad, sad loss."

David Gray: "Deeply shocked and saddened by the tragic news of Glen Hansard’s untimely passing. I first met Glen back in the Century Ends days, when we shared a stage together on one of my first tours of Ireland. A deeply passionate singer and songwriter and a gifted storyteller, he was always full of intensity and a restless energy. It just seems crazy that he’s gone. His talent and his generosity touched many, many lives, he will be hugely missed."

Universal Studios' Halloween Horror Nights are launching a pair of Ozzy Osbourne-themed haunted houses at its Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood facilities.

According to a press statement bearing the news, the two immersive attractions will transport fans through "iconic moments spanning more than four decades of music, imagery and storytelling" and create "a powerful new touchpoint for fans around the world."

In a promo video featuring a gothic test-your-strength machine topped by a giant bat, Ozzy's voice bellows, "Let the madness begin!" However, it's unclear whether this is the late Black Sabbath frontman's real voice or the controversial AI version of Ozzy discussed by Jack and Sharon Osbourne earlier this year.

"Ozzy never stopped pushing boundaries, and he loved anything that gave fans a new way to experience his music and the worlds he created," say Sharon and Jack in a statement. "Halloween Horror Nights has done an incredible job bringing that spirit to life. Walking through these haunted houses, you'll recognise so many moments inspired by his music and imagination.

"It's a wonderful tribute to Ozzy, and we hope fans have as much fun experiencing it as he would have had seeing it come together."

“Ozzy Osbourne didn't just help define heavy metal – he created a cultural phenomenon that has influenced generations of music, art and horror,” says John Murdy, Executive Producer of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. “We previously had the privilege of collaborating with Ozzy, and this new haunted house is an opportunity to honour his extraordinary solo career.

"Inspired by all 13 of his albums, guests will journey through the dark, surreal worlds that fueled his music and cemented his legacy as the one and only Prince of Darkness.”

"I've had the privilege of working with Ozzy for over a decade, and one thing that never changed was the incredible connection he had with his fans," says Barry Drinkwater, Chairman and Founder of Global Merchandising Services. "That connection continues today, and our job is to keep creating authentic ways for fans to celebrate his legacy.

"This partnership with Halloween Horror Nights is a perfect example of that. It's a fantastic tribute to Ozzy and another exciting step as we continue to grow his licensing program around the world."

The Ozzy Osbourne: Prince Of Darkness haunted houses open for business on August 28 at Universal Orlando Resort and September 3 at Universal Studios Hollywood. Both attractions will be open until November 1.

Kneecap will release their first mixtape on vinyl for the first time next month.

Featuring live favourites C.E.A.R.T.A. and Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite, the right-song 3CAG originally emerged online in 2018. The West Belfast/Derry trio describe it as "rudimentary as fuck but still bangers."

"Our label boss Jeff [Barrett] has been hounding us to put it on vinyl and we gave in," the band say.

The trio - Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap), Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (Mo Chara) and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí) - outline the tape's origin story in a post on their website:

"From inside a hazey attic on Hawthorn Street, 3CAG was born in 2018," they write. "Two young fellas in West Béal Feirste on a quest to stay one step ahead of the RUC, using their connections with the Conamara Cartel to Smuggle Narcotics and sneak them past shite Sniffer Dogs.

"A madman from Free Derry was on the run, so the trio united.

"A new identity was born, with linguistic summersaults never heard before in the Irish Language.

"As fictionalised in the movie, the 3CAG mixtape was mastered by Ciarán Byrne in Dublin, only after we dug a big hole in his garden as payment."

In additional news, it has been revealed that the band will guest on Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello's new solo album, Everyone Gets Everything They Want.

The Irish band will appear on a song called Unconquered.

Everyone Gets Everything They Want, which also features cameos from System of Down frontman Serj Tankian and Beartooth vocalist Caleb Shomo, will be released on September 25 via Mom + Pop Music.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi says that the band's earliest recordings, dating back to when they were known as Earth, will be released "at some point".

Last year it was announced that an album's worth of material from Earth has been unearthed and would be released as The Legendary Lost Tapes.
At the time, the group's former manager Jim Simpson stated, "These recordings clearly demonstrate what fine music they produced right from the very beginning. We recorded these tracks at Zella Studio in Birmingham in 1969, but held back from releasing them as their style was evolving so quickly.

"Now, some 57 years later, the recordings assume a greater importance, illustrating how these four young men from Birmingham, barely out of their teens, were excellent musicians and a fine band, fully deserving of all the success that was to come their way."

However, the album release was blocked after Sharon Osbourne wrote to Simpson insisting that the four members of Black Sabbath were against the release.

“The Band do not want these tapes released, not least as they haven’t heard them despite you saying you would provide copies long ago,” Osbourne wrote. "You know that, as a band, Black Sabbath don’t take things lying down and you can be assured that if you go ahead with this against the Band’s wishes we will take any action we can where their rights are infringed, both here and in America.”

In April this year, Osbourne announced that the 1969 recordings had been returned to the group, saying, "All of that stuff should be theirs. So it all ended well."

In a new exclusive interview with Rolling Stone, Tony Iommi says that the demos "will come out at some point".

"It’s weird when you hear stuff from so long ago, and all these things crop up that you forgot about," the guitarist admits. "But it was fun to hear them, actually. I sat listening to them all, and it was good because there’s some jazzy stuff and bluesy stuff we done on them where we just used to jam. On a lot of the jams, it was all guitar, and I forgot about half of that. I can’t play that now."

Iommi will release From The Dark, his first solo album since 2005, on October 23 via BMG.

Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello has announced his first solo rock album, Everyone Gets Everything They Want.

The album will be released on September 25 via Mom + Pop Music. Accompanying the announcement, Morello has released a new single, Date Night, which he describes as a "which side are you on?" song.

Date Night, co-written with the guitarist's 15-year-old son Roman, tells the true story of three young Dutch girls who served as spies, saboteurs, and assassins against the Nazis during World War II. Sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen, and their close friend Hannie Schaft, used their youth and innocent appearances to slip through checkpoints, to smuggle weapons, to sabotage rail lines, and to help hunted Jewish children escape persecution.

Most famously, they acted as underground assassins, seducing Nazi officers, luring them into the woods and killing them. Hannie was eventually captured, tortured, and killed by the Nazis, but refused to pass on any information on her comrades.

Tom Morello says, “I make anti-racist songs for anti-racists. I make anti-fascist songs for anti-fascists. And I make anti-Nazi songs for anti-Nazis. ‘Date Night’ is really a ‘Which side are you on?’ song. If any of that offends you, do the math."

System of Down frontman Serj Tankian, Irish rap trio Kneecap and Beartooth vocalist Caleb Shomo make guest appearances on the record, alongside Roman Morello, who shares writing credits on five songs.

A press statement for the album reveals that it confronts issues of fascism, immigrant rights, and global political turmoil."

The album tracklist is:

1. Beth From Electronics
2. Everyone Gets Everything They Want
3. Adjourn It (feat. Serj Tankian & Roman Morello)
4. I Am Not Yours to Command
5. Soldier In The Army Of Love (feat. Roman Morello)
6. Unconquered (feat. Kneecap)
7. Date Night
8. The Last Rung On The Ladder
9. Everything Burns (feat. Caleb Shomo of Beartooth)
10. Pretend You Remember Me
11. Untethered
12. They Can’t Kill Us All

The album can be pre-ordered here.

Morello also has a series of live dates lined up.

Tom Morello live 2026

Sep 18: Nashville Cannery Hall TN
Sep 19: Louder Than Life festival, KY
Sep 20: Milwaukee The Rave/Eagles Club, WI

Oct 03: Power to the People festival, DC

Tony Iommi, the founder of heavy metal guitar playing, will release his first solo album since 2005 this October.

The Black Sabbath axeman – whose pioneering band retired at a blockbuster show last July, two weeks before vocalist Ozzy Osbourne died – has returned with the song World Alone and announced that the eight-track effort From The Dark will come out on October 23 via BMG.

Watch the dystopian video for the single and see the album art and tracklisting below.

World Alone features Norwegian singer Jørn Lande (Masterplan, Avantasia, etc.), with Becky Baldwin (Mercyful Fate) on bass and Karl Brazil (Robbie Williams) on drums. The lineup performs every song on the new album, with Iommi and longtime collaborator Mike Exeter co-producing.

Iommi comments: “It’s an album we’ve really enjoyed making. We’re not trying to prove anything – it’s a great album, it rocks!”

Iommi screened the World Alone video and unveiled album details at a special event in his hometown of Birmingham this afternoon (July 29), where he took part in a Q&A with stand-up comedian Frank Skinner.

The new songs feature Iommi’s signature, down-tuned sound, which he innovated during the early days of Sabbath in the 1960s. It’s been widely reported that he pioneered the approach because he chopped the tips of his fingers off in an industrial accident, although he disputed this in a 2016 Classic Rock interview.

“I would have liked to have not chopped the ends of my fingers off,” he said. “It became a burden. Some people say it helped me invent the kind of music I play, but I don’t know whether it did.”

Sabbath’s 1970 self-titled debut album is generally regarded as the first metal album, due to its heavy, distorted guitars and unsettling lyrics inspired by horror films. Although it was a critical dud at the time of its release, it was a commercial success, reaching number eight on the UK charts.

Follow-up album Paranoid, also released in 1970, consolidated the band’s success when it topped the UK charts. Its songs Iron Man and Paranoid are now seen as classics, with Paranoid having amassed more than one billion streams on Spotify.

Iommi attempted to launch a solo career in 1986 with the album Seventh Star, although record label obligations led to it being released under the banner of “Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi”. He went solo in earnest with 2000’s Iommi, which featured a large cast of guest musicians including Ozzy Osbourne, System Of A Down’s Serj Tankian, The Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and Type O Negative’s Peter Steele.

His second and thus-far latest solo outing, 2005’s Fused, featured the more concrete lineup of Iommi, Deep Purple and former Sabbath singer/bassist Glenn Hughes and drummer Kenny Aronoff.

In 2021, Iommi released the instrumental solo single Scent Of Dark, promoting his essence of the same name, which he made in collaboration with perfumer Xerjoff. He put out a second single/scent combo, both called Deified, in 2024. The two songs will be bonus tracks on the CD edition of From The Dark.

Last month, the guitarist was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) as part of King Charles’ birthday honours. He received the honour for his services to music and charity across his near-six-decade career.

Tony Iommi: From The Dark tracklisting

1. Over The Violent Sun
2. Black Times
3. World Alone
4. Beyond The Dead
5. Stormwatcher
6. Death Wake
7. Return Of The Arbalist
8. Legacy
9. Scent Of Dark (CD-only bonus track)
10. Deified (CD-only bonus track)

Irish singer-songwriter and actor Glen Hansard has died, aged 56.

The musician and actor was killed in a motorcycle crash in Lucan, on the outskirts of Dublin, early today, July 29.

The frontman of The Frames, Hansard also played guitar in Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder's solo band The Earthlings, and was one half of folk rock duo The Swell Season, as well as a successful solo artist.

Irish President Catherine Connolly paid tribute to Hansard, describing him as "one of the vital driving influences of the Irish music world."

Connolly's statement said, "As President of Ireland, may I join with all of those who have expressed such shock on learning of the death of Glen Hansard.

"Glen Hansard will be remembered as one of Ireland’s great singer-songwriters. Glen and his band the Frames stood out as one of the leaders of the thriving wave of Irish bands who emerged in the 1990s and were the source of so much inspiration to a generation of young people and musicians... Glen was one of the vital driving influences of the Irish music world, bringing people together in the sharing of live music. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him or experienced his work."

Hansard first came to international attention when he played the role of guitar player Outspan Foster in the 1991 film The Commitments. That same year his band The Frames released their debut album Another Love Song on Island Records.

In 2006, the singer-songwriter released his first album without The Frames, teaming up with Czech singer and multi-instrumentalist Markéta Irglová on The Swell Season. The following year the pair starred together in, and wrote the soundtrack for, Irish indie film Once: the song Falling Slowly from the film won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

A long-time friend of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, Hansard toured with Vedder as a solo artist: following the release of Vedder's 2022 solo record, Earthling, he also played guitar in Vedder's solo band, alongside producer/guitarist Andrew Watt, former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghofferf, RHCP drummer Chad Smith and AC/DC bassist Chris Chaney.

Hansard was also well-known in Ireland for his charity work, hosting an annual Christmas Eve busk in Dublin’s city centre, at which he was regularly joined by U2 frontman Bono, to benefit homeless charities.

Former Irish President Michael D Higgins described the Dubliner as "a wonderful musician and performer, a troubadour whose gift for storytelling brought so much joy to audiences across the world".

Lollapalooza lands in Chicago later this week for four days of music - and artists including The Smashing Pumpkins, Turnstile, The XX, Beabadoobee, Boys Noize, Ethel Cain, Wet Leg, Yungblud and Wolf Alice are all set to perform.

But not everyone will be able to travel to Chicago's Grant Park between July 30 and August 2, but have no fear, because Disney+ and Hulu are official partners of the festival and they'lll be live-streaming sets over the course of the four days.

For the full four-day line-up, check out the official Lollapalooza website.

How to watch Lollapalooza Chicago

If you want to catch the weekend action from Grant Park, you'll need to sign up for a Disney+/Hulu subscription.

Monthly price 🇺🇸: From $9.99 (Disney/Hulu bundle), from $19.99 (Disney/Hulu Premium bundle)
Monthly price 🇬🇧: £5.99 (Standard with ads), £9.99 (Standard), £14.99 (Premium)
Free trial? Not currently, but look out for special offers throughout the year.

Once you have your subscription set up, you'll be able to watch some brilliant music live from Lollapalooza Chicago.

• Read our full Disney+ review

How to watch from anywhere

If you're going to be out of the country on holiday between July 30 and August 2 and don't want to miss the live action from Lollapalooza, you'll need a VPN to help you.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch Lollapalooza Chicago no matter where you are. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 75% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside of the country and don't want to miss the music from Grant Park, just select your country from the list, then log on to your Disney+/Hulu account.

3. Kick back and relax: That's it - you're all set for a weekend of great music.

Speaking about its commitment to music festival coverage (which also includes Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits) Head of Content Planning & Partnerships, DTC at The Walt Disney Company Lauren Tempest says: Music festivals are among the most electric, can't-miss moments in culture, and now Disney+ and Hulu subscribers around the world can experience the excitement.

“As we continue to extend our live offerings, we remain committed to bringing fans the biggest, most iconic moments right as they happen, and are thrilled to bring that vision to life with Live Nation.”

EVP, Head of Global Media Partnerships at Live Nation Kevin Chernett adds: "Music festivals used to be experiences reserved for the people who could physically be there. Now they’re becoming global live moments that fans want to experience together in real time, no matter where they are in the world.

"Expanding this partnership with Disney+ and Hulu allows these festivals to reach music fans at an entirely different scale.”

What else is on Disney+

Disney+ is one of the many TV and film streaming services available, but while I'd like to see more music-related content, there's still plenty to get excited about.

The service is home to the likes of Peter Jackson's Beatles doc Let It Be, and the three-part series Get Back. Other musical highlights include Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, Summer ’82: When Zappa Came To Sicily, Abbey Road: If These Walls Could Sing, Hip-Hop And The White House, and the 2024 biopic The Beach Boys.

For me, the real draw of Disney+ and the reason I've had a subscription for years is that it's home to the entire Star Wars universe – all the classic movies are here, alongside spin-offs such as The Mandalorian, Andor, The Book Of Boba Fett and The Clone Wars animated series. There's even an option to watch everything in timeline order.

Marvel content is another draw, and like the Star Wars content, it's crammed with flicks, series and shorts – and the ability to binge on the entire MCU complete timeline.

There's also all the classic Pixar movies and shorts, the National Geographic Channel, and the Hulu network (featuring the excellent comedy crime drama Only Murders In The Building starring Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short.

This story has been updated to include a statement from Jared Leto.

Multiple women accuse Thirty Seconds To Mars frontman and Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto of sexual misconduct in a new BBC documentary.

The programme, Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, airs tonight (July 29) at 9pm on BBC Three and 10:45 on BBC One. It reports that the alleged offences took place between 2002 and 2016, when the accusers were in their teens and Leto was in his 30s and 40s.

One woman, using the pseudonym Isabel, claims that the actor/musician sexually assaulted her in a motel bathroom in 2002, when she was 17 and he was in his early 30s.

“I don’t think there was many words exchanged and he opened the shower curtain and started kissing me,” she claims. She says that he then grabbed her hand and used it to masturbate himself.

Another woman, Alex, says he threatened her with sexual assault when they were alone in a London hotel room in 2013, when she was 19 and he was 41. She claims she “felt the need” to pretend that she was 17 to protect herself, to which Leto allegedly answered: “Age is just a number, and anyway, we’re in Europe.”

She adds that, when she asked if she could sleep on the room’s chaise longue, he told her, if she did, she’d wake up “with a dick in her ass”.

A third accuser, Clara, alleges that she had sex with Leto at his California home when she was 17 and he was 34, which constitutes statutory rape. “He told me, ‘I would like you to call me daddy.’ And it was either pretend to be a little girl or ‘my little girl’,” she tells the BBC.

When Clara attempted to start a conversation about the age of consent in California being 18, Leto allegedly “shrugged it off, like it wasn’t a huge concern for him”. It was the first of three or four visits to his home, according to Clara.

A fourth woman, Taylor, says that, when she was attending a signing with her mother aged 14, Leto made a lewd comment about her breasts. “He chose to sign my shirt across my breasts, and he told me, ‘You have a nice rack,’” she claims.

He then allegedly told a security guard to take Taylor backstage. After Taylor’s mother confronted Leto, “he looked at her and said, ‘It’s still a nice rack,’” the accuser says.

Other women allege that they received often sexual messages and phonecalls from Leto when they were younger. One, using the pseudonym Etta, says that she met Leto when she was 16, when she walked into a modelling agency in Los Angeles with her mother in 2014.

Etta claims that Leto asked for her email address and that the nature of their online conversations quickly turned sexual. He allegedly asked “Are you a virgin? Do you have any kinks?” and “did at least once mention him and I having sex at some point”.

She adds that she was presented with a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in 2016 but refused to sign it. The BBC says it has seen the NDA, as well as multiple text messages that corroborate Etta’s claims.

The BBC has made repeated attempts to contact Leto regarding the allegations, but he has not responded.

Leto rose to prominence as an actor in the 1990s, appearing in Fight Club (1999), Girl, Interrupted (1999) and American Psycho (2000). His performance as a drug addict in 2000’s Requiem For A Dream was critically acclaimed and is regarded as his breakout role. For his performance as a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club (2013), he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His band Thirty Seconds To Mars have won multiple awards and gone Platinum in several countries. Their albums Love, Lust, Faith And Dreams (2013) and America (2018) were top-10 hits in the US.

Leto was accused of sexual misconduct by nine women in an article published by Air Mail last year. One woman accused Leto of being completely naked in front of her when she was 17 and masturbating in front of her when she was 18. A representative of Leto “expressly denied” the accusations.

Update: Jared Leto has responded to the accusations, telling the Associated Press, "I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false."

• How to watch BBC iPlayer from anywhere: Stream music documentaries, Glastonbury festival and more

Peter Gabriel's latest single, the nine-minute epic-sounding One By One, reintroduces his Mozo character to his modern-day i/o and o\i world.

Mozo is a recurring, fictional outsider character that Gabriel used in early songs such as Here Comes The Flood and Down The Dolce Vita from his 1977 debut album and On The Air and Exposure from 1978's Peter Gabriel 2/Scratch. Gabriel returned to the character on 1986's So, with both Red Rain and That Voice Again.

“This is another song that comes out of the brain show that I am working on and the character has been effectively torn apart and is trying to reassemble himself one piece at a time. I needed a character for the story and I'd always wanted to do a little more with Mozo, who I had introduced many years back, and I thought, well, let's give him another blast here. He's been brought back from the dead.

“What was interesting for me about Mozo was that he was not fully of the world and not fully outside it. For the original second album narrative, he was found on this waste tip, and there was a reference to alchemy, and how you only really get the opportunity to create gold out of the lowest material; shit. In Japanese culture, they also have kintsugi (kin: gold, tsugi: repair) where a broken cup is repaired with gold or precious metals and the repaired cup with its faults showing ends up more valuable than the original. It's a beautiful symbol for humanity, because we're remarkably easy to break and trying to reassemble self, psyche and sanity, is really the journey of the song.

“There are two or three story songs on the record, and I actually like the length of time they occupy, and I like the fact that you have to stay in it for the ride to understand the story. It's like when you arrive in some hut in the woods, and it takes a while just to settle in and get yourself tuned in to the pace of that place. I wanted a bit of that in the song. If people are on for the full ride, they're going to take it through to the end. It's a long journey, but I think its place in the show, which is percolating in my head, it'll be towards the end, if not the end.”

As he did with 2023's i/o album, Gabriel is releasing a new track every full moon. One By One is the eighth track he's released ahead of his upcoming album, o\i, which is due out later this year.

He's also highlighting the work of an artist he admires with every release. For One By One, it's Pieces by Canadian sculptor David Altmejd, which you can see below. Gabriel had discovered David Altmejd’s work through his 2022 piece, 9x9x9, and then asked him to create a new work in response to the music.

“One of the things I loved about what David does is that he seems to get these images and ideas and then cuts them up and reassembles them," says Gabriel. "Almost like moments of time or maybe like an old-fashioned flick book where you get just an incremental movement from one image to the other. It looked like David had a similar direction in that he's taking the same thing and cutting it up and reassembling it. That worked perfectly for this song and I was excited that David was happy to be part of this project.”

“One By One evokes a kind of spiritual evolution by piecing together the broken parts of oneself,” adds Altmejd himself. “This resonates deeply with me because I understand my sculptures as being made the same way. They start by forming themselves in matter, then they are destroyed, and finally reassembled in a way that makes them transcend materiality.”

Serj Tankian, frontman of nu-metal icons System Of A Down, features on a newly released cover of David Bowie's paranoid classic I'm Afraid Of Americans.

The new version of Bowie's 1997 song appears on Can You Feel the End Begin?, the upcoming album by composer Brendan Angelides, who is most famous for his work on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why and Showtime's Billions, as well as the game Assassin's Creed Mirage.

"I always loved Trent Reznor's remix of Bowie's original," says Angelides. "I've been working on a new album for the past year, and as this particular beat came together, I unexpectedly started singing those words on top.

"The first person I thought to collab with was Serj. He has been an inspiration to me forever and I'm now lucky to call him a friend. The video is built from our childhood photos. We filmed ourselves to drive the motion capture, then face-tracked, composited, and had a mosh party."

"I keep thinking about what happens to creative communities during authoritarian times," he adds. "It's half of what this upcoming album is about."

Can You Feel the End Begin? will be released on August 14 via Angelides's Ancestor label.

This is the second time Tankian has guested on someone else's music this year – in May he featured on Tom Morello's Adjourn It single, which appears on the Rage Against The Machine man's upcoming album Everyone Gets Everything They Want.

System Of A Down, who headlined a pair of stadium shows in London earlier this month, have recently announced a run of dates in Australia and New Zealand, with Faith No More – who haven't played live in a decade – as support. Full schedule below.

System Of A Down live dates

Oct 24: Fort Worth Sick New World Festival, TX

Jan 22: Accor Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, Australia*
Jan 27: Marvel Stadium, Melbourne, Australia*
Feb 01: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia*
Feb 07: Hnry Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand*

*=with Faith No More

Find System Of A Down tickets.

Electro-metal party-starters and current Metal Hammer cover stars Electric Callboy have released their new single The Way You Are.

Accompanied by a music video that parodies 90s and 00s boyband clips, available to watch below, the German six-piece take the balladry you’d expect from acts such as Westlife and The Backstreet Boys, then turn it on its head into an outright deathcore rager.

The song is the eighth single to be taken from their upcoming seventh album (second since changing their name from Eskimo Callboy in 2022) Tanzneid. The album comes out on August 7.

The band say of their new song: “The Way You Are started with a pretty simple idea: what if the sweetest late-90s boy band love ballad suddenly turned into one of the heaviest songs we’ve ever written? We loved playing with that contrast, both musically and visually. The result is probably one of the most unexpected songs we’ve ever released, and definitely one of our favourites on Tanzneid.”

The build-up to Tanzneid started in 2024, when Electric Callboy released the single Ratatata in collaboration with three-piece J-metal idols Babymetal. Fellow singles Elevator Operator, Revery, Tanzneid and a cover of Sum 41’s Still Waiting followed in 2025, with Hypercharged and Let The Good Times Roll (featuring The Offspring) coming out earlier this year.

The band are currently making their way across Europe as part of the Tanzneid world tour and will play an ‘Electric Bassboy’ DJ set at Wacken Open Air in Wacken, Germany on Friday (July 29). On August 7, at their own festival Escalation Fest, they’ll put on an album release party featuring another DJ set at Huxley’s Neue Welt in Berlin. They’ll headline the festival the following day.

The tour will continue with Japanese and Australian shows from August to September, then return for another European leg from January to March. See details and get tickets via the Electric Callboy website.

Known for their high-energy, feel-good live shows, Electric Callboy were formed by vocalist/keyboardist Kevin Ratajczak in 2010. Second singer Nico Sallach joined the lineup in 2020. In the new Hammer, they talk about their history, including Sallach’s past throwing weekly house parties for all his friends.

“At its peak, we had 80 people in this tiny flat. People that we didn’t know were ringing the doorbell,” he says. “They treated our flat like shit. I wanted to go to bed, and there were drinks and liquids that I couldn’t identify all over my bed! Very good memories, even if it doesn’t sound like it.”

You can order the new issue now and have it delivered directly to your door.

DevilDriver and Coal Chamber singer Dez Fafara has a tumour in his head.

The 60-year-old makes the revelation on the new episode of the Garza Podcast, hosted by Suicide Silence guitarist Chris Garza, saying that doctors discovered it “almost two years” ago and that it has to grow before it can be removed.

He adds that the tumour is non-cancerous and that it has been shrinking on its own, to the surprise of his physicians.

“I would say, over a year, maybe almost two years now, we’ve been dealing with a situation where they found a tumour in my head,” Fafara says (via Blabbermouth).

“So, they want me back in every six months. It’s gotta actually grow a little bit to be safe to go in [and operate], ’cause it’s very unsafe. If they go to get it now, I could lose speech and a lot of other stuff.”

He admits that he was “fucking emotional” when he got the diagnosis and found out it’s benign: “Cool. We can beat this fucking thing! And next thing we know, a lot of doctor’s appointments and shit, and that’s what put me on hold for a year and a half.”

In 2024, Fafara suffered a blackout at home and was left with vertigo that forced him to cancel a Coal Chamber tour. He tells Garza that doctors have assured him his vertigo will never return. His treatment for the condition led to the discovery of the tumour.

“The doctor’s like, ‘With this [vertigo], you only have that once. Your body won’t allow that to happen,’ which is odd, but true,” he explains. “And that’s another thing: if I never had the vertigo, I would never find out I had the tumour until it was maybe too late.”

Fafara remains committed to DevilDriver’s upcoming tour schedule, including a headlining North American tour which kicks off in August. The band released their 11th album, Strike And Kill, to positive reviews earlier this month. Metal Hammer awarded it eight out of 10 and called it “the best thing to bear the DevilDriver logo in more than 15 years”.

A ballet set to the music of Aerosmith will premiere in Virginia next year.

The Virginia National Ballet's production of Aerosmith will be staged at the Hylton Performing Arts Center's Merchant Hall in Manassas on May 2, 2027. It will feature music from the band's 70s heyday alongside their later, MTV-era hits.

"Get ready to experience ballet like never before," say the organisers. "Virginia National Ballet’s Aerosmith is a bold, electrifying world premiere that fuses the power of rock with the artistry of dance.

"Set to Aerosmith’s greatest hits, this high-energy production will have audiences on the edge of their seats – in a performance that is pulsing with rhythm, attitude, and unforgettable choreography."

In addition to Aerosmith, the company will premiere Nocturne, set to the piano music of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin, and a production of Pictures At An Exhibition by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, which they premiered in 2024.

Tickets for Aerosmith go on sale on August 4, with adult tickets priced between $55 and $75.

The Virginia National Ballet, led by artistic director Rafik Hegab, has previously staged ballets featuring the music of Led Zeppelin, Queen, Eagles and the Beatles.

In 2023, the UK's Birmingham Royal Ballet launched a successful production based on the music of Black Sabbath, while contemporary dance choreographer Michael Clark has staged events using the songs of The Fall, Wire, Laibach, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed. Porte Rogue, a Rolling Stones ballet orchestrated by Mick Jagger, premiered in New York in 2019.

A film of Queen's July 27, 1986 gig at Budapest’s Népstadion, the first Western stadium rock show to take place behind the Iron Curtain, is to be screened in cinemas worldwide.

The 40th anniversary screenings of Queen Budapest, to take place on October 7, will deliver the most immersive presentation of the performance to date, with the film having been meticulously restored in 4K from the original 35mm footage by Sir Peter Jackson’s Park Road Post Production facility in New Zealand. The upgraded footage also features newly remixed audio from the original multitrack recordings.

The film is of major significance to Queen fans as it represents the last filmed live performance of the band with Freddie Mercury, showing the quartet at the height of their powers as a live act. Documenting the band's acclaimed Magic Tour, it find Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taytlor performing hits such as We Will Rock You, We Are The Champions, A Kind Of Magic, Under Pressure, Who Wants To Live Forever, and Bohemian Rhapsody, plus an acoustic arrangement of the traditional Hungarian folk song Tavaszi Szél Vizet Áraszt.

The deeper meaning of the gig was also not lost on the four men on stage.

"For years, fans behind the Iron Curtain had been able to listen to Queen music only on illegal cassettes," recalls Brian May. "It was a forbidden thing to listen to rock bands like us, so to see them play in a live show would have been unthinkable. This concert, when they could finally come and see us live in person and interact with us, was a huge emotional moment for them and also for us.

"It felt like a very big deal – you could feel that incredible energy. There will never be an event quite like that again. Perhaps the most memorable highlight of all was performing that beautiful Hungarian folk song, which Freddie and I had learned for the occasion. Not a dry eye!"

"When the audience just started singing, we realised, Wow, music really can be a great cause," Roger Taylor remembers. "We did love to think that the music could transcend the politics, the political barriers, and that was sort of part of our ethos, to actually bring the audience into the show and make them feel part of the show.."

“Peter Jackson’s team have done a magnificent job of restoring the original film footage, at the highest resolution ever," adds May. "It's pristine and the quality is breathtaking. I think you’re going to love it. For the sound, we’ve been able to do some top quality restoration work as well. Now, in IMAX and movie theatres, it’s going to be definitively the most real experience ever of us, Queen, in our glory days. I think people will get lost in it and even forget they're watching a film."

As long time fans of Queen we were thrilled when they asked Park Road Post to restore the Budapest Concert footage," Peter Jackson comments. "It has been a rare privilege to breathe new life into such an iconic moment in music history. We look forward to a whole new audience participating in the original band’s final live performance, captured on film. They will rock you!"

Watch the performance of Radio Gaga below.

The 4K restoration of Queen Budapest will have its world premiere at the Budapest Classics Film Marathon on September 15, hosted by the National Film Institute of Hungary, as part of the festival’s program celebrating restored and rediscovered cinema. A UK premiere will take place in London on September 30, with further details to follow.

Queen Budapest will be accompanied by a multi-format package via Legacy Recordings, the catalogue division of Sony Music, internationally and Hollywood Records in the U.S. and Canada on October 30. The soundtrack, newly remixed from the original multitrack by Queen’s studio team, will be released alongside the Blu-Ray, DVD, CD & Digital editions as a 3LP vinyl set for the very first time. It can be pre-ordered now.

The Rolling Stones and audio masters Technics have collaborated to release a new set of limited-edition True Wireless earbuds.

The EAH-AZ100E1K in-ear headphones will officially launch on August 28, but with only 5000 units available, you’ll have to be super quick to able to pre-order a pair before they’re snapped up.

The branding is on-point, with the band’s iconic lips logo used on the charging case, with the group’s name scrawled on top of the unit in red. As for the earbuds themselves, they boast a 10mm magnetic fluid driver and aluminium diaphragm which help deliver “high-quality sound full of realism and energy across a wide frequency range.”

You’ll be able to listen to 10 hours of music with ANC activated from a full charge, and they carry an IPX4 water resistance rating.

You can connect up to three Bluetooth devices to the earbuds so you won’t have to through the hassle of re-pairing them when switching between your phone, laptop etc, and you’ll be able to tweak your EQ settings when listening to the new Stones album Foreign Tongues through the Technics app.

The Rolling Stones x Technics EAH-AZ100E1K earbuds are priced at $299/£259 with limited stocks available via Technics and Amazon.

Linkin Park, The Smashing Pumpkins and the Ramones are going to represent alternative music on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

The three bands are on the list of names who’ll receive stars on Los Angeles’ Hollywood Boulevard in the Recording category next year, alongside fellow musicians David Guetta, Lil Wayne, Sia, Grandmaster Flash, Marc Shaiman and Karol G.

The 2027 set of inductees, 32 in total, also includes actors Elle and Dakota Fanning, Kate Hudson, Idris Elba, Delroy Lindo and Sam Rockwell, plus Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and comedy duo Cheech And Chong, for their contributions to film.

Actors Pedro Pascal, David Alan Grier, Adam Scott, Lisa Kudrow, Keke Palmer and Raven-Symoné, presenter Jeff Probst and writer/producer Bill Lawrence will receive stars for their contributions to TV.

Radio host Charlamagne Tha God will receive a star in the Radio category, while actor/comedian Jo Koy, dancer Roberto Bolle and Pussycat Dolls’ Nicole Scherzinger will be in Live Theatre/Live Performance. Race car driver Jimmie Johnson will be added to Sports Entertainment.

Peter Roth, Walk Of Fame Selection Chairman, says that “these 32 extraordinary individuals have each made a lasting impact on audiences around the world through their talent, creativity, and dedication to their craft”.

“We are honoured to recognise their remarkable contributions and look forward to celebrating them as they take their place in Hollywood history,” he adds.

Linkin Park are one of the best-selling heavy metal bands of all time, their 2000 debut album Hybrid Theory having shipped more than 32 million units worldwide. They also won Grammy Awards in 2002 and 2006. They went on hiatus in 2017, following the death of longtime lead singer Chester Bennington, but reunited with Emily Armstrong on vocals in 2024 and released their comeback album From Zero the same year.

The California band join a select list of hard rock and heavy metal acts to have a star on the walk. Kiss received one in 1999, followed by Ozzy Osbourne in 2002, Alice Cooper in 2003, Mötley Crüe in 2006 and Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash in 2012. Def Leppard had their name added to the walk last year.

The Smashing Pumpkins, founded in Chicago in 1998, have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and also won two Grammys. Led by singer/guitarist Billy Corgan, they continue to successfully tour and record, their latest album being 2024’s Aghori Mhori Mei.

The Ramones started in New York City in 1974 and released their self-titled debut album in 1976. The album, which has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA), was a seminal text in punk rock, inspiring the Sex Pistols, The Clash and others. They disbanded in 1996. In 2014, drummer Tommy Ramone, the last surviving member to have performed on Ramones, died aged 65.

Green Day, pop-punk superstars inspired by the Ramones, received a star on the walk of fame last year.

Arthur Brown, a.k.a. the God of Hellfire, has partnered with a chimney sweep in Yorkshire to release a Public Service Announcement warning of the dangers of fire during the current UK heatwave.

Brown, whose iconic 1968 hit Fire opens with the lines "I am the god of hellfire! / And I bring you fire / I'll take you to burn", has collaborated with Greg White from Cleansweep Chimney Sweeping, a company based in the market town of Pickering, North Yorkshire, on the border of the North York Moors National Park.

"I'm here with the God of Helfire," says White.

"YOU'RE GOING TO BURN!" bellows Brown.

"We've an important message," White continues. "The moor is very dry, and we should..."

"...stop lighting the BBQs," says Brown. "And anything that has a live fire. Don't throw your ciggies out."

"We don't want the moor to burn," White finishes. "We don't want to spark disaster. Stop lighting fires."

The announcement arrives mere days after the release of Bursting The Bubble, the second single from Brown's upcoming album Nature, which was recorded with multi-instrumentalist and composer Dan Smith and will arrive on September 4 via Prophecy Productions.

"Does the planet Earth need us and our media?", asks Brown, in a statement accompanying news of the single's release. "Is AI becoming a better guardian of the Earth than humanity? Have we lost the imagination to care for our world, its creatures, and ourselves? So many of us now live inside a media bubble. Who does that truly serve? Can we still protect ourselves mentally, emotionally and spiritually against the growing feeling that nothing works anymore? Is this becoming our normal state of mind?

"This music video is deliberately shot vertically. Balloons are drawing our gaze upward, while our feet remain firmly rooted on the natural ground. It is both an artistic choice and a social commentary, inviting us to reflect on the way we now see ourselves, each other, and the world around us. What is reality?”

Brown has several live performances lined up and will act as a special guest moderator and host on four shows on Alice Cooper's upcoming UK book tour. Full dates below.

Nature is available to pre-order now.

Arthur Bown: Live 2026 tour dates

Jul 31: Inverness Belladrum Tartan Heart, UK
Aug 01: Glasgow Slay, UK
Aug 05: Jaromer Brutal Assault Festival, Czechia
Aug 15: Borre Midgardsblot Festival, Norway
Aug 31: Wokingham Festival, UK
Sep 12: Helsinki Kulttuuritehdas Korjaamo, Finland
Sep 18: Athena Gazarte Ground Stage, Greece
Sep 19: Thessaloniki WE, Greece
Oct 04: Pratteln Up In Smoke Festival, Switzerland
Oct 13: London Palladium, UK *
Oct 14: Brighton Dome, UK *
Oct 17: Stockton Globe, UK *
Oct 20: Wolverhampton Civic Hall, UK *
Nov 07: Hebden Bridge Trades Club, UK
Dec 04: Sheffield Sidney and Matilda, UK

* Alice Cooper book tour date

A New Zealand show by local stars Devilskin has been marred by what one eyewitness graphically describes as "a huge mess of shit, just completely spread all in the mosh pit."

The show, which took place at the University of Otago’s Union Hall on Saturday, was the second date of Devilskin's current tour, a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the band's Be Like The River album, which topped the NZ charts in late 2016.

According to the local newspaper, the Otago Daily Times, the incident started when a middle-aged concertgoer "shook a log" from their trousers during Devilskin's set.

“It was huge, like, massive," says the eyewitness, who prefers to remain anonymous. "I haven't seen one that big before.

"There was a lot of jumping. And then eventually someone must have looked down and noticed that there was just a huge mess of shit, just completely spread all in the mosh pit, all over the floor.

"It's on people's feet. People are wearing skirts and shit is up their legs and stuff, and then one girl went bleh – just vomited on the shit – and then everyone else starts vomiting.

"There was one lady with vomit in her hair, shit on her legs, and just crying, crying, crying."

"It was like a scene from a B-grade horror movie," Doug Stewart, bassist from opening band Pieces Of Molly, tells Metal Hammer. "This strong aroma wafted over the audience; the crowd parted like Moses parting the Brown Sea.

"Word quickly spread through the crowd as everyone realised what it was. It was at that point I started to see people throw up on the pit deuce. The other boys were in the green room, and that's when I decided to make a quick exit myself to take advantage of said green room and free beers."

According to the ODT, the loose-bowelled culprit was tracked down by local authorities but not charged with any offence. Devilskin's tour continues, while Pieces Of Molly's new single Alligator is out now.

Devilskin: Be Like The River 10th Anniversary Tour

Jul 31: Tauranga Mercury Baypark Stadium Lounge, New Zealand
Aug 01: Hamilton BNZ Theatre, New Zealand
Aug 07: Palmerston North Fly Palmy Arena, New Zealand
Aug 08: Hastings Toitoi Opera House, New Zealand
Sep 25: Auckland Spark Arena, New Zealand
Oct 24: Wellington Brewtown, New Zealand

Pieces Of Molly tour dates

Aug 15: Christchurch A Rolling Stone, New Zealand
Aug 21: Auckland The Mothership, New Zealand
Aug 22: Wellington Valhalla, New Zealand

Historic, previously unreleased footage of Black Sabbath playing the classic N.I.B. has been uploaded to the official YouTube channel of the pioneering German music show Beat-Club.

Beat-Club, which ran for 83 episodes between 1965 and December 1972, was broadcast from Bremen, West Germany, and hosted Black Sabbath twice in 1970.

On the first occasion, in June 1970, they played a cover of Carl Perkins' Blue Suede Shoes while the studio's audio and camera levels were being set up, unaware that the performance was being filmed, as well as their own Black Sabbath. They also performed N.I.B., but footage of the latter performance has not been officially released until now.

It is believed that the footage of N.I.B. wasn't broadcast in 1970 because Ozzy Osbourne made a mistake with the lyrics, singing "Your love for me has got to be true" instead of "Your love for me has got to be real".

Black Sabbath returned to the show in September 1970 to perform two tracks from their second album Paranoid: the title track and Iron Man.

Other bands to appear on Beat-Club during its seven-year run included Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Alice Cooper, The Who, The Kinks, Grateful Dead, Fleetwood Mac, King Crimson, the MC5, Mountain, Status Quo, Yes and Santana. The show was syndicated to more than 30 countries, but not to the UK or the US.

"Our idea when we started the programme was that we couldn't please both the mums and dads and the kids too," producer Michael Leckerbusch told Record Mirror in 1970. "So why not do something that appealed exclusively to the kids – even if the adults thought it disgusting?

"British television fits the Establishment view of things. Young people don't necessarily want to accept that view. And that's what I try to show with Beat-Club."

The show was rebranded as Musikladen in late 1972, which ran until 1978.

System Of A Down and Faith No More will play a run of four massive stadium dates in Australia and New Zealand in 2027, it has been confirmed.

The official confirmation comes after fans spotted System Of A Down and Faith No More's logos being displayed in locations around the two countries over the last few days.

Now they have confirmed stadium shows in the three Australian cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, for January and February of next year.

Tickets will go on general sale this coming Friday, July 31, with a pre-sale launching in each city a few days earlier, on Tuesday, July 28. To access the pre-sale, fans must sign-up at System Of A Down's website.

The shows will mark System Of A Down's first gigs in Australia since 2012 when they played at Soundwave Festival. They have just wrapped up a triumphant UK and Europe stadium tour and fans around the world have been clamouring for them to announce more dates.

Metal Hammer's review of the London performance described it as "electric, euphoric and one of the best rock stadium shows in recent memory."

Faith No More's most recent trip down under was in 2015, also for Soundwave Festival, which has since been discontinued.

The dates will be Faith No More's first in more than a decade. A live comeback was scheduled for 2020, but was postponed due to COVID, then cancelled altogether, with frontman Mike Patton citing "mental health issues."

System Of A Down and Faith No More Australia and New Zealand Tour 2027

Jan 22: Accor Stadium, Sydney Olympic Park, Australia
Jan 27: Marvel Stadium, Melbourne, Australia
Feb 01: Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia
Feb 07: Hnry Stadium, Wellington, New Zealand

Amon Amarth frontman Johan Hegg says many of the things we thought we knew about the Vikings are simply untrue.

The seafaring Scandinavians known as Vikings are often portrayed as violent, bloody warriors who pillaged their way around parts of what is now Europe from the 8th to 11th centuries.

But one of the best-known faces in the Viking Metal genre says the truth is much less dramatic.

In a new interview with Metal Injection in which he addresses 10 of the biggest Viking-related myths, Hegg says Vikings didn't even wear horns on their helmets and that they were known for their "impeccable hygiene."

On the belief that Vikings were 'unclean', Hegg says: "Here's a fact, Vikings were known for their impeccable hygiene in Europe because they would wash once a week, which was definitely not the common thing to do in Viking Age and Medieval Age Europe, let me tell you.

"So Vikings were cleaner than most. They would groom their beards and they were actually quite vain. They would cut their hair and stuff so they were fairly clean actually."

On the classic image of Viking helmets with impressive horns, Hegg adds: "That's actually a 19th century construction. In fact, very few Viking helmets have ever been found and those that have been found did not have horns. Also, on picture stones and stone carvings where Vikings have been depicted, there were no horns on their helmets."

Explaining that Viking was a job description rather than a group of people, Hegg also says that Vikings did not drink from the skulls of their 'victims', they were not completely 'lawless', and they were mostly farmers by trade.

"The Viking society actually had very elaborate laws about a lot of stuff," he says.

"In fact, in very late Viking Age and early Medieval Age Scandinavia we have some of the first written law books in the world. So there was a structure to society that was not found anywhere else.

"And the laws were not connected to religion. They were by men, for men."

Watch the full video below.

Amon Amarth will release their new album Gjallarhorn in October.

Lou Koller, the singer with New York hardcore veterans Sick Of It All, has died at the age of 59.

The band announced the news via a statement on social media, saying: “It’s with unbelievable sadness that we announce to our worldwide hardcore family the passing of our brother Lou Koller. The level of loss that we feel at this time is overwhelming.

“This year would have marked Sick Of It All’s 40th anniversary as a band, and Lou’s camaraderie, commitment and enthusiasm were always steadfast throughout the years.

“We have lost a beloved friend and an iconic frontman. Lou had the power to raise everyone's spirits at our shows with a smile and a sarcastic comment, and he won people over wherever we played, from every culture and every corner of the world.”

Koller, who formed Sick Of It All with his guitarist brother Pete in 1986, revealed in 2024 that doctors had found a tumour in his oesophagus, forcing the band to cancel a tour. Following his original announcement, more than $200,000 was donated to a GoFundMe campaign for his treatment.

The singer was told his was cancer free in May 2025, but revealed the following September that the disease had returned.

Lou and Pete Koller formed Sick Of It All in Queens in 1986. releasing a self-titled seven-inch single the following year and becoming regulars at New York club CBGB.

The band released two albums, 1989’s Blood, Sweat And No Tears and 1992‘s Just Look Around, on the independent label Relatively before being signed to major label EastWest for 1994’s breakthrough Scratch The Surface.

SOIA released 12 albums in total, with the most recent being 2018’s Wake The Sleeping Dragon!.

Paying tribute to Koller in their statement, the band said: “His battle is over now and he can finally rest. Hopefully he can somehow still see and feel the beautiful, positive mark he left on the world.”

Ministry have announced dates for the European leg of their farewell world tour.

Earlier today Al Jourgensen's band shared an eye-catching video for new single Burned Out, the first preview of their 17th and final studio album, Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery).

A typically scathing indictment of corrupt governments, global wars and corporate greed, the single references the Epstein files, America's "shredded constitution", ICE and the on-going genoicide in Gaza, as well as humanitarian crises in Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Haiti, Venezuela and more.

The band's Goodbye Europe tour.in support of the record will kick off in Holland on April 2, 2027.

Ministry - Goodbye Europe tour dates 2027

Apr 02 Utrecht Ronda, HOL
Apr 03 Saarbrücken Garage, GER
Apr 04 Brussels Ancienne Belgique,BEL
Apr 06 Manchester O2 Victoria Warehouse, UK
Apr 07 Dublin 3Olympia, IRL
Apr 09 Nottingham Rock City,UK
Apr 10 London Troxy, UK
Apr 12 Paris Bataclan, FRA
Apr 14 Madrid La Riviera, SPA
Apr 15 Barcelona Paral-lel, SPA
Apr 17 Lausanne Docks, SWI
Apr 18 Munich Tonhalle, GER
Apr 19 Vienna Gasometer, AUT
Apr 21 Prague Forum Karlín, CZE
Apr 22 Warsaw Progresja, POL
Apr 24 Berlin Columbiahalle,GER
Apr 25 Hamburg Grosse Freiheit 36, GER
Apr 26 Copenhagen Amager Bio, DEN
Apr 27 Oslo Rockefeller, NOR
Apr 29 Stockholm Fållan, SWE

May 01: Helsinki House of Culture, FIN

Ministry have confirmed that Hate To Go (Take Out Or Delivery) will feature a final collaboration between bandleader Jourgensen and his long-time songwriting partner and former bandmate Paul Barker. The bassist will appear on the album's closing track, on the final album track, ironically titled We’re Still Here.

Cekebrating the end of an era, Jourgensen says: "I'm fucking done. I'm proud of what I've accomplished. I'm amazed at the path that it's taken, from With Sympathy to where we're at today, and all points in between. It's been quite a ride, but I'm completely at peace with the fact that it's tdone. It's time to herd goats."

Watch the video for Burned Out below.

Jack White and Black Crowes frontman Chris Robinson shared a stage in Chicago last night (July 23) to deliver a raucous cover of Free classic I'm A Mover.

The two blues-inspired rock and rollers shared their version of the opening track on side two of Free's 1969 debut album Tons Of Sobs for the sold-out crowd at the 4,000-capacity Radius venue, date number eight on the former White Stripes' leader's on-going summer tour of North America.

White's tour is phone-free, but happily he had his own videographer / photographer on hand to capture the collaboration for posterity.

Take a look.

White released his seventh solo album, Frozen Charlotte, on July 14 on his own Third Man Records label.

A synopsis for the album reads: "Recorded in White's Third Man Studio in Nashville, this album shows Jack carrying on the same raucous, raw, and frenetic energy from his lauded 2024 album, No Name. 13 tracks of distinct feel and tone, Frozen Charlotte is an intense rock and roll punch with never far behind blues underpinnings… all of which fits right at home with long time fans while leaving an inviting open door to newcomers alike."

White, who is currently exhibiting his artwork at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in London, has a busy touring schedule lined up for the rest of the year, including dates in Europe, the UK and the US.

Jack White: 2026 tour dates

Jul 24: Chicago The Salt Shed (Outdoors), IL
Jul 25: Clarkston Pine Knob Music Theatre, MI

Aug 21: Almaty Park Live Almaty, Kazakhstan
Aug 22-23: Istanbul Babylon Soundgarden, Turkey
Aug 25: London Eventim Apollo, UK
Aug 26: London Eventim Apollo, UK
Aug 28: Bristol The Prospect Building, UK
Aug 29: Newcastle 02 City Hall, UK
Aug 31: Belfast The Telegraph Building, UK

Sep 01: Dublin 3Olympia Theatre, Ireland
Sep 02: Dublin 3Olympia Theatre, Ireland
Sep 18: Cincinnati MegaCorp Pavilion, OH
Sep 19: Borderland Festival, NY
Sep 20: Richmond TBA, VA
Sep 24: San Francisco Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, CA
Sep 25: Pomona Fox Theater, CA
Sep 28: Los Angeles Hollywood Palladium, CA
Sep 29: Los Angeles Hollywood Palladium, CA
Sep 30: Del Mar The Sound, CA

Oct 02: Las Vegas Fontainebleau Las Vegas, NV
Oct 03: Phoenix Arizona Financial Theatre, AZ
Oct 04: Albuquerque Revel, NM
Oct 06: Austin Moody Amphitheater, TX
Oct 07: Dallas The Bomb Factory, TX
Oct 09: Nashville The Truth, TN

Nov 08: Minneapolis The Armory, MN
Nov 09: Madison The Sylvee, WI
Nov 10: Milwaukee Landmark Credit Union Live, WI
Nov 12: Pittsburgh Citizens Live at The Wylie, PA
Nov 13: Charlotte The Fillmore Charlotte, NC
Nov 14: Charlotte The Fillmore Charlotte, NC
Nov 16: Orlando Hard Rock Live Orlando, FL
Nov 17: Miami Beach The Fillmore, FL:
Nov 18: Miami Beach The Fillmore, FL
Nov 20: Atlanta Coca-Cola Roxy, GA
Nov 21: Atlanta Coca-Cola Roxy, GA

Find Jack White tickets.

The Vans Warped Tour heads to the Shoreline Waterfront at Long Beach, California, this weekend where artists including Papa Roach, All Time Low, Bowling For Soup, Jimmy Eat World, Alexisonefire, Glassjaw, Nova Twins and Thrice will perform.

The good news is that even if you can’t make it to the festival that runs across July 25 & 26, you’ll be able to feast upon the action thanks to the festival’s partnership with Amazon for the official Warped Livestream.

Kick back, crank up the volume and you can watch and listen to the weekend unfold via Prime Video, the Amazon Music app, and Twitch, while the Amazon Live Channel on Fire TV and Samsung TV Plus will also be showing the event.

How to watch the Vans Warped Tour

If you want to catch the weekend action from Long Beach this weekend, you'll need to get yourself an Amazon Prime Video subscription. This is included with an Amazon Prime account, but you can also sub to the video portion only. You can also get a 30-day free Prime trial. Here's pricing details:

Prime video only: $8.99/£7.99 per month
Amazon Prime (with Prime Video): $14.99/£8.99 per month or $139/£95 annually
Prime Student: $7.49/£4.49 per month or $69/£47.49 per year

Once your subscription is set up, you'll be able to watch the whole weekend of music from the Vans Warped Tour.

How to watch from anywhere

If you're going to be out of the country on holiday across the weekend of July 25 & 26 and want to watch the Vans Warped Tour from long Beach, you'll need a VPN to help you.

Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, enabling you to watch the Vans Warped Tour from Long Beach no matter where you are. Nord VPN is Louder's service of choice and it's currently available with 70% off the usual price - and there's a 30-day money back guarantee.

How to use a VPN

1. Install a VPN. As we've mentioned above, Nord VPN is Louder's favourite.

2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN. If you're currently outside of the country and don't want to miss the music from Shoreline Waterfront, just select your country from the list, then log on to your Amazon Prime Video account.

3. Kick back and relax: That's it - you're all set for a weekend of great music.

Who else is playing?

There are dozens of artists set to play over the weekend, but some other names you might be interested in seeing are: Dance Gavin Dance, Hoobastank, Jinjer, Letlive, Norma Jean, Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, Sleeping With Sirens, Taking Back Sunday, The Ataris, The Devil Wears Prada and Winona Fighter.

For a full list of. confirmed artists, check out the official Vans Warped Tour website.

What else is on Prime Video?

Amazon Prime Video is one many TV and film streaming services currently available - and it's home to loads of brilliant music content and more.

You can watch all four seasons of The Osbournes, Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, the documentary We Are Twisted Sister, Pink Floyd: The Wall, Led Zeppelin: In The Light, and live shows including Amazon Music Live: Foo Fighters and Guns N' Roses Live Rarities.

It’s also worth mentioning that this weekend’s Fuji Rock Festival from the Naeba Ski Resort in Japan, will also be live-streamed through Amazon Prime Video and the Amazon Music Twitch channel. Some of the artists appearing will be Mogwai, Turnstile, Kneecap, The Lemon Twigs and Angine De Poitrine.

Away from music, and Amazon Prime Video is home to video game spin-off Fallout, The Rings Of Power, six seasons of sci-fi epic The Expanse, based on the brilliant James S.A. Corey books, and a huge library of classic TV series.

Amazon Prime Video also serves as a hub for other streaming services such as Paramount+, Apple TV, Discovery+, Shudder and Crunchyroll, while TV favourites and films are also available to rent or purchase through the service.

Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson made a surprise appearance at San Diego Comic-Con last night (July 23), joining Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's rock and roll covers band The Coverups to perform Mott The Hoople classic All The Young Dudes.

The 67-year-old British metal icon's unannounced cameo at the event, a Fandom / Z2 Comics party launching the weekender, came five songs into The Coverups' 26-song set. Dickinson had previously covered the song, written by David Bowie and recorded for Mott The Hoople's Bowie-produced fifth album in 1972, on his 1990 solo album Tattooed Millionaire.

The Coverups set also included faithful takes on Buzzcock's Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) ,Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated, Nirvana's Drain You - dedicated to late L7 bassist Jennifer Finch - and classic songs by Cheap Trick, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crue, The Strokes and more.

Watch fan footage of the performance below.

Bruce Dickinson previously collaborated with Z2 on his science-fantasy comic book series The Mandrake Project, a tie-in with his acclaimed 2024 solo album bearing the same title.

While the album was the first solo release from Iron Maiden's singer in almost 20 years, Dickinson has promised that there is more new music to come.

"it's not over," he promised in 2024. "I'm going to be writing music in two or three weeks, I hope, with [longtime guitarist and collaborator] Roy['Z' Ramirez] again, because we've got more stuff we wanna do. So, yeah, there'll be another album, because we already have 10 or 12 different ideas for it."

The Mandrake Project reached number 3 in the UK charts upon its release in March 2024, and peaked at number 176 on the Billboard 200.

Barring future surprise appearances, Dickinson will next be onstage on August 29 when Iron Maiden resume their Run For Your Lives world tour at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Canada.

Sleep Token's 2023 breakthrough record Take Me Back To Eden has been officially certified Platinum in the US by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association Of America).

Released on May 19 2023 via Spinefarm Records, ...Eden was the record that turned Sleep Token from a cult sensation into an internationally renowned phenomenon. A steady flow of singles released from January that year - incThe Summoningluding the viral hit The Summoning, which earned its own Platinum Certification in April this year - saw the band's monthly listeners on Spotify balloon from less than 300,000 monthly listeners in January that year to over 1.5 million just a month later.

In turn, Eden... was named the most streamed metal record of 2023 by Spotify, beating huge releases like Metallica's 72 Seasons. Although the Platinum certification has traditionally been awarded for over one million physical sales, the fact Eden now sits at over 2 billion streams has seen the RIAA award it Platinum status, making it also the first album in Spinefarm Records history to earn the status.

On release, Take Me Back To Eden peaked at number three on the UK charts and reached number 16 on the Billboard 200. That year, the band undertook massive international tours that culminated with their first headline arena appearance at London's Wembley Arena in December, which sold out in under ten minutes.

Since then, the band have continued to go from strength to strength. They have undertaken numerous sold-out arena tours across the UK, US and Europe, and headlined the UK's Download Festival in 2025.

The band switched labels from Spinefarm to RCA for the release of their next album, 2025's Even In Arcadia. That album achieved even greater chart success, becoming their first album to hit number one in the UK and US album charts. Arcadia... was awarded Gold Certification on January 26, 2026.

2026 officially marks ten years since the band were formed in London, rising from cult curio to one of the biggest and most commercially successful metal bands of the century. The band last performed in Los Angeles in October 2025, with no tour dates announced or planned for 2026 currently.

Avenged Sevenfold have surprise released a new four-track EP, Statica. And in keeping with the increasingly adventurous and progressive creative streak that the Orange County quintet displayed on 2016's The Stage and 2023's out-there Life Is But A Dream..., it's a wild ride.

Featuring the songs Lights, Statica, Rejoice and Ashes, the EP has a running time of 18 minutes and 7 seconds, and sees the band pushing sonic boundaries once again on a futuristic space odyssey, utilising robotic vocals, sci-fi synths, electronic dance beats, and precisely zero traces of the classic rock and '80s metal homages that peppered fan favourite albums City of Evil (2005) and Hail To The King (2013), having more in common with Daft Punk, Slift or Muse at their trippiest.

The band gave no prior warning of the EP's existence, and have, at the time of writing, issued no press statement to media outlets talking up the release.

The release of the EP comes on the eve of the launch of the band's previously-announced North American arenas and 'sheds' tour with Good Charlotte.

The dates are:

Jul 25: Ridgedale Thunder Ridge Nature's Arena, MO
Jul 27: Prior Lake Mystic Lake Amphitheater, MN
Jul 30: Tinley Park Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre, IL
Aug 01: Maryland Heights Hollywood Casino Amphitheater, MO
Aug 04: Clarkston Pine Knob Music Theatre, MI
Aug 06: Toronto RBC Amphitheatre, Canada
Aug 08: Montreal Centre Bell, Canada
Aug 10: Belmont Park UBS Arena, NY
Aug 12: Mansfield Xfinity Center, MA
Aug 14: Camden Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, NJ
Aug 16: Charlotte PNC Music Pavilion, NC
Aug 18: Tampa MIDFLORIA Credit Union Amphitheatre, FL
Aug 21: Dallas Dos Equis Pavilion, TX
Aug 23: Denver Ball Arena, CO
Aug 25: Salt Lake CityUtah First Credit Union Amphitheatre, UT
Aug 27: Phoenix Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, AZ

Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford reunited at London's Air Studios earlier this year to film reminiscences of the Genesis 1969 debut album, From Genesis To Revelation, which is being reissued through Cherry Red on October 9.

Along with original guitarist Anthony Phillips, they have overseen the new reissue, which will be available as a deluxe five-disc CD/Blu-ray box set, a double vinyl edition, and a remixed and remastered two-CD edition.

The reissue features a new stereo mix by Stephen W Tayler, which focuses on the band's performances and places less emphasis on the orchestral elements that featured on the original release.

The five-disc, four CD and Blu-ray set presents the album in multiple forms. Alongside the new stereo mix, the set includes newly remastered versions of the original mono and stereo LP mixes, associated singles, rare recordings and a full disc of demos from 1967 and 1968, four of which are previously unreleased and newly mixed by Tayler.

The accompanying Blu-ray features 96 kHz / 24-bit Dolby Atmos, 5.1 Surround Sound and stereo mixes, offering listeners the chance to experience the album in stunning high-resolution audio.

The box set also includes exclusive video content featuring Tony Banks, Peter Gabriel and Mike Rutherford in conversation at AIR Studios in London, reflecting on the album and reviewing the new mixes, as well as a 68-page illustrated book featuring an extensive essay with contributions from Banks, Gabriel, Phillips and Rutherford.

The double vinyl edition also includes a bonus 12-inch EP featuring new mixes of A Winter's Tale, One Eyed Hound, Image Blown Out and Visions Of Angels, the latter previously unreleased.

Pre-order From Genesis To Revelation.

David Lee Roth has pulled his current US tour – and got a unexpected message of support from longtime nemesis Sammy Hagar after doing it.

Original Van Halen singer Roth kicked off his tour in April and later extended the run through to September. However, on July 23, all but one of the remaining tour dates were taken down from his website with no explanation given.

Roth was due to play six dates between July 23 and Sep 4. The only date still remaining on his website is in Sturgis, South Dakota on August 7,

However Roth received a surprisingly sympathetic response from Hagar, the singer who replaced him in Van Halen and with whom he has had a fractious relationship over the years.

In a seemingly earnest video, delivered while sipping a Tequila cocktail, Hagar addressed Roth’s tour cancellation – and even invited his arch enemy to join him at one of his own upcoming Las Vegas shows.

Hagar said: “Hey Dave, Sammy here. I just got a call from [ex-Van Halen/current Hagar solo bassist] Michael Anthony as I’m sitting down having my favourite cocktail, I don’t have to tell you what this is, about your tour getting cancelled.

“And I wanna say from the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry. I hope you’re well. I hope there’s not a physical problem.”

Hagar then addressed the fact that both he and Roth have continued to play songs by their former band, six years after the death of guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

“Honestly, Mike and I love the fact that you’ve been out there doing it, supporting the greatest band in the world that we were both part of.

“And, yeah, I’m really sorry. That’s fucked up. Supporting what we did in this band to keep this music alive. You and I, Mikey, Al [Alex Van Halen], Ed, cannot be replaced.

“So, when you’re ready to carry on, you go, brother. Mike and I support you.”

Hagar then extended the olive branch even further, inviting Roth to join him and Anthony at their Las Vegas residency in September: “Come on, join us, sing a couple of songs, MC the damn show. Come out and just do what the fuck you do, which is pretty damn entertaining.

“Anyway, hope you’re well, I really do. God bless, brother.”

The two men have had a tempestuous relationship ever since Hagar replaced Roth in Van Halen in 1985, with the pair taking potshots at each other in the press over the next decade.

The pair put aside their differences long enough to tour together in 2002, but old tensions resurfaced and hostilities resumed soon afterwards.

Roth and Hagar were still sniping at each other as recently as last year, when the former mocked the latter’s claim that he had been visited by the ghost of Eddie Van Halen.

Face The Promise, the only Bob Seger album never to have been released on vinyl, will make its debut on plastic on September 18 as an expanded version is released to mark its 20th anniversary.

Face the Promise was originally released in September 2006, after an 11-year hiatus following 1995's It's a Mystery. Notably, it was Seger's first studio album since 1975's Beautiful Loser not to feature the Silver Bullet Band, as he self-produced the project in Nashville using session musicians.

"I am so hard on myself as a songwriter," Seger told The Northern Express in 2006. "I never really know the answer because songwriting is so mysterious. You never know when the songs are going to come. So I write a lot of them, and that keeps me from getting blocked up.

"I never get what they call writer’s block because I write all the time. When the songwriting gods are with me, that’s when the next album will come together, and I can’t predict when that is going to happen."

The new version of Face The Promise has been remastered and expanded, and will include four songs not on the original: Time, Red Eye To Memphis, Let Me Try and Little Jane. The latter has already beren released, and can be streamed below.

Seger has also released a short behind-the-scenes video, in which he reflects onWait For Me, the album's lead single, released in July 2006.

Face The Promise is available to pre-order now.

Bob Seger: Face The Promise (expanded edition) tracklist

LP Side 1
Wreck This Heart
Wait for Me
Face the Promise
No Matter Who You Are

LP Side 2
Are You
Simplicity
No More
Real Mean Bottle (with Kid Rock)
Won't Stop

LP Side 3
Between
The Answer's in the Question (with Patty Loveless)
The Long Goodbye

LP Side 4 (expanded edition bonus tracks)
Time
Little Jane
Red Eye to Memphis
Let Me Try

Sixties legends The Kinks have been the subject of reunion rumours for years, and it appears that there's still a chance that Ray and Dave Davies, who haven't performed onstage together for more than a decade, may reunite the band.

The brothers talk about the current state of their famously fractious relationship in a new interview with The Times, undertaken to mark the opening of The Kinks: Brothers, an exhibition in London that finds the pair collaborating with English painter Christian Furr, best known in musical circles for his paintings of the Rolling Stones, Marianne Faithfull, Kate Bush and Jimi Hendrix.

"It’s miraculous, really, how we've become so bonded," Dave says, before revealing that the project with Furr has helped to thaw any remaining ice. “We were getting on great. We have fluctuated between getting on really well and not getting on at all over the years, but there’s always been telepathy, since childhood.”

Asked if a Kinks reunion is still possible, he says, “I don’t know, but never say never."

In late 2023, Ray Davies revealed that he was sitting on a large stash of unfinished new songs by The Kinks, and that both brother Dave and drummer Mick Avory had contributed to the recordings.

"There are about two or three songs I want to finish," he said. "And when they’re finished, I’ll put the whole thing together."

Speculation about a possible return to action from The Kinks grew after Ray joined his brother onstage for the first time since 1996 at a show at London's Islington Assembly Hall in late 2015, when the pair performed the classic You Really Got Me together.

The Kinks: Brothers opens today at the Gibson Garage in London and runs until September 6. The collection is based on a passport booth photograph of the brothers taken in East Finchley, North London, in 1968.

Meryl Streek, Ireland's most outspoken punk agitator, has shared the second single from his forthcoming third album, Stories They Don’t Teach You At School.

Rags To Riches is described by its creator as a song "about taking opportunities as they come and trying things in life while you can."

“I took a chance with this project and if I had never taken the jump I wouldn't be here right now," says Streek. "Things aren't always as hard as they seem. It's about having the courage to let go of people holding you back and encouraging yourself that you can do it.”

The single is accompanied by an entertaining video in which the musician appears as a clown trying - and largely failing - to entertain children at a birthday party. Shot in the home of Meryl’s youngest fan ‘Mini Meryl’ with the help of friends and family, the video is intended as a metaphor for how social media and the modern world operate.

"I really feel for emerging bands and artists right now," says Streek. "It takes a lot of vulnerability to put yourself out there when online ‘critics’ who are usually just projecting their own unhappiness, are waiting to tear you down. The clown in the video represents that struggle: he’s doing his absolute best, but the kids just aren't interested."

Watch the video below.

On Stories They Don’t Teach You At School, set for release on October 9 via Venn Records (Bob Vylan, Gallows, High Vis), Streek is sharing his knowledge and experience, uncovering ugly truths and pressing for change. The album champions compassion, resilience, and the importance for community - lessons that, sadly, are too often overlooked in school.

The Dublin-based artist is the subject of a new documentary, Rage Against the Dying of the Light, premiered at Galway's Pálás Cinema on July 9, as part of the Galway Film Fleadh. The 67-minute film follows Meryl Streek on tour, capturing his uncompromising music, unflinching activism and remarkable resilience in a powerful portrait of protest, empathy and defiance. The documentary is set for wider release in early 2027.

Watch the trailer below.

M. Shawn Crahan, aka Slipknot percussionist and founding father Clown, has launched an intriguing new side project, O' Day Monster, sharing the AI-created video for debut single Un Life.

At present, there are no more details about the project, but Crahan explains its origins by stating, "I wanted to create the spaceship I could drive with my words."

As with previous Crahan side projects, O' Day Monster share precious little musical DNA with Slipknot.

The 56-year-old Iowa-born musician's latest musical venture has emerged in tandem with the launch of a new one-stop online portal, theclown.com, featuring links to Crahan's various side-projects, his podcast The Electric Theater, and his whiskey brand lipknot No. 9 Iowa Whiskey.

In an introduction to the website posted in a section labelled Thoughts, Crahan explains why he has launched the site, and says, "I can't wait to go down this wormhole and share thoughts with you about vision and one's self, concentrated on output."

His introduction in full reads:

"Welcome everyone, to the new home of all my artistic endeavors. If you’ve been following me for a while, you know it’s been a challenge to get the .com to a place where I feel I can contemplate, and present, all my creative memories caught with one brush - or several brushes combined. And yes, sometimes there's no brush that can express the deep inner self.

"It's been difficult for me to share all these expressions of mine, mainly because of time. With that said, I believe I'm at a crossing where my heart is telling me to share the life I have lived. It’s been an incredible journey so far, and I need to utilize some time and get busy now, to reveal all that has been hidden behind the curtain. Forms and brushes, like fingerpainting when I was young.

"My mother and I shared the love of writing; she encouraged me to write exactly how I truly felt. And to revise, revise, revise so the work could be it's truest self. Then there's painting, drawing, performing, directing, producing, single frames, moving frames, Polaroids, scans, 3-D animation, AI images, coding, level creation for video games, recording my songs in Pro Tools, using plugins to expand my experience, exploring gear, connecting dots, and my newest path - modular synths controlled voltage, frequency, vibration and circuitry. There's much, much more to find and explore in the lane known as my life. It's time to grab it all, and move it to it's new home, here at the .com.

"This is where you get the unedited me. The no-filtered me. The no-paraphrasing me; you'll get no lies from me. Just the racing thoughts of imagination that make their way to some sort of canvas or canvases, time-stamped and put here, in it's resting place.

"As always, it’s going to be a great while before it’ll all be up, if indeed it can be put up. It takes a lot of work, but that's what's next - the time to explore all this together. I can't wait to go down this wormhole and share thoughts with you about vision and one's self, concentrated on output.

"I was told once I was like a Renaissance artist, meaning I would do a little bit of all of it, and that's exactly what I've done with my life. Make the love I have for art be the introduction to creating further interests. This has been my personal hobby to create, calculate, and then demand output. You can use all methods, old and new. I’ve come to learn to utilize fear and misunderstanding to dig so deep within my own ability to conjure the scratch. To dream about shedding a tear because of the depth of the subconscious, and the ultimate need to then bring it to life - to feed the knowledge and hopefully set forth a possible understanding that brings lives together, or apart.

"One last thing before I am done here. Check out my new project called O’ Day Monster on the feature page here. I've entered a time in my life where I wanted to create something I could conduct and drive, with words. I wanted to create the spaceship I could drive with my words. I've always wanted to have someone sing my words with the conviction that the subject matter demanded. Many close friends and I came together to help bring the battle of “me against me” to life. This has been my suffering, and salvation, my entire life. You know, the “I'm my own worst enemy” kind of situation. I am very blessed to have several friends who believe in me, the music, and my words enough to bring all this new color to life to taste and smell. To hold and connect with.

"Either way, the choice is yours. I just know I’ve never had a choice - in the end, it just simply is me. And I want it to find those to whom it speaks, those who take something from it. I hope you enjoy this world I’ve created. Maybe the feeling you get when you arrive is an internal feeling. One that feels like you've been here before. Familiarity would be nice. So explore, and hopefully I’ll see you somewhere here beneath all the shadows.

"To all that helped bring my art, my vision, and my scratch to life: Thank you with all my heart. I hope you all enjoy what we have put together for you. It's not much yet, but it will keep expanding outwards - until it is no more.

"Until then, 'Enjoy, thank you, and live your life'."

Watch the video for Un Life below.

Pulp have shared the first trailer for their forthcoming documentary film What Do You Do For An Encore?, and announced its release date.

Directed by Garth Jennings (Sing, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), the 90-minute film promises to chart the Sheffield band’s “extraordinary journey from obscurity to cultural touchstone”, according to a press statement.

The press release goes on to say that the documentary, which is narrated by frontman Jarvis Cocker, "fuses the brilliantly choreographed stage spectacle of Pulp's biggest ever arena show – part of the global tour for More, the band's first album in 24 years – with four decades of colourful, never-seen-before archival material", and that it will serve as "a vibrant tribute to a band of brilliant misfits, whose unique blend of irony, rebellion, and razor-sharp social commentary resonated with generations of listeners and helped define an era of British culture."

“You’re invited to come and experience a night you’ll remember for the rest of your life," a voiceover in the trailer promises.

Global distributor MUBI have announced that What Do You Do For An Encore? will be screened in cinemas in the UK and Ireland for one night only on September 18, and US cinemas on September 24.

Following its brief cinema run, the film will be streamed exclusively on MUBI, from a date yet to be announced.

Accompanying the film, Pulp are releasing Live!, a new live album which doubles up as the film’s soundtrack.

"A concert is an event where songs come back to life," says Jarvis Cocker. "That’s why this album is called Live! It’s both a statement of fact (it’s a recording of a live band) & a challenge (come on! Everyone come alive!)."

Live! will be released via Rough Trade on August 28, and will be available on double vinyl, double CD and via digital streaming services.