It seems like only five minutes since Amy Lee was dangling off the edge of a building in the Bring Me To Life video.

But over two decades later, Evanescence have firmly proved themselves to be more than a one-hit wonder with a label-mandated male guest vocalist (sorry, Paul McCoy).

With six studio albums, behind-the-scenes drama and multiple collaborations, there's plenty to dig into when serving up a plate of piping hot Evanescence trivia questions.

But how much do you know about the band?

Stop guessing, because there's a scientific way to find out. And that's by taking this quiz and answering the 20 questions at a reasonable pace without peaking at Yahoo!, AltaVista or even Ask Jeeves.

Good luck.

Washington State plans to issue a commemorative Jimi Hendrix dollar coin in 2029. The coin is part of the US Mint's American Innovation programme, launched in 2018, which celebrates examples of innovation or innovators from specific states or territories.

"Washington is one of the most innovative states in the nation," says State Governor Bob Ferguson. "Picking just one example from the most innovative state in the nation was difficult, but Jimi Hendrix’s historic innovation on guitar and his deep roots in Washington make him a great choice to represent our state."

"To have Jimi honoured on a United States $1 coin representing Washington’s spirit of innovation is an extraordinary honour," says Hendrix's sister Janie, President and CEO of Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. "Jimi called himself a West Coast Seattle Boy – a magic boy – and he shared that magic with the world through his music and imagination. His creativity changed music forever, and it continues to inspire people across generations."

While the coins most frequently feature examples of innovation – the polio vaccine, the lightbulb, the telephone, the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, the Underground Railroad, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station have all been featured – Hendrix will join a much shorter list of actual innovators to have been featured on the coins.

In 2018, Delaware issued a coin bearing the likeness of astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, and in 2020, South Carolina's Innovation dollar featured educator and civil rights activist Septima Clark. Other individuals who have appeared on the coins include agricultural scientist George Washington Carver, naval engineer Raye Montague, agronomist Norman Borlaug, and Apple founder Steve Jobs.

The Hendrix coin will be designed and developed in consultation with the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, before the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury gives final approval.

Last year, Australia's Perth Mint issued a limited run of 5000 Jimi Hendrix 1oz silver proof coloured coins.

With just five studio albums in the bag since 1990, no one can accuse Tool of rushing things out to make a quick buck or two. And during that time, they've created enough lore to fill several leather-bound books.

But how much do you know about the band?

Are you obsessed with the Fibonacci sequence or are you some sort of Johnny-come-lately who's simply good at remembering stuff when it comes to the prog boffins?

There's a simple way to find out. And that's by taking this 20-question Tool quiz, which will sort out the true fans from the casual listeners.

Are you ready? 1... 1... 2... 3...

There's more to Limp Bizkit than red caps, baggy chinos and Wes Borland's bizarre stage make-up.

Around the turn of the millennium, Limp Bizkit were an omnipresent force in the media. Love them or hate them – and, in their pomp, some people really loathed them – they knew how to grab news headlines and had a knack of cramming tons of celebs into their music videos. Fred Durst even appeared as an unlockable playable character in a handful of video games.

But how much do you actually know about this nu metal band?

Get your red thinking caps on and see how many of these questions you can answer correctly...

Stranger Things star Jamie Campbell Bower listened to Sleep Token to help get into character for his new role in The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power.

Talking to IMDb, the actor/musician says that the UK masked metal band’s 2023 track Euclid was on repeat as he prepared to play the elf Celeborn in the show’s third season.

“I listened to Euclid by Sleep Token a lot,” the 37-year-old explains. “Lyrically, there’s so much beauty in it. It talks about a lot of nature stuff and trees. It just felt very, very Celeborn.”

Bower’s co-star Benjamin Walker, who plays Gil-galad, says he doesn’t “feel the need to get pumped up with Rage Against The Machine before work”. However, Isuldur actor Maxim Baldry comes to metal’s defence, calling his character “a black metal kinda guy”.

“It’s Slipknot, it’s dark, it’s aggressive,” he adds. “I actually think, weirdly, [The Lord Of The Rings’ overarching villain] Sauron has a heavy metal playlist. I would share it with Charlie [Vickers, The Rings Of Power co-star], as well. I think his song is Wanted Dead Or Alive by Bon Jovi.”

Bower is best known for playing the villainous Vecna in Stranger Things’ fourth and fifth seasons. In 2022, he revealed that he listened to extreme metal bands such as Sunn O))), Mayhem and Darkthrone to get into character.

“[There was] a lot of black metal kind of stuff that I just really latched onto and thought, ‘Wow, this is great,’” he said on the Kyle Meredith With… podcast. “There’s also something about the sensitivity in the way black metal is made and their belief system which I really fucking vibe with.”

Bower is a rock musician as well as an actor. After being a member of the punk band Counterfeit from 2015 to 2020, he started a solo career. In 2024, he launched the experimental metal project BloodMagic with the single Death / Rebirth, although the outfit haven’t released any further music.

Bower released a cover of Sleep Token’s Euclid via YouTube last year.

The Rings Of Power’s third season, which will mark Bower’s debut on the show, is set to hit streaming service Amazon Prime from Wednesday, November 11.

Graphic novel publisher Z2 have teamed up with Iron Maiden for a book celebrating the 40th anniversary of 1986's Somewhere In Time album.

Somewhere In Time: The Graphic Album will be published on March 2nd, 2027, and includes eight stories – each inspired by one of Somewhere In Time's eight tracks – plus an epilogue and a prologue telling the story of the moments leading up to the moment portrayed on the album's iconic cover, a classic Derek Riggs illustration featuring several in-jokes and nods to the band's past.

"It's just a great version of Eddie, my favourite version of Eddie probably," says Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith. "There's a real power there, you know, a genuine power and menace. He's very muscular, isn't he? He looks like he’s been working out. Like I say, it complements the music, which is fantastic."

"Somewhere in Time dropped my senior year," says Z2 Editor-in-Chief Rantz Hoseley. "And like many other writers and artists, everything about that album – the songs, the art, that powerful incarnation of Eddie – evoked a million possible stories. It’s such an honour to bring this creative team together to explore these worlds!"

The package also includes an interview with Smith, conducted by Dave Shack of Phantom Music Management, which looks back at the making of Somewhere In Time. It's available in several variants, including a signed platinum edition that includes 7" vinyl editions of Wasted Years and Stranger In A Strange Land, both released as singles in 1986.

This isn't the first time Iron Maiden have collaborated with Z2. In 2023, the publisher released a graphic novel celebrating the 40th anniversary of Maiden's fourth album, Piece Of Mind, and in 2025 frontman Bruce Dickinson worked with the company on the comic book set that accompanied his album The Mandrake Project.

Somewhere In Time: The Graphic Album is available to pre-order now.

Iron Maiden play a pair of shows in Zealand this weekend before heading to Australia and Japan. Last month, the band announced a US tour for 2027. Full dates below.

Iron Maiden: Run For Your Lives World Tour

Nov 07: Auckland Spark Arena, New Zealand
Nov 08: Auckland Spark Arena, New Zealand
Nov 11: Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Australia
Nov 13: Melbourne AAMI Park, Australia
Nov 15: Sydney Allianz Stadium, Australia
Nov 18: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Australia
Nov 19: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Australia
Nov 24: Yokohama K-Arena, Japan
Nov 25: Yokohama K-Arena, Japan

Apr 14: Tacoma Dome, WA
Apr 16: Vancouver Rogers Arena, Canada
Apr 18: Portland Moda Center, OR
Apr 20: Wheatland Toyota Amphitheatre, CA
Apr 22: Chula Vista North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre, CA
Apr 24: San Bernardino Glen Helen Amphitheater, CA
Apr 26: Phoenix Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre, AZ
Apr 28: Dallas Dos Equis Pavilion, TX
May 01: Tampa Benchmark International Arena, FL
May 02: West Palm Beach iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, FL
May 05 Atlanta Lakewood Amphitheatre, GA
May 07: Raleigh Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, NC
May 09: Hartford The Meadows Music Theatre, CT
May 11: Belmont Park UBS Arena, NY
May 14: Sonic Temple, OH
May 16: Boardwalk Rock, MD

Find Iron Maiden tickets.

The Clergy have joined forces with the people at Rock N’ Roll Colouring to create an official colouring book featuring "darkly blasphemous images" based on the band Ghost.

The non-ecumenical act joins a long, distinguished list of bands who've had their likenesses transformed into a series of crisp, black and white line drawings, including: Iron Maiden, Sleep Token, Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Judas Priest, Cannibal Corpse, Thin Lizzy and Megadeth.

"The book contains painstakingly crafted renderings of each image with detailed outlines ready for you to unleash your artistic skills using pens, pencils or paint," says a Rock N’ Roll Colouring representative. "Utilising artwork spanning Ghost’s stellar two-decade career, the book provides fans and kindred souls with the perfect opportunity to tap into their creativity and add their own personal stamp on every page."

Colouring-in is recognised for its therapeutic nature, while boosting focus and mindfulness. But, if the idea of simply taking a felt-tip to the papery face of any of the five Papas Emeritus or one of the Nameless Ghouls gives you a sense of joy, then who are we to stop you?

The book is published on November 27.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have written and recorded the score for a new film by David Fincher.

Written by Quentin Tarantino, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is a sequel to his 2019 film Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and stars Brad Pitt as the titular character.

"Murder, blackmail, theft, extortion – just another summer in Hollywood," reads the Netflix synopsis. "It’s 1977, eight years since Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) encountered the Manson family in Quentin Tarantino’s parallel history of 1969, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. In The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, directed by Fincher from a new script by Tarantino, the fairytale is over.

"Los Angeles no longer needs a hippie-slaying stuntman the way it did. But Hollywood will always have problems, problems that can only be solved by someone with Cliff’s unique (occasionally extralegal) abilities. When he’s not earning his keep bartending or as a projectionist, Cliff Booth is a fixer – solving situations for Hollywood’s great and the, sometimes, not-so-good..."

The 141-minute movie will enjoy a two-week IMAX run from November 25 before landing on Netflix on December 23.

Check out the trailer below.

This project marks the sixth time the duo have provided music for a David Fincher film.

Their debut film score for 2010's The Social Network saw the pair win an Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Score.

The following year, their score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo won a Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. 2014's Gone Girl earned Reznor and Ross a Grammy nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, while their orchestral, jazz-influenced soundtrack for 2020's Mank received nominations at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards.

Three years later, the duo teamed up with Fincher once more for The Killer.

Last year, the pair created the score for The Gorge, Luca Guadagnino's After the Hunt, and Tron: Ares, the first soundtrack released as Nine Inch Nails.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth soundtrack will be released digitally on November 25 through Netflix Music.

With 19 studio albums and 11 live albums released over the course of five decades, there's lots to consider when creating a quiz to tax the mind of even the most dedicated Rush fan.

So, how well do you know the Canadian prog legends? Are you the sort of fan who knows how many times Neil Peart hits his little cymbals at the start of YYZ or are you the sort of pedant who knows they're called crotales?

Well, it's time to Roll The Bones and test your knowledge in our quiz below. Will you display Grace Under Pressure or will you simply Stick It Out until the end?

Slayer played their first show on October 31, 1981 at a Battle of the Bands night in South Gate, California. Their flyer invited rock fans to experience their "assault on heavy metal" and they weren't messing about.

The term thrash was still a few years away, but ever since their first ever show, Slayer have remained dedicated to the cause (apart from taking a few years off after a 37-year run) and have enjoyed a career shot through with chaos and controversy.

While nobody can be into Slayer as much as Daniel Schler (the super-fan who shouted the band's name until he turned tomato red on the band's War at the Warfield DVD), this 20-question quiz will determine your dedication to their decibel devilry.

Test your knowledge by taking the quiz below.

When comic book creator James O’Barr licensed The Crow to a movie studio for $1,500, he never expected it to get made, let alone become an enduring gothic touchstone.

Written gradually over nine years, starting in 1980, the original comic book story follows a young man named Eric Draven who returns from the dead to avenge the murder of his fiancée at the hands of a gang. The black-and-white panels drip with anguish, as Eric, face painted in a sinister scowl, stalks the rainy streets of a retro-noir city.

The film version, released in 1994, took this vision to the masses and became a cult classic. Under the eye of Australian director Alex Proyas, and starring Brandon Lee – son of 70s Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee – as bloodthirsty antihero Eric, it plugged into the zeitgeist, riding on the coattails of the emerging wave of industrial bands and playing a part in a 90s goth revival.

But The Crow also became infamous for a tragic event: Brandon Lee was killed during filming, due to an improperly loaded stunt gun, two weeks before he was due to get married.

The Crow was born out of tragedy. James O’Barr wrote it to help him get to grips with his own grief; his fiancée was killed by a drunk driver while they were still in high school.

“She was the polar opposite of me. I was dark and moody and sullen and hostile, and she was pure sunshine and happiness,” he recalls today. “My life was changed irrevocably, in one instant, for no good reason. All those negative traits in me were amplified after that.”

Following the loss of his fiancée, O’Barr enlisted in the Marines and was posted to Berlin. It was 1978, the height of the Cold War. He yearned for a routine to block out his misery, yet the isolation of military life only drove him further into his own head.

“I became big and strong and physically imposing, but the desired effect was not reached,” he remembers. “In fact, it was probably amplified a little more because I internalised it rather than speak out about it. Luckily, I had art as therapy.”

He began creating The Crow in 1980, at the same time as he discovered the downbeat post-punk and goth bands coming out of England – Joy Division, The Cure, The Comsat Angels and Bauhaus. He drew Eric Draven as the latter band’s singer, Peter Murphy, with a touch of Iggy Pop. The dank streets of Berlin also fed into his work.

“The populace was either angry about the outcome of World War II, or they were ashamed,” he says. “It was on everyone’s face, but it was not spoken of. I don’t have any recollections of the sun ever shining. It was a good visual analogy to the post-punk and darkwave stuff that I was listening to.”

After six years in Berlin’s darkness, O’Barr’s dad passed away, and he was reassigned to Michigan in 1984 to take care of his mother. Three years later, he got a job at the Ford dealership in Detroit, working on cars by day and drawing until two in the morning. The Crow was picked up by a local publisher and enjoyed a small run.

The Crow comic book came out in 1989 and became a cult success, though not enough for O’Barr to give up his day job. He was still working at Ford in 1992 when Hollywood showed interest in turning it into a film. He thought the violence and intense romance would put people off adapting it, but Tim Burton’s Batman had found worldwide success, and studios were hoping to cash in with similar films.

Brandon Lee was a rising star in Hollywood. Good-looking and charismatic, he appeared in 1992 action film Rapid Fire, but was keen to step out of his father’s shadow and prove he could do more than fight scenes. At 28 years old, he had a bright future in front of him, and he was due to be married a few weeks after filming.

The cameras began rolling in early 1993. O’Barr had initially been sceptical of Brandon as Eric, thinking the actor “too sweet” to play the vengeful role, but was won over when he saw him in the distinctive make-up and leather pants. O’Barr, who was on set most of the time, was struck by Lee’s humility.

“The whole film was shot at night in miserable conditions, in freezing rain,” he says. “Between takes, everyone would go huddle around a 50-gallon oil drum filled with wood, and start a fire to get warm, like vagrants do. A lot of the crew had brought their kids with them, and instead of going back to his trailer, Brandon would go over and spend time with them. He was personable, charming and genuine.”

On March 31, 1993, tragedy struck. Lee was filming a scene where Draven is shot and killed in his apartment, but when the take ended, the actor didn’t get up. The tip of a dummy .44 slug had become jammed in the barrel of the gun, and the force of the blank had sent it into his abdomen. He was rushed to hospital, but surgery could not save him from the injuries.

Alex Proyas, traumatised, flew home to Australia for a month. James O’Barr was on a promo trip in Detroit when he heard the news. He couldn’t bring himself to return.

“It felt amazing to be on the set and seeing the things I had drawn come to life,” he recalls. “But with Brandon’s death, it was like I fell back into that place I was when I initially began it. It’s a love story, but it’s couched in pain.”

Rumours began to fly; Lee had been killed on the lot, in mysterious circumstances, echoing his father’s passing. Bruce Lee had died of a brain swelling shortly before the release of his own breakthrough film, 1973 martial arts classic Enter The Dragon. Although the coroner had declared it as ‘death by misadventure’, unfounded theories circulated that he was the victim of the mob or a demonic curse.

With permission from Brandon’s fiancée and family, the crew returned to work two months later and finished the film in his memory. Aside from some script changes, they leaned on effects company Dream Quest to bring their vision to life, adding $8million to the $15million budget. Dream Quest used then-cutting-edge techniques to create seven new scenes, comprising 52 shots. In two cases, they digitally superimposed Lee’s face onto a body double. The footage of Lee’s death was destroyed.

When The Crow was released in May 1994, it was a surprise hit, becoming the Number One film at the box office on its week of release, and grossing more than $50 million domestically. Critics praised its dark visuals, although some felt it borrowed too heavily from existing films and wouldn’t have amounted to anything if it weren’t for fate’s cruel hand. ‘Were it not for Brandon Lee’s death… the movie itself would be little more than your basic heavy-metal occult revenge thriller, complete with rain-swept futuristic dreamscapes right out of Blade Runner and Batman,’ read one review in Entertainment Weekly.

Despite the ghoulish intrigue surrounding its production (there had been a string of minor accidents on set even before Brandon’s death), much of its success was down to timing – alternative culture was on the rise, and it exploded with the movie, which was accompanied by a zeitgeist-capturing soundtrack featuring The Cure, Nine Inch Nails and Stone Temple Pilots.

“It hit the American market just at the right time, where people were discovering post-punk – or what was called industrial in America,” says O’Barr. “Things were happening with the music and the dark fashion, and then The Crow came out and pushed it into the mainstream. So now you were cool to be wearing eyeliner, whereas you were a freak two years earlier.”

“Eric was my hero,” says former Him vocalist turned solo star Ville Valo. “The film happened right after grunge broke and was really grungy in a cool way. There were a few darker films, but I don’t think there was anything considered ‘gothic’ coming out of Hollywood at the time, and it had a bit of rock’n’roll. Eric was carrying a crow and a guitar.”

The Crow spawned a series of forgettable sequels, and a poorly received reboot in 2024 starring Bill Skarsgård in the title role. Yet nothing has dented the enduring appeal of the original. The Crow, like Eric Draven himself, proves there is life after death.

For over a century, horror has continued to terrify, confuse and inspire cinema goers, challenging us to face our darkest fears and indulging in the kind of taboos that no other film genre dare touch. From early masterpieces of German silent cinema like Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to modern classics such as Get Out, Midsommar and The Witch, horror has continued to be at the forefront of innovation in film, creating countless icons and unforgettable, pant-wettingly scary moments along the way.

With that in mind, here are the 50 greatest horror movies in history, as picked and dissected by our panel of writers and horror fanatics. Only one rule was put in place: only one entry per franchise allowed. We had to give ourselves a fighting chance, after all...

50. The Substance (2024)

Coralie Fargeat's delirious, hilarious and disgusting, Oscar-nommed romp became one of the most talked-about movies of 2024 upon release, and for good reason. Its fabulous skewering of ageism and female beauty standards were delectably spiky enough, but mixed in with some truly foul, explosive moments of body horror and a career-best performance from Demi Moore and you had the makings of a modern classic. MA

49. I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

Strange, surprising, unexplainably unsettling and, at its core, emotionally devastating, Jane Schoenbrun's second film remains one of the most unique horrors of the 2020s so far. What at first appears to be a charming commentary on the power of TV as a route of escapism instead reveals itself as a harrowing allegory for the trans experience, Owen's stiflingly claustrophobic final breakdown and bizarre, surrealist epiphany affecting enough to stick in the brain long after the credits have rolled. MA

48. Saw (2004)

Its endless, diminishing-quality sequels may have exhausted Saw as a franchise, but you can’t argue with the impact of the first film. Far more than an endless gore-fest, Saw asked questions of the viewer, both in acts of literal escapology and more suggestive, moral conundrums, all while placing us in a unique but simple setting. It gave us one of the most surprising end twists in cinema history and introduced us to a brand-new horror icon in Tobin Bell’s sadistic Jigsaw. SH

47. Obsession (2026)

Yes, it's everyone favourite viral mega-hit, but there's a reason we all became, well, obsessed with Obsession this year. A simple premise - lonely dude wishes a girl he loves would love him back, very quickly regrets it - was elevated to greatness courtesy of a deft direction job by newcomer Curry Barker and, of course, a quite remarkable performance by Inde Navarrette, whose Nikki installed herself as an immediate horror icon. Tackling themes of sexism, incel culture and male entitlement, it's also genuinely scary, tense as hell and packing some shocking moments of violence. What more could you want? MA

46. Candyman (1992)

Pinhead wasn’t the only horror icon spawned from the mind of Clive Barker, Tony Todd helping cement Candyman in the horror pantheon in his stunning 1992 debut as the titular character. The Bernard Rose-directed movie drew a thread between macabre folklore and socio-political commentary amidst an unsettling ghost story with gothic romance overtures that would do Dracula proud, loaded with stunning imagery and cerebral themes that remain insightful 30 years after release. RH

45. Paranormal Activity (2007)

Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity relaunched the stagnant ‘found footage’ genre with a demonic vengeance. The low-budget, DIY format makes this tale of domestic haunting feel eerily real — from casual home video footage to prolonged shots of the main characters sleeping in bed. The stillness and silence weigh heavy as you frantically scan the screen for anything out of place. Paranormal Activity was so terrifying that it spawned six sequels. ‘Intense’ doesn’t do it justice. EC

44. Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Sam Raimi returned to the horror stylings on which he made his name with this spiritual successor to his Evil Dead trilogy, following the plight of doomed banker Christine as she tries to shake off the curse of an elderly Roma woman. Drag Me To Hell packs scares, laughs and creeping terror in equal measure - not to mention one of the most enjoyably shocking rug-pulls of a finale in modern cinema. MA

43. Raw (2016)

A collision of coming-of-age teen drama, classic cannibalism horror and a study of society’s hierarchical structures, Raw is a brilliantly shocking, unique piece of cinema. The story of vegetarian veterinary student Justine being peer-pressured into trying meat for the first time and it inspiring an insatiable bloodlust in her, Raw is a movie packed with the kind of stomach-churning images that will sear themselves into your psyche long after the credits roll. SH

42. Bride Of Frankenstein (1936)

It’s often noted that James Whale’s gothic masterpiece is one of cinema’s greatest sequels, outdoing Universal’s original 1931 Frankenstein with heightened pathos, classier visuals and sharper scares. It’s often noted that Elsa Lanchester’s brief title role provided horror aesthetics with one of the most abidingly iconic and imitated appearances of any female character ever. Less often noted is the delightfully zany comedy sequence featuring a miniature Henry VIII in a jar. CC

41. Rec (2007)

For many, the found footage horror boom peaked with Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s terrifying Spanish flick documenting a reporter and her cameraman stuck in an apartment block as a zombie plague wreaks havoc. Rec’s visceral scares were effective enough, but it was the awe-inspiring twist in the film’s final arc that truly elevated it, adding a horrifying supernatural element to proceedings that turned the nature of the outbreak on its head. MA

40. Let The Right One In (2008)

At a time where ‘vampire’ had become a by-word for ‘twinkly mopey twat’, Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In reminded us all of the true essence of the fanged denizens of the night. Part-vampiric horror and part coming-of-age story, Let The Right One In contrasts stark loneliness with utter brutality in a captivating mixture that asks one key question: what does it mean to be a monster? RH

39. Us (2019)

Jordan Peele’s second movie isn’t tightly wound like his debut, but Us demonstrates how well he burns studio money. Essentially a feature-lengthTwilight Zone episode with Trump-era doses of cynicism, a family’s holiday is ruined when their doppelgängers rock up on their porch. Creepy stuff ensues. Peele takes his time unpacking class identity without ever forgetting the scares, leaning on Lupita Nyong'o’s Oscar-worthy performance to quell quibbles concerning length or plausibility. AC

38. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The Blair Witch Project’s shoestring budget, 16mm camcorders and marketing campaign convinced cinemagoers the cast had actually died. Sure, on the surface it’s just some teens trampling through a forest in search of the fabled Blair Witch. But the fear – palpable, pant-pissing fear – spilling from the improvised dialogue and ramshackle script is undeniable. A divisive but deserved classic that dragged the found-footage subgenre from the woods and into the mainstream. AC

37. Audition (1999)

Takashi Miike’s meet-cute from Hell is infamous for its unflinching final act, to which the entire torture porn movement owes the strongest of pints. A pervy but ultimately well-meaning widower stages a fake audition to meet the girl of his dreams, settling on a quiet woman with bigger gaps in her résumé than Boris Johnson. Echoing Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Audition grabs your throat and yanks you towards its disgusting dénouement. AC

36. It (2017)

Andy Muschietti’s adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 novel gave new life to horrors we’d previously only read about or seen in the clunky 1990 TV mini-series. Fans of Tim Curry’s original performance as Pennywise the child-killing shapeshifting clown found room in their blackened hearts for Bill Skarsgård’s unique rendition. The nostalgic 80s setting and undeniable chemistry of the kids in the Losers Club make this one helluva compelling watch. EC

35. It Follows (2014)

Writer and director David Robert Mitchell unleashed pure nightmare fuel with his breakout horror It Follows. The clever premise of a sexually transmitted supernatural stalker keeps you on edge the entire runtime. You’ll find yourself scouring every shot for the shapeshifting entity as the story unfolds and the tension builds. Mitchell’s mythology for the It Follows ‘curse’ is so clear-cut that you’ll be left obsessing over escape strategies long after the credits roll. EC

34. The Babadook (2014)

You can’t get rid of the Babadook! On the surface, Jennifer Kent’s debut paranormal psychological horror is about a dark, top-hatted entity that haunts you when you read its storybook. Underneath, you’ll find a churning tale of depression, grief, and parenthood. Essie Davis’ performance as a frayed parent-on-the-edge is underpinned by the genuinely chilling character of Mister Babadook — dark, long-fingered, and looming. It’ll literally haunt your dreams. EC

33. The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari (1920)

Film critic extraordinaire Roger Ebert once called this German Expressionist nightmare “the first true horror film”. That alone would qualify The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari for greatness, but what pushes it even higher in the scary movie echelons is that it’s still compelling viewing. The cinematography and jagged set designs are high art in themselves. Just be sure to dodge the “full sound” version and stick on the one soundtracked by post-rockers Toundra. MM

32. Train To Busan (2016)

Snakes On A Plane, on a train, sitting opposite 28 Days Later. Yeon Sang-ho’s public transport putrefactory leaves little room for nuance, tropes stuffed in like sausages to rolls. A workaholic, deadbeat dad takes his daughter on a high-speed railway from Seoul to Busan – turns out it’s packed with zombies. Unlucky, mate. Train To Busan is an absurdly, gleefully over-the-top box-office buster, yanking every emotion harder than the emergency brake. AC

31. Suspiria (1977)

Dario Argento’s sumptuous masterpiece - packed with stylish gore, hung with supernatural mystique and scored with the throbbing occult prog of Goblin - is a timeless, dizzying feast for the senses. The narrative, concerning a murderous conspiracy around a German ballet school, artfully drifts in and out of reality, Suspiria one of few films that effectively approximate a nightmarish quality (albeit a nightmare that is beautifully cinematographed and immaculately soundtracked). CC

30. Carrie (1976)

Who can forget that iconic image of Sissy Spacek, wide-eyed, doused in pig’s blood? Brian De Palma’s body horror is a masterful adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel about the titular Carrie, a bullied teen girl who uses her gift of telekinesis to take revenge on her classmates. The combo of relatable teen trauma and the supernatural makes this a timeless classic. It’ll break your heart as it sends chills up your spine. EC

29. Sinners (2025)

An absorbing Southern Thriller that takes a delicious turn into full From Dusk Till Dawn-style vampire survival horror, Ryan Googler's triumphant epic took notes from the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee and Jordan Peele to craft something fresh, exciting and deliriously vibrant. Michael B. Jordan rightly won praise - and an Oscar - for his dual role as the Smokestack Twins, but from Miles Canton's vulnerable Sammy and Jayme Lawson's magnetic Pearline to Jack O' Connell's riotous Remmick, this was a true ensemble masterpiece that had everyone on top form. Plus, that music scene is an instant all-timer, horror or otherwise. MA

28. Ring (1998)

Ring’s morose muffin-top looms large over Western cinema, inspiring everything from shite J-horror remakes including The Grudge to ‘pass it on’ features like It Follows and Smile. The premise is simple: you see a videotape and die seven days later. Ring’s bare-bones ghost story is what makes it irresistible, drawing on Japanese mythology as kindling for a slow burn. When it ignites with the scare towards the end, though? Actually iconic. AC

27. The Descent (2005)

Before Neil Marshall spent seventeen years wasting everyone’s time and money, he made The Descent: part creature feature, part PSA against spelunking. Six women explore a cave, it’s not what they expected, they stumble across something. It goes south. Cramming the laddy banter of his previous movie – 2002’s immaculate Dog Soldiers – into what is basically The Thing underground, Marshall crafted a perfect survival horror flick featuring one of 2000s horror’s enduring final scenes. AC

26. Dracula (1958)

"It never occurred to any of us to use anyone else but Chris Lee," said producer Anthony Hinds of the perfectly cast title role, a hypnotic performance bringing to life Stoker’s immortal Count in lurid Technicolor for the first time. “Heroic, erotic and romantic” is how Christopher Lee assessed the character, his powerfully seductive portrayal forever altering the perception of the Vampire King from creepy monster to goth sex symbol. CC

25. Shaun Of The Dead (2004)

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg struck gold with black comedy’s most quotable screenplay. Paying homage to Romero and Fulci while stacking scenes with top-tier wit and genuine pathos, this is your classic zombie outbreak movie centred around two guys who just can’t be arsed with it. Wright’s manic cinematography is electric here, the practical gooeyness still holds up, and the Don’t Stop Me Now scene remains unrivalled for laugh-out-loud violence. AC

24. Hereditary (2018)

When referring to ‘that moment in Hereditary’, you could mean at least three. Ari Aster flicks through a Rolodex of grief for his feature-length debut, casting Toni Collette as a mournful mother, daughter and wife whose family tree is hewn. She embodies trauma, unable to find her place while nefarious forces work their magick. Beautifully shot, fist-in-your-mouth shocking and tense to the point of prolapse, Hereditary is a feel-shit hit. AC

23. The Omen (1976)

A multi-Oscar-winning box office smash, enacting Book of Revelation prophecies about the coming of the Antichrist in the form of a little boy? There’s a pseudo-Biblical profundity (and a very 70s sense of pessimism) about The Omen that struck a powerful chord with much bigger audiences than horror films were used to. Several perfectly executed and memorable supernatural kills ensure that The Omen strikes a powerful chord with the hardened gore-hounds, too. CC

22. The Fly (1986)

David Cronenberg is the undoubted king of body horror, and The Fly is his masterpiece. Featuring an all-star cast that contains the likes of Geena Davis, Eric Stolz and horror legend Vincent Price, the show is stolen by an awesome performance by the enigmatic Jeff Goldblum. The marriage of Cronenberg’s unsettlingly gruesome and bizarre visuals and Goldblum’s character Seth Brundle’s descent from a geeky, socially awkward scientist into a part-man-part-fly hybrid monster is absolutely perfect. Horrific, disturbing, upsetting and, yet, an oddly touching tale. SH

21. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)

Rosemary’s Baby is part body horror and part Satanic thriller. Director Roman Polanski filmed the reputedly ‘cursed’ film in the gothic decadence of New York’s Dakota building and used long, unbroken shots to create an unsettling, ominous atmosphere. Despite appearances, baby-stealing Satanic witches aren’t the only horror in this film. The treatment of vulnerable women in domestic danger is a prevalent theme and a nightmare that is still very real in our modern society. EC

20. 28 Days Later (2002)

The 80s and 90s murdered the zombie’s credibility, as the monster tumbled from George A. Romero masterpieces to languishing in cash-ins, ripoffs and lowbrow parodies. Then 28 Days Later made them cool again. Danny Boyle’s most freakish film updated the undead for the 2000s by making them faster and more contagious. Its scenes of widespread desolation and endless missing person flyers also evoked very real post-9/11 horrors. MM

19. The Witch (2015)

Robert Eggers announced himself as one of horror’s most exciting new auteurs with this stunning directorial debut, which stitched together authentic 17th century gloom and doom with supernatural scares and an earthy, visceral terror that lurked just underneath the surface. It provided a breakout role for Hollywood star-in-waiting Anya Taylor Joy, and even introduced horror’s unlikeliest new icon in the form of a big, badass goat called Black Phillip. Delicious. MA

18. The Wicker Man (1973)

Christopher Lee always insisted that The Wicker Man was the best film he ever had a hand in making. The metal-as-fuck former Nazi-hunter plays shadowy antagonist Lord Summerisle, who leads a cult on a Scottish island that antagonises policeman Neil Howie before sacrificing him to their Pagan gods. Its depictions of orgies and heathenism shocked the early 70s establishment, while today the acting and central mystery maintain it as essential viewing. MM

17. Nosferatu (1922) 

For pilfering Dracula’s plot without authorisation, Bram Stoker’s widow wanted all copies of this German silent classic destroyed. Thankfully, the evil Count Orlok survived – 100 years and counting – to provide horror cinema with its first great iconic antagonist (despite barely nine minutes of screentime). There are no jump scares or gory thrills, but the distinctive, pioneering visuals, genre trope innovations and haunting atmosphere of sinister unease remain powerful a century on. CC

16. An American Werewolf in London (1981)

How could you not love An American Werewolf in London? Zombie SS officers, one of the greatest fake-out jump scares in history, some brilliantly gory prosthetics and even a young Rik Mayall: John Landis’ horror-comedy is a phenomenally dizzy thrill from start to finish. It also features the finest monster transformation scene in cinema history, deservedly picking up the first ever Academy Award for Best Makeup in the process, and kickstarted the horror and comedy mash-up that gave us everything from Evil Dead 2 to Shaun Of The Dead and beyond. SH

15. Hellraiser (1987)

Visually arresting, darkly subversive and horny as fuck, Hellraiser isn’t just one of the best British horror movies ever - it’s an alternative culture cornerstone whose influence runs through film, music, fashion and more. Clive Barker did a fine job of bringing his gruesome visions to life, but it was an imperious performance by Doug Bradley as the Lead Cenobite (soon to be known as Pinhead) that helped birth one of horror’s most enduring franchises. MA

14. Psycho (1960)

Even though you know it’s coming, the lurch from Marion Crane’s story of petty embezzlement to her motel shower slashing by deviant taxidermist Norman Bates still feels masterfully disorientating. Although Alfred Hitchcock’s careful, discreet sequence of shots comprising the infamous murder might not alarm many audiences today, the swivel-chair reveal of the dead mum’s skeletal face can still send popcorn flying, while Anthony Perkins’ chillingly plausible performance remains deeply unnerving. CC

13. Jaws (1975)

Never let it be forgotten that one of the first summer blockbusters was a horror. Jaws was the moment Steven Spielberg truly broke through as a director, balancing bloody spectacle with scenes that could be lifted directly from a tense socio-political thriller were they not nestled in a larger-than-life creature feature. From its iconic soundtrack to its starkly terrifying opening scene that traumatised generations from going in the sea, Jaws remains the high watermark for the changes horror can enact on cinema as a whole. RH

12. Dawn Of The Dead (1978)

George A. Romero’s wicked upheaval of consumerism follows four survivors holed up in a shopping mall, battling through undead hordes, mental musical cues and Tom Savini’s sinewy practical effects. Each character is fully fleshed-out – watch the 2004 remake to see how right Romero got it – which makes the frantic final act all the more harrowing. Often imitated, rarely bested, cinema’s most ripped-off zombie export still bites over forty years later. AC

11. Midsommar (2019)

Ari Aster’s second effort shunned the claustrophobic, supernatural mania of Hereditary in favour of an expansive, trippy, folk horror epic. Instantly iconic and sprinkling just enough visceral scares over its ever-heightening sense of creeping dread, Midsommar was far more than Wicker Man for a new generation: it was a brooding, layered genre masterpiece, hung around an emotionally devastating performance by Florence Pugh and filled with hidden terrors that would take repeat viewings to fully unwrap. MA

10. Scream (1996)

Scream is a horror film made for horror fans. Wes Craven’s teen slasher knows its DNA inside and out, outlining horror film tropes one minute and subverting them the next. Its campy, self-aware, ultra-quotable dialogue is every inch as infamous as its iconic ‘Ghostface’ killer. The ghoulish white mask has been adopted by seven other killers across the five-film franchise, giving rise to the idea that the murderer is always someone you know… EC

9. Get Out (2017)

Before 2017, Jordan Peele was “that other guy” in the Key & Peele sketch show, with his biggest cinematic foray being the buddy cop box office bomb, Keanu. Then he made Get Out and became horror’s most hyped director. This psychological mindfuck was perfectly placed in Trump’s America, highlighting the casual racism of a seemingly liberal society. Add in a masterful lead turn by Daniel Kaluuya and you get a modern classic. MM

8. Evil Dead II (1987)

Of all four films in the Evil Dead franchise, Evil Dead II nails Sam Raimi’s trademark ‘splatter comedy’ tone perfectly — not too serious, not too silly. Lead actor Bruce Campbell’s physical comedy heightens the inventive practical effects and clever camerawork to give ED2 a fun, original vibe that has lasted the test of time. Plus, the ending has a geyser of blood and a fistfight with a giant demonic tree. Need we say more? EC

7. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Freddy Kruger is arguably the most instantly recognisable figure in horror since Dracula. Although he would become cartoonish and wisecracking as the years progressed, it’s still easy to see why. The story of a claw-handed, severely burned and disfigured child murderer who kills you in your sleep remains a magnificently unique idea. What else would you expect from a horror master like Wes Craven, who brings the idea of the sins of the parents being handed down to their children to life in a beautifully ghastly way. SH

6. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

It’s almost ironic that Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre earned so much controversy for its brutality, given that the film was essentially a scathing critique of America’s meat industry. But therein lies the beauty of what Hooper created; a garish, cheap aesthetic that has been (and still is) copied endlessly right up to this year’s brilliant X, more about tension and abject terror than on-screen gore or spectacular kills. Looking back, the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre seems almost quaint and conservative, much of the run-time spent menacing heroine Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) while most of the film’s most gruesome turns are left to the viewer’s imagination. But then, that’s exactly what the best horrors are all about: forcing us to confront our own twisted fears. RH

5. Halloween (1978)

John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s Halloween didn’t invent the slasher genre, but it may as well have! It’s a masterclass in slow-building suspense, peaked with moments of pure terror, driven by Carpenter’s unbroken tracking shots and spine-tingling score. It somehow captures the ambience of All Hallows’ Eve in all its ghoulish potential. Halloween was so groundbreaking that it became a 13-film franchise and turned Jamie Lee Curtis into horror’s favourite ‘scream queen’ while making a household name of its masked babysitter-killer, Michael ‘The Shape’ Myers. Other holiday-themed horrors would soon follow suit, including Prom Night and — most notably — Friday the 13th. EC

4. The Shining (1980)

Even if it was just Jack Nicholson going batshit in an empty hotel where blood gushes out of lift doors and creepy twins haunt the corridors, The Shining would be a great horror film. In fact, legendary auteur Stanley Kubrick given free rein on inspirational source material from best-loved author Stephen King made for an endlessly fascinating and profound cinematic experience. Everyone who sees The Shining comes away with their own set of theories and interpretations, and every viewing yields unsettling new details - indeed, there’s an entire feature film delineating the film’s codes, clues and themes, 2011’s Room 237. CC

3. Alien (1979)

Before Alien, the realm of science fiction horror belonged almost solely to black-and-white B flicks like Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman. However, when Ridley Scott marched into 20th Century Fox’s offices and pitched his next film in three words - “Jaws in space” - it ignited the genre’s first timeless classic. Alien’s premise is devilishly simple: seven intergalactic truckers getting picked off on a claustrophobic spaceship. However, ingenuity’s everywhere, mostly in the form of the extraterrestrial creature plucked from the nightmares of H.R. Giger. It’s no surprise that the hideous image launched a horror institution now four decades old. MM

2. The Thing (1982)

Released in an era where celebratory, family-friendly sci-fi romps like E.T. and Star Wars were being eaten up by cinema goers, The Thing was criminally overlooked upon release, written off by critics as a shameless gore fest lacking emotional depth. How ridiculous that all seems now: John Carpenter’s greatest work is a masterful commentary on Cold War paranoia, toxic masculinity, nihilism and ‘othering’, racked with tension and otherworldly horror. Its all-male cast put in performances that remain mostly understated but utterly compelling, while Ennio Morricone’s simplistic but chilling score and Rob Bottin’s genre-defining SFX rounded out a film that remains peerless. MA

1. The Exorcist (1973)

The tale of a sweet little girl possessed by an ancient Mesopotamian demon, The Exorcist broke box office records around the world and regularly appears on cineastes’ greatest ever movie lists (even without the horror qualifier). It is a uniquely affecting and accomplished production with an ending that emphasises noble self-sacrifice and heavenly love overcoming demonic hate. And yet, insanely, from 1988-1999, it was illegal to own a copy in the UK. When The Exorcist was reissued to cinemas in 2000, the much-parodied gross-out sequences which had so traumatised ‘70s audiences - rotating head, projectile pea soup, filthy blasphemous invective, self-abuse with a crucifix - provoked more snorts of laughter than screams of terror, but the film’s deep sense of emotional disturbance remains starkly undimmed.

Jason Miller’s careworn Father Karras, wracked with grief, guilt and inner turmoil over his mother’s death and his crisis of faith, is one of horror cinema’s most complex heroes; the demon Pazuzu gets a treasure trove of sassy quotable lines (“Your mother sucks cocks in Hell, Karras, you faithless slime!”); and Mike Oldfield’s hippy prog opus Tubular Bells became forever associated with the epic battle between good and evil playing out in a child’s bedroom. CC

Last night (Thursday October 29), it was announced that the great Patrick Stewart had passed away aged 86 following what was described by his family as a "brief" battle with with Alzheimer's and Lewy Body Dementia. The beloved actor was a titan of film, TV and theatre, known to millions around the world for his iconic roles as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Professor Charles Xavier in Fox's X-Men film franchise.

Those two roles saw Stewart play empathetic, heroic and selfless leaders - which was what made his casting as a cold, calculating Neo-Nazi all the more surprising when it was announced he'd be playing the lead villain in 2015 horror-thriller, Green Room.

Released by A24, the studio behind smash hits including Backrooms, Uncut Gems, Moonlight and Hereditary, the Jeremy Saulnier-directed flick features Stewart as Darcy, the boss of a racist right wing gang terrorising a hapless punk band who got booked for a gig in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Northwest. Turns out the gig is full of violent Nazis, and things quickly go south.

"Darcy Becker is a bad guy," Stewart remarked in promo for the film. "He's a really bad guy. And I have to be honest and say that I think it was that aspect that seduced me.

"I was sitting in my house in West Oxfordshire, and I settled down on a Saturday evening to read this script. I found it to be a page-turner! And it scared the shit out of me. I was alone, in my house; at some point in the story I poured a large scotch, because it was so unsettling, that sense of being in a situation, surrounded by people you can't reason with. If it does this to me, when it's on screen, it might really have a lot of impact."

Working on Green Room also enabled Stewart to educate himself on a culture he'd been largely ignorant to - the punk rock scene. "I had nothing in common with these musicians," he told The Daily Beast, speaking of the fictional band in the movie, The Ain't Rights. "I don’t especially care for their music!"

Stewart - a lifelong socialist - did however find himself fascinated by the rebellious nature of punk, noting that he "believed in this world" and was "quite drawn that element of protest, of violent musical objection."

Director Jeremy Saulnier, on the other hand, was already all too familiar with the world of punk rock - and some of its dark subcultures. Growing up just outside of Washington D.C., Saulnier played in a local hardcore band and would encounter Neo Nazi punks at shows.

“When we started going to shows across the bridge in Washington, D.C., as a 15-, 16-year-old kid, just seeing Nazis in the light of day at matinee shows was unnerving,” he admitted. “This was back when D.C. was the murder capital of the United States, per capita. It was a grimy, grungy, scary place, and I felt very unsure and out of my depth. That stayed with me.”

Green Room received rave reviews upon release, critics hailing it as a taut, tense and affectingly violent piece of work. Singled out for particular praise was Patrick Stewart for his unnerving turn as Darcy - an instant classic villain and proof of the great man's refusal to ever submit to typecasting.

Countless fans will rightly remember Stewart as their Captain, their Professor X. But many horror aficionados will also attest to the fact that he made for a pretty damn good baddie, too.

Tom Morello has paid tribute to late Star Trek actor Sir Patrick Stewart

The Rage Against The Machine guitarist and self-professed Star Trek “nerd” made an uncredited cameo in the 1998 movie Star Trek: Insurrection, appearing alongside Stewart in one brief scene.

“God bless you and thank you for your brilliance and your humanity, Captain,” wrote Morello on Instagram.

Stewart, who died of Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia at the age of 86, rose to international fame playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, which ran between 1987 and 1994, reprising the role in four feature films.

Morello’s non-speaking, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in Star Trek: Insurrection saw the guitarist play a Son’a officer, one of the movie’s bad guys, while sporting prosthetic alien make-up.

“If you didn’t know I was in it, then you’d miss me. I was so heavily made up,” Morello told Metal Hammer in 2006.

It's no overstatement to say that Back To The Beginning was the biggest metal gig of all time. From 21st Century stars (Mastodon, Gojira, Halestorm) to best-selling metal giants (Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Slayer, Anthrax), it was a huge celebration of heavy metal over the past half century, all topped off by the final performances from Ozzy Osbourne and all four original members of Black Sabbath.

With the show getting a livestream - handy as all 44,000 tickets for Villa Park sold out in minutes - it was never a question that the day would eventually be transported to the big screen, but what form it would take. Now we have an answer.

Across two and a half hours, we're treated to performances by every band and musician who played that historic gig. And, with this being a celebration of Ozzy and Black Sabbath, naturally the song choices all err towards the covers each band contributed on the day.

But here's the thing. Whether you watched it at home or managed to bag tickets to be there in person, nothing can prepare you for the emotional tsunami this movie provokes. Exultation, excitement, bittersweetness... It's a full emotional gauntlet across the two and a half hour run-time, knowing as we do that Ozzy would pass away just 17 days after making his final performance.

But it can't overshadow the triumph of the day. Presented in non-linear order, we hit the ground running with victorious image of Ozzy Osbourne rising from beneath the stage in his throne as footage from Ozzy's history plays out and we see fans visibly weeping before he's sung a note of I Don't Know.

The "documentary" footage is kept fairly light throughout, focusing largely on the importance of the gig and how it came together rather than Ozzy's struggles leading up to the big day (which have already been covered in documentaries like No Escape From Now and Sharon And Ozzy Osbourne: Coming Home). Performances are, as you'd expect, stellar. Mastodon prove an early highlight with a thumping cover of Supernaut, complete with an extended drum solo featuring Gojira's Mario Duplantier, Tool's Danny Carey and Slipknot's Eloy Casagrande, while Randy Blythe can't resist dropping some guttural snarls into Lamb Of God's take on Children Of The Grave and Lzzy Hale gives an almighty howl on Perry Mason.

It's those moments that really sell just how momentous this show was, the musicians involved unable to resist getting swept up in the excitement of it all. Every time it cuts to the crowd, we're shown scenes of emotional overload, joyous howling giving way to folks weeping openly during any of the sections where Ozzy or Sabbath are performing.

"I fucking love you all!"

The main man himself feels larger than life even in his final performance. Confined to his throne though he may be, Ozzy repeatedly jumps in the seat and can't stop shouting out to the crowd as the set unfolds, communicating just how much music - and the audience of millions who love him for his contributions to it - mean to him.

After the sheer emotional climax of seeing Black Sabbath perform together for the final time, there could be no question on what the final song of the movie could be: 1991 ballad Mama I'm Coming Home bringing everything to a bawl-your-eyes-out crescendo that'll honestly send chills up your spine as the shots of fireworks over Villa Park fade to a huge floral display for Ozzy in Birmingham city centre. But the movie's not quite over yet. A postscript shares about Ozzy's passing after the show, and we're treated to a clip of Ozzy with a very young Jack Osbourne after his "final" concert back in the 90s when he temporarily retired from music.

"You know, over the years I've made a lot of people happy. But I've sure made a lot of people's heads turn."

The metal world exists as a result. So, amen and God Bless Ozzy Osbourne.

Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning is out in cinemas now. The movie is also being released on formats including 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, CD, and vinyl, as well as digitally on December 11th.

• Read our review of the full Back To The Beginning event
• The full setlist from Back To The Beginning

Let us gather, beloved congregation, and kneel before the sacred altar of fact and trivia.

How much do you know about Ghost? Do you know who's who when it comes to the long lineage of those named Papa Emeritus?

Will your devotion to being correct reward you with a place in The Clergy or will you be suffer the ignominy of excommunication?

Now it's time to play...

Slipknot emerged from a darkened Des Moines basement over 30 years ago. In that time, they've caused total chaos, broken bones, and huffed jars of festering crows on the road to becoming a band to define a generation.

But how much do you know about the Des Moines mob? Do you know more than the average Maggot? Put your knowledge to the test by taking the quiz below!

Apple TV's long-awaited documentary about Fleetwood Mac is finally ready to hit the small screen. Fleetwood Mac: The Chain, which was announced in November 2024, will premiere on Apple TV on January 29, 2027, and features contributions from Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, the late Christine McVie, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.

The release is timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the band's best-selling Rumours album – which came out on February 4, 1977 – and is named after The Chain, the only song on the album to be credited to all five members.

The film is directed by Frank Marshall, who also worked on The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (2020), Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story (2022) and The Beach Boys (2024).

"I am fascinated by how this incredible story of enormous musical achievement came about,” said Marshall in 2024. "Fleetwood Mac somehow managed to merge their often chaotic and almost operatic personal lives into their own tale in real-time, which then became legend. This will be a film about the music and the people who created it."

The film tells the story of Fleetwood Mac from the point when Mick Fleetwood invited Lindsey Buckingham – and then Stevie Nicks – to join the band after being played Frozen Love from their Buckingham Nicks album at Sound City Studio in Los Angeles in late 1974.

"Lindsey’s style was so stunning and unique," Fleetwood told Rolling Stone. "It was what hit me first, and it hit me hard. That hour and a half spent in Sound City changed everything."

The dramatic story of the band's pre-Rumours years, which include the loss of guitarists Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer (the first to mental decline, the second to the cult organisation Children of God), the firing and subsequent destitution of guitarist Danny Kirwan, dwindling popularity, a break-up in 1973 and the strange story of the "Fake Fleetwood Mac", will have to wait for another day.

Actor David Dastmalchian has revealed that he listened to Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Joy Division and Nick Cave in order to tap into the mindset set of video game super villain M. Bison after being cast for the role in the new Street Fighter film.

Though largely panned by film critics - The Guardian calls it "a garish and incoherent mess" - the latest Street Fighter film has proved a hit with cinema-goers, topping the US box office charts after its first week in theatres. With the original video game being such a world wide success, Dastmalchian says that he was fully aware that his portrayal of the founder and leader of the Shadaloo criminal organisation would come under scrutiny.

"Before this, I would say the biggest weight on my shoulders was creating Mr. 3 in [the cult Japanese manga turned into a Netflix series] One Piece, because you know that globally there are millions of people who adore this world and this character," he revealed on the Kyle Meredith With... podcast. " So I did Mr. 3 and it was such an gratifying and incredible experience. And then I get a call from [film director] Kitao Sakurai saying he wants me to be M. Bison and I was like, Are you fucking kidding me?? Like I I love a challenge. I love being scared, but this was like you've been trying to make it as a football player your whole career and all of a sudden you get thrown into being the middle linebacker in the Super Bowl. It's an intense thing."

To help get into the appropriate mindset for the role, Dastmalchian says that he curated a bespoke playlist. Asked who features on said playlist, the actor referenced some beloved metal and alt.rock legends.

"Of course there's a lot of [American composer] John Williams [on it]," he explained. "Like whenever I would walk to set, I couldn't help but have some Imperial March [aka Darth Vader's Theme]. But genuinely, for the energy of it, so much Tool. If you look at the Ænima album, like for Bison to look at each of his soldiers and say, 'Learn to swim', he's not saying, like [sweetly], 'You need to learn to swim or you'll drown'. It's [snarls] 'Learn to fucking swim! It's too late.'... You're just a broken species that needs to be completely demolished and rebuilt. That was the Bison, that's not David, but there's a darker part of me that lives in there.

"We've got The Fragile from Nine Inch Nails. It's a great way to start the day. Atmosphere from Joy Division. Shadow Play from Joy Division is a great fucking song for Bison. Heart and Soul [from Closer]. l. Nick Cave's O Children. Filter. Ceremony from Deftones..."

"The the last time Tool was an integral part of my character's soundtrack was my firstmovie, The Dark Knight," he continues. "I utilized Undertow a lot in preparing for that day of work. I'm very, very selective about when I'm going to dip into the power of a band like Nine Inch Nails or Tool. They inspire me every day, but when I actually think about tapping into that power to try to harness that for the work I'm doing, um I'm actually intensely selective about it."

Watch the interview in full here.

The Street Fighter movie features a number of major rock songs - Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, The Offspring's Come Out And Play, White Zombie's More Human Than Human - plus two songs from HEALTH, Negative Edge and Brainrot.

Metallica have been making a sweet, sweet noise around the world for about 45 years now. In that time, they've recorded 11 studio albums, played on every single continent and made the most frightening video ever.

So, how well do you know Metallica? Are you a true fan or just a casual listener who has 'The Best of Metallica' saved on their streaming platform?

Put your metal credentials to the test with 20 ridiculously tough questions and find out if you're Hardwired to win or if the idea of getting a perfect score is The Day That Never Comes.

With 17 studio albums each featuring metal's most iconic mascot, Eddie the Head, and sold-out performances in almost 60 countries, Iron Maiden’s rich history is absolutely rammed with five decades' worth of brain-scrambling trivia.

So, how well do you know the band? Will these 20 questions make you Run to the Hills or will your score be Aces High?

Test your knowledge in our quiz below!

Grand Theft Auto VI will feature a heavy metal radio station playing Black Sabbath, Pantera and Slayer songs, and hosted by Slayer members Tom Araya and Kerry King.

Developer Rockstar (living up to its name) has detailed the soundtrack for their upcoming, hugely-anticipated action-adventure title and offered previews of which of the six radio stations which players will be able to tune into.

Among them is metal station 106.6 The Chamber, which promises “no rules! Just riffs!” and is co-hosted by “DJs Tom and Kerry”. A two-minute taster is available on the Rockstar website, featuring Araya and King’s voices plus snippets of Black Sabbath’s I, Slayer’s Raining Blood and Pantera’s Mouth For War.

Listen to the taster here.

The other stations include Cocoteo FM, a modern Latin station hosted by Bad Bunny and RaiNao. Robyn and model Alex Consani will co-host Flash FM’s “best in pop”, while Morgan Wallen, Lana Del Rey and Del Rey’s husband Jeremy Dufrene will lead Back Country Radio, the home of “renegade country”.

Rounding out the options will be African music station AfroBank FM and country station Dirty South Classics.

In addition, Rockstar have detailed a 34-track soundtrack album which will be available from November 19 (the same day as the videogame’s release) on streaming services, vinyl and CD. Six singles are currently available, including offerings from Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen, Rauw Alejandro, and Yung Lean featuring Metro Boomin and Future.

Heavy metal stations have been part of the Grand Theft Auto universe before. 2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV had the Liberty City Hardcore station featuring music by Cro-Mags, Agonistic Front and others; the Episodes From Liberty City compilation added tracks by Cannibal Corpse, Soulfly and more. The 2009 handheld gaming entry Chinatown Wars featured the Anvil station, named after the Canadian band of the same name and dedicated exclusively to their music.

Grand Theft Auto VI has been in development since 2018, shortly after the release of Rockstar’s title Red Dead Redemption 2. Development has cost an estimated total between one billion and two billion USD, and the release has been publicly delayed twice: first from 2025 to May 2026, then to its current scheduled date.

Jim Bakker, the televangelist who inspired Ozzy Osbourne's Miracle Man Genesis's Jesus He Knows Me and Iron Maiden's Holy Smoke, has died at the age of 86. The news was confirmed in a social media post by Bakker's wife, Lori.

"It is with a broken heart that I share that my beloved husband, Jim Bakker, went home to be with the Lord this evening," she wrote. "For 66 years, Jim gave his life to preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was a pioneer of Christian television, but to me, he was my husband, my best friend, and the man I was honoured to walk beside through so many seasons of life and ministry."

Bakker rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s alongside his first wife, Tammy Faye, as hosts of The PTL Club, a late-night Christian televangelist chat show (the 'PTL' was short for 'Praise The Lord') broadcast from the couple's 2500-acre theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina.

The show attracted millions of viewers and millions of dollars in contributions, but it all came crashing down in the late 1980s when Bakker was accused of sexual misconduct by Jessica Hahn, a church secretary, and imprisoned after being found guilty on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. He was sentenced to 45 years in prison. On appeal, the sentence was reduced to eight years, and Bakker was released in 1994.

Bakker's antics – alongside those of fellow televangelists Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart and Ernest Angley – were the inspiration for Genesis's 1992 single Jesus He Knows Me, a song featuring lyrics which addressed televangelist hypocrisy directly.

I believe in family
With my ever lovin' wife beside me
But she don't know about my girlfriend
Or the man I met last night
Do you believe in God?
'Cause that's what I'm selling
And if you wanna go to heaven
Well, I'll see you right

Ghost later covered Jesus He Knows Me on their 2023 EP Phantomime, while other songs to address televangelist behaviour include Ozzy Osbourne's Miracle Man, Iron Maiden's Holy Smoke, Poison's Something To Believe In, Frank Zappa's Jesus Thinks You're a Jerk, The Hooters' Satellite and Black Sabbath's TV Crimes.

In 1987, Tammy Faye Bakker – who'd already recorded several albums of Christian pop music – released The Ballad Of Jim & Tammy, a song that addressed the collapse of their ministry and criticised Swaggart and Falwell for turning on them. Tammy Faye died in 2007.

Tom Cruise’s divisive new movie, Digger, is the subject of much talk – not all of it good. But it’s not the first time he’s attracted a critical pile-on. Fourteen years ago, he donned a flowing wig to star as fictional singer Stacee Jaxx in the much-reviled hair metal musical Rock Of Ages, adapted from a more successful stage play. In 2012, when the film came out, Classic Rock spoke to the people behind this misfire to find out how Hollywod’s biggest movie star ended up singing Def Leppard songs.

A crisp March night in London’s West End, and things are getting hairy. The crowd inside the Shaftesbury Theatre is on its feet, waving electric torches and roaring along to a rowdy soundtrack of hits by Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Poison, Twisted Sister and more. In other words, tunes that were last popular 25 years ago, when spandex-clad peacock rockers turned LA’s Sunset Strip into a gigantic open sewer of booze, sleaze and sexually transmitted disease. Good times.

Settling down to watch a hair-metal jukebox musical that one broadsheet reviewer compared to a steaming turd is a daunting prospect, but Rock Of Ages works pretty damn hard to bludgeon the viewer into enforced enjoyment. Middle-aged metalheads mosh in the aisles alongside 20-something couples and teenage girl gangs. The premise isn’t new, but rather than singing along to ABBA or Queen, they’re celebrating an era of big-haired debauchery and cartoon bad-boy posturing that even some of its original participants now find embarrassingly naff. How the hell did this happen?

Rock Of Ages was launched by a bunch of theatrical amateurs in an LA bar in July 2005. They initially rushed to exploit a 1980s glam-metal revival that they feared would be a fleeting fad, only to find mainstream culture turning their way with the runaway success of Glee and the retro-rock soundtrack to Mickey Rourke movie The Wrestler. From scratchy beginnings the show slowly built into a worldwide phenomenon. After transferring to Broadway in 2008, it finally made its London debutlast August.

Now even Tom Cruise is in on the act, starring in a big-budget Hollywood film of Rock Of Ages. Cruise stars as fictional 80s rock star Stacee Jaxx – a mash-up of Axl Rose, Keith Richards and Jim Morrison. Catherine Zeta Jones, Russell Brand and Alec Baldwin co-star, along with a lengthy guest list of rock-star cameos. The director is Adam Shankman, who previously adapted the Broadway version of the John Waters musical Hairspray for the big screen. Shankman has swapped the stage show’s spoofy, self-referential humour for more straightforward comedy; ironic celebration of this deeply uncool music has given way to something deeper, broader and weirder. So is Rock Of Ages just a mullet-haired Mamma Mia!, a glam-metal Glee – or could it actually bring these overlooked 1980s anthems back from the dead? And should rock fans be cheering from the front row or throwing rotten fruit from the balcony?

The Rock Of Ages phenomenon began with an amateur production first staged in a small LA bar seven years ago by film producer and novice theatrical impresario Matt Weaver. “The genesis of it was I wanted to develop a musical that guys would go to,” Weaver explains. “I’d never done theatre before, but it completely changed my life. I’m like the Forrest Gump of theatre.”

Weaver hired screenwriter Chris D’Arienzo and director Kristin Hanggi to flesh out his retro-rock concept. D’Arienzo grew up in Michigan listening to Elvis Costello and The Smiths, but he insists glam-metal was part of his musical DNA.

“My first kiss was to a Warrant song, my first dance was to Paradise City,” he says. “That music defined my adolescence. I kind of dig that it was not trying to be well-received by critics. It was just trying to be fun and express the feelings these young guys had when they were making it, which is: I wanna party, get drunk and fuck the prettiest chicks.”

Set in a Sunset Strip metal club in the late 1980s, Rock Of Ages features innocent young lovers, sleazy rockers, strippers, groupies, record company goons and cartoon villains in the shape of rock-hating German property developers. A live band remain on stage throughout, thumping out raucous versions of Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again, Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead Or Alive, Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It and similarly anthemic songs from glam metal’s glory days.

Securing the music rights was the first big hurdle. The producers were smart enough to secure Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ as their closing number long before The Sopranos and Glee turned the tune into a post-modern karaoke classic, but Mötley Crüe, Guns ‘N Roses and Van Halen all refused to let their songs be used. Ironically, so did Def Leppard, even though the show was ostensibly named after one of their hits.

“The initial pitch didn’t sound appealing,” says Leppard singer Joe Elliott. “Quite honestly it was everything we were trying to avoid – look, I’ve spent 25 years trying not to be part of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. I’ve always said, being part of the herd, sooner or later you get culled.”

Weaver admits that knockbacks were inevitable. Of course, some bands may have been reluctant to co-operate because history hasn’t necessarily been kind to the era Rock Of Ages was inspired by. But Weaver insists that he set out to celebrate the music, striking the same kind of affectionately satirical balance as Steel Panther or even The Darkness.

“We are not mocking it at all,” Weaver insists. “We are putting it on a pedestal. In our heart and soul, we believe these songs are as good as any Broadway song out there. I mean, Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Here I Go Again – show me better songs than this! If anything we mock LA a little bit, and we like to have fun with the period: big hair, big music and big dreams.”

Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, whose 1980 power ballad Keep On Lovin’ You appears in the show, believes it is both spoof and celebration. “That’s why I like it,” he says. “When I first saw the play I felt equal parts honoured and horrified. But you have to be able to laugh at yourself, especially if you look back at some of the videos we made in the 1980s, and some of the hairstyles we had. They were hilarious.”

Just as the original hair-metal bands were lambasted by the critics, so Rock Of Ages got a rough ride. Reviews for the initial LA run were sniffy, and a Las Vegas version folded after 11 nights. But once the show opened off Broadway in 2008, a rave notice in the New York Times sealed its fate. Twister Sister’s Dee Snider took over role of sleazy club owner Dennis Dupree for several months while Styx, REO Speedwagon and Foreigner played after-show concerts. Its Broadway success sealed a film deal with Warner Brothers.

Inevitably, transferring to London last year proved a little bumpy – partly down to the fact glam metal never had the same cultural impact here first time around, and partly down to the show itself. The Guardian savaged it as ‘almost entirely free of laughs… with an unvarying and unpleasant tone of careless sexualisation’, while the Telegraph reviewer branded it ‘as unpleasant a pile of theatrical poo as it has ever been my misfortune to tread in’.

“We thought that would make a great T-shirt,” says Weaver with a laugh. “But I can’t make someone love Whitesnake and Poison, you know?”

However harsh the reviews, Rock Of Ages remains a runaway smash, riding the same wave of nostalgia that has seen Van Halen, Mötley Crüe and Whitesnake enjoy the sort of success they haven’t had for years. The show’s success may even have helped fuel a few resurgent careers.

“I think it’s the opposite,” argues Kevin Cronin. “Its success is more the result of bands like us continuing to tour and our music just being such a big part of people’s lives. So when people got wind of the fact that there was a show that
uses all their favourite rock songs, that’s why it became a success. It started with the music.”

But how did it become so huge? Dee Snider believes the show struck a populist chord by reminding us that rock music still had rebel-outsider edge in the 1980s. “I call it a middle-finger factor,” he says. “It had a fuck-you attitude that people miss in contemporary music. There is not enough of that reckless abandon now.”

Joe Elliott is not convinced. He suggests that Rock Of Ages proves that rock has become safe family entertainment. “It became institutionalised,” he says. “It ran out of danger after Alice Cooper. It’s part of the establishment, you can’t shock anybody any more. There’s nothing left to do except entertain.”

Whatever the pros and cons, the fact remains that Rock Of Ages is now one of the longest-running shows currently on Broadway, which bodes well for the film version. Director Adam Shankman has reworked D’Arienzo’s original script, ditching the German villains. “I had to open the whole thing up to make the experience as epic as the music,” Shankman says. “The biggest change was making the villain a more period-realistic antagonist. So in the movie, we’ve got Catherine Zeta Jones who plays a conservative public official’s wife, trying to kill off rock and roll.”

Ever the canny businessman, Joe Elliott admits the prospect of a big-budget Hollywood movie softened his initial doubts about Rock Of Ages. Especially when he heard Tom Cruise would be singing a classic Leppard song.

“Not being in the stage show is one thing, not being in the movie is another,” he says. “If we say yes to this, Tom Cruise is going to do Pour Some Sugar On Me – you know, this is the Mission Impossible dude! A movie is a different beast to Broadway. This is way cooler than just being one of the songs in the stage show.”

Naturally, all the bands involved receive royalty payments, but some are smartly using it as leverage for their own projects. Dee Snider says the exposure he received from the Broadway show boosted his reality-TV career and partly inspired his new showtunes album, Dee Does Broadway. Has Rock Of Ages been good for business?

“Abso-fricking-lutely!” laughs Snider. “Corporate rock and hair metal are forms of music that it seems the industry would like to disavow; they would prefer they don’t exist. A show like this has reminded people these were cool songs.”

Meanwhile, Def Leppard will tour with Poison this summer under the Rock Of Ages banner. But whether a stage and film musical can actually make 1980s glam metal cool again is a moot point, as these revved-up anthems still remain divisive, even among rock fans.

“It polarised opinion,” Elliott admits, “because pouffy-haired, spandex-wearing poodle rock doesn’t go down well with somebody who owns Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. But a polarised opinion is great for banter – when people say an album is ‘alright’, what the fuck is that? It’s either shit or brilliant as far as I’m concerned.”

And is Rock Of Ages shit or brilliant? Despite what Joe Elliott says, it falls somewhere in between. The script slips into cheesy slapstick in places, and some of the jokes are as stiff as Vince Neil’s face. But the self-referential humour is much smarter than it appears, the panto aspect isn’t a world away from your average Ozzy Osbourne or Iron Maiden stage show, and as long as you’re willing to embrace rock’s sillier side, you’ll have a blast. And while you can criticise the
kitsch nostalgia, the laboured jokes, the clothes and the hair, the songs themselves have lasted.

“This music is not a gimmick,” nods Weaver. “It’s iconic, classic music that is going to be around for a long time. One of my greatest accomplishments, long after I pass, is that I was the man responsible for putting Whitesnake on Broadway. I take a lot of joy in that.”

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 171 (March 2012)

When Pink Floyd released extensive box set The Early Years 1965-1972 in 2016, it provided an unmissable opportunity to re-evaluate their contribution to movie soundtracks during the period. That year Prog offered an analysis of what was and what could have been.

The years 1965 to 1972 highlight Pink Floyd’s fertile relationship with leftfield filmmakers. From their very first stage appearance, it was obvious their music was the perfect accompaniment for visuals, as their pioneering Mike Leonard-designed liquid light show expertly demonstrated. After troubled, charismatic frontman Syd Barrett left the group in early 1968, their increasing facelessness underlined their desirability to filmmakers, with their blankly emotional soundscapes adding gravitas to any cinematic climax.

Floyd are linked to four major movie works from the era: Barbet Schroeder’s More and La Vallée (Obscured By Clouds); Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point; and Adrian Maben’s not-actually-live-in-concert Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii. But beyond these, their music is scattered throughout various films. Significant moments date from right at the outset of their career. Peter Whitehead’s documentary Tonite Let’s All Make Love In London and Peter Sykes’ The Committee are two early examples of how the Floyd could be called on to provide an instant trip to your movie.

Tonite Let’s Make Love In London was a fantastic capture of the city at the summit of the 60s. Essentially a document measuring just how far England’s capital swung, it interspersed interviews with scenesters such as Mick Jagger, Eric Burdon and Julie Christie and footage from the fabled April 1967 14 Hour Technicolor Dream at Alexandra Palace. It captured the band three months earlier at Sound Techniques in Chelsea, recording a fiery version of Interstellar Overdrive, and the rather less flammable tom-tom driven 12 minutes of Nick’s Boogie.

The Committee from 1968 is a different matter entirely. The 55-minute film saw Floyd contribute arguably little more than a glorified collection of sound effects. Director Sykes’ initial idea had been to work with Barrett, which was not to be. Writer Max Steuer recounted that Floyd were tremendously together when it came to their contribution.

“We started at nine each morning and did 12 hours or so. Roger Waters was always there at 8.30, David Gilmour shortly after; then Nick Mason, and Rick Wright just before nine. It was amazingly professional. The road crew set up the first day by 8 o’clock or so.” The two main recordings were drone-led, helping usher in the band’s next phase. The plot – very stylized and surreal – centred on Paul Jones as a hitchhiker hauled up before a mysterious committee, called to explain a man’s murder. It was tremendously in-era.

These films were relatively low-key; their next venture, More, was not. The band’s relationship with Iranian director Barbet Schroeder – a protégé of Jean-Luc Godard – was to be easy and productive. Mason later recalled that the group’s members were paid £600 each; not insignificant amount for eight days’ work. “Roger came up with a number of songs for the film that became part of our live shows for some time after,” the drummer added.

One of those, Cymbaline (which began life as the nightmare sequence from their concept The Man and The Journey) was a live staple and the greatest advert for this album as a whole. Elsewhere, Crying Song established Gilmour as a solo guitarist on a Floyd album, and The Nile Song underlined the band’s rockier side.

There was little budget so the band watched the film, timing sequences, then recorded at Pye Studios in London’s Marble Arch, rather than their usual Abbey Road. At Pye they worked for the first time with Brian Humphries, who’d later collaborate on Wish You Were Here and Animals. The film itself was a meandering tale of the naïve Stefan (Klaus Grünberg) who becomes entranced with Estelle (Mimsy Farmer), drops out and joins the hippie scene in Ibiza, before succumbing to the thrall of heroin. Floyd’s music is used sparingly yet effectively.

Their next film project was not as much fun. Zabriskie Point was Michelangelo Antonioni’s love letter to the collapse of the 60s; and as well as the Floyd, weapons-grade ambassadors of the counterculture such as Jerry Garcia and the Rolling Stones were on the soundtrack. Floyd recorded a wealth of material in Rome for the soundtrack, much of which was rejected. Most famously, Wright’s The Violent Sequence would form the basis of Us And Them from The Dark Side Of The Moon four years later.

The music choices, like most of their soundtrack work, sit outside their canon – especially Crumbling Land, which is the closest to Americana they ever came. As Floyd historian Stuart Shea notes, “Antonioni created a film depending on and celebrating empty space: musical, physical and emotional.”

Like the other Floyd films of the era, few will actually admit to watching it all the way through – yet its closing sequence is possibly the greatest of all Floyd links with movies. Female protagonist Daria (Daria Halprin) looks out across Death Valley as she visualises the residential desert development exploding repeatedly in slow motion, as Come In, No. 51 Your Time Is Up (a reworked version of Careful With That Axe, Eugene) plays out to spectacular effect.

The music element of Live At Pompeii, their most famous film outing of this era, is director Adrian Maben’s portrayal of their performance without an audience in the historic Roman amphitheatre; and it’s become a cornerstone of their mythology. It truly kept the band alive when their touring schedule slowed down. It was seemingly the choice of late-night picturehouses for the whole of the 70s, often paired with Crystal Voyager (more of which later).

Released in 1972 to accompany the film La Vallée the album Obscured By Clouds is one of Floyd’s most straightforward; its meaty rock songs and plaintive ballads illustrate what could have happened to the group for the rest of the decade had Waters not taken his stand. Working once more with Barbet Schroeder, the film looked at the rejection of society in favour of a countercultural nirvana. Set in Papua New Guinea, French diplomat’s wife Viviane (Bulle Ogier) sets off on an expedition, led by guru figure Gaëtan (Jean-Pierre Kalfon), in search of a mythical valley – with ultimately tragic consequences.

The band convened at Château d’Hérouville near Paris (soon to be enshrined in pop legend by Elton John on Honky Château, and where the Bee Gees would later record their significant contribution to Saturday Night Fever). Here, as they’d done with More, Floyd watched a print of the film and set about recording what was initially incidental music. Schroeder later told journalist Mark Blake: “[They] wonderful to work with. It was beautiful and fantastic music. The biggest present.”

The menacing title track is one of the rockiest things the group recorded, emanating out of Gilmour’s electronic VCS3 drone, with walls of guitar over Mason’s tribally influenced early drum machine-driven percussion. It was also – subliminally or otherwise – affectionately referenced on the frequently-seen 1970s Denim aftershave commercial. Free Four gave the group a toehold in the US, and saw Waters for the first time making explicit reference to the wartime death of his father (although Corporal Clegg from 1968 had alluded to it). The success of Free Four on FM radio opened the way for The Dark Side Of The Moon. There’s a view that More and Obscured By Clouds are somehow not ‘proper’ Floyd albums. Not so: they’re the sound of a band with the pressure off.

After the victory of Dark Side, Pink Floyd invested money in films to accompany their live performances. That didn’t stop their music being used in a variety of other people’s movies – most notably in David Elfick’s Australian surf documentary Crystal Voyager, written and narrated by surfer George Greenhough. Echoes plays out its full length under rolling waves, and the group were sufficiently impressed to use the footage to accompany the track onstage. Even controversial Polish director Walerian Borowczyk utilised a section of Shine On You Crazy Diamond in 1976 in the Sylvia Krystal/Joe Dallesandro vehicle La Marge (The Margin) to accompany a sequence in the film of oral sex.

There is, of course, a fifth major work later on: Pink Floyd – The Wall, which is a very different beast. Alan Parker’s imagining of the album’s concept has proved an enduring success since its release in 1982, mired in controversy, mainly because of the fiery relationship between Waters and the director, who’d risen through TV adverts and had enjoyed significant success with his films Bugsy Malone, Fame and Midnight Express. Both wanted to control the project; eventually, Parker forbade Waters to join him on set on a daily basis. The film is just like the album: not for everyone; but if it is for you, the sensory overload, the bludgeoning by Gerald Scarfe’s animations, and the relentless attack of Waters’ lyrics make it an unparalleled tour de force. The Wall starred Bob Geldof as Pink, and charts with little subtlety his descent into mania. As difficult and as challenging as its parent album, the movie is about as far away as possible from the mellowness the group had become associated with.

Parker would subsequently work with Peter Gabriel on the soundtrack of his film Birdy – although the director was initially reluctant because of Waters. “Peter’s not of that world,” Parker told Spencer Bright in 1988. “He’s a very different person. He doesn’t have any of the hang-ups or the unpleasantness of that particular business. We got on so well; he’s such a sweet man. It was a refreshing change.”

Aside from later concert films and the instrumental soundtrack to Mason’s racing car showcase La Carrera Panamericana, there’s one last Floyd visual curio: The Final Cut, made to accompany the much-misunderstood album of the same name from 1983. Directed by Willie Christie, it’s fundamentally a longform video – over the course of 19 minutes, we follow the teacher from The Wall (Alex McAvoy) as he mourns the loss of his son in the Falklands conflict. We see a skewed attack on bingo-driven Britain in Not Now John and the teacher fantasises about assassinating the world’s dictators in The Fletcher Memorial Home.

Waters himself, freed of any artistic constraints, makes a series of cameo appearances. As Floyd commentator Toby Manning has written: “There’s a ghost of something interesting here, though it’d require a séance to discover it.”

Although seen often as stopgaps, Floyd’s film recordings of their first seven years act as a vital piece of the jigsaw – a prompt to what happened next. The palate-cleansing of More took them away from attempting to ape Barrett on an ever-diminishing parade of 45s. Obscured By Clouds was an opportunity to let their hair down in a short burst and deliver to order – something as a band they were never able to do again.

This writer interviewed David Gilmour in 2002 and asked him for his recollections of Obscured By Clouds. He said: “Good fun. Château d’Hérouville. We never categorised film soundtracks in the same way – that’s why they never make it on to collections.” The Early Years 1965-1972 offers the chance to realise how vital a part they play in the legacy of the group.

It’s something we’ve seen time and time again over the last few years: a massively successful band venturing into cinemas with a movie that’s part concert film, part documentary. Everyone from Ghost to Pulp has given it a go, and while it’s often gratifying seeing such stars unload their hits on the big screen, the behind-the-scenes looks sometimes lack. Like autobiographies with glaring omissions, these self-produced reflections give subjects the chance to downplay difficult truths.

This is why it was so interesting when Linkin Park announced their intention to wade into the genre. Arguably the biggest nu metal act of all time, their 2000 debut Hybrid Theory having defined a generation, their story has become one of resilience following frontman Chester Bennington’s suicide in 2017. They reformed in 2024, with new vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer/producer Colin Brittain, then endured the scrutiny of Armstrong’s past ties to Scientology to (quite quickly) reach the mountaintop for the second time in their careers. In the last two years, they’ve topped charts with the From Zero album, put on their biggest-ever gig at Wembley Stadium and become the first band with a female singer to headline Download.

Directed by turntablist/co-founder Joe Hahn, it would have been easy for Unshatter to focus solely on the positives: the fact that the six-piece are back on top of the musical world, and how big and passionate the crowd was when they played São Paulo’s Allianz Parque stadium on their reunion tour. But Hahn, a proven director with 2014 feature-length thriller Mall under his belt, tells a gripping, heart-rending story.

Within 10 minutes, the members open up about the impact of Bennington’s death, how it sent them hurtling in disparate directions. They later admit their heartache after longtime drummer Rob Bourdon refused to return, and singer/guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda reveals his complex feelings over guitarist Brad Delson’s initial reluctance to get involved.

Hahn also shares studio footage that captures difficult talks about the band’s future (should it be called Linkin Park anymore?) and offers intriguing easter eggs, such as Shinoda’s early demo for comeback single The Emptiness Machine. The sole elephant in the room is the backlash towards Armstrong’s history with Scientology: a knotted, possibly dangerous topic, given the church’s power and reach.

The São Paulo live footage is less prevalent here than in other recent rock-docs, but it’s integrated brilliantly. The highlight is watching Armstrong record Heavy Is The Crown in the studio, then the jumpcut to her screaming it before 55,000 people. Discussions of how she’ll handle Bennington’s parts are followed by the rap metal barbs of Bleed It Out, which evidences what the other members say about her filling the old singer’s shoes without being a carbon copy.

Ending with archival video of Shinoda and Bennington together onstage, Unshatter is reverent without falling into hagiography. The anguish of losing a friend and bandmate, and the emotional minefield of continuing afterwards, is never shied away from. Even the most obsessive fan will see new things – and probably gain extra respect for how Linkin Park have scaled nu metal’s peak all over again.

Unshatter hits cinemas on Tuesday, September 30, via Trafalgar. The soundtrack is out now via Warner.

The trailer for the concert film Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning has been released.

The feature-length flick – which will recap Black Sabbath’s blockbuster reunion show at Villa Park in Birmingham on July 5, 2025, shortly before frontman Ozzy Osbourne’s death – is set to hit cinemas on October 28. Tickets are now available. Watch the trailer below.

The list of songs performed during the all-day event has also been released, and it can be seen in its entirety below.

As well as a headlining Black Sabbath set – which marked the heavy metal pioneers’ first time onstage since 2017, and their first performance to feature all four founding members since 2005 – and a set by Ozzy’s solo band, Back To The Beginning featured short slots from Metallica, Tool, Guns N’ Roses, Gojira and many others, who performed both original material and Sabbath and Ozzy covers.

There were also supergroups featuring Tom Morello, Billy Corgan, Tobias Forge, Yungblud, Sleep Token’s II and many others, who performed renditions of Sabbath and Ozzy hits. The cover of Changes by Yungblud, II, Frank Bello, Adam Wakeman and Nuno Bettencourt, which won the Best Rock Performance trophy at the 68th Grammy Award in February, will be among the songs making the cut.

Announced in early 2025, Back To The Beginning was put together as Ozzy’s final bow, following his retirement from touring in 2023 due to Parkinson’s disease and other health issues. The show was held a short distance from where the singer grew up in Aston, with proceeds going to local charities Cure Parkinson’s, the Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity and Acorns Children’s Hospice.

The show was Sabbath’s first since the end of their farewell tour, The End, in 2017. Although Ozzy, guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler took part in that tour, founding drummer Bill Ward didn’t, due to a contractual dispute ahead of the band’s 2012 reunion and the recording of the band’s final album, 2013’s 13.

The 44,000 tickets to Back To The Beginning quickly sold out upon release, and a livestream of the event was watched by more than five million people. An estimated $11 million US (£8,323,425) was raised for charity.

Ozzy died on July 22, 2025, just over two weeks after Back To The Beginning, following a heart attack at his Buckinghamshire home aged 76. Geezer Butler wrote in trouble after the news broke: “Four kids from Aston – who’d have thought, eh? So glad we got to do it one last time, back in Aston. Love you.”

Villa Park will be the site of the first edition of Ozzfest, the festival co-founded by Ozzy and his wife/manager Sharon in 1996, since 2018 next year. A US edition of the festival is also in the works.

Songs appearing in Ozzy & Black Sabbath: Back To The Beginning

• Ozzy Osbourne – I Don’t Know
• Mastodon – Supernaut
• Rival Sons – Electric Funeral
• Anthrax – Into The Void
• Halestorm – Perry Mason
• Tool – Hand Of Doom
• Ozzy Osbourne – Mr Crowley
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. David Draiman, Jake E. Lee, David Ellefson, Mike Bordin, Adam Wakeman – Shot In The Dark
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. Whitfield Crane, Scott Ian, Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, II (Sleep Token), Adam Wakeman – Believer
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. Yungblud, Nuno Bettencourt, Frank Bello, II (Sleep Token), Adam Wakeman – Changes
• Lamb Of God – Children Of The Grave
• Alice In Chains – Fairies Wear Boots
• Gojira – Under The Sun
• Pantera – Electric Funeral
• Slayer – Wicked World
• Ozzy Osbourne – Suicide Solution
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. Travis Barker, Danny Carey, Chad Smith, Tom Morello, Nuno Bettencourt, Rudy Sarzo – Symptom Of The Universe
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. Billy Corgan, Tom Morello, K.K. Downing, Adam Jones, Rudy Sarzo, Danny Carey – Snowblind
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. Sammy Hagar, Nuno Bettencourt, Adam Wakeman, Rudy Sarzo, Chad Smith, Vernon Reid – Flying High Again
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. Papa V Perpetua, Vernon Reid, Nuno Bettencourt, Adam Wakeman, Rudy Sarzo, Travis Barker – Bark At The Moon
• Tom Morello’s All Stars Ft Steven Tyler, Ronnie Wood, Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello, Andrew Watt, Rudy Sarzo, Travis Barker – The Train Kept A-Rollin’
• Tom Morello’s All Stars feat. Steven Tyler, Nuno Bettencourt, Tom Morello, Andrew Watt, Rudy Sarzo, Chad Smith – Walk This Way
• Guns ’N’ Roses – Never Say Die
• Metallica – Hole In The Sky
• Ozzy Osbourne – Crazy Train
• Black Sabbath – War Pigs
• Black Sabbath – N.I.B.
• Black Sabbath – Iron Man
• Black Sabbath – Paranoid
• Ozzy Osbourne – Mama I’m Coming Home

Famously described as "The Citizen Kane of British pop movies” by BBC film critic Mark Kermode, 1975's Slade In Flame movie was expected to be another rung on the ladder to international stardom for Slade, but it didn't quite work out like that. In 2003, Classic Rock spoke with frontman Noddy Holder about one of the greatest, most enduring dramatic rock films of all time.

It's all too easy to forget just how enormous Slade actually were. Perhaps it's because it would be inconceivable today for four homely rapscallions from Wolverhampton to gain even the most tentative foothold in a contemporary pop scene almost entirely based on airbrushed skin and washboard six-packs. But in the spring of 1974 Slade – undeniably the least glamorous glam band of them all – appeared utterly invincible.

Despite being fronted by a mutton-chop-whiskered, tartan-suited foghorn in a mirrored top hat who had a voice so caustic it could very probably peel paint, Slade were relaxing in the afterglow of Merry Christmas Everybody, their sixth number one hit single to date, which had sold half a million copies on its first day of release, debuted at the top spot and set up camp there for five weeks. Their third consecutive chart-topping album Old, New, Borrowed And Blue had just hit the racks, and Slade were, officially, the biggest band to hit the UK since The Beatles.

Consequently, band manager Chas Chandler (ex-Animals bass player and formerly manager and producer to Jimi Hendrix) was looking to consolidate Slade's position with an entirely new challenge and, following Brian Epstein's exemplary Beatles template, decided that the time was right for Slade to make a film.

"We just saw it as the next step in our career," remembers Noddy Holder, Slade's effusive former vocalist today, "We always took our career in stages: when we had our first hit we wanted a Number One; then we wanted another; then we wanted to go in at Number One on the day of release. We always had a goal to aim for, but had never really considered making a film. Chas Chandler saw it as the next inevitable step on our career path. I don't think he looked on it to widen our market; he just thought it was another step up the career ladder and something we should try."

Noddy's protestations notwithstanding, Slade were intent on broadening their market as they set to work on what would become Slade In Flame. Ubiquitous at home and all points east Slade might well have been, yet in spite of dogged touring, the all-important, enormously lucrative American market remained relatively oblivious to the band's parochial charms. Slade's all-stomping, boots-and-braces lads' rock may have entirely entranced Britain's teens, but the peculiar, quintessentially English spectacle of the band's perpetually prancing guitarist Dave 'Superyob' Hill simply didn't translate into significant sales across the Atlantic.

The natural progression and maturation of Holder and bassist Jim Lea's songwriting prowess also saw Slade courting a more adult market at home; the deliberately misspelt rowdiness of Mama Weer All Crazee Now and Skweeze Me Pleeze Me had given way to the reflective balladry of My Friend Stan and Everyday, a pair of singles that, significantly, failed to reach the Number One spot.

"We knew that we couldn't carry on churning out things like Cum On Feel The Noize over and over again," Noddy remembers, "We didn't want to be stuck in a rut doing one type of thing. We knew we were a far broader band musically than that."

It was at this pivotal juncture that Slade decided to launch themselves onto the big screen. At a time when it was crucial not to further alienate their wavering core audience (already dumbfounded by Everyday for its reinvention of Noddy as a love-sick crooner, and also slightly resentful of the amount of attention that the band were paying to America), the hitherto happy-go-lucky Slade spent an entire year working on an uncharacteristically dark film that absolutely nobody expected.

Most ironically of all, the very qualities that so completely perplexed mid-70s youth on Slade In Flame's initial theatrical release ultimately assured the film's enduring longevity.

"The reason that Flame has stood the test of time so well," Noddy reckons, "is because it wasn't what people expected. They expected a slapstick, speeded-up comedy with car chases and not much plot, but we went totally the other way. We made a film that would show the other side of the rock business, not the side that the public generally see, and I think the public, certainly in '75, were very shocked by it. It wasn't what they expected from Slade at all, but I think it's helped it stand the test of time as a good rock film."

Directed by Richard Loncraine (who later worked with Sting on Brimstone And Treacle), Slade In Flame follows the swift rise and spectacular fall of Flame, a late-60s rock band who sound uncannily like Slade. Stoker (Noddy Holder) fronts a tragic theatrical horror rock band, based loosely on Screamin' Lord Sutch And The Savages.

He then teams up with Barry (Dave Hill), Paul (Jim Lea) and Charlie (played with brave aplomb by Slade drummer Don Powell, still suffering the short-term memory loss symptomatic of the head injuries he'd received in a July '73 car crash), who have been enjoying the collective ignominy of backing PJ Proby-style club crooner Jack Daniels (a magnificently convincing performance from Alan Lake).

The four-piece become Flame, and are quickly discovered by high-class wheeler-dealer Robert Seymour (Tom Conti, in his first film role), who casually grooms them for stardom. All is going swimmingly until the band's former agent, violent underworld shark Ron Harding (menacingly realised by bespectacled Johnny Shannon), turns up with a long-forgotten, watertight contract and comprehensively pisses on the party.

Rather than simply offering a tarted-up time capsule of the brickies-in-blouses glam rock epoch, the gritty, unflinching realism of Slade In Flame harked back to the kitchen-sink dramas of the early 60s, and as a consequence joins A Hard Day's Night and The Girl Can't Help It as one of the greatest, most enduring dramatic rock films of all time.

Although it's a cautionary tale of credibility-stretching exploitation that's laced with moments of eye-watering violence and highly improbable road-life preposterousness, apparently it's all based on cold, hard fact, as Noddy recalls: "While working on the soundtrack we went out to America to do some dates, and took the writer (Andrew Birkin, brother of 'Je T'aime' Jane) and director out to America with us to tell them stories of what life was like in a rock'n'roll band-not only from our point of view, but from other bands that we knew. They then came back and finished off the storyline and script while we finished the tour.

"So every scene in the film is actually true, even though some of them do seem far-fetched. Even the story of the gunfire on the pirate radio station [Flame have shots fired at them as they endeavour to conduct an interview with a staggeringly youthful Tommy Vance on an offshore pirate station], that's a true story that happened at Radio London in the Thames Estuary back in the 60s. And yes, Screamin' Lord Sutch did get trapped in his stage-prop coffin when someone leaned the lid against a wall - he was rather accident-prone."

If it was the anecdotal script that provided the realism, it was the supporting cast that provided the grit. Johnny Shannon, fresh from intimidating Mick Jagger in Nicholas Roeg's Performance, was a genuinely scary individual, a textbook East End wide-boy pitched somewhere between Mike Reid and Ronnie Kray. "When he pulled your hair," Noddy confides with a wince, "he really pulled your hair".

Alan Lake had just come out of prison. While enjoying a few libations in a nightclub, renowned hell-raiser Lake had assaulted a fellow boozer who'd had the effrontery to insult his wife, Diana Dors, and was subsequently detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. Slade In Flame marked Lake's return to the screen, and he was expected to be on his best behaviour.

However, on the very first day of filming, he headed for the nearest available hostelry, enjoyed a hearty liquid lunch, returned to the location and took a full-blooded swing at the manager of the club in which they were filming. Lake was clearly a loose cannon, and simply had to go.

Despite Slade's forthright assertions that Alan Lake was Jack Daniels, the producers gave him his marching orders. The following day, Diana Dors – in all her pneumatic glory - arrived on the set and literally begged for Lake to be reinstated. She gave her personal assurance that he would stay off the sauce and from that day forth be as good as gold. He was given one more chance.

And true to Diana's word, his subsequent behaviour was exemplary. In the thumb-twiddling downtime between takes, Lake, a seasoned raconteur, would unravel colourful, hair-curling tales of inebriation, fisticuffs and porridge that most certainly kept the band entertained, but by electing to use unpredictable wild cards of Lake and Shannon's calibre, Slade were hardly making life easy for themselves.

"That's why we chose them," Noddy says. "They were menacing characters in their own right, and that's why we picked them to be in the movie. We wanted to give the movie a menacing look and to have the realism that those old black-and-white movies from the 60s used to have, the gangster-type movies that used to be around. We wanted to give Flame that sort of atmosphere.

"But, on the other hand, we got in Tom Conti, who was a real bona fide trained actor. So Flame had a bit of everything; it had a bit of the dark side of the rock business, it had a bit of comedy in it had all different sorts of acting abilities in there, but it all seemed to mesh together and click."

Far Far Away, the first single to emerge from the Slade In Flame soundtrack - released an almost unprecedented five months after its predecessor, there, Bangin' Man (at their most prolific, the gap between Slade's singles was a truly head-spinning nine weeks) - stalled at No.2. The next one, How Does It Feel? never rose higher than No.15, bringing to an end Slade's impressive run of 12 straight top five singles.

Still one of Noddy's favourites, How Does It Feel? certainly wasn't lacking in quality. And while its relative commercial failure was partially symptomatic of the listening public's growing disillusionment with the glam rock scene as a whole, it was proof positive that by taking a year out to make a movie, and concentrating all their remaining efforts on breaking America, Slade had ultimately bitten off more than they could chew.

"I'm sure that it did cause us to lose momentum," Noddy concurs. "I mean, when you're as hot as we were at the time, you have to be there all the time, plugging away on Top Of The Pops every week. That was the only way of promotion in those days. There wasn't no MTV or videos to promote you; you had to go out and actually do the legwork and go all around the world promoting yourselves, doing TV, radio and live gigs all the time. You couldn't just send the video out to the territory and expect it to give you a hit record. That wasn't the way it worked in those days.

"But I think with the type of movie that Slade In Flame was and by going to America we did lose impetus. We'd been to America in short bursts before, but then we decided to make a concerted effort, and of course when you do that your other territories suffer."

Of course, since disbanding Slade, Noddy has cultivated quite a reputation as a singularly naturalistic thespian, so how goes his post-Grimleys acting career?

"I don't really want to go down the path of playing ageing rockers that top themselves," he says. "But I do get sent quite a few of them."

This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 53, published in May 2003. Slade In Flame can be streamed via the BFI Player or Amazon. A remastered 50th Anniversary Blu-ray/DVD was released in 2025.

On July 29, 2026, Universal Studios announced a new haunted house inspired by Ozzy Osbourne for Halloween Horror Nights in both Orlando and Hollywood. The announcement was met with excitement from many Ozzy fans - for them, an opportunity to step inside the mythology of one of metal's most beloved figures, with an actor-led experience recreating highlights from his musical career, seemed like a dream combo.

There was, however, also a little cynicism. For some, the timing felt uncomfortably transactional. Is turning a recently deceased musician into a theme-park attraction simply another way of cashing in on their legacy while the grief is still fresh?

Going off the rails on the gravy train?

That sentiment was particularly pronounced on social media, where some fans accused Osbourne's family of turning his name into a commercial asset:

“He died and his family IMMEDIATELY turned him into a theme park attraction!"

“His family is just using his name on everything they can to get paid!"

You get the gist. There’s a major problem with this argument, though: Universal Studios had been doing Ozzy Osbourne-themed attractions long before his death.

The theme park titans had already incorporated Ozzy and Black Sabbath into a haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights more than a decade ago. In 2013, Universal Studios Hollywood featured Black Sabbath: 13, an attraction inspired by the band's then-new album and its occult imagery. Ozzy himself even visited the attraction at the time, giving it his own seal of approval by saying it’s “great, scared me a couple of times.”

Ultimately, there’s only one way to find out if the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house is a loving tribute or a cynical cash grab, and that’s to head over to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Orlando and experience it for myself. So I did.

No more fears!

Imagine being able to step inside your favourite piece of album artwork. The thrill of being surrounded by its dark beauty, taking actual footsteps within its brooding world. That’s exactly what the Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness haunted house is. It’s the gothic fantasy visuals of heavy metal realised in tangible, 3D form.

The indoor walkthrough experience begins with a beautiful facade of gothic church ruins. Look down and there’s Ozzy’s face projecting through the water while Straight to Hell from 2020’s Ordinary Man plays in the background.

Then we jump back to 1988’s No Rest for the Wicked in the first scene, with Bloodbath in Paradise blaring as we walk beneath a temple of cloaked cultists wearing masks bearing Ozzy'S symbol.

Next, we tiptoe nervously through claustrophobic dungeons, strobe lights flash red and the soundtrack fittingly switches to Patient Number 9. Actors leap out to jump-scare from behind bars, disappearing back into the shadows too quickly to for us to fully appreciate their artfully crafted makeup and prosthetics.

From this point onwards, things descend into full-scale glorious madness in the most Ozzy ways imaginable. An enormous bat descends from the ceiling and bites the head off of the Prince Of Darkness (no, this isn’t a fever dream). Werewolves dressed as Ozzy leap out from behind giant tombstones as Bark At The Moon plays at full volume (no, this still isn’t a fever dream)

Then, lights on a full-sized train carriage flash brightly, illuminating a wide-mouthed Ozzy actor towering over us on stilts. He is dressed as a train conductor, and ushers us aboard. We are actually stepping on to the Crazy Train (at this point, is there anything I can possibly do to convince you this wasn’t a fever dream?).

Sure, stepping onto an actual crazy train is ridiculously literal. But it’s also ridiculously fun. And that’s, ultimately, is the tone that sums up the Ozzy Osbourne haunted house experience. It salutes his musical legacy in a theatrical, playfully dark way.

Despite the final scene featuring the throne from his very last concert, the attraction never feels like a sombre tribute that says “we miss you.” Instead, it’s a loud celebration that says “we loved you” with a wild grin on its face.

There’s also a variety of Ozzy-themed snacks for fans to enjoy at the event, including a milk chocolate bat with a raspberry-filled head, a mini black carrot cake (Ozzy’s favourite) and a Black Rain tequila-based drink, amongst others.

While the keyboard warriors will inevitably bemoan the Ozzy haunted house from a viewpoint that is, frankly, misinformed, the attraction itself champions his musical career in unique and special ways. It’s a legacy handled with love and respect. You suspect the man himself would have approved.

The Ozzy Osbourne: Prince Of Darkness haunted house will be at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood until November 1, 2026

John Carpenter, the auteur filmmaker behind horror classics Halloween and The Thing, is open to making a Metallica music video.

Talking to Metal Hammer, the 78-year-old reveals that he’s a fan of the California heavy metal giants, after his kids introduced him to their music via 1991 hit single Enter Sandman.

“We all loved it when it came out,” he says. “That album [1991’s self-titled album, AKA The Black Album] is just fantastic. And they are, right?”

He continues, “They were just this huge band, but I loved that album for introducing me to them. I’ve never actually seen them live,” then confirms, “I’d totally direct a music video for Metallica if they asked, though.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Carpenter celebrates rock music for being “still alive and still here” after many decades, “like me!” Although it “may be a bit less transcendent and popular than it was … it still speaks to people like it spoke to me all those years ago”.

He adds: “Music as an art form is probably the greatest thing that humanity ever created. It transcends language, going from country to country, across the world. Someone in Bangladesh can hear an American song and still love it.”

Carpenter is best known for manning the director’s chair on Halloween, The Thing, The Fog, Christine, Big Trouble In Little China, Escape From New York and other cult pictures, but he’s also a prolific musician in his own right. He composed the scores for 15 of his 18 feature films, and has been releasing standalone studio albums with his son Cody Carpenter and his godson, composer Daniel Davies, since 2015.

Carpenter put out his latest album, Cathedral, in August via Sacred Bones. The metal-inspired project came with a tie-in graphic novel but was intended to stand as its own musical statement. “That’s first and foremost,” the director said in promotional materials.

He added: “It’s all about making the music work. This is somewhat different sounding stuff that we've done, but it's done with the same desire in mind. In other words, put this thing on and imagine you're watching a movie. That’s what we want you to do.”

Carpenter released his last feature-length directorial effort, The Ward, in 2010. He then served as executive producer on David Gordon Green’s 2018 Halloween legacy sequel and its two follow-ups. He continues to compose for films, including the opening credits score of Studio 666, the 2022 horror-comedy starring Foo Fighters.

Meanwhile, Metallica recently completed their three-year-long M72 world tour and are gearing up for a residency at Las Vegas multimedia venue The Sphere. Performances will begin on October 1 and end on March 13.

Brütal Legend developers Double Fine Productions say they’ll make a sequel to the 2009 heavy metal videogame starring Jack Black and Ozzy Osbourne – on one condition.

Two months after cutting ties with Xbox, the independent US studio pledge to make the game if their current Kickstarter campaign receives $100 million US (£74,068,500) in donations.

Double Fine describe the campaign, Amnesia Fortnight, as “a two-week period in which we forget about all the things we should be working on to pitch one another our wildest game ideas, choose our favourites, and make prototypes of them”.

Backers who donate more than $15 (£11.11) will be able to vote between the ideas developers present and decide which four get made. $30 backers get double voting power, and those who donate $60 and above get four-times the vote. At time of writing, the campaign has raised $385,867 (£285,856), just shy of its $400,000 goal with 28 days left.

Double Fine confirmed they were serious about Brütal Legend 2 and its proposed $100 million budget in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“We aren’t joking,” they wrote. “If someone wants to give us $100M (or some miracle happens and the Kickstarter makes more than double the current record holder, which is $44M raised), we’ll make Brütal Legend 2. We’d love to do it, but a game like that requires significant funding.”

They added in a reply: “It would require the entire studio to solely focus on a single game for a long time, and funding would have to cover many elements of development. But if enough people want it that we raise $100M, who are we to refuse?”

The pledge comes two years after Double Fine head Tim Schafer admitted he was “torn” about making a follow-up to the action-adventure title, which was considered a commercial disappointment but went on to find a cult following.

“People ask about Brütal Legend 2 all the time, and I’m torn about that,” he wrote in a blog post marking the original’s 15th anniversary. “I know some of them want it with an evolution of the RTS [real-time strategy] stuff and some of them just want God Of War with [main character] Eddie Riggs. I understand the logic of making the second option, but I’m much more excited about the first.”

Programmer Chad Dawson added, “There’s so much of a world to explore that could be done in many ways. It could be an RPG [role-playing game], it could be an RTS. Or even an auto battler!”

As well as Black, who voiced protagonist Riggs, and Osbourne, who lent his voice and likeness to the Guardian Of Metal, Brütal Legend’s cast included rock musicians Lita Ford, Rob Halford and Lemmy Kilmister. Decorated actor Tim Curry, who died last month at the age of 80, voiced antagonist Emperor Doviculus. To honour Curry after news of his death broke, Double Fine made Brütal Legend free to download for 666 minutes.

2026 will go down as the year Mastodon were reborn, rebounding from tragedy with new members and a triumphant new album, Marrow Deep. Metal Hammer has honoured the occasion by teaming up with the Atlanta metal masters for a bundle unavailable in the shops!

Only through the Louder webstore, you can get your hands on the new issue of Hammer with a cover featuring The ’Don’s revamped lineup, as well as a stylish t-shirt dedicated to the band. Pre-order yours while stocks last!

Inside the new Hammer, we talk to founding members Brann Dailor, Troy Sanders about Bill Kelliher about the journey leading up to Marrow Deep, including the death of their long-time bandmates Brent Hinds last August, five months after he parted ways with the band, and their reinvigorations.

“I was immediately shocked and saddened,” Troy says of Brent’s death in a motorcycle accident, aged 51. “But unfortunately, I wasn’t surprised. I don’t mean that in any distasteful manner, whatsoever. I’ve done everything I could as a friend and as a bandmate over the years. I don’t know what else I could’ve done, so I’m kind of forced to just let go.”

“I wasn’t surprised that it happened, but I was shocked,” adds Bill. “I just didn’t think it was going to happen like that.”

They also cast a hopeful eye towards the future.

“I feel like the next record, in another year or two, will showcase even more of Nick [Johnston, new guitarist] and me playing off each other,” Bill says. “Toward the end of Brent’s time in the band, I was writing most of the rhythms and song structures anyway, and he would come in like a finishing carpenter to add the crazy solos. It’s a similar set-up with Nick, but Nick is much more receptive and absolutely full of fresh ideas.”

Elsewhere, we talk to metalcore heroes Motionless In White as they celebrate 20 years on the scene and release their best album yet, the aptly titled Decades.

“I ground myself to the bone for this record,” frontman and sole constant member Chris Motionless says. “I was going into these toxic cycles of workaholism and just burnt myself out. It took a little bit of my passion away, because it felt like a job for the first time, so I definitely wanted to walk away and come back to it. That’s part of why it took so long.”

We also go inside Ghost’s massive new concert movie, 2 Big To Rig. Tobias Forge tells us about how they captured the epic Skeletour stage show, the unfortunate incident that nearly derailed it, and his “extracurricular” future plans.

Meanwhile, seven years on from his throat cancer diagnosis, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine revisits his journey in an exclusive interview and an extract from his new book, In My Darkest Hour.

Green Lung take us on a tour of London’s graveyards and occult hotspots, Halestorm power couple Lzzy Hale and Joe Hottinger tackle your questions about love, keytars and… killer farts?! And Snot explain why they’re back in the studio, almost 30 years after the tragic death of frontman Lynn Strait.

Sleep Theory’s Cullen Moore shares his soulful playlist, Mudvayne/Hellyeah veteran Chad Gray delivers the lessons he learned from hanging out with a young Slipknot and meeting James Hetfield, and Godsmack give us the inside story of their blockbuster anthem, I Stand Alone. Plus, we meet Decessus, the Chilean death metal band led by a beauty queen.

All this, along with Eddfest, Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, Sigh, Rory, System Of A Down, Acid Bath, Duff McKagan and much, much more.

Only in the new issue of Metal Hammer, available to pre-order now with that Mastodon cover and shirt!

The talent contest at this year's Miss World pageant, held at Khanh Hoa Children's Cultural Palace in Nha Trang, Vietnam, has been enlivened by a crushing performance from Ignacia Fernández, the Chilean contestant who went viral late last year after sharing her death metal vocal skills during the Miss World Chile pageant in Santiago.

Fernández, who has fronted the Chilean progressive melodic death metal band Decessus since 2020, sang the band's The Hollow Descent – released as a single last year – during the contest.

Unfortunately, the judges failed to reward Fernández for her efforts, and England's Grace Richardson, Guadeloupe's Annaëlle Ibo and the Philippines' Asia Rose Simpson filled the medal positions.

"Getting to bring metal to the Miss World stage and share a part of who I am through music was an incredible experience," says Fernández. "Every contestant who took part in the talent competition was extraordinary and unique. The level of talent was truly incredible, and I want to congratulate England on winning first place!

"Thank you to everyone, the organisation, and my fellow sisters here at MW who cheered me on and made this moment so special."

Decessus have released five singles – Deliverance, Dying Hope Blossoms, My War Of Pain, The Hollow Descent and Dark Flames – and made their UK debut at this year's Download Festival.

" Ignacia exudes a quiet confidence that screams star quality," wrote Metal Hammer's man on the spot. "Holding herself with precise, careful movements that bring to mind the likes of Gaahl or Maynard James Keenan, where rabid energy isn't what makes them so captivating.

"She might have been crowned Miss World Chile, but we could be seeing a future death metal queen. Closing out on the apocalyptic Deliverance, we'd like to think this won't be the last time we see Decessus on these shores."

The Miss World 2026 pageant will come to a climax on September 5, with the current title holder, Thailand's Suchata Chuangsri, crowning the victor.

Ghost are playing Rats. ‘They’re still coming at you / And there is nothing you can do’, goes the song. “But there is something I can do!” Tobias Forge/Papa V Perpetua shouts to a crowd of 20,000 devotees at Mexico’s Palacio de los Deportes. “Tear you a new asshole – each!”

It’s very generous of him. Filmed across two nights of the Skeletour in September 2025 and directed by the tour’s creative director Amir Chamdin (who’s overseen seven of the band’s music videos), this is Ghost’s second concert movie, 2 Big To Rig. While 2024’s Rite Here Rite Now was shot on the Impera cycle and spliced live footage from a pair of gigs at the Los Angeles Kia Forum with skits furthering the Ghost lore, this document of the Skeletá era is more about romanticising their show. It features segments with crew members talking about how logistically complex the production is. “It’s too big to rig!” laughs one – adding that, still, they manage it every night.

2 Big… opens with Peacefield, the first track on Skeletá, and is startling from the off. Shot on 16mm film, it looks like an 80s VHS tape, grainy and high contrast. The effect is jarring, but 100 percent Ghost, indirectly nodding to their mythology and evoking nostalgia for a past that never existed, as if they’re a historic band playing a seminal concert like Live Aid. Where Rite Here Rite Now crisply revealed every thread of embroidery on the band’s costumes, 2 Big… is a blur of Rhinestones sparkling in the spotlights.

Watching it on an IMAX screen, you’re simultaneously immersed in a thrilling analogue world where Ghost are all that exist for the next 90 minutes, yet confused about why you can’t pick out the visual details at such scale. At one point, there’s a clip of a woman behind the scenes, touching up the silver bones painted on someone’s shoe. It’s exactly the kind of detail that Rite Here Rite Now revelled in showing during the live parts, but this film deliberately obscures. The format does allow for a brilliant moment, though, where the kaleidoscopic prism lens effect used on Papa’s face during Majesty – usually shown on the stage’s screens – is blown up to the size of three London buses, a montage of ghostly visages filling your field of vision.

Of course, there are the songs. And what songs! It’s hard not to dance in your seat as the likes of Cirice, Satanized, Year Zero and the rest keep on coming. It’s louder than a gig – bring earplugs – and the camera work makes you feel like you’re onstage as part of the crew, getting up close with each person, seeing guitar solos from behind, and noticing other crew members crouching in the shadows. The crowd shots are genuinely beautiful, the camera looking out at a sea of ecstatic faces, some crying, some screaming, many painted in Papa makeup. There’s an emotional intimacy to this film that the glossy Rite Here Rite Now didn’t have.

Yet, as the title suggests, 2 Big To Rig also throws a spotlight on the sheer scale of the Skeletour production, via black-and-white segments with the crew. Ghost have a team of at least 120 people, plus a local crew of a similar size on each stop. The enormously heavy Grucifix that hangs over the band while they play is shown on the venue floor during set-up, and a crew member needs a leg-up to get on it. Of another part of the production, a man says, “You might not want to film this – it’s not working,” highlighting how much effort goes into making the whole thing look seamless. This is as much a love letter to the often-overlooked people who bring Ghost to life, as it is to the bandmembers themselves.

It’s also a love letter to the fans, without which there would be no tour. After Papa apologises for cancelling a show the night before because he was struck down by the “curse of Montezuma”, they squeal with joy. Whenever he speaks in Spanish, they squeal with joy. When he promises to tear them a new asshole (each!), they… well, you get the idea. It’s a lot of fun. In heartwarming footage from outside the venue, one Ghost fan proposes to another.

Seeing as phones weren’t allowed on the Skeletour, Ghost get to decide how it’s immortalised, and 2 Big To Rig is just that: a rapturous spectacle captured in an undefined time. The graininess is a stylistic risk and can be frustrating at times, but you don’t come to Ghost looking for normal. You come to be welcomed into a world like no other.

2 Big To Rig hits cinemas and IMAX screens worldwide today (Wednesday, August 26). Get your exclusive Ghost x Metal Hammer bundle, featuring a magazine cover and t-shirt unavailable in shops, via the Louder webstore.

Ghost have shared a performance of Umbra from their forthcoming Skeletour concert film 2 Big To Rig.

The song was previously released as the fourth single from 2025's Skeletá, the Swedish band's first Billboard chart-topping album.

Directed by Amir Chamdin, 2 Big To Rig captures the band on 16mm film over the course of their two sold-out shows at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes in September last year. The film is described as "a love letter to all those who have shared the Ghost ritual, in-person or otherwise."

A stunning spectacle blending classic Ghost lore with Gothic symbolism, Brutalist architecture and the light and shade dynamics of a classic 1970s or '80s stadium rock show, the Skeletour launched on April 15, 2025 at the AO Arena in Manchester, England, and concluded on February 23, 2026 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The tour had a strictly-enforced 'no phones' policy.

The film's title is a reference to the band’s intention to bring the Skeletour to the faithful who were not able to witness the spectacle in person, especially in towns and cities where staging the epic show wasn’t an option logistically.

A press release about 2 Big To Rig reads: "From behind-the-scenes interludes showcasing the crew members that make the band's theatrical vision into nightly reality to the only pro-shot footage of mesmerizing frontman Papa V Perpetua and his band of Nameless Ghouls on the entire phone-free tour, 2 Big To Rig is the definitive document of Ghost's unforgettable "Skeletour" world tour."

The film will be shown in cinemas and IMAX theatres worldwide from August 26.

“[It] creates a nostalgic experience and a fitting farewell to an era for fans," says Kymberli Frueh of Trafalgar Releasing, who worked with the band on their previous concert film Rite Here Right Now in 2024. "We’re proud to share it with cinema audiences worldwide before Ghost takes a well-publicised break. It’s the perfect way to close such a significant chapter in the band’s history and give fans a chance to relive this moment together.”

Tickets for the film are available here.

Demon Hunter, the Christian metal band from Seattle, are suing Netflix over their hugely successful film KPop Demon Hunters, claiming that their copyright has been infringed.

The Washington state group, who have been touring for 25 years and released 12 studio albums, argue that Netflix's plan for a global concert tour celebrating their most-watched original title on the streaming platform, along with the movie and merchandise, means there is "almost complete overlap" with what they offer, which has led to trademark infringement, unfair competition, and brand confusion.

KPop Demon Hunters is a 2025 animated film about a KPop trio, Huntrix, who have double lives as demon hunters, as you may have guessed. Netflix won Best Animated Film and Best Original Song for Golden at the 2026 Golden Globes and Oscars. The video for the song has 1.6 billion views on YouTube.

Complex website reports that the band, via their company Hyde Lane, filed a trademark lawsuit in the Central District of California against Netflix, Netflix Studios, and live events promoter AEG Presents yesterday, (August 18).

The lawsuit states, "The brand that Hyde Lane has carefully built over the course of the past quarter century now faces an existential crisis, thereby necessitating the filing of this action and the granting of the requested relief from this Court."

As part of their filing, Hyde Lane included an email from someone who spent $500 on tickets to a Demon Hunter concert in Albany, New York, mistakenly believing that they’d be taking their children to a KPop Demon Hunters show.

The band argue that Netflix and AEG are "massive companies that jealously guard and enforce their own intellectual property rights wilfully disregarding the rights of others in pursuit of profits."

Demon Hunter are asking that the court order Netflix to stop using the KPop Demon Hunters name for recorded music, live shows and merchandise, and to award unspecified damages.

Demon Hunter, whose most recent album, There Was a Light Here, was released last year, have almost 350,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, while the KPop Demon Hunters cast have 27 million monthly listeners on the platform.

Weezer will release their own movie next year, with Keanu Reeves starring alongside the Los Angeles geek rock kings.

The Los Angeles band referenced the film during an appearance at last year's Coachella festival, with frontman Rivers Cuomo telling the audience, "We’ve been busy making the Weezer movie in LA but when Coachella called us up and said, ‘Hey Weezer, could you guys make it out for a surprise appearance?’, we were like, Heck yeah!.”

Now, if guitarist Brian Bell is to be believed, the movie is done and dusted, but won't hit the screens until next year.

Bell was in attendance at the premiere of Green Day's Nimrods movie in Los Angeles on Wednesday (August 12) and when a reporter from Los Angeles. radio station Alt 98.7 asked the guitarist if Weezer were going to make their own movie, he replied, "We already have."

"I’m not supposed to talk about it," Bell added, according to Stereogum. "But yes, it’s in the can. It’s gonna be incredible. You’ll see it in 2027."

Last year it was revealed that that film would be a mockumentary with Keanu Reeves starring as a villain, one theory going that the premise would pitch the Point Break and John Wick star’s band Dogstar against Rivers Cuomo and co. There is some history between the two bands: Weezer played their first gig opening for Dogstar in LA in 1992, a show the two bands re-created at the city’s Lodge Room venue in 2024 to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Weezer’s Blue Album.

At one point, Rivers Cuomo. hinted that Jack Black would also appear, but that notion has since been shut down.

Weezer will release their new album, The Gold Album, next Friday, August 21. A single, C.E.O., was shared last week.

The LA quartet also recently announced further dates for their The Gathering world tour with new dates booked in the UK, Europe, and Japan.

Following on from the quartet's previously announced North American tour which begins on September 8 in Sacramento, California and closes on October 24 in the band's hometown Los Angeles, the group will play five Japanese shows in February, launching in Tokyo on February 12, then head to Europe in May.

Weezer The Gathering tour dates 2027

Feb 12: Tokyo,Garden Theater, JPN
Feb 13: Tokyo Garden Theater, JPN
Feb 15: Kyoto Roam Theater, JPN
Feb 16: Osaka Zepp Bayside, JPN
Feb 18: Nagoya Portbase, JPN

May 12: Dublin 3Arena, IRE
May 14: Newcastle Utilita Arena, UK
May 15: Manchester Co-op Live, UK
May 17: Leeds First Direct Bank Arena, UK
May 19: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
May 21: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK
May 22: London Alexandra Palace, UK
May 23: Cardiff Utilita Arena, UK
May 25: Paris Zenith, FRA
May 26: Amsterdam AFAS Live, HOL
May 29: Oslo Spektrum, NOR
May 30: Stockholm Hovet, SWE

Jun 01: Helsinki Veikkaus, FIN

Nixon watches have a long history of collaborations with music artists, including past partnerships with Metallica, the Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones. Sadly, all those watch designs have long since sold out - but one that’s still going strong is the American brand’s Nirvana watch range.

Launched in 2024, only four designs still remain available - but the good news is that all of them currently have a 25% discount through August 18 and are part of a site-wide sale celebrating the Nixon’s 28th birthday.

The Nirvana Sentry Wobble in either the Yellow Smiley colour scheme or its Matte Super Black/Blue counterpart are both down from $/£375 to $/£281.25. The next Nirvana watch on sale is the Sentry Leather version in its starburst Unplug Fade design is even cheaper - down from $/£225 to $/£168.75.

Finally, and in the US only, the Black and yellow Nirvana Time Teller is down from $175 to just $131.25.

The Nirvana Sentry Wobble is my favourite design, with Kurt Cobain’s famous smiley face design front and centre. But the most eye-catching detail is that the watch face has been contorted and squeezed to give it its “wobble” look. In addition, the watch has a 50m waterproof rating and it’s available in two distinctive colour combinations.

The Nirvana Sentry Leather has a sunburst colour design on the face which Nixon call Unplug Fade. Rather than numbers around the circumference, the watch face has letters spelling the band’s name. The watch strap takes its inspiration from Nirvana’s “sweater selections” with the result a “cushy leather band.”

As for the US-only Nirvana Time Teller, it features the smiley face logo in the centre of the watch in black, with the numbers displayed in vibrant yellow.

The Nixon site-wide sale runs August 14-18, so get in quick before the deal door slams shut.

In 1979, after wrapping the recording of their fourth studio album, Eat To The Beat, Blondie signed a new management deal with Alice Cooper's manager Shep Gordon. A larger-than-life character who also handled the business affairs of comedian/actor Groucho Marx and actress Raquel Welch, Gordon's first proposal to the New York band was that they take a cameo role in a new musical comedy film, Roadie, to which he'd already signed up Alice Cooper.

Roadie was produced by Carolyn Pfeiffer, formerly a PR who worked with The Beatles, Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand among others, and more recently, a partner at Shep Gordon's management company. It was Gordon who suggested Meat Loaf to play the film's central character, Travis W. Redfish, a Texan good ol' boy who happened to possess unparalleled skills for fixing broken equipment, and who gets sucked into the rock 'n' roll world. Meat Loaf at the time was an international star thanks to the phenomenal success of 1977's Bat Out Of Hell album, but he had never taken on such a high profile acting role.

In a refreshingly honest interview conducted with Australian TV host Molly Meldrum at the film's Austin, Texas location in 1980, Meat Loaf admitted that he'd had some "emotional problems" dealing with the success of his debut album - still the biggest selling debut album of all time - admitting that he never wanted to be called a "star", and revealing that the past few years had been "mentally tough" for him. But his enthusiasm for his new project was clear.

"The idea of the movie is to create the new American hero, or the new world hero, meaning me, which is sorta humorous to me," he told Meldrum. "He [Travis W. Redfish] knows nothing about the music business at all, and he doesn't understand why anybody makes records, and why anybody did since Buddy Holly died anyway."

Giving a brief synopsis of the plot, Meatloaf revealed that his character "gets picked up by a girl named Lola Bouilliabase [actress Kaki Hunter] from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who is a groupie and a virgin... so she takes him on this adventure, and he becomes a roadie. He doesn't know what a roadie is when it first starts... They cut the power on a Blondie concert, and he uses hay wagons and horse manure and and all this stuff and puts it all together and creates this entire unit to run an entire concert...

"And I save Alice Cooper's concert," he adds. "Alice has got this brand new world famous sound equipment and nobody can fix it, nobody knows what's wrong with it... but [Redfish] wants to go home because his sister's getting married to his best friend, and Alice says, 'Well if you fix my sound system I'll get you a bus'."

Intrigued yet?

Debbie Harry, meanwhile, had a very specific memory of her band's time on set in Austin, during which the New Yorkers performed a cover of Johnny Cash's Ring Of Fire.

"The film had a number of dwarf actors," she recalled in her excellent 2019 memoir Face It. "There was one scene in a café where a fight broke out with the dwarves and a few of us actually got roughed up, because those little guys were very active and very, very strong. It was chaotic and a lot of fun... Chris [Stein's] hearing was never the same after he got squirted in the ear during the fight scene."

Meat Loaf and Blondie share some on-screen time in the film, including a sequence where the band bundle a confused Redfish into their car after their show, and start spouting random lines such as "I love guns" and "Sometimes I travel 3000 miles just to spit on people!"

No doubt it all made sense at the time.

We'll refrain from any more spoilers. Except to note that Roadie was not a commercial or critical success. It failed to recoup its reputed $5 million budget, and while critics heaped praise on Meat Loaf - "in his first starring role he doesn’t sing a note and still steals the movie" wrote People magazine - most found the film's storyline weak, confusing and un-engaging.

Awarding the film one and a half stars out of a possible five, legendary US film critic Roger Ebert wrote: "If the movie had given us more of their songs, this could have qualified as a concert movie. If it had given us more of Meatloaf it might have developed into a character study. But Roadie never makes up its mind. The movie's so genial, disorganized and episodic that we never really care about the characters, and yet whenever someone starts to sing the performance is interrupted for more meaningless plot development."

But critics be damned, why not watch the film below and decide for yourself?

A new documentary about late, legendary Rush drummer Neil Peart is to receive its world premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, the team behind 2010's acclaimed Rush documentary Beyond The Lighted Stage, as well as Iron Maiden: Flight 666 and the Metal Evolution documentary series, Neil Peart: No One's Disciple, will premiere on September 16, with a subsequent public screening on September 19.

The 96-minute film will also air on Canada's CBC network on September 23 as part of the series The Passionate Eye.

According to a press release, Neil Peart: No One's Disciple "documents the late Canadian musician's tough start as a young artist, followed by his meteoric rise", with the film-makers promising "an exhilarating and poignant tribute" to the late drummer.

The film includes interviews with Rush vocalist/bassist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, alongside reflections from other acclaimed drummers. It also features Lee and Lifeson performing Rush classics with the likes of Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Stewart Copeland (The Police), Danny Carey (Tool) and Gavin Harrison (King Crimson, Porcupine Tree) filling Peart's seat at the drum kit.

In an archival interview used in the documentary, Peart states, "I think it matters for me to play better all the time, and to play my best all the time, to keep it fresh and changing. It’s kind of my responsibility, I see it, as a drummer."

Peart, 67, passed away on January 7, 2020, in Santa Monica, California after a three-year battle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Announcing his death, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson called the drummer "our friend, soul brother and band mate".

Stevie Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen's faithful brother-in-arms in The E Street Band, says that he has written scripts for no fewer than six TV series, and that his number one ambition right now is to have a TV network or major streaming platform commission at least one of the six.

In 1999, having had no previous acting experience, Van Zandt was cast in New Jersey Mafia drama The Sopranos, and proved a revelation in his role as mobster and strip club owner Silvio Dante. Twenty years on he was cast as a singer in Martin Scorsese's gangster movie The Irishman.

In 2011, the guitarist co-wrote, starred in, and was an executive producer on Netflix comedy-drama Lilyhammer, and in a new interview with Vulture, the 75-year-old star says that he would relish being given another television project.

"It doesn’t have to be one of my scripts," he says, "but that would be nice."

"My favorite script is called Nobody Loves and Leaves Alive," he reveals. "As all my stuff is, it’s a little bit of a dramedy. It’s about three brothers. And actually, I’m going to be playing two of them.

"The first brother is a gangster, which I’m going to play. People love me as a gangster. The second brother is a rock-and-roll guy, a real hippie type of rock-and-roll guy, which I can fake. And a third brother is an FBI guy, a role that I’m offering to Johnny Depp. I’m hoping he reads it. The show is about how they interact with each other — those three lives of the mob world, the rock-and-roll world, and the FBI world.... I already have the soundtrack done and the script done. So it’s a matter of somebody saying, 'Let’s go'."

Earlier this year, Van Zandt revealed that Bruce Springsteen, and his band members, had received death threats while on their Land of Hope and Dreams tour in the US.

"This tour has been a little bit different because of the high security," he told UK tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail. "It's a very specific political theme to this tour and there's been a lot of threats, death threats. Usually there's always some, but this time it's been increasing."

Revealing that Springsteen has had to "beef up security", Van Zandt added, "it's mostly just talk. And it's not like we're saying something that's not true or we're saying something that's so really particularly controversial, but it's specifically political."

"So the FBI and others have been really watching things and been overly concerned about it, as they should be," he continued. "We want the fans to be safe and feel safe. So we really go the extra mile with extra security for that reason alone."

Tim Pope, The Cure's long-time video director, has revealed that working with disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein on gothic horror film The Crow: City of Angels left him with "mental scars I bear to this day".

Pope, who shot 37 videos for The Cure, in addition to working with David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Queen, Rush, Neil Young, The Bangles, The The and more, signed up to direct the 1996 sequel to cult hit The Crow for Miramax, the hugely successful film and TV production company founded by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein. But the experience proved to be hugely frustrating, deeply humiliating and traumatic for the now 70-year-old Pope, to the extent that he didn't make another film for 25 years.

Pope writes about his spectacular career in his forthcoming memoir I Shoot Rock Stars, and lays bare his painful memories of working with Harvey Weinstein in new interviews with British newspapers The Guardian and The Telegraph.

Having carved out a reputation as one of the most imaginative and innovative video directors of the MTV era, Pope was approached to direct the sequel to The Crow, a surprise commercial hit for Miramax, and a cult favourite film for a generation of goths and metal fans. Tragically, the film's charismatic leading man, Brandon Lee - the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee - died during the film's production due to an on-set accident with a prop gun, which left Pope at an immediate disadvantage when seeking to follow up the film's success.

"It was a tricky situation," Pope admits to The Guardian, "but I’d loved [Quentin Tarantino's award-winning Miramax films] Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. This was before we knew about [Harvey Weinstein] wanking into flowerpots and destroying women’s lives.

"He was still seen as ‘good old Harvey’, the most powerful man in Hollywood, but his other nickname was Harvey Scissorhands. He had a reputation for meddling in the cutting room and I suffered that really badly. I poured everything into that film and ended up with something I loathed."

At a disastrous test screening, Pope learned that his original cut of the film had been completely reworked at Harvey Weinstein's request. In The Telegraph Pope recalls that during this screening Weinstein threw popcorn at his head and shouted, "Call yourself a fucking director?" at him. Afterwards, at dinner, Weinstein told Pope, "Just cut the damn picture as we want it, or else, you fucking bastard… Remember, pal, we own you."

Pope calls the whole experience of working with Weinstein "brutal".

"There were times working with him when I thought I was going to end up at the bottom of the Hudson River wearing concrete wellington boots," he told The List last year.

"I hope Harvey Weinstein reads my book" he tells The Guardian.

Weinstein is currently in prison in theUS after being found guilty of three counts of rape, plus sexual assault. More than 80 women made allegations of sexual harassment or rape against him.

Diamond-selling nu metal sensations Linkin Park have announced a documentary about their return and a tie-in live album.

The California six-piece have confirmed that their new film, Unshatter, will get a cinema release on September 30. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, August 13. Its soundtrack Unshatter: Live In São Paulo, recorded in Brazil during their comeback tour in 2024, comes out on September 25.

To accompany the news, the band have released Unshatter’s trailer as well as live footage of their performance of Somewhere I Belong in São Paulo. Watch both below.

Unshatter will tell the story of Linkin Park’s reunion in 2024, following their inactivity in the wake of former singer Chester Bennington’s death in 2017. Fans will see glimpses of early studio sessions in 2022, the recording of their comeback album From Zero, their return to the stage and the blockbuster 18-month From Zero world tour.

Joe Hahn, Linkin Park’s turntablist and Unshatter’s director, comments: “Unshatter follows a very particular moment in Linkin Park’s history and documents a path through loss, uncertainty, friendship, and reinvention.

“I hope longtime fans see parts of our journey they've never seen before, and I hope people who are just discovering our music come away with a better understanding of how we got here. But even beyond Linkin Park, I hope people connect with it as a story about relationships, resilience, and what it really takes to move forward when you don't have all the answers.”

Linkin Park reunited with Emily Armstrong (Dead Sara) on lead vocals and Colin Brittain on drums, replacing ex-member Rob Bourdon. The comeback was initially controversial, with some fans expressing concern over Armstrong’s past ties to the Church Of Scientology and her previous support of convicted rapist Danny Masterson. She responded in a statement, saying, “I do not condone abuse or violence against women.”

Although Armstrong didn’t clarify whether she was or has ever been a follower of Scientology, the BBC reported that several of her lyrics in her rock band Dead Sara “suggest criticism and rejection of Scientology's teachings”. It highlighted lines in 2018’s Heaven’s Got A Back Door, which criticised conservative religious attitudes towards sexuality.

Despite the furor, From Zero – released on November 15, 2024 – was a critical and commercial success. It topped the UK albums chart and hit number two on the US Billboard 200, and has since been certified three-times Platinum in Brazil and two-times Platinum in France.

The From Zero world tour was one of the biggest in the band’s history, drawing an estimated three million fans worldwide and grossing more than $200 million (£148,600,000). On June 28, 2025, they played their largest headline show ever at a sold-out Wembley Stadium in London. The following June, they headlined Download festival, becoming the first band with a female singer to top the bill at the grounds in Donington Park, UK.

In a BBC interview at Download, co-singer/multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda responded to the distinction: “I asked [Emily] and she said: ‘If it wasn’t us, it would’ve just been someone else, because there are so many great female-fronted bands.’ But, she’s so grateful, she wanted you guys to know, she’s so grateful that she is the one and that she’ll remember it forever.”

Linkin Park have no further shows on their schedule at time of publication.

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.

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.

First appearing in the hallowed pages of Marvel comics over sixty years ago, Spider-Man has become one of pop culture's most iconic and enduring superheroes. Created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, ol' Web Head quickly established himself as a foundational part of Marvel's world, making an eventual transfer into the movie world inevitable.

While Spidey made his feature-length debut in 1977 courtesy of a pilot for the 70s live action TV show, it was Sony's purchasing of the film rights to the character in 1999 that laid the foundation for his legacy on the Big Screen. Since then, we've had no fewer than eleven Spider-Man movies across four entirely difference franchises, making his cinematic journey a rather convoluted one that ranges from the spectacular to the, quite frankly, slightly rubbish.

With latest MCU outing Spider-Man: Brand New Day htting cinemas today, we've ranked all eleven of those 'proper' film adaptations in reverse order of greatness. Note: we've elected to leave the TV pilot by the wayside for this one, and we're not including our friendly neighbourhood hero's numerous appearances in other Marvel outings. You only have so much time in the day.

11. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Given one of the biggest issues with Spider-Man 3 was there being too many villains to make for a compelling, focused plot, it's baffling as to why Marc Webb's sequel to his own Spidey universe reboot fell into the exact same trap. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are both fantastic, arguably packing the best chemistry of any Spider-leads, but they're lost in a convoluted story that introduces Jamie Foxx's unconvincing Electro as chief antagonist while recycling Harry Osbourne's pseudo-Goblin arc from Raimi's three-quel. Plus, we also get a clunkily realised Rhino, throwaway Norman Osbourne, Felicia Hardy and Alistair Smythe cameos and a Sinister Six tease that never went anywhere. Garfield's Spider-Man deserved better.

10. Spider-Man 3 (2007)

When the first teaser poster for Spider-Man 3 revealed our titular hero in a black suit, fans went doolally with excitement over what that likely telegraphed. Sadly, Raimi's trilogy would end on the dampest of squibs, offering a messy plot, a bloated rogues gallery, a terrible take on Venom and one of the most cringe-inducing scenes in blockbuster history courtesy of that Toby Maguire dance segment. We'd later learn that studio pressure led to Venom being included in the film in the first place, which is doubly frustrating given that it took time away from Thomas Haden Church's brilliant, layered performance as Sandman. The special effects are magnificent and there are some great set pieces, but this felt like an almighty piss had been unleashed into the Spider-pool.

9. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

After a good first full outing in Homecoming, Tom Holland's second solo flick had a high bar to grab at. Sadly, while it's by no means a bad movie, Far From Home falls short in having to cater so fullheartedly to the wider MCU, Tony Stark's death dominating too much of the film's emotional pull and Nick Fury's presence rendered flat by a fully phoned-in showing from Samuel L Jackson. There are also way too many rug-pulls, eroding the impact of any major plot twists to the extent that, by the time Jake Gyllenhaal's (admittedly very good) Mysterio meets his demise, you're left second-guessing yourself. Still, the core cast's chemistry fizzes wonderfully, and the segment involving a zombified Iron Man is amongst the MCU's most unique and visually impressive.

8. The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

With Raimi's franchise biting the dust due to the director not feeling compelled by any of the new ideas being put in front of him, it was up to Marc Webb to reboot the Spider-World. In Andrew Garfield, he found a pitch-perfect Peter Parker who ably embodied the character's geekiest, cheekiest and most arrestingly charming traits. Garfield would find the perfect romantic foil in Emma Stone, and while Rhys Ifans' Lizard just didn't feel as emotionally wedded to Parker's world as Doc Ock and Green Goblin had before him, the film's mixture of dazzling visuals and intimate emotional stakes made for a very solid first outing for Spidey's new era.

7. Spider-Man (2002)

After languishing for years in development hell, Spider-Man finally made his big screen debut proper courtesy of Sam Raimi, and Hollywood would never be the same again. While X-Men had officially made superhero films a mainstream concern again two years prior, Raimi's eye for an unforgettable visual (the upside down kiss!) and an emotionally compelling narrative backbone gave Spider-Man the feel of both a true cinematic blockbuster and an adaptation in keeping with the spirit of its source material.

Toby Maguire was easy to root for as the nerdy but determined Peter Parker, while Willem Dafoe's increasingly unhinged turn as Norman Osbourne/Green Goblin remains world class. Then there's J.K. Simmons' legendary portrayal of J. Jonah Jameson, so good that it'd survive well beyond the Raimi era. Some of the effects looked a little ropey even for the time, and Dafoe's Power Rangers-esque Goblin suit remains an absolute howler, but this is still a great first showing for the Webbed One.

6. Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

After a show-stealing turn in Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland confirmed once and for all that he was another inspired casting choice as Peter Parker, his overawed, youthful enthusiasm providing the perfect emotional backbone for a more grassroots, very local friendly neighbourhood-centric take on the character. His cohorts, MJ and Ned, warmly brought to life by Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, offered a different dynamic to what we'd seen on screen to this point, while Michael Keaton's turn as Vulture is one of the MCU's most underrated villain portrayals. Breezy, funny as hell and action-packed, Homecoming gave us hope that we might finally have a Spider-Man franchise built to last.

5. Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Even given the rumours that had been doing the rounds for months and despite the MCU finally toying with multiverses, the idea of Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield and Toby Maguire's Spider-Men all sharing the screen at once seemed too good to be true. That it happened and produced some of the most triumphantly exhilarating moments in MCU history is one thing, but the fact that John Watts managed to so deftly weave those three heroes, their accompanying villains, a bonus Doctor Strange and a major character death together is an amazing achievement.

No Way Home isn't just the ultimate love letter to Spider-Man on the big screen; it's a riotously fun, hilarious and emotionally devastating ride, giving welcome second winds to Alfred Molina's Doc Ock and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, a nice new coat of paint to Jamie Foxx's Electro and a much-needed, satisfying moment of cathartis for Garfield's Spidey.

4. Spider-Man: Brand New Day

While the Tom Holland era of Spider-Man has been very good and, on occasion, great, his Spidey has often felt compromised by being tied to the MCU's ever-expanding mythos (not to mention also being tied to former Spider-Man franchises by the time No Way Home turned up). Taking over from Jon Watts, Shang-Chi director Destin Daniel Cretton attempted to fix that for Holland's fourth solo outing in the mask, crafting a film that gave Peter Parker his Neighborhood Friendly stripes back while still wrangling with the fall-out of Brand New Day and stuffing a few MCU cameos in for good measure.

The result is a brilliantly entertaining, emotionally resonant sequel that is easily the most SPIDEY!!!! of Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies so far, evoking some of the narrative swings of Raimi's films and peppering them with some particularly dazzling set pieces. It's not perfect - those MCU connections are still tying Peter Parker down just a little too much - but it's arguably the best Spider-Man movie of the MCU era and a hopeful signpost for what's to come.

3. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (2023)

Topping the visually astonishing and wonderfully original Into The Spider-Verse was a tall ask, and while Across The Spider-Verse doesn't quite manage that, it absolutely does its predecessor justice and is a brilliant, retina-singeing, breathless epic in its own right. Packed with so many stunning visual quirks and narrative flourishes that it requires repeat viewings to take everything in, Across The Spider-Verse very nearly comes off the rails thanks to its relentless pace and head-spinning array of new Spider-People, but manages to hold on thanks to the sheer charm of its voice cast and lovingly crafted characters, Hailee Steinfeld's Gwen Stacy stepping up magnificently to help hold the film together alongside Shameik Moore's conflicted Miles Morales. Not for the first time, we find ourselves tantalisingly close to having a great Spider-Man trilogy. Will Sony finally pull it off?

2. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Having confirmed it was possible to bring Spider-Man to the Big Screen in style, Sam Raimi upped the stakes dramatically, producing not just an all-time great comic book movie, but one of the greatest blockbusters of the 2000s. Key to this is Alfred Molina, whose haunted, methodical and, eventually, maniacal Doctor Octopus arguably remains the greatest on-screen Spidey baddie, bringing an extra emotional weight to his dynamic with Maguire's Peter Parker that makes the stakes feel that much more tangible. Raimi also brings Doc Ock's battles with Spider-Man to life in astonishing fashion courtesy of some world class cinematography and brilliant set-pieces. Other great (and not so great) Spider-flicks would follow, but Spider-Man 2 perfected the simple supes formula of a hero that's easy to root for, a believable love interest and a compelling, memorable villain.

1. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

With Tom Holland's Peter Parker now bedded into the MCU, the idea of another new Spider-Man entering the chat seemed like overkill. That it could outdo the MCU's take on the character seemed implausible. With Into The Spider-Verse, however, directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman struck gold by shifting the focus to a different Spider-Man entirely, going for broke with a wildly out-of-the-box plot and embracing the limitless possibilities of animation to produce something thrilling, surprising and completely new. Into The Spider-Verse isn't just the best Spider-Man movie; it's the most accomplished piece of animation Hollywood has produced in a generation, every risk and strange flight of fancy paying off handsomely as we get to experience new visions of familiar characters and a near-unprecedented level of visual flair.

None of this would matter as much if the story itself wasn't convincing, however, and with Miles, Gwen and their increasingly ludicrous cast of Spider-buddies, Into The Spider-Verse becomes a film, more than any of its predecessors, that just gets what Spider-Man is all about. The message of anyone potentially being under the mask wasn't just an easy catchphrase Stan Lee liked to throw out; it represented the potential for greatness that we all have within us, and this instant classic nails that idea. It took almost twenty years for us to get there, but Into The Spider-Verse finally gave us a perfect Spider-Man movie, and all without Peter Parker even being its central Spidey.

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.

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.

Grammy-winning hard rock devil church Ghost have released the first trailer for their upcoming concert film 2 Big To Rig.

The follow-up to 2024’s Rite Here Rite Now is set to hit cinemas and IMAX screens worldwide from August 26, and tickets are on sale as of today (July 23). Watch the trailer below and get tickets via the film’s website.

“You have been chosen to partake in a ritual celebration that world has not yet seen,” a voiceover says at the start of the trailer. “Welcome to a night you will remember forever.”

Unlike Rite Here Rite Now, which mixed concert footage with an original story connected to the Swedish band’s mythos, 2 Big To Rig offers a behind-the-scenes look at the globe-trotting Skeletour, which took place from 2025 to ’26 in support of their sixth album Skeletá.

The live recordings were captured during Ghost’s residency at the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City in September 2025. Originally scheduled as a three-show run, the first planned gig was cancelled last-minute due to singer Tobias Forge (who performs as Papa V Perpetua) contracting food poisoning.

The 10-month Skeletour was an entirely phone-free event, after Ghost experimented with banning mobile devices at two shows in 2023 and enjoyed the results. Concertgoers kept their phones on their person, but had them placed into magnetically sealed Yondr pouches upon entering the auditorium. The only way the pouches could be unsealed was by a member of venue security.

In April 2025, Forge explained that he was banning phones because he felt an “ever-growing distance” between himself and his audiences.

“I felt that I have a problem with watching someone [in the audience holding up a phone in front of their face]. It’s irritating,” he told Metal XS. “Maybe I’m old-school, maybe I’m old-fashioned. I just feel that we’re having an intimate moment, and it disturbs me that you’re filming while we’re doing this together. I’m doing something for you to respond to me.”

Response to the phone ban was widely positive, and it inspired other rock artists to follow suit. Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson told Hammer last year that he supported the practice. When the UK metal giants hit the road for their 50th-anniversary Run For Your Lives tour last spring, they discouraged fans from bringing phones. Mobile devices were then outright banned for a gig in Paris this summer.

2 Big To Rig was announced last week and will come out via Trafalgar Releasing, who distributed Rite Here Rite Now.

Kymberli Frueh, EVP of Content Acquisitions and Programming at Trafalgar, commented: “We’re proud to share it with cinema audiences worldwide before Ghost takes a well-publicised break. It’s the perfect way to close such a significant chapter in the band’s history and give fans a chance to relive this moment together.”

Ghost are currently on hiatus, as Forge hopes to spend more time with his family and gain inspiration for future projects.

“I’ve had two kids waiting at home with my wife for 15 years,” the frontman told Full Metal Jackie. “And maybe that says something about me that it wasn’t a pushing enough factor during those years. Believe me, I felt bad, but I’ve definitely come to a point where I feel, physically and mentally, I need to be home. [My kids are] 17; they’re not gonna be around for an eon.”

It's fair to to say that Nancy Spungen was a divisive presence on London's punk scene in the 1970s: Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious loved her, everyone else hated her.

Known as 'Nauseating Nancy' by the English media, Philadelphia-born groupie Spungen came to London with The Heartbreakers in December 1976, ahead of the New Yorkers jumping aboard the Sex Pistols' ill-fated Anarchy Tour, and immediately latched onto bassist Vicious after being rejected by Johnny Rotten (aka John Lydon).

The relationship between Spungen and Vicious was tempestuous and violent, not helped by the young lovers both developing addictions to heroin. In January 1978, following the Pistols break-up on their debut US tour, Spungen and Vicious relocated to New York, taking up residence at the city's iconic Hotel Chelsea. It was here, in room 100, that Spungen was found dead on October 12, 1978, aged 20: she had been murdered by a single stab wound to the abdomen, the murder weapon being a knife Vicious owned. The English musician gave conflicting accounts of what had happened, and was immediately arrested, and charged with second degree murder: however, his lawyers were able to get him released on $50,000 bail, on condition that he would not leave New York.

The news of Spungen's murder caused far less shock in London than one might imagine.

"Normally in a situation like that, there would be an emotive response from family and friends alike," Chrissie Hynde, who Vicious once offered to marry, wrote in her autobiography Reckless. "'Sid? He would never do anything like that - not to the woman he loved!' However, the nonchalant shrugging of shoulders like a Mexican wave making its way across London's punkerage was palpable. No one who knew them was particularly surprised to hear that Sid had inserted a blade into exhibit 'N'. We were only surprised that he'd stuck it out as long as he had."

The bleak and brutal end to what was a seemingly doomed relationship was partly what drew English film-maker Alex Cox (and his co-writer Abbe Wool) to make Sid & Nancy, his 1986 biopic about the pair: that, and rumours that a Hollywood studio was interested in casting Madonna and Rupert Everett in a film about the ill-fated lovers.

"In the spirit of punk," Cox told Clash magazine, "Abbe and I felt this had to be stopped, or at least pre-empted."

"I thought, for the times, the story was a good one to tell," the film-maker told money-into-light.com. "Sid and Nancy were terrible fuck-ups and they betrayed the punk ideal, but in the midst of all this chaos was a romantic story. It was all so tragic the way it played out."

Once Cox had secured a $4 million budget for the film, he set about casting the two lead roles. Daniel Day Lewis was considered for the role of Vicious, but the part was ultimately given to a young Gary Oldman, who would later claim that he turned down the role twice, which Cox denies.

"Gary came from the same neighborhood as Sid, Bermondsey," Cox told Money Into Light, "and he had the same understanding and desire to escape, to create a new persona and life for himself."

Courtney Love pleaded for the chance to play Spungen, but eventually accepted a part as fictional character Gretchen, while American actress Chloe Webb was cast in the title role.

Iggy Pop also had a minor part in the film, while the members of Guns N' Roses were employed as extras for scenes shot in a Los Angeles club, for which they were paid $100 per day. "It wasn't much fun," Slash recalled in his 2007 autobiography. "Actually it was like jury duty... I was the only one of us pathetic enough to show up for the duration."

At the conclusion of the film, after Spungen is stabbed during an argument with her drugged-up lover, Vicious is collected in a New York taxi, and in his confusion, he believes that Nancy is still alive and in the back seat, and the pair are driven away from the crime scene. In reality, after a stay in prison, Vicious died of a heroin overdose on February 2, 1979.

"The end feels bogus," Cox admitted 30 years on. "We should have shown Sid dying in a pool of vomit. Instead we opted for a touchy-feely way out."

The ending irked Vicious' friend John Lydon, who called it "stupid."

"To me this movie is the lowest form of life." Lydon stated. "I honestly believe that it celebrates heroin addiction."

"It's all wrong," he wrote in his autobiography. "It was all someone else's fucking fantasy, some Oxford graduate who missed the punk rock era. The bastard."

Cox, however, defended the film in a 2017 BFI article.

"The most important scene in the film, from the perspective of [co-screenwriter] Abbe Wool and myself, was in the methadone clinic, where Sy Richardson plays the guy who won’t hand over their dose of methadone until he’s delivered a lecture about how they’re screwing up," Cox wrote. "Essentially, Sid and Nancy betrayed the punk movement. They should have been out there on the barricades, but instead they became another example of junkie rock stars getting high in a hotel room.

"That’s what we wanted to say, how they’d become such a disappointment to punk, but because the film got deeper and deeper into their horrible little world, everything outside them got a bit lost. The last we see John Lydon, he’s in the corner of some club, fading away. All that explains a sort of misunderstanding in the UK, where it was taken to be a film about the punk scene. The reception in America, where it was viewed as a horrific love story, was closer to our intentions."