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1,246 articles

Blue Cheer, Them: Whisky A Go Go

Live Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 9 December 1967

THEM, THAT is, a group called Them, and the Blue Cheer are the current attraction at the Whisky A Go Go, where they will play ...

Blue Cheer

Profile by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 2 March 1968

IMITATORS and/or carbon copies of top groups seldom make it big in the business of pop. But a probable exception may be Blue Cheer, who ...

Blue Cheer, Bobbie Gentry, The Human Beinz: Albums from Blue Cheer, Bobbie Gentry and the Human Beinz

Review by uncredited writer, KRLA Beat, 23 March 1968

VINCEBUS ERUPTUM (Philips) Blue Cheer 'Summertime Blues', 'Rock Me Baby', 'Doctor Please', 'Out of Focus', 'Parchment Farm' and 'Second Time Around'. ...

Blue Cheer: Top Tunes: Blue Cheer

Profile and Interview by Michael Oberman, Evening Star, The (Washington DC), 13 April 1968

"THESE GUYS are just like Hell's Angels. The only difference is that they don't have motorcycles — they have their instruments." ...

Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly, Traffic: Traffic, Blue Cheer, Iron Butterfly: Fillmore East, New York NY

Live Review by Robert Shelton, The New York Times, 27 April 1968

Traffic, a British Trio, Flows With Subtlety at Fillmore East ...

Blue Cheer, John Fahey, Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell: New LPs from Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Blue Cheer and John Fahey

Review by uncredited writer, Disc and Music Echo, 30 November 1968

Marvin and Tammi: big warm glow! ...

Deep Purple: From The Underground: Deep Purple

Profile and Interview by Derek Boltwood, Record Mirror, 25 January 1969

AND WHILE the rain falls in Britain, Deep Purple look out of their windows in America and the sun is shining a spotlight upon them ...

Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)

Review by Felix Dennis, Oz, March 1969

VERY OCCASIONALLY a long-playing record is released that defies immediate classification or description, simply because it's so obviously a turning point in rock music that ...

Led Zeppelin Are Not Prefabricated

Interview by Keith Altham, Top Pops, 13 September 1969

WHEN is a hit single unnecessary? Apparently when it is a group like Led Zeppelin who have never released a single but have reached super ...

Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page: Superstar

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 21 February 1970

JIMMY PAGE is the phoenix who has arisen from the ashes of the Yardbirds to emerge amongst the electric guitarist gods, through the meteoric success ...

Black Sabbath

Report and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, March 1970

2003 Note: Having written my very first article for the Beatles Monthly I was asked by the publisher, Sean O’Mahoney (aka Johnny Dean), to contribute ...

Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath (Vertigo)

Review by Mark Williams, International Times, 13 March 1970

A BLOW JOB. Just get the gear on stage and wind it up Marshall stacks nine feet high on big & harsh with an edge ...

Black Sabbath

Profile and Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 14 March 1970

BLACK SABBATH, four unknown rock musicians from Birmingham have emerged from obscurity with what is probably the first true underground success since the days of ...

Black Widow: White Witch Warns Black Widow

Interview by Lon Goddard, Record Mirror, April 1970

A Crawling Eye special by Lon Goddard ...

Black Sabbath Have Nothing To Do With Spooks! says Lead Guitar Tony

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 4 April 1970

A NUMBER of pop groups seem to have decided that it's the in-thing these days to meddle in black magic and present their version of ...

Grand Funk Railroad: The Bigtime Rock Band That's Ignored Back Home in Detroit

Report and Interview by Mike Gormley, Detroit Free Press, 17 May 1970

THERE'S NOTHING small-time about Detroit in the music business. More and more, record company executives come here first to tap talent. They know it's here. ...

Black Sabbath: Black Magic Is Not Our Scene Say Black Sabbath

Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 13 June 1970

We're fed up with the confusion, they tell ROY CARR ...

Deep Purple: Lyceum Ballroom, London

Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 11 July 1970

Deep Purple at riotous best ...

Black Sabbath, Yes: The Lyceum, London

Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 25 July 1970

WITH CHAMPAGNE in hand, Herr Klook re-emerged before a capacity crowd to present his new series of Friday night scenes at the Lyceum. ...

Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, Yes: Yes, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heap: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 25 July 1970

YES MADE their comeback at the Lyceum on Friday, but what should have been a great occasion turned out to be rather mediocre. ...

Deep Purple: Rock Album Solved Deep Purple Rift

Report and Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 22 August 1970

RECORDING AN album of rock did Deep Purple a lot more good than most people realize. It solved a lot of personal problems that arose ...

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Vertigo) ★★★★

Review by uncredited writer, Disc, 12 September 1970

BLACK SABBATH, as a hard rock band, are well up in their field, and Paranoid will no doubt sell as well as their first album. ...

Black Sabbath Win Struggle Against Black Magic Tag

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 26 September 1970

BY RICHARD GREEN WHO ALSO REVIEWS PARANOID LP ...

Deep Purple: The Smashing-Up Bit Is Valid!

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 26 September 1970

WHEN DEEP PURPLE smashed up their equipment on a TV show recently, here were howls of protest throughout the land. A flood of complaints hit ...

Black Sabbath: It's All Word Of Foot

Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, 3 October 1970

THE BLACK SABBATH album Paranoid, slipped into your record shops a couple of weeks ago. No ballyhoo. The release was as quiet as it was ...

Deep Purple: Rock Is Where We're At

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 3 October 1970

ORGANIST JON Lord asserts triumphantly that with Deep Purple In Rock the group have finally found their true musical identities following their early 'success' as ...

Black Sabbath: Paranoia — As The Fans Go Wild For Sabbath

Report by Mark Plummer, Melody Maker, 31 October 1970

Mark Plummer on a one night stand with the 'Paranoid' hitmakers ...

Black Sabbath: Royal Festival Hall, London

Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 31 October 1970

PAGANINI WOULD turn in his grave if he even thought that a group like Black Sabbath were playing at the Royal Festival Hall, and if ...

Grand Funk Railroad

Profile by Danny Goldberg, Circus, January 1971

ODDLY ENOUGH, the first question that come to mind writing about Grand Funk Railroad is, why don't people like them? This is followed quickly – ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath, Singles and the States

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 January 1971

TALES OF hardship and woe generally follow a group's first trip across the Atlantic. Many bands have returned to inform us that "it's not all ...

Black Sabbath, Curved Air: Guild Hall, Southampton

Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 16 January 1971

BLACK SABBATH are about as subtle as an enraged mule kicking down a stable door, yet it is this controlled use of sheer physical brute ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Royal Albert Hall, London

Live Review by Michael Watts, Melody Maker, 23 January 1971

Grand Flunk Railroad ...

Black Sabbath: Nobody But The Public Digs Sabbath

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 30 January 1971

THERE WOULD seem to be a lot of unnecessary resentment over Black Sabbath's success in this business. And even outside it by those bastions of ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Grand Funk — Or Bunk?

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 6 February 1971

RESENTMENT from the critics is something that Grand Funk Railroad are having to live with in the United States, but the pill is made the ...

Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page: Zep Come To The People

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 27 February 1971

"WHAT DO YOU want if you don't want Money?" was the lyrical question once put but never answered by a certain Adam Faith nee Terence ...

Deep Purple, Ian Gillan: Deep Purple: commercial without compromise

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 27 March 1971

FOR DEEP Purple fans the end of an era is approaching. After late April or May, familiar numbers like 'Speed King', 'Child In Time' and ...

Black Sabbath: Paranoid (Warner Bros. WS1887)

Review by Nick Tosches, Rolling Stone, 15 April 1971

A YOUNG girl's voice. She is dressed in a nun's habit. The boy turns and faces her. She proffers a chalice of cervical exudate and ...

Deep Purple: A compromise in five parts

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 24 April 1971

RICHIE BLACKMORE talks to RICHARD GREEN ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Forum, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Jonh Ingham, Creem, May 1971

WHAT A WAY TO RUN A RAILROAD ...

Sir Lord Baltimore: Kingdom Come (Mercury)

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, May 1971

ALL YOU TRUE blue Heavy fans, take heart. This album is a crusher. Sure enough, Sir Lord Baltimore is none other than a new heavy ...

Deep Purple

Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, 1 May 1971

THE CRY most likely from the touchline as Deep Purple rocket on from standing ovation to standing ovation in the next few weeks is "bring ...

Deep Purple: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 8 May 1971

THIS COULD easily be a review consisting entirely of superlatives, but it wouldn't be so easy to understand unless you were actually at the Roundhouse ...

Deep Purple: The Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 8 May 1971

ALTHOUGH it wasn't one of Deep Purple's best nights on Friday, it was certainly one of the best nights of the Camden Festival with London's ...

Black Sabbath: Following Recent Sensational London Concert Black Sabbath Admit...

Interview by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 8 May 1971

...U.S. tour got us together we're into some nice things now ...

Black Sabbath: Simple and Basic

Interview by Richard Green, Hit Parader, July 1971

"ONE OF the biggest problems with the music scene today is the kids that try to read things into songs." ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Shea Stadium, Brooklyn NY

Live Review by Mike Jahn, The New York Times, 10 July 1971

THE MAMMOTH Grand Funk Railroad concert last night before 55,000 people at Shea Stadium was really a spectacle, not a concert. ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Survival (Capitol)

Review by Colman Andrews, Phonograph Record, August 1971

GRAND FUNK are a real good group. A lot of media critics don't like them, they say they're not real artists and that they just ...

Black Sabbath: Master Of Reality (Vertigo 6360 050; £2.30)

Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 14 August 1971

BLACK SABBATH were rightly pleased when, at their Royal Albert Hall concert a few months ago, they were presented with a gold disc for sales ...

Deep Purple: A Band Breakdown

Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 11 September 1971

OFTEN ABUSED BY critics and disc jockeys, Deep Purple have won through during the past two years to become one of this country's top groups. ...

Deep Purple: Guildhall, Portsmouth

Live Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 18 September 1971

LITTLE DID the capacity crowd at Portsmouth Guildhall on Monday night know just how new Deep Purple's opening number 'Highway Star' really was. On the ...

Black Sabbath, Stoneground, Sweathog: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach CA

Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 27 September 1971

CONSIDERING THAT Black Sabbath's popularity seems to be increasing almost logarithmically, as was suggested by its filling to capacity the enormous Long Beach Arena Saturday ...

UFO

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 15 January 1972

"AH SO, Jim lad." The concept of a Japanese Robert Newton is hard to envisage. Yet UFO will assure you, "Long John Silver has hit ...

Black Sabbath

Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 20 January 1972

"THE TROUBLE with English and European crowds," said Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, "is that they listen to you as if you were a jukebox. ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Ready To Rejoin The Rock Machine

Interview by Dick Meadows, Sounds, 22 January 1972

IN THE black art of rock and roll Sabbath are masters. But the business of fame takes its toll in terms of exhaustion and it ...

Uriah Heep, Manna: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 4 February 1972

Uriah Heep Epitomizes Power Rock at Whisky ...

Black Sabbath: Town Hall, Birmingham

Live Review by Dick Meadows, Sounds, 5 February 1972

Sabbath: The Old Firm Are Back Home ...

Deep Purple: Orchid Ballroom, Purley

Live Review by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 4 March 1972

FORGET ABOUT chart placing and record sales for just one moment. The true testing point of any big group is its drawing capacity at the ...

Black Sabbath, Yes: The Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 17 March 1972

Black Sabbath and Yes in Concert at Forum ...

Deep Purple: Machine Head (Purple Records, TPSA 7504, £2.40)

Review by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, 1 April 1972

Just a flash of inspired Purple ...

Deep Purple: Machine Head (Purple)

Review by Richard Green, New Musical Express, 1 April 1972

Purple: what we've got is a lot ...

Deep Purple: Victims Of Their Own Fame

Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 8 April 1972

DEEP PURPLE'S new album Machine Head comes to you courtesy of the Rolling Stones' redoubtable studio manager Ian Stewart who saved their famous mobile recording ...

Blue Öyster Cult: Blue Öyster Cult (Columbia 31063)

Review by Nick Tosches, Fusion, May 1972

NEVER JUDGE a fellow earthling by the way he/she looks; this was perhaps the first lesson I gleaned from the Blue Öyster Cult — upon ...

Deep Purple: Breakfast of Champions: Deep Purple's Machine Head

Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Circular, 29 May 1972

IF YOU'RE OVER 20, you needn’t read on. Unless, of course, you want to hear why Deep Purple are a good group – just like ...

Deep Purple: Machine Head

Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, 15 June 1972

2013 NOTE: When Machine Head shipped in '72 it was just another album, the latest release by an up-and-coming heavy metal band, stuck in the ...

Mountain: The Road Goes On Forever

Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, 22 June 1972

MOUNTAIN, A BAND now departed for the great Fillmore in the Sky, was a standby whipping boy for practically any rock critic, regardless of taste. ...

Deep Purple: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Tony Norman, New Musical Express, 8 July 1972

THE RAINBOW came back to life on Friday night with a snarl, a cheer and a smile. The near-capacity crowd had come to see Deep ...

Black Sabbath: A Dorito and 7-Up Picnic with Black Sabbath

Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, Circular, 25 September 1972

Being a slightly unreal and slightly real account of a meeting between the foreboding Four and their Number One Fan, rock critic Mike Saunders, on ...

Black Sabbath: Satan, The Bomb And Geezer's Dreams

Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 28 October 1972

CHARLES SHAAR MURRAY looking for flames ...

Black Sabbath: Volume 4

Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, 25 November 1972

IT REALLY freaks me out when somebody tries to tell me Vol 4 is the best thing Black Sabbath ever did. ...

Black Sabbath: Volume 4

Review by Max Bell, Let It Rock, December 1972

DESPITE BLACK SABBATH'S protestations that they have spent both a great deal of time and money on their latest album (earthshatteringly entitled Volume 4) the ...

Deep Purple: So Dreadfully Hot Here In The Colonies

Report by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, 23 December 1972

"WHERE'S THE booze?" ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Grand Funk's Thin Din

Comment by Loraine Alterman, The New York Times, 24 December 1972

THEY'RE too loud. Their playing is mediocre. They can't sing – all war cries for a cobweb-brained establishment confronted with rock-music it can't understand. ...

Grand Funk Railroad, Freddie King: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Ian Dove, The New York Times, 25 December 1972

Grand Funk Railroad Steams Into the Garden at Full Throttle ...

Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi (1973)

Interview by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages audio, 1973

From collapsing at the Hollywood Bowl to Geezer Butler's gallstones, via the making of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and enjoying a nice game of Monopoly at home, the Riff King chats with Keith Altham.

File format: mp3; File size: 32.6meg, interview length: 35' 34" sound quality: ***

Deep Purple: Sometimes I Feel There's a Conspiracy Against Us...

Interview by James Johnson, New Musical Express, 27 January 1973

IAN PAICE talking to JAMES JOHNSON ...

Elf: Elf

Review by Jim Esposito, Rock, 29 January 1973

2013 NOTE: I was into Deep Purple so when I noticed this debut album by a hitherto unknown group called Elf was produced by Roger ...

Black Sabbath: Festival Hall, Brisbane, Queensland

Live Review by Lillian Roxon, New York Sunday News, 4 February 1973

The Spooky Black Sabbath in Brisbane ...

Beck, Bogert and Appice: Imperial College, London

Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 10 February 1973

WERE LOTS TO be drawn for the identity of the world's most crazed rock guitarist, you better believe the result would contain the name of ...

Deep Purple: Who Do Purple Think They Are?

Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 17 March 1973

IN CONTEXT, WE'RE AS VALID AS ANYTHING BY BEETHOVEN. ...

Beck, Bogert and Appice

Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 31 March 1973

THE BECK, BOGERT and Appice album is completed and virtually upon us, and it leads us to two inescapable conclusions. The first is simple: man ...

A Brief Survey Of The State Of Metal Music Today

Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973

WHEN YOU get right down to it, the story of heavy metal rock has been the tale of Led Zeppelin. As indicated by its name, ...

Black Sabbath: To Knock OR Not To Knock The Rock

Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 14 April 1973

WHEN IT COMES to obvious targets for critical assassinations, then Black Sabbath are sitting ducks – very loud, very basic, very brash. And now at ...

Uriah Heep: Live (Bronze)

Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 5 May 1973

IT BECAME Friday night in Birmingham on a Friday morning in London – when I listened to this live Heep set. ...

Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore: Deep Purple: An Unpublished Interview with Ritchie Blackmore

Interview by Jim Esposito, unpublished, June 1973

2012 NOTE: This Q&A hails from circa June 1973, for an interview published in Creem in September that year. It broke the story about the ...

Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore (1973)

Interview by Jim Esposito, Rock's Backpages audio, 17 June 1973

Take the limo to Purple's West Palm Beach Arena show! Listen to Ritchie badmouth his bandmates! The rancour, the hatred, the splits, and the imminent departure of Ian Gillan and others!

File format: mp3; file size: 63.2mb, interview length: 1h 08' 58" sound quality: ***

Deep Purple: Who'll Be Purple's New Voice?

Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 30 June 1973

THE NEWS that Ian Gillan is to leave Deep Purple comes at a time when the group are on the crest of world-wide acclaim. Yet ...

Deep Purple: A New Bassman — But Still No Singer

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 14 July 1973

"PAUL RODGERS was asked to join us, but there were just too many things in the way. Apart from just the contractual side of it, ...

Blue Oyster Cult, Claudia Lennear & Bump City: Schaefer Music Festival, Wollman Rink, Central Park, New York NY

Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 26 July 1973

OYSTER CRACKING ...

Alice Cooper: School Days

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 18 August 1973

...

Nazareth: Razamanaz

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973

WHILE AMERICA continues to wallow in endless overblown funk, monotonous middle-of-the-rodomontade, and the unceasing soporifics of multitudinous mellow fellows and laid-back lasses, they've really been ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Days Of Rest

Interview by Keith Altham, New Musical Express, 1 September 1973

Forget witchcraft, forget heavy metal – Tony Iommi is laying back in his luxury pad, listening to the Carpenters and Sinatra ...

Uriah Heep

Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 8 September 1973

THIS INTERVIEW had the most ordinary of beginnings. David Byron and Uriah Heep's Press Miss and myself left the other four members of the band ...

Beck, Bogert and Appice: Heavyweight Champions Of The World

Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 29 September 1973

TAKE A LONG guitar lead. Sit as far far away from the studio as possible. And record some of the funkiest sounds ever laid down ...

Deep Purple: Purple, Introducing The…Err…Unknown Mr. Coverdale

Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 29 September 1973

PURPLE RECORDS took the press down to Clearwell Castle on the Welsh-English border last week to meet their new singer boy. The name of this ...

Blue Cheer: More Pumice than Lava

Retrospective by Metal Mike Saunders, Flash, Fall 1973

NOTE: Until its unfortunate demise and Mark Shipper’s degeneration into an acid-wrecked vegetable, Flash Magazine was an important clearing house of ideas. Information on rare ...

Uriah Heep: The Tour That Detoured The Demons

Interview by Stephen Demorest, Circus Raves, January 1974

Scarcely a year ago, the Heep found America filled with threatening crazies, and went scurrying back to England with culture-shock. But a new look at ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Cult Heroes

Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 16 February 1974

NEW YORK: They say that heavy rock is on the decline and it's become fashionable to put down bands whose music is based on a ...

Deep Purple: Burn

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 16 February 1974

NEW LINE-UP time, folks. As all you well-informed young people will have been aware for nigh on a full season, Ian Gillan has left to ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbra Cadabra!

Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 23 February 1974

THE GRINDING riff sears through the eardrums, ripping the senses and dulling with monotony. It crashes through the PA system, hurtling itself towards the back ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Warner Bros.)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, March 1974

SABBATH BLOODY Sabbath was an album I was eagerly anticipating. I'd become convinced that Master Of Reality was deserving of the heavy medal for highest ...

Black Oak Arkansas, Blue Oyster Cult: Blue Oyster Cult/Black Oak Arkansas

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 2 March 1974

THIRD TIME down 52nd and 6th, and this guy from The Process is still trying to accost you with his pamphlets and spectre-of-doom rap. ...

Bedlam, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd: Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bedlam: Nassau Coliseum, Uniondale NY

Live Review by Dan Nooger, The Village Voice, 7 March 1974

FANNED FIRES ...

Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore (1974)

Interview by Jim Esposito, Rock's Backpages audio, 10 March 1974

The Purple axe-wielder on the relationships within the band; recording latest album Burn in Montreux; finding David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes... and what the new chaps bring to the band.

File format: mp3; file size: 18.8mb, interview length: 20' 29" sound quality: ***

Blue Oyster Cult: Tyranny And Mutation (Columbia Import)

Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 16 March 1974

WELL, HERE it is then: volume two of Sandy Perlman's boys' collective voyage in the S.S. "Cosmic Greaser Speed-freak" towards strange new worlds of murk ...

Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page: The Power And The Glory

Profile by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 23 March 1974

WHEN THEY showed Antonioni's classic film of the 'sixties, Blow Up, on TV last week, apart from evoking the real or imaginary spirit of "Swinging ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath (Warner Bros.)

Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, April 1974

THE QUESTION, Sabs, is where you been so long? So highly irresponsible was their disappearing act over a year ago that heavy metal almost vanished ...

Kiss: Kiss (Casablanca Records 9001)

Review by Harold Tribune, Zoo World, 11 April 1974

SOME RECORDS by new groups on new labels might be looked on with considerably more disinterest than what's greeted this release. Just as Casablanca Records ...

Deep Purple: Burn

Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 25 April 1974

DEEP PURPLE'S first album since last year's departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist/composer Roger Glover is a passable but disappointing effort. ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Funk On A Grand Scale

Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 4 May 1974

RINGING EARS are a symptom of excessive listening to loud rock and roll. When the ears tingle after a gig, you know the band in ...

Black Oak Arkansas, Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath/Black Oak Arkansas: Black Power

Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974

IF JIM DANDY'S PANTS were any tighter they'd have hair growing out of them.Fringed suede jacket, fringed suede boots, and those white satin pants. Now, ...

Deep Purple: Monsters of the Deep

Report and Interview by Lester Bangs, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974

I'M SITTING on Deep Purple's jet waiting to take off from Detroit Metro. The accommodations are luxurious and the general mood is a Saturday afternoon ...

Uriah Heep

Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 8 June 1974

"IT GETS ON my tit when people start talking when I'm listening to music, so when I'm at 'ome I always turn the sound right ...

Blue Oyster Cult, Nazareth: Civic Auditorium, Santa Monica CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 10 June 1974

Blue Oyster Cult in Heavy-Metal Offering ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties Columbia KC 32858

Review by Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 20 June 1974

THE BLUE Oyster Cult shares certain traits with that other New York cult band, the Dolls: an appropriate image for the outpouring of urban (and ...

Budgie: Rapping with a Burke from Budgie

Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974

...is extremely difficult, seeing as he's not the slightest bit interested that The Album has made the charts. In fact, he couldn't care less. What's ...

Uriah Heep: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 29 June 1974

Heep howl out at Hammersmith ...

Black Sabbath, Jim Croce: Black Sabbath: Meaner Than A Junkyard Dawg (Or A Final Tribute To Jim Croce)

Report by Robot A. Hull, Creem, July 1974

THAT WAS practically all I had prepared before my scheduled interview with Black Sabbath at the Holiday Inn in Providence, R.I. Interviews are okay if ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Secret Treaties (Columbia KC)

Review by Arthur Levy, Zoo World, 4 July 1974

VIOLENT FANTASY, and the fantasy of violence — confrontation and aggression — present the logical ultimatum of warlike Christian civilizations: Imperial control of the means ...

Black Sabbath, Deep Purple: Black Sabbath and Deep Purple: Who Really Are The Kings Of Heavy Metal?

Comment by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, November 1974

ONE HALF-DECADE ago, Black Sabbath couldn't get a favorable review if they begged for it – and beg they didn't. ...

Steppenwolf Howls Back From Oblivion On Slow Flux

Report and Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus Raves, November 1974

"IT JUST ISN'T fun anymore." With those cursory words on Saint Valentine's Day, 1972, John Kaye and the other members of Steppenwolf parted company – ...

Deep Purple: Stormbringer

Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 2 November 1974

IT IS going to be interesting to see the fans' and critics' reaction when they lay their hands on Stormbringer. ...

Deep Purple: Stormbringer (Purple Records)

Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 November 1974

'Stormbringer'; 'Love Don't Mean A Thing'; 'Holy Man'; 'Hold On'; 'Lady Double Dealer'; 'You Can't Do It Right'; 'High Ball Shooter'; 'The Gypsy'; 'Soldiers of ...

Deep Purple: Angry Young Man

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 2 November 1974

THE FORTUNES of Deep Purple have taken strange paths over the past 12 months. But changes in line-up and strange stories about their antics in ...

Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Swansong/Atlantic)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 December 1974

Quintessential doyens of the kamikaze dizzbuster game Exclusive preview by Nick Kent ...

Blue Cheer, Michael Fennelly: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 25 December 1974

Muted Blast From the Musty Past ...

Deep Purple summon the Thunder Gods with Stormbringer

Interview by Jon Tiven, Circus Raves, January 1975

In the midst of Purple's whirlwinds of sound and fury, the band remained silent about their brooding motives. But in a rare interview Ritchie Blackmore ...

Deep Purple's Tommy Bolin

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 25 January 1975

A CURIOUS MARRIAGE of convenience. That is how the link between American lead guitarist Tommy Bolin and British speed rock band Deep Purple might appear ...

Neil Merryweather, Rush: Rush: Rush; Neil Merryweather: Space Rangers

Review by Jim Esposito, Creem, February 1975

FIRST THERE WAS English Rock 'n' Roll! Then there was Southern Blues! Now, from Mercury Records, those swell folks who brought you Bachman-Turner Overdrive, we ...

Blue Öyster Cult: That's Right, Another Bunch Of Neo-Fascist Heavies

Profile and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 February 1975

"We're pain, we're steel, we're a plot of knives...we're obsessed with the technology of matter...our symbol is a swastika substitute..." ...

Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 22 February 1975

ETHYL'S FRIGID AS an eskimo pie, she's cool in bed/she oughta be, 'cuz Ethyl's dead... ...

Kiss: Kiss (Casablanca)

Review by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 22 February 1975

UP UNTIL Max Bell gave us his reasoned defence of Kiss a couple of weeks ago, I had assumed they were simply an also ran ...

Kiss: "Big Bands Hate Us 'Cause We Steal Their Audiences"

Interview by Dan Nooger, Circus, March 1975

...

Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 March 1975

FIRST OF ALL let me tell you about the art work that John Berg has concocted for the Blue Oyster Cult's most extreme venture to ...

King Crimson, Uriah Heep: Uriah Heep: Ex-Crimson Bass Man Seduced

Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 22 March 1975

JOHN WETTON JOINS HUMBLE WEALTHY HEEP ...

Led Zeppelin: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Steven Rosen, Sounds, 19 April 1975

LED ZEPPELIN'S long awaited North American tour could have waited a while longer – about ten years or so. After reports had filed in to ...

Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (Columbia)

Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1975

THE BLUE OYSTER CULT have been heavy metal's premier studio musicians. Initially, they were an image manipulated, a persona directed by their producers, Murray Krugman ...

Led Zeppelin: Earls Court, London

Live Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 24 May 1975

"SIX AND A half years is a helluva long time," said Robert Plant who was standing one side of the Earls Court stage, bathed in ...

Ritchie Blackmore, Deep Purple: Blackmore: I Was Getting Lazy

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 28 June 1975

RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S DEPARTURE from Deep Purple comes as no surprise to followers of Deep Purple who have watched their activities closely over the years. For ...

Blue Öyster Cult, KISS: Stanley Kissed Off At Cult

Report and Interview by Ron Ross, Circus, July 1975

THE FLAMING ROCK 'n' holocaust that Kiss brings to the stage has caused many intimidated headlining groups to ban the New York nitro-rockers from appearing ...

10cc, Man, Steeleye Span: Man, Steeleye Span and 10cc at Cardiff Castle

Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 19 July 1975

DEKE LEONARD IS getting incoherent. ...

Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 26 July 1975

TOYS IN THE Attic, is Aerosmith's third record. No one here knows that much about Aerosmith, except that they're a straight-ahead Eastern seaboard band with ...

Motorhead: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 26 July 1975

A PRE-RECORDED tape of Adolf Hitler shouts and jack boot stomps heralded Motorhead's debut concert act London's Chalk Farm Roundhouse on Sunday and, indeed, the ...

Motörhead: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Ed Jones, Melody Maker, 26 July 1975

HOLES IN THE MOTÖRHEAD ...

Hawkwind, Motörhead: Motorhead: Running In

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 16 August 1975

'Loud, raucous, arrogant, fast, city, paranoid, speedfreak rock and roll. But mainly very loud'. That's what Lemmy says Motorhead's music is. Geoff Barton reports ...

Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (Oyster OYA2001)

Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 16 August 1975

VOLCANIC BLACKMORE ...

Uriah Heep: After A Bum Reality, The Return To Fantasy With Wetton On Bass

Interview by Ira Robbins, Circus Raves, September 1975

"IT'S A WINE and roses situation," quoth Ken Hensley, speaking of the hand-in-glove way that Uriah Heep's new bass player, John Wetton, has fit into ...

Black Sabbath: Paranoid

Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 11 October 1975

IT'S NO MERE coincidence that an Ozzie Osbourne song on the new Black Sabbath album is called 'Am I Going Insane?' Ozzie, who professes that ...

Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne (1975)

Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 October 1975

The Sabbath frontman rails against bouncer-on-fan violence; describes his feelings toward the band; explains the stress and fatigue behind the band's break, and voices his frustrations with the recording process.

File format: mp3; file size: 9.6mb, interview length: 10' 26" sound quality: *****

Black Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne (1975) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages transcripts, 18 October 1975

This is a transcript of Ian's audio interview with Ozzy. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Blue Oyster Cult, Motorhead: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 25 October 1975

Heavy metal fatigue ...

Blue Öyster Cult, Motorhead: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 25 October 1975

SUPPORT ACT Lemmy's Motorhead played the second worst set I've ever seen. The only past concert I can think of that surpasses it, in terms ...

Black Sabbath: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 1 November 1975

WITH THE exception of their 'Paranoid' single, I've always been quite happy to think of Black Sabbath as the biggest hunch of musical crud on ...

Black Sabbath: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 1 November 1975

FOR SOME bizarre reason, 3,000 kids got off on Black Sabbath's antics at Hammersmith Odeon last Wednesday night. Ozzie Osbourne and cohorts had the fans ...

Kiss: Alive! (Casablanca)

Review by Jaan Uhelszki, Creem, December 1975

KISS IS THE musical answer to what to do after Mark Famer goes home to the farm to chase cows one last time, and Alice ...

Deep Purple: Let Your Fingers Do The Talking…

Report and Interview by Jim Esposito, unpublished, 14 December 1975

… or Ritchie Blackmore Is Right. He Probably Could Wipe Up The Floor With Most Guitarists. ...

Kiss: Destroyer (Casablanca NBLP 7025)

Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, 1976

KISS CAME into prominence, to put it simplistically, by combining Alice Cooper's horrific visuals and theatrics with Grand Funk's heavy-rock simplicity and lyrical solidarity with ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Blue Oyster's Buck Dharma

Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, January 1976

DONALD "BUCK Dharma" Roeser is the lead guitar player in the New York based band, Blue Oyster Cult, a driving and loud outfit which has ...

Hawkwind: Lock, Edmonton

Live Review by Chas de Whalley, New Musical Express, 17 January 1976

IT'S ALL A far cry from Alfred Jarry. ...

Bad Company: Run With The Pack (Island)

Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, 7 February 1976

SOMEWHERE DEEP inside the mix on Bad Company's first album was a little shimmer of Oriental Rock. Not much. Just enough to suggest the germ ...

10cc: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 28 February 1976

THE MUSIC IS exactly as you'd expect it really. More or less. ...

Kiss: Pssst! Wanna Buy the Sistine Chapel?

Special Feature by Robert Duncan, Creem, March 1976

"Business art is the step that comes after Art... Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. During the hippie era people ...

Deep Purple, Ian Gillan: Ian Gillan: Rock And Roll's In Gillan's Soul

Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 13 March 1976

"We all came out to Montreux, On the lake Geneva shoreline. To make a record with a mobile, We didn't have much time." ...

Deep Purple: You Keep On Moving: Shades of Deep Purple

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 13 March 1976

Is this Purple as good as the old? GEOFF BARTON joins the band's 24th tour of America to find out. ...

Deep Purple: Empire Pool, Wembley

Live Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 20 March 1976

AT THE Empire Pool, Deep Purple rule. The roaring audience of ten thousand or so press their hands to their heads as their ears get ...

Deep Purple: Empire Pool, Wembley

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 20 March 1976

THIS REVIEW SHOULD have been written in the white heat of anger after seeing Deep Purple play at the Empire Pool, Wembley, on Friday night. ...

Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page: Past, Presence & Future

Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 20 March 1976

JIMMY ENTERED a whole hour late. But Abe, who was accompanying him, was not in the least embarrassed by the delay. He muttered an obligatory ...

Ted Nugent Unleashes His Little Ball of Fire

Report and Interview by Tom Vickers, Rolling Stone, 8 April 1976

HAMMOND, INDIANA —   Most rock stars look to groupies, drugs or hotel wrecking to relieve the tensions of the road. But Ted Nugent, who ...

Led Zeppelin: Presence (Swan Song)

Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 10 April 1976

AFTER THIS PLATTER had spun incessantly for an afternoon on the office phonogram I asked a non-Zep fan what he thought."Oh, it's okay I guess. ...

Kiss: Destroyer (Casablanca)

Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 17 April 1976

WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN that the total eccentricity of approach, the gross make-up and the blanket heavy metal music would have eventually ensured that Kiss ...

AC/DC: Gonna be a Rock'n'Roll Singer...

Profile and Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 23 April 1976

Au Revoir to Angus, Bon, Malcolm, Mark & Phil, otherwise known as AC/DC, leaving for England to crack The Big Time. ...

Kiss: Destroyer

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 24 April 1976

IF EVER A GROUP have made it huge in America by carefully manipulated saturation in terms of records, concerts and promotion then Kiss are that ...

AC/DC: Nashville Rooms, London

Live Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, 8 May 1976

AC/DC'S SINGLE 'IT'S A Long Way To The Top', has a lot to answer for. First, since its weird, bagpipe-drone of a break sounded unusually ...

Kiss: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 22 May 1976

MAN, KISS HAD everything; every single effect in the book. They had a perfect lighting system; dry ice; smoke bombs; a fire-eater; a huge lighted ...

Kiss: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 May 1976

THE LADY on the door was most persuasive. "Would you take a Kiss mask? Please...go on have a couple, we're trying to get rid of ...

Ted Nugent: Survival of the Fittest

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 29 May 1976

Geoff Barton shuddered, any moment the phone would ring and along the transatlantic link line would come the voice of mad Detroit axeman Ted Nugent, ...

AC/DC: The Fastest Knees in the West

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 12 June 1976

AC/DC, outrageous Aussie punk-rock combo, this week start their rampage across Britain under the SOUNDS banner. Are we doing the right thing? Are schoolboys the future of rock and roll? GEOFF ...

Blue Öyster Cult: Agents Of Fortune (CBS S 81385)

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 19 June 1976

There's a fortune in Öysters sez seafood-crazy G. Barton, the kid with the plutonium-lined skull. ...

Alice Cooper: Alice Cooper Goes To Hell

Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 10 July 1976

THIS ALBUM HAS already received an almost unamimous thumbs-down form the staff, which really suprises as it's no better or worse than Welcome To My ...

Blue Oyster Cult: We Copped A Lot From Sabbath

Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, 24 July 1976

EVEN THE hardest of hearts must soften sometime, and so it is with Blue Oyster Cult, whose fifth album Agents of Fortune offers a degree ...

Deep Purple: Why The Purpling Had To Stop

Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 31 July 1976

In which TONY STEWART listens patiently while IAN PAICE and DAVID COVERDALE explain (within the limits of decent reticence and Not Ratting On Mates)... ...

AC/DC: Marquee, London

Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 21 August 1976

THOSE PUZZLED by the Status Quo phenomenon should beware. AC/DC, from the same rock family, could wreak similar havoc, but they will only realise their ...

Blue Oyster Cult

Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 August 1976

Nectar of strychnine! Seminal psychedelic trip-wire rock'n'roll! Geometric chaos! Neo-nuclear Pearl Harbour precision! Flash-pod explosion! Blood-on-snow controlled fury! Boot-heeling dangerous! ...

Rainbow: If You Don't Like Rock'n'Roll, It's Too Late Now

Report by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 11 September 1976

"We're not in Kansas We must be over the Rainbow" – Judy Garland, Wizard Of Oz ...

Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains The Same (Swan Song)**

Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, 16 October 1976

THREE YEARS to get a live album out? Three years??? I mean – really!! After all, John Denver did it in ten days. ...

Black Sabbath: Ozzy Osbourne: I Got Sensitive Didn't I

Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 23 October 1976

BLACK SABBATH'S Ozzie Osbourne has changed his personality since we last met. He is no longer vulgar and ingenuous. Instead, he is composed and carefully ...

Nazareth: Naz in Exile

Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 13 November 1976

NAZARETH are pissed off!!! Well, they're not that pissed off. Only a bit. In fact they're probably just pissed... ...

Motörhead, The Pink Fairies, Strife (UK): Pink Fairies, Motorhead, Strife: Roundhouse, London

Live Review by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 13 November 1976

Oh, wart a night ...

Tundra: Tundra

Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 13 November 1976

I EXCHANGED Geography for German at the tender age of fourteen, so if my command of the atlas is not all it should be, please ...

Ted Nugent: Free-For-All (Epic)

Review by Robert Duncan, Creem, December 1976

ON BEING A MAN ...

Van Halen: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 December 1976

Spreading Out From Punk-Rock ...

Kiss: Where No Band Has Tread Before

Profile by Michael Gross, Marvel Comics, 1977

THE BEST WAY to understand KISS is to look at the faces in the concert-going crowd, tens of thousands of faces attached to the fans ...

KISS: The Day the Earth Stood KISS

Report and Interview by Robert Duncan, Creem, January 1977

OR THE GENERAL TAKES ON THE BAT LIZARD AND THE PIRATE DOG by Robert Duncan W.L.A.O.R.G.K.* ...

Kiss: Rock And Roll Over (Casablanca Import)

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977

The Red Carpet, but no Heat Treatment ...

Starz: Starz

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 15 January 1977

PREDICTABLE BOYS from the Rock Steady stable with Jack Douglas production. ...

Kiss: "Rock And Roll O-O-O-Over"

Interview by Dan Nooger, Circus, 17 January 1977

Kiss Captures the Searing Sound, Live in the Studio ...

Black Sabbath: Technical Knock-out

Interview by Steven Rosen, Sounds, 22 January 1977

TONY IOMMI walked into the Hollywood Holiday Inn dining room like some living zombie. One wondered, actually, why the Warner Bros. publicist had set up ...

Van Halen: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 29 January 1977

Van Halen Keeps Asserting Itself ...

KISS: The Day the Earth Stood KISS, Pt. 2

Interview by Robert Duncan, Creem, February 1977

THE CREEM GENE SIMMONS RODENT OF PREY INTERVIEW ...

Kiss: Rock and Roll Over

Review by Lester Bangs, Circus, 14 February 1977

LIKE MANY OTHER citizens of Lower Manhattan, I feel guilty. The reason I feel guilty is, however, not the same as the other 2,833,756 culpable ...

Nazareth's Game Plan: Fight It Out Until It's Right

Interview by Wesley Strick, Circus, 14 February 1977

IN GERMANY, their rock-hard rendition of Joni Mitchell's 'This Flight Tonight' won an award for chart longevity. On their recent 13-date cross-Canadian tour, they played ...

Uriah Heep drama: the final act?

Interview by David Hancock, National RockStar, 26 February 1977

Heavy rock 'n' roll is old, tired stuff. Ken Hensley says so and DAVID HANCOCK stares in amazement. Can this be the end of civilisation ...

Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent, Patti Smith: Black Sabbath, Ted Nugent: Madison Square Garden, New York NY

Live Review by Robert Duncan, Circus, 28 February 1977

Sabbath & Nugent: The Heavy Metalists Battle It Out Before 20,000 Spectators ...

Deep Purple: Made in Europe

Review by Lester Bangs, Circus, 28 February 1977

LET'S SEE, as of now I have written two features on Deep Purple, plus, uh, I reviewed In Rock, Machine Head, and Who Do We ...

Golden Earring: Hot Licks from Amsterdam

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 19 March 1977

Our Man In Holland (GEOFF BARTON) pulls his finger out of the dyke and states the case for GOLDEN EARRING ...

Golden Earring: Rainbow Theatre, London

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 2 April 1977

Searing Earring ...

Starz Story

Interview by Wesley Strick, Circus, 28 April 1977

The Sweetly Shocking Rockers Who Brought You 'Pull the Plug' Are Back With Their Second LP Violation. ...

David Byron, Ian Gillan: Ian Gillan: Clear Air Turbulence (Island); Rough Diamond: Rough Diamond (Island)

Review by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 21 May 1977

WHAT KIND of future can Heavy Metal orphans really look forward to once they fall from grace? ...

Judas Priest: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 21 May 1977

KING RIFF rools okay? The two coachloads from Dundee said "Yeaah". The Cop crowd joined saying "okay". But the nice thing about being seen to ...

Ted Nugent: Stalking The Elusive Rock Crown

Interview by Jim Farber, Circus, 23 June 1977

Cat Scratch Fever Is Ted Nugent's Strongest Bid for Superstardom in Fifteen Years on the Road ...

Mahogany Rush: And This Little Piggy Took Too Much Acid

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 25 June 1977

If we tell you that Frank Marino of Mahogany Rush took 1500 trips in a month, you won't be surprised that the tale he tells ...

Rainbow: There'll Always Be A Rainbow As Long A Ritchie's Here

Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 25 June 1977

Well, and as long as Cozy and Ronnie are still here, and as far as you — dear SOUNDS reader — are concerned, as long as Pete ...

Kiss: Love Gun Is a Real Bazooka

Interview by Wesley Strick, Circus, 4 August 1977

Behind the Scenes of the First Kiss Simulated Concept LP ...

Motorhead: Motorhead (Chiswick WLK 2)*****

Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 20 August 1977

MOTORHEAD BANGER ...

Alice Cooper: Love It To Death

Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, 27 August 1977

"I'M CAUGHT in a dream –so what?" ...

Ted Nugent: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, 27 August 1977

I WAS STANDING on the stairs backstage at the Hammersmith Odeon when the Ted Nugent band came down from the dressing rooms. ...

Kiss Zaps Japan

Report and Interview by Michael Gross, Swank, September 1977

Why four American rockers are the hottest thing since the Enola Gay ...

Motorhead

Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, September 1977

Sunrise, wrong side of another day,Sky high, and six thousand miles awayDon't know, how long I been awakeWound up, in an amazin 'state Can't get ...

Kiss: Los Angeles Forum, LA

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 17 September 1977

'LOS ANGELES Police Department reminds you the use of fire works is illegal,' warned the notice outside the Los Angeles Forum. With all the bravado ...

Foreigner, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ted Nugent: Lynyrd Skynyrd/ Foreigner/Ted Nugent: Rock And Roll All Nite

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 17 September 1977

AN AFTERNOON of heavy rock at the Los Angeles sports stadium. Score: Lynyrd Skynyrd – Win. Foreigner – Place. Nugent – Show. ...

Kiss and Tell

Memoir by Danny Goldberg, Circus, 13 October 1977

Behind the Make-Up With Their Former Press Agent ...

AC/DC: Let There Be Rock

Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 22 October 1977

AC/DC ARE A 4-letter word band. If you don't like, them and some misadventure elbows you into their firing line the foulest oaths would be ...

AC/DC: Sex, Snot, Sweat and School Kids

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 29 October 1977

AC/DC: The Mayfair, Newcastle ...

AC/DC Hit California

Report and Interview by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, November 1977

AC/DC PLAYED their West Coast debut at the legendary Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles, with the club fully living up to its legend ...

Motorhead: Motorhead

Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, December 1977

I'VE FELT A LOT of things about a lot of bands over the years, but pity isn't one of the most common. ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: Beyond Black Sabbath

Interview by Tony Stewart, New Musical Express, 3 December 1977

IN THE PAST Ozzy Osbourne has often over-dramatised the state of both his mental and physical health, but as he now relates his reasons for ...

Black Sabbath: Greatest Hits (Vertigo)

Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, 10 December 1977

ENGLAND CAN be depressing to the point of insanity...grey oozing days for months on end...rows of mean streets, pinched people...clausterphobic scrapyard vistas of country turned ...

Uriah Heep: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 10 December 1977

Heep hordes go crazy, critic stays unmoved ...

Deep Purple, Ritchie Blackmore: Ritchie Blackmore: Wailing over the Purple Rainbow

Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, 1978

WHILE RITCHIE Blackmore’s Baroque-tinged shred solos make him the in-vitro father of today’s progressive- and classical-metal movement (just ask Yngwie), his foot-stomping power chords in ...

Van Halen's Back Door Rock'n'Roll

Profile and Interview by Phast Phreddie Patterson, Waxpaper, 1978

THE CHURCH DON’T KNOW WHAT THE PARKING LOT UNDERSTANDS ...

Blue Öyster Cult: John Denver is God; Bruce Springsteen is God; Blue Oyster Cult is God!

Interview by Robert Duncan, Creem, January 1978

I HATE TO be the one to bring it all up again, but goddamnit, the '70s have to be dealt with. An ugly affair, to ...

Blue Öyster Cult: Spectres (Columbia)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, January 1978

THE BLUE Öyster Cult have been able, in the past few years, to abandon their critic-induced anxieties about striving on as the vanguards of N.Y. ...

KISS: The Well-Kept Kiss Secret

Report and Interview by Wesley Strick, Circus, 5 January 1978

Photographing Gene Simmons Reveals the Minds Behind the Masquerade ...

Blue Öyster Cult: R.U. ready 2 rock?

Interview by Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 4 February 1978

Blue Oyster Cult's ALLEN LANIER talks to Ian Birch in New York ...

Blue Oyster Cult: The Cult Occult And The Disco Nightmare

Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 4 March 1978

ALLEN LANIER sits down for a pleasant chat about bikers, Burt Bacharach and band ideology. ...

Van Halen: Van Halen (Warner Brothers import) ****

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 4 March 1978

Van Halen, brand new heavy metal heroes (Oh no. Here we go again — Ed) ...

Whitesnake: David Coverdale's Whitesnake: Penthouse, Scarborough

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 18 March 1978

THE FIRST thing you notice as the band squeezes on to the small stage at Scarborough Penthouse is that David Coverdale still projects. Much much ...

Detective: Watching The Detective

Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 18 March 1978

LOS ANGELES is a city full of Englishmen and Anglophiles. British bands don't play here any more, they live here. Londoners hanging out at the ...

Motorhead: Friars, Aylesbury

Live Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1978

JUST GONE 7.30 and the punter queue is already half in. About a thousand punks, bikers, 'Awkwind 'Eadbangers and 48 hour fun-makers have turned up ...

Judas Priest, No Dice: Judas Priest/No Dice: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 29 April 1978

JUDAS PRIEST had a captive audience, No Dice made a mark, and Gary Valentine just about escaped alive. Proving that heavy metal lives, good old-fashioned ...

Blue Öyster Cult (1978)

Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 30 April 1978

In which the late Allen Lanier debunks myths, largely spread by Richard Meltzer, about the band's formation; discusses songwriting formulae for success and disputes the latent satire in their music; and talks about the role of producers and, specifically, Sandy Pearlman's relationship to the band.

File format: mp3; file size: 22.9mb, interview length: 25' 03" sound quality: ****

Blue Oyster Cult: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 6 May 1978

FLAMING PYROTECHNICS, lasers, smoke...plus great rock'n'roll; Blue Oyster Cult is the group you always dreamt about. Even though there were sound problems and the visual ...

AC/DC: Mayfair, Newcastle

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 13 May 1978

ANGUS YOUNG has got himself some new front teeth. An elegant row of even ivories that wouldn't look out of place in the mouth of ...

Blue Öyster Cult, The Clash: Blue Oyster Cult and Sandy Pearlman

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 13 May 1978

ERIC BLOOM is adamant about the current position and status of the band he sings and plays for, the am-aaa-zing Blue Oyster Cult; they are ...

Blue Öyster Cult: Apollo, Glasgow

Live Review by Tim Lott, Record Mirror, 13 May 1978

Smokey Blue ...

Van Halen: Platform Boots Still Make It

Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 13 May 1978

COLUMBUS, Ohio. Van Halen, just called back for an encore, are basking in the unexpected adulation. The support band takes a bow. "Thank you Cleveland", ...

Black Sabbath: Apollo Theatre, Glasgow

Report by Peter Silverton, Sounds, 27 May 1978

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath ...

Judas Priest

Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, June 1978

I DISCOVERED A GREAT pastime the other day that you've gotta hear about. It's called headbanging. Not exactly what Suzy does in that cute li'l ...

Rainbow: Long Live Rock'n'Roll

Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, June 1978

MENTION GUITARIST Ritchie Blackmore around so-called "intelligent" rockers and you'll just get a bunch of barf noises in response. ...

Van Halen: Van Halen (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1978

LET ME TELL you about dinosaurs. No, "dinosaurs" may be too harsh a term, even if Van Halen-style rockers do find their evolutionary fulfillment in ...

The Godz: The Smell Of Burning Leather…

Profile by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 3 June 1978

"WE'RE A rock and roll band!" spits the ugly rock junkie Eric Moore at the handful of people ogling the stage. "That heavy metal shit's ...

Blue Öyster Cult's Eric Bloom (1978)

Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, 4 June 1978

The Cult singer/guitarist/keyboard player talks about recording the current UK tour for future release (as Some Enchanted Evening); studio albums vs. live albums; American radio, and their place as an FM band; the band's stage show and use of lasers; the importance of breaking Europe; getting the rights to use the name 'Godzilla', and writing for the pop market while retaining credibility. Note: ends very abruptly...

File format: mp3; file size: 14.1mb, interview length: 14' 41" sound quality: ****

Rainbow, REO Speedwagon: REO Speedwagon/Rainbow: Los Angeles, California

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 10 June 1978

REO Rattled By Rampant Rainbow ...

Ian Gillan Band: Mayfair, Newcastle

Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 17 June 1978

WHEN YOU'VE seen one old Deep Purple singer you haven't seen them all. It happened that a month ago I reviewed David Coverdale putting his ...

AC/DC Would Really Like To Be As Successful Here As They Are In England, But…

Interview by Anthony O'Grady, RAM, 14 July 1978

IT'S EASY TO find AC/DC in the airport terminal. Just look for a mob of tough looking Scotsmen drinking at the public bar and the ...

Blue Öyster Cult's Bivalve Personality

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 6 August 1978

BLUE OYSTER Cult's lead singer Eric Bloom was never comfortable with the band's original image — a tongue-in-cheek, leather-bound melange of macabre, tough guy and, ...

KISS Without Tears

Special Feature by Robert Duncan, Rock Scene, September 1978

So the dream is over. Again. ...

Motörhead

Report and Interview by Hugh Fielder, Sounds, 23 September 1978

HUGH FIELDER OBSERVES BONECRUNCHING ROCK IN SANITISED TV STUDIOS (AND ALSO TAKES A DRAW) ...

Ted Nugent: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 23 September 1978

ISN'T IT nice to know that in this ever-changing world there is always something you can rely on to stay the same? Apart from a ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Some Enchanted Evening

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 30 September 1978

IT COULD be just my fevered imagination running away with me, but right now it seems that Sandy Pearlman (wily old fox and Cult behind-the-scenes ...

Led Zeppelin: The Definitive Discography

Discography by Dave Lewis, Sounds, 30 September 1978

PRE-LED ZEPPELIN SESSIONS ...

Kiss: An Interview With Ace Frehley

Interview by Kris DiLorenzo, Grooves, October 1978

Grooves: As a kid, were you tough? Were you a street kid? Were you a quiet kid or...class clown or what? ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Some Enchanted Evening

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 October 1978

NOW THAT Blue Oyster Cult have a patented studio style of their own, neatly quashing any lingering doubts that they had softened up in the ...

Van Halen: Vague

Interview by Rosalind Russell, Record Mirror, 21 October 1978

Ros Russell spends a night in Germany posing with David Lee Roth, Van Halen's front man ...

Judas Priest: Killing Machine

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, New Musical Express, 11 November 1978

"YOU ARE not in touch with the modern world, sucker," hissed the obnoxious little voice in my ear. 'Today's kids don't give a flying one ...

Black Sabbath: Never Say Die

Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, December 1978

NEVER SAY DIE! Black Sabbath didn't never say it, and that's why the heaviest damn band ever is back. Forget all those other bands, because ...

Judas Priest: Killing Machine

Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 9 December 1978

THE LEAD SINGER sweats redly, tuffness of the strategic stud decorations unable to blind the look of uncertainty in his eye for the camera as ...

Alice Cooper Is Back From Hell

Interview by Howie Klein, BAM, 15 December 1978

FIRST THE reality — huge smokestacks are belching soot and grime into the cramped grayish sky. It looks like a job for the Environmental Protection ...

Angry Samoans, Vom: The Metal Mike Saunders Interview

Interview by Gary Sperrazza!, Big Star, Spring 1978

In the early '70s, Mike Saunders was one of the leading and best writers around, especially when he was writing about the topics most near ...

Starz: Coliseum Rock

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 13 January 1979

THANKFULLY, AFTER their last atrocious album Attention Shoppers (ugh! That's worse than Olias Of Sunhillow for an LP title), this fourth Starz disc finds the ...

UFO: Strangers In The Night: A Double Live Album (Chrysalis)

Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 20 January 1979

THE LESSON to be learned from this album is undoubtedly that the natural habitat of a heavy metal band is in concert. The proof comes ...

Kiss: The Timeless Quality Of Platform Boots

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 3 February 1979

KISS' PAUL STANLEY, GEOFF BARTON AND 'PERHAPS THE GREATEST INTERVIEW OF ALL TIME' ...

UFO: In Search Of Heady Riff

Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 10 February 1979

In which UFO try for world domination...HARRY DOHERTY followed them round the concert circuit ...

Motörhead: The Unholy Three

Interview by Giovanni Dadomo, Sounds, 3 March 1979

THE MOTÖRHEAD GUIDE TO YOUTH AND FITNESS. BY GIOVANNI DADOMO (92 IN THE BODY OF A 103 YEAR OLD) ...

UFO: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 3 March 1979

"UFO! UFO!" The chant blasts across the stalls, and security men blench at the prospect of a mass invasion. ...

Bad Company: Desolation Angels (Swansong)

Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 10 March 1979

EVER TRIED shooting ducks in a barrel? It's almost as easy as doing the old aesthetic pistol-whip on Bad Company. It's so damned easy trashing ...

The Scorpions: Scorpions: Lovedrive

Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 10 March 1979

NOW THAT the new wave has been institutionalised and tamed by the Establishment, heavy metal is once more basking in a glorious and celebrated comeback, ...

Van Halen: Van Halen II (Warner Brothers K 56616) ***

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 17 March 1979

Van ordinaire (too much, too soon) ...

Van Halen

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 7 April 1979

Dateline Hollywood: SYLVIE SIMMONS demurely averts her gaze from the tight satin loonpants and sez: Gimme the track-by-track lowdown on the new album. At least, ...

The Scorpions, UFO: Scorpions: Stateless and Fighting Back

Report and Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 14 April 1979

German heavy metallurgists Scorpion, fronted by ex-UFO lead guitarist Michael Schenker, are set to conquer the world the English-speaking one, that is. HARRY DOHERTY talked ...

Axis, Judas Priest: Judas Priest, Axis: Starwood, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 21 April 1979

Judas wants you for a sunbeam ...

Judas Priest: The Starwood, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 21 April 1979

THIRD NIGHT at the Starwood and they're still packing them in. Limbs flailing through the dry ice that fills the stand-up section in imaginary guitar ...

Ted Nugent: The Nugent Interview

Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 5 May 1979

IT'S APPROACHING midnight, and in an empty, echoey dressing room, so bright it seems to have no ceiling, deep in the lifeless body of an ...

Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Samson: If You Want Blood (and Flashbombs and Dry Ice and Confetti) You've Got It

Report by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 19 May 1979

THE NEW WAVE OF BRITISH HEAVY METAL: FIRST IN AN OCCASIONAL SERIES BY DEAF BARTON ...

Judas Priest: Whips over Walsall

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 26 May 1979

"SEE THIS badge?" asks Rob Halford. Smiling, he points to a narrow shiny, sausage-shaped piece of metal pinned to the left lapel of his leather ...

Judas Priest: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 2 June 1979

IT'S A CHARGE that most of 'em would dispute till the cows come home, but heavy metal fans and heavy metal bands are incredibly conservative. ...

Def Leppard: The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal — Part Two

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 16 June 1979

BY DEAF BARTON ...

Ted Nugent: State Of Shock (Epic)

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 23 June 1979

Ted On Arrival ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Mirrors

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 7 July 1979

DEMOCRACY IS A wonderful thing in theory, even if the practice is not always assured of success. And that self-same philosophical trait is a rare ...

Van Halen Makes Your Day Go Away

Report and Interview by David Hepworth, Sounds, 7 July 1979

DAVID HEPWORTH GOES TO HALEN BACK (NEWCASTLE, ACTUALLY) ...

Van Halen: Glory Or Rupture

Report and Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 7 July 1979

GIVE THE Yanks their due: when it comes down to being straight-ahead 'dunced out' almost beyond the realms of the hyper-crass, they take the old ...

Motörhead: A State of Semioutofitness — 12 Hours on the Road with Motorhead

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 14 July 1979

MOTORHEAD'S DRUMMER Phil Taylor was bent double with his backside pressed against a window, his head down by his knees, his flies open and his ...

Kiss: Ecstasy in the Garden of Eden

Report by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 11 August 1979

AN UNAPOLOGETICALLY OVER THE TOP REPORT OF KISS IN NEW YORK. BY GEOFF BARTON, OUR MAN WITH THE FRIED FLESH AND SINGED EYEBROWS ...

Saxon: Saxon (Carrere CAL 110)

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 11 August 1979

Sheezabigteaza! (And other lyrics of note) ...

Saxon: Big Teasers From Barnsley: Saxon

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 18 August 1979

HERE'S A challenge to sort the men from the boys. From new "grassroots English heavy metal band" Saxon to the latest American skullcrushers to go ...

Def Leppard: Mayfair, Newcastle

Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 25 August 1979

Big cat's big let down The Def Leppard backlash starts here (what, already? — Ed) ...

Motorhead: Oy Lemmy, Is It True?

Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, New Musical Express, 25 August 1979

AH, the sheer classicism of the three-piece rock band. ...

AC/DC Plugs Into Primitivism

Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 12 September 1979

AC/DC: Long Beach Arena ...

Judas Priest: Unleashed In The East (CBS)

Review by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 22 September 1979

WHAT IS this thing called Judas Priest? A heavy metal band? Who says? If this is really Judas Priest live they'd be hard pushed to ...

Kiss: Dynasty (Casablanca)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, October 1979

"We had some good times, but now they're gone. So long." -- Ace Frehley, 'Save Your Love' ...

AC/DC: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach CA

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 13 October 1979

AC/DC discover harmony... after a fashion ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: How Black Was My Sabbath

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 13 October 1979

Angry Ozzy Osbourne gives his first interview since the Sabs split to SYLVIE SIMMONS in Los Angeles. ...

Whitesnake: You may not believe it, but... these men are bathing in innuendo

Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 20 October 1979

PHIL SUTCLIFFE STRUTS LIKE A PEACOCK TOWARDS WHITESNAKE AND ASKS "ARE YOU A BUNCH OF LIBIDINOUS HALF-WITS?" ...

Judas Priest in Santa Monica

Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 25 October 1979

WHILE THE PRESS has been busily lavishing attention on punk bands, a new wave of groups has been quietly – well, not exactly quietly – ...

Samson: Survivors

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 3 November 1979

UP UNTIL now the idea of Samson has appealed to me much more than the actual music. I mean, this a band whose drummer dresses ...

Motorhead, Saxon: City Hall, Newcastle

Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 24 November 1979

Beyond the wall of sound ...

Samson: I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 1 December 1979

DON'T BRING YOUR PET GOLDFISH ANYWHERE NEAR SAMSON WARNS GEOFF BARTON ...

Motorhead: The Year Of The Gory Boys

Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, January 1980

IT'S STILL ONE of the greatest pleasures known to man: dig out the Motorhead albums, crank every knob, climb every wall and blister blissfully in ...

AC/DC Current Rock

Interview by Barry Cain, Record Mirror, 5 January 1980

BARING ALL: AC/DC ...

Motörhead: Bomber (Bronze BRON523)

Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, March 1980

LISSEN, HOW the b'jeezus can these guys be considered hip by anyone besides a Hell's Angel (and an English one at that)? I mean, look ...

Def Leppard: Def or Glory?

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 1 March 1980

THE LEPPARDS CAUGHT IN AN A'N'R INDUSTRY STRANGLEHOLD. WILL THEY BE THROTTLED? ASKS GEOFF BARTON ...

Iron Maiden: Iron Maiden (EMI EMC 3330)****½

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 5 April 1980

ULP — I can hear them now, sickening snaps echoing throughout the land as HM fans suddenly stop in mid headshake. Ugh, yeah — I ...

Sammy Hagar: Muscle of Love (A physical education lesson from San Francisco)

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 12 April 1980

STILL FIT TO BOOGIE? SAMMY HAGAR IS, GEOFF BARTON (WORDS) AND ROSS HALFIN (PIX) AREN'T ...

Sledgehammer: The Marquee, London

Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 12 April 1980

SUGAR RAY Leonard, undefeated welterweight champion of the world, would seem to be the perfect metaphorical embodiment of the music I like best. As no-nonsense ...

Fist, Mythra, Raven, Tygers of Pan Tang, White Spirit: Are You Ready For The NENWOBHM?

Report and Interview by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 17 May 1980

In other words, the North East New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. IAN RAVENDALE reports from Wallsend, matrix of metal mayhem (it says here) with ...

Black Sabbath, Girlschool: Black Sabbath/Girlschool: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 24 May 1980

THE SABS are back. And after a series of false starts to their British tour due to drummer Bill Ward contracting viral pneumonia they are ...

Saxon: See The Light Shining

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 24 May 1980

...AND WATCH THE SEASIDE PIER SHAKING. GEOFF BARTON REPORTS AS SAXON STORM THE DISNEYLAND SHOWBAR, COLWYN BAY (YES, REALLY). ...

Girlschool: Girls At Their Best

Report by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 7 June 1980

THESE SCHOOL-TYPES WILL MAKE THE ORCHIDS WILT, SEZ PETE MAKOWSKI ...

Motörhead: Must We Fling This Filth At Our Pop Kids

Interview by Ronnie Gurr, Record Mirror, 7 June 1980

RONNIE GURR thinks we should and MOTÖRHEAD want to get even dirtier. ...

UFO: The Only Way To Travel

Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 28 June 1980

THUNDER SPREADS across the weathered visage of Selecter's dumpling coach driver Tennessee Roman Reynolds. He thumps the breakfast table like he's an SPG man working ...

Van Halen: New Boots and (Stretch) Panties

Report and Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 28 June 1980

GEOFF BARTON encounters the metal might of VAN HALEN and becomes a victim of the furry ...

Van Halen: Remnants Of The Flesh Hangover

Profile and Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, July 1980

ONE THING that's always bothered me about myself: I enjoy offending people. I've done it for years and see no need to stop. I have ...

Judas Priest: The Empire Strikes Back

Report and Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 5 July 1980

MARK COOPER encounters JUDAS PRIEST under a pile of volcanic ash of the third kind ...

Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Saxon: The Lustre of Heavy Metal

Report by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 19 July 1980

Mary Harron takes a trip to Sheffield and discovers a surprising rock revival. ...

Van Halen: The Gospel of Rock According to Van Halen

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 24 July 1980

"WE'VE ENLARGED the band since you last saw us," says Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth, poised to cue me in on a hot ...

Def Leppard: Letter from Britain: Iron Cookies From Island Nations

Column by Penny Valentine, Creem, August 1980

MY FRIEND Nigel looked at the queue winding its way two blocks round the Rainbow Theatre and made his pronouncement: "Bored punks who never got ...

Girlschool: Back to Schooldays

Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 9 August 1980

Pete Makowski deciphers the scrawl in his exercise book. Mike Laye makes with the paints, crayons and Box Brownie ...

Ted Nugent: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 9 August 1980

Going, going, Gonz ...

Samson: The Sound of Silent Thunder

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 16 August 1980

Why did Samson's drummer decline to speak to Sounds? Was it because Deaf Barton had mislaid his hearing aid and he was afraid of being ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Night Of The Locusts

Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 13 September 1980

THE GOLDEN AGE of hotrod and dragster racing is over but the USA is still littered with its mythology. One such relic is Lebanon Valley ...

Gillan, Tygers of Pan Tang: Gillan: Glory Road; Tygers Of Pan Tang: Wild Cat

Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 13 September 1980

IN OTHER music papers, Heavy Metal has been irresponsibly ghettoised. Melody Maker, Sounds, Record Mirror all have their HM specialists who drily serve a facile, ...

Kiss: Empire Pool, Wembley

Live Review by Paul Rambali, New Musical Express, 20 September 1980

AWWWRIGHT LONDON!! ARE YA STARTING TO SWEAT?! ...

Ozzy Osbourne's Blizzard Of Ozz: City Hall, Newcastle

Live Review by Ian Ravendale, Sounds, 27 September 1980

Old dog fails to learn new tricks ...

Def Leppard Breaks the Heavy-Metal Mold

Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 2 October 1980

KANSAS CITV, Missouri — Oblivious to the sticky heat and the rancid aroma of animal fat from the rendering plants across the Missouri River, the ...

Led Zeppelin: Bonzo's Last Bash – Is It The End For Zeppelin Too?

Report by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 4 October 1980

EARLY LAST Thursday afternoon Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones went up to one of the guest bedrooms in Jimmy Page's £900,000 Windsor house, where ...

Motorhead: Ace Of Spades (Bronze)*****

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 25 October 1980

BUZZARDS CIRCLE high above the heads of the three outlaws standing silently waiting far out in the arid badlands of New Mexico. Suddenly, the tranquility ...

Blue Öyster Cult, Shakin' Street: Blue Oyster Cult: Cultosaurus Erectus (Columbia); Shakin' Street: Shakin' Street (Columbia)

Review by Roy Trakin, New York Rocker, November 1980

FUNNY ISN'T it, how both of these records, for one frustrating reason or another, make you long for the late and all-too-unlamented Dictators? Sorry, folks, ...

Motörhead

Report by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 27 November 1980

Pete Silverton (brave man) takes his gas mask (phew!) and his earplugs (that's better) to meet Motörhead (well known environmental hazard). Talk about angels with dirty ...

Tygers of Pan Tang: Tygers, Tygers, Burning Bright

Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, 10 January 1981

The TOPT are even better with new singer JOHN DEVERIL, claims PHIL SUTCLIFFE ...

Motörhead, Rainbow, Saxon, The Scorpions: Monsters Of Rock (Polydor PD-1-6311); Motorhead: Ace of Spades (Mercury SRM-1-4011)

Review by Jim Green, Trouser Press, February 1981

HEAVY METAL at its stalest has few rivals in the all-time tedium stakes. Monsters of Rock, recorded live at Castle Donington in Britain, is not ...

Lemmy, Motörhead: Motörhead (1981)

Interview by Ian Ravendale, Rock's Backpages audio, 29 March 1981

The classic Lemmy, Fast' Eddie Clarke, Phil 'Philthy Animal' Taylor line-up talk talk about getting hammered in the press (and the studio!), staying close to their fans, and their friendship with the Damned.

File format: mp3; file size: 8.5mb, interview length: 10' 35" sound quality: *****

Girlschool

Interview by Peter Silverton, Smash Hits, 30 April 1981

Pete Silverton takes a short course in Metalwork. ...

Motorhead

Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Trouser Press, May 1981

"NOISE IS A big part of Motorhead mania" says the stark black lettering inside one of the band's tour brochures. Immediately below it is a ...

Girlschool: Black Leather at St Trinians

Report and Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 2 May 1981

GIRLSCHOOL FRENZY GRIPS THE COUNTRY AS ADOLESCENT BOYS DISCOVER THEIR VERY OWN ROCK'N'ROLL SEX SYMBOLS. PAUL MORLEY TAKES A MANLY LOOK AT THIS CRAZY PHENOMENON. ...

Vardis: Playing It Strait

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 9 May 1981

IT WAS WITH a considerable degree of lingering dubiety that I ventured beyond the chimney-potted horizons of the far west from my humble North London ...

Girlschool: Hit and Miss? Yeah, right...

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 16 May 1981

GARRY "Mr. Nasty" BUSHELL has a few reservations about Girlschool ...

Motorhead

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 June 1981

TWO LUVLY black eyes, oh what a surprise. Or more to the point, OWWW! what a surprise. I know it's traditional for hacks to liken ...

Motorhead: Scumbags Over USA

Report and Interview by Mick Farren, New Musical Express, 6 June 1981

Mick Farren and Motorhead Lemmy, long time partners in slime and former Ladbroke rogues, meet up in a bar in Passaic, New Jersey, to discuss ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Insanities In Ten Cities

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 June 1981

NEW YORK'S Plaza Hotel is so posh you wouldn't be at all surprised to turn round and catch the Queen Mum sliding down the bannisters ...

Motorhead: No Sleep Til Hammersmith (Bronze)

Review by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 13 June 1981

AXES ON their shoulders, blood on their palms, grease in their hair, gaps in their teeth, something or nothing on their mind, squeezing the universe ...

AC/DC, Blue Öyster Cult, Whitesnake: Fantasy Castle: Monsters of Rock!

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, July 1981

BARNEY HOSKYNS straps on his breastplate, girds his loins and takes his sword to the HM Monsters Of Rock joust at Castle Donington. ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Blizzard Of Ozz (Jet)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, July 1981

THIS MAY be a little hard for Cliff Richard to take, but his fellow Xian, Ozzy Osbourne, has by now become the English Elvis Presley. ...

Diamond Head: "We are the natural successors to Zeppelin"

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 25 July 1981

THIS ASSIGNMENT begins in suburban Stourbridge, definitely not the R'n'R capital of the world, but a peaceful dwelling place satellite to Birmingham, England's second city, ...

Van Halen: The Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 25 July 1981

Skintight savages ...

Judas Priest: Hell-Bent For Eagle Scout-Hood?

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, August 1981

I'M SITTING in the bar of the Marriott Pavilion Hotel in downtown St. Louis. It's — what? — about 2a.m. With me are Rob Halford ...

Def Leppard, More: The Luxury Of Real Fur: Def Leppard/More: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 8 August 1981

SUBTLE AS THE brain-scalding squeals of a skewered pig on the barbecue, roasting alive. Ass-kickin', rabble-rousin', atom-splittin', hard-livin', ever givin'. More had the ear-ringin' toned ...

Riot (V): Riot: Fire Down Under

Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 15 August 1981

YESSIRREE, THEM rich yankee dudes comfy smokin' their tabbacy'ed exhaust pipes in those croccy-skinned swivel-­chairs sure am gonna be mighty peeved when they get that ...

Krokus and the Chocolate Dilemma

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, September 1981

SWISS CONSPIRACY CONTINUES UNABATED! ...

Raven

Profile and Interview by Ian Ravendale, Kerrang!, September 1981

"WE DID this gig for the Hell's Angels once. Ended up playing 'Born To Be Wild' five times. Or else!" ...

Venom: Makin' Satan

Interview by Ian Ravendale, Kerrang!, September 1981

CORRECT ME if I'm wrong, but I do believe it was that well known heavy metal entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren who gave "Don't let the public ...

Van Halen Gets Even With Everyone!

Report and Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, October 1981

DAVID LEE ROTH: It becomes more fun with each season. Each tour that we make, each record that we make — we know how to do ...

Van Halen: Fair Warning (Warner Brothers)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, October 1981

THE GENERALLY accepted notion of guitar heroics holds that heavy metal is a lead guitarist's forum. Practice and history, however, suggest another conclusion. Despite the preponderance of ...

Motörhead: No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith (Mercury)

Review by Jim Farber, Creem, December 1981

BABY, LEMME BLUDGEON YOU DOWN ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Black Sabbath: Mob Rules (Vertigo) ****/Ozzy Osbourne: Diary Of A Madman (Jet) ****

Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 5 December 1981

IN THE BLACK CORNER, Sabbath. In the white corner, their sworn adversary, Ozzy Osbourne. Or vice versa. ...

AC/DC: For Those About To Yawn: AC/DC: For Those About To Rock (Atlantic K50851) ***

Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 5 December 1981

WHEN I humbly volunteered to undertake this venture, I knew full well what a pasting I'd be letting myself in for. Pitting my feeble opinion ...

Gillan: City Hall, Sheffield

Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 5 December 1981

THIS IS the bass player. His dinner jacket's splattered with a multiplied spectrum of colour. A Dulux hoarding on legs. Or maybe he walked under ...

The Scorpions: Lord of the Stings

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 5 December 1981

PHILIP BELL makes buddies with Scorpions' skinsbeater HERMAN RAREBELL ...

AC/DC: For Those About To Rock We Salute You (Atlantic SD 11111)

Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 6 December 1981

ROCK'S A-B-C'S FROM AC/DC ...

Budgie: The Beak Goes On

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 19 December 1981

Phillip Bell takes a squawk on the wild side with HM survivors Budgie ...

Mötley Crüe: Country Club, Reseda CA

Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 29 December 1981

CATCHING MÖTLEY CRÜE IN A FLASH ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne

Interview by David Gans, unpublished, January 1982

On the bus en route from Salt Lake City to Denver in the early morning hours of January 10, 1982 ...

Sammy Hagar: Standing Hampton (Geffen) ***½

Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 9 January 1982

Sammy gets his Hampton caught ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Country Club, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 16 January 1982

FIRST TIME I've seen Blue Oyster Cult in ages. Actually seen them. Last time HM's Santas-little-helpers played in the neighbourhood was one of those monstrous ...

Ozzy Osbourne: LA Sports Arena, Los Angeles

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 23 January 1982

ACT ONE Scene One: Outside, on the coldest night of the year, the wind is howling. But a noise more unearthly still emanates from the ...

Sammy Hagar: Hagar The (not quite so) Horrible

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 23 January 1982

Philip Bell meets the untypically reticent man behind that Standing Hampton ...

UFO: Empire, Liverpool

Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 23 January 1982

A MASSIVE clenched fist clutching a spanner makes an imposing backdrop for the new UFO show and inspires hopes that the band are belatedly rallying ...

UFO: Mechanix (Chrysalis CHR 1360)

Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 30 January 1982

Y Viva Espanner ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Why You Should Care About Blue Oyster Cult

Comment by Jim Green, Trouser Press, February 1982

Action conforms to preexistent imagery.– Sandy Pearlman, The History of Los Angeles, 1965-1969 ...

Def Leppard: The Leppard Doesn't Sleep Tonight

Report and Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 6 February 1982

ROUGH NOTES/ROUGH NOTES (Prelude) ...

Kiss: Inside Kastle Kiss

Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 13 February 1982

"What Alice Cooper was to dead babies and corpses, Kiss became to fire breathing and sadomasochism. With Kabuki-whitened faces, they leap on stage puking blood, ...

Anvil: Hard 'N' Heavy (Attic Records)****½

Review by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 20 February 1982

Hammer and tongues ...

Iron Maiden: Run For The Pils!

Report and Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 20 February 1982

The flanning of Iron Maiden: report by PHILIP BELL ...

Mötley Crüe: Crüesin' and Blüesin'

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 20 February 1982

"FIRST YOU got to cut it real jaggedy. And you need this stuff." ...

Krokus: Hammersmith Odeon

Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 27 February 1982

UNLIKE LEGIONS of musical kompatriots, Krokus have nothing to prove. Nobody in the kamp has tempted fate by kontroversially shooting their mouth off about anything, ...

Magnum: Chase The Dragon

Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 27 February 1982

CHASE THE ALBUM. "Here's a track from our new album, out on September 12th," quoth mag-estic Bob Catley . . . at Reading Festival, 1980. So, ...

The Rods: Where's The Wimmin?

Interview by Geoff Barton, Sounds, 27 February 1982

Do The Rods live up to their name? Geoff Barton gets their measure. WARNING: this feature may cause offence to supporters of Rock Against Sexism. ...

Venom: Back in Black (Magic)

Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 27 February 1982

GARRY BUSHELL enjoys a noisy pint (of blood) with VENOM ...

Iron Maiden, The Rods: Mark Of The Beast: Iron Maiden/The Rods: Queensway Hall, Dunstable

Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 6 March 1982

BEEN A LONG TIME since the Queensway Hall's played host to such an uncouth, freakin' gang of insuffisticates as the Rods. ...

Tank: Filth Hounds Of Hades (Kamaflage)

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 6 March 1982

IMAGES OF destruction – of a solid steel stallion smashing through barbed wire, ploughing through miles of muck and wire to mutilate your mind. Visions ...

Krokus, Magnum: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, 11 March 1982

LONG STICK GOES KERRANG! ...

Electric Sun: Solar Flair

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 27 March 1982

ONE DAY by the seaside. A menacing ocean rears up and surges landward. Cruel winds lash our locks into matty rastafarian entanglement. Doomy clouds are giving ...

Iron Maiden: The Number Of The Beast (EMI)****1/2

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 27 March 1982

DREAMS DON'T come true too often so when they do it's worth making a song and dance about them. The Steve Harris story is a ...

The Scorpions: Boom! Boom! Out Go The Lights

Report and Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 27 March 1982

HERE WE are in Spain – San Sebastian to be precise. Poli de Portivo is the name of the venue and the Scorpions have just ...

Motorhead, Tank: Motorhead/Tank: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 3 April 1982

HOLY MIGRAINE, Batman, howcomes my brain feels like Ardiles just borrowed it for a kickabout and put it back upside down? And who the hell ...

Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot: Randy Rhoads: Requiem For Randy

Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 3 April 1982

The last interview by GARRY BUSHELL ...

Motörhead: The Rank Organisation!

Interview by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 10 April 1982

MARK COOPER probes beneath the scum on the surface of rock's greasy snipers. MOTÖRHEAD An interview that squeezes the spots other music papers can't reach. ...

The Scorpions: Manchester Apollo

Live Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 24 April 1982

APOLLO was clearly the operative term as German blitzkreig '82 style blasted off.   ...

Van Halen: Diver Down (Warner Bros. BSK 3677)

Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 2 May 1982

'DIVER DOWN' IS UP WITH THE BEST ...

Diamond Head: Gem'll Fix It

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 8 May 1982

INKING THE dotted line with major record company MCA has instigated no dramatic transformation in lifestyle for Stourbridge's stealthiest grafters, Diamond Head. ...

Iron Maiden: The Metal Masquerade

Interview by Paul Morley, New Musical Express, 8 May 1982

THE UNSMILING but unthreatening Iron Maiden are being photographed in the bright white tiled shower room of a compact sports stadium in Offenbach, near Frankfurt ...

Van Halen: Diver Down (WEA)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 8 May 1982

HEAVY METAL has one of the longer and more honourable traditions as a "musical influence" in rock, yet its recent renaissance is by and large ...

UFO: Object, Refuse, Rejects Abuse

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 15 May 1982

"JOIN SHOUNDS, hic, and shee the world," Big Al Lewis (Ed Rtd; now Mega-Ed) had shlurred on that historic day in 1978 when I conned ...

Girlschool: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Mark Cooper, Record Mirror, 22 May 1982

THE SPECTACLE is always the same – blinding flashes and smokebombs, loud guitar and pounding drums. The band dedicate the songs to the crowd, the ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Extraterrestrial Live

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 29 May 1982

ANGLE OF VIEW, that's the ticket, the key to the mystery of this one! BOC, y'see, have made two previous excursions into the highly dubious ...

UFO: Tonka, Wailer, Snowman, Sailor

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 29 May 1982

REGULAR READERS of my exciting adventures may recall that two weeks back your humble scribe was snowed under with top rock band UFO in the ...

Sammy Hagar: Standing Hampton (Geffen)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, June 1982

AS MY OLD PAL Bugs would say: "What a maroon!" I'm talking about Sammy Hagar and, let's 'fess up: you probably don't even know who ...

Cockney Rejects: The Wild Ones (NEMS pre-release)****

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 19 June 1982

Flairs and riffers ...

Saxon Dregs 'N' Rock 'N' Roll

Interview by Colin Irwin, Melody Maker, 26 June 1982

From the pits of Yorkshire to the industrial might of Seattle, SAXON have taken tea to the world. Colin Irwin earnestly believes it's the new ...

Girlschool: Hit And Run (Stiff America)

Review by Laura Fissinger, Creem, July 1982

SCREW HOME EC; WE'RE MAJORING IN SHOP ...

Judas Priest: Screaming For Vengeance ****

Review by Phil Bell, Sounds, 3 July 1982

Vengeance is mine ...

Cheap Trick, Van Halen: Cheap Trick: One on One (Epic FE38021); Van Halen: Diver Down (Warner Bros. BSK3677)

Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, August 1982

Wherein two highly anticipated albums refuse to be what was expected of them, proving neither fans nor skeptics correct in their assumptions. ...

Girlschool: Coast to Coast, Baltimore MD

Live Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, August 1982

FROM A DISTANCE, Girlschool looks pretty much like any other heavy rock group — long hair, Marshall stacks, denim and leathers. But it doesn't take ...

Motorhead, Saxon: Hackney Stadium, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, 12 August 1982

"I DON'T know if it's possible, but there is a fellow over here who wants it turned up." Lemmy has a great sense of humour. ...

The Rods: Pack Men

Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 21 August 1982

WIMP ROCK. Every time you turn on the radio out here, there it is, hitting your ears with all the strength and power of a ...

Iron Maiden: Unleashed With The Beast

Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 28 August 1982

CORPUS CHRISTI lies humid and unhurried under a scorching Texas sun. The shining orb's efforts to reduce the populus to mobile blobs of molten jelly ...

Van Halen: From Tahiti to the 7-11

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 5 September 1982

"SUMMERTIME BLUES HIT CONCERT BUSINESS." bemoaned the headline in a recent Billboard magazine survey of America's troubled pop-music promoters. ...

Rox: Big Teezers

Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 11 September 1982

"KIDS LOSE interest fast," mused the boy as the tots in the playground drifted back to their balls and rollerskates, having assimilated and dispensed with ...

Twisted Sister: Under The Blade (Secret) *****

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 11 September 1982

THERE'S A body of opinion that holds that Pete Way couldn't produce a rabbit out of a hat. There's a similar one holding that Twisted ...

Gillan: Magic (Virgin) **

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 18 September 1982

THE INTENTION of the artwork on the cover of the latest Gillan opus seems to be an evocation of something merging images of David Nixon, ...

Motorhead, The Plasmatics: Motorhead & The Plasmatics: Tammy Can You Hear Me?

Report and Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 18 September 1982

A DREAM or a nightmare, in retrospect it still sounds like the kind of project so daft that both parties involved would, by virtue of ...

Motorhead Gives Good Show!

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1982

SURE AIN'T NO Howard Johnsons. There's a woman in the lobby looks like a Kentucky Fried Chicken leg let loose in Freddie Mercury's wardrobe; all ...

Electric Gypsies: Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

Interview by Phil Bell, Sounds, 2 October 1982

This p-p-p-p-FEATURE is a ber-ber-ber-bout per-per-per-p-p-Bernie Torme's Electric ch-ch-ch-Gypsies. ...

Tank: Power Of The Hunter (Kamaflage)

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 2 October 1982

MENTION TANK to yer average cloth-eared critic and these thoughts will run on autocue through his lazy mind: Tank are a three-piece with a bassist ...

AC/DC: NEC, Birmingham

Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 9 October 1982

CANNON AND BALLS! ...

Mötley Crüe, Riot (V): Riot: Restless Breed (Elektra/Asylum); Mötley Crüe: Too Fast for Love (Elektra/Asylum)

Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 11 November 1982

RIOT LOOK like a more wretched New York Dolls and play powerhouse meatrock, and as meatrock bands go, they are enchanting. The singer yodels in ...

Tank: Armour Geddon

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 13 November 1982

The permanent new wave of HM rolls on with Tank reports GARRY BUSHELL ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Talk Of The Devil (Jet) *****

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 20 November 1982

EXACTLY HOW and why this extraordinary album came about is a mystery on a par with the Turin Shroud. I personally fancy it's Ozzy's way ...

Venom: Black Metal (Neat) *****

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 20 November 1982

OH LORD forgive them for they know not what they do. ...

Manowar... Just "Because"

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, December 1982

DETROIT — Bad news, Metal fans and cryds: things are turning ugly. Mean, rotten, and — in general — no good. I'm deadly serious about ...

Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow: Seeing is Believing

Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 4 December 1982

MOST PEOPLE reckon Ritchie Blackmore's a miserable bastard. Mean, moody, mysterious, macabre and, by implication, Mandraxed to the gills, the Blackmore of popular imigination has ...

Led Zeppelin: Coda

Review by Richard Cook, New Musical Express, 11 December 1982

THAT THERE is no appreciable difference between 'We're Gonna Groove' from 1969 and 'Wearing And Tearing' from 1978 – the opening and closing tracks in ...

Kiss: Creature Feature

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 18 December 1982

BACK IN the days before Asteroids took over, Kiss was the pagan religion for America's pimpled adolescents. ...

British Steel: How UK rock got ever harder, heavier and more metallic in the '70s

Retrospective by Chris Welch, The History of Rock, 1983

ROCK CRITICS HAD IT ALL PLANNED: music during the Seventies would become increasingly sophisticated. By dint of hard reviewing all folly would be removed, leaving ...

Deep Purple, Rainbow: Ritchie Blackmore

Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983

ONE REASON for the selection of ace heavy metal guitarist Ritchie Blackmore as one of our subjects relates to a previous, slimmer and somewhat inferior ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Sharon Osbourne: The Power Behind The Throne

Interview by Chas de Whalley, Kerrang!, 13 January 1983

Before she linked up with, and subsequently married, Ozzy, Sharon Osbourne was better known as the daughter of Don Arden, proprietor of Jet Records and ...

Def Leppard, Rock Goddess: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, 24 March 1983

A WILD and ferocious Def Leppard leapt at the throats of its audience and claimed another killing on the first major Lep safari in many ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Clarabelle Talks Back: Ozzy Osbourne's No Bozo On This Bus

Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, April 1983

THEY WARN you about the madman. That he wraps himself in scales and chains, fangs and dripping saliva as he prowls arenas of the night. ...

Def Leppard: Pyromania (Mercury)

Review by Mitchell Cohen, Creem, May 1983

IT ALL COMES down to how many ways there are to conjugate the regular verb "to rock" in a context that suggests endurance of a ...

Def Leppard: Spot Checking Def Leppard

Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, May 1983

LONDON – Directly or indirectly, Eric Clapton is responsible for my being here. ...

Hanoi Rocks: Mystery Boys From Mystery City

Report by Pete Makowski, Kerrang!, 19 May 1983

A heart-to-heart on the art of falling apart. PETE MAKOWSKI meets HANOI ROCKS. ...

Lita Ford: From Runaway To Metal Goddess: Lita Ford's Got BLOOD If You Want It!

Profile and Interview by Iman Lababedi, Creem, August 1983

Out Of The Blue (Stepping Out) ...

Lita Ford: Out for Blood (Phonogram)

Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 6 August 1983

LADY ROCKERS who hurl the epithet "sweet thang" at their listeners do everything for me that over-friendly taxi drivers accomplish — or Chrissie Hynde live ...

AC/DC: Flick Of The Switch

Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 3 September 1983

FOR THOSE about to cry "Oh No Not AC/DC", I refute you. I'm really sorry about this, but they've made some fine records and remain ...

Rainbow: A Bit Of A Bender: Rainbow: Bent Out Of Shape (Polydor) *****

Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, 10 September 1983

SURPRISINGLY, despite the title, this isn't a concept album based on Ross Halfin's extravagant sex life. ...

Iron Maiden Tattoo America

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1983

A DREAM. I'm lounging on the balcony of a Beverly Hills hotel staring out over the pool when there's a knock on the door. In ...

M, Mötley Crüe: Mötley Crüe: Shout At The Devil (Elektra)

Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 6 October 1983

"THOSE WHO have the youth have the future". Unknowingly, unwittingly even, Mötley Crüe have succinctly summarised the task that lies ahead of them in their ...

AC/DC: Flick Of The Switch (Atlantic)

Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, December 1983

Loose wires/Cause fires/Getting tangled in my desire so/Screw 'em all in/Plug 'em in/Then throw the switch and start all over again. — Young, Young, ...

Girlschool: Country Club, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 23 December 1983

GIRLSCHOOL'S BRITISH CLASS ...

Van Halen: The Secret of Van Halen’s Excess

Interview by Mick Brown, The Sunday Times, 1984

IT IS another perfect day in paradise, and David Lee Roth has decided to go for a drive down Hollywood Boulevard. ...

Van Halen: Eddie Van Halen drops the bomb on Heavy Metal

Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar World, January 1984

SIX ALBUMS AGO (including the one yet to be released). Van Halen issued its first record. It was dramatic, intense and bold. and contained within ...

Van Halen: 1984 (Warner Bros. 1-23985)

Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 January 1984

VAN HALEN'S 1984 CLEARS COBWEBS ...

Quiet Riot: Cum On Feel The Boize

Report and Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 21 January 1984

"CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE!! GURLS RAAACK YOUR BOIZE!! WE'LL GET WILD WILD WILD!!!" ...

Van Halen: Life With The Top Down

Interview by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 5 February 1984

"A LOTTA PEOPLE figure, 'Oh, Diamond Dave, he gets all the women he wants,'" says David Lee Roth with a cat-that-ate-the-canary gleam in his eye. ...

Quiet Riot: Cum on Top the Chartz: a Quiet Riot Goin' On

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, March 1984

ROOM 287 at the Holiday Inn in Southfield, Michigan is pretty much like any room at any other Holiday Inn. Towels and occupants are changed, ...

Twisted Sister: Local Heroes in Warpaint Make Good

Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, March 1984

OUT IN THE endless flatlands of Long Island's Suffolk County, where the traffic-clogged main streets are lined with every necessity for fast-food living and drive-in ...

Whitesnake: Just A Load of Old Cobras

Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 3 March 1984

DAVID COVERDALE, the professional peacock of puerile penile dementia rock has landed. ...

Whitesnake: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Mary Harron, The Guardian, 5 March 1984

WHITESNAKE ARE known as the male chauvinists of British heavy metal, which is a dizzying thought. Lead singer David Coverdale's stardom is based on his ...

AC/DC: And Nothing Can Harm Them!

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, April 1984

ARE THEY SUPER? My God, they're immense. They're gigantic. They're Jabba the Hutt on the Elvis Diet. They're so big that they're invulnerable to criticism ...

Hanoi Rocks: Danceteria, New York

Live Review by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 14 April 1984

IT WAS a particularly nasty little flu bug, the sort that devastates every function of the human body and turns you into the most miserable ...

Girlschool: Staying After Girlschool

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, May 1984

GIRLSCHOOL MEMBERS Kim McAuliffe and Gil Weston flash me quick smiles as we're introduced in their road manager's hotel room, and I'm relieved to note ...

Van Halen: Forum, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 15 May 1984

VAN HALEN ACHIEVES INTIMACY ON HUGE SCALE ...

Spinal Tap: the Comics Behind the Funniest Rock Movie Ever

Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 24 May 1984

Celebrating seventeen years of heavy metal's most painful career ...

Alcatrazz — The Concept!

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, June 1984

LOS ANGELES — Alcatrazz. A fine name for a heavy band. Visions of toughness, Clint Eastwood, bars, Clint Eastwood, implacability, Clint Eastwood. Better than Graham Crackers anyway, ...

Venom: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Kerrang!, 14 June 1984

"AAROOGAH! AAROOGAH!! F**KIN' AAROOGAH!!!" ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Kiel Center, St Louis

Live Review by Paul Yamada, Concert News, July 1984

IT WAS OBVIOUS that this was what the crowd was waiting for; they had tried to be totally oblivious to the first band, Wet Willie, ...

Judas Priest Eaten Alive!

Interview by Toby Goldstein, Creem, July 1984

THE GUNPOINT CONFESSIONS ...

The Scorpions: Scorpions: Stinging Scorchers Or Virgin Killers?

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, August 1984

IF, AS JAH ROTH says, there's a little bit of Van Halen in everyone on a Saturday night, there's likely a whole lot of Scorpions ...

John Dowie, Gary Glitter, Marillion, Nazareth, Status Quo: John Dowie: Finborough Arms, London; Status Quo, Nazareth, Marillion, Gary Glitter: Milton Keynes Bowl

Live Review by Susan Williams, New Musical Express, 4 August 1984

QUO: A NATION MOURNS ...

AC/DC: Clap, It's AC/DC!

Interview by Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 25 August 1984

JUST OCCASIONALLY Robert Wyatt gets elbowed off my turntable in favour of something a little more...lycanthropic. Something to transport me away from the pristine confines ...

Accept, Gary Moore, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, Y & T: Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Ozzy Osbourne et al: Monsters of Rock, Castle, Donington, Leicestershire

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, Mat Snow, New Musical Express, 25 August 1984

I WAS A TEENAGE GRISTLEBURGER! Trampled underfoot: BARNEY HOSKYNS and MAT SNOW. ...

Twisted Sister: Knights in White Satin

Interview by Mick Sinclair, ZigZag, September 1984

Crazed rocker Mick Sinclair arm-wrestles and jives with mean Mutha Dee Snider of Twisted Sister who isn't as dumb as he looks. ...

Accept, Dio, Lita Ford, Great White, Quiet Riot, Ratt, Twisted Sister: Heavy Metal Rears Its Ugly Head Again

Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 27 September 1984

A new generation of bands is dominating the charts ...

Van Halen: David Lee Roth: The Face Interview

Interview by Fiona Russell Powell, The Face, October 1984

Larger than life and twice as loud, David Lee Roth is the vocalist and ringmaster of the Van Halen hard rock circus. ...

WASP: Lyceum, London

Live Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 6 October 1984

THEY DON’T MAKE metal mutants like they used to. Whilst WASP obviously consider themselves the baddest muthas to walk this earth, many of their audience ...

Bitch: Eleganza: Mom of a Bitch

Interview by John Mendelsohn, Creem, November 1984

"I'M REALLY not into playing particular roles just because you're a certain age or have a certain position in life," says Lois Weiss, an early ...

Quiet Riot: Very serious about not being serious

Interview by David A. Keeps, Creem, November 1984

FOR YOUR average cub-reportin' type rock hack, the Road Trip stands as a hallowed institution, a chance to meet rock 'n' roll's Olympians "up close ...

Deep Purple: Deep Throats

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, 3 November 1984

"WE ALL CAME IN at different times. Paicey and I walked in – we'd booked a conference room in Greenwich, Connecticut overlooking the harbour, and ...

Motörhead: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Julian Henry, Melody Maker, 17 November 1984

LEGEND LEMMY ...

Mötley Crüe: Dominion, London

Live Review by Mick Brown, The Guardian, 21 November 1984

A GOOD night for London Transport. The fans had poured off the bus and Tube to this one squeezed into satin pants, war paint, and ...

Lita Ford: A Lita Bit Closer to the Top!

Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, December 1984

WHAT A TIME to be a gal, hey? One in space, one in the presidential race, and one who plays metal guitar fast and mean ...

Twisted Sister: Twisted Logic (I'd Say Severely Bent)

Report and Interview by David Gans, Record, December 1984

IT IS A fundamental conceit of Heavy Metal that teenagers are a great oppressed underclass, forced to take out garbage, load dishwashers and do homework ...

Van Halen: Monsters of Rock, Castle Donington

Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, Summer 1984

I'D BEST COME clean, 'fess up that the Edward Van Halen Four were the sole reason I schlepped up to this denim'n'leather version of Dante's ...

Deep Purple Returns!

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, March 1985

DEEP PURPLE. Two words that mean so much to so many. It's been 13 years since DP – the DP, Gillan, Glover, Paice, Lord and ...

Dokken: All Bozos On This Bus!

Report and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, March 1985

OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE...IT'S ELECTION DAY in America, and I'm in Washington, D.C. Several miles away, Ronnie & Nancy are celebrating the fact that ...

Ratt: Ratt (Time Coast/Atlantic)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, April 1985

RATT BETWEEN THE LIPS ...

David Lee Roth, Van Halen: What It Be, David Lee?

Interview by David Gans, Record, April 1985

WHEREIN MR. ROTH REVEALS A SERIOUS BONE ...

Anthrax: Dangerous Music

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 18 April 1985

HOWARD JOHNSON climbs to the top of the Thrash Heap and contracts a lethal dose of Power Metallurgists ANTHRAX ...

Motörhead: Loving Them Like Reptiles

Report and Interview by Richard Riegel, Creem, June 1985

MOTÖRHEAD ARE so fucking LOUD my ears are already bolting for the door so they can hop a bus and flee home to the security ...

WASP: Lawful or Awful?

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, June 1985

HERE'S A thumbnail sketch of Blackie Lawless: his real name is Steve Duran, he's 28 years old, getting paunchy, sings and plays bass for W.A.S.P. ...

King Kobra: Snakes Alive

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Sounds, 8 June 1985

King Kobra: one big boa, or more bite than venom? Steffan Chirazi bares his fangs and finds these ...

Mötley Crüe: White Noise: How Heavy Metal Rules

Essay by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 18 June 1985

IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT at L'Amour, Rock Capital of Brooklyn (well, that's what it says on the awning). The smell is smoke and damp, black lipstick ...

Blackfoot, Deep Purple, The Mama's Boys, Meat Loaf, Mountain, The Scorpions, UFO: Deep Purple, The Scorpions, Meat Loaf et al: Knebworth Fayre, Knebworth, Hertfordshire

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Sounds, 29 June 1985

THIS IS the second Dark Age. It's gotta be. Either that or it's a farmyard. Either that or it's a British festival. Oh oh, it's ...

Iron Maiden: What's It All About Eddie?

Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, July 1985

HEAVY METAL. Now – wait. Before you all go screaming off into the night, crossing yourselves and mouthing prayers to the soul of Michael Jackson, ...

Mötley Crüe: Theatre Of Pain (Elektra 960 418-1)****

Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, 6 July 1985

ARTAUD FOR Artaud's sake? Cruelty, pain, speak of sin and you know this is it! No — actually this latest Crüe's ship hasn't hurt me ...

Mötley Crüe: Theatre of War

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 8 August 1985

HOWARD JOHNSON goes beyond the Pain barrier with MÖTLEY CRÜE. ...

Saxon: Streets of Fire

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 8 August 1985

HOWARD JOHNSON travels to Spain to get the loudness lowdown on SAXON's plans to recapture the spirit of their Wheels Of Steel heyday ...

Bon Jovi, Magnum, Marillion, Metallica, Ratt, ZZ Top: ZZ Top/Marillion/Bon Jovi/Metallica/Ratt/Magnum: Donington Park, Leicestershire

Live Review by Chris Roberts, Sounds, 24 August 1985

KINGS AND RATTS OF THE CASTLE Yes, it's that time of year when the Metal Mob gather at the shrine of Donington to pay homage to ...

Mötley Crüe: Inglewood Forum, Inglewood CA

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 26 August 1985

ROCK GROUP RIPE FOR A CRÜE-SADE? ...

The Scorpions: From Europe To Video Domination

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, 31 August 1985

AFTER SPENDING virtually all of 1984 on the road, rocking fans on four continents, you'd think Scorpions needed a break. So they did, and they ...

Motorhead: Antiques Roadshow

Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, September 1985

Ten years on and Lemmy's still there with a new bunch of salacious characters. Kris Needs plays the generation game ...

Saxon: A Dog Day Afternoon

Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 7 September 1985

SATAN IN a shitlake, I'm here on serious medical business and I've left the pliers on the anvil at home after cuffing the slave-girls. ...

The Scorpions: Sex and Schnapps and Rock 'n' Roll: Scorpions Shock Horror

Interview by Annene Kaye, Creem, October 1985

My Mind Told Me It Was Fate...My Editor Told Me It Was Due Friday! ...

WASP: Buzz Sore?

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Sounds, 19 October 1985

In the red corner, bobbing and weaving and humming like a Tiger Moth, WASP come out fighting. Over on the blue side, STEFFAN CHIRAZI stings ...

The Scorpions: Scorpions: Around the World

Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, 30 November 1985

IT TOOK THE Scorpions more than a dozen years to do it, but there now remains no doubt that the Hannover, West Germany-based rockers have ...

Anthrax: Shake, Cattle & Roll

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 26 December 1985

HOWARD 'Never Mind The Bullocks' JOHNSON hoofs it over to the States and gets ahead off the Thrash Metal herd with ANTHRAX. ...

Twisted Sister: Come Out And Play (Atlantic)

Review by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 4 January 1986

THE FILM Spinal Tap so brilliantly nailed the HM ritual (as if it wasn't funny enough anyway) that it has been impossible to view purveyors ...

Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister: Twisted Sister: New Year's Dee

Interview by Helen Fitzgerald, Melody Maker, 4 January 1986

DEE SNIDER, fang-toothed leader of outrageous HM maniacs TWISTED SISTER lets his tongue gallop over a few topics suggested by Helen 'Tape-deck' FitzGerald. ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Sin, 'bourne to be wild

Interview by Chris Roberts, Sounds, 11 January 1986

OZZY OSBOURNE is a particular man. He wouldn't walk out in the street with shit on his trousers, he is not colour prejudiced and he'd ...

Mötley Crüe: Sleazy Livin'

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 6 February 1986

SYLVIE SIMMONS travels to Frankfurt in Germany and gets Sixx of the best from gutter-level gürus MÖTLEY CRÜE. ...

Metallica: Thrash on Delivery

Report and Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Sounds, 15 February 1986

Pure metal butchery... STEFFAN CHIRAZI gets his mouth burnt and his ears scorched as he gatecrashes the LA studio where the fearless METALLICA are recording ...

Mötley Crüe: Hammersmith Odeon, Odeon

Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 17 February 1986

SINCE FORMING in Los Angeles in 1981, Mötley Crüe have assiduously cultivated a hard-living bad-boy image, diligently indulging in the traditional macho pursuits of drinking, ...

Ozzy Osbourne: The Ultimate Sin (Epic)

Review by Caroline Sullivan, Melody Maker, 22 February 1986

WHEN I MET the editor of Kerrang! the other week, I asked him why he liked heavy metal, assuming that here, at last, was someone ...

Van Halen: Give Us Van Halen!

Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, March 1986

"YOU DO IT one of two ways: either spectacle or personality. ...

HEAVY: The i-Diot's Guide to Heavy Metal

Guide by Kathryn Flett, i-D, March 1986

Here in i-D land it is easy for us to glide gracefully through life with nothing more to worry our fabulously coiffured heads about than ...

Cheap Trick, Mötley Crüe: Mötley Crüe, Cheap Trick: Odeon, Birmingham

Live Review by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, 1 March 1986

CHILLY WILLIES AND THE RED HOT PECKERS ...

Mötley Crüe: Masters of Disaster

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 1 March 1986

PAUL ELLIOTT confronts MÖTLEY CRÜE, men with a taste for reckless living, sexual weirdness and putting bounties on making it with gummy old grannies. ...

Twisted Sister: Kemper Arena, Kansas City MO

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 6 March 1986

SOUND OF THE SUBURBS ...

Mötley Crüe: Psychic Gruel and Mötley Crüe

Report and Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, April 1986

CONSIDER SUITE 619 at the Park Hyatt in Chicago. The floor plants in wicker baskets. The liquor cabinet. The glass coffee table, with fresh flowers ...

Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Brothers W 5150) KKK

Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 17 April 1986

VAPID
 VAN 
HALEN ...

Twisted Sister: Snider As Usual

Interview by Laura Fissinger, Creem, May 1986

THEY HAVE a new album out, their fourth, Come Out And Play. They're on an 11 month world tour. So of course Twisted Sister talks to ...

World Metal On Rise; Europe Leads Trends

Report by John Tobler, Billboard, 10 May 1986

THAT HEAVY metal is a force to be reckoned with in chart terms seems beyond dispute, though it's fast becoming apparent that Europe and, to ...

W.A.S.P.: The Lore Of The Lawless

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 15 May 1986

Is BLACKIE still tacky? Have W.A.S.P. s new-found stadiarock sensibilities caused 'em to abandon their old 'wild, funny and outrageous' ways? SYLVIE SIMMONS asks the ...

Stryper: The Newest Testament Yet!

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, June 1986

And a crowd did gather outside a great hall in El Paso, but not to hear of Stryper, but to rebuke them mightily with picket ...

Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Bros.)

Review by Roy Trakin, Musician, June 1986

POST-LOBOTOMY VAN HALEN GO ON WITH HALF A MIND ...

AC/DC: Who Dares Wins

Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 12 July 1986

Meet AC/DC, terror monarch Stephen King's favourite band and the bane of America's moral majority. NEIL PERRY takes his hat off to them ...

Ozzy Osbourne: A Mad Man in Japan

Report and Interview by Tom Hibbert, Smash Hits, 30 July 1986

"They're great, the Japs... they do everything I do. Stick my hand in the air and a thousand hands go up. If I got me ...

Van Halen: 5150 (Warner Bros.)

Review by Richard Riegel, Creem, August 1986

THERMOS HUNT CONTINUES! ...

The Scorpions: Scorpions get set to scorch

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 7 August 1986

THE SOUND remains the same! The clipped Teutonic tones winging their way across the wire from Germany herald the return of Germany's biggest, the Scorpions, ...

Poison, Ratt, The Who: Eleganza: Our Wacky, Wacky World

Column by John Mendelssohn, Creem, September 1986

IN THE EARLY '70s, we Americans called it glitter and the English glam, but by any other name it would still be mass transvestitism. It's ...

Judas Priest: Leathered, Studded Dudes Or…

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, September 1986

COWS ARE VERY useful except in India. There are varying degrees of cow-use – milk, cheese, burgers, cheeseburgers – but none so useful as the ...

Ozzy Osbourne: I am Oz the Great and Terrible

Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Spin, September 1986

Everyone believes Ozzy Osbourne is the devil, the perfect scapegoat for hysteria and madness. "To be Ozzy Osbourne, you got to be special," he says. ...

David Lee Roth's Revenge

Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1986

THE SYSTEM OF law in New Guinea involves a concept loosely defined as "payback," which means if one village has wronged another, that village is ...

Metallica: I Confronted Metallica On Their Own Terms!

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1986

METALLICA. YOU KNOW the story. Those that don't are doomed to have me repeat it. ...

Iron Maiden: When It's Time To Rock...

Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 2 October 1986

Somewhere in Yugoslavia, IRON MAIDEN are gearing themselves up for a mammoth assault on the planet's concert stages. SYLVIE SIMMONS braves bolshy Eastern European bureaucrats ...

Motorhead: No Sleep 'Til San Diego: Motorhead

Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 7 October 1986

IT'S BEEN A TOUGH five years for Motorhead. The English heavy metal quartet, which appears Saturday in Santa Monica, Sunday in San Bernardino and in ...

Motorhead Guitarist Is Running On All Cylinders

Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, 10 October 1986

WURZEL BURSTON'S road to Motorhead qualifies as one of rock's more implausible success stories. Originally a drummer, Burston switched to guitar at the advanced age ...

Metallica: At The Mercy Of The Master

Report and Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 11 October 1986

Something sad and inexplicable has happened to METALLICA, a band who were in full flight until bassist Cliff Burton was tragically killed in a road ...

Stryper: I'm a Believer

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 16 October 1986

Are STRYPER the genuine article or is this Christian Rock Band Peace, Love & Understanding stuff just so much holy smoke? After meeting up with ...

Iron Maiden: Apollo Theatre, Oxford

Live Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, 18 October 1986

ON THE opening night of the British leg of their world tour to promote an album called Somewhere In Time, Iron Maiden play like pirates, ...

Girlschool: Nightmare At Maple Cross (GWR)

Review by Neil Taylor, New Musical Express, 25 October 1986

WHEN THE metal messiah Lemmy recently stated on the radio that Heavy Metal was all about tunes, and that vocals, lyrics, and accessories were unimportant, ...

Bon Jovi: No Slip Till Hammersmith

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 30 October 1986

HOWARD JOHNSON talks to JON BON JOVI on the eve of the band's UK tour ...

Girlschool: Hear No Evil

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 30 October 1986

The new GIRLSCHOOL album, Nightmare At Maple Cross, may have a tongue-in-cheek terror title, but the record itself, according to HOWARD JOHNSON, is anything but ...

Megadeth: Peace Sells... But Who's Buying? (Capitol EST 2022) kkk

Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 30 October 1986

ALONGSIDE SLAYER, it's Megadeth who've been tipped as the next Thrash outfit to break out of the Underground and join the elite, rubbing shoulders with ...

Megadeth, Motörhead: Motörhead, Megadeth: Kaiser Centre, Oakland

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 13 November 1986

'Head Over Heels! ...

Slayer: The Stone, San Francisco

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 27 November 1986

Slatanic Slaughter ...

The Beastie Boys, Oran "Juice" Jones, LL Cool J, Run-DMC, Slayer: Def Jam: License to Thrill

Report and Interview by Frank Owen, Melody Maker, 20 December 1986

RICK RUBIN and RUSSELL SIMMONS are the creative mavericks behind the outrageous antics of THE BEASTIE BOYS and RUN DMC and a whole host of ...

Metal: What The Censor Saw

Report and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Mega Metal Kerrang!, 1987

Would you regard this issue off Mega Metal Kerrang! as 'subversive', 'pornographic' or 'objectionable'? No, of course you wouldn't – 'harmless fun' is a term ...

Metallica: Master Of Puppets (Music For Nations MFN 60 DM) KKKKK

Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 22 January 1987

DIRECT KURRENTS ...

Metallica: From Jetsam To Jetset: The Reforging Of Metallica

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 7 February 1987

1986 saw the rise and rise of METALLICA but then came the death of bassist Cliff Burton last autumn. Since then they've recruited Jason Newsted ...

Anthrax: Slammers on the Shore

Report and Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 19 March 1987

HOWARD JOHNSON gets among the living Dredd in the Bahamas and discovers ANTHRAX whipping up a sounds-storm with legendary rock producer Eddie Kramer at Nassau's ...

Anthrax, Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer: Thrash Metal: Psycho Path to the Top

Report by Mark Cooper, The Guardian, 20 March 1987

Thrash metal is the new noise of teenage horror, a vinyl equivalent of the video nasty. Mark Cooper reports on the bands that delight in ...

Metallica: Masters Of What?

Report and Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 21 March 1987

First and biggest! METALLICA stumbled across the secret of speed-metal and threw open the door for the hairy hordes that followed. In the process, they've ...

Slayer: To Hell And Back: Slayer

Report and Interview by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 21 March 1987

Not all the old Heavy Metal cancers have been cured. SLAYER - erstwhile thashers, now adopted by the speed-metalists - have been forced to deal ...

Anthrax, Metallica, Slayer: The Sound of Speed, Thrash & Death Metal

Overview by Simon Witter, i-D, April 1987

In 1987, against all odds, HM has become an issue again. i-D dives into the Metal underground to find out about moshing, skateboards, and the ...

Guns N' Roses: Raising Hell in the City of Angels

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 4 April 1987

Over on L.A.'s Santa Monica Boulevard, rock renegades GUNS N' ROSES are having a ball. PAUL ELLIOTT parrys shots with L.A.'s scuzziest scumbags. ...

Poison: America Gets Poisoned

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 16 April 1987

Last year an LA indie album hit the streets called Look What The Cat Dragged In. It took 12 days and $23,000 to record. A ...

Slayer: Blood Money

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 18 April 1987

Nazi apologists or naive dickheads? Either way, SLAYER are the foulest, most provocative and probably the best speed metal band yet. But have they gone ...

Slayer: Cash from Genocide

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 2 May 1987

OK, SLAYER. So you're the world's top death-metal thrash outfit, and you're playing to thousands all over Britain. But now you must justify your appalling ...

Slayer: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 2 May 1987

CARRION LAUGHING ...

Bad Brains: Brain Drain

Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, 6 June 1987

Ten years down the road and thousands of gigs on, BAD BRAINS are still chasing the goal of a mass audience. JACK BARRON measures their ...

Guns N' Roses: Colt Heroes

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 11 June 1987

"KNOW WHAT I want to do? Really want to do? Go over to Japan and pollute it. I'm not talking about drugs, I'm talking about ...

Manowar: The Fight Game

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 25 June 1987

THOSE JOLLY nice chaps from Manowar gave me a credit on their spanking new Fighting The World album as one of 'the faithful', which is ...

Faster Pussycat: Faster Pussycat (Elektra K96 07301) ****

Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 11 July 1987

FELINE GROOVY ...

Big Black, Head of David: Big Black: You Got It All, Dad! We're Gonna Hit! (Sound Of Impact) (Brace NOT 2 BUT I)*****; Head of David: Ultramont (Brace NOT 3)***

Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, 18 July 1987

THE 'OFFICIAL bootleg' is an interesting development in deception. Several have already sneaked out from beneath the Mute umbrella but this pair, including Head Of ...

Twisted Sister: Love Is For Suckers (Atlantic WX 120/CD)**

Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 18 July 1987

THEY'VE HAD the best part of two years to think out a new game plan, yet Twisted Sister are still stuck in the Muppet metal ...

Guns N' Roses: Appetite For Destruction (Geffen)

Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 25 July 1987

OF COURSE they're dreadful. What's more surprising is that so many members of the press, who on most other days of the week could be ...

Anthrax: The Mad 'Thraxmen

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 8 August 1987

Who would have believed six months ago that New York speed metal bruisers ANTHRAX would have had not one but two UK chart to their ...

Faster Pussycat, Guns N' Roses: Guns N' Roses: Appetite For Destruction (Geffen) **; Faster Pussycat: Faster Pussycat (Elektra) **

Review by Don Waller, Los Angeles Times, 9 August 1987

WHAM, GLAM, NO THANK YOU, MA'AM ...

Anthrax, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Dio, Metallica, W.A.S.P.: Bon Jovi, Dio, Metallica, Anthrax, W.A.S.P., Cinderella: Monsters Of Rock, Castle Donington

Live Review by Steven Wells, Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 29 August 1987

THRASH TRASH ...

Anthrax, Bon Jovi, Ronnie James Dio, Metallica, W.A.S.P.: Bon Jovi/Dio/Metallica/Anthrax/W.A.S.P.: Monsters Of Rock, Castle Donington

Live Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 29 August 1987

MATALLIC KO ...

Anthrax: Whoops Apocalypse

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 5 September 1987

ANTHRAX ARE ANTI-VIOLENCE, ANTI-NUKE, ANTI-DESTRUCTION. BUT THEIR MUSIC IS VIOLENT, LOUD, AGGRESSIVE AND BRUTAL. SIMON REYNOLDS ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE THESE CONTRADITIONS. ...

Def Leppard unleashes Hysteria

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 10 September 1987

DEF LEPPARD'S album Pyromania, released in 1983, sold 6 million copies in the U.S. alone. It's no surprise, then, that people ask Def Leppard bassist ...

Def Leppard: Royal Centre, Nottingham

Live Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 12 September 1987

SUGAR ON THE ROCKS ...

Metallica: Battle Hymns Of The Metal Warriors

Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 12 September 1987

They've stomped on the rotting corpse of heavy metal and moved from cult status to world acclaim, and now METALLICA have crashed into the singles ...

Def Leppard: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Chris Roberts, Melody Maker, 19 September 1987

WHAT A sorry charade this is. Stuck for jokes I am, as the Lepers churn out their wall of John Bull nothingness to the adoring ...

Tesla: Hammersmith Odeon, London (supporting Def Leppard)

Live Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 19 September 1987

CHASING THE BIG CATS ...

Aerosmith, The Cult, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake: Heavy Metal: The Sound Too Dense to Die

Comment by James Hunter, L.A. Weekly, 16 October 1987

TWENTY SUMMERS ago, it was love. In 1987 it was metal, pop-metal, ushered in by Bon Jovi's much less musicianly 7-mil play on Van Halen's ...

Guns N' Roses: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 17 October 1987

"THIS SONG is my favourite," screams part-man-mostly-dog guitarist Slash, Guns N'Roses' mascot pimple. "It's for all you thrashers out there and it's dedicated to BLOW-jobs ...

Guns N' Roses: Animal House

Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 24 October 1987

GUNS 'N' ROSES get mad with BARBARA ELLEN ...

Motorhead: Corn Exchange, Cambridge

Live Review by Ben Thompson, New Musical Express, 27 October 1987

"IF WE moved in next door to you your lawn would die" Lemmy once proclaimed gleefully. To a 12-year-old HM fan like myself, Motorhead always ...

Guns N' Roses: Paradise Theater, Boston

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 29 October 1987

New band that's special ...

Anthrax: Palatrussardi, Milan

Live Review by Neil Perry, Sounds, 7 November 1987

DROKK 'TIL YOU DROP ...

Anthrax, Testament: Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool

Live Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 14 November 1987

IT'S A MADSCOUSE... ...

Anthrax: 'Thrax of Life

Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 14 November 1987

Metal stars ANTHRAX take NEIL PERRY on the Italian Job — and present the sober philosophy of their growing success ...

Great White: Mississippi Nights, St Louis, Missouri, and Newport Music Hall, Columbus Ohio

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 28 November 1987

FIRST NIGHT a club the size of a bootbox, tiny lung cancerous place by the side of the river (backstage's the top step of an ...

Tesla: The Spectrum, Philadelphia

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 28 November 1987

TESLA, IN two years time, will be enormous. That isn't a comment born of prejudice or payola, it's one born of fact; facts that I ...

Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses: Def Leppard: Hysteria (Polygram); Guns N' Roses: Appetite For Destruction (Geffen)

Review by Deborah Frost, Creem, December 1987

WAS IT REALLY worth the wait? Four years and nearly two million dollars later, Def Leppard has finally unveiled their new "masterpiece." What Hysteria's constipated ...

Motörhead: Metal Guru

Profile and Interview by David Toop, Spin, December 1987

T-shirts may change, but Motörhead goes on. ...

Megadeth: So Far, So Good... So Fast

Interview by Chris Welch, Kerrang!, 12 December 1987

Quaking journo CHRIS WELCH risks life and limb all in the cause of rock n' roll... no, not just merely interviewing MEGADETH, but driving DAVE ...

Europe: Honest Injun

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 23 January 1988

EUROPE have a new single on release called 'Cherokee' — the fourth to be lifted from the mega-successful Final Countdown LP — accompanied by a ...

Faith No More: Whistle Down The Wind… Hear My Train a'Comin'

Interview by Neil Perry, Sounds, 23 January 1988

The dancefloor heavy metal of FAITH NO MORE makes them one of the prime contenders for '88 and the lyrics of vocalist Chuck Mosely penetrate ...

David Lee Roth: Climbs Big Rock! Lives, Tells All, Eventually Tours

Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, March 1988

HOW TO GET A COVER STORY: I was sitting at my desk, wondering who would have an album out in a couple of months. Someone ...

Megadeth: So Far, So Good...So What! (Capitol)

Review by J.D. Considine, Spin, March 1988

MATURITY IS not a concept commonly associated with heavy metal (unless you're using it as a euphemism for "old and decrepit" in which case it ...

Megadeth, Ronnie James Dio: Megadeth/Dio: Market Square Arena, Indianapolis

Live Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 5 March 1988

MARKET SQUARE HEROES ...

Megadeth: So Far, So Good... So What! (Capitol)

Review by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 5 March 1988

THE DEATH MACHINE ...

Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson (1988)

Interview by Simon Witter, Rock's Backpages audio, 6 March 1988

The ever-articulate Maiden frontman talks about his early influences, his cynicism towards the rock'n'roll lifestyle, songwriting, the cathartic qualities of heavy metal and...fencing!

File format: mp3; file size: 51.4mb, interview length: 56' 10" sound quality: ***

Iron Maiden: Welcome To The Machine: Iron Maiden

Interview by Simon Witter, New Musical Express, 12 March 1988

MUCH AS WE may laugh at the blustering antics of its ambassadors, HM is no joke. As a kind of musical Rollerball, exorcising taboos and ...

Megadeth: Deth Pact

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 19 March 1988

Never mind the boredom — pass the roadsick pills! MEGADETH take the highway to apathy in the USA and discover the drawbacks of touring. PAUL ...

David Lee Roth: Skyscraper (Warner Bros.)

Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 24 March 1988

PART BORSCH Belt, part Baryshnikov, David Lee Roth is hard rock's greatest entertainer. Man, myth, mountain climber — he's created a frontman fantasy that makes ...

Rick Rubin: The Devil's Disciple

Interview by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 16 April 1988

Beelzebub or Midas? Def Jam supremo RICK RUBIN walks the fine line between brilliance and stupidity. JACK BARRON joins him on the tightrope and enters ...

Metallica: Cliff 'Banger

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 30 April 1988

Cliff 'Em All, the low-key, bootleg-style home video from those METALLICA scumbags, has shifted an astonishing 90,000 copies in the States. Now it's finally made ...

Guns N' Roses: Days Of Guns N' Roses

Interview by Bill Holdship, Spin, May 1988

In which our reporter discovers that L.A.'s reputed bad boys are good-bad, but they're not evil. ...

Poison: Hollywood Teasers: Poison: St Louis Arena, Missouri

Live Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 14 May 1988

WITHIN two numbers, Bret Michaels is prostrate and pushing his amply-stuffed, cellophane-tight crotch at the stage, ass pumping in the air, breath heavy, grin spreading. ...

Megadeth: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Neil Perry, Sounds, 28 May 1988

SO FAR, SO BAD... SO WHAT'S WRONG? ...

Megadeth: Megadumb

Interview by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 28 May 1988

Even as MEGADETH have ploughed a smooth trajectory towards the megabuck realms of big league megametal, leader DAVE MUSTAINE has grown ever more muddled in ...

Queensrÿche: Crime and Punishment

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 28 May 1988

The music of QUEENSRŸCHE infuses classic metal power with unorthodox arrangements and ambitious technical dazzle. PAUL ELLIOTT comes to terms with their new concept album ...

Megadeth: So Far, So Good... So What! (Capitol)

Review by Chuck Eddy, Creem, June 1988

THE PRIMARY reason Megadeth is famous, and probably the only reason they're on a major label, is because Dave Mustaine used to be in Metallica. ...

Deep Purple: Nobody's Purple

Interview by Pete Makowski, Metal Hammer, 20 June 1988

"Rock'n'Roll is the perfect art which conceals art, that satisfying spontaneity which can be achieved only by taking intense thought" – Kathleen Cleaver (paraphrased) ...

Living Colour, The Scorpions: Scorpions: Savage Amusement (Mercury); Living Colour: Vivid (Epic)

Review by J.D. Considine, Musician, July 1988

ADMIT IT — most of you would no sooner listen to metal than volunteer for root canal work. Metal is nasty, noisy, brutish, the kind ...

Van Halen: Tales From The Crypt

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 1 July 1988

THE ITINERARY for Van Halen's Monsters of Rock Tour reads like a combined schedule for the Washington Redskins and University of Miami football teams. ...

The Dickies, Metal MC, Pigmy Love Circus: Scream, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 29 July 1988

TEN YEARS of anything is a lot... usually too much. When I was younger, I worshiped the Dickies as the overlords of my conscience, wrote ...

Lita Ford: Lita

Interview by Holly Gleason, Spin, August 1988

IT'S A SLOW night at the Redwood Room, a shot-and-beer North Hollywood hole in the wall where blue collar types, in heavy work boots and ...

Megadeth: Beacon Theatre, NYC

Live Review by Christine Natanael, Reflex, August 1988

SUBSTANCE, MESSAGE, uprising, controversy, extremity, intelligence – were all on display at Beacon Theatre in the form of Megadeth, churning up anger and angst among ...

Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses: Gun Law: War of the Roses

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 20 August 1988

Blasting rumours of a split, the uncompromising GUNS N' ROSES have shot to the top with their hardbitten sound. PAUL ELLIOTT gets a taste of the band's addiction to ...

Metallica

Interview by Richard Gehr, Music & Sound Output, September 1988

LARS ULRICH has recently risen from the sleep, dreamless or otherwise, of the very successful. His band, billed fourth (between Led Zep wannaboys Kingdom Come ...

Guns N' Roses: The Rocky Horror Show

Interview by Push, Melody Maker, 3 September 1988

When Guns N' Roses were interviewed just before they performed at Castle Donington last week, guitarist Slash said, "The kids need to have that one ...

Anthrax: State Of Euphoria (Island ILPS9916) kkkkkk

Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 10 September 1988

STATE OF THE ART ...

David Lee Roth: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 10 September 1988

A DAVID Lee Roth concert is perhaps the only place on the face of the earth where boys who look like traffic accidents can get ...

Metallica: ...And Justice For All (Phonogram)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 10 September 1988

THE KILLING MACHINE ...

Anthrax: Thrash Landings

Interview by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 17 September 1988

WITH THEIR NEW SINGLE, 'MAKE ME LAUGH', ANTHRAX CONTINUE TO LEAD THE HARDCORE CHARGE AGAINST TRADITIONAL HEAVY METAL. SIMON REYNOLDS HITCHES A RIDE ON THE ...

Living Colour: Astoria, London

Live Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 17 September 1988

"IF YOU'RE black, it's OK to be two things, a crooner in a fairisle sweater or a bad ass B-Boy... look at the history of rock music, ...

Kingdom Come: For the members of Kingdom Come, the song remains the same

Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 22 September 1988

A group of heavy-metal copycats just can't get the Led out ...

Anthrax: State Of Euphoria (Island LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 24 September 1988

LAD TIMING ...

Bon Jovi, Metallica: Bon Jovi: New Jersey (Polygram)***; Metallica: ...And Justice for All (Elektra)***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988

When things get heavy ...

Suicidal Tendencies: Calling the shots

Interview by Ira Robbins, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1988

Punks prove their metal ...

Guns N' Roses: The Hard Truth About Guns N' Roses

Special Feature by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1988

Finally, some bad boys who are good ...

The Quireboys, Yngwie Malmsteen: Yngwie Malmsteen, The Quireboys: Apollo Theatre, Manchester

Live Review by John Robb, Sounds, 26 November 1988

DRENCHED IN wet dreams, the skeletal framed Quireboys are currently making molehills out of rock mountains. This is a tight pant boogie stuffed into way ...

Judas Priest: Heavy metal on trial

Report by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1988

Judas Priest suicide suit takes 'subliminal message' tack ...

Bon Jovi: Metal's mettle

Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 2 December 1988

Adam Sweeting meets Bon Jovi, the hard-rockers turned chart phenomenc ...

Guns N' Roses: Slash and The Cash

Interview by Steve Mascord, On The Street, 7 December 1988

BLINK, AND you'll miss a band being compared to the Rolling Stones. Everyone from the Monkees to Crowded House to your local pub group have ...

Metallica: ...And Justice For All (Vertigo VERH 61/CD)

Review by Neil Perry, Sounds, 24 December 1988

September ...

Frehley's Comet

Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, January 1989

GUITAR HEROES come along once in each generation, whether they be prized in the hearts of their fans for their technical ability or their public ...

Bolt Thrower, Prong: Prong, Bolt Thrower: Malet Street ULU, London

Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 21 January 1989

Extreme noise tremors ...

Anthrax: Anti-Metallurgists

Interview by David Stubbs, Melody Maker, 11 February 1989

ABOUT TO TOUR BRITAIN WITH LIVING COLOUR AS SUPPORT, ANTHRAX TELL DAVID STUBBS HOW THEY PLAN TO BE AS BIG AS U2 WITHOUT SELLING THEIR ...

Ministry: The Land Of Rape And Honey (Sire LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 11 February 1989

BRIAN JOURGENSEN and Paul Barker, the men from Ministry, work together in a world of seemingly self inflicted pain and torture. A ceaseless metal-machine beat ...

Poison: The Call Of The Wild

Report and Interview by Carol Clerk, Melody Maker, 11 February 1989

'EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN' WAS NUMBER ONE IN AMERICA OVER CHRISTMAS. THE OPEN UP AND SAY...AHH! LP CRUISED INTO THE US TOP 10 AND ...

W.A.S.P.: Never Mind the Buttocks

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 18 February 1989

...At least that's W.A.S.P. mainman BLACKIE LAWLESS' stinging new philosophy on life after a good few years in the prickly nest of outrageous lyrics, potentially ...

Anthrax

Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, March 1989

Christine "The Writer From Hell" Natanael skateboards down the backstreets of New York with those jam mongers, Anthrax... ...

Testament

Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, March 1989

Christine "The Writer From Hell" Natanael talks with Testament's Chuck Billy and Alex Skolnick about Native American heritage, guitar influences, and trimmer figures... ...

Metallica Moves to Center Stage

Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 5 March 1989

LAKELAND, Fl. — Just as Metallica helped change the face of the Grammys — it was one of five acts nominated for the first-ever hard-rock/metal ...

Poison: Cat Scratch Fever

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, RAW, 7 March 1989

They say 'Every Rose Has Its Thorn'. Or at least POISON do in the title of their current hit single. And certainly the Los Angeles ...

Anthrax: 'Euph Control

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 11 March 1989

At the Manchester Apollo on March 8, ANTHRAX kicked off their headlining State Of Euphoria world tour, having already opened for Ozzy in the States, and won a ...

The Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Rick Rubin, Slayer: Rick Rubin: Mental Metal Master

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 11 March 1989

From rap to metal, LL Cool J to Slayer, producer Rick Rubin has shaped the definitive street beats of the decade. Paul Elliott hears the ...

Metallica: For Whom the Bell Tulls

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 18 March 1989

You just can't get the staff these days. Ask the people who run the Grammy Awards — they can't tell Jethro Tull from Heavy Metal. ...

Anthrax, Living Colour: Living Colour: Colour Shifts

Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 25 March 1989

LIVING COLOUR'S LAST ALBUM, VIVID, IS STILL RIDING HIGH IN THE US CHARTS. THE BLACK ROCK COALITION STARS HAVE JUST SUPPORTED ANTHRAX ON THEIR RECENT ...

Metallica: For Whom The Bell Tulls #2

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 25 March 1989

In the second part of our special feecher on Grammy loozers extraordinaire METALLICA, STEFFAN CHIRAZI probes the conception and production off the 'One' single and video, yet ...

Anthrax, Living Colour: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Live Review by Push, Melody Maker, 1 April 1989

FAVOURITE COLOURS ...

Black Sabbath: Rave from the grave

Report and Interview by Andy Gill, The Independent, 7 April 1989

Black Sabbath, who first made metal heavy, are reforming. Andy Gill watched them make their video ...

Danzig: Ask a Stupid Question...

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 22 April 1989

...and GLENN DANZIG will hang, draw and quarter you, or at least hang up on you. Fearsome and blunt, the "learned, warm individual" touches on ...

Stryper

Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, May 1989

DISCLAIMER: This article does not necessarily represent the views of this magazine, however, it does not necessarily not represent the views of this magazine. But ...

Dark Angel: Californian Dreams – Shedding Light On The Angels

Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Hammer, 1 May 1989

OUT OF THE SEARING underground of Los Angeles, an unlikely place for speed/death metal in the wake of such like bands as Guns N' Roses, ...

Manowar: Los Angeles Country Club, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 13 May 1989

A DOZEN reasons why none but Manowar are true heirs to the mantle Kings Of Metal. ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Big Oz I Love You

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 13 May 1989

Why does MR OSBOURNE bite the heads off small animals? Ozzy can. Get it? Is Oz a fat geriatric bastard who'd be better off playing ...

Defiance: My Vacation From Hell

Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, July 1989

The most controversial writer in the universe, the writer that people love to hate! Yes, the infamous "Writer From Hell" Ms. Christine Natanael takes a ...

Motorhead

Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, July 1989

As we've found on occasion, it can be a dangerous thing to assign an interview to Christine Natanael. No such problem here. We've found the ...

Winger: A Success Story In The Making!

Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene Spotlights, July 1989

IN THE SUMMER of 1988 an album was delivered to my house from the offices of Atlantic records. Now, this is nothing out of the ...

24-7 Spyz: Spyz Call Their Tune and 'Go for the Throat'

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 5 July 1989

JIMI HAZEL got hooked on the guitar when he was 6 years old and his brother took him to see Jimi Hendrix at the 1970 ...

The Beastie Boys, Rick Rubin, Wolfsbane: Rick Rubin: Fang of Def

Interview by James Brown, New Musical Express, 8 July 1989

Five years ago RICK RUBIN was the 21-year-old student behind Def Jam — the label that brought you the twin rock-rap assault of Licensed To Ill and ...

Vixen (1989)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, 15 July 1989

Singer Janet Gardner and drummer Roxy Petrucci talk about how they survived on the road in the early days; the struggle to get a record deal; the place of girl bands in hard rock; their influences, and becoming musicians; getting the songs together for their first album; weird fans, male groupies and difficult relationships, and the lack of women in the rock business.

File format: mp3; file size: 46.1mb, interview length: 48' 04" sound quality: ***

Alice Cooper (1989)

Interview by Adam Blake, Rock's Backpages audio, 18 July 1989

Interviewed at London's Mayfair Hotel, Vincent Furnier's alias talks about his new album Trash and about performing his older material; planning his stage shows; music coming first and theatrics second; the evolution of his theatricality; his current audience; the 'Elected' video and videos today; Alice Cooper vs. Vince Furnier, and being "the ultimate rock villain"; drinking with Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin; his Minister father... and such non-rock influences as John Barry.

File format: mp3; file size: 22.4meg, interview length: 23' 20" sound quality: ***

Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, W.A.S.P.: The Decline of Western Civilization Part Two: The Metal Years (Dir: Penelope Spheeris)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 5 August 1989

NEON NIGHT, LA. Clad in leather and flashing skull'n'dagger tattoos, Chris Holmes of WASP — the Peter Sutcliffe of heavy metal — is lounging on ...

KISS, Ozzy Osbourne, Poison, W.A.S.P.: Spheeris of Influence

Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 5 August 1989

The macho world of Heavy Metal is not the most likely place to find a female film director, but PENELOPE SPHEERIS took her camera and ...

Skid Row: Skid Gloves

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 19 August 1989

Are not what latest American Metal sensations SKID ROW use when doing their tour bus washing up — nor when they're cranking out their particularly ...

Vixen: Girls Just Wanna Help Bon

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 19 August 1989

"Bon Jovi would just be the best band in the world to play with," says VIXEN bassist SHARE PEDERSEN. Assuming she's talking about gigging and ...

Guns N' Roses, Public Enemy: Public Enemy and Guns N' Roses: Busted Axl

Report by RJ Smith, The Village Voice, 22 August 1989

FORTY-EIGHT hours in the feeding-cycle of New York City. There were Uzis, Public Enemy regrouping, and a clique of blond babes orbiting Axl Rose at ...

Babyface, N.W.A, Saw Throat: Babyface: Tender Lover; NWA: Straight Outta Compton; Various artists: Grind Crusher; Saw Throats: Indestroy

Review by David Toop, The Times, 26 August 1989

Conventional Black ...

Poison: We're Big Down Under!

Interview by Steve Mascord, Kerrang!, 26 August 1989

Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Neighbours, Rolf Harris (and his Stylophone), Skippy, Rupert Murdoch... these days, there's no escaping the ongoing onslaught of dodgy Australian 'culture'. ...

Metallica's Lars Ulrich

Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, September 1989

'Turning Japanese, I'm turning Japanese, Ah, so!' Yes, Christine "The Writer From Hell" Natanael gets Lars Ulrich on the phone straight from the land of ...

Vixen: Every Man For Herself

Report and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, September 1989

The highway to hell is a merciless thoroughfare for the all-girl heavy metal band. Male counterparts regard you with deep suspicion, record companies run a ...

Faster Pussycat: Wake Me Up When It's Over (Elektra EKT64) ****

Review by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 2 September 1989

FASTER PUSSYCAT have always meant just two things to me. First off, vocalist Taime Downe (sic) was the geezer who figured he'd get the choice ...

Bon Jovi, Europe, Vixen, Wolfsbane: Small really is beautiful: Bon Jovi, Europe, Vixen: Milton Keynes Bowl; Wolfsbane: Marquee, London

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 2 September 1989

BON JOVI's backstage booze fountain runs dry halfway through the evening. A metaphor for their coming performance? An omen for the career of Noo Joisey's ...

W.A.S.P.: Penelope Spheeris: The "Mad Surgeon" of Film

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, RAW, 6 September 1989

That's American director PENELOPE SPHEERIS, whose documentary on the LA Metal scene The Decline Of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years has just opened ...

Mötley Crüe: Putt at the Devil

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 9 September 1989

At a Los Angeles Valley golf club MÖTLEY CRÜE singer VINCE NEIL is about to mutter something to his caddy, STEFFAN CHIRAZI... "Steff, dude," he ...

24-7 Spyz: Harder Than You (London 828167-1/CD) ****

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 16 September 1989

Harder than the rest ...

King's X: Gretchen Goes To Nebraska (Megaforce)

Review by Deborah Frost, Spin, October 1989

VERNON REID loves them. Billy Sheehan loves them. The British heavy metal bible Kerrang! voted their debut "Best Album of 1988." But if King's X's ...

Faster Pussycat: Let Sleeping Pussycats Lie

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 7 October 1989

First, the good news: 70 per cent of the people in Troy, Michigan like LA sleazeballs FASTER PUSSYCAT. The bad news? The rest of them ...

Sepultura: Blame It On Rio

Profile and Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 14 October 1989

From South America come Sepultura, monstrous speed metal gods for the future. Paul Elliott finds out about their ride from Rio. ...

Faith No More, Metallica: Metallica, Faith No More: Kalifornia Kreamin'

Report and Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 21 October 1989

In a power-package guaranteed to lay waste to most of the Free World, never mind the state of California, METALLICA signed up their Bay Area ...

Making It: Heavy Metal in Hollywood

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, November 1989

LOS ANGELES – It's 2:20 a.m., a Sunday, just after the rock clubs on Sunset Boulevard have rousted the last rowdies and kicked out the ...

Guns N' Roses: Dancing with Mr Brownstone

Profile by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 4 November 1989

GUNS N' ROSES are the archetypal rock'n'roll renegades — loud-mouthed American punks fuelled on liquor and drugs as they rampage on a crazed course towards self-destruction. Paul ...

Yngwie Malmsteen: Yngwie 
Malmsteen: "I can go into any grocery store in Sweden and some 50-year-old woman will immediately recognise me"

Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 4 November 1989

A strange but true FACT from the hitherto unpublished memoirs off YNGWIE
 MALMSTEEN. HOWARD JOHNSON — who barely gets recognised in his
 own house these ...

Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe: Jon Bon Jovi: Cosa Glasnostra

Interview by Steve Mascord, Kerrang!, 11 November 1989

After all the dirt dished out by Mötley Crüe about Moscow, Doc McGhee and the New Jersey Syndicate Jon Bon Jovi has at last decided ...

Mötley Crüe, Skid Row, White Lion: Crüe To Be Kind

Report and Interview by Edwin Pouncey, New Musical Express, 18 November 1989

Lock up your heated rollers, here comes Metal mayhem. Into the heart of dorkness strode our very own rock monster EDWIN POUNCEY armed with only ...

Joe Satriani: Still Flyin', Still Dreamin'

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 25 November 1989

When he was just a little-biddy boy, ace widdlist JOE SATRIANI used to have weird dreams, dreams where he was flying around in "this blue colour" which ...

Cheap & Nasty: Exclusive: Beyond Hanoi Rocks! Cheap & Nasty (Suicide)

Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, 6 December 1989

EVER THE one to keep my ear to the ground in search of the new and hot happening thing, I was more than fucking happy ...

Winger: 'I Want The Cover Of Kerrang!'

Interview by Steve Mascord, Kerrang!, 16 December 1989

At the end of a 190 date world tour, WINGER retired to Australia to crack a few tubes, catch a few rays, and laze around ...

AC/DC

Interview by Martin Aston, Auckland Star, 1990

"Just what are the East Germans who flock across the crumbled Berlin Wall spending their money on? While champagne and fresh fruit were once hot ...

Metallica: Reminiscing With Lars

Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, January 1990

OKAY, SO what can be said about the dudes in Metallica that hasn't already been said? We've heard the records, we've seen the stadium tours. ...

Mr. Big (US): Mr. Big: The Name Says It All

Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, January 1990

MR. BIG... What's in a name, huh? Well, if you've got some of the best name in the biz, then plenty. ...

Onslaught

Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, January 1990

Christine Natanael, the "Writer from Hell," goes In Search of Sanity with new Polygram thrash wonders...ONSLAUGHT. We thought she would be better off taking up ...

Princess Pang: Beauty Meets The Beast, Rock & Roll And Conquers!

Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, 1 January 1990

I GUESS THAT this is what you would call a true story of friendship and ambition. The scenario is a group of kids in their ...

Skid Row: The Wild One

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 6 January 1990

Five skinny, lippy punks outta New Jersey are about to become the biggest noise in American rock since Guns N' Roses. Arrogant, controversial, yobbish — ...

Whitesnake: Fangs of Fortune

Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, 12 January 1990

WAKING UP before noon is still a foreign idea to many working musicians, and not just the ones who are hopeless drug addicts. It's just ...

Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe: Motley Crüe : Moscow Festival – Crüe Still Peace-d off with Bon Jovi

Report and Interview by Steve Mascord, Kerrang!, 13 January 1990

The feud goes on: Nikki Sixx brands JBJ a 'lying asshole' and challenges him to a fist-fight! ...

The Melvins: Melvins: Ozma (Tupelo TUPLP 7)****

Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 20 January 1990

The perfect kiss-off ...

Die Kreuzen: Islington Powerhaus, London

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 27 January 1990

PERHAPS IF more people knew about Die Kreuzen they wouldn't undergo such sweeping stylistic changes. From hardcore freaks to metal maniacs, from purveyors of soft ...

Ministry: The Ritz, New York NY

Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 27 January 1990

REMEMBER MINISTRY? That hot Dance act from Chicago who influenced House and soaked up exclusively European acts? Well, they've changed. It's 1990 and all that, ...

Accepting The Inevitable: Wolf Hoffman of Accept

Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, March 1990

ABOUT NINE years ago, when I was still a snotty nosed kid with a bad attitude living in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, there was a ...

Billy Squier: Discussing Hear & Now with Billy Squier

Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, March 1990

RUSHING INTO the Capitol record offices in New York, I was more than a little nervous about doing this interview. That is making a major ...

Faith No More: From Out Of The Underground: Faith No More

Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, March 1990

WALKING INTO the offices of Warner Brothers, I knew that this wasn't going to be a normal interview. I mean, I couldn't just ask the ...

The Melvins: Melvins: Ozma (Boner advance tape, import) KKKK

Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 3 March 1990

I WAS recently discussing, with Bill Ward, how sad it is that everything recorded these days is stuffed choc full of gizmotry and is often ...

Faster Pussycat, Mötley Crüe: Mötley Crüe, Faster Pussycat: Oakland Coliseum, California

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 10 March 1990

Crüe-sin' for a brüe-sin' ...

Mötley Crüe: Feeling Minnesota

Interview by Steve Mascord, Juke, 28 April 1990

Mötley Crüe might have kicked their drugs but their chase for the Ultimate Thrill remains relentless. ...

Exodus Exclusive: Prepare For Impact!

Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, May 1990

AFTER SPENDING three days running around in Los Angeles like a demon-child hell-bent on raising Cain at the second Annual Concrete Foundations Forum, seeing everything ...

Sepultura: Viva Brazil!

Interview by Christine Natanael, Creem Presents: Thrash Metal, May 1990

THE PHONE rings at the ungodly hour of...noon...and it's the friendly publicist from Roadracer asking me if I'm still asleep. Not only am I still ...

Dan Reed Network and The Theory Of The World

Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, 4 May 1990

MY FIRST exposure to the Dan Reed Network was a memorable one. Although I had heard the debut record and thought it a good shot ...

Faith No More: Charge Of The Fright Brigade

Interview by Neil Perry, Melody Maker, 5 May 1990

DESPITE DRINKING, SCREWING, BEATING THE CRAP OUT OF EACH OTHER AND ENJOYING THEMSELVES FAR MORE THAN IS SAFE AND HEALTHY, FAITH NO MORE ARE ON ...

Metallica: D'ya Wanna Sandwich?

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 26 May 1990

JAMES HETFIELD'S huge truck is parked outside STEFFAN CHIRAZI's San Francisco abode. Its owner is inside the house, stepping over our scribe's carpet off half-eaten ...

Mötley Crüe: Entertainment Centre, Sydney

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 26 May 1990

THAT T'CRÜE'S latest single, 'Kickstart My Heart', is from the title down a towering work of dumbo rockin' genius must surely be unarguable. Like Guns ...

Diving For Pearls: Treading Water With Diving For Pearls

Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, June 1990

STRAIGHT-FORWARD pop rock – the stuff of summer fun, driving with the top down, and hot sticky summer nights when you're in a strange town ...

Metallica: Creeping To The Cross: Metallica: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 2 June 1990

'CREEPING DEATH'. Thrash 'n' roll. A Biblical tale of infanticide, spat like blood. In anyone else's language, this is apocalypse. For Metallica it is only ...

Metallica: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 2 June 1990

METAL FATIGUE ...

Kiss: The Curse of the Sphinx

Report and Interview by Steve Mascord, Kerrang!, 16 June 1990

In the inauspicious surroundings of small town America it sounds like a storm is brewing. It's the eve of the new KISS world tour and ...

Dan Reed Network: To Baldly Go…

Interview by Steve Mascord, Kerrang!, 14 July 1990

Where no King Of Funk Metal has gone before. That's DAN REED's avowed intention, and who would bet against him achieving this otherwordly aim? With ...

Megadeth: Peace of Mind

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 14 July 1990

MEGADETH's next album will be called Rust In Peace. Produced by MIKE CLINK at LA's Rumbo Studios, it's the first Mega-LP to feature the talents ...

Yngwie Malmsteen: Enmore Theatre, Sydney

Live Review by Steve Mascord, Kerrang!, 4 August 1990

Techno wizard of Ox ...

Poison: Flesh And Blood (Enigma)

Review by Paul Sexton, Select, September 1990

THE CHALLENGE for Poison was to fulfill the corporate responsibility, having sold Open Up And Say... Aaah! to five million Americans, and still kick the ...

Anthrax: Persistence Of Time (Island LP/Cassette/CD)

Review by Jack Barron, New Musical Express, 1 September 1990

TICK TOCK, tick tock begins this album. Predictable or what? Then the bowels of the earth open up and you are farted via geetars and ...

Napalm Death: Harmony Corruption (Earache LP/CD)

Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 1 September 1990

WHAT DO you do when you've reached the outer limits of the known universe? That's the question that haunts the makers of the Star Trek ...

Napalm Death: Harmony Corruption (Earache) ***½

Review by Ralph Traitor, Sounds, 1 September 1990

No harmony done ...

Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Saxon: NWOBHM: Wave from the Grave

Retrospective and Interview by Howard Johnson, Kerrang!, 1 September 1990

For those off us old enough to remember, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal was the start off the greatest period ever for Metal ...

Napalm Death: A Rage Of Reason

Interview by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 8 September 1990

Napalm Death are back, and as terrifying as ever but 1990 sees the band advancing musically as Paul Elliott discovers. ...

Napalm Death: The Wailing Ultimate

Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 8 September 1990

Despite years off personnel traumas and line-up changes, NAPALM DEATH are still the same extreme noise terrorists they were in the mid-'80s. With their third, ...

Poison, Warrant, Winger: Poison: Flesh & Blood (Enigma)/Winger: In the Heart of the Young (Atlantic)/Warrant: Cherry Pie (Columbia)

Review by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 18 September 1990

KIP WINGER is a hunk. And what a perfect hunk he is. With his Harlequin hero name, decepticon logo, and carefully exposed nipple, he's engineered ...

Testament: Last Will and Testament

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 29 September 1990

TESTAMENT are back with a bang. Their new LP Souls Of Black is their fiercest output yet, full of the heavy riffs and gritty vocals we've come ...

Slayer: I Talked With A Zombie

Interview by Ian Gittins, Melody Maker, 29 September 1990

As Britain trembles with anticipation of the "Clash Of The Titans" tour, Ian Gittins meets the metal monsters and hears tales of death, despair and ...

Wolfsbane: Every Witch Way And Loose

Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Sounds, 29 September 1990

As predicted by a white witch, WOLFBANE's career has been shaped by a series of fantastic events. CATHI UNSWORTH listens to the unlikeliest of flower ...

Anthrax: Persistence Of Time

Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, October 1990

THIS TIME NEW YORK moshers Anthrax sound like they're really pissed off….at least, that's what they'd like you to believe as they hurl their third ...

Megadeth: Rust In Peace

Review by Neil Perry, Select, October 1990

WITH ALL the charm of a graduate from the Pol Pot school of tact and diplomacy, hardcore outlaw Dave Mustaine limped away from Megadeth's last ...

Warrant: Cherry Pie

Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, 18 October 1990

IN VIEW OF MÖTLEY CRÜE’S AND OZZY Osbourne’s ongoing mega-stardom, it’s hard to imagine that success in heavy metal is the result of anything other ...

Iron Maiden: No Prayer For The Dying

Review by Neil Perry, Select, November 1990

CONSIDERING THAT Iron Maiden are Britain's most successful homegrown HM act — Def Leppard had to ship out to the States and then return like ...

Judas Priest: Pain Killer

Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, November 1990

HOT ON THE heels of their recent court victory (where Judas Priest were found not guilty of causing the deaths of two young men through ...

Slayer: Seasons In The Abyss (Def American) *****

Review by Neil Perry, Select, November 1990

ALL THE BIG BOYS have come out to prove themselves this year. Following recent triumphant reaffirmations of metallic prowess from Anthrax and Megadeath, a sledgehammer ...

AC/DC: Phew! Got Away With It, Readers!

Retrospective and Interview by David Sinclair, Q, December 1990

MOST PEOPLE in Britain first heard about AC/DC at about the time of the punk explosion. A bunch of roughneck Aussies with a guitarist dressed ...

Faith No More: Artists Of The Year

Interview by Frank Owen, Spin, December 1990

WHETHER HE'S advising Sassy readers to take drugs, kill babies, and steal everything, or wearing a shirt with multiple images of Jesus Christ jacking off ...

Led Zeppelin

Retrospective and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, December 1990

IT IS 10 YEARS since, disconsolate at the death of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin ceased to be. Though there is perhaps no conscious attempt ...

GBH, Haircut 100, Judas Priest, Metallica, Musical Youth: Metallica: Taking the Mick

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 22 December 1990

He's very large, he's very hairy, he's got a massive... motorbike — and he's been soundman to some of the greatest acts in Metal. GBH, ...

Deep Purple #2 (1990)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1990

Bassman Glover on his musical roots, and the early days; Blackmore on Ian Gillan and more...

Roger Glover: File format: mp3; file size: 75.1mb, interview length: 1h 22' 03" sound quality: ** Ritchie Blackmore: File format: mp3; file size: 69mb, interview length: 1h 15' 24" sound quality: **

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine on Rust In Peace

Interview by Christine Natanael, New York Review Of Records, Fall 1990

"AUGUST 24TH MARKS the anniversary of our last performance. Since then nothing's really mattered," emphatically states the enigmatic Dave Mustaine. That date was in 1988. ...

Guns N' Roses: Guns' N' Roses

Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, Sky, 1991

ONLY DAYS INTO Guns N' Roses' world tour and there was trouble. At a St Louis stadium Axl Rose jumped into the audience to snatch ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne (1991)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, 1991

In that inimitable Black Country accent, Ozzy talks about his background, musical roots and the birth and death of Black Sabbath. Sacked by Sabbath, saved by Sharon, going solo: Ozzy tells all about the ups, the downs, the addiction and alcoholism. Drugs! Drink! Management Rip-Offs! It's all here.

File format: mp3 File size: 85.2mb Interview length: 1h 28' 42", sound quality: ***

Blue Cheer: Highlights And Lowlives (Nielbung); Blitzkrieg Over Nuremburg (Thunderbolt)

Review by Edwin Pouncey, Vox, January 1991

BLUE CHEER were once championed as being the loudest band in the world. By today's standards of mega-volume Blue Cheer may sound pretty tame, but ...

Cinderella: Heartbreak Station

Review by Neil Perry, Select, January 1991

A LOT of people have probably been put off by the name, expecting a super-tacky hairspray 'n' lip-gloss LA glam outfit, but Cinderella are among ...

Slayer

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, The Daily Texan, January 1991

LEST YOU think that the situation in the Persian Gulf isn't on everyone's mind, Slayer guitarist Kerry King has this to say about the U.S. ...

Judas Priest: Touch the Hem of His Garment

Comment by Deborah Frost, The Village Voice, 1 January 1991

I TOUCHED Rob Halford's hem. It happened, if you must know, on a gray afternoon in a Marina Del Rey condo owned by the man ...

Cinderella: Heartbreak Station  

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 10 January 1991

LIKE TOO MANY hard-rock albums in the last year or so, the latest by the mall-metal stalwarts in Cinderella is a blatant bid for the ...

Def Leppard: Obituary: Steve Clark — Hard Rock Hero

Obituary by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 10 January 1991

THE DEATH of Def Leppard's guitarist Steve Clark, aged 30, on Tuesday morning was the latest disaster to strike the Sheffield group. On New Year's ...

David Lee Roth: A Little Ain't Enough (Warner Bros)

Review by Paul Elliott, Sounds, 12 January 1991

THANK HEAVEN... FOR LITTLE BOYS ...

Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, Iron Butterfly, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Napalm Death, Saxon, Sepultura, Slayer, UFO, Uriah Heep, Van Halen, Vanilla Fudge, Whitesnake: Cod Piece In Our Time

Overview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 19 January 1991

Bring your good taste to be slaughtered! To mark Iron Maiden's ground-breaking success (any bleedin' excuse — Ed), STUART MACONIE investigates the subtle and many-faceted ...

Lemmy, Motörhead: Lemmy (1991)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, February 1991

From his arrival in swinging London in the mid-'60s, through Hawkwind and on to Mötörhead, with asides on drug dealing (and taking), the Ladbroke Grove scene, and discussions on WW2 and tattoos!

File format: mp3; file size: 93mb, interview length: 1h 41' 32" sound quality: **

Slayer: Kaiser Centre, Oakland CA

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 2 February 1991

SATURDAY JANUARY 12, 1991. History is made. Seriously. You had to be there to fully understand, and I'll do my best, but mere printed adjectives ...

Slayer, Testament: Orpheum Theater, Boston

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 11 February 1991

Slayer's deafening metal exhilarates, numbs ...

Slayer: At War with Slayer

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 23 February 1991

SLAYER guitarist JEFF HANNEMAN is into war, the hardware and the psychology, plain and simple. But since January 15, and the commencement of hostilities in ...

Sepultura: The Lost Boys

Interview by Neil Perry, Select, March 1991

With their new LP, Arise, Sepultura are poised to gatecrash the major metal league. And with their raucous mix of rage and rock the boys ...

Thin Lizzy: Dedication

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, March 1991

FOR A FEW good years in the mid-'70s, Dublin cowboys Thin Lizzy bought the pop virtues of literate, evocative wordplay, danceable, funky grooves and a ...

David Lee Roth: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 5 March 1991

AN IRREPRESSIBLE showman, David Lee Roth has got where he is primarily by dint of athletic energy, brass neck and sheer force of personality. His ...

Guns N' Roses, KISS, Megadeth, Mötley Crüe, Ted Nugent, Ozzy Osbourne, Slaughter, Slayer: Heavy Metal Mania: It's More Than Music

Overview by Deanne Stillman, The New York Times, 12 May 1991

With myriad clubs, fanzines and hair salons, rude dudeness (tattoos included) is a way of life. ...

Megadeth, Slayer: Megadeth: "Titans" Aim to Alter Metal's Image

Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 19 May 1991

WHEN THEY named the concert tour "Clash of the Titans," they didn't know how right they were. ...

Anthrax, Public Enemy: Anthrax and Chuck D: Noise From The Black Stuff

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 22 June 1991

Five years after Run DMC's groundbreaking rap reworking of Aerosmith's 'Walk This Way', rock is finally repaying the compliment with ANTHRAX'S astonishing take on Public ...

Anthrax, Public Enemy: Anthrax: Bohemian Rapsody

Interview by Neil Perry, Melody Maker, 22 June 1991

When metal meets rap in the form of ANTHRAX and CHUCK D, there's bound to be some trouble. NEIL PERRY hears about the fight for ...

Sepultura: Who Wants To Be A Brazilian Air Guitarist

Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 13 July 1991

Stuart Maconie goes autograph hunting with Latin America's biggest thrash band ...

GWAR Is Hell: GWAR: The Dome, London

Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 20 July 1991

THE IDEA BEING THAT the bloke in the spiked chainmail and extended cod-piece gets to chop off the heads off all his various enemies — ...

Van Halen: For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge

Review by Paul Elliott, Vox, August 1991

IN DAVID LEE ROTH, Van Halen had — and lost — more than a singer. The all-Amerlcan rock hero and then some, Roth was the ...

Blackeyed Susan, Dangerous Toys, Kik Tracee, Tuff, White Lion: New Hack City: MTV metal you could even listen to, maybe

Overview by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 1 August 1991

"I FIND A lot of heavy-metal stuff to not really be from the heart and not dealing with, like, real problems. I mean, some of ...

Metallica: Metallica

Review by David Browne, Entertainment Weekly, 16 August 1991

YOU CAN ONLY pound your head against a wall for so long before you get a headache. On their self-titled new album, Metallica, rock's pre-eminent ...

AC/DC: Donington Ain't No Bad Place To Be

Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 17 August 1991

AC/DC headline Donington for a record-breaking third time this weekend. When they do, the song you most want to hear, predicts PAUL ELLIOTT, is the ...

AC/DC, The Black Crowes, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche: AC/DC, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Queensrÿche, Black Crowes: Monsters of Rock, Castle Donington, Leicestershire

Live Review by Neil Perry, Melody Maker, 24 August 1991

METAL FATIGUE ...

Primus: Palace Theater, Los Angeles Ca

Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 24 August 1991

Primus Plies Primo Art-Funk at Palace ...

Metallica: One Louder

Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, September 1991

They're a notch above your average cochlea-rupturing, pensioner-intimidating thrash outfit, Metallica. But their passage from fresh-faced punk-paced hopefuls to multi-platinum metal phenomenon has not been ...

Guns N' Roses, Skid Row: Wembley Stadium, London

Live Review by Lloyd Bradley, The Independent, 2 September 1991

Bad attitude ...

Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Skid Row: Guns N' Roses, Skid Row, Nine Inch Nails: Wembley Stadium, London

Live Review by Andrew Mueller, Melody Maker, 7 September 1991

APPETITE FOR INSURRECTION ...

Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion I (Geffen GEF 24415); Use Your Illusion II (Geffen GEF 24420)

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 19 September 1991

Appetite for pretension ...

Heavy-Metal Nation

Report by Rob Tannenbaum, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1991

Inside the world of headbangers in New York and Los Angeles ...

Guns N' Roses: Use Your Illusion I (Geffen)

Review by Simon Reynolds, Melody Maker, 21 September 1991

THERE'S TWO schools of thought about Guns N'Roses. For some they're "the most dangerous band in the world"; for others, their brand of "danger" is ...

Guns N' Roses: Welcome To My Nightmare

Interview by Nick Kent, Vox, October 1991

Guns N' Roses are undoubtably the biggest noises in rock. But for how long? Would you buy two simultaneously released LPs at full price? Will ...

Guns N' Roses: The Last Angry White Man

Essay by RJ Smith, L.A. Weekly, 10 October 1991

A RED STATION wagon slows down in front of Tower Records on Sunset. It nuzzles up near the curb, where a line of people wait ...

Mötley Crüe: Decade of Dickheadedness

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 26 October 1991

Grand old dames of Heavy Metal MÖTLEY CRÜE have just signed a record deal worth a cool £35 million. Not bad for a band that ...

Poison: Scarred but Smarter

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 31 October 1991

With their devils, of more accurately CC DeVille, exorcised, POISON are ready to add thoroughbred musicianship to mass popularity. With a new guitarist, Richie Kotzen, ...

Slayer: Always Crashing In The Same Carnage

Interview by Neil Perry, Melody Maker, 9 November 1991

Are SLAYER Satanic High Priests who revel in gore or misunderstood philanthropists to a nihilistic generation? NEIL PERRY joins them in the London Dungeon and ...

Guns N' Roses: Slash Speaks

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Music Life, 17 November 1991

THE PLUSH CONRAD HOTEL at Chelsea Harbour has for some reason (maybe it's the copious amount of Moet & Chandon champagne in the minibar!) become ...

2 Live Crew, Skid Row: Skid Row and 2 Live Crew: Let's Shock!

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 30 November 1991

So just who is the most outrageous of them all? Is it SKID ROW'S SEBASTIAN BACH — banned from Wembley Stadium for life for using ...

The Cult: NEC, Birmingham

Live Review by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 30 November 1991

IN DIN COUNTRY ...

Def Leppard's Joe Elliott (1991)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, December 1991

The Leppard frontman looks back at guitarist Steve Clark's descent into alcoholism and eventual death: how it impacted the making of latest album Adrenalize; guitarist Phil Collen stepping up in Clark's absence; how it is possible for rockers to grow old; the essential escapism of metal, and how marvellously uncool it is.

File format: mp3; file size: 45.4mb, interview length: 47' 15" sound quality: ***

Spinal Tap: This Much Talent!

Interview by Terry Staunton, New Musical Express, December 1991

2013 NOTE: This piece is slightly longer than the version that appeared in NME, since I took the liberty of reinstating a small handful of ...

Urban Dance Squad: Dutch Treat

Profile and Interview by William Shaw, Details, December 1991

URBAN DANCE SQUAD BRINGS A RAP-ROCK-FUNK FUSION OUT OF THE NETHERLANDS ...

Queensrÿche: Guns N' Roses They Ain't

Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 12 December 1991

For a heavy-metal group, Seattle's Queensrÿche is positively low-profile — yet its albums sell in the millions. ...

Cannibal Corpse, Guns N' Roses, Ice Cube: Pop's new voices of rage

Comment by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 22 December 1991

THERE WAS a time, not so long ago, when rebellious rockers took on the establishment. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young railed against Richard Nixon's America ...

Body Count, Ice-T: Ice-T (1991)

Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1991

The erstwhile Tracy Marrow talks about acting in movies; his gang roots; pioneering West Coast gangsta rap and telling the truth about black L.A.; still rapping though no longer in the hood; his Body Count thrash-metal band and the Black roots of rock'n'roll; "the intoxicating values of gangs"; white kids listening to rap, and America's need to separate the races.

File format: mp3; file size: 58.2mb, interview length: 1h 00' 26" sound quality: ****

Metallica's Lars Ulrich (1991)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, Summer 1991

Mat Snow talks to Metallica's Lars Ulrich about his roots, the formation of Metallica and on through the history of the band. Massive.

File format: MP3 File size: 250.8 mb Interview length: 4h 33' 59" Sound quality: ***

Iron Maiden (1992)

Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages audio, 1992

From stately homes in Essex to luxury pads in Florida, various members of the Maiden talk about their lives off the road: playing football; drinking real ale, and whether or not they miss their (mostly) London roots.

File format: mp3; file size: 49.2mb, interview length: 51' 14" sound quality: ***

Motley Crüe's Piece of the Action

Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, January 1992

WHAT A difference a decade makes. "When we started," Motley Crüe singer Vince Neil recalls, "we were so naive about the business that our first ...

Napalm Death: End of an Earache

Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 4 January 1992

Two weeks ago STEVEN WELLS parachuted into Moscow to witness first hand the mega f— off potential of born-again frash warriors NAPALM DEATH. Today, the ...

Therapy?: Medicated Followers Of Thrashin'

Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 11 January 1992

Warning: a steady diet of wan-faced doodlers and U2 wannabes can seriously damage your health. Solution: get some THERAPY?, Irish shitkickers with a bottom-baring fetish ...

Anthrax, Public Enemy: Public Enemy, Anthrax: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 14 January 1992

Breaking the sound barrier: Andy Gill sees Public Enemy and Anthrax split the bill ...

Anthrax, Public Enemy: Read My Apocalypse: Public Enemy/Anthrax: The Apollo, Manchester

Live Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 18 January 1992

IF POWER is a turn-on and intelligence is an aphrodisiac, then Public Enemy are surely one of the sexiest groups on the planet. ...

Faith No More: Testing Your Faith

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 22 February 1992

Recording their third studio LP — currently in the mixing stage and titled Angel Dust — was always going to be a trying time for ...

Body Count, Ice-T: Ice-T and Body Count: The Paradise, Boston

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 24 February 1992

Ice-T proves street-smart — and stupid ...

Aerosmith: Pandora's Box

Review by Mat Snow, Q, March 1992

THE RISE AND fall and rise of Aerosmith has been rock's most up-beat cautionary tale of the last few years. ...

Soundgarden: Whole Allotment O'Love

Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 11 April 1992

Sweet soil music! Somewhere between the excess of Heavy Metal and the austerity of alternative rock — in Seattle, in other words — lie SOUNDGARDEN, ...

Spinal Tap: It's an Ill Wind...

Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 25 April 1992

...that brings East End boys made good SPINAL TAP back to the place of their roots. With the release of their first album in 10 years, Break ...

Metallica, Queen: Metallica: Het's Induction Hour

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 2 May 1992

JAMES HETFIELD likes weapons, Queen, women who aren't brain-surgeons, hates rap and looking like Lemmy, doesn't know all the words to 'Bohemian Rhapsody' but feels ...

Metallica: The Lords of Loud

Report and Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 2 May 1992

Ever since 'Enter Sandman' crashed into Top 10s around the world, Metallica have been reaping the dividends of a decade of scorched earth-style metal. CATHI ...

Mötley Crüe, Vince Neil: Crüe Love Don't Last

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 9 May 1992

When the news broke in February that VINCE NEIL had 'parted ways' with seminal LA rockers MÖTLEY CRÜE, many thought it was a publicity stunt. ...

Faith No More: Haircuts That Kill (a.k.a. Faith No More): The Marquee, London

Live Review by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 30 May 1992

WAKE UP, IT'S TRIM TO DIE! ...

Tool's Paradise

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 30 May 1992

Available on import now — on Zoo through RCA/BMG — is a ferocious little mini album called Opiate by hate- and anger-inspired quartet TOOL. Opiate ...

Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost, Deicide, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Mercyful Fate, Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer, Venom: Dancin' With The Devil

Overview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 4 July 1992

STEFFAN CHIRAZI charts the history of all those supposedly Satanic bands — anyone out there remember VENOM and their 1982 classic Black Metal, or the ...

W.A.S.P.: A Day in the Life of Blackie Lawless

Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 4 July 1992

He's spent the last two years closeted away, writing and recording his just released 'rock opera', The Crimson Idol. Now, with a slot on the ...

Kyuss: "We don't wear tight Spandex!"

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 10 July 1992

... claim Palm Springs-based KYUSS, a band who cause STEFFAN CHIRAZI to turn from a reasonable human being (?!) into a "pant-shitting, dribbling wreck"! With ...

Metallica: "Metallica Is Our Life..."

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 1 August 1992

Admits its reluctant frontman JAMES HETFIELD, "but it's not the only thing we enjoy doing." While drummer LARS ULRICH enjoys playing the party animal till ...

Metallica: The Rise of an Egotist

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 8 August 1992

METALLICA started out as renegade Thrash bandits, but they've sold almost 10 million copies of their self-titled fifth album. They are now touring American stadiums ...

Therapy?: The People's Champions

Report and Interview by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 15 August 1992

Last year, it was Nirvana who stole the show at Reading and look where they are now — topping the bloody bill, that's where. This ...

Helmet: Big Boom in Industrial Metal

Interview by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 20 August 1992

Helmet signs million-dollar deal with Interscope ...

Faith No More: Dusted In A Zone Of Their Own

Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, LiveWire, September 1992

ONE EVENING, as I sat in a friend's living room eating Chinese food, watching cable comedy shows and feeling my deadline time approach, I began ...

Guns N' Roses, Metallica: Guns N' Roses roll in to Foxboro

Report by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 10 September 1992

"THE TRAIN," says a confident-sounding Wendy Laister, "is absolutely back on the tracks." ...

Guns N' Roses, Metallica: Foxboro Stadium, Foxboro MA

Live Review by Jim Sullivan, The Boston Globe, 13 September 1992

Guns N' Roses vs. Metallica: They're a high-scoring draw ...

Helmet: Meantime (Interscope) ***½

Review by Michael Azerrad, Rolling Stone, 17 September 1992

A MARVEL OF precisely channeled aggression, Meantime could be the soundtrack to the mind of an NFL linebacker. Leader and rantwriter Page Hamilton sounds like ...

Warrant: Up To Date With The Down Boys

Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, BAM, 18 September 1992

AS GOOD A place as any to start here might be with a letter I wrote to an unnamed Pacific Northwest fanzine editor on January ...

Extreme

Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, October 1992

"I HATE IT, I hate it, I hate it," says Nuno Bettencourt, nodding at the 48-track mixing console of the New River Studio, Fort Lauderdale, ...

GWAR! What Is It Good For? GWAR: The Longhorn, Stuttgart

Live Review by Push, Melody Maker, 10 October 1992

THIS IS utter f***ing madness. ...

Guns N' Roses, Metallica: Metallica: High on Iron Scion

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 24 October 1992

The streamlined, black-clad resistance fighters of METALLICA are poised for a surgical strike on Guns N' Roses' hard rock throne. STEPHEN DALTON discovers the truth ...

Ministry: Live at the End of the World!

Report and Interview by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 14 November 1992

The Lollapalooza tour and the Psalm 69 album have turned MINISTRY into industrial metal superstars, the only band of their kind big enough to play ...

AC/DC: AC/DC Live

Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, December 1992

AC/DC's ROLE as rap-music progenitor cannot be overlooked. ...

Megadeth

Interview by Andy Gill, Q, December 1992

ON A TWISTY MOUNTAIN ROAD ABOUT 25 miles outside Toulon, another mad bastard is laying his life on the line, taking his bike way over ...

Jon Bon Jovi: Q&A: Jon Bon Jovi

Interview by David Toop, The Face, December 1992

Jon Bon Jovi has had his hair cut off and been remixed by Jesus Jones. What's going on? ...

Ministry: The Man From Ministry

Interview by Adam Sweeting, Vox, December 1992

AFTER A promising start, Ministry headman Al Jourgensen put his career into reverse, burying the band in a hideous dark noise which has transformed them ...

Guns N' Roses: Axl Rose: The Mussolini Of Mass Culture

Profile by Toby Young, The Modern Review, Summer 1992

FEW THINGS ARE MORE CAPABLE of convincing you that rock 'n' roll is dead than a benefit concert. The spectacle of all those cadaverous rock ...

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine (1992)

Interview by Andy Gill, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1992

The Megadeth leader talks about taking up Martial Arts; keeping it simple on stage; about not being such a dickhead anymore; his time with Metallica, and getting fired; his huge drug intake, and getting clean; being a father; his religious beliefs, and his view of the world and politics.

File format: mp3; file size: 55.2mb, interview length: 57' 27" sound quality: **** (after a dodgy start)

Kyuss: "Basically, We're Four Nerds..."

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 6 February 1993

Claims KYUSS guitarist JOSH HOMME. The band's sound is impossible to categorise — although Sabbath comparisons abound — their bass player is shoeless with "a ...

Rage Against The Machine: Rage Against The Machine (Epic/All formats)

Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 6 February 1993

THE RAP-rock crossover is a long-cherished ideal that has invariably tarnished the credentials of its various practitioners and collaborators. Just as Run DMC were consigned ...

Body Count, Ice-T: Ice-T: Rebel with a cause

Interview by Frank Broughton, i-D, March 1993

When Ice-T was witch-hunted by the American establishment over his 'Cop Killer' song last year, he changed from LA gangster rapper to hip hop elder ...

Poison: Native Tongue (Capitol) **½

Review by Deborah Frost, Rolling Stone, 18 March 1993

"OH, NO, NO," moans Bret Michaels during the final, crashing chords of the newly reconstituted Poison's attempt to reestablish its lacquered toehold on the bubble-metal ...

Dismember, N.W.A: Art on Trial

Comment by David Toop, The Wire, April 1993

By downplaying or ridiculing the potential impact of extreme artforms such as death metal and hardcore HipHop, do the defences in censorship trials call into ...

Living Colour: Stain (Epic)

Review by Deborah Frost, Musician, April 1993

BASS LOVERS of the world, this one's for you. Every track on Stain, Living Colour's third record, is a journey to the deepest ends of ...

Anthrax, Angelo Badalamenti, Public Enemy: Anthrax: Rap Metal Dealers

Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 22 May 1993

Once upon a time, there was a super-competent trad-thrash band with a poodle-headed singer. They boldly entered the rock/rap crossover zone, collaborating with the cred-worthy ...

Guns N' Roses: Chopper rock — Guns N' Roses: National Bowl, Milton Keynes

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 31 May 1993

Guns N' Roses, high on attitude, bring their macho moves to Milton Keynes ...

Metallica: "Good Day For A Battle"

Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 5 June 1993

Metallica, the titans of terse doom-metal, return to the UK this weekend, on the final leg of an epic tour that has taken them to ...

The Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, LL Cool J, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rick Rubin, Slayer: Rick Rubin: The Buddha of Suburbia

Interview by RJ Smith, Details, July 1993

Rick Rubin built a recording empire from a dorm room at NYU. With Def American Recordings, he's taken the sound of the streets to the ...

Metallica: Achiel Eeckloo Rockweide, Torhout, Belgium

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 24 July 1993

NOWHERE LEFT TO ROAM... The Big K!'s STEFFAN CHIRAZI gets all doe-eyed as METALLICA round off their current world tour, and files this final live report... ...

Metallica: Stir Crazy!

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 24 July 1993

METALLICA, the biggest Heavy Metal band on the planet, have just finished a tour that has seem 'em play to an estimated 4.3 million people ...

Ted Nugent: Out Of Control (Epic/Legacy import E2K 47039) KKKKK

Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 14 August 1993

THE NUGE IS HUGE! ...

Burzum, Mayhem: Euronymous Murdered!

Report by Paul Elliott, Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 21 August 1993

Black Metal 'Godfather' stabbed to death; rival Swedish Satanists suspected! ...

Vince Neil: Exposed

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 2 September 1993

THERE ARE NO songs about driving cars on Exposed, the debut solo album by former Mötley Crüe throat Vince Neil, none about racing Indy Lights ...

Emperor: Second Black Metal Murder!

Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 18 September 1993

Emperor drummer killed homosexual and burned chapel! ...

Slayer: Angels of Def!

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 18 September 1993

With the promise of a new studio album by Christmas, SLAYER will be one of the first Metal acts to emerge on RICK RUBIN'S re-christened ...

W.A.S.P.: First Blood... Last Cuts (Capitol advance tape) KK

Review by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 23 October 1993

'I'LL DO whatever I want to you/I'll nail your ass to the sheets'. Blackie Lawless slobbers on W.A.S.P.'s controversial first single. 'Animal (F**k Like A ...

Guns N' Roses: The Spaghetti Incident? (Geffen GED24617)

Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 26 November 1993

These we have loved to death ...

Sepultura: Rio Speedwagon

Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 4 December 1993

With Nirvana and Metallica now deemed radio-friendly, someone had to supply a new soundtrack for rebellion — and Brazilian rockers SEPULTURA have taken up the ...

Body Count, Ice-T: Ice hits meltdown — Ice-T & Body Count: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 27 December 1993

Macho rapper Ice-T goes all soft and squishy at Brixton Academy ...

Black Sabbath: The Second Coming of Black Sabbath (According to Geezer Butler)

Interview by Dave Thompson, The Rocket, 1994

IT WASN'T ALWAYS this way, you know. There was a time when, if you mentioned that you liked Black Sabbath... if you mentioned that ...

Anthrax, Garth Brooks, Gin Blossoms, KISS, The Lemonheads, Toad the Wet Sprocket: Kiss Off

Report and Interview by Rob Tannenbaum, GQ, January 1994

As the nation turns its lonely eyes to the Seventies for inspiration, they alight fondly on Kiss, who were stupider and crasser than anyone — ...

Alice In Chains: Jar Of Flies/Sap (Columbia).

Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 22 January 1994

DAY OF THE SHACKLE ...

Guns N' Roses: Frontman: Slash

Interview by Mark Rowland, Musician, February 1994

WHAT HAVE you been doing since The Spaghetti Incident? ...

Guns N' Roses: The Spaghetti Incident? Geffen

Review by Eric Weisbard, Spin, February 1994

LISTENING TO The Spaghetti Incident? is like hearing Use Your Illusion I and II refracted through cover versions. The first song, Axl Rose's pipe-bending 'Since ...

Ronnie James Dio: The Return of Ronnie James Dio

Interview by Steven P. Wheeler, Music Connection, March 1994

CUTTING HIS professional teeth with the mildly successful early Seventies band Elf, the 45-year-old Ronnie James Dio (Ronald Padavona) first rose to fame with former ...

Tool: The Boathouse, Norfolk, Virginia

Live Review by Cathi Unsworth, Melody Maker, 5 March 1994

RARELY HAVE a band been as misunderstood by their audience as Tool playing provincial America. If the seething, drunken mass of dubious humanity that turn ...

Tool: Avalon, Boston

Live Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 7 April 1994

MAYNARD JAMES Keenan, singer for Los Angeles' Tool, teetered like a crippled vulture and pecked a ticket stub off of the stage. "Twelve dollars and ...

Burzum, Emperor, Mayhem: Black Metal Murderer Gets 14 Years!

Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 9 April 1994

Emperor drummer confesses: "I kept on stabbing… then I went back and kicked him in the head" ...

Senser: Stacked Up (Ultimate TOPP 008) ****

Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, May 1994

FURIOUS Senser: they too can "do a Levellers". ...

Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: Blood, Fire, Death

Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 7 May 1994

Heavy Metal has seen nothing like it before. In Norway's infamous Black Metal scene, murder and arson are rife. Emperor drummer Bard Eithun is already ...

Black Sabbath: Hammersmith Apollo, London

Live Review by Ian Fortnam, New Musical Express, 7 May 1994

HE LOOKS for all the world like a 1970s catalogue model, with his snake-hipped flares. Shoot! Annual 1975 hairstyle, and rakish Zapata moustache. He has ...

Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: The Killer Cracks!

Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 14 May 1994

Norwegian Black Metal star Varg Vikernes — aka Count Grishnackh — is charged with the murder of rival musician and Satanist Oystein Aarseth. Kerrang!'s exclusive ...

Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: Mass Slaughter!

Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 21 May 1994

Black Metal star Varg Vikernes (aka Count Grishnackh) stands accused of the murder of rival Oystein Aarseth — but incredibly, he was planning a worse ...

Megadeth: 'Deth Warmed Up!

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 21 May 1994

There's a new vibe about MEGADETH in 1994 — they're happy, mellow, positive. They actually like each other, goddammit! What the hell's gotten into 'em?! ...

The Melvins, Napalm Death: Melvins, Napalm Death: Garage, London

Live Review by Ian Fortnam, New Musical Express, 21 May 1994

THIS MUCH we know: having long since rejected such trifling notions as tunes, melody and coherent vocals, Napalm Death have concentrated their efforts on creating ...

Napalm Death: Fear, Emptiness, Despair (Earache/All Formats)

Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 21 May 1994

WHAT CAN you say about a band who defined the very genre of which they are a part? ...

Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal Court Report: Guilty As Hell!

Report by Tore Øien, Kerrang!, 28 May 1994

The verdict is in — and Black Metal star Varg Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh, has been found guilty of murdering rival Oystein Aarseth. The sentence ...

Megadeth: 'Deth Warmed Up! #2

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 28 May 1994

Right now, MEGADETH are as strong and happy as they've ever been — yet incredibly, they were close to splitting up just a few months ...

Pantera: In a Darkened Room...

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 28 May 1994

...is where PANTERA frontman PHIL ANSELMO gets his head together — away from the pressures that come with a US Number One album. What is ...

Pantera: Butt Reaction

Interview by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 4 June 1994

Before PAUL LESTER travelled to Detroit and came into contact with PANTERA, currently America's fastest, loudest, most popular and OTT speed metal band, he looked ...

Mötley Crüe: Tennessee Theatre, Knoxville, Tennessee

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 30 July 1994

SPARE A thought for poor ol' Nikki Sixx, will ya? Suffering for years in limousines and jets planes the world over, enduring the tortures of ...

Pantera, Prong, Sepultura: Pantera, Sepultura, Prong: Irvine Meadows, Irvine CA

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 30 July 1994

FAR BEYOND HEAVY! The mightiest Metal package tour of the year rumbles through California on World Cup Final day — will PANTERA be victorious, or can ...

Kyuss: Sky Valley (Elektra)

Review by Neil Perry, Vox, August 1994

HAILING FROM THE golf-crazed, blue-collar Californian oasis of Palm Springs, the almost surreally heavy Kyuss apparently honed their ferociously stoned metallic vibe with "generator parties", ...

Napalm Death: Noise International: It’s Napalm Death for World Music

Report and Interview by Ian Christe, Alternative Press, August 1994

THE LANGUAGE OF death metal can be as undecipherable to outsiders as street grafitti, but the meaning is as clear: "Stay away – I ...

Machine Head, Napalm Death, Obituary: Napalm Death, Obituary, Machine Head: The Palace, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 24 September 1994

Death Metal kings Napalm Death and Obituary slay LA! Monstrous Machine Head march on! ...

Downset, Pantera: Pantera, Downset: Apollo, Manchester

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 24 September 1994

VISIBLE PANTERA LINE ...

Metallica: Don't Tread On Me! Metallica Sue 'Em All In Court Case Spectacular!

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 22 October 1994

Gloves off as Metal masters take on record company in legal scrapof the decade! Lars tells all! ...

Body Count, Ice-T: Ice-T: Seine In The Membrane

Interview by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 12 November 1994

It's not all being grim and Malcolm X when you're ICE-T. You also get to go on the road with your mates, play metal and ...

Danzig: Black Gold!

Report and Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, Spring 1994

  IT'S BEEN A LONG time coming, but finally Glenn Danzig has received his first Gold albums, for Danzig's 1988 eponymous Def American debut album and ...

Dead Norwegians, Israeli Disco and Satan's Penis: The Pulp Reality of the Metal Underground

Overview by Ian Christe, Alternative Press, 1995

"SOME IMAGINE for some weird reason that Death Metal is something normal and available for everyone," Morbid/Mayhem vocalist "Dead" told an interviewer prior to his ...

Kyuss: Interview With A Stoner.....

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Hot Metal, 1995

In the over zealous world of the music business, many younger horses get led to water and made to drink well past saturation. Not Kyuss. ...

Guns N' Roses: "I Never Liked Our New Guitarist!" Slash Stabbed in the Back as Axl Hires New Gun!

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, 14 January 1995

Rucks! Law-suits! The future of GN'R! Slash tells all in a killer Kerrang! world exclusive! ...

Scorn

Report and Interview by Ian Christe, Metal Maniacs, February 1995

"NOBODY'S REALLY interested in Scorn in England," admits animated Mick Harris, the band's drum programmer. "We get great reviews, but there's not any attention for ...

Faith No More: King For A Day... Fool For A Lifetime

Review by Pippa Lang, Metal Hammer, March 1995

FAITH NO MORE. as we know, have no problems with inhibitions. In fact. it's become their privilege to take risks. But how does any band ...

Megadeth: "Are You Trying To Get Me To Say I'm Mad?!"

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 18 March 1995

Anarchist! Politician! Spiritualist! Is MEGADETH mainman DAVE MUSTAINE a Metal messiah — or is he just a loony ex-junkie?! We strip away the bullshit for ...

Accept, Cinderella, Mötley Crüe, Vince Neil, Poison, Trixter, Warrant, Winger: Who Killed the Hair Bands?

Report by Alan di Perna, Musician, May 1995

IN JANUARY OF 1992, singer Vince Neil appeared on the cover of this magazine, lighting a cigar with a thousand-dollar bill. His band, Mötley Crüe, ...

Therapy?: Town & Country Club, Leeds

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 15 June 1995

Dahmer karma and splenetic rage ...

Bon Jovi: The Noisy American

Report and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 17 June 1995

Jon Bon Jovi was once the king of hairspray and spandex. Now he wants to be taken a lot more seriously. The hell-raising days are ...

Kyuss: ...And The Circus Leaves Town (Elektra/All formats)

Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 15 July 1995

FOR THOSE about to rock, we salute them round these parts, and no-one rocks heavier than Kyuss, the thinking mammoth's metal muthas. ...

Kyuss: ...And The Circus Leaves Town (WCA 7559-618112)

Review by Neil Perry, Vox, August 1995

STONED CALIFORNIA bass freaks Kyuss have done it again: they've created an album that's as different from last year's Sky Valley as that was from ...

Therapy?: Infernal Love (A&M 540379)

Review by Lisa Verrico, Vox, August 1995

Tender loving Cairns ...

White Zombie: Great Woods, Mansfield, Mass.

Live Review by Ted Drozdowski, Rolling Stone, 24 August 1995

WHITE ZOMBIE proved the axiom that rock & roll ain't brain surgery. At their concerts it's legerdemain — trickery and pyrotechnics, aka smoke and mirrors. ...

Be gentle with me! Reading & Donington — The Kerrang! Survival Guide

Guide by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 26 August 1995

Are you a festival virgin? Is it your first time? Don't end up face down in a muddy puddle — read the Big K! survival ...

Sepultura: Roots Radicals! Sepultura — New Album World Exclusive!

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 23 September 1995

Brazilian pounders SEPULTURA are holed up in a red-hot rehearsal studio, thrashing out new material for Roots — their eagerly-awaited sixth LP. Naturally, it's going ...

Therapy? Smooth, Smart, Selfish

Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 18 November 1995

How has Therapy? bassist Michael McKeegan kept his head as the band have gone from smalltown heroes to international stars? Paul Elliott hears his story... ...

David Lee Roth, Van Halen: David Lee Roth (1995)

Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages audio, December 1995

The erstwhile Van Halen frontman talks about his youth, and his memories of uncle Manny Roth, who started the Greenwich Village Café Wha?; on being first turned on to music; his love of boats; his current gig playing Las Vegas, and the uniform blandness of the modern world. He also revisits the end of Van Halen and their legacy, and the part cocaine played in their break-up.

File format: mp3; file size: 93.8mb, interview length: 1h 37' 44" sound quality: ***

Redd Kross: L.A. Confidential: Life In The Fast Lane With Redd Kross's Jeffrey & Steven McDonald

Interview by Joss Hutton, Bucketfull of Brains, 1996

I said to a friend of mine "Hey, great! Redd Kross have got a new album coming out!"She said "The girl band?" ...

Helmet: Head Case: Helmet's Page Hamilton

Report and Interview by Mike Mettler, Guitar, March 1996

HELMET'S PAGE HAMILTON has impeccable credentials. He holds a master's degree in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music, and he has been part of ...

Foo Fighters: Have We Got Foos For You

Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 6 April 1996

Foo Fighters are back with a new single, 'Big Me', and a fresh determination to not let adulation force them into a Nirvana–type corner. Melody ...

Metallica (1996)

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages audio, 24 April 1996

The Rashomon interview: all four Metallicas sit down, separately, to talk about the making of Load.

File format: mp3; in 5 parts, total file sizes: 104.6mb, total interview length: 1h 54' 21" sound quality: ***

Rancid: Rank Account

Interview by John Robb, Melody Maker, 25 May 1996

The American ska-punk noise of RANCID is more intelligent than your average dumb thrash racket ...

Slayer: Undisputed Attitude (American 15tks/35 mins)

Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 25 May 1996

HERE'S A CONCEPT to make your blood curdle. Slayer, the undisputed kings of thrash metal stupidity, cover a cranium-crushing selection of top hardcore punk tunes. ...

Slayer: Confessions of a Teenage Punk Rocker

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 25 May 1996

He dumped a cheerleader for punk rock, and he spent his teens boozing, brawling and smashing up cars. He's Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman, and he's ...

Def Leppard: Slang

Review by David Quantick, Q, June 1996

FOR DEF Leppard, it really ought to be That Time Of The Career. ...

Black Sabbath: The Enduring Riff Rock Of Black Sabbath

Retrospective and Interview by Paul Gabriel, DISCoveries, June 1996

IT IS 1996, and there is still a Black Sabbath. Will wonders never cease? ...

Metallica: Come Out and Play

Report by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 22 June 1996

It's a scorching hot day in California, and Metallica — the world's biggest rock band — have just announced on the radio that they'll be ...

Metallica: The Alternative Metallica

Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, July 1996

THEY MAKE THE ODDEST OF rock couples, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Watching them at work in Manhattan’s Right Track Studios, it’s hard to imagine ...

Pantera: A Place... And A Hard Rock

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Creative Loafing, 6 July 1996

CL talks with Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul about The Great Southern Trendkill, their summer tour, and how these "cowboys from hell" ride the range in ...

Slayer: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 20 July 1996

THRILL KILLER CULT ...

Metallica: Load (Elektra)

Review by Mac Randall, Musician, August 1996

Monsters of Pop ...

Rage Against The Machine: Roseland Ballroom, New York NY

Live Review by Evelyn McDonnell, Rolling Stone, 3 October 1996

AT ABOUT the same time Bob Dole was accepting the GOP's presidential nomination some 3,000 miles away, Rage Against the Machine drop-kicked 'People of the ...

Marilyn Manson: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 5 October 1996

He has shocked America with his sick, sadistic and Satanic music — now MARILYN MANSON is coming to the UK. "Masturbation, hardcore pornography and sleep ...

Marilyn Manson's Murderous Appeal

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 October 1996

Twisted persona allows this musician to act out his nightmares on the stage ...

Marilyn Manson: Antichrist Superstar (Interscope UND 90086)

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 11 October 1996

IT'S COMPLACENT bands such as Hootie and Counting Crows that almost make one sympathise with the likes of Marilyn Manson, trash-thrash riff-mongers whose taste for ...

Metallica: Earl's Court, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 14 October 1996

Classic metal misfits spit out decibels of defiance at the venue from hell ...

Def Leppard: Sheffield Arena

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 15 November 1996

Rusty metal with extra irony ...

Tool: Ænima (Zoo)

Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, December 1996

TOOL'S GENRE is yawning-chasm metal — instead of concrete songs beginning and ending, volume knobs simply open and close, engulfing you like a sperm whale's ...

Slaughter: The Wild Life  

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 17 December 1996

AT ITS BEST, Slaughter fills the same niche today that garage bands filled in the mid-'60s – a speedy and loud but pretty and danceable ...

Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson: Marilyn Manson: Wrong Is Right

Essay by Chuck Eddy, L.A. Weekly, 19 December 1996

Marilyn Manson's diet for an evil new planet ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzfest ‘97

Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, unpublished, 1997

THE UNEARTHLY NOISE that barrels over the pines and down Alpine Valley in rural Wisconsin last summer was a clear signal that the natural order ...

Korn: Hoots Bloody Hoots

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 11 January 1997

To celebrate the New Year, KORN singer Jonathan Davis has invited Kerrang! onto his gleaming tour bus. Here, he is first going to whip out ...

Marilyn Manson: Freak Showmanship: Marilyn Manson, Brixton Academy: London

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 31 May 1997

YOUNG BOYS. HALF-NEKKID. COVERED IN MAKE-UP. GULP. It's heaving in here and I can't tell if it's down to a pilgrimage of worship or just ...

Body Count: Astoria, London

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 7 June 1997

ICE AND A SLICE ...

Black Sabbath, Coal Chamber, Faith No More, Fear Factory, Machine Head, Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, Slo-Burn, Type O Negative, Vision of Disorder: Ozz-Fest: California Screaming!

Report and Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 12 June 1997

The greatest show on earth has FEAR FACTORY, MANSON, TYPE O, MACHINE HEAD and COAL CHAMBER on one bill — and it's just destroyed America. This ...

Megadeth: The Last Word: Megadeth's Dave Mustaine

Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 5 July 1997

The ultimate questions on life, sex and making a prick of yourself. This week, MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine compares notes with Paul Elliott... ...

Metallica: Massive Attack!

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 23 August 1997

On the eve of their headlining appearance at Reading '97, METALLICA have one more battle to fight with Load. In the blue corner, Planet Rock's ...

Marilyn Manson: The Afterlife Of Brian

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 30 August 1997

You may think that MARILYN MANSON (or Brian to his mum) is just a spooky goth who smokes human bones and sings about scabby angels ...

Metallica: Souls of a New Machine

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 30 August 1997

The Plant Studios, Sausalito: METALLICA are holding their final inquest into the Load album and working on its successor. Time to find out exactly how ...

Marilyn Manson: Alternative Cult Star

Interview by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 20 September 1997

He's seven-foot tall and rips his stomach to shreds with a half-broken bottle on stage. But, heh, he's still little Brian to his mum. We ...

Marilyn Manson at CMJ Musicfest

Report by Jeff Apter, nyrock.com, October 1997

THERE ARE MANY perceptions of Marilyn Manson. The most common, in no special order, are that he's a baby eater, a Satan worshiper, and a ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne (1997)

Interview by David Stubbs, Rock's Backpages audio, October 1997

The Ozzmeister effs and blinds his way through subjects ranging from the death of Princess Diana to the myth of Sabbath's Satanism and the US religious backlash, via a detailed description of his substance abuse and much more.

File format: mp3; file size: 62.6mb, interview length: 1h 08' 22" sound quality: ****

Whitesnake: End of an earache — Whitesnake: Shepherd's Bush Empire, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 11 October 1997

Hang up your air guitars: Whitesnake will rock no more. Caroline Sullivan is oddly moved ...

AC/DC: Bonfire

Review by David Bennun, The Guardian, November 1997

THE LATE '70s and early '80s were bleak years for rock, and most other things besides. One of those moments in history which seem to ...

Metallica: Re-Load (Elektra) ***½

Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 16 November 1997

THE TITLE of Metallica's new album does the band a disservice. This is less a sequel to last year's Load than a virtual repudiation of ...

Metallica: Metal Memories: Ten years of close encounters with Metallica

Retrospective by Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix, 17 November 1997

THE MONSTERS OF ROCK Tour in '87 was my wake-up call. Even if waking up in Akron is like rising with a hangover. ...

Insane Clown Posse: Anarchy In The UK!

Interview by Neil Perry, Kerrang!, 29 November 1997

Straight outta Detroit — the most violent city in America — the INSANE CLOWN POSSE are coming to Britain. Prepare to be drowned in fizzy ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: His Satanic Majesty Repents

Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, December 1997

JOHN "OZZY" OSBOURNE, FORMER HELL raiser, outrageous roister-doister, Dark Lord of Metal and rough diamond geezer extraordinaire has sung much about death, visited it summarily ...

Faith No More: 33 Gleibe Freiheit, Hamburg

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Vox, January 1998

The Fifth Element ...

Metallica: Re-Load (Vertigo)

Review by Neil Kulkarni, Uncut, January 1998

Heavy metal muthas in peak form shock ...

Metallica Killed 'Em All!

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 10 January 1998

Best Band, Best Album, Best Single, Best Live Gig — METALLICA swept the board in this year's Readers' Poll. At home in California. James Hetfield ...

Metallica: CorseStates Center Parking Lot, Philadelphia

Live Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, February 1998

IT WAS DUBBED the "Million Decibel March," but Metallica's purported return to hard rockin' drew a crowd you might expect to see at a Bryan ...

Rammstein: Sehnsucht (Slash)

Review by Chuck Eddy, Rolling Stone, 5 February 1998

A SEXTET OF East German sexual-torture fanatics that has been accused of luring the youth of Europe toward communist bliss (and who also appeared on ...

Coal Chamber, Human Waste Project: Human Waste Project, Coal Chambers: Sister Act

Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, 14 February 1998

"God, you guys just want dirt!" exclaimed HUMAN WASTE PROJECT'S Aimee Echo when she and COAL CHAMBER'S Rayna saw our frankly filthy Valentine's Day questionnaire. ...

The Deftones: The Accidental Hero

Interview by Neil Perry, Kerrang!, 14 February 1998

Chino Moreno isn't your typical rock star. The DEFTONES frontman didn't have a dysfunctional childhood, hasn't cultivated a heroin habit, and he still gets scared ...

Judas Priest: Eyewitness: Judas Priest on trial

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Q, March 1998

EVENT: The Trial of Judas Priest  DATE: 23 Dec 1985 – 24 August 1990 LOCATION: Washoe County Courthouse, Reno, Nevada  ...

Marilyn Manson: The Long Road Out of Hell (ReganBooks)

Book Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1998

MANSON'S LITTLE BLACK BOOK: MARILYN MANSON UNLEASHES THE ULTIMATE TELL-ALL ...

Cradle of Filth: The Lust Highway

Interview by Paul Elliott, Neil Perry, Kerrang!, 2 May 1998

Experimental sex, necrophilia, decadence, fetishism, three-day clubbing binges, pornography, occultism, misanthropy and vampirism. Welcome to the world of CRADLE OF FILTH frontman Dani Filth… ...

Van Halen: Steady Eddie Van Halen

Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 7 May 1998

IT'S AFTER 2 A.M. on a Monday morning, Houston time, when Eddie Van Halen calls for a thrice-scheduled interview. But the guitar virtuoso of the ...

Slayer: The Brothers Grim

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 16 May 1998

The world of SLAYER is a bleak, gore-drenched place populated by deviants, lunatics, mass murderers and war criminals. You'd expect nothing less from men who've ...

Garbage, Superdrag, Van Halen: Albums from Van Halen, Superdrag and Garbage

Review by James Hunter, New York Observer, 18 May 1998

Is Rock Dead? No, It's Just Morphing ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: The Godfather Of Metal Lands On The Good Foot

Interview by Steve Roeser, Goldmine, 5 June 1998

Nearly 30 Years After Founding Black Sabbath, The Godfather Of Metal Lands On The Good Foot ...

Pantera: The Great Southern Trendkiller

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 20 June 1998

Racist, junkie, violent thug — PANTERA singer Phil Anselmo has been called all these things and more in recent years. Today, in New Orleans, it's ...

The Hard Stuff: Almost a Dozen Reasons to Like Metal Again

Review by Chuck Eddy, The Boston Phoenix, 20 July 1998

A FEW YEARS AGO, bored by grunge and late speedmetal and still lamenting the loss of pretty glam in prettier haircuts, I thought loud guitar ...

Sepultura, Soulfly: Sepultura: Greene Machine

Interview by Steffan Chirazi, Kerrang!, 25 July 1998

In December '96, Andreas Kisser, Paulo Pinto and Igor Cavalera contemplated breaking up SEPULTURA after their bitter split with Max Cavalera. This is the story ...

Marilyn Manson: The Man Who Fell To Earth

Interview by Paul Elliott, Kerrang!, September 1998

THE ANTICHRIST SUPERSTAR is no more. ...

Burzum, Darkthrone, Mayhem: Varg Vikernes: This is the Most Evil Man in Rock

Overview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 5 September 1998

STEVEN WELLS reports on the BLACK METAL scene, where various bands have been linked to church burnings, neo-Nazism and even murder. ...

Marilyn Manson: Mechanical Animals (Nothing/Universal/Interscope)

Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 17 September 1998

IN CASE you've been off-planet the past few years, Marilyn Manson is the latest American androgyne perv bogeyman, sent to terrify liberals just as much ...

Korn: This is Hard Skin

Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 19 September 1998

OK, Yank metalheads Korn might not be named after a foot complaint, but they are definitely hot-blooded hetero rawk muthas, right?! Why else would they ...

Korn: Harvest of Sorrow: Korn: Follow The Leader (Immortal/Epic)

Review by RJ Smith, Spin, October 1998

For millions of kids, Korn's house of pain feels like a home away from home. ...

Marilyn Manson: The Love Song of Marilyn Manson

Special Feature by Chris Heath, Rolling Stone, 15 October 1998

In which our hero, trapped in the hills of Los Angeles, finds a girl, discovers his emotions and consumes copious amounts of drugs ...

Marilyn Manson: Mechanical Animals (NOTHING) ****

Review by Ian Gittins, Q, November 1998

Return of the Thin White Berk. ...

Sepultura, Slayer: Metal mickey — Slayer, Sepultura: Astoria, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 28 November 1998

Sepultura and Slayer? Caroline Sullivan can't take it seriously ...

Cradle Of Filth: This Is My Uncouth

Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 19 December 1998

It was a meeting made in hell — quite literally. A gathering of the forces of evil — namely Cradle Of Filth — and the ...

Marilyn Manson: The Nightmare Before Christmas

Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 19 December 1998

The season of goodwill may be upon us, but one man has come to vomit on your festive cheer. Fresh from wrecking his hotel room, ...

Marilyn Manson: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 20 December 1998

Satan's little helper ...

Coal Chamber: Get Yer Scuttles Out: Coal Chamber

Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999

DEZ SOUNDS genuinely horrified. "You can't do that! I'll be naked!" And, though it probably takes a lot to shock him, the ...

Marilyn Manson

Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999

HE BROUGHT YOUR SICKEST FANTASIES to life, and now you, poor fools, have fulfilled his. When Broadway wheels out the new millennial Jesus Christ ...

Slipknot: Kiss Devo Goodbye

Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999

NOW IS PROBABLY not the best time to say it, but they look like Devo. Those boiler suits with bar-codes on them, those crazy ...

Marilyn Manson: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Neil Kulkarni, Melody Maker, 2 January 1999

"GIG OF '98" isn't speaking the same language. A "happening" leaves you when it's over. No, this, this trip, this frenzy, is a national event. ...

White Zombie, Rob Zombie: Rob Zombie: Monster of Rock

Report and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1999

Hot Pants, Hot Rods, Guitars that spit blood: How he went from a television-addicted high school loser to the new King of Heavy Metal ...

Marilyn Manson Blamed For Tragic High School Murders

Report by uncredited writer, Kerrang!, 1 May 1999

Manson speaks out over the tragedy as the world's media condemns him ...

Metallica: Classic Metal: Metallica

Report and Interview by David Bennun, The Observer, 9 May 1999

LIKE MOST things in this California college town, including the people, Berkeley's Community Theatre has changed little since the '60s. Its rust-brown auditorium and green ...

Korn: Scream Of The Crop

Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 15 May 1999

Korn's angst-ridden Jonathan Davis is the nearest thing America has to Richey Manic. We meet him on the road in the States and hear tales ...

Limp Bizkit: Significant Other (Flip/Interscope)

Review by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 14 July 1999

WHEN MTV and BET air the new Eminem video 'Guilty Conscience', they run into the small problem of the song's conclusion, where bad-angel Slim Shady ...

Goo Goo Dolls: The Unlikely Lads

Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 17 July 1999

In America, the GOO GOO DOLLS are award-winning rock stars who out-sell Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie. But then, they have spent 10 years playing ...

Limp Bizkit: Send Porn Stars, Funk and Money: The Limp Bizkit Story

Report and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 5 August 1999

"WHO WANTS to speak to me?" Fred Durst regards his cell phone with suspicion. "Adam Sandler?" The Limp Bizkit leader has been chatting with producer ...

Megadeth: Risk (Capitol)

Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 4 September 1999

SCIENTISTS SEEM to be forever discovering hideously ugly living examples of supposedly extinct prehistoric animals. One experiences a similar frisson of excitement upon discovering that ...

Mortiis: "Boy. I'm really nervous!"

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 25 September 1999

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the real Mortiis ...

Mortiis: Islington Slimelight, London *

Live Review by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 25 September 1999

Everyone's favourite demonic troll brings his ambient spook-fest to London. ...

Def Leppard: On The Road: Again….

Report and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, October 1999

"RIGHT," SAYS Joe Elliot. "I think it's time for a few drinks." ...

Kid Rock: At Last! Could Kid Rock Be The Saviour Of Rock? Oops. Sorry.

Report and Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 9 October 1999

"HEY, SCATLAND! R U ready for some medal!? How many of you guyz are gonna getta 'shag' tonite!?" ...

Tommy Lee, Methods of Mayhem: Methods of Mayhem: Tommy Lee's Second Coming

Report and Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Rolling Stone, 11 November 1999

Ex-Crüe drummer out of jail and back on the radio ...

System Of A Down: It's The End Of The World As We Know It…

Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 18 December 1999

…and SYSTEM OF A DOWN feel fine. But then, this is the band who will celebrate the new millennium by attempting to drug the Backstreet ...

Coal Chamber, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Orgy, Rage Against the Machine, Static-X, System of a Down, Rob Zombie: They love bands called Snot and Orgy and dress like S&M fans. Welcome to nu metal

Report by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 20 December 1999

Dave Simpson tunes into the latest pop cult ...

Twisted Sister: An Interview with Jay Jay French

Interview by Joe Matera, Australian Musician, 2000

Taking their lead from their glam-rock roots, Twisted Sister went on to become one of the biggest bands of the 80s. In 1984, the band, ...

Glassjaw: Noise 2000

Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 8 January 2000

"IT'S MADE ME realise the value of life, and it's a strong part of me," says Daryl Palumbo, frontman with rising New York crew Glassjaw. ...

Slipknot: Sinister Masked Rap-Metallers

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 8 January 2000

JOEY (No 1): "We have enough hatred and anger to fucking fuel fucking ten fucking records!" Shawn (No 6): "We're pretty angry." ...

Machine Head: Truth Or Dare

Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 15 February 2000

For some bands, Kerrang!'s legendary Truth Or Dare grilling provides the opportunity to delve into their respective psyches. For Machine Head it's an excuse to ...

AC/DC: Stiff Upper Lip (EMI)


Review by Tom Cox, The Guardian, 3 March 2000

AC/DC MAY OR may not currently be writing the best lyrics in rock. It's hard to tell, since they don't print them on their album ...

Slipknot: There Goes The Neighbourhood…

Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 11 March 2000

Last week, Slipknot flew into Britain for their first full UK jaunt. Over the next seven days, they will contemplate suicide, get thrown out of ...

Korn: "I once did coke off The Bible"

Interview by Robin Bresnark, Melody Maker, 17 May 2000

Before Korn's huge shows this week, we got them to tell us their favourite tour stories. It's not all fruit up drummers' arses and drugs. ...

Enduring the noise: Martin Popoff Pops Off on Heavy Metal, Rock Criticism, and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, July 2000

IF CHUCK EDDY is heavy metal's bastard child, Martin Popoff is its favourite son. Popoff, 37, has been writing about metal for more than a ...

Kyuss, Queens Of The Stone Age: Queens of the Stone Age make an offer you can't refuse

Interview by Ted Kessler, New Musical Express, 29 July 2000

"SOME OF YOU DRUGGERS, SOME OF YOU SOBER PEOPLE, SOME OF YOU SEX FIENDS, SOME OF YOU VIRGINS. COME TO OUR CLIQUE. YOU JOIN THE ...

Limp Bizkit: Among the Mooks

Report and Interview by RJ Smith, The New York Times, 6 August 2000

As entertainment entrepreneurs align the fantasy lands of rap, rock, wrestling and pornography, a generation of fans grows ever more brutish. ...

Nelly, Papa Roach: Nelly: Country Grammar; Papa Roach: Infest

Review by Eric Weisbard, The Village Voice, 30 August 2000

LOOKING PAST Eminem, Britney, and Creed to the unknowns, this summer's most persistent chart-huggers have been a St. Louis rapper whose signing represents a rock ...

Eminem, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Xzibit: Eminem Takes The Bizkit!

Report by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 28 October 2000

What happens when America's two biggest antiheroes share the same stage? Join NME at Anger Management, the climactic enormodome showdown between Eminem and Limp Bizkit. ...

Amen: "I don't know if I'll be around in five days, let alone five years"

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 18 November 2000

Don't put your son on the stage, Mrs Chaos. Not unless you want him to form the most vile, heathen, nihilistic, hedonistic rock 'n' roll ...

Monster Magnet: Prince of Darkness: Monster Magnet's Dave Wyndorf

Profile and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Kerrang!, 19 November 2000

"I"VE GOTTA be out there." A warm New Jersey dusk is gradually falling on a idyllic sixties suburbia that still believes whole-heartedly in the concept ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: The Astoria, London

Live Review by Julian Marszalek, music365.com, 22 November 2000

The grandest of desert rock overlords bestow a metallic epiphany. ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: We Pride Ourselves On Giving You A Night You'll Never Remember

Report and Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 29 November 2000

WE JOIN QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, ROCK'S ULTIMATE HEDONISTS, ON THE ROAD IN THE UK FOR TALES OF DRUGS, DRINK AND ONSTAGE PENIS SHRINKAGE. ...

AC/DC: NEC Arena, Birmingham

Live Review by Keith Cameron, The Guardian, 30 November 2000

MORE THAN 25 years after they started it, AC/DC are still playing it – the riff. The same sticklebacked three-chord trick has been their passport ...

Limp Bizkit: Hellraiser

Interview by Marc Weingarten, Vibe, December 2000

Limp Bizkit spearheaded a wildly successful movement in 1999 with their angst-filled rap'n'rock tunes. And in the face of much criticism, these pro-Napster punks have ...

Cradle of Filth: Astoria, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 18 December 2000

AND A SATANIC Merry Christmas from Cradle of Filth, nice Ipswich boys whose idea of a great night is quaffing freshly-drawn virgin's blood to rev ...

Incubus: Brandon Boyd: The Voice of Incubus

Profile and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Vogue Italia, 2001

BRANDON BOYD is a handsome, thin, fine-boned young man who holds the microphone for a popular band called Incubus, and wields it with odd grace ...

Def Leppard

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, 'Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music', 2001

Frank Noon (replaced by Rick Allen, b. 1 November 1963); Steve Clark, b. 23 April 1960, d. 8 January 1991, London (replaced by Vivian Campbell, ...

Extreme

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Nuno Bettancourt, b. 20 September 1966, Azores, Portugal; Gary Cherone, b. 24 July 1961, Malden, Massachusetts, USA; Paul Geary, b. 2 July 1961, Medford, Massachusetts; ...

Mogwai: Metal Ear

Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways Of Hearing, 2001

"They had brought this music with them when they were born, these bandmen, in their hearts and their muscles, their blood and their bones".Jay Allison ...

Queensryche

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Chris De Garmo, b. 14 June 1963, Wenatchee, Washington, USA; Eddie Jackson; Scott Rockenfield, b. 15 June 1963, Seattle, Washington; Geoff Tate, b. 14 January ...

Sepultura

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Igor Cavalera, b. Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Max Cavalera, b. Belo Horizonte; Paulo Pinto Jr., b. Belo Horizonte; Jairo T (replaced by Andreas Kisser), b. Belo ...

Skid Row

Book Excerpt by Phil Hardy, Dave Laing, The Faber Companion to 20th-Century Popular Music, 2001

Dave 'The Snake' Sabo; Sebastian Bach, b. Sebastian Bierk, 3 April 1968, Bahamas; Scotti Hill; Rob Affuso; Rachel Bolan, b. 9 February 1964 ...

Slipknot at Ozzfest

Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, The Face, 2001

STANDING CENTRE-stage and plastered in a grin that pretty much redefines the very word maniacal is a 52-year old man uniquely blessed with the voice ...

Whitesnake: Various Artists: Heart of Metal 2

Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, January 2001

THAT HEAVY METAL and its hair – in all seriousness – had such tremendous clout during the 1980s is one of the greatest, and most ...

Papa Roach

Interview by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 6 January 2001

They're Yanks, they rock, but, dude, this infestation of ass-kickers aren't jumping on any bandwagon — they're pissing all over it. ...

Marilyn Manson: NEC, Birmingham

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 23 January 2001

THE FEARFUL naivety of the American mainstream that hates him has made Marilyn Manson the multi-million selling man he is today. ...

AC/DC: Wembley Arena, London

Live Review by Paul Elliott, MOJO, February 2001

HOWARD STERN spoke for millions of AC/DC fans when quoting from the band's current album Stiff Upper Lip: "I was born with a stiff! These ...

Papa Roach: Astoria, WC2

Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 2 February 2001

IT WAS easy to spot the Papa Roach fans striding through Soho. They travelled in packs — mainly males, but with the odd tomboy babe ...

Orgy, Spooks, Teddy Thompson: Teddy Thompson: Teddy Thompson; Spooks: S.I.O.S.O.S. Vol 1; Orgy: Vapour Transmission

Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 2 February 2001

Teddy Thompson has inherited his dad's folk flair, says Lisa Verrico ...

Guns N' Roses, Izzy Stradlin: Izzy Stradlin

Interview by Ian Fortnam, bol.com, March 2001

SHAKING THE notoriety gained following six years on the road with Guns N' Roses was never going to be the easiest of tasks. But Izzy ...

The Deftones, Linkin Park: Linkin Park/Deftones: Manchester Apollo

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 26 March 2001

The boy band, nu metal style ...

Papa Roach: Oi! We want a word…

Interview by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 14 April 2001

With album sales of three million behind them, life is peachy for Papa Roach right now. Or it would be if they hadn't just got ...

Chuck Klosterman: Fargo Rock City – A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural Nörth Daköta

Book Review by Eric Weisbard, The New York Times Book Review, 3 June 2001

SPANDEX MAKES the heart grow fonder. When I was an editor at Spin magazine a few years ago, the article most people gushed over was ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Blue Oyster Cult/Tyranny & Mutation/Secret Treaties/Agents Of Fortune

Review by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, August 2001

WITH ITS de rigueur darkside lyrics, bugaboo blues-monster riffs, and hypermacho pose-striking, heavy metal was always the dumbest member of the rock family. ...

Crazy Town: U are now entering Crazy Town

Interview by David A. Keeps, Rolling Stone, 2 August 2001

Population: Six metalheads hung up on hip-hop, tattoos drugs, crime, rehab and surviving their stint on this summer's Ozzfest ...

Incubus: Morning View

Review by Pat Blashill, Rolling Stone, 16 October 2001

FOR A NEW-METAL band competing in a field of alpha males with pierced, sloping brows, the supple, even delicate Incubus have an awful lot of ...

Black Sabbath: The Complete '70s Replica CD Collection 1970-78

Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001

THE MYSTERY OF THE RIFF – so crucial to rock, so oddly neglected by critics. ...

Slipknot

Interview by Ian Watson, Sunday Herald, December 2001

BEFORE SEPTEMBER 11th, Slipknot had been revelling in their status as the most outrageous band on the planet. ...

Linkin Park: Boys from The Backstreet

Interview by David Quantick, Q, Summer 2001

Are Linkin Park the pre-fabricated face of nu-metal? Drug convictions, obsessive fans and a festival slot alongside Slipknot would suggest otherwise. "We really don't give ...

Guns N' Roses: The Madness of King Axl

Report by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2002

AS OPPRESSIVE darkness gradually envelops Temple Newsam, a remote agrarian idyll that annually plays host to the Leeds leg of the Carling Festival, the all-pervasive ...

The Scorpions' Rudolf Schenker: An Interview

Report and Interview by Joe Matera, Powerplay, 2002

One of metal's most enduring and successful bands, The Scorpions have been taking their German bred metal to the masses for over 35 years now. ...

No Doubt, P.O.D., Chuck E. Weiss: No Doubt: Rock Steady; P.O.D.: Satellite; Chuck E. Weiss: Old Souls & Wolf Tickets

Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 18 January 2002

California's No Doubt stay up with the pack, while P.O.D. have seen God. David Sinclair is awed ...

P.O.D.: The Garage, London

Live Review by Ian Winwood, Kerrang!, 19 January 2002

The Nu Testament: P.O.D. convert London town ...

Staind: It's Been A While...

Profile and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 26 January 2002

Eight years, in fact, since Staind formed in Springfield, Massachusetts. In 2001, they made the second biggest selling album of the year. This is their ...

Hell Is For Heroes

Profile and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 23 February 2002

Not every young British band gets the opportunity to relocate to Hollywood to record their debut album Hell Is For Heroes have. And they're having ...

Chuck E… So Addictive: Voice Music Editor in His Second rockcritics.com Interview

Interview by Steven Ward, rockcritics.com, March 2002

ROCK CRITIC Chuck Eddy. Love or hate? Let us count the ways… ...

Staind: 013, Tilburg, Netherlands

Live Review by Paul Elliott, Q, April 2002

"I SMOKE MORE weed than ever," sings Aaron Lewis, adding a few improvised lines to Staind's nu-grunge anthem 'Outside'. Whoops of stoned solidarity fill the ...

Incubus: Forum, Los Angeles

Live Review by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 20 April 2002

ALL THE PARENTS who dropped off their kids at the Incubus concert Thursday at the Forum, and all those middle-aged chaperons with earplugs conspicuously shutting ...

SikTh: The Freak Brothers

Profile and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, 11 May 2002

They say you can judge a band by their fans. For fast-rising UK noiseniks SikTh, that means obsessive lunatics and pavement-licking berzerkers... ...

Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: Summer of Love

Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Blender, June 2002

Could things be any better for Ozzy Osbourne? His family's TV show, The Osbournes, is a runaway smash, and his traveling metal revue, Ozzfest, is ...

Rammstein: Docklands Arena, London

Live Review by Steven Wells, New Musical Express, 1 June 2002

WHOOOOMPHF! The mad bastards are wearing 20ft long napalm-flame spewing fuckmasks. This is great! ...

Korn: Meet The Sickest Band In The World

Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, July 2002

Why is this man laughing? Because he's sold 15 million albums, dissected 5000 corpses and forged an army of metal zombies in his own image. ...

Alice In Chains: The Man Boxed In: Layne Staley, 1967-2002

Obituary by Jason Cohen, Spin, July 2002

LAYNE STALEY was already something of a ghost. Alice in Chains, the Seattle band he'd fronted since 1987, was officially on "hiatus," a two-year respite ...

System of a Down: Messiahs of metal

Interview by Ben Thompson, Daily Telegraph, 11 July 2002

System of a Down look set to be the first band to break out of the hard-rocking nu-metal ghetto, says Ben Thompson ...

The Darkness Descends

Report and Interview by John Robb, playlouder.com, August 2002

THIS IS A STORY of nudity, skintight cat suits, East Anglian folk tales, a mad dog with bloodshot eyes, well-clipped moustaches, crazed frontmen and hard ...

Gorillaz, Linkin Park: Linkin Park: Reanimation/Space Monkeyz Vs. Gorillaz: Laika Come Home

Review by Will Hermes, Spin, September 2002

WHO INVENTED the remix? Let P. Diddy debate that one with a posse of royalty-deprived Jamaican dub producers. ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: Monarchs of Rock: Queens of the Stone Age

Interview by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, October 2002

"I’VE BEEN CHASING my tail trying to have a good time on this tour," grumbles Josh Homme, the towering 6’ 4" frontman of Queens Of ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: Cometh the Age, Cometh l’Homme

Interview by Alvaro Costa, Rock's Backpages, December 2002

To pay homage to Songs For The Deaf, RBP’s Album Of The Year, Alvaro Costa is granted an audience with the chief Queen of the ...

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Missy Elliott, Isis, Liars, Secret Machines, The Streets, Wilco: Yancey Strickler's Favorite Recordings Of 2002

Retrospective by Yancey Strickler, Neumu, 31 December 2002

In terms of great music, 2002 is as good a year as I can remember. It says a lot that when making this list, and ...

Hanoi Rocks

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2003

BY DECEMBER 1984, having exploded onto a decidedly lacklustre rock scene blighted by vacuous new romanticism, post-punk austerity and backward glancing metal Gumby-ism, the five ...

Metallica: Rage-a-holics Anonymous: Metallica

Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2003

OF COURSE, you all know the deal with Metallica. At present, the single most enormous band in the entire rock firmament who, having casually taken ...

Deep Purple: Friends Reunited

Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, MOJO, January 2003

They invented symphonic rock, wrote the world's dumbest riff and excelled in lunacy, greed and very long solos. Kieron Tyler charts the stop-start metal excess ...

Hold Your Head Up: In Praise of Bi-Level Rock!

Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2003

Barney Hoskyns, co-author of The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods, hails Mullet Rocks!, a new compilation of bodacious bi-level hard rockers. Below we feature cool ...

Linkin Park: Meteora

Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, March 2003

LINKIN PARK'S debut album, Hybrid Theory, sold an enviable 14 million copies, rating it as America's biggest selling album of 2001, picking up a Grammy ...

Ozzy Osbourne: The Death of Randy Rhoads

Retrospective and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, March 2003

"RANDY WAS my best friend," says Ozzy Osbourne. "He was also the greatest musician I have ever known. Back when we had no dough, we ...

Linkin Park: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 7 March 2003

WITH EACH successive press release, the sales figures for Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, spiral upwards remorselessly — 13m, 14m, now apparently as many ...

Linkin Park: Are We Having Fun Yet?

Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Q, April 2003

Of course not. Back off groupies and drug dealers: this is Linkin Park, the world's most sensible multi-millionaire metal stars. ...

Marilyn Manson: Sympathy For The Devil: Marilyn Manson

Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, Oneworld, April 2003

BRIAN WARNER took the long, hard road out of hell (Canton, Ohio, to be exact) to emerge in 1994 on Portrait of an American Family ...

Cradle of Filth: The Astoria, London

Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 23 April 2003

Can a "black metal" band be properly satanic if the bassist is called Dave? This is one of several contradictions posed by the genre's only ...

AC/DC: High Voltage and other reissues

Review by Toby Manning, Record Collector, May 2003

"LET ME PUT my love into you babe", "given the dog a bone", "a full house", "sinking the pink", "she liked it done medium rare". ...

Led Zeppelin: Been A Long Time: Led Zeppelin

Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, MOJO, June 2003

EVEN NOW, after all these years of hairtree wannabes and idiot tribute bands, there's something so fierce and coruscating about Led Zeppelin in their prime ...

Marilyn Manson: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, June 2003

THE CABARET is excellent, of course. You come expecting a hilariously over the top gothic freakshow, choreographed by the ghost of Cecil B. DeMille and ...

The Deftones: Deftones (Maverick)

Review by Neil Kulkarni, Bang, June 2003

FOR ALL THE horseshit rock bands come out with about "maturity", "creative steam" and "progression", the true measure of whether or not their freshest opus ...

Metallica: Taming the Beast

Report and Interview by Chris Campion, Daily Telegraph, 12 June 2003

THE US ARMY'S Psychological Operations Company recently revealed that it has been playing Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' repeatedly to Iraqi prisoners as a pre-interrogation routine. In ...

Brujeria: This Is Jarcor: Brujeria

Profile and Interview by Chris Campion, Dazed & Confused, July 2003

Mexican Death metal band Brujeria are the white man's nightmare. Striking mortal fear into the populace both north and south of the border for over ...

Ozzfest

Report by Christine Natanael, crushermagazine.com, August 2003

SUMMERTIME IS THE time of the grand traveling music festival. And August in New York/New Jersey usually means Warped and Ozzfest. Having already experienced 52 ...

Dio, Ronnie James Dio: Ronnie James Dio: Soaring on the Wings of a Demon

Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 August 2003

IT'S A UBIQUITOUS sign for the ages. Whether thrown in rapture or irony, the pinky-and-index-finger extended "devil horns" might mean something different to UT sports ...

The Darkness: No, really, we're serious...

Profile and Interview by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 30 August 2003

"I WANT YOU all to repeat after me..." Justin Hawkins, bare-chested and squinting into in the scorching midsummer sun, has 120,000 people in the palm ...

AC/DC: Cash For Questions

Interview by Paul Elliott, Q, September 2003

No topic is off-limits for Angus Young and crew — not Satanism, School Disco, meddling pigeons or elephantine groupies called Rosie. But what about their ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Hot Rails To Hell

Retrospective and Interview by Dave DiMartino, MOJO, October 2003

They were America's biggest band. Live they outsold The Beatles. Then they sued their manager. Dave DiMartino charts the remarkable highs and ridiculous lows of ...

Iron Maiden: Dance Of Death (EMI)

Review by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, October 2003

IN ESSENCE, Iron Maiden are the rock Marmite. Ambivalence is simply not an option when bearing witness to their characteristic onslaught of dense, prog-laced riffage. ...

The Darkness: The Astoria, London

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 13 November 2003

I HAD WATCHED THE DARKNESS phenomenon from a distance, in dismay. Despite the sheer unexpectedness of their vault from clubs to stadiums, every glance at ...

Grand Funk Railroad's Don Brewer (2004)

Interview by Carl Wiser, Songfacts, 2004

Grand Funk sticksman Don Brewer talks about mega-hit 'We're An American Band', choosing cover versions, and being produced by Todd Rundgren and Frank Zappa.

File format: mp3; file size: 10.2mb, interview length: 22' 11" sound quality: * (phoner)

Iron Maiden: Don't Fear The Reaper

Interview by Geoff Barton, Classic Rock, January 2004

THERE ARE dead bodies lying on trestle tables in the midst of the tangled scaffolding and controlled chaos that represents Iron Maiden's rear of stage ...

Motörhead: 25 And Alive – Live At Brixton ***

Review by Gavin Martin, Daily Mirror, 16 January 2004

EARLY DURING this concert – recorded in 2000 to celebrate 25 years of Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister's favourite band – the music stops. "If you aren't ...

Rammstein: Lichtspielhaus (Universal DVD)

Film/DVD/TV Review by John Doran, Metal Hammer, February 2004

RAMMSTEIN ALWAYS had an unashamedly arty, even pretentious, agenda and it is easy to see this developing by watching their videos. ...

Sepultura


Interview by Christine Natanael, crushermagazine.com, May 2004

WHEN IT COMES to the stuff that's loud and fast, well, I think you guys know I have to be right in the thick of ...

Cannibal Corpse: The Wretched Spawn

Review by Todd L. Burns, Stylus, 21 May 2004

AFTER EIGHT ALBUMS that helped define gore-death metal, Cannibal Corpse are back with only their second studio album of the new millennium. That's not to ...

Slipknot: Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)

Review by Todd L. Burns, Stylus, 28 May 2004

"NOW IT'S OVER" sings Corey Taylor on the opening dirge of the Iowan nontet's newest album. And, for Slipknot, it did look to be all ...

Black Label Society: Zakk Wylde

Interview by Steven Rosen, Total Guitar, June 2004

ZAKK WYLDE is a dichotomy – physically he resembles some psychotic biker, pumped biceps stretching the fabric of a sleeveless Levi's jacket, a scraggly beard ...

Sunn O))): Invisible Jukebox: Sunn O)))

Interview by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, July 2004

EVERY MONTH WE PLAY A MUSICIAN A SERIES OF RECORDS WHICH THEY ARE ASKED TO IDENTIFY AND COMMENT ON WITH NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF WHAT ...

Metallica: Some Kind of Monster

Film/DVD/TV Review by Chuck Eddy, The Village Voice, 2 July 2004

LAST FALL, a hilarious 3,000-word review of Metallica's unlistenable St. Anger by some guy named Colin Tappe circulated over the Internet. ...

Hayseed Dixie: Borderline, London

Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, The Guardian, 12 August 2004

"I'M HERE TO TESTIFY", says front man Barley Scotch in one of many beer-fuelled, between-song spiels, "that Hank Williams' 'Lost Highway' and AC/DC's 'Highway to ...

Metallica: Band on the Ruin: Metallica's Some Kind of Monster

Report and Interview by James Medd, The Word, October 2004

Metallica was facing meltdown and group therapy — then the film crew arrived. The result is the greatest music documentary ever made. ...

Judas Priest: Pavelló Olímpic, Badalona

Live Review by Geoff Barton, Classic Rock, October 2004

Reunited — and it feels so good. Taking their cue from Peaches & Herb's '79 hit, Judas Priest get back together with singer Rob Halford ...

Velvet Revolver's Scott Weiland

Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, 6 November 2004

THE RIBALD ROCK'N'ROLL spirit of Guns'n'Roses and their ilk has long since evaporated into the smog. Once they owned Sunset, roaring up the strip in ...

Deep Purple, Peter Frampton, Thunder: Deep Purple/Peter Frampton/Thunder: Newcastle Arena

Live Review by Rahul Shrivastava, bbc.co.uk, 10 November 2004

DEEP PURPLE burst out of the British underground during the late '60s, shedding their early US psychedelic sound in favour of a heavy, more aggressive ...

The Darkness: SECC, Glasgow

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, December 2004

IN POP, last year's underdog can so easily become this year's one-trick pony. The Darkness ended 2003 as the former rank outsiders who triumphed over ...

Dimebag Darrell, Pantera: Just a Good Ol' Boy: Dimebag Darrell

Obituary by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, 17 December 2004

Former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was murdered on stage by a lone gunman last week. Edward Helmore celebrates the life of the influential and charismatic ...

Eagles of Death Metal: Peace, Love, Death, Metal

Review by Scotty Almany, ARC magazine, Summer 2004

PEACE LOVE Death Metal is yet another howling offspring from the relentlessly prolific psyche of Josh Homme and company. ...

Rammstein: Brixton Academy

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, February 2005

A GRAND theatrical spectacle to rival any West End show, the industrial rock carnival that is Rammstein thundered into Brixton on Thursday to kick off ...

Tusk: Tree Of No Return

Review by Frances Morgan, Plan B, February 2005

THE LINE between my eyebrows deepens, furrows, branches into tiny new rivulets of experience. My ear canals are bruised and my perfect pitch flattened (by ...

Mötley Crüe, Tommy Lee: Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee Lets It All Hang Out

Interview by Roy Trakin, Grammy Magazine, April 2005

EVEN BEFORE HE agreed to join bandmates Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil and Mick Mars in this year's surprisingly successful Mötley Crüe reunion tour – the ...

Darkthrone: Black Metal: Not Dead Yet

Comment by Ian Christe, Arthur, May 2005

Catching up with Scandinavia's black metalists. ...

Deep Purple: 'Smoke On The Water' (Warners)

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, May 2005

Performers : Ritchie Blackmore – guitar; Ian Gillan – vocals; Jon Lord – keyboards; Roger Glover – bass; Ian Paice – drums; Producer: Martin Birch; ...

System Of A Down: Mesmerize

Review by Ian Watson, Yahoo! Music, May 2005

YOU COULDN'T MAKE them up. An American-Armenian four piece based in LA who feed eye-bulging political fury through Dead Kennedys-style anarcho punk, crunching riff-heavy thrash ...

Motley Crue: Newcastle Arena

Live Review by Rahul Shrivastava, bbc.co.uk, 21 June 2005

WHAT CAN YOU say about the Crue that hasn't already been said? A singer with a love of fine wine and cosmetic surgery, a drummer ...

Lamb of God: Coming in Loud: Sounds of the Underground

Report and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2005

The Sounds of the Underground tour screams into L.A., delivering what's new in metal. ...

Hayseed Dixie: Southern-Fried Metal

Profile and Interview by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 27 July 2005

Hayseed Dixie aren't your average AC/DC covers band: they come from Nashville, play banjos and read The Guardian. ...

Mudvayne: Same sound, cleaner faces for Mudvayne

Report and Interview by Marc Weingarten, Los Angeles Times, 18 August 2005

WHEN KISS wiped off the makeup in the early 1980s, heavy metal's cartoon Gorgons rubbed away much of their mystique as well. Hence, the band's ...

Dio: Newcastle University

Live Review by Rahul Shrivastava, bbc.co.uk, October 2005

"HE EVEN invented that," I said to a couple of my esteemed colleagues, as I made the sign of the devil's horns with my hand, ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Get The Funk Out

Retrospective and Interview by Pete Makowski, Classic Rock, October 2005

WHO THE hell are Grand Funk Railroad? More to the point, why should we even care who they are? These are pertinent questions for any ...

System Of A Down's Shavo Odadjian: My Life Story

Interview by John Doran, Metal Hammer, 21 December 2005

From Armenia to Hollywood, System of a Down's bass monster has beaten a crazy path to been a member of one of the biggest metal ...

Def Leppard's Joe Elliott (2006)

Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages audio, 2006

Joe Elliott tells tales of the road, talks about his heroes (and one or two villains), and looks back at Rick Allen's accident and Steve Clark's alcoholism and death.

File format: mp3; file size: 66.6mb, total interview length: 1h 9' 24" sound quality: ****

AC/DC: For Whom the Bell Tolls

Retrospective by Clinton Walker, Rolling Stone (Australia), January 2006

EVERYONE AGREED that Peter Head had chosen his name well. The erstwhile Peter Beagley took his new name around the same time, in the early ...

Blackmore's Night, Deep Purple, Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore: Richie Blackmore: Blackmore's Nightmare

Retrospective by Pete Makowski, Classic Rock, March 2006

"I'm at that stage where I will play anything I want to. I will not be dictated to by fans or people who say: 'You ...

Black Sabbath

Profile by Deborah Frost, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 13 March 2006

BLACK SABBATH never intended to appeal to, never mind be understood by, rock critics. Nor were they designed for screaming teens, swooning debs, your mom, ...

Slayer

Interview by Christine Natanael, crushermagazine.com, 14 May 2006

WELL, HERE IT is, 2006, and it's time for the new Slayer "Unholy Alliance Tour: Preaching To The Perverted" with Lamb of God, Children of ...

Lemmy: Speed kills...

Interview by Sylvie Simmons, MOJO, July 2006

… but not when you have the constitution of a warthog and you're the Lewis gun of the bass guitar. Cue tales of Sid Vicious, ...

Led Zeppelin: The Power and the Glory: Led Zeppelin and the making of IV

Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2006

Author’s note: This is the full, unexpurgated version of a piece for Uncut magazine. It is itself a very truncated distillation of the full-length study ...

Motorhead's Phil Campbell

Interview by Steven Rosen, ultimate-guitar.com, 2 August 2006

FOR SOMEWHERE around 31 years now, Motorhead has been revving it up, cranking it out, and laying it down, a juggernaut of heavy metal that ...

Eagles of Death Metal: The innuendo crowd

Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 19 August 2006

Eagles Of Death Metal are here to sentence you to "death by sexy". But not before they've charmed you with their double entendres, finds Laura ...

Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Girlschool, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Motörhead, Saxon, Sledgehammer, Tygers of Pan Tang, Venom: NWOBHM: Never Mind The Bollocks

Retrospective by Paul Elliott, MOJO, February 2007

Threatened by punk, Led Zep, Sabbath and Purple came under fire in 1977. A year later Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and Saxon led a New ...

Metallica: The Making of 'Enter Sandman'

Retrospective and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, March 2007

The Black Album's anti-lullaby proved a massive hit for the leaner, meaner Metallica, helping them become the biggest metal band on the planet ...

Cradle of Filth: Paul Allender of Cradle Of Filth

Interview by Steven Rosen, ultimate-guitar.com, 4 March 2007

PAUL ALLENDER'S playing on Thornography, the new Cradle of Filth album, is both a nod at tomorrow and a bow towards yesterday. ...

Van Halen

Retrospective by Deborah Frost, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 12 March 2007

THE NATIONAL Weather Service labels a blizzard as severe when winds reach 45 miles her hour, snowfall is dense, and the temperature drops to ten ...

Metal Machine Musings: Gary Pig Gold's All-Time Top Ten Heavy Primal Hitters

Overview by Gary Pig Gold, ballbustermusic.com, April 2007

NOW BEFORE ya all call out the KISS Army or somethin' on me, let's just insist that there's one terrifically fine line indeed between, say, ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Lord of the Wings

Profile and Interview by Barbara Ellen, The Observer, 20 May 2007

He has snorted ants, tried to throttle his wife and bit the head off a bat. But now, Ozzy Osbourne tells Barbara Ellen, he is ...

Motorhead: Lemmy: The Oldest Rocker In Town

Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 9 June 2007

THE SUN hammers down on the French Riviera like a vengeful Old Testament god. With temperatures topping 90 degrees, the beach at Nice is heaving ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: Step Inside The Best Little Whorehouse In Rock

Profile and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, MOJO, July 2007

For the past decade, Queens Of The Stone Age have been the premier destination for wild, sexually charged rock, frequented by everyone from Dave Grohl ...

Velvet Revolver: Libertad

Review by Dan Gennoe, dotmusic.co.uk, 2 July 2007

IT'S 20 YEARS since Guns N' Roses released Appetite For Destruction and put the sex and drugs back into rock n' roll. But don't expect ...

Queens of the Stone Age: Era Vulgaris

Review by Barney Hoskyns, Uncut, August 2007

Fifth studio platter from QOTSA, boasting cameos from Julian Casablancas et al. ...

Bring Me The Horizon Frontman: Charges Dropped

Report by Mike Diver, Drowned in Sound, 4 September 2007

FOLLOWING THIS story back in April, where we reported on the alleged actions of Bring Me The Horizon singer Oli Sykes — he was said ...

Ted Nugent: What an asshole! — Ted Nugent: Love Grenade (Eagle Records)

Review by Bill Holdship, Detroit Metro Times, 12 September 2007

New records shows who's the real asshole ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Don't Fear the Blue Oyster Cult

Retrospective and Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, Goldmine, 14 September 2007

IN THE SUMMER of 1977, Blue Oyster Cult found themselves in one of the trickiest situations for a rock band: recording the follow-up to a ...

AC/DC: The Story Of 'You Shook Me All Night Long'

Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, October 2007

LESS THAN a year before releasing their first American hit, 'You Shook Me All Night Long', AC/DC came close to throwing in the towel. ...

R.I.P. Tawn Mastrey, the voice of KNAC

Comment by Deanne Stillman, L.A. Observed, October 2007

I DON'T KNOW how I could have gotten through a certain part of my life without KNAC, the late, great heavy metal station that played ...

Blue Cheer

Retrospective and Interview by Rob Hughes, Uncut, December 2007

How three Summer Of Love acid-heads became the heaviest band on the planet. ...

Led Zeppelin: John Paul Jones: The Quiet One

Interview by Mat Snow, MOJO, December 2007

IN THE WORLD'S loudest group, John Paul Jones was the Quiet One. He never seemed to speak, and though he grooved, it was pressed up ...

Led Zeppelin: Why We Should Dig The 'Rock Dinosaurs' All Over Again

Guide by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, 2 December 2007

They were the biggest band of the 1970s and they're about to reform ...

Linkin Park: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 30 January 2008

IF YOUNG ROCK ACTS are struggling to sell albums, someone forgot to tell Linkin Park. Seven years since their debut, Hybrid Theory, won a Grammy, ...

Sunn O)))

Interview by Luke Turner, Dazed & Confused, February 2008

"WE FOUND them in the woods," laughs Stephen O'Malley, refusing to divulge where Sunn O))) wove the monastic robes that, along with cranium-crushing waves of ...

UFO: Reissues

Review by Pete Makowski, Classic Rock, February 2008

WATCHING THIS once-great band drag their bruised, battered – and in some cases surgically-enhanced – carcass around metal's chicken-in-a-basket circuit, it's difficult to believe that ...

Kiss: Overblown, Overpaid And Over Here

Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 30 May 2008

For the headliners of Download heavy metal festival, there are millions to be made, fans to ogle (and sometimes sleep with), and platform boots to ...

Venom: "This is the devil's music"

Profile and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 27 June 2008

Credited with inventing an entire genre and influencing some of the world's biggest metal bands, Venom are still seen as a bit of a joke ...

Deep Purple: Around The World Live (Eagle Vision)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Paul Elliott, Classic Rock, July 2008

Four-disc set documenting the Steve Morse era and Jon Lord's farewell. ...

Metallica: Magnetic Metallica

Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, The National, July 2008

THERE IS a certain grim irony to the news, announced last week, that Metallica’s latest album Death Magnetic will be released in September in a ...

Uriah Heep: Wake The Sleeper

Review by Geoff Barton, Classic Rock, July 2008

GHOSTS OF Abominog. It sounds like a magical incantation by Doctor Strange, doesn't it? You can just imagine Marvel Comics' moustachio'd master of the mystic ...

Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone Not Just A Clever Name…

Review by John Doran, The Quietus, 13 August 2008

John Doran slowly peels back the masks of so-called extreme metal behemoths Slipknot and looks at the jaundiced and withered flesh underneath. It isn't, he ...

Judas Priest's Screaming Seer Rob Halford

Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 20 August 2008

"I'M IN BUCHAREST, Romania, right now, about to leave for a festival gig," relays Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford. "We're in Turkey tomorrow – ...

Alice Cooper: Born-Again Shock Rocker (and Golfer) Alice Cooper

Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 27 August 2008

AS HE WRITES in his highly readable autobiography, Alice Cooper, Golf Monster, the father of shock rock credits the game for helping him maintain his ...

Judas Priest: Lost Prophets

Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), September 2008

IN AN AGE when youth learn their rock history from Guitar Hero, some music constants remain. Judas Priest, who helped transform the global metal scene ...

Metallica: Some Kind Of Monsters

Report and Interview by William Shaw, Q, September 2008

In the old days, Metallica were hard-drinking, groupie-shagging rock pigs. Today, they're all about pre-gig yoga sessions, surfing and being good dads. On the merch ...

Metallica: "Why hasn't anyone dethroned us yet?"

Retrospective and Interview by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 5 September 2008

FIVE YEARS AFTER the critical and commercial disaster of St Anger, they're back to save metal — and save themselves in the process. Stevie Chick ...

Mötley Crüe's Mick Mars: "I’ve Always Been About Melody And Tone"

Interview by Steven Rosen, ultimate-guitar.com, 6 September 2008

MICK MARS CAME into this world as Robert Alan Deal. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on May 4, 1951. His family relocated to ...

Metallica: Kirk Hammett on Metallica's Kill 'Em All

Retrospective and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Music Radar, 11 September 2008

METALLICA HAVE NEVER done anything the easy way. On the eve of recording their first album Kill 'Em All, they fired lead guitarist Dave Mustaine ...

Metallica: Death Magnetic

Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, October 2008

Troubled Dark Knights of metal return to form. ...

Yngwie Malmsteen (2008)

Interview by Steven Rosen, Rock's Backpages audio, 20 October 2008

The Paganini of Poodle talks about guitars, recording methods, his reputation etc... but mostly about himself.

File format: mp3; file size: 44.4mb, interview length: 48' 31" sound quality: * (phoner)

AC/DC, Anvil, Guns N' Roses, Megadeth, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne: Guns N' Roses: The Monsters of Rock Return

Comment by Andy Gill, The Independent, 31 October 2008

After 14 years of rumours and false starts, Guns N' Roses are promising to release their new album. There's even a ticking clock on their ...

Led Zeppelin: Led Astray: How Four Long-Haired Limey Geezers Changed My Life

Memoir by Gerrie Lim, August Man, November 2008

TOOTING BEC, London, is only memorable to me because of a cold, windswept day in November 2005. ...

Guns N' Roses: Guns N'Roses: Chinese Democracy

Review by Jim Irvin, The Word, 2009

"ALL I'VE got is time" sings Axl Rose in the opening, title song of Chinese Democracy. ...

Judas Priest: Pastor of Puppets: Rob Halford

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 11 February 2009

YOU ONLY HAVE TO open a style mag, left-field music publication or a broadsheet at the moment to see that heavy metal is enjoying one ...

Black Sabbath: None More Black: Black Sabbath

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Music Week, March 2009

"IT'S BEEN described as the heavy metal Holy Grail," says Steve Hammonds, Catalogue Consultant for Universal Music, "and it's been a labour of love to ...

Ian Gillan: Classic Rock Corner: Ian Gillan's Deeper Shade of Purple

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 31 March 2009

THOUGH BEST KNOWN as the talented tonsils behind British hard-rock legends Deep Purple, Ian Gillan has also found the chance to log in some serious ...

Metallica

Retrospective by Deborah Frost, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, April 2009

HAPPY FAMILIES, Leo Tolstoy noted, are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. That goes double, if not quadruple, for bands, ...

Iron Maiden: Britain's biggest heavy metal export

Interview by Sophie Heawood, The Times, 11 April 2009

Long a byword for uncool, Iron Maiden are now our biggest musical earners abroad after the Police and ahead of Coldplay. With a Brit in ...

AC/DC: Heavy Metal's Eternal Schoolboys at the O2 Arena

Live Review by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times, 17 April 2009

We've got some old songs and some new songs for you," AC/DC's singer Brian Johnson growled, in an accurate but dispiriting précis of the AC/DC ...

Sunn O))): Doom With A View: Sunn O))) Discuss Monoliths And Dimensions

Interview by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 20 May 2009

THE QUIETUS has already stopped taking bets on our album of 2009. It's hard to imagine any other group coming up with a record as ...

Sunn O))): Monoliths & Dimensions

Review by John Doran, Drowned in Sound, 21 May 2009

DURING SHELLAC'S excellent track 'The End Of Radio', about the nature of recording and broadcasting electronically amplified rock music, there's a line (when performed live ...

Anvil, Faith No More, Mötley Crüe: Download: Donington Park

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2009

IF HEAVY METAL is the working man's opera, to paraphrase Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson, then Download is its Glyndebourne. ...

Marilyn Manson: God Of Fucking About

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, June 2009

He promised us champagne and caviar, but now he's only capable of delivering cola and crisps. To John Doran, he's become little more than the ...

Diamond Head: Buried Treasure: Diamond Head's Canterbury

Retrospective by Paul Elliott, MOJO, October 2009

This month's exhumation from the vaults of indifference: Midlands metal tryers laid low by pressing plant cack-handedness and cardboard scythes. ...

Electric Wizard: You Terrible Cult

Interview by John Doran, The Stool Pigeon, November 2009

Jus Oborn of doom titans Electric Wizard promises a new album for 2010. "I want the man in the street to spit at me", he ...

Venom: Forging Black Metal: Cronos Of Venom Talks About The Genesis Of A Genre

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 14 January 2010

Helping create extreme metal as we know it today, as well as naming Black Metal, Venom have always been the antidote to musical boredom, says ...

Rammstein: Industrial Immolation Live In Manchester

Live Review by John Robb, The Quietus, 6 February 2010

Flamethrowers, exploding babies and a sonic apocalypse: John Robb proclaims Rammstein's current tour the greatest show you will see this year. ...

Deep Purple: Vinyl Icon: Machine Head

Retrospective and Interview by Johnny Black, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, March 2010

TO GET THE POINT of Machine Head you must first understand what it is not. ...

Rage Against the Machine: Finsbury Park, London, N7

Live Review by Pete Paphides, The Times, 8 June 2010

THE MOST POPULAR T-SHIRT at the merchandise stands depicted a scoreboard that read "Rage 1 Cowell 0." As a means of explaining why Rage Against ...

Al Green, Ozzy Osbourne: Ozzy Osbourne: Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone/Al Green: The O2, London

Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 4 July 2010

Faint shades of Sabbath in Ozzy's addled brain — Considering all he's been through, Osbourne makes a decent job of resurrecting the old hits ...

Emerson Lake & Palmer, Foreigner, UFO, ZZ Top: High LOL-tage: Mike Diver's classic rock adventure

Live Review by Mike Diver, Drowned in Sound, 3 August 2010

The other day our former overlord Mike Diver phoned up DiS HQ to belligerently demand we implement what he described as "the final phase" of ...

Iron Maiden: The Final Frontier

Review by Pete Paphides, The Times, 13 August 2010

Apocalyptic portent, three-pronged guitar attack and hefty hooks... This is EMI's most loyal act at their best. ...

Guns N' Roses: Reading Festival, Berkshire

Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 28 August 2010

Axl flounders as Reading made to wait for its rock fix ...

Black Country Communion: Return of the Rock-and-Roll Supergroup

Report and Interview by David Sinclair, Daily Telegraph, 29 September 2010

THE ROCK SUPERGROUP is back. Once a byword for hype and hubris, the idea of renowned musicians getting together to form instantly famous new groups ...

Judas Priest's British Steel at 30

Comment by Jeff Slate, Examiner.com, 21 October 2010

BEATLES FANS will maybe find it hard to stomach that British Steel, the breakout album by metal heroes Judas Priest that just celebrated its 30th ...

Altaar, Årabrot, Ihsahn, Mayhem, Noxagt, Okkultokrati, Shining, Thorr's Hammer, Turbonegro, Wardruna: Order And Chaos: Norway In Noise And Metal

Overview by John Doran, Drowned in Sound, 22 October 2010

THIS LIST HAS been designed to upset you. It's not a best of Norwegian metal. It doesn't offer a comprehensive guide to any Norwegian genre ...

Blue Öyster Cult: The Making of '(Don't Fear) The Reaper'

Retrospective and Interview by Jaan Uhelszki, Uncut, November 2010

Riff approaching! Buck Dharma and co's "trans-awesome" tune, and the spookiest FM staple ever. "Nothing like the Byrds," apparently... ...

Motörhead: Colston Hall, Bristol

Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, November 2010

AS EMPIRES CRUMBLE, civilisations teeter and whole economies implode, only Motörhead remain comfortingly changeless in an ever-changing world. ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Jeff Slate, Examiner.com, 2 December 2010

I FIRST SAW OZZY in the early 1980s.  I wasn't much of a fan, but I got roped into driving an Oz-obsessed friend and scalped ...

Cradle of Filth: Is Dani Filth Suffolk's greatest icon?

Comment by Johnny Sharp, The Guardian, 5 January 2011

When the county's tourist board launched a poll, it didn't count on it being hijacked by Cradle of Filth fans ...

Burzum, Mayhem: Black Metal: Art Corrupted - From Burning Churches To Toasted Bagels In Twenty Years

Overview by John Doran, Totally Dublin, March 2011

Some two decades after its inception, you can now take an official True Norwegian Black Metal coach trip round Oslo, visiting the sites of arson, ...

Kyuss: Kings of the Stoner Age

Retrospective and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 25 March 2011

"I DIDN'T THINK THAT at 40 years of age I would still be talking about generator parties," Kyuss frontman John Garcia says with a puzzled ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: "How Do I Reprogamme This Robot?" mused JOSH HOMME "And Make Trance-Dance Repetitive Rock For Girls?"

Interview by Kate Mossman, The Word, April 2011

IT'S PRONOUNCED "hommy", rhymes with "mommy". Everyone gets it wrong, but Homme seems more fitting anyway for this great big tank of manhood, the Queens ...

Mötley Crüe: Bounty Or Mutiny?

Interview by Steve Mascord, AOR, November 2011

"I REALLY DON'T understand what Mick's talking about. Maybe he took the wrong pill that day." ...

Van Halen: Café Wha?

Live Review by Alan Light, MSN.com, January 2012

"WELCOME TO Occupy Van Halen!," said a grinning David Lee Roth, as the band took to the stage of New York's tiny basement club Café ...

Enter Shikari: A Flash Flood of Colour

Review by John Calvert, Drowned in Sound, 9 January 2012

JESUS. WHERE DO YOU START with A Flash Flood Of Colour? Well let's try... at the start, all the way back to Korn's Jonathan Davies ...

Megadeth: Theater at Madison Square Garden, NYC

Live Review by Iman Lababedi, Rock NYC, 31 January 2012

DAVE MUSTAINE made a fan out of me with two actions. Neither musical. ...

Saxon: Biff Byford: An Interview

Interview by Pete Makowski, unpublished, May 2012

This is a previously unpublished Q&A with Biff Byford, Saxon's enduring, uncompromising and down-to-earth frontman as he contemplates, amongst other things, the prospects of getting ...

Black Sabbath: 02, Birmingham

Live Review by Pete Makowski, Rock's Backpages, 19 May 2012

ALMOST A WEEK LATER and my ears are still ringing – and I don't know if it's due to the rousing response of the audience ...

Linkin Park: Things Falling Apart

Interview by Scott McLennan, Rip It Up (Australia), 2 August 2012

They made their fortune on the back of punchy hit singles such as 'What I've Done', 'In The End' and 'Numb' tapping into a 21st ...

Bring Me the Horizon: Cockpit, Leeds

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 3 April 2013

"'OW THE FUCK ARE WE FEELING, LEEDS?" asks Oli Sykes, frontman of Bring Me the Horizon, to roars of approval. His Sheffield quintet are leading ...

Queens Of The Stone Age: …Like Clockwork

Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, 3 June 2013

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE occasionally get called a metal band. This is rather like calling Picasso a house painter. The veteran Californian band may ...

Metallica's Kill 'Em All, the Album to Credit and/or Blame for "Extreme Metal" Mania, Turns 30

Retrospective by Chuck Eddy, Spin, 25 July 2013

IN 1983'S International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, Tony Jasper and Derek Oliver make the claim that two different California bands put out ...

Nine Inch Nails: Scala, London — Still Dirty On The Inside

Live Review by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 21 August 2013

On the evidence of last night's Scala show, Nine Inch Nails have recharged their batteries in spectacular style, writes Luke Turner, highlighting the subtle undercurrents ...

Mountain, Leslie West: Mountain Man Leslie West Once Had Houston at His Fingers

Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 19 November 2013

"YOU'RE IN HOUSTON, so let me ask you something," a gravelly, low voice asks on the other end of the phone. "Is the bed you're ...

Spinal Tap Redux

Interview by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages, December 2013

I LISTENED to some of it in my youth, but spent most of my post-teenage years trying to avoid this crap: pandering, patronizing, mono-dimensional, unimaginative ...

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine Back In the Day: "We Were Probably a Little Snotty"

Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 12 December 2013

WHILE METAL MASTERS Megadeth arrive in Houston tonight as part of the tour to promote their most recent record, Super Collider, this year the band ...

Living Colour: An Interview with Doug Wimbish

Interview by Steve Mascord, Hot Metal, 4 January 2014

"BACK when I was a kid, in the stone age, this used to be an old furniture store," Corey Glover tells the hipsters paradise that ...

Lamb of God: Academy, Newcastle

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 15 January 2014

"LAMB OF GOD! LAMB OF GOD!" cry north-east England's metal hordes in a room where ritual is king. Pints are hurled and tattoos are compared ...

GWAR Spreads Blood-And-Guts Satire Around

Report and Interview by Jim Sullivan, JimSullivanInk.com, March 2014

DAVE BROCKIE — the world knew him as Oderus Urungus — died at 50. (No cause of death given yet.) ...

The Soft Pink Truth: Why Do The Heathen Rage? (Thrill Jockey)

Review by Frances Morgan, The Wire, June 2014

I ONCE SAW Drew Daniel in his Soft Pink Truth guise provoke such a negative response from an audience member that he must have been ...

Godflesh: Invisible Jukebox: Justin Broadrick

Interview by David Stubbs, The Wire, September 2014

JUSTIN BROADRICK was born in 1969 in Birmingham. Raised by his mother and stepfather, he was exposed to underground music at an early age and formed ...

Anthrax's Scott Ian Spins Tales From the Thrash Side

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 5 November 2014

LIKE MANY MEN currently in their mid-to-late forties, Anthrax co-founder/rhythm guitarist Scott Ian was a huge, practically obsessive KISS fan growing up. ...

Mastodon: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 30 November 2014

THE FOUR FRONTMEN straddle the divide between their hardcore roots and crossover future with ease. ...

Slipknot: Sheffield Arena, Sheffield

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 19 January 2015

"IS THAT FUCKIN' Sheffield I hear?" asks Corey Taylor, Slipknot's horror-masked frontman. ...

Black Sabbath: Never Say Die: Bill Ward Interviewed

Interview by Julian Marszalek, The Quietus, 7 July 2015

Julian Marszalek talks to Bill Ward about his achievements in and out of Black Sabbath. ...

The Decline of Western Civilization: Parts I–III (dir. Penelophe Spheeris)

Film/DVD/TV Review by Rob Hughes, Uncut, 4 August 2015

Lauded LA trilogy finally gets its own boxset ...

Bring Me the Horizon: "When I started on melodies, it was horrible"

Interview by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 4 October 2015

At last, heavy rock you can sing along to. Britain's Bring Me the Horizon rule. ...

Hawkwind, Lemmy, Motörhead: Everything Louder: Remembering Lemmy

Retrospective by Jim Sullivan, Rock's Backpages, 31 December 2015

EVERY MOTÖRHEAD concert I can recall began with these words from Lemmy: "We are Motörhead and we play rock 'n' roll." So simple, so succinct, ...

Iron Maiden: Maiden Voyage: Inside Iron Maiden's Book Of Souls Tour

Report and Interview by Johnny Black, Audience, April 2016

SEEN FROM the stage, an Iron Maiden concert is an ocean of Maiden t-shirts, with thousands of devotees proudly displaying various incarnations of the band's ...

Lita Ford, The Runaways: Lita Ford: Living Like A Runaway – A Memoir (Dey Street)

Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 April 2016

SHORTLY BEFORE hitting her commercial peak in 1988 with her third solo record, Lita, and its two monster singles and videos – 'Kiss Me Deadly' ...

Aluk Todolo, Bobby Beausoleil & The Freedom Orchestra , Black Widow, Blue Öyster Cult, Graham Bond, Coven, Jimmy Page, Rudimentary Peni, Skullflower, John Zorn: The Primer: Occult rock

Guide by Edwin Pouncey, The Wire, August 2016

Channelling the magick of Aleister Crowley and the neo-paganism of witchcraft, occult rock is the sound of rock 'n' roll's secret society. Edwin Pouncey reads ...

Megadeth Singer Goes From Thrashing Guitars to Threshing Wheat

Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 October 2016

  IN THIS UNPRECEDENTED and pretty bizarre period of U.S. Presidential politics, pundits still pull out the hoary old line that goes "which candidate would you ...

Blue Oyster Cult: From Soft White Underbelly to the Stalk-Forrest Group

Book Excerpt by Mick Houghton, 'Becoming Elektra' (Jawbone), November 2016

NOTE: In an excerpt from the new edition of Becoming Elektra: The Incredible True Story of the pioneering Elektra Records label and its Far-sighted Founder, ...

Metallica: House of Vans, London

Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 21 November 2016

The world's biggest metal band returned to their club roots with a tight, super-loud show that sent the sweat-soaked crowd into meltdown. ...

Skid Row: Sebastian Bach: 18 and Life on Skid Row (Dey St. Books)

Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 13 December 2016

FOR ANYONE WHO has seen an interview with Sebastian Bach, he of the motor-mouth, hellzapoppin', frenetic energy and a constant stream of verbal non sequiturs, two ...

Metallica: Why Vinyl Matters: Lars Ulrich

Book Excerpt by Jennifer Otter Bickerdike, 'Why Vinyl Matters' (ACC Editions), 2017

LARS ULRICH WAS born in Denmark in 1963. After seeing his first concert at age 10, he became enamoured with the drums. His family moved ...

Papa Roach: Crooked Teeth

Review by Julian Marszalek, Classic Rock, 19 May 2017

It's like the past 17 years never happened ...

Iron Maiden: Liverpool Arena

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 21 May 2017

Steaming cauldrons and drum riser acrobatics … Bruce Dickinson and co's languid brand of British heavy metal embraces all and shows no signs of rust ...

Linkin Park, Stormzy: Linkin Park: O2, London — nu-metal escapees move beyond teen angst

Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 4 July 2017

Pop-R&B smashes and an appearance from Stormzy underline just how far the band have come since the dark days of Limp Bizkit ...

Korn: O2 Academy Brixton, London

Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 24 August 2017

Bombastic, brutish riffs and snarling frontman Jonathan Davis combine to deliver authentic thrills of the skull-cracking kind. ...

Alice Cooper: Alice's biggest shock of all

Profile and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Event Magazine, 18 November 2017

Forget the guillotine, noose and snakes – the master of the macabre's fans will be stunned by his enduring passion for God, golf and marriage ...

David Byron: Baby Faced Killer

Review by Hugh Fielder, Classic Rock, December 2017

AFTER DAVID Byron was fired from Uriah Heep in 1976, he formed Rough Diamond whose album the following year was as dire as it was ...

Mastodon: Brixton Academy, London

Live Review by Stevie Chick, The Guardian, 11 December 2017

A triumphant blend of brutal nosebleed thrash, furious prog-style epics and multi-part harmonies exhilarates the hardcore faithful. ...

Electric Wizard: What happened when we went off the grid with Electric Wizard

Interview by Nick Hasted, Classic Rock, 5 January 2018

Classic Rock goes off the grid to track down Electric Wizard, who tell us about swapping doom for Detroit, geese attacks, utopian nightmares and the ...

Architects: Alexandra Palace, London

Live Review by Ian Gittins, The Guardian, 5 February 2018

EIGHTEEN MONTHS after their guitarist's death, the Brighton metal band turn a ferocious evening into a poignant homage Architects receive an ovation simply for walking on ...

Slayer: SSE Arena, Wembley

Live Review by Lisa Verrico, The Times, 6 November 2018

This was an extraordinary farewell gig from the kings of thrash metal — they totally slayed it ...

Architects: Holy Hell - Addressing Tragedy With Gravity And Defiance

Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 9 November 2018

IN 2016, Brighton metalcore giants Architects were sent reeling when founder guitarist and songwriter, Tom Searle — brother of drummer Dan — died of skin ...

Bring Me the Horizon: Arena Birmingham

Live Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 26 November 2018

AHEAD OF THEIR FORTHCOMING sixth album, the Sheffield pop-metal band provide catharsis but stop short of being true spokesmen for a troubled generation. 'We'll never sell ...

Europe's Joey Tempest

Interview by Henry Yates, Classic Rock, December 2018

The Europe frontman on football, politics and his band's hard road to credibility…   ...

KISS: Gene Simmons

Report and Interview by Henry Yates, Classic Rock, 11 December 2018

The Demon looks back on a year of booming business – and ahead to the KISS split. ...

Iron Maiden's Nicko McBrain

Interview by Henry Yates, Classic Rock, 11 December 2018

Drummer Nicko McBrain on live extravaganzas, critical slatings and smacking Classic Rock in the mouth… ...

Bring Me the Horizon: Amo

Review by Dave Simpson, The Guardian, 25 January 2019

"It ain't heavy metal, but that's alright"  ...

Dream Theater: John Petrucci: The Greatest Showman

Interview by Henry Yates, Guitarist, March 2019

Author's note: This is the original unsubbed version, as submitted to the magazine. ...

Black Sabbath: Geezer Butler: "I thought I could live without it – but I can't…"

Profile and Interview by Henry Yates, Classic Rock, June 2019

Geezer Butler on life after Sabbath – and the rise of new band Deadland Ritual… ...

Rammstein: Rock's most dangerous band: why Rammstein's incendiary retelling of history terrifies Germany

Report and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 1 July 2019

Playing with fire ...

Tool's Fear Inoculum is finally here: why did it take so long?

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 30 August 2019

EARLIER THIS MONTH, Tool joined the modern world. After manning the virtual-picket line since 2001, the Californian cult rock quartet finally relented and allowed their ...

Slayer: A requiem for Slayer: The poignant, pulverising end of "the band that terrorised the world"

Report by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2019

AT 23:00 Pacific Coast Time on Saturday 30th November, the world of metal will enter a period of mourning. At this time, onstage at the ...

Ice-T: "I don't hate cops – I hate racists"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 13 March 2020

ON SEPTEMBER 30th, 1992, Ice-T performed a concert with his metal band Body Count at the Jack Adams Stadium in San Diego. On a bill ...

AC/DC, The Band, James Brown, Kate Bush, Johnny Cash, Cheap Trick, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan, Peter Frampton, Aretha Franklin, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Marley & the Wailers, MC5, Metallica, Joni Mitchell, Motörhead, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Ramones, Simon & Garfunkel, Bruce Springsteen, Supertramp, Talking Heads, Thin Lizzy, U2, The Who, Wilco, Bill Withers: The 30 best live concert albums of all time

Guide by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 22 April 2020

LAST WEEK, A STORY appeared in the New York Times that predicted that live music would not return to the world's stages until the autumn ...

Deep Purple, UFO, Whitesnake: "My mum said, 'What about the drink and drugs and wild women?' I said, 'That's what I want to do this for!'": the life and times of Bernie Marsden

Interview by Rob Hughes, Classic Rock, May 2020

RH: Who was the first guitarist to really capture your imagination?  ...

The Scorpions: Can a power ballad change the world?

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2020

A hit podcast investigates the theory that the German rockers' global smash was written by the CIA. But the truth is even more incredible. ...

Celtic Frost: Bring Out Your Dead

Retrospective and Interview by John Doran, The Quietus, 1 June 2020

He may be a prophet without honour at home, but elsewhere Swiss musician Tom Gabriel Fischer is widely recognised to have shifted the course of ...

Lamb of God: Metal's moral backbone: the uncompromising, righteous rise of Lamb Of God

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 23 June 2020

AS A YOUNGER man, D. Randall Blythe conducted social experiments with bleach. As jocks in passing cars screamed insults, the singer with the metal band ...

Farewell to Kerrang!

Comment by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 8 July 2020

IN THE FIRST decade of the 21st Century, the British rock magazine Kerrang! ran a small weekly item called "Stimulants". Secreted away at the bottom ...

Def Leppard: "We never wanted to smoke weed and stick two fingers up to The Man"

Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 21 July 2020

ON THE FIRST day of December 1987, Def Leppard arrived for a concert at the Tacoma Dome in Washington state. Embarked on the initial North ...

Tommy Lee, Mötley Crüe: Tommy Lee: "Back then, there were no consequences – excess was a daily thing"

Retrospective and Interview by Ian Winwood, Daily Telegraph, 16 October 2020

IN THE SUMMER of 1987, Mötley Crüe embarked on a tour of the largest indoors venues in North America. Travelling aboard a private jet, the ...

AC/DC: "Malcolm was there in the studio and we all knew it"

Interview by Laura Barton, The Guardian, 14 November 2020

The rock'n'roll heroes return after four years and the death of founding guitarist Malcolm Young with a new album and a mission to reverse how ...

Angel Witch, Def Leppard, Diamond Head, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Raven, Samson, Saxon, Venom: Michael Hann: Denim and Leather — The Rise and Fall of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (Constable)

Book Review by Barney Hoskyns, Financial Times, 15 February 2022

AS INELEGANT acronyms go, NWOBHM was at least onomatopoeic: an approximation of metal's thudding, bludgeoning bass registers. Certainly the "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal", ...

The Melvins: Melvins: El Club, Detroit

Live Review by Jacob Paul Nielsen, Magnet, 11 July 2022

BUZZ OSBORNE, Dale Crover and Steve McDonald will not care about this review. ...

Deep Purple: O2 Arena, London

Live Review by Chris Charlesworth, Just Backdated, October 2022

TO THE 02 by riverboat, courtesy of my old friends Deep Purple, though only three survive from the group I covered extensively for Melody Maker between 1970 ...

Living Colour: Pride: Living Colour's Time's Up

Book Excerpt by Kimberly Mack, Bloomsbury Books, May 2023

This is an excerpt from Chapter 3 of Kimberly's 33 1/3 study of Living Colour's second album. ...

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