The 59th Grammy Awards lit up our world once again on Sunday. Didn’t it? Known in recent years as a breeding ground for a myriad of controversies, including celebrity disses (e.g. Taylor Swift v Kanye), stage-storming (Kanye, 50 Cent) boycotts… Read More ›
Metallica
Metallica + Glastonbury = Glastallica: Exclusive Photos and Review
It says something of Metallica, and the heavy / thrash / metal / rock (delete according to taste) genre they represent, that much of the pre-Glastonbury Festival talk was about whether they were an “appropriate” act to take the… Read More ›
Christmas Gifts For The Music Lover In Your Life
By now, you have probably seen all those other Christmas Gift lists on other sites, telling you that there’s a nice set of headphones for a couple of grand, or an iPod dock for £800. (Who are these people who… Read More ›
Why Listen To Poison When You Can Listen To Husker Du?
Twenty five years on from the peak of heavy rock’s commercial popularity in 1988, this series asks why heavy rockers no longer dominate the charts and seeks to highlight the crimes that Heavy Rock is accused of, and give you… Read More ›
The Day UK Rock Fans Took Thrash Metal To Their Hearts
I was there the day Thrash Metal broke into the UK’s metal mainstream…. It seems strange looking back at the divisions that thrash metal caused in the mid eighties. For some, the surprise will be that there’s any discernible difference… Read More ›
Ten Reasons To Be Glad About Anthrax
First things first, if you are a farmer and are looking for disease control tips, look elsewhere. Wrong site. Not your fault of course. Naming a band after something that is more harmful to dumb animals than the X-Factor audition… Read More ›
Why Do Most People Dislike Heavy Rock But Think One Direction Are Good?
Read on for my ten point action plan to make rock music more popular… Last week, I held a Focus Group on why Heavy Metal music isn’t popular amongst certain demographics. As part of this scientific approach, I surveyed a… Read More ›
Albums of the Year! From 25 Years Ago! What Were They Thinking?!
Did you used to look forward to magazine end of year best-of lists? The magazine I bought every week when I was a teenager was Kerrang! magazine – and (true to form for someone of the highest geekery such as myself)… Read More ›
How $5.98 Made Metallica Millions
Metallica may have been the band to change the mainstream’s minds about the so-called thrash metal movement, but they did it in the UK not through (3rd album) the magnificent Master of Puppets, but by the follow up. And no,… Read More ›
Remember The First Time You Heard…Metallica?
After three incredible albums in the ’80’s Metallica were still only rock music’s most popular cult band. Alongside Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth they had spearheaded a movement (thrash metal) that, like the Olympics’ Beach Volleyball, had yet to convince the… Read More ›