Category Archives: Metal

Paul Di’Anno, early frontman for Iron Maiden, dies aged 66

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The vocalist, who went on to form Battlezone and Killers, had experienced a number of health issues in recent years

Paul Di’Anno, the journeyman heavy metal vocalist best known for fronting Iron Maiden in their early years, has died aged 66.

His label Conquest Music confirmed that he died at home in Salisbury, adding: “Despite being troubled by severe health issues in recent years that restricted him to performing in a wheelchair, Paul continued to entertain his fans around the world, racking up well over 100 shows since 2023.”

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Cher, Ozzy Osbourne and A Tribe Called Quest among 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees

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Cher finally recognised 60 years after her first recordings, while Mary J Blige, Peter Frampton and Dave Matthews Band are among the other inductees

Cher, Ozzy Osbourne, Mary J Blige and A Tribe Called Quest are among the stars to be added to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year – many of them rather overdue.

Artists can be added to the US institution 25 years after their first recording, but Cher – who once described her snub by the Hall as “kind of rude” – has had to wait until 60 years after her first releases with Sonny & Cher to be included.

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UK churches keen to host heavy metal bands after duet with organist is a hit

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After ‘bonkers gig’ at Huddersfield town hall paired doom metal bands with pipe organist, churches are keen to get in on the act

It was a “bonkers gig”, pairing heavy metal with a pipe organ – a musical curiosity that the bands thought would surely seldom be repeated, if ever.

But Pantheïst and Arð, the doom metals bands who performed the concert at Huddersfield town hall last year, have been inundated with requests to repeat the performance – with churches leading the way.

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Brit awards 2024 – full list of winners

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The winners of every category at the 2024 Brits, updated as the ceremony progresses

• Brit awards 2024: women dominate as Raye scores record-smashing six wins
• Brit awards 2024: as it happened

Blur – The Ballad of Darren
J Hus – Beautiful and Brutal Yard
Little Simz – No Thank You
Raye – My 21st Century Blues – WINNER!
Young Fathers – Heavy Heavy

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‘Subtlety is the hardest part’: cult metal band Blood Incantation trade extremes for ambience

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The cosmic-minded Denver band broke out with two albums of frenetic riffs and blast beats. Are they risking it all by embracing their inner Zen?

In Blood Incantation’s lyrics, cosmic conspiracy theories abound, telling tales of ancient civilisations, aliens and hallucinogens. But woe betide anyone who describes the Denver metal band’s interests as sci-fi. “The quantum field and holographic universe, DMT and the psychedelic connection, these things are not fictional!” frontman Paul Riedl insists. Clearly he’s argued this before.

“This band isn’t about exploring a fantasy world,” says drummer Isaac Faulk. “It’s about asking questions about the universe that we live in – and that’s way bigger than any fictional universe.” The aim, they say, is for listeners to ask themselves these questions. “We aim to give space for those moments when you can truly attain Zen,” says Riedl.

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‘I got 12 years and 74 lashes’: Confess, the band jailed for playing metal in Iran

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After their songs were deemed blasphemous propaganda, the duo were forced to flee to Norway and claim asylum. Now a band, they are writing angrily about what they faced

For almost as long as it’s existed, heavy metal has been used as protest music. On Black Sabbath’s Paranoid, the first thing you’re barraged with is War Pigs: a seven-minute savaging of the politicians who instigated the Vietnam war. Iron Maiden once had their mascot, Eddie, murder Margaret Thatcher on a single’s artwork; Metallica and Megadeth spent the 1980s lambasting cold war superpowers that didn’t know whether to shake hands or nuke each other.

Nikan Khosravi, singer and guitarist of Iranian/Norwegian thrashers Confess, views his band as another protest act in the metal lineage. “I’m the kid who told the emperor: ‘You’re naked!’” he exclaims with pride and excitement on a call from Norway. However, the five-piece don’t write their brutish tracks about some faraway conflict, or satirise a government certain to ignore them.

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‘You’ve got long hair, I’ve got long hair!’ The loud, joyful community of rock bars

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With strong drinks and stronger music, rock bars are fiercely independent havens for UK metalheads, who have been donating thousands to keep them alive after Covid

It’s Friday night in north London’s Black Heart, a rock and metal bar tucked away on a Camden side street. The walls and ceiling are – inevitably – painted black, the beer taps are furnished with antlers, and the speakers are blasting out Metallica’s Enter Sandman. As the chorus hits, the whole bar breaks into song, and the bartender turns down the volume so all that can be heard is a room full of joyous metalheads belting out: “We’re off to never-never land!”

As pints splash and voices echo, the scene feels poignant: pandemic lockdowns left rock fans wondering when they might have moments like this again, with the Black Heart nearly closing down until it was saved by a crowdfunding campaign with prize draws that raised more than £150,000 in seven weeks.

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The greatest songs about the climate crisis – ranked!

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As Cop26 opens in Glasgow, we provide the soundtrack, ranging from Gojira’s metal fury to gorgeous environmental paeans by Childish Gambino, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell

From its cover shot of a submerged bedroom down, 2019’s Titanic Rising feels like an album informed by the climate crisis, but the lyrics seldom address it explicitly. Something to Believe is the perfect example: a plea not to feel overwhelmed by or nihilistic about the challenges faced, beautifully steeped in the lush sound of early 70s Los Angeles.

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Tom Morello: ‘We came within a baby’s breath of a fascist coup in the US’

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Lockdown and ‘looking after the grandmas’ may have kept the Rage Against the Machine guitarist away from recent protests – but he refuses to be silenced

Tom Morello has made more than 20 albums, as a founding member of Rage Against the Machine – the political rap-rock band who have sold 16m records, and whose 1992 track Killing in the Name has become a perennial protest anthem – and of the bands Audioslave and Prophets of Rage. He also plays solo under the name the Nightwatchman, and has toured with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. His unique approach to the guitar, which he has self-deprecatingly described as “making R2-D2 noises”, has led to him regularly being voted as one of the greatest guitar players of all time. His latest album, The Atlas Underground Fire (released on 15 October), features a series of collaborations recorded in lockdown – with Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Damian Marley and Bring Me the Horizon, among others. He is a celebrated “nonsectarian socialist” political activist, famed for performing at demonstrations – he played at Occupy events across the US and Europe – and a co-founder of the nonprofit “social justice” organisation Axis of Justice.

You recorded your new album in lockdown. Did the pandemic also mean you missed out on the ongoing protests in the US?
Not only was there a global plague to contend with, there was the US political situation and the white supremacy comeuppance, all happening at a time when I was locked down with my 97-year-old mom, my 90-year-old mother-in-law, and two kids going crazy trying to learn remotely. I was unable to be on the literal frontlines for the first time in my adult life, because I’m trying to keep the grandmas alive, you know. So in the middle of the George Floyd protests I recorded a song called Stand Up, with Imagine Dragons, the great trans soul singer Shea Diamond and Bloody Beetroots as well. I was trying, from the bunker, to contribute in any way I could. But you’re absolutely right: that’s my bread and butter. I’m at the front of that march for 30 years, and now, you know, there’s a plumbing problem, or one of my kids broke a window with a basketball, so that’s my day

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‘Racism is rampant’: Alien Weaponry, the metal band standing up for Māori culture

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The New Zealand trio have gone global thanks to their forthright Māori-language songs, which confront colonial history and ongoing inequality

New Zealand was a war zone in the mid-1800s. On one side were the British and the colonial government, craving a stranglehold on more of the country’s land. On the other were the indigenous Māori people, fighting to preserve tino rangatiratanga: their sovereignty and self-determination.

On 29 April 1864, the British invaded Pukehinahina, also known as Gate Pā. Despite being grossly outnumbered, the Māori fended off the attackers using concealed trenches and guerrilla tactics. It was a fleeting victory in a war that, ultimately, led to the confiscation of 3m acres of Māori land.

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Turnstile: can hardcore punk’s biggest band conquer the mainstream?

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With their major-label deal and collaborations with Dev Hynes, the Baltimore five-piece are pushing at rock music’s boundaries

All music scenes have a splintering. In 1989, grunge fans were excited about Nirvana and Tad. By 1991 it was a different story. One had transcended a scene. The other remained simply a part of it. And so to Turnstile, the Baltimore, Maryland-based five-piece who arrive at their third album, Glow On, on the precipice of becoming the standout band of the new hardcore punk scene.

Related: The Guide: Staying In – sign up for our home entertainment tips

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Slipknot’s Joey Jordison corralled chaos with his explosive talent

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In combining both pummelling impact and nimble speed, Jordison defied his short stature to become a hulking master of rhythm – and the finest metal drummer of his era

• Joey Jordison, founding Slipknot drummer, dies at age 46

To better understand the magnitude of former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison’s death at the age of 46 requires us to first recall the loss of another drummer. Praised universally for his technical wizardry and powerhouse style, Rush’s legendary Neil Peart died in January 2020 – a watershed moment for rock drumming. Eighteen months later, we now face the heavy metal equivalent.

While there’s a strong case for Slipknot as the greatest metal band of their generation, Jordison was almost definitively the finest metal drummer of his era. Born in the band’s native Des Moines, Iowa, Jordison picked up his first pair of drumsticks aged eight. He co-founded the nine-piece Slipknot in 1995 and spent 18 years behind the kit for the megastars. Slipknot developed their own lore: there were the obvious nods to horror in the terrifying face masks and boiler suits they wore for live performances, and each member was assigned their own number. Tellingly, Jordison was No 1.

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Joey Jordison, Slipknot’s founding drummer, dies at age 46

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Family announce that metal musician, who had transverse myelitis, a nerve disease, died ‘peacefully in his sleep’

Joey Jordison, the drummer whose dynamic playing helped to power the metal band Slipknot to global stardom, has died at age 46.

His family wrote in a statement: “We are heartbroken to share the news that Joey Jordison, prolific drummer, musician and artist passed away peacefully in his sleep … Joey’s death has left us with empty hearts and feelings of indescribable sorrow. To those that knew Joey, understood his quick wit, his gentle personality, giant heart and his love for all things family and music.”

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‘I’m working through 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die’: readers’ WFH playlists

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Some of you went classic rock; others Iranian ambient. And yet others took on epic challenges that will take years to complete … here’s what you’ve been listening to while working under lockdown

If I need to concentrate on something really thorny, I go for Bach every time. It seems to allow my brain to work at a high level and I do almost all my best work to Bach. András Schiff or Angela Hewitt playing keyboard works, and Hilary Hahn on violin. Beethoven’s late quartets and Schubert lieder are good for deep thought. If I’m just doing low-level stuff, then Radio Paradise is my go-to – it’s a commercial-free internet station, which I like because it mixes a lot of stuff I know from my younger days with music that I’m less familiar with. Edward Collier, software developer, Cheltenham

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‘If not hope, then what?’: the musicians finding optimism in dark times

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Against a backdrop of Covid, a striking number of musicians, from hard rock to jazz, made music rich with positivity. In the first of a two-part series, they tell their stories

I had really given up on music after my mom passed away [in 2014], and then of course the record that I saw as my death rattle [2017’s Soft Sounds from Another Planet] got picked up in a big way. It was a very bittersweet moment where all these great things were happening in the wake of loss. I didn’t allow myself to feel that for a long time. Now I feel ready to embrace feeling.

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System of a Down’s Serj Tankian: ‘If something is true, it should be said’

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System of a Down’s political activism helped change the course of Armenian history. But – facing censorship, assassination threats and a divided band – at what price for its frontman?

Of all the nights Serj Tankian has stood on stage surveying a crowd of 50,000 faces roaring his own words back at him, there is one that the System of a Down frontman will never forget. On 23 April 2015, the metal band gave a two-and-half hour, 37-song set to a rapturous audience in Republic Square, in the heart of the Armenian capital Yerevan. For a band formed in the diaspora community of Los Angeles’ Little Armenia in 1994, the occasion could not have been more significant: they had been invited to perform in the country for the first time as part of events marking the centenary of the Armenian genocide, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1922. “The overwhelming feeling was of belonging,” says Tankian, 53, speaking from his airy home studio in Los Angeles. “It felt like we were created 21 years earlier so we could be there that night.”

For Tankian, whose outspoken political activism often animates his songwriting, seeking international recognition of the Armenian genocide has been a lifelong and personal campaign. On stage that night in Yerevan he told the story of his grandfather Stepan Haytayan, who was just five years old when he saw his father murdered in the atrocities; he later went blind from hunger. Between songs, Tankian railed against Barack Obama’s resistance to using the term “genocide” to describe the atrocities after taking office, before turning his ire on Armenia’s authoritarian president, Serzh Sargsyan. “We’ve come a long way, Armenia, but there’s still a lot of fucking work to do,” Tankian told the audience, before calling out the “institutional injustice” of Sargsyan’s administration and demanding the introduction of an “egalitarian civil society”.

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‘The drum needed a blood sacrifice’: the rise of dark Nordic folk

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Heilung jam with Siberian shamans and play with human bones, while Wardruna record songs submerged in rivers and on burial mounds. Now this vibrant undergound music scene is finding a wider audience

In 2002, holed up in an attic studio on the majestic Norwegian coast, Einar Selvik had a vision. He would create a trilogy of albums based on the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark, the world’s oldest runic alphabet. The multi-instrumentalist’s epiphany kicked off what is now one of the world’s most vibrant underground music scenes.

Calling on vocalists Lindy-Fay Hella and Gaahl, with whom Selvik had played in black metal band Gorgoroth, he created the band Wardruna and the first instalment of the trilogy arrived in 2009. It was called Runaljod: Gap Var Ginnunga (Sound of Runes: The Gap Was Vast) and had taken seven years to research, write and record. Each song told a story behind Nordic culture and traditions, via dark and ambient folk, played on ancient string and horn instruments, as well as animal hide drums.

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Good riddance 2020: vote now for the ultimate New Year’s Eve songs to end a very bad year

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The year that lasted centuries is finally coming to a close – and we need some music to bid good riddance to the horrors of 2020.

Last week Guardian Australia asked our readers what song they’d add to the ultimate New Year’s Eve playlist: one that represents the year we’ve had, the year we’re hoping for, or just the way we’ll feel (and the words we’ll be screaming) at midnight.

Below are all the songs that were nominated, and now we need you to vote so we can build the perfect soundtrack for your night. Voting closes on Wednesday 16 December – and we’ll launch the playlist of the top 20 songs on Friday

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