The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will make fans of some long-neglected acts very happy when the class of 2025 is inducted later this year.
Among this year’s inductees — announced Sunday night during ABC’s American Idol — are first-time nominees Bad Company, Joe Cocker and Chubby Checker, along with Soundgarden on its third go-round and the White Stripes and Cyndi Lauper, each on their second. The hip-hop duo Outkast fills out the Performers category, also on its first nomination.
Longtime slight Warren Zevon — who passed away during 2003 and was nominated just once, in 2023 — will receive one of two Musical Influence Awards, with Salt-N-Pepa receiving the other. Musical Excellence Awards will be presented to Carol Kaye, bassist for Phil Spector’s Wrecking Crew and the late pianist Nicky Hopkins, who both worked with numerous Rock Hall inductees themselves, and to celebrated Philadelphia soul songwriter and producer Thom Bell.
Lenny Waronker, the veteran Warner Bros. and DreamWorks label executive and producer whose signings included Randy Newman, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Rickie Lee Jones and a great many others.
Acts are eligible for the Rock Hall 25 years after their first commercial recordings. Checker has been street legal since 1984, Cocker and Zevon since 1994, Bad Company since 1999 and Soundgarden since 2012.
The Performers list includes five of the seven top finishers on the Rock Hall’s Fan Ballot. Bad Company was second with 279,012 votes and Lauper ranked fourth with 235,438, followed by Cocker (232,063) Soundgarden (231,611) and Checker (201,835). Phish had the most fan votes with 327,304, while Billy Idol was third with 258,718 but neither made the final list. This year’s other nominees included the Black Crowes, Mariah Carey, Joy Division/New Order, Oasis and Mana.
The Performers category is selected by a voting body of music industry professionals, while the fan ballot comprises a single vote for each of the top seven acts. The other categories are selected by committees within the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation.
The induction ceremony will take place Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles and stream live on Disney+. It will be available on Hulu the next day and will be edited for an ABC special to air at a later date.
In a statement, Rock Hall Chairman John Sykes said that, “Each of these inductees created their own sound and attitude that had a profound impact on culture and helped to change the course of Rock & Roll forever. Their music gave a voice to generations and influenced countless artists that followed in their footsteps.”
The 2025 inductees cover a lot of bases, from Checker’s first singles in 1959 — and, of course, his 1961 classic “The Twist” — to Soundgarden’s work until frontman Chris Cornell’s suicide in 2017. Salt-N-Pepa remains active, while Lauper is in the midst of a farewell tour. Jack White has been pursuing a solo career since the White Stripes disbanded during 2011 — and is currently on tour in North America — while Andre 3000 and Big Boi have been working on their own outside of Outkast since 2007 (and a short 2014 20th anniversary reunion).
Hopkins, whose resume reads like a who’s-who of classic rock luminaries, passed away during 1994, while Cocker died 20 years later. Bad Company — whose bassist Boz Burrell passed in 2006, has been inactive since 2019, though frontman Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke are still working; a tribute album is due out later this year, and Rodgers is writing a memoir.
The American Idol featured finalists performing songs by Rock Hall members along with a guest mentor appearance by 2000 inductee James Taylor.
Updates, including public ticket sales for the ceremony, will be available via rockhall.com.
Rock Hall’s Worst Band Member Snubs
When the group gets inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame without you.
Campbell, who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2013, has been away from the group as he recovers from a recent bone marrow transplant. In a recent conversation with SiriusXM’s Eddie Trunk, Alain passed along some positive news.
“He’s doing really good,” Allen reported. “And the latest news is he’s feeling great.”
“I’m just hoping that Vivian can get back out with us as soon as possible,” the drummer continued, cautioning that there still wasn’t an exact timeline for when Campbell would return to performing with Def Leppard. “Just like my situation way back in the day, I think what it is, is we just need to give Viv time to figure things out in his own time. And I think that’s the most important thing. We don’t want to put any kind of pressure on Vivian. We never would. It’s about his comfort level. And if he can be out there with us, then we’re just going to love that.”
Trunk noted that Campbell has remained consistently upbeat during his more than a decade battling cancer.
“I think that that’s the thing that gets him through,” Allen noted. “And it amazes me too, that he’s able to rise above, That inspires me. That inspires me to want to go out there. The fact that I have bandmates that are – they’re strong. They’ve got incredible characters. So I’m just really happy that Viv’s on the up and up. And, I’m looking forward – I haven’t seen him in quite a while – so I’m really looking forward to seeing him and just supporting him along his journey.”
Def Lepprad Will Come Out ‘Guns Blazing’ on 2025 Tour
Def Leppard has a busy summer lined up, including an assortment of festival appearances, as well as headlining concerts with Bret Michaels and Extreme opening.
Asked what fans can expect at the shows, Allen said that Def Leppard plans to “come out there guns blazing” with a set list made up largely of their greatest hits.
“The nature of the tour is really centered around festival settings,” the drummer noted. “So I think in that situation it’s good to play music that people really want to hear.”
The Best Song From Every Def Leppard Album
Underneath it all, they are fans of music. That love and belief in music – other people’s as much as their own, and sometimes more – always seems to bring Def Leppard home.
Oasis’ bandleader phoned in to TalkSport radio this morning, April 25, to talk to host Alan Brazil about his beloved Manchester City, and was asked by the presenter what he was up to at the moment.
“I’m in the studio noodling around,” Gallagher replied. “Just getting ready for rehearsals to start now in about three weeks. And then we’ll see what happens.”
Asked by Brazil if his little brother was “behaving himself”, Gallagher said, “He’s great. I was with him yesterday actually. He’s alright, he was on tip-top form. He can’t wait… none of us can wait.”
Oasis’ Live 25 tour is set to launch on July 4 at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
UK tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail recently obtained photos of Noel and Liam Gallagher together for the first time in over a decade. The pair are reported to have been filming an advert for Adidas.
Noel and Liam Gallagher spotted together for first time in years📹 dailymail pic.twitter.com/5gHwFeConfApril 25, 2025
Meanwhile, Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones has revealed to NME that Noel Gallagher is working on new songs, but whether these are destined for a new Oasis record is open to question.
“I asked him what he’d been up to, and he said he’d been doing some writing in the studio,” Jones said. “I’m assuming he’s doing some writing for either his stuff or if they’re [Oasis] gonna bring out a couple songs.”
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Oasis Live ’25 Tour
Jul 04: Cardiff Principality Stadium, UK Jul 05: Cardiff Principality Stadium, UK Jul 11: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 12: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 16: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 19: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 20: Manchester Heaton Park, UK Jul 25: London Wembley Stadium, UK Jul 26: London Wembley Stadium, UK Jul 30: London Wembley Stadium, UK Aug 02: London Wembley Stadium, UK Aug 03: London Wembley Stadium, UK Aug 08: Edinburgh Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, UK Aug 09: Edinburgh Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, UK Aug 12: Edinburgh Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium, UK Aug 16: Dublin Croke Park, Ireland Aug 17: Dublin Croke Park, Ireland
Aug 24: Toronto Rogers Stadium, ON Aug 25: Toronto Rogers Stadium, ON Aug 28: Chicago Soldier Field, IL Aug 31: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NJ Sep 01: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NJ Sep 06: Los Angeles Rose Bowl Stadium, NJ Sep 07: Los Angeles Rose Bowl Stadium, NJ Sep 12: Mexico City Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico Sep 13: Mexico City Estadio GNP Seguros, Mexico
Sep 27: London Wembley Stadium, UK Sep 28: London Wembley Stadium, UK
Oct 21: Goyang Stadium, South Korea Oct 25: Tokyo Dome, Japan Oct 26: Tokyo Dome, Japan
Oct 31: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia Nov 01: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia Nov 04: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia Nov 07: Sydney Accor Stadium, Australia Nov 08: Sydney Accor Stadium, Australia
Nov 15: Buenos Aires Estadio River Plate, Argentina Nov 16: Buenos Aires Estadio River Plate, Argentina Nov 19: Santiago Estadio Nacional, Chile Nov 22: São Paulo Estadio MorumBIS, Brazil Nov 23: São Paulo Estadio MorumBIS, Brazil
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Pick up a physical copy of this magazine in UK stores now (Image credit: Future)
By the end of 2024, Tobias Forge had nothing left. Facing burnout after years of heavy touring and the grinding double whammy of making and releasing a full movie and recording a brand new studio album, the Ghost mastermind found himself at the end of his rope.
“I hit a wall,” he admits today. “I realised I am not built to do that. I really can’t.”
It’s understandable that Tobias had started to feel the weight of it all. While on the face of it, last year put the perfect exclamation point on an immensely successful chapter in his career – that concert film, Rite Here Rite Now, received rave reviews, crystallising Ghost’s position as one of modern metal’s premier acts – it was also the moment that 15 years of carrying Ghost on his shoulders finally caught up with him.
“It was a lethal brew,” he explains. “I was doing the exact same thing that I’ve been doing ever since we finished our first album cycle: come home from touring on a Sunday, and on Wednesday, start recording because we already have the next tour planned. That’s how it’s been for 15 years.”
So, in October, promotional duties for Rite Here Rite Now wrapped up and Ghost’s next world tour officially announced, Tobias allowed himself a first. Instead of jumping straight into tour prep and polishing up his new record, he gave himself a couple of months off. What did he do with them?
“God, what did I do?!” he exhales. He suddenly looks lost for words – the first and only time during our chat. After a while, he grins sheepishly: “Work my way away from panic attacks.”
(Image credit: Press)
If Tobias was reaching breaking point a few months ago, there’s no sign of it now. Today we’re in the bowels of The Mandrake, a luxurious and eccentrically decorated hotel nestled in the heart of Fitzrovia in central London. Atop the hotel bar sits a bizarre mounted hybrid of a creature that we can only describe as something between a peacock and an antelope (a peacalope?!), glowering over a menagerie of surrealist sculptures, retina-singeing art pieces and more fantastical fake taxidermy. It’s an oddly fitting environment for sharing time with an artist who has so deftly mixed the subversive with the glamorous, the camp with the bizarre.
We find Tobias sitting on a plush sofa in a nearby lounge. Looking relaxed but focused, he sips from a bottle of San Pellegrino, pausing thoughtfully before each answer, rarely breaking eye contact as he delivers them. Long, straggly hair hanging loose over his shoulders, fully bearded and rocking a black Sodom cut-off, he looks every inch the heavy metal lifer, a world away from the preening, sparkly master of ceremonies he embodies onstage.
We’re here to discuss Ghost’s next chapter – a new album, Skeletá, and a new leading man, Papa V Perpetua, the latest colourful character that Tobias will inhabit to bring his vision to life. Over a decade and a half, the Swede has overseen Ghost’s evolution from underground metal curio to all-singing, all-dancing rock opera extravaganza, 2022’s Imperascaling new heights of theatricality. That album was concerned with the rise and fall of empires, wrapping barbs directed at modern political regimes in irresistible hooks and 80s arena rock excess. This time, Tobias seems concerned with more existential ideas.
“I felt super-proud and pleased with Impera,” he says. “But it was quite heavy on external political influence, critique of social structure. There’s really nothing new to say about that. Fine. So what do I do? Well, instead of shining a light onto other things, I want to make more of an introspective, ‘basic core feelings’ record. That seems interesting! Writing a song that embodies hope, sorrow, regret, hate, love.”
This might surprise anyone who has superficially engaged with Ghost’s music thus far. On the surface, their shtick has remained endearingly simple: Satanism by way of The Rocky Horror Picture Show; blasphemy delivered with a nudge, a wink and a tap dance. As Tobias tells it, however, there’s always been more to it than that.
“With most of the things I’ve written, including parts of the first record [2010’s Opus Eponymous], there’s this misconception that they’re about the Devil, and they aren’t, really,” he insists. “They’ve always been about mankind’s relationship with the concept of life and death, and God and divine presence – or absence. Some songs are expressed with more specificity at a certain individual or a certain aspect of society. I just felt that I wanted this new record to be…” he pauses for a moment. “About being human. Being alive.”
(Image credit: Press)
While Tobias is adamant that Satan is only a peripheral presence in Ghost’s world, The Great Horned One is still shaking his booty all over Skeletá – the album’s lead single is literally called Satanized, for a start. Released last month, its video proved historic in officially unmasking the Nameless Ghouls. Its lyrics, however, are more to do with love and obsession than the actual Devil, and it’s not the only time Skeletá dishes out complex emotional beats.
Lachryma’s vampiric motifs reek of bitter broken hearts (‘I’m done crying / Over someone like you’); De Profundis Borealis seems to find our man trapped in cycles of regret (‘If only love could break these chains / Life could go on’); Cenotaph movingly explores how those that have passed on stay with us (‘Wherever I go / You’re always here / Riding next to me’); Excelsis finishes the album with a freeing embrace of our own mortality (‘Everybody leaves one day / I know it hurts / Everybody goes away’).
Musically, the album’s heart is vigorously rolled in the same 80s glitter as its predecessor. Tobias emphasises that he didn’t want to make an “Impera 2”, but from the anthemic, Journey-fied AOR of Peacefield to lighter-baiting power ballad Guiding Lights, to the ludicrous hair metal stomp of Missilia Amori, it’s clear this is an era of music he’s enjoying spending an extended stay in.
“I think it’s simply because that kind of music comes very naturally for me,” he shrugs. “However much on certain days I might want to be able to do other things, I just can’t sing like another singer. My type of vocals will always sound better if it’s multi-tracked with harmonies. That’s what I do! I’m not Till Lindemann.”
If this sounds like Ghost are running the risk of strutting into a creative cul-de-sac, don’t fret. Arena rock might fit Tobias like a sparkly glove, but he also firmly believes it provides the best environment in which to bring his visions to life.
“The first person you sell an idea to is yourself,” he says matter-of-factly. “I’m drawn to melody and drama, and that is just something that is very represented in the 70s and 80s, and especially within AOR and yacht rock. It’s just well played, well arranged, multi-stack vocals with a lot of drama.”
Tobias Forge’s track-by-track guide to new Ghost album Skeletá | Metal Hammer – YouTube
Of course, every new Ghost album means more than just new tunes. Like Alice Cooper, Kiss and Slipknot before them, the band’s image has been a foundational part of their allure, and with each release, it’s received a drastic makeover. Opus Eponymous was spearheaded by the mysterious Papa Emeritus I, a ghastly, Papal figure masked by corpsepaint and backed by faceless, hooded Nameless Ghouls. Since then, each new album has been accompanied by new-look Ghouls and an entirely new frontman – always played by Tobias, but given a whole new identity.
There was the gruesome Papa Emeritus II for 2013’s Infestissumam, the flamboyant Papa Emeritus III for 2015’s Meliora and the moustached and mischievous Cardinal Copia for 2018’s Prequelle. Tobias broke with tradition by keeping ‘Cardi C’ around for the Impera era, upgrading him to full Papa Emeritus status. Now, however, a new player has entered the chat: Papa V Perpetua, a metallic vision in purple, looking like a Satanic mash-up of Doctor Doom and Ivan Ooze. What’s his deal?
“I can’t really talk about him!” Tobias shoots back. At first, we assume this is a typical bit of Ghost cloak-and-daggery – Metal Hammer doesn’t even get to see what Perpetua looks like until two minutes before the interview, as a photo is carefully removed from an envelope and handed to us by one of the band’s personnel. As it happens, Tobias isn’t being secretive. He genuinely doesn’t flesh out his lead characters until they’ve hit the stage and performed live in front of fans.
“I can’t give you a profiling, because the way things worked with Papa, I, II and III, and Cardi when he was new, was that he doesn’t exist until he’s one with the people, you know?”
This is a bit of a revelation. For someone who has maintained such meticulous control over Ghost’s IP since its formation, is leaving such a central part of the band’s mythos up to what is essentially live improv not a little daunting?
“It is. I’ve always felt that it was a scary thing,” Tobias admits. “On one hand, I’m trying to make the ‘product’ that is Ghost an entertaining thing for our fans. On the other, I try to do that as pleasantly as is possible for myself as well. When I decided to introduce Cardinal Copia into the mix, it felt very uncomfortable because he was going to be thrown out there as someone who hadn’t become [a Papa Emeritus] yet. ‘Wow, this is going to be a little different.’ But what I did know was that I didn’t have to go through the process of introducing a new character for the next album. Now, I do!”
(Image credit: Press)
Perpetua’s arrival also creates some fresh dramatic tension: Ghost now have two fictional figureheads on the scene. On recent tours, fans have been able to buy VIP tickets that have included the opportunity to come face to face with the ‘corpses’ of Papas I, II and III – characters who were all banished upon being replaced and, eventually, unceremoniously killed off. It seemed certain that Cardi C was destined for the same fate, recent entries into Ghost’s hilariously daft YouTube series and the plot of Rite Here Rite Now both pointing to his inevitable demise.
But Cardi is very much still here – in fact, according to Tobias, he hasn’t only stuck around, but moved up Ghost’s clerical ladder (“He believes that he has been demoted, whereas in essence, he’s actually been promoted”). Does our beloved Cardinal still have a big part to play in the Ghost story, or is Tobias just too fond of him to let go?
“All of the above,” he smiles, going on to explain Cardi’s enduring appeal. “He is very much a normal person, with family issues. But he is a person that craves a sense of purpose.”
We’re getting existential again. Is Tobias’s own journey through life influencing Ghost at this point?
“Most likely, yeah,” he says slowly, in the manner of a man that may have not considered this much. “Even though my background is not identical to Cardi’s, there are echoes of my own life within there. Sometimes it might be a mixture of my own experience and others that I know, and then you put it in a potpourri that’s more entertaining or understandable. But I think most creators will create from what they know, what they see, what they think and, maybe, what they want to be.”
One fascinating aspect of the Cardi/Perpetua dynamic is that it was heavily hinted in Rite Here Rite Now that the duo are, in fact, twins. Given Tobias himself is the father of twins – albeit a brother and sister rather than two boys – that can’t be a coincidence, right? So are Cardi and Perpetua twins?
They might be twins,” he poker-faces.
OK, it appears we’ve lifted the lid on about as much of the story as we can here. There is one other aspect of the Big Perpetua Reveal that we should acknowledge, though. His official confirmation didn’t come from a dramatic Ghost announcement, a surprise YouTube drop or some Skeletá album art. It came about halfway down the bill on the poster announcing this summer’s gargantuan Black Sabbath farewell show, in which dozens of the biggest names in metal history will unite for a historic concert at Villa Park.
Seconds after the internet exploded at the news that Sabbath, Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice In Chains and more would all be playing in one place on July 5, eagle-eyed Ghost fans spotted something surprising: the name Papa V Perpetua, squeezed in a few rows down between Mike Bordin and Rudy Sarzo. Surely that wasn’t part of Tobias’s grand plan?
Turns out it absolutely wasn’t. Rather, it was another rare instance in which he was happy to go with the flow and loosen his grip on the Ghost reins – just a little.
“We were asked to partake [in the Sabbath concert], and we couldn’t,” Tobias explains, pointing out that the band’s North American tour starts in the week following the show. “So it ended up being like, ‘OK, so we’ll just send our singer!’ That was agreed in a heartbeat, some time ago.”
Months later, Tobias was informed that Sabbath were ready to announce, and wanted to acknowledge that Ghost’s singer would be on the bill.
“‘What do we say?’” he recalls people asking him. Tobias’s response? “Well, his name is Papa V Perpetua. So write that!”
You can’t imagine there’d be many bands on planet Earth that Tobias would so readily mould his plans around, but if you’re gonna do it for anyone, the Godfathers of heavy metal are probably the right call. The Swede speaks warmly of Sabbath’s influence on him, and that influence is stamped over Skeletá as much as anything else he’s put his name to, though perhaps not in the way you might think.
“Geezer is very much to be credited for those hugely frail and very introspective lyrics,” he notes. “That has always been an inspiration for me, even though you sort of wrap it underneath big, muscular rock music.”
(Image credit: Press)
Sabbath mean something to just about every person on Planet Earth who has ever considered themselves a metalhead, but Ghost mean a hell of a lot to a fair old whack of people too – and their cult grows ever bigger and more impassioned. Go to any of their shows today and you’ll find yourself surrounded by euphoric devotees dressed in nun outfits, Ghoul attire, Papa Emeritus costumes and all manner of extravagant custom get-ups.
Ghost concerts aren’t just an opportunity to see Tobias’ vision come to life on the grand stage: they’re a safe space, a place where fans can escape their trials and tribulations and feel comfortable expressing themselves without fear of judgement. Does Tobias feel a sense of responsibility to those fans at this point?
“I do,” he replies. “As an entertainer, my job is to entertain people and make as many as possible feel happiness, or inspiration, or escapism. They get lost in this otherworldly thing.”
He’s quick to point out that there are always real, tangible messages underneath the music, be it the more politicised tangents of Impera or the existential soul-searching of Skeletá. He compares the band’s relationship with their fans to that of a friendship, with all the footnotes that may come with it.
“I don’t believe that true friendship is lying and saying everything’s just peachy,” he states. “I think that true friends are also able to to serve a slew of not-so-pleasant truth to each other. But as friends, I think it’s your duty to try to encourage each other to handle whatever turmoil you are experiencing. What will make us resilient together? How do we survive?”
Ghost aren’t surviving: they’re thriving. This year will see them pack out more arenas around the world, continuing their reign as one of the most bizarre but brilliantly entertaining success stories in metal history. But it’s about more than all the fun and frolics; Tobias clearly cares deeply about his art and the things he has to say, however draped up, glitter-bombed and, well, SATANIZED they may be.
“Whatever you shit out on a canvas can be regarded as art, but art that people tend to enjoy is usually interpreting something real,” he muses. “I think your readers will agree that a lot of what we know about the world, we have learned through listening to music.”
A few months back, Tobias had nothing left. Now, it seems Ghost still have plenty more sermons to give.
Skeletá is out now via Loma Vista. Order an exclusive grey opaque vinyl variant via the official Metal Hammer store. Ghost’s 2025 world tour is ongoing.
(Image credit: Loma Vista)
Merlin moved into his role as Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has previously written for the likes of Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N’ Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.
The new Yungblud single is basically The Streets meets Blur meets Oasis: watch the entertainingly lairy Britpop-influenced video for Lovesick Lullaby now
(Image credit: UMG Recordings, Inc.)
Yungblud has shared the video for his new Britpop-influenced single Lovesick Lullaby, single number two from his upcoming fourth record Idols.
“Making this song was a fucking party,” the singer, aka Dominic Harrison, says, “and you can hear that on the recording.”
He adds: “[I tried to] let my subconscious do a lot of the talking and then make sense of my words the following afternoon in a kitchen, hungover, eating fish and chips with a cup of tea.
“I’ve been on a journey trying to find meaning in different places all over the world, for which I am forever grateful, but it felt as though my feet left the ground a little too much and I had to bring myself back… to British music, to British art and culture.”
One lyric from the song, which falls somewhere between The Streets, Oasis and Blur, runs, “I bought some hash from a dealer in a pathetic attempt to impress my friends / But they didn’t like it, so I kept it all to myself instead / Then I went back to the man’s house, and he completely fucking changed my life.”
Last year, in an interview with NME, Yungblud promises that his follow-up to his self-titled 2022 album would be “a fucking rock opera double album that has no limitations towards imagination”.
He also declared that the album would be “a straight down the middle classic rock record that sounds like what the fuck Zeppelin would sound like in 2025.”
The album is also reported to be influenced by Oasis, The Verve, My Chemical Romance, David Bowie and Queen.
“I feel like for the first time in a long time I’m exactly where I need to be and doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing,” Harrison said recently, “exploring the past, the present, the future, and most importantly, myself.”
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YUNGBLUD – Lovesick Lullaby (Official Music Video) – YouTube
The second staging of the singer’s own festival, Bludfest, will take place on June 21 at Milton Keynes Bowl, with Chase Atlantic and Denzel Curry among the supporting cast.
The singer has also announced that he’ll be working behind the bar at the Hawley Arms in Camden, north London, tonight to celebrate the release of the single.
also workin a shift at the hawley tonight to celebrate lovesick … come let me pour you a pint x pic.twitter.com/BJTQShYjCjApril 25, 2025
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
We formed Gama Bomb in 2002 as a project to reincarnate ourselves as this weird, old thrash band called Nuclear Assault. They seemed to have vanished from existence at the time, leaving behind only the battered cassettes we scooped up in a local library clearance. This was before Encyclopedia Metallum, or even MySpace. Basically the stone age.
All summer long we sat around like little caveboys, listening to singer/guitarist John Connolly bark, “Another oil spill, atomic waste displaced, another forest dies. Bring on the acid rain!” The politics were progressive, the vibe angry and un-self-serious. It seemed obvious we’d do the same. We wrote this song called Racists! and laughed at how retro and obvious it was to do something condemning Nazis. In the era of the still-flowering Northern Irish peace process, it seemed absurd.
That song now has a queasy relevance we never could have predicted.
We’ve written other anti-fascist songs since then and… well, they aren’t jokes. Many of us sit down and watch the evening news only to be horrified by what we see, tormented by the quiet voice of conscience telling us to bloody do something.
It’s not always easy being a ‘mouthy band’ in an industry where so many people are either disengaged from politics or are quietly squatting on the problematic side of the fence – but our band lets us do something. Seeing our fans consistently pitch in, donate and fundraise for the causes we swing behind is a feeling it’s hard to describe. That’s something beyond just liking music – it’s a sense of community.
You can see that people are hungry to take action, and action is what we need right now. Here’s where the world is at, in case you haven’t checked recently: the far-right has come to define the centre of Western politics, there’s a land war in central Europe, America has more in common with Russia than with Britain, and billionaires are cheering on the bonfire of journalism and civil liberties. Meanwhile, metal seems to be in a retreat from reality, just when right-on voices are most needed.
I sometimes look at the explosion of masks, candelabras, heavy makeup and Marvel-style narrative-building in the upper tier of metal right now and wonder: has there been a drift toward style, away from sincerity? Maybe metal needs its own apocalypse, like the one prog rock suffered. Remember, Rick Wakeman’s sparkly cape was cool until it looked ridiculous in comparison to punk. When it happened, it happened fast. Pin met balloon. Pop went the keyboard solo.
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However, there are signs, coming from a few corners, that heavy music wants to address the problems we’re all seeing. I felt 10 feet tall when Pest Control, Scowl, Speed and other bands pulled out of Download festival due to its sponsorship from Barclaycard last year. Then, to their credit, the big lads in Enter Shikari started negotiations that led to the withdrawal of the bank from the festival entirely.
I don’t have beef with the people behind Download – they’re running a business, and they do it incredibly well – but I felt so proud of the artists who stepped up. Commerce was not their concern. These were deeds, not words, and with brass balls to back them up.
This is a message for other songwriters, other bands: be the good example next time you get a chance. Use the platform your talent has built for you to affect change. Don’t be afraid to offend the right people and put what little money metal can provide you where your mouth is.
Hardcore and thrash still pride themselves on being politically conscious: we should all follow these ballsy bands’ examples. And we should do it now, while the freedom to express ourselves in ways the powers that be don’t like still remains.
Metal needs more mouthy people right now.
You’ve got the mic: speak up.
Gama Bomb’s new EP, Necronomicon Automaton, is out now via Prosthetic.
(Image credit: Paul Natkin/WireImage/Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
The internet got very excited yesterday with the strongly-rumoured news – strongly-rumoured in that it came from the band’s own frontman – that Jack Black was slated to star in the forthcoming Weezer film. But then the internet had to get very un-excited about it because it has now been confirmed from a spokesperson for the band that Jack Black is not slated to star in the forthcoming Weezer film.
But let’s go from the beginning. Or at least the middle: during their performance at Coachella a few weeks ago, Weezer frontman announced, “We’ve been busy making the Weezer movie in LA but when Coachella called us up and said, ‘Hey Weezer, could you guys make it out for a surprise appearance?’, we were like, ‘Heck yeah!’.”
The following week news surfaced that the film would be a mockumentary with Keanu Reeves starring at the villain, one theory going that the premise would pitch the Point Break and John Wick star’s band Dogstar against Rivers Cuomo and co. There is some history between the two bands: Weezer played their first gig opening for Dogstar in LA in 1992, a show the two bands re-created at the city’s Lodge Room venue last year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Weezer’s Blue Album.
The news that School Of Rock star Black, whose own band Tenacious D have also played with Weezer, had also joined the cast was seemingly confirmed when Cuomo shared a mock-up poster for the film with Black as one of its main subjects on Weezer’s Discord with the title “Weezer – Co-Starring Jack Black”. Underneath he wrote, “Nope, it’s real.”
Hence everyone assuming Cuomo wasn’t pulling a prank – he was a few week’s late for April Fool’s Day, after all – and getting all excited at what an A-list cast the purported Weezer film was pulling together. But then said band spokesperson nipped it in the bud. It wouldn’t be beyond the realms of possibility though that Cuomo jumped the gun on the announcement and was forced to temporarily backtrack. These film types love a bit of smoke and mirrors. One way or another, we’ll find out who’s in the film when it comes out, whenever that may be.
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Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he’s interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.
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It is amusing to recall how many people were willing to write Machine Head off only a few years ago. After the release of the supposedly polarising (but, in reality, perfectly successful) Catharsis in 2018, and the unexpected departure of half the band later that year, Robb Flynn’s relentless forward march at least seemed to be experiencing a hiccup or two, and critical vultures were circling.
Satisfyingly, the near-immediate turnaround was enough to give us all whiplash. Since returning with a revitalised line-up in 2019, Machine Head have been on fucking fire. 2022’s Of Kingdom And Crownwas a blistering return to top form. The band’s first concept piece, it was tighter, heavier and more ferocious than anything they’d released since Burn My Eyes in 1994, but with some of the catchiest melodies and most irresistible choruses that Robb had ever penned.
In many respects, Machine Head’s 11th studio album continues where its predecessor left off, but there are no artful concepts or overarching narratives this time around. Instead, Unatoned is stripped down, fat-free and mercilessly to-the-point, with 10 lean, mean and ruthlessly succinct songs (and one eerie, instrumental interlude) that are frequently as brutal as Machine Head have ever been.
Two pre-release singles have given Headcases a flavour of what is in store here. These Scars Won’t Define Us is an explosive, modern thrash beat ’em up with guest vocals from Cristina Scabbia, Anders Fridén and others. Unbound is built around a fabulously knuckleheaded riff and a roar- along refrain clearly designed to have a deleterious effect on our neck muscles. Both are executed with precision and swagger, and will have circle- pits swirling across Europe this summer.
Every one of these songs has the potential to become a live favourite. Atomic Revelations is a punishing opener proper, with several life-threatening riffs and an elegantly lethal chorus; Outsider is a wildly accessible, groove metal masterclass; Bonescraper is part thuggish, 90s throwback, part euphoric, hands-in-the- air singalong; and the grandiose, doom-laden Bleeding Me Dry creeps in on spaced-out trip hop beats, before unleashing one of the ugliest riffs in Machine Head history.
Conversely, the closing Scorn could be the most beautiful song that Robb Flynn has ever written. Ostensibly a dark, crestfallen ballad, it drifts through hazy, synth-shrouded verses and angst-ridden chorus crescendos, before a scintillating, syncopated riff shatters the calm, and Machine Head surge towards a spine-tingling finale.
Unatoned is Machine Head’s shortest album: 42 minutes, non-stop action, and absolutely no fucking around. There is an urgency to it that harks back to the feral days of Burn My Eyes, and an imperious sophistication that comes from more than 30 years of experience. It has so many crushing riffs that it should come with a health and safety certificate.
New guitarist Reece Scruggs is the perfect fit, and drummer Matt Alston finally makes his album debut, and wallops it out of the park. Meanwhile, Robb Flynn has never sung with more authority, and his vocal partnership with Jared MacEachern continues to dazzle. In 2025, Machine Head are in peak condition: the bulldozer that crushes all, ferociously fit for the future. Never in doubt.
(Image credit: Future)
Dom Lawson has been writing for Metal Hammer and Prog for over 14 years and is extremely fond of heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee and snooker. He also contributes to The Guardian, Classic Rock, Bravewords and Blabbermouth and has previously written for Kerrang! magazine in the mid-2000s.
King Crimson vocalist and guitarist Jakko M. Jakszyk will release his ninth solo album, Son Of Glen, through InsideOut Music on June 27 . The announcement coincides with Jakszyk sharing his latest single, the album’s ten-minute title track.
The new album, the follow-up to 2020’s Secrets & Lies, serves as a companion piece to Jakszyk’s acclaimed autobiography, Who’s The Boy With The Lovely Hair?, which was released last year through Kingmaker Publishing, and is named after Jakszyk’s real father.
“A romantic fantasy narrative based on what I discovered about my real father after decades of fruitless searching for him,” he explains. “Glen Tripp was a US airman based in the UK who fell for a dark-haired Irish singer. And here I was many, many years later ,repeating what he had done by falling for another. What if he had been watching me and guiding me from ‘afar’?”
Jakko M. Jakszyk: Son Of Glen 1 – Ode To Ballina 2 – Somewhere Between Then And Now 3 – How Did I Let You Get So Old? 4 – This Kiss Never Lies 5 – Ode To Ballina (Reprise) 6 – I Told You So 7 – (Get A) Proper Job 8 – Son Of Glen 10:18
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The Pittsburgh metalcore band’s vocalist Jami Morgan confirms that they don’t have any future plans during a new interview with YouTuber Nik Nocturnal.
He cites several reasons for the break, but only specifies one, revealing that guitarist Dominic Landolina suffered from a genetic condition that affected his playing.
Morgan says (via The PRP): “Code Orange is on the shelf, and I think it’s there for a good reason, for many reasons. I think you can put two, two and four together, and you’ll probably come to the answer.”
Regarding Landolina’s health issues, he continues: “One [circumstance] that I am happy to speak about is my guitar player, Dominic – he’s one of my best friends in the world – was dealing with a really hard genetic condition that really started damaging his hand, and his neck, and his foot, and that was the primary cause for us to have to cancel our first tour on the record [new album The Above].”
He adds: “His fingers were this big, I was really scared for him. He was having a really hard time. He’s got it under control now, for sure, which is amazing.”
Morgan goes on to call The Above, which came out in 2023 via Blue Grape Music, a “death record” that left him “artistically fulfilled”. He later says that he felt things within the band weren’t “happening the right way”, as did other members.
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“And you know, we said, ‘Fuck that. That’s not how we operate,’” he continues. “We’re not gonna fight against the current here. I’m gonna die like a warrior on my shield, not like a fucking bitch, you know, screaming and crying and kicking and moaning. So it wasn’t that glorious.”
He states his hopes that Code Orange’s work will continue to “accrue love” despite their inactivity: “There was so much art and love put into the band, dude, and so much thought. And I think that over time, hopefully that’ll accrue, and maybe, like, maybe the trends and stuff will come around and swing to it.”
Code Orange’s last show was a troubled set on the main stage at Download festival in June 2024. Their performance was delayed and shortened due to the site opening late that day, as the festival needed to take extra safety precautions following adverse weather.
Members of Code Orange continue to be active individually. Drummer Max Portnoy plays in nu metal revivalists Tallah, where Morgan and guitarist/keyboardist/programmer Eric “Shade” Balderose have an electronic project called Nowhere2run. They released their debut EP Slivering The Senses in October.
Meanwhile, Meyers is the guitarist for Marilyn Manson’s reactivated solo band, despite multiple misconduct allegations against the Antichrist Superstar (he denies any wrongdoing). She also has a solo career and has played at concerts by her partner, ex-Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Greg Puciato.
Watch the full interview with Morgan below:
JAMI MORGAN on Code Orange, Metalcore, Best Breakdowns — Nik Nocturnal Podcast – YouTube
Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Prog and Metal Hammer, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, NME, Guitar and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.
