Author: smngrx01

Papa’s back! While we’ve known Ghost‘s latest papal frontman couldn’t be too far away – he had been announced for this summer’s Black Sabbath gig after all – the official confirmation that we’ll have a new Ghost album in April is welcome news and another hefty entry for new albums to be excited about in 2025.

Speaking of which, there’s also a wonderfully diverse spread of new music to sink into; but first, the results of last week’s vote! Punk hellraiser Djerv stormed her way into the top 3 with Rebel Heart, while Japan’s Esprit D’Air took an admirable second place with Lost Horizon. The overall champs though were Siberian black metallers Grima, their frosty missive Beyond The Dark Horizon taking the crown.

This week we’ve got a wonderfully diverse selection for you, as ever. At arena level, we’ve got new offerings from Ghost and Volbeat, while we also dive into the realms of global metal with new acts from Brazil (by way of Berlin), Wales and Estonia. There’s also new music from Bury Tomorrow, a stunning rendition of Metallica’s The Unforgiven and Belarusian black metal from Dymna Lotva. As ever, don’t forget to vote for your favourite in the poll below – and have a fantastic weekend!

Ghost – Satanized

With a UK arena tour just a few weeks away, we’ve finally got our first glimpse at Papa V Perpetua. The Ghost lore remains as batty and mysterious as ever as the band officially announced new album SKELETÁ for an April 25 release, lead single Satanized carrying the pop-metal-bop energy of the past couple records whilst seeming decidedly less bombastic than the lead singles of Impera. It’s anyone’s guess how that’ll translate to the record, but its safe to say Ghost are going to bring us some delightful earworms again.

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Kittie x Diamante x The Pretty Wild – The Unforgiven

Following on from last week’s soulful rendition of Dust In The Wind by Bad Omens and Corey Taylor, this week we’re given an emotive, bare-bones take on Metallica’s colossal ballad The Unforgiven. Featuring Kittie, The Pretty Wild and Diamante, it’s a massive collaboration that does justice to the original, adding a cinema-worthy scope that ramps up the emotive heart of the song.

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Volbeat – By A Monster’s Hand

After returning to his death metal roots with Asinhell in recent years, Michael Poulsen is back at his Metallica-by-way-of-Elvis best with Volbeat on new single By A Monster’s Hand. Chugging riffs and silken vocal melodies remain a potent force in Volbeat’s arsenal and with the band announcing a massive European/UK arena run for later this year – with support from UK grungers Bush – we can’t wait to hear how massive the rest of God Of Angel’s Trust will sound when it arrives June 6.

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Messa – The Dress

Enchanting doom metal from Italy, Messa’s latest single The Dress is a swirling mass of darkness and thumping power. Taken from the band’s upcoming album The Spin, due April 11, it combines the weighty allure of Hiss Spun era Chelsea Wolfe with a distinguished, 80s rock star style panache that really takes off when the song veers into a trumpet solo – no really – and a lead guitar that sounds like it should’ve been on The Lost Boys soundtrack. Sublime.

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Bury Tomorrow – Waiting

With The Seventh Sun, Bury Tomorrow proved they weren’t going to jump on the bandwagon and soften their edges for radio. Even so, Waiting feels like an especially vicious offering from the UK metalcore veterans, howling and shrieking with early Slipknot-like intensity that still somehow manages to slip in canny crowd-friendly choruses and melodies.

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Nungara – North Star

Just listen to that Gojira groove! Berlin-based Brazilians Nungara are bringing a gargantuan stomp on North Star, the latest single – and closing track – from their Reflections In Stillness EP, out today. But while it might possess a similar colossal percussive thunder, Nungara’s sound also invokes modern doom staples like King Woman and Chelsea Wolfe, vocalist Noelle dos Anjos switching between ethereal clean melodies and shredded-throat rasps.

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Dymna Lotva – Ідзі І Глядзі (Come And See)

Ghost preaching the right message but just not evil enough for you? If you’re seeking something sonically Satanic, you’d do well to stick on Ідзі І Глядзі (Come And See), the latest single from Belarusian black metallers Dymna Lotva. Featuring possibly the most mournful accordions we’ve ever heard (no, really), the track evokes an otherworldly hellishness that, combined with some decidedly occultish imagery, whispered vocals and veil-piercing snarls, make this another stand-out – and a handy reminder to check out 2023’s The Land under the Black Wings: Blood.

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Paradise Slaves – Aesthetic Of Serpents

36 Crazyfists might seemingly be gone from the world, but Brock Lindow’s inimitable vocal still lives on through his new group, Paradise Slaves. Latest single Aesthetic Of Serpents definitely touches on similar sonic grounds to Lindow’s 25-plus year tenure with Crazyfists, sweeping guitars and sway-along vocal lines coming thick and fast as the band announce their debut With Hell In His Eyes will arrive on May 2.

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Cytotoxin – Biographyte

Hyperactive technical death metal, Cytotoxin strike a balance between thick, neck-jolting grooves and astoundingly acrobatic guitar lines on new single Biographyte. The title-track of their fourth record, due April 11, the track is an impressive workout of mind-searing extremity as the band fly through frenetic notes and double-time drums across an expansive and impressive five-minute run-time.

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Pridian – Diny

A sci-fi take on metalcore, Estonia’s Pridian are setting their sights on the future of the genre with new single Diny. A heavy deployment of Blade Runner like synths mix with thumping metalcore fury, the single offering a glimpse at the direction the band may well be taking on their upcoming debut Venetian Dark on May 16.

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Cwfen – Wolfsbane

Stalking, mysterious doom metal from the valleys and mountains of Wales, newcomers Cwfen will release their debut album Sorrows on May 30. Lead single Wolfsbane combines the brittle tones of goth metal with a doom metal crunch that taps into some of the dark crossover of 90s bands like Paradise Lost or Iowaska, packing some surprisingly vicious barbs in amidst the floating melodies.

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Thus Spoke Zarathustra – Can’t Save You ft. Matt McDougal

When it comes to album titles, Thus Spoke Zarathustra might have everybody beat in 2025 with I’m Done With Self Care, It’s Time For Others’ Harm. It’s a perfectly tongue-in-cheek title for the deathcore bruisers, new single Can’t Save You balancing sweeping metalcore guitars with a brutish breakdown that wouldn’t have sounded out-of-place in late 2000s deathcore. Keep your eyes out for the album on May 23.

Jason Isbell is alone. Alone on this record and alone, it seems, in his life. Foxes in the Snow was recorded without his usual backing band, the 400 Unit, and outside of a marriage that turned into a muse. There’s introspection about what it all means, even what his own old songs now mean, but he’s also become angrier and more lyrically impulsive. Isbell has been stripped bare, and you hear it everywhere on this new album. He’s never had more main-character energy.

But Foxes in the Snow, like its mostly heartbroken protagonist, struggles to find purpose in the wreckage. In “Eileen,” Isbell makes a melancholy return to a former lover’s note: “It said ‘forever is a dead man’s joke’ – and that’s the only thing it said.” In “Gravelweed,” he’s bluntly honest: “Now that I live to see my melodies betray me, I’m sorry the love songs all mean different things today.”

There are moments when the clouds part around Isbell. “Bury Me,” the lead single, unfolded like a dusty Old West adventure. “Ride to Robert’s” pokes good fun at Nashville’s tourist-trap present. But “Open and Close,” despite the appearance of a comfortably snoozing doorman, is really all about things that come and go. The title track hints at new love but then “True Believer” dives into deep well of resentment over the past, as a strikingly raw Isbell grumbles about how “all your girlfriends say I broke your fucking heart, and I don’t like it.”

READ MORE: When Drive-By Truckers Added Jason Isbell for ‘Decoration Day’

Set during an insomniac’s endless night, “Good While It Lasted” attempts to put things in perspective – but only in its own broken way. “You’re like sleep, take what I can get, but I’ve got to make some sense of this so here the fuck I sit,” Isbell sings, again with just a 1940 Martin acoustic to answer back. He confronts the difficulty of facing heartbreak without a return to the bottle (“last time I tried this sober, I was 17“), before finding some solace in aphorism: “All that I needed was all that I had – and it was good while it lasted.”

It was all undoubtedly cathartic for Isbell, but sometimes there’s not much more. So Foxes in the Snow never answers its own central question. His 2013 breakthrough album Southeastern was anchored by “Cover Me Up” and “Traveling Alone,” both inspired by a love now lost. Isbell’s best-known solo song remains 2020’s “If We Were Vampires,” about a (literally) timeless romance. Even his most recent release, 2023’s Weathervanes, often found emotional purchase in discussions about his faltering relationship. What’s to become of Isbell’s career without that spark? We’ll have to wait until he refocuses on other characters to find out.

Drive-By Truckers Albums Ranked

Their path to becoming one of the best rock bands of the new century was paved the old-fashioned way: though lots and lots of touring.

Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci

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Despite some acrimony that’s divided the members of Supertramp in recent years, the group’s John Helliwell is happy that what was arguably the band’s peak moment has been revisited with the new Live in Paris ’79.

“It’s always been, like, a cornerstone of our career,” Helliwell tells UCR via Zoom from his home in England. Not a strict reissue of the 1980 concert album Paris, the new release features recordings from different nights of Supertramp’s stand at the 8,000-seat Pavillion de Paris — Dec. 1-2 rather than the Nov. 29 concert on Paris — and represents the entire concerts, with two songs, “Downstream” and “Child of Vision,” that were not on Paris.

The shows came towards the end of Supertramp’s world tour in support of 1979’s Breakfast In America, a four-times platinum, chat-topping smash whose hits — “The Logical Song,” “Goodbye Stranger” and “Take the Long Way Home” — vaulted the group’s status.

Read More: How Supertramp Blew Up With ‘Breakfast in America’

“I think this new version is maybe a bit more refined, in a way,” says Helliwell, who keeps a framed proof of artist Cindy Marsh’s Paris cover illustration on the wall of his office. “It was near the end of the tour and we were really well-oiled by that time and playing well, and we made a good recordings. We’d had a really interesting time in Paris over about six or seven years; we’d gone from playing to about five people (at the Bataclan) to doing four nights at the Pavillion de Paris. We enjoyed ourselves there. It was a good, excitable crowd, and they got us going, and we made some good tapes.”

Released Sept. 26, 1980, Paris followed Breakfast in America‘s No. 1 showing by hitting No. 8 on the Billboard 200 and going gold. It’s one of only three Supertramp albums to reach the Top 10 in America.

Hear Supertramp Perform ‘You Started Laughing’

The Paris stand also represents the last stand for Supertramp’s classic quintet lineup, which also included singer-keyboardist Rick Davies, singer-guitarist-keyboardist Roger Hodgson, bassist Dougie Thomson and drummer Bob Siebenberg. The band toured with two additional musicians in support of 1982’s …Famous Last Words, and Hodgson departed in 1983 due to creative differences, primarily with Davies.

“As Rick and Roger were growing older there was a bit more of a rift between their outlooks,” Helliwell explains, adding that, “at the time we thought Roger’s leaving was a bit silly. He could’ve done his solo stuff and still done stuff with the group. It was kind of…I wouldn’t say bloody minded, but maybe he was misdirected. I don’t know, really, but he just went off and did his own thing, with no heed for the consequences of that.”

Supertramp, meanwhile, continued for another four studio albums after that and came to a halt in 2015, when Davies’ battle with multiple myeloma caused the cancellation of a planned tour.

Lawsuits Have Fractured Supertramp in Recent Years

Then in 2018 Helliwell, Thomson and Siebenberg sued Hodgson and Davies over publishing royalties. Davis settled out of court while Hodgson prevailed last year in his separate case, and Helliwell acknowledges that there are still hard feelings over the issue.

“There’s kind of a difference between Rick and Roger as songwriters, and a difference now between the rest of the band and the songwriters — particularly with the rest of the band and Roger,” Helliwell explains. “It’s a shame because it’s a great legacy that we all were involved with. But that’s life in the end, maybe.”

Helliwell does not expect that Supertramp’s vaults will yield much more in the future. “We’re very sparse on extras that crop up from other people during recording. We made very few of those,” he notes, adding that live recordings — such as the ones that popped up on reissues of 1974’s Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America, which included songs from Paris, London and Miami — are the most likely material available.

Davies, who lives on Long Island, has resurfaced to play occasionally gigs, while Helliwell — who served as Supertramp’s onstage emcee “because nobody else wanted to” — remains the most active of the Supertramp gang. He’s released a solo album, Ever Open Door, during 2020 and has also recorded with onetime Pat Metheny Group drummer Paul Wertico and Leslie Mandoki’s Soulmates. Helliwell also leads the Super Big Tramp Band, an 18-piece ensemble that will be releasing a self-titled album in April featuring instrumental arrangements of Supertramp songs.

“I do bits and pieces,” says Helliwell, who’s also expecting to do some live performing this year. At 80, however, he adds that “I might retire this year. I want to stop at the top of my playing ability. I haven’t gone over the crest of the hill yet, but I don’t want g over the crest and be on the downward slope and have people who come to see me play, in whatever context, say, ‘Oh, he used to be good.’ I’d rather stop at the top.”

Burton Cummings isn’t worried about the Guess Who being snubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“I don’t think about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame,” Cummings told Cleveland.com in a recent interview. “It’s not a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Madonna is in there. It’s not rock ‘n’ roll. So I don’t lose any sleep. I’m not concerned about it, believe me. I don’t lose any sleep about it.”

The Guess Who, which also featured future Bachman Turner Overdrive star Randy Bachman, were one of the most successful Canadian bands of the early ’70s thanks to hits such as “American Woman,” “These Eyes” an “No Time.”

Read More: Bachman-Turner Overdrive Reuniting for New Tour, Concert Film

The Guess Who has been eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1991 but have yet to have even been nominated.

Cummings is currently focused on his solo career, touring behind his most recent album, 2024’s A Few Good Moments. You can get information on his concert schedule at his official website.

Burton Cummings Celebrates the End of the Guess Who Legal Battle

He also ended a long legal battle against a former bandmate who was using the Guess Who name. Cummings took the drastic legal act of terminating the rights agreements to the band’s biggest songs, preventing anyone from performing them live without risking legal trouble for the venue. He and Bachman were triumphant and now control the Guess Who name.

“The bad times are over,” Cumming enthuses. “The songs have never gone away, but now there’s no more fake Guess Who. People in the States realize I’m the guy that sang the songs and wrote most of them. So now I’m back in America, singing my own songs, and the reaction has been tremendous so far. I’m very happy with the way things are going.”

Even if the Rock Hall never beckons, Cummings has received plenty of honors from his home country, including the Order of Canada and the Order of Manitoba, plus a theater and community center in his hometown of Winnipeg that is named after him.

“Y’know, I have people coming to see me and emailing me from all over the world,” he concludes. “So why would I be worried about the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?”

145 Artists Not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Many have shared their thoughts on possible induction.

Gallery Credit: Ultimate Classic Rock Staff

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At the time of this writing, Bob Dylan has released 40 studio albums, 10 of which have arrived in the 21st century.

It’s true that most of Dylan’s most popular and commercially successful songs come from albums released decades ago — tracks like “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Tangled Up in Blue” — but from the year 2000 to present day, Dylan has written dozens upon dozens of songs, not to mention covered a variety of Great American Songbook standards and reinterpreted his own material.

And people are still very much listening. In 2020, Dylan landed his first ever No. 1 song on any Billboard chart with the 17-minute “Murder Most Foul.”

Below, we’ve ranked The 20 Best Bob Dylan Songs From the 21st Century. For the purposes of this list, we’re sticking to studio albums only, though there is also plenty of good stuff to be found on Dylan’s live albums and bootleg releases.

20. “I Can’t Get You Off of My Mind”
From: Timeless: Tribute to Hank Williams (2001)

Dylan had several early musical influences, and Hank Williams was most certainly one of them. “I became aware that in Hank’s recorded songs were the archetype rules of poetic songwriting,” he wrote in his memoir Chronicles: Volume One. “The architectural forms are like marble pillars.” In 2001, Dylan’s cover of “I Can’t Get You Off of My Mind” served as the leading track to Timeless: Tribute to Hank Williams.

19. “Duquesne Whistle”
From: Tempest (2012)

Dylan singularly wrote every song on 2012’s Tempest with the exception of “Duquesne Whistle,” which he co-wrote with Robert Hunter, who was best known for his collaborations with the Grateful Dead. “Hunter is an old buddy,” Dylan told Rolling Stone back in 2009. “We could probably write a hundred songs together if we thought it was important or the right reasons were there. He’s got a way with words and I do too. We both write a different type of song than what passes today for songwriting.”

18. “Melancholy Mood”
From: Fallen Angels (2016)

Dylan was not the first major rock artist to dip backward into the Great American Songbook, but one could argue he was one of the most dedicated to covering its material. Fallen Angels was the second of these releases, and it earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. “Melancholy Mood” is a strong vocal performance on top of a polished arrangement.

17. “Must Be Santa”
From: Christmas in the Heart (2009)

Bob Dylan and Christmas music are not exactly phrases that go together — especially considering Dylan was born and raised Jewish — but one need only hear the song and watch the music video for “Must Be Santa” to hear the joy and whimsy of this project. Who’s got a beard that’s long and white? Santa Claus. Who’s got a top hat and a strange gray wig? Dylan in the below video.

16. “Beyond Here Lies Nothin'”
From: Together Through Life (2009)

Robert Hunter co-wrote most of the songs on Dylan’s 2009 album Together Through Life, a partnership that clearly worked well for both men. “When writing for Dylan, I hear Dylan’s voice,” Hunter explained to Highway 81 Revisited in 2014. “I write words that I can hear coming out of his mouth. Maybe not what he thinks, but things that would sound good with a Dylan voice on them.” David Hildago added accordion to “Beyond Here Lies Nothin,'” a part that’s both subtle and totally necessary.

15. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
From: Shadow Kingdom (2023)

As Dylan once famously said of his songs, “it used to go like that, and now it goes like this.” He said that in 1966, but it was an artistic sentiment that has continued for decades — Dylan is constantly reimagining his own work. One of the strongest displays of this was in 2023’s Shadow Kingdom, a collection of re-recordings of songs from the first half of Dylan’s career. The below version of “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” is much more rambunctious than the 1967 original.

14. “P.S. I Love You”
From: Triplicate (2017)

We understand that not everyone is keen on hearing three album’s worth of standard covers by Dylan, which comes out to around 95 minutes of listening time. (To be fair though, Triplicate did earn a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and it went to No. 37 in the U.S.) But there are undoubtedly some worthy tracks, such as the classic “P.S. I Love You.”

13. “High Water (For Charley Patton)
From: Love and Theft (2001)

As its title suggests, “High Water (For Charley Patton)” is a tribute to the late bluesman, though its not exactly a blues song itself. It leans on a jangly banjo part, courtesy of Larry Campbell, and some strong percussion work by David Kemper. “High Water” is ultimately a song about American history, the good, bad and ugly parts of it. “The album deals with power, wealth, knowledge and salvation,” Dylan said to Rolling Stone in 2001, themes that still carry a great deal of relevance and resonance 20 years later.

12. “Pay in Blood”
From: Tempest (2012)

Plenty of jokes have been made about Dylan’s singing voice over the years, and Tempest is certainly not his clearest or easiest to listen to in that vein. But the lyrical content of “Pay in Blood” makes up for it. Take Elvis Costello‘s word for it, too. Back in 2011, Dylan showed Costello the lyrics to the song at a festival they were both playing at. Each chorus line, Costello later recalled (“I pay in blood, but not my own“), “was delivered with a different flourish: a swashbuckler’s panache, a black comical riposte, held with a steady gaze, tossed away with a wicked laugh or a ghost of a smile.”

11. “I Feel a Change Comin’ On”
From: Together Through Life (2009)

That’s Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers playing the guitar solos on “I Feel a Change Comin’ On.” “He is Mr. Contraire Dylan,” Campbell said of working with the legend to Noise11.com in 2020. “I can tell you stories of how quirky and beautifully genius he is and how he interacts with people. … He is also a twitchy, goofy little kid with music. He gets into it on a high school level in a garage band. He is Bob Dylan, but he is one of us.”

10. “Autumn Leaves”
From: Shadows in the Night (2015)

Countless people have recorded covers of “Autumn Leaves,” but it was Frank Sinatra’s version that stuck in Dylan’s thoughts when he put his own spin on it for 2015’s Shadows in the Night, an album that included lots of songs Sinatra sang over the years. “When you start doing these songs, Frank’s got to be on your mind. Because he is the mountain. That’s the mountain you have to climb, even if you only get part of the way there,” Dylan explained to AARP: The Magazine then. “He had this ability to get inside of the song in a sort of a conversational way. Frank sang to you — not at you.”

9. “Mississippi”
From: Love and Theft (2001)

If “Mississippi” sounds a bit like it belongs on 1997’s Time Out of Mind, that’s because it was recorded during those sessions, but did not find a place until Love and Theft. The version below was re-recorded specifically for the 2001 album. “I would love to put certain things on [an album], I just don’t think they were recorded right,” Dylan said at a press conference in 2001. “[‘Mississippi’] wasn’t recorded particularly well, and thank God it never got out, so we went and re-recorded it again. But something like that would never have happened 10 years ago. You’d have probably all heard the trashed version of it and I would have never re-recorded it.”

8. “Thunder on the Mountain”
From: Modern Times (2006)

Bob Dylan namedropping Alicia Keys in the opening track to one of his albums? It’s more likely than you’d think. The opening few bars of “Thunder on the Mountain,” the leadoff song to 2006’s Modern Times, sets the tone for the rest of the LP, and yes, mentions Ms. Keys. It’s a strange yet fitting instance of Dylan being quite aware of contemporary figures in music, placed against a backdrop of blues and rockabilly.

7. “Pledging My Time”
From: Shadow Kingdom (2023)

The 1966 version of “Pledging My Time” from Blonde on Blonde has similarities with the 2023 version Dylan recorded of it for Shadow Kingdom — a harmonica part, the 12-bar blues structure. And yet, it’s an entirely different song, sung by a man many decades older and presumably wiser. Lines like “Everybody’s gone but me and you / And I can’t be the last to leave” strike differently.

6. “Murder Most Foul”
From: Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)

Only Bob Dylan would randomly drop an astounding 17-minute song about the assassination of JFK in the middle of a global pandemic: “Murder Most Foul.” “Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty across the years,” he said on social media on March 27, 2020. “This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you.”

5. “All or Nothing at All”
From: Fallen Angels (2016)

Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, the same year he released his second album of standard covers, Fallen Angels. For someone so lauded for his writing, it’s interesting to hear Dylan tackle songs that did not bear the fruit of his own pen. It was freeing for him, in a way. “There’s enough of my personality written into the lyrics so that I could just focus on the melodies within the arrangements,” he told Bill Flanagan in a 2017 interview.

4. “He’s Funny That Way”
From: Universal Love – Wedding Songs Reimagined (2018)

In 2018, Dylan contributed to an album called Universal Love – Wedding Songs Reimagined, in which gender-specific lyrics were adjusted so that they became same-sex love songs. So, for example, Dylan’s beautifully tender version of “She’s Funny That Way” became “He’s Funny That Way.” Dylan does not speak often about sexuality, his own or anyone else’s, but it’s not something he hasn’t considered. “Sex and love have nothing to do with female and male,” he said in 1966. “It is just whatever two souls happen to be.”

3. “Things Have Changed”
From: 2000 Single

With “Things Have Changed,” Dylan snagged both an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. (It appeared in the 2000 film Wonder Boys, starring Michael Douglas.) It’s ominous and yet waggish, sinister and seductive “All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie,” Dylan sings. If that ain’t the truth…

2. “Beyond the Horizon”
From: Modern Times (2006)

“I didn’t feel limited this time,” Dylan said to Rolling Stone in 2006, referring to his album Modern Times, “or I felt limited in the way that you want to narrow your scope down, you don’t want to muddle things up, you want every line to be clear and every line to be purposeful. … I just let the lyrics go, and when I was singing them, they seemed to have an ancient presence.” This is brilliantly displayed in “Beyond the Horizon,” with lines like “Beyond the horizon o’er the treacherous sea / I still can’t believe that you have set aside your love for me.”

1. “Goodbye Jimmy Reed”
From: Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020)

There is much to like about 2020’s Rough and Rowdy Ways, but if there is one song from the album that perhaps best embodies Dylan’s puckish yet meaningful style of lyricism, it’s “Goodbye Jimmy Reed,” a fitting tribute to the blues legend. Here, sex and sin live on the same street as fame, God and “old time religion.” Former president Barack Obama named it one of his favorite songs of the entire year.

Our picks for the Heaviest Song by 11 Big Hair Metal Bands proves that the genre, which relied so heavily on simple pop sensibilities, packed a harder punch than its detractors were willing to admit.

The term “hair metal” was coined as a pejorative catch-all for the sex- and party-obsessed hard rock bands that emerged predominantly from the Sunset Strip and conquered the world in the ’80s. It was often written off by critics as shallow, lightweight fluff.

But those who did so failed to account for the hard rock and metal origins of many of hair metal’s biggest purveyors. These artists grew up worshipping the hard rock and metal bands of the ’70s and they wore those influences on their tattered sleeves.

Hair metal disparagers also ignored the fact that as grunge overtook pop-metal in the early ’90s, some of these ’80s hard rock acts managed to successfully update their sound for a new decade, embracing heavier compositional styles and textures. These experiments didn’t always resonate with the record-buying public, but some of them were musically excellent nonetheless.

Keep reading to see our picks for the Heaviest Song by 11 Big Hair Metal Bands.

Bon Jovi, “Hey God” (These Days, 1995)

Bon Jovi continued adapting to the shifting musical climate on 1995’s These Days, which ran the gamut from country to adult-contemporary to thundering hard rock. Album opener “Hey God” best represents the latter category, built around a titanic groove and Richie Sambora‘s fiery riffs. Jon Bon Jovi beseeches God to make sense of the world’s suffering and injustice, delivering one of his most furiously urgent vocal performances.

Def Leppard, “No No No” (High ‘n’ Dry, 1981)

Before they embraced the glam metal zeitgeist on Pyromania and Hysteria, Def Leppard made a name for themselves as New Wave of British Heavy Metal-adjacent hard rockers. They were still operating in that mode on their sophomore album, High ‘n’ Dry, and its closing track, “No No No,” features some of their most blistering riffs, a relentless punk drive and larynx-shredding vocals from Joe Elliott.

Yet even here, Def Leppard’s pop smarts and boundless crossover potential shine through the metallic onslaught.

Dokken, “Tooth and Nail” (Tooth and Nail, 1984)

Dokken‘s sophomore album, Tooth and Nail, took its name from the band’s desperate struggle to produce a hit record before Elektra Records dropped them. The album marked their shift toward a more commercial pop-metal sound, but several remnants of their heavier style remained.

The title track opens the LP on a speed metal note, with Don Dokken‘s snarling vocals and George Lynch‘s dizzying solos serving as perfect counterpoints — despite (or perhaps because of) the band members nearly killing each other in the studio.

READ MORE: The Heaviest Song by 10 Big ’70s Rock Bands

Motley Crue, “Smoke the Sky” (Motley Crue, 1994)

When Motley Crue replaced Vince Neil with John Corabi for their 1994 self-titled album, they shed the last of their glam-metal trappings and became a bonafide heavy metal band.

Pot-smoking anthem “Smoke the Sky” epitomizes that shift with its gnarled down-tuned riffs, thunderous drumming and Corabi’s raspy howl. The breakdown at 2:12 is the single heaviest moment in Motley’s catalog and one of the toughest performances captured by any Sunset Strip band.

Light ’em up!

Poison, “Look What the Cat Dragged In” (Look What the Cat Dragged In, 1986)

Poison were never at risk of being mistaken for Slayer, but the title track off their debut album painted a convincing portrait of hard-partying rockers living on the edge. C.C. DeVille‘s steely riffs and Bret Michaels‘ devil-may-care vocals push “Look What the Cat Dragged In” past the harmless hedonism that pervades the rest of the album and into genuinely harrowing territory. “Half alive or half dead, I just can’t tell!” Michaels shouts, sounding closer to the latter than the former.

Quiet Riot, “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” (Metal Health, 1983)

Quiet Riot‘s Metal Health became the first metal album to top the Billboard 200 thanks primarily to their smash cover of Slade‘s “Cum On Feel the Noize,” but its title track and second single solidified the band’s ethos.

“Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” is a full-throated exhortation to surrender to the power of rock ‘n’ roll, charged by Kevin DuBrow‘s in-your-face vocals, lighter-waving hooks and a sizzling guitar solo. “Metal health will drive you mad” — does it get more metal than that?

Ratt, “Sweet Cheater” (Ratt EP, 1983)

Much like their big-haired brethren Motley Crue, Ratt started off as a scrappy punk-metal outfit and independently released their self-titled debut EP in 1983. The sparsely produced collection features many of their most raw and heaviest songs, including the pummeling glam-thrash hybrid “Sweet Cheater.”

Double-bass drumming, metallic riffs and adenoidal screams abound on this Robbin Crosby composition, bridging the gap between Ratt’s Metal Massacre origins and their star-making debut album, Out of the Cellar.

Skid Row, “Slave to the Grind” (Slave to the Grind, 1991)

Following the world-conquering success of their self-titled debut, Skid Row abandoned all pop-metal pretenses for their pulverizing sophomore album Slave to the Grind. The title track is an anti-authoritarian tour de force of thrash riffing, speed metal tempos and Sebastian Bach‘s skyscraping, melodic roar.

The version of “Slave to the Grind” that appears on the album is the original pre-production demo, as the band failed to match its intensity in future sessions. It was a wise move, as the song explodes with righteous, unadulterated fury.

Warrant, “Inside Out” (Dog Eat Dog, 1992)

It’s a crying shame that right when Warrant made their best and heaviest album, Dog Eat Dog, the music-buying public disavowed anything remotely associated with hair metal. Dog Eat Dog flew tragically under the radar as a result, selling barely a quarter of its predecessors. But those who took a chance on the album were rewarded with a maelstrom of muscular riffs and soaring hooks.

Penultimate track “Inside Out” dials the intensity up to “11” with its ceaseless double-bass drumming, Jani Lane‘s savage vocals and a scorched-earth guitar solo. When Lane screams, “Get this mic outta my fuckin’ face!” at the end of the song, it might be an affectation, but the preceding performance is so vicious it feels authentic.

Whitesnake, “Bad Boys” (Whitesnake, 1987)

Whitesnake‘s self-titled 1987 album turned the David Coverdale-fronted outfit into superstars thanks to mega-ballads “Here I Go Again” and “Is This Love,” but its album cuts are diametrically opposed to those lovesick hits.

“Bad Boys” is the toughest of the bunch: a hard-rocking outlaw anthem anchored by Coverdale’s gravelly vocals and John Sykes‘ speedy, tremolo-picked riffing. Sykes’ diabolically fast solo threatens to enter power metal territory and Whitesnake make a clean break from their blues-rock roots.

Winger, “Junkyard Dog (Tears on Stone)” (Pull, 1993)

Poor Winger — doomed to permanent hair metal punchline status at the hands of an ill-timed Beavis and Butt-Head sketch, just as they released their heaviest and most focused album to date.

Although few self-respecting rock fans would have admitted it at the time, Pull bore virtually no resemblance to Winger’s glammy first two albums or schmaltzy AOR ballads. “Junkyard Dog (Tears on Stone)” cut a bold new path with its chunky, down-tuned riffs and towering groove. Kip Winger‘s bluesy, dexterous vocals supply the melody and a chilling acoustic passage turns the nearly seven-minute track into a heavy and progressive epic.

Glastonbury Festival has unveiled its lineup for 2025, and it’s looking like another stacked bill that’s set to take over Worthy Farm this June. Joining previously announced headliner Neil Young and Sunday Legend Rod Stewart are Pyramid Stage headliners the 1975 and Olivia Rodrigo, plus a wealth of rock artists including Biffy Clyro, Deftones, Weezer, Amyl And The Sniffers, Bob Vylan, The Libertines, Wet Leg, Nova Twins, St Vincent and Turnstile.

Pop is well represented with Charli XCX, Raye, Nile Rogers and Chic and Jade announced so far, while The Prodigy, Leftfield, Maribou State, Fatboy Slim (of course), Four Tet and Overmono are amongst the numerous EDM names on the bill.

Hip hop icon Busta Rhymes makes his Glastonbury debut, while modern rap superstars on the lineup include AJ Tracey, Doechii and Denzel Curry.

Other artists announced so far include Alanis Morissette Gracie Adams, Ezra Collective, John Fogerty, Beabadoobee, Gary Numan, Caribou, Black Uhuru, Franz Ferdinand, Goat, Inhaler and Kae Tempest.

While day splits have been announced, it is unclear how the stages will shape up, with many more artists set to be announced over the coming months.

See the full Glastonbury 2025 lineup so far below. Glastonbury 2025 takes place June 25-29 at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset. Tickets have long sold out but a resale of returned tickets is expected at some point in the next few weeks. Hit the official Glastonbury website for more information.