“‘26 will be a Poison year,” the drummer remarked to Sirius XM host Eddie Trunk, noting that the band will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their debut album, Look What the Cat Dragged In. “I cannot believe it’s going to be a 40th anniversary. There’s very few bands that ever make it to 40 years, and most people never stay at a job for forty years or at same house, marriages don’t last [that long]. I mean, this is crazy how long this has been. Honestly, it’s amazing.”
Rockett admitted he never envisioned Poison having this kind of longevity, adding that he was “blown away” by the upcoming milestone.
“I reflect back in time, I remember somebody at the very very beginning of our career, I think it was our first manager said, ‘Just remember you have to come down the the steps that you go up.’ And that really always stuck with me,” Rockett continued, noting that after decades on the road, Poison’s tour crew felt like family. The downside of being around so long, he explained, is losing some of the people who helped you along the way.
“We didn’t take a bunch of kids out on the road with us,“ Rockett noted. “Most of them were older people that could show us the ropes and [had] seen it. And they were mentors and they’re passing on now and it’s like wow. It’s hard to handle that sometimes, but on a good note… We’re going back out and it’s gonna be super exciting.”
Rockett didn’t have many further details to share, explaining that things were still in the planning process at this early stage. The drummer suggested Poison’s plans will likely include a mix of headlining dates, as well as a run of shows alongside another big-name act.
Bret Michaels First Suggested Poison’s 40th Anniversary Tour
In a September social media post, the singer said it “would make perfect sense to have the possibility of a reunion in 2026.” “In my opinion, it would be the perfect 40th anniversary tour.” This year, however, Michaels is committed to solo performances, including festival dates and his ongoing Parti Gras trek.
Meanwhile, Rockett has gigs lined up for his new project, the Rockett Mafia. The group features Rockett alongside singer Brandon Gibbs (Devil Ciy Angels), guitarist Mick Sweda (BUulletboys) on guitar and bassist Bryan Kimes.
Iron Maiden’sAdrian Smith has been playing guitar for the group for more than four decades now. But his recent work with Richie Kotzen offers a look at what it could have been like if he hadn’t joined the British heavy metal legends.
The pair are set to release their second album under the Smith/Kotzen banner with the arrival of Black Light/White Noise April 4. During an upcoming interview on the UCR Podcast, the guitarist shed some interesting light on his early days prior to joining Maiden. “I was 15 years old and I hadn’t really picked up a guitar yet,” he remembers now. “I met Dave Murray, who’s the other guitarist [in Iron Maiden]. We became friends when we were kids.”
“Dave had already been playing for a couple of years, so we decided we wanted to form a band, because we were the only kids in our neighborhood who were into Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and all of that,” he details. “I said, ‘Well, I’ll be the singer.’ I didn’t have a guitar, so I sang and he played guitar. [But] he had a spare guitar, so I learned guitar as I went along, but I was mainly singing. I did that from the age of 15 until just before I joined Iron Maiden. I’d kind of paid my dues [as a result] doing the whole club and pub scene.”
Decades down the line, it’s a situation which left him in a very familiar place when it came to the idea of sharing the lead vocals with Kotzen. “Singing through shitty PAs [back then] and screaming out [the vocals], I’m very comfortable with it,” he shares. “It’s kind of in my DNA, since I learned to do it a long time ago. It’s something I’ve done over the years and something I was very happy to do with Richie.
The Birth of Smith/Kotzen
It turns out that the core of what the pair are currently doing with Smith/Kotzen flies very close to the music that the guitarist himself loved when he was growing up. “Richie’s a world class singer, who is very accomplished,” he says. “But I wanted to do some singing in our project, so it was part of the blueprint of what we were doing — and also, I think it’s interesting. Some of my favorite bands [had] two singers, like the Deep Purple lineup [with Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale], Humble Pie, they all used to sing. No one’s really doing that [now], trading vocal and guitar lines. So it’s a win-win all around, because we write really well together. Richie — with me, anyway — he’s really into the idea of splitting it up. He can see the good in it.”
The infectious “Black Light” is the latest single from the album. Smith and Kotzen enjoyed making an appropriately themed music video to go along with the track’s arrival. “‘Black Light’ started out as a song that we recorded and we weren’t happy with it,” the guitarist shares. “We kept the drums and stripped everything else away. I had a title, ‘Black Light,’ which I thought was a strong title. So we applied it to the track we were reconstructing and built a new song around it. But you know, in its original form, it nearly didn’t make the album.”
“We ran with the black light idea for the video. We used fluorescent paint and stuff like that,” he continues. “The song itself is about [how] when you shine a black light on something, you see things you wouldn’t see in a normal light. So, similarly, it’s like you see a person in their true colors. It’s about deception and things are not as they seem.”
Welcome to this week’s Tracks Of The Week. Seven brand-new and diverse slices of progressively inclined music for you to enjoy.
US prog rockers Glass Hammer triumphed last week with their ten-minute plus Terminal Lucidity narrowly beating Nad Sylvan’s return to solo work with That’s Not Me, and with Bjørn Riis in third place.
The premise for Tracks Of The Week is simple – we’ve collated a batch of new releases by bands falling under the progressive umbrella and collated them together in one post for you – makes it so much easier than having to dip in and out of various individual posts, doesn’t it?
The idea is to watch the videos (or listen if it’s a stream), enjoy (or not) and also to vote for your favourite in the voting form at the bottom of this post. Couldn’t be easier, could it?
We’ll be bringing you Tracks Of The Week, as the title implies, each week. Next week we’ll update you with this week’s winner, and present a host of new prog music for you to enjoy.
If you’re a band and you want to be featured in Prog‘s Tracks Of The Week, send your video (as a YouTube link) or track embed, band photo and biog to us here.
MICHAEL WOODMAN – LYCHGATE
Thumpermonkey guitarist and vocalist Michael Woodman is back with new solo music. He’s just shared a new video for Lychgate, which is taken from his upcoming debut full-length solo album Hiss Of Today, which will be released through Kavus Torabi’s Believer’s Roast label on April 24. As you can see from the delightful accompanying video the themes of folk horror continue to abound in Woodman’s work.
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“Back in 2023, Teddy Powell approached me about the possibility of working on a music video,” he explains. “We had a fair bit of back-and-forth correspondence about Peter Greenaway’s The Baby of Mâcon and Stuart Gordon’s Robot Jox – but it wasn’t until he sent me a short film he had made – essentially 10 minutes of nightmarish elliptical hauntology – that I decided we needed to work together on the Lychgate video.”
Lychgate – Michael Woodman (Official Video) – YouTube
Norwegian prog rockers Magic Pie will release their sixth studio album, Maestro, through Karimsa Records on May 16, from which comes their rollicking new single Everyday Hero. The new album features seven new songs penned by guitarist Kim Steinberg and vocalist Eirikur Hauksson.
“Everyday Hero is an honest little rock tune, and quite a jolly one too,” enthuses Hauksson. “A straightforward tribute to all the nine-to-five-fivers around the world, where Kim and Erling once again invite you to a high-class guitar and synth duel. Have a listen…”
Magic Pie – Everyday Hero (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Swedish instrumental proggers Gösta Berlings Saga have been pretty quiet since they released Konkret Music through InsideOut back in 2020. well now they’re back, signed to Pelagic Records, for whom they will release their seventh studio album Forever Now, from which comes new single Through The Arches with its eye-catching video. It’s also the quintet’s 25th anniversary. That’s all definitely something to celebrate!
“Through The Arches is GBS in 2025 – pure and amplified,” the band say. “One of the first tracks completed for the new album, it packs all the classic GBS ingredients, but turned up a few notches. Melodic, cosmic, chaotic, euphoric—all in one track. The accompanying video, crafted by Martin Gustafsson, is a visual journey into the everlasting and beyond, perfectly capturing the song’s essence.”
GÖSTA BERLINGS SAGA – Through The Arches – YouTube
Sleep Token’s inclusion might feel slightly odd to anyone who’s never heard the band’s music and is only going on the masses of press the band receive, but anyone who has actually listened will know there’s plenty of prog, djent and even jazz in their expansive sound. They even cite Leprous, Agent Fresco, Explosions In The Sky and prog metal heavyweights Meshuggah as influences.
The band, who have only ever given one interview, and are taken genuinely exploratory music to headline stages around the world, will release their fourth album, Even In Arcadia, for new label RCA on June 13, from which comes brand new single Emergence.
Italian quintet Benthos will release their second album, From Nothing, for prog specialists InsideOut Music on April 11. As typifies many young genre-bending rock acts these days, the band mix prog, djent, metal and other musical elements. The atmospherically melodic Let Me Plunge is the third single to be released from the album, and this far, the best sonic opportunity to introduce Benthos to a wider prog audience.
“This track might surprise you–a taste of the album’s diversity, where we go beyond the heavy intensity you’ve come to expect from us,” the band explain. “With Let Me Plunge, we want to show you yet another side of our musical landscape; an emotional texture that permeates From Nothing throughout, with vintage tones and bittersweet melodies. The song expresses the inner turmoil that burns inside us when chasing our deepest ambitions, the will to listen to our voice and surrender ourselves to them.”
BENTHOS – Let Me Plunge (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube
The hugely prolific worriedaboutsatan return with The Future Can Wait, their 18th album in just 19 years! The new album is released through mainman Gavin Miller’s own This Is It Forever label on March 14 and sees him conjuring Tangerine Dream-esque proggy electronica while mulling over themes of growing older and sitting silently and watching the world descend into hell.
“La Mouche is a personal favourite of the more recent stuff I’ve done – I wanted to take different sections of stuff and see if I could meld it all together and not have it sound really jarring, so loaded up the masters of doing things like that: Tangerine Dream. I sat back and listened to Ricochet and thought ‘right, it’s never going to sound as good as that, but I could at least give it a shot’ haha,” explains Miller. “La Mouche means ’the fly’ in French, and as I was struggling for a title for it, I watched Quentin Dupieux’s film Mandibles, which is about a huge fly that two stoner dudes befriend. As you do!”
worriedaboutsatan – La Mouche (Visualizer) – YouTube
Atmospheric US post-rock quintet SOM release their third album, Let The Light In, through Pelagic Records today. Comprised of former members of Caspian, Constants and Junius, the quartet add some metallic grit to their sound, tempered by the melodic vocals of Will Benoit. The Light features a video from award-winning queer Muslim writer/director Samia Zaidi, the second of two innovative linked videos directed for this album; returning to the themes and narratives explored in her video for the band’s previous single Let The Light In.
“This album, especially these two songs, thematically presented us with a unique visual opportunity to not only explore the act of summoning a sort of primal optimism during dark times, but to explore both the social and individual experiences of interiority within both optimism and darkness,” the band say.
Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.
All has been revealed! Alright, that’s a bit of an overstatement, but barely a week after we got next Ghost news, we’ve been blessed with the confirmation that we’re getting a new Sleep Token album before the band headline this summer’s Download Festival. Exciting! That’s not all that’s exciting though, as we’re back with another hefty stock of brilliant new metal tunes for you to peruse.
First, the results of last week’s vote! Let’s not beat around the bush: Ghost had this one beat, hands-down. But while they took top spot, returning Danes Volbeat put a powerful showing in for second place, leaving the remaining podium spot for Italian doom metallers Messa and their sax-infused epic The Dress.
But will the sax win out again this week? We’ve got all new singles from Sleep Token, Cradle Of Filth and Epica up top to tickle the diverse fancies of the modern metalhead, as well as a diverse showing from some of metal’s best rising stars in the form of Face Yourself, Witch Fever, Slung and so much more all gathered for your listening pleasure this week. As ever, don’t forget to vote for your favourite in the poll below – and have a fantastic weekend!
Sleep Token – Emergence
Speculation, hints, coded cyphers… Yep, Sleep Token are at it again. Cryptic teasers and their own billboard ads finally gave way to the official announcement that new album Even In Arcadia is coming on May 9. Although they hinted that conceptually they were moving on from their prior trilogy of releases, lead single Emergence still very much lives in the sumptously produced RNB/Tech metal mash-up that has become the band’s staple, mixing powerful, pop-laced vocals with crunching tech breakdowns and even a gorgeous sax solo (provided by Bilmuri’s Fabi Rose) that closes the song out with some smooth, elegant style.
There’s a sense of demonic whimsy to the opening riff of Epica’s T.I.M.E. But then, that’s what we’ve come to expect from the symphonic metal veterans. A balance of beautific melodies and ferocious heaviness, this latest offering from upcoming album Aspiral – due April 11 – shows they aren’t losing touch with their most grandiose roots and if anything are only growing more theatrical.
There are few things more joyously exciting as Cradle Of Filth at the peak of their pomp. That’s very much where we find the black metal veterans on new single White Hellebore, a track that somehow navigates their many eras to bring together the furious explosiveness of their early albums with the gothic romanticism of 2000’s Midian and Nymphetamine right to the spectacular symphonic edge they embraced on Existence Is Futile. All signs point to new album The Screaming Of The Valkyries being an absolute classic – and with only a week to go until release, we won’t have to wait long to confirm.
CRADLE OF FILTH – White Hellebore (Official Video) | Napalm Records – YouTube
Hands up – who ordered the doomgaze take on a pop anthem? Even if you didn’t, you’d do well to hear Iress’s take on Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For, a track that takes full advantage of the luscious, shimmering guitar tones of Iress to offer a weighty counterbalance to drifting vocal melodies and melancholic lyrics. Sublime.
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Iress – What Was I Made For (Billie Eilish doomgaze cover) [OFFICIAL STREAM] – YouTube
Doom menace and shrieking alt. punk collide on Witch Fever’s latest single Dead To Me! Its a fusion the band have been plying to delightful effect since their 2022 debut Congregation, but with even more low-end than ever before you can really feel the menace and tooth-gnashing intensity of their sound.
Witch Fever – DEAD TO ME! (Official Video) – YouTube
Skittering techno beats meet shrieking deathcore for Face Yourself’s Predatory. Taken from the band’s freshly announced EP Martyr, which will be with us on April 18, the track takes a scatter-grab approach to style, combining some brutal, clanging riffs and growls with techno drumbeats that wouldn’t sound out of place on Spiritbox’s latest album. It’s a fascinating mix, and has us eager to hear what else the band have in the vaults.
FACE YOURSELF – Predatory (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Our Mirage – Don’t Talk (ft. Christopher Kristensen)
Rising stars of Germany’s metalcore scene, Our Mirage’s latest single Don’t Talk sees them team up with Dead By April vocalist Christopher Kristensen for a modern metalcore earworm. Built around a big hook with solid snarl-along opportunities (“Don’t. Talk. To. MEEEE”), this one feels perfect for the fast approach of festival season.
OUR MIRAGE – Don’t Talk ft. Christopher Kristensen from Dead By April (OFFICIAL VIDEO) – YouTube
There’s only a week to go until Tiberius release Singing For Company. To build anticipation, the Scottish band have released Juggernaut, an impressive blend of prog metal technicality and anthemic alt metal melodies, coming on like the spiritual successors to the likes of – the much missed – Black Peaks.
Tiberius – Juggernaut (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Vitriolic and seething with malevolence, Devil Left Me On Read is the latest single from deathcore howlers Not Enough Space. It’s a searing dose of brutality from the band, somehow bridging the pigsquealing intensity of early deathcore with the anthemic fare the genre has traded in more recently. With shows booked on the resurrected Warped Tour, as well as Louder Than Life later this year, this lot are definitely worth keeping eyes on.
Prompts – Stranger ft. Landon Towers
If you prefer the heavier ends of metalcore, Japan’s Prompts have you covered. New single Stranger is an absolute rager, featuring The Plot In You’s Landon Towers, the track covers the extensive gap between metalcore’s most vicious elements and its inherent tendencies towards anthemic sing-alongs, striking a surprisingly confident balance that brings to mind the heaviest elements of a band like Architects.
It’s not just the Blind Dates style video that has an air of vintage throwback to Slung’s new single Thinking About It. With airy, leaden-doom riffs and alluring vocal melodies, the track bridges Black Sabbath with the modern alt greats like Witch Fever, giving us plenty to be excited about when it comes totheir upcoming debut album In Ways, due May 2.
Slung – Thinking About It (Official Video) – YouTube
Sounding like a pissed off composition for some adult-oriented Tim Burton project, Raven Black’s latest single Fxck You is all sneering hate and gothic fairytale like melodies. Taken from the band’s upcoming album Black Sonata, a concept album about a girl who discovers she’s half-doll, it’s a brilliantly theatrical and snotty offering that has us eager to hear more of the story.
Think you know your heavy metal? Then take on our brand new Metal Hammer quiz and find out if you are a true defender of the faith or a hapless poseur.
Only 17 questions separate you from heavy metal immortality, covering everything from old school legends Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden to nu metal heavyweights like Slipknot and Korn to much more.
All questions are multiple choice, so you have at least a 25% chance of getting each one right whatever happens. Share your scores with friends, partners, families and mortal enemies alike, and come back next week for another round.
Good luck!
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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.
“Paul liked to ruffle a few feathers. He used to call me Hitler. I’ve been called Sergeant Major, but Hitler takes the biscuit.” Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris remembers “lovable rogue” Paul Di’Anno
Di’Anno, who sang on the East London band’s seminal self-titled debut album (1980), and the quintet’s powerful 1981 follow-up Killers, before being sacked by Harris, died of heart failure at his home in Salisbury, England on October 21 last year.
“I was in touch with him until a couple of weeks before he passed,” Harris says.
“Paul was a lovable rogue,” the bassist continues. “He liked to annoy me by dressing up like Adam Ant. Anything to wind me up. He liked to ruffle a few feathers, let’s put it that way. And ruffle he did! He used to call me Hitler. I’ve been called the Ayatollah and Sergeant Major, but Hitler takes the biscuit, really.”
Reflecting on D’Anno’s contributions to his band, Harris adds, “Paul’s voice had a certain quality to it. A rawness. But he didn’t look after himself. He had this self-destruct button. And I got the impression that he never really believed he had it in him to go to the next level. I think there was an insecurity there.”
At the time of Di’Anno’s passing, Harris issued a statement saying, “It’s just so sad he’s gone.”
He went on: “I was in touch with him only recently as we texted each other about West Ham and their ups and downs. At least he was still gigging until recently, it was something that kept him going, to be out there whenever he could. He will be missed by us all. Rest in peace, mate.”
Di’Anno had previously acknowledged that he fully understood why he was dismissed from the band by Harris.
“I don’t blame them for getting rid of me,” he admitted to Metal Hammer. “Obviously, the band was Steve’s baby, but I wish I’d been able to contribute more. After a while that got me down. In the end I couldn’t give 100 per cent to Maiden anymore and it wasn’t fair to the band, the fans or to myself.”
Paul Di’Anno’s final show was at Hype Park in Kraków, Poland, on August 30, 2024. The set was composed entirely of covers from his time in Iron Maiden. It underlined his enduring connecting to British metal’s biggest ever export, and to the foundations of British heavy metal itself.
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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.
You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.
Dorothy Martin can’t half sing. Stodgy American hard rock may or may not be your bag, but the Budapest-born frontwoman sounds seriously inspired on her band’s fourth album The Way. Right before the muscle-bound riffs come crashing in, the first minute of I Come Alive finds Martin wailing through the gears in spectacular fashion. She featured on Slash’s latest solo album, and he returns the favour by blasting through a customary guitar solo on merry, countrified rocker Tombstone Town, which is annoyingly catchy. Guitarist Sam ‘Bam’ Koltun injects some supreme playing of his own on the hook-heavy Bones. There’s nothing here that we haven’t heard before, but the band’s laser-focused endeavour is almost tangible.
No other artist has made a career out of musical parody like “Weird Al” Yankovic. For more than four decades, he has taken some of the biggest songs in popular music and turned them into comedy gold, all while proving himself a skilled musician, songwriter, and entertainer. From the moment his homemade tapes first aired on Dr. Demento’s radio show in the 1970s, it was clear he had a unique talent. He wasn’t just rewriting lyrics—he was reinventing entire songs with expert musicianship, sharp satire, and a level of production that rivaled the original tracks. What started as a novelty act turned into a legendary career spanning fourteen studio albums, five Grammy Awards, and a reputation as one of the most beloved figures in comedy music.
Yankovic grew up in Lynwood, California, and his musical journey began when he started playing the accordion at six years old. While other kids were listening to rock records, he was mastering polka, a skill that would later become one of his trademarks. As a teenager, he became obsessed with Dr. Demento’s comedy radio show, and in 1976, at just 16, he sent in his first homemade tape. The station played his song, launching a relationship that would help define his early career. While studying architecture at California Polytechnic State University, he recorded “My Bologna,” a parody of The Knack’s “My Sharona,” in a campus bathroom for better acoustics. The song became a surprise underground hit and landed him a deal with Capitol Records, proving that there was real potential in his comedic approach to music.
His 1983 self-titled debut album introduced the world to his signature blend of parodies and original comedic songs, but it was his second album, Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D (1984), that made him a household name. The album’s lead single, “Eat It,” a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” exploded on MTV, with a video that perfectly mirrored Jackson’s iconic original. The song won Yankovic his first Grammy Award and set the stage for a career built on lampooning pop culture. Over the years, he followed with hit after hit, skewering everyone from Madonna with “Like a Surgeon” to Nirvana with “Smells Like Nirvana,” which famously parodied grunge’s unintelligible lyrics and was personally endorsed by Kurt Cobain.
Across fourteen albums, Yankovic evolved from a novelty act to a respected musician whose career outlasted many of the artists he parodied. Albums like Even Worse (1988), Off the Deep End (1992), and Bad Hair Day (1996) showcased his ability to stay relevant as musical trends changed. “Amish Paradise,” his take on Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise,” became one of his biggest hits, despite some controversy over whether Coolio approved of the parody. He reached new heights in the 2000s with Straight Outta Lynwood (2006), which featured “White & Nerdy,” his most commercially successful single, peaking at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100. His last studio album, Mandatory Fun (2014), became the first comedy album to ever debut at number one on the Billboard 200, solidifying his legacy as an artist who could still top the charts decades into his career.
Yankovic has earned five Grammy Awards from sixteen nominations, proving that comedy music can be taken seriously. His videos have been a major part of his success, earning multiple MTV Video Music Award nominations, while his albums have gone Gold and Platinum multiple times over. Beyond music, he has been a fixture in television, animation, and film. He wrote and starred in the 1989 cult classic UHF, hosted The Weird Al Show in the late ‘90s, and has voiced characters in everything from The Simpsons to My Little Pony. In 2022, his life and career were celebrated in the satirical biopic Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, starring Daniel Radcliffe.
One of the reasons Yankovic has remained so beloved is his reputation as one of the most genuinely decent figures in the entertainment industry. While many comedians rely on shock value or punching down, his humor has always been good-natured, even when poking fun at major pop stars. He has gained the admiration of artists across genres, from Michael Jackson and Kurt Cobain to Lady Gaga and Chamillionaire. He also maintains a strong connection with his fans, regularly engaging with them at concerts and online.
For an artist who built his career by spoofing others, Yankovic has ended up with one of the most respected legacies in music. He didn’t just survive as a novelty act—he mastered the art of musical comedy, adapted to every major shift in the industry, and stayed on top for over forty years. With no signs of slowing down, he remains the gold standard for parody, proving that being “Weird” can be a career-long advantage.
“30 Rock Theme Parody” – Medium Rarities (2017) “Aardvark” – Peter and the Wolf (1988) “Achy Breaky Song” – Alapalooza (1993), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994), Greatest Hits Volume II (1994) “Addicted to Spuds” – Polka Party! (1986), Weird Al” Yankovic’s Greatest Hits (1988), The Food Album (1993), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994) “Airline Amy” – Off the Deep End (1992), The Best of Yankovic (1992) “Albuquerque” – Running with Scissors (1999), The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (2009) “Alimony” – Even Worse (1988), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994) “Alligator” – Peter and the Wolf (1988) “The Alternative Polka” – Bad Hair Day (1996) “Amish Paradise” – Bad Hair Day (1996), The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (2009), Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) “Amoeba” – Peter and the Wolf (1988) “Angry White Boy Polka” – Poodle Hat (2003) “Another One Rides the Bus” – “Weird Al” Yankovic (1983), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994), The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (2009), Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) “Another Tattoo” – Alpocalypse (2011) “Attack of the Radioactive Hamsters from a Planet near Mars” – UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989)
“Beat on the Brat” – Medium Rarities (2017), Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022) “Bedrock Anthem” – Alapalooza (1993), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994), Greatest Hits Volume II (1994), The TV Album (1995), The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (2009) “The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota” – UHF – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Other Stuff (1989), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994), The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (2009) “Bite Me” – Off the Deep End (1992) “Bob” – Poodle Hat (2003), The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (2009) “Bohemian Polka” – Alapalooza (1993) “The Brady Bunch” – “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D (1984), The TV Album (1995) “The Brain Song” – Medium Rarities (2017) “Buckingham Blues” – “Weird Al” Yankovic (1983) “Buy Me a Condo” – “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D (1984), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994)
“Cable TV” – Dare to Be Stupid (1985), The TV Album (1995) “Callin’ in Sick” – Bad Hair Day (1996) “Canadian Idiot” – Straight Outta Lynwood (2006), The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic (2009) “Cavity Search” – Bad Hair Day (1996) “The Check’s in the Mail” – “Weird Al” Yankovic (1983) “Christmas at Ground Zero” – Polka Party! (1986), Permanent Record: Al in the Box (1994), Greatest Hits Volume II (1994) “Close but No Cigar” – Straight Outta Lynwood (2006) “CNR” – Internet Leaks digital EP (2009), Alpocalypse (2011) “Cockroaches” – Peter and the Wolf (1988) “Comedy Bang! Bang! Theme” – Medium Rarities (2017) “A Complicated Song” – Poodle Hat (2003) “Confessions Part III” – Straight Outta Lynwood (2006) “Couch Potato” – Poodle Hat (2003) “Craigslist” – Internet Leaks digital EP (2009), Alpocalypse (2011)
He said: “Basically, where we’re sitting right now is we have a whole record recorded all musically. And it’s pretty much my job right now to finish up the vocals.
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“I hate to put a definite kind of timeframe, because we’re not really in a rush. We want it to be great. I think that’s most important. But it is coming and it’s really good. We’re really excited with what we’ve been working on.”
There have been no further updates on the status of the album as yet.
Deftones North American Tour 2025 Second Leg
22 Aug: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC* 24 Aug: Rogers Place, Edmonton, AB* 25 Aug: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, AB* 27 Aug: Canada Life Centre, Winnipeg, MB* 29 Aug: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN* 30 Aug: Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee, WI* 01 Sep: KeyBank Center, Buffalo, NY* 07 Sep: Videotron Centre, Quebec City, QC* 08 Sep: Bell Centre, Montreal, QC# 10 Sep: Rocket Arena, Cleveland, OH# 11 Sep: CFG Bank Arena, Baltimore, MD# 13 Sep: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, MO# 15 Sep: Ball Arena, Denver, CO# 17 Sep: T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, MO#
“My reason for being there is the connection between myself and everybody that I brought with me.” Tobias Forge on why Ghost’s upcoming shows will be a phone-free zone
(Image credit: Ghost (Youtube))
Ghost mainman Tobias Forge has explained why the band’s upcoming live shows will be a phone-free experience.
They announced the decision last year after experimenting with the idea during two shows at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles in 2023.
Fans’ phones were magnetically sealed in pouches which they carried on their person and the pouches could only be unsealed as they left the venue. The same process will be applied for Ghost’s 2025 dates.
Forge tells Audacy: “It’s an experiment. Over the years it’s gone absolutely insane. If you have 10,000 people at a concert and 8,000 of them are holding a phone, there’s something deeply disconnected.
“If I’m just speaking for myself … I know a lot of artists don’t care and I know that there are plenty of upsides, especially commercially.
“The whole thing in the business is, basically, ‘Yeah, we want people to film because we want people to see the show, and that will sell more tickets.’
“Fine. I understand that there’s a promotional tool with social media. I’m not gonna neglect that. Part of our success is obviously from social media. We started on MySpace. That was the root cause for our success at the time. I don’t know if we would ever become anything if it weren’t for MySpace. And, obviously, our TikTok has played a huge part.
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“I’m just saying that when it comes to the actual live show, my calling, my reason for being there, is the connection between myself and everybody that I brought with me that are working in tandem to give you an experience.
“That experience is completely decocked if everybody’s just filming. Am I wrong? Am I right? I don’t know. That’s how I, and we, felt.”
Apr 15: Manchester AO Arena, UK Apr 16: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK Apr 19: London The O2, UK Apr 20: Birmingham Utilita Arena, UK Apr 22: Antwerp Sportpaleis, Belgium Apr 23: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany Apr 24: Munich Olympiahalle, Germany Apr 26: Lyon LDLC Arena, France Apr 27: Toulouse Zenith Metropole, France Apr 29: Lisbon MEO Arena, Portugal Apr 30: Madrid Palacio Vistalegre, Spain May 03: Zurich AG Hallenstadion, Switzerland May 04: Milan Unipol Forum, Italy May 07: Berlin Uber Arena, Germany May 08: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands May 10: Lodz Atlas Arena, Poland May 11: Prague O2 Arena, Czech Republic May 13: Paris Accor Arena, France May 14: Oberhausen Rudolph Weber Arena, Germany May 15: Hannover ZAG Arena, Germany May 17: Copenhagen Royal Arena, Denmark May 20: Tampere Nokia Arena, Finland May 22: Linköping Saab Arena, Sweden May 23: Sandviken Göransson Arena, Sweden May 24: Oslo Spektrum, Norway Jul 09: Baltimore CFG Bank Arena, MD Jul 11: Atlanta State Farm Arena, GA Jul 12: Tampa Amalie Arena, FL Jul 13: Miami Kaseya Center, FL Jul 15: Raleigh PNC Arena, NC Jul 17: Cleveland Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, OH Jul 18: Pittsburgh PPG Paints Arena, PA Jul 19: Philadelphia Wells Fargo Center, PA Jul 21: Boston TD Garden, MA Jul 22: New York Madison Square Garden, NY Jul 24: Detroit Little Caesars Arena, MI Jul 25: Louisville KFC Yum! Center, KY Jul 26: Nashville Bridgestone Arena, TN Jul 28: Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena, MI Jul 29: Milwaukee Fiserv Forum, WI Jul 30: St Louis Enterprise Center, MO Aug 01: Rosemont Allstate Arena, IL Aug 02: Saint Paul Xcel Energy Center, MN Aug 03: Omaha CHI Health Center, NE Aug 05: Kansas City T-Mobile Center, MO Aug 07: Denver Ball Arena, CO Aug 09: Las Vegas MGM Grand Garden Arena, NV Aug 10: San Diego Viejas Arena, CA Aug 11: Phoenix Footprint Center, AZ Aug 14: Austin Moody Center ATX, TX Aug 15: Fort Worth Dickies Arena, TX Aug 16: Houston Toyota Center, TX Sep 24: Mexico City Palacio De Los Deportes
Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock’n’roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.
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