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.
They used to do it all for the nookie, but now Limp Bizkit are all about the love. That much was abundantly clear on March 17, 2024, at Lollapalooza Argentina. “Is everybody happy?” singer Fred Durst asks, surveying a 100,000-strong crowd who seem down with the fact that he’s wearing the kind of garish, multicoloured tracksuit once the preserve of 1980s kids TV presenter Timmy Mallett. He soon gets his response. As Limp Bizkit tear into set closer Break Stuff, the audience go ballistic, bellowing the lyrics so loudly it drowns out Fred as a sea of bodies bounce and mosh as far as the eye can see. Footage of the craziness soon goes viral, notching up more than a million views in 24 hours.
Nearly a quarter of a century after their nu metal heyday, that Lollapalooza performance proved that Limp Bizkit were one of metal’s hottest bands once again. It’s an unlikely second act, and one that would once have seemed unthinkable. At the turn of the millennium, Limp Bizkit were the biggest nu metal band on the planet, thanks to the massive success of their first three albums, 1997’s Three Dollar Bill, Y’All, 1999’s Significant Other and 2000’s Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water.
There were album launch parties at the Playboy Mansion, promo videos shot on top of The World Trade Center, and Mission: Impossible theme songs. But it couldn’t last. Limp Bizkit – and Fred in particular – became the whipping boys for a scene deemed obnoxious, misogynistic and artistically bereft. Guitarist Wes Borland quit in 2001, done with the circus that surrounded the band.
Their fourth record, 2003’s critically mauled Results May Vary, was a relative commercial flop. At a gig supporting Metallica in Chicago in 2003, Fred was heckled offstage by a hostile audience after just six songs. They reunited with Wes for 2005’s The Unquestionable Truth (Part 1) EP, but their glory days seemed to be behind them.
That makes their current turnaround remarkable. While resurgent interest in nu metal, and the nostalgia that comes with it, has undoubtedly played a part, that doesn’t fully account for the fervour from fans who weren’t around for them first time around. In 2023, Fred appeared on the Club Random podcast, hosted by veteran comedian and TV presenter Bill Maher.
“These days, every night I’ll say, ‘How many people is it your first time seeing Limp Bizkit?’ The whole place raises their hand,” the singer told Bill. “‘How many people are under 30 years old?’ The whole place raises their hand… It’s young people who are reacting to the material.”
For Spookz, frontman with masked nu metal revivalists and former Limp Bizkit support act Blackgold, it’s a matter of timing.
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“It’s a generational thing,” he tells Hammer. “The gap is the perfect amount now for the kids just getting into music for their parents to be like, ‘When I was young, these guys were sick’, and put them on in the car.”
Ross Robinson, the legendary, game-changing producer who worked with the band on Three Dollar Bill, Y’All, has a simpler explanation.
“The reason they’re so popular again today is the reason they blew up in the first place: because they’re fucking incredible,” he says. “They’re a freaking cocktail of pure fire and creativity.”
The resurrection of Limp Bizkit has been a decade in the making. The band reunited in 2009 following a three-year hiatus, playing a blinder of a set at that year’s Download festival in front of a rabid crowd chanting their name. 2011’s comeback album, Gold Cobra, might have been clunky and forgettable, but their status as a live draw continued to build, especially in Europe, where they became semi-regular festival fixtures.
A much-trumpeted sixth album, Stampede Of The Disco Elephants, was constantly delayed, but that didn’t matter. Limp Bizkit had well and truly come back in from the cold, cracking open the door for the return of nu metal in the process.
The Durstnaissance was rubber-stamped in 2021 with the release of Dad Vibes, their first new song in seven years. It found Fred fully leaning into the song’s title: baggy t-shirts and baseball caps were out, replaced by middle age-appropriate grey slacks, grey wig and handlebar moustache, red aviator shades, and, at one gig in Tampa, Florida in 2022, a comfy chair in the middle of the stage.
This was a funnier, more self-aware Fred Durst, one willing to embrace his age and status as a nu metal dad with only the barest whiff of irony. “It’s so Limp Bizkit to have a song about being a cool dad, but that’s something that only Fred would think of,” says Zakk Cervini, who produced Dad Vibes and parent album Still Sucks, which grew out of the long-gestating Stampede Of The Disco Elephants.
“Bands I work with that were young 10 years ago are all having kids now. [Rage Against The Machine guitarist] Tom Morello was like, ‘Oh, you produced Dad Vibes? I do a radio show, and every Father’s Day we play that song, that’s one of my favourite songs.’”
Released on Halloween 2021 with little advance fanfare, the 12-song, 32-minute Still Sucks may not have had the sales or widespread cultural impact of Significant Other or Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water, but old- and newschool Bizkit fans lapped it up.
Since then, the love for the band has only intensified. Limp Bizkit’s triumphant appearance at 2024’s Download festival was widely held up as the best of the weekend, while celebrity fan Ed Sheeran joined the band onstage at last year’s Pinkpop festival for a duet on their cover of The Who’s Behind Blue Eyes (a collab Fred dubbed ‘Fred Sheeran’ on Instagram).
It’s not just old-school fans and early-2000s nostalgists who are behind this resurgence in interest. Gen Z has latched onto the sound and aesthetics of nu metal, with TikTok and social media allowing younger fans to enjoy Bizkit without the baggage and bias that clung to them in the early 2000s. Zakk Cervini draws parallels between the band and current pop superstars.
“When I look at artists like Charli XCX or Billie Eilish, their aesthetics are baggy pants and bright green,” he says. “It’s so colourful and outlandish. It’s meant to be a party.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The Fred Durst of the 2020s is a world away from the Fred Durst of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Back then, sporting an ever-present red baseball cap, he was one of the main reasons Limp Bizkit were held in contempt in certain quarters. Whether it was his obnoxious swagger – embodied by the band’s infamous appearance at the Woodstock ’99 festival – or the spats he found himself embroiled in with everyone from Eminem to Corey Taylor (Fred described Slipknot fans as “a bunch of fat, ugly kids”), for many he encapsulated the worst aspects of nu metal.
He’s since insisted that his obnoxious persona was a character that got out of hand. He subsequently spoke of being bullied in his youth, and that Limp Bizkit were his chance to release that residual aggression and frustration.
“When I became that Tyler Durden guy, there were just no rules,” he told Metal Hammer in 2014, referencing Brad Pitt’s provocative character in the 1999 film Fight Club. “I was carrying this giant person behind me on a chain…. I can’t get away from it and that persona ate me up.”
These days, Fred cuts a very different character. Onstage, he’s full of smiles and grateful thanks. It feels like he’s more likely to make you a cuppa and a biscuit than start a riot or shit-talk the competition.
“I think the journey of going up and down and up and down makes any artist humble, and he’s got such humble swag when he’s onstage,” says Blackgold’s Spookz. “He makes you feel like you’re with your best mate. He’s so grateful that it’s come back around.”
This humility extends to giving a hand-up to a new generation of bands. As well as Blackgold, Limp Bizkit have taken metalcore crew Dying Wish, rave-metal provocateurs Wargasm and hardcore newcomers Scowl out on tour with them. In many cases, he handpicks the band, contacting them directly himself.
“He saw us on TikTok and ended up in our DMs,” says Spookz. “If he hears a new band and he thinks they’re sick, he’s like, ‘I’m going to take you on tour, I’m going to help you.’ Take nothing for it. No reason. That’s just what he’s like.”
Fred Durst’s public image isn’t the only thing that has been misunderstood over the years. According to both Ross Robinson and Zakk Cervini, his creative skills have been overlooked and underappreciated.
“We put together nine songs from scratch in seven days at pre-production for the first record,” recalls Ross of working on Three Dollar Bill, Y’All. “I’ve never experienced that level of creativity my whole career. Idea after idea after idea, and they were all really good.”
Zakk says that was the case on Still Sucks too. The producer describes his time working with the band as a series of “lightning in a bottle” moments. “Fred is one of the most talented people that I’ve ever met in my entire life. His voice is just so iconic and so signature. With a lot of artists, you have to work to make them sound the way they sound, but Fred jumps on the mic and it automatically sounds sick.”
Recording the album’s opening track, Out Of Style, was a case in point. “Fred was like, ‘All right, I got my lyrics. I’m going to lay it down,’” says Zakk. “He recorded the entire song staring me in the face with the mic a foot away from me. It was this crazy hour of him in my face, screaming at me.”
It helps that the instability that has plagued the band has calmed down in recent years. Wes Borland has quit the band on two separate occasions, returning both times, while DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers have both left and returned to the band since 2012. The current line-up – also the band’s classic line-up – has been together since 2019.
“Fred is there for his dudes ’til death,” says Ross Robinson. That renewed sense of camaraderie is palpable on Still Sucks.
“I remember Fred bouncing ideas off of Sam back and forth being just like, ‘Do you like this? Am I going too far on this? Is this good?’” says Zakk. “Sam would keep everybody grounded. Then Lethal would just come in with all his sounds and all his turntables and they’re like, ‘Does it sound too dated?’ To me, that sounds fresh. For so many people of my generation, that’s a new thing for them.”
For Ross Robinson, Limp Bizkit’s current popularity is no surprise. It all goes back to the music. “It’s the beat, sense of song and choruses,” he says. “I like to say, ‘When we go in the studio, we are going to build a fucking pyramid – something that lasts forever.’ I knew the first Limp Bizkit record was going to do something when I put the first CD I got from mastering in my Toyota 4Runner. I pinned it wide open, sliding around corners, catching a little air, just in the dirt doing donuts with the music, full blast, and it matched perfectly. I get chills even today when I hear it.”
The excitement that surrounded Limp Bizkit may have come and gone over the years, but the current love for them is comparable to that of the original nu metal era. Their ongoing (and self-deprecatingly titled) Loserville tour hits the UK and Ireland in March, while they’re reportedly back in the studio recording the follow-up to Still Sucks.
The nu metal revival shows no sign of abating either. With 90s contemporaries Korn set to headline this year’s Download festival, it’s not unthinkable that Limp Bizkit could do the same in 2026. It’s not clear how surprised Fred is by the success of his band’s second act. By the mid-2000s, it looked like they were over and done, a hangover of the nu metal years.
Two decades on, they’ve clawed their way back to the top against all the odds. But then maybe this was all part of Fred Durst’s plan.
“I wanted to pull back and see what our music could do through a noisy world,” said Fred in 2023. “How do you rise above the noise? And luckily, I’m so grateful, there’s a resurgence and it’s happening.”
Limp Bizkit’s Loserville tour continues in Birmingham on March 13. Limp Bizkit play Reading and Leeds Festivals in August.
Danniii Leivers writes for Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, The Guardian, NME, Alternative Press, Rock Sound, The Line Of Best Fit and more. She loves the 90s, and is happy where the sea is bluest.
“The battling Gallagher brothers” – according to every tabloid newspaper in the land – are set to dominate headlines again this summer when the Oasis reunion rolls in with the inexorable precision of a military exercise to take up residence in the stadiums and enormodomes across the world.
Before that, a pause is called for to consider a time before their entrance and the codification of Britpop, to when their future chart rivals, Blur, were grappling with the concept of Englishness in the face of grunge’s domination and their own potential demise.
Chastened by indifference to their gruelling and disastrous 44-date tour of the USA in the spring of 1992, the domestic failure of standalone single Popscene, and the very real prospect of being dropped by their label, Blur sobered up long enough to stage a fight back against America’s cultural hegemony with a change of image. They jettisoned their unconvincing baggy flares for sharper sartorial wares while suffusing their music with an approach that could only have come from British shores.
Blur – Pressure on Julian (Official Audio) – YouTube
The result was Modern Life Is Rubbish. While much has been made of the influence of The Kinks’ Ray Davies and the long shadows cast by Victorian music halls, less attention is paid to the debt owed to a cast that includes the very English eccentricity of Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers’s lugubriousness, the raucous delivery of Peter Hammill’s Nadir’s Big Chance and Robert Fripp’s pioneering approach to the guitar.
The music that drives the album is anything but linear or straightforward
And though the initial sessions with XTC’s Andy Partridge in the producer’s chair came to naught, Blur’s second album is, at the very least, dusted with the spirit of prog.
The band members were still in their early 20s, but Modern Life Is Rubbish is the product of educated and perceptive artists. While singer Damon Albarn’s lyrics are both a celebration and critique of contemporary British life via a number of character studies – see Chemical World’s despondent raver and the pomposity that beats at the heart of Colin Zeal – the music that drives the album is anything but linear or straightforward as it mirrors the peculiarities and idiosyncrasies of English life.
It’s there in the disorientating Pressure On Julian as Graham Coxon’s woozy guitar rejects the orthodoxies of what’s expected from his instrument, in much the same way Syd Barrett did. Indeed, Coxon’s inventive playing throughout – witness the unconventional break during Coping – highlights his first steps to his destination as one the most unique guitarists of his generation.
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Add to this the imaginative rhythm section of bassist Alex James and drummer of Dave Rowntree, who enhance this sense of unease. They don’t so much hold things down as create a see-sawing base on which the music balances precariously.
An intelligent album subsequently misinterpreted by lesser talents, it’s one deserving of another look from another angle.
When Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning event was announced in February, it was met with excitement from every corner of the globe. For one day only, the heavy metal godfathers’ founding lineup – Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward – will reunite in a stadium spectacular raising money for charity. The resulting demand led to tickets selling out within minutes and hotels in a multi-mile radius hiking up their prices… but what if we told you this exact thing has happened before?
In 1985, it had been six years since Osbourne got booted from metal’s founding foursome, and internal disarray following 1983 album Born Again (featuring ex-Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan, plus a butt-ugly baby on the cover) had put the entire band on ice. However, none of that stopped Bob Geldof’s charity bonanza Live Aid from reaching out, seeing if they’d regroup in the name of raising funds for famine-afflicted Ethiopia.
If they accepted, Sabbath would play before 102,000 people at Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy Stadium, on a bill including such greats as Neil Young, REO Speedwagon and Led Zeppelin feat. Phil Collins and broadcast to a global TV audience. The four-piece took the gig, but not for any of those reasons.
“We probably thought that it might be the first step towards getting back together again,” guitarist Iommi reflected in 2011 memoir Iron Man (via Rolling Stone).
Sabbath’s OG members rolled into Philly the day before the generational concert. Though there are conflicting accounts on what happened next, the outcome is undisputed: they got fucking hammered.
According to Iommi, the four men were so happy to be reunited that they rehearsed for only an hour then spent the night partying together. He wrote in Iron Man: “We got to the rehearsal space and were supposed to rehearse three songs. Instead of doing that we ended up talking about old times … We went back to the bar afterwards, had a great time together and got solidly sloshed.”
Bassist Butler said differently in a 1997 Kerrang! interview. “We were all drunk when we did Live Aid,” he remembered, “but we’d all got drunk separately.”
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Either way, Sabbath woke up on show day far less than 100 percent – not ideal when your stage time is 9:55am and your slot is between the iconic performers Billy Ocean and Run-DMC.
“I had a dreadful hangover,” Iommi wrote. “So I put my dark glasses on and we played Children Of The Grave, Iron Man and Paranoid in the bright sunlight.”
The guitarist admitted to SiriusXM in 2020 that he was understandably anxious ahead of the show, as well: “It was a bit nervy because you don’t know how things are going to go with the equipment and all the stuff – and we hadn’t been onstage together for so long. You have to sort of suck it and see what’s going to happen.”
Despite the nerves, lack of preparation and alcohol-induced fatigue, the 15-minute set proved more than enough time for the original Sabbath to recapture their greatness. Osbourne motivated a crowd in the six-digits to clap and cheer along with Ward’s thunderous drums after Children…, then kept that energy alive by fist-pumping to Iron Man. Ward and Butler were perfectly in-sync while wildly whipping their hair. Finally, Paranoid scampered along even faster than usual, with Iommi still not missing a note in one of his most celebrated riffs.
It was an appetite-whetting preview of a comeback that, sadly, never came to pass. Though the exact details of why classic Sabbath didn’t fully return in 1985 remain unclear, both the band and Osbourne had their own projects to focus on at the time. Iommi was secretly in the studio that summer, recording what he hoped would be a solo album but came out as Sabbath’s 12th record, Seventh Star. Meanwhile, Osbourne was a bona fide, standalone star with his next effort, The Ultimate Sin, set to drop in January 1986.
Mercifully, Live Aid was far from the end for the formative lineup, who came back in both 1997 and 2012. They’ll bow out at the Back To The Beginning extravaganza in Birmingham’s Villa Park on July 5, all proceeds from which will go to the charities Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital, Acorn Children’s Hospice and Cure Parkinson’s. If the band’s last stand is even a quarter as good as the barnstormer they brought 40 years ago, it’ll certainly be a send-off for the ages.
“All of a sudden, it’s like, ‘We want to announce now, what do we say?’”: Ghost’s Tobias Forge explains why Papa V Perpetua was unveiled on the Black Sabbath farewell show poster
(Image credit: Mikael Eriksson/Live Nation)
Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge has explained why the band’s ‘new’ frontman Papa V Perpetua was first named on the poster for Black Sabbath’s Back To The Beginning show.
Talking to Metal Hammer, Forge, who’s normally incredibly secretive about future Ghost announcements, says he rescinded control over the revealing of Perpetua’s name due to the timing of Back To The Beginning’s unveiling back in February.
“We were asked to perform [at Back To The Beginning as a band],” he explains. “We’re starting our US tour, we couldn’t do that. So it ended up being like, ‘OK, so we’ll just send our singer.’ So that was done in a heartbeat, some time ago. And then all of a sudden, it’s like, ‘We want to announce now, what do we say?’ ‘Well, his name is Papa V Perpetua. So write that!’”
(Image credit: Live Nation)
Forge will perform as the Perpetua persona for the event, joining such legendary metal bands as Metallica and Slayer plus individual performers including Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) and Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins). The Birmingham one-dayer, taking place at Villa Park on July 5, will crescendo with the last-ever live performances from Ozzy Osbourne and the original Sabbath lineup.
During the Hammer conversation, Forge talks about the influence Sabbath have had on his music.
“I obviously keep on talking a lot about Black Sabbath,” he says. “A huge inspiration … and I guess Geezer [Butler, bassist/lyricist] is very much to be credited for that, these hugely frail and very introspective lyrics. Just putting yourself out there as the small human being against the big machinery of authority. That has always been an inspiration for me, even though you sort of wrap it underneath big, muscular rock music.”
Perpetua will make his live debut at the first date of Ghost’s 2025 world tour, which kicks off in Manchester, UK, on April 15. He replaces Forge’s outgoing persona Papa Emeritus IV, in the long-running tradition of the masked band ‘changing’ frontman with each new album. Ghost’s next album, Skeletá, will come out on April 25 and lead single Satanized is now streaming.
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See the full list of live dates Ghost have planned for 2025 below.
Ghost – Satanized (Official Music Video) – YouTube
UK: Apr 15: Manchester AO Arena Apr 16: Glasgow OVO Hydro Apr 19: London The O2 Apr 20: Birmingham Utilita Arena
Europe: 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
USA: 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
Mexico: Sep 24: Mexico City Palacio De Los Deportes
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.
