Classic Rock

Classic Rock is a UK magazine that focuses on rock music, published by Future PLC, which also produces Metal Hammer and Prog magazine. While it primarily highlights major bands from the 1960s to the early 1990s, it also features articles and reviews about current and emerging artists that they find significant. Originally launched as a sporadic project, Classic Rock has grown to become one of the best-selling music magazines in the UK. In September 2010, it celebrated the release of its 150th issue and has since surpassed the NME in circulation.

National, Consumer

English

Magazine

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Global

#20591

United States

#6356

Arts and Entertainment/Music

#58

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Articles

“Whether any illicit cigarettes were involved isn’t clear, but this is the sound of Maiden floating in space”: Four Iron Maiden songs that sound nothing like Iron Maiden

3 days ago | loudersound.com | Dave Everley

From Steve Harris’ galloping bass to Bruce Dickinson’s instantly recognisable voice, few bands sound as distinctive as Iron Maiden. No one is going to hear Run To The Hills or Fear Of The Dark and confuse it with anyone else, which is precisely why they’re one of the most successful bands of the last 50 years. But Maiden have delivered some surprises along the way.
Did Extreme over-egg the funk-rock pudding on III Sides To Every Story?

3 days ago | loudersound.com | Dave Everley

The Band - The BandWarheadsRest in PeacePoliticalamityColor Me BlindCupid's DeadPeacemaker DieSeven SundaysTragic ComicOur FatherStop the WorldGod Isn't Dead? Everything Under the Sun: I. Rise 'n ShineEverything Under the Sun: II. Am I Ever Gonna ChangeEverything Under the Sun: III. Who CaresFollowing their huge Pornograffitti album, Extreme were determined to push things as far as they could go. “Be careful what you wish for,” frontman Gary Cherone told Classic Rock.
“To keep a standard up so long is an achievement. This album crowns that. Now people can play something other than A Whiter Shade Of Pale!” Procol Harum didn’t expect 50th anniversary album Novum to be their last

3 days ago | loudersound.com | Paul Sexton

In 2017 Procol Harum released their 12th album, Novum. Marking the band’s 50th anniversary, it proved to be their final studio release – but when vocalist Gary Brooker (1945-2022) and new-recruit lyricist Pete Brown (1940-2023) spoke to Prog, the idea of stopping was the last thing on their minds.
"I couldn't care less about other people's opinions." M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold says they'll keeping pushing artistic boundaries

4 days ago | loudersound.com | Stef Lach

Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows says nothing will make him play it safe when it comes to making music because he really "couldn't care less" about anyone else's opinion. The Californian metal outfit's eighth album Life Is But a Dream... was released in 2023 and fans were split over its merits. But Shadows says he has learned to accept they'll never please everybody and he insists artistic creativity is all about pushing boundaries.
“He thought that the band should be a democracy, and it was more like a brutal dictatorship as far as he was concerned”: The tangled story of Dire Straits, the million-selling band who quit at the height of their fame

4 days ago | loudersound.com | Paul Rees

Dire Straits were one of the most unlikely success stories of the 80s, making 1985’s world-beating Brothers In Arms album before guitarist and leader Mark Knopfler ended the band at the height of their fame. In 2015, Classic Rock looked back on their tangled tale of multi-platinum albums, fraternal rivalry and the high cost of fame. At 10.10pm on October 9, 1992, Mark Knopfler bid goodnight to 40,000 people and walked off stage in Zaragoza, Spain.
Watch Love on the Spectrum star James B. Jones meet his metal heroes Disturbed

5 days ago | loudersound.com | Stef Lach

One of the stars of Netflix's massive hit series Love on the Spectrum enjoyed a special moment with one of his favourite metal bands. James B. Jones has captured the hearts of TV audiences with his antics as he tried to find love on the show. And on 14 March this year, he went to see his beloved Disturbed for the fourth time. And it proved to be a memorable experience for James as he got to meet the band at the TD Arena in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts.
“Driven by a mammoth riff that could give Black Sabbath a run for their money, they never recorded anything so primitive or heavy again”: Four songs that will make you rethink everything you know about Queen

5 days ago | loudersound.com | Dave Everley

Like The Beatles before them, Queen could turn their hand to any kind of musical style that took their fancy, and do it brilliantly. From mad operatic epics, riffy hard rock and anthemic pop to funk, rockabilly and Noel Coward-esque end-of-the-pier fancies, their albums were musical universes unto themselves. Despite that wide-ranging sonic approach, Queen still had an instantly recognisable sound.
“We blew this whole scene open, I don’t care what anybody says. We did all the work, and now all these other bands are popping up”: How Korn changed up their sound and left the copycats behind with Follow The Leader

5 days ago | loudersound.com | Dan Silver

Nu metal founding fathers Korn can legitimately lay claim to kickstarting a whole new scene with their landmark 1994 debut album, but follow up Life Is Peachy was a disappointment by contrast. Which meant a lot was riding on 1998’s Follow The Leader, as Metal Hammer found out when we met vibed-up singer Jonathan Davis and guitarist Munky in Paris just before the album was released.
“I was always hoping that I would be taken away by aliens at some point”: The strange story of Devin Townsend’s Ocean Machine: Biomech, the album which launched his solo career

6 days ago | loudersound.com | Eleanor Goodman

Released in 1997, Devin Townsend‘s first proper solo album, Ocean Machine: Biomech, saw the then-Strapping Young Lad frontman spreading his sonic wings. In 2017, on the album’s 20th anniversary, he looked back on an album that would pave the way for his musical future. When Devin Townsend was a child, his parents frequently took him on trips to the beach. They would tell him about a mysterious force operating in the sea: the seventh wave.
Those Damn Crows score their first UK No.1 album with God Shaped Hole

6 days ago | loudersound.com | Dave Everley

Welsh rock band Those Damn Crows have scored their very first UK No. 1 album. God Shaped Hole, the Bridgend group’s fourth album, beat pop star Sabrina Carpenter, US singer Bon Iver, Oasis and Ed Sheeran to reach the top spot. Writing on social media, the band say: “Really struggling to put these feelings into words right now, but I know how we’ve achieved this UNBELIEVABLE victory, there’s one word that best describes it….