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With its roots stretching right back to the earliest days of heavy metal, stoner metal is often seen as one of the metal subgenres closest in spirit to the source of the entire genre. Be it the legendary generator parties that sparked the desert rock boom of the early 90s, Britain’s own prolific stoner/doom crossovers or Scandinavia’s groove-laden contributions to the scene, one thing is clear: there’s more to stoner than a shared love for the devil’s lettuce.

These days you can find entire festivals dedicated to stoner – Desertfest and Heavy Psych Sounds fest, to name two – and bands around the world united in the love for 70s style heavy metal and hard rock. But these five records represent the game-changing moments in the development of the haziest of metal’s sub-genres.

Black Sabbath – Master Of Reality (1972)

As with much else in heavy metal, stoner can trace its roots right back to Black Sabbath. Sabbath’s love for the green was well established by the time the band recorded their third record Master Of Reality in 1972, and the Brummies pinned their colour(s) to the mast with the subtle-as-a-sledgehammer opening track Sweet Leaf.

The rest of Master Of Reality plays out like a blueprint for generations of stoner bands to come: thick, grooving riffs, tight, winding beats and instrumental jams mixing together to offer a groovier counterpoint to the doom and gloom of Sabbath’s first two records, birthing an entirely new subgenre in the process.

Sleep – Sleep’s Holy Mountain (1992)

Although stoner metal found its roots in 70s British acts like Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, it wasn’t until the 90s in the US that the genre truly started to take off in any serious way. Slightly removed from their fellow stoner pioneers in the Palm Desert (more on them below), San Jose’s Sleep were tapping the bluesy Sabbath vein hard when it came to 1992’s Holy Mountain.

Mixing the sludgy angst of early Melvins with the roiling grooves of Sabbath, Sleep’s second record arrived just as the US stoner scene was starting to rear its head. The likes of Monster Magnet, Corrosion Of Conformity and Clutch proved a new school of haze-fuelled heavy metal was taking root in the US, with Sleep setting a high watermark for the bands that followed in their wake.

Kyuss – Welcome To Sky Valley (1994)

Springing up around generator parties hosted by desert punks who couldn’t afford to travel to LA or San Francisco for shows, California’s Palm Desert scene has since become a lengendary entity in stoner for later spawning the likes of Fu Manchu, Fatso Jetson and Queens Of The Stone Age. But chief among these was Kyuss, the legendary group featuring (at various points): Brant Bjork, John Garcia, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri, helping to effectively take the style out of the wilderness and to fans around the world.

Kyuss had already stumbled onto a winning formula with 1992’s Blues For A Red Sun, but found widespread acclaim still eluded them as grunge blew down from further up the coast in Seattle. It was their 1994 follow-up Welcome To Sky Valley that proved to be their breakthrough moment. Now signed to Elektra, Sky Valley’s epic jam-driven compositions offered a more psychedelia-laden vision of what stoner could be beyond a shuffling of satisfying Sabbath riffs and grooves, sending the genre careening out into the cosmos with an exhilarating sense of adventurousness that has seldom been matched and certainly never bettered.

Cathedral – Caravan Beyond Redemption (1995)

The dividing line between doom and stoner is often as simple as a question of pace and tone, but few bands played as fast and loose with the interplay between the genres as Britian’s Cathedral in the early 90s. Formed by former Napalm Death singer Lee Dorrian, Cathedral’s debut Forest Of Equilibrium was as apocalyptically dour as doom comes, but by its 1993 follow-up the band had started chucking the odd Mountain riff into the mix to speed things up.

1998’s Caravan Beyond Redemption marked the point Cathedral swung the pendulum firmly over to the stoner side, bursting forth with fuzzy, Deep Purple-via-Sabbath riffs that gave rise to a new school of underground artists, while Dorrian’s own label Rise Above Records quickly signed future British stoner/doom stars Orange Goblin and Electric Wizard.

Spiritual Beggars – Ad Astra (2000)

Not content with revolutionising melodeath with the likes of Carcass and Arch Enemy in the 90s, guitarist Michael Amott also tried his hand at massive, 70s-style stoner rock grooves. By the time his group Spiritual Beggars went to record their third album Mantra III in 1998, they had been signed to Music For Nations, but it was 2000’s Ad Astra that proved to be their major breakthrough, landing them on the radar – and tour bills – of everyone from Queens Of The Stone Age to Iron Maiden. Just one listen to the propulsive racket they create leaves no question as to why.

As has become characteristic in much of the European (and in particular, Scandinavian) stoner scene, the Black Sabbath DNA was dialled right back for Spiritual Beggars, the band instead choosing to indulge the larger than life finesse of bands like Mountain, Boston and Deep Purple, Amott’s riffs soaring atop a psychedelia-laced din that only mildly hints to the fuzz so beloved in other stoner scenes.

Putting on some weight.

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Album Review: Hippotraktor – Annihilist

Reviewed by Oli Gonzalez

Another band from Pelagic Records seemingly never ending pipeline of talent, Belgium’s Hippotraktor are on the eve of unveiling their third full length album, “Annihilist”. New blood and members alongside shifts in song writing philosophy were documented by the band. Though surely we can expect the same thunderous grooves and blistering intensity that has made the band a household name in the post metal scene? Let’s find out…

“Annihilist” kickass off with ‘I Breathe, I Am’. Bass and groove are the immediate standouts and most salient qualities, with bassist Jakob getting his time to shine for long stretches, holding the groove and being the focal point without the weight of the guitars. Especially during the early segments of the track. Vocalist Stefan demonstrates a calming resonance to his voice, and is joined by guitarist Kristof in the dual vocal approach. Though like flicking a light switch, the band can take a U-Turn and unleash unmitigated hell with crushing walls of distorted guitars and Stefan’s all-powerful growled vocals joining the attack! Hippotraktor will challenge you, that’s for sure, by being calm and introspective one moment, then full on corrosive and devastating the next!

‘Courageous Apathy’ follows in a similar suit, with an unshakeable rhythmic foundation that goes way beyond the standard 4/4 time signature, whilst providing a cocktail of soaring melodies and instantly memorable vocal hooks. Alongside some tasty neck snapping grooves, enhanced by the additional percussion instruments. Check out the video for ‘Manifest The Mountain’ to see how Stefan acts like an auxiliary percussionist alongside his lead vocal duties.

These are patterns you’ll see throughout the album; free flowing unpredictable song structures that will keep you on your toes. Though paradoxically, these shifts seem logical and avoid any random scatter gun style bursts. This also means the songs are longer than what most casual listeners will be used to, with complex non-canonical progressions being given the time they need to fully breath and grow.

Now returning to the theme of lead vocals, let’s examine the song writing approach. Stefan describes how himself and new member guitarist/vocalist Kristof wrote their vocal parts independently of one another, only collaborating and comparing efforts when they had finished their pre-production demo phase. As such, you can see examples of some syncopated vocal patterns and lyrics running completely different lines, rather than blindly copying one another. This leads to a much deeper overall texture to the music, with Stefan saying this created ‘one massive whole that is much bigger than what I could have by myself’. Check out ‘Oblivion Walker’ as an example of this vocal synergy. It’s interesting listening to Stefan perform in Hippotraktor, as opposed to his other band Psychonaut. It seems like he has more freedom to express himself and maybe doesn’t feel the pressure of holding down guitar and vocal duties simultaneously in the Psychonaut power trio.

Guitarist and chief song writer Chiaran expands on this collaborative approach, saying how he actively sought the input of the other members throughout the entire writing process, adding how he shared ‘half baked or less goods’ with the band. The approach seems to have worked as we’re seeing a much deeper and atmospheric sound in the already complex and avant-garde puzzle that is Hippotraktor.

If this is the future direction for Hippotraktor, then it’s exciting indeed! We’re looking at the future of not just Hippotaktor but the future of post metal! Hippotraktor hit the road this autumn, culminating with a set at the prestigious Damnation festival. The Bowlers Exhibition Centre better be ready!

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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“And [I’m] not like saying it in a judgmental way.”

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Audrey Hobert, who is currently on tour for her 2025 album “Who’s the Clown?,” shares her approach to writing an album and how she’s feeling about the next one.

Audrey Hobert has been one of the defining new pop stars of 2026, rising to fame — gradually — with her 2025 album “Who’s the Clown?” after co-writing credits on some of her longtime friend Gracie Abrams’s biggest hits. In her interview with Popcast, Audrey Hobert discusses the relatable persona that’s been a through line in her songwriting, and why she identifies as “weird” but not “awkward.”

Damn, this has been a long time coming. Five years elapsed between 2011’s Worship Music and 2016’s For All Kings, but Scott Ian and co. have managed to double the wait time and taken a full decade to deliver this, their twelfth studio album. However, the drought has ended with a glorious tsunami of prime Anthrax.

Of course, there was the small matter of the pandemic to get through, plus chief riff writer/drummer Charlie Benante and lyricist/guitarist Scott Ian suffering somewhat from writer’s block. Now that it’s here and suddenly bludgeoning you about the ears, though, you realise what’s been missing from heavy music for the past 10 years. It feels more epic and more compelling because of the wait; the cryptic Latin poetry of the title – translating as ‘my journey ends here’ – encompasses the finality of its arrival.

Despite the title, though, this is definitely not the end, or even the twilight, of Anthrax’s career – they couldn’t sound more alive and metal-thrashing mad than this if they tried. Teaming up with producer Jay Ruston for a third time, the result is satisfyingly weighty, dense with ideas and packed with great riffs – a furious, playful, slammingly serious return to form.

Kicking off with the short introductory passage Persistence Of Memory, the album proper begins with The Long Goodbye, about Ian’s dad’s battle with Alzheimer’s. That emotional, grand, melodic, mid-paced opener is followed by It’s For The Kids, a straight-up Anthrax thrasher in classic style, complete with pounding mosh part.

The strong opening one-two merely hints at the riches to come: an imaginative blend of flame-throwing speed and more mid-paced but no less aggressive, melodic metal. There are full-on, breakneck thrash monsters like NYC 93, the lightspeed blur that is Watch It Go, the crushing Target On My Back (TOMB) and the thunderous technical bruiser My Victory. Everybody’s Got A Plan and Infectious – including a callback to Captain Trips from 1987’s Among The Living – duke it out for the album’s earworm prize, and the immense title track and The Edge Of Perfection compete with The Long Goodbye for sheer scale and drama.

The variety is hugely impressive, the delivery a hundred per cent on-point. Hopefully this album marks not just the end of one journey but the beginning of a latter-career renaissance. And let’s have the next in under a decade, please.

Album Review: Banks Arcade – Second Place Superstar

Reviewed by Dan Barnes

New Zealand metalcore outfit, Banks Arcade, are all set to issue their second full length album, Second Place Superstar, before the end of the month, four years after the Future Lovers debut and two following the EP, Death 2, which found the four-piece as tour support to King 810 exactly a year ago. Those shows were the Kiwi’s first forays onto British soil, with the summer of 2026 seeing them back in Blighty for a run of shows that cumulated at the 2000 Trees Festival where they shared billing with, among others, Cancer Bats, The Wildhearts and Funeral for a Friend.

Opening with Move, which was played back on last year’s King 810 tour, it introduces the record with an electronic eighties sci-fi vibe, built on a pulsing bass line, courtesy of Harlan Allen-Jones and a huge beatdown, it’s a precursor to what Second Hand Superstar is all about.

Banks Arcade is an example of modern metal searching further afield for inspiration; gone are the days when bands of the Seventies and Eighties would feed into the creative process, now it’s about crossing genres and styles: that’s why, here you’ll be greeted by the alternate/ electronics of Don’t Miss, the pop sensibilities of Severance, and the hip-hop rhythms of Know Me.

Yet those tunes are not without their biting guitars and gut-punch low-end. Yuck uses hip-hop beats and overlays a hefty stomp and crunching guitars, Last Time opens with fragile Oriental pipes, adding layer upon layer of heaviness as drummer, James Feekes, navigates his way around the maze of rhythms needed for this track.

Vocalist Joshua O’Donnell’s range is certainly put through the paces as he moves from sorrowful laments to full-on screams, often multiple times within the same song. His musical combination with guitar partner, Benny Canham, yields heavy riffs and uncompromising brutality on the connected Sweat and 000, while Joshua bleeds emotionally wrought vocals.

That juxtaposition is repeated on Wait, where the opening calm electronics build to a maelstrom of rage and ire. Rockstar – thankfully not a Nic****ack cover – features the lyric from which the album takes its name and feels like a deconstruction of modern metal in which the creative force takes those influential elements that has shaped their craft and fuse them into a new musical creation.

Mirror was aired at Trees in the summer, unveiling a hard-hitting low end and an ethereal, emotionally tortured vocal, and album closer, Have Faith, resists the urge to have one final blast and, instead, maintains the ambience to the end.

Second Hand Superstar is a confident blend of electronics, harsh urban beats, abrasive, discordant guitars and emotional introspection; throw into some grinding and emo-pop and you’ll get something of an idea of what Banks Arcade is about.

They follow in the footsteps of the likes of Architects, Bring Me the Horizon and Northlane, who see hard rock/ heavy metal as merely another arrow in their musical quiver, refusing to be wholly defined by the genre boundaries.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

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B.B. King will be the focus of a new installment in The Montreux Years series featuring previously unreleased live recordings from the blues legend’s appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival.

B.B. King: The Montreux Years will be released November 20 via BMG. The collection draws from nine of King’s 23 appearances at the festival, with performances recorded between 1982 and 2000.

The CD and digital editions feature recordings from all nine selected appearances, while the vinyl edition includes material from eight shows. The collection will be available on 2LP vinyl with printed inner sleeves, a 2CD digisleeve with booklet, and HD digital formats.

The recordings were restored and newly mastered from the original tapes by Tony Cousins at Metropolis Studios in London. All but one of the recordings are receiving their first official release.

The first single, “Early in the Mornin’,” is out now. Recorded during King’s 2000 Montreux performance, the song pays tribute to one of his musical influences, Louis Jordan. An accompanying video features footage from King’s 2000 festival appearance.

B.B. King: The Montreux Years was created in collaboration with the B.B. King Estate and Montreux Jazz Festival team under license from Montreux Sounds. The release also features rare and previously unseen photographs along with liner notes from B.B. King biographer Daniel de Visé, assisted by King’s longtime bassist Michael Doster.

King, born Riley B. King in Mississippi on September 16, 1925, became one of the most influential blues musicians of the 20th century. With his distinctive guitar style and famed Gibson guitar Lucille, King influenced generations of musicians, including Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix.

During his career, King won 15 Grammy Awards and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Blues Hall of Fame.

King developed a long relationship with the Montreux Jazz Festival and its founder, Claude Nobs, eventually appearing at the festival 23 times.

The new collection includes “Guess Who” from King’s 1982 appearance, “Rock Me Baby” from 1984, “Caldonia” from 1987 and “The Thrill Is Gone” from 1990. Later performances include “All Over Again,” “Blues Boys Tune” and “Stormy Monday” from 1995, along with “Early in the Mornin’” from 2000.

The 2CD and HD digital editions feature four additional recordings, including a 1991 performance of “Let The Good Times Roll.”

The Montreux Years series launched in 2021 using recordings from the extensive Montreux Jazz Festival archives. Previous editions have featured artists including Nina Simone, Etta James, Muddy Waters, Dr. John, Roberta Flack, John McLaughlin and Chick Corea.

Tracklisting:

2LP

Side A

1. All Over Again (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1993)*
2. Ain’t Nobody Home (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
3. Blues Boys Tune (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)

Side B

1. Blues In A (Live at Casino Montreux 1989)
2. The Thrill Is Gone (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
3. When It All Comes Down (I’ll Still Be Around) (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)

Side C

1. Early In The Mornin’ (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 2000)
2. Caldonia (Live at Casino Montreux 1987)
3. Guess Who (Live at Casino Montreux 1982)

Side D

1. Rock Me Baby (Live at Casino Montreux 1984)
2. Stormy Monday (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)

2CD

CD One

1. All Over Again (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1993)*
2. Ain’t Nobody Home (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
3. Blues Boys Tune (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)
4. Blues In A (Live at Casino Montreux 1989)
5. The Thrill Is Gone (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
6. When It All Comes Down (I’ll Still Be Around) (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)
7. You Know I Love You (Live at Casino Montreux 1989)**

CD Two

1. Early In The Mornin’ (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 2000)
2. Caldonia (Live at Casino Montreux 1987)
3. Guess Who (Live at Casino Montreux 1982)
4. Rock Me Baby (Live at Casino Montreux 1984)
5. Stormy Monday (Live at Auditorium Stravinski 1995)
6. Into The Night (Live at Casino Montreux 1991)**
7. Go On (Live at Casino Montreux 1990)**
8. Let The Good Times Roll (Live at Casino Montreux 1991)**

HD Digital: tracklisting as per 2CD

* Previously released ** 2CD and HD digital only

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