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Last Rites have just released their first single.

The Spitting Pips burst out of the gate with Green Eyes, an irresistible blend of indie rock and raw rock ‘n’ roll swagger. Punchy riffs, infectious melodies, and high-octane rhythms fuel a track that radiates carefree summer energy without sacrificing grit or attitude. The band’s spirited performance and polished production strike a perfect balance between garage-rock urgency and festival-ready hooks, making every chorus impossible to resist. Vibrant, anthemic, and packed with personality, Green Eyes is an exhilarating reminder that great rock music still thrives on pure adrenaline and memorable songwriting.

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From First To Last have just signed with Fearless Records,

And the bands played on. Saturday at Maid of Stone was nicely Metal-skewed with a good balance between the old guard and the new.

Maid of Stone Festival – Saturday 18 July 2026

Words: Liz Medhurst – Paul Monkhouse

Photography: Gina Smith

Having headlined the Firestarter stage previously, it was only right that Häxan had graduated to the main stage, and the Welsh three-piece grabbed the morning opening set with a ferocity and almost indecent haste that cleared any sleep-filled heads instantly.

Armed with a set full of crushing numbers with real punch, the grit and melodicism of songs like Thirteenth Hour proved just how good the band are and with much more to come.

Another band on the rise are Untamed Silence. Fresh from dates opening for Saxon, the quartet blend hard rock with soulful vocals and emotional honesty, the big riffs driving the engine.

Airing songs from their debut The Great Majority and some new material especially for Maid Of Stone, the band are just hitting their stride and proved to be another great find for many. 

Xander & The Peace Pirates brought the blues to Inferno, and the remarkable voice of the man himself is equally as impressive as his playing.

Few had seen a one-armed guitarist, but Keith Xander is such an extraordinary artist that his tone and feel quickly become the focus point, and the band kick up a storm. The many plaudits they have already earned are well deserved.

Despite an early afternoon slot, Kit Trigg partied like it was Saturday night, the trio giving it everything in a riotous performance of all-out rock ‘n’ roll, perfect for the sunny weather. Groove, melody and compelling presence all receiving top marks.

Girlschool are legends. Pioneers in the NWOBHM movement, the longest-running all-female rock band in history, they bring a wealth of material and experience to the stage, and to see them play is still a thing of absolute wonder, the passion of Kim McAuliffe lighting up the stage.

With Larry Patterson standing in for an unwell Denise Dufort, the band brought energy, power and a complete Metal vibe. A celebratory feel imbues the whole set as bass player Olivia Airey celebrates her birthday and Nothing To Lose, Emergency and Race With The Devil soundtrack the party in mighty style.

Another band to impress on the Firestarter stage was Rattlesnakes, the Nottinghamshire band formed in 2024. The spirit of NWOBHM was strong,  winning over the crowd with sheer charisma, not to mention fantastic visual appeal with powerful vocalist Rowena Neale’s giant white furry boots. Ones to watch for sure. 

Much feted, the question on many lips was would LN live up to the buzz of anticipation. The fact they became one of the biggest sensations of the whole festival speaks volumes and confirms that, for once, the hype was justified.

Having gently lulled the crowd in the VIP section with an acoustic set earlier in the day, this was a full-blooded display of wild, Pagan Viking Metal that shook the stage like a battle cry.

Huge and heroic songs hewn from ancient mountains and snaking rhythms as old as the sea itself were accompanied by tribal energy and a head on a pole.

Truly mesmerising and exhilarating in equal parts, this invasion was one to be welcomed by everyone. Expect massive shows to feature heavily in their future.

With tours opening for Motörhead and Skindred amongst others, the UK has already welcomed Danko Jones and the feeling of love and respect seems mutual, the Canadian trio happily at home in front of the Kent audience.

Certainly there is no holding them back as their punk-infused hard rock stylings blended high-energy performances that bristled with more than a little danger.

Whilst most of their fellow countrymen are known to be endlessly polite, when vocalist and guitarist Jones, drummer Rich Knox and bass player John ‘JC’ Calabrese turn things up to ten, the gloves are most definitely off.

Realistically, it did not matter whether Phil Campbell’s Bastard Sons played well or not, as 100% of the crowd were behind them in paying tribute to the much-loved and missed Motörhead guitarist who passed only four months ago.

In the event, the quartet of Todd (with his father’s guitar complete with infamous strap), Tyla and Dane Campbell plus vocalist Julian Jenkins of Fury delivered a 10/10 display of blistering hard rock.

Opening to the sound of Phil’s immense guitar playing, then his voice introducing Heroes, the band only needed a few bars before guaranteeing that there would not be a dry eye in the field, then tearing through a selection of Motörhead classics and originals.

With a spectacular photograph of Phil, taken by MetalTalk’s Paul Hutchings, adorning the drum kit, his presence was felt in what was part tribute, part memorial and fully a great set by anyone’s standards.

After waiting a year due to needing to pull out at the last minute in 2025, Southampton Power Metallers Battle Born were here to make up for lost time. Frontman Jack Reynolds literally leapt onto the stage to begin, and the intensity was not turned down at all.

Plenty of prominent keyboards alongside the twin guitar assault added to the cinematic feel. A chaotic and very, very good set. 

Even before the set had started, a glimpse of the Metal Queen Doro waiting in the wings before the start of her set provoked a mass chanting of her name.

With one banging anthem after another, from the days of Warlock with Burning The Witches and All We Are, to the more recent Time For Justice, all eyes were on Doro as she bounded across the stage, fist raised, pulling the entire arena along with her, even at one point waving a giant personalised flag.

A devoted crowd, an inspirational front woman and a smoking hot band, this was top-class traditional Heavy Metal, although to get all hippy for a moment it was just as much about love given and received. Doro Für Immer.

People used to be amazed that trios could make so much noise, but duo The Virginmarys sound like a Jumbo Jet taking off. Vocalist and guitarist Ally Dickaty, along with drummer Danny Dolan, exude raw energy and generate enough power to light up Maidstone and most of Kent.

Trippin’ New York City was one of a number of tracks from the forthcoming Beyond The House Of Fires that show the best is yet to come.

Saxon are festival veterans and forty-six years after playing the inaugural Monsters Of Rock they came to Maid Of Stone with a point to prove. With a string of some of the best-loved songs in Metal, this was going to be a masterclass with Biff Byford, the consummate frontman, his voice in commanding form and his skills equal to that of any circus showman.

As shown by a string of recent albums that have been critically and publicly acclaimed, Saxon are certainly not ready to quit yet, and the addition of Brian Tatler to their line-up was a masterstroke, the Diamond Head legend bringing his own stylings to the classic Saxon sound.

It is impossible to argue with the set-list as everything is here. Wheels Of Steel, Princess Of The Night, Motorcycle Man and (747) Strangers In The Night bristled with power and glory. A welcome airing of Dallas 1 P.M. brought some drama, and an anthemic Denim And Leather saw some synchronised headbanging onstage and in the crowd.

The crowd choosing The Eagle Has Landed over Broken Heroes was a disappointment to both Biff and this writer, but there is always the hope of it featuring in their forthcoming tour to support the new album due in January.

For those who remember seeing Saxon on their early tours, this was a reminder that they are still flying the flag for Heavy Metal as one of its leading outfits, and for those few seeing the band for the first time, it was a chance to witness something truly special.

Few bands are as dedicated to the cause and put their all into every performance as Saxon, and on Saturday night they showed exactly why they are the influential and much-loved kings of what they do.

Unbeatable.

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Maid Of Stone: A Festival That Rocks

Now in its fourth year, Maid Of Stone has firmly established itself as a must-attend event for rock fans. With a wide variety of music styles covered, the festival’s reputation continues to grow.

MetalTalk’s 2026 team was Liz Medhurst, Paul Monkhouse with photography by Gina Smith.

Set to be a highlight of Festival Season, MetalTalk will have more news very soon. All our coverage for 2026 will be found MetalTalk.net/maid-of-stone.

Tickets are available now for 2027. For full details and to grab your tickets, visit MaidOfStoneFestival.com.

MetalTalk’s Maid Of Stone 2025 coverage can be found at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/maid-of-stone-festival-2025.

MetalTalk’s Maid Of Stone 2024 coverage can be found at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/maid-of-stone-festival-2024.

For MetalTalk’s Maid Of Stone 2023 coverage, visit https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/maid-of-stone-festival-2023.

The post Maid of Stone Saturday – Where Heavy Metal’s Future Met Its Legends first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

Trip Tease delivers ambient electronica at its finest with Jaguar, an immersive instrumental that unfolds through lush textures, subtle rhythms, and beautifully layered sound design. Blending downtempo grooves with ethereal atmospheres, the track creates a hypnotic listening experience that feels equally suited for introspective moments and late-night escapes. Every element is given room to breathe, resulting in a composition that is both elegant and emotionally resonant. Cinematic, soothing, and meticulously crafted, Jaguar is another impressive showcase of Trip Tease’s refined electronic vision.

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Massimo Cambiano blur the boundaries between alternative electronic, psychedelia, and indie with Everything Just Out Of Reach, a mesmerizing meditation on longing and acceptance. Dreamlike textures, pulsing rhythms, and immersive production create a hazy sonic landscape where introspective vocals drift effortlessly through waves of electronic ambience. The track embraces emotional uncertainty without seeking easy answers, allowing its understated melodies and hypnotic atmosphere to leave a lasting impression. Thoughtful, atmospheric, and quietly captivating, Everything Just Out OfReach is a beautifully crafted journey into the spaces between desire and contentment.

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If there was one subject that was like catnip to thrashers in the 1980s, it was man-made environmental destruction. Kreator had Toxic Trace, Testament offered Greenhouse Effect, while Nuclear Assault spoiled ecologically minded fans with climate collapse bangers Critical Mass and Inherited Hell.

Metallica made a late contribution with the ecological doom of Blackened, the opening track on their 1988 album …And Justice for All.

Opening the album with a theme of apocalyptic annihilation, Hetfield imagines Earth’s destruction in the aftermath of a nuclear winter. If the 1984 film Threads was ever turned into a musical, Blackened would be the showstopper: ‘Death of Mother Earth, never a rebirth, evolution’s end, never will it mend, never…’

The song’s genesis falls squarely at the feet of bassist Jason Newsted, who’d joined the band just weeks after the death of Cliff Burton.

As bassist in Flotsam and Jetsam, he co-wrote the music on their debut Doomsday for the Deceiver and was the band’s primary lyricist. After recording his parts for The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited, he was keen to contribute ideas for their fourth studio album.

The bassist had a four-track Tascam recorder set up in his Bay Area apartment and kept returning to one particular riff while working on ideas.

“The main riff is mine,” Newsted told Guitar World in 2013. “I wrote it on bass, though. I’ve never told this story before, and it warms me a bit. I’d only been in the band for a very short time. I was still in a little one-bedroom rented apartment. And James would come over to the house, like buddies. He’d come over for dinner. We’d hang out and play guitars on the couch. It was pretty fucking dreamy for me. Metallica was my favourite band.

“I’m fucking around with this riff and then he started playing along,” he continued. “The song started forming right at that time. I’m sitting up in my chair, like, ‘Holy shit, dude. This is something!’ That was the first thing we ever constructed together. And him going, “Dude, that riff’s good enough to open our fucking album,” really gave me a feeling of victory, because I looked up to him greatly, and still do to this day.”

You can hear the song’s progression – and Newsted’s complex bassline – through a series of demo tapes included in the 30th-anniversary reissue of …And Justice for All. The song would earn Newsted his first of three co-writing credits throughout his 14-year tenure (My Friend of Misery and Where the Wild Things Are would follow).

On the album itself, Blackened opens with the sound of multi-tracked guitars played backwards which sounds like they’re ominously unraveling. When the song starts properly, it begins quickly and continues apace for its duration.

You have to really stay on top of all the the starts and stops and tempo changes.

Lars Ulrich

Blackened is the seventh fastest in Metallica’s extensive back catalogue, and surprisingly, is a fraction slower than the …And Justice For All closer Dyers Eve. The song averages 190 beats per minute and changes tempo a staggering 19 times. This can pose its own challenges for the band’s timekeeper, especially during a physically punishing two-hour set.

“It’s great when music leaves your head and inhabits your body, but there are some Metallica songs where you need to keep thinking,” Ulrich told the BBC. “Like Blackened, for instance, you have to really stay on top of all the starts and stops and tempo changes. ‘Here it comes. Four bars away, I hope I don’t screw this up!’”

Blackened debuted at MTK Stadion in Budapest in September 1988 on the Damaged Justice tour and became a regular fixture in the set list, even when their lengthy Justice songs were later condensed into a medley.

Fast-forward more than three decades, Hetfield looked to this specific track for inspiration during the pandemic. He reimagined Blackened as a surly, apocalyptic cowboy singalong as a way for his bandmates to overcome the challenges of being in quarantine and play music together again, albeit remotely.

“I kind of got a little annoyed and pissed,” Hetfield told Steffan Chirazi for the band’s own So What? fan club magazine. “What would be a great thing to reconnect the band again? Why not take a song and just mess around with it? So I got Blackened… I don’t know, there’s just something that clicked for me, and I just said, ‘Hey, guys, here’s a challenge. I’m going to send you something. You add onto it. You’re musicians.’

“I had an acoustic mic and my regular vocal mic and just threw it down on a couple different tracks,” he adds. “I said, ‘Hey, put whatever you feel you want to on this. Let’s have fun with this, don’t study it, don’t over-listen to it, just feel it.’ And Blackened 2020 is what happened from that, and that was the beginning of the reconnection online with our creative flow.”

Almost four decades later, Blackened remains a fan favourite and an integral part of the band’s identity, inspiring the name of their record label and American whiskey. It has been performed over 550 times since 1988, including the band’s recent summer show at London Stadium. A masterpiece.

Seid live dabei, wenn die ersten Gitarrenriffs auf dem Holy Ground erklingen. Erlebt das Festival vom 29.07. bis 01.08. kostenlos im Livestream bei MagentaTV. Neben überwältigenden Shows erwarten euch exklusive Interviews und weitere Festival-Highlights. Schaltet ein, denn live lebt nur einmal.

ZUM LIVESTREAM

Der Beitrag Der Holy Ground kommt zu euch erschien zuerst auf Live, laut, legendär!.

ShiShi‘s Black Birds is an intriguing collision of alternative rock and hip-hop, wrapped in a noir atmosphere steeped in existential tension and quiet nihilism. Shadowy beats, cinematic textures, and emotionally charged vocals intertwine with rhythmic spoken-word passages, creating a sound that feels both haunting and unpredictable. The track thrives on its stark contrasts, balancing raw intensity with introspective lyricism and immersive production. Dark, compelling, and fearlessly unconventional, Black Birds is a gripping statement from an artist unafraid to explore music’s darker emotional landscapes.

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Swedish guitarist and vocalist Rogga Johansson is undisputedly Death Metal’s most prolific artist. In his career of over twenty-five years, he has been involved in the creation of well over two hundred releases. With over forty current bands and projects, this year so far has seen releases from Furnace, Heir Corpse One, Paganizer, Ravaged By The Yeti, Eye Of Purgatory, Skeletal Spectre and, in a few weeks, Megascavenger. Some might say he lives for the riff.

What’s the most Metal thing you’ve ever done off stage?
Not much really, I don’t even wear sunglasses.

What’s the worst gig you’ve ever played, and why?
A gig that was supposed to be cancelled, or our slot got cancelled. So I started drinking heavily, and then after a couple of hours, they said we could play. Needless to say, it didn’t go very well. After two songs with me struggling to understand how a guitar and mic worked, I just went off stage and continued drinking instead.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played, and why?
That’s a hard one, maybe Tarragona, Spain. Great gig and great audience. At one point, a guy from the audience was lying on the stage with his head stuck into the bass drum as we played. That was a bit odd.

Would you choose a platinum record or one perfect, legendary live show?
One live show doesn’t pay much, but if an album has gone platinum, that means lots of beer money, so I’d go for that.

What’s your greatest fear?
That the approaching intercosmic insect overlords don’t like Death Metal the simple way.

What’s the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I eat and drink too much. I’m a real pig, really. I mean, how hard should it be to show some constraint?

What’s the trait you most deplore in other musicians?
That all of them are so much better than me.

Describe yourself in three words.
Made of lard.

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?
I don’t know really. Should I feel guilty about pleasuring myself?

What does a great riff feel like to write?
It’s like opening the first cold beer of the day, and then drinking it.

What’s the worst thing a fan has ever said to you?
Nothing really, I don’t think I have any fans.

What’s the worst thing a critic has ever said to you?
I can’t recall really. I don’t check out reviews much. But I guess if they are indifferent to the music, it’s worse than if they dislike it. You can’t spell dislike without using like.

If you weren’t in music, what would you be doing?
I’m a one-trick pony, so I have no fucking idea really. I love reading, mainly horror. Maybe I would try to write my own horror stories.

What’s one album outside your genre you secretly love?
Contrary to what people might think, I listen to lots of different music in different genres. So something I secretly like implies that it might be cheesy or bad too. I don’t hate Taylor Swift. Let’s go for that answer.

When did you last cry, and why?
This morning when I walked past the mirror.

What keeps you awake at night?
Beer. Actually, it both keeps me awake and puts me to sleep, depending on the amount.

Riffs, royalties or recognition, if you had to choose?
Riffs. I don’t care for money, even though it sucks that I don’t have any. And recognition doesn’t mean much either. I do music because of a need that comes from inside. Not that I need for others to hear it. Even if I didn’t have labels wanting to release my stuff, I would still do it just as I need to.

How do you want to be remembered?
Thin and beautiful. But that ship has sailed. So I’ll go for being an ok guy that did his best for his family and friends.

What’s the most important lesson the road has taught you?
I will wrongfully assume you mean the book by Cormac McCarthy. The lesson I take from that book is that in a post-apocalyptic world, you should do your best to stay away from other people to avoid being eaten.

What happens when the music stops?
If it’s on tape, you rewind and push play again.

You can find more MetalTalk Lowdowns at metaltalk.net/Lowdown.

The post Rogga Johansson: Riffs Over Royalties, Every Time first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.