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Just ahead of their North American run with All Shall Perish, Carnifex & Mauled.

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Scorpions are marking six decades of hard rock with a new official book documenting the band’s career from its beginnings in Hannover to worldwide success.

Scorpions – 60 Illustrated Years is being released through Rufus Publications and has been assembled over more than two years with the band’s involvement. The book spans more than 670 full-color pages and includes hundreds of rare and previously unseen photographs covering the band’s history.

Scorpions have sold more than 100 million albums around the world, establishing themselves among the most commercially successful hard rock acts ever. The new book traces that journey through archival photography and material from across the band’s six-decade run.

The collection will be available in three editions, with the Deluxe and Epic editions featuring signatures from Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs, Mikkey Dee, Paweł Mąciwoda, and Uli Jon Roth.

The Standard Edition measures 220mm square and features a hardback cover housed inside a cloth slipcase. It is priced at £95 plus worldwide shipping.

The Signed Deluxe Edition is larger at 300mm square and is hand-signed by Rudolf Schenker, Klaus Meine, Matthias Jabs, Mikkey Dee, Paweł Mąciwoda, and Uli Jon Roth. The recycled leather-bound book comes in a red slipcase featuring an inlaid 3D lenticular. Only 500 numbered copies will be produced, with the edition priced at £300 plus worldwide shipping.

At the top of the range is the Epic Leather and Metal Edition. Measuring 375mm square, the edition is hand-signed by Klaus Meine, Rudolf Schenker, Matthias Jabs, Mikkey Dee, Paweł Mąciwoda, and Uli Jon Roth. The recycled leather-bound book is hand-bound and housed in a unique hand-welded metal slipcase with an inlaid 3D lenticular. Just 100 numbered copies will be available, priced at £595 plus worldwide shipping.

The project gives Scorpions fans a substantial visual record of a career that has taken the band from Hannover’s rock scene to arenas and stages around the world, with three collector-focused editions aimed at fans who want something more than another standard band biography.

Scorpions – 60 Illustrated Years is available to pre-order here.

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Most people just consume the doomscroll.

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Fleetwood Mac‘s catalog covers far more ground than their classic-rock and AOR reputation might suggest. That makes the band’s music an interesting target for a metal tribute, and Steel Rumours – The Songs Of Fleetwood Mac Reforged In Metal takes full advantage of that range.

The upcoming album features 12 reworked Fleetwood Mac songs spanning several periods of the band’s career. The material reaches back to their blues-driven beginnings, the heavier guitar work associated with Peter Green in the early 1970s, the darker and more underground direction that followed, and the pop-rock success of the Buckingham-Nicks years.

The lineup brings together musicians from across the metal world, including Lorraine Lewis of Femme Fatale, Holly West and Fred Aching of Dead Groove, Candice Night of Blackmore’s Night, Corey Parks of Nashville Pussy, Tim “Ripper” Owens of Judas Priest, Ronnie Romero of Rainbow, and Vinnie Appice of Black Sabbath.

The tracklist moves from early Fleetwood Mac material such as “Black Magic Woman” and “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown)” through later favorites including “Little Lies,” “Everywhere,” “Rhiannon,” “Gypsy,” and “Dreams.” Stevie Nicks’s solo hit “Edge of 17” also gets the metal treatment.

The latest preview is “Go Your Own Way,” Fleetwood Mac‘s 1977 hit that reached the Top 10 and eventually went six-times platinum.

Joel Hoekstra of Whitesnake, Night Ranger, and Trans-Siberia Orchestra handles guitar alongside Greyson Nekrutman of Sepultura on drums. The track also features veteran metal vocalist Doro Pesch, whose career includes a historic appearance at the Monsters of Rock festival in 1986 and a long run with Doro.

The arrangement pushes the song into heavier territory, with sharper guitar work and a more forceful rhythm section. Doro‘s vocal performance gives the track a darker edge, while Hoekstra takes a fresh approach to one of the song’s most recognizable elements: its guitar solo.

“I’ve always liked the song,” says Doro, “And it was fun to give it a new twist—especially with a great guitarist like Joel Hokstra and powerhouse drummer Greyson Nekrutman.”

Steel Rumours – The Songs Of Fleetwood Mac Reforged In Metal arrives November 20. The collection offers a chance to hear familiar Fleetwood Mac material through the filter of metal musicians, with the album covering several distinct eras of the band’s catalog.

For metal fans who already know the songs, the appeal is hearing how far these arrangements can be pushed. For everyone else, it is another excuse to dig into Fleetwood Mac‘s deeper musical history.

Pre-order the digital edition of the album here. CD/Vinyl pre-orders coming soon.

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The trailer for Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple arrived this morning, and it shows something genuinely remarkable: Tool’s Danny Carey, the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, The Police’s Stewart Copeland and Porcupine Tree’s Gavin Harrison all taking turns behind the kit, jamming Rush classics with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. The documentary premieres September 23 on CBC. And on the same day the trailer landed, the woman who actually has that job now described the five seconds that frightened her most.

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What’s in the documentary

Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple premieres September 23 via CBC, celebrating the life, work and influence of a man the drumming world simply called The Professor.

Banger Films assisted with the production, which matters — the Toronto company made Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage in 2010, still the definitive Rush documentary, so this isn’t an outside crew arriving cold. They know the band and the band trust them.

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson both take part.

And then there’s the part the trailer leads on. Four drummers who counted Peart as an influence and a friend get behind the kit and play Rush songs with the two surviving members:

Danny Carey — Tool Chad Smith — Red Hot Chili Peppers Stewart Copeland — The Police Gavin Harrison — Porcupine Tree

That’s four of the most accomplished drummers alive, from four completely different traditions, all sitting in the same chair for an afternoon and grinning about it.

And Anika Nilles is in it too.

The difference between one afternoon and every night

Here’s what makes this land.

For Carey, Smith, Copeland and Harrison, playing Neil Peart’s parts with Geddy and Alex is a privilege and a laugh. They get to do it once, in a room, with cameras rolling, and then go home.

Nilles has to do it in front of a paying Rush audience, three hours a night, across a tour that’s been extended twice.

The 34-year-old German fusion drummer was chosen for the Fifty Something tour covering 2026 and 2027. She’d toured with Jeff Beck in 2022 — which is how Geddy Lee first noticed her, telling The Guardian in 2023 that he’d thought she was terrific on that run.

What she wasn’t, by her own admission, was a Rush fan. Asked by Thomann’s Drum Bash whether she knew the catalogue before being approached, she was completely honest: she knew Neil as a drummer, especially in connection with “Tom Sawyer,” because that’s a classic in the drum community. But she’d never really listened to Rush’s music, despite growing up on rock and progressive music. For whatever reason, she’d simply never stumbled into it.

Every song, she says, was a blank page.

The five seconds before the fill

If you play drums, you know the one. If you don’t, you know it anyway — you just don’t know that you know it.

The fill in “Tom Sawyer” is arguably the most famous few seconds of drumming in rock. It’s the thing every kid tries first. It’s the reason Rush crowds hold their breath.

Nilles played it for the first time in public on June 7 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, opening night of the tour.

Her account of that moment, given to David Frangioni for Modern Drummer: five seconds before the fill she was telling herself, right, let’s go, don’t mess it up, and go.

She laughed about it afterwards, adding that maybe that was the audience’s thought too.

The crowd’s reaction caught her off guard. She said she was a bit taken aback by what was going on, but that it felt really good to get that one off the table. It was the most important song for the fans, she reckoned, and for her — and nailing it was a genuine relief.

That’s about as human as an interview answer gets, and it’s the reason this story travels.

The rehearsal that nearly ended it

The part most people don’t know is that it almost didn’t happen.

Lifeson told Classic Rock earlier this year that after four days of rehearsals, he and Lee sat down and weren’t sure. It wasn’t quite working with the three of them, and they’d started to think about continuing with someone else, just to see how that felt.

Nilles felt it too. Her version: on day four, she also thought she might not be up to the task. The sticking point was “Tom Sawyer” — she had to learn what Neil’s feel actually was to them, within a single session.

So she went back to the hotel and worked. No practice kit. She sat on the bed and replayed the parts on pillows, going back through everything Geddy and Alex had told her. She called her producer, a guitarist and a lifelong Rush fan, who told her she’d nail it and to listen to the songs a few more times.

The next day it was there.

Lifeson’s description of day five: she took every comment about feel, about Neil’s playing, about being conscious of what he could do — and nailed the songs all day. A real wow moment.

Lee’s take is the one that explains why she got the job. She suddenly changed gears and it all clicked. She processed the information and applied it. They were playing, she was smiling, and there was eye contact — the drummer and bass player thing he’s relied on for decades, and it was fun. And he thought: if she comes on this ride, it’s going to be so good for us, because she brings a completely different energy.

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Why they didn’t hire a famous rock drummer

Worth including, because it’s the question everybody asked and Geddy answered it properly.

Speaking to Brazilian TV programme Fantástico, Lee explained they deliberately wanted to avoid the obvious comparisons. Bring in a drummer from one famous band or another and it becomes too easy to make comments — and he knows what the internet is like and what fan arguments look like.

What appealed about Nilles was how well she plays and her technical ability. That she came from a different genre never really occurred to them. They wanted somebody fresh, someone with a story, someone whose story their fans would welcome.

Lifeson added the context nobody expects: they weren’t looking for a drummer at all, because there was no plan to tour. He’d gone back and forth on the idea of the road entirely. Then he and Geddy got together, started playing, invariably ended up on Rush songs, and had so much fun with material they hadn’t touched in years that the idea took on a life of its own.

Lee’s version is shorter and funnier: the reason they never discussed what style of drummer they wanted is that they had no plans to come back. Then it happened, and they said — okay, now we need a drummer, do you know any?

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The Canadian thing

We’re based in the Hamilton and Toronto area, so we’ll say this plainly: this is a Canadian story from top to bottom.

Rush formed in Willowdale, Toronto. Neil Peart was born in Hamilton and grew up in St. Catharines. Banger Films are Toronto-based. And the documentary premieres on CBC — the national broadcaster, not a streaming service, which is a genuinely old-fashioned and rather lovely way to do it.

For anyone who grew up here, Rush aren’t a band so much as a fixture, and this year has been extraordinary for it — Triumph out on their own fiftieth anniversary run, Rush back on the road, and a national broadcast honouring a drummer from Hamilton.

Peart remains, by any reasonable measure, one of the most influential musicians the country produced and one of the handful of players whose approach genuinely changed how the instrument is understood.

Where the tour goes

The Fifty Something tour has been extended twice. When Lee and Lifeson announced the initial 2026 dates in October 2025 they sold out instantly, the run was doubled, and more dates have been added since — four new US cities went on sale this week.

The shows are billed as “evening with” performances, two sets a night, with each night’s setlist drawn from a rotating catalogue of around forty songs. Loren Gold — a touring member of The Who and Chicago — is on keyboards.

Danny Carey, meanwhile, is out with Tool this month at Riot Fest, Louder Than Life and Aftershock — alongside a frontman who’s just had a hip replaced and refused to cancel anything. If you’re planning the rest of the year, our touring guide has the wider picture.

TL;DR

• The documentary: Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple premieres September 23, 2026 on CBC, with production assistance from Banger Films, who made Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage in 2010.
• Who’s in it: Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, plus Danny Carey (Tool), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Stewart Copeland (The Police) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree), all jamming Rush songs from behind the kit.
• Also featured: Anika Nilles, Rush’s current touring drummer.
• Her story: she played the “Tom Sawyer” fill publicly for the first time on June 7 at the Kia Forum, and has described telling herself not to mess it up in the five seconds beforehand.
• The near-miss: after four days of rehearsals Lee and Lifeson weren’t sure it was working. Nilles went back to her hotel and practised the parts on pillows. Day five, it clicked.
• Why her: Lee has said they deliberately avoided a famous rock drummer to sidestep the obvious comparisons, and wanted someone fresh with a story their fans would welcome.

FAQ

Four of the best drummers alive got one afternoon in that chair. One woman does it every night, and she still had to tell herself not to mess it up. Which drummer would you most want to see behind that kit? Tell us below. And keep it locked on the Loaded Radio stream — follow Loaded Radio for daily rock and metal news.

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Several days after speaking with Kevn Kinney, I watched a storm roll across the mesas outside Taos, New Mexico. Purple lightning split the sky, eventually forcing Drivin N Cryin’s scheduled outdoor performance indoors. The band adjusted. Instead of the full-throttle rock show one might expect from a group that has spent nearly four decades making […]

Haunt and The Hunt will be joining them in San Francisco this December.

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A musician is bringing his Japan-inspired sushi concept to Arizona, complete with a signature roll named after one of his bands. Continue reading…

Delain will be joined by Marko Hietala and more during that run.

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70000 Tons Of Metal is adding more firepower to its 2027 lineup, with Exodus and Exmortus now confirmed for the next edition of the massive metal cruise.

The festival will depart from Miami, Florida, on January 14, 2027, heading to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, before returning to Miami on January 18. The event will take place aboard Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas.

The current lineup, listed alphabetically, features Abigail Williams, Æther Realm, Arch Enemy, Battlelore, Brainstorm, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Enforcer, Equilibrium, Evergrey, Exmortus, Exodus, HammerFall, Melechesh, Moonspell, Mors Principium Est, Naglfar, Obscura, Origin, Primal Fear, Rhapsody, Uli Jon Roth, Sinister, Thulcandra, Warbringer, and Ye Banished Privateers.

More bands are expected to join the bill in the coming weeks, with the final event set to feature 60 metal acts from around the world.

The cruise combines multiple days of live metal with artist-hosted activities, meet-and-greets, and plenty of opportunities for fans to interact with the musicians away from the stage. Performances will take place across four stages, including the Pool Deck Stage, billed as “The World’s Biggest Open Air Stage Structure to Ever Sail the Open Seas.”

With only 3,000 tickets available, the event is designed to keep the crowd relatively small compared with a conventional large-scale festival. Organizers describe that community as the “United Nations of Heavy Metal at Sea”.

For metal fans looking to make the trip, the 2027 edition offers four days at sea, a stop in the Dominican Republic, and a lineup that already spans thrash, death metal, black metal, power metal, folk metal, and other corners of the genre.

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