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Nicko McBrain has revealed his favourite Iron Maiden studio albums from worst to best.

The drummer, who retired from touring in 2024, took part in a recent fan event at his Rock n Roll Ribs restaurant in Coral Springs, Florida, led by Iron Maiden fan and podcaster Capnharris.

The albums were offered randomly, and the drummer was asked to place them in order of greatness on a presentation board featuring his flaxen puppet pal Sooty.

In a move that may shock and surprise fans, McBrain placed the band’s 1980 self-titled album at the bottom of the list.

“I’ll tell you what, the production on that wasn’t the greatest, but nevertheless, still a good album,” says the drummer.

McBrain picked the band’s 2006 album A Matter of Life and Death as his favourite studio album.

“That’s definitely my favourite album,” he reveals. “For the Greater Good of God, Lord of Light, The Legacy. It’s all pretty much perfect.”

Here’s how the drummer placed each album in order of greatness.

17. Iron Maiden
16. Virtual XI
15. No Prayer for the Dying
14. The X Factor
13. Killers
12. The Number of the Beast
11. The Final Frontier
10. Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
9. Fear of the Dark
8. Somewhere in Time
7. Brave New World
6. Dance of Death
5. The Book of Souls
4. Powerslave
3. Senjutsu
2. Piece of Mind
1. A Matter of Life and Death

McBrain will publish his autobiography Hello Boys And Girls through Harper Nonfiction on October 22.

The drummer says: “It’s been a real honour to write my very own autobiography and have the chance to walk down memory lane, revisiting all the experiences that have made me who I am and brought me to where I am today. And I’m thrilled and delighted to be taking those stories on the road and share them all with you. I feel truly blessed to be able to say Hello Boys And Girls to you all in person later this year. We’re going to have a lot of fun together, so come and join me for a great night out. I’ve got a LOT of stories I want to tell you all!”

He’ll embark on An Evening with Nicko McBrain tour from October 26 to promote his book. For tickets and dates, visit his official website.

The musician had stepped away from the band in June to focus on his health

Source

On Tuesday, Phoebe Bridgers was a surprise guest on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show. Her backing band was a group of very skilled kids, nodding to the “Lost Boys” she sang about in her Peter Pan-inspired comeback single. Yesterday, Bridgers returned to Fallon to perform an acoustic version of “Lost Boys,” the first single from her forthcoming album Lost Weekend. It may have only been a day, but the chorus’s “never grow up” premise no longer seemed to apply to her backing band.

The post Wanna Feel Old? This Is Phoebe Bridgers’ <em>Tonight Show</em> Band Now appeared first on Stereogum.

Posted on July 16th 2026, 12:23pm

Michael Jackson’s solo catalog traces one of the most dramatic artistic journeys in popular music, beginning with youthful Motown recordings and expanding into albums that transformed pop, R&B, dance music, rock, music video, and live performance. This complete discography follows his studio albums, posthumous releases, remix projects, live recordings, soundtracks, and selected compilations through 2026. Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958, and rose to fame as a child performer with the Jackson 5 before developing one of the most successful solo careers in music history. His early Motown albums documented the transition from child prodigy to young

The post Complete List Of Michael Jackson Albums And Discography appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

If you paid attention to what’s happening on a contemporary post-punk scene in recent years, you’ve probably noticed

Native James has officially joined the SharpTone Records family, and celebrated with the release of a new song alongside a genuine grime legend.

James had this to say about becoming part of the SharpTone legacy, now rubbing shoulders with the likes of Loathe, unpeople, Dying Wish and more:

“I can honestly say it’s insane that I’m signed to SharpTone; it feels like this will be a mad chapter for me, I’m gassed I won’t lie to you, and can’t wait to start working to give you more music!”

Whilst SharpTone themselves added, “We are beyond excited to welcome Native James to SharpTone. From the moment we first saw his incendiary performance in a tiny basement in East London, we just knew that we had to find a way to work together and be a part of his story. Native embodies everything that we strive for here at the label; originality, personality, and pure goddamn talent. We cannot wait to amplify that talent in what will inevitably be a very bright future.”

And with his first offering for the label, he demonstrates exactly why he is such a uniquely ambitious star.

Taking the heart and heat of a classic grime flow and adding in a caustic and crushing riff, it is crossover power at its finest. And in bringing in Frisco, known for being part of the iconic Boy Better Know, it is as special a co-sign as you are going to get. Metal and rap have always had a close relationship, but with tunes like this, Native James is opening whole new doors, and that should get you very excited indeed.

James had this to add about the track:

Never Been Scared is what it says on the tin. This song is for people who have felt a time where they need to overcome something, whether that be your personal best, an exam, getting up to to face challenges at work, life itself… it’s a power play to your internal, to remind yourself you can overcome whatever you want.”

The post Native James Releases Huge New Track ‘Never Been Scared’ Featuring Frisco appeared first on Rock Sound.

Little Dutch doom-death band Doomcult have been lurking around for 10 years, releasing three albums that haven’t earned them a large slice of mainstream notoriety. Starting life as the solo project of one J.G. Arts, Doomcult has been a vehicle for expressing J.G.’s adoration for the classic Peaceville-era sound made famous by My Dying Bride, Anathema, and Paradise Lost. Early albums played out like a love letter to the 90s Gothic-doom sound, with long, meandering compositions wallowing in chronic sadboi dysfunction. Fourth release, Sacrifice All Life, finds J.G. still running the show, but this time he brought in a vocalist to help round out the sound. The overall sonic blueprint has also been tweaked to incorporate more aggressive tempos and a greater death metal element to anger up the doomy musings. This makes for an interesting collection of tunes with a surprising amount of in-your-face heaviness and extremity.

Opener “Necromancer” wastes no time waking the dead with big, burly riffs. It feels more like High on Fire or Orange Goblin in spirit than classic doom-death, and the Peaceville-loving days seem a million miles away at first. Soon, roof-rattling leads that cleave closer to death metal ride roughshod as new vocalist Rens van Herp (or possibly J.G.) delivers booming death gurgles while someone (J.G., I assume) offers clean, thrash-like shouts. It’s quite effective, and those mid-tempo dino-riffs are impossible to resist or ignore. This is some satisfyingly heavy, forceful noise. I especially like how similar the clean vocals are to Bob Mayo of Wargasm. “Consciousness” cleaves closer to the early Peaceville days with mournful, depressive harmonies laying Gothic flowers on the gravesite as large, ugly death roars dominate the field. The aggressive elements soon resurface, and the dual-vocal attack pays dividends once again. The spikes in tempo keep the nearly 7 minutes moving and grooving, and there are interesting ideas sprinkled throughout the corpse broth.

The real acid test comes with the 15-minute album centerpiece “Sacrifice.” At times, the music reminds of classic Candlemass, and at others it invokes the raw, early days of Paradise Lost and Cathedral. It’s a study in how to hold a listener’s attention over a long period via slick songcraft. Tempos shift at key moments to break things up and keep you on your toes, and time becomes meaningless. Some segments are scuzzy death-doom, others read classic epic doom, and a few isolated bits stink of funeral doom and even stoner booty-shaking. All this is accomplished with very simplistic riff patterns and very little in the way of decorative harmonies. You reach the halfway point before you know it, and the ebb and flow carry you along effortlessly. I’ve seen far better-known and respected bands tank on songs this long, so it’s a wonder how well Doomcult pull it off. They even uncork blastbeats toward the finale, finally unchaining the guitar to noodle and spew. It’s a aural geyser of cathartic release. The goods keep flowing with the caveman-simplistic, but hooky riff-rolling of “Barbed Wire,” and “All Shall Fall,” which nods to Novembers Doom and Cemetery as well as olde Paradise Lost while delivering a massive truckload of prime riff beef to your doorstep. Could I do without the album closing with a re-recording of a song off their debut? Sure, but it provides a nice comparison point for where the band started and where they are now. Does the album feel long at 57 minutes? Not really. I assumed it was a 45-minute platter and was quite surprised when I saw the actual length. That’s a feather in their cap to be sure.

With J.G. handling almost all the guitar work, all other instruments, as well as the songwriting, lyrics, and backing vocals, this is his baby, and he deserves the lion’s share of credit for how effective and listenable Sacrifice All Life ends up. Sure, the shouted cleans are one-dimensional and don’t always work as well as they could, but that’s a minor niggle in the wake of the things that do work. The riffs make this album seethe and bubble with energy, and there’s way more fire and fury here than any doom-death platter should be allotted. If it’s Rens van Herp doing the death roars, kudos to him, as they’re massive, raw, and primal, giving the material all the heaviness it needs. The real star of the show is the songwriting, which manages to use fairly simple, stripped-down music to make long-form compositions pop and sizzle. Not an easy task, but Doomcult do it well.

Sacrifice All Life is another easy-to-miss release you likely won’t hear much about, but it definitely deserves attention. It isn’t doom-death, and it isn’t death-doom, but it sits somewhere in that inky blackness between the genres, and it packs a big wallop. I’ve been spinning it over and over and keep finding new things to appreciate. I’m now investigating their back catalog and studying up on this little Cult that could. You should too. Be a joiner!

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Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Meuse Music
Websites: doomcult1.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/doomcultmetal | instagram.com/doomcultband
Releases Worldwide: July 17th, 2026

The post Doomcult – Sacrifice All Life Review appeared first on Angry Metal Guy.

On October 14, 2006, My Chemical Romance scored their first (and, to date, only) UK number one single with Welcome To The Black Parade, the striking centre-piece of their soon-to-be-released third album third album, The Black Parade. This was a genuinely remarkable achievement for a band who, just five years earlier, were playing basement shows in their native New Jersey and giving away their songs for free on MySpace. But while their commercial break-through was celebrated loudly by MCRmy loyalists in the UK, not everyone was on board with emo’s new superstars.

In the same week that Gerard Way’s band stormed to the top of the British charts, another fast-rising rock band, homegrown indie darlings Kasabian, hit out at the band for their “weird and dark” music, labelling the quintet “sad” and claiming that they “don’t have anything positive to say.”

“It’s like ventriloquists’ music,” fumed frontman Tom Meighan. “It’s weird and dark…The only good news is that it won’t last. These clowns won’t be around for much longer.Their make-up will flake off and the scene will die out. And it can’t happen soon enough.”

“I just can’t relate to it,” added guitarist Serge Pizzorno. “We are about decadence, having a good time and getting off your head. We champion youthful rebellion. We’re into peace and love, spreading harmony and having respect for people. But these people are the absolute opposite. It’s sad. These emo kids should get out more and try and have a good time instead.”

While this small-minded and inaccurate critique of the band revealed much more about Kasabian’s vanilla outlook than My Chemical Romance’s music or worldview, the Oasis-worshipping Leicester band’s comments were reported all all over the world, and soon reached the MCR camp, who found the English band’s ignorance hugely amusing.

“This band has never had a bullshit war ever,” Gerard Way responded. “I haven’t found an opponent worthy enough yet. If you’re gonna take me on, you’d better have the balls for it! If you’re gonna talk shit about us, you’d better have the juice. And we haven’t found anybody with the juice yet.”

As it turned out, there was room on planet earth for both bands.

Kasabian have since racked up seven UK number one albums, the most recent two featuring Pizzorno on lead vocals following the band’s July 2020 dismissal of Tom Meighan, while, 20 years on from the ex-Kasabian man’s prediction that they “wouldn’t be around for much longer”, My Chemical Romance have just played three sold-out shows at London’s 90,000-capacity Wembey Stadium to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their defining album.

Not bad for a bunch of “clowns”.

In a heart-warming post-script, the ‘feud’ was settled amicably almost as soon as it started.

“Just after that came out I got on the plane and who was sitting next to us for about eight hours? My Chemical Romance!” Tom Meighan later told Q magazine. “I’m face to face with the singer. We’re looking at each other, so I said ‘Look man, let’s have peace here!’ And he just laughed. He bought me a bottle of champagne and we got pissed. What a sweet man. He’s fucking cool!”

Ella Langley has moved from Alabama bar stages and independent releases to the center of modern country music with a catalog built on sharp storytelling, traditional influences, and an unmistakable vocal presence. This complete A-to-Z guide gathers her EP tracks, album songs, acoustic recordings, collaborations, featured appearances, and singles through July 2026. Ella Langley grew up in Hope Hull, Alabama, in a musical family, developing a love for singing and songwriting at an early age. She sang in church, learned guitar from family members, and began writing her own songs as a teenager. By the late 2010s, she was performing

The post Complete List Of Ella Langley Songs From A to Z appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.