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Skindred are riding high. With their album You Got This hitting Number One in the UK Albums Chart, the band kicked off their latest tour last night with an additional date at Nottingham’s Rock City. They are back for a second show there tonight, before moving on to Birmingham, Dublin, Belfast and Glasgow, with a special Halloween show at London’s Alexandra Palace, and if there is one thing Skindred have built their reputation on, it is delivering an unforgettable live performance.

So, what better time to put drummer Arya Goggin through The MetalTalk Lowdown?

From headlining Wembley Arena to battling food poisoning behind the drum kit, Arya shares some memorable moments from life with Skindred. Along the way, there’s tennis with Whitfield Crane and Pat Cash, a rather unusual fear of creamy mushrooms, and the extraordinary experience of being asked to introduce someone to the drummer.

What’s the most Metal thing you’ve ever done off stage?
I played tennis in full tennis whites at Queen’s Club in London with Whitfield Crane (Ugly Kid Joe) and Pat Cash. We were going to form a side project called The Rackets.

What’s the worst gig you’ve ever played, and why?
Helsinki in 2009. I had awful flu/food poisoning and had zero energy to pick up the sticks. I was using a bucket in-between songs next to the kit. The sound man had to crank the drums out front that night.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever played, and why?
Headlining Wembley Arena in 2024 is my favourite. It was such a moment and was extremely humbling. While we were on stage, I thought about the journey of the band and how we had played every venue in the country for the last 25 years, and that it felt like it all led to that one show.

Would you choose a platinum record or one perfect, legendary live show?
I’ll take a platinum record. We’ve been blessed to have lots of legendary live shows. Well, they have been legendary to us anyway.

What’s your greatest fear?
Creamy Mushrooms.

What’s the trait you most deplore in yourself?
I try to fix things, sometimes to my detriment. Some things don’t want or need to be fixed.

What’s the trait you most deplore in other musicians?
Musical Snobbery.

Describe yourself in three words.
Loyal Cat Lover.

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?
Dove Shower Gel. Expensive.

What does a great riff feel like to write?
Jameshetfield@mac.com

What’s the worst thing a fan has ever said to you?
Can you introduce me to the drummer.

What’s the worst thing a critic has ever said to you?
Well, they never said it to my face, but I heard through the grapevine that someone at a famous magazine said we sounded like Zig and Zag. Maybe not the worst, but certainly original.

If you were not in music, what would you be doing?
Trying to be in music.

What’s one album outside your genre you secretly love?
The great thing about Skindred is we do not sit in one genre, so we don’t have guilty pleasures. Everything is on the menu. Today I am loving The Stranger by Billy Joel.

When did you last cry, and why?
Last night. I was cutting onions for my dinner.

What keeps you awake at night?
Heartburn from onions.

Riffs, royalties or recognition, if you had to choose?
We’ve had riffs. Some would say we’ve had recognition. Would love to know what Royalties feel like.

How do you want to be remembered?
Someone that you enjoyed being around.

What’s the most important lesson the road has taught you?
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Everything is heightened on the road.

What happens when the music stops?
You flip the record over and start again.

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With their album You Got This hitting Number One in the UK Albums Chart, the band are preparing to take their explosive live show back on the road, kicking off tonight at Nottingham’s Rock City. Tickets and much more are available on the band’s website, skindred.net.

Enjoyed this Lowdown? Explore more from the series, featuring Toby Jepson, Zorn of Zornheym, Vanessa Warwick, Baz Mills, BAEST, Krusher Joule and Howard H Smith, among others.

Same questions. Very different people. Read more MetalTalk Lowdowns here.

The post Arya Goggin – “Can You Introduce Me To The Drummer?” | The MetalTalk Lowdown first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

Bad Wolves today released “Jolene” (with Dolly Parton) through Better Noise Music [Stream HERE]. The new recording pairs the band’s hard-rock take on Parton’s 1974 iconic hit, this time with her own vocals included. This new version was made with the support and approval of the Estate of Dolly Parton. Like the original cover version released on August 31, proceeds will be donated to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library — committed to improving early childhood literacy around the world.

Before her passing, Bad Wolves shared their cover of “Jolene” with Dolly and her team. Since the release of the original cover, Dolly’s team helped bring her voice to the track, supplying previously recorded stems mixed for this release by Kent Wells.

Earlier this month, Bad Wolves and Better Noise Music joined Dolly’s team at NOZ Studios to hear the finished track together for the first time. The session inspired the band to pay it forward. They invited students from Nashville’s School of Rock to appear alongside them in the official music video. [Watch HERE].

“Bad Wolves and the kids from The School Of Rock performed ‘Jolene’ with raw passion, heavy grit, and zero compromise. This is the same independent spirit Dolly Parton used to build The Imagination Library from the ground up. Having witnessed the challenges her own father faced with illiteracy, Dolly didn’t wait for someone else to fix the problem, she used her platform to make a difference. She found a way to start sending free books to children to promote literacy and a love of reading because it was important to her. Right now, Dolly’s foundation, The School Of Rock, and Bad Wolves are calling on every artist to honor Dolly’s legacy by using their platform to support this effort and make a difference in children’s lives. Leverage your independent strength to help give the next generation the future they deserve,” says Better Noise Music chairman Allen Kovac.

“Being able to raise money for Dolly’s charity is an honor, and being able to work with the kids from the Nashville School of Rock was an amazing experience,” states Bad Wolves’ John Boecklin.

“At School of Rock, our mission is to enrich lives through performance-based music education while building a passionate community of students and instructors. Dolly Parton has long been a favorite artist within our school—not only because of her extraordinary musical legacy, but also because of the joy she has brought to generations of fans and her enduring commitment to education. Supporting the Imagination Library through this project is a meaningful way to celebrate Dolly, give back to a cause she champions, and express our deep admiration for her legacy. Our students were thrilled to be part of creating this video, and their energy, enthusiasm, and genuine desire to support the cause made the experience especially rewarding. Dolly Parton will always be a ROCKSTAR at the Nashville School of Rock, and we are proud to honor her legacy through the power of music and the next generation of performers,” enthuses Angie McCreight, Owner of Nashville School Of Rock

“Jolene with Dolly Parton” is available today on all major streaming and download platforms. Every stream and every download puts more books in the hands of more kids. The official music video is also available now on music video platforms.

The post Bad Wolves release new version of “Jolene” Featuring Dolly Parton first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.

As his new solo album From The Dark proves, Tony Iommi remains the king of the riff. The Dark Lord laid won the blueprint for an entire genre with the immortal riff that opens Black Sabbath’s eponymous 1970 debut album, an he’s not stopped since.

When Metal Hammer conducted a poll in 2018 to find the greatest riff of all time, it was no surprise that he was behind the one that came out on top. To be fair, any number of Sabbath riffs could have stolen it – Iron Man, Sweet Leaf, Hole In The Sky, Paranoid, Black Sabbath itself… the list goes on.

But the actual winner? The monumental riff that powers Symptom Of The Universe, the classic track from Sabbath’s 1975 album Sabotage. We asked the man behind how he created this immortal noise.

Can you remember where you were when you came up with the riff for Symptom Of The Universe?

Tony Iommi: “Oh my god, it was a long time ago. I can’t remember, to be completely truthful. I imagine we would have probably been in rehearsal.”

Is that how you used to come up with riffs – in rehearsal?

“Generally, yeah. Sometimes I’ve come up with stuff at home and taped it just to remember it, but I don’t really work things out as such.”

You make it sound easy…

“Dare I say it, but yeah, I’ve not had much trouble coming up with riffs. Now I’ve said it, I’ll probably never come up with another one. But I’ve got hundreds of them from over the years on various CDs. Some of them go back to the original Sabbath, some from the Dio era, bits and bobs from when [Deep Purple’s] Ian Gillan or [former vocalist] Tony Martin were in the band. I don’t even know what’s on there. I keep threatening to sit down and listen to them all one of these days when I get the chance.”

Back when you were writing Symptom Of The Universe, which guitarists were you in competition with?

“Me. I was in competition with myself. I would always try to come up with more and more inventive ideas – different tunings, changing the amps, just fiddling about with the guitars really. I would constantly be trying to improve things and change things. I didn’t really listen to other people, just in case I started playing someone else’s riff by mistake.”

The second half of Symptom Of The Universe heads off into weird, prog-jazz territory. Was that you deliberately setting out to write an early prog metal song?

“No, that was just us jamming together. It was something I came up with and Geezer [Butler, bass] and Bill [Ward, drums] followed, and then Ozzy came in. But then a lot of Sabbath’s stuff went to places you didn’t think they would go. I remember when we had Ronnie Dio with us, I played him the track Die Young [which ended up on Sabbath’s Heaven And Hell album]. It went into this completely different tempo, and he went, ‘You can’t do that!’ I went, ‘Of course we can. It’s what we’ve always done.’”

What are your memories of making Sympton Of The Universe’s parent album, Sabotage?

“Oh, it was a nightmare. We had a court case with our ex-manager, Patrick Meehan, while we were in the middle of making the album. We’d get a writ and we’d end up having to go into bloody court in the morning, all dressed up, then try to get back to the studio afterwards to carry on working. It was hard to come up with things. You had to have two heads.”

Did that aggro feed into the album?

“Certainly with Geezer’s lyrics. He wrote one song called The Writ, so it influenced him, that’s for sure. I think the aggression definitely came out in the music when we played together. There is some really heavy stuff on that record.”

Is it true that The Writ was inspired by a lawyer unexpectedly turning up at the studio to serve you with legal papers?

“That’s exactly what happened. They used to turn up all the bloody time. We never knew they were coming. If we did, we’d have disappeared sharpish.”

Sabotage took nearly a year to record. Was there ever a point where you thought you might not make it to the end?

“No, I’ve never felt like that. We’ve always fought through whatever was there. Without the music, we’d have all gone bloody loony. I think it actually it brought us all together as a band. Whenever we went through problems, we’d just fight through it together.”

The Sabotage album cover. What’s going on there?

“Ha ha ha! A guy who worked for us who was an artist, he came up with a great idea – us reflected in a mirror, stuff like that. But when it got to the day, somebody said to Bill, ‘What are you gonna wear?’ And he was, like, ‘I dunno.’ So he turned to his wife and said, ‘Can I borrow your tights?’ So he put on this pair of his wife’s red tights. And I think he might have borrowed Ozzy’s underpants, too. It looked bloody ridiculous. It definitely didn’t come out like we wanted it to.”

When was the last time you came up with a riff and thought, ‘Ooh, that’s a bit tasty’?

“Well, I’ve got a few that I haven’t used yet that were good. There’s about four or five from the last Sabbath album [13] I that we didn’t use. I listened to a CD with them on recently. I thought, ‘Blimey, that’s good, why didn’t we use it?’”

We’ve talked about Symptom Of The Universe. But what’s your favourite Tony Iommi riff?

“Oh my god, that’s difficult. I like Into The Void. And I like some of the stuff we did with Dio – Heaven And Hell was a good riff, Neon Knights. There’s so many I like. I like pretty much all the stuff we’ve done.”

Apart from your own, what’s the greatest riff of all time?

“That’s even harder. There’s so many great riffs out there from the past, and up to date stuff. But you’ve got to have Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water. And of course there are a lot of Zeppelin songs. Jimmy Page has some great riffs.”

Have you ever had a riff come into your head while you’ve been sitting on the toilet?

“Ha ha! Oh yeah. I have riffs that come in all the time at different times, different places. You never know when the magic’s going to strike.”

This interview originally appeared in Metal Hammer issue 311

Mental Cruelty take an interesting step forward with their new album. The band broadens its musical scope without abandoning its deathcore roots. Three years after the release of Zwielicht, the Southern German extreme metal outfit introduces new elements into both its lyrics and its sound. Echoes of a Forlorn Land still delivers breakneck extreme metal,… Continue Reading →

Nicko McBrain has revealed that he dabbled with heroin in the late 1970s.

The former Iron Maiden drummer, who has just released his autobiography, Hello Boys And Girls!, tells Classic Rock that he used the drug, but that he was “lucky” to never become addicted.

“This was a period where I was introduced to the higher echelons of people in the music industry and in other walks of life, shall we say,” he says. “I never put it in my arm, I just chased the dragon, as we used to call it – put it on silver paper and fire it up, then puff it up through a straw.”

While Nicko doesn’t specify a time period when he used the drug, he confirms that he had kicked heroin by the time he joined Iron Maiden in late 1982.

“Here’s the thing: God blessed me with this gene where I could just turn that tap off,” he tells Classic Rock. “Same with smoking, same with drinking. Anyone who’s struggling with substance issues, go get help – there’s people out there to help you. It’s not admitting defeat.

“But I was lucky enough to have this gene, so when I stopped, I didn’t go cold turkey – I got a bit antsy, and I got the cold sweats and the shivers, but I was very fortunate not to get really deep into the rabbit hole. I’d already knocked that on the head prior to getting the offer to come on board with Maiden in 1982.”

McBrain replaced former Maiden drummer Clive Burr, who was fired following the tour for 1982’s The Number Of The Beast album. In Hello Boys And Girls!, Nicko reveals that he was initially approached by Maiden’s co-manager Rod Smallwood while Burr was still in the band and put on retainer as “back-up” – something the latter was furious about when he found out.

“About a week had gone by when I got a phone call from Clive,” recalls McBrain. “‘You fucking arsehole!’ he screamed. ‘You motherfucking cunt! You’ve had my gig!”

Nicko pacified Burr and suggested he clean up his act in order to remain in the band, which he temporarily did. But by the end of 1982, Burr was out of the band for good.

While McBrain praises his predecessor – who died in 2013 – as an “amazing drummer” and acknowledges his part in Maiden’s success, he recalls a tense moment during a drum clinic in the mid-80s, attended by Burr

“After doing a solo, which I thought was pretty good, I got up and asked if anyone had any questions, and someone shouted, ‘How big’s your willy?’” he writes. “I thought, ‘What kind of question is that?’, and although I didn’t see who asked it, I swear blind it was Clive. It was definitely his voice, and it wasn’t said in a light-hearted way; it had a hint of aggression about it, as if the person was pissed off at me.”

McBrain adds: “When I asked Clive if it was him many years later, he changed the subject.”

Nicko’s autobiography, Hello Boys And Girls!, is out now. Read the full interview with him in an upcoming issue of Classic Rock.

Stunning listeners with his virtuoso playing and arresting melodies for almost six decades, Gordon Giltrap defies expectations, which apparently makes anthologizing the British musician’s oeuvre quite a challenge. There have been a couple of collections issued over the years, including … Continue reading →

The post Gordon Giltrap Box Up His Favorite Platters appeared first on DMME.net.

Songwriter Owen Burton records as Ovven. His debut album, Gnawing at the Cord, brings a love of guitar music and…

A classic Cadillac knows how to make an entrance, with extravagant tailfins, acres of chrome, and enough presence to make its driver feel famous before anyone has learned their name. Elvis Presley understood the appeal, and the car’s place in rock-and-roll mythology hardly needs a sales pitch. Cadillac ambulance and hearse conversions put that same grand style to work at life’s more urgent appointments, with the 1959 Miller-Meteor that became Ecto-1 in Ghostbusters extending the service into the afterlife. For a romance careening toward ruin, the possibilities are admirably comprehensive: a seduction, a medical emergency, and a funeral, all replete with fine upholstery.

Los Angeles musician and producer Aryan Ashtiani, better known as Mareux, gives that unhappy arrangement a thoroughly danceable form on his latest track Cadillac Casket. Initially composed by Ashtiani on piano before being developed with producer Elliott Kozel (Rosalía, Eartheater, Provoker), the single offers the first preview of his next full-length album, currently in the works.

A repeating bass synth sets the song in motion beneath eerie, icy keyboards, while melodic metallic shudders disturb the space around Ashtiani’s ghostly vocals. His singing carries an insistent hook through the arrangement, its cool delivery giving the words an almost unnerving composure as the beat presses toward the dancefloor. Piano figures move through the mix like apparitions from a deserted ballroom, preserving the elegance of the original composition amid the electronics. Post-punk’s romantic severity meets French electro’s mechanical precision, with a touch of glam in the song’s appetite for theatrical excess.

The result has the suspense of a pursuit, with a love song unfolding in the passenger seat as the city passes in fragments outside. That combination reflects the neo-noir and science-fiction ideas Ashtiani has been exploring during his recent studio sessions. The new material returns to the darker, smokier character of his earlier work while carrying forward some of the range he opened up on Nonstop Romance.

Lyrically, Ashtiani describes someone pulling roses apart as though they were pieces of his heart. He offers himself up to be bound, claiming that a man already dead has little reason to care about a lost romance. Yet he remains a fragile figure, made of wax, waiting for an answered prayer while daring the other person to burn him. It is a rather reckless challenge from someone who has already admitted how easily he could be destroyed.

In the second verse, he expects news of this person to reach him because the city evidently cannot keep a secret. He asks whether they can behave as though God were watching, or whether they will blame their conduct on their bloodline. The old man upstairs has apparently been called upon because ordinary consideration failed to do the job. Beneath his resignation, he still wants accountability from the person who hurt him, and inherited bad habits hardly seem an adequate excuse.

Listen to Cadillac Casket below:

The release follows the recent double-platinum certification of “The Perfect Girl,” which became a viral sensation in 2021 and has also earned gold certification in France. Ashtiani’s catalogue now encompasses two full-length albums, Lovers From the Past (2023) and Nonstop Romance (2025), alongside collaborations with Artemas, The Drums, Riki, and King Woman.

“Cadillac Casket” is available across digital platforms via Revolution / Warner Records. Stream the single here.

Mareux heads to London, Paris/Montreuil, Athens, Istanbul, and Tbilisi this autumn before a December run through Chicago, Brooklyn, Washington, D.C., and Miami. A second night has been added at Saint Vitus following the sellout of the December 7 show, while the Miami performance will take place at a location still to be announced.

Tickets and further information are available here.

Mareux Live Dates 2026:

• October 30 — London, UK — Hootananny Brixton
• October 31 — Paris/Montreuil, France — Bal Chavaux
• November 3 — Athens, Greece — Floyd
• November 5 — Istanbul, Turkey — IF Performance Hall
• November 7 — Tbilisi, Georgia — Academy
• December 3 — Chicago, IL — Metro
• December 7 — Brooklyn, NY — Saint Vitus (SOLD OUT)
• December 8 — Brooklyn, NY — Saint Vitus
• December 10 — Washington, DC — Black Cat
• December 12 — Miami, FL — TBA

Follow Mareux:

• Website
• Instagram
• YouTube
• Facebook
• TikTok

The post Mareux Takes Darkwave Romance to the Grave on “Cadillac Casket” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

Melbourne’s favourite thrash/grind legends King Parrot are back on Aussie stages next month with an eight-date east coast jaunt.

Taking in the Northern Horizons Fest in Sydney on November 28 at the Crowbar, the lads will also tear up Canberra, Wollongong, Hobart and regional centres in Victoria and Tassie. Get tickets here.

In tandem with Groglords, King Parrot has also released a special edition beer called Pisser, and if you buy two, you get a free enamel pin! Hit the link for that and more from Groglords’ killer cellars.

Burning .

The post Burning Witches announce departure of lead vocalist Laura Guldemond first appeared on Sleaze Roxx.