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Fun-loving foursome The Gnomes are at Singing Bird Studios in the beachside suburb of Frankston, Melbourne, when they greet Classic Rock. The building serves as their HQ, recording studio of choice and rehearsal space, and it’s also the beating heart of Frankston’s thriving rock scene.

Soon they’re off to see pals Rat Taxi at the Young Street Tavern, but for now Jay Miller (guitar/vocals), Ned Capp (guitar), Olly Katsianis (bass) and Ethan Robins (drums) are enthusing about The Easybeats and The Lemon Twigs, and the Behringer Super-Fuzz pedal that gives their own gnarly riffage extra bite on nuggets such as Matter Of Time. They also respond to Classic Rock’s request for moustache-care tips: “I give mine a little twist,” says Olly. “You know, for that pirate or Pringles guy look.”

Now handled by Amyl And The Sniffers’ management team, The Gnomes are in the ascendant. Recent single Magic Man conjured a thrilling conflation of The Monkees’ Pleasant Valley Sunday and Status Quo’s Down Down, while the video for it features Singing Bird’s owner (and Gnomes’ mentor/former manager) Stu Anderson, who was hungover from an all-night bender and wearing a wizard’s cape and pointy hat ensemble borrowed from Ned’s girlfriend.

“That song was inspired by this strange old dude who’s lived next door to my parents for thirty years”, explains frontman/chief songwriter Miller. “He’ll just magically appear in our local park holding branches and sticks.”

It was after Miller made his solo record Cows And Sheep in 2024 – and a failed stab at recording the first Gnomes LP alone – that his new bandmates helped turn things around.

“Ollie suggested I re-record it with a full band,” he recalls. “Then everybody’s individual flair took these bedroom-recorded sixties powerpop songs to a much more ballsy, garage-rock place. Everything was a lot more thought through.”

Famous fans of the band include Viagra Boys singer Sebastian Murphy, who joined them on stage wearing a green gnome hat when The Gnomes supported them at Sydney’s 5,500-capacity Hordern Pavilion.

“That was the first time we felt we were stepping out from where we’re from,” says Miller. “It wasn’t a tiny dive bar with a sticky floor – there was air-conditioning!”

The Gnomes now have the same US booking agent as prolific psychedelic Aussies King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.

“We’ve heard how, in their early touring days, Gizzard would happily rough it,” says Robins. “They’d book one hotel room and have six people on the floor in sleeping bags. We’re ready for that. Bring it on!”

The Gnomes EP More is out now via Goblin Records.

After 25 years of silence, Endless reunited to finally record the songs written in the 90s. Is It Right has just been released on streaming platforms after Fuck School, and the band returns to the studio in mid-May to record Lately and Fear for You. Same DNA, same energy, amps back on. Fear for You […]

Equal Vision Records/Civilians and Slothrust are pleased to present Dystopian Cemetery and Twisted Paradise, two brand new singles lifted from the Friday 18 September release of What They Grow In The Garden, the new studio album from the acclaimed LA-based alt-rock veterans, that examine queer romance and sleep paralysis. “Do not forget the delights that […]

Spike and the Gimme Gimmes release their rendition of Girls Just Want to Have Fun. Alongside the single release, the band is thrilled to announce their new album, Shit the Bed, arriving October 23 via Fat Wreck Chords. “Take it from me, Spike… GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN. Allow me to mansplain: the Gimme Gimmes […]

Ferocious and uncompromising in their execution, CARCASS’s ability to intricately dissect the innards of death metal, and display them for us to sonically understand has been their point of excellence for nearly four decades. Whether it was inventing gore-grind or creating the template for melodic death metal, CARCASS has always made records by which bars […]

Black Stone Cherry have released an official lyric video for their version of the Bad Company classic “Burnin’ Sky.” The track appears on Can’t Get Enough: A Tribute To Bad Company, the first tribute album dedicated entirely to the legendary British rock band.

The collection brings together artists from rock, country, and Americana, reflecting the wide influence Bad Company has had across those styles. The lineup includes Hardy, The Pretty Reckless, Joe Elliott and Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators, Charley Crockett, Halestorm, and several others, offering fresh takes on the band’s iconic songs. 

Bad Company was founded by Mick Ralphs and Paul Rodgers in 1973. Rodgers and Bad Co drummer Simon Kirke also appear on the album, bringing the tribute full circle.

The album is available here on limited-edition silver vinyl, CD, digital formats, and special merchandise bundles.

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Guitar World has released the video below to announce Alex Skolnick’s return to the magazine more than 30 years after his previous column.

This time, the Testament guitarist will break down the ideas and techniques that shape his approach to both lead and rhythm guitar, covering material that players can apply to their own playing.

“Alex will be sharing and illustrating some of the many various concepts and techniques for both soloing and rhythm playing that are at the core of his multi-faceted approach to music and guitar playing. The tabs for this lesson are available in the current issue of Guitar World (Oct-26), out now.

The accompanying lesson is featured in the current October 2026 issue of Guitar World, with tabs available for players who want to work through the material themselves.

The post TESTAMENT’s ALEX SKOLNICK Returns to Guitar World After 30+ Years appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Epiphone has unveiled a new signature guitar built with Halestorm frontwoman Lzzy Hale, dubbed the Lzzy Hale Explorer Custom and finished in a glittering Black Diamond Holographic Sparkle. The model marks the latest entry in Hale‘s run of Epiphone signature instruments, a lineup that’s consistently sold out and become a target for collectors. It’s available now through authorized Epiphone dealers, the Gibson Garage locations in Nashville and London, and here.

Built to mirror the intensity Hale brings to the stage, the Explorer Custom leans into bold, high-impact styling paired with a high-output tone suited to heavy riffing and big leads. Epiphone product manager Aljon Go framed the guitar as an extension of Hale‘s stage identity: “Lzzy has always brought a rare combination of power, precision, and unmistakable style to the stage. The Lzzy Hale Explorer Custom captures that same energy in an instrument that looks unforgettable, plays fast, and delivers the clarity and punch players need to own the moment.”

Underneath the sparkle finish sits a mahogany Explorer body with 7-ply top binding and a mirrored single-ply pickguard designed to catch stage lighting. The mahogany neck follows Epiphone‘s SlimTaper 60s C profile, topped with an ebony fretboard, 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid block inlays. The signature Explorer “hockey stick” headstock carries a raised 3D Epiphone logo, a Graph Tech nut and Grover Mini Rotomatic tuners, while a black truss rod cover engraved with Hale‘s signature and a black stinger on the back of the headstock round out the custom touches.

Tone comes courtesy of a matched pair of Epiphone ProBucker Ignite pickups, each running its own volume control alongside a shared master tone knob and a three-way selector switch. A LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and Stop Bar tailpiece handle intonation and sustain, and the guitar ships with a hardshell case.

Fans hitting Halestorm‘s fall 2026 North American tour can go a step further than the store shelf — a VIP upgrade includes a chance to win a stage-played, Hale-autographed Explorer Custom, plus a pre-show meet-and-greet, photo op, and exclusive merch. Full package details are available here.

A Grammy Award winner and co-founder of Halestorm, Hale has racked up seven No. 1 rock radio hits, more than three billion streams and upward of three million albums sold domestically across her career, along with two Grammy nominations and a win in 2012 for “Love Bites (So Do I)” in the Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance category. This past July, she was honored by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame as part of its “Women In Metal: You Will Know My Name” exhibit, where she performed alongside Halestorm guitarist Joe Hottinger. Her band’s current era centers on the album Everest and its single “Rain Your Blood On Me,” which Hale has described as “our ode to women” and “our war cry.” As Gibson‘s first female brand ambassador and a longtime Epiphone signature artist, she continues to expand a catalog of guitars built to match her stage presence.

The post EPIPHONE Unveils “LZZY HALE Signature Explorer Custom” & Offers Fans A Shot At Her Stage-Played Model appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.

Metal fans still waiting on Ozzfest‘s comeback got a fresh update straight from the family. During an August 19 stop on SiriusXM‘s Page Six Radio hosted by Danny Murphy and Evan Real, Jack Osbourne dug into where things stand on next year’s edition of the festival, set to land at Villa Park — home turf of the Aston Villa Football Club — in Birmingham, U.K.

Asked how the planning has gone so far, Jack Osbourne compared it to reviving an old ride (as transcribed by Blabbermouth): “It’s been interesting, ’cause it’s kind of like finding the old car in the shop and being, like, ‘All right, let’s get this engine going.’ But it’s cool. There’s a lot of excitement around it. And we’re gonna announce pretty soon — I think in the next couple of weeks we’re gonna announce kind of who the main headliner is and where we’re doing it. So it’s been nice.”

Jack Osbourne confirmed the 2027 show won’t stretch across multiple days: “not gonna be a multi-day thing. We’re gonna kind of stick to our roots of… We did a couple of two-day Ozzfests years ago, but it’s just gonna be one day.”

Curating the bill hasn’t gotten any easier, Jack Osbourne admitted, given how crowded the festival landscape has become: “I do. It’s just really difficult now. It’s really difficult to kind of, like, ‘All right, who’s doing what?’ Because a lot of huge bands now are doing their own festivals, they’re doing their own thing, so it’s, like, ‘All right, who’s not got their own festival? Who’s available? Who’s reasonably priced?’ Because with all these huge festivals, artists are, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it for, like, 10 million dollars.’ You’re, like, ‘Eh.’”

He confirmed that finding acts with a genuine tie to his father’s legacy still matters: “100%. Yeah, yeah. And there’s a lot of the huge artists now in the genre; they all kind of were on Ozzfest at a certain point. We had everyone from Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Disturbed, Slipknot. I mean, they all kind of came up… Well, not Rob Zombie and Manson, but Disturbed and Slipknot and System Of A Down.”

Spotlighting newer talent will remain part of the formula too, Jack Osbourne confirmed: “Yeah, that’s still gonna be a big part of the lineup, is new artists. And we’re gonna probably have a spot for at least one unsigned artist.”

Villa Park previously hosted Ozzy Osbourne‘s farewell concert, the star-studded Back To The Beginning, on July 5, 2025.

Ozzfest launched three decades ago as the first national festival built specifically around hard rock. It hasn’t toured the U.S. since a free 2007 run, morphing into a one-off Dallas show in 2008, skipping 2009 entirely and hitting just six cities in 2010. The 2017 edition — merged for a second year with Slipknot‘s Knotfest — drew more than 17,000 fans for a day headlined by Ozzy Osbourne, with Rob Zombie closing out Knotfest‘s bill the following day.

A one-off New Year’s Eve edition followed on Dec. 31, 2018, at the Forum in Los Angeles, pulling in 12,465 fans according to Pollstar, with the Live Nation-produced show grossing $1.2 million on tickets ranging from $59.50 to $179.50. Ozzy Osbourne headlined that night alongside Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, a solo set from Korn‘s Jonathan Davis, and Body Count, while Zakk Sabbath — the Black Sabbath tribute act fronted by Ozzy Osbourne‘s guitarist Zakk Wylde — topped a second stage outside.

The reasons behind the festival’s original hiatus came up during an October 2023 Osbournes episode, where Sharon Osbourne pointed to ballooning demands from managers as the real culprit: “Yeah, it was a very weird beast because all the bands were our mates, but the managers were greedy, and for some reason they thought that we were making billions on it and we weren’t. We made a profit. But it was not like — we couldn’t retire on it. And managers and agents wanted more and more and more, and it just wasn’t cost-effective anymore. We stopped because it just wasn’t cost-effective.”

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