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Regret can come from missed opportunities, failed relationships, bad choices, or simply realizing too late what mattered. These ten songs approach that feeling from very different directions. # 10 – I Was Only Joking – Rod Stewart Rod Stewart released “I Was Only Joking” from his 1977 album Foot Loose & Fancy Free. Written by Stewart and Gary Grainger and produced by Tom Dowd, the song looks back on wasted time, broken hearts, and the excuses people make when they are afraid to admit what they really feel. In 1978, it reached No. 22 in the United States and No.

The post 10 Best Rock Songs About Regret appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Australian breakthrough heavy act Future Static have unveiled their powerful new single Swing, a furious backlash to oppressive political systems. Swing was written in reaction to the US Supreme Court repealing Roe v Wade and in anger at the political pendulum swing to the right in Australia and across the world, creating laws that reduce […]

Today, cult favourites The Early November and Hellogoodbye announce the Australian leg of their 20 Years Young co-headline tour. Set to take place in March 2027 with dates in Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney, the run sees the Drive-Thru records alumni celebrate the 20th anniversary of their respective 2006 albums: The Mother, the Mechanic, and the […]

Boorloo/Perth doom-metal outfit Dreamspeed have announced their debut EP, Demo, set for release Friday 6 November. Today, the four-piece unveil new single Corpse Light, a searing showcase of their blackened screamo, depressive doom and post-black metal sound. Corpse Light brings together blast beats, wailing guitar feedback, haunted vocals and undulating rhythm and melody, spanning the […]

When Weezer were booked to appear on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in August to promote their 20th studio album, frontman Rivers Cuomo decided to push the boat out, fashion-wise. Given that the record, the Los Angeles band’s seventh self-titled album, is destined to be forever known as ‘The Gold Album’ – the quartet’s vocalist/guitarist elected to wear an all-gold outfit for the evening, accessorising a a gold lamé suit, with a gold bow tie, a gold top hat, gold trainers and gold face paint. It was a bold stylistic statement that even the world’s most fashionable men would struggle to pull off, but respect to the 56-year-old musician for taking a risk.

Cuomo may possibly have been a little surprised then, when, following a cursory mention of Weezer’s newest release, Jimmy Fallon opted not to query their frontman’s apparel, but instead pulled out an old black-and-white band photo, identified a teenage Cuomo in the middle of the frame/line-up, and asked, “What kind of band was this, and was that your real hair?”

“We were progressive metal, and it was my real hair, yeah,” Cuomo answered with a somewhat bemused expression creasing his golden face.

The band in the photo was Avant Garde, formed in the mid-80s while Cuomo – then known to his bandmates as Peter Kitts – was a student at E.O. Smith High School in Mansfield, Connecticut. Alongside lead guitarist Cuomo/Kitts, Avant Garde originally featured brothers Kevin Ridel (vocals) and Eric Ridel (guitar, replaced in 1988 by Michael Stanton) and fellow E.O. Smith pupils Justin Fisher (bass) and Bryn Mutch (drums).

The quintet were influenced by local heroes Fates Warning – Rivers Cuomo actually took guitar lessons from founding member Jim Matheos – Seattle’s Queensrÿche, Florida’s Crimson Glory, San Francisco’s Cacophony (featuring Marty Friedman and Jason Becker), Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Swedish guitar hero Yngwie Malmsteen. The teenagers took the band extremely seriously, practising up to four times a week, and largely staying away from indulgence in alcohol and drugs in order to focus fully on their craft.

In 1988, the year of Operation: Mindcrime, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, …And Justice For All, King’s X’s Out of the Silent Planet (voted album of the year by Kerrang!), and Death Angel’s Frolic Through The Park, Avant Garde sent out their second demo cassette to local radio stations, hoping for airplay for songs such as the epic power ballad Standing in the Paris Rain, and the Helloween-esque Never Forget. When DJs at local college radio station WHUS 91.7 began playing songs from the demo, peers began to see that the poodle-haired high school teens actually had some potential.

“I was always a bit of an oddity,” Cuomo told The Hartford Courant newspaper in 1996. “When I was in ninth grade, we were picked on and ostracized. By 11th grade, we were tolerated. And by 12th grade, people gave us a certain amount of respect. But we were never rock stars, just the weird guys who did music.”

In 1989, Avant Garde recorded a third demo, Somethin’ Different!, featuring a more commercial sound, and upon graduating from high school, the quintet relocated to Los Angeles, searching for their big break. It soon became crystal clear, however, that the young Connecticut band were not what Hollywood’s A&R scouts were looking for. The group tried a reset, changing their name to Zoom, and adopting a more streamlined sound inspired by Van Halen, but disillusionment quickly sent in. After drummer Bryn Mutch bailed, the group dissolved without much fanfare. And if Rivers Cuomo had not burst into the spotlight with a new band four years later, it’s doubtful that very many people in 2026 would be interested in seeking out the ‘lost’ music which paved his way to stardom.

“[Avant Garde] just kind of sucked,” suggested Kevin Ridel, somewhat harshly, when speaking with The Hartford Courant in 1996. “We were trying to be kings of our instruments and just disregarded the idea of writing good songs. We were striving for technical prowess, but we still couldn’t really play.”

Stripping things back musically and concentrating on impactful, melodic song-craft with Weezer proved rather more fruitful for the artist formerly known as Peter Kitts.

“He was fascinated by heavy metal,” Cuomo’s high school music teacher and choir master Kenneth Holton told The Hartford Courant. “My chorus got a reputation for having the kid with the long hair.

“[With Weezer] I hear a lot of harmonies and the chord changes of pop songs. I was really surprised to hear all that coming through. [He] rejected all that entirely in high school.”

Alright, music lovers, strap yourselves in and clear some space on the floor because you’re going to need it! When it comes to the Australian heavy music scene, Brisbane has a legendary reputation for breeding some of the most fiercely uncompromising, sonically massive, and downright dangerous rock bands on the planet. But even in a […]

Hana DeVore, wife of late guitarist and wrestler Andy Williams, mentioned the memorial in a video where she also thanked fans for continuing to share stories about her husband. Continue reading…

Album Review: Tygers of Pan Tang – Electrifyed

Reviewed by Rich Oliver

Fifty years into a band’s career and one would expect them to slow down and take this easy but veteran NWOBHM stalwarts Tygers Of Pan Tang obviously didn’t get the memo and if anything have had a resurgence in their elder years and released some of their strongest material. Although those early albums such as “Wild Cat” and “Spellbound” are untouchable, Tygers have really been on a roll from the 2010s onwards and with album number fourteen “Electrifyed”, the band most definitely continue that trajectory.

With “Electrifyed”, the band have made a concerted effort to release a far heavier and more riff driven album drawing “inspiration from the raw energy of the band’s early years, particularly their landmark debut album “Wild Cat”, while showcasing the chemistry and creativity of the current line-up”. As frontman Jack Meille commented ““The heavier, the better” that was our mantra throughout the writing and recording of “Electrifyed”. And it is safe to say they have succeeded with the album very much sounding like a present day NWOBHM album mixing powerful heavy metal riffage with big hooks and melodic songwriting as exemplified in old school metal anthems such as ‘Forevermore’, ‘The Powers That Be’, ‘Revenge Is Sweet’ and the title track.

The vast majority of the line up that recorded previous album “Bloodlines” in 2023 return though this is the debut for new guitarist John Footit who joined the band this year. John is a welcome addition to the band and his guitar work as well as that of founding member Robb Weir really drives this album. The vocals from Jack Meille are also in fine form and really drive the melodic side of the Tygers sound.

So nearly fifty years in and Tygers Of Pan Tang are still releasing shit kicking old school heavy metal. This album isn’t experimental, progressive or cutting edge and it doesn’t need to be. At this stage in their career, Tygers Of Pan Tang know what works for them and they play their bollocks off here. If you are looking for the cutting edge in heavy metal music, you will not find that here but what you will find is great riffs, great vocals and great songs. As Robb puts it, this album is “steeped in the late 70’s, flavoured from the 80’s and ready for consumption right now!”. Play this loud with a beer in one hand and the horns thrown in the other.

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Album Review: Tygers of Pan Tang – Electrifyed appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

There is something almost indecent about hearing Soft Cell look backward with this much grace. For a band that once made sleaze, synthetic dread, cheap rooms, lust, humiliation, and metropolitan bad behaviour feel like the natural furniture of pop music, The Rainbow Room finds Marc Almond and Dave Ball staring across Manhattan from 65 floors up and realizing that memory can be every bit as dangerous as desire.

The song comes from Danceteria, Soft Cell’s sixth and final studio album, completed shortly before Ball’s death in October 2025. It’s set in New York in the early ’80s, when Almond and Ball were recording at Mediasound, running around clubs, meeting Warhol, dancing near Madonna, and absorbing a city seemingly built for people with nowhere respectable to be. The Rainbow Room catches that romance at the point where exhilaration develops a crack.

Ball’s arrangement is spacious, elegant, and slightly narcotic. The electronics drift rather than stampede, giving Almond room to sing as though he were paging through photographs nobody else can see. His voice carries wisdom and gravitas; every phrase has the peculiar steadiness of a man who knows how unreliable memory can be yet still chooses to trust it – albeit with rose coloured glasses. This is, in short, Almond’s My Way.

The central image comes from Almond’s own birthday visit to Rockefeller Center. “… I did celebrate my birthday – my 21st or 22nd – at The Rainbow Room in the Rockefeller Center… The story of that view is true, too, I really did think: “Imagine falling down there” at the time,” Almond muses. “It was important to mention the Twin Towers, to acknowledge that this song about the future had a poignancy to it, knowing how dark that future would become.”

That line about falling is pure Soft Cell: glamour sharing a table with dread, champagne beside the abyss. The Twin Towers turn the song’s future tense into something brutal. Young Almond looks across New York wondering what comes next; older Almond sings from a world in which several answers are already known, including the death of his musical partner.

That knowledge changes the record’s emotional gravity. Ball heard the finished album before he passed away, and Almond has said no further Soft Cell recordings are possible without him. The Rainbow Room therefore carries a strange double exposure of youth and aftermath: two men in New York discovering possibility, then those same lives heard decades later through distance, death, and accumulated history.

The Rainbow Room takes nostalgia somewhere quieter and more devastating. The city still glitters below, the party is still downstairs, and Almond stands at the window remembering when the future looked endless.

Listen below:

With the untimely death of Dave Ball in 2025, the band’s sixth and final album, Danceteria, finally arrives on September 25, 2026. You can pre-order Danceteria here.

Marc Almond has announced another live run, this time in South America in late November to December. Prior to that, Marc will be playing more European shows in Italy and Poland from late September to October.

In early November, Marc returns to the States for a second time this year and will be touring as Soft Cell. The tour begins November 8th in San Diego and includes the Darker Waves festival in California on November 14th. Check out the full listings and ticket links here.

• Nov 8      San Diego, CA  – The Magnolia
• Nov 10    Napa, CA – Uptown Theatre
• Nov 11    San Francisco, CA  – The Regency Ballroom
• Nov 13    Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort/Casino
• Nov 14    Huntington Beach, CA – Darker Waves
• Nov 15    San Luis Obispo, CA – Fremont Theater

Follow Soft Cell:

• Website
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• Facebook
• Spotify

The post Soft Cell Shares Moving Synthpop Ballad “The Rainbow Room” appeared first on Post-Punk.com.

A previously unreleased Van Halen song is to be released as a 7″ picture disc. The 1974 live recording, Glitter – made with the band’s first bassist, Mark Stone – will be packaged with Van Halen, a limited-edition anthology written by drummer Alex Van Halen.

1500 copies of the anthology will be published by Genesis Publications in November. A Deluxe boxed set edition of 350 is already sold out, but the Collector boxed set run of 1150 – yours for a trifling £345 ($525) – is still available.

Each Collector copy is quarter-bound in black vegan leather with silver page edging, and features a silver debossed Van Halen logo. The book is housed in a black clamshell box with silver foiling.

In addition to the Glitter picture disc – which is backed by spoken word excerpts from interviews with Alex Van Halen – the package includes a Van Halen Productions keychain, three replica Eddie Van Halen stage-used guitar picks, and six 6″ × 4″ art postcards. Each copy of the book has been personally signed by Alex Van Halen.

While Glitter has not been officially released before, a demo has circulated widely as a bootleg, notably on the unofficial Van Halen/David Lee Roth CRr compilation Back In Circulation. It was also released in 1998 via the Dave TV section of David Lee Roth’s website, alongside another demo from the same session, Gentlemen Of Leisure.

These recordings were originally made at the home of David Lee Roth’s father, Dr Nathan Roth, a prominent Pasadena ophthalmologist. The tapes were then distributed to club bookers in the Los Angeles area in the hope of securing live shows.

Alex Van Halen published a memoir, Brothers, in 2024.