Classic Rock

Every month Classic Rock is packed with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes features on rock’s biggest names, from Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple, from Guns N’ Roses to the Rolling Stones, from the Sex Pistols to AC/DC and beyond. Each issue plays host to the heftiest rock reviews section on the planet. In an average issue, you’ll find over 150 albums reviewed, all from the ever-varied, multi-faceted world of rock - whether it’s hard rock or heavy metal, prog or punk, goth rock or southern rock, we’ve got it covered.

WELCOME

CLASSIC Rock

WHERE IS EDDIE? • Iron Maiden’s new venture looks like fiendishly good fun. Can you spot their iconic mascot?

RIP

Keith Levene

Nik Turner

Jerry Lee Lewis

Dan McCafferty

Ed Mitchell

Blue October • Justin Furstenfeld on slitting throats, smelling good and getting lumped in with “knuckle-dragging rock”.

KK Rejoins Priest At Hall Of Fame

NEWS

Taipei Houston • Abandoning the traditional rock four-piece format, the Ulrich lads are a determined duo.

Metallica • From redefining metal in the 80s to creating pop-culture history with TV drama series Stranger Things, it’s a thrash metal anthem that has influenced generations.

STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED

David Crosby • The veteran singer and songwriter on his first solo live album, his drive, inter-personal chemistry, and feeling “blessed”.

ALBUMS OF 2022 • From another year of albums ranging from the brilliant to the good, the bad and the downright ugly, from established stars, up-and-comers and new kids on the block, Classic Rock ’s critics pick the 50 best.

TOP 5 PROG ALBUM

JOE LENN TURNER • With a cracking new album and a new image – finally casting off the wig and showing his true hairless colours – the former Rainbow and Deep Purple singer is loving his fresh start.

MUSIC • Matt Bellamy on how the explosive new Muse album was created – with inspiration coming from Iron Maiden and Rage Against The Machine.

TOP 5 COUNTRY ALBUM

SAXON • The metal veterans’ frontman Biff Byford on the year’s best music, the side effects of the medicatiom he's taking, having a strong work ethic, and plans for a tour in 2023 and another album.

VON HERTZEN BROTHERS • Drawing from the icy beauty of their native Finland, with their latest album the sibling trio have written this year’s most compelling reflection on our relationship with the natural world.

TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND • Releasing a sprawling album as four separate releases was quite a bold move, but one that paid off. But then this is a band that, while influenced by music of the past, is looking at new ways of doing things.

PORCUPINE TREE • Still bathing in the glow of the comeback that most people thought would never happen, Steven Wilson talks arena shows, the power of band T-shirts, and Harry Potter Christmases.

GHOST • Tobias Forge on latest album Impera, dicovering TikTok and being viral on it, the backlash from that, the naming of his Nameless Ghouls, and bands he would like to have played guitar with.

1 DEF LEPPARD • This year, having played what Joe Elliott says was the biggest tour of their career so far, scooping CR’s Best Album Of 2022 was the cherry on the cake – and they deserved it.

THE RESURRECTION SHUFFLE • This year's highly rated comeback album The Gang's All Here saw a definitive return to form for Skid Row with new singer Erik Grönwall – their sixth lead vocalist in the band's history.

EUGENE HUTZÜ • The Gogol Bordello frontman on the ongoing situation in Ukraine, and the power of punk-rock resistance.

OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS • Winners of Eurovision 2021 and runners-up on the Italian X Factor in 2017, glam hard rockers Måneskin have...