Gregory Adams
Gregory Adams is a Vancouver-based arts reporter. From metal legends to emerging pop icons to the best of the basement circuit, he’s interviewed musicians across countless genres for nearly two decades, most recently with Guitar World, Bass Player, Revolver, and more – as well as through his independent newsletter, Gut Feeling. This all still blows his mind. He’s a guitar player, generally bouncing hardcore riffs off his ’52 Tele reissue and a dinged-up SG.
Latest articles by Gregory Adams

How Narrow Head tapped into a shoegazing '90s alt-rock sound with “poppier pop and heavier heavies”
By Gregory Adams published
The Houston-based pedal pushers put on an immersive tone clinic on their latest release, Moments of Clarity, and it's giving us all heavy '90s vibes

Kamelot’s Thomas Youngblood discusses the evolution of a bona-fide Florida metal institution and the guitar strategies that challenge his audience
By Gregory Adams published
Kamelot have made a spectacular return with The Awakening, reestablishing the Sunshine State veterans as champions of guitar-forward, progressive power metal

Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan: "I’ve tried to challenge myself to solo in different ways, rather than just turn the distortion way up on the Rat, step on it, and go"
By Gregory Adams published
The beloved indie trio's guitar-slinger reveals how he's gradually warmed up to plugins, the magic of "old and rickety" DigiTech PDS pedals, and the fan-made drive unit that now occupies pride of place on his pedalboard

Katatonia’s Anders Nyström on how he crafts his signature melancholy metal sound – and impersonates whale song with guitar effects
By Gregory Adams published
Sky Void of Stars might find Nyström taking a backseat on the writing, but he explains how the performance and recording leaves his imprint all over the Swedish metal stalwarts' sound

Inside the long-awaited return of Mercyful Fate: metal guitar’s most unholy band
By Gregory Adams published
Guitarists Hank Shermann and Mike Wead join iconic frontman King Diamond to discuss the reanimation and macabre theater of a legendary heavy metal institution

How F*cked Up’s Mike Haliechuk wrote and recorded his guitar parts for the band’s new album in 24 hours – and why he gave up playing chords halfway through
By Gregory Adams published
Ahead of their explosive new album, One Day, the ever-ambitious Canadian hardcore band's guitarist ruminates on his shrinking pedalboard, trusty Fender DeVilles, and eschewing chords in favor of "groovy one-note melodies"

Sloan’s Patrick Pentland on the art of democratic songwriting, channeling Ace Frehley through a 5150 and why he prefers a wah that looks like a car to a Cry Baby
By Gregory Adams published
The Toronto rock outfit's lead guitarist talks gear secrets, the origins of some of their biggest tracks and their expansive new album, Steady

Crobot’s Chris Bishop on the aggressive expansion of his guitar playing vocabulary and the art of a gnarly groove
By Gregory Adams published
The Pennsylvania hard rockers’ latest record is a celebration of straight-up, fat-free riffery and songs about the noble art of rocking

NOFX's Fat Mike: “You can play bass better with a thin pick. Our job, as bass players, is to play whole notes – not sharp ones – and play them smooth”
By Gregory Adams published
The frontman on why a bassist's job in a punk-rock band is to make everyone else sound good, and why a track he wrote for Blink-182 is the “worst song” on NOFX's upcoming record, Double Album

Fallujah’s Scott Carstairs: “Radiant Ascension is the hardest solo I’ve ever had to perform... that’s the only way to improve: really intense, difficult s**t”
By Gregory Adams published
Carstairs amps up the aggression for Empyrean – a fierce, uncompromising album which taps into the spirit of “an excited 17-year-old who knows how to play guitar”

Dead Cross: “With any of our other bands, a solo would almost be unwarranted – it would be silly. But for a thrash-related project, it screams for it”
By Gregory Adams published
The hardcore punk supergroup's sophomore album is a typically punishing riff fest with Michael Crain and Justin Pearson's guitars using Dave Lombardo's inhuman rhythms as a launchpad for audio violence

Nik Nocturnal: “A lot of what makes a song heavy isn’t the riff – the mix, I’d argue, makes something heavier than the riff itself”
By Gregory Adams published
The prolific metal content creator talks blending trap and metal with his new solo project, NIK NXK, how reaction videos became the bread and butter of his online presence, and the one amp modeler he uses for “literally everything”

Opening for Guns N’ Roses, taking lessons from Randy Rhoads and trading licks with Steve Vai: what the Sunset Strip's golden era was really like
By Gregory Adams published
As a new compilation album assembles some of the era's deepest cuts, Jaded Lady guitarist Danelle Kern and Romeo and Hellion alum Chet Thompson recall their fondest memories from the epicenter of shred guitar

Devin Townsend: “I don’t love playing guitar solos, but I think I’m good at them”
By Gregory Adams published
The Canadian supernova of creativity checks in to discuss the twists and turns in his predictably unpredictable 21st solo album, Lightwork – and a Nile Rodgers collaboration that may yet see the light of day

Jason Richardson on his love of Alexi Laiho, soundtracking Lifetime movies and how his late pet pug's progressive drinking habits shaped his new album
By Gregory Adams published
The virtuosic guitar ace dives deep on II, his blistering new full-length with drummer Luke Holland, taking inspiration from Nintendo and horror blockbuster It

Leprous guitarist Tor Oddmund Suhrke on his prog fanbase’s insatiable appetite for odd time signatures and going from massage table to festival stage
By Gregory Adams published
The Norwegian prog frontiersmen's new album, Aphelion, is a study in big musical ideas, articulated with restraint, with crowdsourced input as to where they take its finale

Bloodbath’s Tomas Akvik on stepping up and inaugurating his whammy bar for the death metal supergroup’s sick new album
By Gregory Adams published
Tomas Akvik had never used the whammy on a Floyd before, but for Survival of the Sickest, the Swedeath institution unleashed all the tools of the trade in search of audio extremity

Machine Head's Robb Flynn: “When we were first starting out, I used to say, ‘I want us to be the Grateful Dead of metal’”
By Gregory Adams last updated
Flynn discusses the making of Machine Head's epic new album, Of Kingdom and Crown, the magic of the Roland Cube, and why Wacław “Vogg” Kiełtyka is the perfect foil on guitar

Nick Zinner on the return of Yeah Yeah Yeahs: ditching amps, embracing EBow and his early love of Eddie Van Halen
By Gregory Adams published
The NYC garage-punk institution are back on grand, sweeping form with Cool It Down, their first album in nearly a decade – although their guitarist is still keeping his metal chops up with a thrash side-project or two…

GWAR on “doing drugs and collecting Marshalls”, becoming “a full-fledged rock juggernaut”, and enjoying wah nearly as much as Kirk Hammett
By Gregory Adams published
BalSac the Jaws of Death and Pustulus Maximus check in on Toilet Earth to discuss The New Dark Ages, tube amps vs modelers and the evolution of metal's most outrageous band

Lonely Robot: “I was listening to a lot of David Gilmour and Joe Bonamassa. I got really into that big vibrato – vibrato that you can drive a bus through”
By Gregory Adams published
After seriously reining things in on the latest offering by his main band, Frost*, prog-rock stalwart John Mitchell brings his axe to the fore on the new Lonely Robot album, A Model Life

Anthrax's Scott Ian on his thrashtastic history with Jackson guitars, shredding with his son and how an unlikely fretboard shaped the sound of Bring the Noise
By Gregory Adams published
One of thrash metal's most bankable rhythm players recalls how Randy Rhoads first drew him to the storied US brand and explains why he's digging the company's newly launched American Series Soloist

David Knudson on how sobriety, home recording and an unending love of the Line 6 DL4 helped him create his first-ever solo album
By Gregory Adams last updated
The Minus the Bear effects wizard opens up on his evolving relationship with the riff, his newfound studio production abilities and why you shouldn't hold your breath for a Botch reunion

King’s X stalwarts dUg Pinnick and Ty Tabor take you inside Three Sides of One, the prog-rock trio’s first album in 14 years
By Gregory Adams published
Pinnick and Tabor open up on the magic that makes King's X, talk aging and songwriting, while Tabor explains why solid-state amps work so much better for his sound

Ian Crichton on rediscovering his mojo with Six by Six – a power trio that offers the perfect platform for his blazing prog guitar style
By Gregory Adams published
The longtime Saga guitarist lets his inner shredder off the leash with Six by Six, and no one will be asking him where the guitar is when they hear this
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