
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

Snail Mail's Lindsey Jordan: “I’m a perfectionist – I will rip a song apart until it is done”
By Gregory Adams published
Jordan details the making of her sophomore full-length, Valentine, designing custom Fender models, and undergoing vocal cord surgery just days before she was due to tour in support of the record

At the Gates on creating new nightmares, orchestral influences and the evolution of an iconic death metal sound
By Gregory Adams published
Three albums into their reunion phase, The Nightmare of Being finds Swedish death metalers At the Gates addressing their legacy while pushing off into wild new horizons

Joshua Travis on his love of rhythm guitar: “I’ve always wanted to hit you hard. Lead playing doesn’t hit me like that – it doesn’t punch you in the face”
By Gregory Adams published
The Emmure guitarist talks tackling the lower registers with 7-, 8- and 9-strings, and how his all-out work ethic inspired pummeling new solo EP, NO REST

Star One’s Arjen Lucassen: “I really felt I needed to do a heavy, guitar-oriented album again. That’s in my blood”
By Gregory Adams published
The prog-metallers’ new album, Revel in Time, finds Lucassen joined by an all-star team of guitar heroes including the likes of Michael Romeo, Steve Vai and Adrian Vandenberg

John Reis details his approach to guitar playing: “Rules are important – you need to know how to do something in order to know how to f**k with it”
By Gregory Adams published
The Hot Snakes guitarist on why he dubs new supergroup PLOSIVS' upcoming self-titled debut “distance rock”, how he recovered his stolen gold sparkle Gibson Les Paul Custom, and his latest solo outing, Ride the Wild Night

The Black Tones' Eva Walker: “We would start our sets with a heavy blues instrumental. It locks people in, like, 'Oh s**t, that Black girl's actually shredding'”
By Gregory Adams published
The Strat-toting rocker on the four-note sequence that set her on a quest to conquer the blues and the duo's raucous new Sub Pop single, The End of Everything

Spoon's Britt Daniel: "My playing is all about the right hand. That’s my way of being expressive, by establishing a feel and rhythm"
By Gregory Adams published
Daniel discusses his role as a rhythm guitarist, why a Vox Pathfinder is his go-to amp, and dissects Spoon's latest LP Lucifer on the Sofa, from its back-to-basics approach to its "fuckin' ferocious" leads

Venom Prison: “The whole ‘aggressive, nonstop assault of riffs’ approach isn’t really a thing on Erebos – this album is about the songs”
By Gregory Adams published
Ash Gray and Ben Thomas on expanding the UK death-metallers' horizons, their mutual love of the EVH 5150III, and the art of balancing the heavy with the light

Bria reveal how a 1963 Epiphone Casino and their decade-long musical relationship led to their "accidental" debut EP
By Gregory Adams published
Bria Salmena and Duncan Hay Jennings talk swapping Strats for semi-hollows, recording on a farm and why they don't plan on pursuing a career in country music – contrary to what their debut EP, Cuntry Covers Vol. 1, would suggest

Man With a Mission's Jean-Ken Johnny: “I’m not really a technical guitar guy: it’s all about the emotion – how you descend your soul into the sound”
By Gregory Adams published
The wolf-headed Japanese guitar-slinger on his love of '90s rock, and digitizing AC/DC's Thunderstruck with some howling Whammy-flavored leads on new album Break and Cross the Walls I

Creeping Death's Trey Pemberton: “It used to be, ‘Let’s write a bunch of riffs, throw ‘em together, and go hard.’ Now we think about how it flows together”
By Gregory Adams published
The Creeping Death guitarist on why the band opted to re-record tracks from their 2016 EP for this year's The Edge of Existence, and how Muay Thai has amped up his stage presence

Circa Survive: "It used to be difficult not to fill up every space with guitar – this record shows how our ability to restrain ourselves has grown"
By Gregory Adams published
Colin Frangicetto and Brendan Ekstrom dissect their less-is-more approach on A Dream About Love and confess their newfound affinity for the Line 6 Helix

Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson: “Sometimes a bit of chaos is what you need to get things moving when they’re going stale”
By Gregory Adams published
The creative driving force behind the Norwegian extreme metal stalwarts on why the guitar solos had to return, and why shorter doesn't mean less progressive when it comes to songs

Alien Weaponry’s Lewis de Jong on leading the Haka for New Zealand metal, broken bones, and why being heavy is still the goal
By Gregory Adams published
The prog-metaller's new album, Tangaroa, pushes the envelope once more, incorporating Maori chants and heavyweight grooves

Every Time I Die on their tag-team guitar approach, no-holds-barred songwriting philosophy and tweeting fans for gear
By Gregory Adams published
Guitarists Andy Williams and Jordan Buckley wax lyrical on their multi-faceted new album, Radical

Asking Alexandria's Ben Bruce: "Recording this album was the easiest time I’ve ever had because I was so excited to hear a raw, loud guitar riff again”
By Gregory Adams published
How the UK rockers reconnected with each other – and with the elusive mojo of their early years – on their blazing new album, See What’s On The Inside

Katatonia's Anders Nystrom and Roger Ojersson on finding creative rebirth in the electronic textures of City Burials
By Gregory Adams published
30 years into their career, the Swedish doom stalwarts are still looking to subvert expectations

Bernth: "Maybe blowtorching my guitar was a bit dramatic, but it was a statement about all these articles saying 'guitar music is dead!'"
By Gregory Adams published
The Austrian shred whiz takes blazing the fretboard literally on his new six-string spectacular, Elevation

Lou Barlow: "Every time we make a record, I hope to find some magic combination that approximates the growl of what we get live. I don’t know if I’ve done that yet"
By Gregory Adams published
The Dinosaur Jr. bassist and co-founder on the unending quest to capture his live sound on record, and swapping instruments with J Mascis

Kiko Loureiro: "I thought the greatest message would be to have Marty Friedman on Open Source, not only because he was the Megadeth guy, but to show that music is not a competition"
By Gregory Adams published
The Megadeth shredder on taking an open-source approach to making music so that anyone with internet access can remix his new album

Face to Face's Trever Keith: “This album focuses on the best tones and emotions from the records we’ve made throughout our career”
By Gregory Adams published
The long-serving frontman walks us through the gear behind No Way Out But Through, recording guitars in his closet, and why the LP doesn't fit into the traditional punk-rock mould

Wolves in the Throne Room: "We try to skirt the line sonically between brutal and beautiful"
By Gregory Adams published
With their new album Primordial Arcana, guitarists Kody Keyworth and Nathan Weaver deploy a near-endless supply of knockout black-metal hooks from their “master riff sack”

Between the Buried and Me: "We took everything we do, and we notched it up a bit. It’s everything that everyone either loves or hates about BTBAM!"
By Gregory Adams published
Guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring talk philosophically doubling down on 2007's Colors with epic, hugely diverse new full-length Colors II

Quicksand's Walter Schreifels: "I love playing expensive things, but I'm also totally down for street-level garbage!"
By Gregory Adams published
The post-hardcore vet on his love of Fender offsets, switching up his playing for new album Distant Populations, and why he named a song after the MXR Phase 90
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