Latest articles by Jon Wiederhorn
“David Ellefson told me, ‘You got the gig. Oh and by the way, Dave told me to tell you that you played many of the wrong guitar parts’”: Marty Friedman tells the inside story of his auditions with Ozzy Osbourne and Madonna – and landing the Megadeth gig
In this exclusive excerpt from his new autobiography, Dreaming Japanese, the guitarist looks back at his early years, when he was broke and forced to choose between eating or auditioning
Monte Pittman on his crazy journey from Guitar Center to Ministry via Prong and Madonna – and his band with Adam Lambert
It might seem strange that a dude best known for playing guitar lines for pumping, thumping dance songs is now blowing eardrums with industrial metallers Ministry. But Pittman says he’s right where he belongs. This is his remarkable story
How Neige’s ascent from the creative abyss led to Alcest’s most ethereal and life-affirming album
The French black metal institution has always let the light in, embracing shoegaze and post-rock experimentalism. Les Chants de l’Aurore is the sound of Neige on the other side of writer’s block, answering “the magic” and finding solace in sound
“This can’t be about brute physicality”: Karl Sanders on technical epiphanies – and why Nile needs three guitarists
Sanders might be one of death metal's most ferocious and technical players but he tells us you're never too good to stop improving, and a lesson from one of his students transformed his technique, making it more vicious and controlled than ever
Scott Ian and Jonathan Donais check in from the studio to explain why the new Anthrax record will “punch people in the face”
It's been a long time coming, but as Ian explains, life is complicated – and the forthcoming studio album from the Big Four alumni could be their best and heaviest since the ’80s
The redemption of High on Fire and Sleep icon Matt Pike
All raw metal riffs and off-kilter tonalities, High on Fire’s Cometh the Storm is the return we’ve been waiting for. As Matt Pike and Jeff Matz explain, it is the product of overcoming depression, insecurity and illness – and indulging their progressive tendencies
Kerry King on flying solo, those reunion shows – and why he doesn’t demo with modelers
Kerry King takes us behind the making of From Hell I Rise, the thrash album of the year and the comeback of a metal icon who has every intention to keep on slaying, Slayer or no Slayer
How Phil Demmel nailed one of the biggest gigs in metal – and became Kerry King’s six-string wingman
The former Machine Head guitarist on landing a gig with his hero, grappling with 6/8 and super-fast triplets as Kerry King picks up where Slayer left off in fire-breathing new solo project
Kerry King on his personal history with B.C. Rich and ESP – and why he switched to Dean
The former Slayer guitarist and bona fide metal god on his relationship with metal's heavyweight guitar brands, and what he wanted from his new partnership with Dean
How Judas Priest made a blockbuster new album in the face of adversity – and became unstoppable
Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner, Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton open up on their guitar tag-team approach on Invincible Shield, a bold new album that lashes out at human frailty
Ace Frehley invites us to his home to talk tone tricks, 10,000 Volts and pawn shop treasures
Host with the most, Ace Frehley welcomes GW to his New Jersey home to show us his stuff, talk guitar playing, and explain why he has no plans on stopping any time soon
“I gave my vintage Jazzmaster to a girl after a show in Liverpool. 30 years later she sent me back the guitar. It’s like it died and went to heaven and came back to me”: The miraculous return of US shoegaze pioneers Drop Nineteens
Having not played guitar for 20 years, Greg Ackell and the band are back with Hard Light, finding new ways of crafting sound without expanding the pedalboard
“He had an acoustic guitar and he started playing this little melody for the bridge… It felt magical – like classic Smashing Pumpkins”: Code Orange on their spellbinding Billy Corgan collaboration and how simplification brought honesty to their playing
Reba Meyers and Dom Landolina pull back the curtain and take us behind the making of their adventurous and aggressively iconoclastic new album, The Above – and explain why recording with Steve Albini isn’t like working with any other producer
“I did this full-on ritual where I set up a circle of pedals, stayed inside of it and wrote a bunch of demos”: How Chelsea Wolfe reinvented her guitar playing with tarot cards, meditation and effects… lots of effects
Wolfe and lead guitarist Bryan Tulao discuss the transformative tones, unorthodox approaches, pain and struggle behind She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out to She
“It’s not like Exodus where it’s 95 percent crunching guitars. I had to really concentrate on not playing so many notes”: Rick Hunolt on his cinematic second act with DieHumane
DieHumane’s The Grotesque is a masterly work of genre-hungry melodic metal, and it finds Hunolt approaching guitar like he's never done before
![Teenage Fanclub's Ryan McGlinley [left] and Norman Blake onstage in Edinburgh](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/WxWW3xqrxjwCCUurxxd52d-840-80.jpg.webp)
“We never went into this band with any expectations, so we’ve never been disappointed… We just love making music together”: Teenage Fanclub on fame, perseverance and ice cream with Nirvana
Scotland's finest alt-rock exports on how DIY ethics, deep-cut influences, and reckoning with their own band's mortality have kept their unique brand of jangle pop alive for over three decades
“Forget grunge music. Get a pint of Guinness down your neck and pick that guitar up”: The rise and fall of Britpop, the Nineties’ other massive guitar movement
The UK got its guitar mojo back in the ’90s with a new generation of rock and indie bands. This is the story of how it all got consumed by the rivalry between Blur and Oasis, and the catch-all category of Britpop
“This is one more shot at glory for me. I know the things I’ve been denied. I shouldn’t have to build it up all over again”: K.K. Downing on reclaiming his legacy with KK’s Priest – and what his one-off reunion with Judas Priest was really like
The original “Sinner” takes you behind the scenes of his dramas in and out of Priest and their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction – and why his turbo-charged new album is “about the fight and the victory”
“As soon as we heard Chris’ name, I knew we were good. Nobody works harder or learns songs quicker. It was like I had my teacher with me every day”: How ex-Megadeth shredder Chris Broderick lit the fuse under In Flames’ fierce return
With Broderick's virtuoso seven-string dovetailing with Gelotte's downtuned six-string, Foregone is the sound of In Flames taking their sound faster, heavier, and wherever the ideas took them
Christian themes, riffs as pretty as they are violent and chords above the 12th fret: how Liturgy’s Haela Ravenna Hunt-Hendrix is radically warping black metal conventions
Hunt-Hendrix thinks of Liturgy as “orchestral music created with the tools of a metal band“, and with violin-inspired guitar parts and avant-garde classical influences, she’s more than nailed the brief
Zakk Wylde: “The sound of Pantera comes from Dimebag’s love for Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. The playing is rooted in precision”
Is it a reunion or a tribute? If you ask Zakk, it’s simply a celebration of the music, spirit and legacy of his fallen brother. In this exclusive interview, he shares his fondest memories of Dimebag Darrell and reveals the challenges of mastering his iconic guitar parts
Michael Amott: “I like Depeche Mode, but I don’t want Arch Enemy to sound anything like them. I love Jimmy Page, but I don’t want to play like him. I’m happy being me”
“They said I ruined the band”: Michael Amott looks back on his days with Carcass and recounts the creation of Arch Enemy’s explosive new album, Deceivers
Ruby the Hatchet’s Johnny Scarps: “If a solo doesn’t evoke some sort of emotion within me, I toss it in the trash and start again”
The NJ modern masters of psychedelia want to take you on a cosmic, riff-packed joy ride, with Johnny Scarps as your six-string guide
