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“It’s noisy, it’s crap, and we f**king love it”: Max Cavalera was so bad at guitar for Sepultura’s first gig, the guitarist from another band offered to tune his guitar for him
Imagine being so new to guitar that, at your first gig, the guitarist from another band has to step in and tune your instrument for you. That was the reality for Sepultura’s Max Cavalera, who remembers the moment with equal parts horror and humour.
In a new interview with Metal Hammer magazine, the rhythm guitarist reflects on the early days of his career and how the band got started.
“I wanted to be a drummer at first,” Cavalera explains. “[Iggor, his brother] was a born drummer, a natural talent, but he didn’t have a drum kit until [Sepultura’s third album, 1989’s] Beneath The Remains… He was way better than me, so I had to pick a new instrument and guitar seemed like the right choice.”
Even after picking up the guitar, the learning curve was steep. “I didn’t know how to play,” Cavalera admits. “I still remember when I learned the first riff of [Black Sabbath’s] Heaven And Hell, I ran out and did laps around the backyard. I was like, ‘I made it! I’m somebody!’ Ha ha ha! It was like a moment in a comedy movie.”
Which probably explains why the band’s first gig was… a bit of a mess.
“I remember playing with this band Overdose and they were really good, like a Brazilian version of Maiden,” says Cavalera. “The girls loved them. We were the opposite. The girls hated us, we didn’t know how to play. The guitar player from Overdose took my guitar and everything was out of tune. He said, ‘Let me tune the guitar for you, bro’, but it didn’t help my playing. It was just noise.”
Still, there were small victories amid the chaos.
“There were two guys wearing Motörhead shirts and they fucking loved the show!” Cavalera recalls. “‘You guys are the greatest thing ever! It’s noisy, it’s crap, and we fucking love it!’ Two guys out of a hundred. Ha ha ha!”
The post “It’s noisy, it’s crap, and we f**king love it”: Max Cavalera was so bad at guitar for Sepultura’s first gig, the guitarist from another band offered to tune his guitar for him appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Two Notes Reload II review: is this the new king of amp-top attenuators?
$1,099/£999, two-notes.com
The original Two Notes Reload was something of a well-kept secret in guitar circles. In terms of profile, it was frequently outshone by the undoubtedly impressive Universal Audio OX Amp Top Box, but that was more to do with marketing than capabilities. It might not have had the stylish looks to become a constant feature in the background of every guitar influencer’s videos, but the Reload could go toe to toe with it in features and usability.
Perhaps the industrial appearance of the original Reload didn’t help its case against the undoubtedly nicely designed Ox Box, but for those in the know, it became a real weapon on stage and in the studio.
Image: Adam Gasson
For starters, the original Reload came packaged with Two Notes’ cabinet emulator plugin, Wall Of Sound, which offered hundreds of different cabinet and mic options, many of them designed in conjunction with prestigious guitar amp and cabinet manufacturers.
It’s part of why many guitarists were disappointed when the original Reload was discontinued a few years back. But never fear, now the Reload is back in a completely redesigned package – is this the Ox-beater we’ve been waiting for?
Two Notes Reload II – what is it?
Two Notes claims the Reload II is a “ground-up rework” of the original, and this time the load response receives the stamp of approval from perhaps the most authoritative name in guitar speakers – Celestion.
“With a completely new load architecture developed for Reload II, it was essential that the response didn’t just perform well technically but behave in a way that felt authentic to both players and amplifier”, says Guillaume Pille, Two Notes founder and CEO. Collaborating closely with Celestion to ensure it met their expectations for real-world speaker behaviour, the design process culminated in an impedance curve inspired by Celestion’s iconic driver lineup, earning Reload II the industry-first Celestion-Approved Load Response badge.
Image: Adam Gasson
Whereas most load boxes base their impedance curve of a single speaker or cabinet, the Reload II was instead developed by analysing and averaging impedance characteristics across a range of Celestion drivers. According to Guillaume, “this approach delivers a balanced, musically responsive load that works optimally across the broadest possible range of amplifiers, rather than being tailored to a single tonal reference”.
Two Notes Reload II – build quality and design
You’ll also have noticed that the Reload’s aesthetics have been given a serious upgrade here. Gone is the utilitarian metal casing and cheap-looking black knobs, replaced instead with an elegant brushed-steel front panel and neatly laid out control panel, beautifully flanked by faux-wood panelling. It still weighs a significant amount, but this is one of the few times that weight is an indication of quality, as serious components are required to absorb up to 200W of amp power.
Most guitarists will likely be looking at the Reload II for its attenuation and cab simulation, but it offers far more than that. It’s also a solid-state two-channel power amplifier capable of outputting 215 watts per channel from an amp or line level source, each with a stereo effects loop. The potential live and studio configurations possible would take up this entire review, but of particular interest is the ability to run a wet-dry-wet amp stereo setup using just one amplifier.
Image: Adam Gasson
The line-in facility may be of particular interest to those playing through digital modellers. Should you wish to use them in a more traditional setup or even simply as an onstage monitor, then it can be run it direct into one of the two channels, which will power a cabinet or FRFR speaker.
Why would we need an effects loop in a loadbox? Well, the stereo effects loop will prove a godsend for those using single-channel or vintage amps without effects loops. Many vintage amps, including my ’85 Marshall JCM800, have no effects loop. This means everything, including modulation, reverb, or delay, must be routed through the front of the amp, which generally yields a tone completely enveloped by the effect. Using it via the Reload enables us to mix in these effects post-power and preamp section.
Two Notes Reload II – in use
With the luxury of several amps to choose from, I select the one with a tone that has been least accurately reproduced following attenuation over the years – my Mesa Mark IV head. I take a line from the speaker-out and plug into the Reload’s amp-in jack socket, setting the impedance to 8 ohms (4 and 16 ohms are also available), and then plug my 2×12 Mesa cab with Vintage 30s into one of the ‘cab-out’ sockets.
Like most Mesas, the Mark IV doesn’t rely on its 85-watt power section for overdrive, but even with a master volume it’s extremely difficult to generate usable tones at bedroom-friendly levels on its own – let’s see if the Reload II changes that.
Setting the master volume halfway and dialling in my usual gain-laden tone on the amp’s lead channel, I begin to crank up the oversized cab volume knob on the Reload II. One of the most coveted retained features of the original Reload that returns here is the ability to increase/decrease volume in a linear fashion with precise, smooth increments – all the way from barely audible to deafening.
Image: Adam Gasson
At a very low volume, my sound is immediately recognisable, still in possession of the punch and grunt I was expecting, but without upsetting the neighbours. As per its predecessor, there are tone-shaping controls on the front of the unit, to dial back in any frequencies you may feel lost during the attenuation process. A common side effect of attenuation is a slight loss of high-end, and this can be compensated for on the Reload by turning up the presence control.
However, as I sweep through different volumes, I don’t feel the need to add additional presence or depth. Tube amps, irrespective of attenuation, always sound better with the volume up, so I choose to crank it up a little bit more, still within reasonable volumes. What I continue to experience is the information-laden guitar tone that I’ve come to expect from my beloved amp, and the loss of detail that feels inevitable with attenuation is barely perceptible, if it exists at all.
Connecting one of the two line-outs from the Reload into my audio interface, I load up the included Genome software. It seems quite a significant upgrade on the former Wall Of Sound cabinet emulation software in terms of appearance and features, and it’s straightforward enough to use without the manual. Input and output volumes feature at the top of the screen and directly underneath is a left-to-right signal chain of 10 blocks, which can be filled with a variety of applications such as amps, cabs, effects and so on.
The first step is to insert a DYN-IR cabinet. There are 16 dynamic cabinets free with the Genome, but fortunately, I’m also able to restore and use previous purchases I made via the Wall Of Sound app. So I load up a 2×12 Rectifier cabinet with Vintage 30 Celestion speakers. The cabinets are all dynamic, which means that you can move the position of the mic onto different areas of the speaker cone and at different distances. There is also a selection of mics to choose from, but my choice is a virtual Royer 121 ribbon mic pointed at the middle of the cone.
Image: Adam Gasson
It’s a little sludgy sounding at first so, as I would in the physical world,I add a virtual Shure SM57 to balance out the low end and provide more high-mids. I’m quite blown away by the accuracy of the tone. In my opinion, many load boxes with cab emulation are a little fizzy in the top end and a great deal of tone shaping is required to achieve accurate emulation of the desired tone. Here though, my amp’s character is instantly recognisable.
To finesse further, I load a graphic EQ into my chain block and enact a low-cut on the lowest of frequencies, then finally I add a tiny bit of reverb to thicken up the sound a little. It sounds very impressive, and A/B’ing with both the actual mic signal using the same mic and cab, and our Fractal Audio Systems Axe FX III Mark IV profile (which is a superb recreation of the iconic amp) reveals very little difference at all.
Two Notes Reload II – should I buy one?
The original Reload, with its sensitive and accurate linear attenuation (not stepped-up volume like the Ox), was arguably one of the best attenuators on the market. The Reload II has really taken the attenuation accuracy much further and the Genome software (of which a lifetime license is provided) is much more user-friendly and feature-packed.
A grand is a lot of money to spend on any bit of hardware that doesn’t actually make any noise itself, but it’s worth remembering what you actually get here. Not only do you have a superb attenuator and uber-accurate cab simulation, but you also get a two-channel power amp, allowing a plethora of live and studio set-up options, including the ability to run a wet-dry-wet setup.
You also get Genome, with its plethora of effects and tone-shaping tools, which even in its infancy, delivers regular updates and a flow of third-party cabinets, which can’t be said of one of its main high-profile competitors.
Despite the hyperbole about amps facing their demise following the domination of digital modellers, reality tells us differently. These modellers wouldn’t exist without amps and the raison d’etre of two of the most popular – Kemper and Quad Cortex – is to profile your own amp. Guitarists will always love tube amps, but the difficulty of operating them within an acceptable volume whilst running the tubes hot is age-old, but this has now been comfortably addressed by the proliferation of load boxes. The Reload II has proven itself to be the best of them. Don’t let the price fool you – the package is worth every penny.
Two Notes Reload II – alternatives
The Fryette Power Station ($1,199 / £899) is the Reload II’s biggest competitor in my view. Having similar features, including a high-end amplifier attenuator, effects loop, a reactive load and the real kicker; it also possesses a 60-watt valve power stage built-in so it can be used to beef up the volume of any low-wattage amplifiers you may wish to use live. This is a highly regarded unit amongst guitars, preserving any amp’s tone in low volumes much better than the opposition. It doesn’t come with its own cabinet emulation software but does feature a line-out so that it can be used with third-party software.
The Universal Audio OX Reactive Amp Attenuator with Speaker Modelling ($1,499 / £1,259) is currently the industry standard loadbox and a mainstay in studios around the world. Featuring attenuation capabilities and a cab emulation software suite loaded with the most iconic of speakers, cabs, and microphones, its firmware and software updates are few and far between, but fans of the unit would argue that UA got it right first time, so updates are superfluous.
The Suhr Reactive Load Box ($599 / £419) is another hugely popular choice. With its impedance curve based on one of the most popular speakers, a Celestion Greenback in a 4×12 cab, its emulation is known to be warm and dynamic. It’s limited to an 8-ohm input but it’s unlikely to find many amps that don’t output this impedance.
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Steve Vai plays on cover of Van Halen’s Jump for 2026 World Cup anthem
Van Halen’s ’80s classic Jump has been given a fresh spin for the FIFA World Cup 2026, with guitar virtuoso Steve Vai lending his chops to the new cover.
The reimagined track arrives via Coca-Cola’s Real Thing Records label in partnership with Capitol Records, bringing together Latin pop heavyweight J Balvin, singer Amber Mark, Vai and Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker.
“Being a football fan means feeling everything at full volume – the joy, the heartbreak, and the hope that keeps you coming back,” says Joshua Burke, Head of Global Music & Culture Marketing at Coca-Cola. “Jump captures those shared highs and lows that unite fans everywhere. Coca-Cola and the FIFA World Cup have always brought people together, and we wanted this track to feel like that moment when millions of fans are singing the same feeling at once.”
While the original’s unmistakable synth stabs remain front and centre, the new version leans further into modern pop territory. Balvin delivers an extended rap verse, while Vai takes on guitar duties, recreating – and putting his own spin on – the iconic solo first made famous by the late Eddie Van Halen. The track was first teased earlier this year through Coca-Cola’s ‘Bubbling Up’ campaign as part of the build-up to the 2026 tournament.
Released on the band’s blockbuster 1984 album, Jump remains the most successful single in the Van Halen catalogue. At the time, its synth-driven hook marked a surprising pivot away from the band’s bluesy hard-rock formula. For some fans it was a shock; for everyone else, it was irresistible – and the gamble paid off, turning the track into one of the most recognisable arena anthems of the decade.
Its connection to sport runs deep too. Ahead of the 2012 Summer Olympics, Jump was voted most popular sporting anthem in a poll conducted of members PRS for Music.
“Van Halen’s Jump is one of those rare songs that transcends generations, so approaching it came with a lot of respect,” says Mark. “Being able to honor the original while bringing a modern perspective was incredibly special.”
Vai’s presence also adds a neat historical link to the Van Halen camp. In the mid-’80s, the guitarist joined David Lee Roth’s solo band following the singer’s split from Van Halen – a gig that saw him tackling Eddie’s famously acrobatic parts on songs like Panama and Hot for Teacher night after night.
The new single arrives alongside an animated music video directed and designed by McFlyy, featuring stylised versions of the performers and an animated cameo from football star Lamine Yamal as the road to the 2026 World Cup ramps up.
Listen to the track below.
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“I used to give Stephen s**t because he wasn’t a shredder like Eddie Van Halen”: Original Deftones bassist says he used to make fun of Stephen Carpenter’s guitar skills
![[L-R] Dominic Garcia and Stephen Carpenter](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Deftones-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Stephen Carpenter’s Deftones riffs have played a pivotal role in shaping the alt-metal genre. But his guitar skills haven’t always been universally admired.
In a new interview in the latest issue of Metal Hammer, original Deftones bassist Dominic Garcia – who held the post between 1988 and 1991 – remembers actively teasing Carpenter during the band’s early years for not being a “shredding guitar player”.
While Garcia was the band’s original bassist, he assumed the drummer position “around 1991 or 1992” after he says original drummer Abe Cunningham “left the Deftones” to join another band called Phallucy.
“I took over on drums and that’s when [bassist] Chi Cheng joined the group,” he says. “I loved Chi, he was really cool – he was into poetry and all this stuff. Just a wonderful, kind-hearted person.” Chi Cheng remained a member of the Deftones until 2008, when he was involved in a serious car crash in California. Cheng died in 2013 from a sudden cardiac arrest.
Garcia continues, explaining that Phallucy’s bassist quit, and the idea of him playing “two different instruments in two different bands” – drums in Deftones and bass in Phallucy – seemed “super-cool”.
“I found out from a third party that Stephen had got a guy named John Taylor to play drums in the Deftones,” he says. “I was a little bit heartbroken because I’d started the band, but we were still friends.”
He adds: “I used to give Stephen a load of shit because he wasn’t a shredding guitar player like Eddie Van Halen. I was just being a snob, a cocky kid, but maybe it was low-key bullying.”
As it stands, Stephen Carpenter is still not touring internationally with Deftones. In 2022, the guitarist announced his decision to step away from performing with the band outside the US. Many believed it was due to his anti-vax views around the time of the Covid pandemic. The guitarist has also noted his struggles with anxiety more recently.
Last year, frontman Chino Moreno noted he wasn’t sure the exact reason why Stephen Carpenter was refusing to tour with the band outside the US,
“I don’t want to speak for him. And even if I could, I still don’t have an answer,” he told Metal Hammer. “And if he does have an answer, I think it’d be great if one day he would share it. But yeah, we support him. We have to. He’s our friend. And his health, be it physically or mentally, always takes the forefront of anything.”
View the Deftones website for a full list of upcoming tour dates.
The post “I used to give Stephen s**t because he wasn’t a shredder like Eddie Van Halen”: Original Deftones bassist says he used to make fun of Stephen Carpenter’s guitar skills appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to be on that train”: Original Trivium frontman explains why Matt Heafy’s “laser focus” on perfection made him leave the band
While Matt Heafy has very much been the face of American metal heroes Trivium for the bulk of their career, the band’s original frontman was Brad Lewter, who filled the spot between 1999 and 2000.
A year after their formation, the band recruited a young Heafy at only 13 years old. And despite his fledgling status, he played a pivotal role in driving the eventual success of the band.
In a new interview in the latest print issue of Metal Hammer, Lewter recalls the shift in the band’s dynamic after Heafy joined, explaining how the “determination” of Heafy and founding drummer Travis Smith had him questioning whether he “wanted to be on that train”.
“Heafy and Travis were really determined,” Lewter explains. “They’d be woodshedding, where you just sit and go over the same riff over and over again, whereas me and [founding member] Jarred [Bonaparte] had other things away from the music.
Lewter remembers Heafy’s “laser focus” and pursuit of perfectionism, adding: “His dad was very active in management and promotion and I didn’t know if I wanted to be on that train.”
The vocalist ultimately left the band in 2000 – a year after Matt Heafy joined – but admits he did later feel a sense of regret after witnessing the group’s success.
“There were some regrets about hopping off when I did – seeing them on MTV or touring with Metallica – but it wasn’t for me,” he says. “I’m more of an introvert. I’m an animator, and so I would sit in my comfortable space in a dark room in front of a screen.”
Things all worked out in the end, as Lewter is now a professor of animation at Ithaca College, New York.
“I am still friends with Heafy and his wife on social media,” he explains, “so I see the updates, and that’s not the kind of life I could sustain.”
Trivium’s last album was their 10th outing, In the Court of the Dragon, which landed in 2021. The band have confirmed a new album is in the works, with an eye to release it in late 2026 or early 2027.
The Orlando metallers also have a number of shows booked in Europe this summer. For tickets and a full list of dates, head to Trivium.org.
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Wolfgang Van Halen reveals he and his dad jammed a song on the new Mammoth album before he died: “I taught him how to play it on guitar, and I played drums”
![[L-R] Eddie Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen](https://guitar.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/WVH-EVH-new-hero@2000x1500.jpg)
Wolfgang Van Halen has reflected on the time he and his late father Eddie Van Halen jammed on a song that would appear years later on his band Mammoth’s latest album, The End.
Guitar legend Eddie Van Halen tragically passed away in 2020 before the release of any music under his son Wolfgang’s band, Mammoth. The band’s first song, Distance, arrived a month after Eddie’s death, and served as a touching tribute from Wolfgang to his father.
But ideas that would later become Mammoth songs were in the works years beforehand, and as it turns out, Wolfgang even jammed one song in particular with Eddie way back in 2014.
Answering a fan’s question in a new edition of SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk, Wolfgang remembers [via antiMusic] : “Actually in December of 2014 when I was getting ready to track what would be the beginning of Mammoth – it was January 2015 that we started the original tracks.
“I actually have a video – it’s a really terribly filmed video because it’s right next to my hi-hat on my cell phone, so it’s just all hi-hat, total noise.
“But on a song that actually ended up on The End – Selfish – I have a video of my dad and I jamming on that song in 2014, which is crazy to think that it came out last year. That’s how long that idea has been around.”
Wolfgang explains that the pair jammed the song through “a couple of times”.
“I taught him how to play it on guitar, and I got on drums… That’s a video I hold very close. I love that.”
He says the only reason he’s never shared the video with the world is because of the poor audio quality due to the camera placement.
“I don’t know, you can barely hear it,” he says. “I probably should have put the phone camera somewhere else. But yeah, we did. I don’t think it ever got out how stoked Dad was about it. He loved the music so much. And he heard a lot of what would end up on the next few albums, because the 28 songs I wrote at the very beginning of Mammoth in 2015, kind of got spread out because certain ideas weren’t done yet.”
While Wolfgang appears to be in a good spot now, he admits he still has moments of sadness when thinking about sharing his newest musical ideas with his father.
“It’s a tough, emotional thing,” he continues. “Every positive thing that happens to me has a tinge of sadness because it’s like, ‘Dang, I really wish I could have shared this with Dad. I wish he could have seen it. He would be stoked.’”
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“Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards”: Tony Visconti on Pete Townshend’s one-take David Bowie Heathen session
David Bowie producer Tony Visconti has shared new behind-the-scenes stories from the making of Heathen, including a blistering one-take guitar performance from Pete Townshend that left the Who legend with bleeding fingers.
In a new interview with Spin, Visconti revisits the 2002 record, his first full-album collaboration with Bowie since 1980, and the musicians who contributed to its sessions.
“As for working side-by-side in the studio, we both played many instruments, and I was singing backing vocals with him since the earliest albums,” Visconti says of his time with Bowie. “He was impatient. If we wanted a guitar part, we didn’t want to phone for a player and wait until that guitarist was free. David and I shared guitar duties frequently. We were a two-man band.”
Occasionally, outside musicians were brought in. One such cameo was Pete Townshend, whose appearance on Heathen happened largely by chance.
“Townshend dropped in for a visit when we were recording in Philip Glass’s studio, Looking Glass. They had a long chat, and I could see camaraderie between old friends,” the producer recalls. Before long, Bowie invited him to pick up a guitar.
“David asked him to play. He did, but we asked him to play a bit more aggressively, and he said, ‘Oh, do you mean Townshend Windmill Chords?’ He nailed it in one take. Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards,” says Visconti.
Another contributor to the album was Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who played acoustic guitar on Bowie’s cover of Neil Young’s I’ve Been Waiting for You.
“The Grohl story is interesting,” Visconti says. “He played acoustic guitar, remotely from California, and sent us a file. His drumming would’ve been better, but that didn’t happen.”
The session also came with a price tag Visconti still finds hard to believe.
“Afterwards he sent David an invoice for $10,000. Sure, he was on top of his game, but that was ludicrous,” the producer says. “I don’t know if David actually paid him that much.”
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“I made it with realism in mind”: Inside Masayoshi Takanaka’s ridiculous six-kilogram surfboard guitar
Nothing proves humans have free will quite like Japanese jazz fusion virtuoso Masayoshi Takanaka’s ridiculous red surfboard guitar.
Weighing around six kilograms and looking more like beach equipment than a stage instrument, the larger-than-life guitar will return to the spotlight this March. Takanaka’s first UK solo shows were originally booked for London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire, but overwhelming demand saw them upgraded to two nights at Brixton Academy, where nearly 10,000 fans are expected to watch the 72-year-old shred his psychedelic surf classics with the lifeguard-board-turned-guitar in hand.
Created in collaboration with luthier Takeda Yutaka, the surfboard guitar was designed to capture the breezy, beachy essence of Takanaka’s psych-surf sound. It also doubles as a tribute to a late friend – an experience that prompted the guitarist to reflect on life’s fleeting nature.
“You can do what you like while you’re alive. When you’re dead, you can’t do anything. So I decided to make a surfboard guitar,” Takanaka says in an interview with Surfer Today. “I’m jumping the gun a bit, but I was thinking, ‘Oh, come to think of it, surfing was popular around the time of the Bubble Era… I have a summer song that goes well with it…’ and then I thought it would be interesting to make a surfing guitar. I heard it was hard to make.”
After exploring several options, Takanaka and Yutaka hollowed out a real surfboard to house a playable guitar inside.
“I made it with realism in mind,” the luthier explains. “The surfboard itself is hollow inside, so you can’t attach the neck or parts directly to it. So I attached the neck to a small wooden body and screwed it in from the back of the surfboard. In order not to sacrifice playability, we made sure it wasn’t too heavy and left enough clearance around the neck. Considering maintenance, the guitar part is removable.”
The surfboard guitar originally debuted in light blue on Takanaka’s 2004 and 2005 tours before being repainted bright red. Its complexity made the luthier vow never to attempt another, and its monstrous weight meant Takanaka could only play it for a few songs per show.
“It’s hard to play, as expected. I just play this because I wonder if people watching me will find it fun, but I wonder if some percentage of them think I’m stupid,” Takanaka admits. “So if I play two songs with this guitar at a concert, I will get a little more exhausted. So, I think it would be better to use it only occasionally.”
Fans hoping to see the surfboard guitar in action are in luck. Takanaka says he’d given the instrument away after years of touring with it in Japan, but managed to get it back for his upcoming world tour.
“Actually, I gave it away after using it at a lot of my shows in Japan,” the guitarist tells The Guardian. “I thought I didn’t need it any more. But life is short, and you have to do what you really want to do while you’re still alive – that was why I made the guitar in the first place.”
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“He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later”: Chris Poland says he “doesn’t hold a grudge” against Dave Mustaine over the “terrible s**t” he said about him after he left Megadeth
Former Megadeth guitarist Chris Poland has opened up about his early years with the thrash icons, recalling the intense musical chemistry – and often chaotic bond – he shared with frontman Dave Mustaine.
In a new interview with the Heavy Metal Mayhem radio show, Poland looks back on life with Mustaine in Megadeth’s formative days [via Blabbermouth]: “Me and Dave lived together in a rehearsal studio. We took ‘bird baths’ with cold water in a sink for a year. And then we toured repeatedly. We were together all the time. We were a real band when Megadeth first started. And once that happens, everybody kind of becomes brothers.”
“I know Dave said terrible shit about me [in the later years], but I don’t hold a grudge. And I understand,” the guitarist adds. “I know how Dave is. I know Dave. That’s how he is. He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later.”
Poland played on the band’s first two albums, Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good! and Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?, and returned as a guest on 2004’s The System Has Failed.
“When [Dave] asked me to play on The System Has Failed, I was, like, ‘Yeah, I’ll play on that. Of course I will,’” Poland recalls. “[It had] the same vibe that I got from the first two records. There’s something about when he writes riffs and I play over ‘em – there’s some kind of weird magic, man.”
On creative freedom in the early days, he explains, “The way it was with Dave was if you played something and he didn’t tell you not to play it, then you could play it. So when I did the descending harmonies on Peace Sells or I added some kind of minor note in a chord here or there, and he didn’t say, ‘Hey, don’t play that,’ then I’d play it.”
“But as far as writing, Dave wrote everything. All I did was play with a note here and there, or a harmony. But that’s the thing about Mustaine – I mean, he’s still writing riffs today that are fucking good. [Laughs] He’s the riff master.”
Reflecting on the musical style that drew him to Megadeth in the first place, Poland says, “The way I looked at [Megadeth’s music] was, ‘This is fast Led Zeppelin.’ I had a decent idea of how to get a good distorted sound, and so when the pedaling got involved, I just adapted to it. And then, of course, his spider chord thing – I learned a lot from Dave.”
The post “He says stuff off the top of his head, and I’m sure regrets it later”: Chris Poland says he “doesn’t hold a grudge” against Dave Mustaine over the “terrible s**t” he said about him after he left Megadeth appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Billy Corgan thinks rock has been “purposely dialled down” in culture: “All I know is I saw the gravity shift”
Billy Corgan feels rock was purposely dialled down within culture, so that rockstars didn’t have as much of a voice.
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman shared his thoughts during his The Magnificent Others podcast, where he even mentions his theory of the supposed involvement of the CIA. In the video, Corgan argues that rock was replaced by rap in late 1990s, and now a similar shift is occurring with pop being “completely dominant”.
He says [via MusicRadar], “I think, and I will say it overtly, I think that rock has been purposely dialled down in the culture. Again, this gets ‘wizard behind the curtain,’ right? Somebody’s gonna say, ‘Well, how do you know who was the wizard behind the curtain?’ All I know is I saw the gravity shift.”
He continues, “If you were at MTV or around MTV in 1997 or 1998, suddenly they decided rock was out when rock was still very, very high up. And it was replaced by rap… Their standards and practices immediately shifted, so now things that weren’t allowed were suddenly allowed.
“People were waving guns. Some people assert that the CIA was involved in all that. Again, above my pay grade, but I saw it happen. I did witness it happen. Of course, great music came out of it,” he clarifies. “Qualitative things and great artists came in, but there was this overt shift. I saw it happen. And then now, rap seems to be waning in terms of its cultural influence.
“Pop is completely dominant. Rock is probably the most dominant ticket-selling thing in the Western world, and yet there’s almost no representation of rock in culture. So, why do we have that schism? I think they purposely dialled down the ability of rock stars to have a voice in the culture.”
Another hot take from Corgan comes from a recent Guitar World interview, in which he argued that technical proficiency when it comes to guitar isn’t as impressive as it used to be.
“If you’re going to play a lead in an alternative rock band in 2025, what are you trying to say? No-one’s going to care that you can play good, because there’s fifty 10-year-olds playing Eruption on YouTube,” he said.
“There’s nothing actually that impressive about somebody being able to play the guitar at a decently high level anymore, so I think it’s the expressive quality that makes it interesting. So I’m more interested in creating a feeling than showing off.”
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“I couldn’t help overplaying”: John Mayer on nerves during first Dead & Company tours
John Mayer has opened up about his early days playing with Dead & Company, including the healthy dose of nerves he felt sharing a stage with his idol, Grateful Dead legend Bob Weir.
Despite being a Grateful Dead fanatic long before he joined Dead & Co. in 2015,, stepping into the band’s sprawling, improvisational world – and doing it next to one of its founding members – was a different challenge altogether.
Speaking to Rolling Stone about those first tours, Mayer admits he struggled to resist filling every gap in the music.
“As much as I want to lean back at the very beginning when I’m playing, I couldn’t help overplaying in some of those first few tours. You just do,” he says. “Even if I knew not to overplay, I’m still going to overplay. It’s going to be wordy. I have to adjust my way into the 10-ring on the target.”
Part of that, he explains, simply came down to nerves.
“You could tell yourself not to get nervous, you know exactly why you shouldn’t be nervous, and your hands are going to shake,” says Mayer, describing it as a “natural, physiological moment you have to break through to get comfortable through experience.”
The musician also reflects on his relationship with Weir, who passed away earlier this year, and how their onstage chemistry evolved over time. As the tours went on, the two guitarists gradually developed an almost unspoken understanding onstage – the kind that comes from playing night after night together.
“It changed over the years, because we both got to know each other and trust each other,” Mayer explains. “How did I read his signals? I just knew the way his head moved – we all do – and had an understanding of what his instincts were night after night.”
Eventually, their musical back-and-forth became second nature.
“It got to the point where, in those last few tours, he knew when I would step forward and really hit the gas. And because I’d figured it out by then, I knew when to step back, look at Bobby and say, ‘It’s yours again.’”
That comfort didn’t come immediately, though. Mayer admits that during the early shows he often found himself wondering whether Weir approved of what he was doing onstage.
“I’d think: ‘I hope he’s happy. He might not be. Oh, he just went and turned his guitar amp up. Does that mean he thinks I’m too loud? Is someone going to come into my [dressing] room and say, ‘Hey, can you turn your guitar down?’ Then one day, you walk up onstage and there’s plexiglass between the amps and you go, ‘I have a feeling I’m a little too loud.’”
Looking back, Mayer says those early tours were about earning his place – both with fans and with Weir himself.
“The first couple of tours were proving to the audience that I had a right to be there. And the rest of the tours were proving to Bobby that I meant well for everything I was trying to do.”
“I think whatever conversations Bob had on the bus about me in the very beginning changed over the years,” he adds.
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It’s time you ditched your tube amp for a modeller: this is why you should do it
The discourse online about real amplifiers versus modelling and emulation is just that: discourse. While it’s healthy to explore different avenues, the conversations bring up points that may not matter as much as you may think.
Realistically, an amp modeller can never replace an amp, but I’m here to say that modern amp modelling is good enough to consider, the pros of portability, reliability, form and function outweighing the difference between a real amp and a modeller. Even that statement might ignite some fiery discussion, so let’s get down to brass tacks.
Better Than The Real Thing
An emulation of an amplifier can never really sound like an amplifier, but that doesn’t mean they sound bad. Older amplifiers and boutique designs alike are often hand-wired, meaning while the quality control might be higher, they’re more susceptible to characterful imperfections. These are ironically why we love our own amps so much – or lust after someone else’s!
Digital reproductions of amps will perform exactly the same in every condition, there’s no imperfection. Real amplifiers, especially those equipped with valves, are heavy, cumbersome and require consistent servicing. While digital modellers may require software updates or repair from time to time, the wear-and-tear is minimal.
The reason an emulator can’t really replicate an amplifier in a room is because of how a speaker cabinet and its speakers push air after being amplified by a circuit. The size, arrangement and layout of speakers in a cabinet change how sound and air is pushed in every direction, adding different layers of frequencies in front (and behind!) the amplifier that also bounce around the room.
Here’s the kicker: even a real amplifier is often mic’d up, either in the studio or on the stage. The crowd won’t really be hearing your amp in an ambient space, they’ll be hearing the mic’d sound, often digitised, mixed and amplified through a PA. Hell, even at bigger venues you’ll be hearing this mic’d sound in your monitors or in-ears, and in a recording it’ll (usually) be a digital version of your mic’d amp. So the difference between a real amp and a modern emulation? Negligible.
Modern amp modelling has come a long way. Early incarnations of amp modelling left a lot to be desired, the presence, heft and nuance of an amplifier’s circuit being lost in the capture. Today, amp modelling seems to be about as good as it can get, seemingly really tough to pick in a blind test, and it continues to improve. Digital solutions allow guitarists to access plugins intended for use in mixing, as well as a growing number of increasingly accessible and affordable options. Early adopters of professional-sounding emulations and modellers were expected to fork out thousands, and the modern day sees world-class sounding solutions in increasingly tidy, pedalboard friendly packages.
Pedal Power
What’s more, how rare is it these days to see a guitar player that doesn’t have a fairly substantial pedalboard at their feet? It’s almost a given that someone is going to be using multiple pedals that can be used to subtly shift and shape our sounds, or overtly process them for more special effects like chorus, delay and abrasive distortion.
The problem though, is that sometimes we’re required to turn on or off multiple pedals at once, requiring either compromise or tap dancing maneuvers to engage multiple pedals at once. The system offered by most modellers allows you to create and toggle between different patches, i.e. multiple settings saved as a single patch, allowing you to create different patches, either with a base tone and multiple effects or for totally different tones.
For example, a single stomp on a pedal can switch an effect-laden patch to a dry one, or even switch to a whole new amp between sections of a song. The digital effects are all available inside the modellers so you require a smaller pedalboard, the units themselves being set up in a way that you require less footswitches depending how your patches are set up.
Speak The Truth
Another huge part of improved amplifier emulators are the leaps and bounds that cabinet emulation has taken via impulse responses, microphone emulation and even detailed nuance of speakers and cabinet construction. Cabinets and speakers play a huge part in the low end of a tone, your choice helping palm mutes to bloom, adding dynamic and weight to your playing, further helping to develop a realistic feel to emulations, instead of just a great tone.
Multiple ‘mic’ options give you more control over that end of your sound than the mics used at a venue, and you’re less susceptible to mics on cabinets getting bumped and changing your tone dramatically. Anyone who’s tried their hand at recording will know that movements of mere millimeters of a microphone can shift your tone from weighty, balanced bliss to fizzy, grating buzz.
What’s more, amplifier emulators bring emulations of mics that are often relegated to the safe confines of a studio, like big tube condensers, vintage ribbons and more. In this instance you’d likely set up your sound, cabinets and microphones and all, and send your tone direct to front-of-house (FOH).
The risk here is that you’re still at the mercy of the front of house engineer to treat and mix your sound, but this is no different than a real amp mic’d up!
Perfect Balance
Another thing to keep in mind when choosing to make the switch to digital is if you’re in a two-guitar band. It can sometimes sound unbalanced when only one guitarist in the band has gone digital, especially so when sending sound directly to FOH. The ambient sound of a cabinet in the room, especially smaller venues, can leave a digital rig feeling thin and lacking air and space, despite all the huge advancements in cabinet emulation.
All of this is to say that digital amplification and modelling has come a long, long way since the early days of stock plugins, kidney-shaped digital modellers and the like. While the emulation of pre-amp sections has come a long way, the technology to emulate the sound of an amp in a room helps us to more accurately recreate our favourite tones, all recallable at the touch of a single button – no tapdancing!
Writing off a technology only serves to ensure you’re left behind. There’s nothing to lose as an amp devotee, you’ll either confirm your commitment or find a new avenue for tone!
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The best looper pedals for all needs and budgets
If a riff is worth playing, it’s worth playing 25 times while you widdle ineptly over the top of it. And that is one very good reason for the current popularity of loopers… but it’s by no means the only one.
A looper is your pathway to instant multitracking. Most of them use the same basic principle of operation – stomp once to start recording, stomp again to end the cycle and start overdubbing – and that’s putting a uniquely powerful tool at your feet. If you want to slap down rough backing tracks for writing new melodies, build elaborate soundscapes of layered harmonies, or just have a virtual band to jam with, there’s going to be at least one pedal on this list that will make your life easier than it was before. And while some of them are both complex and pricey, the good news is that plenty are neither of those things.
Incidentally, there’s a certain ginger-mopped troubadour who’s probably done more than anyone else to popularise the art of looping – and, naturally, not everyone is a fan. But if you’re hoping to get to the end of this guide without seeing him mentioned, that’s going to be rather difficult… as his name is on one of the products.
At a glance:
- Best simple looper: TC Electronic Ditto 2
- Best do-it-all looper: Boss RC-600 Loop Station
- Best two-channel looper: Pigtronix Infinity 2
- Best multi-memory looper: Electro-Harmonix Nano Looper 360
- Best soundscaping looper: Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII
- Best combined looper and delay: Keeley Eccos
- Best practice looper: DigiTech Trio+
- Best looper for busking: Sheeran Looper +
- Best compact looper: Boss RC-5 Loop Station
- Why you can trust Guitar.com
Best simple looper: TC Electronic Ditto 2
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It was a different world before the original TC Ditto came along – think caves, loincloths and saber-toothed tigers. This was the pedal that kickstarted the looping craze, simply by being so much simpler than what came before it. The Ditto 2 isn’t quite as basic as its predecessor (which, by the way, is still being made), but it retains that ethos of putting user-friendliness first.
So again you get a single footswitch – which is now more rugged, to withstand relentless repeat stomping – and a knob for loop level. But there are also a few handy added features, including a LoopSnap mode that automatically corrects slightly mistimed taps of the switch. And the price difference from the old version is minimal.
Need more? Read our TC Electronic Ditto 2 review.
Best do-it-all looper: Boss RC-600 Loop Station
This is pretty much the opposite of the Ditto 2, in the same way that an Airbus A380 is the opposite of a paper aeroplane: not simple but elaborate, and not tiny but absolutely hee-yooge. Because this is the flagship of the Loop Station line, and it’s a very powerful piece of kit.
With the RC-600 you’re getting six stereo tracks, 13 hours of storage and a suite of on-board effects, with an LCD screen to help you navigate it all. But don’t be intimidated: Boss knows how to keep things accessible, and you can easily begin with straightforward Ditto-style looping before you begin to explore the advanced capabilities of this floor-hogging beast.
Need more? Read our Boss RC-600 Loop Station review.
Best two-channel looper: Pigtronix Infinity 2
This one’s been around since 2020, and there’s since been an Infinity 3 model launched, but it remains a solid choice if you want to be able to loop on two independent tracks… and yes, it’s every bit as intuitive to use as it looks.
Record a loop on track 1, record another on loop 2, then flip freely between the two to overdub more parts – it automatically times these jumps to happen at the end of the currently playing cycle, so you don’t need to worry about messing things up with sloppy transitions. Again there are bonus features – notably an octave-down effect that has numerous uses – but again you can have a lot of fun without them.
Need more? Read our Pigtronix Infinity 2 review.
Best multi-memory looper: Electro-Harmonix Nano Looper 360
In spirit, the Nano Looper 360 is another entry in the ‘simplicity first’ category: if it didn’t have that right-hand knob it would be more or less a clone of the original TC Ditto. But that knob is a secret weapon that opens up all sorts of possibilities.
Well, actually, what it opens up is one particular possibility: that of recording a whole bunch of backing loops at home – up to 11 of them – and then calling them up whenever you need them. This means it can be used as a handy notepad for song ideas, or even as a live backing band with a built-in set list.
Best soundscaping looper: Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII
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All the loopers described above are really good at recording whatever you play into them and then repeating it back to you in pristine audio quality – clean, pure and unaltered. The Mood really, really doesn’t want to do that.
In my review of this pedal I summarised it as “a cinematic loop-scaping leviathan”. It has delay and reverb on one side, randomised micro-looping on the other, and a ‘clock’ control for messing with the fabric of space and time in the middle. It’s always listening, even when it’s switched off, and you have no control over which of your notes it will fire back at you… so yes, the Mood is a looper, but it’s way more creative and unpredictable than anything else on this list.
Need more? Read our Chase Bliss Audio Mood MkII review.
Best combined looper and delay: Keeley Eccos
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In a sense, a looper is just a digital delay pedal with ideas above its station – so why not stick the two effects in one unit? The Keeley Eccos does this brilliantly, and crams an impossible amount of functionality into one compact enclosure.
The looping side works just as it should, with the usual footswitch operation and the added bonuses of reverse and half-speed modes. But the delay part goes off on its own path, colouring the repeats with a nice touch of flangey modulation – or more than a touch if you go mad with the knobs’ secondary functions. You even get three slots for storing user presets… and just to really blur the line between the two effects, you can record a loop and set it to gradually decay.
Best practice looper: DigiTech Trio+
Bandmates all walked out on you because of your excessive perfectionism and/or poor personal hygiene? Neither of those things will be a problem if you replace them with DigiTech’s ‘band creator and looper’ – because it never makes mistakes and it doesn’t have a nose. What it does have is the power to listen to what you play and respond by adding drums and bass.
With 12 musical genres to choose from, 12 song styles within each genre and up to five parts for each song, it’s quite the sophisticated arranger – and you get separate level knobs for the guitar, bass and drum loops. Obviously this is never going to sound or feel the same as playing with real musicians, but it’s a heck of a home practice tool.
Best looper for busking: Sheeran Looper +
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Considering how many young strummers must have been inspired to buy a looper after seeing him play, you can hardly blame Ed Sheeran for grabbing his own slice of the pedal pie by launching a signature brand. This is the entry-level model, but it still offers two tracks, instrument and microphone inputs, a full-colour LCD screen and – most crucially if you’re planning to take it busking – the ability to run off four AA batteries when you don’t have access to mains power.
There’s even a battery-powered PA speaker, the Sheeran Busker, to complete your street-ready rig. Just add a guitar, a mic and maybe a smidge of talent.
Best compact looper: Boss RC-5 Loop Station
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Some loopers are simple and small; others are complicated and expansive. The real challenge is to mash those two worlds together without making a mess all over the floor. Boss has plenty of history in that kind of smart engineering, and has been building loopers for longer than most – its influential RC-20 came out in 2001. So who better to make a genuinely compact pedal that can do it all?
The RC-5 follows the classic Boss design format that goes all the way back to the 1970s, yet it somehow packs in 57 backing rhythms, 13 hours of stereo recording time for up to 99 separate loops, and an unrivalled array of connectivity options including MIDI, expression pedal control and USB backup. It’s a big looper hiding in a small box.
Why You Can Trust Us
Every year, Guitar.com reviews a huge variety of new products – from the biggest launches to cool boutique effects – and our expert guitar reviewers have decades of collective experience, having played everything from Gibson ’59 Les Pauls to the cheapest Squiers.
That means that when you click on a Guitar.com buyer’s guide, you’re getting the benefit of all that experience to help you make the best buying decision for you. What’s more, every guide written on Guitar.com was put together by a guitar obsessive just like you. You can trust that every product recommended in those guides is something that we’d be happy to have in our own rigs.
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Fender celebrates 30 years of the Hot Rod Deluxe with limited-edition version – here’s how you can get one
Fender is celebrating 30 years of its hugely popular 40-watt Hot Rod Deluxe combo amp with a limited-edition 30th Anniversary version.
In keeping with the 30th Anniversary aesthetics also boasted by the company’s Blues Junior IV relaunch that arrived last year, the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe features a Western-style covering, along with a vintage ‘50s brown and gold grille cloth.
Tweaks haven’t only been made in the aesthetics department, though; the 30th Anniversary version of the Hot Rod Deluxe swaps out the original’s 12-inch Celestion A-type speaker for another ceramic Celestion speaker, the 12-inch G12M-65 Creamback.
Credit: Fender
The amp’s circuitry has been modified on the original, too, with tweaks to the preamp section for “increased overdriven note definition”, plus a “smoother” spring reverb.
Elsewhere, the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe sports a pine cabinet, polished stainless steel faceplate, black Chickenhead knobs and a leather handle, and comes with a two-button footswitch and cover.
Credit: Fender
Still 40 watts, the amp is fitted with three channels to choose from – Normal, Drive and More Drive – and is powered by a trio of 12AX7 tubes in the preamp section and two 6L6’s in the power section.
Often touted as a great pedal platform for its high headroom, the Hot Rod Deluxe also features an effects loop, in which you can place modulation, delay and reverb pedals after the preamp and prior to the power amp.
Price-wise, you can get your hands on the 30th Anniversary Hot Rod Deluxe for the princely sum of $1,299 / £1,269 / €1,489.
Learn more at Fender.
Credit: Fender
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Megadeth On Ice: Watch Teemu Mäntysaari play Let There be Shred while ice skating
Megadeth guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari has just shared a rather cool video of him playing Let There Be Shred while ice skating.
The Finnish guitarist, who joined the band in 2023 following Kiko Loureiro’s departure, says making the video was “so much fun” and combines his two favourite things: guitar and ice hockey. Let There Be Shred marked the third single to arrive from their final album, which landed in January.
Though the video doesn’t use the raw audio, Mäntysaari masters this ice cold shred-through smoothly, even when moving backwards, and close up shots show him tearing through the fretboard. Take a look in the video below:
The final, self-titled album from Megadeth marks their 17th studio record. It is also their first and only record featuring Mäntysaari since he joined the band. In 2024, Mustaine said having on board made them feel more united: “We are a band again,” he told Loudwire Nights. “It doesn’t feel like me and some side players or session guys… I feel like Kiko did us a really huge courtesy by helping us find Teemu.”
The band’s final record features their own rendition of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, which frontman Dave Mustaine originally helped to craft during his time with Metallica. At first, people believed the track to be middle-finger to the band that fired Mustaine back in 1983, but their decision to record the track came with intentions much more wholesome.
Mustaine helped write a number of Metallica songs before his firing, including a selection from the band’s debut album, Kill ‘Em All, and decided to record Ride The Lightning as a mark of respect to his first real band. Though Megadeth are retiring, it does seem that Mustaine has his sights set on other projects, with one possibly being acting.
Megadeth are currently on their farewell tour. You can view the full list of scheduled shows via their official website.
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How Eddie Van Halen’s treasured Lamborghini Miura was restored and unveiled as a touching tribute to the guitar legend
Eddie Van Halen wasn’t just about music, he also had an impressive collection of classic cars and was passionate about all things automotive.
In 2023 after his passing, Lamborghini paid tribute to the guitar icon during a special 60th anniversary event for the luxury car brand, after restoring Eddie’s custom Miura. The model made its public debut in 1966, was the first to be coined a “supercar”.
The vehicle’s revving engine can also be heard on Van Halen’s Panama right after the guitar solo. According to a 2023 article from Van Halen Newsdesk, Eddie sold the car in 2019 to Curated Motors in Miami.
As newly shared by Ital Passion, John Temerian, founder of Curated Motors, sent the Miura to Italy to be restored by Lamborghini’s historical division. The restoration should have taken around two years and ended up taking almost four due to COVID-19.
Eddie’s Miura was originally gifted to him as a wedding present from his wife Valerie Bertinelli, and featured custom changes that made it a special model, including a custom number plate bearing their wedding date, “APR 11”, and a red finish instead of green.
It was decided they would not restore an idealised version, but would reinstate the car’s unique character, just as it was given to the musician. The refurbished car was officially unveiled at the anniversary event while Van Halen’s music played out, and then taken for a stunning drive around Northern Italy.
You can hear more about the story and check out the refurbished car in the videos below:
In other Van Halen news, a recently unearthed 1978 interview with rock journalist, author and Eddie’s close friend, Steve Rosen, shows the legendary guitarist recounting his experience stumbling across his famed tapping technique.
“I really don’t know how to explain it. I was sitting in my room at the pad at home, drinking a beer. I remember seeing people just stretching one note and hitting the note once… Anyway, it’s just one note like that, and they popped the finger on it real quick to hit one note and I said, ‘Well, fuck nobody is really capitalising on that.’ I mean nobody’s really doing more than just one stretch and one note real quick,” he said.
“So I started dicking around and said, ‘Fuck, this is a totally new technique that nobody really does.’ ‘Cause it is. I really haven’t seen anyone really get into that as far as they could because it is a totally different sound. A lot of people listen to that, and they don’t even think it’s a guitar.”
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“It took a while for James and I to open up”: Lars Ulrich admits not being receptive to Cliff Burton’s musical ideas when he first joined Metallica
Metallica’s third album, Master Of Puppets, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and bassist Cliff Burton helped it soar to success.
During the making of the record, which would be Burton’s last before his tragic death during its supporting tour, the other band members began to embrace Burton’s more melodic ideas, opening them up to new ways to experiment.
In an archival interview republished in Classic Rock magazine, drummer Lars Ulrich says, “Most of the record was written in May and June of 1985, from the best ideas that were kicking around on our riff tapes.
“Cliff had been in the band for a few years and he brought in a lot of harmonies and melodies. It took a little while for James [Hetfield] and I to open up to some of Cliff’s ideas about harmony and melody, because we’d never played stuff like that before. But after a while we got it and that’s when we started experimenting more.”
Guitarist Kirk Hammett adds, “James would show Cliff and me the riffs, and we’d build the songs from there. Some I’d already be familiar with. The main riff in Battery, for instance. The first time I heard James play that was in England, on his acoustic guitar. We were watching The Young Ones, and all of a sudden he started messing around with this sort of galloping rhythm. I said: ‘Wow, that’s cool.’”
Ulrich describes this young iteration of the band as “snot-nosed punks trying to do something different from everyone else,” before Hetfield then adds, “I remember writing the chorus to Master Of Puppets in our living room and thinking it was too commercial, too obvious. ‘If it’s too easy, something’s wrong’ was kind of the Metallica mantra.”
In other huge Metallica news, the band are due to take up residency at the Las Vegas Sphere across October and November of 2026, and into January 2027. The residency will continue their ‘no-repeat’ weekend tradition, with unique set lists for each night.
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“I didn’t break it, but it was pretty close”: Suzi Quatro recalls the time she nearly broke Alice Cooper’s nose on tour
Tour antics can sometimes get out of hand, and that was nearly the case for Suzi Quatro, when she very nearly broke Alice Cooper’s nose.
Quatro supported Cooper on his 1975 Welcome To My Nightmare tour, which was a colossal run that saw the shock rocker kick things off in March that year and wrap in December. The tour was turned into a concert film, and took place in a multitude of venues across the USA, as well as Canada and parts of Europe.
- READ MORE: The Genius Of… Quatro by Suzi Quatro
Speaking to Classic Rock for the new edition of its print magazine, Quatro recalls, “I was friends with so many acts from Michigan – MC5, Amboy Dukes, Grand Funk Railroad – and I’ve known Alice for years and we always had a connection. I supported him on the Welcome To My Nightmare tour in 1975, 85 dates. We called him Vinnie The Boss.
“We were on a turboprop and making at least one flight a day, if not two. Back then I was a terrible flyer, so it was white-knuckle time. But it was wonderful because there was a lot of Detroit people around, musicians who I’d known forever. A lot of blackjack was played. On a big tour like this you get a little crazy. In one hotel we decided to have a rubber dart-gun fight before a show,” she says.
“We hid behind mattresses in the hallway, and it got serious, dark… Who was going to win? Alice hid in a room. Then I saw his rather large nose poking out from behind a television set, and I went [mimes shooting a pistol] ‘boink!’ I didn’t break it, but it was pretty close. His first words were: ‘Ouch!’ and then ‘Good shot!’ That night, on stage he wore my tour T-shirt out of respect.”
Last year when Cooper was on tour, guitarist Nita Strauss also became the centre of one of Cooper’s stunts, as she shared a close encounter with a boa constrictor during a live show. In a video shared to her Instagram, the snake could be seen licking her face as she continued to play through Cooper’s 1991 hit, Snakebite.
Alice Cooper is playing shows across the globe this year. Suzi Quatro will play across the UK in April. Find out more via her official website.
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Joe Satriani and Steve Vai are “Dancing” and letting loose on latest SatchVai single
While Joe Satriani and Steve Vai’s SatchVai project has been touring for the last couple of years, the pair of guitar legends are still in no rush to release a full album. Instead, they’ve been drip-feeding their fans, sticking to one collaborative release a year – and it’s finally time for another single.
Dancing comes as SatchVai’s third track to date. It joins the 2024 release of I Wanna Play My Guitar and 2025’s The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1 – and it’s a vibrant burst of playful guitar tones. The riffy reimagining of Paolo Conte’s 1981 track of the same name sounds like it could soundtrack a bombastic cartoon heist, unfolding in a chaotic slew of bright, bouncy grooves.
“Dancing really captures the playful side of what Steve and I discovered on stage together last summer – that push-and-pull of melody and energy,” Satriani explains in a press release. “The video also gave us a chance to show that spirit in a completely different way.”
Directed by Satriani’s son, ZZ Satriani, the Dancing music video is brilliantly goofy. The surreal narrative sees Satriani and Vai trying to please an over-the-top manager (played by comedian Brendon Small) who insists that their live show isn’t entertaining enough. To up their gave, the SatchVai pair need to start doing backflips, grow bigger fingers… and start Dancing, of course.
“This band thrives on surprise – musically and visually,” Vai says. “Dancing is a perfect example of that. It’s melodic but relentless, and the video turns that energy into a kind of surreal comedy. It’s a glimpse into the personality of this band before we even hit the stage.”
While there’s no telling what ‘surprises’ the duo have in store next (perhaps the second half of The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1?), the SatchVai project will be embarking on a US tour this April. The Surfing With The Hydra tour will run up until 30 May, with support from prog-metalers Animals as Leaders.
Head to satchvaiband.com for more information and tickets.
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Sharon Osbourne says Ozzfest will “absolutely” return in 2027
Last month, Sharon Osbourne hinted that she was in talks with Live Nation to revive Ozzfest. Now, Sharon claims that there will “absolutely” be an Ozzfest revival next year.
In a recent appearance on the RIFFX podcast, Ozzy Osbourne’s widow and ex-manager since 1979 confirmed the news. When asked if Ozzfest would return in 2027, she said: “ Yes, absolutely – we’re gonna do it.”
First held back in 1996, Ozzfest served as an annual festival celebrating the metal and hard rock scene. From nu-metal to dark gothic metal, the line-up was an eclectic representation of the metal genre. It halted its run in 2008, with a few one-off events before a solid run of annual events between 2015 and 2018.
As Sharon explains, that three year run wasn’t meant to end in 2018. In her words, her and Ozzy always wanted to revive Ozzfest – but, unfortunately, that’s when Ozzy fell ill. “It was just a month before Ozzy got sick, and that was at the Forum in L.A…. there were no plans to stop it,” she says. “We were still gonna do it, but Ozzy couldn’t.”
However, Ozzy didn’t want his illness to put a permanent halt on Ozzfest. “Ozzy and I would talk about it, and he’d say, ‘Do you think Ozzfest would work without me?’” she recalls. “And I’m, like, ‘Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you.’ And he said, ‘We should do it!’”
In January, Sharon revealed in a Billboard interview that she was in discussions with Live Nation about Ozzfest. “It was something Ozzy was very passionate about: giving young talent a stage in front of a lot of people,” she explained. “We really started metal festivals in this country. It was [replicated but] never done with the spirit of what ours was, because ours was a place for new talent. It was like summer camp for kids.”
In the interview, she also shared plans to include some new flavours in the Ozzfest revival line-up. “I’d like to mix up the genres,” she said.
Despite Ozzy’s name being slapped on the festival, Sharon played an equal role in Ozzfest’s creation. In fact, Sharon is the reason the festival even exists; she brainstormed Ozzfest to spite Lollapalooza, since the festival refused to book Ozzy to perform. So it’s safe to say fans are in safe hands. “All of the creative direction for visuals at Ozzfest was mine,” she told Billboard. “I can’t sing a note – I’m tone-deaf – but I can be creative, and I like to create things.”
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