Latest articles by Gregory Adams
Big Wreck’s Ian Thornley on chasing new frontiers of “fuzzed-out, messed-up” sounds with Page-inspired riffs and super-heavy slide guitar
The Canadian Suhr-slinger talks 7.1, the first of a trio of new EPs, the band’s new rhythm guitarist and the constant struggle to keep stuff simple
Rudolf Schenker: “We tried all our equipment from the ‘80s – the Marshall stacks, all this equipment – to find that original, old ‘80s sound”
The Scorpions founder on how the hard-rock institution is looking back to a brighter future with Rock Believer, and why you must put your body into it to play like the “King of Riffs”
I Built the Sky’s Rohan Stevenson on breaking out of the shred-metal box for an acoustic guitar album that makes space for banjo, xylophone and more
Stevenson is a prog-metal player who lights up the fretboard, but for The Quiet Place Away, he follows the inspiration of Tommy Emmanuel for an intimate, all-acoustic album
Charlie Griffiths: “Everyone knows the blues scale – just move it up a semi-tone from your root note and you get a whole new lease on life”
Well of course the Haken guitarist wants to talk scales; his debut solo album is inspired by a fish! And it is a stylistically omnivorous work that sees him swap eight strings for six
Pattern-Seeking Animals’ Ted Leonard on how he struck guitar tone gold with a ‘Franken-Tele’ rescued from the junk pile
The prog-rock supergroup’s freewheeling new album has Andean stringed instruments and orchestral strings but as Leonard explains, that ol' Tele holds it all together
How Coheed and Cambria embraced pentatonic riff slams and a Deftones 8-string to create prog guitar epics for a new generation
Claudio Sanchez and Travis Stever deliver you deep inside their latest sci-fi journey, Vaxis II: A Window of the Waking Mind
John Browne on how Doom composer Mick Gordon ended up on the new Monuments album – and why they're moving forward as a one-guitar band
The prog-metal mainstay discusses the making of devastating new record In Stasis and why nothing cuts through like his Mayones Qatsis
Alex Lifeson on life after Rush and finding a new sound with Envy of None
The legendary Rush guitarist is taking a scaled-down approach to his new project but, as he explains, making “ear candy” that suits the song takes focus – and lots of it
![[L-R] Paul Marc Rousseau and Josh Bradford of Silverstein](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/z87XYMycnvaCokX3EpZ93m-840-80.jpg.webp)
Silverstein: “We are still very much a heavy guitar band, but we love seeing what other creative things we can do that don't fit inside the original box”
Guitarists Josh Bradford and Paul Marc Rousseau talk blending blitzkrieg-style hardcore with synth-driven pop flavors on new album Misery Made Me, and how Kanye West became an unwitting mentor during its composition
Alex Edkins: “I was open to getting basic with Weird Nightmare – I was like, ‘Oh, an open D chord? That feels awesome!’ I hadn’t done that in 10 years”
The Canadian alt-rocker talks embracing traditional rock and pop tropes on his self-titled Weird Nightmare debut, and how the METZ fan community came together to support the band after the theft of their gear last year
The Flower Kings’ Roine Stolt on taking the Swedish prog-rockers back to the future for the uplifting By Royal Decree
Expansive, psychedelic, humane, Stolt and The Flower Kings’ return is a triumph of imagination, and thinking outside the box with a wah pedal
Ludic: “Groove is something that should exist on every instrument you’re playing – it’s a side of guitar playing that can easily be neglected”
The Vancouver trio on the Latin American influences that flavor new coming-of-age-themed EP, Grown?, and how guitarist Ayla Tesler-Mabe came to lay down tracks on Willow Smith's latest album
Mark Holcomb and Misha Mansoor on returning to Haunted Shores for a pissed-off djent-thrash record
New album Void is the first Haunted Shores record since 2015 and 100 percent a knuckle-twister
Pink Mountaintops’ Stephen McBean: “There are a lot of tones on this record where I might have been like 'yuck' before, but now I like it”
The psych-rock mainstay on his newfound love of Charvels, balancing Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops, and jamming with J. Mascis
Deaf Club: "We have a little language as far as chord voicings go – they’re definitely anxious chords!"
Tommy Meehan and Brian Amalfitano dish on their unique brand of pedalboard nastiness, covering the Pixies, and their shared love of ring modulators
Mark Engles: "We wanted the sound to evolve, but you’ve got to keep those roots. It’s still big and heavy… we still love that"
The Black Map and Dredg guitarist on his tonal predilections, switching from Teles to Ibanez Artists and SGs, and the slide tricks he learned from David Gilmour
Snail Mail's Lindsey Jordan: “I’m a perfectionist – I will rip a song apart until it is done”
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
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”
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”
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”
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'”
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"
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”
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
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
