Metallica in the Black

Thirty years after famously fracturing the world of metal (and heavy rock in general), metallica’s self-titled 1991 masterpiece — aka the Black Album — is getting the deluxe reissue treatment. In this exclusive interview, James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett pull back the veil on the album that became “the master key to everything”

Blacklisted!

On the Metallica Blacklist, 53 acts try their hand at reinterpreting one of the Black album’s 12 tracks in their own voice. Here, four artists — St. Vincent, Ghost’s Tobias Forge, Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr and Rodrigo y Gabriela’s Rodrigo Sánchez — discuss how they did it, and what Metallica means to each of them.

Acoustic Blues Musings, Pt. 1

How to choose a blues box and strings.

Broad Strokes

Robben Ford goes bold with Pure, the new instrumental outing he calls “the most complete expression of a musical life.”

Boulevard of Broken-In Dreams

Billy Rowe’s Rock N Roll Relics look, play and sound like much-loved and well-traveled treasures.

ESP

LTD MH-1000 Deluxe EverTune

VICTORY

The Duchess V4 Guitar Amp

D. KOWALSKI

Dark Gene Micro Amplifier

GODIN

Montreal Premiere LTD

HARMONY

Comet

SUPRO

Delta King 12

Cordoba – Fusion 5 Jet Black

Its full body features a cutaway and a solid spruce top with laminated mahogany back and sides. It’s also available in Gloss Natural as well as Gloss Sonata Burst with flamed mahogany back and sides.

Dawner Prince – Pulse

Editor's Pick

Revival of the Fittest

ORIGIN EFFECTS RD COMPACT HOT ROD

The Thick of It

EVENTIDE MICROPITCH DELAY

Silver Lining

STERLING BY MUSIC MAN MARIPOSA AND CUTLASS CT50HSS

Buzz Bin

THE STRIPPED-DOWN appeal of the EVH Striped Series of guitars will most likely never lose its enduring popularity for Van Halen fans and players alike. Even the many iterations of the Wolfgang series adopted by numerous artists continues to grow by leaps and bounds. But if you ask me, I’ve been digging the EVH 5150 Series Standard guitar, which combines the very best attributes of Eddie Van Halen’s famed “5150” guitar along with the refined tones of Eddie’s innovatively designed Wolfgang guitars.

Charles Mingus at Carnegie Hall

For the first time on vinyl, Mingu's whole Carnegie Hall concert–not just the second half.

Cedric Burnside

THE GRANDSON OF MISSISSIPPI HILL COUNTRY BLUES GREAT R.L. BURNSIDE GOES ALL IN — AND ALL OUT — ON HIS NEW ALBUM, I BE TRYING

Jinjer

GUITARIST ROMAN IBRAMKHALILOV EXPLAINS HOW THE PANDEMIC INSPIRED THE UKRANIAN PROG-METALCORE STALWARTS TO DIAL IN THE “MOST POWERFUL SOUND POSSIBLE”

Dinosaur Jr.

FRONTMAN/GUITARIST J MASCIS TALKS CAPOS, THE BENEFITS OF SMALLER AMPS AND THE SURPRISINGLY UPBEAT SWEEP IT INTO SPACE

Luca Stricagnoli

WHY THREE NECKS — AND MILLIONS OF YOUTUBE VIEWS — MIGHT JUST BE BETTER THAN ONE

NOWHERE MEN

RISE AGAINST’s TIM McILRATH and ZACH BLAIR dig through the roots of their unique six-string interplay — and their brawny new album, Nowhere Generation, a message of solidarity to the band’s young fans

OLD LOVE

On his new album, JOHN MAYER lives out a very specific rock ’n’ roll fantasy: “What if it’s 1988 and I had had a band in the late ’60s through the ’70s, and now I’m my age in the ’80s and people are handing me these things called chorus pedals?” The result is Sob Rock, a highly polished, extra-“generous” studio offering that slyly channels the guitarist’s high-school–days guitar gods — including Journeyman-era ERIC CLAPTON

Open-Source Guitar

Besides collaborating with Marty Friedman and Marcus Asato, MEGADETH shredder KIKO LOUREIRO is taking a breakthrough community approach on his new album: He’s uploaded all the stems online — from beats to guitar solos — so that anyone with internet access can concoct their own epic remixes

Tomahawk

JESUS LIZARD GUITARIST DUANE DENISON TALKS AURAL CLARITY, THE NEED FOR BALANCE — AND TOMAHAWK’S LATEST, THE EXHILARATING TONIC IMMOBILITY

Bernth

How an Austrian shred whiz took inspiration from his own popular weekly YouTube videos — and rabid fanbase — to complete his first album, a dazzling project four years in the making

Billy Gibbons Goes To The Desert

How ZZ Top legend Billy F. Gibbons and his band (guitarist Austin Hanks and former Guns N’ Roses drummer Matt Sorum) headed to the California High Desert to seek Rock ’N’ Roll inspiration — with a side of “mystery”

REBEL ROUSERS

In 1977, Robert Gordon launched a rockabilly revival that would team him up with Link Wray, Chris Spedding and Danny Gatton. Here’s the full story in his own words and those of his closest collaborators.

COUNTRY JAZZ, PART 2

This month, we present the conclusion of our look at John Scofield’s sophisticated reinvention of a country classic.