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• Paleface Swiss – Cursed [January 3]
• Ex Deo – Year of the Four Emperors (EP) [January 10]
• The Halo Effect – March of the Unheard [January 10]
• Oni – Genesis (EP) [January 24]
• Obscura – A Sonication [February 7]
• Bleeding Through – Nine [February 14]
• Killswitch Engage – This Consequence [February 21]
• Architects – The Sky, the Earth & All Between [February 28]
• Arch Enemy – Blood Dynasty [March 28]
• Memphis May Fire – Shapeshifter [March 28]
• Landmvrks – The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been [April 25]
• Bury Tomorrow – Will You Haunt Me, with That Same Patience [May 16]

• Stick to Your Guns – Keep Planting Flowers [January 10]

• Dark Fortress – Anthems from Beyond the Grave (live album) [January 17]
• Harakiri for the Sky – Scorched Earth [January 24]

• Avatarium – Between You, God, the Devil and the Dead [January 24]
• Pentagram – Lightning in a Bottle [January 31]
• Mantar – Post Apocalyptic Depression [February 14]
• Nightstalker – Return from the Point of No Return [March 14]

• Labyrinth – In the Vanishing Echoes of Goodbye [January 24]
• Majestica – Power Train [February 7]
• Dynazty – Game of Faces [February 14]
• Lacuna Coil – Sleepless Empire [February 14]
• Nachtblut – Todschick [February 21]
• Avantasia – Here Be Dragons [February 28]
• Brainstorm – Plague of Rats [February 28]
• Crematory – Destination [May 2]
• Primal Fear – Domination [September 5]

• Thomas Erak – (AU) [January 31]
• Dream Theater – Parasomnia [February 7]
• Jinjer – Duél [February 7]
• Coheed and Cambria – Vaxis Act III: The Father of Make Believe [March 14]

While Swift isn’t widely known for her technical ability with a guitar, the fact that she regularly plays guitar on her record-breaking global Eras tour means she’s getting the six-string in front of millions of fans around the world, which is worthy of note.

The top spot in the poll, however, is taken by Red Hot Chili Peppers’ John Frusciante. Most often a Strat player, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame back in 2022. So what makes him so good? Well, producer Michael Beinhorn, who worked with the Chili Peppers on albums such as Mother’s Milk, has previously said that Frusciante has an expert understanding of composition and music theory and would even transcribe Steve Vai guitar solos back in the day.

1. John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
2. Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys)
3. John Mayer
4. Sam Fender
5. Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead)
6. Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters)
7. Ed O’Brien (Radiohead)
8. Taylor Swift
9. Tom DeLonge (Blink-182)
10. Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro)
11. Jim Root (Slipknot)
12. Keith Urban
13. John 5 (Mötley Crüe)
14. Brad Paisley
15. Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens Of The Stone Age)
16. Albert Hammond Jr. (The Strokes)
17. H.E.R.
18. Adam Hann (The 1975)
19. Ed Sheeran
20. Julien Baker

guitarguitar’s “Playable” exhibition includes a series of limited-edition, hand-painted Fender Stratocasters, each covered in motifs inspired by an artist’s career. These are available for fans to play as they tour around stores until 25 June.

Adam Speck, a spokesperson for the retailer, comments, “Over the last 20 years we’ve welcomed so many guitarists through our doors, whether they are picking up a guitar for the first time, or finally getting their hands on their dream one.

“We’ve even sold guitars to some of the iconic guitarists who have inspired many more to follow in their footsteps. Creating this playable exhibition with Fender is a thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with us over the last 20 years. And whether it’s Under the Bridge, or Seventeen Going Under, we can’t wait to see our customers show off their skills on these very rare pieces.”

Imagine that you’re sitting in your local bar, and the music is turned on, you are listening to an old school drumming, catchy guitar riffs, and powerful vocals. Yeah! This is what I felt while listening to ‘Women’ by Dirty Mitts. I believe that this song includes all your loving glam, hard rock, and heavy influences. It took you with a time machine to the golden era of rock n’ roll.

Dirty Mitts started their career last year and has been praised in several media outlets in several countries. They deserve it indeed. These days we lack such impressive old-school/modern output. These four dudes know how to keep their harmony and chemistry tight, which I find that many acts these days lack to do.

Women reminded me of many iconic names like Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Dokken, Skid Row, Steel Panther, and Ratt, among many other names. In fact, I see their music as a mix of all these legendary acts.

In my opinion, what makes Dirty Mitts‘ music iconic, is how it can be like music from two different eras. Definitely, I will be waiting for their EP ‘Hands Off!’ this November. Now, it’s time to feel the vibes. Enjoy!

“I mean, heavy metal DEFINITELY rules.”

What are the odds of you not agreeing with these words nowadays? Aside from hating punk music which is a solid music pillar since long ago. In 1986 heavy metal became the most popular music in the whole world, and the scene of skin tight jeans on long haired boys and bikes holding a bearded gentleman with a hot wild lady behind him became a normal in numerous places around the globe. Kids flashing the “devil horns” and playing air guitar with a bottle of booze in hand also became a remarkable sight to highlight this era.

Still, not everybody was happy about that, lawsuits and trials were held against the heavy metal Gods of this era such as Mötley Crüe, Twisted Sister, and many more. So enough with the details and let’s look at it from a movie go-er point of view. Curiosity, was what brought me to watch this movie, though I don’t like documentaries that much, but truth be told it’s too entertaining and teasing. I mean come on! All those stars and tell me you will not be interested in seeing them talk outside the make-up and spotlights. Not just that, but they discuss your favorite music from their perspective.

This movie was the production of Sam Dunn, a Canadian musician, a film director, and an anthropologist whose work focuses on the culture of heavy metal. Together with co-director Scot McFadyen, Dunn owns the Toronto based production company Banger Films, Inc. Dunn holds a Master’s degree in Anthropology from York University where his thesis work centered on Guatemalan refugees.

The film follows Dunn on a journey to document the origins, culture and appeal of heavy metal. It also explores the themes of heavy metal- violence, death, religion and Satanism, gender and sexuality. The documentary featured interviews with some really heavy names in the industry such as Angela Gossow from Arch Enemy, Randy Blythe & Mark Morton from Lamb of God, DIO from Dio, Black Sabbath, Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden, Lemmy from Motörhead, and the list goes on and on.

From the first few scenes you are caught up into the movie as he backs up his story with self-narrated scenes regarding the era and dilemma discussed. Not just that, but to put a spotlight of justice over his – our – cause he asks for the professional help of numerous producers, writers, and musicologists who aren’t actually metal heads at all; hovering through the rises and falls of heavy metal from an academic perspective new to people’s taste.

The movie goes fine between the academic scale and passion very smoothly and efficiently as he delivers metal’s point of view through flowchart kinda-like method, backed up with narrative explanations of academic personas, then delivered to audience by the words of their own stars. Cleverly put to balance the criticism he might face. And faced.

According to Wikipedia, The film received mostly positive reviews. It currently holds an 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 6.9/10 and the critical consensus being:
“Made by a metalhead, this documentary of the musical genre both informs and entertains with its range of interviewees.”

Also some brief controversy arose over the film’s depiction of black metal, which many fans of the genre saw as being one-sided and biased during a screening documented in the film. In the special features to the DVD of the film, Dunn attempted a restitution to the concerns of the black metal fans by including an additional feature.

Highly recommended, exceptionally entertaining picks of the soundtrack, goes deeper into the “music” disregarding the life style. Enjoy!

Regardless, we will have another list for that; but for now, let’s discover more about people who really helped in modern music development, and worked with international artists and bands that we know and adore their hits. However, 50% of their success returns to their producers. Let’s know those music market masters…

Jimmy Page

Many people know him as the lead guitarist of the legendary classic rock band Led Zeppelin. Actually, the reason that Page created the band was his love to record production as well as putting new recording techniques, which became his legacy that was followed by music makers afterwards. Page spent hours and hours in the studio just trying to record techniques as well as observing the different points and changing microphones access, amplifier and trying new sounds and sometimes creating sound effects! Jimmy Page mainly produced for Led Zeppelin, The Firm and Screaming Lord Sutch bands. In addition, several side projects, one of them was Puff Daddy’s hit ‘Come With Me’.

Rick Rubin 

One of the wide known names in Europe and States. This artists didn’t work on a specific genre; he just knew how to get the right tunes for an artist and deliver it to the audience. I guess there’s few of the music industry that Rubin didn’t work with. Yes, any international artist/band you know you will find his name behind them. Some of these are: Johnny Cash, Metallica, Slayer, Black Sabbath, Slayer, RHCP, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Limp Bizkit, SOAD, The Cult, Neil Diamond, Mick Jagger, ZZ Top, Audioslave, Rage Against The Machine Danzig, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow. Away from rock music, he worked with Adele, Justin Timberlake, Shakira, Public Enemy, Eminem, Lady Gaga and many more…

Bob Rock

Bob is considered to be the man behind the success of Metallica. Yes, Bob was actually the main reason of letting some of Metallica’s riffs reach the fans in a proper sound and song structure. And that was so obvious in ‘A Year and Half in the Life of Metallica’; the documentary film that was made for the recording production for Metallica: ‘Black Album’ shows him giving instructions to the band and sometimes guiding, even arguing with them to work hard and get it right. In addition, he worked with Aerosmith, Motley Crue, The Cult, David Lee Roth, Bon Jovi, Cher, Skid Row, Bryan Adams, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Michael Buble, and The Offspring. Besides, he is a well-known audio engineer, so he worked with Survivor, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith and many else.

Quincy Jones 

Quincy Jones is considered as the most famous music producer on Earth! Jones started as a producer in the early 50s and was a well-known for his work with the King of Pop Michael Jackson, as well as, Little Richard, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Frank Sinatra, Samuel George – a.k.a Sammy Davis, Jr. – Aretha Franklin, Eddie Van Halen, Will Smith, 2Pac, Ray Charles and hundreds! Besides, he was the producer, composer and conductor of many international hits such as ‘We Are the World’ and ‘Bokra’ – Tomorrow (A Better You, Better Me with many Arab artists such as; Shakira, Tamer Hosny, Souad Massi, Marawan Khoury, Latifa, Diana Karazon, and the American hip hop artist Akon. The song was written by Magda Al-Roumi.

Paul O’Neill

For you, who don’t know Paul, he is one of the responsible of creating the genre of progressive metal. O’Neill started as an engineer and worked with many international acts, such as; Aerosmith, Joan Jett, Def Leppard and others. In the 80s, he became the number one promoter for shows in Japan and promoting every tour of Madonna and Sting. The real change happened was with Savatage, which was when he changed the whole concept of the band from just a heavy metal band to become the first influential progressive metal band as well as his other orchestral works with same band members and other musicians in the ranked #1rock orchestra, Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Tony Platt 

Tony is one of the greatest English sound engineers and record producers. His resume could talk better than we do. Some of his notable works were with; Bob Marley, Buddy Guy, AC/DC, Iron Maiden, Gary Moore, Johnny Cash, Samson, Manowar, Celtic Frost, Ronnie James Dio and Anathema.

Dieter Dierks

Most known as the owner of one the best international studios, Dierks Studios (audio and video studios), and the producer for the legendary band Scorpions. Many international artists worked and record there, such as; Michael Jackson, Accpet, Tina Turner, and many others.

R. Kelly 

This could be a name that many readers weren’t expecting in such a list, but this awesome composer, song-writer, arranger, mixer and record producer should be mentioned also. Kelly worked with numerous artists as a producer since the early 90s till now, and he was even the main reason behind many international artists production besides the younger ones. He produced for Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Toni Braxton, Aaliyah, Billy Ocean, Celine Dion, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Huston and many else.

Mike Clink

Well, he is a man with not much of a resume but no one can deny he was one of the developers of the hard rock/heavy metal movement. He started as an audio engineer – like many other producers – in the 80s and then found his interest in record production. Clink produced for Gun N’ Roses, Triumph, Motley Crue, Megadeth, UFO, Jefferson Starship, Heart and many others.

Roy Thomas Baker

Baker isn’t only a music producer but he is also a songwriter, arranger and the governor of The Recording Academy – the U.S. organization of musicians, producers and audio engineers. His notable productions were for many legendary bands, such as: Queen, Yes, Jet, Nazareth, Free, Journey, Chris de Burgh, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns N’ Roses as well as motion pictures soundtracks for Heavy Metal in 1982 and American Anthem in 1986.