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Metallica ’s 1984 began with a gear heist and a cancelled UK tour; it ended with them being heavy metal’s Next Big Thing. Then came Master Of Puppets. This is the inside story of the making of that album and the two year whirlwind that took four “alcoholica” outcasts from the El Cerrito garage to the big time.

Simon Neil leads a back on top Biffy ...

In 2001, the suicide of Big Country ’s Stuart Adamson shocked music fans all over the world. How had the man once lauded by DJ John Peel as ‘Scotland’s answer to Jimi Hendrix’ ended up taking his own life? In an exclusive extract from a new book, we look at the inside story of their debut album The Crossing .

Musical chameleons Ulver have reinvented themselves yet again. With their 14th album, they’ve turned away from the progressive synthpop of their recent releases and delivered something more atmospheric. Mainman Kristoffer Rygg looks back on the personal strife and decades of deviation that have paved the way for Neverland.

A choir on one of Germany’s Big Four thrash bands’ new album? “We always did our own thing.”

Following Richey Edwards’ disappearance and the “commercial disaster” of The Holy Bible , the MANIC STREET PREACHERS were told that this is the end. Instead, they roared back with an unassailable anthem heralding one of the biggest British albums of the ’90s. Sam Richards celebrates 30 years of Everything Must Go : “It was the most spectacular feeling,” says Nicky Wire. “That period when you go over the top...”