New years day

With their 2022 debut album, Cardinal Black showed the world how the budding guitar hero in their ranks could thrive in a band environment. Here, Chris Buck explains how its follow-up has taken his playing and songwriting to the next level

With 28 albums’ worth of songs to choose from, “hopefully there will be some surprises”.

The month’s best guitar music – a hand-picked selection of the finest fretwork on wax

Chaos, blood, death, resurrection – Kerry King and Tom Araya look back on the tumultuous journey of the thrash icons who pushed metal to new extremes

Roar Like Thunder EARACHE

The song that rebuilt the band for the 21st century