Low Culture is a new series where tQ writers use lockdown time to pull some of their favourite music, films, games and books off the shelves in order to tackle an idea that's been bugging them for a long time. In the second instalment Joel McIver grasps the mother of all nettles: who wrote the greatest thrash metal album - which essentially means who wrote the greatest heavy metal album - Metallica or Slayer?
Ahead of the Quietus writers' list of favourite religious and spiritual records, published later this week, Rev. Rachel Mann explores the many roles that holy music continues to play in an increasingly secular society, and explains why it remains an important and affecting force
Profoundly depressed by a new poll which supposedly “reveals” the nation’s taste in rock riffs, Joel McIver – who is such a guitar geek that he wrote a book last year called The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists – provides 20 far more interesting alternatives
With their Redeemer Of Souls tour bound for Scandinavia after wrapping up the UK leg at Brixton Academy last night, the heavy metal veterans' singer takes Alex Macrow through his top 13 "game changers" of rock & roll
Formed in 2019, the "international all-female metal collective" Chaos Rising have been slowly building up an impressive catalogue of unique collaborative works. Keith Kahn-Harris meets some of the people behind the project and argues that the model it provides has the potential to overturn some of metal’s most enduring institutions
As John Maus releases his brilliant new LP We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves, Emily Bick engages him in a fascinating discussion on why we need a new language for punk rock, nostalgia, and agreeing with the sentiments of Ice T's 'Cop Killer'
The Quietus has long been of the opinion that Guttersnipe are one of the most exciting live acts in the UK underground, if not the entire world. Now with debut album My Mother The Vent due out next month on Upset The Rhythm, they have recorded material to match. Kevin McCaighy talks to Urocerus Gigas and Tipula Confusa about their incendiary sound. Garden and living room portraits by Abby Banks
With his recent DRKLNG mixtape, New York rapper Zebra Katz followed up last year's freakily infectious 'Ima Read' in similarly sinister, sub-loaded style. Laura Snoad met up with him to discuss investigations of language and the eternal appeal of bass