Rig Rundowns

When Chris Shiflett left No Use for a Name and joined the Foo Fighters in 1999, he almost had no gear. The band was rehearsing to support their third album,  There Is Nothing Left to Lose , and leader Dave Grohl was doing an inventory check on their newest member. “Dave asked me how many guitars I had, and I said, ‘Well, I have two, but one has a broken headstock,’” recalls Shiflett. “Dave ch...

Since  Marcus King’s  previous  Rig Rundown  in 2017, he’s made two albums—produced by  the Black Keys’  Dan Auerbach—and scored a Grammy nomination. He’s also busted out his own signature Orange amp with an allusive name, and upped his profile, stepping from clubs to big halls. Not bad for a South Carolina kid with blues in his bloodline. And, really, not entirely un...

What would you get if you put the heaviness of Converge, the industrial sounds of Nine Inch Nails and Type O Negative, the catchiness of ’90s metalcore, the frantic delivery of Black Flag, and the sampled-chopped-and-glitched production of hip-hop into a blender and hit liquefy? You’d get 100 percent of your daily intake of Code Orange. The band was formed—as the Code Orange Kids—in 2008 in Pittsb...

Amyl and the Sniffers are pragmatic. They rock fast and write and record even faster. Legend has it they knocked out their debut EP, 2016’s  Giddy Up,  from start to finish in just 12 hours in the band’s shared home. And their Australian Recording Industry Award-winning (Best Rock Album) self-titled full-length debut is a sweltering, swaggering, scallywag’s set of 11 songs that clock in...

If you’re a devoted follower of the  Rig Rundown series , you’ve probably noticed our recent rash of thrash. We’ve featured nearly every corner of the genre—heavyweights  Megadeth , torchbearers  Anthrax , revivalists  Municipal Waste , and, now, pioneers Exodus get their (re)visit. Their four-decade reign and 11 gnashing albums are brimming with sinister, trouncing, wood-split...

Death metal  is a genre built on precision and power. Chelsea Grin’s articulate picking and gut-rattling riffs are its foundation. But thanks to a rotating cast of ripping guitarists (including Rig Rundown alumnus  Jason Richardson ), their five albums have shown subtle brick-and-mortar flair by incorporating elements of djent, metalcore, doom, black metal, and even post-hardcore. The cu...

If you’ve perused YouTube for videos dealing with triple rectifiers,  5150s , the cheapest guitars imaginable, or absurd gear listings on eBay and Reverb, you most certainly know  Ryan “Fluff” Bruce . The mastermind behind  Riffs, Beards & Gear  has amassed over 400K subscribers and nearly 100 million views since starting his channel in 2006. His charm is a mixture of quali...

Anthrax went to church when they brought their Covid-delayed 40th anniversary tour to Nashville—the Mother Church of Country Music, that is, aka the Ryman Auditorium—on August 15. And  PG ’s Perry Bean was there to welcome the thrash metal royals and talk with guitarists Scott Ian and Jon Donais, and bassist Frank Bello. Some things have changed in their gear since our  earlier Rundown ,...

Thrash metal  has seen a resurgence since its ’80s heyday.  Megadeth  earned a Grammy for their 2016 album  Dystopia , and very recently  Stranger Things ’ brave headbanger Eddie Munson brandished a  B.C. Rich  Warlock for a literally death-defying performance of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” that catapulted the song into widespread pop-culture consciousness. B...

After moving back to New York City, Joe Bonamassa spent some lockdown time in Germano Studios in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, tightly winding the music for his latest album,  Time Clocks . His longtime producer Joe Shirley had to work with the powerhouse guitarist remotely, from his home in Australia. Yet the result is as seamlessly Bonamassa as ever, with riveting guitar work that has echo...

Grammy-winning metal legends Megadeth and their massive headlining 2022 run hit Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on May 5. Before the headbanging started,  PG ’s Chris Kies talked gear with Megadeth leader Dave Mustaine, who ran down the specs of  his signature Gibson Flying V  and showed us why it’s the best body shape for ripping onstage. The band’s dangerously dexterous lead guitari...

“Supergroup” is a tired, overused term in music. However, when musical aces like guitarist  Guthrie Govan , bassist Bryan Beller, and drummer Marco Minnemann jam… they are an unrivaled force of nature. Each player has a remarkable resume: Govan has worked with  Steven Wilson , Hans Zimmer, and Asia; Beller with  Satriani ,  Vai ,  Dethklok , and  Dweezil Zappa ; and M...

It’s common for prog bands to create a fictitious narrative for their concept albums. Often, the lyrics tell a linear story, while the adventurous, experimental, and elevated musicianship provides emotional support and dynamism to the album’s arc. Some ambitious wordsmiths may even spread their yarn over two albums or releases, but Coheed and Cambria’s Claudio Sanchez has penned an entire science...

Any band that hammers along for 43 years should be praised. But for a hardcore outfit that first seethed “I don’t wanna live / To be thirty-four / I don’t wanna die / In a nuclear war” 42 years ago on their 1980 debut  Group Sex , pushing on for over four decades is a bit of a miracle. The Circle Jerks should be honored with a skanking statue in their hometown of Hermosa Beach, California. “I...

Over the past decade and through four albums, Foxing has shown a lot of musical personalities. They’ve embraced the quirky, eclectic folk of Neutral Milk Hotel. Guitarist Eric Hudson has shown off some deft fretwork wrapped around complex rhythms similar to  Tiny Moving Parts ’ Dylan Mattheisen. They’ve dabbled in complicated, ambiguous instrumentation that echoes Radiohead. Most recently, th...