NWOBHM News
Signings, tours, records announced and bands ending, in NWOBHM.
IRON MAIDEN's Nicko McBrain Did Not Know Ozzy Had Saved Him
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
A 1975 crossing back from Calais, a rail he nearly went over, and a hand he only heard about three decades later.
Tomas Berglund · Nov 11, 2026
New Metal Releases: 10 to 16 November 2026
Heavy Metal Power Metal
98 records scheduled this week, led by Death Metal, Black Metal and Heavy Metal across 36 labels, with covers, labels and full tracklists.
Marie-Ève Tremblay · Nov 10, 2026
IRON MAIDEN's Nicko McBrain Wrote the Book Without Asking the Band
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
He has not opened Bruce Dickinson's book yet, and he told the manager a chapter was going in whether it upset anyone or not.
Tomas Berglund · Nov 8, 2026
SAXON Stand Behind Three Shop Counters for Gods Of Thunder
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
Biff Byford, Brian Tatler and Doug Scarratt sign records in three HMV stores across the weekend the album comes out in January.
Lars Hendriks · Nov 6, 2026
QUARTZ Are Writing Again Eighteen Months After Six
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The Birmingham band, working on and off since 1977, say the follow up to their 2025 album Six is already being recorded.
Robin Aalto · Nov 6, 2026
Nicko McBrain Says Steve Harris Has Not Thought About Another IRON MAIDEN Album
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The retired drummer asked Harris directly over lunch in Florida and got a straight no, with the caveat that Bruce Dickinson would like one.
Tomas Berglund · Nov 6, 2026
IRON MAIDEN's Manager Says South American Crowds Have a Rhythm of Their Own
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
Rod Smallwood leaves the mixing desk in stadiums so he can watch the audience, and says that is why En Vivo! was recorded in Chile.
Tomas Berglund · Nov 6, 2026
IRON MAIDEN Turn Somewhere In Time Into Eight Stories and a Sleeve
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
Z2 publish a graphic anthology for the album's fortieth anniversary on 2 March 2027, with a prologue about the night on the cover.
Tomas Berglund · Nov 4, 2026
New Metal Releases: 3 to 9 November 2026
Heavy Metal Power Metal
84 records scheduled this week, led by Black Metal, Death Metal and Doom Metal across 37 labels, with covers, labels and full tracklists.
Marie-Ève Tremblay · Nov 3, 2026
BLACK ROSE Lose Chris Watson, Who Played Two Separate Spells in the Band
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The guitarist was in the band from 1981 to 1984 and again from 2003 to 2010, which is a long way either side of the years it was supposed to happen.
Tomas Berglund · Nov 2, 2026
Nicko McBrain Names the IRON MAIDEN Fills He Could No Longer Play
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
Two years after he stopped, the drummer says exactly which parts had gone: the Trooper intro, the middle of Somewhere In Time, forty two years of fills.
Tomas Berglund · Oct 31, 2026
IRON MAIDEN's Nicko McBrain Says the Band Will Go Until Someone Else Stops
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The drummer who left the stage in 2024 says nobody in the band looks ready to stop, and suggests playing the old songs slightly slower.
Tomas Berglund · Oct 30, 2026
SAXON Give Medusa a Greek Myth and Hand the UK Leg to ARMORED SAINT
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The second song off Gods Of Thunder arrives with a Peter Sallai sleeve, and the album's British dates now have a Los Angeles support act.
Robin Aalto · Oct 27, 2026
SAXON Bring Back the Thirty Foot Eagle for Four Dates in March
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The second European leg runs through March, and the stage prop built for Denim And Leather comes out in Brussels, Zurich, Cologne and Tilburg.
Lars Hendriks · Oct 26, 2026
SAXON Book Milan and Florence for March on the Gods of Thunder Tour
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The Alcatraz on 18 March and the Viper at Tenax on 19 March, with tickets from ten in the morning on 27 October.
Lars Hendriks · Oct 26, 2026
Nicko McBrain Says IRON MAIDEN Should Have Dropped the Keys for BLAZE BAYLEY
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The drummer told Classic Album Review the band never transposed the songs and should have taken them down half a step or a whole one.
Tomas Berglund · Oct 26, 2026
SAXON's Former Drummer Nigel Durham Has Died at Sixty One
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
He played on Destiny in 1988 and spent ten years afterwards in Oliver and Dawson Saxon, the band the original members kept running.
Tomas Berglund · Oct 25, 2026
IRON MAIDEN's Nicko McBrain on Paul Di'Anno, and the One Regret
Heavy Metal NWOBHM
The drummer says there was no bad blood when Bruce Dickinson arrived, and that he wishes he had stayed in touch with the first singer.
Tomas Berglund · Oct 25, 2026