L to R. Row 1: Finneas, Carly Rae Jepsen, BANNERS, August Burns Red, Lil Nas X. Row 2: Lights, Black Pumas, Chloe Flower, Ben Caplan, Liam Payne. Row 3: Dallas Smith, ROZEI, Dashboard Confessional, Dee Snider with Lzzy Hale, Josie Dunne. No one could have expected that 2020’s Holiday…

Tool performs at the Aftershock Festival on Oct. 13, 2019. Courtesy of Aftershock. SACRAMENTO — Northern California’s annual hard rock festival, Aftershock, continued its upward trajectory as one of the premiere national events for heavy music. What began back in 2012 as a one-day and one-stage event has ballooned…

I’m excited to present my installment of RIFF’s year-end staff lists of the best albums of 2018. This year was one of transition and experimentation for artists, and I’ve used fairly simple criteria to narrow down my top 10 albums. These are the ones I found myself loading up…

Halestorm performs at the Warfield in San Francisco on Aug. 23, 2018. Photos: Gary Chancer. SAN FRANCISCO — Two of hard rock’s most preeminent female-fronted forces rolled into the Warfield Thursday for a night of heavy fist-pumping, empowering music. While the musical styles of Halestorm and goth metal heroes In This…

Illustration: Roman Gokhman Women are taking the reins in modern rock. This year has been full of chart-topping release from female artists who drive music forward. Sometimes overlooked, female-fronted rock bands are making some of the most challenging, aggressive and relevant songs on the rock charts. On this episode…

The road wasn’t easy for  Pennsylvania Grammy-winning hard rockers Halestorm as they entered the studio to begin writing and recording their fourth studio album. Unhappy with the initial direction of the material, frontwoman Lzzy Hale and co. scrapped everything, regrouped, refocused and returned with a different mindset. The result…