Rick Rubin doesn’t play instruments, rarely touches a fader, and has produced some of the most consequential records of the last four decades. That paradox is the whole point.
How four working-class kids from Birmingham built heavy metal from scratch — and why their shadow still falls across everything that came after.
On their debut album, a young, hungry band from East London closed the record with seven minutes of proof that they were thinking bigger than anyone around them. “Phantom of the Opera” wasn’t a statement of intent — it was the intent, fully realized.