“I just wanted to thank you guys for the support, we appreciate it.” That was the last time Kerrang! saw Riley Gale, as he poked his head into our production hut at Download Festival 2019 to question our sanity for naming Power Trip the greatest American metal band of the past decade. A humble gesture from a man who, just hours earlier, was commanding tens of thousands of metalheads into a frenzied mass of flesh, as he stood at the end of the vanity ramp, mic in hand, looking every bit like a superstar in waiting. That image, that visage of potent aggression and self-belief, is how thousands of fans across the planet will remember Riley, who passed away this morning at just 35 years old. “Riley was a friend, a brother, a son. Riley was both a larger than life rock star and a humb...
