Metal Hammer (UK)

’TIL ’DETH DO US PART?

WHEN DAVE MUSTAINE announced that the next, self-titled album from Megadeth would be their last, it didn’t feel real. Here was one of the most outspoken frontmen in metal saying that he was… retiring? The same man who was unceremoniously kicked out of...

BELL WITCH & AERIAL RUIN rework their doom/folk alchemy.

Doom/folk collaborators perform an act of immaculate alchemy SEATTLE DOOM DUO Dylan Desmond and Jesse Shreibman, aka Bell Witch, have been working in close collaboration with San Franciscan folk singer/ songwriter Erik Moggridge, aka Aerial Ruin, for...

BORN TO LOSE. LIVED TO WIN

IN ACE OF Spades, Lemmy famously sang that he didn’t want to live forever. The song was like a manifesto for the kind of life fans wished they could have – dancing with the Devil, going with the flow – and Lemmy lived it to the full, Jack Daniel’s,...

PANCAKES & JAM

PACKING FOR A trip can be tough. Have you remembered your toothbrush? Will your bag zip up? Have you got enough Iron Maiden t-shirts? So spare a thought for Sabaton, who have to take a whole goddamn tank when they travel. This month, our Stephen Hill...

WASTED YEARS? NEVER.

STEVE HARRIS MIGHT be a famously grounded musician, but his story is like something from a movie: in 1976, he pitched up at the Cart And Horses pub in Stratford with this new band he was calling Iron Maiden. Nearly 50 years later, he would play the...

OZZY FOREVER

IT STILL DOESN’T seem real. Back To The Beginning, Ozzy and Sabbath’s farewell show, left gig-goers and viewers with a huge sense of joy – about the man at the centre of proceedings, the music, and the metal community that grew from it. For issue 402,...

INSIDE THE CULT OF SLEEP TOKEN

OZZY & TONY & GEEZER & BILL.

WHAT CAN YOU say to sum up the legacy of a person and a band who birthed a genre, and have lived a lifetime in service to heavy metal? On July 5, Ozzy Osbourne will say farewell to performing with Back To The Beginning: a huge charity celebration show...

FROM US TO U

BABYMETAL ARE BACK! Upcoming album Metal Forth features seven collaborations with some of the biggest names in modern metal: Poppy, Electric Callboy, Slaughter To Prevail, Bloodywood, Polyphia, Spiritbox and Tom Morello. Phew! We chat to the band about...

BEHOLD. CONSUME. WORSHIP.

SLEEP TOKEN’S ASCENSION has been incredible to watch. Once a tech metal curio, the band led by mysterious singer Vessel have become the biggest new metal act of the decade, with arena shows under their belts/masks and a headlining appearance at...

WE’RE SATANIZED!

HABEMUS PAPAM! GRAB your vestments and slap on your corpsepaint, because the era of Papa V Perpetua is upon us. As Ghost prepare to drop Skeletá and embark on their world tour, our Merlin Alderslade sits down for an audience with the man behind the...

IT’S THE NEW HEAVY 2025!

WELCOME BACK TO The New Heavy. Each year, we choose a clutch of artists we’re excited about, and splash each one on a cover. Which one did you get? This year, we’ve gone for German electronicore sensations Electric Callboy, Ukrainian prog metal...

WELCOME TO THE DURSTNAISSANCE!

AMBITIOUS. FEARLESS. UNSTOPPABLE.

IN 2005, NU metal bands were fading away or desperately trying to change with the times, while the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal was starting to break (hello, Lamb Of God and Killswitch Engage). Adjacent to this sea change were two bands from...

THE BEST OF 2024

THE ALBUMS. THE GIGS. THE COMEBACKS. THE CHAOS.

Plus

FEVER 333 • EPICA • CREED • BULLET • TRIVIUM • BLOOD INCANTATION • FRANK SKINNER

POPPY

LIFE ON THE CUTTING EDGE

THE 9 DEFINED 1999

AFTER SEEING THE mini-moshers at my high school running around in their Slipknot hoodies, I borrowed the band’s self-titled debut album on CD from the library. I loved nu metal, sure, but this was way more savage. There was something cartoonish about...

LORDI • CRYPTA • KITTIE • ANTHRAX GRAPHIC NATURE • MONSTER MAGNET NOTHING MORE • MUSHROOMHEAD AND MORE!

WHY HARAJUKU-CORE IS TAKING OVER THE PLANET