“WHEN I WAS 11, I heard Kayleigh by MARILLION for the first time, thanks to my best friend’s brother. I just saw [ex-singer] Fish play it on his last tour and it was incredibly emotional! I’m so happy that I got to see it, but also so sad that I’ll n

If you’re anything like us, you’re still reeling from Eddie Munson’s tragic death in the Upside Down at the end of Stranger Things season four. Playing Master Of Puppets to distract a cloud of bloodthirsty demobats was certainly a heroic way for the-

Eyes Of The Living Night KSCOPE Ethereal troubadour looks boldly into the future with stunning second solo album JONATHAN HULTÉN HAS always been a paradox. The guitarist who rose to prominence via the macabre death metal theatrics of Tribulation, onl

THE END WILL SHOW US HOW NAPALM Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist keeps things heavy… well, mostly IF THE END Will Show Us How, Tremonti’s sixth solo album, had been released 25 years ago, it would have been a revelation. Back then, guitarist Mark Tre

CROSS-CONTINENTAL QUINTET Conquer Divide are on their second life and determined to make this one count. The band were formed in 2013 by Michigan-based guitarist Kristen Sturgis, who carefully handpicked her bandmates from the US, UK, and Canada to e

British metal had waited years for a band like Bullet For My Valentine. Starting out as Jeff Killed John at the turn of the millennium, the line-up solidified into vocalist Matt Tuck, drummer Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas, guitarist Michael ‘Padge’ Paget an

GRAILKNIGHTS O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON, LONDON Viking cosplay jokers bring their longboats and drinking horns to the capital POWER METAL DOESN’T always need a gimmick, but as GRAILKNIGHTS prove, it’s significantly more fun when you’ve got one. The German

Nita Strauss was 15 years old when she went on tour for the first time. She knew it would be tough, but she never expected to have to outrun a tornado. “We were playing somewhere in Tornado Alley,” she says, referring to an area in the Southern USA w

Lightning In A Bottle HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Virginia’s legendary doom denizens pull off a glorious comeback MORE THAN 50 years on from their formation in Alexandria, Virginia, Pentagram are still one of doom metal’s most vital and influential acts. Sing

Title TBC RELEASE DATE: LATE 2025 No release date has been confirmed for A.A. Williams’ third album, but work is underway on it. “I’ll be hiding myself away over the winter months to explore new ways of working,” she told Hammer. “I’m looking forward

Nu metal was dead and the corpse wasn’t even twitching. It was 2005 and the movement that had dominated music for much of the late 90s and early 2000s was laid out on the mortuary slab, stone cold to the touch, with zero chance of it suddenly rising

AVOID HAVE ONE of the more eyebrow-raising biographies on Spotify. Described as what would happen “if Dale Earnhardt, Guy Fieri and Steve-O started a Spinal Tap cover band”, it somehow manages to be completely spot-on yet massively inaccurate. It con

• THE POWERFUL RHYTHM 24 PARTY SPEAKER DELIVERS A ROBUST SOUND EXPERIENCE BOTH INDOORS AND OUT • PLAY TIME OF UP TO 10 HOURS SO YOU CAN ENJOY YOUR FAVOURITE SONGS WHEREVER YOU ARE • 10 LED LIGHT MODES – SYNC THE LIGHTS TO THE BEAT OF YOUR MUSIC (WE W

WHEN ASKED TO give an elevator pitch for Shadowlight, their latest full-length album, the members of alt metal band Defences strike decidedly different tones. Vocalist Cherry Duesbury declares the record is “a journey towards acceptance”. Meanwhile,

“IT WAS THE worst weather in the history of Wacken,” laughs Finnish film director Juuso Laatio, recalling the near-Biblical conditions during the filming of Heavier Trip at the legendary German festival. “It was shut down even before it opened – 50,0

AS GUITARIST AND co-lead vocalist of Alice In Chains, Jerry Cantrell is one of the most iconic musicians to emerge from Seattle. His band have overcome the death of their frontman, Layne Staley, to continue making grunge greatness, while Jerry also s

NICKO McBRAIN, THE beloved longtime drummer of heavy metal legends Iron Maiden, stands before the crowd at his final show, on December 7 in São Paulo, following the announcement of his retirement from touring. Revealed in a statement released on Maid

Beowulf, the Germanic Old English epic poem, is a theme throughout your new album, Sunraven. It’s perfect fit for Grand Magus; metalheads who read the tale often come away thinking ‘Some band should do an album about this…’ “I got in touch with Beowu

March Of The Unheard NUCLEAR BLAST Melodeath veterans eye the past, present and future THE INTEREST AROUND The Halo Effect’s formation went far beyond the usual intrigue and anticipation. After all, a melodeath supergroup put together by a bunch of e

FIRST DIRECT ARENA, LEEDS Firepower and eye-popping spectacle from Holland’s finest WITHIN TEMPTATION’S MUSICAL horizons have expanded in tandem with their vision. As the Dutch behemoths have headed into ever more bombastic realms, they’ve built an i

ALEX SKOLNICK WAS a timid 16-year-old when he joined Testament in 1985, but his highly skilled melodic guitar playing would prove hugely influential throughout the Bay Area thrash scene and beyond. When he left Testament in the early 90s, he pursued

Rave Immortal EARACHE Nottingham sisters on a mission to turn moshers into ravers – and vice versa NU GEN DUO Alt Blk Era are your nightmare upstairs neighbours. Following on from 2023’s Freak Show EP, sisters Nyrobi and Chaya Beckett-Messam continue

JINJER / OBITUARY HAMMERSMITH APOLLO, LONDON Brazilian metal icons’ farewell tour hits the capital IT’S BITTERSWEET TO see a sold-out sign with Sepultura’s name on it on a venue as big as the Hammersmith Apollo. For a band with such an amazing legacy

ON AUGUST 13, 2006, System Of A Down played their last show. Granted, it wouldn’t be their last ever show, but for guitarist/co-vocalist Daron Malakian, it felt like it could have been. In May, the band had announced plans to go on an ‘indefinite hia

TESTAMENT THE CIVIC HALL, WOLVERHAMPTON Transatlantic thrash triple whammy brings the noise to the UK ANTHRAX’S PROTESTS THAT they can’t record a new album when they keep getting heavyweight tour offers hold some weight, considering how stacked this