Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2025 i Metal Hammer UK

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 innovators Jinjer, bear-loving deathcore dominators Slaughter To Prevail, ‘ouija-pop’ pioneer Bambie Thug, and New Delhi nu metal crew Bloodywood. Phew! What do they have in common? Well, they’ve all got a ton of personality, are changing the shape of metal, and could be the festival headliners of tomorrow. If you haven’t been keeping up with modern metal recently, now’s your chance to find something you love. And if you’re not into new music (for shame!), we’ve got a massive eight-page feature celebrating the 50 best Iron Maiden moments, in…

SPIRITBOX Tsunami Sea “Gleaming, immersive modern tech metal with gorgeous light and shade” ELEANOR GOODMAN EDITOR NAXATRAS V “A lush, languid prog/psych odyssey, like watching the cosmos reflected off a solar sail” JONATHAN SELZER REVIEWS EDITOR BLACK SABBATH Black Sabbath “Had to be done! In honour of the announcement of the greatest one-day metal show ever” VANESSA THORPE PRODUCTION EDITOR BLACK SABBATH Paranoid “In celebration of the virtual queues we’ve all been in” LOUISE BROCK ART EDITOR SPIRITBOX Tsunami Sea “Doubles down on everything incredible about this band” RICH HOBSON STAFF WRITER RAGING SPEEDHORN Night Wolf “Music to start pub fights to” DAVE EVERLEY ASSOCIATE EDITOR…

“I WAS AN MTV kid growing up; it was such a cool period for music. You’d see bands that walked the line of heavy but were still accessible. It’s how I discovered EVANESCENCE. It’s not necessarily my favourite track by them, but when I first heard Bring Me To Life, I was enthralled. There were obviously other female vocalists in heavier bands, but nobody at the time sounded like Amy Lee. The video is also insane – I’m sure all of us were panicking about her falling! It made me want to explore Evanescence even more, so I bought Fallen and I was in love with it. Every track on that album is perfect. “MTV also loved playing LINKIN PARK. Papercut is my favourite song of theirs. It’s a perfect…

“FOR MORE THAN half the year, our home is covered in snow. The majestic yet desolate mountains and forests paint powerful landscapes. That cold, raw beauty finds its way into our sound,” explains Vilhelm, regarding the compelling natural muse behind Grima, the project he began with his twin brother, Morbius, more than a decade ago. From the use of regional Russian folk instrumentation (such as the sorrowful-sounding bayan accordion), to the wearing of remarkable phellem masks, to the band’s evocative album artwork and snow-forest fixations of their music videos, Grima have devoted themselves wholesale to the Siberian vistas of their surroundings. Even the name Grima has come to represent a malign forest deity conjured by the twins to reign over their mystical world. “Our music is performed as a ritual,…

MÉLANCOLIA ARE A band destined to divide opinion. Not only do they play a pimped-up take on deathcore – itself a genre with as many critics as adherents – they do so with a style, swagger and visual flair not often seen in these breakdown-laden depths. “I need visual representation or it just doesn’t do it for me,” explains frontman Alex Hill. “Too often I will scroll past bands that all look the same with their black hoodies. I’ve always wanted a strong image that matches the music.” That image is culled equally from horror movies and underground industrial clubs, while the music mixes those pummelling deathcore grooves with nu metal undertones, electronic embellishments and a spatter of Cradle Of Filth. “Dani Filth is like the magnum opus of high…

TANTRUM “Tantrum is about going against social rules and being your true self.” HEDONIST “Hedonist is basically about spending your life getting pleasures and eventually getting bored of it. There’s no dopamine, there’s nothing that can bring you joy anymore. Even those things that you once were crazy about.” ROGUE “Rogue is about a government that fucks you over by leading wars. A bloodthirsty ruler that can destroy the whole world, not only your country.” TUMBLEWEED “It’s a song about refugees. You are a tumbleweed, so you never stay in one place because you’re searching to settle down, but it never happens.” GREEN SERPENT AND FAST DRAW “Some songs were inspired by me quitting drinking. Some are inspired by my husband [Alex Lopez] being sober. Fast Draw is Alex’s song about…

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Jayant: “New Delhi is organised chaos!” Raoul: “Compared to other cities around the world, you’ll probably have a sensory overload, so you have to prepare for that. But if you take a step back, you’ll soon step into the epic rhythm of the city.” WHERE TO GO Raoul: “Old Delhi is incredible. It’s got the old Mughlai spice markets, famous mosques, wholesale markets…” Jayant: “…then you should go see the Kartavya, which is based on the Arc De Triomphe and has the names of all the Indian servicemen who died in World War II. I’d also recommend Lodi Gardens, which the Lodi Dynasty established pre-colonisation. There are tombs there and architectural structures from that era there, and it’s right by the Thieves Market, which is…

Let them take you into tomorrow Tomorrow never arrives Amen – The Price Of Reality On December 20, 2024, Amen’s iconic frontman, Casey Chaos, passed away at his home in LA, from a massive heart attack. Among the first to find out was Casey’s close friend, drummer Roy Mayorga. He was, he says, “shocked but not shocked”. Casey had long suffered from poor health, heart problems and a lung disorder that saw him never without an inhaler. But beyond that, he was a man who lived his entire life in the fast lane, driving like he stole it. Like a punk rock Evel Knievel, he’d broken numerous bones, both on and off stage, his arms a maze of scars from self-harm. But for all its brevity, just 59 years, Casey…

FRONTIERER/GREYHAVEN ELECTRIC BRIXTON, LONDON Greg Puciato corrals a new line in chaos in south London GREYHAVEN ARE AN on-the-nose choice of support, considering how much they combine the worlds of Every Time I Die and The Dillinger Escape Plan - if less literally than the headliners. They saunter onstage before erupting into a mathy take on metalcore, but a bass-heavy mix blurs much of the intricacy in their guitar work, while vocalist Brent Mills does his utmost to draw the crowd in. Nevertheless, they leave a solid impression on their first time here. FRONTIERER are fucking weird. Their abrasive, confrontational noise attacks from all angles, but they too fall prey to a substandard mix that buries most of the guitars under bass. With a pedalboard large enough to sink the…

KNIFE BRIDE/FORLORN O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON, LONDON Progressive metalcore icons bow out while passing the torch ITHACA MAY BE breaking up, but the progressive metalcore beloveds still care about the health of their scene. At their self-described “Cremation Party”, the Londoners champion two local up-and-comers, starting with FORLORN. The quintet unite post-metal and metalcore under a folk horror aesthetic, with singer Megan Elliott wearing a crown of roses as she wails into a mic covered in flora. As her voice darts from hypnotic wails to agonised screams, and her bandmates smash out sparse yet heavy riffs, there’s more than a whiff of Julie Christmas about these shamanic prospects. Hailing from Brighton, KNIFE BRIDE claim influence from Kate Bush, Karnivool and plenty in between. These inspirations combine into an anthemic twist on…

Heriot have certainly had a wild few years. What’s the most starstruck you’ve been? “We watched Slipknot side-stage at Graspop. It was such a weird scenario, because we were getting ready to leave the festival, and suddenly I got a message from V-Man [bassist Alessandro Venturella], saying, ‘I’ve got passes for you and your camp if you want to watch us.’ They gave us a tour of the stage and introduced us to everybody. That felt so crazy!” Slipknot are fans, then? “Well, V-Man is. Ha ha ha! I’m not sure about the others.” What’s the worst show you’ve ever played? “We did one where everything seemed to go wrong. I started screaming and the front row was shouting at me, ‘Your mic’s not on!’ We had to restart, then…

THE PAST HALF-DECADE has been a brutal, unrelenting slog for us all. In the span of only a few years, planet Earth has endured a full-blown pandemic, violent political upheavals, economies tumbling like houses of cards, and, in some areas, all-out war. To say that the human spirit has been tested is an understatement. Amid this chaos emerges Morat, a longtime contributor to Metal Hammer and a snarling, mohawked figure within the fiercely independent realms of punk and metal. A British expat who cut his teeth in the UK’s roiling punk scene, Morat now dwells in the neon desert of Las Vegas, where he serves as both a cultural ambassador at The Punk Rock Museum and the fiery frontman for Soldiers Of Destruction. As 2024 arrived, bringing with it more…

WHEN SABATON FORMED in 1999, power metal was about the dirtiest word you could utter. While most of the world was doing it for the Nookie, Gothenburg was transforming Sweden’s heavy music topography in a maelstrom of melodic death metal. But, in time – and with a mid-2000s rebrand that saw them embracing military history – Sabaton opened the floodgates for waves of power metal-inspired bands to reshape the genre, and made the leap to arena level. With their 25th year behind them, and another arena tour scheduled for the end of this year, we cornered frontman Joakim Brodén to find out the secrets to his success… POSTCARDS ARE NICE TO LOOK AT BUT BORING TO LIVE IN “I grew up in Falun, a very small Swedish town. If you…

LACUNA COIL SLEEPLESS EMPIRE (DELUXE EDITION) CENTURY MEDIA £34.99 DESPITE THE CROW remake’s most dastardly derailments, goth culture is enjoying something of a renaissance. So, fair play to Lacuna Coil, whose lacy, lovelorn gothic metal has endured three decades of fickle taste and withering trends. The Italians’ 10th full-length, Sleepless Empire, boasts all the accoutrements you’d want from Lacuna Coil in 2025: chunky riffs, atmospherics thicker than Pizza Hut dough, the vocal clash of tricksy mezzo-soprano against a man screaming like he’s been possessed. It’s a doozy. And what better way to experience an album concerning itself with “the chaos of a generation trapped in a digital world that never stops” than the hallowed CD? Yep, that’s a compact disc, kids. Sleepless Empire’s CD box set also contains a 24-page booklet,…

Magic has always been a part of Bambie Thug’s life. As a child, the ouija-pop star felt a connection to spells and rituals, but it was a random encounter with a group of older witches in a shop in Muswell Hill, North London, that helped Bambie reconnect with their early fascination. “They just said, ‘You need to come to our witches’ circle,’” they recall. The group met on full moons, casting spells, doing tarot readings and meditating – and they taught Bambie one vital rule: don’t mess with evil magic, because it will come back to bite you. “Everything is a mirror, so you should only put out goodness,” says Bambie. For this reason, most of Bambie’s practices revolve around meditation, self-healing and protection. “I’ve made self-love potions with rose…

ACID MAGUS Scatterling Empire MONGREL South African doomsayers take a wild trip through our dark ages This “garage doom on shrooms” outfit examine the evils of empires on their third album in four years. It takes another big leap forward, fortifying their bruising, hook-laden doom with prog, psych, Soundgarden-tinged grunge and a touch of gloom. Anrico Jeske’s vocals are full of emotion, especially on the fuzzedup epic Incantations and the fiendishly catchy A Perfect Circle-esque Emperor. Absorbing and often poignant, Scatterling Empire is another exhilarating effort. FOR FANS OF: Steak, King Buffalo, A Perfect Circle EDWIN McFEE AVANTASIA Here Be Dragons NAPALM Edguy frontman brings out the big guns once more Avantasia’s 10th album is another full-blown metal buffet, heavily seasoned with legends. Michael Kiske soars on The Moorlands At Twilight,…

THE DARK The Dark EP ARISING EMPIRE The Dark were raised in LA, but their electronic-tinged metalcore and slithering alt looks to Virginia’s Bad Omens for inspiration. It’s rougher around the edges, but it certainly packs a punch. MILY SWINGLE INDIAN NIGHTMARE Banished Into Endless Chaos HIGH ROLLER This international mob return after six years with three new blasts of speeding, punk-edged metal and fearsome, bullet belt-clad thrashing. Think Destruction meets Raven in a back-alley fist fight. ALASTAIR RIDDELL TO OBEY A TYRANT Frigore Inferni SEEK & STRIKE TOAT’s mantra is if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Their symphonic deathcore still teases a blackened strain that rarely surfaces, but there’s something promising lurking under the basic surface. WILL MARSHALL…

CHEMICIDE Violence Prevails LISTENABLE Hailing from Costa Rica but sounding somewhere between the Bay Area and LA circa 1987, Chemicide aren’t reinventing the thrash metal wheel, just adding some blades and spikes to it ALASTAIR RIDDELL FUMES Skeletal Wings Threshold PERSONAL By drip-feeding snazzy doses of Carcass’s mid-era melodicism onto an incessant black-metal treadmill, this Mexican mob imbue an otherwise fatiguing debut album with a tad more staying power. SPENCER GRADY OTWOFIVE Only Death Will Remain DAZE These Malaysian hardcore bruisers’ new EP isn’t brimming with innovation, but it’s easy to picture anarchy, moshing and spin-kicking breaking out when these four-and-a-bit songs get played live. MATT MILLS…

WHEN IT COMES to podcasts, the idea of two blokes discussing music is about as revolutionary as sliced bread (and at this point, nearly as old). 2 Promoters 1 Pod has an edge, however. Hosted by Damnation Festival director Gavin McInally and 2000trees/ArcTanGent boss James Scarlett, it’s a weekly insider look at what it’s like to run an independent UK festival. And later this month, the pair are taking a live version on the road, with dates in Bristol, Birmingham, Gloucester, London, Glasgow, Manchester and Leeds. “There are so many different kinds of people listening,” James marvels, explaining that 2 Promoters 1 Pod is not just a business podcast – although industry folk are clearly paying attention, including those who secure the shows for your favourite bands. “Promoters are supposed…

SULTRY, SPECTRAL AND draped in darkness, Venamoris are a fascinating enigma. On the one hand you have Dave Lombardo, the legendary drummer who helped propel Reign In Blood to everlasting infamy, and who has since collaborated with everyone from Mike Patton and Ice-T to avant-jazz legend John Zorn. On the other is Paula Lombardo, a talented singer and pianist who, prior to the band’s 2023 debut, had essentially given up on music. She’d left a successful backing gig with legendary Las Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton to pursue her own work in Nashville, only to be broken on the music industry’s unforgiving wheel. With their second album, To Cross Or To Burn, the husband-and-wife duo have expanded their sound while making it harder to quantify: like chasing shadows through a hall…

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Plenty of musicians have unusual hobbies, but Alex Terrible is probably the only one who enjoys wrestling bears. Videos of his encounters with a Russian brown bear named Tom in Moscow have become part of the band’s myth. “It sort of became our Eddie from Iron Maiden pretty naturally,” he says. While footage shows Alex grappling with the beast and roaring into its face, he says part of what he enjoys about wrestling with several hundred pounds of angry Paddington is the genuine sense of terror it instils in him. It’s certainly not something he’d recommend other people do. “First of all, even if you are a girl, you have to have big balls to do that, because it’s actually fucking scary. Very scary,” he says with a laugh. The…

36 EDDIE WALKS! It may have been a roadie in a mask (yeah, sorry to break it to you), waving around a machete, but the original 1980 full-figure stage invader is still iconic to this day. 37 SHOW ME THE MUMMY! A giant, bandage-wrapped torso shaking his ragged limbs over the World Slavery Tour stage. A contender for greatest Eddie of them all. 38 ICE, ICE EDDIE With blazing eyes, cranial flames and writhing foetus, this animatronic Seventh Son-era Ed was a high-tech upgrade from the OG 80s inflatables. 39 FLASH OF THE BLADE In a smart cavalry uniform and nursing nasty head wounds, Eddie’s 2019 incarnation made the mistake of sword fighting with Olympic fencer Bruce. 40 FIREPOWER! The super-long-running Legacy Of The Beast tour produced one of Iron Maiden’s most exciting live set-pieces…

Tsunami Sea RISE Canada’s wavemakers kick up a storm SPIRITBOX WERE MAKING waves even before they released an album. Their breakthrough track, 2020’s Holy Roller, mixed clanging tech metal, explosive choruses and thrumming electronica with the crushing breakdowns so beloved of the metalcore scene they emerged from, inspiring a raft of imitators. The following year, debut album Eternal Blue expanded upon those sounds, adding more styles to their repertoire; the title-track was a fine slab of modern prog metal, Hurt You had echoes of an early 2000s nu metal club banger, and We Live In A Strange World was electronic pop-adjacent. Admittedly, in hindsight that stylistic variance didn’t always come together coherently. But the album’s standout moments – Hurt You, Silk In The Strings, Secret Garden, Circle With Me, Yellowjacket…

NEW YEARS DAY CONQUER DIVIDE O2 ISLINGTON ACADEMY, LONDON “We’ve only waited five fucking years to be here,” declares Ash Costello, as New Years Day stride into the Academy’s spotlights. The Californians have come a long way since their MySpace beginnings, carving out a space with their mix of gothic venom, technical bite and pop polish. But first, Michigan’s CONQUER DIVIDE deliver a festival-ready set. Sultry, atmospheric melodies meet tech-metal bludgeon, with vocalist Kia’s resonant, soulful voice soaring over the chaos. Paralyzed proves a crowd favourite, its infectious chorus swelling as touring member Spencer Maybe’s ferocious growls push the band’s heavier edge. NEW YEARS DAY hit the stage with charisma and confidence, but sound issues mar their performance. Overpowering drums swamp the guitars, and, with bassist Brandon Wolfe absent, the…

O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN, LONDON Norway’s progressive metal powerhouse get yet more expansive LEPROUS LOVE TO surprise. The Norwegians emerged from the pandemic with a setlist that featured highlights from each of their albums in chronological order (two years before Taylor Swift did the Eras Tour!). Then, at 2024’s Radar Festival, they busted out songs the audience voted for during their first-ever ‘live by request’ show. Now, in ambitious style, the band have added an ‘evening with’ set to their repertoire. Without a support act, they successfully fill the biggest venue they’ve ever headlined in the UK. From opener Silently Walking Alone, it’s clear frontman Einar Solberg and co. have brought enough production to look at home in Kentish Town’s Forum. Spotlights beneath the drum and keyboard riser pulse with…

WAGE WAR OVO ARENA WEMBLEY, LONDON California’s nu metal survivors reassert their staying power NU METAL MIGHT be experiencing a massive resurgence at present, but don’t let that distort the fact that Papa Roach filling a venue the size of Wembley Arena to the rafters, for the first time this deep into their career, is a hugely impressive achievement. After all, there are plenty of bands from that movement who are long forgotten. Who, in 2025, remembers Out, for example? A French nu metal band who released an album on Roadrunner Records in 1998, they had one particularly bad song called Lie No Limits, where their singer shouted ‘LOIII! I’m gonna tell a LOIII! If I said there’s NO LEEEEMMIIITTTSSS!’ Tonight’s openers, Floridian quintet WAGE WAR, have a song that…