Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2023 i Metal Hammer UK

AS THE FRONTMAN for both Coal Chamber and Devildriver, Dez Fafara has been a beloved fixture of the metal scene for more than 25 years, participating in the rise and fall of nu metal, as well as the arrival of the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal and the countless scenes since. With the second volume of Devildriver’s concept album, Dealing With Demons, just released, and an autobiography due for publication later this year, Dez shares the most important lessons that took him from being a punk rock- and rockabilly-loving kid to someone who counts Ozzy Osbourne among his friends and collaborators. SOLITUDE IS BLISS “As a kid, I was never the guy saying, ‘Can Johnny come over?’ It was more like, ‘Hey, mom, tell Johnny to go the fuck…

HE SAID “We love that people care – that they care if they’re in or out, and that [Iron Maiden’s] fans care. Now the truth is anybody that’s nominated, the odds are good that they’re eventually gonna get in.” YOU SAY They still have several rappers, pop stars and country music legends to induct first… but maybe one day. William McElwee, Facebook So why do fans vote every night? Iron Maiden and Soundgarden were in the top five fan votes. RATM and Kate Bush weren’t even close (but I’m glad RATM is there because they’re the only rock band this year)!! Jennifer Gilbert, Twitter Iron Maiden are so much bigger than the hall of fame. Dave Cockburn, Facebook I honestly don’t want them in it and I’m a huge Maiden…

This Danish death/prog quintet went through a line-up change prior to album four, making them into something of a supergroup. Møl vocalist Kim Song Sternkopf, Soilwork drummer Bastian Thusgaard and bassist Anders Frodo S. Mikkelsen joined guitarists Kasper Kirkegaard – also of Hatesphere – and Flemming C Lund, to unleash death metal brutality with melodic complexities. The amalgam is more organic than your usual harsh verse/clean chorus clash; Kim’s brutal vocal stoicism is the lynchpin while dynamics compete in the surrounding maelstrom. Compositionally ambitious and uplifting without being saccharine, Distortions… is a refreshing take on mixing melody and savagery that should satiate tech-heads and lovers of more direct pummelling alike. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Strapping Young Lad, Decapitated, Textures TOM O’BOYLE…

The title says it all. Formed in 2008 and retired nine years later, only to rise from the grave just before lockdown, Black Spiders are as dependable as death, taxes and Tory scandals. A pair of albums into phase two, their sound remains dark, gnarly, detuned and powerful as fuck, the underlying sense of humour as riotous and selfmocking as ever. Hot Wheels, Alright Alright Alright and the pile-driving A Rat Is A Rat will be stage favourites for years to come. If you loved Black Spiders before, then you’ll love them still. And if their eight-armed embrace has eluded you so far then, frankly, where have you been? It’s your turn to visit the bar. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Turbonegro DAVE LING…

Ever wanted to hear the Harry Potter theme turned into a metal song? On Ad Infinitum singer Melissa Bonny and Feuerschwanz guitarist Hans Platz’s first album together as The Dark Side Of The Moon, symphonic metal and fantasy soundtracks come together in a captivating reimagining of scores and songs from film, videogames and TV shows such as Vikings, The Hobbit and more. High-calibre guests like Evergrey’s Tom Englund on Misty Mountains, and Charlotte Wessels, with a stunning interpretation of May It Be from The Lord Of The Rings, bring talent and heft to the proceedings, but the record and its well-executed concept is mostly just a lot of fun. Including original songs among the covers that nod to their inspiration, like Double Trouble / Lumos!, Metamorphosis is a treat…

On their third full-length dose of unrelenting darkness, Atlanta’s Cloak offer up sober meditations on chaos, bloodshed and death eternal while still delivering melodic black metal thrills. Too highbrow to slot into the motorcycle mania of blackened thrash bands like Knife and Bewitcher, Cloak nonetheless spew up enough apocalyptic groove in leatherbound blasters like With Fury And Allegiance and the buzzing Invictus to satisfy black’n’roll fiends. If Watain listened to a Hellacopters record once in a while, they might sound like this. The album’s biggest surprise is Eye Of The Abyss, a gothtinged creepy-crawler that sounds like Danzig chewing glass at a Ghost show. It’s a killer track, and just might be the feel-bad hit of the summer. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Watain, Tribulation, Witchery KEN McINTYRE…

Drott consists of Enslaved guitarist Ice Dale, Ulver live drummer Ivar Thormodsæter and cellist Matias Monsen. The trio create mind-melting vistas of cinematic violence, tempered with moments of meditative bliss or wailing despair. It’s tempting to say “Only Drott is Drott” and leave it at that, but this all has some sort of precedent. Dark ambient, deathindustrial, twisty prog rock, musique concrète and weirdo soundtrack music have all existed before. It’s just that nobody thought to do it all at once. On paper, it sounds fairly impenetrable, but Drott’s second album is actually addictive and adventurous, revealing new layers with each listen. It’s like a long-lost Italian horror movie soundtrack as interpreted by a Nordic death cult. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Comus, Ulver, King Crimson KEN McINTYRE…

Sounding more fired up than ever thanks to the presence of new drummer Seth Botos, these riffworshipping rockers are in speaker-rattling form on their fifth album. It’s a stoner-spiced tour de force that sees the fuzz-loving Boston natives finally step out of Queens Of The Stone Age’s shadow. Singer/ guitarist Marc Gaffney is their MVP throughout, and his charismatic croon calls to mind legends like Ian Astbury, Pepper Keenan and the late, great Layne Staley. Opener Tom Cruise Control wraps one of the best riffs they’ve ever written around soaring vocals, while the chugging Rambo 2, which boasts some NWOBHM-flavoured duelling leads and 60s pop hooks sung in falsetto, is a future live favourite. Muscular and melodic, Remedy is just what the doctor ordered. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Kal-El,…

In April 1999, now-defunct UK extreme music magazine Terrorizer ran a feature and review on an exciting new band from Alaska called Arktyk. The gushing descriptions of their music – ice-cold black metal with cosmic, trippy instrumentation – sounded too good to be true, and indeed they were. Arktyk was a cruel April Fool hoax, resulting in dozens of failed pre-orders from disgruntled BM fiends. Tampere quartet Henget sound like their brief might be to belatedly manifest that mythical Arktyk LP, from the frosty, Thornsinfluenced riffing to the atmosphere of psychedelic weirdness and streak of avant-garde mischief. However, what’s stranger than fiction is that Henget’s songs are mostly “improvised on the spot”. It’s a USP that can’t help making this assured debut feel more dazzlingly impressive, especially as there’s no…

Here, Faroese vocalist Eivør resumes her immersive journey into the rugged landscape of Old Norse folk, with composers John Lunn and Danny Saul. Together they channel the primal elements of the Old Norse style – ethereal vocals, thudding percussion and ritualistic chanting – through a modern prism of textured soundscapes and lush production. Styles range from the rapturous orchestral soundscapes of Hymn 49 and Until Valhalla, to pulsating electronic backdrops paired with Eivør’s immense choral harmonies, to raw, consciousness-elevating sacramentals such as The Beloveds and Blood Will Prevail. The subtle combination of styles works extremely well; Destiny Is All offers a sensory-flooding voyage that reveals progressively deeper realms of insight with each successive trip. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Heilung, Myrkur, Wardruna JOE DALY…

In our over-saturated extreme metal scene, it’s not about who you take inspiration from, but how intense and gut-wrenching the result is. Olkoth are clearly fans of mid-period Morbid Angel, but that’s not necessarily a problem. In 2021, Alchemy Of Flesh got away with a killer album solely focused on reproducing Where The Slime Live’s heavier-thanthou midtempo, but Olkoth’s debut goes the extra mile. It keeps the air of authority but throws in sudden, yet fully controlled bursts of rage and bombastic soloing, like a blinding blaze in the middle of a storm. The lyrical matter adds to the apocalyptic vibe, hailing HP Lovecraft’s fictional author of the ill-fated Necronomicon, Abdul Alhazred, in the opening track. Killer stuff! ■■■■■■■□□□ FOR FANS OF: Morbid Angel, Nile, Hate Eternal OLIVIER BADIN…

Ufomammut co-founder Urlo exchanges the cinematic scope and heavy psychedelia of his day job for something entirely more introspective with his second The Mon album. Dark folk meets ambient electronicexperimentation, with some noteworthy guests along for the trip. Writing the lyrics and performing vocals on their respective tracks, Steve Von Till’s oak-aged voice is, as ever, spellbinding on Confession. Amenra’s Colin H. Van Eeckhout delivers a heart-rending paean on To The Ones. Simple refrains engender a mesmeric mindstate, invoking emotive atmospheres within which Urlo’s earnest, multilayered vocals take the fore, augmented by the striking violin of The Otolith’s Sarah Pendleton. Here, Urlo indulges a deep-dive exploration of the self that, despite its weighty guest spots, never really elevates beyond side-project status. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Ancient VVisdom, Harvestman, Wovenhand…

Óreiða’s second album finds sole member Thor embarking on an intense voyage of self-discovery ensnared in a Sisyphean loop. As avalanches of blizzard-invoking static and synths homogenise the expansive terrain like a calendar full of frostridden Groundhog Days, the repetition gradually yields to mesmerism. Amid the seemingly endless Arctic swirl of The Climb and The Apex, desolate black metal instrumentals are subverted by elements of post-punk and shoegaze. Thor has hammered out an impressive response to humanity’s perpetual need to attribute meaning to life, by divining moments of majesty amid allengulfing chaos. ■■■■■■■□□□ FOR FANS OF: Paysage d’Hiver, Coldworld, Battle Dagorath SPENCER GRADY…

Continuing to pull from myriad influences, Servers’ fourth album sees them at their most diverse and confident. While the gothic and grungy overtones remain, the first four songs are dominated by metalplated riffery, adding extra acrimony to the album’s scathing assaults on religion and authority. Lee Storrar’s throaty bellow is served by Try To Get Some Sleep and Crimson Tide’s rollicking stomp, before unleashing more precision force through the driving demonic sermon of Stranglehold and vitriolic closer Incorruption. The Vertical Plane isn’t all blood and thunder, with Here, There, Everywhere and Mother Of All Lies weaving in soaring melodic peaks. Will Price and Jamie Beaston’s leads explore all manner of shimmering, technicolour effects on Despond To Despair, and while the hokey polka of You Still Come Willingly misfires, it’s a…

Descendants of the legendary Babylon Whores and makers of unashamedly gothic and grim hard rock anthems, Sleep Of Monsters have been an elusive bunch of late. Their aptly named third album arrives seven years after the widely praised II: Poison Garden and takes the Finns in all manner of new directions. Admittedly, their bedrock remains a mid-paced, glowering stomp, with one foot on the goth dancefloor and the other in an open grave. Black Blacker Than Black is a monster of an anthem, delivered deliciously deadpan by frontman Ike Vil, but thereafter this is measurably more diverse and imaginative than either of its predecessors. There is a ghoulish new wave vibe to songs like the gloomily melodramatic Alexandria and synth-laced voodoo ballad The Singer, while Mother Of Phantoms is a…

On their Nuclear Blast debut, this North Carolina four-piece experiment with combining the “conceptual polarities” of groove and prog metal to mixed results. Album opener Catch Your Breath finds vocalist Ben Beddick attempting to rap over a complex 9/8 time signature, which creates a discordant mess. However, once the band put that misstep behind them, they find a formula that works. Songs like Sight To Sound, Truthseeker and For The Birds sound like they could be long-lost Tool tracks, rerecorded with a contemporary metal production sheen. And while there’s little variation across the record, Stellar Circuits go a long way towards achieving their goal of creating a sound that’s equal parts gritty and spellbinding. ■■■■■■□□□□ FOR FANS OF: Tool, Gojira, Chevelle PARIS FAWCETT…

Re-entering our orbit after 11 years, Yakuza remain steadfast in their refusal to make life easy for us. Kickstarting Sutra with the album’s most ‘difficult’ track is pointedly on-brand, but as the record unfolds it feels like this is, for all its inherent challenge, a less frantic and volatile version of the band. Voivod-ian riffs still clang up against crushing low end, and trilling woodwind incursions peck incessantly away at your senses, but it’s now possible to take short, desperate gasps of breath when the clamour drops away and eerie, kaleidoscopic expanses are revealed. Adding to the unease is Bruce Lamont. He might be a dab hand at both the sax and clarinet but sounds, vocally, like a drunk, doom metal Ian Curtis – an acquired taste within an…

What the fuck happened to Usnea? After two apocalyptically sludgy funeral doom albums on Relapse, the Portland quartet disappeared for six years. A worldwide pandemic and few personal and health problems later, they’re back, and sounding as desperate as ever. A few discrete elements have been added here and there, such as the dense keyboard layer in To The Deathless’s intro, but the band are still often shaken by violent, blackened outbursts. However, it’s when they’re at their doomiest, when the simple yet expressive leads add a dramatic edge to their lumbering onslaught, that they reach their apex. Bathed In Light will probably sound too one-dimensional and too extreme to untrained ears, but the more focused songwriting and shorter song structures have made this their best album yet. ■■■■■■■□□□…

It’s springtime, but DRACONIAN want to drag us all back into a wintry melancholy. Sweden’s death-doom dealers are finally touring the UK off the back of 2020’s Under A Godless Veil, and suffering through a pandemic sounds like it’s forced them into an especially downtrodden mood. Cuts from Lustrous Heart to Dishearten are desolation incarnate, casting singer Lisa Johansson’s operatic voice against walls of guitars and roars. However, the odd high-energy riff stampede like Seasons Apart makes them seem jolly compared with SWALLOW THE SUN. The Finns have long dealt in frostbitten sorrow, but since the death of guitarist Juha Raivio’s partner, singer/songwriter Aleah Starbridge, their misery has found darker depths of meaning. That knowledge makes Stone Wings and Keep Your Heart Safe From Me the most heartbreaking moments of…

NU METAL HAS had a funny old time this past decade, going from a byword for the hubris of the late 90s and early 2000s to a full-scale cultural revival. Newcomers BLACKGOLD pin their colours to the mast in no uncertain terms, their chugging riffs and tub-thumping choruses harkening right back to the scene’s glory days. With fewer than 20 shows under their belt, the band aren’t yet commanding crowds, but their infectious energy suggests they’re on the way, their cover of Cypress Hill’s I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That showing what they can do with a massive hook. Bounding out to a frenzied Super Fiend, WARGASM’s mixture of thrumming electronica, funky riffing and snarling mosh calls feels irresistible. The likes of D.R.I.L.D.O, Rage All Over and Spit are unstoppable…

One of thrash’s best qualities is how little it cares for what’s considered ‘cool’ or trendy, instead cleaving to its ethos of denim’n’leather-clad warp-speed riffs. HELLRIPPER embody that spirit with their first-wave black metal-infused speed, as if Motörhead were fed a steady diet of Venom. Devilishly fast cuts like Goat Vomit Nightmare are delivered with grins plastered across faces, as the crowd goes wild. Hell’s Rock ’n’ Roll, indeed. The opening wail of WARBRINGER’s Firepower Kills says all it needs to as within seconds the front of the room is caught in a mosh. You can practically hear the motorbike engines roar as The Black Hand Reaches Out thrashes and grooves. Vocalist John Kevill towers over both the crowd and his bandmates, commanding the gathered throng into ever faster pits.…

FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY / HERIOT THE DOME, LONDON Marking the 10th anniversary of their beloved Hate album, Aussie deathcore superstars Thy Art Is Murder have assembled a Who’s Who of brutality. Metallic hardcore upstarts HERIOT open in typically crushing fashion, the likes of latest single Demure and the breakneck Enter The Flesh opening the floor early. It’s nothing comparedto the mayhem FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY invite, though; the moment A Higher Level Of Hate kicks in, a pit taking up near half the room is whirling and beer’s already coating the floor. In barely 45 minutes, groove-flecked deathcore like Savages turns the crowd into exactly that. To amp people up further, THY ART IS MURDER come on to Vengaboys’ We Like To Party before Reign Of Darkness bludgeons necks…

FIVE MINUTES WITH Come on then, Benji – when are Skindred gonna do Eurovision? “You know what, bro, I’m a champion for Europe and if we got the opportunity, we’d sing it loud and proud. Johnny Rotten and PiL tried out [this year with the song Hawaii] and I thought it was great; if we keep hiding in metal world that’s all we can ever do, but I want to shine a light on our music, let the world see how strong and passionate we are.” Nu metal’s blowing up again. Did you ever feel like Dub War or Skindred fit in with that crowd? “To me, bands like Coal Chamber and Spineshank were proper nu metal. Bands like us and Vacant Stare came up at the same time, but…

BY THE TIME you read this, Sleep Token will have released Take Me Back To Eden – one of the most anticipated metal albums of 2023. The buzz that’s grown up around the enigmatic nouveau-metallers over the past few years has reached fever pitch, the band’s streaming stats on Spotify exploding from 280,000 monthly listeners in January to more than two million at the time of writing. Their success follows that of Ghost, the most notable breakout metal band of the last 10 years, whose latest album, Impera, reached No.2 in the US and UK. Further down the food chain, the likes of Imperial Triumphant, Slaughter To Prevail and Gaerea have all been making waves in recent times. None of these bands sound alike, but they have one key thing…

“MY DAD RAISED us heavily on TOM PETTY. The video for Mary Jane’s Last Dance always struck me. It was a really creepy video, but I liked the theatrics of it. You can be weirder than you are in music. And that song is one of my favourite Petty songs of all time. In my eyes, TRAVELING WILBURYS are the supergroup of all supergroups. Every one of them [Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty] is so distinctly themselves in it, and that concept has stuck with me to now. Everyone has songs they can throw on when they’re in a bad way and it just takes care of the problem, and Handle With Care is one of those songs for me. “RADIOHEAD’s Creep was one…

AVENGED SEVENFOLD Life Is But ADream... “My brain’s broken and I need a lie-down” ELEANOR GOODMAN EDITOR ROYAL THUNDER Rebuilding The Mountain “A raw, redemptive honesty you’ll keep coming back to for an emotional power-up” JONATHAN SELZER REVIEWS EDITOR ROYAL THUNDER Rebuilding The Mountain “Absolutely stunning. So happy to have Mlny and co back” VANESSA THORPE PRODUCTION EDITOR ENTER SHIKARI A Kiss ForThe Whole World“A blast of audible joy just in time for the summer” LOUISE BROCK ART EDITOR ROYAL THUNDER Rebuilding The Mountain “A stunningly soulful and emotionally empowering comeback” RICH HOBSON STAFF WRITER AVENGED SEVENFOLD Life Is But ADream... “Somebody’s been at the mushrooms” DAVE EVERLEY ASSOCIATE EDITOR…

A CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU FROM PHIL SPECTOR (1963) Various Artists This holiday album was as much a showcase for producer Phil Spector’s formidable ‘Wall of Sound’ as it was a collection of festive pop tunes performed by multiple artists. A time capsule that still reverberates in pop music, the recording would influence generations of acts, from The Beach Boys to Avenged Sevenfold. Like Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, the Spector record was played endlessly at A7X gatherings. “We’d study those things during the holidays,” says Syn. DISCO VOLANTE (1995) Mr. Bungle This experimental album led by singer Mike Patton [aka Vlad Drac] was a key influence on M. Shadows. The music is a noisy, gorgeous, uncompromising storm of death metal, free jazz, cha-cha, techno, vocal gibberish and more,…

it’s March 2020, and Hannah Collins is sitting in the garage of her family home in Ohio. It’s the start of the pandemic and there’s a sense of alienation eating away at her - a longing to connect with other people, to immerse herself in the comfort of community. She turns to TikTok. Despite only having seven followers, she props up her phone on a garbage can and begins dancing. Over the next few days and weeks, she begins posting religiously in the hope of finding more people like herself, people desperate to bond over their love of the alt scene. Little does she know that she’s about to open up an entirely new world. Today, Hannah goes under the name Scene Queen and those initial TikTok posts have turned…

Avarice’s debut album has been a long time coming. The Danish thrashers formed back in 2007, went on hiatus a year later and resurfaced in 2021 with an EP, Reborn In Blood. Avarice is punchy, boasts excellent production and surges out of the speakers with riffs that would have Kerry King headbanging in approval. Between The Trenches scratches that itch all bereft Slayer fans have been dying to reach; Slaughter’s shout of ‘Kill yourself if you want something to die’ is a crushing mosh call bound to cause havoc, and the menacing Overflowing Coffins has a hint of melodic death about it. It might have taken 16 years for Avarice to release their debut, but given the quality on show here, it was time well spent. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS…

Rejecting Oblivion is what it would sound like if black and death metal, metalcore and noise rock all wanted to kill you. BALTTW’s fourth album quickly announces itself as a diversely violent motherfucker, casting earsplitting guitar harmonies against a barrage of snare drums. Singer Stace Fifield bludgeons with Hatebreedish barks, separated by the screeching of stringed instruments getting tortured. Segues of postmetal ambience descend during Cicada and Caustic Burns, but they crescendo with some of the most muscular riffs of the year so far. Not since Conjurer debuted has a band used so many different extreme genres to beat the shit out of your speakers. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Conjurer, Ulcerate, Malevolence MATT MILLS…

Identifying their strengths and doubling down on them, this melodic death metal quartet have honed in on their love of big technical riffs to blistering effect on this third album. Leaving their unfocused 2015 blackened thrash debut, Primordial Fear, firmly behind them, the Danes have evolved their sound for the better, becoming a well-oiled metal machine that feels bigger and heavier, packing more conviction in its grooves. Guitarists Lars Bo Nepper and Sebastian Skousgaard embody this progression, executing face-melting solos and riffs with pinpoint precision, as best heard on Vestigial. Their furious energy is balanced by stretching their acoustic muscles, which feature throughout, notably on Horror Unearthed. Where Chaos Thrives is a step up for the band musically, and though it might not be reinventing the wheel, it’s a…

An undoubted supergroup, Elegant Weapons brings together members of Judas Priest (Richie Faulkner and Scott Travis), Pantera (Rex Brown) and Rainbow (Ronnie Romero). Classy, dangerous and characterised by hummable tunes and sky-high craftsmanship, the name is well-chosen. Ronnie has some of the best pipes on the scene and Richie has conjured up a quality set of songs, fired by razor-sharp riffs and fist-pumping choruses, the results draped over a rafter-shaking bottom end. Richie believes that in a post-Priest world, Elegant Weapons will provide his bread and butter. Horns… is a formidable debut that makes it abundantly clear his future is assured. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Judas Priest, Black Label Society, (Dio-era) Sabbath DAVE LING…

Drawing on the yin/yang dynamics of metal and shoegaze and smashing the two styles together is a trick we’ve all become familiar with. This Danish quartet immediately stand out, however, due to the brooding baritone of Peter Strange – a rich, hypnotic, lackadaisical lilt that delivers lyrics like ‘Love is pain’ with searing sincerity. AHDTAHM started life as a noise rock act in 2014, but this debut full-length shows little signs of that cacophonous foundation. Instead, songs like Other, First Light and the title track sprawl and expand in a lucid manner that recalls Disintegration-era The Cure as played by Darkthrone fans. The only obvious flaw in Days Gone By is it can begin to sound a little one-paced by the album’s conclusion, but otherwise this is a distinct…

A new and distinctly grim entity formed by members of Crippled Black Phoenix, Johnny The Boy are alive with vitriol. These barbarous, swaggering tunes are steeped in 30 years of white-knuckle black metal and festering sludge, but the sum of those parts is something different entirely. Die Already barrels along like prime Satyricon, but with a spiky, post-punk atmosphere and, crucially, some of the most vicious and righteously livid necro vocals ever committed to tape. Justin Greaves’s riffs are uniformly great here, but it’s Belinda Kordic’s flesh-flaying screams that elevate the likes of dense, ominous epic Crossings and the scabby death-punk of Wired to a higher level of evil efficacy. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Darkthrone, Satyricon, Primordial DOM LAWSON…

How far out is too far out? Nibiru have been edging towards an answer to that question for the last decade, leaving the rest of us in a crumpled, bewildered heap. The Italian masters of shamanic post-metal have long since abandoned any pretence that they’re playing the same game as other bands. Anamorphosis comprises a single, 56-minute piece that begins with several minutes of claustrophobic noise, before evolving steadily and seamlessly into a synapse-frying, psychedelic nightmare of wild proportions. With tribal drums, malevolent mantras, obsidian drones and lots of feedback and static, Nibiru have injected some real atmosphere and drama into this, but the overwhelming sense is of a band sharing a moment of dark ritual revelation and revelling in the transformative power of a really fucking loud cacophony. Any further…

From the guitarist responsible for resurrecting Mayhem’s rotting corpse in the mid-90s comes this deeply esoteric debut – a fervent expression of Blasphemer’s own afterlife allegiances. Black Royal Spiritism finds him cooking up splenetic torrents of his trademark riffage with a side order of ghoulish arpeggios. It’s all in petition to the orixás of Brazil’s Umbanda cult, a syncretic tradition using percussive rhythms and drone-like chants to elevate its practitioners into altered states of consciousness. Drummer César Vesvre’s intoxicating rhythmical pulses and Blasphemer’s anguished, almost Attilalike vocal theatrics on Blood.Sacrifice.Enthronement and The Black House provide the ceremonial proxies here, on a darkly twisted series of assignations with the not-so-sweet hereafter. ■■■■■■■□□□ FOR FANS OF: Mayhem, Thorns, God Seed SPENCER GRADY…

Eleven albums deep, these Norwegian gothic metal staples continue to astound. 1977 serves up Sirenia’s signature combination of groovy structures, intense melodrama, enchantress vocals and staggering symphonic soundscapes. Theatricality dominates, from the apocalyptic hopelessness of Fading To The Deepest Black, to Ocean’s Away’s spectacle of gorgeous sorrow. Much like on 2021’s Riddles, Ruins & Revelations, Sirenia have spiced things up with an electronic edge. Wintry Heart’s fluttering synths are a delight, while The Setting Darkness is a glistening burst of what can only be described as symphonic metal’s answer to Abba. The balance of solemn introspection and sharp synthwave remains throughout, Emmanuelle Zoldan’s deep, emotive vocals offering a haunting send-off on the bonus cover of Tanita Tikaram’s Twist In My Sobriety. ■■■■■■■□□□ FOR FANS OF: Epica, Delain, Lacuna Coil EMILY…

When Manchester thrashcore mob Tortured Demon played the Jägermeister stage at Bloodstock 2021, they went in so hard they broke the stage. This year they’re returning to Catton Hall, but on the bigger – and likely sturdier – Sophie Lancaster stage, and with this debut album in their arsenal. There’s a good range of styles here, from riff-filled, double bass kick-laden thrashers like Global Threat to more melodic songs such as the title track – and even a branch out into longer, epic territory with the closing, seven-minute The Damage Is Done. Perhaps more staggering is that the four-piece have an average age below 20. They sound like they’ve been doing this for decades. ■■■■■■■■□□ FOR FANS OF: Trivium, Testament, Children Of Bodom ELLIOT LEAVER…

Five years after reuniting, following a lengthy hiatus, Vomitory are still more brutal than the rest. Death metal was never meant to be complicated, and while there’s a lot to be said for the genre’s dissonant and progressive wings, the veteran Swedes make an overwhelming case for nailing the basics. This is a tour de force of unrelenting violence, delivered with utmost precision. The opening title track sets the tone, with three and a half minutes of murderous, light-speed perfection and the reassuring sound of Erik Rundqvist belching up his blackened soul. Everything that follows is of equal quality, but Decrowned and Piece By Stinking Piece stand out as particularly satisfying chunks of pestilent gore. Vomitory’s razor-sharp blend of old-school songwriting and ultramodern production power is largely without peer…

THE IRONY OF the Hell On Earth tour rolling through on Easter weekend isn’t lost, as five bands descend on Camden’s Underworld with doors so early it’s practically a matinee. There’s a whiff of technicality buried beneath the hulking riffs and cavernous bellowing vocals of openers TURBID NORTH. They play to a far smaller crowd than their groove-heavy strain of death metal deserves, even if much of their sound is washed out by cymbals. Swedes LEACH dial up the Lamb Of God and thrash influences along with a healthy dose of their country’s own particular strain of death metal – the Entombed shirt is no surprise – for a set that gets a good few necks moving and plasters shit-eating grins on the sparse crowd that ventured in so early.…

FOR ONE NIGHT only, the Underworld hosts a cathartic celebration of some of the UK’s brightest and boldest queer and renegade artists in the alternative space, with profits being donated to genderaffirming care for Rory City, frontman of co-headliners Gender Crisis. A thunderous bassline marks the appearance of BAMBIE THUG, the trap metaller already commanding a dedicated following here to dance and scream back the words. The throbbing, dingy beats lend themselves well to the confines of the Underworld, new single Egregore opening a huge pit while the skittering beat to Headbang prompts just that, with crowdsurfers to boot. ALT BLK ERA blend rap, nu metal and punk, among other genres. The two sisters mix it with fierce lyrical criticisms of prejudice against alternative people, offering a message of unity…

WHEN AVENGED SEVENFOLD surprise-released seventh album The Stage in 2016, that wasn’t the only shock they had in store for fans. Rather than straight-up bangers like Hail To The King and Shepherd Of Fire, we got a barrage of existential prog and a monologue from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Seven years later, and you might have expected some kind of thematic continuation… but are you prepared for this? FOLLOW Avenged Sevenfold’s new album, Life Is But A Dream…, is not a metal record in the conventional sense. Towering riffs? Epic solos? They’re there. But so’s jazz, autotune and a kitchen-sink’s worth of other stuff, not to mention abstract lyrics about the nature of being. While many of their OC metalcore peers stopped evolving, A7X are reaching for something beyond metal…

OVER A DECADE in the making, Corey Taylor’s debut solo album, CMFT – that’s ‘Corey Motherfucking Taylor’ – was a love-letter to the music of his youth, with tracks spanning everything from grandstanding arena rock to hardcore punk and straight-up smack-talking nu metal via glam. Not willing to wait another 10 years to prepare a follow-up, metal’s favourite masked motormouth brings Hammer up to speed on what we can expect from impending second album CMF2… How does CMF2 stack up against your debut? “With CMFT, we had this stockpile of all these random songs, so it was like, ‘Let’s just go in and see what happens.’ CMF2 sees me going, ‘OK, that’s where I came from, where am I going?’ It’s darker, heavier, grittier… there’s still big anthems, but there’s…

TENACIOUSLY D-VIDED I love how metalheads are either/ or when it comes to Tenacious D’s inclusion in the metal world. I for one love them and think [Tribute is] one of the best jokes/songs ever because of how seriously unserious they are. Also, how Jack Black genuinely loves metal. GingerDan Singleton, Facebook At this point Dan, it would be weirder if a band of Tenacious D’s stature didn’t divide opinion. But just remember: you won’t find a metal audience in the world that don’t know the words to Tribute. THE ONE TRUE PRINCE (OF DARKNESS) Ozzy needs a giant throne! With like gargoyles and skulls. Something real metal. SpicyDisco, Twitter We’re in. Maybe someone should hit up Dave Grohl – he clearly Knows A Guy… GATEKEEP TOKEN I’m 50, a…

For almost 30 years, Jeff Hanneman was a formidable presence at Slayer shows, standing stage right, wearing a black t-shirt or an Oakland Raiders jersey with camo shorts or athletic leg and shin guards. He never smiled. His blond, sweaty hair frequently obscured his face as he banged his head. His right hand was a blur as he sawed his pick back and forth on his guitar strings. In his home studio, he cast even more rays of darkness across Slayer’s insidious art, penning many of their most memorable songs, including Angel Of Death, Raining Blood, Chemical Warfare, South Of Heaven, Dead Skin Mask and War Ensemble, as well as writing the music for two Grammy award-winning tracks, Eyes Of The Insane and Final Six. Offstage and between gigs, however,…

Lovers of generic metal will fall head over heels in love with Arrival Of Autumn’s second album. But for those who enjoy a bit more sonic depth, the Albertans fall short. Stale guitar riffs are churned out alongside a thunderous drumbeat that refuses to give the rest of the music space to breathe. Lifelong friends vocalist Jamison Friesen and guitarist Brendan Anderson have harboured a lot of their teen angst and managed to release it under the Nuclear Blast label in a careless, mundane package. Tracks such as Ghosts and Burn bleed into one another with no distinction, and before long it’s easy to switch off, feeling uninspired. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Falling In Reverse, Fearless Vampire Killers, As I Lay Dying CHERI FAULKNER …

Becoming privy to the information that marijuana’s favourite band, Bongzilla, have christened their sixth album to salute the purest form of THC and their Madison, Wisconsin hometown (‘Mad City’) makes things both clear and thick’n’hazy. Furthermore: “We procured 10g of the finest concentrates we could lay our hands on and somewhere north of 120g of cannabis flower. And recorded on two-inch analogue tape over two sessions.” There may be few surprises considering their stoner rock/ psychedelic sludge mastery, but Bongzilla manage excitement. Case in point: Cannonbong is more than 13 minutes of grizzly, percussion-driven, tall tale-telling; C.A.R.T.S lumbers like a stoopshouldered Melvins and American Pot’s flashy blues shuffle will be responsible for worldwide contact highs. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Eyehategod, Sleep, Electric Wizard KEVIN STEWART-PANKO…

Initially operating as an instrumental act, these self-described post-doom bruisers have added The Vampire Diaries and Westworld star Michael Malarkey. The actor, who also has a successful career as a singer/songwriter, has helped transform the Portland-bred quintet from plucky contenders to potential heavyweights, and their debut album is a beefy, bleak affair that doesn’t pull any punches musically or lyrically. Much of the material was written during the height of the George Floyd protests and the LP explores the effects of living in a world where the American dream has become a nightmare. Drawing on sludge, psych and Alice In Chains’-esque gloom, Last Days… rages against the machine with the best of them, and when they’re going for the jugular, as on Seawall, they sound unstoppable. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS…

The most interesting aspect of Dieth’s debut is hearing bassist Dave Ellefson (ex-Knight Fury, The Alien Blakk, Killing Machine and others – HA!) embark on some of the most diverse and heaviest material since Megadeth’s early days. Joined by former members of Entombed A.D. and Decapitated, To Hell And Back spans a spectrum: from the bluesy radio rock/ Swedeath shuffle of Heavy Is The Crown and lighters aloft-worthy ballad Walk With Me Forever through to Dead Inside’s Bay Area bashing and the title track’s flirtation with antiseptic tech death. The members’ diverse backgrounds and sonic interests make it a struggle to determine Dieth’s direction, but it’s encouraging to hear veterans expanding their palettes and their reach. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Sepultura, Type O Negative, Exodus KEVIN STEWART-PANKO…

Frozen Soul’s 2021 album, Crypt Of Ice, was one of the most talked-about death metal debuts of recent years, with their ‘cold school’ gimmick drawing a wealth of admirers, including Trivium’s Matt Heafy, who has stepped in to produce its follow-up. Yet again, once you get past the chilly atmosphere and lyrical obsessions with ice and war, the band’s approach is fairly simple: delivering the meat’n’ potatoes of the subgenre with craft. While Death And Glory’s nefarious guile is held together by militaristic rhythm, and an appearance from Dying Fetus’s John Gallagher sees Morbid Effigy encompass more slamming elements, influences are proudly worn and enveloped idiosyncratically. While there are riffs that leave an instant mark, Frozen Soul itself boasts the band’s most immediate hook, coupled with the unsettling, minuscentigrade…

AFTER SMOKE CLEARS The Fear SELF-RELEASED Fast-paced, and relentless in their approach to metalcore, After Smoke Clears have redefined the genre with their new EP. Potent, spiteful vocals pierce through the belligerence to lace malice throughout this five-track. ■■■■■■■■■■ CHERI FAULKNER FUGITIVE Maniac 20 BUCK SPIN Technology has eradicated the beauty of spinning a record at either 33 1/3 or 45rpm to offer a much wider range of temporal options. Like Blake (Power Trip) Ibanez’s Fugitive, who sound like Obituary played at 37 1/4rpm. ■■■■■■■■■■ KEVIN STEWART-PANKO HERETOIR Wastelands AOP Spreading their hyperevolved post-hardcore across six studio and live tracks, this German quartet have entered lush, cathartic hinterlands that, at their best, suggest the universe dissolving like a luridly luxuriant bath bomb. ■■■■■■■■■■ JONATHAN SELZER AMERICAN NIGHTMARE Dedicated To The…

The Intersphere have toyed with plenty of interesting ideas over the years, but they’re yet to nail a knockout record. Their sound is based on solid, Royal Bloodesque hard rock, with smatterings of prog, metal and pop. And while there are some forgettable tracks, the title track proves both catchy and proggy, Heads Will Roll is meaty and Muse-y and Who Wants To Deal With Death? opens with bright guitar not too dissimilar to the radiofriendly disco indie of Two Door Cinema Club. At its best, Wander has honed the balance between muscle and melody. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Royal Blood, The Hirsch Effekt, Karnivool DANNII LEIVERS…

There’s a palpable sense of heartbreak surrounding this German doom outfit’s aptly titled debut album, with founding bassist Christian Smukal tragically losing his life to cancer before the record’s release. Acting as both a tribute to their lost bandmate and the next chapter of Moor’s existence, this is an understandably heavy experience, with the band’s bleak post-metal sound retaining a sombre mood throughout. Tears From Acrid Smoke and crushing nine-minute closer Breath Like Nails experiment with plaintive, Pallbearer-esque clean vocals. There’s even a slight post-punk vibe to Pale Grey Snow, with its ominous, clanking basslines eventually being consumed in a vortex of emotive guitar noise. But mostly this is an extremely riff-focused record, offering bludgeoning sludge at crawling tempos, with a genuine emotional catharsis underpinning the misery. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS…

Unissa Palaneet is so far out there it’s hardly metal in the classic sense, but it’s still one of the heaviest things you’ll hear this year. Radien’s 2018 debut, Syvyys, at least bore some resemblance to lumbering sludge monsters like Conan and Primitive Man in tempo and intensity, if not sound. This is something else altogether. A concept album about a lucid dreamer sleep-walking through the apocalypse, Unissa Palaneet is a gorgeous, terrifying, monolithic trip that encompasses space rock, dark ambient, neo-folk and piles of vicious noise. Relentlessly experimental and fearlessly progressive, its sounds like Earth’s final hour before the meteor blows us all to smithereens. ■■■■■■■□□□ FOR FANS OF: Chrome, Godflesh, Yob KEN McINTYRE…

In 2014, the first album in Scar Symmetry’s ongoing Singularity trilogy imagined a near-future where artificial intelligence is the world’s biggest business. In the nine years since, Boston Dynamics and ChatGPT have tip-toed humanity ever-closer to Skynet. Here, the band’s response to dystopia drawing nearer is a refreshing dose of normalcy. Phase II is precisely what fans starved of new music for almost a decade would want to hear. It’s the same mix of prog, melodeath and power metal that the band have built since 2008’s Holographic Universe, where flamboyant choruses, virtuoso solos, growled verses and the odd Meshuggah-ish guitar chug are the core components. On Scorched Quadrant and the title track especially, Scar Symmetry sound as victorious as ever. ■■■■■■■□□□ FOR FANS OF: Meshuggah, Dream Theater, Hypocrisy MATT MILLS…

Much like the bowelbothering horror film they share their name with, Canadian thrashers Terrifier aren’t afraid to wear their 80s influences on their sleeves. They also seem hellbent on trying to remove your head from your shoulders. Their weapon of choice is the guitar, and over the course of eight tracks they take us on a fast and furious trip down memory lane. Their second album sees them trimmed down to a trio, but they’ve lost none of their power or precision – Bones Of The Slain and Grinding The Blade are packed with lightning-quick fretboard wizardry. While it won’t win any awards for innovation, Trample The Weak… is an enjoyable romp loaded with killer cuts. ■■■■■■■■□□ FOR FANS OF: Exodus, Hatchet, Testament EDWIN McFEE…

Ten years since their debut album, this hard rock stoner outfit are still steeped in uncompromising, honest Southern style and substance. Over that time they’ve moved from the local Louisiana bar scene, to sharing stages with the likes of Mothership, to their third full-length – and the seductive riffs, boozy vocals, 90s grunge influences and satisfying guitar solos are very hard to resist. Most recently, they brought in Tommy Buckley (Crowbar, Soilent Green) to rehearse and record drum tracks and also found current live drummer Wade Perkins to add to the mix. Tracks range from melodic, to sludge, to chill, to the rallying, but standouts are the gloriously grooveridden Down On You, the more aggressive Atrophy, the pleasingly cheeky Good Lovin and the super-sticky The Get Down. It’s a…

Norwegian post-metallers FIXATION battle mic issues, but they receive a warm reception at the end of each song. French prog metal outfit KLONE start slowly, but really grow into their set and are throwing shapes by the end; they’ve also got the audience on their side. The main focus of his set might be latest record Lightwork, but DEVIN TOWNSEND has such a rabid fanbase that he could do a whole show of rare B-sides and those in attendance would give his performance full marks. In recent years, the man so often dubbed ‘heavy metal’s mad scientist’ has toned down the eccentricities of his persona and live spectacle. Tonight is a textbook example – there are no elephants or huge visual screens, just a simple banner and a feverous audience…

Tonight is a party. Following two failed attempts to represent Australia at Eurovision – with 2020’s Runaway and 2022’s Dreamer – Voyager were selected in February with the song Promise. It means, singer Danny Estrin explains at one point, that should they make it to the final, their bombastic progressive metal will be broadcast to 180 million people. But first, the quintet have 250 people to attend to, and they’re not about to short-change them. A tech-flecked Hyperventilating is followed by a hypersoaring Colours as they run through a set that spans the last 16 years of their career, peppered with many heartfelt expressions of gratitude and silly Aussie jokes about barbecues. When it comes to Promise, the whole room bounces throughout – achallenge for many who are also trying…

TONIGHT IS THE perfect antidote to our current anxious times, and the Apollo crowd are ready to forget their woes in a sea of neon, 80s-style wigs, glowstick bracelets, headbands and good vibes. First to hit the stage are German trio FUTURE PALACE. Fronted by the lavenderhaired Maria Lessing, they draw heavily from second album Run, impressively flexing their skills at blending melodic hardcore with incandescent powerpop and nu metal. Finnish Eurovision rockers BLIND CHANNEL bring the drama to the now-packed venue with a highly polished but captivating set. Between songs such as Died Enough For You and Flatline, vocalists Joel and Niko make their audience work hard for them, demanding multiple walls of death and circle-pits – achallenge fans are more than willing to rise to – and getting…

SOUTH OF SALEM / SICK ’N’ BEAUTIFUL / TARAH WHO? THE DOME, LONDON There’s something about spending a Holy Saturday with Wednesday 13 that just feels right. The Duke Of Spook has brought his schlocky horror show to our shores to celebrate the first two decades of his career with the appropriately titled Halfway To The Grave! tour. First off, TARAH WHO?’s raw, angular grunge and sardonic punk energy comes with an injection of youthful promise and unmistakeable talent. Italian alt metallers SICK ’N’ BEAUTIFUL bring the theatrics with their alien costumes and props, but it’s charismatic singer Herma, channelling Maria Brink and Rob Zombie, who really makes an impression. Although SOUTH OF SALEM’s set feels pedestrian in comparison, the energy is still high in anticipation of what’s next. Tonight…