Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Metal Hammer UK

POWERED BY SEQUINS, glitter and cheese, Eurovision once felt like the antithesis of metal –but that’s all changing. Over the past two decades, the annual song contest has warmed up to the heavier side of life. In 2006, Finnish monster-men Lordi bagged the win with Hard Rock Hallelujah, their pyro-enhanced performance serving as a watershed moment for metal in the competition. It opened the floodgates for the likes of string-loving Finns Apocalyptica to join in, along with their countrymen The Rasmus, while Italian glamrockers Måneskin even took the crown in 2021. Last year, Australia’s synthhappy prog-metallers Voyager and German industrial-glam goths Lord Of The Lost participated in the final, held in Liverpool. This year’s competition, in Malmö, Sweden, is set to welcome even more alternative acts, pushing the boundaries for…

“IN SPAIN, METALHEADS and reggaetoneros [young people involved in the reggaeton culture] hate each other! It’s a massive thing,” says Future Static vocalist Ami Cook, explaining how the choice to cover 2004 reggaeton hit Gasolina helped her reconnect with her past growing up in Barcelona. Now based in Melbourne, Australia, Ami helped form Future Static in 2021 –and they’ve since performed around the world. Guitarist Ryan Qualizza explains the Gasolina cover came about after a night of listening to 2000s hits after a gig. “Originally it was a bit of atonguein-cheek thing,” he admits. “But I had no idea how much it meant to Ami, bringing the two worlds of reggaeton and metal together.” “Rock people in Spain see Gasolina as something in poor taste, almost as if we were…

In a dark room, an orchestra strikes up. Violins play a staccato melody, and as more instruments join –a horn here, a crash of drums there –blue lights overhead cast an eerie glow. By the time the music hits a triumphant crescendo, the room is finally illuminated enough to make out the crowd. There’s an expected mix of evening dresses, ball gowns, suits and tuxedos, but it’s the smattering of Meshuggah, Opeth and other miscellaneous metal shirts that give the biggest hint this isn’t your average classical concert. We’re at the Alexela Concert Hall in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia, for the first-ever performance by Bright & Black. The band are the brainchild of Jacob Hellner –best known for producing the first six Rammstein albums –and artist manager/former A&R…

Veritas MASCOT San Diego’s nu metal originals make a diminished return NOSTALGIA IS BIG business in 2024 –just look at the success of the When We Were Young and Sick New World festivals for proof. There’s never been a better time to be an early 00s nu metal band. Being a throwback ‘greatest hits’ novelty act is not agame P.O.D. seem content with playing, however. Veritas arrives as, somewhat remarkably, their 11th full-length album, albeit their first in six years. It wasn’t worth the wait. Album opener Drop, ‘starring’ Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe in a cameo that’s underplayed to the point of obscurity, is a mess of stylistic handbrake turns that hamstrings Veritas from the off, and from which it gamely spends the next half-hour attempting to recover. It…

P.O.D. WEMBLEY ARENA, LONDON MOBO award-winning ragga metallers host a life-affirming celebration SUCH IS THE buzz for the return of Californian nu metallers P.O.D. that their billing tonight feels like a double headliner. Though they’ve released a further six albums since their 2001 smash hit Satellite, all eyes and ears are on golden oldies Boom, Youth Of The Nation and Alive, which are played with all the nascent energy they had when they were first released. However, with their first full-length in six years, Veritas, looming on the near horizon, it’s not all about baggy-panted nostalgia tonight. Kicking off their set with its opening track –the explosive Drop –P.O.D. sound confident and relaxed as they effortlessly groove through their set. There’s no mistaking Sonny Sandoval’s resonant and commanding raps, and…

AFTER ABRIEF stint in glam metal also-rans Madam X, Sebastian Bach shot to fame fronting Skid Row in the late 80s. Their first two albums were huge hits, but 1995’s Subhuman Race was a relative flop and Sebastian was booted out of the band. While Skid Row have continued with a string of different singers, Sebastian has flitted around the scene, with an on-off solo career running alongside numerous TV appearances and theatrical stints in Broadway and beyond. Now he’s back with aslamming new solo album called Child Within The Man and is ready to answer your questions –including the inevitable ones about a possible Skid Row reunion and his several celebrity feuds… What are your memories of working on Subhuman Race? Stephen Swender, Facebook “We were very excited to…

WHEN WE CATCH up with Lzzy Hale, she’s sitting in her closet. “I’m adulting and I don’t like it,” the Halestorm vocalist and guitarist tells us, midway through house renovations and surrounded by leather jackets and stage outfits, although it’s an apt setting for us to look back on her life. Since founding the band with her brother, drummer Arejay, in 1997 aged just 13, she’s led Halestorm through a series of changes and leaps of faith that have turned them into one of the biggest bands in hard rock, and Lzzy into an empowering modern icon. This is what she’s learned along the way. REVISITING THE PAST CAN HELP YOU MOVE FORWARD “To recreate our set for this last festival season in the UK and Europe, we went back…

When Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, it shocked the world. In the months since, Within Temptation have become one of the fiercest anti-war voices in music. As well as speaking out and waving the Ukrainian flag at their live shows, several tracks on last year’s Bleed Out album voiced their fear and anger over the ongoing conflict. Now the Dutch metallers have gone a step further, with new standalone single AFool’s Parade. Atrack that had been left on the cutting room floor during the sessions for their powerhouse 2019 album Resist, the band dusted it off and rewrote the lyrics, while an incendiary guest turn in the song’s blistering middle eight comes courtesy of Ukrainian rock artist, Alex Yarmak. “It refers…

Back in the 1990s, National City wasn’t the kind of place you read about in the guide books. Amere stone’s throw from the touristy enclaves and glittering sands of San Diego’s Coronado Island and Imperial Beach, and a 20- minute car ride from Tijuana, across the border in Mexico, the area’s nickname reflects its notorious past: Nasty City. “It’s nothing to brag about, but in 1994 this area had a higher crime rate than New York City,” says P.O.D. guitarist Marcos Curiel. Today, taquerias, strip malls and residential neighbourhoods buzzing with vibrant Mexican culture dominate this sweeping region south of downtown San Diego. It’s here that we’ve arranged to meet one of the city’s most successful and durable musical exports for a tour of their hometown and the places that…

You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To PURE NOISE Kentucky’s hardcore high-risers ride their own crazy train to the summit IN THE FIVE years since Knocked Loose released their second album, ADifferent Shade Of Blue, they’ve gone viral on TikTok about a billion times, played to a packed-out tent at Coachella festival, been name-checked by Demi Lovato, and been watched from the side of the stage by a headbanging Billie Eilish. So, with the mainstream rolling over to have their tummy tickled by the Oldham County, Kentucky hardcore crew, this is the moment where Knocked Loose embrace the pop world so enamoured with them, sand down all those rough edges, make a more melodic, palatable album and turn their back on the scene, right? Wrong. There are lots of impressive…

Mind Burns Alive NUCLEAR BLAST Arkansas’ doom heartbreakers unfurl the power of fragility LOOKING TO THROW your heavy metal claws aloft and mindlessly bellow “Yeaahhhhh!” at the rafters? That’s fine and all, but chances are this is not the doom you are looking for. Mind Burns Alive is Pallbearer’s most expansive and atypical work to date, and while the band have long exhibited restless, wayward traits, they’ve largely been kept in check by the steady whip hand of doom traditionalism. Here, on the band’s fifth album, that resolve is beginning to waver. They’ve not done away with the crunch entirely, but quiet restraint is now the name of the game, and those thumps to the back of the head are tempered by prog, synths, sax and slowcore. Not unlike Patrick…

INFECTED RAIN ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON Fromage-infused metallers lead a dual assault on the senses CHEESE FANATICS ARE dining well tonight, as a co-headlining bill of pop metallers Amaranthe and gloriously overblown extreme power metallers Dragonforce rolls into town. It falls to groove metal outfit INFECTED RAIN to open the night, as punters are still filing in from the mammoth queue snaking a significant distance down Chalk Farm Road. The stage is a whirlwind of dreadlocks. Vocalist Lena Scissorhands is a formidable presence, as she commands mass fist-pumping and swathes of crowdsurfers. It’s the Moldovans’ first time in the UK in five years, and the deafening reception suggests the wait won’t be as long again. AMARANTHE open with a euphoric Fearless and the pulsating dance metal of Viral. The production includes smoke…

IT’S OFFICIAL –AFTER 36 years, we’re finally getting a Beetlejuice sequel! Director Tim Burton is reuniting with original stars Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara for a follow-up to his 1986 horror fantasy hit. Titled Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, plot details are still fairly scant at the time of writing, but in March a teaser trailer got fans excited for the release. In less than 80 seconds’ worth of footage, we’re reintroduced to Deetz family members Lydia (Ryder) and Delia (O’Hara), as well as newcomer Astrid –portrayed by Wednesday star Jenna Ortega –who are attending a funeral, before Keaton’s Betelgeuse makes a suitably dramatic return as the ghost with the most, having been banished to the realm of the dead in the original. Asequel to Beetlejuice has been considered since as…

“I HEARD THE band HAVE HEART, and it was a defining moment for me. The song Bostons inspired our song Fragments Of ABetter Memory –especially the bridge and the hook into the end breakdown, and the ‘I despise the drinking father’ aspect [Bostons features the lyric, ‘just a broken old man broken by the whiskey’]. When I was a kid, that song resonated with me because of what I was going through [with my alcoholic stepfather]. “I love Rock Steady by NO DOUBT! I’ve listened to No Doubt since I was seven –my mom was a huge indie rock kid. When we drove to my grandparents’ house three hours away, Rock Steady was one of the CDs we would have on repeat. It was the first time I’d ever heard…

EVERY BAND THAT makes it has that one album. That career-changing moment that propels them to the next level. And for While She Sleeps, it was their third release, 2017’s You Are We. The Sheffield crew’s promise had been clear all along. With 2010 EP The North Stands For Nothing, 2012’s excellent debut, This Is The Six, and their criminally underrated second album, 2015’s Brainwashed, they’d proved their belligerent, bruising metalcore could unite rooms and lungs. Ajuggernaut of a record that sounded purpose-built for arenas, You Are We was the sound of a band starting to test the boundaries of their sound, introducing a ton of melody into their punk-infused savagery, and constituted a massive step towards metal’s upper echelons. The album was written and recorded during a period of…

SOMETIMES YOU GET an itch that just has to be scratched. Maybe you want a beer, or a pie, or, in the case of End, to play some heavy-as-fuck metalcore that annihilates everything in its path. That’s where guitarist Will Putney found himself back in 2016, and clearly not busy enough slinging riffs with Fit For An Autopsy or engineering other bands’ records, he started fielding the idea to pals who’ve played with the likes of Counterparts, Misery Signals, Shai Hulud and The Acacia Strain. “There were no plans,” says Will. “We thought we’d probably make one record, get it out of our system and then go back to whatever the fuck we normally do.” That, thankfully, wasn’t how things panned out; the band are now two LPs, a live…

BLACK SABBATH ANNO DOMINI 1989-1995 BMG £120 SABBATH’S LATEST BOX set offers an overdue reassessment for a range of albums so contested within the band’s canon that they’re not even currently available on streaming services. By the time then-unknown vocalist Tony Martin came onboard in 1987, the band were a far cry from their revolutionary origins; Tony Iommi was the sole original member and an assortment of technically gifted vocalists –Ronnie James Dio, Ian Gillan and Glenn Hughes –had turned the psychic trepidation of the Ozzy era into something far more embracing. Martin’s earnest vocals were very much in that latter mould, and the albums collected here -Headless Cross, concept album Tyr, Cross Purposes and Forbidden, the latter remastered by Iommi himself –are still-revered epics in their own right, with…

All it takes is one word. Just one word, comprising three letters and one syllable, repeated twice. Bryan Garris, frontman of hardcore superstars Knocked Loose, looks out at the sprawling mass of bodies in front of him at London’s Kentish Town Forum, puts his mic to his lips, and detonates the bomb. “Arf! Arf!” he barks. The rest is chaos. Two and a half thousand people, from the floor to the balcony, are screaming and throwing their legs and fists around with abandon, slamming into each other as if it’s the last thing they’ll ever do. It might be mayhem, but it’s calculated mayhem, as Bryan explained earlier in the band’s dressing room. “I feel like every decision that we make when it comes to writing is based off the…

Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen’s life has been one long, wild ride. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1958, he fled the island as a toddler with his family following a revolution that saw communist insurgent Fidel Castro seize power. Things have barely calmed down for him since. Ministry started out in 1981 as a besuited synth-pop outfit –albeit against Al’s wishes - before changing lanes and laying down the blueprint for industrial metal with such landmark albums as The Land Of Rape And Honey (1988), The Mind Is ATerrible Thing To Taste (1989), and their big breakthrough, 1992’s Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs. At the band’s height, Al was just as famous for his Olympic-standard pharmaceutical habits - he was a walking chemical dustbin…

From Hell I Rise REIGNING PHOENIX MUSIC Evil thrash royalty gets back in the ring with a vengeance RETIREMENT WAS NEVER an option for Kerry King. Even before the untimely passing of guitarist Jeff Hanneman in 2013, it often seemed that Kerry was hauling Slayer along, almost single-handedly, with the ferocious focus and determination of aman with no Plan Band vast quantities of selfbelief. Some degree of sheen may have been lost from the launch of his first solo album, thanks to his old band’s decision to reform for some lucrative festival performances this year, but make no mistake: From Hell I Rise is the sound of aman with absolutely zero interest in fading into the background. It is also the most pissed off and aggressive thing Kerry King has…

Papercuts: Singles Collection 2000–2023 WARNER Alt metal revolutionaries get ill-served on their greatest hits collection ONE OF THE great many ‘what ifs’ left in the wake of the tragic events of July 20, 2017 comes in the shape of Linkin Park’s evolutionary journey. One More Light, the final album released before the death by suicide of frontman Chester Bennington, marked perhaps the most surprising about-turn in the career of a band who, for all their nu metal pigeonholing, have never been afraid to spread their creative wings. In forgoing bruising alt rock for deft electro-pop, it pointed towards a more diverse, nuanced future direction: an intriguing latest chapter in one of modern metal’s most interesting stories. Friendly Fire, a One More Light-era cutting-room discovery given life here for the first…

Birmingham’s unyielding metal champions bestride the ages “THIS ONE IS Rainbow Demon, it came out in ’72,” says Uriah Heep frontman Bernie Shaw to an already near-full arena. “Who remembers that?” Alarge proportion of the crowd by the looks of it. There’s a case to be made that a rejuvenated Judas Priest have missed an opportunity to showcase and build a bridge to metal’s next generation in their choice of supports. But as Rob Halford will tell the crowd later on, this is a “true heavy metal package”, and one that allows the band to share their extended, half-century celebrations with their British peers. More than that, it’s also a means to put Priest in context, both in terms of the scene they emerged from, and the one they helped…