Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i Metal Hammer UK

“I’LL KICK OFF with my earliest memory of enjoying music. QUEEN always remind me of driving in the car with my parentsFat Bottomed Girls in particular brings me back to those times, sitting in the backseat. Later on, Jason [James, ex-BFMV/current Kill The Lights bassist] and I would blast Queen and get drunk on the Bullet tour bus. “NIRVANA really marked my transition from liking music to loving music. In school, everyone listened to bands like Take That or East 17. When my brother brought home a copied cassette of In Utero, I remember thinking, ‘What the fuck is this?’ Milk It really stood out to me. It was so intense. It changed my whole life. Without Nirvana, I wouldn’t have learned to play guitar, and without playing guitar, I…

Chris Harms has a confession: he’s never road-tested one of his band’s butt plugs. “It’s not really my thing,” says the Lord Of The Lost frontman of the German group’s most striking line of merchandise, cunningly sold on their website as ‘paperweights’. “As the singer in a rock band, people might expect me to be crossing sexual boundaries, being into hardcore BDSM stuff. But I’m pretty boring. I don’t need to feel pain to enjoy sex. But we do have a bet that one of us has to test the quality of the paperweight. So I don’t know, maybe I’ll lose the bet.” Personal experience or not, butt plugs are very Lord Of The Lost. Over the past 15 years, they’ve gone from being a moody, black-clad, industrial-goth metal band…

SELF-RELEASED Dutch metalcore quintet fail to perfect their formula Less a natural evolution from Another Now’s 2022 debut album, Omni, than a sticking to the formula, Hex continues to blend high-pitched, snarling, almost black metal vocals with deeper growls. This rapid interchange can often feel jarring rather than dynamic, and the muddied bass struggles to cut through the chaos at times. Smile! is one of the album’s strongest tracks, with its tuneful choruses and sweeping guitar riffs demanding attention. The more melodic approach and inclusion of electronic elements are where Another Now shine brightest, punctuating an otherwise unremarkable album with moments of promise and potential. ■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Northlane, Electric Callboy, Crossfaith CHERI FAULKNER…

SELF-RELEASED London’s nu metal upstarts bring the party and the bravado The metal scene is awash right now with bands putting their own stamp on nu metal, but few have captured the groove-heavy swagger of what it was truly like the first time around. On each of their three EPs, masked trio Blackgold have done just that – their brash sound is pure 90s hedonism, aimed squarely at causing mayhem in the pits. On One Chance, which recalls Limp Bizkit so strongly in style and sound, right down to turntable scratching and rapper Spookz spitting out: ‘People talkin’ shit about me?’, you could be listening to a Significant Other offcut. There are messages behind the music. Social Blackout questions the toxicity of social media (‘Fake news, fake views, fake me,…

NUCLEAR BLAST Municipal Waste guitarists serve up another dirty dose of speed When they’re not blasting out boozy thrash with Municipal Waste, you’ll find guitarists Ryan Waste and Nick Poulos ripping through raucous blackened speed metal bangers with Bat. The trio’s love of Motörhead continues to shine through on sleazy rockers like Just Buried, and while all the expected Venom and Celtic Frost reference points are here in abundance, there’s a heightened punk flavour on this second album too, with songs like Rite For Exorcism echoing the determined grooves of Poison Idea’s Alan’s On Fire. There’s not a dull moment on Under The Crooked Claw, and while it won’t be the most original record you’ll hear this year, it’s easily the band’s most focused and potent yet. Emphatic proof…

LISTENABLE Ex-Aborted axeman rampages across the metal landscape Captained by former Aborted shredder Thijs De Cloedt, and born from an ambition to open pits and minds, these rising metal magpies are in scintillating form on their second album. Serving as both a criticism of modern society and a call to arms to those who want change, the quintet draw on thrash, stoner, grunge, metalcore and the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal over 10 muscular and melodic tracks. Frontman Manuel Remmerie is their MVP. Sounding like the offspring of Testament’s Chuck Billy and Alice In Chains’ Jerry Cantrell, his performances on the crushing Magnetic Hex, the seriously catchy Season Of The Savage and the Tool-tinged title track are full of power and charisma. Intense, exciting and crammed with killer…

NAPALM More emotionally ruinous prog metal from Swedish dramatists There is a moment on every Evergrey album when diehard fans start feeling they have to have a lie down. On their 14th, it’s Cold Dreams. Even by their sky-high standards, it’s a breathlessly dramatic thing that dares to tinker with a winning formula. At this point, Tom S. Englund could sing about the price of surströmming over some giant riffs and hearts would melt, but Theories… is full of signs that Evergrey are refreshing their vision as they march forward. The timely use of synths and other electronics is more prominent than before as Falling From The Sun and Misfortune sparkle with futuristic charm. And yet the abrasive swell of guitars that drives One Heart is as raw and…

DVRK Infinite Resistance SEASON OF MIST The debut EP from this quintet is a bruising, if sometimes rather one-dimensional, barrage of nu metal-infused deathcore, underpinned by electronic and techno elements. It’s enjoyable, but doesn’t live long in the memory. ■■■■■■ ELLIOT LEAVER THE FIRES BELOW Thorns SELF-RELEASED  Stoner riffs meet sludgy grooves on the second EP by this London four-piece. The Fires Below’s overall sound is a melting pot of Down, Mastodon and High On Fire, all finished off with a dash of Orange Goblin for good measure.   ■■■■■■■ ELLIOT LEAVER GREYWAVE Dancing In The Dust CHURCH ROAD  This Birmingham-based trio have shown promise ever since the release of their debut EP in 2021. Their songwriting chops continue to advance on this third EP, an otherworldly and powerful hybrid of…

MAGNETIC EYE Texan desert rockers tune in to their darker side There’s a distinctly grungy flavour to this quartet’s second album that belies their sunny Texan roots. HDQ’s riff-driven desert rock may reek of dive bars and gasoline, but the band are becoming masters of elongated, ponderous rock that owes a lot to Alice in Chains. Palm Reader ranges from Time Waster’s explosive riffs to the hazy psych of Tuesday Night Blues, but it’s the darker, more intense moments where HDQ are at their most interesting. Ancient Aliens hits hard when Ryan Garney trails his bold, reverbed vocals like a desert rock Them Bones. The languid intro to Solar Rain deviates from desert psych to something more angsty, and the vocal note-holds on Head Honcho are engineered to transfix…

HUMAN WORTH Oddball British doom duo keep the bad trip brief Makers of abominable, off-kilter sludge for the last few years, Kulk have picked up the pace. It Gets Worse is a wickedly noisy, antisocial record full of bruising bursts of doomed-out desolation, howling feedback and corrupted psych and dub tropes. When the duo’s fizzing chemistry is on display, Kulk sound more like a stampeding herd of rhinos than a two-piece doom band, yet their gift for brevity gives these songs a more enduring impact. Out Of Reach is knucklehead noise rock with a lysergic sting in the tail; Mammoth is freaked out, horribly bleak and dense with distortion; and Beyond Gone is acid-fried desert rock for dystopian pessimists. Produced by Petbrick’s Wayne Adams, It Gets Worse disavows the…

LA TAGENTE Gallic stoner rockers undergo a wondrous transformation Honing your sound is the first big challenge any band faces, but it takes a courageous one to concede that your initial forays into music composition don’t reflect you at your best. French five-piece Matrass have shorn the restrictive stoner trappings of their debut EP Inner Wars and embraced the more expansive waters of post-metal. The difference is night and day, with Matrass’s bold leap paying dividends. The mid-tempo Appetite For Comfort, with its tech-heavy basslines and towering riffs, sounds seismic, especially when paired with Adrift, a celestial, uplifting instrumental that showcases the band’s technical abilities without devolving into technical posturing. Clémentine Browne’s ethereal vocals provide a divine counterpoint, particularly during the band’s sludgy moments and smatterings of tasteful sax on…

HAMMERHEART Ex-Ephel Duath members turn to death metal dissonance Comprised of two ex-members of Italian experimentalists Ephel Duath, Red Rot play twisted, dissonant death metal in surprisingly compact, hardcore-like pieces. The vocals are a monotonous rhythmic bark, but they aren’t afraid to amplify the strangeness with baritone clean singing. When they’re barrelling into a barbaric riff as on Agony Untold, ornamented with fret-melting weirdness, it’s pretty irrepressible, and an easy step into the world of discordant DM in general. What borders on mania, though, is that this thing is 15 songs long. They’re short, but the album’s not paced in any significant way as to mitigate their similarity, making for a bit of a soup by the end. ■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Morbid Angel, Immolation, Mithras PERRAN HELYES…

SATANATH / FETZNER DEATH Symphonic black metal solo project toes the genre line Despite now being in their 30th year of activity, Suffering Souls have never exactly ignited the symphonic black metal underground. The solo project of German vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Tobias Micko, under the pseudonym Lord Esgaroth, has released just five albums in three decades, with An Iconic Taste Of Demise ending a five-year dry spell. However, the music on this latest LP also suggests that a lack of imagination has stopped Tobias from reaching his genre’s upper echelons. These 55 minutes overflow with roars, quasi-operatic backing singing and orchestras, yet never escape the shadow of such genre masters as Dimmu Borgir and Septicflesh. Songs like PRESS From Hubris To Demise and instrumental Of Clarity And Hysteria are bombastic enough,…

ALMA MATER Badass Brazilian thrash from a proper metal legend Jairo ‘Tormentor’ Guedz is Brazilian metal royalty. He played guitar on Sepultura’s seminal first few records, including the song that gave his current band their name. Firmly tethered to a none-more-Brazilian death/thrash sound, The Troops Of Doom were full of conviction on 2022 debut Antichrist Reborn, and the follow-up is equally commanding. A Mass… is full of old-school songs with plenty of dirt under their fingernails, but with ruthless precision and a gritty modern production. Songs like Chapels Of The Unholy and Terror Inheritance are still pouring out of Jairo, nearly 40 years after he helped kickstart metal’s South American revolution. Very much the real deal, The Troops Of Doom will thrash you senseless. ■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Sepultura,…

COILGUNS BOOM, LEEDS Tonight is an attack on the senses in every way. Switzerland’s COILGUNS haven’t played the UK since 2019, and they’re greeted with reverence. Exploding onto Boom’s tiny stage like a nailbomb made of jagged guitars and torn sinew, their brand of mathy chaos is disorientating and raw. Vocalist Louis Jucker claws at his own face during Generic Skincare and ends the set crawling through the pit to enthusiastic cheers. This jaunt is PUPIL SLICER’s first headline UK tour, fully deserved given the brilliance of their 2021 debut, Mirrors, and remarkable 2023 follow-up, Blossom. Their set is almost wholly dedicated to the latter, as they play it in full, and every one of its tracks warrants its moment of destruction in the spotlight. As Momentary Actuality’s vicious grind…

AFTER WE DECIDED on the theme for this month’s issue – The 100 Songs That Changed Our World – we had a lot of ‘spirited’ team meetings to decide on the entries that would end up on the list. Early on, we set a couple of boundaries: Black Sabbath would be the starting point – ground zero for metal proper – and we’d only allow one track per band. Sifting through everyone’s suggestions was a monumental task, and we had to keep asking ourselves: ‘did this song really change metal?’ What you hold in your hands is our best answer to that question. From thrash metal, to black metal, to nu metal and beyond, these are the songs that have not only shaped the sound and culture of our beloved…

COVER YOUR EARS is anew documentary bringing together luminaries such as Dee Snider, Jello Biafra, Chuck D, Judas Priest’s Ian Hill and Sakis Tolis from Rotting Christ to explore how censorship has affected music over the decades. Canadian director/co-writer Sean Patrick Shaul’s original focus was the ‘dirty blues’ of the 1920s-50s, those pioneering naughty ditties that inspired AC/DC’s love of lewd innuendo. But the deeper Sean dug, the more he discovered how much censorship has shaped our favourite music. “We realised there’s a direct correlation between the dirty blues and The Rolling Stones, and a direct correlation between the Stones and heavy metal,” he says. “So the story just kind of unravelled itself.” Among others, the film examines the concerns of the Parents’ Music Resource Centre, a 1980s pressure group…

STONER METAL STALWARTS Orange Goblin have been around for almost 30 years. Let that sink it: three decades of greased-up rock’n’roll riffs à la Motörhead mixed in with the monolithic riffs of Black Sabbath, delivered with a triumphant air of heavy metal thunder that helped put British stoner on the map when the US looked set to corner the market with Sleep, Kyuss and Monster Magnet. These days you’re as likely to find OG vocalist Ben Ward nurturing the next generation of metal talent with his Route One booking agency as you are to see him onstage showing the young whipper-snappers how it’s done. But as the band prepare for album #10, Ben tells Hammer they aren’t about to settle for the cushy desk life any time soon. You’d been…

LIKE THE SCOTTISH whirlpool that lends its name to their second album, Corryvreckan, Hand Of Kalliach’s rush of melodic death metal and Gaelic folk music will pull you into a vortex of powerful guitars and ethereal siren songs. The Edinburgh-based husband-and-wife duo weave tales around ancient myths as grand as their homeland. “It was a wild and weird project that we wanted to do just for us,” guitarist and vocalist John Fraser says. “It started as something to really escape and break up the monotony of the pandemic lockdowns.” John and his wife, co-vocalist Sophie Fraser, have three young children and have led a quiet life in the nine years they’ve been married. Never in their wildest dreams would they have thought they’d be releasing music together, let alone sign…

THROWDOWN ENTERTAINMENT Finland’s classical metallers return to their source APOCALYPTICA HAD TO be talked into recording their debut album, Plays Metallica By Four Cellos. Having formed the band for a bit of fun, they didn’t really think anyone would want to hear four classically trained metalheads recreate their favourite band’s music beyond the odd club show. As it turned out, they would go on to sell six million albums, tour the world, write their own songs and have rock and metal luminaries from Dave Lombardo and Corey Taylor to Cristina Scabbia and Ville Valo lining up to guest on tracks. Now, though, it all comes full circle. It’s strange to think that the first Plays Metallica… was released in June 1996, just days after Metallica themselves released Load. It’s an…

SELF-RELEASED Ukrainian groove metallers get an Egyptian infusion As well as providing a fertile delta that benefited the growth of many ancient civilisations, Ancient Egypt has afforded bountiful metallic inspiration for everyone from Iron Maiden to Nile. Using it as a launchpad into the world of deities and millennia-old tales, Ukraine’s Arhat add symphonic and traditional instruments to conjure the arcane imagery that fits the subject matter. Path Eternal’s eerie, flute-led meditations and Shlyah Do Prozrinnya are the most opulent demonstrations of this collision of cultures, while Abyss Of Flame and Arcana XVI show the quartet can also deliver crunching hooks atop to their frenzied death/groove assault. Arhat display abundant amounts of confidence on their second album, the vocals and the guitars especially proving even more diverse and adventurous…

It’s Inside You RELAPSE Forward-thinking fury from the hardcore/industrial metal border If there’s a genre that presumably has the key to the secrets of time machine technology, it’s hardcore. Many of the sounds and the imagery, ethos, stage presence and sartorial sense haven’t changed much since the 80s. But, historically, it’s produced and nurtured pockets of vanguards who’ve dared to rock the boat. Candy have slotted themselves alongside outfits like Harm’s Way and Show Me The Body, who are unafraid to incorporate the metallic and industrial/electronic parts of their record collections into the mix. On It’s Inside You, 80s drum machine sonics collide with thrash metal precision and thunderous metalcore chugging to create eXistenZ, Dehumanize Me and the title track. They’re all tunes designed to open up any dancefloor, while…

TOTEM CAT Canadian DIY gang stay evil with seven tracks of sin It’s been six years since Montreal’s blackened sludge trio disgusted us with new material, and their sixth album sounds like it’s been stewing in filth. Fuzzy, furious and fucking heavy, all their hallmarks are thrust into your face from the off; Life Kills You is a punishing diatribe of misery and mirth, while Shlaghammer and Sultans Of Sins ooze malignancy. Between the gnashing fury of his vocals and the bludgeoning density of his riffs, frontman Vincent Houde is like an animal possessed, while the drums and bass provide Broke Sabbath with a molten steel core, shifting dangerously at every turn. At a shade under 40 minutes, the album doesn’t overstay its welcome, but its relentless pounding…

PROSTHETIC Nevada duo’s Frankenstein’s monster experiment goes awry Starting life as two separate EPs, one ‘heavy’, the other ‘purely electronic’, Four Stroke Baron’s fourth album takes a cut-and-paste approach to stitching both together. The best attempts at hybridisation enhance each element to create something greater than the sum of its partswhich Data Diamond largely fails to do. No amount of wacky FX or synthesised vocals can disguise the lifeless riffs meant to drive the likes of The Witch and 1000 Threads. Only the seven-minute title track shows any sense of composition or craft but, by then, you’re left wondering if AI could have done a better job. ■■■ FOR FANS OF: Igorrr, Moby, Sikth REMFRY DEDMAN…

VENDETTA Stark, existential black metal from the Swiss hinterlands Switzerland’s Ernte have been pretty prolific since forming during the pandemic, but it obviously isn’t merriment that’s driving them. This is the kind of black metal for people whose brains interpret the sound of existential torment as raw production and voice-cracking, agonised screeches. The title track in particular goes all in on the slow side, steady drums and relatively bare arrangements aligning with the ominous cover art in evoking images of a medieval apocalypse behind a crackling low-res screen. Vessels Of Sacrifice features vocalist Askahex on violin prominently and sounds even more maudlin, her use of it adding so much more that could be capitalised on further. And yet the stark, occasionally featureless despondency is adept at creating the auditory…

PROSTHETIC Americana-infused doom trekkers get hardened up on the trail In the four years since Mandala Of Fear, Huntsmen’s countrified metal has crusted over with scabs, calluses and ridges of scar tissue. While their knack for strummy Americana remains intact, it’s the heaviness that has altered, like a jagged black metal sawblade has smoothed the post-doom contours. When they let rip, everything threatens to go up in flames, and while the contrast between beauty and brutality is now starker, the strands have been skilfully woven together. Ironically, The Dry Land provides fertile ground – in terms of technical achievement as well as intrigue, ingenuity and visceral satisfaction. ■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Inter Arma, U.S. Christmas, Wolves In The Throne Room ALEX DELLER…

SPINEFARM UK post-grunge rockers keep too much faith with their king We lost Kurt Cobain 20 years ago, but his spirit remains. In recent years, bands like Narrow Head, Soul Blind and Fleshwater have channelled the 90s Seattle Sound, but Lowlives prefer a more direct approach. The UK quartet’s debut channels Nirvana with visceral riffs and howling melodies, sometimes a little too faithfully: Swan Dive tries its hand at the Staley / Cantrell harmonies that made Alice In Chains sound equally sick and glorious, while Lee Downer often sounds like he’s doing a straight-up Cobain impression. Forming from the ashes of The Defiled, No Devotion and The Ataris, Lowlives’ ability to nail a hook results in an album with plenty of energy and some genuine earworms in Getting High On…

NEW DAMAGE Post-hardcore crew prove more resilient than remarkable Rarity market themselves as post-hardcore, yet Lower Feeling couldn’t be further from the qualifying elements. The high-energy and heavy characteristics of post-hardcore are replaced with dreary, dated vocals. The tedious riffs fail to interest or inspire, and Rarity’s lack of identity continues to pierce through the likes of Okay and Sick To My Stomach, where repetitive lyrics and unimaginative choruses leave little impression. Having risen from the ashes many times following legal battles, personal struggles, and line-up changes, Lower Feeling sounds far from a victory statement. ■■■ FOR FANS OF: Dance Gavin Dance, Don Broco, Chiodos CHERI FAULKNER…

CANDLELIGHT Anglican thrashers find a new lease of life There was a time when Norwich thrashers Shrapnel were seemingly everywhere, always threatening to explode into the spotlight but never quite making that a reality. In Gravity, the quartet’s fourth record, finds them revitalised and, to an extent, reborn. The breakneck tempos and full-throttle riffs are still present, but there’s a new metalcore element that’s taken them to the next level. Now, as on the excellent Guardian, they’re combining furious fretwork with seismic, melodic choruses, while new-ish vocalist Daniel Moran puts in a stellar performance. Bleed From Within’s Scott Kennedy adds his savage voice to the blistering, opening title track, and the closing Absolution, which brings things down a notch, is no less crushing. If you ever wanted a definition…

SEASON OF MIST The Netherlands’ brutal death legends restart the slaughter Despite being silent for 14 years, Severe Torture were always such a terrifying proposition that further carnage was always a possibility. Torn From The Jaws Of Death picks up exactly where 2010’s Slaughtered left off, but with more explosions of bone-splintering brutality, executed with fearsome precision. This band were always sharper and more agile than the brutal death average, and while songs like The Death Of Everything and Hogtied In Rope serve up plenty of insane blasting and evil heft, there are also numerous flashes of dark, progressive melody that emerge triumphantly, like bolts of light from a swirling miasma of stricken flesh. The band that brought us gore-soaked classics like 2002’s Misanthropic Carnage may have matured slightly…

MINUS HEAD Will Haven and Far members’ long-lost early foray gets unearthed For those in the 1990s Sacramento scene, Sock were a name spoken of in hushed tones. They featured future Far guitarist Shaun Lopez alongside Will Haven riffer Jeff Irwin (here on drums) and vocalist Grady Avenell, and fans of both cult bands will be desperate to hear this remaster of their 1995 album. A chance to finally experience the band, as well as a fascinating document of some hugely respected musicians in their infancy, it’s unlikely they’ll be disappointed. There’s the odd touch of Far’s more sensitive and melodic bent on songs such as Motor, but the main takeaway is just how astonishing Grady’s unique, larynx-destroying wail always sounded alongside crushing groove riffs. It’s not quite up…

MIGHTY MUSIC Reunited Danes stoke the melodeath flames once more Melodic DM’s staying power has depended on never straying too far from the formula. This second album since Withering Surface’s 2019 comeback stays largely within bounds. Here, the veterans incorporate the subgenre’s various moods to create a veritable best-of. Michael H. Anderson’s severe vocals lend themselves to the more vicious Where Dreamers Die and sinister writhing of The Oracle, and in the glorious thrashing of I Finally Lost (All Faith In Humanity) and galloping Not The Destination, Marco Angioni and Allan Tvedebrink muster some of melodeath’s tastiest twin lead duels for years. Scintillating leads sit alongside the perverse hooks of Denial Denial Denial and Finish What You Started, while the mid-paced closer Mindreader allows WS to flex more epic…

SELF-RELEASED Poland’s expansive doom crew aim for an alpha state Everything changed for Sunnata on 2018’s Outlands album, which saw the Polish quartet break out of their doom mould for a much more ‘out there’ framework. Album five, Chasing Shadows, makes Outlands seem conservative by comparison. An introspective journey, its tracks are mostly multi-textured, hazy, slow-burn affairs, with guitar licks that dance and dissipate in the aether and a focus on the dour, harmonised vocals of guitarists Szymon Ewertowski and Adrian Gadomski. Chimera sees their complementary huskiness intertwine over serpentine bass and ritualistic percussion, proving mantra-like at the apex as hell breaks loose. Just as Saviour’s Raft’s chanting begins to drag, a leviathan of a riff shakes you from your reverie. Sunnata’s cerebral doom veers between the mesmeric and…

BURNER / HARBINGER RESCUE ROOMS, NOTTINGHAM London-based HARBINGER have plenty of snarl and presence –along with the odd decent song like Prayer Of Deliverance –but their brand of metalcore is often middleof-the-road fodder that leaves them with a bark far worse than their bite. BURNER fare far better; their hardcore-infused death metal whips the room into a frenzy and penultimate track EF5 threatens to cave the roof in. Looking incredibly comfortable on a stage of this size –they played above a pub when last visiting Nottingham –they’re justifying the buzz already surrounding their potential. With members of Conjurer and Bleed From Within in their ranks, SYLOSIS contain some of the best UK musicians around, and the level of carnage they bring to the East Midlands is indicative of the talent…

ARISING FROM THE fetid sewers of North London, VACUOUS are making a name for themselves with some of the nastiest, filthiest noise around. 2022’s Dreams Of Dysphoria made waves in the underground both at home and overseas, and they have the live show to back it up. A rumbling wall of grotesque and monstrous riffs, this is the underground at its very best. These youngsters are at the vanguard of British death metal. HIGH COMMAND live and die by the crunch. Their crossover thrashing is equal parts Exodus and Cro-Mags: all chunky and chugging riffs, bouncy mosh-friendly tempos and a high-energy delivery that is infectious. Furious and unflagging, the Massachusetts quintet have an infectious energy and are thoroughly convincing as a live act. It’s headbanging , sword-wielding metallic fun for…

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GLEN BENTON IS the face of Satanic death metal. Literally… having branded an inverted cross on his forehead in his early days of fronting Tampa’s Deicide. Across his 35-year crusade, Glen has riled up countless Christians, but also animal rights activists – after he shot a squirrel during an interview with the NME in 1992, he received death threats, and a show in Stockholm was bombed. A few years later, Republican senator Bob Dole condemned the Florida death metal scene for threatening to “undermine our character as a nation”. Glen’s also a 56-year-old father of two, and speaks of the myriad scrapes he’s ended up in with the flippancy of a man who has learned not to take things too seriously. BE WHO YOU’RE BORN TO BE “I was always…

01 BLACK SABBATH Black Sabbath (BLACK SABBATH, 1970) This is where it starts: with pouring rain, a clanging funeral bell and a crack of thunder. Six minutes and 20 seconds later, the whole of heavy metal’s future is mapped out before us. Sabbath weren’t the first band to weaponise the blues – Led Zeppelin had released two albums by the time the Sabbs’ debut came out – but they were the ones who fully realised its pure malevolent power. More than 50 years on, Black Sabbath sounds like a revolution at quarter-speed: that never-matched opening Iommi riff, the boundary-pushing occult imagery, Ozzy’s descent into madness as the song picks up panicked speed (let’s not forget that, like so many Sabbath songs, it’s a cautionary tale)… it all became as important…

BLUES FUNERAL RECORDINGS Denver’s navigators of unease evolve from their sludge roots Abrams’ fifth album continues their evolution from the post-sludge of 2015 debut Lust. Love. Loss. into more uplifting, anthemic heaviness. Blue City confronts the insidious unease that comes with staying in your comfort zone as Tomorrow starts off with a thunderbolt of a riff, exuberant percussion and vibrant, psychedelic washes. Etherol’s giant riffs crash like azure waves, while Death Om’s stomping, cyclical groove is an exhilarating wake-up call. Blue City effortlessly combines monstrous riff dissonance with anthemic hooks to create an upswell of positivity in the face of frustration that’s sure to shake you from your existential slumber. ■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Torche, Cave In, Baroness TOM O’BOYLE…

Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis MAS-KINA RECORDINGS Oslo’s grindcore outcasts lob more paintbombs at the clubhouse It’s easy to wonder, as much as it’s totally obvious, why Beaten To Death have been granted the short end of the grindcore stick despite having released six ‘True Norwegian Melodic Grindcore’ masterworks. Their releases are littered with non-distorted guitars playing indie, noise rock and prog melodies backed by a sardonic humour, fronted by cat-covered merch wrapped in brightly coloured surrealist album art. All of which is just the beginning of their antigrind laundry list. Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis keeps alive the spirit of BTD, redefining grindcore by being almost entirely un-grindcore, with baritone choir vocals on Dying The Dream, and wobbly psych rock on Mosh For Mika (Waddle Wadle). The hilariously painful, self-referencing My…

MASCOT UK metalcore hopefuls combine the personal and the predictable Modern Error is a fitting title for Defects’ debut album. While it’s a sturdy, guttural blast reflecting on the pains of modern life, it also suffers from the flaws of much modern metal. Crashing in on a high with Scapegoat, it’s clear that Defects know how to craft a captivating, impactful metalcore tune that contrasts old-school grit with a more emotional, softer touch. But, as the album progresses, their formula becomes increasingly predictable. Modern Error follows that rinse-and-repeat cycle: a bruising verse, followed by the squeaky-clean ‘please-please singalong’ chorus, and a snap back to guttural torment. While it’s a commendable debut with a slew of individually strong tracksDream Awake has a killer guitar solo, Echo Chamber is a lovely, melodic…

WHEN PLANETS COLLIDE London sludge crew bring a brawl to their party vibes Gurt’s self-described ‘party doom’ makes sludge metal a bit frivolous. The album title suggests an ironic detachment that won’t be for everybody, but it’s still more slaughterhouse than it is comedy club. This time they’ve gone in a more compact and punkish aggressive direction, creating something of a more inhuman, garbled Cancer Bats effect, driven by howling shrieks on rollicking, borderline drunken riffs. The Most Dying Way To Die and the admirably up-to-theminute reference of Sandworm Fleshlight are amusing on the surface but essentially ugly pieces of work. The mix is maxed out and cacophonous, leaving little room for dynamics and making the longer tracks a bit overbearing, but the grooves in Appetite For Construction are…

SVART Extraterrestrial adventures from Tampere’s cosmic collective When members of Oranssi Pazuzu, K-X-P and Grave Pleasures join forces to indulge their deepest, darkest sci-fi fantasies, expect the unexpected. Swooshing into outer space like a pixellated rocket ship in an 80s arcade game, Haunted Plasma explore strange new worlds by way of pulsating synths, swirling kosmische and dancefloor-ready rhythms. Vocals are provided by a range of cult Finnish psych, pop and post-punk artists –including Hexvessel’s Mat McNerney –all absorbed into a hive mind, inducing bouts of eerily metronomic headbanging. The greyscale psychedelia of Chrome, the technoid mutations of Teeth Of The Sea and the idea of Joy Division fleeing a doomed moon of Cybertron offer touchstones, but HP are, in reality, a hitherto unknown lifeform entirely. ■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Teeth…

LISTENABLE Belgian stoner rockers expand into a morass This Belgian trio have been in a constant state of evolution since their stoner rock debut in 2015, adding more mature compositions as they go. Now with their fourth album, they’ve expanded that palette once again to envelop shoegaze, post-, psych and doom metal. All the ingredients are there in the punchy opening number Death, but the mix soon becomes watered down to a point of not giving much to grab onto. Where Interlude (The Bridle And The Bit) should glitter, it serves only to procrastinate; where Sacred Anchor should cap the album with a flourish, it trundles out in a whimper. There are no standout moments in a blancmange of lofty aspirations and recycled exercises, which instead relies on rising…

ABREAKTION Bornhatred CHAOS Hailing from Chile, Abreaktion sound like a reinvigoration of 80s Bay Area thrash. Empty Promises channels the raw savagery of the scene, while the twin guitar leads deal in some extra majestic melody. ■■■■■■■ MATT MILLS AMEN CORNER Written By The Devil METAL ARMY These lurid Brazilians are 30-plus years into a black metal career, but it remains a particularly far-flung strain, embracing the creepy weirdness of Samael and Mortuary Drape rather than Nordic orthodoxy. ■■■■■■■ CHRIS CHANTLER ESODIC De Facto De Jure SELF-RELEASED Hardcore, thrash, death and Middle Eastern folk instrumentation are fair game for the border-blurring Esodic. This livid, groove metal exotica confirms that the Jordanian trio’s instincts are correct. ■■■■■■■ DOM LAWSON PRESS…

PROFOUND LORE Death metal’s sci-fi pioneers bring a new wave of cosmic horror Drummer/singer Mike Browning formed Nocturnus in 1987 after leaving Morbid Angel – a band he co-founded circa 1983. But of all the pioneers of Floridian death metal, the story of Nocturnus was one of the more inglorious. Launching with 1990’s cast-iron classic The Key, Mike was ousted after his remaining bandmates trademarked the name, patching together one final LP in 1999 before quitting. It took 20 years, but Mike’s return as Nocturnus AD with stellar comeback Paradox gave this story the beginning of a happy ending that gets even happier with Unicursal, an album that vigorously zeroes in on this band’s many magical strengths. This was the first DM band of its era to integrate sci-fi keyboards…

NUCLEAR BLAST Progressive metalcore futurists set out on a singular trip Sydney’s Reliqa have an undeniable spark. Rather than squeezing into the alt or prog-metalcore mould, Secrets Of The Future exists in its own world of tempo shifts, tech-injected synths and monolithic breakdowns. The album covers a slew of progressive textures with reckless abandon; from Cave’s space-tinged mystique to Terminal’s rush of pulsing electronicore, Reliqa approach songwriting with a sense of wonder. Vocalist Monique Pym tackles each track with just as much joy, effortlessly adapting to any given style. Ethereal vocals float alongside eerie whispers on Keep Yourself Awake, while frantic spoken rap-rock is unleashed on The Flower and Crossfire. Bold, vibrant, and boundlessly creative, Reliqa are a sign that the future of metalcore is in safe hands. ■■■■■■■…

AFM Italy’s power metal veterans bring back the magic Since visionary composer Luca Turilli left Rhapsody Of Fire in 2011, the power metal band’s latter-day career has never quite sparkled like it did in their late-90s heyday. In need of innovation in their fantasy epics, the quintet’s revitalised MO on Challenge The Wind couldn’t have come at a better time. Opening with the title track, ROF are straight into film-score territory with layered vocals, bullet-speed drums and Roberto De Micheli’s trigger-finger fretwork. The band then blast through nine more tracks of fast and flashy symphonic metal, substantiating their “no ballads” policy for this album. Sixteen-minute epic Vanquished By Shadows is a highlight, all orchestral stabs, heavy riffing and surprisingly harsh vocals from Giacomo Voli. There’s some way to go…

HAMMERHEART Ontario’s one-man pagan black metal band pines for the cosmos The fifth album in 20 years for this atmospheric, folky, pagan black metal project binds nature-worshipping, pine-scented BM tropes with the void-worshipping, cosmos-scented variant. This one-man band is largely propelled by the icy mist of Daemonskald’s guitar tone and frostbitten vocal hiss, as tempos vary from epic plod to rocking stomp to stormy blast. However, the acoustic flourishes provide far more than just pretty breathers amid the predominant jagged distortion; S:A:T’s 2003 demo (appended to the deluxe edition) was wholly acoustic and infused with ambient Viking camp fire vibes, and these qualities still hang heavy over Citadel Of Stars, its melancholy melodies twinkling in the gloom like moonlit snowfall. ■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Bathory, Immortal, Agalloch CHRIS CHANTLER…

DEATHWAVE LA genre-hoppers come up with something extraordinary Witherfall clearly love their metal, but they also have a deep appreciation of melody, and don’t care who knows it. This fourth LP is a captivating mix of both styles, from the intricate to the ball-busting, and everything in-between, laced with apocalyptic shredding and Joseph Michael’s growls, banshee wails and occasionally eerie hard rock delivery. Where Do I Begin? is a lighter-waving ode to the staying power of heavy metal in neoclassical-prog-freakout power ballad form, that answers the question of what would have happened had Nevermore and the Scorpions teamed up. It’s magnificent, and the remainder of Sounds… ain’t too shabby either. ■■■■■■■■■■ FOR FANS OF: Nevermore, Iced Earth, King Diamond DAVE LING…

O2 FORUM, LONDON German heroes bring two hours of power to the capital ‘ABSENCE MAKES THE heart grow fonder’ may be a cliché, but… turns out it’s true. Despite it being eight years since London last hosted a show by Blind Guardian, the capital’s love for the conquering power metal champions clearly hasn’t waned a bit. Tonight’s auditorium is completely sold out and, when they arrive, the headliners will be greeted like hometown heroes – 340 miles away from their actual hometown. THE NIGHT ETERNAL commence proceedings not with the sword, sorcery and falsetto you’d expect from a night like this, but rather a goth-pop metal march. Standouts such as In Tartarus and Prince Of Darkness flaunt the Germans’ melancholic and melodic guitar leads, yet it’s vocalist Ricardo Baum who…

HAVING REPRESENTED FINLAND in 2021’s Eurovision final, self-proclaimed “violent pop” stars Blind Channel have made sure to keep their foot on the gas. Off the back of last March’s Exit Emotions album, they’ve clearly been focusing their energy on creating a stellar live show. First, though, German metalcore outfit GHØSTKID explode onto the stage to the strains of the thunderous Hollywood Suicide. They’re scrappy, but when they take their guitars into the pit to play Start A Fight amid the swarming crowd, the anticipation of chaos about to unfold makes it a genuinely exciting moment that sets the tone for what’s to come. With the experience of Eurovision in their rear-view, BLIND CHANNEL bring the tightness and showmanship of an arena band to a venue that’s positively bursting at the…

JONATHAN HULTÉN HAS brought a little bit of the Scandinavian forest with him to North London. The former Tribulation guitarist turned ghost-folk solo artist has decked out the Assembly Hall stage like a grotto for his opening set on tonight’s all-Scandinavian bill. He cuts a striking figure standing alone on the stage surrounded by arching branches and green and purple leaves, all black lace veils, flowing skirts and dramatic hand flourishes, looking like the wraith of a 1920s East European silent movie star. Tonight, the Swede is channelling 2022’s The Forest Sessions, an unearthly, alone-inthe-trees reimagining of his older songs. But despite his best efforts, he can’t quite summon the enveloping atmosphere of that record –the acoustic guitar/keyboard/multi-tracked vocal set-up feels skeletal rather than spectral, not helped by distracting chatter…

How did you get into singing? What is your earliest singing memory? “Well, I started off playing the violin – I actually got up to a Grade 8 [the highest grade in UK music exams]. Then I learnt the piano and part of the theory exam for that is singing. My piano teacher was also a vocal coach, so she asked if I’d ever considered singing and I thought I could give it a go. So I’m a classically trained vocalist. I applied to study it further, but they said my voice wasn’t mature enough and to return in a year. But, by then, I wanted to do something more contemporary…” How do you bring that classical training into Creeper? “I was head chorister and lead soprano at my school,…