Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i Metal Hammer UK

IF IN DOUBT, just remember what Incubus said in 1999: Make Yourself. That’s the ethos Nothing More laboured under in the early days of their career, constantly reinventing themselves to grasp at greatness. It’s also a sentiment that they keep at the forefront of their minds today. Though they’re now an established alt rock band with avid followers in all corners of the globe, things were different at the turn of the last decade. Following their formation in 2003, the band went through multiple line-up changes and sounds, while then-drummer Jonny Hawkins lost his mother to cancer. He became the band’s vocalist for third album The Few Not Fleeting, released in 2009. Wrapping hard rock and alternative metal melodies around prog storytelling, it showcased stratospheric ambition. However, it largely fell…

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MAY be an unlikely stand-in for metal’s more typically Luciferian themes - but not for Belushi Speed Ball, the Kentucky crossover crew whose goofy vibes are matched only by their ferocious riffing. “Anytime I hit writer’s block, I watch an episode of SpongeBob,” says vocalist Vinny Castellano of new record Stellkira, a 35-minute burst of proud, self-styled ‘pizza thrash’. That’s not just a clever appellation, either; recent single My Favorite Color Is Pizza was released as a pizza slice pressed in resin, with a tiny speaker to play the song. “We’re the first thrash band to release a song on pizza,” Vinny beams. On new album Stellkira – named for Vinny’s cat Stella, who features on the cover as the iconic superbike from Akira – it’s clear Belushi Speed…

YESTERWYNDE “In late 2020, I discovered the world of black-and-white photos that had been coloured – the best example would be Peter Jackson’s [colourised World War I documentary] They Shall Not Grow Old. When I see them, it gives me a sensation I cannot describe – a connection to the past. ‘Yesterwynde’ is a made-up word. I don’t know what the meaning is. It just feels right.” AN OCEAN OF STRANGE ISLANDS “It’s about human beings and the different personalities we meet during our lifetime. Some become our lifelong friends, some become our lovers, some become acquaintances we know for a while, some you never want to meet again. The islands are the people, and you sail from island to island.” THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM “The Antikythera Mechanism is considered the…

DIE BY THE SWORD SHOW NO MERCY, 1983 The sword is mightier than the pen Slayer’s debut album, Show No Mercy, kicked off with malicious heavy metal intent via opening song Evil Has No Boundaries, but by the third track they were already mixing things up. Die By The Sword was where Slayer eased their foot off Show No Mercy’s accelerator and allowed their influences to come to the surface. In three and a half minutes, it revealed how this newfangled thrash business was a conglomerate incorporation of 70s hard rock like UFO and Black Sabbath, West Coast punks Dead Kennedys and Suicidal Tendencies, and parallel thrash metal contemporaries such as Exodus. The song also acted as an introduction and blueprint for the chromatic, half-stepping, creepycrawling riff sequence that the…

More than 50 years since it opened, Soho jewellery store The Great Frog still bursts with heavy metal energy, literally and metaphorically. The walls of this narrow, three-storey shop are lined with glass cabinets, each full of rings and pendants shaped like skulls, eyes and fleurs-de-lis. Upstairs, more cabinets are crammed with rings shaped like Ghost’s Papa Emeritus, Iron Maiden’s Eddie and Motörhead’s Snaggletooth mascot. This central-London institution has long been a favourite destination of passing rock stars. Ozzy Osbourne and Lemmy have bought jewellery from The Great Frog. Late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton got a pair of signet rings here in the mid-80s, subsequently worn by James Hetfield. Graphic Nature frontman Harvey Freeman has spent a lot of time here over the years. “I used to come to the…

Melodies Of Atonement INSIDEOUT MUSIC Prog luminaries stand out in a field of one ALTHOUGH THEY’RE A smidge behind when it comes to their consistent, biannual release schedule, the unveiling of Leprous’s eighth full-length is nonetheless worth the wait for the band’s increasingly burgeoning and avid fanbase. Having continued to move further from the chug of their more overtly metallic beginnings, your favourite gambling app could have good odds on the Norwegians eschewing their heavier foundations altogether and releasing their own take on Kid A. However, while keyboards form the prime focus from the off on Melodies Of Atonement, angular riffs are on hand to lift the chorus of opener Silently Walking Alone. Though it might seem a selfish and childish notion to want bands to hold onto their roots, particularly…

Call The Devil NAPALM Cleveland’s masked metal mavericks continue to plough their own furrow MUSHROOMHEAD MAY NEVER have crossed over into metal’s A-list, but with their mixture of eye-catching Mad Max-extras-in-a-boiler-room-torture-dungeon image, and sonic-carnival-of-the-bizarre mix of progressive, funk metal and US radio butt-rock, you have to at least admire their creativity and ambition. Their ninth album has plenty of ideas, a broad dynamic range, some genuinely surprising moments and a few that don’t quite hit home. The MVP is unquestionably co-vocalist Jackie LaPonza, who first guested on 2014’s We Are The Truth before graduating to full-time status. She elevates every song she appears on, adding sugary pop melodies to some of the band’s harsher-sounding material, her soaring vocals juxtaposed with the crushing riff of Hallelucination giving that song a unique…

The Underworld Awaits Us All NAPALM Death metal titans return to resoundingly claim their sandy throne IN THE EVER-EVOLVING realm of death metal, Nile are like one of those terrifying sandworms from Dune, but relocated to Ancient Egypt. Over the last 30 years, guitarist Karl Sanders’ crew have carved an abominable, obsidian trench through the hot, barren sands of generic brutality, while simultaneously raising the bar for technical prowess and atmospheric might. No one else sounds like Nile. It would be rather silly to try. The band’s 10th album, The Underworld Awaits Us All, reinforces that point – and with more vigour and venom than ever before. They may be veterans with 30 years of active service under their bejewelled belt, but Nile still seem to be growing in power…

SIGNATURE BREW, LONDON London’s finest get the beers in at their rowdy album launch party “IT’S TAKEN US 30 years, but we’ve finally managed to organise a piss-up in a brewery!” barks Orange Goblin frontman Ben Ward with a grin on his face. Edged with steel beer vats, it’s hard to think of a more suitable venue for the launch of the London heavy metal legends’ excellent 10th studio album, Science, Not Fiction, than Walthamstow’s Signature Brew. After all, Orange Goblin are one of the most reliable party-starters in heavy music, their bluesy grooves, headbang-inducing riffs and Ben’s chant-along belches the perfect backdrop for a rowdy night out. The fact that the members are behind the bar, enthusiastically handing out pints of their own Signature Brew collab Rocket Science Pilsner…

BVDLVD/FORAGER DOWNSTAIRS AT THE DOME, LONDON Nu metal upstarts bring a whole range of battery to London FORAGER BARREL ONSTAGE with the attitude of a band with something to prove. Initially, they only prove that they’re prone to mishaps, with the bass dropping out intermittently, but even with that and an inoffensive take on nu metal, the front is nodding by the end. BVDLVD broadly fall under trap metal, with a hip hop-influenced flow that gets plenty of people bouncing. Too often, though, they rely on bass drops for impact rather than recognisable bars. It’s occasionally reminiscent of 2000s crunkcore, which raises questions as to why on earth it’s making a comeback, but its popularity speaks for itself, the room yelling lyrics back and a sizeable pit swirling in the…

DEREK BREMNER PHOTOGRAPHER Our Del’s first Hammer cover shoot was for Zeal & Ardor, so we got him to fly to Basel, Switzerland to reunite with Manuel Gagneux. Del loves discovering European Haribo, so after a hard day’s work, he gorged himself on Fruity-Bussi. JOE DALY WRITER Joe lives in San Diego, which is known in cinematic tour-deforce Anchorman as “a whale’s vagina”. We asked him to speak to Mastodon about a very specific whale – Moby-Dick, the inspiration behind now-classic album Leviathan. HOLLY WRIGHT WRITER Holly’s a born-and-bred Londoner who loves prog metal, craft beer and Mexican food. There were none of those at this month’s Witch Fever gig, but there were riffs and good times in celebration of Pride. She had a Lovely Time.…

On an unseasonably toasty Seattle morning in April, 2004, four dishevelled men stumble out of the Extended Stay hotel that has served as their quarters for the past month. Powering through the lingering effects of the prior evening’s revelry, they pack their lives into the back of a battered white van. Despite the daunting 40-hour drive home to Atlanta, they are buzzing with excitement. After hours in the studio, they literally hold their fortunes in their hands – the rough mix to their forthcoming album, Leviathan. “We bought a 30-pack of Rainier beer for the van,” recalls Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor, speaking with Metal Hammer via Zoom, decked out in an Ozzy t-shirt and drinking coffee from a mug featuring John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. “It was just the…

Mimi Barks’ lair lies in the depths of East London, behind rusted gates and corrugated iron sheets. Glass crunches underfoot as you approach this run-down warehouse. Cautiously wandering into the courtyard, you’re greeted by corroded bike frames and weed-covered abandoned furniture. A half-formed creature made of clay and nestled beside a mound of loose bricks and wood planks completes the last-days-on-Earth vibe. But look beyond the flaking brickwork, and there’s much more to this apparent hovel. Walls are adorned with neon graffiti, murals inject images of nature into this urban landscape and it’s dotted with sculptures formed from discarded scrap. It’s rough around the edges, sure, but there’s a wild creativity to it. It’s no wonder one of the nu gen scene’s most exciting performers feels at home here. Mimi…

Steve ‘Skinny’ Felton is reflecting on more than three decades of grand ambition, relentless toil and missed opportunities. “Back then I had big hopes and dreams that we’d be Metallica one day,” says the drummer, leader and sole remaining original member of masked metal mavericks Mushroomhead, half sighing and half chuckling at the thought. “But it didn’t really pan out that way. I saw life doesn’t really work the way you think it does when you’re young. You think you know it all. At least I tried to do it all – whether I knew it all is a whole different story.” Mushroomhead are one of the great cult metal bands of the last 30 years. The Cleveland, Ohio outfit were briefly swept up in the nu metal goldrush at…

This World Fucking Sucks 23 RECORDINGS Nu gen’s superstar-in-waiting justifies the hype THE LAST FEW years have seen a wave of zeitgeistgrabbing artists united by an ‘anything goes’, genrebending approach to making music, and nu-gen fireball Cassyette is one of its figureheads. Her blend of nu metal, emo and pop first caught fire on TikTok, where the Essex singer – real name Cassy Brooking – currently has a fervent following of over 1.2 million. Already this year, she’s supported Bring Me The Horizon in arenas, co-written Bambie Thug’s Eurovision track, Doomsday Blue, and played in front of a packed Dogtooth tent at Download Fest. And now, after a mixtape and a stream of singles, she’s finally releasing her debut album. Musically, This World Fucking Sucks is a reflection of Cassyette’s…

OPERA NUCLEAR BLAST Symphonic death metal extremists strike an emotional crescendo THE CHORUS OF Matricide 8.21, the seventh song on Fleshgod Apocalypse’s sixth album, sees frontman Francesco Paoli sing an affectionate apology to his mum. ‘Sorry for making you pray for me! Mother, forgive me!’ the vocalist/bassist begs. It’s a surprising outpouring of emotion from a symphonic death metal band that has preferred blastbeating, string-stacked aggression to any hint of vulnerability. However, the past three years have been profound for the singer. He had a near-death experience in 2021, when he slipped while climbing and dangled upside-down from a cliff, tied up in his own ropes. It necessitated nerve transfer surgery, with much of this album – a concept piece about the fall and subsequent recuperation – being written by Francesco…

Every Bridge Burning NUCLEAR BLAST US hardcore bruisers return from hiatus more metallic – and unhinged – than ever EIGHT YEARS AFTER their last album, Nails reappear as an almost entirely different band. Guitarist and vocalist Todd Jones is now joined by Warbringer drummer Carlos Cruz, current Despise You bassist Andrew Solis and Ulthar guitarist Shelby Lermo, resulting in arguably their most overtly metallic outing yet. The savage blasting of Punishment Map and the pit-ready, knuckle-headed grooves in the aptly titled Lacking The Ability To Process Empathy are exactly what you’d expect from a Nails record, but the frantic licks of Give Me The Painkiller sound practically speed metal by comparison. I Can’t Turn It Off makes room for scorching guitar leads, and even the obligatory chugging closer No More Rivers…

Vermillion NUCLEAR BLAST Epica singer mixes up the formula on grandiose solo debut AFTER EIGHT EPICA records, soprano empress Simone Simons has carved out her own symphonic metal universe. The Dutch singer’s first solo album is drowning in a sea of red. Rising and diving from opulent crimson heights to blood-smeared rumbles of industrial fury, Simone unravels the horrors and joys of the world through a rouge-tinted pair of spectacles. And the results are epic. Vermillion was written in collaboration with Arjen Lucassen, leader of symphonic Dutch prog metallers Ayreon and a specialist in sprawling rock operas. It shows: opener Aeterna is remarkable, a swelling mix of orchestral might, bold riffs and thrumming electronic pulses. While the tech-y injections feel contemporary, the track remains timeless, a haunting battle cry unearthed…

LOVE IS NOISE/OUTLANDER THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON Post-hardcore crew deliver an emotional farewell PLENTY OF HAZE and thunderously heavy shoegaze greets those walking in early enough for OUTLANDER. Walls of guitar crash down in a sharp contrast to Ian Grant’s breathy vocals, and they’ve got some surprisingly hooky moments. LOVE IS NOISE display a reverence for Deftones, as dreamy melodies punctuate crunching metalcore in the vein of Loathe. The quartet have been popping up on a fair few bills lately, progressively honing their live show, even if their between-song chat is still a little stilted. They’re not the most original musically, but their songs are well-crafted, and it’s a tight performance that indicates why their fanbase has been constantly growing. In March, post-hardcore crew PALM READER released a statement announcing they…

GOJIRA HAVE BECOME the first metal band to perform in an Olympic Games opening ceremony. On Friday July 26, they played from windows and platforms at the Conciergerie, a former prison in Paris where Marie Antoinette and others were held before going to the guillotine during the French Revolution. The band were flanked by explosive pyro, blood-red streamers and decapitated women, creating a suitably epic display. The four-hour Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony also included the likes of Lady Gaga and Celine Dion, and was based on France’s Republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity. Although Gojira didn’t dial back their progressive death metal stylings, they opted to perform French revolutionary song Ah! Ça Ira (It’ll Be Fine) and were joined by opera singer Marina Viotti. Speaking to The New…

WHEN KITTIE BURST onto the nu metal scene in 1999, their claws were out. Most of the gang were just 15, but the snarling rage they felt went beyond teenage angst. Their debut album Spit was venomous, and in subsequent years their scrappy riot grrrl grit would morph into a whole other beast, delving into the guts of thrash and groove metal. Thirteen years on from their last record, the girls are back with Fire. To celebrate its release, we threw your questions at singer Morgan Lander. If you weren’t in a band, what would you be doing today? Mark Elliot, Facebook “When I was in high school, I was interested in pathology. I wanted to do coroner stuff, dig into a grotesque crime scene. I was preparing, taking classes…

MONSTER MAGNET’S GUIDING mastermind since 1989, Space Lord Dave Wyndorf has lived and breathed rock’n’roll for virtually every one of his 67 years. Heading back to the UK for a string of live dates in September to celebrate the band’s 35th anniversary, we seized the opportunity for a galactic ramble-chat with this charismatic motormouth, drawing out some salient pointers about creativity, Kurt Cobain and cowskin keks. DON’T RUSH IT “I don’t want to release anything that totally sucks – and that’s easy to do these days. The longer you’re in a band, the less your new material matters, because first impressions are strongest. It’s important to do what you want, and not just fill up the slot so you have an excuse to tour. Unless you don’t mind having a ton…

LOOKING LIKE A Monty Python take on Dungeons & Dragons, Battlesnake certainly make an impression. But when Hammer catches up with them ahead of a sold-out headline show at Camden’s Black Heart, we’re greeted by seven unassuming Aussies in jeans and t-shirts, the band admitting their distinctive image of cream robes decorated with medieval patterns and spikes is all part of the theatre of rock’n’roll. “We wanted to make the craziest rock band we can think of,” enthuses guitarist Ben Frank. Playing raucous rock’n’roll about subjects such as cars running on amphetamines (Motorsteeple), diabolical witch queens (Key Of Solomon), or unleashing ancient evils (Pangea Breaker), Battlesnake are the bastard offspring of The Lord Of The Rings, Mad Max and good old-fashioned heavy metal. “We take our music seriously,” bassist Elliot…

Tuomas Holopainen was a teenage misanthrope. Growing up in the small Finnish town of Kitee, he had the regulation all-black wardrobe and the soundtrack to match. “I did not use to be an optimistic person when I was younger,” he says. “I loved black metal and all that. But I started to come to the realisation that things have always been fucked up, but we’re still going for the better despite the horrible things that are going on in the world.” We’re sitting in a suite in an upscale Berlin hotel, as mid-morning traffic flows along Potsdamer Platz several storeys below us. Literally as we talk, unthinkable things are happening all around the world: war, abuse, torture, murder, wilful destruction of the climate. The grim realities of humanity in 2024,…

How faithful were Mastodon to Moby-Dick, and what the hell is the novel about anyway? We asked Carl H. Sederholm, a Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Utah’s Brigham Young University (and a dyedin-the-wool metalhead) to clue us in WHY, MORE THAN 150 YEARS AFTER IT WAS PUBLISHED, IS MOBY-DICK STILL REGARDED AS A CLASSIC? “There are a lot of reasons. One is because it’s so ‘wild’, for lack of a better word. You have this adventure story that explodes into all of this information about whales, whaling and people; you have these characters who show up and never come back; you have minor characters who become major characters and major characters who become minor characters. Moby-Dick takes on an almost experimental quality to it that we don’t see much of…

On the north bank of the wide, fast-flowing stretch of the River Rhine that cleaves Basel in two, a man with a hipster moustache is giving the finger to a building on the other side. This is Tiziano Volante, guitarist with Zeal & Ardor, and he grew up in this well-heeled Swiss city. “What are you doing?” says Manuel Gagneux, Zeal & Ardor’s eloquent singer, guitarist and chief architect, equally amused and baffled by his bandmate and fellow Basel native’s dramatically performative ire. “These guys aren’t going to know what that is.” Manuel patiently explains to the visiting Brits in their midst – i.e. Metal Hammer – that the sprawling building his bandmate is gesticulating at is a multi-million-dollar house that belongs to one of the richest families in Europe,…

Greif REDACTED Swiss post-black metallers unveil their latest reinvention IN THE 2023 documentary Play With The Devil – Becoming Zeal & Ardor, it was revealed that after perfecting his unique fusion of black metal and Delta blues on 2018’s Stranger Fruit, Zeal & Ardor bandleader Manuel Gagneux effectively broke up the band. Of course, they didn’t stay broken up. Galvanised by the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Zeal & Ardor released the politically charged Wake Of A Nation EP that same year, and laid out a vision of a more oppressive industrial and alt metalinclined sound that was explored fully on their 2022 self-titled album. “THE SOUND OF A BAND SEEKING TO INNOVATE BEYOND THEIR ROOTS” Now they’re seeing how deep the rabbit hole can go. Greif is the…

Endtime Signals CENTURY MEDIA Melodeath vets keep the ship steady on album 13 IN A CAREER spanning more than three decades, Dark Tranquillity have never released a truly duff album. They’ve split opinion a couple of times – particularly with the early stylistic shift of 1999’s Projector – but even that has become an essential part of the band’s back catalogue. One of the originators of the Gothenburg sound that defined melodic death metal in the mid-90s, they’ve since embraced new textures and influences while still retaining their core identity. Endtime Signals maintains the musical continuity, despite more major line-up changes that leave frontman Mikael Stanne as the sole original member. Newcomers Joakim Strandberg Nilsson (drums) and Christian Jansson (bass) are fully on point, though. The fresh blood may even…

3+5 A-ZAP Tokyo’s noise rock titans return after 11 years and knock it out of the park WITH A VAST landscape of space-age noise rock taken to its most illogical, avant-garde, experimental apex, Melt-Banana have been defying and redefining the boundaries of organised sound since 1992. Yasuko ‘Yako’ Onuki (vocals) and Ichiro Agata (everything else, but mostly through the medium of guitar) have been the band’s core since the start, but since 2012 the Tokyo duo have relied on a wall of amps, a phalanx of pedals and outboard effects, and advances in technology in their sui generis forward-thrust through the world of ineffable rock and/or roll. 3+5 is the band’s ninth full-length album – because, of course, in Melt-Banana’s unique universe, 3+5=9 – and exists as a synthesised mutation…

American Standard SACRED BONES New York noiseniks transpose the burden of suffering into song THOSE WHO FACE any kind of eating disorder, body dysmorphia and/or gender dysphoria know the agony of standing before a mirror and having it reflect back untold amounts of unwanted negativity and hatred. American Standard, the fifth album by these industrialised noise-rocking New York-based extremists, is comprised of songs tackling frontman Michael Berdan’s lifelong struggle with bulimia nervosa. As such, the title track begins with Michael delivering an impassioned call-and-response: the call painfully laying bare his physical and mental state; the militaristic response spitting back the observations of his internal dialogue and perceived ravages that forced regurgitation has had on his frame. The delivery is excruciating and harrowing, but also clicks with the massive – in…

CORPORATION, SHEFFIELD Simon Neil’s extreme metal supergroup corrals UK metal’s cutting edge LOCAL OPENERS HIDDEN MOTHERS get tonight’s proceedings off to a fine start, with a set that deftly mixes screamo aggression with post-metal swirls – at least until technical issues cause a temporary derailment. Their approach to gap-filling banter essentially amounts to just naming every other band on the bill, but at least they all earn cheers. As well they might. This inaugural edition of Empire State Bastard’s Bastard Fest is a celebration of some of the most awkward, inventive and downright heaviest music the UK underground has to offer. There could only be more bastardry on display if Sheffield’s own Sean Bean was compering. Take PUPIL SLICER, who quickly beat their own early sound problems into bruised and…