Innehållsförteckning för October 2024 från Metal Hammer UK

IT’S 2005, AND on a freezing cold December night in the Hollywood Hills, Lacuna Coil vocalist Cristina Scabbia can hear the sound of howling in the distance. She’s there to film one of four music videos for the Italian gothic metal band’s fourth record, Karmacode, and the production crew have warned them not to venture too far from the set in the dark, as there are mountain lions and coyotes in the hills. Today’s shoot is for Our Truth, which is set to be the album’s lead single, and will become a mainstay of their live sets for the next 20 years. Fake snow floats around the singer like confetti as she artfully twirls a Japanese-style parasol, a nod to the song’s use of the traditional shamisen in its iconic…

SAMMY CIARAMITARO, VOCALIST with hardcore hellraisers Drain, is the human equivalent of a golden retriever. Always smiling, greeting every crowdsurfer he sees at their shows, he and his friends formed Drain because of a mutual admiration for each other’s bands (including Sammy’s stint drumming for much-missed bruisers Gulch), and have made their name with no-nonsense crossover that embodies hardcore’s community spirit. They might be from California, with an outlook reflecting Sammy’s sunny demeanour, but they also bring a confrontational attitude. The first words of Living Proof exemplify that: ‘Run your fucking luck!’ Sammy snarls, before the band unleash an assault of thrashy riffs and squealing guitars. “We didn’t have a game plan,” Sammy smiles, “but we really liked bands like Power Trip, Nails and Ceremony. When Cody [Chavez, guitar] joined, that’s…

Slipknot may have missed the actual 25th anniversary of their debut album by a few months – it came out in June 1999 – but that doesn’t mean that the band aren’t plotting a release to celebrate its silver jubilee. And it sounds like it’s going to be packed with the stuff of Maggots’ fever dreams. “I’m fully involved with putting together a reissue package, because I’m the band caretaker,” Clown tells Metal Hammer. “I’m the one that held everything over the years: all the DAT tapes from the [sound] board from all our first shows, all the videotapes from studio sessions at SR Audio and Indigo Ranch, different test mixes that we gave to other people that we said ‘No’ to at that time and that were never released,…

Servitude METAL BLADE Detroit’s melodic death maestros reignite the spirit of their late frontman HOW DO YOU replace the irreplaceable? How does a band continue when the focal point, the driving force and the heart of it is suddenly taken way? The follow-up to The Black Dahlia Murder’s 2020 album Verminous arrives in the cruellest of circumstances, being their first since the passing of their universally loved frontman Trevor Strnad. Just the act of stepping back onstage with your friend not being there alongside you must be immensely painful for the band, but to have to regroup and create something that stands alongside their best work? ‘Daunting’ barely covers it. TBDM had been on one of the longest uninterrupted hot streaks in metal – an opinion hammered home when you factor…

…By The Shadows… PROPHECY PRODUCTIONS Elusive, Gaahl-fronted mavericks strive to make Norway weird again LEGENDARY STATUS ISN’T just handed out on a whim in the metal underground. A nebulous but cherished force in Norwegian black metal since the early 90s, Trelldom have never lost their caustic mystique or strong air of eccentricity. The band’s 1995 debut Til Evighet… remains the epitome of primitive, uncompromising purity, and each of their subsequent records has added depth and substance to the big, black picture. They have, however, been less than prolific over the decades: …By The Shadows… arrives an ungodly 17 years after Trelldom’s last, widely praised album, Til Minne…, and sounds so unlike any previous efforts that it might as well be their second debut. Dissonant, angular and blearily psychedelic, it absolutely reeks…

Vended SELF-RELEASED Iowa’s nu generation metallers glance out from the family tree THERE ARE SOME facts from which Vended can run but not hide, and for which they will likely forever be judged. Vended hail from Des Moines, Iowa. On vocals, they feature a young man whose driving licence reads ‘Griffin Taylor’, while behind the drumkit lies another who checks out library books under the name ‘Simon Crahan’. Vended – well, two-fifths of Vended, its mouthpiece and vision-setters – are the literal sons of Slipknot. You’ll have no doubt been reminded of this fact at every mention of the band’s name. Lord knows, Vended have. That, though, doesn’t tell the full story, and on their self-titled debut full-length following 2021’s erratic What Is It/Kill It EP, Vended offer plenty of…

CATTON PARK, DERBYSHIRE Amon Amarth, Architects and Opeth reaffirm the foundations of metal’s broad church BLOODSTOCK HAS ALWAYS been a spiritual lodestone for heavy metal in the UK. There’s an even stronger than usual Motörhead presence this year, with a recreation of Lemmy’s dressing room and their stage bomber displayed in the main arena. The sun stays manageably warm, and 20,000 metalheads are still streaming into Catton Park as NERVOSA deal out their piercing death-thrash, with guitarist Prika Amaral firmly grasping her new frontwoman role, bringing a powerful Hetfield-ian presence. GREEN LUNG get a far bigger crowd than their early slot suggests. From the “slowest circle pit ever” to the psych rock singalong of Maxine (Witch Queen), both the show and the tunes are there to put the band on…

FERNHILL FARM, COMPTON MARTIN Meshuggah and Electric Wizard lead Somerset’s gathering of mind-melters CELEBRATING ITS 10TH edition, ArcTanGent has developed from a cult curio to both an essential part of the UK festival season and the definitive guide to the underground’s ever-expanding state of the art. JULIE CHRISTMAS sets the fearless tone on the main stage, delighting her hardcore fanbase by opening with Bones In The Water, a track drawn from her mid-2000s post-metal project Battle Of Mice, before treating the crowd to the majority of new album Ridiculous And Full Of Blood. Prowling the stage like a demented harlequin, her stunning set proves her status as one of metal’s most singular visionaries. CONAN, however, couldn’t be further from the archetypal ATG band. Rather than whizzing post-rock, the doom brutes…

ROBYN DOREIAN WRITER Robyn was Hammer’s first female editor, and steered the ship for six-and-a-half years. We asked her to reflect on interviewing Slipknot in Memphis in 1999. A Ramones devotee, she also digs Type O Negative, Metallica and Ghost. PERRAN HELYES WRITER Liverpudlian Perran chose Carcass over The Beatles as his hometown heroes and is fully sworn to the dark as a regular podcaster and black metal aficionado. We lured him to Bloodstock to see how he’d fare in the sun for three days. SABRINA RAMDOYAL PHOTOGRAPHER We sent our Sab all the way from Manchester to, er, Sheffield, to shoot Brit hopes Heriot at the inaugural Bastard Fest – see the results on p.68. Soon after, she jetted off to Wacken to continue her very metal summer.…

BLACK SABBATH BLACK SABBATH, BLACK SABBATH, 1970 The song that launched a million bands “We covered Black Sabbath’s title track way back. They’ve obviously inspired so many bands, but for me personally I really love that track because it’s so atmospheric. It’s also kind of time-bound for me, as it takes me back to a time where I was discovering all this heavy music that I love so much.” Sharon den Adel, Within Temptation WAR PIGS BLACK SABBATH, PARANOID, 1970 Metal’s first and best anti-war song “War Pigs says it all for me. The lyrics are so fucking relevant – unfortunately even more so as time’s gone on. I’ve met Ozzy twice and he’s a legend, genuinely. No matter what he’s doing – even if he’s just scoffing a bag…

This Is Doom Trap SILENT CULT London-based trap metal queen makes an enthralling debut MIMI BARKS IS on her way to becoming a household metal name. The London-based trap metaller writes and co-produces all of her own music; this time around she’s working with Silent Cult to release her debut full-length album following her 2022 mixtape, Deadgirl. Opener FSU melds frantic industrial beats with harsh electronica, hip hop and metal for an instant impact. House Full Of Fakes slows the tempo, its lulling beat becoming distorted before allowing haunting sections of argumentative back-and-forth to break through the noise. Mimi’s voice is saturated with malice and aggression, her screams interrupting the sonic wall with impressive impact. Her approach is often feral, launching into rapped verses, spoken-word, soaring melodies and frenzied growls…

Devoured By The Mouth Of Hell CENTURY MEDIA The Midlands’ next-generation metal champions unleash a dream debut HERIOT MIGHT JUST be the most exciting young band in the UK right now. The Swindon/Birmingham quartet have been making waves ever since they added guitarist and co-vocalist Debbie Gough to their line-up in 2019, and started creating a metallic blend of ambient, hardcore, thrash and industrial. Metal’s top brass – Lamb Of God, Trivium and Machine Head’s Robb Flynn – love them. The band released excellent EP Profound Morality in 2022, and following high-profile tour support slots with Lamb Of God, Zeal & Ardor and Svalbard, the hype around them has only increased. Their long-awaited debut album justifies it. What sets Heriot apart is the vastness and extremities of their sound. Recorded with…

Never, Neverland CENTURY MEDIA Portland’s gothic metal masters annihilate the opposition WHEN UNTO OTHERS said ‘OOWAGH! HOOWAGH!’, we felt that. The Oregon four-piece don’t just play classic heavy metal, they mainline it with full-throttle, broken-bottle adrenaline matched only by Jason Statham in Crank. Their first two records were zip-locked bags of lightning – can they strike thrice? No. Yes. Sort of? Never, Neverland isn’t immediate like Mana or Strength, but as with termite infestations and Zumba classes, it spreads. Opening track Butterfly telegraphs more Him and Type O Negative than ever before, lush synth and low-end chug interlacing with lovelorn lyrics and Deathstars-ish backing vocals. It’s the closest they’ve brushed against the goth rock label with which they’re pegged, and they do indulge; Suicide Today’s punchline is top-shelf Pete Steele, sans…

The Obsession NAPALM Former Delain frontwoman hits the symphonic sweet spot AFTER HER DEPARTURE from Delain in 2021, Charlotte Wessels embarked on a solo journey that revealed her talent as a multifaceted artist. Two pandemic-spanning records nodding to her progressive influences saw her finding her footing not just as a vocalist but as a musician and composer, divorcing the mainstream symphonic siren from her legacy with the Dutch headliners. Where the Tales From Six Feet Under albums featured Charlotte in experimentation mode, The Obsession is probably what Delain fans were hoping for – an auspicious and metallicised spin on her dark fairytale aesthetic. Performing alongside ex-Delain bandmates Timo Somers, Otto Schimmelpenninck van der Oije and Joey Marin de Boer, the singer feels at home. At their most potent, Chasing Sunsets…

HORDES OF COSTUMED performers known as the Wasteland Warriors laid siege to German mega-fest Wacken in August, complete with pyro performances and apocalyptic vehicles. With nine stages, a capacity of around 85,000 fans and a site so big it has its own metal church and swimming pool, it’s hard to argue with Wacken’s claim on the title of The World’s Biggest Heavy Metal Festival, and the Wasteland is just one of the special themed areas that add an extra sense of immersion to the event. That doesn’t mean the festival can relax when it comes to assembling massive line-ups, though. After Amon Amarth’s headline set on the Saturday, Wacken announced the first names for its 2025 bill, with a stunning show that included a specially made movie – featuring the Wasteland…

BURY TOMORROW ARE on an exciting trajectory. Following their 2023 album, The Seventh Sun, and recent single Villain Arc, Southampton’s metalcore veterans stand poised to enter possibly their heaviest era ever after almost two decades in the game. What better time to get vocalist Dani Winter-Bates to answer your questions? Would you rather be reincarnated as an alligator or a meerkat? Jess, email “An alligator, definitely. They’ve been around forever, haven’t they? They’re pretty hardy. It kind of makes me feel like it’s a parallel to my career. And I do love alligators and crocodiles. I once fed the largest alligator in Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary on the Gold Coast in Australia. He was called Boss Hogg, and he was an absolute monster.” Over the years you’ve refused to do VIP…

FOR MORE THAN 20 years, Falk Maria Schlegel – also known as plain Christian Jost when he’s out of the corpsepaint – has been providing Powerwolf with their booming organ and ethereal keyboard embellishments. He formed the band with guitarist Matthew Greywolf and singer Attila Dorn, and, as chief organiser, he’s helped guide them to their current position as one of Europe’s biggest, flounciest metal exports. New album Wake Up The Wicked is business as usual for the werewolf/vampire/Catholicism-obsessed Germans, with recent single 1589 telling the story of a man called Peter Stumpp, an alleged serial killer from Cologne who was known as ‘The werewolf of Bedburg’. But what have two decades of power metal theatre taught Falk Maria about life? That’s what we’re here to find out… FOLLOW YOUR…

“IT’S BEEN A long process,” Profiler frontman Mike Evans says wearily, when talking about the making of their debut album, A Digital Nowhere. Formed in Bristol in 2017, more than half of the band’s existence has been spent writing, demoing, rewriting and recording. “There’s tracks on here that I wrote to scout out talent for Profiler!” he adds. Channelling a litany of turn-of-the-Millennium metal artists, there’s a nostalgia that pervades the album. Written in the throes of the Covid lockdowns, the trio were longing for simpler days. “Things get so complicated in music now,” Mike says. “But there’s an authenticity to the raw instrumentation of that era that people will never fall out of love with.” They’re already seeing the benefits, with a signing to “dream” label SharpTone, and a…

In 1999, Metal Hammer editor Robyn Doreian boarded a plane to the US to interview rising stars Slipknot. The result? Chaos. And this – the band’s first-ever Hammer cover feature, led by legendary drummer Joey Jordison. She was so sure of the band, she even put together a special pullout section that included Q&As to introduce them, in which Clown remarked of their image: “If we didn’t wear masks, there would be so much more trouble, as there is so much pain on our faces that people don’t get to see.” Today, she remembers what it was like to meet the then-anonymous Nine, before they exploded. 1999, Roadrunner Records anticipated Slipknot as Satan’s Third Coming,” recalls Robyn. “That September, I flew to Memphis, Tennessee, to interview the Iowans. Their Dada…

“LET’S FUCKING GO!” Heriot drummer Julian Gage has jumped to his feet behind his kit, his face contorted with rage and adrenaline. Eyeballing the crowd, he gestures wildly with his arms, orchestrating the mosh. On either side of him, singer/guitarist Debbie Gough, guitarist Erhan Alman and bassist/co-vocalist Jake Packer exchange knowing grins, before steamrolling into a hulking riff powerful enough to turn your insides to jelly. Cue chaos. We’re at Corporation in Sheffield, where Heriot are playing Bastard Fest, the mini-festival curated by Empire State Bastard, aka Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and Oceansize’s Mike Vennart. It’s everything you’d expect from an event called Bastard Fest. Five of metal’s nastiest, noisiest bands have united for this one-day gig: alongside Heriot there are post black metallers Hidden Mothers, mathcore ragers Pupil Slicer,…

Yesterwynde NUCLEAR BLAST Symphonic Finns rediscover the heavy gold on album 10 ONE PROBLEM WITH bands leaving five-year gaps between albums is that if one comes out that you’re not so keen on, you end up waiting a decade for new material you can get behind. Every Nightwish release presents an array of delights, but 2020’s Human. II: Nature. double album rather overbalanced the band’s delicate fulcrum away from grand operatic metal towards a diverse hotchpotch of folk, pop, musical theatre, alt rock, world music, orchestral bells and whistles, maudlin sentimentality and ponderous pomposity. These were always factors in the Nightwish deal, but kept in check during the Tarja era, when clarion choruses and diamond hooks had priority. The 79-minute Endless Forms Most Beautiful from 2015 was similarly uneven and…

Darker White CENTURY MEDIA/333 WRECKORDS Jason Aalon Butler’s groove/rap metal firebrands attempt to reignite the spark WHEN FEVER 333 announced their formation back in 2017, fans of Letlive had cause to believe frontman Jason Aalon Butler’s union with members of The Chariot and Night Verses could lead to the birth of one of that generation’s most exciting new bands. It’s not really worked out that way, though. They were always superb live; they filled some impressively sized venues, and they even got a Grammy nomination. But with only one album and a pair of EPs in that time, and with many of that previous audience bemoaning Fever 333’s music being cleaner, simpler and more sloganeering than the deep complexities of their earlier work, it feels like much of their momentum has…

Where Gods Fear To Speak SEASON OF MIST Lauded Texans conjure another brutal and beautiful vision EVERY TWO YEARS, a new Oceans Of Slumber album arrives and leaves something for the listener to unpack and immerse themselves in over repeated spins. Starlight And Ash from 2022 required even more patience, with its gorgeous, gothic-drenched folk tales almost completely eschewing the band’s heavier leanings. While it was another piece of evidence that the Texans’ talents should be vastly more well-known and appreciated, the record saw them agonisingly come up against the same glass ceiling. Now equipped with a new label and a duo of six stringers, the band’s combative and adventurous nature shows no sign of waning on the vengeful monster that is their sixth album. Much like percussion supremos Brann…

Zetra NUCLEAR BLAST Atmospheric enigmas’ debut leaves more questions than answers WHAT IF A black metal band swapped blastbeats and screaming for synthesisers and crooning, then rehearsed on the set of a 70s Doctor Who episode? It’s a question no one has ever asked. Nonetheless, Zetra are beaming the answer into people’s brains, with their costumed, cosmic nonsense making them rising stars. Since the pandemic, this synth rock pair have supported everyone from Godflesh to Ville Valo. They’ve graced countless festivals and inked a deal with Nuclear Blast – all this before they’ve even put out their debut album. That’s how much punters love their synthpop/shoegaze/hard rock tracks, or are bewildered by their gigs with old TV screens and more chains than Hellraiser. Unsurprisingly, Zetra keeps flowing oxygen to the duo’s…