Innehållsförteckning för February 2025 från Metal Hammer UK

AVOID HAVE ONE of the more eyebrow-raising biographies on Spotify. Described as what would happen “if Dale Earnhardt, Guy Fieri and Steve-O started a Spinal Tap cover band”, it somehow manages to be completely spot-on yet massively inaccurate. It conveys their infectious enthusiasm and the general goofiness of their catchy metalcore anthems, even if they sound nothing like Derek Smalls and co. Formed in Seattle when its members were just 14 years old, the band spent their school years as “the local opener for every metalcore band coming through town”, according to singer Benny Scholl. After graduating, they realised that continuing the band would be a good excuse to keep hanging out together, so kept playing. They’ve since built a wave of momentum and are entering 2025 with a new…

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British metal had waited years for a band like Bullet For My Valentine. Starting out as Jeff Killed John at the turn of the millennium, the line-up solidified into vocalist Matt Tuck, drummer Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas, guitarist Michael ‘Padge’ Paget and, last to arrive, bassist Jay James in 2003. An eponymous five-track EP showed these four boys from the Valleys had something special, and by the time they signed to Visible Noise/Sony and headed to Chapel Studios with producer Colin Richardson in late 2004 to record their first album, The Poison, they knew they were heading for success. Raised on Metallica, schooled by Machine Head and inspired by Killswitch Engage – a band they’d take out as support when celebrating the 10th anniversary of their debut in 2016 – Bullet…

If you’re anything like us, you’re still reeling from Eddie Munson’s tragic death in the Upside Down at the end of Stranger Things season four. Playing Master Of Puppets to distract a cloud of bloodthirsty demobats was certainly a heroic way for the-dyed-in-the-wool metalhead to go out, but we lost the coolest character the 80-ssci-fi show had to offer. But never fear! While we await Stranger Things season five (hurry up, already!) to see if we’ll get anymore screentime with Eddie Munson, whether through flashbacks or some-Christ-like resurrection storyline, there are some new comicbooks to tide us over. Stranger Things And Dungeons & Dragons: The Rise Of Hellfire is a-four-part mini series that reveals how Eddie became the leader of the Hellfire Club, Hawkins High’s D&D society. It throws back…

“What you people want?” “Just a couple more minutes of your time, about the same duration as the rest of your life.” The bar scene in Kathryn Bigelow’s cult 1987 neo-Western vampire classic, Near Dark, is one of horror’s most iconic sequences. It marks a point where brooding atmosphere explodes into brutal violence, and it does so with consummate style. Bill Paxton’s psychotic Severen exudes an air of deranged menace, but when he slices the bartender’s throat with a razor-edged spur, he looks cool doing it. “Near Dark and The Lost Boys both came out in the same year, which is crazy,” says Creeper frontman Will Gould, whose band sank their teeth into a rich vein of vampire mythology on Sanguivore, Metal Hammer’s 2023 album of the year and a…

Rave Immortal EARACHE Nottingham sisters on a mission to turn moshers into ravers – and vice versa NU GEN DUO Alt Blk Era are your nightmare upstairs neighbours. Following on from 2023’s Freak Show EP, sisters Nyrobi and Chaya Beckett-Messam continue to defy conventional expectations of metal, injecting thumping dark-pop, harmonious synths and chaotic EDM into their gritty breakdowns. Rave Immortal is the perfect soundtrack for the mosher who likes to party, a smorgasbord of blastbeats, bounding hip hop, razor-sharp riffs – anything to get people moving, basically. After months spent in bed before she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, Nyrobi was desperate to express herself - and sprinkling emotive alt rock with rip-roaring electronics was the perfect way to go about it. There’s a burning lust for life…

Lightning In A Bottle HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS Virginia’s legendary doom denizens pull off a glorious comeback MORE THAN 50 years on from their formation in Alexandria, Virginia, Pentagram are still one of doom metal’s most vital and influential acts. Singer Bobby Liebling is the only remaining member from early line-ups, but the spirit of the band’s gritty and groovy sound has not changed one iota. Lightning In A Bottle showcases a brand new line-up, with the inestimable Tony Reed on guitar duty, his Mos Generator colleague Scooter Haslip on bass, and former Saint Vitus drummer Henry Vasquez holding down the beat. But regardless of personnel, these songs sound like vintage Pentagram: timeless, thunderous and ever-so-slightly sinister. Bobby, who turned 71 over the Christmas period, is on imperious form. Wholly unchanged from…

BILMURI THE O2, LONDON The masked metallers transform the O2 into a megachurch AT THE END of a runway reaching into the crowd, during viral hit The Summoning, Sleep Token frontman Vessel gets on all fours. Then, guitarist IV climbs on his back for the solo. The crowd screams in ecstacy. This is a Sleep Token show, and Sleep Token know exactly what their fans want. Last December, the enigmatic quartet played a single night at London’s 12,500-capacity Wembley Arena – the climax of a year that had seen them blow up on TikTok, tour on both sides of the Atlantic, and welcome thousands more worshippers to their congregation. Tonight is the first of two dates at The O2, on an arena tour that will reach a combined total of…

GRAILKNIGHTS O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON, LONDON Viking cosplay jokers bring their longboats and drinking horns to the capital POWER METAL DOESN’T always need a gimmick, but as GRAILKNIGHTS prove, it’s significantly more fun when you’ve got one. The German quintet balance OTT ludicrousness with just the right amount of self-awareness – they may wear superhero costumes with colour-coordinated cloaks and strike heroic poses between songs, but their tongues are planted firmly in cheeks. There’s plenty of yucks tonight, whether it’s getting the crowd to chant “Yes, sire!” in response to the band’s cries of “Grailknights battle choir!”, or even eliciting an “Mmmm, hot” during a brief skit about the new lightsabers they’re selling at their merch stand. But musically they stand up, dealing out furiously catchy, Dragonforce and Sabaton-esque hooks to…

JOHN MCMURTRIE PHOTOGRAPHER Veteran Hammer and Iron Maiden photographer John is a true legend. For this month’s cover shoot, he not only wrangled two bands, but braved the roof of The O2 during one of the worst storms of the year. Thanks, John! LIZ SCARLETT WRITER This issue, Liz had a chat with LA newcomers Faetooth, whose interests include fairy tales, witchcraft, the occult, European folklore, psychology and horror films. Funnily enough, these just so happen to be Liz’s interests, too. JOE DALY WRITER Our man in California Joe Daly is one of the nicest people in the world, and yet he’s a fan of Impaled Rektum. We got him to speak to Juuso Laatio, the director of Heavy Trip/Heavier Trip, about the fictional Finnish fuck-ups.…

ALEX SKOLNICK WAS a timid 16-year-old when he joined Testament in 1985, but his highly skilled melodic guitar playing would prove hugely influential throughout the Bay Area thrash scene and beyond. When he left Testament in the early 90s, he pursued diverse musical projects, including stints in Savatage and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He also went back to school to study jazz and formed his own jazz outfit, The Alex Skolnick Trio. Alex rejoined Testament in 2005, and they’ve since gone from strength to strength. He’s kept his fingers in numerous other pies, too, from teaching to ambitious world music projects. He’s the muso’s thrasher with a list of accomplishments longer than an extended-scale fretboard, but remains as humble and down-to-earth as they come. PARENTS DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING “My parents were…

CROSS-CONTINENTAL QUINTET Conquer Divide are on their second life and determined to make this one count. The band were formed in 2013 by Michigan-based guitarist Kristen Sturgis, who carefully handpicked her bandmates from the US, UK, and Canada to execute her ambitions for an all-female metalcore band. The fact 2015’s self-titled album has amassed more than 30 million streams proves Kristen’s vision was worth pursuing. However, with its follow-up readied, the pandemic and personal issues condemned the band to the gallows. In hindsight, the death of their first era was a blessing. With their second album, Slow Burn, they’re back from the dead, refined and reinvigorated. Their gnarly riffs are augmented by sharper pop sensibilities for songs that can open pits and garner mainstream radio play in equal measure. “We’ve gotten…

Nu metal was dead and the corpse wasn’t even twitching. It was 2005 and the movement that had dominated music for much of the late 90s and early 2000s was laid out on the mortuary slab, stone cold to the touch, with zero chance of it suddenly rising up and gasping for air like the villain in a cheap horror movie. Its demise was down to a mix of factors. Creative decline, over-exposure, the fact that any scene has a natural lifespan no matter how successful it once was. But there was something else happening, a wider sonic and cultural shift. Shit was getting heavy again. 2005 was the year when a new generation of metal bands seized the throne. The likes of Lamb Of God, Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage,…

Trivium formed in 1999 in Orlando, when vocalist Matt Heafy was just 12 years old. Little did he know that six years later the press would hail them as the next Metallica. Starting out as a trio, they released their debut album, Ember To Inferno, in 2003, catching the ear of Roadrunner Records’ legendary A&R man Monte Conner, who later signed them. By the time it came to making second album Ascendancy in 2004, Trivium had expanded to a quartet, featuring Matt, guitarist Corey Beaulieu, bassist Paolo Gregoletto and drummer Travis Smith. Produced by Jason Suecof and partly recorded at Tampa’s Morrisound Recording, the home of Floridian death metal, it brought classic metal’s dual guitar leads and melodies up to date in a thrilling, new-millennium way. “Recording the album? It…

It’s 6pm on a Tuesday, and Alt Blk Era are snowed in. Yet the sisters – 20-year-old Nyrobi and 17-year-old Chaya Beckett-Messam – are unfazed by the inches stacking up outside their home in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire. “We don’t really have a typical life outside of music. We’re not at the clubs or hanging out,” Nyrobi explains via Zoom, of why they’re so at ease tonight. “We’re very much inside working nonstop.” For such young musicians, their attitude is switched on and ambitious, and it’s paid off. What began as a playful lockdown project has snowballed into a career, with the nu gen duo signed to prestigious label Earache Records. Combining metal, drum’n’bass and dance with a playful monochrome gothic Harajuku aesthetic, they’ve become the most exciting new band on…

Birna MUSIC FOR NATIONS / SONY Dark folk expeditionists make magic with the bear necessities WARDRUNA ARE LESS a band than a natural phenomenon. With their sixth studio album, the Norwegian collective continue their ambitious quest, crafting a grandiose form of world music that’s earthy and primal while at the same time an essential part of the here and now. Birna, in very Wardruna fashion, focuses on the life cycle of the she-bear. It weaves together themes drawn from animism, pre-history and folklore with meditations on the natural world and the never-ending wheel of life, death and rebirth of which we are all a part, whether we dwell in teeming cities or shun human company completely. ENOUGH TO CONJURE A NEAR-COSMIC COMMUNION From slow, quiet thuds to scrabbling explorations and…

Eyes Of The Living Night KSCOPE Ethereal troubadour looks boldly into the future with stunning second solo album JONATHAN HULTÉN HAS always been a paradox. The guitarist who rose to prominence via the macabre death metal theatrics of Tribulation, only to suddenly quit that band and reinvent himself as a solitary bard of ethereal folk. His 2020 solo debut, Chants From Another Place, was a fragile, inward-looking collection that summoned the ghosts of Nick Drake and Bert Jansch. But with this follow-up, the Swede breaks free from those hushed, moss-covered landscapes and steps boldly into a grander, more cinematic arena. This is the sound of an artist realising his full potential, seamlessly weaving the folk traditions of the past into a bold and innovative vision for the future. Eyes Of The…

THE END WILL SHOW US HOW NAPALM Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist keeps things heavy… well, mostly IF THE END Will Show Us How, Tremonti’s sixth solo album, had been released 25 years ago, it would have been a revelation. Back then, guitarist Mark Tremonti was a member of Creed, the late 90s arena rockers who had spent the past few years dominating rock radio and were equally loved and derided for their troubles. Compare that band’s mega-hits Higher and With Arms Wide Open to the bludgeoning, groove metal-adjacent One More Time from The End Will Show Us How, and it’s like night and day. What few Creed fans were aware of at the time was that Mark was a dyed-in-the-wool metal aficionado, his tastes running from Machine Head to Celtic…

PALLBEARER NEW CENTURY, MANCHESTER Savannah’s expansive riff-wielders span the emotional spectrum THIS IS A night of contrasts, beginning with a serving of melancholia from PALLBEARER. The Little Rock, Arkansas outfit have an arsenal of heavy doom riffs at their disposal, but they’re largely left in reserve as half the set takes in the more restrained and expansive explorations of their most recent album, Mind Burns Alive. Their opening slot comprises just four songs but still takes 40 minutes as they traverse the emotional wastelands, with only closer Worlds Apart really bringing that heavyweight crunch. Talking of worlds apart, GRAVEYARD could scarcely be more different in tone as they come revving in with Twice, looking and sounding like an outlaw biker gang covered in 70s fuzz. These Swedes understand the power…

Beowulf, the Germanic Old English epic poem, is a theme throughout your new album, Sunraven. It’s perfect fit for Grand Magus; metalheads who read the tale often come away thinking ‘Some band should do an album about this…’ “I got in touch with Beowulf when I was a tiny boy, I was fascinated immediately, and it’s something I’ve carried with me all my life. Over the years we’ve picked stuff from this poem for other songs, maybe not overtly but at least subliminally. But when we started to write Sunraven, somehow it seemed the right time and the right music to fit with this concept.” You, drummer Ludwig ‘Ludde’ Witt and bassist Mats ‘Fox’ Skinner have been together for 12 years. Presumably you’d move Heaven and Earth to keep this…

NICKO McBRAIN, THE beloved longtime drummer of heavy metal legends Iron Maiden, stands before the crowd at his final show, on December 7 in São Paulo, following the announcement of his retirement from touring. Revealed in a statement released on Maiden’s website and accompanied by a touching statement from Nicko himself, it brought to an end an incredible 42-year run behind the kit for British metal’s greatest band. “What can I say?” said Nicko. “Touring with Maiden the last 42 years has been an incredible journey! To my devoted fan base, you made it all worthwhile and I love you!” Joining the band in 1982 following the exit of Clive Burr, Nicko’s arrival in Maiden helped solidify what many fans see as their definitive early line-up, playing on 14 studio…

AS GUITARIST AND co-lead vocalist of Alice In Chains, Jerry Cantrell is one of the most iconic musicians to emerge from Seattle. His band have overcome the death of their frontman, Layne Staley, to continue making grunge greatness, while Jerry also sustains a solo career, and has just released fourth album I Want Blood. So what better time to make him face down your questions on film scores, childhood idols and his decades-long friendship with Metallica? Is it true you once locked yourself in a garage and wrote songs in there? Sabrina Salerno, Instagram “Ha ha ha! That’s a little bit of an exaggeration. When I write, I tend to stay in the same location, usually my house – it’s not a garage! Ha ha ha!” Hammer: Do you write…

ON AUGUST 13, 2006, System Of A Down played their last show. Granted, it wouldn’t be their last ever show, but for guitarist/co-vocalist Daron Malakian, it felt like it could have been. In May, the band had announced plans to go on an ‘indefinite hiatus’. They had spent the better part of a decade clawing their way up the ranks of the metal world and now, hitting the apex of their powers – their last two releases, a staggered double-album of Mezmerize and Hypnotize, released in May and November 2005, had topped the US Billboard album charts – they were riding off into the sunset. “My life was dedicated to System Of A Down,” he admits. “I pretty much gave my whole existence to writing these last System albums. Now,…

FAIRY TALES DON’T always have happy endings. In the twisted literary world of The Brothers Grimm, these fantastical stories often involved harrowing ordeals, offering a reflection on the true, darker nature of reality. In a similar spirit, California’s Faetooth combine “the trials and tribulations of life” with ethereal imagery, often seeking to blur the distinction between them as they transform from moments of light, mystical shoegaze to “visceral and unsettling” heaviness. “In these tales there is usually some kind of moral, lesson, or deeper meaning,” explains bassist/vocalist Jenna Garcia. “We’re definitely inspired by that.” Jenna formed Faetooth in 2019 alongside guitarist/vocalist Ari May and drummer Rah Kanan. The trio – who met at high school and on Los Angeles’ DIY music scene - classify themselves as “fairy doom”, which Jenna…

FENDER X HELLO KITTY COLLECTION £16.99 – £419.99 YOU’RE AT SOME cool underground gig, you hip so-and-so, you. On the barrier yonder, you spy someone wearing Hello Kitty merch. Your blood boils, steam erupting from your ears. Before you brand them a poser, check yourself – Hello Kitty’s literally older than Iron Maiden. Celebrate 50 years of the world’s prettiest puss with this kawaii Fender collaboration. You want Hello Kitty-branded TS cables, guitar straps, plectrums, gig bags, fuzz/purrrr pedals? You got them. And if you fancy going the extra mile for that little rocker/lover of pastel in your life, there’s a full-on, 21-fret Hello Kitty Stratocaster, replete with adorable, vintage-style tuning pegs. Sure, it’s $500, but imagine how cute it’ll look cranking out Anaal Nathrakh riffs. We love grimness, solitude and…

Nita Strauss was 15 years old when she went on tour for the first time. She knew it would be tough, but she never expected to have to outrun a tornado. “We were playing somewhere in Tornado Alley,” she says, referring to an area in the Southern USA where storms are common. “We were just packing up when someone said, ‘You better go right now, there’s a tornado coming.’ As we were on the highway, we could actually see this thing out of the side of the car! That was crazy.” The subsequent 20-odd years have been no less eventful. The LA-born guitarist’s CV reads like the most random festival bill ever; she’s played with everyone from Alice Cooper and Demi Lovato to Jermaine ‘Brother Of Michael’ Jackson and NFL…

March Of The Unheard NUCLEAR BLAST Melodeath veterans eye the past, present and future THE INTEREST AROUND The Halo Effect’s formation went far beyond the usual intrigue and anticipation. After all, a melodeath supergroup put together by a bunch of ex-In Flames members (including early-doors singer Mikael Stanne, now with Dark Tranquillity) brought tantalising hope for those who hold the likes of The Jester Race and Clayman deep in their hearts. While few would begrudge In Flames’ evolution over the past two decades, the longing for the halcyon days of mid-to-late-90s melodic death metal is felt as strongly by some as the NWOBHM, Bay Area and Florida death scenes that preceded them. Such is the quality of the albums that emerged from Gothenburg during that time that even subsequent releases from…

My God Has Got A Gun NUCLEAR BLAST Rising alt metal duo nail the formula on their fourth album WITH 2022’S NULA, Vukovi showed everyone what they were made of. That theatrical concept album record proved their ambition and musical reach. The story of ‘Nula’, an extra-terrestrial taken captive by an intergalactic, tyrannical society, set to a vibrant blend of crunchy electro rock, shoegaze and nu metal, it won the Scottish duo – vocalist Janine Shilstone and guitarist Hamish Reilly – a support slot with Babymetal in 2023 and a collab with Scene Queen at the Heavy Music Awards, bagging them legions of new fans in their own right who related to the music. At the core of those tracks was a message about regaining control of your own story, announcing…

TESTAMENT THE CIVIC HALL, WOLVERHAMPTON Transatlantic thrash triple whammy brings the noise to the UK ANTHRAX’S PROTESTS THAT they can’t record a new album when they keep getting heavyweight tour offers hold some weight, considering how stacked this bill is. Although the tour is billed as a co-headliner for Anthrax and Kreator, Bay Area veterans TESTAMENT certainly don’t exude opening band energy. As jets of flame spray for D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate), there’s an undeniable sense of scale befitting a band who have often been considered a strong contender for the Big 4. But while the Civic Hall is already packed, it takes a while for the crowd to warm up. That’s no reflection on Testament. Roaring like a jet engine and going twice the speed, even newer tunes like…