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Two faceless monks brutally shove Powerwolf keyboardist Falk Maria Schlegel to the centre of the stage, and tie him to a wooden stake. He wails and struggles, but the band [...]

When Swedish prog metal kings Opeth played London's Eventim Apollo in November 2022, their minds weren't on King Crimson, Camel or Genesis. They were thinking about the bands who'd made [...]

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 [...]

50 FEVER 333 DarkerWhite CENTURY MEDIA / 333 WRECK CHORDS Jason Aalon Butler certainly knows his way around a rap metal anthem. Only, with Fever 333 he hadn't really shown [...]

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2024 DONINGTON PARK, DONINGTON Avenged Sevenfold and Queens Of The Stone Age face the storms at Donington CLOUDS HANG OVER Download Festival 2024, both figuratively and literally. The [...]

'Africa is the future of metal.' These are the words of Rock Ahavi, the singer, founder and chief songwriter with Arka'n Asrafokor, the electrifying metal band putting their home country [...]

There's footage on YouTube of Bad Brains playing fabled New York punk dive CBGBs in 1982, and it looks like bedlam being unleashed. The bodies of crowd members fly back [...]

The love-in between the movies and metal has been long, fruitful and often drenched in blood. This two-way relationship began long before Tony Iommi sliced off the tips of his [...]

SERJ TANKIAN IS an activist in the truest sense of the word. With System Of A Down, he's campaigned vociferously to draw attention to the Armenian genocide that displaced his [...]

WHEN BULLET FOR My Valentine and Trivium released their breakthrough albums in 2005, they were laying the foundation for the future of metal. Both bands were young, hungry and had [...]

WHEN WITHIN TEMPTATION and Nightwish released their debut albums in 1997, there wasn't a name for the kind of music they made. Within Temptation's Enter, released in April, took obvious [...]

WHEN THE KING issues a summons, you can't refuse. That's how Hammer find ourselves in the basement--or should that be dungeon?--of Freizeitheim Castle in Germany, face-to-face with thrash metal legend [...]

BRANT BJORK IS the godfather of stoner rock. As the drummer and one of the chief creative forces in Kyuss, he helped put desert rock on the map in the [...]

HIP HOP ICON, rap metal pioneer and all-round star of film and TV, Ice-T is a formidable presence. Ever since Body Count's controversial 1992 single, Cop Killer--which protested against police [...]

In a dark room, an orchestra strikes up. Violins play a staccato melody, and as more instruments join - a horn here, a crash of drums there - blue lights [...]

TWISTED METAL Various developers/Sony Computer Entertainment, 1995-2012 Twisted Metal survived three generations of PlayStation thanks to nothing more complicated than vehicular mayhem and a brash metal soundtrack. The elevator pitch [...]

DUFF McKAGAN MIGHT have turned 60 this year, but at heart he's still the same punk kid who set out from Seattle in 1984 with a dream of changing rock [...]

ON DECEMBER 28, 2015, the metal world lost one of its most iconic figures. Lemmy Kilmister, the singer, bassist and founder of Motorhead passed away in his Los Angeles apartment [...]

On December 15, 2019, Children Of Bodom played their final show. It had been announced six weeks earlier that drummer Jaska Raatikainen, bassist Henkka Seppala and keyboard player Janne Wirman--who [...]

An almighty gamble but one that paid off in spades, PowerTrip was held on the site of Coachella in the Californian desert and saw the planet's cream of rock and [...]

Let's face it: in a year where Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold and myriad heavyweights have unveiled new albums, nobody could have predicted Southampton goth-punks Creeper taking Metal Hammer's Album Of The [...]

50 BLOOD CEREMONY The Old Ways Remain RISE ABOVE Blood Ceremony had always been a unique presence in the already niche doom-adjacent occult rock sphere. On their fifth album, the [...]

Metallica's 72 Seasons was the most anticipated album of the year, finally arriving in April, seven years after its predecessor, Hardwired... To Self-Destruct. Full-speed-or-nothing single Lux AEterna may have called [...]

The last time Prog spoke to Wheel, the future looked bright. The Anglo-Finnish band were about to release their second album, Resident Human, and frontman James Lascelles seemed in good [...]

OPETH The Last Will And Testament REIGNING PHOENIX MUSIC Sweden's prog metallers flout--and flute--all expectations on album 14 IT'S INEVITABLE, REALLY. From the instant Mikael Akerfeldt gets a touch of [...]

2025 WILL BE a massive year for Iron Maiden. It marks the metal icons' 50th anniversary - a full half-century since bassist Steve Harris formed the band on Christmas Day [...]

CHOKEHOLD Reinforcing the imagery threaded through its two predecessors, the opening track on Sleep Token's third album once again centres around a relationship that seemed perfect but has gone bad [...]

Fun in the sun, with a broad spectrum of musical styles and a massive site. Welcome to today's monster of rock. * With nine stages and a capacity of more [...]

ZEAL & ARDOR 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 [...]

James William Reay, 39, has travelled more than 5,500 miles from his London home to spend three days in the California desert. It's hot, dusty and the cheapest beer for [...]

A deep, distorted voice is coming through the PA of Los Angeles' El Rey Theatre. Do you think they want you to cry?' it's saying. Do you think they like [...]

Dave Lombardo might have been the jackhammer heart of Slayer, but there's more to him than just thrash. If you really want to get his pistons pumping, you'll get him [...]

ON MARCH 12, 2001, Opeth released their fifth album, Blackwater Park. It cemented the Swedish band's status as prog metal masters, its ingenious fusion of everything from death metal and [...]

CLOSING IN ON a decade since the release of their debut album, Babymetal have evolved from a WTF curio to a crucial part of the metal firmament. Across their four [...]

IT'S THE PART of Skindred's live shows that has gone down in legend. We all know it's coming and we all bloody love it. At some point--most likely at the [...]

Wandering through the corridors of his West Hollywood home, Ice Nine Kills frontman Spencer Charnas enthuses about a topic dear to his heart: horror movies. But the Zoom video feed [...]

SHAVO ODADJIAN HAS been waiting nearly 20 years to release an album. More specifically, he's been waiting nearly 20 years to release a System Of A Down album. But, with [...]

THERE MIGHT STILL be a few weeks left until 2024 is done and dusted, but we're already looking forward to a massive summer of live music in 2025. From big [...]

Download Festival Donington Park, Leicestershire The mud (but of course), the rad and the Patton-tly weird of Download 2024. * The festivals, they are a-changin'. Download Festival has in recent [...]

Aerosmith are set to return to the road in September, as their Peace Out Farewell Tour resumes almost exactly a year after being abandoned. The original dates were announced in [...]

LOOKING INTO THE eyes of Jamie Campbell Bower, you wouldn't know he's the manifestation of pure evil. Well, not literally, but the actor/musician has attained iconic status in recent years [...]

Lowlives Freaking Out SPINEFARM An ocean-hopping, time-skipping call-back to alt.rock's glory days. Lowlives paint in shades of alternative with this debut. The titular opening track kicks things off with giddy [...]

RICH HOBSON/JONATHAN SELZER 013 / THE TERMINAL TILBURG Chelsea Wolfe, Khanate and Blood Incantation take Tilburg to the outer limits 'ARE YOU HERE for the heavy metal festival?' The barman [...]

DOWNLOAD 2023 DONINGTON PARK, DONINGTON Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot headline an unforgettable 20th birthday blowout THURSDAY With more than 100,000 metal fans set to descend upon Castle [...]

50 JUDAS PRIEST Angel Of Retribution (2005) Rob Halford's return to the mighty Judas Priest would have been seriously big news even if they hadn't produced an album worthy of [...]

Somewhere in The Vatican is a butt plug with Lord Of The Lost f rontman Chris Harms's face on it. He knows this because he sent it. 'We sell them [...]

THE FIRST EVER MAIN STAGE BAND UK sludge merchants Murder One were the first band to play the Main Stage at the inaugural 2003 Download. Paul Catten was on the [...]

In 1983, Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian saw a band that changed his life. Growing up in New York, he'd been aware of punk since the arrival of the Ramones, but [...]

Orange Goblin KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton The filth, the fury and the fuck-ups; London's heavy metal OGs roll on. * 'This is what it's all about!' Three songs into Orange [...]

Terrorvision KK's Steel Mill, Wolverhampton Britrock heroes still put on the biggest party in town. * 'Shit hot!' Considering their distinctly northern Britrock sensibilities can be found everywhere from Massive [...]