Latest articles by Chris Chantler
13 genuinely terrifying bands who definitely aren’t faking it
Forget heavy metal’s pantomime dames – these horrormongers make you fear for your life
Bell Witch And Aerial Ruin’s Stygian Bough Volume 1: where funereal doom and gothic folk collide
Funereal Seattleites Bell Witch renew a fertile partnership with old friend Aerial Ruins on new album Stygian Bough: Volume 1
The 10 essential sludge metal albums
Dark, brutal and magnificently ugly, these are the sludge albums you need in your life
And on the eighth day Manowar created… power metal
Majestic to some, ludicrous to others, no one embodied 80s metal like Manowar. And their third album Hail To England was the jewel in their crown
Carach Angren’s Franckensteina Strataemontanus: Frankenstein in corpse paint
Cult Dutch black metallers Carach Angren reimagine Frankenstein with added serial killers on new album Franckensteina Strataemontanus
Grave Digger’s Fields Of Blood: German metal warhorses go the full Braveheart
Metal veterans Grave Digger focus on Scottish history on new album Fields Of Blood
The Top 10 metal bands from Denmark
Ten bands who prove there’s more to Denmark than pastries and Hamlet
Horisont party like it’s 1975 on joyous new album Sudden Death
Retro-rock linchpins Horisont channel 70s soft rock and classic prog on glorious new album Sudden Death
The demonic birth of Morbid Angel: “We performed rituals to conjure the Gods”
In the swamps of Florida in the early 80s, something evil was stirring. Its name was Morbid Angel
10 essential goth metal albums
The masterpieces of miserablism that defined the shadowy genre that is goth metal
Motley Crue: "We'd play to 20 people in a sandwich shop and set Nikki on fire"
The original Hollywood bad boys Vince Neil and Nikki Sixx look back at Crue's Year Zero: 1981 - building their own stage sets, stealing girls clothes and living on hot dogs
The Story Behind The Song: The Toxic Waltz by Exodus
What started life as a thrash novelty song became one of the greatest moshpit anthems ever written
Katatonia have just made their best album in 20 years with City Burials
Swedish gloom-masters Katatonia hit cinematic gold on their 11th album
10 essential doom metal albums
Tune down those guitars and set faces to grimace, these are the doom metal albums you need in your life
The 10 best metal bands from Wales
Meet the bands from Wales who are even more metal than having a massive red dragon on your flag
Pentagram's Bobby Leibling: "I’ve been waiting fifty years – that’s not selling out"
Flashback to 2015 when we spoke to Pentagram singer Bobby Liebling upon the return of the veteran doom rockers
The 25 greatest power metal albums
Saddle your steeds and prepare to spill the blood of kings as we celebrate the greatest power metal albums ever!
Top Ten Goriest Music Videos
Let's get gory with these brutal offerings that give Lindemann a run for their money
The 50 Greatest Judas Priest songs EVER
In honour of Judas Priest's 50th anniversary, we decided to count down their 50 greatest songs of all time, chosen by a panel of bands, Hammer staff and you...
The Story of Thrash Metal Part 2: How thrash broke the mainstream
Master Of Puppets opened the gates for thrash’s assault on the mainstream. Suddenly, metal had a new frontline, and the scene would never be the same again
The Story of Thrash Metal Part One: The birth of a genre
We talk to the scene’s original innovators – Exodus, Anthrax, Sodom and Testament – about the birth of a legend
1994: The albums that changed the world
1994 was the year when metal came of age, bands twisting heavy music into new forms that would echo through the ages. We take a look back at the year's essential releases
Tool: the ultimate timeline of new album Fear Inoculum
Updated Tool's new album Fear Inoculum is nearly upon us – here's what they've been up to in the 13 years they've spent recording it
