The 50 most anticipated metal albums of 2021 By Rich Hobson Let’s put 2020 behind us and get stuck into the good stuff 2021 has to offer
How metal survived the epic clusterf**k that was 2020 By Rich Hobson In 2020 the world was turned upside down. But amid the chaos, there was cause for hope for metal
The Story Behind The Song: Hearts On Fire by Hammerfall By Rich Hobson How Hammerfall wrote the anthem that kept heavy metal’s flag flying in the early 2000s
Evile: the kings of UK thrash come back from the dead By Rich Hobson Thrash lunatics Evile have been MIA for seven years. We join them in the studio as they work on their comeback album
Gama Bomb’s Sea Savage: unrepentant thrash with a side order of cheese By Rich Hobson Madcap thrashers Gama Bomb are in hilariously juvenile form on seventh album Sea Savage
The Story Behind The Song: Sepultura’s Choke By Rich Hobson Derrick Green looks back on the song that reinvented Sepultura and the enormous task of stepping into Max Cavalera’s shoes
Hjelvik’s Welcome To Hel: ex-Kvelertak singer kneels before the gods of heavy metal By Rich Hobson Erlend Hjelvik swaps Kvelertak’s blackened rock’n’roll for full metal racket with his new band’s debut album Welcome To Hel
Raging Speedhorn’s Hard To Kill: come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough By Rich Hobson Brit-metal lunatics Raging Speedhorn prove what doesn’t kill them makes them sludgier
Iron Maiden’s Adrian Smith: “When we hit America things kicked in with booze and drugs, using it as a crutch” By Rich Hobson Legendary Iron Maiden guitarist and avid angler Adrian Smith shares the lessons he’s learned from 40 years on the roads and rivers around the world
Pallbearer’s Forgotten Days is the sound of doom metal marching into the future By Rich Hobson Arena-sized ambition with prog twists: Forgotten Days proves no one does doom like Pallbearer
Pallbearer: “We’d build a campfire, talk over beers, listen to gunfire” By Rich Hobson Pallbearer frontman Brett Campbell reveals what we can expect from the doom visionaries’ “cathartic” new album Forgotten Days
Mastodon’s Medium Rarities is a celebration of one of metal’s most deranged and brilliant bands By Rich Hobson Prog-metal, unhinged fuzz punk and left-field covers collide on Mastodon’s sprawling new compilation Medium Rarities
Jesse Leach's ultimate hardcore (and metal, and trip-hop) playlist By Rich Hobson Playlist! Killswitch Engage frontman Jesse Leach talks us through the music that's essential to his life – and he goes big on the ’core, throwing in some healthy slabs of metal (and trip-hop) for good measure
Aversions Crown’s Mick Jeffrey: “Musicians sacrifice a lot of things to make other people happy” By Rich Hobson Aversions Crown guitarist Mick Jeffrey on drugs, European crime show addiction and the trials of being in a deathcore band
The Story Behind The Song: Alestorm’s Captain Morgan’s Revenge By Rich Hobson Avast, ye landlubbers! Alestorm’s swashbucklingly ridiculous breakthrough hit Captain Morgan’s Revenge ushered in a new era of pirate metal
August Burns Red’s Jake Luhrs: “I have drunk so much wine that I literally sh*t the bed” By Rich Hobson Jake Luhrs of metalcore heroes August Burns Red on faith, family and booze-related ‘accidents’
In Flames’ Anders Fridén: “I’d be f**ked if I was working in a factory” By Rich Hobson In Flames frontman Anders Fridén looks back over three decades on metal’s frontlines
Godthrymm: doom architects call in from the abyss By Rich Hobson Meet Brit doom crew Godthrymm: FFO My Dying Bride, Vallenfyre and Pallbearer
5 minutes alone with… Destruction’s Schmier By Rich Hobson Thrash pioneer Schmier on rock stardom, magic mushrooms and what Lords Of Chaos owes to Destruction
Sepultura’s Beneath The Remains: the thrash masterpiece that sparked metal’s new era By Rich Hobson How Beneath The Remains turned four Brazilian metalheads into unexpected global superstars – and changed the sound of metal
Municipal Waste's Tony Foresta: The soundtrack to my life By Rich Hobson, Tony Foresta Municipal Waste’s ass-kicking singer guides us from righteous anger to juvenile delinquency via hardcore punk and hip hop in his ultimate playlist
Rock In Rio: The festival that changed the world By Rich Hobson Established at the tail-end of a military dictatorship, Rock In Rio was much more than just another festival. The bands that played it would never be the same again
Faith No More’s The Real Thing: the album that changed metal forever By Rich Hobson With new singer Mike Patton on board, Faith No More’s genius third album The Real Thing blew metal’s doors wide open
Bands don’t owe us new music, and it’s time to get over it By Rich Hobson With many still pining for a new System Of A Down album, do we really need legendary bands putting out music for the sake of it?
Zakk Wylde, Lzzy Hale, Zoltan Bathory and Ben Bruce: Four guitar heroes, one interview By Merlin Alderslade, Rich Hobson, Matt Mills We united four of the scene’s most prominent modern guitarists for a look at the current state of guitar music, the evolution of the guitar hero, and what it takes to be a true rock star in the modern era. Here’s what they had to say…
