Stephen Hill

Stephen Hill

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.

Articles by: Stephen Hill

Blood Command: World Domination

Blood Command's World Domination: 20 tracks, almost half being a minute long or less, yet one of the most exciting, unique, genre-bending metal albums you'll hear this year

By Stephen Hill published

Norway's Blood Command might be reliably brilliant, but new album World Domination is as unpredictably genre-smashing as ever

“Band members complained of a loss of feeling in their hands after only one song”: When Tesseract set a world record by playing on a stage built from ice

By Stephen Hill published

Lapland show at minus 20 degrees presented unique problems - and they weren’t even sure anyone would be there to watch

Photos of Bring Me The Horizon, Metallica, Slipknot and Iron Maiden performing live

10 times massive metal bands played ridiculously intimate concerts

By Stephen Hill published

Metallica, Iron Maiden and Slipknot have all performed to the tiniest of crowds after making it big

Photos of Damnocracy, Prophets Of Rage and Methods Of Mayhem

10 heavy metal supergroups who weren’t so super

By Stephen Hill published

Damnocracy, Tapeworm and Device might have seemed like dream team-ups, but they couldn’t amount to the sum of their parts

Crypta, Allfather Ottto and Wallowing pose for different promo shots

Grizzly death metal, electrifying hardcore, sludgy thrash and extreme weirdness...here are the best new bands you need to hear this month

By Matt Mills published

Gagging for some brilliant new metal to wrap your ears around? We have you covered

Feeder, essential albums

A beginner's guide to Feeder in five essential albums

By Stephen Hill published

The story of Feeder, one of Britain's most under-rated and consistently brilliant alt. rock bands, in five essential records

Skindred's Benji Webbe 2023

"All I’ve ever wanted to do is spread positivity through music": How Skindred's Benji Webbe went from ska-loving orphan to reggae-metal innovator and the "unofficial mayor" of Newport

By Stephen Hill published

After 25 years Skindred have gone from reggae-metal innovators to playing arenas, Glastonbury Festival and a UK top 10 with new album Smile

Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold and Bring Me The Horizon album covers

10 metal bands who completely changed and immediately made a masterpiece

By Stephen Hill published

Bands need to evolve to survive, and these classic albums by Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold and Sepultura are masterclasses in switching everything up

Sonic Youth essential albums

A beginner's guide to Sonic Youth in five essential albums

By Stephen Hill published

Where to start with New York's most influential 'underground' guitar band since The Velvet Underground

The changing face of metal and hardscore: Death Grips, Witch Fever, Backxwash, Scowl

The success of this summer's Outbreak and Supersonic festivals mean a line has now been drawn in the sand: no longer can heavy music festival bookers utter the lie "We would book more women/people of colour, but there aren’t any”

By Stephen Hill published

There was much more to Outbreak and Supersonic than white men with guitars, and the UK festival scene now feels vital and vibrant again

Sylosis in 2023

With any justice, A Sign Of Things To Come is the album that will finally take Sylosis out of the British metal underground and into the big time

By Stephen Hill published

Sylosis have been at the forefront of the underground British metal scene for over a decade. A Sign Of Things To Come is proof they're ready for bigger things

A screenshot of Alien Ant Farm's Smooth Criminal music video

“As soon as I heard it, I just started laughing!” How Alien Ant Farm’s bizarre cover of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal turned them from D-listers to nu metal giants (at least, for a short while)

By Stephen Hill published

In 2000, Alien Ant Farm were nu metal also-rans struggling to find their place. Then an endorsement from Papa Roach and one hard-rocking Michael Jackson cover thrust them up the charts

Photos of Metallica, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit and Avenged Sevenfold performing live

10 iconic metal bands with one bad album

By Stephen Hill published

Metallica, Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold are all hugely reliable bands – apart from on one painful occasion

Sepultura in 1996

“It’s like our Ace Of Spades. I’ll have to play it forever!” How Roots Bloody Roots made Sepultura nu metal superstars – before the band tore themselves apart

By Matt Mills published

Roots Bloody Roots made Sepultura one of metal’s biggest bands in 1996. Not even a year later, the lineup that made it imploded.

Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith of Iron maiden performing in 2001

“I don’t want to equal people’s expectations – I want to exceed them.” How Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to Iron Maiden and saved the band's career

By Stephen Hill published

In the late ’90s, Iron Maiden were creatively flagging and unable to fill venues. Then two of their most adored members, Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith, returned to make them megastars again.

Photos of James Hetfield and Dane DeHaan, and a poster for Metallica Through The Never

“We put a lot of money, time and effort into it, then it disappeared.” The story of Metallica: Through The Never – how metal’s biggest band and a Spider-Man star disastrously bombed at the box office

By Stephen Hill published

Metallica wanted to make their answer to Pink Floyd’s The Wall and Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains The Same, and even hired future Spider-Man star Dane DeHaan to help. But then Metallica: Through The Never became one of the band’s most costly misadventures.

Matty Healy on stage at Reading Festival 2023

Reading Festival 2023 showed that when Matty Healy tones down his nonsense, The 1975 remain a top tier live band

By Stephen Hill published

Low on controversy and high on great songs, this is the kind of 1975 set we need in our lives

Joe Duplantier

"The closest metal scene was two hours away. We couldn't just go and see a show." From being an outsider to playing Sepultura songs with Max Cavalera, these are the life lessons of Gojira's Joe Duplantier

By Stephen Hill published

Joe Duplantier is one of metal's most thoughtful and widely respected figures. This is what he's learned through a career in music

Elliott Smith

"The songs have a vibe of, Get the f**k off me, and quit telling me what I should be doing": Why XO is the most perfect representation of Elliott Smith's brooding, beautiful genius

By Stephen Hill published

Released on August 25, 1998, Elliott Smith's XO is a treasure-trove of brilliance from a true cult artist

Various classic deathcore albums

A beginner's guide to deathcore in five essential albums

By Stephen Hill published

Think deathcore is a bit one-note? Think again. Here are five albums that perfectly chart its evolution over the past two decades

Lauryn Hill

"I was considered an enemy": In the face of misogyny, sexism, corporate bullying, betrayal and abuse, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is the joyous, defiant, fierce and fearless sound of an artist refusing to shut up and sing

By Stephen Hill published

A salute to the power and majesty of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill as its 25th anniversary approaches

Screenshots from Slipknot's Spit It Out, Foo Fighters' Low and Soundgarden's Jesus Christ Pose

10 hard rock and heavy metal music videos that got banned for the dumbest reasons

By Stephen Hill published

Classic songs by Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Slipknot have all been taken off the airwaves with the most frivolous excuses

Slipknot in 2000

“We were going to take the world by any means necessary”: How Slipknot’s Wait And Bleed punished the mainstream and became the essential nu metal song

By Stephen Hill published

Wait And Bleed was just a demo in dire need of a chorus in 1998. One year later, it was a cornerstone of Slipknot’s stunning debut album and on track to become a megahit.

Empire State Bastard

"I remember driving round listening to Jane Doe by Converge and being so inspired": How members of Biffy Clyro, Oceansize and Slayer teamed up to make one of 2023's most extreme metal debuts

By Stephen Hill published

How Biffy Clyro members Simon Neil and Mike Vennart joined forces to make one of 2023's most extreme metal debuts

Dethklok

"Metal was getting heavier and heavier again. I had this idea..." How Metalocalypse finally brought heavy metal back to the TV screen

By Stephen Hill published

With the likes of Beavis and Butt-head and Headbanger's Ball disappearing from TV, metal needed some new representation on the small screen. Enter a goofy, animated extreme metal band named Dethklok

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