
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.
Latest articles by Stephen Hill

We rank every Architects album from worst to best
By Merlin Alderslade, Stephen Hill published
One of the UK's greatest ever metal exports has amassed a hell of a catalogue. Here's our guide to every album, in reverse order of greatness

"I lost a daughter, the only child I ever had and I didn’t want to deal with that." Randy Blythe explains how his new book is all about making peace with trauma and strife
By Stephen Hill published
Lamb Of God's frontman has a new book in Just Beyond The Light: Making Peace With The Wars Inside Our Head

How Employed To Serve are fostering British metal's next gen
By Stephen Hill published
From starting their own label and running a PR firm to teaming up with Jesse Leach and Will Ramos, Employed To Serve represent the true spirit of DIY

"I’d tell Randy Rhoads how great he is and how much I love him."
By Stephen Hill published
Zakk Wylde on shredders, best movies and his favourite Ozzy Osbourne moment

Beast mode: how Beast In Black, Diablo IV and Berserk have created 2025's ultimate metal-gaming-manga team-up
By Stephen Hill published
Sponsor Content Created With Blizzard Entertainment
As the universes of Diablo and Berserk cross over, Blizzard have partnered with Beast In Black to reveal brand new song Enter The Behelit

The feral story of Discharge’s Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing, the punk album that changed metal
By Stephen Hill published
How D-beat pioneers Discharge took punk and metal to extreme new realms

The ultimate Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath playlist
By Rich Hobson published
Members of Metallica, Guns N' Roses, Halestorm and more choose the best songs featuring the Prince Of Darkness

"Ozzy and I were like a couple of naughty schoolkids." Zakk Wylde shares his favourite (not so) wholesome memory of hanging out with The Prince Of Darkness
By Rich Hobson published
Sneaking beers on tour in Japan? Heaven forbid

The best new metal bands you need to hear in April 2025
By Rich Hobson published
Meet Knocked Loose spin-off spinkickers Church Tongue, Siberian black metallers Grima, Texan metalcore mob Catch Your Breath and Melbourne deathcore brutes Mélancolia

Alien Weaponry Te Rā album review
By Stephen Hill published
New Zealand's Alien Weaponry step up to the big leagues on stunning third album

""My dad smashed the Number Of The Beast: ‘I’m forbidding Devil’s music in my house!’"
By Stephen Hill published
How Jesse Leach went from preacher's son to metalcore icon with Killswitch Engage

"A lot of people think it’s about Vikings, but it never was"
By Stephen Hill published
We took Wardruna's Einar Selvik foraging in one of London's oldest graveyards

"I get a kick out of pissing off the purists."
By Stephen Hill published
From winding up death metal legend Glen Benton to chaotic live shows in their underpants, Chat Pile are one of metal's wildest new bands

This Consequence is the heaviest Killswitch Engage album in over a decade. And it absolutely slaps
By Stephen Hill published
Killswitch Engage go rawer and heavier than they have in some time, led by an impassioned Jesse Leach

How Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine revitalised metal
By Stephen Hill published
How Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine ushered in metal's next generation

Killswitch Engage’s Jesse Leach explains the trauma and anger behind new album This Consequence
By Stephen Hill published
Jesse Leach tried to write “words of wisdom” for Killswitch Engage’s next album, but it ended up containing the angriest songs of their career

Jinjer on their emotional new album - and why it's taken so long to get here
By Stephen Hill published
We catch up with Ukrainian metallers Jinjer ahead of new album Duél

The brilliant new metal bands you need to hear in January 2025
By Rich Hobson published
From the post-hardcore squall of Hidden Mothers to Lutharo's invigorating mix of power metal and melodeath, to one-woman black metaller Hulder and Saudi Arabian tech-prog-metallers Ana.n7n, these are the bands you need to hear in January 2025

Arch Enemy discuss “chaotic” new album Blood Dynasty
By Stephen Hill published
Band founder Michael Amott spills the secrets of Arch Enemy’s highly anticipated new album

These classic metal albums turn 20 in 2025
By Stephen Hill published
Trivium’s Ascendancy, Bullet For My Valentine’s The Poison and Avenged Sevenfold’s City Of Evil are 20 years old now, and your knees aren’t what they used to be

Talking Heads open up new worlds on the genre-bending Remain In Light
By Classic Rock Magazine published
In which Talking Heads seamlessly merged funk, afrobeat and early hip-hop rhythms with their more abrasive art-rock ideas

"It’s actually Sid Wilson’s favourite Slipknot song." Inside nu metal's greatest deep cuts
By Metal Hammer published
From a Slipknot buried treasure to the long-overlooked Korn rarity, these are the overlooked classics in the nu metal canon

Metal Hammer's 50 best albums of 2024
By Metal Hammer published
From Judas Priest's Invincible Shield to Nightwish's Yesterwynde and Opeth's return to extremity, these are the metal albums that ruled 2024
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