
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

"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

"People said, 'You're going to be a one hit wonder.'" How Higher cemented Creed as rock's new superstars
By Stephen Hill published
Inspired in part by recurring nightmares and visions of heaven, Higher cemented Creed as one of the most successul rock bands of the new millennium

The 10 best hip-hop albums of 2024
By Stephen Hill published
From Los Angeles to London, Belfast to Tampa, the hip-hop world has thrown up some of 2024's most thrilling, imaginative and essential releases

Friends of the late, great Mark Lanegan - including Josh Homme, Dave Gahan, Chrissie Hynde and Bobby Gillespie - assemble in London for an emotional celebration of a truly singular talent
By Stephen Hill published
On what would have been Mark Lanegan's 60th birthday, friends and peers salute a much-missed musical maverick
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