“There’s a man trapped inside my cat!” – genre-smashing star Poppy is on the cover of the new issue of Metal Hammer with an exclusive new interview

The new issue of Metal Hammer features genre-smashing modern metal leader Poppy on the cover, following the release of this year’s Empty Hands album and the announcement of her tour with Evanescence in December.

We speak to the enigmatic star about working with puppets, collaborating with some of metal’s biggest artists, and life on the road. In the song Crystallized, from 2024’s Negative Spaces album, she sings about talking to her cat, Pi, who she takes on tour.

“He’s very communicative,” she explains. “I am thoroughly convinced that there’s a human inside there. At first, people thought I was a little… unstable. And then spending more time around him, everybody says, ‘Oh yeah, there is a man inside of Pi!’ He’s trapped. That’s why he could never go to a cat hotel, because he would probably try to hurt me.”

Needless to say, it's an interview unlike any other you'll likely read this year...

Elsewhere in the magazine, we celebrate 40 years of Metallica magnum opus Master Of Puppets, by talking to those it impacted the most. David Ellefson recalls listening to it secretly on the Megadeth tour bus, while producer Flemming Rasmussen remembers the importance of the late Cliff Burton.

“Cliff was the oldest, and the one with a musical education, so they leaned on him to get shit done,” he says. “He took part in all of the decisive processes. Nothing really happened in Metallica unless Cliff nodded ‘yes’.”

We also uncover the story behind Static-X breakthrough song Push It, go AAA with deathcore gateway band Lorna Shore, and spend a weekend in Bangkok inside one of Asia’s most passionate metal scenes.

Crowbar explain how they became metal’s unlikeliest TikTok stars, Sepultura take us inside their final release, and Skindred’s Benji Webbe reveals how he went from the Newport reggae scene to fronting one of metal’s greatest live bands.

Myrkur takes your questions on herding cows, John Garcia tells us what he learned from playing generator parties in Kyuss, and we meet Cage Fight’s Rachel Aspe – metal’s knockout new star.

All this, along with Amon Amarth, Exodus, Nervosa, Mimi Barks, Urne, Shields, Sleep Theory, Avatar, Mayhem, Foo Fighters, 7000Tons Of Metal and much, much more.

Only in the new issue of Metal Hammer, on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door