Metal Hammer UK
May 2025For over three decades, Metal Hammer has brought the biggest and the best in the world of metal each and every single month. From exclusive interviews with the biggest bands in our game to celebrating the rise of the new artists taking our genre into its next chapter, we represent heavy music in all its many forms, offering world class features, unbiased reviews and special looks inside the scenes no one else will talk about. Be it heavy metal, punk, hardcore, grunge, alternative, goth, industrial, djent or the stuff so bizarre it defies classification, you'll find it all here and backed by the best writers and photographers in our game. If you like heavy music on any level, welcome to your new favourite magazine.
WE’RE SATANIZED!
HABEMUS PAPAM! GRAB your vestments and slap on your corpsepaint, because the era of Papa V Perpetua is upon us. As Ghost prepare to drop Skeletá and embark on their world tour, our Merlin Alderslade sits down for an audience with the man behind the mask, Tobias Forge. Whereas last album Impera was about the rise and fall of empires, Skeletá sees the frontman getting all existential on our asses. It is, he says, about “being human. Being alive.” Considering Ghost’s carefully crafted world of pomp, ceremony and Satan invocations, could this be his most personal release yet? Read all about it on page 34. And as for Perpetua… well, we won’t know what he’s like until the curtain drops on those arena shows and he reveals himself in his…
MEET THE BAND
MERLIN ALDERSLADE WRITER Previous editor of this very magazine, and now executive editor of Hammer’s umbrella website, Louder, our Merl is a dyed-in-thewool Ghost fan. His favourite papal emissary was Papa III… but perhaps Perpetua will change that! HOLLY WRIGHT WRITER Holly’s been going to gigs for us since 2010 – that’s a lot of horns thrown! This month, we sent her to Spiritbox’s landmark show at London’s historic Alexandra Palace. Did she have a good time? Find out on p96. JAKE OWENS PHOTOGRAPHER The excellent Jake’s been shooting for us for almost a decade, and this month he captured Employed To Serve. When he’s not hanging out with rock stars, you’ll find him taking beautiful wedding shots. Fun fact: he’s scared of dolls.…
A NIGHT AT THE OPERA
PARKWAY DRIVE WILL play the iconic Sydney Opera House this summer. On June 9, the Australian metalcore mob will perform with a full symphony orchestra in a special, one-night-only, black-tie event. Tickets have already sold out, but the band revealed the show would be recorded for their upcoming live album/film, Home. The quintet last toured their home country in 2024, as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations. After the Sydney Opera House show, they will go to the US for their Summer Of Loud tour – which includes a stop-off at Ohio’s Inkcarceration Festival – before heading to Europe and the UK for an arena tour. In a statement for the Sydney Opera House, frontman Winston McCall said: “For over two decades, we have carried our home in our hearts…
THE GIG OF THE CENTURY
ON JULY 5, metal comes home. That’s the day when the original Black Sabbath line-up will reunite one final time for a blockbuster farewell show in their hometown of Birmingham – an event that’s already shaping up to be the gig of the century. The all-star concert, dubbed Back To The Beginning and held at Villa Park, home of Aston Villa football club, will see Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward playing on the same stage together for the first time in 20 years. The metal legends head up a stacked bill that also features Metallica, Slayer, Guns N’ Roses, Tool and more, plus guest appearances from several other metal A-listers. As well as being the last ever Sabbath gig, it will see the singer making…
HAMMER STEREO
MACHINE HEAD Unatoned “Machine Fucking Head are not fucking around. This slams” ELEANOR GOODMAN EDITOR MESSA The Spin “The doom equivalent of entering a cavern where the walls are filled with glittering jewels” JONATHAN SELZER REVIEWS EDITOR MACHINE HEAD Unatoned “Absolutely crushing. The General and his men are on top form” VANESSA THORPE PRODUCTION EDITOR SPIRITBOX Tsunami Sea “The songs sounded so good in Ally Pally” LOUISE BROCK ART EDITOR CRADLE OF FILTH The Screaming Of The Valkyries “The bats are back in the belfries; Cradle are at their theatrical best again” RICH HOBSON STAFF WRITER MACHINE HEAD Unatoned “Bands really aren’t supposed to make albums this bold so far into their career” DAVE EVERLEY ASSOCIATE EDITOR…
WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU WANT TO BE ZAKK CALM?
“SO, WHAT ARE we doing here? Sniffing glue and shooting heroin?” Zakk Wylde is in typically boisterous spirits after being led into the ‘I Am Anarchy’ suite in London’s swanky Chateau Denmark hotel, so called because it’s where punk legends the Sex Pistols lived and rehearsed during their infamous heyday. It’s a historic venue, but it takes more than that to faze you when you’re Ozzy’s right-hand man, front Black Label Society, lead Black Sabbath covers band Zakk Sabbath, and are an all-round metal guitar legend. But if the ghost of Sid Vicious can’t rattle Zakk, let’s see if questions from Hammer’s notoriously inquisitive readership can! What does Zakk Wylde do in his free time when he wants to be Zakk Calm? Chris Baudette, Facebook “Usually when I’m home, therapy…
