Metal Hammer UK

For 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.

Metal Hammer UK

WELCOME TO… THE NEW HEAVY 2026!

MEET THE BANDS

RELENTLESS, RECKLESS, FOREVER? • With members of Children Of Bodom celebrating late singer Alexi Laiho with two gigs this month, is this a reformation?

HAMMER STEREO • What’s been blowing our office speakers

WOULD DREAM THEATER EVER EMBRACE TECHNO? • The band’s prodigal son, Mike Portnoy, takes your questions on dance music, sausages and recording with Avenged Sevenfold

THE VOCALIST (GAEREA) • He’s masked. He’s mysterious. He’s known for being in a black metal band. So why does he love Johnny Cash and Linkin Park?

MORGAN LANDER • Kittie’s leader on childhood bar gigs, female rage… and why beautiful bitches always know best

OPEN YOUR EYES ALTER BRIDGE • The alt metal anthem that lifted Alter Bridge out of the ashes of Creed

THE HARA • Avenged Sevenfold. Dream Theater. Robbie Williams?! Meet the Brits making metal for misfits

PINKSHIFT • The Baltimore punks fighting for freedom

TURN COLD • Letting off steam and raging against the machine

OPIA • Gothic doom blanketed with a Victorian shroud

VIANOVA • The djentlemen making dance music angry

HOARD ALMIGHTY • Box sets, underground oddities and all the essential merch you need this month

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DREAMING BIG • Since Sleep Theory went viral on TikTok in 2023, they’ve been growing and growing. And they won’t stop until they’re the biggest band in the world

THE PRESIDENT WILL SEE YOU NOW • They debuted at Download, share management with Sleep Token and have gained a devoted fanbase in less than a year. Can metal’s newest masked band go all the way?

DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH • One of metal’s buzziest bands is fronted by a sword-waving, chainmail-bikini-clad barbarian who dies and is reborn onstage each night. Step into the world of Castle Rat

THE HILLS ARE ALIVE… • …with the sound of screaming. And where’s the noise coming from? Boundary-pushing next-gen deathcore trailblazers Paleface Swiss, the band rewiring metal for 2026

THE COMPLETE STORY OF GHOST

THE 30 GREATEST ALBUMS OF THE 2020s SO FAR • Pagan doom, Marmite metalcore, genre-smashing hardcore, razzle-dazzle arena metal… this has been the soundtrack to the decade to date

NEON KNIGHTS • More than 20 years in, and Avatar have stepped up with their most commercial album yet. Their next move? A support slot with Metallica – if Las Vegas doesn’t kill them first

KREATOR • Forget the USA – Germany produced one of the most venomous thrash bands of them all. Frontman Mille Petrozza looks back on 40 years of extreme aggression

BELLIGERENCE & BOILING PISS • Five essential Kreator albums

THE REVIEWS

ROB ZOMBIE

THE METAL HAMMER STORE IS HERE!

CONVERGE

PUSCIFER

CARPENTER BRUT

KARNIVOOL

SMALL MERCIES • Where EP is short for ‘Epic Potential’

MAYHEM

SYLOSIS

WORLD SERVICE • Heavy metal...