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

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NIGHTWISH!

MEET THE BAND

FUN GUYS

OUT FROM THE DARK • Tony Iommi is back with his first solo album in more than 20 years

HAMMER STEREO • What’s been blowing our office speakers

WHO ARE THE BIG 4 OF 2000s GIRL POP? • Bimbocore inventor Scene Queen takes your questions on chart-topping icons, trolls and WWE

JOHN CARPENTER • His dad played violin for Roy Orbison and his kids made him fall for Metallica – these are the songs that have inspired the horror master

NIKLAS KARLSSON • What Orbit Culture’s singer/guitarist has learned from working in a slaughterhouse, shitting excessively and screaming until he faints

K.I.N.G. SATYRICON • How a bunch of black metal rebels ended up partying on MTV and hob-nobbing with Norway’s fashion elite

SAINT AGNES • Battling grief and fighting for survival, these London punks found fresh hope in the grimy sounds of industrial

CUT SHORT • The Liverpudlians shattering the stigma around mental health

POWER PALADIN • They might come from a land of ice and snow, but don’t expect Iceland’s power metallers to cosplay as Vikings

FLESH CREEP • The Brummie ‘humility-core’ band delivering empathy with buzzsaw riffs

BELIEVE IN NOTHING • Dismal noise from the English seaside

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

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30 YeaRS OF nIGHtWISH • Tuomas Holopainen formed symphonic metal’s grandest band in the tiny Finnish town of Kitee in 1996. Three decades later, the man himself gives Metal Hammer an exclusive tour of the place where it all began

“JESUS! I JUST SAID YES TO NIGHTWISH!” • Floor Jansen on her 14-year journey with symphonic metal’s biggest band

“I’m playing clarinet with my mates in 1991!” • Hammer takes a tour of the exhibition in the heart of Kitee dedicated to local heroes Nightwish. Our guide? Tuomas Holopainen

RESIDENT EVIL • On October 7, 2026, Slayer’s Reign In Blood turns 40. To mark this monumental anniversary, here are 40 things you may not know about the album that redefined metal

MARIA BRINK • In This Moment’s frontwoman is more than just one of rock’s most distinctive stars – she’s a survivor, an empath and a witch

THIS IS VIOLINCORE • Think there’s nothing new to bring to metalcore? Violin-toting Swedes Imminence have other ideas – and they’re one of the most talked-about bands of 2026 because of it

“A VIOLIN ROADIE WOULD BE NICE” • Eddie Berg on the fascination of the fiddle

A KIND OF MAGIC • Wizards, spells and metalcore WhatsApp groups? Hammer steps into the weird and wonderful world of Magic: The Gathering, with Atreyu as our guides

“I’m tired of hiding who I am” • In May, Caleb Shomo came out to his fans via social media. New record Pure Ecstasy is about reckoning with his past – and living as his authentic self

CANCER BATS • DIY gigs, Black Sabbath covers and stolen vans – the Toronto punk-metal...