I’LL NEVER FORGET THE FIRST TIME I SAW SONNE

I WAS AT a mate’s house watching Kerrang!

ENJOY THE SILENCE?

PRESS/ISABELLA D’ALESSANDRO LAST MONTH, ON Saturday February 27, Lacuna

PRAISE SEITAN!

Meet the YouTube sensation proving that black metal and veganism are a match made in Hell

10 THINGS WE LEARNED THIS MONTH

What’s been blowing our tiny brains

STOP DOING PRIEST WRONG!

And other such demands, queries and thoughts you lot shared with us this month

WHAT EXTINCT ANIMAL WOULD YOU BRING BACK?

As the frontman of Loathe, the Deftones-approved young band who are tearing up the UK scene, Kadeem France has a lot to be excited about. But how will he fare with your questions?

RANDY BLYTHE

The Lamb Of God frontman reflects on the highs, lows and personal battles that went into forging more than a quarter-century of heavy metal brilliance

LINGUA IGNOTA

One of the most exhilarating voices of the underground returns – with added banjo

CLOUDS OVER CALIFORNIA BY DEVILDRIVER

Written for landmark third album The Last Kind Words, this future setlist staple for the modern metal heavyweights revealed things weren’t as sunny as they seemed

PUPIL SLICER

With a name like that, it’s hardly gonna be smooth jazz. Meet the Londoners tearing up the underground with their savage grind/math sounds

SENYAWA

Experimental duo blend traditional Indonesian sounds with boundarypushing heaviness

FROZEN SOUL

Meet the Texan titans of cold-school death metal

THE HYENA KILL

After almost giving up, these altrockers turned painful experience into a dark, expansive new sound

STEPSON

Meet the young Brisbane crew making metalcore exciting again

MICHIGANDER

What your favourite bands are listening to

HOARD ALMIGHTY

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

THE BIG DEBATE

In a recent issue of Metal Hammer, Korn/Love And Death guitarist Head suggested that Korn had inspired their fair share of good and, um, not so good metal bands. Here’s what you lot had to say on the matter

HAMMER STEREO

What’s been blowing our office speakers

HOW MUTTER CHANGED THE GAME

With two albums under their leather belts and the gag between their teeth, Rammstein had a point to prove. Twenty years on, this is how  Mutter made them megastars  

EVANESCENCE HAVEN'T RELEASED A 'PROPER' ALBUM FOR 10 YEARS...

… and yet it’s been the busiest and most turbulent decade of Amy Lee’s life. Long-awaited new record The Bitter Truth was born from honesty, tragedy and a life well lived

Angry Critics, Secret Auditions And The Exit Of Paul Di'Anno: Inside Killers

After their debut shook metal to its foundations, Iron Maiden needed something big for a follow-up. But there were some significant challenges ahead

SERJ TANKIAN

He’s just released an eye-opening personal documentary, but how much do you really know about System’s mainman? We sat down to talk through his incredible life story

"I DON'T THINK PEOPLE SHOULD BE SCARED OF DYING"

From heroin addiction, to Hurricane Katrina, to the liver disease that could have been fatal, Eyehategod’s Mike IX Williams has survived it all and lived to tell the tale

"CLIVE BARKER WROTE TO ME"

Mike might howl like a blowtorched dog, but he’s an erudite guy and published author. He explains how literature has influenced him

THE 20 BEST ALBUMS EVER

It remains metal’s most gruesome, over-the-top and gloriously extreme subgenre. Here are death metal’s 20 finest cuts, as picked by our rancid writers (er, no offence)

"PEOPLE CALL US LEADERS OF THE NU METAL RESURGENCE… I HOPE WE DON ’T LET THEM DOWN"

Starting life as a thrash band before getting inspired by nu metal’s downtuned guitars, big personalities and mainstream appeal, Tetrarch are twisting the bones of the genre into inspiring new forms

DOWNTUNED FOR LIFE

Guitarist Diamond Rowe picks her favourite nu metal axe-wielders

LG PETROV WAS THE ULTIMATE METALHEAD

Entombed’s legendary frontman wasn’t just a great vocalist – his lust for life made him an adored figure in our world

RIP, LG

The great and the good of metal pay their respects to a lifer and an innovator of the genre

WHILE SHE SLEEPS

SleepsSociety

’68

GiveOneTakeOne

THE ARMED

Ultrapop

AS EVERYTHING UNFOLDS

Within Each Lies The Other

ÅRABROT

NorwegianGothic

AUTARKH

Form In Motion

BLAZE BAYLEY

War Within Me

BEWITCHER

Cursed Be Thy Kingdom CENTURY MEDIA Oregon’s

BLUE OX

Holy Vore

BREATHS

Lined In Silver

CAMBION

ConflagrateThe Celestial Refugium

CELESTIAL SANCTUARY

Soul Diminished

BODOM AFTER MIDNIGHT

Paint The Sky With Blood

BONGZILLA

Weedsconsin

CONAN

Live At Freak Valley

COSMIC REAPER

Cosmic Reaper

CRUELTY

ThereIs No God Where  I Am

CRYPTOSIS

Bionic Swarm

DEMISER

Through The Gate Eternal

EGO KILL TALENT

The Dance Between Extremes

FUATH

II

SMALL MERCIES

Where EP is short for ‘Epic Potential’

CANNIBAL CORPSE

Violence Unimagined

FUOCO FATUO

Obsidian Katabasis

GENGHIS TRON

Dream Weapon

GREENLEAF

Echoes  From A Mass

GRORR

Ddulden’s Last Flight

HORNDAL

Conceptual stoner thrashers forge a new, hometown tale

IMMERSE

The Weight That Holds Me Here

LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT

LTE3

CAPRA

In Transmission

DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL

Loss

LOS DISIDENTES DEL SUCIO MOTEL

Polaris

MARE COGNITUM

Solar Paroxysm

MONO

Beyond The Past

WORLD SERVICE

Heavy metal uprisings from around the globe

MORK

Kathedralen

NORTHMAÄN

Northmaän

OLDE

Pilgrimage

PERENNIAL ISOLATION

Portraits

HOLDING ABSENCE

The Greatest Mistake Of My Life

LAMB OF GOD

Live In Richmond,VA

PURGATORY

Lawless To Grave

SANGUISUGABOGG

Tortured Whole

SMITH/KOTZEN

Smith/Kotzen

SPELLJAMMER

Abyssal Trip

DEVIN TOWNSEND

DevolutionSeries #1 – AcousticallyInclined, LiveInLeeds

WHEEL

Resident Human

WODE

Burn In Many Mirrors

THE LION’S DAUGHTER

Skin Show

SLAY AT HOME FEST

YOUTUBE

LEPROUS

NOTODDEN TEATER, NOTODDEN, NORWAY

GATECREEPER

CRESCENT BALLROOM, PHOENIX

SPIRIT MOTHER/MOUNTAIN TAMER

MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA

CROWBAR

OCD RECORDINGS AND PRODUCTION, NEW ORLEANS

BENJI WEBBE SKINDRED

The Skindred frontman on Brit-pop, costume changes and, er, Asda