A NEW GOSPEL
Lamb Of God
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It’s been a hard road in recent times for Randy Blythe, but suddenly, the future is looking pretty swell. We spend some quality time with the Lamb Of God frontman and look to the road ahead.
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WHILE SHE SLEEPS
The UK’s most promising young band are set to conquer the next 12 months. Hammer finds out their plans for world domination.
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METALLICA True to form, 2015 will be yet another busy year for Metallica, so we grabbed a skateboard, headed to California and asked Rob Trujillo what the world’s biggest metal band have up their sleeves.
2015: THE YEAR AHEAD Are festivals dead? Will Of Mice & Men step up? And where the fuck are Tool? We investigate the biggest issues set to shape our year.
SLAYER 10
Will Slayer emerge from their most difficult and controversial period with a blinding new album? The band themselves sound pretty confident.
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MASSIVE 12
Still have a few rounds of booze-fuelled madness in you after the festive period? Massive are on hand to help...
Ten second song guy
74 new years day
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He’s taken the internet by storm with his incredible vocal talent. We chat to Anthony Vincent to find out more.
’s Whaotur y on CD? free.14 P
Judas Priest
Art Art director JAMES ISAACS james.isaacs@teamrock.com Art Editor LEWIS SOMERSCALES lewis.somerscales@teamrock.com Deputy Art Editor Louise Brock louise.brock@teamrock.com Contributors: Terry Bezer, Paul Brannigan, Dean Brown, Cheryl Carter, Chris Chantler, Toby Cook, Joe Daly, Malcolm Dome, John Doran, Jerry Ewing, Connie Gordon, Jason Hicks, Stephen Hill, Emma Johnston, Dave Ling, Gavin Lloyd, Edwin McFee, Chris McGarel, Ken McIntyre, Joel McIver, Mörat, Catherine Morris, Ben Myers, Dayal Patterson, Adam Rees, Alastair Riddell, Holly Wright, Nik Young. Subbing: Jayne Nelson. Design: John Woolford PHOTOGRAPHERS: Derek Bremner, Stephanie Cabral, Mick Hutson, Will Ireland, Tina Korhonen, John McMurtrie, Kevin Nixon, Jake Owens, Ester Segarra, James Sharrock, Travis Shinn cover: John McMurtrie, Travis Shinn
senior editorial team
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Editorial director Scott Rowley creative director Brad MERRETT Editor-In-Chief alexander milas Editorial operations manager ALEX BURROWS
He’s usually as cool as ice, but even the mighty Ihsahn is a fanboy at heart. The Emperor frontman tells us why he worships the Metal God!
Digital team DIGITAL PRODUCTION EDITOR EMMA JOHNSTON DIGITAL ART EDITOR AARON STANDEN DIGITAL ART EDITOR MARK CRITCHELL EditorIAL DESIGNER JEFF LEE
XJAPAN
commercial
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They’re unknown to the man on the street, and yet they’re one of the world’s biggest rock bands. We hit New York City to analyse the rise of a global phenomenon.
NEW YEARS DAY 74
They’re determined to bring the theatricality back to rock’n’roll, and with powerhouse vocalist Ashley Costello in charge, New Years Day might just manage it.
102 Bring Me The Horizon
METALDOWN UNDER
Su sc anb d s ribe £££ ave P.11 s! 2
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Just what the fuck are they putting in the water in Australia?! We look into the rise of the world’s most unstoppable metal scene.
UN D
Melechesh 118 A Babylonian blast!
Zom
122 Death metal devastation!
REDEMPTION FEST, DEICIDE, MARDUK, ASCENSION, VOICES
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GOING UND ERG RO
marketing & Circulation
Directors
BUCKCHERRY
Frontman Josh Todd has lived a hell of a life so far, and somehow survived it. He has a fair few stories to tell as a result. If you want eye-openers, they’re right here.
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ADMIN
70 x japan
REVIEWS BRING ME THE HORIZON 102 Oli Sykes and co hit Wembley and the Underworld!
MASTODON, MACHINE HEAD, AT THE GATES, BEHEMOTH, MARILYN MANSON, Venom, METALLICA, THE AMITY AFFLICTION, KING DIAMOND
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metalhammer.com 5
From a potentially game-changing new album to becoming leaders of their scene, it looks set to be a huge year for While She Sleeps. They’re ready to...
“W E
W O L B O WANT T
” k r a p E H T F OU T O The Sleeps game
34 metalhammer.com
plan for 2015 is
clear
WHILE SHE SLEEPS
W ORD S : g av i n l l o y d . P i c t u r e s : J o h n M c M u r t r i e
A
fter the most fr us career, it’d be ea trating year of their sy feel uncertain ab for While She Sleeps to ou saddle. Followin t getting back in the g singer Loz Tayl surger y in Dece or mber 2013, a six- ’s throat brea month could have finis k in the midst of a prolific ru n he A lesser band, ho d of f the momentum of a lesser of action wever, they are band. With a new albu m m, Brainwashed, ost definitely not. some new tours endless possibili and ties ah much still lookin ead of them, this is a band ve ry g to the future. And, as discovered when we caught up w Hammer ith guitarist Sean Long for a ch yet prove vital to at, it’s a future that could our scene. Is it fair to sa y that 2014 w year for W as a mixed “It was an insane hile She Sleeps ride of writ is going on?!’ W e were tr ying to ing and, ‘What the fuck write in betwee all this shit sort n ge ed practising for th with Loz [his second surger y] tting e In Flames tour an It’s been insane at the end of th d .” e year. How big a year “We’ve all defin do you see 2015 being for yo ite consideration an ly got high hopes with the am u guys? ount of d ef fort that’s be I’d like to say th en put into this e al ef fort that no on silver lining of this record is m bum. ade of e will ever know time and ef fort about. We put so in think took that to little bits that you wouldn’t much ev long to write, bu t the way that we en distinguish it an d get it perfect for people to he like to so long. We’re ve ar ry to be good for th pick y and controlling over wh takes us at’s going e record. We all do ho a big year. I want to blow This Is Th pe it’s going to be e Six out of the park.” What are you r Sleeps can ac hopes and aspirations fo r what hi “First and forem eve this year? ost, I want to se e th what that brings with it, tour-wis e album do well and see e. I want to get a great metalhammer.com 35
Randy Blythe: facing the future without fear
40 metalhammer.com
TS
Lamb OF GOD
RESOLUTION
HIS DEMONS NOW BEHIND HIM, THERE’S PLENTY TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE LIFE OF RANDY BLYTHE. WITH SOME PHOTOGRAPHIC ASSISTANCE FROM THE MAN HIMSELF, WE HEAD STATESIDE TO FIND A MAN READY FOR WHATEVER 2015 MAY BRING. W O R D S : M Ö R AT. P i c t u r e s : T r av i s S h i n n ( T S ) & R a n d y Bly t h e ( R B )
I
t was a hot and dusty August afternoon in Council Buffs, Iowa, 2012, when Metal Hammer interviewed Lamb Of God frontman Randy Blythe for what was arguably the biggest story in rock that year – if not the entire decade. Having been arrested at Prague airport on June 27 of that year on charges of manslaughter, following the death of 19-year-old Lamb Of God fan Daniel Nosek at a show two years previous, Randy was just 12 days out on bail from a Czech prison, and facing a possible five to 10 years without parole should the case go to trial. It was a surreal day, to say the least. Headlining the second stage at the inaugural Knotfest, Lamb Of God were, of course, phenomenal, but, still, there was a terrible gnawing worry that this would be the last time we’d see the band, the last time we’d ever see Randy on a stage. Only two weeks before he was arrested, we were partying with Randy on the HMS Hammer on the way to
the Metal Hammer Golden Gods. Like we said: it was surreal. Ultimately, Randy returned to the Czech Republic to face trial and was found not guilty (although deemed “morally responsible” for the death), and so we talk to him today, in North Carolina, as a free man about to embark on a year that, for the first time in a while, leaves him free to do as he wishes. And, as Hammer discovers, it is a year
“My book’s being edited now,” he reveals. “I mentioned you because I was really careful about any press I was doing at that time. I have a good relationship with Metal Hammer and I was like, ‘Well, these guys aren’t going to fuck me over.’” What do you remember of the Knotfest gig? It seemed like it was very cathartic for you? “It was just fucking overwhelming. We were half an hour late going
“It’s been a nuclear mind-fuck” Randy on getting out of prison and witnessing the support he had been shown while incarcerated
set to be brimming with projects, personal fulfilment and, most noticeably of course, a new Lamb Of God record. Before that, though, there’s the matter of his first book, Dark Days: My Tribulations And Trials; due for release this year and beginning with the day he was arrested, ultimately ending right here on a porch, by the beach.
on because Machine Head blew up the power, but Slipknot were cool enough to let us go on late and do our whole set. But it was just overwhelming, and then the next night I kind of came into reality, like, ‘Whoa, I’m really on stage, and I was in prison less than two weeks ago!’ It’s hard to explain the nuclear mind-fuck that is getting out of prison and
having this overwhelming show of support, that had been going on while I was in prison, but I had no idea because I had pretty much no contact with the outside world.” What did you think of the verdict, ‘not guilty, but morally responsible’? “I think what happened was the court was like, ‘OK, he’s not guilty, we’re not putting him in prison.’ But the prosecuting attorney was very unhappy about that, and he is the state. Because the American government did not cooperate with the Czech government, and the prosecuting attorney was a former police interrogator, that pissed him off. I think there was a little bit of appeasement by the Czech state, but I was a little confused by the verdict. Either you’re guilty or you’re not guilty. I address that pretty explicitly in the book. Obviously I didn’t wish to avoid any responsibility I may have in the matter, because if
metalhammer.com 41
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