Yeah, Babymetal are on the cover of the new Metal Hammer but that’s not all! We’ve got Iron Maiden, Halestorm, Lamb Of God, Ghost, Arch Enemy and LOADS more! Here are just ten of the thousands of things you can learn in Metal Hammer 273.
Metal Hammer issue 273 is in stores now and can be downloaded here. Or read it on TeamRock+.
**1. Iron Maiden have consulted a Mayan expert for their new album **The album’s called The Book Of Souls, and the band hired Simon Martin, a renowned expert on the Mayan civilisation, to ensure the authenticity of the accompanying artwork. And he’s also got some practical advice for any Maiden fans planning on a visit to ancient Mayan sites in Mexico and other parts of Central America: watch out for bug bites!
2. Within Temptation’s Sharon Den Adel chooses Maiden to define metal The vocalist reckons Maiden’s Piece Of Mind is the perfect place for anyone to start if they want to get into metal. “Epic guitars and a great album cover,” she says. And Gothic from Paradise Lost is the most underrated album. Why? “They laid down the genre for people like us”.
**3. Don’t select anyone from Bring Me The Horizon for your cricket team! **They may have deservedly picked up the Best UK Band award at the Golden Gods, but then they promptly dropped it. Twice! They’ll not make good fielders in the slips. We blame the vast quantities of booze on offer. Mind you, they were not alone in such indulgence.
4. Michael Amott loves the Scorpions The Arch Enemy guitar god loves the Schenker brothers. He reckons Rudolf of the Scorps isn’t a guitar player’s guitarist, but he is a magician. That’ll work for us… get those human pyramids going, Michael.
5. Holy Grail’s Alex Lee is a yo-yo fanatic The guitarist has almost 100 of the things. From plastic to metal. One even costs over $200 – it’s from Japan, naturally. But has he got any made from human bone?! And just how metal is it when you’re a yo-yo master? Now, there are two relevant questions.
6. Babymetal love the Priest That’s Judas Priest, of course. The J-metal phenomenon even have a t-shirt inspired by the sleeve of the Priest’s Painkiller album, with all three of them riding on that bike. No wonder they were looking forward to seeing Judas Priest more than any other band at Download!
**7. Ghost talk cats and mice **Apparently, the ghoulish gremlins’ new album Meliora is all about what happens in a futuristic pre-apocalyptic society when the cat is out of the house and the mice dance on the table. Then the cat returns. Very Tom & Jerry.
8. Michael ‘Padge’ Paget was pissed off at not being on the last Bullet My My Valentine album Temper Temper was recorded without the guitarist, and he tells us he wasn’t happy. In fact, it “pissed me off”. So, does he think it was in the band’s best interests? No!
9. Lamb Of God deal with history on their new album One song, Torches, is about the self-immolation of a man in Prague, in protest against the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic, in 1968. Another, Anthropoid, is about the assassination of a leading Nazi in the Second World War.
10. Lzzy Hale used her fame to get into a strip club Well, a drunk friend of hers persuaded the bouncer at the strip joint to let them both in, because Lzzy had sung I Get Off, which was a popular dance number in the club! Fame, eh? You never know when it might strike in your favour.
Metal Hammer issue 273 is in stores now and can be downloaded here.
You can also read it on TeamRock+.
