The brand new issue of Metal Hammer celebrates ex-Him frontman Ville Valo’s return to music with his first solo album, Neon Noir.
Inside, the goth-metal legend tells us how he overcame an identity crisis following Him’s split, and emerged with new music, a new heartagram, and a brand new future. “I felt like an outsider, an outcast,” he explains. “It’s a profound feeling to existentially feel that you don’t understand the world or your place in it. Funnily enough, how I got through that was writing.”
Elsewhere in the issue, we preview everything you can expect from metal in 2023, from massive bands such as Babymetal, Avenged Sevenfold, Metallica, Judas Priest and Within Temptation, to newer names such as Polyphia and Slaughter To Prevail.
If that wasn’t enough. Machine Head’s Robb Flynn details the drug overdoses and death threats of his early days, while Corey Taylor and Max Cavalera remember the making of Soulfly anthem Jumpdafuckup. We also grill Kerry King on Slayer, snakes, and, er, Sum 41, and find out why In Flames have returned to the pioneering melodeath sound they turned their backs on in the early 00s.
All that, plus: Evanescence, Korn, Katatonia, Mastodon, In This Moment, Immortal, Epica, Bury Tomorrow, Tesseract, Taipei Houston, Backxwash, and tons more.
Only in the new issue of Metal Hammer, on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
