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It’s nut up or shut up time for Glamour Of The Kill, and in a year where we’ve seen Bullet For My Valentine stumble with Temper Temper, there’s

Their 2011 debut, The Summoning, was solid if unspectacular, and the first opening moments of Savages underline that this is clearly a big, big step up. The production that Asking Alexandria and Of Mice & Men collaborator Joey Sturgis has brought to the table has given GOTK’s riffs some colossal weight, while their hooks and those big choruses mostly land on the right side of the anthemic/cheesy divide.

True, at times they do still come across a bit BFMV-lite – The Only One and Rescue Me in particular feel like cast-offs from The Poison – but when they do hit the spot, such as crushing album-opener Break, Maiden-flirting romp Second Chance and the Avenged-friendly A Beautiful Day To Die, the guys really do knock it out of the park. This is a band on the rise.

Merlin moved into his role as Executive Editor of Louder in early 2022, following over ten years working at Metal Hammer. While there, he served as Online Editor and Deputy Editor, before being promoted to Editor in 2016. Before joining Metal Hammer, Merlin worked as Associate Editor at Terrorizer Magazine and has previously written for the likes of Classic Rock, Rock Sound, eFestivals and others. Across his career he has interviewed legends including Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy, Metallica, Iron Maiden (including getting a trip on Ed Force One courtesy of Bruce Dickinson), Guns N' Roses, KISS, Slipknot, System Of A Down and Meat Loaf. He has also presented and produced the Metal Hammer Podcast, presented the Metal Hammer Radio Show and is probably responsible for 90% of all nu metal-related content making it onto the site.