Metal Hammer 408

This very special issue of Metal Hammer brings you the best of 2025! It comes with an exclusive Iron Maiden pin badge for your battle jacket, a Halestorm sticker for your laptop, and a 2026 calendar featuring all your favourite artists. It’s been a wild year of ups and downs – we said goodbye to Black Sabbath and then lost Ozzy two weeks later, Iron Maiden celebrated their 50th birthday, we met Papa V Perpetua, Babymetal broke world records, Metallica played in a beer garden, Sleep Token spawned a tribute band, we lost the irreplaceable Ace Frehley, Brent Hinds and Tomas Lindberg, Parkway brought enough fire power to stun even Rammstein… and it’s all in here, alongside much more. Plus! We bring you the top 50 albums, as voted for (and argued over) by the Hammer writers. Which album came out on top? And do you agree?! Elsewhere in the mag, Anthrax remember the making of Metal Thrashing Mad, Nova Twins answer your questions, and guitar god John 5 delivers his life lessons. We get excited about the Acid Bath reunion hitting the UK, Mawiza’s Awka Mondaka invites us into his record collection, and we meet Calva Louise, the globe-trotting trio mixing metalcore with Latin music. All this, plus all the essential gigs and reviews from the world of metal.