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Luxembourg may be a small country, but there is no shortage of heavy metal bands coming from there. For example, the amazing Blanket Hill! And as they were performing in Wacken, we got the chance to interview them.

Benedetta

I’m here with the amazing Blanket Hill, how are you doing guys?

Blanket Hill

Yeah, very good, very good. We just got off stage, playing Wacken, so we’re still a bit like overwhelmed, but yeah, feeling great.

Benedetta

How does it feel to have played Wacken in its 35th anniversary?

Blanket Hill

Yeah, it’s pretty surreal to be honest. There’s been loads of people who’ve asked us that question now since we got off stage and it’s a bit difficult to answer because I think it will take a couple of days just to kind of come to terms with the experience. But it’s been fantastic, there’s people from all over the world coming together and celebrating and there’s music for everybody. And I just think, also the crew, I do want to mention them because they were so nice. We’re not by far the biggest band playing this festival and they’ve been super sweet and it’s been great. Yeah, I think it’s like a bucket list moment for anyone that starts playing heavy music, playing a festival like Wacken.

Benedetta

Do you think that will we ever reach some sort of equality between men and women in heavy metal music?

Blanket Hill

I hope so because I do think it’s not an issue of quality. I think there are structural issues as well and music seems like a boys club at times, unfortunately. Even if we look at the situation back home, there’s a few bands that have female participation but it’s not equal and I do hope it gets to that point. Because I think, at the very least, we’re just missing out on really good bands and really good music. And I get that people don’t want to make it a big deal. They’re like, “Oh, but I don’t care.” But I guess there are structural issues that need changing. So I think it’s really good that people keep talking about it because it is an issue as is loads of other stuff. So I think it’s good that it’s highlighted especially. So thank you also for talking to us even though you don’t have a girl in the band, really. I think especially the scene that we come from, because we come mostly from the hardcore scene. So hardcore for a long time seemed like this white guys exclusively and all the tough guy shit. But especially in Europe, I think, there’s more and more bands popping up with women playing in them. And those bands are actually really, really good. I think there’s still some people that find an issue with it. Maybe they think it’s not tough enough. If you have a girl in the band, that’s absolute bullshit. These bands, I mean, they’re mostly harder than the other bands. For example, a band like Haywire from Germany. Fucking incredible. I’m not talking about the American Haywire. Incredible. Super, super hardcore.

Benedetta

Guys, thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview with me. Is there anything else that you want to add to our viewers and readers?

Blanket Hill

Yeah, I think if people like hardcore music, we’d appreciate their support in giving us an ear, checking out the songs, and then also what we always want to stress is support your local artists. Because each big band here and all the legendary bands that you have, they start somewhere. And there’s great music everywhere. And I guess in the scope of your magazine, also female-led, female-participation bands that deserve even more of your support than another white guy band playing the same old shit. So yeah, I think that’s really important. And yeah, big shout out to Luxembourg Hardcore, hell yeah. Free Palestine.

The post Interview with Blanket Hill first appeared on FemMetal – Goddesses of Metal.

Pain Of Truth are in really unrelenting form right now as they share another taste of their upcoming self-titled album.

The new track is titled ‘Stranded’, and finds the band musing on the state of the world in as blunt and belligerent way as possible. Basically, we’re all fucked, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

It’s a rather pessimistic stance to take, but one that is bolstered by just how hard it goes. The sharpest riffs, the cleanest of breakdowns and the most potent sense of chaos. It is hardcore as it should be. Unashamed, abrasive and grand.

Get yourself stuck in:

‘Pain Of Truth’ is set for release on September 25 via DAZE. Here is previous offering, ‘Unforgiven’:

The band are set to hit the road this Autumn for an extensive tour with some very special guests throughout. Here are all the places they will be playing, and who they will be playing with:

OCTOBER

14 – MONTREAL Théâtre Fairmount *
15 – TORONTO East End United Basement ^
16 – PITTSBURGH Preserving *^
17 – BALTIMORE Baltimore Sound Stage *
18 – LAKEWOOD Roxy @ Mahall’s *
20 – DETROIT Magic Stick *
21 – CHICAGO Bottom Lounge *
22 – SAUGET Pop’s Nightclub *
26 – DENVER Marquis Theater #%
27 – SALT LAKE CITY Metro Music Hall #%
28 – BOISE Shrine Social Club #%
30 – PORTLAND Hawthorne Theatre #$
31 – VANCOUVER The Cobalt #

NOVEMBER

01 – TACOMA Airport Tavern #$
03 – SACRAMENTO Goldfield Trading Post !
04 – SAN FRANCISCO Great American Music Hall !
05 – LOS ANGELES The Regent Theater !
06 – PHOENIX Kingdom !
08 – OKLAHOMA CITY Flyover Fest ~
09 – SAN ANTONIO The Rock Box **$$
10 – HOUSTON Bad Astronaut **$$
12 – NASHVILLE Eastside Bowl **%!!
13 – ATLANTA The Masquerade – Hell **%!!
14 – TAMPA The Orpheum **%!!
16 – MIAMI Lincoln’s Beard **%!!
18 – GREENSBORO Hangar 1819 **%
19 – PHILADELPHIA Union Transfer **$
20 – WORCESTER The Palladium – Upstairs **$
21 – BROOKLYN Brooklyn Steel **$ (No Barricade)

* = with 100 Demons and Shattered Realm
^ = with Killing Pace and Locked Shut
# = with Missing Link and Fatal Realm
$ = with Locked Shut
% = with xforever warx
! = with Killing Time, Missing Out and Mizery
** = Madball and Rotting Out
!! = with Contention
$$ = with Mizery

The post Pain Of Truth Unveil Desolating New Track ‘Stranded’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

So, to the third day of Bloodstock Festival 2026, we start in the Sophie Lancaster Tent with the enigmatic amphibious Doom merchants Froglord. Hailing from Bristol, they brought their own form of slime-drenched doomer grooves to the Sophie Stage.

Bloodstock Open Air Festival

Catton Park, Derbyshire – Saturday 8 August 2026

Words: Adrian Stonley

Photography: Adrian Stonley, Keith Conlin

Froglord

Usually, the first band on the bill have a tough ride to a minimal crowd, yet this was quite the opposite, as the Sophie tent was packed out, such was the interest.

So, the question is did Froglord disappoint? Of course not. Though they only had a short thirty-minute slot, Froglord more than filled their time and clearly were winning over new fans with ease.

As a band, they play Doom Metal, dripping with riffs and hooks, yet it is punchy and interesting. There are some nice alt-Metal segues. The band, dressed in robes and masks are ably assisted by two scantily clad dancers and they put on a forceful show from the moment they hit the stage.

With the set predominantly split between their The Mystic Toad and this year’s Lower and Slower Volume 1 albums, they provided a balanced overview of their work.

Entering the stage to Croak, they rapidly ripped into They Came From Saturn before Herman from their Metamorphosis album sent the audience into raptures. Of course, there is time for the Mystic Frog to make an appearance, not just via the song but in person as he is paraded around the stage.

The set ends with the heads-down party of Swamp Boogie seeing the reintroduction of the dancers who mob the lead singer whilst the audience, many dressed as frogs themselves, party the morning away.

This was an overwhelming start to the day, and those who made the effort will have some fantastic memories to take away. I see more coming from these guys, so watch this space.

Imperial Age

The first trip to the main Ronnie James Dio stage saw the arrival of Imperial Age, our favourite Atlantean-obsessed Russians. It has been a long journey for the band, who left their homeland, Russia, in protest at the attack on Ukraine and over a period of time they worked their way through Europe via Turkey before they were offered Asylum through artistic visas in the home of Heavy Metal, the UK.

Although the original band are only represented now by the two singers and founders, Jane Odintsova and Alexander ‘Aor’ Osipov, they have clearly spent their recent time working hard to reimagine the band, and this was one of the first outings of the new Imperial Age.

Despite a few technical gremlins, they provide a set of melodic and powerful Symphonic Metal with dual singers Aor and Jane swapping vocal duties. Interestingly, on the newer material, two songs played today, Jane has now turned to more extreme, dirty vocals to complement her symphonic tones. It works well with the newer extreme vocals, creating a much heavier sound that has the potential to reach across the varying Metal genres.

With a new band in place, it has also enabled them to redefine the sound of Imperial Age and has enabled the band to expand and adapt their songwriting and musical prowess, with them utilising sudden breakdowns, a thrashier approach to the music, and lower guitar tunings, which gives the music a darker resonance.

Though playing early in the day, the set is generally a success, and they pull a good crowd. Unfortunately, the gremlins continue, and as they introduce their latest single, Gnosis, a song which has not been played live before from their forthcoming album, the sound completely cuts out and the band are left high and dry. This, as it would later turn out, was due to a timing error on the part of Aor.

On the positive side, they had done enough in their time to show why they are still a pull, and that they can clearly expand and develop their career here in the UK. On this, showing the future looks bright.

Vended

Mid-afternoon sees the power and precision that is Ohio noise merchants Vended. Coming over in a similar vein to compatriots Slipknot, which is unsurprising due to two members of the band being the sons of members of Slipknot. Singer Griffin Taylor is the son of Corey Taylor, and drummer Simon Crahan is the son of Shawn ‘The Clown’ Crahan.

The band produced a set of cranium-crunching, intense heavy metal that saw fans flocking to the arena. These were a big pull, and they did not disappoint.

They have clearly learned a lot about the business from family, as Griffin is the consummate frontman who whirls around the stage like a dervish, spitting out the angst-filled vocals. He is ably assisted by the masked bassist Jeremiah Pugh, who clearly takes a strong role in the songwriting with the application of his heavy bass riffs.

This is a band that take no prisoners and they are here to ensure that Bloodstock is laid waste.

With songs played from across their career, it is no surprise that numbers such as Am I The Only One and set closer Asylum are religiously received by the delirious hordes. Quite simply a triumph.

Northlane

Next up are a quite different contingent in alt-Metal pioneers Northlane, an Australian Heavy Metal band hailing from Blacktown, Sydney who were formed in 2009. Their sound encompasses a number of different styles which are combined to make an interesting take on the genre.

You cannot take this band for granted, as they more than made it clear that if they thought the audience was getting comfortable within a song, then they would take a side step and mix it up.

They describe themselves as Metalcore and Progressive Metalcore with Djent overtones, courtesy of their keyboard wizard and guitarist Jon Deiley, who weaves techno magic in the background, creating a secondary layer to the tunes.

The band currently comprises guitarists Jon Deiley and Josh Smith, drummer Nic Pettersen and vocalist Marcus Bridge, who must go down as the best-dressed and nattiest singer on the bill so far this weekend. 

Northlane have currently released six studio albums with their latest, Anemoia, due out later this year. From this set it is clear that they are a band who are unafraid to experiment and are clearly ambitious, although carrying no commercial compromise in their sound. Yet, there is a clear freshness in their approach to their music. 

In the future, they have a seven-date  UK tour announced for November and early December this year, starting in Wolverhampton and culminating at the 02 Academy Brixton. So get along. You may be very pleasantly surprised.

Nevermore

This weekend, Bloodstock is fortunate enough to be responsible for Nevermore playing one of their first shows in 16 years. The US Power Metal titans brought a perfect retro set of thrash aggression, and progressive complexity.

With the show being a tribute to founder Warrel Dane, who died after a heart attack in 2017, it meant that today was very special for all concerned, and the band were clearly intent on ensuring that this was a triumph.

Currently, the band remains built around long-time members Jeff Loomis on guitars and Van Williams on drums, but have recently been joined by Jack Cattoi on guitars, Oceans Of Slumber’s Semir Özerkan on bass, and Turkish singer Berzan Önen on vocals.

With no new material, the set was built around their greatest hits, and there was no one complaining about that. As intimated previously, it has been a long time since they visited these shores, and there was a strong and clear intention of putting that right on the Bloodstock stage.

With songs such as Beyond Within, Narcosynthesis and The River Dragon Has Come, there is a multitude of opportunities for the band to unleash their own special and seasoned Thrash upon the willing fans. Additionally, it seems as though there is more headbanging going on stage than in the audience, although this is probably because the assorted Bloodstock hordes are too busy creating circle pits.

It is energetic, it is enthusiastic, and it is completely entrancing and enthralling. If Nevermore came back with a message, then they more than delivered it.

Bleed From Within

So, from the old skool to the new kids on the block. Well, I had written that in advance before realising that Bleed From Within have been a band for 23 years and are nearing a similar anniversary to the one that Bloodstock is celebrating this weekend.

However, the booking of this Scots Metalcore/Death Crossover was a moment of absolute magic. 

Producing the biggest audience of the day, they were here to conquer. If the Scottish football team had as much attitude and enthusiasm as Scott Kennedy and his motley crew then they may well have won the World Cup. Unfortunately, Scott, you have got to keep dreaming.

Their approach to the show was one of conquering uncompromise. Opening to a bagpiper, the Celtic and delicate choral vocals of Hannah Boulton who is almost an additional member of the band having performed backing vocals on their last four studio albums and for the first time today in the live environment.

It was clear that for the band, today was something very special, and as Scott pointed out, it was the biggest gig they have played in their career so far. Being honest, on this appearance they should have no problem moving up to headliner status soon.

Not only do they have the stage presence they also have the songs. With Scott Kennedy berating and cajoling the audience at every opportunity, they worked Bloodstock to its knees, although they did bounce back when requested.

Opening the set with Zenith from their latest album, they tore through a set that was intrinsically popular with the audience, who were gleefully screaming every note and crunching chord.

Levitate and In Place Of Your Halo saw the audience ecstatic, and it was clear that for many here today, this was the set of the day. Long may the Scottish hordes continue to conquer.

Slaughter To Prevail

Finally, we come to the evening’s headliner, and it was of interest to us to see how Slaughter To Prevail would be received. Lead Singer and Frontman Alex Terrible (Aleksandr Shikolay) has made no secret that there are parts of his life that he now deeply regrets, and he aired this openly during this performance.

On tonight’s show, it seems as though Bloodstock are forgiving, as the band came out and brought a visually stunning and intense Deathcore experience that shook the night.

The band, originally formed in Yekaterinburg in Russia are now based in Orlando, Florida, USA and have been through numerous line-up changes over the years. So, what do we make of the latest version?

Visually, they were stunning, hitting the stage to storms of pyro and bedecked in devil masks. It seemed as though the gates of Hell had opened in Derbyshire, and from the start there was no holding them back.

This was an experience and an absolute triumph.

Technically, the band are awesome, and their bone-crunching delivery shakes you to the very core. There is a visceral musical extremism on show tonight, with the band not risking leaving survivors. The crowd was worked constantly and to within an inch of their lives, yet the band were also leaving their souls on the stage. This was an incredible musical love in based on uncompromising attitudes.

The songs reflected the intensity and angst that the band bring to their performances. Bonebreaker, Demolisher, I’m Dead are delivered with a brutality that is reflected in Alex guttural delivery. Every growl and scream is returned by the audience, who are worshipping at Slaughter’s dark altar. 

I have said it before, and I will say it tonight. But coming in with an open mind made this show all the more interesting, and by the end there was another convert.

Quite simply awesome.

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Bloodstock 2026 will be held over the long weekend of 6-9 August 2026. MetalTalk’s Matty Hunter, Adrian Stonley and Keith Conlin will report from Catton Park.

Take Part: Were you at Bloodstock this year? Who did you enjoy seeing the most? Email MetalTalk Editor Steve Ritchie to share your experience at Bloodstock@MetalTalk.net.

#boa26. For more information, visit bloodstock.uk.com. You can view a map of Bloodstock HERE.

You can find all MetalTalk Bloodstock 2026 coverage at https://www.metaltalk.net/bloodstock.

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Bloodstock 2027 will be held over August 5th – 8th. Early bird standard weekend tickets will be available at the main entrance box office throughout the festival, priced £210.00 with no booking fee. Tickets can be purchased online from Monday 10th August at 9 am at the official Bloodstock website.

The post Bloodstock Festival 2026 – The Saturday Review first appeared on MetalTalk – Heavy Metal News, Reviews and Interviews.

Necrosonic Festival returns to Mansfield Tavern on Saturday, August 22 2026, and the full lineup has been revealed to the masses! With dual headliners Rivers of Nihil (USA) and our very own Psycroptic, alongside exclusive reunions, one-off performances and long-awaited resurrections ~ this year’s ritual is the most formidable yet. With a massive deference to […]

Baby Lasagna has expanded their musical universe in a way only they can with a song that dips its toes into modern metal.

Titled ‘Face On Your Phone’, it deals out slick riffs, gruff barks and plenty of pit-swelling intent in a manner that pays tribute to Baby Lasagna’s respect and love for the genre. It feels genuine and loving rather than forced, and when matched with a narrative around facing off against the hate they receive online, it feels even more poignant and powerful.

By the time that you reach the breakdown, you are intoxicated.

Baby Lasagna had this to say about the song and its subject matter:

“For the past two and a half years, I’ve been living under the public eye. It has brought me so many incredible, life-changing experiences, but also countless hateful comments and messages. When that kind of behavior keeps repeating day after day, it almost becomes collective bullying. It reminded me of my own experiences with bullying at school. I didn’t want to write a song that leaves people feeling like victims. I wanted to give strength to everyone going through something similar. ‘Face On Your Phone’ is a fighting song—it encourages people to stand up to those who hide behind a screen.”

It follows on from ‘End The Party’, which sounds a lot like this:

Baby Lasagna is set to close out 2026 with a tour of the UK and Europe.

Here are all the dates:

NOVEMBER

15 – MILAN Legend
16 – MUNICH Technikum
18 – COLOGNE Kantine
19 – AMSTERDAM Melkweg Max
21 – MANCHESTER Club Academy
22 – LONDON Shepherd’s Bush Empire
24 – LEUVEN Het depot
26 – BERLIN Columbia Theater
29 – HAMBURG Uebel & Gefährlich
29 – POZNAN Tama
30 – WARSAW Palladium

DECEMBER

01 – KRAKOW Kwadrat
03 – PRAGUE Archa+
04 – VIENNA Arena
05 – BUDAPEST A38
06 – BRATISLAVA M.Music Club

The post Baby Lasagna Shares Blistering New Track ‘Face On Your Phone’ appeared first on Rock Sound.

Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi may have been the king of metal riffs onstage, but offstage he was a fiercely private – at least until he published his autobiography, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath, in 2011. Metal Hammer caught up with Iommi when the book was published to look at the events that made him the man he was.

Tony Iommi has never been a man to use his private life to foster celebrity status. While others have invited the world to invade their privacy in search of ephemeral fame, the Black Sabbath guitarist has always refused to talk about such matters. All that has changed with his autobiography, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath, in which he has revealed a lot more about himself than ever before.

“I can’t say I am very comfortable with telling everyone what’s gone on in my life outside of music,” he says. “But I knew that if I was to do this book, that side of things had to be faced.”

Many who know him will be surprised that Iommi has chosen to do the book at all. Often reticent when faced with being in the spotlight offstage, the quietly spoken metal hero has never given the impression he’s keen to write his memoirs. But, having made the choice, the result is very much a reflection of the man: frank, honest, funny, entertaining, upbeat.

For Iommi, one of the biggest problems was that much of his life with Sabbath was so well documented there was hardly anything more to say. Which makes the other side of his story – the hitherto unrevealed private section – even more fascinating. For instance, the fact that he is an only child.

“I can’t say how that affected me compared to those who had brothers or sisters. Well, there was a time when my parents took in this guy. He was our lodger, but slept in the same room as me. I hated the situation. Suddenly, I wasn’t the centre of attention. It seemed to me I was being sidelined for someone who wasn’t even family.”

He looks a little tense as he talks about his upbringing and the way it affected him. But that’s part of the learning curve. Once you’ve gone public with this information, you have to expect to be probed about it.

“My paternal grandfather had money, although that didn’t mean my father did. In fact, we really didn’t have much. The first house we lived was OK, but when we moved to a shop in Aston, I hated it. The carpet and lino were wearing badly, and my room was just so small. There were boxes all over it, which cut the size down even further. It was a horrible time. And the area was also bad. Lots of gang problems.”

Yet it’s this very grimness that many believe helped to turn Birmingham into the home of metal. It’s something of which Iommi is fully aware. In fact, he recalls vividly what it was like to be a young, aspiring musician in the city.

“It was very different type of community to, say, London. But we didn’t all know each other, despite playing in the same venues all the time. Sabbath knew Robert Plant and John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. They were local lads and John was in a different band every week, or so it seemed. He ended up being the best man at my first wedding. But the attitude in Birmingham at the time was that if you were in a band, then you stuck with them. You didn’t go off and play with others – that was seen as being disloyal. Today, everybody seems to have side-projects and plays with anyone. But in the late 1960s, if you were in a band, then that’s where you belonged. It was like a gang mentality, and you never changed gang membership!”

This sense of belonging together gave a lot of the local acts a feeling of camaraderie, something that perhaps helped to keep the city apart from other areas of the country where the loyalty factor was overridden by the demand for success. And Iommi still remembers Sabbath’s first ever London gig with a shudder.

“We played the Speakeasy, and we just felt out of place. Everyone looked so posh compared to us, and we really didn’t belong there at all. It took us ages to come to terms with London.”

It wasn’t only in the capital where Iommi had a sense of unease. If he turned to his family, he’d have his musical aspirations derided.

“Everyone – my parents, cousins, the whole family – kept telling me I needed to get a proper job and stop wasting my time. Well, I did have a job in a factory, but I was committed to being a professional musician.”

However, attitudes weren’t totally cut and dried. Iommi’s mother, in particular, actually played a role in helping the band.

“My dad liked Ozzy a lot, and thought he was really funny – which he was. But it was my mum who helped us out. She’d put up the money for us to hire a van for a gig. But then an hour later, she’d be going on at me. ‘When are you getting a proper job?’ she’d say like everyone else. It confused me, so much, the switch from being supportive to suddenly being the opposite.

“My mum came to a few gigs in the early days. But she thought we were too loud!”

Attitudes changed in the Iommi family when the first Black Sabbath album came out.

“Oh, that’s when everyone was suddenly proud of me and what I’d done,” smirks the guitarist. “Members of the family would go round telling everyone that they were my cousin, uncle or whatever.”

It wasn’t just his family who failed to take Black Sabbath seriously. The band were shunned by the city of Birmingham for years.

“We were ignored for so long. That’s why it means so much that the city council gave their approval recently for the Home Of Metal exhibition, which celebrates what Birmingham has done for metal. Recognition at last.

“Up until this happened, we were ignored, and we’ve always not only been proud to be from here, we’ve also actively supported what’s going on. We’ve never made any big fuss about it, but Sabbath have donated money to hospitals for beds and much-needed machines, and to other local charities. The thing is, we did it without looking for publicity.

“I do remember a while ago when someone suggested the council erect a statue of us. It was covered on the local TV news, and afterwards two women said on air (adopts a sneering voice), ‘They want to put up a statue to them?’ So, I’m glad for the acceptance now.”

No rock autobiography would be complete without drug stories. And Iommi doesn’t hold back about the excesses he and the rest of Sabbath enjoyed during the hedonistic 1970s. But he’s also prepared now to talk about how hypocritical he was in the mid-1980s.

“When Glenn Hughes was in Sabbath (for the 1986 album Seventh Star), he was having major drug problems. In the end we had to get rid of him because of it. He was doing so much coke. By then I was off the stuff, although I’ll admit I did have the occasional line. So I was guilty of having a go at Glenn about his problems, while sneaking off to have a little myself!”

Iommi reveals that, for him, breaking the drug habit wasn’t as tough as it was for others.

“I’ve always been lucky in that I can stop doing something when I want. I did it with coke, also drinking and smoking, I just quit them. Sure, I did have the very occasional lapse, but I’ve not done even that for years. What happened was that when I lived in LA, coke was so easily available that it became very natural. You didn’t have to go too far to get any. But when I moved back to England, it was so much harder to find. And that encouraged me to quit.

“My second wife, Melinda, was always good at spotting when I’d been doing drugs. It didn’t matter how much I’d lie and deny it, all she’d say is, ‘I can tell when you’ve been doing it!’”

Iommi has three ex-wives (he’s now married to Maria Sjöholm, who is described in the book as the love of his life), and the guitarist admits writing about those relationships meant he had to re-examine what went wrong with them.

“It would have been so easy just to have laid the blame on the ex-wives – and so wrong. I was at fault in my own way each time. So I had to be totally honest and tell it like it was, not like I wished it had been. I did cheat with other women, and there were other things that led to the break-up of each marriage. But that was one of the hard things with this book – opening up my private life the way it had to be done.”

Iommi also had to expose his innermost emotions over the death last year of Ronnie James Dio. And, sitting here even now talking about that painful moment clearly upsets him.

“It was the first time I’d seen a current bandmate die. We lost Ray Gillen [Sabbath singer in the mid-80s], but that was several years after he left the band. It was such a shock. Geezer was in LA with him all the time, but I was over here. One day, Geezer called and said that Ronnie’d taken a turn for the worst. I said I’d fly straight out, but he said, ‘You might not want to see the way he looks now.’ But before I could arrange to go out, he died.

“The thing is we were all getting on so well in Heaven & Hell. The problems we had in Sabbath when Ronnie was in the band were down to egos clashing, and we’d grown out of that. I’d learnt not to react when Ronnie blew up. You let it go and it passed. Before, I’d have a go back at him when he was in a mood, so things got worse.

“One of things about the funeral that sticks in my mind was seeing Ronnie’s body in the coffin. They’d done a very good job in hiding what the illness had done to him physically.”

As with anyone writing their life story, Iommi faced the publishers’ axe when it came to content. He had to cut out a lot of material, but he doesn’t feel that the book’s been compromised.

“I’d written a lot about my friends, but it was all very boring. Who wants to read about how I go out for dinner with them? It isn’t the sort of riveting stuff you expect from a book like this!

“I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I’ve written about them. I had Bev Bevan [an old friend of Iommi, who was briefly in Sabbath during the early 80s and appears on The Eternal Idol album as a guest] asking me the other day. I told him what I tell everyone: buy a copy and find out!”

Now it’s written, he certainly won’t be at a loose end, with plenty planned and rumoured. There are persistent reports of an original Black Sabbath reunion for a tour and possibly a new studio album. But the guitarist is far too wily to give anything away on this front.

“There are always stories. The Birmingham Mail took comments I’d made off the record and printed them as if it confirmed we were back together. I was indulging in speculation with a journalist I thought I could trust. Right now there’s nothing to say on the subject.”

But on stronger ground, Iommi is getting involved with the movie world. He’s signed up to compose the music for three films.

“It’s a deal with Mike Fleiss. He produced The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and Hostel. The first film will be a horror movie. Will I have a part in it? Absolutely not!”

For Tony Iommi the future stretches out as an exciting challenge.

“I’ve always had a positive attitude to life. Whenever I’ve been knocked back, I get up and start again. I did it when I lost the tips of two fingers in an industrial accident when I was 17. Doctors told me that I had no hope of playing guitar again. I refused to accept that. When I heard what Django Reinhardt, the jazz guitarist did with just two fingers it inspired me to find a way to carry on and become a musician. After that anything was – and is – possible!”

Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 224, September 2011. Tomy Iommi’s new solo album, From The Dark, is out on October 23 via BMG.

In this realm, Castle Rat is an exhilarating band hailing from NYC. They released one of the most critically acclaimed,

Live Review: Arch Enemy – Rebellion, Manchester

11th August 2026
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price

Arch Enemy bring the curtain down on their twelve-date Root of All Evil tour, which has seen them swapping theatres for clubs, with this set at the sold-out Rebellion Bar in Manchester, swapping the usual crowd of thousands for a capacity of around five hundred. Unsurprisingly, the tickets were snapped up in a matter of minutes, but we at The Razor’s Edge managed to get access and bring you all the action.

Now, I say we, but I was stood at the back taking notes, while Rich the photographer was in the thick of it, buffeted and battered to get the best shots; he looked a shell of a man when it’d finished, with either the heat or intense trauma being the deciding factor.

This is also the band’s introduction of new vocalist, Lauren Hart, the former Once Human singer who replaced the departed Alissa White-Gluz last year.

There’s no support band, only Arch Enemy, locked, loaded and ready to explode. It’s a whole plethora of classic hard rock and metal tunes over the PA from the likes of Priest, Sabbath, Ozzy and Rainbow, as well as Bon Jovi, White Lion and Quiet Riot, to keep the capacity crowd entertained until the nine o’clock start.

It’s already starting to get warm before a note has been played. The temperature gauge in the car was giving a balmy twenty-seven degrees as the evening drew in, so this is bound to be getting steamy.

Fastway’s Tear Down the Walls from the Trick or Treat soundtrack acts as the intro tape with the band hitting the stage to Silent Wars from Anthems of Rebellion back in 2003; it’s clear we’re watching a band punching way below their weight, and one perhaps no longer accustomed to such confined spaces. The air is thick with the power of Arch Enemy’s roar, as soundwaves bludgeon the lucky assembled few like a tsunami.

Lauren instantly shows herself to be a firecracker of a focal point, with a set of pipes equal to Angela Gossow’s fierce snap and snarl. The first of many visits to Wages of Sin comes early in the form of The First Deadly Sin, which Lauren admits to learning to drive to, though wouldn’t really recommend it. Mixing speed with slower, doomy sections, brutality with the melodic, this one demonstrates the range of Arch Enemy from early in their career. Ravenous blends the harsh with the symphonic, War Eternal shows the technicality and newbie, To the Last Breath, harkens back to the glory days of the early millennium.

We’re only half a dozen songs in but it feels like we’re all being slowly steamed. Lauren throws water over the front of the crowd before opining that it’s going to start raining sweat. Bury Me an Angel is introduced as the first song Michael Amott wrote for Arch Enemy, and it brims with youthful exuberance: excessive speed, meaty breakdown, choppy riffs and punchy rhythms, all the things we come to the band for, laid out in a single track.

Following an anthemic Under Black Flags We March, which sees fists pumping the air, and The Eagle Flies Alone in which the heat had reached critical mass and even Lauren is looking shiny, we get the bouncing rhythms of No Gods, No Masters, where the now-congealed collection of bodies jump as one; it’s like a king rat, but with perspiration.

Flashing strobes come with the partial instrumental of I Am Legend/ Out for Blood and any hope of a pit starting it negated by both the heat and the density of the packed bodies. Seizure-inducing strobes flood the room during Dead Bury Their Dead, Burning Angel is a must, and there’s a World

Cup inspired hydration break before Dead Eyes See No Future. The main set ends with Arch Enemy’s 2003 break out track, We Will Rise and has Lauren windmilling to the last.

More water is handed out before the encores begin and the Water Man – a crew member handing out bottles of O2 – suddenly becomes the hero of the evening, even getting his own chant. Lauren joins in the water distribution, as though on a Red Cross relief effort.

Encores of Blood On Your Hands, Snow Bound, and Nemesis take us into the finale of instrumental Fields of Desolation, bringing an end to the show and Arch Enemy’s jaunt around a selected dozen clubs across Europe.

It was clear from the outset that the band have outgrown such confines, but it’s great to see what happened when an outfit more used to far big stages and arenas comeback to where it all started. And what happens are nights like this… incredible.

Photo credits: Rich Price

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Live Review: Arch Enemy – Manchester appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Live Gallery: Arch Enemy – Rebellion, Manchester

11th August 2025
Photos: Rich Price

We look back at the epic Arch Enemy show through the eyes of our photographer Rich Price!

Arch Enemy

Fans

Photo credits: Rich Price

For all the latest news, reviews, interviews across the heavy metal spectrum follow THE RAZORS’S EDGE on facebook, twitter and instagram.

The post Live Gallery: Arch Enemy – Manchester appeared first on The Razor's Edge.

Anxious have returned with their new single “Don’t Move” out today via Run For Cover Records. Last year the