WHERE ARE AC/DC?!
…and other disgruntled rants and letters of love you sent us this month
COVERED IN GLORY
Just wanna say how cool it was to see so many different names and faces on the 2020 Review Of The Year cover. The Oceans Of Slumber album was probably my album of the year, so seeing Cammie on there with legends like Rob Halford and Papa Het made my day!
Jamie Stiles (email)
We’re happy you’re happy. Any excuse to celebrate young bands is cool with us. And if you’re about that life, you’re gonna love the issue you’re holding in your hands right here. Hooray!
NEW YEAR, NEW US
Hoping that a new year means we get to see some new bands on the cover of Metal Hammer. Don’t get me wrong, I love Metallica, Iron Maiden and Slipknot, all of it, but it’d be nice to see someone like Jinjer, Alien Weaponry or Alestorm get near a Metal Hammer cover too.
Daniel Yardley (Facebook)
Your wish is our command, pal. Well, some of it is: you can officially tick Alien Weaponry off that list. As for the others? We’ll have to wait and see…
GIGGING TO GO
I’ve loved some of the streams that have happened this year, especially Trivium’s brilliant streams, but I’m so ready for gigs now. Someone tell me it’s gonna happen in 2021? Please?
Rachel Townsend (Facebook)
We’re hopeful the world will start to get normal enough again to get there soon. In the meantime, keep being safe, keep being considerate and, for fuck’s sake, keep wearing your mask!
CLAP TRAP
I think it’s cool that Metal Hammer are featuring more rap and trap metal artists right now. Heavy music comes in many forms, and for me someone like Backxwash deserves to be here just as much as Pallbearer. Keep it up!
Bethany Taylor (Facebook)
We wholeheartedly agree and we appreciate your words. Nice one!
POP HAMMER
People say Metal Hammer isn’t as metal as it used to be, but I remember reading issues with Feeder and The Offspring on the cover. Not to mention the My Chemical Romance years! Maybe people’s memories are short? I don’t know…
James Hall (Facebook)
Fact: if you claim a different era of Metal Hammer was more metal than any other, we’ll find coverage that’ll make you look like a silly sausage. We still like The Offspring, though.
TRIVI-BUM
So Trivium are the ‘Kings Of Streaming’. Honestly, is this what metal is now? Call me when one of these bands is finally headlining Download like we all keep hearing they’re ‘destined’ to.
Thomas Frostick (email)
Alright, who pissed in your Honey Nut Loops? Selling thousands of tickets to an online stream is pretty amazing business in 2020, 2021 or any other year, let alone for a heavy metal band. Let’s let everyone celebrate good things, shall we?
MR BUNGLED
Cracking article on Mr. Bungle and the release of The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny! The record is stunning and had it been released back in the 80s we may well have had a Big 5 of thrash instead. Hate to be a pedant, though, but Trevor Dunn wasn’t in Dead Cross with Lombardo and Patton, that’ll be the equally superb Fantomas!
Luke Howe (email)
Thanks for your email and your kind words. Rest assured, both writer and all subs will be sent to the seventh circle for lashings for that error. Or at least made to listen to Boyzone for a bit.
NO ’DC, NO PARTY
Usually I think your end-of-year albums lists are spot on, but I have a big gripe with last issue’s: where in the blue hell are AC/DC? You’d think the biggest band in the world saving 2020 would be worth an appearance in your top 50 albums! Are they not heavy enough? What happened?
Martin Jackson (email)
Absolutely, AC/DC should be making any list worth its salt, especially when they’re packing an album as joyous and perfectly timed as Power Up. Sadly, our deadlines are stricter than Miss Trunchbull, and given that the album came halfway through November, we’d already put the list together. Them’s the breaks…
KILLER GOT KILLED
No Killer Be Killed in your Best Of 2020 albums list? That’s not just the best supergroup album in recent memory but the best metal album of the year! You fucked up, Hammer.
Matt Corum (Facebook)
See above: while KBK made the lists of the lucky few of us who heard the album early, it came too late to make the cut! Luckily, we did manage to give it a splendid write-up courtesy of Stephen Hill’s review in issue 342.