{"id":124166,"date":"2026-02-05T18:53:34","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124166\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:53:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:53:34","slug":"i-go-onstage-i-battle-death-i-die-and-i-come-back-to-life-from-sword-waving-rat-queens-to-alpha-bro-baiting-metal-singers-the-new-issue-of-metal-hammer-has-four-exclusive-covers-castle-rat-sle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124166\/","title":{"rendered":"“I go onstage, I battle death, I die and I come back to life.” From sword-waving rat queens to alpha bro-baiting metal singers, the new issue of Metal Hammer has four exclusive covers: Castle Rat, Sleep Theory, President and Paleface Swiss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new issue of Metal Hammer has four separate, exclusive covers to collect: Sleep Theory<\/a>, President, Castle Rat and Paleface Swiss! This is the New Heavy 2026. This is the future of metal.<\/p>\n

After finding fame on TikTok, Sleep Theory have been growing and growing \u2013 and they won\u2019t stop until they\u2019re the biggest band in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would be like, \u2018Oh, I want to play Madison Square Garden,\u2019 but I feel like that\u2019s just capping off where I could go,\u201d says singer Cullen Moore. \u201cWhy would I sell myself short?\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future (photo: Jonathan Weiner))<\/a><\/p>\n

President<\/a>, meanwhile, debuted at Download, are shrouded in mystery and have gained a devoted fanbase in less than a year. Can metal\u2019s newest masked band go all the way?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve already seen people with the President mask as a tattoo,\u201d marvels the President. \u201cI can\u2019t quite believe it, but I think it\u2019s so cool. It shows that we\u2019re building a real community.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future (photo: Ben Gibson))<\/a><\/p>\n

Castle Rat<\/a> are fronted by a sword-waving, chainmail-bikini-clad barbarian who dies and is reborn onstage each night. It\u2019s fun, and a way for frontwoman Riley Pinkerton to deal with her worries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go onstage, I battle death, I die, and I come back to life \u2013 because I don\u2019t want to die,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, because I didn\u2019t set out to make a show about my death anxiety\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up below to get the latest from Metal Hammer, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future (photo: Jonathan Pushnik))<\/a><\/p>\n

Next-gen boundary-pushers Paleface Swiss<\/a> are rewiring metal for 2026, challenging toxic masculinity in the scene, sometimes via frontman Zelli snogging his own bandmates onstage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we kiss onstage? Why not?\u201d he shrugs. \u201c\u2018I like you. You like me. Let\u2019s have fun. A little smooch. Thank you for being here.\u2019 If you have a problem with us doing that, fuck off.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Future (photo: Kriss Jakob))<\/a><\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the magazine, we count down the 30 greatest albums of the 2020s\u2026so far. Did your favourite make the cut?<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We also go wild in LA with Avatar, look back at 40 years of aggression with Kreator, and speak to Dream Theater\u2019s Mike Portnoy about Rush, Avenged Sevenfold, and sausages?!<\/p>\n

Alter Bridge explain why Open Your Eyes helped lift them from the ashes of Creed, and Kittie\u2019s Morgan Lander delivers her life lessons on childhood bar gigs, female rage\u2026 and why beautiful bitches always know best.<\/p>\n

Plus, we find out why Gaerea\u2019s mysterious masked Vocalist secretly loves Linkin Park, go inside Children Of Bodom\u2019s live reunion and meet upcoming misfit metallers \u2013 and surprise Robbie Williams fans \u2013 The Hara.<\/p>\n

All this, along with Rob Zombie, Converge, Puscifer, Sabaton, Orange Goblin, Ice Nine Kills, Thornhill and much, much more.<\/p>\n

Only in the new issue of Metal Hammer, on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new issue of Metal Hammer has four separate, exclusive covers to collect: Sleep Theory, President, Castle Rat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":{"0":"post-124166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-queens","12":"tag-queens-headlines","13":"tag-queens-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}