To be able to put on the kind of shows we have, too, in terms of our production, has been really cool. The people we work with on the delivery of the show are so important to us.
In fact, we made sure they also got their own Kerrang! Award trophies when we won Best British Live Act for the first time [in ]. You won your second consecutive best British live act Kerrang! Award last year. Honestly, though, that was so cool. I always wanted to record at Abbey Road, and we did that this year [for a Spotify session]. But this year has really reminded me how important doing that is.
I look at [teenage climate change activist] Greta Thunberg, who is so great and has done so much. I see so many brands and companies now moving more towards an ethical direction. And, okay, you can easily be cynical about that and assume that is just their way of trying to make money, but you have to take the small victories where they are and try to build on them.
There has been a definite shift in attitudes, so we have to run with that to achieve even more and to keep trying to be better people, generally. Is that something fans might expect more of in and beyond? It might sound miserable, but there really is so little to be happy about, so, of course, we question that.
The record ends with the fragile, beautiful Dying Is Absolutely Safe, which, as well as being as soaring and fragile as they have ever sounded, almost acts as a disclaimer for the nihilism that has gone before it. But now we have. It's actually really beautiful and uplifting to me. We are all going to go through it, so what have you got to worry about? Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag.
He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.
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