The German metallers gear up for their biggest ever UK show, and promise some surprises.

Simon Neil leads a back on top Biffy ...

Metallica ’s 1984 began with a gear heist and a cancelled UK tour; it ended with them being heavy metal’s Next Big Thing. Then came Master Of Puppets. This is the inside story of the making of that album and the two year whirlwind that took four “alcoholica” outcasts from the El Cerrito garage to the big time.

A choir on one of Germany’s Big Four thrash bands’ new album? “We always did our own thing.”

In the wake of Peter Gabriel’s departure, GENESIS faced an existential question: carry on, or call it a day? Looking back 50 years, band members revisit the fraught months after their first frontman’s exit – and the creative surge that set the scene for one of rock’s most improbable second acts. “The band was meant to be dead and buried,” learns Peter Watts. “But we refused to lay down and die.”

THIS MONTH Holger Falk baritone Eisler Auferstanden aus Ruinen Holger Falk, Steffen Schleiermacher Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele (2019) This experience is not what people might expect to be heavenly