Heavy ion and fixed-target physics at ATLAS, CMS and LHCb

Collisions with ion and proton beams at the LHC provide a testbed to study strongly interacting matter at the most extreme density and temperature presently achievable at accelerators. The ATLAS, CMS and LHCb experiments,though not designed specifically for heavy ion physics, are providing unique inputs to this rich phenomenology. Recent results from the three experiments are reviewed,covering in particular measurements with heavy flavour and electromagnetic probes,and the first results from fixed-target collisions obtained by LHCb.