So Hard Rock Hell has come and gone again. The seventh year of the festival, now in its second year at Hafan y Mor Haven Holiday Park in Pwllhelli, Wales was this year under the banner of Cirque du Rock, creating a nightmarish circus freak show that saw ringmasters, clowns and …

There hasn’t been as much controversy about a Download headliner since My Chemical Romance topped the bill in 2007; even Feeder and The Offspring got better receptions in 2005 and 2008. But with a new album that reached #1 in both the UK and the US and a near-sold out …

He’s been the ever-present leading man of Monster Magnet for nearly a quarter of a century, and Dave Wyndorf is showing no signs of slowing down just yet.  New album ‘Last Patrol’ is as good as anything the band have done in the past and their live shows are still …

Almost a quarter of a century after their formation, stoner rock legends Monster Magnet show no sign of letting up. They’ve been releasing a new studio album every three years consistently since 1995 and Last Patrol, their ninth effort which was released on Tuesday, continues the trend. And whilst four …

Sometimes, a band has to be seen in the flesh at a concert to be fully appreciated. Sabaton are one of those bands. This live DVD/CD is the band’s second live offering but their first full length concert video, filmed whilst on tour in support of their latest album release Carolus …

To say that Avenged Sevenfold have had a funny few years would be the understatement of the millennium. Having lost original drummer Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan in tragic circumstances at the end of 2009, the band have bravely battled on, releasing the excellent ‘Nightmare’ the following year (with help from …

Although UK tours pass through Bristol quite a lot, it’s very rare to see concerts here when the headline band in question are only playing two dates – usually the two cities involved are London and one other that isn’t Bristol. Naturally, therefore, the 400-capacity Fleece is packed out to …

So two days of rock and metal carnage down, one to go. And as this punter walked down towards the Main Stage on the Sunday morning of Download Festival 2013, I couldn’t help but smile at the wires attaching the stage to the sound tower, knowing what they were for. …

So, after a Friday of absolute mayhem, perhaps the Saturday of Download would be a more chilled out affair? You might have thought so too with UFO (6) opening the Main Stage; the audience wasn’t the biggest but there was enough there to get heads nodding and ‘Doctor Doctor’ made …

Welcome to the first in a three part review of the 11th annual Download Festival. Once again, rock fans from all over the world descended on the hallowed turfs of Donington Park in Derbyshire for a five-day extravaganza that saw the festival outdo its previous years’ lineup by quite a …

It’s a real shame when additions to a bill are not made public. That’s what happened when I arrived at the Exchange in Bristol on Sunday evening. The venue’s website said doors opened at 7.30pm, however it turned out that, along with the three bands advertised, a further FOUR groups …

Three years is a fairly standard gap between album releases, but given the fanbase that H.I.M have following them, it must have seemed a lifetime. Still, that’s the span between 2010 release Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice and Tears on Tape, their eighth album that was released yesterday in the …

They’re headlining the second stage at Download Festival this year, they’re on the bill at Glastonbury and they’ve sold out London’s Hammersmith Apollo. And yet, here they are on a UK tour playing venues that have no more than a capacity of 600. But then, Enter Shikari (9) have never …

British metal lives. That’s very clear to see once you’ve caught your breath from the atom bomb that is Uprising, the third album by Bleed From Within. The Glaswegians have ruffled more than a few feathers since they formed nearly a decade ago,  and tours with the likes of Suicide Silence, …

If you’re a follower of heavy metal in all its forms and you haven’t heard of Bring Me the Horizon, then you’ve clearly been hiding under a rock for the best part of five years. The five-piece from Sheffield crashed onto the scene with 2008 release Suicide Season and immediately …

Yesterday saw the release of Pathfinder, the debut album from Japanese band Early Cross. Formed in 2002, the quartet – who describe their music style as ‘landscape rock’ – did not release any material until 2010 when the EP ‘Solstice’ surfaced. Over the next two years the band toured with …

Airless are a four-piece hard rock band hailing from Spain, who formed in January 2002 and had their self-titled debut album out a mere six months later. They signed to Lion Music in 2005 and released second album 2nd Round that year and third effort Fight in 2008, even finding time to …

It’s been quite a ride for Welsh quartet Bullet for My Valentine. They gatecrashed the metal world almost a decade ago with debut album The Poison (time flies, doesn’t it?) and since then have toured with both Iron Maiden and Metallica, headlined arenas across the UK and even had prime time …

Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to My Reflection, a five piece melodic metal band from Finland. Formed in 2007, the band quickly released their first EP, ‘Slipping Away’ before taking a year-long break. In 2010 a self-published demo album, ‘Be My Eyes’, surfaced, of which three tracks began receiving …

It started outside the Academy itself. First, a man called Dino Canizares walked out of the main doors, posed with some fans, then made his way round past the long line of people queuing for entry and made his way (presumably) to the tour bus. Minutes later, a taxi pulled …