Mark Ashby

no longer planetmosh staff

Hellion Rising – Hard Rock Hell, 13/11/2014

Hellion Rising - Hard Rock Hell 2014

Following their appearance on the opening evening of this year’s Hard Rock Hell, PM sat down with the guys from up-and-coming North East metallians Hellion Rising to talk about their experience, the debut album, ‘Eight Of Swords’ (reviewed at http://planetmosh.com/hellion-rising-eight-of-swords/) and their plans for 2015: Keep up with developments from …

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Skam – Hard Rock Hell, 14/11/2014

Leicester power trio Skam delivered one of the early highlights of this year’s Hard Rock Hell, when they took to the second stage on the Friday afternoon with a set that proved they are the real thing (see what we did there?).  Afterwards, with the sweat still glistening on their …

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Santa Cruz – Hard Rock Hell, 14/11/2014

Santa Cruz

One of the most eagerly anticipated acts to appear at this past weekend’s Hard Rock Hell were Finnish sleazesters Santa Cruz… PlanetMosh pulled up a chair with three-quarters of the group (drummer Taz was off doing whatever it is that drummers do an hour before going on stage) for what …

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Y&T – Belfast, Limelight 1, 12/11/2014

Y&T - Maverick - Limelight 1 BElfast - 12 Nov 2014

Sometimes it takes vision.  And a simple vision at that.  The vision of one clear-sighted, single-minded – some might say stubborn – individual.  And that vision is to do what you enjoy, and what you want to do, need to do, to fulfill that enjoyment, no matter what adversity, what …

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Vardis – Hard Rock Hell, 15/11/2014

Vardis logo

Fresh from their triumphant performance on the main stage on the final afternoon of this year’s Hard Rock Hell, PM chatted to Steve Zodiac, Terry Horbury and Gary Pearson – collectively known as the legendary Vardis – about the band’s reformation after 20+ years of inactivity, their forthcoming live album recording, their …

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Sinocence release ‘behind-the-scenes’ video teaser

Sinocence - Jim Seymour recording

Northern Ireland metallians Sinocence have released a ‘behind-the-scenes’ teaser video from the recording of their new ‘No Gods No Masters Volume 2’ EP. Post by Dave Bradshaw Photography. The video was shot by Dave Bradshaw during the first phase of recording sessions at Einstein Studios with producer Frankie McClay. The …

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Hornwood Fell – ‘Hornwood Fell’

Hornwood Fell artwork

The primary intention of this Italian black metal crew is to resurrect the darkened spirit of the Nineties Norwegian scene, and particularly the energy brought at that time by the likes of Ulver, Darkthrone, Borknagar and Burzum. To a degree they succeed, as this self-titled debut is a very raw, …

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Saille – ‘Eldritch’

Saille - Eldritch Artwork LR

The latest in a new generation of blackened metal acts to emerge from the previously very un-metal (apart from the likes of Aborted and Enthroned) domain of Belgium, Saille (pronounced sahl-yeh) plough the sort of dark gothicism meets extreme brutality route previously explored by acts such as Akercocke. A concept …

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Riot V – ‘Unleash The Fire’

RIOT V - Unleash The Fire album artwork

It takes a brave decision by any band to continue following the death of not only a founder member but also one regarded as the cornerstone of the act concerned.  Some – such as Led Zeppelin – have decided not to attempt to replace such a key element, while others, …

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Vardis to record new live album

100MPH-Vardis-300dpi

On the eve of their appearance at this weekend’s Hard Rock Hell, NWOBHM veterans Vardis have announced that they are to record and release their first live album in almost 35 years! The recording will take place at Unity Works, Unity Hall, Wakefield, on Saturday 13 December, with the result being released some time in …

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Engraved Disillusion – ‘The Eternal Rest’

Engraved Disillusion artwork

For many bands, the difference between their first and second albums can be a jump of almost cosmic immensity:  how to capture the energy and enthusiasm of your debut opus while at the same time applying the lessons learned from the earlier process and using them to adapt/moderate/progress your sound …

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Foul Body Autopsy – ‘So Close To Dehumanization’

Foul Body Autopsy artwork

Foul Body Autopsy is one-man extreme metal maverick Tom Reynolds, who describes himself as being “armed with an iPod, guitar and a desire to crush skulls” and to date has producedroughly an EP per annum during his four-year career.  Now, he has followed that tradition with this brain-shredding two-track EP, …

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NekKralai – ‘Kliudžiau’ EP

NekKralai artwork

The story goes something like this… Back in 2009, in the small Lithuanian town of Seredzius, two local drunks – lets call them Gytis and Simonas (just because that’s their names!) – decided that just spending their days working and their nights drinking was not enough fulfilment:  so, they decided …

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Hellion Rising – Eight Of Swords

Hellion Rising artwork

There’s an old – and very much overused (as these things tend to be) – saying about how you should never judge a book by it’s cover… in terms of reviewing heavy metal albums, it is perhaps fair to adapt this ancient adage to CDs and their artwork… On first …

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Cursed Sun – Belfast, Limelight 2, 01/11/2014

Cursed Sun header

Sometimes I feel like I live in Belfast’s most famous music venue rather than five minutes ’round the corner, given the amount of time I spend there… this was my something like my 26th or 27th gig here this year so far (a that’s not counting the amount of evenings spent …

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