Event Reviews

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 …

A change of any band member is always hard, but somehow seems harder when it is the singer, the front man of the band. Some bands manage this well and others do not, thankfully for us, Night By Night are one of the former. Warning us that their set was …

This was a gig I had been brought in at the last minute to review, and having never heard anything from all of the bands playing at The Classic Grand tonight, meant I spent most of the early part of the day checking them out, and listening to recent and …

It’s a discussion which has been held in bar rooms up and down the land – and, indeed, on these very pages: the merits and demerits of what happens after an iconic band loses one of its pivotal members – and particularly someone in turn as iconic as their frontman. …

Saturday 1st December was the second year Dublin was to be subjected to a beating. The dealer of this beating was Robbie McCabe of Eye Hate Tony Promotions. Seasons Beatings 2 was an all day gig with a long line-up of a variety of Irish metal bands. So, let me …

Goat Horn was Jason Decay’s previous band that had similar attributes to Cauldron. Now Cauldron are into their third album ‘Tomorrow’s Lost’, discovering a whole new path in what you could call ‘retro-metal’. They return to Europe on a headline tour covering some of the major cities that they once …

Another Saturday night another opportunity to watch some great bands in action, so I headed down to Brixton for what would prove to be a fantastic night of metal. On the bill that night were Diaries Of A Hero, Anthrax and Motörhead so I knew even before I got there …

Things weren’t going too well at the start of this evening’s debut visit to their Irish diaspora of fans by Polish ‘legends’ Turbo. First of all, local support Bäkken – who less than a week earlier had officially launched their worthy ‘Death Of A Hero’ album – pulled out at …

There are many great guitar players in the world, a few of whom can be described as truly innovative – Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Richie Blackmore, Eddie Van Halen, David Gilmour and Joe Satriani are among the names that comes instantly to mind in this regard. There are …

As I made my way down to the House of Blues from my new home in Hollywood a few things were going through my head, “will my pass be there?” Was the first and most prominent as this show is my first in Hollywood in my official capacity as Planetmosh …

Walking into the Southampton venue, ‘Mo’Club’ I found myself confused as I approached. The venue is situated in between two car companies and in the middle of an industrial estate. The front of the venue includes a large image of a roller-skating disco venue with ‘Jiving’ and ‘Bollywood’ as themed …

The night started with Blurred Vision.  No not from people drinking too much at the nearby Crobar – this is a Canadian band who are on tour in the UK and were last minute replacements for the band that had originally been supposed to open the bill but had to …

The Arches in Glasgow is not renowned as a venue for metal bands to play. Its very design, part of the old railway arches under Glasgow Central Station, means playing anything loud tends to bounce from one end to the other and can make things sound very muddy. Thankfully however, …

  The night started with Gaz Brookfield, a singer songwriter who performs by himself with an acoustic guitar.  Despite being on early the venue was already busy, so there was a large crowd to watch his set.  His folk sound went down well with the crowd, and a song about …

It confounds me. No, it really annoys me. Actually, it makes me really fucking angry. OK, I know there’s a recession on and all that, but for four damn fine bands – including one who have travelled since the wee small hours to play the gig – to play to …

The night started with the support band – Seven, who come from the Czech republic.  Doro fans may know of the band purely because of their guitarist, Honza, who guested at Doro’s 25th anniversary show in 2008, which was recently released on DVD.  That is the only reason any of …

Testament have been the only one of the big five that I’ve never managed to see, so I was understandably very excited beforehand at the prospect of finally catching these guys live, not to mention get a chance to speak with Alex Skolnick prior to the gig too. It was …

Co-headline shows are awkward beasts.  And, personally, I’m not a huge fan of them… I mean, you either have a headline act or you don’t – right?  Running a bill with two headliners has inherent problems – who goes on first, what happens if the opening act are better than …

Trillium, the band fronted by Amanda Somerville, are the special guests on the UK part of Magnums current tour. They had a good half hour set to show the crowd what they were all about. Playing Symphonic metal at a Magnum gig might have sounded like a strange idea to …

Tucked away beneath the rain swept streets of Manchester, we find ourselves at club Alter-Ego, and the stage for the launch of Incassum’s second album, ‘Rite of Passage’. In support tonight are Lazarus Syndrome and Hanging Doll, both of whom, curfew or otherwise, assist in making this intimate subterranean microcosm …