Event Reviews

Sunday morning comes around all sunny and clear…well ok not necessarily for the whole day as it did bucket it down as well, but you get my meaning.  This was the last day of the festival and today was all about Stage 1.  Why?  Well, cause that was the only …

Saturday dawns bright and brings with it the promised of yet more great bands, beer and festivities.  There were so many bands on this day I wanted to camp by both stages and just watch everything.  But, short of cloning myself and creating a psychic link with said clone, this …

With four days this year the line-up was jam packed full of bands and there were a lot to choose from.  Things kicked off on Thursday which was party night with the crowd really getting into this year’s theme by dressing up Western style.  I didn’t manage to get to …

Epica prove to Manchester why they are a true force to be reckoned with.   The Ritz in Manchester is a cracking venue without doubt and tonight’s gig promised to be one most worthy of playing within it’s hallowed walls as the Epica world tour arrived on the latest leg …

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 …