Tag Archives: live review

The second day of Steelhouse dawned with an incessant mizzle in the air.  Not the sort of torrential downpour which had turned the mountain top site into a quagmire last year, but a constant enough drizzle to make itself known it was there, and at times annoying in its persistence. …

The weather can invariably play an important role in the enjoyment of a festival – just look at the experiences of many at this year’s Drownload!  The first day of last year’s Steelhouse had been preceded by one of torrential rain, meaning that the mountain top site was already a …

It’s not every day that you see history made, but tonight it happened.  While it may not have been a record-breaking number of appearances at the venue, The Dead Daisies bassist Marco Mendoza became the first artist to take to this hallowed stage on four separate occasions with four different …

Gigs staged in the shadow of a festival often can be hit and miss affairs.  And with a lot of the Northern Ireland metallians returning from D(r)ownload turning left virtually as soon as they docked and heading straight down the motorway to Dublin for Slayer and Anthrax, you could have …

Time is relative.  For some, it passes slowly and as inexorably as the tides lap against a shore.  For others, it speeds past like a bullet from a gun, bearing down on its inevitable end.  For Northern Ireland’s hardest working hard rockers, The Answer, the past decade has been something …

It must be admitted that the focus of attention on the beer bus en route from Belfast to the depths of the Antrim hills was not on the music which awaited its passengers at the other end, but rather on the small matter of the outcome of a certain football …

The island of Ireland holds a special place in the collective hearts of the members of Corrosion Of Conformity.  Although the classic line up of Pepper Keenan, Woody Weatherman, Mike Dean and Reed Mullin had got their act back together a few months previously, and played their first live show …

It’s a Monday night in Belfast and the legions are gathering, their faces painted black and white and their armour made of leather and/or PVC.  Which can mean only one thing:  Cradle Of Filth have returned to the city after a 15-year gap, on the final night of their latest …

Saturday morning at Camp Hard Rock Hell dawned crisp and bright, with the day going on to prove to be warmest of the weekend.  And so, as the sun made its first appearance, and after a morning of hanging around the press area waiting on bands not turning up for …

Thanks to a mizzle which had blown in from the Irish Sea overnight, the first full day at Camp Hard Rock Hell dawns damp underfoot, as the faithful thousands wake from their late slumbers and prepare for the entertainment coming their way across the three stages. Having travelled from about …

Despite its remote location – in the crook of north Wales’ Llŷn Peninsula, between Snowdonia and the Irish Sea – Hard Rock Hell is undoubtedly one of the UK’s favourite festivals, often booking out a year in advance… and even before a single band is announced!  That was evinced yet …

On an unusually mild, bright early Spring evening in our wee neck of the woods off I set to what, according to the poster promises to be a great night of good old fashioned rock n roll.. As the lights go down, the opening band Massive Wagons take to the …

It had been quite some time since yours truly last descended the steps into the hallowed Mandela Hall…  almost exactly 18 months in fact.  And, as I stood outside the chilly Sunday night air awaiting my photographer, I could not help but note the eclectic nature of the hundreds of …

It always amazes me how certain social media channels are always filled with whinging, so called “rock fans” who complain that there are never any gigs on… I don’t know what sort of cloud cuckoo land they live in, because this, the official launch of Zlatanera‘s debut album, ‘Legerdemain‘, was …

It may have been just a relatively short six years since thrash legends Exodus last graced this very stage, but it has been a lot longer since the Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza fronted  incarnation was last in these parts… almost 27 years and 1989’s ‘Fabulous Disaster’ tour.  In fact, not one single member …

For those unfamiliar with the event, Blazefest is an annual fundraising show in aid of the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.  It is inspired by a very brave young man, Blaze Shields-Pettitt, who, in his short life, has endured a lot more than many of us old fogies could …

“And lo, the [heathen] hordes from the East did descend up the city at the mouth of the river called the Farset… and they did lay waste onto the same with their furious vengeance and the spilling of much ancestral blood.” OK, forgive the pastiche of sub-Biblical phraseology, but it …

There are some artists who just love to play live, and seem to get itchy feet if they are more than a few minutes away from treading the boards of the stage.  Just off the top of my head, I can think of two homegrown Norn Iron talents who definitely …

Max Cavalera certainly believes in keeping it in the family.  Or maybe it’s a case of keep your friends close but your family closer.  Whatever it may be, the last couple of Soulfly tours have gone out under the ‘Maximum Cavalera’ banner, with bands featuring both his sons and his …

Pat McManus gigs are always special.  So much so that many people go that extra little bit further to sit at the feet of the man affectionately known for a little more three decades now as ‘The Professor’ and bask in his talent.  On this occasion, your PlanetMosh team thought …