Let’s get this clear from the start: I hate fucking so-called “reality” TV “music” shows. Never watch them. By and large, they’re ego-stroking vanity trips for equally vainglorious multi-billionaires merely seeking to embarrass weird and random selections of wannabe has-beens into making complete dicks of themselves and earning undeserved adulation …
Read More »Ensiferum / Metsatöll – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 21 February 2016
“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 …
Read More »RavenEye/Selene – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 13 February 2016
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 …
Read More »Soulfly – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 3 February 2016
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 …
Read More »The Pat McManus Band – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 30 January 2016
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 …
Read More »Metal 2 The Masses Northern Ireland – Heat One Overview
It’s funny how little phrases stick with you… I remember spending many early Saturday evenings in my youth sat in front of my grandmother’s television, watching a bunch of grown men and women, who really should have known better, running round huge inflatable obstacle courses while other, invariably bigger, grown …
Read More »Unhinged – Nostalgia
Unhinged a punk rock band from Stourbrige in the West Midlands released their debut album Nostalgia on 11th December 2015, having formed in the summer of the same year. On their facebook page they site their influences as “Oasis, H2O, The Offspring, Linkin Park, Pennywise, Agnostic Front and Clutch.” Nostaligia with …
Read More »Megadeth – Dystopia Album Review
Let’s not pretend – Super Collider and Thirteen were…questionable at best. This left me wary as I sat at my desk ready to hear the latest offering from Megadeth. Half the band had left in the last year, leaving Ellefson and Mustaine with what looked like nothing to continue the …
Read More »Resurrection Kings – ‘Resurrection Kings’
Following his nigh on disastrous live return to the UK last October, with the complete shambles that was “Giuffria” at Rockingham this past October, former Dio guitarist Craig Goldy once more re-enters the rock ‘n’ roll arena with Resurrection Kings – a project that sees him teaming up with one …
Read More »Nordic Union – ‘Nordic Union’
Nordic Union is a project which does exactly what its name suggests, bringing together two generations of the Scandinavian melodic hard rock scene – in the form of Pretty Maids vocalist Ronnie Atkins and uber upstart workaholic Eric Mårtensson (Eclipse/W.E.T/Age Sten Nilsen’s Ammunition). It’s a pairing brought together by Frontiers …
Read More »Ricky Warwick – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 2 January 2016
A little more than three months after he last graced this same stage – then accompanied by his Black Star Riders bandmate Damon Johnson – Ricky Warwick returned to one of his favourite haunts for this special New Year show. In fact, Warwick had forsaken the somewhat sunnier climes of …
Read More »Matty James & The Irregulars – Tiger Lounge, Manchester: 12th December 2015
Matty James & The Irregulars It was a busy Saturday night in December when Matty James brought his band Matty James & The Irregulars to Tiger Lounge, Manchester for the final night of his first UK tour with a full band. What had been a very rainy day in Manchester …
Read More »The Answer – Ahoghill, Diamond Rock Club – 19 December 2015
Some people would go to any lengths for a great party… and, by this, I don’t just mean those of us who regularly board the Beer Bus for the regular trips to the best little rock club in the country: no, I mean some of the determined folk who have …
Read More »Boulevard – ‘Live From Gastown’
It was one of those “you had to be there moments” – and one where I’m fortunate to say, “yes, I was”. It was the Saturday afternoon of what was then supposed to be the last ever Firefest, and a band wandered onto the stage who proved to be not …
Read More »Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses 2016 Belfast launch – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 5 December 2015
And so it is almost upon us again… the annual Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses competition, with it’s reward being the much coveted and desired chance to play the New Blood stage at Britain’s favourite bespoke metalfest alongside the likes of Slayer, Mastodon, Twisted Sister, Venom and a host of …
Read More »Mondo Generator – Belfast, Voodoo – 25 November 2015
When Nick Oliveri left the stage of this very venue a little more than four months ago, he confidently predicted that the next time he appeared in Belfast it would be with Mondo Generator… little did most of those present realize that the touring schedule was already locked in and the …
Read More »Ceaseless Blight – Belfast, The Bar With No Name – 20 November 2015
Sometimes, you really should do your homework before going to a gig! On this occasion, I was familiar with three of the five acts beforehand, and was particularly looking forward to seeing the two heavy acts bookending the bill – especially as one was unveiling a new line up and …
Read More »Clutch – Belfast, Limelight 1 – 21 November 2015
With many of their US counterparts cancelling, postponing or cutting short their European tours in the wake of the atrocities in Paris earlier this month and the subsequent security concerns across much of Europe – just hours before the doors opened this evening, Brussels went into a state of lock …
Read More »Eric Bell – Belfast, Empire Music Hall – 15 November 2015
There are few people in the music business to whom the term “living legend” can, and should, be deservedly applied. As far as the the Irish rock scene is concerned, there is one gentleman to whom that descriptive does not even begin to do justice – and that is Mr …
Read More »Evil Scarecrow – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 14 November 2015
There are occasions when you go to a gig genuinely not knowing what to expect. Having witnessed the lunacy that is an Evil Scarecrow show for the first and only time at Bloodstock last summer, your PM team had a rough idea of the madness that was about to descend …
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