Mark Ashby

no longer planetmosh staff

Headless Kross – Belfast, Voodoo – 30 July 2016

For Glaswegian doom mongers Headless Kross, their annual trips to the island of Ireland have become something of a pilgrimage. This evening their latest visit is well-rewarded, as, despite the gig’s early hour, Voodoo’s intimate upstairs club is rammed almost to capacity with those who enjoy their rock at the …

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Hey! Hello! – Steelhouse Festival – 24 July 2016

PlanetMosh caught up with The Rev and Toshi backstage at this past weekend’s Steelhouse festival to get all the latest buzzness (sic) from the Hey! Hello! camp, including the inside scoop on the re-recording of their ‘Hey! Hello! Too!’ album, following the spectacular walkout of their then lead vocalist on …

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Toseland – Steelhouse Festival – 24 July 2016

PlanetMosh caught up motorcycling champion-turned-rock singer James Toseland following his performance at this past weekend’s Steelhouse Festival to chat about the latest events in his musical career – including his playing a certain PM interviewer’s recent 50th birthday party (which, of course, he strategically tried to gloss over…):

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Blackfoot – ‘Southern Native’

To be brutally honest, as I sit down to write this review, I am struggling to know where to begin…after all, Blackfoot is one of the bands who, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, turned me on to the energy of loud rock ‘n’ roll.  They also were the …

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Van Zant – ‘Red White & Blue (Live)’

The name Van Zant is synonymous with the development of American southern rock.  The oldest of three brothers who make up what has been described as the south’s “first family” was, of course, the late Ronnie Van Zant, frontman of the legendary Lynyrd Skynyrd – the band who singularly put …

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Blues Pills – ‘Lady In Gold’

The self-titled debut album by psyched-out retro blues rockers Blues Pills understandably made a huge impact on its release two years ago.  Not only was it one of the few albums of its kind to genuinely coalesce all its constituent elements into a strong, powerful and cohesive manner which did …

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Raging Speedhorn – ‘Lost Ritual’

It could be argued that, for a while, Raging Speedhorn could have been regarded as one of the “also rans” of the heavy metal scene.  Breaking ground with their use of two vocalists – a combination extremely hard to work effectively effectively, especially in the hardcore subgenre – the band …

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Vivaldi Metal Project – ‘The Four Seasons’

If nothing else, Italian keyboard player Mistheria – real name Giuseppe Iampieri, who has included collaborations with the likes of Bruce Dickinson and Rob Rock in an 18-year career that has also seen him release a series of movie soundtrack-based albums – possesses a sense of the ambitious and the …

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Four By Fate – ‘Relentless’

It’s hard, if not downright impossible, to fault the musical pedigree of the group of musicians who, over the past couple of years, have come together to create the entity that is known as Four By Fate.  Between them, they have played with a list of bands that you’d probably …

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Bella D – ‘The Crystal Ceiling’

Life is inevitable in its conclusion. No matter how we battle against it, it has only one end result.  It is how we meet that end that matters.  Do we go gently into the night?  Or do we face up to the light and ultimately face our fate with dignity …

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Tremonti – Belfast, Limelight 1 – 14 June 2016

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 …

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