Having loaned an entire new meaning to the phrase ‘down under’, Australia’s most OTT black metallers have split up and re-united more times than PM’s esteemed editor-in-chief has brewed a mug of Horlicks – originally calling it a day back in 1996 and then again at the beginning of 2007, …

This debut album from London-based multi-nationals KFE – vocalist Lyla D’Souza is Australian, guitarist Andrea Basiola hails from Italy and drummer Max Loubser has the misfortune to be a  Mancunian (isn’t that somewhere left of the third planet on the right as you pass Andromeda?) – is one almightily powerful …

It’s the last Saturday in March, and just hours before the clocks are turned forward the start of what is supposed to be British Summer Time – what a feckin’ joke!  Outside, the temperature is barely pushing above zero degrees, and inside… well, I swear it’s even colder, with the …

Right from the outset, this fourth album from Finnish thrash metal five piece Gloria Morti is a bruising, punishing affair, treading a path between thrash and death metal, with elements of BM thrown in for good measure. It’s not that the band can’t make up their mind which sub-genre they …

This fifth album from the Brazilian duo of Mantus and Triumphsword is very much an homage to the traditional values of late ‘80s / early ‘90s black metal.  And it carries no pretensions about being otherwise. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-GRCarR-JE] Each of the 12 tracks (the titular opener is very much a cinematic-style …

If ever an album title was appropriate, it is this one from this young Dublin hardcore quartet.  Just like the band’s previous EP, ‘Dead Dead Fucking Dead’, the album is somewhat of a cathartic experience, dealing as it does with the band’s recovery after vocalist Aidan Coogan almost died in …

As the world’s economic axis turns in upon itself, switching its power base from the colonialist West to the formerly subjugated and colonialized east, could it be argued that the crux of the metal world is about to shift in the same direction? Over recent years, the encroachment of acts …

While those with a lot less sense were out ‘drowning the shamrock’ and “celebrating” what laughingly passes for the ‘national saint’s day’ in this corner of the world, by getting as hammered as possible as quickly possible and then hammering the living daylights out of each other in an unprecedented …

Tonight’s bill is a typically eclectic one – ranging from classic thrash through dark sludge to ambient black metal – ensuring a healthy crowd drawn from a wide spectrum of Belfast’s metal community, with the added advantage of it being the beginning of (for many) a long holiday weekend helping …

Jeff ‘Oly’ Olson is best known as the original drummer with Trouble, one of the groups which shaped the sound of modern doom metal. Having left the band in 2008, he recently has re-united with his former bandmates, this time contributing keyboards to their forthcoming new album, ‘The Dark Riff’. …

After apparently calling it quits two years ago, German power metal maestro Tobias Sammett delivered a pleasant surprise to his legions of fans when it was revealed that there would, in fact, be a new Avantasia studio album, ‘The Mystery Of Time’, which is being released at the end of …

In Mortis Veritas is a one-man French black metal project, with the man in question being the extremely mysterious Non Serviam, or The Dark Nazareen. Recorded over a two year period, this debut album is a dark and dense affair, and as mysterious as its creator.  Arising from an ethereal …

Tucked away on a cobbled side street on the edge of the oldest part of Belfast, Oh Yeah is a former whiskey bonding warehouse converted into a bespoke music centre – its ground floor a museum by day and a venue by night, its upper floors filled with recording studios, …

This ninth album from the Swedish thrash/sleaze mutants sees them abandoning the former and very much planting their feet in the latter camp – a direction they have taken more and more since the recruitment of former Crazy Lixx guitarist Vic Zino six years ago. Following an intro that wouldn’t …

Life is full of disappointments, and it must be said that this evening was one of the more disappointing in my life as a rock critic. Derry four piece Mourning Of The Heretic made a decent fist of their opening slot, with their brand of gothic death metal mixed with …

When Danish folk-metallers Huldre released their debut album, ‘Intet Menneskebarn’, at the tail end of 2012, they immediately drew comparisons with the likes of Eluvetie, Korpiklaani and Leaves’ Eyes, among others – especially for their emphasis on the ‘folk’ rather than the metal side of their sound, through the use …

The announcement last year that three quarters of the ‘golden days’ Dokken line up – guitarist George Lynch, bassist Jeff Pilson and drummer ‘Wild’ Mick Brown – were working together again had fans seeking a long-overdue reunion of the classic original incarnation of the LA rockers positively salivating with expectation …

It may seem somewhat of anomaly, in these days of internet downloads, for a band to release a good old-fashioned ‘Double A Side’ – especially when said release is only be made available in digital format and not pressed to ye olde plastic.  But, that’s what Belfast progressive post-rock quartet …

This self-released debut album from Manchester-based four piece The Goddamn Electric – or GDE as they like to be abbreviated to – bears all the hallmarks of a band brimming with confidence, not afraid to take a myriad of influences, from classic metal through southern blues to even sleaze rock …

I must admit to having been somewhat sceptical about the location for the Belfast leg of Grand Magus’ first UK headlining tour – a nightclub in the city centre more used to hosting spide-crammed ‘dance’ events (or ‘raves’ in old money) than brutally loud heavy metal gigs… OK, I know …