With the Texan metal pioneers celebrating three decades of doing what they do, with the appropriately named ’30 Years Of Hel’ live package, Planet Mosh caught up with Helstar founder and frontman James Rivera during the band’s most recent European trek, to look back over the band’s storied career, talk …

I have to admit it – I’m a child of the Eighties. I mean that in that is when I got into metal: it was the formative years of that historic decade in rock history that, as a lanky-haired rebellious private school-attending teenager that I first discovered bands such as …

Over the past decade or so, black metal – particularly of the northern European variety – has become much more about the feel of the music rather than the subject matter, as bands have progressed from satanic shock tactics to more natural, ethereal explorations of the environments which originally inspired …

This Sicilian combo have been hanging around the edges (sic) of the European power/symphonic metal scene for a little over a decade now, occasionally threatening to move further into the spotlight dominated especially some of their countrymen through offerings such as their two under-rated concept albums to date, ‘Hastings 1066’ …

What is the collective noun for a group of guitarists? In this case, may we proffer forth the description ‘an audience’ – as nearly every other person assembled for this Belfast stop-off on Firewind’s ten date UK and Ireland tour appeared to be a six-string slinger from one local metal …

Many countries jealously guard their culture and heritage – but when a band such as Leaves’ Eyes openly defy national boundaries, not only in terms of their membership but also in their lyrical inspiration, cultural identity becomes secondary to the new cultural infusion of symphonic heavy metal which draws its …

With the tentacles of heavy metal now reaching into almost every corner of the known world, one scene which has been growing in both strength and profile over recent years is that in India.  Among those leading the charge of acts from the sub continent are this four piece from …

Your humble PM scribe feels like he has been living in the brilliantly named Voodoo for the best part of a week, as this is my third gig in as many days in the Belfast city centre venue. Industrial thrashers The Obscene Machine must feel the same way, as it …

This evening’s weekly dose of Saturday metal gave two out of the four local bands attending next month’s Highway To Hell III a chance to run through their paces, albeit in front of a much more partisan crowd than they undoubtedly will face in Glasgow… Opening proceedings for the duo …

On the day of the release of their debut album, ‘Sepulchral Torment’, and minutes before they hit the stage for their debut hometown show, Planet Mosh’s Ireland editor sat down with Andrew and Dave, guitarist and vocalist respectively with Belfast based death metallers Rex Shachath. Battling against the background noise …

Following their dalliance in the unplugged arena, with the highly imaginatively named ‘The Acoustic’ project earlier this year, Hungarian neo-thrashers Ektomorf have plugged their funny shaped geetars back into their Marshall stacks and turned the volume back up to 11 for this, their ninth studio album. Having built a reputation …

Hailing from Londonderry in Northern Ireland, MOTH have built a decent following on the local live scene. Unfortunately they have not been able to transfer this energy and theatricality to tape. There are very obvious My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Cradle of Filth influences from the image down to …

When the census did its rounds last year, I filled in the section marked ‘Religion’ with two very simple words – Heavy Metal. For that’s what metal is… a lifestyle choice, at times a religious experience. And, so it is that, for the second time in a little over 24 …

Despite summer trying, vainly, to make a last ditch attempt to make its disappointing presence felt inside, and the counter-attraction of equally disappointing live football in the adjoining bar, an extremely healthy crowd sequestered itself in the darkened environs of metal’s spiritual Belfast home for this weekly early-evening triple header. …

School night gigs in this part of the world have a reputation for being poorly attended, even when four quality acts come together on a superb value-for-money bill. Having said that, by the end of this evening there is a respectable enough crowd gathered to support the first of two …

Originally founded back in 2001 when guitarist Leon del Muerte left Impaled – and subsequently put on hold when he went on to join Exhumed – MC have been kicking around in one form or another ever since, first making their mark with their self-titled debut EP two years ago, …

If there are two words in the musical lexicon that fill most reviewers – and especially this one, if must be admitted – with fear, then they are ‘progressive’ and ‘technical’. Especially when they are conjoined. I mean, I’m of a generation when both terms were applied to bands like …

For those you who have been sitting under a rock, Dublin Death Patrol is a collaborative side project led by Testament vocalist Chuck Billy and his predecessor Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza (he was the singer in Legacy, the original version of aforesaid thrash legends, before going on to make his name …

This evening’s gig truly could be described as a night for the ages, with the veteran guardians of the Northern Irish metal scene joining forces with the movement’s young titans to fight off all comers and prove just why this particular corner of the world is a domain to be …

When power metal is done well, it is done bloody well. When it’s done badly, it’s done bloody atrociously. The second album by re-united Sicilian trio Holy Knights falls somewhere between these two extremes. Way back at the turn of the 21st century, Holy Knights could have been, in words …