With some inane pop band booked into play it’s spiritual home, this week’s RocKD promotion was forced once again to move across the street (and around the corner, past the car park…) to the surprisingly hospitable (despite the lack of both/either Guinness or Magners on draft) surroundings of the venue …
Read More »Heaven’s Basement – Voodoo, Belfast – 20/03/2014
With the bill toppers’ biggest ever headline tour winding its way across the UK, all three bands were returning to Belfast for what proved to be a damn fine evening of live rock ‘n’ roll delivered with energy by all concerned. Despite their late arrival meaning that The Dirty Youth are …
Read More »Overkill – The Academy, Dublin – 15/03/2014
@PlanetMosh reviews .@OverkillBand ‘s first ever live show in Ireland. They say that good things come to those who wait, which must mean that Ireland’s thrash heads are among the best rewarded as well as the most patient on the planet of mosh, as they had waited more than 30 …
Read More »Grand Magus – Voodoo Lounge, Dublin – 13/03/2014
It’s amazing the difference half an hour can make. One disadvantage for those of us living in Belfast and wishing to attend gigs down the motorway in Dublin is the infrequency of late night return coach services from the Irish capital to that north of the border. With the last …
Read More »Blazefest IV – Empire Music Hall, Belfast – 8/3/2014
The rock and metal community, perhaps more than any other in the field of music, always has been known for its generosity of spirit and support for worthy causes. For the community in Northern Ireland, few are more special or better supported than Blaze’s Appeal, which raises funds for the …
Read More »Sinocence – Stiff Kitten, Belfast – 7/3/2014
“WAKE THE FUCK UP!” Be afraid. Be very afraid. Especially if you are heading to Hammerfest this coming weekend: Belfast metallians Sinocence have emerged from a hibernation that has lasted nigh on four months just in time to cause Richter Scale-registering devastation to northern Wales. “WAKE THE FUCK UP!” Opening …
Read More »Rabid Bitch Of The North – Stiff Kitten, Belfast – 1 March 2014
When is a launch not a launch? When you don’t actually have anything to launch… which is exactly what proved to be the case for Rabid Bitch Of The North, when copies of their long-awaited new cassette EP, ‘Defending Two Castles’, failed to make it north of the border from …
Read More »By Conquest Or Consent + Defyed + Spittin’ Teeth – Limelight 2, Belfast – 22 February 2014
Billed as a special showcase gig, highlighting the best in established and up-and-coming Northern Irish hardcore talent, this triple bill certainly lived up to its advance promotion. Openers Spittin’ Teeth are one of the few bands in the genre, at least in this part of the world, to employ a …
Read More »Trucker Diablo + NASA Assassin – Diamond Rock Club, Ahoghill – 8 February 2014
Farewells are always emotional affairs, and none more than when it is akin to bidding goodbye to a close family member… and there was a tangible sense of emotion in the air as the Norn Irish rock family gathered to bid farewell to one of their most beloved brothers – …
Read More »Highway To Hell – Limelight 2, Belfast – 1 February 2014
.@Planetmosh reviews @Screagle83, @MaverickBelfast and @balefulcreed at @LimelightNI. You know you’ve had a good day/night (delete as applicable) when you wake up the next morning with a hangover to match the hole in your wallet – and you know the rock year has officially started when the return of The …
Read More »Bullibymon + Jackalfeud + Defyed – Voodoo, Belfast – 17 January 2014
.@PlanetMosh reviews @Bullibymon, @jackalfeud and #Defyed at @Voodoo_Belfast With the Belfast metal scene having burst back into life after its winter hiatus the previous evening, with the triple assault of Kataklysm, Krisiun and Fleshgod Apocalypse down the street at the Limelight, it was turn of the local lads to turn …
Read More »Kataklysm + Krisiun + Fleshgod Apocalypse – Limelight 2, Belfast, 16 January 2014
It’s taken until halfway through January for the Belfast metal scene to throw off its new year hangover and stir itself back into life – and what better way for it to awaken than with an international triple header featuring three potent exponents of their craft? Openers Fleshgod Apocalypse bring …
Read More »Stormzone + Maverick – Diamond Rock Club, Ahoghill, 28 December 2013
As we have been consistently documenting over the past 12 months, it’s been a helluva year for the Norn Iron rock and metal scene – and especially for the two bands tasked with hosting this end-of-term party (Stormzone released their fourth, and most acclaimed and successful, album to date while …
Read More »Pat McManus Band – Diamond Rock Club, Ahoghill – 21 December 2013
It’s that time of year when every website / magazine / pundit-of-various-degrees-of-credibility produces their dreaded “end of year list”: you know the sort of thing – the ten best albums / gigs / blow jobs /whatever. And, yes, we at PM are just as guilty as everyone else… Of course, …
Read More »Mental Deficiency – Limelight 2, Belfast – 19 December 2013
‘Twas a the week before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring… but ’round the corner in the Limelight all manner of mayhem was taking place, as the holiday season turned into a right ol’ Thrashmess… With the ambient, grungy pop of Goodbye Nola entertaining but …
Read More »Black Star Riders – Limelight 1, Belfast – 15 December 2013
Slightly more than a year ago, the curtain came down on the long and storied career of the mighty Thin Lizzy, when the band played their penultimate gig on Irish soil as they bade farewell to touring and prepared to launch a new identity through which to progress the Lizzy …
Read More »Astralnaut – Limelight 2, Belfast – 14 December 2013
For any promoter to stage the amount of quality gigs which James Loveday puts on – this was his 45th straight ‘RocKD’ event of the year, not counting the number of visiting acts he has brought our way over the past 13 years – is no mean feat. It’s not …
Read More »Black Sabbath – Odyssey Arena, Belfast – 12 December 2013
Forty-five years. Forty-five fucking years. Not only is that the length of time since Black Sabbath first unleashed their pioneering brand of heavy metal on a deeply unsuspecting world, and changed its musical landscape forever, but it also how long it has taken the genre’s founding fathers to appear on …
Read More »War Iron – Limelight 2, Belfast – 7 December 2013
With the grey clouds broiling overhead heralding the true onset of a wet Belfast winter, and even the hardiest of ‘fleg’ protestors scurrying for the comfort of the gluhwein tents in the nearby Christmas Market to which they so vehemently object, the the most diehard warriors from the city’s metal …
Read More »Zombified – Limelight, Belfast – 30 November 2013
Tonight’s gig was supposed to be headlined by Bristolian gore merchants Amputated, but unfortunately the brakes on their hired tour bus failed as they travelled to meet the ferry, and therefore the band were forced to cancel a gig for the first time in their 11 year history. Nevertheless, promoter …
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