The name Sepultura still packs quite a punch in these parts, this despite the lasting legacy of former front man Max Cavalera’s departure some 14 years ago. I mention the Max factor because its without doubt what came to mind for every other Irish Sepultura fan when they heard about this Dublin date.

However well the band has done since his departure, and there are many, many fans of the band’s more recent work and of the virtues of current front man Derrick Green, most fans would probably give their right testical to see the old Chaos AD era line-up rip through a set full of their old death/thrash classics.

None the less, in rock n roll you’ve often got to dance to the tunes you’re given and there is little doubt that Dublin’s Academy will be anything other than completely wedged for this show on July 18th.

Tickets from the usual suspects - soon. News on supports as soon as it comes in. . . .

Old news for some, but as it’s not the kind of thing that happens every day, I thought it worthy of a mention. Yes, in yet another completely unexpected and pretty major turn up for the books, Cork’s metal faithful have found themselves with another one of thrash metal’s big four coming to Leeside. In the biggest Irish heavy metal news shocker (since the last one), Megadeth will play Cork this summer.

Just like Slayer in 2007, Dave and Co will hit the Marquee on June 14th. Tickets will set you back €39.50 and are available right now from the usual suspects.

Here’s hoping Aiken Promotions are enlightened enough to give this show the one support band that it’s completely crying out for - Gama Bomb. Do it!

Long lost Mourning Beloveth interview from 2008 finally appears

Back in May of 2008 I did a little interview with Darren Moore of Mourning Beloveth for a forerunner to Paddy Metal. ‘A Disease for the Ages’ was just coming out and it was the band’s first album since the departure of Adrian Butler. Before I got to post the interview however, I decided the look, feel and name of the Blog was all wrong and I abandoned it. So the interview never appeared.

Given the recent announcement that Brian Delaney has left the band, I thought I’d resurrect the interview and post it on Paddy Metal, rather than tormenting Darren Moore again for an interview that might never see the light of day. As you’ll see, its not all that bad either.
Read the rest of this entry »

I promised a few people I’d do a little gig report on the W.A.S.P. show in Dublin last month. That however was before my month went a little crazy with work and a few other things and it didn’t get done. Anyway, better late than never and my apologies to those waiting for it.

Put simply, if you missed this then you are probably still kicking yourself pretty hard. The buzz around this show has been quite immense with the term ‘gig of the year’ being bandied about the auld interweb quite a bit. While I can’t quite tag it that, it was indeed one hell of a show and one that will be talked about for some time to come.

W.A.S.P. have been here a number of times in recent years and the band’s last show, in the same venue, all be it by default (they had been booked to play Tripod but construction work didn’t finish on time) was pretty memorable too. The novelty of seeing a band of W.A.S.P.’s stature in such a small venue wasn’t lost on those who turned up that night despite the late rescheduling.

This time round the sell-out crowed wedged into the Button Factory were really up for it. The fact that it was a weekend night really added to the buzz for many in attendance, with a very busy bar evident throughout the night. Alas, I was to witness the entire show completely stone cold sober and that might be why I won’t go as far as calling it gig of the year. But it was certainly special. You can often call these occasions by the type people who show up and they really came out of the woodwork for W.A.S.P. with this one. There was a healthy mix of young, old (you know what I mean), Irish and foreign nationalities in attendance with plenty of members of some of the bigger Irish metal bands also knocking around.

The set-list impressed with the more recent material standing well beside the hits of old. Two songs from Dominator might otherwise have seemed a bit much, but gelled well in the set-list on this occasion. Blackie led the band in what was certainly the best performance I’ve seen from W.A.S.P over the past half a decade and even had a little bit of banter with the crowd while he was at it.

If I recall correctly (a month later) the set-list was along these lines:

On Your Knees
The Real Me
L.O.V.E. Machine
Crazy
Babylons Burning – New
Wild Child
Hellion/I Dont Need No Doctor/Scream Until You Like It
Arena of Pleasure
Chainsaw Charlie
The Idol
Take Me Up – New
I Wanna Be Somebody
Heavens Hung In Black
Blind In Texas

Thanks to Aled Thomas for the photos.

Always great live, well at least since they got their act together again following their little Nu Metal/Hip Hop sojourn, Machine Head return to Ireland to play Dublin’s Olympia on 28th of February and Belfast’s St George’s Market on March 1st 2010.

While not officially announced yet it’s looking like a four band package with Hatebreed, Bleeding Through and All Shall Perish accompanying them.

With Hatebreed, a headline act in their own right, both shows could very well sell out and pretty quickly too. Keep an eye on MCD’s website and Ticketmaster for the official announcement.

Oh and wear either shorts or baggy pants!

As had been widely rumored (well on the interweb anyhow) since news of a Scottish date broke last week, KISS are finally coming back to give Ireland one more go.

Messrs Stanley and Simmons may have sold an estimated 80 million albums worldwide, but when they last announced they’d be showing up here back in 1996, the Irish public made it very clear that they’d all be, well, anywhere else really and the gig was cancelled amid rumours of pretty horrendous ticket sales.

But that was then, this is now and in the meantime KISS have been busy. Busy making records? Not really, well they’ve made two and the new one’s quite good infact, but more specifically they’ve been busy selling the band to just about anyone who looks sideways at it. There’s been sell-out world tours, corporate entertainment performances, a Hollywood movie, a wrestling tie-up, casket shaped box sets, the Winter Olympics, an appearance on That 70’s show, a performance and album with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, a Coffee Shop, comics, a performance at the Australian Grand Prix, the Gene Simmons Family Jewels and Channel 4’s Rock School reality TV series and now a Guitar Hero pack too.

All of this, you might think will have done wonders for the Band’s popularity and maybe it has, but I suspect that it’s a case of everywhere but Ireland. I’m sure people are looking at AC/DC’s success in Ireland this year as a sign that even without radio play and media support good old fashioned hard rock and heavy metal will still sell concert tickets here. But let’s face it, AC/DC are in a very different league, having sold at least double what KISS has done and having that all important legacy of a very big fanbase here from the 70’s and 80s.

While the internet, downloading and the kind of smart promotion mentioned above have definitely changed the way today’s kids consume the music their parent’s used to listen to, I really wouldn’t be relying on them to find their way to The O2 next May. The Celtic Tiger’s cubs may have grown up watching Gene Simmons on reality TV, some of them may even have been over to Download in 2008, but with unemployment now even higher than it was in 1996 many of them could be hard pressed to even come up with the ticket price, let alone what to Rock all Night and Party Every Day…..

KISS play Dublin on Friday, May 7th 2010 at The O2. Tickets On Sale This Friday 27th November 9.00am. From Euro 49.20 including booking fee, from Ticketmaster and usual outlets.

The sad news of the untimely death of Paul ‘Skinny’ Kelly, bass player in Dublin based Death Metal/Hardcore outfit Coldwar, broke during the week. Hugely respected in both the metal and hardcore scenes and widely acknowledged as one of the nicest guys you could meet his shocking passing has drawn a flood of tributes on the band’s Myspace Page where his bandmates have also left the following tribute.

“Skinny passed away on tuesday. We are all in shock one of the nicest people you would ever meet. It was always a pleasure to be in a band with skinny .He put his bollox into music,
cheers skinny we had a blast, love yeah.”

I had the pleasure of dealing with Skinny when Coldwar played at D.O.D.’s night of Merry Darkness in the Voodoo Lounge in 2006 and like many others found him to be such a nice guy.

His funeral takes place at 2pm tomorrow at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

Mael Mórdha front man Roibéard Ó Bógheadhil gets a few things off his chest as part of an interview series filmed this summer for Cannons & Muses, a project aimed at enabling artists around the world to collaborate and create art in context of real-time crisis.

Well, rather miraculously I seem to have managed to keep this blog rockin for over a full year. I first posted on September 27th 2008 with the intention of blogging about the Irish metal scene on a regular basis. I haven’t quite managed the regularity I would have liked but I’m reasonably pleased to have clocked up just over 100 posts.

The plan now is to up the pace over the year ahead with more regular posts featuring some killer new content. One of my priorities too is to increase the interactivity. I’d rather not feel like I’m talking to myself here and while I know at least a few people are reading I think Paddy Metal will work better if we can get some real discussion going on the site. More on that to come.

Anyway, keep reading as I keep posting and more importantly let’s get some comments in and some discussion going.

Cheers

Crunch

After an almost completely crap summer the Irish weather is once again threatening to ruin the fun of Ireland’s long suffering gig goers. This time however, bizarrely it’s the threat of sunshine that that will be weighing heavy on the minds of the organisers of Ireland’s newest all day metal affair, Dublin Doom Day, running tomorrow in Dublin.

Not only will the forecast September sunshine lessen the appeal of heading along to the show’s new venue Fibber Magees on Dublin’s Parnell St during the hours of daylight, but for a Doom metal gig, the Indian Summer feel will hardly add to the atmosphere.

None the less, for those willing to brave the elements, here is the running order:

The Lamp of Thoth 00.15-01.30
Saturnus 22.35-23.50
Esoteric 21:00-22.15
Graveyard Dirt 19.30-20.30
The Prophecy 17.35-18.25
Wreck of the Hesperus 16.45-17.20
Council of Tanith 15.55-16.30
On Pain of Death 15.05-15.40
Dwell in Sun 14.15-14.50

Paddy Metal’s picks are Esoteric, Graveyard Dirt and Wreck of the Hesperus. Expect a packed beer garden too!