Monday Shrapnel

April 26th, 2010

AC/DC’s ‘Iron Man 2′ Soundtrack Tops U.K. Chart. Its not unusual for “Best of” compilations to top charts as far as I can recall but with not a single new track on this you really have to ask who the hell is buying it? MetalSucks did just that last week.

State’s Phil Udell has a go at reviewing said “Best of” compilation.

Cork’s Altar of Plagues and Belfast’s Hexxed (now well and truly back in business – but more about that later) will play Dublin’s Twisted Pepper on Saturday June 12th 2010. That should be a pretty impressive show.

Dead Man’s Headphones has a review of Neifenbach’s ‘Reason Will Falter’ cd.

Via Blabbermouth: Primordial’s Alan Averill will hit the festival circuit this summer with the Bathory tribute Twilight of the Gods. Check out this interview conducted by Norway’s Imhotep.

Thursday Shrapnel

April 22nd, 2010

I thought this was pretty cool. Via Metalsucks, its a limited edition screenprint called ‘Corpsepaint Creatures’ by UK artist and illustrator Bunny Bissoux.

Irish online metal radio station MetalHertz FM is back up and running. Go listen to it people!

Dublin’s Criminal Jammage plan on changing their name. So says their Myspace anyway. Not sure why…

Not metal but! Carlos Fucking Santana is coming to Dublin in September.

The entertainment section on RTE’s website gives a glowing review to Hellbent for Cooking – The Heavy Metal Cookbook. Only a matter of time before they review the new Rotting Christ album…. Not really!

If you missed it, here is Slayer on Harry Hill’s TV Burp.

Tuesday Shrapnel

April 20th, 2010

Bat Kinane from Glyder has a blog.

Death metal fans take note; Dublin’s Warpath have posted two new tracks, Malevolent Reprisal and Point Blank Execution on their Myspace Page.

Ireland’s very own folk metal heavyweights Cruachan have uploaded a rough cut of an as yet unnamed new track to their Myspace page.

Some clips from the new Mael Mordha album Manannán.

Via Nialler9; Cloudeater are at number two in Road Records list of Irish artists they are really into right now.

Here’s the video for AC/DC’s rerelease of Highway to Hell as part of the soundtrack to the Iron Man 2 movie.

Via Blabbermouth. Its now every day you see Jim Carey and Slash jamming down your local pub.

Last Night, Today and Tomorrow

April 18th, 2010
Glyder rocking The Village, Dublin last night - during the second half of their show...

Glyder rocking The Village, Dublin last night - during the second half of their show...

After completely forgetting about Gama Bomb’s gig in Dublin on Friday night (still kicking myself) I made sure I got to The Village for Glyder’s album launch show last night. For a band that’s got such a lot right recently I won’t kick them too much over a few things they got wrong in staging last night’s gig.

I’ll keep it to one sentence and simply say that the venue was too big, start too early and playing the entire new album, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow from start to finish without even a support act to warm the crowd up, just didn’t work. Thankfully the second half of the show was excellent with the band playing tracks from their first two albums to a very enthusiastic audience before being very loudly beckoned back for a number of encores.

This band are made for the big stage (and big audiences) and its only a matter of time before that comes. At just two listens so far the jury is still out on how the new album stacks up to the other two, but if you are a hard rock fan and don’t have at least one of them then you are missing out. Check out what the band’s guitarist Bat Kinane had to say in an interview in The Ticket on the new album, recognition in Ireland and how the band is faring abroad.

Not So Airbourne Now!

April 18th, 2010
Airbourne on Wednesday night – grounded for the rest of the week. Photo: © Damien James OFarrell

Airbourne on Wednesday night – grounded for the rest of the week. Photo: © Damien James O'Farrell

After dazzling a sold-out Academy in Dublin on Wednesday night with the kind of aerial acrobatics that would make a kangaroo sick, Airbourne were kept well and truly on the ground in Dublin for the rest of the week. The volcanic ash clouds that closed airports and airspace across Europe meant that the aussies had to reschedule the remaining two dates of their European tour, which had been due to finish tonight in Barcelona.

No ropes....Honest!! Photo: © Damien James OFarrell

No ropes....Honest!! Photo: © Damien James O'Farrell

Stranded in Dublin (and reportedly still here) the four lads were spotted getting tattoos and walking around the Temple Bar area. I heard this from several people (ok so some of them were intoxicated at the time).

To see more excellent photos from the Academy show please visit Damien James O’Farrell’s photostream on Flickr here and here.

RIP Pete Steele

April 15th, 2010

Not Irish but he sure seemed to like the colour green. To my knowledge his last visit here was in May 1997 when Type O Negative played the SFX. While I came to them slightly later than most, Bloody Kisses and October Rust became two of my favourite albums. I saw the band live at Graspop in Belgium and Wacken, Germany in 2007, getting pretty close to the front at the latter on what was a very memorable evening. Today is a very sad day.

For the record; I refer of course to today’s confirmation that Type O Negative frontman Pete Steele passed away yesterday aged 48. While the man may now be gone, his fantastic music will live forever. R.I.P

Monday Shrapnel

April 12th, 2010

Hasn’t been one of these in a while. How the fuck did you survive??!!??

So here goes;

Jonny interviews Airbourne before their show in Belfast tomorrow night. Check it out here

Objection says goodbye - Dead Man’s Headphones says hello.

In case you missed it, there will be no Slane this year and that means no AC/DC at Slane (there were rumours again this year).

Reports of Iron Maiden’s newly announced Dublin show appeared in all sorts of (mainstream) places. The Irish Times was however the one that stood out for me.

Mael Mordha’s new album Manannán gets a global release on May 14th next

Blabbermouth reported on Phil Lynott’s inclusion in RTE’s (rather abysmal) Ireland’s “Greatest” list.

And finally, not since Jani Lane was interviewed in a Dublin GAA jersey has something this important happened. Yes folks, the official ‘Republic of Ireland Football Jersey’ makes a small cameo in Megadeth’s new video - The Right To Go Insane. Go 2:05 mins in to see it.

Under Siege

April 10th, 2010

On Easter Sunday last, myself and about 20 others made the journey from Dublin to Limerick for the Siege of Limerick All Dayer. What a great day it was; metal, craic and chips from Donkey Fords… Here are some photos:

The unholy pack Baker Place, Limerick on Easter Sunday

The unholy pack Baker Place, Limerick on Easter Sunday

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Ireland Maiden!

April 9th, 2010

Will Dublin Airport’s New Terminal 2 be ready for Ed Force One??

Will Dublin Airport’s New Terminal 2 be ready for Ed Force One??

Rumours of an Iron Maiden show in Dublin this summer hit the auld interweb around this time yesterday sending the Ireland’s Maiden fans into what must have been an agonizing frenzy, until promoters MCD officially announced the show this morning. Maiden will use the date at The O2, Dublin on Friday 30th July to open the European leg of their Final Frontier (cue the Star Trek jokes) World Tour, which thus far includes no other indoor shows (although there are some on the US leg).

The unique (so far) attraction of seeing Maiden in the more intimate indoor surroundings of The O2 would suggest that Irish fans may have to compete with fans of the band from around Europe for tickets. It is already expected that Maiden will also run a Bruce Air Flight for Fan Club members. Add to that the fact that “special guests” on the night will be the also enormous Heaven & Hell, the Ronnie James Dio era Black Sabbath line-up. Thus, I predict paying on the door will not be an option for this one….

Tickets priced at between €59.80 and €65.70 (hefty enough) go on sale exclusively to Iron Maiden Fan Club members on Tuesday 13th April at 9am, O2 mobile phone customers on Wednesday 14th and to everyone else (if any are left) via the usual suspects on Friday 16th of April.

For Ruin the Bell Tolls

March 29th, 2010
“I met Mustaine in 2001….very nice guy, spent quite a bit of time with him actually.” For Ruin’s John Murphy hints at Megadeth’s reason for playing Cork this year. Photo © www.forruin.com

“I met Mustaine in 2001….very nice guy, spent quite a bit of time with him actually.” For Ruin’s John Murphy hints at Megadeth’s reason for playing Cork this year. Photo © www.forruin.com

Having taken some time (ok, ages) to digest For Ruin’s rather excellent Last Light album, I thought that the band’s recent announcement of a UK tour with Belphegor, along with a slot supporting the mighty Bolt Thrower in Dublin, made it an opportune time for a chat with front man John Murphy. That and I wanted to try and rise him about Cork football…

You’ve just announced that For Ruin will be doing a short tour of the UK with Belphegor soon. Congratulations. What do you expect from that?

John: “Yes we’re happy with that announcement, its a while in the works. Fingers crossed that it’ll all go well now and that the shows we be well attended. We’d expect to find a few people familiar with our stuff but for the most part we’ll be playing to people that have never heard us before - we’ve only played the mainland UK once before this, so its fresh meat all round! There’s a few bands on the bills of these shows, we’re not concerned by where on the bill we play, its just a matter of getting there and doing it. I’ve always felt that a band should be able to play anywhere on a bill, and if they can only cut it as headliners then that says a lot…I love Camden, I used to live not far from it 12 or 13 years ago for a while, and I know the Underworld well from playing there in May 08 with Skyforger and from seeing many gigs there myself over the years. Dont know much about the other 3 venues, looking forward to finding out about the scenes in those areas!”
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