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. . . .

If you happen to be in Cork this Friday night, or worse still you live there, then you’re in for a treat. John Murphy’s ultra impressive For Ruin top an excellent bill that also includes two of Ireland’s more hotly tipped death metal acts, Overoth and Nephridium. Opening act Days of Night pack quite a punch too, so anyone curious about what some home grown metal sounds like, get your €6 and head for this one.

If you can, get down to one of the six dates on the Stand-Up Guy, Triggerman, Two Tales of Woe and Bad Boat tour of Ireland. If at least one of these acts doesn’t impress the shite out of you then you’ve possibly got feet for ears.

Ads have hit Irish newspapers this morning with details of another big metal show coming to Dublin’s O2 this year. Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Journey will play the new venue on Friday 12th June in what looks like a warm-up for the UK’s Download festival.

In the past, Irish promoters have done well in scoring shows by metal acts in the area to play big UK festivals like Download and Reading. This has previously resulted in open-air gigs for bands like Iron Maiden, Metallica and Guns n Roses. This year’s Download headliners are however a smaller draw and show in the lower cost confines of The O2 probably suits just fine.

Interestingly Tesla are also included in the newspaper ads for this show but there is no mention of them on the MCD website.

In case they are feeling left out, here’s Tesla in some YouTube action:

I’m hoping for The Green Manalishi to make my night!

Details of Full Metal Racket 2009 are slowly seeping into cyberspace.

No website or press release to refer to just yet so check out the Full Metal Racket page on Last Fm for some corroboration.

Line-Up is:
Paradise Lost
Rotting Christ
Steve Grimmett/Grim Reaper
Scald
Celtic Legacy
Sorrowfall
Airgead Lamh
For Ruin
Sinocence
Decayor

The all dayer takes place on Saturday 25th April, 2009 at Mandella Hall, Belfast.

This is an impressive line-up. It really is. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until April to find out if we or more specifically the metalheads of Belfast deserve it i.e. will the crowds come out.

The arguably more high-profile Rottfest in 2006 is an unfortunate example of how this kind of thing can go badly wrong. Rottfest was an outdoor affair. Its big acts, DevilDriver and Nevermore probably had more potential to draw the kids in than any of Full Metal Racket’s big name foreign acts. Yet it failed to do so and ended up a one-off occurrence.

Full Metal Racket on the other hand has already had two installments. The fledgling festival squeezed itself into The Bunker in Lavery’s in 2007 and this year migrated to the larger Empire. Both years enjoyed strong attendances despite the lack of big international headliners (no disrespect to Pagan Altar this year).The planned move to Mandela Hall for next year’s festival is certainly an ambitious one, as is what must be a significant outlay involved in flying the likes of Paradise Lost, Rotting Christ and Grim Reaper into Belfast. Hopefully it will pay off. But its hard not to feel that the ambition just won’t be matched by interest from the fans and that what has been a highly enjoyable event over the past two years will suffer for it.

Paddy Metal will certainly be there and you’ll hear plenty more about FMR 2009 on here in the coming months.

Some vintage Paradise Lost via You Tube

It’s hard to believe that Max Cavalera has now been doing Soulfly for about the same length of time as he was in Sepultura. In fact Soulfly has now released as many albums as Cavalera did with Sepultura and it’s probably fair to say that Soulfly now the bigger act too. This is especially so given Igor Cavalera has also left Sepultura and the brothers did their long awaited musical reunion as the Cavalera Conspiracy rather than as Sepultura earlier this year.

It’s true that Soulfly’s material while viewed by many as being very much inferior to what Max did with Sepultura, does have its own fans a plenty and they’ll definitely be out in force when the band play Dublin’s Academy on Wednesday 4th February. Nonetheless if it’s a bit of Cavalera worship you’re after or want to hear a few old Sepultura numbers then €25.50 seems like a decent price.

The cringe-tastic blurb on the MCD site is also well worth a look if you’re in need of a laugh.

Soulfly’s sixth offering for Roadrunner Records, Conquer, may very well be the musical equivalent of the movie Braveheart. The songs –much like the warriors in the film- channel raw, unbridled rage through a cacophony of thrash guitars, infectious grooves, tribal polyrhythm’s and Max Cavalera’s unmistakable, thunderous roar. Conquer shifts from unrelenting, precise speed metal to slow, brooding doom. Mark Rizzo’s lead guitar rips with the precision of a smart bomb, while Bobby Burns grinds out volatile, chest-caving bass lines. Drummer Joe Nunez crushes behind the kit, forging a rhythmic background for all-out sonic war. Once again, it’s the legendary Max Cavalera who stands at the eye of the storm, uniting the musical tribe and acting as its unofficial leader. His voice and guitar command the tribe into battle with each line and riff.

Checkout Soulfly doing some Sepultura at Wacken

They may have been one of the pioneers of Sweden’s world famous melodic death metal sound (if you don’t have The Jester Race go out and get it now) but in my book they haven’t done anything worth buying since Clayman in 2000. None the less I think I might try and get tickets to see In Flames at The Academy in Dublin on April 24th next.

The show is one of three Irish dates with Cork and Belfast hosting the other two. I’ve seen In Flames quite a few times now and despite the lack of decent recent material they do put on a pretty impressive live show and of course the old tracks (when they play them) are well worth waiting for.

Incidentally its interesting the amount of shows like this that Cork is starting to get, hopefully it will do good things for the city and not distract the kids from the great indigenous shows that have underpinned the city’s metal scene in recent years.

Despite what I said about the post Clayman In Flames I do have some love for this one.

Having played their first live show in over 12 years at this Summer’s D.O.D. Festival, Thy Sinister Bloom’s reactivation continues. The ambient doomsters are headlining a show in Dublin’s Boom Boom Room on November 20th. Entry for just €8. Bargain of the year!

Here’s a blurb I put together on them for the D.O.D. programme this year.

During the early 90’s Thy Sinister Bloom were one of the most highly regarded and hotly tipped acts on the Irish metal scene. Playing melancholy inspired ambient doom metal the band recorded one of the most heavily traded promo releases to leave these shores as well as a highly promising but unreleased 3 track EP. The band preformed its last ever live show, in support of Primordial in May 1996 and drew its last breath in 1998. In 2007 three of the original line-up Bren Mullen, Robin Bailey and Cory Sloan reactivated the band. The three have since been joined by a new and as yet unnamed vocalist and this year’s festival will see the first Thy Sinister Bloom live performance in twelve years.