Finally! After three years the Devastation on the Nation Tour blazes through New York City! … with two, back-to-back, scorching hot shows!
I was lucky enough to catch the Saturday Matinee, in true New York fashion. I opted for the 430 PM show in an effort to save my aging infrastructure from a night of TOTAL obliteration.
This night featured an eclectic group of Metal bands. Sure, they’re similar in an overall way. But each band’s brand of metal keeps your ears from getting tired. These are the best kind of tours, where sonic diversity conquers all.
This is the most New York show I’ve been to in a long while. It felt like one big local show. That’s what happens when all five bands come from here. That being said, this show started earlier, doors at the renovated Irving Plaza were at 6 pm. or 1800 for non-Americans. Every few steps you ran into someone you knew. I saw a lot of faces that this was their first show since you know what. It’s rare to see in metal shows nowadays but this show had a host! Bassist extraordinaire, Dan Lilker from Nuclear Assault and Brutal Truth fame. MCed the whole night.
Roadrunner, Boston, MA 4/9/2022
Finally a show at the brand new venue in Boston, Roadrunner, filled with essentially local acts.
It’s always a special occasion when Killswitch Engage comes to town. This time, however, fans got an extra special treat as the band brought along supporting acts August Burns Red and Light The Torch.
By my own admission, I have been to some weird Tool shows in my nearly thirty years as a fan. Some of them have been weird thanks to the band, and some have been weird, because well I’m (not a creep), a weirdo. One of my last shows before the world shut down was Tool at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, complete with an army of relentless rent-a-guards practically assaulting fans due to the notorious Tool cell phone policy. I’ve no issue with the policy, just the way it is implemented. Tonight was by far the weirdest Tool show ever for many reasons.
Here we are, my last gig of 2021, an interesting year to say the least. One which we started wondering if there’d be any live music at all. Witnessing a triumphant return of live music after so much hardship has reinforced to me the importance that Live music has on my life.
First time at FAC 251 and it was a little strange. First impressions, it’s a strange little venue, steeped in Manchester history. This is the building that New Order famously built, and the Happy Mondays infamously destroyed. Being largely at the heart of the Manchester party scene it’s not exactly noted for hosting many metal gigs, but with Manchester still in the process of re-opening some of the regular places aren’t quite open yet. Continue reading
I think it goes without saying at this point that Finish melodeath collective Insomnium is one of the most respected and consistent names in their genre. While Scandinavia is no stranger to exports of high-quality melodic death metal, many of the genre’s biggest names like In Flames and Children of Bodom have either compromised their distinctive sound in favour of more accessible elements, or in some cases, no longer exist. Insomnium however, has continued to fine-tune the gloomy atmosphere they first presented almost two decades ago in 2002’s In The Halls of Awaiting. Now, boasting a total of eight melancholic yet undeniably gorgeous releases under their belt, the band has done the UK and Ireland the honour of a nationwide tour in support of their latest opus, Heart Like a Grave (Century Media). An album that is less sprawling and proggy than Winter’s Gate (Century Media), but is an equally if not more epic and melodic record, packed with more guitar leads and solos than anything they have released to date. Certainly, it is the kind of material that you would expect to excel in the live environment, and so on a bleak Monday night in winter, I ventured out to Manchester Academy 3 for a necessary dose of metalised depression.Continue reading
2019 see’s the third installment of what’s becoming an important event in the calendar for the discerning Heavy Metal connoisseur, BadgerFest. The brainchild of the undeniably hardest working man in the Manchester metal scene John Badger, If any qualification of that were needed, aside from it being reiterated by every band of the weekend, as well as their gratitude as to the smooth running, he’s also running the Drumming up Change in November whereby he’ll be playing the drums for the full sets of all ten bands. There’s hard-working and then there’s John Badger. Continue reading