Pick Your Rock and Metal

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Don't dither!

Still want to go to the Rosetta on 6th July, but dithering a l'il bit? Well, asides from the fact it is only £5, once you check out the music you'll have no hesitation...
http://www.myspace.com/milliondollarreload
http://www.myspace.com/stillroomrocks
http://www.myspace.com/heeltap

Classic rock in the best sense of the word!

BTW - know of any gigs you want listed....email me! See here for listings

Sorrowfall...

For fans of NI band Sorrowfall....look out their debut CD is on its way soon...

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash will be playing at the Spring & Airbake on 9th November...twin barrels rockin'!

Monday, June 25, 2007

9-5 with Ben

Orange Goblin are an enduring fixture of the metal scene on these isles- but for those fortunate to see The Gob playing The Limelight on Saturday it may come as a surprise that Ben Ward and his motley crew still hold down 9-5 jobs as well as delivering classic metal.

How do they do it? For on Saturday, fresh from Download, the band delivered a pure metal set! Ben is huge in stature and huge in stage presence and new tunes revealed ever more depth.

Quick word for Triggerman - improving all the time, and with Bap's in-song raps and remonstrations improving all-the-time they have discovered a new genre - Preacher Metal.

All hail to Distortion Project for another great Saturday evening (and a name check from Ben in the Irish News!)

Listings...

A brief update on forthcoming dates...

  • Condemned/Cerebral Bore/The Black Chain/Ground Of Ruin/Throat Locust/Broken Limit – 30th June – Rosetta Bar
  • Ozzy Osbourne w/ Black Label Society - 3rd July - Point Theatre, Dublin
  • Million$Reload/Stillroom/Heeltap – 6th July @ the Rosetta Bar (£5 only!)
  • Day of Darkness Festival (incl Sabbat/Entombed/Candlemass) - 6th & 7th July Co Laois
  • The Bloodhound Gang - 17th July -The Empire Music Hall
  • Diamond Head/Sinnocence/Nemesis/Revengance - 25th July – Rosetta Bar
  • Blitzkrieg , Fireland , Rabid Bitch Of The North – 27th July – Rosetta Bar
  • Cannibal Corpse - 28th July - TBMC Dublin
  • MSG/Rattlesnake Remedy - 10th August - Spring & Airbrake
  • Napalm Death / Condemned / Scald / Overoth – 20th August – The Limelight
  • Foo Fighters/Nine Inch Nails - 22nd August - Marley Park, Dublin
  • MMII – Summer Slaughter - 26th August, Spring & Airbrake
  • Wishbone Ash - 9th November - Spring & Airbrake

    And don't forget that Thunder, Wishbone Ash, Nazareth, and a Quireboys/Hanoi Rocks double bill are gigs that we hope to see confirmed very soon!

dates....

Whisper softly, but 'tis true....Thunder, Wishbone Ash, Nazareth, Quireboys/Hanoi Rocks are all set for Spring & Airbrake in next 7-8 months! Classic rock keeps on rocking!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Answer this!

The Answer - live at Belfast's Virgin Megastore...some crap pix, some good ones... click the pic of Cormac to go to the album!


Answer - 2007

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Rock calendar

Jly 6th...put it in your diaries....hard rockin at the Rosetta...here's the press release:

Rockin’ the Rosetta

A trio of Ireland’s top hard rock acts will be rocking the Rosetta on Friday, July 6th when Bangor’s Heeltap, Dublin’s Stillroom and the mighty Million Dollar Reload hit the stage.

The bands make-up a classic rock threesome for everyone who has a heart steeped in Guns ‘n’ Roses, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, AC/DC – and there will not be a cover version in sight!

Million Dollar Reload – with album Anthems of Degeneration still selling well – are fresh from supporting the likes of Alice Cooper and Danny Vaughn.

Dublin’s Stillroom recently won the Emergenza band competition in Dublin and are to play the Taubertal Rock Fest in Germany in August – in front of 30,000 Teutonic rockers.

Heeltap - winners of Ossia Rock School’s ’06 Battle of the Bands are on the road promoting a self-titled 4-track EP.

Steve Wright of WhiteWolf Promotions said the bands represented some of the best of the current crop of hard rock talent on the island.

“The acts taking to the stage of the Rosetta on July 6th show that hard rock is alive, kicking and brimming with talent,” he said.

Jonathan Traynor of co-promoters AJ Promotions said: “This is set to be night of pure, classic hard rock excellence – three original acts, three collections of talented musicians and three tight sets of music brimming with top tunes and terrific musicianship – be there!”

Doors open at 8.00pm on the 6th July. Admittance priced at the hugely reasonable fee of £5.

ENDS

For further information contact Jonathan Traynor

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sincerest apologies

Sincerest apologies for delay in updating the site - been too much going on (you can stop emailing now - you know who you are!) Coming soon, interview with The Answer, gig gossip (Thunder, Nazareth, Wishbone Ash....)

Feral glorious fury

Famed science fiction writer William S Burroughs wrote about rock shows that the essential ingredients were the exchange of energy between the artists and the audience.

While Borroughs may have been writing about a Led Zeppelin show in the 70s the realisation of his analysis was in the feral nature of a triple bill played in a cow shed in Belfast…

Billed with Machine Head as headliners with Killswitch Engage and Chimira as support acts the exigencies of ferry travel to Download forced Machine Head to be the middle act of the trio.

And, of course, for all three acts this was only meant to be a warm-up for Download….

Not that the crowd thought so….when there is crowd surfing and mosh pits in the queue you know it’s going to be something more than a warm-up.

For Chimira it was a daunting enough task…Opening with a truncated set (in line with Download set listing and timing) they ripped through the tunes with a smattering of tunes from new album Resurrection as well as old faves such that ‘Hate Song’

With Blackening receiving rave reviews Machine Head had one real task….live up to the hype.

There has been so much press about Rob Flynn coming back from the dead, re-signing to the label that dumped the band, coming back to rave reviews for the past two releases…could they match up to the recorded promise in the live setting.

Ermm….clear the room there’s pits a plenty.

If there are two phrases to sum up Machine Head they are: literate and intense.

Literate in the lyrical guitar work and thought-provoking lyrics (introducing Descend…as an 8-minute meditation on death); intense as in a stage presence that almost commands attention.

Halo and Imperium stood out for different reasons – Imperium for its viciously delivered lyrical content, Halo for the multi-facetted guitar work.

Machine Head are simply doing what they do best…playing heavy metal in a fine, honest way…as delivered with pummelling power during the awesome diatribe against the fundamentalists who slagged off Dimebagafter he died…Machine Head’s Aesthetics of Hate redressed the balance.

The Dimebag connection continued as Machine Head left for their ferry. With Adam Dutkiewicz recovering from surgery, former Damageplan vocalist Pat Lachman was filling in on guitar and backing vocal duties.

For Killswitch it was a challenge…Machine Head had ripped such a hole in the Balmoral Hall.

They opened well (apart from Howard Jones admonitions for the crowd to respond to having three top line acts…and his clichéd left vs right singalongs) but sagged in the middle. Much as I like Killswitch, at times their material can be one-dimensional.

But having offered that note, they grew as the set progressed, using the larger stage better, with Pat and bassist Mike D’Antonio egged on by the crowd, combined with Jones’ call for crowd surfing…Belfast engaged with Killswitch.

Of course there were things that could have been better, overall, with the gig…not least the patchy sound.

It was a testament to the audience and the artists that a cow shed was transformed into an altar to worship metal…may Chimira, Killswitch and Machine Head return soon!

Hello to the Farm Lodge mosh crew (busted noses and all…) junior metalheadsreunited editor Nadia, Avril, Kyle, Mikey from Residual, the l’il moshing dudes (respect!) and a big fuck off to the too-drunk dicks trying to feel girl’s asses