Not just a solitary joy...

WE'VE all been there - sitting at home, with a drink in hand and coming across a band that intrigues us, delights us,  and has the head-a-nodding; a new found treasure to enjoy amidst the mediocrity that crowds the pages of the populist rock press. Better still you find they're set to play near where you live.

Better still they're appearing on a line-up that you were going to go to anyway...

Next Tuesday any self-respecting metaller will be dusting off the denims and stretching those neck muscles as Amon Amarth return to lay waste to the Belfast agaih. Being backed by Grand Magus would normally be enough to have us practically ejaculating (metaphorically!!!) with joy but then throw into the mix a rather tasty band to boot and well...feckin' awesome!

In Solitude are opening for Amon Amarth and Grand Magus and for those who normally stumble along for the headliners only...well that would be to miss a treat. Get there early.

There are many bands who emerge from the Scandavian metal melting pot who never rise above mediocrity, but set openers on Tuesday In Solitude should emerge to be a band truly worth investing your time, ears and liver in to.

The bastard sons of death metal, classic metal and NWOBHM, In Solitude are intriguing and adept. And this will be a tour date they will want to prove their mettle on, as it is part of the band's first ever UK and Ireland tour.

So what do the band expect? We caught up with them as preparations intensified for Belfast and put that question.

In Solitude

"We try to avoid preconceived notions of places and audiences, since its often quite useless to put yourself somewhere (in your mind) based on other peoples/bands experiences of the place. It all depends on the emotive currents at work in that place at that time.

"The live experiences often take us to outer landscapes of emotion, which becomes very exhausting and self destructive for the body and the mind when it all becomes a tour. Each night stripped down naked and bleeding. But its an elevation that is painful by necessity."

But lest you think this is some band propelled into the spotlight before their time, In Solitiude have earned their touring stripes having recently completed US jaunts with Down and Pentagram in Europe. It is a memory they feel has developed the band yet further in the live arena:

"The tour with Down certainly had a greater impact. No matter how big the differences were musically or lyrically, we came very close and each night was to bathe in fire. The whole ordeal was very powerful, and we learned a lot from doing our first American tour with that band, that crowd and that part of America.

"Of course, the Pentagram tour was amazing as well. Pentagram is madness and dangerous brilliance. A combination that should be found in all rock music."

And when they cool their jets after touring with Amon Amarth they have another heavy duty set on the way with Behemoth, Watain and Devil's Blood.

"Both Watain and The Devils Blood are close allies of ours and we are 'on the same page', so to speak, on a lot of the underlying motifs of the music. There's a personal bond and nexus there that will kindle a lot of blood and tears. like there always should in rock music"

Signed to Metal Blade In Solitude have the chance to not only endear themselves to the ever selective US audiences, but to earn their tour stripes with the toughest critics - the UK and especially the Belfast audiences.

We've every confidence they'll make their mark, and hopefully return again.

Amon Amarth, Grand Magus and In Solitude play Belfast's Mandella Hall on 14th April. A limited supply of tickets are still available