England, Greece, Belgium, and a few local lads

Saturday and metal chaos descends on the Mandella Hall with Full Metal Racket 2009.

Paradise Lost, Grim Reaper make up the English assault, with Greece represented by Rotting Christ and Airgead L'Amh, Thurisaz are the Belgian contenders. Local noise comes from Scald, Celtic Legacy, Sorrowfall, Sinnocence, For Ruin and Decayor.

Yep, it's an all ages mental metal day. Tickets (at an entirely reasonable £24.50 are still available from Ticketmaster or direct from www.fmr2009.com. Might even be a few at the door for the lucky ones!

And the next day the Mandella Hall gets a NWOBHM blitz from Saxon, Sweet Savage and Doro Pesch!

Sod the Easter Eggs...go for Easter Overload

Sod the Easter Eggs...go for Easter Overload. Head on up to the Rosetta on Easter Saturday, for a mini-metal fest that's packed with the sort of noise that will roll the rock away from a tomb.

Overoth, Sorrowfall, Sinnocence, Residual Effect, Ozzmium, Of One Blood, and Mental Deficiency are the bill, £6 the price. That's cheaper than scavanging the shops for discounted Easter Eggs!

Further all hail Norn Iron...

Further to the earlier post on the undiscovered excellence of Northern Ireland's hard rock and metal, it's worth noting that Belgium may be suffering from an onslaught from our own Sorrowfall. They'll be playing on Fri 20th February with Thurisaz at Wervik before hitting the Frontline Sat 21st Feb The Frontline Festival in Ghent.

And in other Belgian metal news...stick with me on this one... Thurisaz have replaced Airged Lam'h on the Full Metal Racket line-up for the 25th April date.

Full Metal Racket 09

Full Metal Racket
Saturday 25th April 2009
Mandella Hall Belfast
All Ages.

• ROTTING CHRIST
• STEVE GRIMMETT/GRIM REAPER
• SCALD
• CELTIC LEGACY
• SORROWFALL
• AIRGED LAM'H
• FOR RUIN
• SINOCENCE
• DEVILMAKESTHREE

More to follow

Gigs, Beer tokens, merch money - busy autumn & winter schedule

UPDATED:
Was just adding the My Ruin Belfast date (26th October, see below) when it dawned on this cash-strapped writer just how many gigs were coming up this autumn and winter...tickets, beer tokens and merch money can be sent to the usual postbox -used, unmarked, non-sequential notes in a brown envelope as normal...

Here's the list. If there's any I missed, let me know and I'll add them:
Sorrowfall Saturday 13th September – Katy Daly’s
Deft Leppard Saturday 13th September – The Empire Music Hall
Duff McKagan’s LOADED Thursday 25th September – Spring & Airbrake
Sweet Savage - Friday, 3rd October – Spring and Airbrake
Blaze Bayley/A Little Bitter/Fireland/Darkest Era – Thursday 9th October
Dragonforce/Turisas (Over 14’s) Saturday 11th October - Mandella Hall
Whitesnake UK – Saturday 11th October – Empire Music Hall
Funeral For A Friend/Cancer Bats/In Case Of Fire/Attack Attack - Wednesday 15th October, Spring & Airbrake
Kill Hannah (Over 14’s show)/My Passion/Gyndogs/Serpico Sunday 26th October S&A
My Ruin – Sunday, 26th October – The Limelight
Grand Magus/Serpent Cult/Honey for Christ – Monday 27th October – Auntie Annies
Sorrowfall/Darkest Era/others TBC – Saturday 8th November – Black Box
Extreme - Sunday 9th November – Spring & Airbrake
Airbourne / Stone Gods Tuesday 11th November – Mandella Hall
Feeder - Friday 21st November – Mandella Hall
Paul Gilbert - Friday 21st November - Spring & Airbrake
Gorgoroth/Averse Sefirah/Zebediah Crowe – Sunday 23rd November - Limelight
Mastodon – 4th December – Spring and Airbrane
Trivium – 4th December – Nerve Centre
Trivium - 5th December - Mandella Hall
Black Stone Cherry - Wednesday 17th December - Limelight
Spitknot - Sunday 28th December - Spring & Airbrake

Saturday reminder

In case you're doing nothing exciting tomorrow/today RockD presents Corral and Gacy's Threads at Katy Daly's for the tiny sum of £2.50 from 3.30pm....and after that there's the BNB Promotions Rosetta Bar End of Summer Bash with Celtic Legacy, Sorrowfall, Darkest Era, Fierce, Fireland, Valediction and Decayor. Doors 7pm Admission £ 5 Enjoy.

And there's a drinks promo... The first 25 people in the door get a free drink of the new Tennants 1885 Lager.Carslberg are also giving away an Ipod Nano at the end of the night. Everyone who buys a carlsberg will be entered into the draw, winner gets picked from a hat at the end of the night

Times: Celtic legacy 12.20 to 1.30 Sorrowfall 11.25 to 12.05 Darkest Era 10.30 to 11.10 Fierce 9.30 to 10.15 Fireland 8.45 to 9.15 Valediction 8.00 to 8.30 Decayor 7.15 to 7.45 Doors 7pm

I'll miss out on the RockD event and won'tbe up to the Rosetta until about 9ish...still time enough to bang some heads, rock out etc:

September noise

With the wet, miserable August drawing slowly to a close, September's line-up from the Distortion Project has been set...and noise is as usual coming to Ormeau Avenue in slabs of metal.

September 6th sees Condemned, Nailed, Neandertalh and Waspth flay the Limelight. On the 13th Sorrowfall hit Katy Daly's (support to be confirmed). If you're still raring for noise, the 20th will see Backfire, Sixkillerzero and Cursed Sun (TBC) at Katy Daly's.

The month's fun concludes with Skypilot's album launch at Katy's on the 27th, with support from Dutch Schultz.

Half sans bar, half avec bar...cunning ploy!

Come Saturday, November 8th there's a novel wee event happening at Belfast's Black Box: two gigs in one day. The half and half deal will see an afternoon 'dry' all ages show...and then in the evening ID will definitely be required when the bar opens...

Sorrowfall and Darkest Era are lined up so far to play both events. More details soon.

Falling upon an unsuspecting UK...

Sorrowfall are bringing their Prayers for the Faithless to an unsuspecting UK. Kicking off at the Rosetta on August 30th they will hit stages across the country until 8th November at the Black Box...

Summer ends...hell awaits...say goodbye to August in style

As we prepare the draw the blight that has been a washed out summer to a close, we can look forward to harkening darkening nights with a Rosetta line-up chock full of dark intent.

BNB promotions have laid on an End of Summer bash that will see Celtic Legacy, Sorrowfall, Darkest Era, Fierce, Fireland, Valediction and Decayor lay waste to the Rosie's venerable stage on August 30th (doors 7pm, £5 in)

As if that wasn't enough there's a drinky poo promo. First 25 people staggering up the stairs will get a free drink, new Tennants 1885 Lager.

Carslberg are also giving away an Ipod Nano at the end of the night. Everyone who buys a Carlsberg will be entered into the draw, winner gets picked from a hat at the end of the night.

Carlsberg don't do gigs, but if they did...

Sorrowfall added to Thurisaz tour

Sorrowfall have been added to the brief Thurisaz Irish tour in June. The dates and line up is:
Fri June 6th - Lavery's Belfast w/ Sorrowfall, Devilmakesthree, Overoth.
Sat June 7th - Fibbers, Dublin w/ Sorrowfall, Valediction, Ex Inferus.
Sun June 8th - An Cruiscin Lan, Cork. w/ Sorrowfall, Valediction, Ex Inferus.

Belgian's finest (apart from their beers!) Thurisaz will be playing a selection from their new platter 'Cricadian Rhythms' during the three date tour.

A Thurisaz vid to keep you in anticipation til June...



..and a brief Sorrowfall minute or so..