Not every change maker is a household name. Metal is full of unsung heroes. Courageous individuals who shaped our world but would be difficult to pick out in a line-up. For every platinum-selling mega album, there are hundreds, if not thousands of records that may not have sold loads, but have created the architecture of our musical world. “Slaughter Of The Soul” is one of those albums.
Read MoreIf you go down to the woods today, you’re probably just going to find trees. Lots of trees. However, if you go down to the woods at Etherow Country Park (just outside Stockport) NEXT weekend you’re in for a big surprise. For there you will find the fourth edition of the Firevolt Festival, with several hundred avid rockers lounging on haybales and flitting through the forest in search of loud music and cheap beer.
Read MoreI have just parted with the total GDP of a small south American country to attend “Back to the Beginning” at Villa Park. The main selling point for me (aside from a large sense of FOMO) was the large letters proclaiming it to be Black Sabbath’s last ever show. As I've attended the three preceding last ever Sabbath gigs and been to both of Ozzy’s retirement tours I couldn’t miss this one.
Read MoreThis coming Tuesday all eyes will be on Manchester. Now we Mancunians will argue that the glare of the world is always on us (we were created on the eighth day after all), but this is different. This Tuesday, Ghost, the first metal band to break into the mainstream lexicon since Linkin Park, if not the mighty Metallica, will begin their latest global tour in the smaller of our two twenty-two thousand capacity arenas (told you we do it differently in Manchester). But the reason there will be such a focus on the show isn’t because the contents of the spectacular is currently a well-hidden enigma, it isn’t because they seem to have opted not to have a support act (À la Metallica circa Black album) and isn’t because, aside from the brill ‘Satanized’, all their new stuff is tantalisingly under wraps.
Read MoreI adore music. It is my passion. I use it to soundtrack all that I do. When I travel I am accompanied by music (I am composing this on the 5.05 to London Euston with Beneath a Steel Sky’s “Cleave” keeping me company). At home various Alexa’s pump out albums of both my, and increasingly my children’s, choice. Live shows are my emotional crutch and the landmark dates I use to get myself through the year. Music proliferates my speech, with musical analogies my chosen way of describing things. It is central to who Stewart Lucas is and I would be lost without it.
Read MoreWe here at Rockflesh.com make a virtue of not talking about other lives outside being writers or photographers. After all you, our discerning readers are interested in the bands we watch as opposed to our relationship woes, job statuses and health struggles. That self-enforced anonymity will mean that you will be unaware that I had a major bicycle accident two and a half years ago involving an articulated lorry and a safety fence that robbed me of a substantial part of my mobility. Pre-September 2022 I was a bit of a pit troll if all told. I liked nothing more than to be stood in a heaving mass of people feeling the swell of the crowd melee around me. I was the one in the middle drinking it all in.
Read MoreThe band t-shirt is sown into the fabric of our world. It is as an essential component of metal as the riff, the drum solo and casual drug use. It act as a form of cloth based branding, allowing us to identify other members of our tribe, as well as a lucrative income stream independent from record sales. I have hundreds of the buggers and I can trace the evolution of my tastes and my bank balance over the 38 years I have been attending gigs.
Read MoreSo this is the end. After 54 turbulent years Aeroforce One has finally been forced out of the skies and dry docked. Yesterday Aerosmith reluctantly announced their enforced immediate retirement from being a live concern. It wasn't quite meant to conclude this way. There was meant to be a final triumphant victory lap of the planet before they hung up their spurs.
Read MoreThings were remarkably different in the pre-Spotify world. It was remarkably difficult to hear new bands as essentially the only way that you could sample an up-and-coming outfit was to buy their records (or to unscrupulously copy off your mates). We relied on the music press to describe to us what emerging scenes sounded like and the photos that accompanied those testaments could make or break a fledgling beat combo. I fell in love with Kiss not because of their songs but because of the photos that adorned my well-thumbed copies of the Kerrang and Metal Hammer. Paul, Gene, Ace and Chris in full makeup and faux body armour looked to the preteen Stewart like superheroes. They took my breath away and those early images ensured I became a dedicated member of the Kiss Army.
Read MoreMy passion is music. It's my release and it's my obsession. My close friendships are based around music. My downtime is based around music and I met my wife through a Guardian soulmate ad which read "Musical obsessive seeks indie chick for passionate pogoing”. Yet, I'm not sure where this obsession sprung from. My parents were not great muso's and if the radio was on in our house, it was Radio Four. I did not have any great compulsion about musicality passed on to me, it just happened quite randomly and quite organically.
Read MorePaid meets and greets – Would you? Should you? Could you?
In these days of austerity, independent artists and no more huge record company advances, many of your favourite bands may have turned to these as a way of generating a little extra cash. Experiences vary from a quick photo to a full backstage experience and prices vary from a couple of quid to thousands of your hard-earned, but are they worth it?
Read MoreIt spread through the internet like the proverbial dose of salts. “Have you seen what Gojira are charging for merch?”. The French giants, long regarded as a band of the people were caught with their fingers in the tills asking for forty quid for a t-shirt and eighty quid for a hoodie. I think what hurt most and caused the most disdain is that they weren’t a band that we expected this of. Gene Simmons yes but Joe Duplantier?
Read MoreThe weekend of the 4th-5th of December will see HRH bring the third chapter of its Viking themed mayhem to Sheffield. ROCKFLESH will be there with our drinking horns (full of very un-Viking rum) and plastic swords. This has led to discussions in ROCKFLESH towers about what actually constitutes Viking Metal. As ROCKFLESH’s resident Nordic and Black Metal obsessive (the two are not un-connected) I have been asked to explain.
Read MoreStill 666 words but this time the guys battle it out! What is Sleep Token? Who’s side are you on?
Read Moret’s been a long looong year hasn’t it? When Covid shut everything down in March of 2020, did we really think we would still be here, lives restricted beyond recognition, 15 months later? I don’t know about you but I’ve found it really hard to be parted from my family, my friends, my work colleagues and my live music for so long. But here we are, restrictions are finally lifting and there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon and a hint of anticipation in the air. Will we ever get back what we have lost? Possibly not, but in the meantime we can, I think, begin to plan things again.
Read MoreLike many of you, I am approaching the most bizarre and unwanted anniversary. On Monday, March 15th it will be exactly one year since I last clapped eyes on an in the flesh live band. 365 days before that date I witnessed the majestic Employed to Serve (you can find my review here) at the Academy 3 in Manchester. They were tight, taut and utterly excellent. A youthful cocktail of confidence and rage filled righteousness. Then suddenly the world grounded to a halt. Tours shuddered to a standstill, the cancelled or postponed signs came on one by one and the wheels fell inexplicably off my world.
Read More
