Creeper are storytellers and world builders. They have taken the vision of Jim Steinman and transferred it an alternative modern world where vampire ride motorbikes and creatures of the night rule the land. This is teenage angst with bold choruses and technicolour back stories. They inhabit a world with no musical boundaries. It is free for all of emo, soft rock, goth and rock-a-billy...
Read MoreMetal is ludicrous. It is over the top and it is lacking any sense of irony. If we wanted reality we would go listen to dour folk or urban grime. We crave escapism, an audio distraction from all the woes and wearies of modern life. Metal provides that portal into a reality where we are united and not divided. It is a genre that lets you be what you want to be as opposed to who you are...
Read MoreMy favourite first date conversation is what is the greatest thrash act outside of the big four (you can tell I am a bit a catch). During appetisers the conversation usually darts around Testament, Exodus, Nuclear Assault and Sacred Reich. During the mains there is always a debate about Death or Dark Angel and as desert is served I make a leftfield pitch for the British contingent of Onslaught ...
Read MoreThe thing about goth in the eighties is that it embraced pop. The Cure, The Mission and the Sisters of Mercy all made cracking pop songs that, were (whisper it) joyous and fun. When doom merged with pop to begot Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and a hundred copycats it forgot that need for unreserved joyfulness. This is a direct reaction to all that dour melancholy. This happy euphoric goth fronted …
Read MoreFor all those who proclaim that death metal all sounds the same, I give you Rivers of Nihil, the progressive avant-garde death metal outfit bringing something different to the genre. And that something different is sax. Forget all your presumptions and perceptions, the saxophone is indeed a metal instrument and gives Rivers of Nihil an astonishing extra dimension of texture and cohesion. It sounds wrong buy believe us it feels so right.
Read MoreEmperor are quite simply The Beatles or Oasis of black metal bands. They are the alpha and the omega. Quite simply, they are the band that other bands are judged upon. Their first two albums, “In the Night Side Eclipse” and “Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk” are considered to be the defining points of Nordic black metal. They may well be both celebrating, or about to celebrate, their 30th birthday...
Read MoreThe final day of RADAR Festival 2025 kicks off with serious momentum as Waterlines launch into their set with enough energy to shake off any lingering festival fatigue. From the first note, they’re firing on all cylinders - tight, explosive, and clearly here to make a statement. Frontman Benji Mars is magnetic, effortlessly switching between razor-sharp cleans and thunderous gutturals, all ...
Read MoreSaturday morning of RADAR Festival 2025 begins with a surprise opener in the form of Break Fifty, who launch into their set like they’ve been fixtures on the bill all along. There’s a gritty, raw energy to them - very much a DIY take on Graphic Nature, with that Pitchshifter, industrial-sounding drumming and vocals reminiscent of Feed The Rhino’s more feral moments. Slamming breakdowns and sudden tempo dives give it a Knocked Loose punch, and there’s more than a nod to Heart of a Coward’s dense metallic sheen. Just a standard four-piece, no gimmicks and it absolutely works.
Read MoreFriday at RADAR Festival 2025 begins in suitably unhinged fashion with openers on the second SNEAK stage Mother Vulture. Their chaotic, hair-whipping, guitar-slinging madness sets the bar absurdly high right out the gate. Their vocalist hits some glass-shattering banshee-like highs, but there’s gravely harshness too - scraping and snarling in all the right ways. It’s like The Fall of Troy jamming with Counting Crows during a Royal Blood soundcheck, and somehow it all just works. Wild, theatrical, and very, very fun.
Read MoreSunday is an early start too, but the weather is not on our side today. The sunshine is gone, the clouds are lowering and it’s not only windy but bloody cold to boot! Oh well, hoody and a woolly hat it is to see the day started by Spyder Byte.
Read MoreAfter a sensible amount of after partying for some and a slightly less sensible evening for others Saturday dawns bright and breezy. It’s an early start, the first band is on at 11.10am which leads to some rather bleary-eyed punters making the short walk from the campsites to the arena.
Read MoreThere are a few things in life that are inevitable. Death and taxes are the obvious ones, but also that the team from Upstged will throw a hell of a party at their annual showcase event. They have a lot going for them in terms of their chosen venue – Lincolnshire Showground is spacious, level and has ample blocks of proper toilets and showers scattered throughout both the camping areas and the arena itself. The arena is tucked away in a corner shaded by trees, and features two adjacent stages as well as a big marquee that houses both the substantial (and reasonably priced!) bar and the Trailblazer tent.
Read MoreOne of the best things about Call Of The Wild is that they spend a lot of time every year getting out there and looking for the Next Big Thing. There are heats in various small venues where bands and crowd reactions are analysed to the nth degree, with the best of the best being offered a coveted slot on the Trailblazer stage.
Read MoreSpringfest returns to the Waterloo once more for its third iteration, again bringing together half a dozen bands covering a range of styles and genres; so there’s majestic 70s riffage here, spangly 80s keys there, glorious Southern stylings, some innovative contemporary rock (plus some bands that defy easy categorisation) creating a fantastic showcase of what 21st Century grassroots rock music has to offer.
Read MoreThe last day of a festival is always bitter sweet with a whole day of great music to come, but also the knowledge that this is the last day and tomorrow is the journey home, back to work and the realities of daily life. Still, I kept a positive attitude and determined to make the most of the day I headed to a matinee show, specifically Dizmal playing at the Kniven bar. I headed down the stone steps into the murky cellar like venue, which was absolutely rammed.
Read MoreSaturday afternoon began with the Metal Auction in the hotel bar, with several tempting items, not least a first pressing of Satyricon’s “The Shadowthrone”, before heading to Rockefeller for the opening band of the day at the main venue. Coven took to a stage adorned with numerous candles and candelabras, with vocalist Jinx Dawson emerging from an upright coffin. The stage was bathed in sultry red light as the group delivered their psychedelic doom laden rock exploring themes of Satanism and witchcraft in front of a screen projecting related images. The crowd was relatively modest at this point in the day, but the devotees at the front screamed every word back at the band until the set was brought to a close with ‘Epitaph’ and ‘Blood on the Snow’.
Read MoreAfter a fantastic opening day, I couldn’t wait to get back into the music and day two began with a dilemma for me with two bands I was keen to see playing at the same time. Thankfully the venues were very close so I decided to try to catch both, starting at Brewgata with Italians Nel Buio and their distinctive blackwave. Brewgata is a great little venue that is essentially a bar with a small stage in one corner giving a great atmosphere. The trio played their soundtrack to armageddon in front of a screen projecting futuristic images, and the enthusiastic crowd were drawn into their world of sorrowful atmospheric black metal.
Read MoreWhile Easter is a time for religious worship for many, or perhaps overindulgence in chocolate, for the extreme metal community it is the opportunity to make the annual pilgrimage to Oslo for the unrivalled Inferno Festival. Set over four days, the festival always delivers a line up of the best extreme metal has to offer with an enticing mix of big names rubbing shoulders with the best of the underground. Of course, black metal is central to this but in truth, all extreme metal genres are covered and this year was to be no exception.
Read MoreFuming mouth are a dark twisted entity slamming together sludge and doom and then shoving it into a blender with a big handful of unrepentant crust punk. They crackle with raw energy and hum with disenfranchised righteous anger. Their riffs brim with bile and belligerence and it has an unconformity to it that feels refreshing and different. It's like they know the rules of metal but have decided that they don't quite apply to them. Instead, they are using it well-worn clichés to tread a different path and that sense of individualistic endeavour shines through.
Read MoreLast year's Damnation Festival was pretty much perfect and I'm sure that would be the opinion of almost everyone. The single dissenting voice you would find are probably the organisers as the uncomfortable fact is whilst it was a faultless affair for those attending, it just about scraped itself to breakeven and another year of negative growth would potentially spell the end of this miraculous experiment in putting extreme metal in an arena. Needless to say the thousand plus tickets that flew out the door on the Monday after last year's event showed that there definitely was a market for witnessing insular bands in a widescreen environment.
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