The Month In Metal - Births, Deaths, Invasions And New Releases
By The Big List's metal correspondent, Mark AshbyA birth and two deaths dominate this month’s news from the local metal scene – but, first, a word of warning to our brethren across on the mainland: stand by to be invaded. A grand total of three NI acts are making the short journey across the Irish Sea to Wales in a few short weeks, to blow apart the fifth annual Hard Rock Hell festival, which takes place at the Pontins Holiday Village in Prestatyn over the weekend of 1 to 4 December. The charge is being led by guitarist Simon McBride, who opens for Girlschool and Tygers Of Pan Tang on the Thursday evening. He is followed on the Friday by Million Dollar Reload – who will be sandwiching the gig in between support slots on The Quireboys’ Irish tour (including a date at the Spring & Airbrake on Saturday 26th November) and with The Darkness at the Ulster Hall on 4th December – and up-and-coming retro-rockers Sweet Taste, who won their slot at HRH via the recent ‘Highway To Hell’ competition in Glasgow. Now to that birth: a new record company is being officially launched at the end of this month. Savour Your Scene has been set up by two members of the hardcore band Gacys Threads – drummer Stephen Currie and vocalist Aaron Vance. The label will be officially launched at The Limelight on 26th November – alongside its first two releases, ‘Built On Respect’ from By Any Means and ’The Ignorance Of Purity’ by Gacys Threads. Both bands will be playing at the launch, with support coming from Skypilot and Bricktop: doors are 5pm and tax is £5. Savour Your Scene also has signed Ilenkus, from Galway, and a UK distribution deal with CODE7. See www.savouryourscene.co.uk for more details. Sadly, two of Norn Iron’s most respected bands – Interrogate and September Cross – have both decided to call it a day. Interrogate’s demise in particular took most people by surprise, as they had just released a highly acclaimed new EP ‘Silence The Fallen’ and returned from a US tour. Guitarist Mark Johnston and drummer Stephen Brown aren’t sitting around for long, however, as they currently are advertising for a new bassist and vocalist, with the indication that they are seeking to head in a much heavier direction than their former band, quoting the likes of Machine Head and Pantera as influences for the new venture. The future for the four members of September Cross seems less clear. Good news, however, from young thrash quartet WarCrux, who have attracted attention from as far away as Los Angeles. During the recent Belfast Music Week – which was organized by Belfast City Council in the run-up to the MTV European Music Awards, which were held at the city’s Odyssey Arena on 6 November – the LA-based PR firm, Green Room ran a competition to find five bands to be featured on an EP entitled ‘EPic Belfast’, which will be digitally released worldwide next March. WarCrux were the only metal band to make it through: for the record, the other winners were Captain Kennedy, Cedric Has A Name, Havana House Party and TheRed Velvetines. Good news also for thrashers Alaskan Death Jacket, who confirmed this past weekend that they have signed a deal with Rising Records. For those who like their metal very much in the classic, NWOBHM style, then you could do a lot worse than the newly-released third album from Stormzone: ‘Zero To Rage’ is already attracting rave reviews, and is available now on Steamhammer/SPV. Look out also for ‘Cultural Dissonance’, the third album from Derry’s Sandstone, which came out last week on Limb Music.
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Incoming Incoming….Prepare For Evacuation!
