The Treatment will play their first ever headlining show in Dublin this Wednesday when they tear The Academy a new floor! Technically you should have bought your tickets months ago. If you didn’t – for shame! But thanks to the legends at MCD, we’re in a position to send you and a friend there for free. All you need to do is read our interview with Treatment guitarist, Tag Grey and answer the following question.
Question: What is the name of The Treatment’s new album?
Please send your name and the answer to ticketsthere@Hotmail.comfor your chance to win.
Please Note: Competition closes tomorrow, June 17th at 18:00. Entrants must be 18+
Described as one of the most exciting bands to emerge from England in years, The Treatment are five guys who love rock ‘n’ roll. They released their debut album, This Might Hurt, in 2011 and its follow up, Running with the Dogs, earlier this year to massive critical acclaim. They’ve supported some of the biggest names in music and every year that passes brings nothing but new success. If you haven’t heard them yet, now is your chance to make amends as they’re coming to Dublin this week to play their first Irish headlining show and you don’t want to miss out.
Tickets There was fortunate enough to speak with The Treatment’s guitarist, Tag Grey and find out a little about the origins of the band, their touring experiences over the past few years and what it means to have Tommy Lee coordinate your birthday celebrations backstage.
Tickets There: Hi Tag, how are things going in the Treatment camp at the moment?
TG: It’s going great man. All the fans and all the press as well. And since Kerrang started picking up the last one, things have just been brilliant. It’s done a lot more than we dreamed it could have done. Really happy about it.
Tickets There: Running with the Dogs seems to be picking up a lot of new fans with previous critics highlighting it sounds far more accomplished than your debut, This Might Hurt. Do you feel this album is a stronger representation of the band?
TG: Ah yeah. I think Dhan (Mansworth – drums) was around fifteen or sixteen when he started writing and recording This Might Hurt. We’ve all grown so much as players and musicians that there’s no way you could compare the two. We were so proud with what we did with the first one but by the second one it was even better, you know? We changed loads of things during the recording – the guitars, the amps and the way we were recording. We were really happy with how it came out. It definitely captured another side of the band.
Tickets There: A lot of bands have great difficulty writing and recording their second albums. Did you feel any pressure after the success of This Might Hurt?
TG: We didn’t really think, but looking back we were so happy with the way it came out. There’s no comparison between the two and it’s all just gone in the direction we wanted it to. I don’t think we ever thought about having a problem with the second one, we just got on really. I mean we constantly toured since This Might Hurtcame out so we were always recording and writing little bits and bobs.
Tickets There: That’s probably the best way to avoid the pressure.
TG: It’s brilliant actually, we all live with Dhan and our manager Laurie (Mansworth) has his own studio so we could just record whenever which was a massive help for the band.
Tickets There: Were you worried at all that the delay between Running with the Dogs and This Might Hurt might risk losing some of the momentum you’d created?
TG:This Might Hurtcame out twice actually. It came out originally on Powerage and when we were picked up by Universal we re-released it with a bonus track so although it was released a long time ago, since the re-release it hasn’t been that long and we’ve just been on the road constantly. We wanted to make sure we had the album completely right. It wasn’t an intentional thing. We weren’t looking to get it out asap, we just wanted to stay on the road touring really. We’re definitely more of a live band.
Tickets There: Since the release of Running with the Dogs, have you noticed an increase in interest in the band?
TG: Oh massive. The first major tour we had was with Alice Cooper, which was a great tour to start with, but everything since just seems to take a step up. Lamb of God in America was the last big tour we did before recording the new album which was just insane. With this tour the first one we did was our own headlining tour which is just incredible. We went out and hundreds of people were turning up to see us which, for us is just an amazing feeling. We did the Islington in London, which has been a venue where we’ve seen so many of our favourite bands and you don’t realize what you’re doing until you’re standing on stage and all these people turn up. It’s just been amazing.
Tickets There: It sounds like things are really starting to get going for ye.
TG: (laughs) yeah, it’s been great. And now we’re going out and doing all the European festivals – it just keeps getting bigger and better. I can’t wait.
Tickets There: So let’s go back a little. How did the band get together?
TG: It was Dhan basically. He wanted to put a band together and his dad Laurie, he’s been in the music business and was in a couple of bands in the eighties so he knows everything. So they started looking around the country for musicians and that’s how we got the line-up.
We all moved in to Laurie’s house so it became a pretty wild one. Myself and Rick Newman (aka Swoggle) were living in a tent down the end and Dhan was still going to school every day. We started jamming in the shed and it’s just grown since then. We recorded the album and started touring.
Tickets There: It couldn’t have just happened that easily, right?
TG: Well, in the beginning it was quite hard as we couldn’t get into any venues. We were all under eighteen and they’d always kick us out. That’s how young we were when we started.
Tickets There: So none of you were close friends when you started the band?
TG: Me and Rick were the only ones, we went to school together. Dan found Rick and Rick knew me from School and that’s how I got the part. Matt (Jones, vocals) was on MySpace, do you remember? He found him and the original guitar player was from a music college and now we have Fabien who’s over from Germany.
Tickets There: It must have been strange all of ye moving in together at the time. Did ye drive each other crazy?
TG: Oh no, we’ve lived together for seven years so there’s no way we could do it if we didn’t get along. Of course it’s beyond argument; you can’t stick six guys together without the odd one. But as friends we’re as close as it gets. We don’t let anyone fuck with us man.
Tickets There: When you came together, did you know the type of band you wanted to be or did the style fall into place when ye met?
TG: It came together really as a group. We’d all grown up on similar styles of music so it just happened really. We didn’t decide on it, it just came together.
Tickets There: Would you credit Def Leppard or AC/DC more as the influence for the band? Be warned, I’m a Leppard fan…
TG: (laughs) Both of them I’d say. If there’s one band we all have total love for it’s the DC. I remember one year we all went to see them play Download and sitting there, watching a band you all completely fucking love was just amazing. But Def Leppard as well, they are a great, great band.
Tickets There: Hmmm, ok I’ll accept that. So how long did you stay practicing for before you started doing shows?
TG: For the first year of the band Dan was still going to school every day so the idea of touring was impossible. We spent the first year or two in the garage rehearsing, playing a few local shows. The first big one we got was opening for Black Stone Cherry and pretty much straight from that was Sonisphere and then straight onto Alice Cooper and Steel Panther after that. Then we played with Thin Lizzy, Slash and Status Quo, the list goes on man.
Tickets There: It certainly does. In your time together you’ve also supported Lamb of God, Motley Crue, KISS and many others. In fact, isn’t it true that Nikki Sixx personally got you onto their tour with KISS?
TG: Yeah, he did. He asked us to do it. That was three or four amazing months across America.
Tickets There: Nikki Sixx asking your band to open for them and KISS is pretty much a dream come true for any rocker. Can I ask how that came about?
TG: He’s just into young bands and listens out. We were on the Steel Panther tour and it was about 2 in the morning and a friend asked us if we’d twitter and none of us had. So we checked it and he had announced us for the whole tour.
Tickets There: And what’s it like, as a young band to go out there and play side by side with your heroes like that? Did you find yourself learning from them at all?
TG: Oh of course. We’ve learnt so much about how to work a crowd, how to play – how to do everything. You learn from your heroes don’t you, so to be able to support ‘em was such an experience and not only for ourselves, but the live experience as well is fucking great. You also learn from the best when it comes to partying as well (laughs).
Tickets There: Now that’s one, I heard a rumour that in your early years together you had a strict no partying rule on tour. How’s that holding up these days?
TG: (laughs) Yeah, when we first started we had a no drinking rule on tour. It was right place, right time but as we’ve gotten older… Number one is the gig, that’s all we care about. So long as that’s good, we’re good. But, I mean drinking-wise we have more of a laugh now. We’re always up and ready for a show and that’s what matters to us but I think it’s best to say we’ve gotten a little more relaxed (laughs.. Ed. – Laughs because he’s partied with bands like Motley Crue, KISS, Alice Cooper, Lamb of God and many others! – Legend!)
Tickets There: Phew, I was worried there you might shatter my dreams of the rock ‘n’ roll touring life.
TG: Well that was the problem for us as well (laughs)
Tickets There: Do you think allowing yourselves to relax more on the road helped fuel material for Running with the Dogs at all?
TG: Ah yeah, that comes from all the experiences we’ve had. It was Matt’s 21st when we toured with KISS and Motley Crue and Tommy Lee had him backstage and strippers were whipping him, he had a bottle of vodka poured all over his head – I mean how can you have a normal sensible lifestyle while those sorts of things are going on. It definitely helped come up with a few of the ideas.
Tickets There: And what’s it like touring with bands on the level of Motley Crue and KISS? You hear some awful things about support bands can be treated. Did you have any negative experiences?
TG: Everyone, not just Motley Crue, every single person I have toured with has gone beyond what they should have done to help us. The crews as well, every single person and every single band members just made a giant effort to make us feel welcome. Even small things like just someone like that saying hi to you – it makes you feel like it’s worth being on tour just for that.
Tickets There: So, you’re on the road again. Have you got many headlining shows on this leg or are you mostly playing festivals for the summer?
TG: We’ve got the two in Ireland – our first heading shows there actually and then our first headline show in Paris. They’re all going to be wicked. The rest are all festivals and then we have quite a few support slots in between. We’re opening for ZZ Top, Buckcherry and Alterbridge so it’s going to be pretty cool. We have a massive mixture of different places and hopefully later in the year there’ll be lots more coming on.
Tickets There: Is there anywhere in Europe you’re really looking forward to?
TG: Well the last time we went to Dublin we had the wildest time ever. It was great because we did two shows there so we had a night off and had a wild time. Also Italy, for me I love Italy and it’s going to right in the middle of summer so it’ll be buzzing. Everywhere though brings something new.
Tickets There: From the list of festivals you have, you play to a lot of different crowds. How are the reactions when you to play, say Graspop compared to supporting Status Quo?
TG: We’ve done Hammerfest a few times when we’re on with Feed the Rhino – really heavy band and we go down incredibly. I think we have an energy where we just want to go out there and cause absolute chaos by playing classic rock tunes. So we can fit in on any bill.
The response we’ve had from different bands has been incredible. Like recently we went out and support Airbourne and their crowd was just up for it, they wanted to cause a riot. Then we can go on with Quo who are older and more musical and we can go out and have a great show as well.
Tickets There: Is there anyone left that you’d love to go out and support on tour (Apart from Def Leppard and AC/DC of course)?
TG: If Guns N’ Roses get back together (laughs). Could be waiting a bit though.
Tickets There: I better let you head off and get ready for the tour. Just before I do, do you have any plans to tour outside of Europe this year? Just in case your friends on other continents are reading.
TG: It’s something that hasn’t been planned yet, but if something came up we definitely would. We haven’t toured Europe in such a long time and we want to get something big across here. With the record being out here we want to get on the road and support it. If something came up tomorrow, we wouldn’t complain though. Sit around and do nothing or tour? It’s not a question is it (laughs)
The Treatment play Dublin’s Academy 2 this Wednesday, June 18th. Tickets are on sale now from ticketmaster.ie priced €15. Stone Trigger will support on the night.
Ireland’s own Twisted Wrath will support the mighty New York metal giants – Anthrax, when they play The Academy on July 2nd – the night after Slayer lay waste to the tri-colour masses.
Anthrax are touring Europe this summer and will be playing their classic album, Among The Livingin it’s entirety at this show. Twisted Wrath will add a bite to the evening as they display the tunes that are making them one of then most exciting thrash bands in the country.
Well, it’s been a while thanks to real work – but I wasn’t going to let this story just pass on by.
Legendary thrash metal heavyweights EXODUS, have parted ways with Rob Dukes. The story broke last week and it’s already been confirmed that the group’s most prolific frontman, Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza, is set to return and take back mic duties.
I have to say, I love Steve’s work with the band and honestly didn’t get into the last three albums as say Bonded By Blood and Tempo of the Damned (two nice obvious choices there), but Rob f**king Dukes! I’m going to miss that man a hell of a lot.
I first saw Rob front the band in 2010 when they played The Village. Metal night of carnage and stagediving. One of the highlights of metal gig going but it still paled in compression to last year’s Button Factory performance when Rob had security ejected from the venue after their harsh handling of stage drivers – one of the most metal displays of awesomeness I’ve ever been fortunate enough to witness.
Rob, best of luck in the future. You are a sh*t cool guy and an awesome front-man. Hopefully you’ll be back on the scene before long!
Can’t wait for the Mayhem’s new album, Esoteric Warfare, to hit shelves next month and you’ve run out of conjures to raise it from the spirit world? Well good news – they’re streaming the album on several sites right now.
This is the first studio release from the band since 2007’s Ordo Ad Chaoand they’re currently on tour in Europe (sadly no Irish dates) plugging it to the masses. Check it out for yourself at Terrorizer’s official site.
Psykosishave officially been added to the Bloodstock line-up. Irish thrash metal fans are sure to feel a bit of pride this morning seeing one of our own appearing on one of the best bills of the summer. Next year, they’ll be headlining. Congrats again guys!
The slickest guitar God since Hendrix has announced this morning that he’ll be kicking off his 2014 European tour in Dublin this November. Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators will be hitting the road to support their third studio album, World On Fire. This will be Slash’s largest headlining solo show on Irish soil and is sure to see a great selection of Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and of course, solo material.
Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators will plat Dublin’s O2 Arena on November 10th, 2014. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 30th priced €39.05.
SLASH feat. Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators have announced that they will open their European at The O2, Dublin on November 10th. Tickets from €39.05 inclusive of booking fee are on sale this Friday at 10am from Ticketmaster outlets and online at http://www.ticketmaster.ie
SLASH and his bandmates Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators will release their new album WORLD ON FIRE on September 15 via SLASH’s own label Dik Hayd International distributed through Roadrunner Records (outside USA). The group revealed the cover artwork for WORLD ON FIRE designed by American contemporary artist Ron English today. Featuring the blazing title track as the first single the disc marks SLASH’s third solo album and second one with his band featuring MYLES KENNEDY (vocals), BRENT FITZ (drums) and TODD KERNS (bass).
For WORLD ON FIRE, SLASH and his band tapped Michael “Elvis” Baskette (Alter Bridge, Falling In Reverse, Incubus) to produce. Among the 17 songs is an instrumental–a powerful new turn for the band. WORLD ON FIRE is the follow-up to 2012’s critically acclaimed Apocalyptic Love which debuted at #4 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and earned SLASH two No. 1 U.S. rock radio hits–his first-ever solo–with “You’re A Lie” and “Standing In The Sun.” SLASH officially began recording as a solo artist with his self-titled 2010 debut album which employed a different vocalist on each track of his first album including Ozzy Osbourne, Fergie and Myles Kennedy among others.
It looks like Atominated have made a positive step towards their grand return. They announced last week that former Twisted Autocracy frontman, Darrel Tanfin has joined the band (presumably as singer and rhythm guitarist – TBC) and now they just need a new bass player.
If you play bass and you’re savage craic – give them a shout and send on a demo. If they tell you, ‘f**k off – we have a bass player. Where did you get this amateur hour information?’, you can blame sexy a$$ Tickets There – Ireland’s answer to the Hustler Heavy Metal Christmas Special.
Updates! – So as you know, for the last few months we have been in the gutter about whether AD is to continue and live on past the struggles we were faced with when replacing Emmet. During this process we have parted ways with Cormac Jordan… on good terms (Rhythm Guitar) and we would like to welcome into the AD family, a talented player and singer, he was the frontman of Dublin thrash band Twisted Autocracy and has played with a number of musicians in his time in the scene. His name is Darrel Tanfin and you can hear him at the track below. With all of the line-up changes (and problems) we have gone through as a band, I can say for myself that this line-up is my most thought of and I am more confident than ever about it. Thank you to everyone who stood by us and gave us the reason to continue writing music and forwarding ourselves as a band.
I can’t believe I’m writing this, but one of Ireland’s most exciting young thrash bands have called it a day! Twisted Autocracy are no more. The band posted a message on their Facebook page last week confirming the split after just over a year of playing shows.
In their brief time together, they appeared on nearly every thrash metal gig line-up going and released the excellent, Reinstate the Hate E.P. The band will be sorely missed and Tickets There would like to wish them all well in their future endeavours, especially Darrel Tanfin who has recently been confirmed as the newest member of Atominated.
Hi everyone, We have been quiet for a while now and it is unfortunate that we must break that silence with some pretty bad news. As of last week we have decided to end Twisted Autocracy and call it a day. We have had an amazing time making …this band what it is
but we feel it has just run it’s course and it’s time for us to move on. Although it is sad that it is ending we prefer to call it a day
with the four members that made Twisted Autocracy what it was. We are and always will be brothers and couldn’t be on better terms.
The memorys (sic) we have shared both with each other and with every single person we have ever had the pleasure of playing to,conversed with at gigs,
played with on stage or generally just enjoyed the company of will stay with us for the rest of our lives. Seriously thank you so much to everyone
who made those memorys(sic) something that will stay with us in our hearts forever. We had our first gig on the 4th of May 2013 and our last on the 26th of April,
So basically the guts of a year and what a year it was! We will not thank anyone in particular due to the dreadful fear that we would forget someone
because truly we are grateful to everyone who helped us! It was one hell of a time and we hope to see you all out there supporting the metal scene that was so kind to us!
We wish you all the best and one last final time,
Peace and Thrash \m/
-Darrel,Luigi,Sean and Forde
Twisted Autocracy
Due to the passing of Dave Ellefson’s brother earlier this week, Megadeth has decided to cancel all immediate touring plans and won’t hit the road again until June 20th when their tour picks up in Montebello, QC for the Amnesia Rockfest. This sadly means no Deth for yours truly at Hellfest, but I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to Dave and his family.
Full statement from Megadeth.com can be viewed below and the list of dates that will go ahead can be found here.
Los Angeles, CA (May 21, 2014) – Megadeth has cancelled immediate tour plans as bassist David Ellefson and his family mourn the loss of his brother, who passed away on May 19, in Minneapolis, Minn. after battling cancer. A private family funeral service will be held.
The band sends their deepest condolences and prayers to David during this time and ask that the fans please do the same.
MCD have confirmed this morning that Max Cavalera is brining Soulfly to Whelan’s this July! The metal icon and his outfit have been tearing stages apart since he left Sepulturamany moons ago and this intimate gig will be one of the must see metal events of the summer. Just you, your mates and one of the major forces in metal today.
Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 23rd priced €24 and it all takes place on July 11th. Excited?
We at the Tickets There Conglomerate Corporation for Financial Gain and Advancement Family, are not ones to gloat – but we done told ye! We said it again and a-fucking-gain – AXL ROSE IS GOD BITCHES! Ye all nit picked and griped, but the bottom line is the man is a fucking hero – and now science has proven it. (yes, science – want to fight about it?)
Concerthotels.com recently put up a list that is the end result of thirty seventh century technology which has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that AXL ROSE has not only the greatest voice of all time, but is also the baddest mother**ker on the planet. Why have I started censoring the curse words now you ask? Because I just remembered my mum and aunty occasionally read this blog and they may now be aware of my readers ignorance in the field of Axl! Axl who? William Axl Rose – scientifically proven greatest singer of all time and most beloved human since Jesus.!
If you’re someone who believes seeing is believing, then here’s further proof. Axl handing out shots at a gig,
Judas Priest are spoiling us silly these days. They’ve gone and released a new single from their forthcoming album, Redeemer of Souls, which is due in shops this July.
The single is titled ‘March of the Damned’ and it’s a solid tune performed in classic Priest style. A little restrained for my liking so far, but definitely growing on me and another positive nod for the quality of the new LP. Bring on THE PRIEST!
Stillorgan local, Phil Kelly, has announced he will continue telling every rocker and metal head he meets how long his hair used to be for at least the next two decades – just in case they would ever be confused by the aging rockers current, deceptive short-haired image.
Despite a non-receding hairline and lacking any bald spots, Phil (aged 43) felt the need to cut his hair short at the end of his teenage years and join the masses in ‘growing up’. Now in his mid-forties, Phil wants to let people, who didn’t get the chop, know that he was and is one of them and fill them in on how much more metal he used to be.
“It’s good to see rockers still about”, announces Phil from his favourite podium bar stool in Bolands pub. “But these kids don’t realize what I used to get up to. I used to have long hair – longer than that fella there” (points to man at the bar and gestures to a point on his own arm where his hair is reported to have reached), “I had it that way for ages. We used to wear traditional Celtic belts as well and the jackets and go down to sea and fight the mods.”
Phil insists that not listening to metal music hasn’t damaged his love for the genre. “I’d still go into Brux at least a couple of times a year if I can. Depends what’s on, but if I’m there with visitors or that I’d always pop down to the bar and use the jax. Brings me back to the late eighties and early nineties when there was a real scene”.
When questioned about today’s metal scene, Phil grows dismissive and vague and only offers instances that it was “non-existent really” and “not as good as when I was young – just all noise now”.
Locals and younger fans who are interested in hearing tales of the metal / rock scene in Ireland between the years 1988 and 1991 can find Phil in Boland’s almost any Saturday afternoon ‘when the wife is out of town’.
Coldwar are a scary fucking band. Pantheisthas been screaming over my headset the last couple of weeks and I am no so shit scared I can’t leave my house for fear of bumping into then, being verbally beaten to a pulp and then properly killed in a beautiful violent display of gore, terror, new age beliefs and thoughtful insights into human philosophy, anthropology and theology. Basically the three ology’s I actually understand, please add more at your pleasure.
The albumis a brutal piece of work. Nine songs of unrelenting ferocity that you imagine were written to scare velociraptors away from farms and captured terrorists into submission. What am I talking about? Who knows when Trevor LcLave (singers always get called out on this site because we don’t believe in other musicians) is screaming down the house and trampling your brain into the crevasses of your skull.
I’m not going through it track by track. Pantheist is so incredibly intensely dense that calling out subtle differences, the heavier tracks and trying in anyway to breakdown this is beyond the powers of yours truly. It’s just one of those albums that means serious business. The Serious business of Coldwar and Pantheist. I’m going back to listen, I advise you to do the same.
Tickets There pretends to be reviewers from time to time. Discernible readers will notice what a crock of shit this is. You should note that you are not our core market focus. We aim for the slow folks and not so well read….
While we look in wonder and amazement at the continent and it’s incredible array of festivals that deliver the greatest bands on the planet, year after year – it’s important we don’t fixate too long or we’ll never get a chance to support and grow indigenous efforts to cater to the metal masses. With that said, it’s about time we all had a good look north and realize how good this year’s MONSTERS OF ROT is looking.
Held in Fermanagh, Monsters of Rot IV is bigger and badder than ever before as it has announced two stages, nearly twenty acts and the best value you could ever ask for. OVEROTH and COLDWAR are set to headline the one day event with Zombified, Gargantuan, Dead Aeon, Bipolar Joe appearing in the line-up (full breakdown by stage can be found below).
It all happens in The Halfway Inn, Letterbreen on August 16th. Entry is £15 | E18 and that includes camping. Full details can be found on the Facebook page and an official; website will be online soon.
Main stage: OVEROTH, COLDWAR, ETERNAL HELCARAXE, FUCKHAMMER, GARGANTUAN, WEED PRIEST, SETTING OFF SIRENS, ZHORA, DEAD AEON, PUTREFY, ZOMBIFIED Noise stage: LUXURY MOLLUSC, BIPOLAR JOE, CATHAL RODGERS, KATIE O’NEILL, GEN 26, RUAIRI O’BAOIGHILL, DRECK, MAXIMUM TERROREM
God it’s sooo close! Hellfest have gone and released their official 2014 booklet (free to all attendees at the site) online so we can get a sneak preview. Reading through the names is unreal – almost every band in the world you could dream of playing the perfect festival is playing this year and the ones that are missing played last year! It’s stupidly, ridiculously, insanely savage.
If you’re in two minds about attending for whatever insane reason – have a read of the booklet and see what you’d be missing out on. No offense to Waken, Bloodstock or any others – but HELLFEST 2014 is the greatest metal festival line-up of all time. BE THERE!
(Just so you’re aware, BLACK SABBATH, IRON MAIDEN, AEROSMITH, MEGADETH, SLAYER, CARCASS, ROB ZOMBIE, EMPEROR, DEEP PURPLE, SOUNDGARDEN, ENSLAVED, SEPULTURA, THERAPY?, MOD, MONSTER MAGNET, PHIL ANSELMO, CLUTCH, GORGOROTH, NILE, SOULFLY – the list is freakin’ endless!
PSYKOSIS are the latest band to be added to this year’s Bloodstock line-up after they were crowned champions of the M2TM battle of the bands on Saturday night.
The lads went up against fiercely fierce competition and won out, much to the delight of yours truly. Unfortunately for Killface, AeSect, Dead Label!, Theories Divide and Alpheidae – the Psyko lads just couldn’t stop sexin’ the place up.
Tickets There would like to congratulate Grant, Jay, Shane and Tony the madman on the win and wish you all the best of luck at Bloodstock. F**king bring it!
The gloves are off, the bets are down and metal is coming to town. After several months, 10 heats, six second rounds and two semi finals – the battle is entering it’s final stages. Bloodstock M2TM Ireland is going to have a 2014 champion to send forth to the English lands, so they may lay waste to the world’s filth and be crowned legends for life. In short – it’s on!
Tomorrow night at Fibber MaGees, six of Ireland’s best and brightest underground bands will assault spectators, fans, friends and family in their hopes to play the Big B, alongside Megadeth, Down, Emperor and many more. Each of the bands has earned their right to go and now it falls on their followers and stage skills to push them through the final hurdle. We thought it might be fun to have a quick look at the six contenders and in absolutely no way show any bias Tickets There (*Cough PSYKOSIS) might have in the result.
AeSect: AeSect are, without a doubt, one of the best live bands in Ireland at the moment. They (some of them anyway) hail from close by my own homeland – the mighty…..mighty strange Longford and they have entertained me – none of you – many times with their solid, aggressive performances and heavier than sin tunes. You can’t flaw them, you can only love them. If you haven’t heard them you need to click THIS LINK now. Tis Friday after all, what else would you be doing other than learning about sexy sweet ass metal from Longford? (and Wicklow and Dublin).
Alpheidae: These guys, and I hate to say it, but these guys are not my cup of tea. They don’t seem to have anything to do with metal and instead come across like Coldplay meets Evanescence. I blame ten years of terrible pop indie and nu-metal for this latest attempt of the commercial skater world to water my beloved genre down. THEN AGAIN… they have a lot of fans, so I’m obviously in the minority which undermines my own opinion in the greater scheme of things and they’re very, very tight on stage. They’re not amateurs who can’t play – instead they’re extremely well rehearsed and have a lot going on. Time will tell on the staying power of this new form of metal but I’ll bet they gear up a lot more interest than I ever will. Look, I’ve already written more about them that I did AeSect! No doubt – a major contender for the top spot tomorrow.
Dead Label!: Another of the countries hottest bands and possibly one of the most interesting and successful of 2013. Can they repeat it in 2014? Hell yes they can! Anyone who saw their major live return with Gama Bomb a couple of months back couldn’t have been anything less than in awe of their new material. Heavy, crunchy… did I mention heavy? Sounding better than ever – well worth getting in for. Your life can only be poorer for missing them. Check out the video below- another band to get the taste buds going…metal taste buds for metal people (you can drop my Pulitzer in the post).
Killface: Now you’re talking. DUBLIN DEATH METAL at it’s best. Would you believe in all my years running this blog, I’ve only been lucky enough to catch these guys twice and both times they blew the roof of the place (the Pint has of course since reinstalled it’s roof, but mostly uninstalled it’s metal 😦 ). Killface are a cracking band with a lot of energy, good tunes and power to bring to the fold. I unfortunately don’t see them picking up the grand prize – but with Warpath’s success last year – at least we know death metal bands are major contenders for the title. I won’t mind eating my words on this one either way.
Psykosis: Ok, so why bother trying to lie? Pyskosis are Tickets There’s favourite metal band these days. They top an exceptionally long list and just bring it. They bring it so hard it’s difficult to believe they’re still underground. They have an album coming out this summer which makes me so excited I want to wet my pants and call my granny. Psykosis, Psykosis, Psykosis. They’ll play it loud and do us proud and I can guarantee my terrible writing is in no way reflective of how they play. Prove it you yell? well watch the video and check them our for yourselves. Soon you’ll be drowning in a sea of blood….sorry, what was the sea made from again? oh yeah…. BEER!
Theories Divide: A band I’ve heard, but never seen. I can’t speak for their live performances but I can tell their tracks are worth a spin. One of the those bands I’m still waiting to grab …so I’ve haven’t been grabbed yet and it’s no fault of theirs – all me. More listens will bring more love, it puts the lotion on it’s skin or else it gets the hose again.
So, there it is in a nutshell. Basically every band is brilliant and loved. They’re all competing and for the tiny, tiny, tiny price of €5 (€10 after 9pm) you could be there to witness each of on them at the top of their game. Doors open at 7,30 and Fibbers will have some tasty beverages waiting for you of course 🙂 Tickets There would like to wish ALL six bands the best of luck. May the mightiest metal monsters win!.
The Treatment will play their first ever headlining show in Dublin this Wednesday when they tear The Academy a new floor! Technically you should have bought your tickets months ago. If you didn’t – for shame! But thanks to the legends at MCD, we’re in a position to send you and a friend there for free. All you need to do is read our interview with Treatment guitarist, Tag Grey and answer the following question.
'Ticket's There' - Irish and International Music Blog 