Mad About Rock

Left For Red are a four piece metal band from Dudley, UK. Their sound is a mix of punk, metal and rock. They have played many gigs with some of the best bands in West Midlands..and now they will be playing alongside the mighty Chimaira and Revoker on the 17th of March at the Slade Rooms in Wolverhampton. I put some questions to bassist, Daniel Carter about opening for Chimaira, lives shows and the new EP due to be released this year.. Firstly thanks for your time. You must be pretty hectic right now, promoting and rehearsing, especially with the impending massive gig coming up?! Yeah we have a really busy year coming up, we are working mainly on festival dates during the summer, so far we have been confirmed for Basement Fest 2012 which is going to be amazing with Blaze Bayley and Beholder headlining. We are also busy booking gigs hopefully for a UK tour during or at the end of the year. I hear your working on a new set for the Chimaira show. How much are you going to c...

US four piece deliver 'all metal, no bullshit'! Like your metal heavy as?!..then this is a band for you! "A Beautiful Demise" is nice and heavy from the off! Great fierce vocals, with audible shouting is always good! Very clear and effective topped off with good lyrics, bold and strong like their music! Add in some headbang worthy riffs and beats and this track shows pure metal is still alive! "Butterfly Effect" to sum up is fast, and fucking heavy! This is a great heart pounding, headbanging slab of metal! I always admire any metal vocalists that can scream like hell whilst still being meticulous! This band have a solid cuthroat sound that should go down a treat with the metal masses and will make you go mental in the mosh pits! Speaking of mosh pits be sure to check out the band if your fortunate enough to be in the area supporting the very awesome Straight Line Stitch (not for the first time either!) who I'm a massive fan of!..If you haven...

Avalanche are a four piece Post Hardcore act from the South East of England. They released their 4 track EP on the 6th October, and released it true style, launching it at a gig in Crawley at Bar Med supporting the band, Never Means Maybe who along with Fei Comodo are currently supporting Exit Ten ! The title of EP, " Inora " is named after the Goddess of Mountain Snow, which the artwork depicts. You could say its a good EP for the cold winter! Check it out now and be "snowed" under by " Avalanche ", and when your barricaded in your homes by the snow (which I'm sure will soon by on its way!) take this opportunity to listen to these 4 awesome tracks! " Problems With Talking " has quite a mainstream feel to it, so I'm sure it will be very popular! The song has great lyrics, like the other 3 tracks, and doesn't stray from this through out. The song seamlessly flows and is very coherent, something which can be ha...

This 6 piece band are from Central Valley, CA. They have a great and interesting sound which they refer to as Jivecore . They released " The Roman Candle " late 2011..is it burning bright, or looking dim?.. Opening with " Severance 2.0 " which has great guitar licks, beats and melodic riffs. A good introduction to the band. Coming in at just under 2 minutes, this track keeps it short but sweet! " The Trip " consists of synths sounds, great guitar work, with a mix of clean and scream vocals and lots of dynamic tempo changes. Nothing not to like really! I especially like the creepy piano bit at the end... Very unexpected! The strangely titled, " Pachinko " again shows some great guitar licks, as shown throughout. I'm really digging their tones and production. Quite unique in places. " Brought To You By Cinco " - really loving the main riff in this song!.. Very memorable! Lots of twists and turns, great structure ...

Article written by me. Originally printed in Ryan's Gig Guide magazine: http://www.ryansgigguide.com/ Carina

Article by me originally printed in Ryan's Gig Guide Magazine: http://www.ryansgigguide.com/ Carina

Nick J Townsend is the "lunatic" behind WEAK13 he composed all the instruments (with some exceptions on all his tracks) however he wouldn't be able to perform them all on his own, so he is joined on stage by Neel Parmar (Drums) and Wesley Smith (Bass) so WEAK13 had a makeover and became a three piece live act. " LIVE AMMO is a live experimental album and a music experience, a test of a musician " - This is a very brave a bold move for any musicians! Did this experiment work?... There is nothing "weak" about this strong raw sound! Except maybe the emotions and vunerability displayed in songs such as, " Wakedown "! There's no tricks or fancy effects but that doesn't mean your not in for a treat! Its the sheer talent, individuality, effort and simplicity that makes it so appealing... WEAK13 has such as raw underground yet catchy sound! First track, " Lunatic " is a great raw, emotional, grunge song. Its very libera...

Our very own thrash Metallers, Reign Of Fear are hard at work..they have a new record which they are recording in September and will be headlining the first ever BasementFest on August 20 th. I asked them about their upcoming new release and their headlining show... . So your new record which your recording on September 10 th , is to be named, "Blinded By Progression", how did you come up with this title? The initial idea came from pete (drums) whos thinking was he doesn't want himself or the band to forget why we started out to be what we are today and to not become jaded or self absorbed and focus on the music and our personal relationships within the band instead of losing touch and becoming blinded by progression.   Is it to be a full length record? And how does the new material compare to that of your previous tracks? B.B.P is to be a full length record which is a new experience for us but at the same time we have been writing for this release for quit...

This 5 piece outfit from Southern England combine elements of Death Metal, Thrash and Melodic Metal, giving them a unique and truly great sound! They have released two albums, their debut, "Bleeding The Guility" (2007) and "The Root Of Affliction" (2010). They have done extremely well in particular with their latest release, featuring on a Terrorizer CD with the song, "For Freedon For Treason", as well as receiving great reviews from Kerrang and Rocksound! They also made a video for, "When The Dead Walk The Streets" which is taken from, "The Root Of Affliction". Which is a great video and is an fantastically addictive song..Its so catchy it may ressurect the 'dead' from their graves! They have also played nation-wide shows with big bands such as, Sylosis, Trigger The Bloodshed, The Defiled, Seven Year Kismet, OutCryFire and Speed Theory amongst others! And now they have landed another great slot..supporting Sylosis, ...

Fornost Arnor – “The Death Of A Rose” Progressive/Metal/Experimental From: Peterborough/Colchester This stunning progressive four piece is comprised of Greg Chivers (Vocals, Guiar Ebow and Acoustic Guitar), Will Hall (Lead Guitar), Sam Austen (Bass guitar and Clean Vocals) and 'lastly' quite appropriately, Drummer, James Last! The band released their debut album, “Escaping The Abyss” back in 2009 through their own label, Witch-King, and now two years later they are back with this beautiful release... First track, “Rogue” opens with female vocalist, Elle Tory  (The Meads of Asphodel, Worms of Sabnock, Imperial Vengeance) delivering beautiful and soothing vocals, then is soon accompanied by Sam Austen, who resembles Michael Akerfield (Opeth), and both Greg Chivers and Sam Austen too have an impressive array of capabilities in the vocal capacity!..From close to serenading to full on demonic screaming they deliver combined! Throw in some haunting and super...

This is said to be the most prestigious award ceremony of Metal! And this is not the first time I have been lucky enough to attend the Metal Hammer Awards, as I won also back in 2004 (you can only attend if you win tickets), with Finnish band, HIM headlining, with support from Killswitch Engage and Akercoke. So 7 years later here I am again... I arrived at the O2 arena around an hour before the doors were due to open. In amongst the queue were the odd few zombies (as that was this year’s metal hammer awards theme!) So that certainly made the waiting a lot more interesting spotting all the gory and weird costumes! A little after 6pm the doors open and I enter the IndigO part of the 02 where the awards are taking place. A nice little section of the venue, that feels quite intimate without being too small, and is probably the most organised and tidy venue I have been to and for tonight’s occasion the lights set around the room were green, giving everyone a green tinge p...

Here There Be Monsters are a Brighton based Groove Metal/Hardcore band that formed in 2007. I had the pleasure of seeing the band live myself last year, and they put on a great and energetic show, so I’m looking forward to seeing them again at the Hydrant in Brighton on the 4 th of August 2011, supporting a band I have been a big fan of for a few years now..Exit Ten who are playing at Sonisphere! I asked frontman, Anthony Giles about this exciting upcoming gig, live shows and future plans… How does it feel to be supporting a band like Exit Ten? Are you a big fan of the band yourself? I am stoked to be doing this gig. Its a bit of a departure from the scene we are normally thrown in with, which tends to be of the more death metal and thrash/hardcore style, but we are really happy to be branching out and playing with some new bands. Personally, I love the melody that Exit Ten bring to a heavy backdrop of rhythms and guitars, it reminds me of some class bands I grew up list...

This band/project is fronted by our very own Alan Sutheran (presenter of 20 Minutes Of Arc show on Basement Sound Radio). Alan sings, plays guitar and just about every other instrument heard on the album, with the occasional exception..he also wrote and produced practically everything too..a man of many talents is our Alan!..Of course he had some help in the form members, Aaron Foy (Lead Guitar), Doug Sutheran (Drums), and Lee Potts features on some tracks also, helping with production and synth/drums in parts! This album contains 9 varied and interesting tracks, including a superb cover of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", which is a must hear! The other songs are all originals.."Time goes by" starts with a strange, spacey futuristic intro, which quickly goes into a clean optomistic sound and has a classic rock feel to it with a hint of blues..the guitar solo is great and has a really nice tone to it, nicely produced! "Times Extreme" opens wi...

Melodic Metalcore 6 piece from Birmingham, comprised of, Jay Smith (Vocals), Dave Plimmer (Bass), Tom Knight (Growls), Rob Bonnell (Guitar), Sam Nathaniel (Guitar) and Josh Hill (Drums) with an age range of 17-23..you wouldn't know that they were so young judging by their creative mature sound..it just proves how talented these guys are! The band are planning to record full album in January 2011 and to tour in March/April with planned dates in Nottingham, Stoke, Brighton, London, Manchester and Edinburgh. And are also looking to get on the bill of as many festivals as they can..this band is very determined and ambitious which will most definitely pay off, as they are a mighty metal act and have all the key ingredients to succeed and I for one can't wait to see them live! Their 6 Track EP, titled, "Our Enemies Leave Roses". which is also the name of the title track, has a great balance of menacing screams and melodic singing, and a nice breakdown, which sho...

Calatrilloz is a theatrical operatic gothic rock band from London. They have a very unusual and interesting name, which comes with a bizarre ‘story’.. it is a name of a circus family, protagonist of a tale created by Brazilian, Mr Z, who after singing classical opera for many years decided to create a new musical project, but instead of starting with the conventional method of song writing, he created a story that would inspire his music..This idea had brilliant results and led to a mix of different genres, including Gothic, Rock, Jazz, Theatrical Opera and Circus vibes...with his strange musical concoction he headed to London where luckily he found the rest of Calatrilloz.. Arthur (Bass), Dan (Guitar), Luca (Drums) and Maya (Violin). I personally was thrilled to come across this band as I love the whole concept, image and unique twist on their music and that fact that they incorporate theatrical drama. It is a weird and wonderful combination, that works perfectly and ...