HARD ROCK HELL NWOBHM 02 ACADEMY SHEFFIELD

It’s clear that the inaugural HRH NWOBHM festival has piggy-backed on or at least benefited from Brofest’s ability to persuade long-defunct bands to reform. Of the army of acts on the two-day line-up, many have already trodden the Brofest boards. But a good idea is a good idea, and the bands themselves are unlikely to care whether they’re revisiting their glory years in Newcastle, Nuneaton, Newport or – for the next 48 hours – right here in Sheffield. While London has a proud NWOBHM history of its own, it’s somehow fitting to witness this particular event taking place beyond the rapacious event horizon of the Capital. Even during the winter of discontent from which the NWOBHM sprang, the regions – in this case the former mining and heavy industrial hub of South Yorkshire – laboured under an investment and infrastructure deficit when compared to London and the South East in general. Sheffield may have come a long way since 1979, and avoided being nuked a la ‘Threads’, but in the frozen half-light of a December dusk, it’s all too easy for the mind to time-hop back to the bleaker days of Saxon’s ‘Hungry Years’.

As … Read More

BLITZKRIEG LIVE AT THE PENNY GILL, SPENNYMOOR JUNE 18 2016

It’s not very often you see a legendary NWOBHM band play in the back room of a small pub, in a small town, in North East England. Especially one that had such a notable and huge influence on the likes of Metallica, undeniably one of the biggest metal bands ever and even covered and recorded a cover of their self-titled classic anthem on their ‘Creeping Death’ EP way back in the early ’80s, playing it live well into the touring cycle for ‘Master Of Puppets’.

Along with bands such as Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Raven and Venom, Blitzkrieg were at the forefront of the early ’80s burgeoning heavy metal movement and have been recording albums, playing live and touring ever since. This was the second time the band played The Penny Gill, a small lively rock/biker pub in Spennymoor a small ex-mining community in County Durham. This was a no airs, no graces affair, as close and personal as you can get; no stage, barriers or security separating the band from the fans.

There was no support band either, this was merely an intimate warm-up show for the Garage Days Revisited festival in London … Read More

Our first full year demonstrating the Iron Fist, it’s had its highs and… actually it’s all been highs. Thank you so much for your unwavering support. We finish the year as we mean to go on, with a new issue of Balls To The Wall heavy metal, both old and new.

We caught up with reanimated gods of grind, Carcass, on their European tour to talk about their first album in 17 years. The mighty Ester Segarra shot them in Japan, while Olivier ‘Zoltar’ Badin got a grilling from frontman Jeff Walker (not the other way round) in Paris – it’s been a long and grinding road but they’re a band that deserve their place on our last cover of the year.

This month also sees the 30th anniversary of ACCEPT’s fifth album, ‘Balls To The Wall’ and Adrien Begrand gets to relive its making with Wolf and Stefan, while Damien also looks back to the time of changes with Brian Ross of BLITZKRIEG and I catch up with HELL and find out that they’re looking firmly to the future, while keeping one foot in their past.

There’s also features from Demilich, Bulldozer, IRON MAN, Chastain and Demonic Christ while new steel from … Read More