The band t-shirt is sown into the fabric of our world. It is as an essential component of metal as the riff, the drum solo and casual drug use. It act as a form of cloth based branding, allowing us to identify other members of our tribe, as well as a lucrative income stream independent from record sales. I have hundreds of the buggers and I can trace the evolution of my tastes and my bank balance over the 38 years I have been attending gigs.
Read MoreSo this is the end. After 54 turbulent years Aeroforce One has finally been forced out of the skies and dry docked. Yesterday Aerosmith reluctantly announced their enforced immediate retirement from being a live concern. It wasn't quite meant to conclude this way. There was meant to be a final triumphant victory lap of the planet before they hung up their spurs.
Read MoreIt spread through the internet like the proverbial dose of salts. “Have you seen what Gojira are charging for merch?”. The French giants, long regarded as a band of the people were caught with their fingers in the tills asking for forty quid for a t-shirt and eighty quid for a hoodie. I think what hurt most and caused the most disdain is that they weren’t a band that we expected this of. Gene Simmons yes but Joe Duplantier?
Read MoreThe weekend of the 4th-5th of December will see HRH bring the third chapter of its Viking themed mayhem to Sheffield. ROCKFLESH will be there with our drinking horns (full of very un-Viking rum) and plastic swords. This has led to discussions in ROCKFLESH towers about what actually constitutes Viking Metal. As ROCKFLESH’s resident Nordic and Black Metal obsessive (the two are not un-connected) I have been asked to explain.
Read MoreStill 666 words but this time the guys battle it out! What is Sleep Token? Who’s side are you on?
Read MoreThe last few weeks has made me think about what we actually mean by inclusion and equality. In our music genre we view ourselves as open, inclusive and non-judgemental. The whole mantra of everyone being welcome is central to all that is Metal and Hard Rock. So why then, are there so few BAME faces in our world? Why (at least in Europe and America) are we a predominantly white genre with BAME artists and fans being the exception …
Read MoreFor my final 666 of Mental Health Awareness Week I’ve tried to pull together some of the strands that I have dealt with over the last five days. It is fantastic having a high profile Mental Health Awareness Week, but like a dog being for life and not just for Christmas, we should actually be aware of our and other’s mental health all the time and not just a few days in May. Mental health is still seen largely as someone else’s problem and that is because we subconsciously still stick the word illness after those two words. In the same way that we all have physical health (whether we are physically ill or not), we all have mental health as we all have a mind. Just like our physical health, our mental health will go up and down. There will be good days and bad days, but that does not necessarily mean that you are ill.
Read MoreIt is a cliché but there is still a bizarre oxymoron that Metal is a corrosive and confrontational style of music, yet the people it attracts are amongst the kindest, most generous souls that you will find. It is like the music, channels our aggression and abrasion, leaving us inside with a good nature and caring mentality. This year Mental Health Awareness week is all about kindness and being kind. But what does that actually mean? As Forky would ask (go watch Disney +) “What is kindness?”. The formal definition is “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate”. In terms of mental health, the most important element here is consideration. You see, 40% of what happens to us we can control and 60% we can’t. But that 60% still has the same effect on us. All the actions and reactions happening around us affect us in how we feel. This includes the deeds of other people and what they say.
Read MoreOur response to physical health tends to be proactive. We eat well to ensure that we stay well. We undertake exercise because we know that this makes us healthy (and yes moshing does count, according to my Fitbit I “ran” over 10km whilst in a Slipknot pit). In fact, our current reality is a massive pro-active attempt to beat disease by taking measures to avoid contraction in the first place. Our approach to mental health tends to be a little different. We view it in a much more reactive manner. We seek help only once we actually feel “ill”. The services that are available are based around mitigating conditions and syndromes once they manifest themselves and are not designed to be preventative. There is even scepticism about whether you can actually “prevent” mental ill-heath (believe me you can) or whether it is just something that happens.
Read MoreYou know what? When this is all over and I get to stand in front of a real-life, in the flesh live band I will cry like a friggin baby. I’m emotional just thinking about it. Gigging is my hobby and my passion. In fact, it is more than that, it is my crutch and my salvation. It is my rock (n’roll), the antidote to rough days. It is something that I look forward and hungrily countdown to. Life’s ups and downs and frequent disappointments are made easier by the thought of forthcoming shows. Work crap is made more bearable by the thought that I have got some obscure Norwegian Black Metal act that evening.
Read MoreI’ll let you into a secret, I just don’t get filmed concerts. In lockdown, I have tried the plentiful streams coming from some of my favourite artists (Insomnium, Enslaved, Swallow the Sun, Hevy Devy) and I also tried revisiting films of classic shows. Both have sadly left me cold. I adore Frank Turner’s “England Keep My Bones”, but heretically I left his full album performance on Thursday midway through coz I was bored. You can see me surging in the crowd in the footage from both AC/DC and Iron Maiden triumphant early nineties Donington headline sets, yet I barely get through the opening numbers with both shows before I decide I have something else tp do.
Read MoreEarth change their name to Black Sabbath, come up with that riff and metal is born. In this country, they appeal to kids bored by their elder brothers Beatles records. In the states, they appeal to kids bored of smoking spliffs to the Grateful Dead. Some stay awake long enough to form Aerosmith, Kiss and the Alice Cooper Band.
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