We have a tasty one to close off the weekend here in Belfast, the young blood with M2TM on Friday night and Sunday night sees the hoards of metallers in Belfast gathered on the hallowed ground that is The Limelight.
The Limelight II to be exact, the dirtiest and nastiest of the two venues dripping in the blood, sweat and tears of the metal gods who played here before …. Just right up out street! Tonight we have two Metal behemoths in Wolf & Grand Magus to entertain us, I caught Grand Magus at Bloodstock 2018 ? If memeory serves me right and the resonates with me on that night bellowing out their monstrous tunage from the Sophie Lancaster stage.
Tonight’s stage may be a little more humble but the passion of the Northern Irish Metal crowd will feel like home. Swedish maestros Wolf hit the stage at 8pm, an old school Metal quartet forged back in 1995 bringing a wealth of experience and class to this modest stage tonight with offerings from their 8th studio album Feeding The Machine and more.
Wailing vocals, thrashing guitar riffs accompanied by symptoms baselines and powerhouse drums make for a bitchin and highly engaging set, the guys are soaking it all up grinning from ear to ear as the Belfast crowd screams for more! Old school they may be, with dedications to the hard working people out there, sing alongs from “The Ball’s” Wolf brought their A-game and some! The godfathers of old school Metal Grand Magus another Swedish monstrous trio hit the stage around 9:15, thumping out a barrage of riffage and melodic solo work from that vintage Flying V along with harmonising vocals have the crowd bellowing along for fun.
This trio are seriously right as they rip their way across tracks from their latest offering Wolf God released in 2019 via Nuclear Blast Records. Their sound is hefty with a beautiful melodic quality that punches with the two front men jointly powering home the vocals.
You can’t help but find yourself warbling along knowing the words or not! Grand Magus have their sound down with these gargantuan rhythmic breakdowns in their tracks that tear you from limb to limb, a huge wall of distortion washed over you as they slam you repeatedly again and again with these gnarly beauties.
With a sizeable back catalog to pull from there is no shortage of material to tease the Belfast crowd with, gruesome pummelling riffs fused with these dark melodic harmonies just make Grand Magus such an alluring watch, vastly experienced these guys command the stage and toss out behemoth track after behemoth track with the Belfast crowd losing their shit every time a song ends, delighted at the turn out for a Sunday night the guys praise the crowd for their dedication to the cause.
Belfast is hardcore and Grand Magus know it. A fantastic performance by this savage trio it was great to see Grand Magus in a more intimate venue after the sizeable Sophie Lancaster stage at Bloodstock. No less impressive Grand Magus know how to deliver no matter what town, what stage they do their thing and you won’t forget it!
Review by Mark Mcgrogan
Photography by Darren Mcveigh
