The WC Social Club in West Chicago felt like a pressure cooker on March 20, 2025 — and I was right in the middle of it.

“I’m gonna be singing Stiff Little Fingers for the next week!” says the man, as we file out into the Bristol night air, next to me out of nowhere.

When a mysterious show was announced last week for London's 100 Club by a band called The SPOTS - true fans knew what was happening,

After spending the previous evening in the excellent company of Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons a glorious Sunday dawns for part two of the Welsh Westcountry ‘invasion’.

The third deepest natural harbour, after Rio and Sydney, I’m proud to call Falmouth my hometown. This one-time home of the Packet Ships, the first major harbour along the Western approaches of the English Channel, was where, in 1805, the news of Nelson’s death at Trafalgar first made landfall.

It seemed like The Temperance Movement were all poised to break into the superleagues when in 2020 singer Phil Campbell announced he was standing down and going his own way.

Has there ever been a more apt tour name than “about time” ? Two bands that have managed to avoid the UK for a very long time, no matter how loud we raised our voices on this side of the pond but finally the dam burst and we are treated to two bands at the height of their powers and who provided us with sheer entertainment that has been worth every second of the wait.

It’s a cold yet dry night in Belfast as we walk past the Rory Gallagher statue on the way to the Voodoo for tonight’s gig.

Opening for Spike at the Old Cold Store was no small task, but Rhiannon Hill, vocal powerhouse from Kira Mac, took it in her stride.

Make no bones about it this is modern metal for the modern generation. We scan about the venue and draw the rapid conclusion that tonight we’re amongst a very small minority of attendees whose lives have straddled two centuries.

In preparation for the concert tonight we met up with a group of like-minded diehard fans the Opeth Commun(ion)ity.  

So, it’s another evening, and another sold-out venue where the eager masses gather to subject themselves to a soundscape that could double as a torture device.

On March 5, 2025, Chicago's House of Blues hosted a night of unrelenting metal as Cavalera Conspiracy's "Third World Trilogy Tour" stormed through the city.

The sold-out Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee was the epicenter of rock and metal on March 4, 2025, as Disturbed, Three Days Grace, and Sevendust delivered a night of electrifying performances.

The thing about farewell tours is that they always feel slightly improbable, much like the idea that a six-foot-five Scotsman with a voice like rolling thunder and the lyrical dexterity of an intergalactic poet could dominate the stage for over forty years.

In the heart of Birmingham, beneath the haunting sprawl of industrial towers, stands the Symphony Hall, its grand architecture an enduring statement to the city’s rich cultural history.