Skinless, Pentacle, Prostitute Disfigurement, Coldwar, Slave Zero, Hades, Raise The Dead - a bare handful of names that grace the back of tshirts in the Vinyl Bar in Carlow on Friday night. The bands - Skewered, Ground Of Ruin, Morphosis, Desecration all with fans of their own sporting the band merchandise. Dress code of the night is ‘anything black’ and anything goes.

While I type, I’m lying it bed, its nearing 1pm - something I never do, I’m normally up and gone by 9am so the day has passed me by completely at this stage. Reason I’m still here is that I’m completely fucked after last night, myself and Daw heading to Carlow to cater for four bands at the Carlow Metal Night, as organised by Ground of Ruin’s Dave Hynes. Having left Kilkenny around 4:30pm yesterday with a van loaded with gear (as we did for Slave Zero) it was close to 2:15am getting home - and I’d already done eight hours in the office before that so an extra ten hours onto the day is just plain crazy-Jane.

Fair play to the lads though, we had Fran, Dave and some other groupie-metal-fan give us a hand emptying the van and hauling everything in off Tullow Street to the Vinyl Bar where the bands had been busy - all amps and cabs set, drummer fully set in the back, triggers ready and plenty of stage space for myself and Daw to get to work. Mind you, it still took around an hour to get everything set - about a half hour for the gear and a half hour to work out any kinks, including a problem with the house sound (handy we happen to have three monitors of our own with us anyway and an amp that weighs a ton).

Sound check kicks off around 7:30pm, giving Morphosis and Ground of Ruin a chance to flex themselves before the gig, get the mixes right and get the vocals warmed up. You only need a glimpse at the sound check to realise that the night is going to be hardcore. Ground of Ruin more impressive than their outing two weeks ago and the Morphosis’ singer was packed with so much energy it was ridiculous. If anyone was to stand in his way when he had the mic in his hand you’d have your head knocked off your shoulders.

The gig itself was being plugged since before Christmas last year, with talk of a three date mini-tour between Belfast, Carlow and Cork. Not sure what happened with Belfast but with the Carlow date done and dusted last night, all bands are off to the Cruiscin Lan in Cork tonight to open up on the Rebel County.

At one stage before the sound checks were completed I thought I was going to fall asleep behind the desk. Radiators were on, it had been a seriously late night on Thursday (comedy festival launch, late night drinkies) and I normally prefer a quiet Friday as it is. However, gotta say that the music was damn good and perked me up a bit.

Skewered (Dublin) were on first and seemed to play a ton of tracks in such a short time, each of them going maybe 2-3 minutes in length. They were taking a few liberties in their setlist as well I reckon, Dave (GoR) wanting things running smoothly had to cut the lads off around 9:40 or so (having been on the stage since about five past 9). I must check out the whole Metalocolypse thing, Daw alerting me to the fact that the last track was derived from the show. Norwegian death metal with a funny accent? Crazy…

Ground of Ruin (Carlow) took to the stage around 10pm for near on 40 minutes, playing out a setlist much similar to that of their outing with Slave Zero a fortnight ago though Visions of Obscenity and Ever Decreasing Circles packing way more of a punch than they did on that Sunday. As a band they’ve got a great local following in Carlow and they really know what they’re doing, making the best use of the two guitars for combined riffs and Fran’s crazy-fast drumming. I think they went somewhat under appreciated at the all-ages gig but when it comes to a busy night-time venue they’re able to bounce off the energy of the crowd and overall delivered a much better show.

Dave had mentioned that this was only Morphosis’ (Dublin) second show in ten years and I didn’t realise that these lads have been on the go quite a while. Of course, it does show. They had been seen previously, 13 years ago, in the Wexford Arts Centre in support to Desecration and tonight they were making a comeback in style. Now, if this had been their first gig since, oh, say 1997 or 1998, it certainly didn’t show. Ferocious is a term I think you could throw at the band, and they have it in abundance. Damn good too. But also a sound bunch of lads, from my impression anyway. Can’t dig anything up on them on MySpace for you, if you’ve an address let me know but if you can catch them in Cork or any time they’re playing live I’d say you’re in for a treat.

Desecration (South Wales) were last onto the stage and started off around midnight (Jesus, this was a long night). Now, I know nothing about these lads but according the David Sla (drummer, Crucifracture) they’re his all-time favourite band - and it showed. People went fuckin’ nuts when they came on the stage. I mean, seriously. If you had seen the state of the stage by they time they were finished their set you’d understand.

They belted out song after song in solid succession for around 35 minutes or so, each time they songs being delivered back to the band while heads banged, bodies twisted and turned and the weak and nervous stood back. Obviously enough, a desecration gig is no place for the weak. These three lads ( Ollie Jones - Vocals & guitar, Mic Hourihan - Drums, Andi Morris - Bass & vocals) have been on the go since the mid 90s, seemingly had their first album destroyed by court order for being too obscene and in the last 13/14 years have toured the globe and released over a half dozen albums. They are a touring band and it shows. They didn’t need or want the sound check, happy out with the bands who had checked and Daw’s handiwork, they got on stage with little fuss and went mad for the time they were on stage.

Ollie Jones had called for pit to be formed and everyone obliged, especially T (Atrax Mantis) who was one of the first into the mix. I should also thank T (and Jimmy Trigger and Bob Zero) for the help in breaking down and packing up at the end of the night, but also thank T for playing the ‘Human Shield’ as Daw puts it. The band did a one track encore much to everyone’s delight - giving people full license to wreck the place. The two monitors we had at the front disappeared out of view only for T so save the day and throw himself in front of the gear (while also wrecking the place), punches and kicks were thrown, speakers started shaking, bodies started flying, pint glasses were smashed, the stage was left looking like a small flood had hit it (including ALL leads and anything we had on the ground) - brutality well and truly out in force.

Fast forward about 30 minutes later and the van was restocked with the help of T, Jimmy and Bob, the venue was empty, people crawling away to find food, myself and Daw driving off back to Kilkenny at 1:15am, which wasn’t too bad. Tip of the hat too to Dave Thompson for the large latte’s in Texaco at 2am. Coffee at that stage of the night has never tasted so good. 2:30am and I get to bed, almost 12 hours later I’m still here, finally starting to come around.

Cracking scene down in Carlow, not something I’d pay to go to or make an effort to go to (metal just isn’t really my thing at all), but music is and to work a night like it was great. You get that sense of achievement driving home, bands thanking you for your efforts, compliments paid about KilkennyMusic.com and the work the site does and the gigs do - thats what matters to me. If you’ve to spend ten hours at a gig, drain yourself of all energy and watch a few metal bands along the way then so be it.

Wouldn’t mind getting Ground of Ruin down to Kilkenny though, top class stuff.

Me? I gotta get food… or get back to Texaco for more of that coffee…