Playing catch up

Above: Altar of Plagues supporting For Ruin in the Zoo Club

It’s not always easy to have time to blog daily. Last week was a fine example of that, between college and so many other things going on. I’ll probably have to start back dating blog posts to play catch up if things keep going the way they are.

KKM celebrated its 2nd birthday on Wednesday and we were well in need of some time off to celebrate. Unfortunately Boo wasn’t able to join us, but myself, Ken and Daw got together to record the 24th Sound System Podcast, once again unofficially sponsored by Cobra Beer before hitting Morrissons late bar, where we were joined by Jimmy Trigger, for a night of dancefloor mayhem and way too much drinking. It was a great way to let off some steam and the night is a complete blur. Thursday was painful and the day disappeared under a hangover from hell.

Friday night saw the return of Kilkenny Metal Promotions to the Zoo Club with four more bands Altar of Plagues, The Swarm, Era Vulgaris and For Ruin on the bill. A pretty decent crowd of about 70 people in attendance, many of them following the bands from Cork, Limerick and around the country. Not many people from the local scene, although I did see a few sneak in the back door near the end to avoid the small cover charge, well done on supporting your local music scene!!!

First up were Cork based metallers Altar of Plagues. I’m not sure what kind of metal they are exactly!? There’s so many genres at this stage but I really enjoyed the lads set and I’ve added a couple of shots of them in action to the KilkennyMusic galleries.

Era Vulgaris and the Swarm followed, but to be honest I found both their sets a little boring. The lighting wasn’t great meaning it was difficult to get any good shots of either band and there wasn’t alot of energy on stage. Crowd-wise, people stayed near the back and reaction to either band was poor. I retired to the bar with Boo.

Headliners on the night were Cork based Black/Death metallers For Ruin. The band features drummer Barry “I’ll eat your face” English, who most people will recognise from the Lord of the Drums. For Ruin’s debut album ‘December’ received 5 out of 5 on Metal Ireland, with critics calling it “brilliant, intelligently written metal”.

Clearly this was the band that the crowd came to see, everyone moved forward to the stage as all the lights went down. It was pretty dark, making trying to get focus a nightmare, then add the smoke machine and I pretty much had to give up. There’s a couple of shots of the lads in the KilkennyMusic galleries here.

They blasted through a great set, and I have to say well done to Daw for another great job behind the desk. For Ruin have some great songs, I’m just not into the vocal side of them. For me the most impressive thing was Barry on the drums and I can’t help but wonder how good they would be without him!?