"I vill touch you viz my haannd!"


Our first venture into Europe took place last weekend at the Fist Held High festival in Wurzburg, Germany. The lineup was pretty stellar, made of up 80s throwback bands Portrait, Enforcer, Conquest of Steel, Etrus Grave, Assedium, Cult 80's US act Stone Vengeance and, erm, us..with our dark, epic celtic metal. So then, to battle!
Things didn't start well. Dj (or Captain Disaster as he is now known) got to the airport and realised he'd forgot his passport. Slight panicking and one rather expensive flight booking later and he was on his way back to Belfast to wait for the next flight at 6.45 am! The rest of us plus friend and tech guy John Moffatt went onward to Germany. This is where it all gets a bit silly.
The original plan to hire a car was foiled by last minute small print. But some cheap train tickets and a E1.20 bottle of Worfsteiner soon sorted that out. Next problem, we get off a stop too early and end up in Wurzburg Zell; a heavily industrial area with no people, shops or landmarks whatsoever. Bugger. We walk for a while but realise there is nowhere suitable to go, or not even a garage for us to get some information, the only sign of life being a titty bar which actually turns out to be a brothel. Ehh...no!! We eventually flag down a taxi, leaving myself and John at the side of the road like two battered hookers looking for business. No bastard will pick us up, the crusty old lady driving the first taxi has forsaken us; she does not return as promised. It's all too much for Johns cigarette lighter, which collapses into 4 pieces at an inconvenient moment. Ten taxi-flagging attempts later and we finally are picked up and make it to the motel, only to find out we have missed our check in. Long story short, after much confusion we are driven to another motel by the hero of the night Bartholomew, and against all odds we rest our weary heads for the night. Things are set up for an aggressive show..


Gig time. We start German Beer Appreciation 101 at about 11 am. We arrive at the venue and meet up with the unlikely bassist. The venue is nifty, decent stage, and a backstage area which is quite comfortable. We get acquainted with UK metalheads Conquest of Steel and the Italian bands; Assedium and Etrus Grave. The Italian/English/Irish drinking battalion is soon established, and many glasses are raised and songs sung throughout the course of the evening. We drink the rider dry no less than 4 times over, and are given some fairly brown cigars by a nice man in a hellhammer vest.

The show itself is an odd one for us. We fire out of the traps aggressively; the first songs are extremely energetic and we perform with vigour and passion. However once we hit in with the more atmospheric stuff the crowd is a bit bemused. Dodgy onstage sound means the tightness suffers a little, but nothing too noticeable. Before we hit into one of our new songs, a slower, moodier number, I know it won't go down too well. But we aren't about to be anyone but ourselves, and without compromise we tear into it anyway. On a bill of mainly 80's true/speed metal, our style is definitely unexpected to many of the audience and I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel a little deflated when we walked off stage. But as very positive feedback filters back to us from the crowd, and I remember that there were in fact a fair few people singing along to every word, our spirits lift. Merch sells well for us and the audience reaction is subdued for most of the bands so we feel much more confident in having done the job well. More craic occurs with the Italians and the English, and myself and John struggle to get peoples attention to buy CD's in an embarressing repeat of the taxi incident. We end up in conversation with many, many people, most of whom turn out to be really sound. All of the bands performed well too, a particular highlight being that of Stone Vengeance, their punk leanings being highly enjoyable. Some ti

We are pleased to announce we will now be working with Corey Barkley as our booking agent. Corey is part of BNB promotions, who run the fast rising Full Metal Racket festival. We have many plans for next year and we will be playing in many new countries for the first time, and we are pleased to have him on board to make it happen. Any booking enquries should therefore be sent to him at the following email address:

coreybarkley@googlemail.com

So we approach the "Celtic New Year"; there is always something about the end of the harvest season which evokes nostalgia or invites reflection, at least for me. So I thought it a good time to have a quick look back over the year, and to let you know where things are headed for us over the next while.

At the turn of the year we finished our debut EP, "The Journey Through Damnation." This turned out to be a much more personal record than most people will realise, and we were incredibly proud to sign to German label Eyes Like Snow and have it distributed worldwide. The reviews ranged from mediocre to fantastic, looking back I'd say on the whole it was received very well. Not everyone understood what we were trying to do, as always there are naysayers but this has never worried us. With the EP we introduced ourselves to the European metal underground, and we developed a much clearer idea of what we want to do musically. As an EP, it has most certainly served its purpose.

This year we were also quoted in a review as to having solidified ourselves into a "moreish and highly satisfying live act". We found an intensity and aggression in our live shows this year, the turning point probably arriving in what was our first gig outside Ireland in Birmingham with Crowning Glory. That same month we had the honour of playing at Ireland's premiere metal fest "Day of Darkness" along with Watain and Nifelheim. We performed in Ireland extensively, making our name well and truly known in our home country. We secured our first European festival, a forthcoming appearance at Up The Hammers in Greece in March, and played another English date at the sold out Gathering of the Clans festival in October. We also secured a slot alongside Mourning Beloveth and Primordial at Dublins Button Factory, a great honour for us to play what will be our biggest gig so far (the previous years show attracting a near sold out crowd of 800).

So what does the future hold for us then? The RocKD show on November 8th, and the Primordial show in January will mark our last Irish shows for a while. We are now writing towards our debut full length album. The possibilities that lie before us with the sound we want to create are tantalising, it will be interesting to see how the material develops. We have received accolades on the back of our EP, but part of me feels impatient to deliver something really worthy of attention, to shed old robes and step onto the next platform. I can't give even a remote idea of when we will have material ready, but I guess Summer 09 is a good estimation.

Other than that, we have a few other plans for the Spring which we will reveal in good time. It has been an enjoyable year, we have met some fantastic people and had some really great times. If we raised a glass at a show or you seen us and enjoyed us, please do message us and keep in touch. So all will be a little quieter for a while; the deep breath before the plunge. Bring on winter.

Ade.