HAMMER, BANSHEE LABYRINTH, EDINBURGH, DECEMBER 12 2025

HELLRAISER metal night at the Banshee, in which our headliners will play their new album in full. And, indeed, my 42nd and last gig of the year.

Talking of which, I know it's not important, but how should I count the number of gigs? Do three day fests count as one gig or three? Does a one day fest over two venues count as one gig or two? Not questions that are going to keep me awake at nights, but just wondering...

Line-up:

PICT: Gloomy Glaswegian blackish melodic death kinda thing. Dead good, actually. despite ot being their drummer's first ever gig with them. I shall buy one of their little square patches, only three quid. I'm too old to wear a 'battle jacket', but I AM prepared to establish the battle camera bag as a METAL thing.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/_DO885rjRgA  https://www.facebook.com/pictmetal

BOZ: Didn't show up. No idea why.

CATALYSIS: Dundee's 'ten-testicled metal bulldozer', apparently. So, barring some kind of medical anomaly, that works out at two each. In other words, five blokes. Playing a burly species of groove. thrash metal with spiky guitars - think Pantallica, and you'll not be far from the Catalysis sound.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/6ueQRe9Xt7Y   https://www.facebook.com/catalysismetal

VERMINTHRONE: Bruising sludge-core from Buckinghamshire, Wherever THAT is. 

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/eSe72IjqQE0   https://www.facebook.com/Verminthrone

HAMMER: Local heroes, promoting their recently released new album, 'TRAPPED', and taking some time out from their regular job wrasslin' hawgs*. Thunderous, pummelling metal.

* Just kidding. Or am I....?

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/yYLmVYdxoRo     https://www.facebook.com/HammerTheBand

RED CRUST WINTER WARMER, EDINBURGH, FEBRUARY 1 2025

Red Crust's annual winter metal feast takes over SEVEN venues in Edinburgh. I didn't get to all of them, and I didn't see all the bands. I am not a magician.

I was at: LA BELLE ANGELE, LEGENDS, MASH HOUSE 1, 2 & 3

I saw: 

POLYJAMORY: Regular readers might recall my less-than-favourable opinion of cover bands. POLYJAMORY are no exception. Normally can be relied to pull in a fair crowd of students early on, but not this time. Played to a mostly empty Mash House. To their credit, they played a somewhat more adventurous selection of covers, but still... Not for me.

TUSK:  Up now to the top of a very narrow and twisty staircase to Room 3, where we find Glasgow metal trio TUSK. Unfussy and straightforward metal. It's bloody cold up here, and the sound is a bit murky. 

VIDEO:     https://youtu.be/R91cMFtw4gU   https://www.facebook.com/tusksco

SWARMS: The first of today's foreigners. Riffs, slams and beatdowns from Co Durham's SWARMS, out on tour with HAMMER and VERMINTHRONE, both of whom will be along shortly.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/nlplSdHNl7U    https://www.facebook.com/swarmsnortheast

LO RAYS: Glaswegian apocalyptic electro-punks. A bit breathless, because they just got here from Inverness ten minutes before their set was due to start. The floor in Room 2 is disconcertingly bouncy, and it's just as cold as Room 3 upstairs.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/9-hvXfS2cfI   https://www.facebook.com/loraysmusic

VERMINTHRONE: Sludge/hardcore crossover - Sludge-core? - from exotic Milton Keynes. I was expecting black metal, judging solely by the name. Didn't get it. Clearly.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/CrAptPnFVgA   https://www.facebook.com/Verminthrone

ELD VARG: Unashamed heavy metal, songs about Vikings and wolves and fists of steel. No video for this one, because I fucked it up.

https://www.facebook.com/eldvargofficial

KURO: Electro-industrial alt-metal from Glasgow. No video for this one either, because the sound was terrible.

https://www.facebook.com/KUROMUSICOFFICIAL/

HAMMER: Appropriately named death-tinged extreme metal. Local lads.

VIDEO:    https://youtu.be/xiRpYPjGFc4           https://www.facebook.com/HammerScotland

THE GALLOWGATE MURDERS: Immensely entertaining Glaswegian Celtic folk-punks. Instigated a 'wall of ceilidh' in the crowd, wherein violence is replaced by linked arms and reels. Which is nice.

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/LC3UjZYD-i8    https://www.facebook.com/thegallowgatemrdrs

SCORDATURA: Glaswegian death-metal. Violent, but fun.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/xQT0c5Jt3Bs   https://www.facebook.com/Scordaturaofficial

CODESPEAKER: Bruisingly hefty sludgy post-metal from Edinburgh's finest. Photographer in the pit beside me said they were the worst band ever to get pics of. Hard to disagree...

VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/lrlZAhCtat0      https://www.facebook.com/codespeakertheband

TIBERIUS: Local 'anthemic progressive metal'. They get the award for the most flowery mic stand of the day.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/iQ11sK5RIFI    https://www.facebook.com/TiberiusUK

BENEATH A STEEL SKY: Off to LEGENDS for one last band, and more of that post-metal. Another band nigh on impossible to photograph. I blame the singer, Greg - he's also in CODESPEAKER.

VIDEO:  https://youtu.be/tCZIVQHP8rI     https://www.facebook.com/beneathasteelskyband