A humid and slightly damp outlook started Hawke's Bay’s New Year as Devilskin completed their three stop New Year tour of New Plymouth, Wellington, finishing up here in Napier at the Pettigrew Green Area - along for the ride were fellow Hamiltonians Seas of Conflict and Auckland based Skinny Hobos.
Read MoreCarnal - an apt and fitting name for the cacophonous dirge of brutal death metal on offer here.
Read MoreComing in as my second favorite set of HELL Smash Fest VI was Auckland based Stormforge - melodic power metal that's IMHO on par, if not better than a lot of international acts of a similar vein. This was by far the best I've heard the 'forge play - and it was somewhat fitting that the first small showers from the heavens opened up as they played - a Storm in the Forge as it were.
Read MoreWellington based Bulletbelt conducted their first live performance with new recruits Josh Obrien (guitars) and Scott Spatcher-Harrison (vocals) and did not disappoint.
Read MoreFollowing a well received outing at Napier's The Cabana one night earlier, His Master's Voice - The Devil Blues closed out HELL SmashFest VI.
Read MoreIt was a hot and sweaty Friday night, when just before leaving work to get in the mood for tonight’s 8 Foot Sativa show when a suspected fire caused a building evacuation - 15 flights of stairs and my mood soured, I was now ready to let the mood loose on a night of death and thrash metal — and so it begins.
Read More2017's Gig of the Year for me was undoubtedly Mike Portnoy's Shattered Fortress.
Read MoreThere should be some form of warning or portent to be taken with the notion that the Apocalypse fell in New Zealand on the anniversary of my birth. Am I the reviewer, photographer, metal-head foretold to bring the end of all? To be heralded by the angels of cacophony?
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