Gig Reviews – Old Man's Mettle

New SEPTIC DEATH Live Video Emerges ( 1986)…..and the St Anger Snare Sound.

A very rare video popped up a couple of months ago – Septic Death playing live at the Farm in San Francisco, in 1986. Up until now,… Read more “New SEPTIC DEATH Live Video Emerges ( 1986)…..and the St Anger Snare Sound.”

Birmingham legend Dave Cain, when he isn’t hammering the bass strings in Rotunda, having a hangover at the airport, or encouraging you to drink so much your… Read more “THE BAY STRIKES BACK – Testament, Exodus and Death Angel live review, 7th March 2020.”

Despite being one of the least hygienic gigs you could attend at the start of a pandemic, London’s Nambucca was none-the-less still packed out for the return… Read more “DARKENED NOCTURN SLAUGHTERCULT live at Nambucca, London 14.3.20”

Our north German correspondent M.B. takes the night off from his medieval history notes to get some well organised noise action in the big smoke of Hamburg,… Read more “BATUSHKA, MALEVOLENT CREATION, KONKHRA – live at Bambi Galore, Hamburg, Germany, Feb 29th, 2020.”

New oldmansmettle.com reviewer ‘SWAG’ takes time off from hoarding vinyl to descend upon smelly old London and review these space rock bastards at the 02 Forum…. Review… Read more “MONSTER MAGNET live O2 Forum Kentish Town, London, 24th Jan 2020.”

Can’t say I do these HRH festivals very often, but I guess they’re a laugh – someone even brought along a toy unicorn on a stick! ETHEREAL… Read more “XENTRIX, ETHEREAL SIN, WITCHSORROW, DIE KUR, IMPAVIDUS live HRH Birmingham 16.2.2020”

Ah Hawkwind, the band that no matter where you went was always there in some form or other. Every party you went to, every festival, every house… Read more “HAWKWIND live Birmingham Town Hall, Nov 23rd 2019”

After a decade of not venturing very far for gigs, LIVE EVIL Festival is new to me and as I have a soft spot for escapist epic… Read more “ETERNAL CHAMPION, HELLISH CROSSFIRE, HELVETETS PORT and THULSA DOOM live at the Underworld, Sun 19th Jan 2020”

Dodheimsgard live in London and I’m there! Support acts Matterhorn from Australia, alas, I missed ( in my defence, I was asleep ) and just caught the… Read more “DODHEIMSGARD and BOLZER live at The Underworld, London, 10th December 2019”

Nestled between the excellent darkwave of GOST, and a two hour set by MAYHEM ( who I must say, were absolutely stellar tonight ) are GAAHL’S WYRD,… Read more “GAAHL’S WYRD – Live at the Electric Ballroom London, 4th November 2019”

In 1995 a young Norwegian band called Ved Buens Ende recorded a set of songs so progressive that a music scene still scratching its head at the… Read more “VED BUENS ENDE – live in Helsinki 10.10.19”

A band I’ve wanted to catch for some time, Cirith Ungol, if you don’t already know, play a kind of progressive heavy doom metal, with great riffs,… Read more “CIRITH UNGOL – Live in Helsinki 12.10.19”

DAY FIVE – Idle Hands, Witherfall, Solstice, Texas Metal Legion, Midnight, Satan and Sortilege One woke up early to the sound of normal, common-sense Germans driving to… Read more “GERMANY ROAD TRIP PART 2 – All day drinking at KEEP IT TRUE 2019 for MIDNIGHT and SATAN”

Last summer 2018 I’d planned a road trip to the north of Germany to see Manilla Road, dropping in on fellow bandmate Morten from pagan metal band… Read more “Germany Road trip – Nervosa, Tyr, Heidevolk, Dalriada in Hamburg, Mark Shelton Tribute at Keep it True.”

I NEVER thought I’d see the Cosmic Psychos in my hometown of Birmingham – dreams don’t come true that often, surely – so in my haste to… Read more “COSMIC PSYCHOS – Manchester Night People, Wednesday 3rd April 2019”