Not only is there a plethora of quality acts geared towards the more extreme intracies of Metal within the underground Irish Scene,it's become apparent to me that there is also absolutely fantastic acts delving into 90's inspired Hard Rock,Alternative Metal,Grunge and Psychedelic Rock/Grunge,most of our burgeoning bands are aware of quality established acts like Vendetta Love, Ritual Effect and Skypilot, some of the bands i'm going to be mentioning in this piece do have members who have previous long term experience in bands so they'll be no strangers to working in a recording capacity as well as playing live shows
SOLOTHURN
During the later half of 2023 i became aware of this band when i was doing my usual searching for bands to play on my weekly segment on Metal Messiah Radio and noticed a couple of demo tracks (works in progress) on their bandcamp,at first i wasn't aware of the fact that these were not officially released,anyway a couple of weeks later they would release a killer music video for the track Sentience Fades around this time i was sent an advance on their three track EP Servitude and was absolutely blown away by the difference from the demos to the finished mix and mastering release, usually when a release comes out in the later stages of the year it tends to get lost in the mix and people are unaware of it, when i was compiling my end of years list this was really unlucky to miss out on my top 10 EP's of The Year within the Irish Scene; Their first ever live performance would take place in Limerick in Pharmacia with War Of Attrition,Cell Games and Goblin and Shark Tooth which was organised by the brilliant A.L.M Promotions(there may be a future piece about them),Two weeks into the new year they would release another Video/Visualizer for the track Servitude,this came out just before their first gig on their home turf Belfast at Metal 2 The Masses NI Heat 1 along with Astralnaut,Devilsome and Delusional Silence, along with Astralnaut theythankfully made it through the heat and onto to the Semi Final a brilliant achievement considring it was only their second live show, the future looks promising for these and i'm sure they've been working on some more quality new material.
TRIGGERTONE
Fusing Rock and Grunge with Psychedelic elements Northern Irish Trio TriggerTone create a pretty unique sound, tinged with a rawness not far removed from early 90's Grunge in the vein of Stone Temple Pilots,Alice In Chains and Mother Love Bone ,during the earlier part of 2023 the band were working on material and were releasing singles on a staggered basis which would culminate with the release of their excellent debut EP Infrared:Ultraviolet, the band have been gigging pretty regularly ever since the release of their EP, they have taken a short break from gigging to enter Manor Park Studio to record EP #2 ,i've been lucky eneough to hear some of this material and for all intense purpoises they're sounding even better then the material on their debut release,they even been kind enough to drop a new single Machine which is exceptionally good,who knows they may drop this EP before the take part in Metal 2 The Masses NI alongside Teras,The Boat Sank and Saffron Gorman on March 22nd in Voodoo, the future is bright for this Trio and hopefully they get more traction this year.
SHADOWS CALLING
BARMP
Raw,Bombastic and adrenalin fueled armed with riffs and ready to unleash a barage of quality Wexford Trio Barmp are extremely good,this is not me blowing smoke or just spewing out meaningless superlatives they really are that good,members have a wealth of experience playing in other bands throughout the years(i'm not familair with any of them unfortunately) anyway the band dropped their absolutely phenomenal Self Titled debut EP at the start of June last year ,if you haven't heard it you really are missing out,it's like they took elements 90's Grunge in the vein of Nirvana and Alice In Chains and combined it with elements of Queens Of The Stone Age and Helmet with seamless efficiency, a band with undoubted takent and definitely worth checking out.
MOTIONSICKNESS
the fantastic Female Fronted Alt Rock/Punk Outfit MotionSickness are based within the midlands town of Portlaoise and are part of a strong collective of bands from that area whi are creating a somewhat stellar alternative scene outside of the capital,In Bonnie Lalor they have a truly emotive and brilliant vocalist also backed the bands Guitarist Kara Moore they wirte quality lyrical/musical content touching on themes of social struggle and personal issues and do so with passion and stripped down raw aggression,although they've recently had a few line up changes this hasn't detterred them one bit and they continue to write stellar music,in a live enviroment is where they really shine you get to witness the full force of how good they are ,they have a brand new single coming out the 29th February entitled Agora, they also due to take part in Metal 2 The Masses Ireland Showcase 8 on 9th March.
ARES REDEMPTION
Another band from the Midlands is the Alt Rock/Grunge outfit Ares Redemption,founding memeber and main songwirter Jack Eakin worte alot of the bands material over a period of years and would eventually assemble a full band,unlike all the other bands within the alt rock/grunge scene Ares Redemption have a more atmospheric and emotional feel to their sound,this is very prevelent in their live shows and grabs your attention from start to finish,it's more of an experience then an actual show,they just released a quality new single Black Spider just last week and i hear there's an EP in the works. you can also catch them at Metal 2 The Masses Ireland Showcase 7 on March 2nd.
