The Miserable Metal Mind Podcast

There is room in the music world for all genres. We often pigeon-hole and stereotype, labelling bands music more by way of who they remind us of rather than taking each song and release on its merits.  Enter Confessions of a Serial Killer. A band who formed in 2023, and who crashed into the final of the South Wales Metal to the Masses competition a mere 12 months later. The Swansea outfit certainly follow a style that is familiar to many, and it’s impossible to avoid their obvious Slipknot influence. Be this in the chugging riffs and blasting drumming, the vocal delivery of singer Cozy, or the artistic presentation in the live arena, which sees them don masks to provide an extra element to their abrasive sound.  Regardless, this EP which arrives shortly, provides you with everything you need to grasp the ideals and focus of COASK. Energetic and clinically executed, it’s certainly a style that should appeal to many metal fans. Not all by a long shot, for those who dislike the N...

German legends Destruction require no introduction, having been plying their brand of Teutonic thrash for over 40 years now, and the band originally hailing from Baden-Württemberg are back with album number sixteen Birth of Malice.  Has it really been three years since Diabolical!  Birth of Malice is the second album with a stable line-up of Martin Furia and Damir Eskić on guitars, Randy Black on drums and of course the main man himself Schmier, the last original member, on vocals and bass.  The album starts with the title-track, which strangely is only a minute introduction, featuring ominous acoustic guitar melodies and atmospheric sound effects that lead into the eponymous first track proper Destruction. A blistering, fist pumping metal psalm, with razor sharp riffage and a jaw dropping solo, but it's slightly disappointingly that the lyrics do follow the tired old trope of using past song titles as lyrics, which, by the way they have already done before on 2001’...

Three things are apparent as I walk into tonight’s venue.  This place is beautiful, with stained glass windows and plaster moulded ceilings. A more perfect setting would be difficult to find.  The stage looks like it's too small to accommodate the big screens and displays I have been reading about on this tour.  This place is rammed to the rafters. Tonight's support is not yet upon us and it’s difficult to move. That support is provided by Grand Magus. Vocalist JB wears Aviator shades, a band shirt and leather waistcoat whilst his trademark Flying V kicks off the opening riff to I, The Jury . Magus have not come for the ride. This is a band with a 25+ year heritage and they slowly pummel Manchester's metal masses with their traditional heavy metal style.  The sound is not the best where I am located and normally I would just relocate, but due to the density of people, this is just not possible, so I hold my ground.  Magus flow through their short set with track...