Tag: Haint
Sinocence/Haint/Cursed Sun – Belfast, Voodoo – 1 March 2025
There are times when it is appropriate to rectify an oversight and this evening was one of them, with the turning of a new month finally providing us with the opportunity to witness, at first hand, the turning of a new page in the history of one of the longest serving bastions of our home city’s metal scene. Yes, it’s hard to believe that, almost 18 months after they re-emerged, phoenix-like, from a period of trauma and turmoil, to prove that their fire indeed still rises and burns brightly, we had never actually had seen the latest incarnation of this most storied of bands live and in the flesh…
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Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses NI Grand Final – Belfast, Voodoo – 10 May 2024
It could be argued that, despite what had gone down the previous evening in a field just a mile or so south of tonight’s venue, this was the most important gig of the year to date on the Belfast music scene. Yes, “The Boss” may have enjoyed one of his farewell flings just 24 hours previously, but tonight was about six of this city’s finest proponents of the art vying for the honour of, well, playing a field, albeit in the heart of south Derbyshire, as the first contestants to draw blood (sic) in the final rounds of this year’s Metal 2 The Masses took to the stage for a fiercely fought competition in which there could be only one winner but ultimately no losers…
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Haint – ‘Terminally Evolved’ (Unearthed Music)
Possessed of one of the most unique lines in heavy metal merchandise, Haint literally took the term “new blood”, grabbed it by the balls and shook it vigorously when they entered the 2022 iteration of the revived Bloodstock ‘Metal 2 The Masses’ competition, with the first heat also being their first ever live gig… not that they were exactly “new blood” in the truest sense of the term, as all three members are seasoned veterans of the Belfast metal scene, something which stood them in good stead as they went on to obliterate all of the opposition laid in their path and win the competition. Now, with the momentum built on their journey to south Derbyshire seemingly inexplicably stopped in its tracks, they have returned 15 months later with the long-overdue release of their debut EP… But, is it a case of their evolution being terminated?
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Uncultured Night – Belfast, Voodoo – 23 September 2022
Tonight was the local heavy metal community’s response to the annual (at least pre-pandemic) ‘Culture Night’ exposé of all that is supposedly great and good about Belfast’s arts and “culture” scene, with pop-up art shows and “impromptu” performances in all sorts of weird and wonderful venues, from office blocks to supermarkets. With the event having virtually ignored the city’s most vibrant underground music scene for the guts of the past decade, two of our most pro-active promoters came together to raise a sturdy middle finger to the cultural elite and showcase a small part of what they had been missing all these years… And then, somewhat ironically, the self-styled anarchist collective behind Culture Night had to cancel this year’s shebang. Why? Lack of funding… Ah well, at least there was some “uncultured” culture to lure Monk and DQ into the city’s backstreets: not that they ever need much incentive to visit their favourite musical haunt anyway \m/
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Haint/ForeignWolf/Puresonic Outcasts – Belfast, Voodoo – 16 July 2022
If there is one date on the calendar that is more important to emerging heavy metal bands than Christmas, Easter and their collective birthdays all put together, it surely must be the day they perform on the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock. Having served as a launching pad for so many bands to propel themselves on to bigger stages, it is little wonder that the title of ‘Metal 2 The Masses Champion’ is as coveted as the Tour de France yellow jersey or the Open green jacket.
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Metal 2 The Masses NI Grand Final – Belfast, Voodoo – 6 May 2022
Monk has to admit that he has something of a love/hate relationship with the annual Metal 2 The Masses “battle of the bands”-style competition. Having been involved as a judge for the past seven years, he loves the fact that it has, in that period, introduced him to so many great new bands, and continues to open my eyes (and ears) to some incredible young (and, in some cases, not so young) talent, showing, year on year, what a massive pool of the stuff we have in this particular corner of the Überverse.
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Skypilot/Haint/Psychedelanaut – Belfast, Limelight 2 – 20 November 2021
Riffs. Big, crunching, fuck off heavy riffs. Boy, how have we missed them… well, the riffs don’t come much bigger, crunchier or fuck off heavy than those delivered by the three bands who came together to mark the return of Belfast’s only specialist heavy metal promotion, The Distortion Project, to its spiritual home after 20 long, riff-barren, Covidicated months.
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