Metal Up Your Ass - March, 2009

Fittingly enough for a month named after the Roman god of war, March this year has a bit of fight about it.

The 13th Note in particular seems intent on having an angry time. Local promo outfit The Wreckin' Pit presents three separate doses of hefty racket throughout the course of the month, starting with the adrenalised punk of US quartet Off With Their Heads (4 Mar). Shortly after, Device bring some thick and swinging riffs from Milton Keynes, supported by Glasgow's post-hardcore new arrivals Hey Vampires! (8 Mar).

Also hitting up the Note: Ultimate Thrush provide some cantankerous and gruesome art punk (12 Mar) the night before the now-fairly infamous United Fruit and Dundee's newest supergroup Thews (ex-Alamos, Laeto and Avast!) make good after that cancelled show from a few months back and lay waste to this compact basement in the East End. Wreckin Pit' is back again (14 Mar) when natives The Terrors launch their latest disc via some gritty, lady-fronted punk. Glaswegian two-piece riff-machine Bronto Skylift make a welcome appearance (18 Mar) and are followed but two days later by Apologies, I Have None, thanks to the consistently on-the-ball This Is Our Battlefield collective (20 Mar), with support from another highly regarded local art punk outfit, Grozny. Wreckin' Pit puts in its third appearance when they present Canada's Blackjacket (23 Mar) and their hardcore message at top volume. For those dwelling in our nation's capital, the same furious Ontario export can be seen the previous night (22 Mar) at Henry's Cellar Bar.

The 13th Note's Month o' Fury is not quite over there. With one last burst of bile (28 Mar) at an all-day noisefest, one might safely expect to emerge thoroughly disorientated and perhaps with a little blood trickling from the ears.

Elsewhere on the metal map, March has some other notable highlights. The aforementioned Henry's Cellar Bar hosts Auld Reekie's own visceral Secta Rouge (5 Mar) ahead of a cluster of UK dates with Celebrity Love Crisis, including an appearance at Cassette in Glasgow (28 Mar). This new venue on Sauchiehall Street will also house Glasgow's electro-prog virtuosos Titus Gein (7 Mar) for free.

Studio 24 is visited by New York's thrash gurus Sworn Enemy (10 Mar) and later Edinburgh's devil-horn-pumping Man Of The Hour (21 Mar), though that sadly marks the last of Auld Reekie's stand-out riffage for the month.

Glasgow still has a fair few tricks up its sleeve, however: France's Gojira ply some prog-infused death metal at The Classic Grand (12 Mar) while, deserving of a look on the basis of their name alone, Ignominious Incarceration can be seen and applauded (for audacity if nothing else) at Ivory Blacks (13 Mar).

Potentially the gig of the month, Japanese post-rock outfit Mono appear at Stereo (ironically enough) on the 23rd. Preconceptions aside, their reputation live is phenomenal, as is their volume. Then finally, rounding off the month, Josh Homme's other band, Eagles of Death Metal, do their thing at ABC (31 Mar), with the flame-haired giant strongly rumoured to be joining his chum Jesse Hughes for this particular European trek.

Oh and some band called Metallica are playing the SECC (26 Mar). That mean anything to anyone? The name sounds familiar, but...