Metal Up Your Ass! - October, 2006

The summer is quietly dying and in come the longer nights, harsh winds and pouring rain of October - but not to fear! October also offers up a glut of excellent and varied metal thrills for avid fans across Glasgow and Edinburgh.

On the 1st at Henry's Cellar Bar, Edinburgh's native death metal heroes Zillah celebrate the release of new album 'Substitute for a Catastrophe' on Retribute records. This should be an awesome show with tight support including Broken Oath. Along at Subway Cowgate on Friday the 6th, Space Horse headline a night of innovative and evocative hardcore from the US of A. Established by Gravity Records founder and former Heroin drummer Matt Anderson, their appearance at the intimate Edinburgh venue is something of a coup and it is their only Scottish date.

Slowing it down to a virtual standstill, ABC2 in Glasgow hosts bastions of the doom/drone scene Sunn0))) on the 15th. Expect pulverizing downtuned mayhem to shake the very foundations of the city. Flipping into comparative warp-speed are Avenged Sevenfold who will entertain the Barrowlands on Monday the 23rd. The adaptation of their sound to compensate frontman M. Shadows's vocal collapse alienated some factions of their support but A7X's 'Maiden meets thrash' continues to please fans in their droves.

CPL brings recently crowned Kerrang 'Best Newcomers' Bring Me The Horizon to Studio 24 on the 24th for screams, solos, haircuts and those ever-trusty beatdowns. Observers may also be looking out for a repeat of the fabled fake-fringe-falls-off hilarity that is rumored to have occurred during a show last year. And on the back of the dubious super-stardom of a Eurovision victory for Finland, masquerading axe-men Lordi hit Glasgow's Carling Academy on Monday 30th for a pre-Halloween horror-meets-cock-rock fest. So that's plenty to be getting on with.