The Metal Column – July 2010

In an attempt to cover everything metal in Scotland, we do our best to unearth all the upcoming gigs that take place across the entire country. But it’s never easy: unfortunately the content and layout of this here magazine gets nailed down weeks in advance. So a word of advice to bands, promoters and venues: get your flyers hung, emails posted and websites updated ahead of time. Every month there are tons of heavy gigs that don’t appear within these here inches, but we can’t write about them if we don’t know about them.

Thanks for letting us get that off our hairy, muscular chests.

Whether you have long hair or a shaved head, it’s no matter: Converge are coming, and everyone is welcome…to sustain grievous bodily harm before the night is over. Their highly anticipated punchfest at The Garage (14 Jul) will see them rip through a blistering set of their seething and meticulous metalcore anthems, with ample support from newcomers Gaza and the mighty Kylesa. This impressive Savannah, Georgia quintet boast two drummers and three vocalists (both male and female), and they manage to crank out some of the best shit we’ve heard in ages. Can’t really go wrong with this one.

While we’re on the topic of brutality, SF fastcore dude-bros PUNCH inspire circle-pit acrobatics at 13th Note (8 Jul), while bodybombers Throats and Lavotchkin detonate their homemade weaponry at Captain’s Rest on the very same night (8 Jul). The Glasgow Thrash Bash takes over the cavernous cellar of Stereo (4 Jul), featuring [Seregon], Circle Of Tyrants, Amok, Insanita and XXXX. Tapping a similar vein, Glaswegian death metal mainstays Man Must Die behead the prophet at Ivory Blacks (7 Jul) alongside openers The Rotted and Sworn Against.

Merciless pillagers Town Called Hell set fire to the Windsor Hotel in Kirkcaldy (31 Jul), following their appearance earlier in the month with Insylum and Torn Face at Bannerman’s (3 Jul). Edinburgh’s favourite den of iniquity also hosts the pungent excruciation of Scatorgy and Acatalepsy (10 Jul) – your giblets will be burnt to a crisp. Bannerman’s also serves up some serious rock action with The Plight (11 Jul), who then forge onward to Captain’s Rest in Glasgow (12 Jul) before heading north to The Tunnels in Aberdeen (13 Jul). Still trucking despite that Cavalera Conspiracy, Sepultura prepare to unleash death metal classics on Dundee's Fat Sams, no less (19 Jul). Refuse/Resist at your peril.

Beauty lies in the eye? Apparently so, as Beholder bring their lager-fuelled true metal swagger to the Classic Grand (10 Jul), where industrial metal legends KMFDM bring the noise just days prior (3 Jul) and Front Line Assembly blaze through the same doors on 17 Jul. Speaking of Canadian industrial, former comrades of FLA's Bill Leeb, Skinny Puppy, reinstate themselves as the ultimate purveyors of electro-darkness, once again at the Classic Grand (20 Jul).

Oh, and we almost forgot: some guy named Slash is playing the HMV Picture House in Edinburgh (1 Jul), but here’s the thing: A) it’s been sold out for ages, and B) it’s no doubt already happened by the time you’re reading this. Pity, that.