Mick Birchall Reviews

Yup, another Friday night at Tank bar for me! As another great night of live music was going to go down. I have seen Deified countless times and they never fail to impress with their performances. Flying the flag for metal in my hometown, they always bring in a good crowd when they play in St Helens. Also main eventing the night was the ever-entertaining, Imavidus . I have only seen them perform once before and the last time they were very fun. So having both bands in one night was a real treat for the St Helens metal community. Also, to make things extra fun this was being held in the beer garden of Tank. I don't know about you, but I have never seen a venue hold an outdoor gig in the middle of February, luckily the skies stayed clear for the night.  Taking the stage first was the hometown boys in, Deified  and they received a big ovation from the appreciative crowd. They immediately burst into their signature heavy rip-roaring style. The band starts headbanging away a...

There are few things in life that can destress me more effectively than going to a gig, getting some drinks in and blowing off some steam. Also, there's no better genre for that than punk rock. Fast, visceral and wild,  bands in this genre always deliver at these smaller venues. When the music is cranked up to eleven and the crowd is into it there is no better place to be than a punk gig. So, it was really cool that that exact gig was happening in my hometown. I've talked about Tank before and yeah it's a great place for shows, it's an intimate venue and always puts on great nights with independent bands and artists. So, whenever I go, I know I can usually expect to walk away with some new names and music to immediately look up, stream and buy. The stage was set and with people filing in, the night was set to begin. Opening the proceedings was the weird and wonderful Faniel Dord . The surrealist singer-songwriter took his position on stage and continued to p...

Since I was fourteen years old I have adored the band, Within Temptation . The band has been with me for years and I have always thought highly of them. The fans of this band have been mixed on their recent output, yet I think we can all agree that we can all agree that The Unforgiving  was certainly a turning point for the band. Everything from Mother Earth  to The Heart of Everything , the band firmly fit into the symphonic metal sub-genre. The Unforgiving  was a very different album for the band, with less focus being put on the 'symphonic' aspect of their metal music and pushing right on with a different form of, rock sound. They were critically praised and the fans were willing to take their hand on this different sound and the majority were pretty happy with the end result.  Then the band released Hydra , this album was critically praised but the core audience was less than impressed. I think the overabundance of feature guests and the lacking...

With so many interesting musicians in the world, I try my best to keep up with everything. At the end of the day though, I like listening to the music I enjoy. I have always liked the music of Jasmine Cain when I do listen to it. I couldn't even tell you how I came about her music, I just had her music in my Amazon playlist one day and I kept on listening. The Nashville-based singer-songwriter has made quite the name for herself over the last few years. Since 2003, she has been consistently pushing forward in the music industry, all independently. The result? An awesome list of accomplishments including JPF Female Artist of the Year, (MCMA) 4-time Female Rock Vocalist: and NIMA Artist and 2-time Alt-Rock band of the year to name a few. With the release of her seventh album "Seven" on the horizon, I took some time to talk to Jasmine to talk about her career and what is to come from her. You’ve come a long way in your career already and you have quite a few awards un...