Mick Birchall Reviews

2024 has been a fun year for the music I got to experience. Some acts I thought I’d never get to see and I did, old favourites and interesting discoveries. It’s all been wonderful. Last year, I forwent my usual “favourite albums of the year” list. It just feels so impersonal. I’d rather go over some of my favourites and regale you with some of the best shows I have experienced. I don’t want to do a blow-by-blow, month-by-month recap. I just want to tell you about the year. This year has been a bit of a whirlwind for the blog too. 35 posts to the blog with 12 of those being interviews, the most I’ve ever done in a single year. I won’t lie, I’ve been a little starstruck that I, with my relatively small blog, have gotten to talk to some of the icons of the industry, such as Pasi from Sonata Arctica , Lena Scissorhands from Infected Rain and Peavy Wagner from the grandfathers of power-metal, Rage. I’ve also had the chance to chat with lesser-known names like InnerWish and The Commoner...

I think one band that has remained a constant in my life is Within Temptation . Ever since I discovered them in 2007 I think I’ve been on their hype train. I remember it being a quick turnaround to fandom. As a kid and well into my teen years I watched music video channels on TV—specifically, Kerrang . For you kids out there, it was probably the best way to discover new music before the advent of YouTube, social media and streaming platforms. Even in 2007, two years after YouTube’s release, it was still some of my favourite programming. The level of effort that went into music videos was amazing, you’d get some duds, but for the most part, it was a valued way of presenting your new singles. Being on TV, artists only had a few seconds to grab your attention with their video before audiences chose whether to leave a song on or not. It was like the wild west and I think this is where I started to cultivate my music taste. I distinctly remember sitting in my living room one afternoon and b...

It’s 2007 and I was enveloped by a music-sharing and news site; PureVolume.com . It was my paradise. As a teenager, this website made me feel like I had the whole music industry at my fingertips. I would spend hours of my days scrolling through artists. I would discover so many artists on that site. Hell, this very blog has its foundations in that website. I would go on to set up a listener account and the site used to have a section where you could make posts to discuss the music world. It was a cosy little section of the internet, where I first learned to express my thoughts and feelings about music. In this blissful little world, I would discover some of my favourite artists. Honestly, it was my first real go at attempting to form my own music taste. I was the youngest of three children, so for the longest time, if my older siblings said that a band or artist was cool, I would too. If they disliked them, I would equally follow suit. I will say for the purposes of this article. That ...

2023 has been a crazy year for me. My life has not been the most exciting but this is a music blog and the music has been amazing this year! I’ve got myself to a bunch of gigs, even getting to do a whopping three gigs in other countries. I know that’s not a lot for some people, but for me it was huge! I’ll get to those later in the blog. It was a year of new discoveries, rediscovered favourites and all new experiences. Whether it be my brain melting when I found out about Villagers of Ioannina City , the maddening catchiness of Kontrust or infectious charisma that Project Renegade exude. It’s been a wild year. Also, it’s been a decent year for the blog. Though I haven’t cranked out as many posts as I would have liked, I think I’ve still put out some good content for you, my fantastic readers. Plenty of reviews and interviews for the year. It’s also been a year where I have made a bunch of new contacts that I hope will allow me to give you more interesting content. It’s been 12 years...