Mick Birchall Reviews

2025 has been… Quite the year for me. On a personal note, I’ve moved house, and I’ve moved careers. Yet, as always, I still write this blog. I’ve been doing this for a long, long time now. So, as always, it only makes sense to sum up the year with an end-of-year post, and as you all love, give you my favourite albums of the year list. Music this year has been some of the best I’ve heard in a while. 2025 has been substantially better than 2024 for releases, but I’m not blind to the struggles of the industry. Streaming services continue to pay artists basically nothing for their music, the general population continues to ignore the plight of artists wanting to be paid daily for their work, and, my biggest pet peeve, the rise of AI in music! Oh, how I despise the rise of AI artists on streaming platforms. The dawn of AI music makes it even harder for new artists to break through to the mainstream, or even any sort of stream. So, this is why I will continue to champion the real musicians, ...

I was in two minds whether or not I should even write anything. I mean, it’s not like I knew the man personally. However, the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I needed to say something. Ozzy Osbourne was such a cultural touchstone of my life. He was ever present, be it in music, TV or Film; the man felt like he was everywhere. I guess I just wanted my chance to say goodbye to a man that shaped my life, even indirectly. I was a kid, maybe 10 or 11, when I first came across a band called Black Sabbath on my Dad’s computer; along with names like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Dio. I heard the crazy man with a worbled voice singing over dark-infected blues music, and I knew that I wanted nothing more than to listen to this type of music forever. It led me into the weird world of heavy metal. Not just a genre, but a culture, one that accepted me, a culture where I found my friends and a world I felt at home. It wasn’t just in the world of music when I heard Ozzy. The Osbournes w...

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...