Mick Birchall Reviews

The thing I love about writing this blog is that I can possibly get to introduce people to a band that they may never have heard of before. Since I have you here you might be curious about the band I’m going to talk about at length. Readers, today let me introduce you to a band that I have been bumping to for about seven years now. The Japanese electro-rock sensation, Man With A Mission . I got into Man With A Mission a few years ago. They completely took me off guard when I first heard them opening for Zebrahead and Patent Pending in Manchester. I didn’t know what to expect and suddenly five guys in wolf masks appeared on stage to perform the most bat-shit crazy opening sets that I’ve ever watched. In fact, I ended up really preferring their set more than the other two bands. They truly captured my imagination to the point where I ended up buying all of their music. It’s really hard to define what style of music they play. I mean, I say electro-rock but that doesn’t really define th...

  Master Sword is a somewhat frequent flyer on my blog. Having reviewed both of their albums and interviewing them before ( click here ). Well, now it’s time for round two! After completely crushing their Kickstarter goal for their new album Toying With Time , I thought it would be a good time to catch up with the gang and get a whole new round of questions to dig into the band mythos even more. So join me again for my second interview with the one, the only Master Sword! Could you tell me some more about the new album “Toying With Time”? Will this be a concept album or a collection of ideas that are inspired by Majora’s Mask? Matt : We're calling it a concept album, however, we use that term very loosely. The concept is the game Majora's Mask itself, and all of these songs are here to provide some backstory to the stories from the game. There won't be one overarching story between all the songs though, no. Did you take any specific musical influences on this album that ...

This gig has been on the cards for a while now. Having got the tickets back in 2020, the excitement I felt for this show was palpable. Hatari appeared on my radar, like most, when they performed at Eurovision 2019. Where they made quite the statement. Hatari is one of those acts that you have to just stop and think about why you want to listen to them. For me personally, their music is very well produced with powerful statements interweaved through their lyrics and music videos. The performance art collective makes music as artistic performance pieces so I was very curious about how they would translate that to a show in a small basement club in Manchester. How do you take the showmanship and bombast of an artist that makes artistic statements and condense that into a nightclub rave? Actually surprisingly well as it turns out. Before I talk more about Hatari’s set. Let’s take a quick moment to talk about the opening act. I’ve been to 100’s of concerts and festivals and seen countless v...

I've wanted to write this article for a little bit now. This year we got the third studio album from Italian metal-force that is Moonlight Haze . Since 2018 this band has been pumping out some of my favourite songs of their respective year. Their albums always seem to worm their way into my end-of-year "best of" lists and the new record Animus is much the same. So I wanted to grab a small corner of the internet to really jump into their music. If you happen by this blog then I would recommend going to Spotify, Amazon Music or whichever streaming platform tickles your fancy and listening to them. As, for one, it will make the blog an easier read and, two, introduce you to one my current favourite heavy metal bands. Founded in 2018 by vocalist, Chiara Tricarico and drummer/keyboardist, Giulio Capone they put together and powerhouse lineup that would bring unique elements that would all elevate the music to the next level. Alessandro Jacobi on bass from bands like Elvenk...