METZ – Whelans, Dublin, 6th November 2015 – Review by Killian Laher

Maybe it was the time of year. Or the murky weather. Or the absence of ‘SOLD OUT’ signs at Whelans. But it didn’t quite feel like a highly anticipated gig, there was something distinctly laid back about the venue for the visit of Canadian noise rockers METZ. Tuam rockers Oh Boland played support on the night. Their brand of punky, fast-paced tunes was a rather agreeable blend of Stiff Little Fingers and the Stooges fronted by the energetic Niall Murphy on vocals and guitar, sporting a very seventies moustache! Songs like Where’s The Beach had many of the crowd nodding along.

METZ kick up one hell of a racket. A modest three piece, they barrelled through songs off their two albums kicking off with Headache. Dominated by guitarist Alex Edkins’ guttural roar as he flicked sweat across the stage, the band would be nothing without Chris Slorach’s bass anchoring things and some seriously powerful Grohl-like drums from Hayden Menzies. Many of the tracks, Wait In Line and Spit You Out in particular conjure up the feeling I can only imagine Nirvana did in concert, leading to an outbreak of good old-fashioned moshing and attempted crowd surfing. At times some of their material feels a little… basic, Eraser has little to it bar the incessantly repeated chorus (“ERASER! ERASER! ERASER!”). Rocking so hard that they blew a fuse or two leading to a fair old delay as the engineers struggled to rectify matters, they climaxed with Acetate (at the second attempt) before finishing off with Wet Blanket which was anything but. Although it could easily be argued that we’ve seen the likes of this many times before, METZ don’t slavishly copy their influences, more so creating the type of thrilling abandon that hellraising punks of the not too distant past managed to, and thus, carry the torch on to a new generation.