By now a familiar setting for metal events, Chateau Buskett will once again be populated by Malta’s metal militia - and more than likely a good number of foreign metalheads who will be flying in for the occasion – this Saturday for the first edition of the Metal Over Malta festival. Hosted by Weeping Silence, one of Malta’s leading names in the metal scene, the festival will feature no fewer than 7 acts. Four of these, namely headliners Draconian, Helevorn, Daylight Misery a

Four – that’s the magic number behind this year’s Rock the South festival! That’s four as in this will be the fourth edition of this annual gathering at Zion in Marsascala, which has this year been expanded to a four-day event (9-12 April) and will feature more than 44 acts, among them four foreign acts. The live acts will be performing alternately on two stages, further to which, for the first time since the festival was launched, there will also be a Silent Disco with Hedon

The organizers of the L-Għanja tal-Poplu song festival have announced the list of songs that will vying for the top prize at this year's edition. The popular event, now in its 39th edition, had invited interested parties to submit their songs last month, with a total number of 105 songs having been submitted by the January 23 deadline. Of these, the 16 songs that made through to the final night, and which will be performed live at this year's festival are: Song (author, comp

The date for the 2015 edition of the L-Għanja tal-Poplu music festival has been announced. The 39th edition of the popular annual festival, which is dedicated entirely to the songs sung in the Maltese language, will be held on March 21 at Sir Temi Zammit Hall, University of Malta. Authors, composers, singer-songwriters and bands are invited to submit their songs up to and including January 23, 2015, following which the selection of songs that will feature in the final stage

The Malta Doom Metal Festival (MDM) owes its existence, indirectly at least, to the much-respected (and sadly now-defunct) Doom Shall Rise (DSR) festival. The connection may not be immediately obvious, but it was indeed after attending the 2003 edition of that German festival that Maltese Doom metal veteran Albert Bell thought of staging a local equivalent. “I was totally captivated by the magic, the intimacy, the community spirit that was so present throughout DSR”, Bell sai

The First Malta International Organ Festival will take place between Thursday, August 28 and Friday, September 12, boasting a 14-day programme of events that will be staged in various churches and cathedrals around Malta and Gozo. Under the patronage of H.E. Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, the President of Malta, and the artistic direction of Joseph Lia this event will feature some of the best-known local and international organ players. The musical performances will undoubtedly

The tradition of staging music festivals in conjunction with Maltese festa celebrations has clearly picked up pace in recent years, and St. Mary’s Band Club of Ghaxaq is certainly one of the prime movers keeping this modern-day tradition alive and growing, as each festival becomes an annual fixture not only for the locals but attracting an audience from all over the island. Thanks to the dedication of a large number of volunteers as well as the overwhelming support of sponso

Following a very successful introduction last year, voluntary organization Fondazzjoni Nazareth will be staging the second edition of the Żejtun FolkFest as part of its fund-raising efforts. The three-day festival will take place at St. Gregory's Gardens and kicks off at 7pm on Thursday, July 24, offering a programme of live music, culture and family entertainment. The confirmed line-up of acts performing at the festival includes Mistura, Planet Seed, Joe Roscoe, Chris & Erro

Never mind the octopus in the background of the Music from Elsewhere festival poster, that's just there to grab your attention. Once that has been achieved, it's the eight bands lined up to perform at that same festival that you should really be thinking about and looking up on your smartphone. Boasting an eclectic mix of musical genres, the line-up for the Maltese edition of the Hard Rock Rising On The Road concert tour is one that effectively reflects the healthy state whic

The incidence of the words 'extreme' and 'metal' in the same sentence around this time of year can only mean one thing - it's time for another edition of the X-Treme Metal Assault (XMA) festival and this year's line-up promises to live up to, perhaps even exceed expectations. As the days draws closer, it's all systems go behind the scenes to ensure the stage is set - incidentally, there will be two of them to ensure faster changeovers - and as you read this, at least 14 rehea

When Steppenwolf sang of “heavy metal thunder” on their 1968 hit Born to be Wild, little did they know just how much that ‘metal’ term would evolve. Its reach has extended through several decades, spawning countless related offshoot styles, each of them undisputedly in debt to a seminal sound whose roots can be traced back to the rock ’n’ roll revolution of the 1950s. Over the course of time, however, metal has been shaped, inspired and reshaped by other factors, most commonl