Past events

November 2006: The Metal Mass debut. London has been without a metal night that plays real black, death, thrash and old school metal and closes later than midnight for far too long and the turn out is impressive filling two floors. The music is handled by the one and only Sophie Angelripper, the talented Frank Allain of Demagogue (and a hundred other bands) and Mr. Crypt himself. Performances come from the fine ladies of Satan's circus. The night is a great success and what was planned as a one off event becomes the first of many.

January 2007: Though the previous year's debut was a great result, the first night of the new year goes one better, with an even bigger turnout. Guest DJ for the night is Terrorizer writer Jo Pitches who warms things up with a fine set including some stellar death metal offerings. The night includes the first of our renowned giveaways, the fine folks of Century Media records furnishing Metal Mass with a number of items including signed Strapping Young Lad, Dark Tranquility and Arch Enemy CDs and killer Celtic Frost shirts.

February 2007: Disaster strikes… The Bar Monsta changes management and closes for the week prior to the Mass. Confusion reigns and it is assumed that the venue is dead, an opinion furthered by the fact that the building appears closed right up to the point at which the Mass opens. Nonetheless a small band of seventy or so metalheads turn out and though the night is small the atmosphere is, as always great. Guest DJ is Ilia of UK doom heros Indesinence, and the giveaways come courtesy of Earache Records who provide CDs by Anata, Blood Red Throne, Deicide, Ephel Duath and more.

March 2007: Though some mistakingly believe the night dead, (with emails still coming in asking where the new venue will be and when the event will start again) the crowd begins to pick up, and though not quite up there with the first two events, it is very respectable. Guest Djing duty falls upon Kimaera, head of performing artists Satan's Circus and black metal devotee. A huge giveaway of CDs, DVDs, and T shirts ensues as we clear all remaining items kindly provided by Earache Records and Century Media Records. A number of UK based metal musicians turn up most notably the fast-rising black metal act Abgott who fail to recognize their own material due in no small part to the copious amounts of alcohol consumed!

April 2007: Word of mouth and heavy promotion finally see the crowd back to the size experienced prior to the February chaos and a great atmosphere prevails. The night includes an afterparty for the awesome Anaal Nathrakh who have played that night as part of Arcane's Annual Damnation Festival. The band are present to enjoy the festivities and their label Seasons of Mist kindly provide Anaal Nathrakh CDs which are distributed to the luckier members of the audience.

May 5th: Perhaps the most insane night yet, our first May Metal Mass is a thrash special with a new DJ, Mick Anderson, recruited thanks to his passion and legendary knowledge of the genre. As well as seeing the appearance of Detonation, Screaming Daemon and Take the Pain, the night is an afterparty for the Wolf, Haunted and Municipal Waste show at the Mean Fiddler and Municipal Waste turn up along with a huge entourage from Earache records. Fittingly an epic drinking competition is held on stage involving the Waste and their nuclear beer bong, 'The Inebriator'. The competition is fierce and there are multiple Earache CD prizes for the winners of each round, with the overall winner bagging both an extra handful of CDs and DVDs and, of course, eternal glory.

May 26th: Bad weather, closed tube lines and the second bank holiday of the month seem to hit all London promoters hard and Metal Mass is no different. Nevertheless the seventy to eighty strong crowd includes many new faces with a few characters drifting in from the Red Chord show up the road. With the increased odds of a smaller than usual crowd, all prizes are won with handfuls of CDs going to proud recipients including Jon of the respected UK extreme metal act Detrimentum who happens to be celebrating his birthday (no it wasn't a fix!) The night is also notable for the debut of Crypt-inductee Gareth, better known as the Kommandante whose encyclopedia-like knowledge of death and thrash metal results in a killer set.

June 16th: In association with our friends at Arcane, Metal Mass provides a further six and a half hours of metal worship to those who have already spent the day at the now legendary Deathfest, including many of the bands who appeared there such as Abaddon Incarnate, Avulsed and the mighty Gorerotted. With fans also appearing from the Megadeth show, around 200 people passed through the door, many of whom came away with brand new Gorerotted, Amon Amarth and Six Feet Under t-shirts thanks to the kind folks at Metal Blade Records.