Brighton Metal - Not Quite Dead Yet

The seaside city of Brighton in East Sussex is a fabulous place for all walks of life, but in particular Brighton has a great heavy metal scene. Check out Travelodge for more information on Brighton hotels, because you’ll need to make a good weekend of it at least. By day, Brighton sports a vast array of shops, from retail outlets to the quirky small shops found in The Lanes. If you haven’t been to Brighton before, check into your comfortable hotel and just start exploring this great seaside resort. You’ll find all sorts in The Lanes, including antique shops, fabulous jewellers, specialist contemporary and designer boutique fashion. You could wander these narrow alleys for hours checking out all the interesting shops here, but no doubt you’ll want to rest your feet in one of the little cafes or restaurants.

The rest of the city is also well worth an exploration. The seafront is a shingle beach but the promenade between the two piers gives an excellent relaxing walk with rolling ocean views. Take a stroll up into town to visit the, a must visit metal and alternative pub when going to Brighton. It’s dark, dingy, serves good beer and cider and plays good music. It also has a spacious beer garden out back to enjoy the weather. What more could you ask for?

Brighton has hosted many great metal bands in the past, such as Meshuggah, Nuclear Assault, and Dimmu Borgir and thanks to the university there are many more metal fans who visit the city and love the atmosphere and scene. Sadly, one of the smaller venues which was popular for metal gigs - The Engine Room was closed down in 2010, but the metal will never die! There is also the veteran Deviant! rock, metal and alternative club on the first Saturday of every month for just £4 before 11pm and £5 after.

Because many of the smaller venues have closed down, Brighton only seems to attract more mainstream metal bands these days. Death metal band Dying Fetus are visiting the Concorde 2 in September along with fellow Americans Job for a Cowboy to bring a brutal assault to Brighton. Grindcore old timers Pig Destroyer are also visiting The Haunt in November as well as Every Time I Die in October at the same venue. Soil, Fozzy and Breed 77 are at the Concorde 2 for the last night of their UK tour in December. If that all sounds a bit extreme for you, psychadelic rock band Turbowolf from Bristol will be dropping into The Haunt too in October.

Also worth a mention is the Caroline of Brunswick - a rock/alternative pub in Brighton that does a mix of live comedy and music. The main bar events are mainly DJ events with a mixture of goth, industrial, metal and rock to cater to most tastes. A unique slant to this pub is that they showcase some of the city’s artistic talent with displays of industrial art, silverwork and paintings that give this pub a great unique selling point.