Eric Mackinnon

Scotland

Newspaper & online, mag & video rock journalist 💙 Noah 💜 Daisy ❤ Tattoos ❤ Rock n' Roll ❤ Festivals ❤ Football ❤ Surfing ❤ WWE nerd ❤ Gaelic 💕Arlene💕

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Articles

ALBUM REVIEW: Volbeat - God of Angels Trust

2 weeks ago | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Photo Credit: Brittany Bowman The riff lords with more consistency than the November rain here on the Scottish island I am spinning this latest offering from – rock n’ roll Gods Volbeat don’t miss.
Download Festival is playing the headliner game perfectly

2 weeks ago | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Donington Park. Hallowed, sacred and holy turf. Rock and metal’s very own Promised Land, where generations have come to kneel at the altar of bone rattling riffs, fireworks, and face-melting fretwork. For decades – generations even – Download Festival has been the high church of the old gods. Your Maidens, your Metallicas, your Guns. The usual suspects who have dominated our ears from vinyl collections to Spotify playlists. The denim-and-leather-and-spandex Mount Rushmore of riff. And rightly so.
FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Download Festival 2025

2 months ago | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Close your eyes. Seriously, do it. Hear that? That low, guttural rumble rolling over the hills? That ain’t weather. That’s the beast stirring. That’s Donington Park flexing its tattooed muscles, firing up its amps, and preparing to scream back into life like it’s just chugged a twelve pack of Monster and a giant jar of jalapenos.
ALBUM REVIEW: Pop Evil - What Remains

2 months ago | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Some bands mellow with age. Pop Evil, on the other hand, have gone the other way – getting noisier, heavier, and more unrelenting with each passing album. What Remains, their eighth full-length release, is the culmination of that journey. This isn’t just another Pop Evil record; this is the sound of a band snapping off the handbrake, baring their scars, and smacking harder than ever before. Right from the opening notes, What Remains grabs you by the throat.
LIVE REVIEW: Limp Bizkit, OVO Hydro, Glasgow, 08/03/2025

Mar 27, 2025 | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Photo Credit: Abbi Draper (16th March 2025 – OVO Arena Wembley) Is it 1999? Have we somehow woken up in our teenage pomp before the world went down the toilet? It’s a rare and beautiful thing when a band turns a gig into something that feels like a full-blown event. A seismic, once-in-a-lifetime, oh-my-god-we-were-there kind of night. And if you were lucky enough to witness it then strap yourself in, because you know exactly what went down.
ALBUM REVIEW: Bloodywood - Nu Delhi

Mar 25, 2025 | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Picture the scene if you will. Out the back of a sweaty, packed metal venue and System of a Down, Rage Against the Machine, and Gojira are having an almighty tear up. A chaotic, sweaty, riff-fuelled rager in a back alley. And just when you thought it was over, they grabbed a meaty, bone rattling chorus, smacked you in the chops, and threw you into the pit. That’s Nu Delhi, the second album from India’s loudest, proudest, and most unapologetically ambitious metal export, Bloodywood.
ALBUM REVIEW: Crazy Lixx - Thrill of the Bite

Mar 18, 2025 | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Photo Credit: Nils Sjöholm If you ever needed proof that the ‘80s never truly died, Thrill of the Bite is the irrefutable, iron-clad, smoking-gun evidence, swaggering into 2025 with more leather, hairspray, and fist-pumping bravado than Motley Crue on the Sunset Strip in their pomp.
ALBUM REVIEW: Lacuna Coil - Sleepless Empire

Feb 28, 2025 | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Photo Credit: CUNENE Lacuna Coil’s latest album, Sleepless Empire, isn’t just another chapter in their ever-impressive catalogue – it’s a bold statement of intent. Their tenth studio album dropped earlier this month and saw the Italian icons embracing their gothic roots, while fearlessly pushing their sound into unexplored sonic spectrums. If you thought you knew what to expect from Cristina Scabbia and company, you might want to reconsider that opinion.
EP REVIEW: Dead Air - Elements

Feb 13, 2025 | bringthenoiseuk.com | Eric Mackinnon

Photo Credit: Joe Bannister From the depths of the South London alt-rock underground a band has emerged who aren’t here just to play nice or make up the numbers. They’re here to drag you into their world of suffocating atmosphere, raw emotion, and rock n’ roll devastation. Their sophomore EP, Elements, is an emotional rollercoaster through the chaos of the human condition, an unrelenting dive into the depths of inner turmoil, wrapped in a package of searing alt-rock grit.
Pars move for Keith Bray

Feb 7, 2025 | stornowaygazette.co.uk | Eric Mackinnon

Lewis football wonderkid Keith Bray made a transfer deadline day switch to Scottish Championship side Dunfermline for a fee which could potentially reach six-figures. The 18-year-old from Tong has been a key player for Inverness Caledonian Thistle this season but in the final hours of the January transfer window the club confirmed that Bray has made the move to the Pars although as part of the deal, the teenager will return to Caley Thistle on loan until the conclusion of the current campaign.