earthtone9, the reformed British experimental metallers who several of us here at Thrash Hits carry embarrassing man-crushes on, are heading out on a mini-tour of the UK this December. If you went along to any of the shows on their May tour – or even if you just read our review of the London date - then you know that you ought to get off your fat arse and bust down to one of these gigs. You can consider it a pre-Christmas gift to yourself.

It’s just four dates, but given that they stretch from the South coast all the way up to West Yorkshire, earthtone9 are covering a fair whack of the UK in a very short space of time. Check it out

But that’s not the only thing going on in the world of earthtone9 right now, oh no. One of Karl Middleton’s other bands, Blackstorm, is rising from it’s collective slumber to play a couple of gigs this Autumn. In case you can’t remember what Blackstorm sound like (or if you’re mixing them up with Karl’s other post-e9 projects, Twin Zero and The Blueprint), they’re the ones that worship the almighty power of riffs.

Watch Blackstorm practising their riff-crunch earlier this year:

In addition to playing a club night or two down in Brighton, the Blackstorm riff-machine is also going to making a trip up to London in October, to play the fifth birthday party of our good friends, When Planets Collide. We’ve recommended that you turn up to WPC’s shows many times before, and this time is no exception, particularly given that it also sports the Future Hits-endorsed Dopefight as part of the line-up. Check it out:

And just £5 a ticket? You’ll have more than enough change to buy us a pint at the bar. C’mon, we’re good to you. It’ll make up for all those times we recommend shows to you and you never show up.