By GMA's Botswana correspondent Dumisani Matiha.

Augustus Metal Festival is a rock / metal festival that is planned and organised by the band Wrust, the festival is an international cultural exchange inclined with rock music and is self sponsored by Wrust.

The festival started in 2009 and featured a whole host of Botswanan and South Africa bands. It came about as a chance to bring back rock and metal music to the locals here in Botswana through the "taking the music to the people campaign".

This year we will see two bands from South Africa headlining the festival, these bands are Boargazm and Bleeding Spawn respectively, also six bands from Botswana will be supporting the acts of the night with the likes of Wrust, Stane, Skinflint, Remuda, Aive And Bolder and Metal Orizon.

The show will be held at Bull 'n' bBush garden bar in Gaborone City, Botswana. Tickets are selling at 70pula in advance and 100pula at the gate. CD's, videos and merchandise will also be available at a reasonable price.

https://www.facebook.com/events/344093952391439/

By GMA's Afghanistan correspondent Abdul Basir Shakeri

Buddha (Bamyan Idols) revived.

More than six months ago, Orange Media Forum's Basir Hamidi had a dream to prepare and organize a concert in the Bamyan ancient province in Afghanistan situated in front of the Buddah, a concert with the youth artist generation and musicians from all over the country.

And now after six months that dream changed to reality and showcased a true history of Afghanistan despite The Mullahs and Taliban having prohibited people from taking part in the concert, but still more than a thousand people were joined by and enjoyed  the music of Rock, Rap and Pop and also Techno Dance.

MORCHA (Antz) band, FACE OFF band (Dancer Crew), FM band, Shah Rap, Ariana Saeed Farid Rastagat and other musicians performed on the 15th August for Buddah.

The concert was supported by UNAMA and the Orange Media Forum for celebrating the youths days in Afghanistan. This Concert is a yearly festival which will show for the next year as well.

By GMA's Ireland correspondent Claire Percival

On the 27th October, Bad Reputation Ireland will be hosting their tenth ever installment in the Siege Saga and Dead Label are pleased to be announced alongside such a strong line-up.

So come join us at Dolans in Limerick on the bank holiday weekend, Sunday 27th October 2013 for a festival that will rock your socks off!

Sponsored by:

BAVARIA & Jagermeister

LINE UP

Zatokrev (Switz)
Old Corpse Road (Eng)
Galvano (Swe)
Ctulu (Ger)
Rest
Putrefaction
Tome
From The Bogs OF Aughiska
Brains
Gacys Threads
Shardborne
Zealot Cult
ZhOra
Collosus Fall (Switz)
Dark Matter
Pig Shackle (Eng)
Three Hour Ceasefire
No Mans Land
Sirocco
Wound Upon Wound
World Statesmen
Far'n'Hate (Spain)
Dead Label
Alright the Captain (Eng)
Realistic Train
Pilgrimage
Dead Aeon
Uproot Chaos
Clurichaun

MAIN HEADLINER WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT THE END OF AUGUST.

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The Shetland Islands are not really on everyone's radar as a hotspot for metal or alternative bands, mainly owing to it's geographical location. But on Friday 23rd August and Saturday 24th August Lerwick, the island groups main town will arise with the sound of heavy riffs and sensational music.

The festival is organized by Heavy Metal Buffet and is jam packed with two nights entertainment featuring local and mainland rock and metal bands and is hosted at the Lerwick Legion, the Friday which is going to be headlined by The Revellers has already sold out.

The on the Saturday night it is over the Mareel for a nine-hour concert with twelve bands giving it their best in order to rock the islands. Headlining is Scaldin Bragg who are playing their first islands gig for sometime, Ten Tonne Dozer and visitors Semperfi and Akord (who played Download this year).

The festival is entirely organized by the Heavy Metal Buffet and has taken around a year to plan and setup, this comes in wake of their successful Oxjam last autumn. Furthermore according to HMB’s Marjolein Robertson excitement was “thundering through the air at the Heavy Metal Buffet headquarters”.

“We have been preparing for this festival for over 10 months and can’t wait to entertain the crowds and ourselves with the many bands who will be rocking out over the weekend,” Marjolein said. Local sound engineer Stevie Hook said the festival would be “the best rock event in Shetland this year”.

“They will be travelling to Lerwick from as far afield as the Bonnie Isle of Whalsay to the rolling hills of England,” Marjolein said. “For me as well it will be a special event – this will be the last time I play with Beef Cleaver, an emotional, metal-filled set with a hint of strings…”

Heavy Metal Buffet originally began as a radio show hosted by Marjolein’s brother Dirk Robertson and Jamie Hatch. Dirk stated that next weekend would be the “final climax in a long run of metal gigs” prompted by positive feedback after the hard rock Oxjam event at Da Wheel bar last October.

Both nights are open to under 18s. Dirk says it “seems a shame” for people to put time and effort into producing serious music, only to “go on stage and play while people get drunk”.

Heavy Metal Buffet also hosts a weekly podcast promoting the best of the alternative music scene in Shetland, which you can listen to at soundcloud.com/heavymetalbuffet

Aonia are pleased to announce that they will be supporting Gone Til Winter at this year's Valkyrian Festival

Weekend tickets still available at £5 from http://valkyrianmusic.bigcartel.com/

Valkyrian Festival is located in the East riding of Yorkshire and is an annual charity all-day music event organized and hosted by ValkyrianMusic.com

Originally held at The Ringside, Hull in 2011, the Valkyrian Festival now takes place at Shades Nightclub in Bridlington. For all enquires, e-mail the team at: [email protected]

Location: Southend, Essex
Venue: Chinnerys
Date: 18th July 2013

What a night this was what with a whole of Essex bands playing including Killing Jimmy who were unveiling their new single and amongst the whole chaos created that night, coming from Croydon were Metalcore mob Break The Boundaries; their band name did not sum up the night as they certainly broke the amps. Whilst the crowd assembled in no orderly fashion, tuning up their instruments was the first band of the evening, Southend's Groove / Metalcore merchants Cast Asunder.

By Rhys Stevenson

< Spencer Lewis' beat-boxing impression did not go according to plan.

First up is Cast Asunder, now whilst I do not know who this band are they certainly got the crowd woken up out of their pathetic trance-like state. What pursued next was a tuned-down version of Lamb Of God, that irate sense of Metalcore smothering the room and the groove elements finishing off the crowd as they sort of moshed and danced at the same time, but whilst that happened Cast Asunder certainly delivered a well received performance, even if the music itself is nothing new they certainly seem to be heading in the right direction. Given they have only been going a year, they certainly seemed to have the potential to make that year count, and so they did. Sadly no sooner did they start did they finish their set and disembark the stage for the second act of the evening to see if they could out-do Cast Asunder.

[8]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cast-Asunder/100814216778679

This is what happens when biting the microphone >

Not exactly the most convincing band of the night, here Dishonor the so called 'Metallic Hardcore' band from Southend walked the walk, but failed to talk the talk. Given credit they gave a reasonable performance but extremely fell short of one's expectations, it seems as if these sorts of bands try to play Hardcore and act hardcore without actually realizing Hardcore stemmed from punk, so whilst the hardcore dancing continued and a couple of beers got spilled (the mess was unbeerable), Dishonor did their utmost attempt at delivering a performance that would make their fans proud, I am sure it did but for me, nope they certainly lacked luster tonight and lacked even more oomph to even attempt to convince oneself of their decency tonight, it simply was non-existent.

[6]

https://www.facebook.com/dishonoruk

< "Fart after eating curry they said, you won't feel pain they said"

Clambering up on top of the stage to save the day was Croydon's very own Metalcore armada Break The Boundaries and as the lads got the crowd's focus back and excited them to such a level it made some punters weep at how this lot tonight wiped the floor with Dishonor. Break The Boundaries delivered a scintillating performance and explosion of music that could be compared to the same force experienced standing behind a taking off Boeing 747 at Gatwick Airport, you could say Break The Boundaries earned their wings tonight as a potential band to storm the UK with extreme force. Carefully orchestrated and their stage presence was sublime, there was hardly anything to fault this lot by tonight as they had simply proved their worth as a band to watch, and watch we will.

[9]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Break-The-Boundaries/318528478166568

Mark apparently had neck problems >

After all the metallic metal and hard hardcore hype of tonight, it was time to tune things down so many notches that you could consider the headlining act as more of an appetizer than an actual dessert, not to imply they are edible; that's cannibalism. Pow, delivering their funked up style of Pop Rock / aggressive music is Basildon's Killing Jimmy; Basildon indeed - finally something to cheer about. Getting down to business, the band's performance tonight was perhaps their best one to date, not only did they unveil a new single which in itself is a promising sign that their upcoming release is going to be an absolute belter, but also the band seemed to have notched up their performance a bit as to erase all their past performances and instate a new visage and musical element to their catchy music and beautiful lyrics. Killing Jimmy did not fail to disappoint tonight and nor did the crowd fail them, there is hope for Basildon yet.

[8]

https://www.facebook.com/KillingJimmy/info