MIGHTY Odin may have gazed with his one eye upon Belfast's Limelight1 on August 12th when the echoes of the heroic warriors spirits from Valhalla resounded like Loki's steed hooves flying across the roof of the world and Thor splitting the leaden skies with storms of metal.

The Celtic metal warriors who are Darkest Era

_{“Worlds Entwined” is the fourth studio album from Scar For Life, the band founded by guitarist Alexandre Santos in 2008 and it is released through Escape Music on 29th August. The band also released a compilation album last year. There have been numerous line-up changes during the lifespan of Scar For Life and the most recent brings a local interest in the form of Rob Mancini, the new vocalist who also wrote all the lyrics for the tracks on the album. Mancini took up residence here some time ago after fronting German bands Hotwire and Crush. He has remained busy recording and producing and released his solo album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus” in 2011.}

_{Few people are likely to have heard of X-Drive ahead of the release of their debut album “Get Your Rock On” by Frontiers Records on 22nd August. The band were brought together to record the album in 2013 and got signed to a worldwide deal in the process. What caught my eye in the press release was the involvement of Burning Rain (and Montrose) frontman Keith St John on vocals. Anything involving St John is always worth checking out, and that proved to be particularly true with X-Drive. “Get Your Rock On” is a fantastic debut and hopefully it’ll be followed up by live performances and more albums.}