(Andy Synn wrote this post. I obviously need to give Andy some lessons in blatant self-promotion, since he devotes most of this post to plugging the competition!)

So here we go again… time for a blatant plug to abuse my position here at NCS for the benefit of my band. Deal with it. Also, please go here and vote for Bloodguard because we would quite like to play Bloodstock this year, and this is one way for us to attract attention from the individuals responsible for booking the bands!

Now one of the issues to navigate with being in this competition is balancing my role as a “musician” (parentheses intended) with my role as a “journalist/critic” (parentheses probably even more intended). So I have to try and separate these two sides of myself. There’s an issue that being critical about other bands (warranted as it may sometimes be) might reflect badly on me and my band mates, and might adversely affect our chances.  But why let that fear strangle honest opinion and debate? Do you agree? Disagree? Don’t care either way?

Still, looking through the veritable host of bands signed up to the competition, a few trends have become clear (mentioned some of them last time around as well). Continue reading »