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Christopher Owens 🎵 with the 65th in his Predominance series.

“Guitar seems so fucking loud. People walking on the crowd. Diving off the P.A. stacks. Breaking ankles, necks and backs. Then the circle begins In the thrashing pit/Fists are flying/People getting hit/Tooth chippers left and right/Skinheads in another fight/Banging heads and broken jaws Because there are no laws/ In the pit!” - D.R.I

Horns up 

New Horizons


Butthole Surfers – After the Astronaut

Although some songs on here form the basis of 2001’s poor ‘Weird Revolution’, this record should have predated it. ‘After the Astronaut’ actually sounds like it was a fun album to make and still has high-quality production values and just enough weirdness to tempt back those fans who switched off thanks to ‘Electriclarryland’ and their bullshit lawsuit with Touch and Go.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Mau Maus – The Battle Scars of Human Debris

The cult UK hardcore band return with their first album in five years. Now sporting Nick Wynch (Unholy Alliance, English Dogs) on guitar, the end result is a ferociously angry record that updates the UK82 sound for the 21st century. Songs like ‘Genocide’, ‘Memento Mori’ and ‘Poppy Day’ will get moshpits going in no time.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Deafkids – Cicatrizes Do Futuro

Sao Palo’s Deafkids remain one of the most esoteric, forward-thinking acts of today. Focusing on rhythm as opposed to riffing, we get a suitable follow up to 2019’s ‘Metaprogramação’. Tracks like ‘Cicatrizes’ and ‘Possessao Coletiva’ are the aural equivalent of being trapped in a crumbling mental hospital: danger lurks everywhere but it’s well worth the risk.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Maquina – Body Transmission

Two years on from their last LP, Portugal’s Maquina return with another record that takes the drive of krautrock and the mechanical rhythms of industrial rock but have turned up the volume on the guitar amp. It takes a while to get used to but songs like ‘collapsing’ groove like a bastard while the likes of ‘bizarro’ is the sort of track that HEALTH should be making.

The album can be streamed and purchased here.

Golden Oldies


Terrorizer – Hoardes of Zombies

Pete Sandoval sounds surprisingly good for someone who couldn’t play on Morbid Angel’s disastrous “Illud Divinum Insanus” because of back trouble. Musically, it’s certainly a lot more brutal than ‘Darker Days Ahead.’ Tracks like ‘Flesh to Dust’ and ‘Evolving Era’ are particular stand outs for drumming and guitar work.


Vektor – Outer Isolation

It’s clear that the group worship Voivod (note the sci-fi influenced artwork and a logo that borders on plagiarism), but that’s no bad thing, is it? The well-timed melodic break on ‘Venus Project’ is strong evidence that they know exactly what they’re doing and there’s enough punch throughout the LP to make you realise that Vektor stand on their own.

 

Orange Goblin – A Eulogy for the Damned

On this record, Orange Goblin left the stoner tag behind them and began to aim to elevate themselves to rock elders status. While it didn’t quite succeed, this is still a riff packed album, with a thick sound and bass and guitar locking impressively. Opener ‘Red Tide Rising’ is a surprisingly full and pulsating track while ‘The Filthy And The Few’ has an 80s cock rock drive.


Laibach – Spectre

The 2008 financial crisis, European austerity crisis and reemergence of Russia as a provocative state inspired Laibach no end. Although not an album where you can pick stand out tracks, as they don’t jump out at the listener the way they should. Taken as an album, it’s an exciting and dark electro/industrial piece that urges us to take up arms and join the state of NSK.

 


⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.

Predominance 65

 

Religious Derangement Syndrome @ 9

Frankie Quinn with a poem from his expansive body of work. 

Oppression
Oppression Scream. 
Is this life a fucking dream?
My body, it’s being crushed 
Open up, take out this burning wrath 
My arms are open wide 
Give me love and fuck the pride 
I need to see and feel my face 
Not this hard stone front. 
Come give me love, 
And in return I’ll give you mine

⏩ Frankie Quinn is a former republican prisoner who is now a community activist. He is the author of Open Gates, a book of poetry.   

Oppression

Heartlands Tribune ☭ Written by Paul Knaggs.

On This Day In History . . . 
Paris 1889: The Second International’s Founding Principle

On 14 July 1889, socialist delegates from across the world gathered in Paris to form the Second International. Their principle was simple: “The worker’s struggle has no borders.” because capital crossed them too.

Modern liberals have spent decades twisting that principle into an argument for the unrestricted movement of cheap labour. They are wrong.

Ask them what internationalism means today and you will hear about open borders, labour mobility and the free movement of people as an unquestionable good. What you will rarely hear is the word that mattered most to the socialists who met in Paris: capital.

Nearly 400 delegates from around 20 countries attended the founding congress. They did not meet to abolish nations. They met to stop capital using nations, and the workers within them, as weapons against one another.

That distinction has been buried. The left has paid dearly for it.

Modern internationalism asks workers to celebrate a system in which corporations move money, factories and labour wherever wages are lowest. When that movement drives down pay and weakens unions, we are told the resulting competition is solidarity.

Continue @ Heartlands.

Internationalism Was Never About Open Borders

Caoimhin O’Muraile  ☭ On 4th October 2026 the Twenty-Six-County football team were due to play Israel in Dublin.

The game was due to be part of the scheduled fixtures in yet another European international competition, the European Nations League. Due to the genocide being committed by the Israeli state against Palestinian civilians, including women and children, to say nothing of purposely targeting hospitals for missile attacks, this game is surrounded in controversies. There have been countless calls for a boycott of both fixtures, the game deeming Israel to be the home side is to be played in Hungary, while the game scheduled initially for Dublin has been transferred to Serbia at the Backa Topola which is a cop out by the Football Association of Ireland (IFA). 

The FAI have decided at an emergency meeting that a boycott of these games by the team would have long lasting “damaging” effects on football in the twenty-six-counties. The call by many is in fact a demand that Israel should be kicked out of all competition controlled by Europe’s governing body for football, UEFA, which, if applied, would eliminate any fears in the future the team may draw Israel again. Russia was kicked out of all sporting competition including football after their invasion of neighbouring Ukraine but no such action is taken against Israel whose list of ‘war crimes’ are far greater than those of Russia. A rule for one but none for the other especially when the other are mates of the USA? 

Critics and opponents of such a boycott point to anti-Semitism being levelled at them which is of course nonsense, and this is often used as an excuse not to criticise the Israeli state. Anti-Semitism is making profoundly hate fuelled speeches against Jewish people which is wrong and must be stamped out. Such orations include Holocaust denials and heaping blame on Jewish people for the world’s economic and political problems. Jewish people have suffered terrible anti-Semitism since the 12th century culminating in the horrific events in Nazi Germany and German occupied Europe during the Second World War and must be stamped on wherever it raises its ugly head. Criticising the Israeli government for their murderous actions in Gaza and the West Bank is not anti-Semitic and such criticisms are in fact levelled against the Netanyahu regime by Jewish people both inside and outside Israel.

The FAI have shown an unwillingness, inability, or a combination of both to organise a boycott of these fixtures. They have said such a boycott would cause “long lasting damage” to football under their jurisdiction. It could incur a €10.3 million fine on the association plus €5.3 million loss of revenue through gate takings. This revenue will be lost anyway because the games are due to be played behind closed doors in the so-called neutral venues Hungary and Serbia. It would almost certainly result in points being deducted and relegation for the team but so what? So, it comes down to the possible loss of €10 million in financial penalties and fines against taking a principled stance in support of the women and children in Palestine. Good to see the IFA have their priorities right!! 

The IFA claim to support the Palestinian people and now they have a chance to prove it by initiating a boycott of these fixtures and demanding the Israelis are, like Russia, booted out of the competition. To those who claim that politics should not come into sport, a ship which sailed a long time ago, I suggest they contact the good offices of Mr D.J. Trump who in all but name issued a presidential decree demanding a referee’s decision to red card a US player be overturned in the recent World Cup. Sport, all sport like everything else in life, is political in the broader sense of the word. This could also be an opportunity for the FAI to lead a campaign by individual football associations across Europe to have the Israelis booted out of the European Nations League and all other competitions for a period until the genocide stops. No need for UEFAs permission, they have already decided where their loyalties lie: just organise the boycott, refuse to pay any fines levelled at them and build support outside the governing body.

Given the FAI consider this fudge, moving the game to Serbia, as fulfilling their responsibilities towards the Palestinian people it may now come down to those players selected to play taking action themselves. This would be a last resort but it is the players who hold the ultimate card to have the matches played or not. Arguably footballers should not have these decisions, essentially administrative determinations, forced upon them but alas, like anything else in life, sometimes we have to do things not liked. I believe such a move would be popular among the footballing public and would have the desired effect. The Professional Footballers Association Ireland, the players trade union, would support such a boycott and are bound to defend any player who refuses to play against the Israeli national side should they suffer any repercussions related to their actions. I would strongly recommend the players keep in contact with their trade union if they decide on this course of action. 

The FAI have somewhat hypocritically voted in favour of UEFA “suspending Israel from European competitions” while at the same time agreeing to fulfil their own fixtures and commitments against the far-right state. UEFA voted not to impose the same ban on Israel as they did on Russia, anti-Slavic racism perhaps? In view of this it is coming down to the players to make a stand by refusing to play in these fixtures until at very least the genocide in Palestine stops. If the team manager, Heimir Hallgrimsson, who has said he will “respect” any players decision in this regard, selects a second eleven then they too must refuse to play. 

The players should invoke multilaterally what James McClean invoked unilaterally and use (what I call) the “McClean principles”. James McClean while playing in England refused to wear a poppy either as an appendage or superimposed into his shirt at the time of year called “Remembrance Day”. McClean refused and refuses to wear the poppy due to atrocities committed by British troops in the Six-Counties against civilians in much the same way, though on a smaller scale, as are Israeli soldiers doing against Palestinian civilians. The size of the massacre, though relevant, is in principle the same be it one innocent killed or one million. 

This is now a decision I believe the players themselves must take as distasteful such a move may be. They owe it to the people of Palestine who have been killed including many sports persons and footballers. I cannot see any alternative but to take such a boycott of the Israeli games to UEFA telling them in no uncertain terms genocide against civilians will not be tolerated. If the governing body refuse to act then they, the Irish players, will take unilateral action! Will they do this? Time will tell!!

Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

To Play Or Not to Play 🪶 Should The Players Take Action?

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Forty Eight

Jim Duffy ✍ In other contexts the TUPOLEV TU-95 bear bomber was used to send a message to countries that they were a target for Russia in any war. 

It repeatedly targeted Irish-controlled air space (that is, not the sovereign airspace, as that would potentially constitute an illegal act under international law, but the international airspace a country had the legal obligation to police to secure international civilian airflight) between 2017 and 2020.
 
They were no accidental arrivals. At one stage Irish-controlled airspace was targeted twice in two days. Each time, as Ireland's chronically underfunded defence means its air corps cannot intercept planes it had to call out the RAF to intercept the bears and force them out.
 
Russia was sending a deliberate message to Ireland - you are a target for Russia. This was nothing to do with Irish support for Ukraine, the standard spin of the neutrality hardliners. This was before Russia's second invasion of Ukraine. All countries are Russian targets. Every one. Neutrals and NATO alike. Every country had the bear bomber message. Russia sent the message to neutrals 'Neutrality is irrelevant. You are a target.'
 
It is well known why Irish airspace and waters are a target. Russia in any war intends to use Irish airspace and waters to launch ballistic missiles, and potentially nuclear missiles. That is why potentially nuclear-armed nuclear submarines frequently are in Irish waters, as with the submarine in Cork harbour some years ago.
 
Knowing the Irish, through chronic underfunding, is unable to do basic defence, Russia knows Ireland is dependent on the RAF and Royal Navy. However they need to be acting on an Irish request or with Irish permission. That takes time. Russia needs to know how quickly can its bear bombers or submarines intercept and evict its bear bombers and submarines. That would tell it how much time it has to launch missiles, whether ballistic or nuclear, from Ireland.
 
So, Irish negligence is not a threat to itself. It puts every potential target, including major cities in Europe, at risk.
 
People like Richard Boyd Barrett work themselves into a frenzy thinking Ireland is under pressure to join NATO. It is a figment of his paranoia and overactive imagination. I worked in politics in the area of defence. I know the private views of politicians on defence. I did not come across any TD who wants to join NATO. Not one. No party has any intention of joining NATO. Nor has NATO invited Ireland to join or even raised the issue. Neither Ireland, not Austria, not Malta nor Switzerland has any intention of joining NATO.
 
The pressure on defence is not to join NATO. It is simply "fix your goddamned defence. You are putting everyone at risk by your negligence."

They simply want Ireland to have standard defence neutrals like Austria, Cyprus and Switzerland have. Unlike Ireland they take defence as a neutral seriously. Austria has reached 1% of GDP on defence, and will reach 1.3% by 2032 - funded by an extra tax. Switzerland will reach 1% by 2030. Cyprus currently spends 1.8% on defence, excluding pensions. Even tiny Malta, more akin to the Aran Islands times six, spends 0.38% of GDP. Ireland spends a minuscule 0.27% of GDP - the third lowest in the world as a percentage of GDP. Only Mauritius and Haiti spend lower.
 
The pressure is simply on Ireland to have the sort of defence proper neutrals have. It has nothing to do with joining NATO. It is the sort of spending Ireland should be doing as a sovereign neutral state anyway. If you cannot properly secure your waters and airspace, and after one hundred years of independence still rely on your former colonial master to do your defence for you, are you really independent at all?

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

Defence Is Not About Joining NATO

Gowain McKenna ✍ with a poem.

Bean an Tí

Half standing pissing against a tree

To hear lovers pass a stoney wall

And have breakfast tomorrow 

With forgotten sorrow 

♞♜♝

Oh the bar man had got sick 

Two weeks maybe three

Bean an Tí

(Bean an Tí)

♞♜♝

So as the lovers passed the ancient script

And secured their sacred crypt

To fluff it out with beaten pillows

On the Willow branch 

♞♜♝

Oh the bar man had got sick 

Two weeks maybe three

(Bean an Tí)

♞♜♝

Bean an Tí. 

⏩ Gowain McKenna is a Belfast born engineer and musician. He has an M.Phil, MS.c and B.Eng in Aerospace Engineering, but has somehow found himself working in the marine industry in Co. Donegal Ireland, the place from which he now calls home. Visit his website.

Bean An Tí

Brendan Curran ✒ with a poem from his expansive body of work.


 The Watch 

I often stood at the broken window hole 
Keeping the watch in my sentry role 
Once every month it was my turn at that spot 
As the clock struck midnight you took up your watch 
♞♜♝
Darkness and silence was my best friend through out the darkness of the long lonely night 
Searching searching..looking with only grey barbed wire and tin in sight 
Then a random noise in the distance, immediately set my Brain on fire 
Was this the beginning of the dreaded attack, or just a bag blowing in the Barb wire 
♞♜♝
Watching watching all night long, plays tricks upon your mind 
The wind blowing through the small window hole… momentarily makes your searching eye go blind
But you cannot stop the watching…In case the enemy attack 
Your sleeping comrades safety in you hands ,you can never sleep or slack 
♞♜♝
Then tiredness and boredom breaks your awareness down 
Your mind starts to drift and you stop spying around 
Do I really have the courage to ring the hut emergency red bell 
Sending the signal around the camp of impending civil war hell 
♞♜♝
But the night turns to dawn as the mornings do 
Peace again has blessed us like the soft morning dew 
the birds songs lifts you…now it’s my turn for bed 
Feeling relief the watch is over, and no one is dead

⏩ Brendan Curran,  Irish conflict poems 2020

The Watch

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of Two Thousand And Forty Seven

 

Hate Theology @ 9

 

A Morning Thought @ 3220

Gary Robertson ⚽ So there I was sat in Robertson Towers enjoying my morning coffee when like a bolt for the blue it struck me.
 
The majority of my readers will be Irish, hardly a genius moment, no bathtubs and cries of Eureka!! However I’m blathering on about teams from the lower leagues in Scotland and many will be wondering “who and where”?
 
Obviously some are more than obvious but we do have our fair share of oddly named outfits so bear with me, take my hand, or grab me by the throat and I’ll guide you through the oddities.
 
Let’s start right at the bottom and Scottish League Two
 
Spartans FC
 
Having risen through the ranks from Lowland league they have now established themselves in the Second Division. A club based in the Pilton area of Edinburgh formed in 1951 by two university pals their ground holds a little over 3,600 and is called Ainslie Park.
 
Next up Kelty Hearts
 
Formed in 1975 they were until last season a First Division club but suffered relegation and now find themselves in the bottom tier. I think personally they’ll do well. For me they’re one of those “twilight clubs” that aren’t quite good enough for Division One but much too good for League Two. They are based in the small town of Kelty in Fife with a population of roughly 6000. Their home ground is called New Central Park with a capacity of just over 2000.
 
Scottish League One
 
Queen of the South. The only football club mentioned in the Bible (Matthew 12 v 42), Based in Dumfries in the south west of Scotland and formed in 1919 they play their home matches at Palmerston Park, a ground with a capacity of just over 8500. They have flirted with Premiership status but seem to me to be a club whose ambition is mid table mediocrity in the Championship. Of course they’ll need to get there first and a return to that league will be on the agenda of the Doonhamers (club and fans' nickname) this season.
 
Ross County

A club based in Dingwall in the Highlands. Until very recently a Premiership club they appear to be in free fall at the minute. Formed in 1929 their home matches played at Victoria Park and with a capacity of just over 6500.
 
In my opinion a club that’s too big to find itself in the position it is but football's a results game and you reap what you sow etc etc so . . . 

Cove Rangers

Again a team that’s risen from obscurity to establish themselves in the SPFL. Formed in 1922 their home games since 2015 being played at Balmoral Park with a capacity of almost 3000. They hail from the Altens area of Aberdeen. They spent the 2022/23 season in the Championship but again at that time a bridge too far and found themselves back in League One where they sit comfortably. Managed by former Hearts player, Paul Hartley, I’m sure they have aspirations of playing in the Championship again and possibly one to watch for this season.
 
East Fife

A club with the fabulous nickname of The Methil Mafia are based in Methil in Fife. A town of 10,000+ and whose home ground of Bayview can hold just under 2000. East Fife were formed in 1903 and whilst researching this I was surprised to learn that both Scottish Cup and League Cup titles have been held by the Fifers. Granted, in the 1950s, but still. Having narrowly managed to avoid relegation last season I’m sure manager Dick Campbell will want to avoid that this season. Indeed at one point during 25/26 it looked like they may be headed for better and bigger things but soon fell away.
 
In the Championship rather like the Premier Division most are self explanatory but we still have a couple to go
 
Queens Park

Not to be confused with Queens Park Rangers, based at Lesser Hampden on Glasgow's south side and where Scotland captain Andy Robertson - who went off to have great success with the unstoppable Liverpool side under Klopp made his debut. Their stadium holds a mere 990 but that aside they can be a formidable foe pulling off possibly the greatest Scottish Cup shock of all on February 9th 2025 as a single decisive goal from Drozd sank the Rangers under then manager Philippe Clement, a result that would ultimately lead to a change of leadership for the Ibrox club.
 
There was much rejoicing in Robertson Towers that afternoon.
 
Rangers did however manage to regain revenge in style with an 8-0 victory almost a year to the day on February 8th 2026.
 
And finally the Premier League and St Mirren

A club that needs little introduction as having managed to defeat Celtic under Wilfried Nancy and walk away with the League Cup. Jst in case anyone’s looking at the map wondering “Where’s Mirren?”, the club is actually based in Paisley. Formed in 1877, their home matches played at the imaginatively named St Mirren Park, some of us still think Love Street when we think of the Saints as that was the location of their former stadium until 2009 - Love Street, Paisley. With a capacity of 8000 and more than capable of holding their own and pulling off so called shock results not a team to be taken lightly.
 
So I hope you enjoyed this little tour of some of Scotland's oddly named clubs. I’m certain there will be others as Highland and Lowland clubs appear in cup matches so I’ll add the place of origin to all so as to give the reader a more “interactive” experience? No more wondering where these oddly named outfits play their matches. I’ve got you covered.

Til next time ……

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

What's In A Name?

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