Slane 2019: Who Are The Opening Acts This Year?

The concert at Slane Castle is one of the biggest music events of the year. Tomorrow's concert is especially big, as headline act Metallica haven't played in Ireland in over a decade. Fans will be getting their money's worth for their tickets, with four bands set to take to stage before the heavy metal legends. Here's your guide to who are the opening acts at Slane:

Fangclub

Fanglclub are an alternative rock band from Rush Co. Dublin. The band is made up of members Steven King (guitar/vocals), Kevin Keane (bass) and Dara Coleman (drums). The trio take a DIY approach to a lot of things they do. In 2013 they headed off to the coastal village of Ballyheigue in Kerry to record an album. While on one of their first DIY tours, with the band still sleeping in their van, they came to the attention of Universal Music's Irish team. Suitably impressed that Fangclub had already recorded two EPs and their debut album, Universal signed the band in March 2015.

Bokassa

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich is a huge fan of the Norwegian hardcore punks. Speaking to Kerrang!, he said;

"Bokassa are incredibly fucking good. The songs they write, their whole energy and vibe is such a breath of fresh air. When I heard their music a year ago, they blew my head off. Getting a chance to introduce them to a wider audience is going to be super cool.”

A pretty glowing endorsement from a hard rock legend.

If you're a fan of Mastodon, Kvelertak, Entombed, Red Fang and similar, you'll enjoy these lads.

Stiff Little Fingers

Stiff Little Fingers are a punk rock band from Belfast. They formed in 1977, at the height of the Troubles. They wrote plenty of music about this experience. One of their first singles they recorded was called "Suspect Device". The single was packaged in the form of a cassette, with a cover depicting a cassette bomb, apparently causing great hilarity in the group, when one record company phoned them and asked for another copy, as they'd thrown the first one in a bucket of water for fear that it was a real bomb

Fans of classic punk like The Clash, The Jam, Buzzcocks etc will enjoy SLF

Ghost

The big name act of the openers. The Grammy-nominated Swedish hard rock band are easily recognisable thanks to their eccentric stage presence. Seven of the eight piece band are 'Nameless Ghouls', wearing identical masks and outfits; while vocalist Tobias Forge assumes a character called Cardinal Copia. His costume consists of either Cardinal vestments or a black or white tuxedo alongside a prosthetic mask with black eye makeup. Ghost drawn controversy in the past for supposedly Satanic lyrics but vocalist Forge insists this is not the case

“The biggest misconception [about Ghost] is that the lyrical content is being provocative because it’s about God. And it’s not. It’s not about God at all,” insists Forge. “It’s about man, mankind. I use language and analogy to make it seem that it is about other things, but the songs are usually, they are about very real things. Sometimes I think it’s almost laughable to the point of annoying that protesters are just picking up on the literal meaning.

Ghost have a very old-school metal vibe, not as heavy some, more melody-driven.