The Moshville Times - Gig Review: Gun Ghaol / Tallboy / Oceans on Fire / Temporal Prophet

I wasn’t sure what to expect turning up for this one, but kudos to the good people of Falkirk for a decent crowd at The Rock Bottom on a Thursday night.

Apologies to opening act Temporal Prophet. I only caught their last song which presented as melodic lead guitar over rap metal. Going by how they describe themselves, this seems pretty atypical of their sound, so I’ll need to catch more the next time I see them to get a better idea of their overall set. There certainly seemed to be a decent amount of folk here to see them given the number of t-shirts and merch kicking around.

Next up are Oceans on Fire. Describing themselves as “melodic metalcore”, this definitely summed up their first track of the evening. The highlight of the second song was a really impressive guitar solo. “Into the Void” was introduced as one of their “weird” ones and did seem to have some more proggy passages. I’d say that it probably took Oceans on Fire a couple of songs to really find their groove, but once they did, the energy built as their set developed and again they clearly had a decent following amongst the crowd tonight. The one thing that I’d say from tonight’s set is, given how good the guitar solo was in that second song, can we have more of that please!?

Hailing from Cumbria, and featured last year in an EP run-down, Tallboy immediately present as super-tight and intense, with riffs that at times are complex and at others provide a good solid crunch. There’s also a hefty contrast between vocals that range from guttural to melodic and guitars that deviate from the aforementioned riffs to dissonant chords. Plenty of interesting stuff going on here. Latest single “Fuck The Algorithm” is a solid stomp-along track and there’s plenty of energy in the crowd for Tallboy – and I’m sure lots of us can empathise with the song’s sentiments too. The only gripe during Tallboy was that the guitars were too low in the mix for my liking, which was a frustration given there was clearly lots of cool stuff going on. Shout-out to Tallboy’s drummer for a really solid performance too.

Gun Ghaol – which translates to English as “without love” – describe themselves as “the world’s only Gaelic metalcore band”. Which I’m sure they are! This is the second date of a string of shows they have reaching into November and I have to say that in a world where many bands have a heavy emphasis on their online presence, there really is no substitute for getting out there and playing live to as many punters as possible.

If I had been frustrated by the guitars being too low in the mix for Tallboy, the first thing that struck me as Gun Ghaol began their set was that they were not only nice and loud but raw and filthy too! For the first song or so, however, the vocals are too low, but they are brought up and levels are solid for the rest of the set. I’d say it maybe takes Gun Ghaol a couple of songs to fully settle into their groove, but once they do, they totally motor. Vocalist Cailean is clearly a confident frontman (although he does have a broadcasting background so maybe should be!) and from the word go whips up an energy in the crowd that continues the entire length of the set.

Their latest single is “Dorchadas”, which also features vocals in Irish courtesy of a collaboration with Irish metal band Vileblood. “Gun Alba” features, which was Gun Ghaol’s World Cup song (which Cailean states will probably be the last they play it in a while). They also give us their cover version of Chappell Roan’s “Hot To Go” and say that this will probably be the last time they play that too…

Gun Ghaol clearly have a contingent within the crowd tonight as well, and the band members aren’t afraid to mix it right in the pit, with vocalist Cailean, the guitarist, and the bassist all moshing it up on the floor with the crowd. If I’m being honest, that did probably lead to a bit of slop in playing, but let’s face it, in those circumstances nobody gives a shit!

Finishing to a fairly ecstatic response from their following in the crowd, it’s going to be interesting to see how much pick-up Gun Ghaol get from their upcoming run of dates. Interestingly, I did notice that their Edinburgh appearance has had an upgrade due to demand. They were recently announced as part of the lineup for Get Heavy Festival 2026, which should a great event also.

You can catch them at the following shows: