BEFORE The Darkness there will be 3 Inches Of Blood in Cardiff University's Solus.

Neo-rootin' tootin' heavy metal combo The Darkness is back in Wales on Sunday, October 5, plugging their so-so debut album, Permission To Land.

And 3 Inches Of Blood are their curdled brothers in support.

The dubious looking Canadians sound like Iron Maiden, only younger, snottier and more out of date.

If you like what you hear, the band is back in Wales on Tuesday, October 28, for a headline show in the Barfly, Cardiff.

It's all leading to the release of their new single Destroy The Orcs, out on Monday, October 20.

Both The Darkness and 3 Inches Of Blood are from the revival school of late 70s/80s rock.

First The Hives and The Strokes ripped off garage sounds which gave bands like 3 Inches Of Blood more chance at getting played on the radio. Their debut album Battlecry Under A Winter Sun, out on Must Destroy/Death O'Clock, is full of amusing metal pastiches.

But it was not always thus: 3 Inches Of Blood rose out of the degenerate-strewn wasteland of the Canadian hardcore scene which they despised.

Sickened by sycophantic punks and their tiresome, self-indulgent spiels, the five members went back to their roots.

* 3 Inches Of Blood support The Darkness in Cardiff University's Solus on Sunday, October 5, and headline the Barfly on Sunday, October 28.