Cork metal scene: New generation of bands ready to rock the mainstream   

It's a long time since heavy metal was any way fashionable, but there has long been a cohort of dedicated fans and quality bands lurking under the radar. A recent revival in Cork could see some of them emerge from the underground 

Cork metal: God Alone, John Murphy, Bailer, and an old gig at Fred Zeppelins.

As a high-flying executive with a semiconductor multinational John Murphy lived a life comparable to that of George Clooney in the movie Up The Air. He was constantly on the go, jetting from his home in Kanturk, Co Cork, to meetings as far away as San Francisco and South Korea.

But then the pandemic struck. There would be no more international travel, just endless Zoom meetings. And so the softly spoken PhD graduate’s thoughts turned to his second life – fronting extreme metal band For Ruin. With the world flipped upside down it was, he decided, time to revive a project that served as a conduit for his anger and frustration but also his hope and sense of adventure.