How has your start to the New Year been? Pretty intense this end I have to say. Car written off two weeks ago. Now in the EV owners club. Lots going on in terms of work – as ever, great people to work with but bewildered by some of the madness around us.

This is my first #MetalFriday of January where I’ve finally got to reconnect with my true love of some beautiful metal on a Friday with a beer. Was trying for dry January but the Hobgoblin was calling me this evening. 🤘

I think it is important in this challenging period in human history to have things that provide you with a restorative effect, things which revitalise you. Metal does this for me, it is my cloak of invincibility. It gives me an intense sense of belonging to a community of fellow ‘othered’ outcasts from the mainstream.

I know most of you out there are not metalheads. I can forgive you, just, 😉 but I wanted to flag my pleasure at a recommendation tonight from a relation of mine who is a dedicated fellow metalhead. The band is called “Poison the Preacher”. They are from Bogota, #columbia. They only formed in 2021. The image below is from their track “Subject to Die”. Look it up on YouTube.

Why does it fill me with joy?

1. Its genre is Thrash Metal/Crossover/Hardcore Punk 🖤

2. The band and lead singer’s voice totally remind me of Powertrip – the band to which I did my first crowd surf at Bloodstock 2018 to mark my 50th Birthday. I can still picture clearly being on a Covid-19 lockdown walk at the point when I saw the tweet that Riley Gale, the lead singer of Powertrip had died. I was gutted. He is the singer on my LinkedIn background image. Poison the Preacher have got as close to bringing him back as I’ve seen.

3. The band are more than young enough to be my children and were not even born when I went to my first metal gig – Iron Maiden’s Number of the Beast tour in 1982. I was 13. Metal will never die – it is passed on from generation to generation. It offers a deep sense of escapism from the drudgery of the mainstream. I love it with all my heart.

So folks, what is it that is your go-to tonic for a mad, mad world?

#mentalhealth#escapism#authenticitymatters

Shout out to my metal brother Ricardo Maschietto who had his last day at Mott MacDonald today.

Robin LyonsStephen CraggSteve GoodingWill PedleyLynn BasfordMike O’Dowd-JonesRussell JonesMalcolm NeilEivind Jamholt BaeraEifion JenkinsLiz BaldwinTherese BajadaHugh ChaplainJack NewcombeRob HardymanRumana Islam Sarker, Ph.D.Jayne MeyrickKH M Rifat FoysalSteven HalsallDavid MarshallClaire O’NeillIan Kirk-EllisConor McLoughlin-WarePiotr MazurMiroslav ĐerićNick DaviesDr Melanie Stevens (nee Priest)John BV KellyIan StorerTamara BozovicRoberto Rivera Fernandez 🤘

Honorary mention: Paul Hammond

Sorry I couldn’t tag all my fellow metalheads out there – but please make yourselves known. #MetalTilIDie (maybe we need a LinkedIn Group – shall I set one up?)