The Scratch

Few bands sit as comfortably between a session room and a wall of distorted guitar as The Scratch, a Dublin act whose sound fuses the Irish tradition with heavy metal. Their roots lie in Perrystown, where three of the five members of the heavy metal group Red Enemy, Jordan O'Leary, Daniel Lang and Conor Dockery, started a project of their own in 2016, joined by bass player Cathal McKenna. Set against the heavy metal group that preceded it, the project shows how far the two traditions can be pushed into one another.

Their debut album, Couldn't Give a Rats, arrived in 2020, and its follow-up, Mind Yourself, came in 2023 and was nominated for the Choice Music Prize. In December 2024 Jordan O'Leary announced his departure, and Gary Regan joined on guitar as his replacement. Daniel Lang, who sings lead and plays cajón and percussion, and Conor Dockery, on guitar, remain from the founding line-up.