It's a Monday night and The Academy is as packed as it would usually be on a Saturday for California’s Pierce The Veil. The few seats in the venue are occupied by chaperoning parents accompanying groups of underage kids, and surrounded by mounds of coats and bags. It's heartening to see so many alternative kids in town. There are few enough opportunities for them to let their immaculately coiffured hair down.

Screams and squeals greet letlive as they tune up. It’s the fourth visit to Dublin for the Los Angeles based post-hardcore group. Tupac Shakur’s ‘Can't C Me’ plays them on and they waste no time before breaking into ‘Renegade ’86’. Front man Jason Butler gets down into the crowd to collect some tinsel and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. He tosses the mic from mouth to hand, screaming with all his might. The crowd are quickly won over and the first pit of the night opens up during the second song, ‘That Fear Fever’.

The Angelinos namecheck Nirvana and Rage Against The Machine before ‘A Weak Ago’ and the audience respond by relentlessly jumping in time with this cracker of a tune that nods to both their forebears. Butler reckons it feels like a house party. ‘Foreign Cab Rides’ is a mellower, more emotional tune and we take a breather before Butler climbs right into the crowd during ‘The Dope Beat’; the mic lead stretched taut over everyone’s heads as he mounts the sound desk, without missing a note.

He takes a minute to curse Donald Trump and strap on a guitar before launching into ‘Reluctantly Dead’. It's always good to see a band make an effort, and the sweat pumping from him is a testament to the work he puts in. By the end of the set the screaming adulation of the audience is nearly a match for the sound of the band. They've made quite the impression.

A mass singalong breaks out as All Time Low’s ‘Dear Maria, Count Me In’ plays between acts. When PTV arrive, they are greeted like a boyband. Vic Muentes is inaudible during ‘Dive In’ against the fans singing along. The confetti cannons go off at the first chorus. ‘Floral & Fading’ kicks off without a pause and the energy in the room ramps up. The confetti cannons get another workout. Muentes needn’t bother singing as the crowd are now louder than the whole band. He plucks the tinsel from an outstretched hand and wears it round his neck. Every movement is greeted by a scream from the adoring fans.

‘The Divine Zero’ doesn’t inspire the singalong that some of the other songs have but it's a cracking tune nonetheless and the action in front of the stage reflects it. Muentes pulls a young woman out of the audience to theatrically serenade her with the opening verse of ‘Bulletproof Love’. It’s a corny stunt but in the context it works and the bubbling pit salutes the band.

It’s the first of a two night sold-out run and you would well believe that they could sell out a third. It’s only the second time Pierce The Veil have been to Ireland but the reception they are getting suggests they’ll be back. The band briefly depart the stage while a warped version of ‘Pure Imagination’ plays. Streamers greet their return with the excellent ‘Hell Above’. PTV take emo and post hardcore and make something uplifting and viscerally stirring. Jason Butler from letlive returns and joins Muentes for ‘Tangled In The Great Escape’, a song he sings on 2012’s Collide With The Sky album. Muentes’ vocal disappears again during ‘Hold On Til May’.

I wasn’t overly familiar with emo/post-hardcore before tonight. There’s no live scene for it here and the over-production on the records makes a lot of the bands sound homogenous, but seeing Pierce The Veil live is a different thing altogether. These guys really rock. When they leave the stage, the demand for an encore shakes the balcony. You can forgive them this indulgence when they get a reaction like that. ‘Circles’ and ‘King For A Day’ round out a kickass set from a band that deserve more credibility than they are afforded.

“I'm going to sing ‘The Doom Song’ now” – Gir, Invader Zim

The Academy is packed out this Sunday night. Paradise Lost are here for their first Dublin show since 2003. Latest album, The Plague Within, is their best in 20 years and the anticipation is dripping off the walls, along with whatever else that is. Before the band even appear, there is 90% humidity in the room. The gothic metal veterans have just come off a frantic worldwide festival tour and are kicking off the European dates for The Plague Within tour tonight. Credit to Dublin Metal Events who have done a great job recently of bringing quality metal acts here that previously might have passed us over.

At the appointed hour, the stage fills with smoke and organ music. An expectant hush comes over the crowd. The set begins with the opening song from the new album, ‘No Hope in Sight’. This catches the sound engineer napping, as the guitar fanfare that announces the song is initially deafening, then briefly silent, before settling.

Singer Nick Holmes has never looked better. The short hair and long beard suit him. All the long distance cycling has him looking healthy and has done wonders for his delivery. He is at ease on stage and between songs he banters with the audience with typical humour;

“ I hope you like the latest album?/ We're going to play quite a bit of it tonight/ So if you don't like it…/ Tough shit really”,

“First time we've played that song in a long time/ I'm glad we didn't fuck it up…/ There’s still time though”.

By the time they break out ‘Tragic Idol’ the balcony is dripping on to those below. Gregor Mackintosh’s dreadlocks are flailing and Aaron Aedy is his usual effervescent self. You can always spot the metal bands that are the better songwriters because the volume isn’t quite as high. Paradise Lost want to be heard.

‘Enchantment’ from 1995’s Draconian Times is very well received. Along with ‘As I Die’; “An old favourite/ a bit like Jaffa Cakes”. There are no moshpits tonight. It's more like a heavy metal version of a trip hop show, all nodding heads and existential angst. Some songs are so slow, Massive Attack would be in awe. Holmes introduces ‘Beneath Broken Earth’ as “The slowest song we've ever written” and ponders the ever-changing nature of metal subgenres; “I believe it is called funeral doom/ In our day it was just doom.”

The audience is noticeably split between fans of the older and new material. The repeated requests for ‘True Belief’ and ‘One Second’ are ignored but the set is peppered with classics, of which Paradise Lost have written many in their 25 year career. The new songs are meatier without losing the melodies that set this group apart from their doomy peers. ‘Victim of the Past’ provokes some air guitar playing and the devil horns are raised for ‘Cry Out’; “This is a song about being pissed off/ They're all songs about being pissed off/ But this one in particular.”

The encore break comes after only an hour and it’s far too soon. There is no pretence, the crowd just watch the stage expectantly. The mock-epic intro of ‘Return To The Sun’ is a great way to reintroduce the band and the extensive encore section also includes ‘Faith Divides Us, Death Unites Us’ and ‘An Eternity Of Lies’, the standout track from The Plague Within. The fans of their populist years are sated as Paradise Lost finish with their most commercially successful number, ‘Say Just Words’.

For a band that specialise in doom, these guys certainly know how to make people smile. As well as writing catchy tunes that are made to be played live, they put on an exciting show and interact with the fans like they are old friends. The audience are grinning broadly as they exit, the sound of doom echoing in their collective ears. Doom, doom, doom …