Emma Ruth Rundle embarks on her inaugural Irish tour this week

Hot on the heels of a critically acclaimed trek across mainland Europe, the gloriously gloomy, fiercely gifted songsmith Emma Ruth Rundle offers her long starved Irish fans a hat trick of treats this week. Performing in support of her diabolically good, fifth solo album Engine Of Hell, the LA-born artist is bringing her heavenly sounds to some unusual, but rather apt, venues for her first ever tour of the Emerald Isle.

Kicking off tomorrow night in Belfast’s St Patrick’s Church (August 16), Rundle then makes her way to Dolan’s, Limerick on Wednesday (August 17) and finishes up her jaunt in St Ann’s Church, Dublin on Thursday (August 18).

A firm favourite with fans of post-rock, dark-folk and metal, if you’ve yet to hear the Good Word about Rundle, let us enlighten you. After earning fame and acclaim with folkgaze-minded, shoulda been contenders The Nocturnes and math rock heavyweights Red Sparowes in the late noughties/early ‘10s, she started a solo career shortly afterward and steadily gathered a faithful fanbase with each knockout release.

Loved and lauded for her sub genre-straddling, cathartic tales, the likes of the distortion-pedal battering, utterly bewitching ‘Fever Dreams’ (from On Dark Horses) and the spine tingling, piano-driven threnody ‘Return’ (from Engine Of Hell) mark her out as one of the finest songwriters of her genre.

Rundle is also a prolific collaborator too and has made some magnetic, morose and often magnificent music with the likes of Chelsea Wolfe, Thou and our own And So I Watch You From Afar. It would also be rude of this Hot Press scribe (and fan) not to mention her show stealing performance of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’ alongside members of Mastodon, YOB and Old Man Gloom as part of the series Two Minutes To Late Night. Filmed two years ago (ie-waaay before Stranger Things brought the song back into the mainstream) the track provided some light to a very dark time in Lockdown.

Promising a stripped back show featuring guitar, voice and piano, Rundle’s Irish shows are sure to be some of the best of the year. Tickets are running low for all three dates, so make sure you snag some now via eventbrite.com and tickets.ie. Support is from Jo Quail on all dates.

Visit facebook.com/Livefreetourbookingagency for more information on these shows and future Irish tours from the likes of the Exploited, Anvil, Black Flag, Dead Kennedies and more this Autumn and beyond.