The Gryphon, Bristol

Such a niche place - can't be many Good Beer Guide Heavy Metal pubs but you can add to that that they only sell Dark, Strong Real Ales. Talk about a target audience. Thrash metal, very loud. Sort of place you will either love or hate.

Located at the top of the famous Christmas Steps, this is an unusual wedge-shaped pub which has struck out to attract fans of heavy metal and good beer. Steps lead you up into the simple main bar area which has exposed floorboards and an attractive curved dark wood bar counter to the rear. The bar has a modern, fairy light lined bar back sporting numerous keg taps and an Iron Maiden ‘Eddy’ head. Tankards have been evocatively strung along a line from above, with a random trainer appearing midway through the collection – who drinks out of that I wonder?! High tables and stools can be found along the right hand side of the room under a series of large, plain mirrors, with smaller tables and low stools to the left. Pump clips line the upper section of the walls and fill almost all of the ceiling, punctuated only by a few, very metal-looking guitars along the walls. Moving to the left behind the bar, you find a small, raised seating area with enough space for two tables and a staircase leading down to the toilets. Meanwhile, to the right of the bar, there is another raised space with a single table and some nice padded benches. Some blokes round here were playing a very intense game of Jenga, so I sloped off quietly lest I should disturb their concentration. As you might expect, a thrash metal soundtrack was playing, albeit at a pretty reasonable volume for a Saturday night, and overall I found the place had a pretty cool vibe that was very tolerant of someone who was clearly only there for the beer. Talking of which, six handpulls line up across the bar, but four of these were sadly out of action, leaving a choice of Stealth Solitude and Red Cat Peach Mosaic, plus a pretty wide keg selection. The Solitude turned out to be a quite pleasant drop and I enjoyed a bit of people watching from my position propped against the bar. I thought this would be a bit too niche to fully enjoy, but found the staff and locals to be a friendly bunch and ended up enjoying myself here and staying for longer than I’d intended. The pub has found itself in recent editions of the Good Beer Guide and whilst your enjoyment of the place might be proportionate to your tolerance for heavy metal music, I’d still encourage people to give this quirky place a chance.

A good solid rock pub playing some awesome music. We called in here Saturday night around 10pm and the place was very busy as to be expected. Service at the bar was quick and there was a choice of four ales on handpump, so I went for the Urban Huntsman which had plenty of flavour. We found the snug around the right hand side of the bar, which was a decent place to settle, whilst we watched a band lugging in some sound equipment up the stairs as the place was getting even busier.

There's a sign outside proclaiming that this pub's still open despite a recent fire gutting the top floor of the adjoining building. You obviously can't keep a good gryphon down. This is a heavy metal themed pub, with some loud music being played when we dropped in on Saturday afternoon. As you would expect, there's music memorabilia around the place, and of course live music sessions are held regularly. It's gloomily menacing in a characterful sort of way. There were several ales on, including the SW London favourite of Sambrook's Powerhouse Porter. I didn't see any sign of food. I didn't think that this pub had quite the cosy and comfortable feel of some of the other pubs we visited, and of course it doesn't set out to be that sort of pub. This is another one that's definitely worth a punt.

The unusual wedge shape of this pub gives it a lot of character. You are faced by thre bar as you enter with its various pumps of real ale. Rock music playing, the beer is good and its all round nice pub to try.