A HEAVY metal band will be playing in Southampton months after their frontman headlined at a rock festival in the city.

Fightstar will be playing songs from their forthcoming new album when they take to the stage at the University of Southampton’s Garden Court.

The band, featuring vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist Charlie Simpson, guitarist and vocalist Alex Westaway, bassist Dan Haigh and drummer Omar Abidi, cite acts such as Nirvana, Radiohead and the Cure as among their major inspirations.

This is despite frontman Charlie Simpson’s history with Brit award-winning band Busted before he left them to devote more time to the heavy metal group.

When they began in 2003, they band faced scepticism from die-hard rock fans due to Charlie’s time spent with the pop band.

But their debut EP, They Liked You Better When You Were Dead was a critical success and their debut album was showered with praise by critics.

After taking time out for members to concentrate on other projects, Charlie took up a solo career and played at the university’s Takedown festival earlier in the year.

After a six-year gap, they will be releasing more material this year ahead of their gig at the Garden Court on October 18.

A spokesman for the university student’s union said: “The band haven’t released an album since 2009, due to a hiatus from 2010-2014, but revealed recently that they have been working on new music, so you can expect lots of awesome new tunes as well as old favourites.”

Tickets (£15) are available now. Visit fightstarmusic.com for more information.