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Author Pete Woods

Quickly discovering in formative years that I was never quite going to fit in anywhere, I spent time growing up listening to punk, futurist, goth, industrial, metal and psychedelic sounds ranging from Hawkwind to The Sex Gang Children via Japan through to Crass mangled in with Psychic TV and New Model Army. Catching my first band live by accident; The Poison Girls at a G.L.C. free festival, I never looked back. Musical tastes have developed accordingly and I now spend time writing for both Terrorizer and Dominion magazine as well as co-running www.avenoctum.com and pushing the boundaries of genre definition to mould around my own eclectic tastes. Not having the patience to play any instrument myself, I see my writing, to a certain degree as putting something back into the music I love. If I didn't spend time doing this I would be an alcoholic slumped without hope on the cold streets of London. Instead I can be found pint, camera and notepad in hand covering bands both old and new and will happily accept free cider without

Hope Drone – Cloak Of Ash (Relapse)

When this one came in for review I noticed that the label had not exactly given us much lead time before release date so decided to download it quickly and make it a priority. I had never heard of the… Continue Reading →

Sabhankra – Seers Memoir (Haarbn)

This Russian label may not release stacks of stuff but the bands they do seem to find always have an interesting quality about them and come from places that you would not always associate metal music with. The other album… Continue Reading →

Destruktor – Opprobrium (Hell’s Headbangers)

Oof you’re kind of asking for ‘harsh criticism’ calling your album Opprobrium but luckily we all like a bit of cranium wrecking barbarism from labels like Hell’s Headbangers especially when it’s shat out by an underground war machine like Australian… Continue Reading →

Sarah Tipper – The Mega Metal Diary Of Cleo Howard 1998 (Fast Print Publishing)

Do teenagers keep diaries anymore? More importantly do teenagers even know how to write longhand anymore? Before loads of teenage readers of the site (probably around 5 of you) write in to put me in my place for such a… Continue Reading →

Vorage – S/T (Hellthrasher)

Who was responsible for the phrase “metal of death” which seems to be getting bandied around more and more at the moment? The way I look at it this is the death metal equivalent of ‘orthodox black metal,’ it’s pretty… Continue Reading →

Nachtterror / Altars Of Grief – Of Ash And Dying Light (Hypnotic Dirge)

This split showcases two Canadian bands, both have certain similarities and are particularly bonded in blood by the talents of guitarist Saint Wikk aka Erik Laboissiere who is guitarist and backing vocalist in both. There are plenty of differences between… Continue Reading →

Lucio Fulci – Poker Cards

If you had asked me before what Lucio Fulci’s greatest success with poker was I would have probably thought of poor old Dagmar Lassander in The House By The Cemetery getting it through the neck with one. I would never… Continue Reading →

Vardan – Winter Woods (Moribund)

And here we go again! 5th album so far this year and it would appear his 13th so far, unlucky for some maybe but there’s no stopping the ever prolific Sicilian Vardan at his quest for misanthropic world domination. His… Continue Reading →

Ahab, Esoteric, Darkher – London Boston Arms 4/7/15

Although you might have thought everything today was about AC/DC especially on my train ride through Wembley, a couple of hundred people with much more eclectic music tastes descended upon Tufnell Park for a night of much more solemn music…. Continue Reading →

Verlies – Le Domaine Des Hommes (Hypnotic Dirge)

Verlies is black metal band from France with their debut album. Yes but there is so much more to this than you might expect from such a simple sentence. Naiwan or N from Lille in France has been involved in… Continue Reading →

Vorum – Current Mouth (Sepulchral Voice)

There’s been quite a buzz about cult of death Vorum of late no doubt making them one of the biggest exports from the Åland Islands off Finland at the moment. They played the UK recently and I am kind of… Continue Reading →

Contamination – Luigi Cozzi (Arrow)

Although never prosecuted, Contamination made in 1980 by Luigi Cozzi comes from the golden era of Italian splatter movies ending up embroiled amidst the video nasty furore. Showing what a dogs arse the whole panic was it had no real… Continue Reading →

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