Your No. 1 Source For Extreme And Atmospheric Music And Film.

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

Minority Sound – The Explorer (Metalgate)

When this arrived I was somewhat entranced by all the cover art which suggests something from space plummeting to earth. It was especially profound as we were getting reports of meteor showers lighting up the skies and I was starting… Continue Reading →

Alice Donut – Freaks In Love (MVD Visual)

Emerging from the New York underground in 1986 Alice Donut originally chose the name Alice Donut Liver Henry Moore, a play on words of the Scorsese movie Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. On giving it to a gig promoter they… Continue Reading →

Blood Red Fog – Harvest (Saturnian Productions)

This Finnish band have been around since 2004 and released a self titled album around that time as well as to date quite a lot of EP’s and splits with the likes of Funerary Bell, Verge, and Cosmic Church. I… Continue Reading →

The Nihilistic Front – Compilation 2007-2011 (Aesthetic Death)

Welcome to The Nihilistic Front of Australia! Nope it is not some ominous end of the world cult but a misanthropic doom death band from the land of Disembowelment. This band from Melbourne consist of a duo who have served… Continue Reading →

Frozen Ocean – A Perfect Solitude (Wolfsgrimm Records)

Back in May I received no less than three albums by Frozen Ocean and they took me on a hell of a varied journey, each of them being quite different musically and in tone and mood. I said at the… Continue Reading →

Interview – Sabbath Assembly

There is an undeniable interest in 70’s retro occult rock at the moment but you cannot really lump Sabbath Assembly in with that glut. Theirs is more ‘cult rock’ and the cult is one at the forefront of things and… Continue Reading →

Rapidax – Commandeer Vivacia (Unrepresented Music)

Rapidax may sound like some sort of cleansing product but it is the name adopted by Rob Tunstall, one man live band and now a man with an album behind him. If you are looking for some conventional metal you… Continue Reading →

Midnight – Complete And Total Hell (Hell’s Headbangers)

If like me you were bowled over by the hook laden gnarly down to earth abrasive harmonies of last Midnight album Satanic Royalty and wanted to see where the band started out this is the place to come. There were… Continue Reading →

Partly Faithful – The Beehive (SR)

Rising from the ashes (pun intended due to musical orientation) from such acts as Screaming Banshee Aircrew, Rubella, Dr Vampire, Lily Gun and Nosferatu amongst others Partly Faithful have been getting a fair bit of notice in the very gloomiest… Continue Reading →

Eviscerated Panda ‘A Metal Tale’ – Sarah Tipper

Do not worry, no need to alert PETA, there is absolutely no harm done to any defenceless animals here. Not that pandas are exactly defenceless; would you want to piss one off? This is probably why Eviscerated Panda is a… Continue Reading →

The Damned – Tiki Nightmare – Live In London 2002 (Wienerworld)

Ever since I heard The Damned for the very first time a long standing romance developed. The Love Song may not have been directed at me but the way the band fused punk and later Gothic sensibilities together just made… Continue Reading →

Modified – Paul Cotrulia (Event Films)

We received an invite to the world premier of this new British Indie movie in Leicester Square. Sure it was only the Prince Charles but out of acorns… The film looked intriguing and it would have been rude not to… Continue Reading →

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