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

Winter Willow – Existentiell Vånda (Talheim Records)

On the surface the port city of Halmstad Sweden looks like a nice place to visit and if you were to type it into an image search there are nice scenes of waterways, bustling streets with stalls and bars, gothic… Continue Reading →

Mishkin Fitzgerald and the Chemical Perils – Grace’s Cradle (Not Saints)

Something a bit deliciously different here but boundaries are meant to be pushed and we cannot be listening to the same styles all the time, things would quickly get stale. Heading off to the south coast and the seaside City… Continue Reading →

LAWA – Instrumentalisation (Cineploit)

Alain Leonard + Alex Wank’s LAWA are back with the promised sister release to ‘Manipulation’. Instrumental sound exploration through a variety of genres is the method here and like its companion piece the ‘mega synthesists’ at the helm of the… Continue Reading →

Omega Infinity – The Anticurrent (Season Of Mist)

We last heard from this German / Australian duo as they disrupted space with their own hostile planet suite that was Solar Spectre. With ties to Todtgelichter and Ne Obliviscaris among others it’s no surprise that what we have here… Continue Reading →

The Black Moriah – Desert Hymns and Funeral Grins (Folter Records)

I remembered these Texan renegades from last album ‘Road Agents Of The Blast Furnace’ from 2019. They are kind of difficult to forget when their posse includes a self-described Mad Arab along with partner in stagecoach robbery Zawicizuz. With past… Continue Reading →

Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World of Jean Rollin – Dima Ballin & Kat Ellinger (Arrow)

I vaguely remember my first encounter with the fantastique world of French director Jean Rollin (1938-2010) being incomprehensibly trimmed, grainy, bootleg VHS tapes of Zombie Lake (1981) and The Living Dead Girl (1982). Wading green zombies and toxic bloodless vampires… Continue Reading →

Fredlös – Fredlös (Threeman)

Doing a search on members of this Dark Nordic folk sextet along with the fact that no real info is provided about them largely drew a blank. However, the name Alex Hellid was an obvious one being founding member of… Continue Reading →

Deviser – Evil Summons Evil (Hammerheart)

The label mentions Deviser as a band you might have “hidden gems among your collection” and indeed as with the recently reviewed …And Oceans there is one such jewel I remember with great fondness. That particular album was Running Sore,… Continue Reading →

Inebrious Bastard – God Swipes Left (Crust Almighty)

We have touched upon this Australian based act a few times in the past with split releases and 7 inches and now they return with a full album of 14 tracks. Naturally due to the nature of the beast it… Continue Reading →

Häxanu – Totenpass (Amor Fati)

Debut album ‘Snare Of All Salvation’ certainly created an impact when it arrived from out of nowhere back in 2020 and obviously as soon as its follow up landed in my inbox I was keen to get stuck into it…. Continue Reading →

ACOD – Cryptic Curse (LADLO)

Well, I am again “cursing” at the “cryptic” nature of this French act. I mean, ACOD is a fish by any other name but what does it mean? The adopted moniker does not seem to translate, initialise with anything in… Continue Reading →

Fvnerals – Let The Earth Be Silent (Prophecy)

Drab, bleak and moody it may have been but I really enjoyed last album ‘Wounds’ from this duo comprising of (along with guest drummer) Tiffany Ström and Syd Scarlet. Either they like travelling or can never particularly settle as they… Continue Reading →

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Ave Noctum — Powered by WordPress

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑