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

Silent Action – Sergio Martino (Fractured Visions)

And here we have a brand-new film company Fractured Visions, a good name boding well for future releases. It’s a bit like the wild west out there with different “boutique labels” (yeah I hate that phrase) all scrabbling to get… Continue Reading →

Eclipsus – Yūrei (Talheim)

Once more into the breech dear friends, well that place called Aokigahara the Japanese Suicide Forest at any rate. This is the 3rd time in as many weeks I have traipsed down its shadowy paths and I feel like a… Continue Reading →

Lifeless – Anhedonia (Talheim Records)

This is not the first time that I have encountered Anhedonia “inability to feel pleasure in normally pleasurable activities” in the music we feature or indeed in life Itself. Another tried and tested subject matter Lifeless have at the heart… Continue Reading →

Monte Penumbra – As Blades In The Firmament (End All Life Prod / Oration Rec)

Two climates, one hot and one icy combine together to make hideous chasmic noise here. On the one hand we have main composer W.uR also in Ab Imo Pectore, Angrenost, Israthoum from Portugal who handles most of what we hear… Continue Reading →

Suicide Forest – Reluctantly (Avantgarde Music)

Yet more fascination in Aokigahara the Japanese ‘Suicide Forest’ here and seriously it is becoming a bit of a cliché now. Perhaps Covid has left it as place where the dead can finally go to die in peace but before… Continue Reading →

Tony Tears – The Atlantean Afterlife (…Living Beyond) (Pariah Child)

We are promised an “exploration of Cult, Magic and Reincarnation” here with the 26th March release date having “esoteric significance.” The innovator of this is cult Italian composer Tony Tears who is one of the founding fathers of the Italian… Continue Reading →

Revenant Marquis – Below The Landsker Line (Inferna Profundus)

Pembrokeshire Wales is a lovely place. Many childhood holidays were spent there and it was one of the last places revisited before the Covid plague kept everyone at home (or should have done). It is steeped in legend and history… Continue Reading →

Mare Cognitum – Solar Paroxysm (I, Voidhanger)

Although I am far from the first to stick my flag in the lunar surface of this particular moon reviews wise here, I have fleetingly traversed its shores before and always appreciated what I have heard. This is atmospheric black… Continue Reading →

Bathory Legion / Hermann Kopp – Das Unheimliche (Septenary Arts)

This split release on a sub label of The Sinister Flame sees a meeting of deformed musical minds playing with experimental sounds and frequencies; they have 2 tracks each. On the one hand we have cult composer Hermann Kopp, renowned… Continue Reading →

Grand Celestial Nightmare – Forbidden Knowledge And Ancient Wisdom (New Era)

With somewhere over 25 active projects on the go currently it is no surprise finding another helmed by the prolific Belgian artist Mories so quickly after the last one. That was Schemer Heer where our restless composer summoned the essence… Continue Reading →

Taake / Helheim – Henholdsvis (Dark Essence)

It was last March when Taake released the first of three projected special 10” vinyl split EP’s. This appeared via Terratur Possessions with Whoredom Rife on the B) side. Following that July saw the second edition via Edged Circle with… Continue Reading →

Psychonaut 4 – Beautyfall (Talheim Records)

You have to love a bit of synchronicity. I had been meaning to check out Georgian band Psychonaut 4 properly for some time and had just been covering the excellent Jours Pâles album and been really impressed with vocalist Graf’s… Continue Reading →

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