Author Andrew Doherty
Eluveitie, Alestorm, Turisas, Diablo Swing Orchestra, The Pogues – to this list of bands giving us rumbustuous romps add Scythia from Canada. Folk metal is their speciality, judging by this 7 track EP, which comprises three re-mixes of previously recorded… Continue Reading →
“We like our rhythms complicated and our messages loud”. This statement can be found on the site of This Or The Apocalypse from Pennsylvania,USA, who after a two year gap are releasing their third album. By the second track of… Continue Reading →
To much fanfare comes “God is an Automaton”. This is Sybreed’s fourth album. With influences such as Fear Factory, Meshuggah, In Flames and Depeche Mode, their brand of music is termed “death wave”, which amounts to a mix of extreme… Continue Reading →
My immediate reaction on hearing this album, the second by Hell United, is that it is the essence of Polish blackened death metal. It has all the qualities – all-enveloping, heavy, dark, relentless and technical. No quarter is given. “Red… Continue Reading →
This is the second album by Germany’s Freitod. “Regenjahre” (Rain Years) consists of 6 meaty chunks of dark-black metal and then an even meatier 12 minute track “Wenn Alles Zerbricht” (When Everything Collapses). I have listened to this album and… Continue Reading →
Fortid was originally a one-man project, the person in question being Einar Thorberg (a.k.a. Eldur) of Icelandic bands Potentiam and Curse. Potentiam came into my life recently when I heard a very impressive album by other former members who play… Continue Reading →
Solace and Stable are self-proclaimed “progressive metalcore bruisers” from Kansas City. What I heard after a deliberate start was an explosion into brutal death growls with incongruous colourful technicality going on in the background. There’s a touch of Suspyre there,… Continue Reading →
This album is a mixture of musical traditions and cultures. Seremonia are from Finland and sing in Finnish but play 70s style psychedelic hard rock. The mysterious electronic opening belies what is to come. From the second track “Uhrisuhla” the… Continue Reading →
A deep electronic wave is the background to a slow and repetitive guitar riff. The machine has started. There are sounds of wind even further behind. The bleakness and tone remind me a lot of the music of Burzum. This… Continue Reading →
With a title like “Lava and Honey”, an intriguing mix is promised. There is a suggestion of quirkiness. On offer is a band quoting Yes and Genesis as influences, and amongst its members a female singer Ellie Blythe who is… Continue Reading →
This is In This Moment’s fourth album release. I heard the first two and particularly liked the first one “Beautiful Tragedy” (2007), which was in a feisty, gothic pop-metalcore style. I thought “The Dream”, while having a good range and… Continue Reading →
Threshold may not need introduction. After all they are a long-standing band with a pedigree of eight albums prior to this one. Their music seems on the face of things to be straightforward, but the more you look into it,… Continue Reading →