Author Andrew Doherty
When a three piece band comes along with two bassists among its number, then you cannot expect anything remotely light or airy. The delivery of Finland’s Horse Latitudes is slow, doom-laden and an ode to the apocalypse. In a comparative… Continue Reading →
They cannot be serious. “Long Live Heavy Metal” has to be the most trite album title I’ve ever seen. Is it a wind-up, a 1970s K-Tel re-release or a genuine belief, I asked myself. I had to find out so… Continue Reading →
Sangre Eterna sounds like the name of a Gothic band to me, but the reality is that the chosen musical vehicle for this Serbian band is melodic death metal. In fact their second album starts off in lively and breathless… Continue Reading →
How Borknagar have acquired themselves a steady reputation over the years as a Viking metal band with a progressive, cosmic and melodic twist. There’s a kind of ‘super group’ element about them, with representatives of Vintersorg, Dimmu Borgir, Solefald, Carpathian… Continue Reading →
Vitriolic is not a word I would use to describe this work from the Italian band Evenoire. A bombastic opening leads us into female-fronted majesty. The female in question has an angelic voice to bring on lazy comparisons with Tristania,… Continue Reading →
This 17 track re-mastered work is a re-release of early Darkthrone demos “Land of Frost” (1988), “A New Dimension” (1989), Thulcandra (1989) and Cromlech (1989), together with a couple of Norwegian TV live recordings and a 1999 track “God of… Continue Reading →
Black Sheep Wall come from California. It is clear from the first notes that in sound terms their music is the polar opposite of the Beach Boys. The constant and ominous drum, big ponderous chords and paint-stripping vocals suggest this… Continue Reading →
Described as “Freezing Cosmic Black Metal”, this work from Hungary’s Nefarious marches on relentlessly from beginning to end. There’s a grim war going on out there. Hungary does not have a border with Poland and has no obvious cultural links… Continue Reading →
The story behind this UK band is unusual. With an album released in 2000, a key member died and his work for the next recorded album had to be recovered after a computer crash. If the story behind the band… Continue Reading →
UK progressive band Enochian Theory have made rapid progress since starting out in 2004. “LIFE .. And All It Entails” is the band’s third album. The recording and mixing were assigned to Rob Aubrey who they met while touring with… Continue Reading →
This album from the French one-man Death Metaller Manipulator consists of four tracks, followed by a 2009 demo “Unearthed”. It sounds a bit of a patch-up but it lasts the length of a full album and the underlying philosophy is… Continue Reading →