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Author Andrew Doherty

I’ve been obsessive about music since the late 60s and early 70s when during my childhood in Grimsby I used to watch Top of the Pops and bought 7” singles after saving up my pocket money. I really switched to metal when I first heard Dimmu Borgir. The ambience intrigued me, and through magazines and concerts I discovered new territory in the late 90s. For preference I now listen to black metal, heavy progressive music, Scandinavian-style melodic metal and any style which has an edge, or is downright unusual or bizarre. I managed the band Devillish Impressions, which was an exciting time as we had an album but no label or distribution method. We got the label and a European tour with Aeternus, and as the promoter’s plane was delayed, I finished up setting up the band’s first concert in Hamburg on 28th November 2006. I wrote for a while for Live 4 Metal but switched to Metal Team UK in 2007. Like any real music lover, I enjoy going to concerts and meeting people with the same interest and commitment.

TDW – Fountains (Layered Reality Productions)

The man with a band, a choir and enough guest musicians to form a football team is back. Tom de Wit is nothing but prolific, but with that it must be said that he bursts with ideas, branching out from… Continue Reading →

W.E.B. – Colosseum (Metal Blade)

The title of this album reflects the violence and bloodthirstiness of the public in Ancient Roman times when attending spectacles at the Colosseum. “Panem et Circenses” (Bread and Circuses) was how the satirist Juvenal described the absolution from thinking through… Continue Reading →

Swallow the Sun – Moonflowers (Century Media)

I reviewed both “Songs from the North” (2015) and “When a Shadow is Forced into the Light” (2019) by Swallow the Sun, and what impressed me was the control of mood and depth. “Moonflowers” is the band’s eighth full release,… Continue Reading →

The Osiris Club – The Green Chapel (No Profit Recordings)

The Osiris Club is a band I feel I ought to know something about. They’re from London, I’ve seen their name many times and I know they’re prog-orientated with other old-style strings to their bow, as it were. In fact… Continue Reading →

Creature – Eloge de l’Ombre (I,Voidhanger)

I missed the “full-blown cosmic and uniquely baroque” “Ex Cathedra” (2020) and indeed the two previous albums by this band. This album now “strives to bring attention to the beauty in the Ugly, the Sad and the Bizarre”. With Creature… Continue Reading →

Zaäar – Magická Džungl’a (I,Voidhanger)

Described as a cosmic free jazz orchestra, Zaäar are clearly not short of ideas as they embark upon this 90-minute journey. With the sounds of a saxophone, trumpet, synths, flutes, drums and electric bass, this always had the makings of… Continue Reading →

clayhands – Is This Yes? (Bird’s Robe)

Coming from the same camp as sleepmakeswaves and We Lost the Sea, cinematically-inclined instrumental post-rock band clayhands – it’s all in the lower case – now enter the scene. I liked the symphonic start. With a patient build up, there… Continue Reading →

Kaeck – Het Zwarte Dictaat (Folter Records)

Dark underground black metal is the offering from Dutch band Kaeck, whose second album this is, six years on from their debut “Stormkult”. The occult, black magic and rituals interest them. The style is old school. The riffage is deep… Continue Reading →

Kayo Dot – Moss Grew on the Swords and Plowshare Alike (Prophecy Productions)

Kayo Dot’s last album “Blasphemy” (2019) had me hanging onto every note. The discovery of this band was amazing. When you think that musicians have drained the creative pool like draining all the fish from the sea and there is… Continue Reading →

Moon – Pandimensional Gnosis (Moribund Records)

Plumbing the depths for their fourth album are Australian occult black metallers Moon. Atmosphere, atmosphere and atmosphere was what I was expecting from this one. Sure enough we’re plunged into an echoing violent world from the beginning. Haunting and distant… Continue Reading →

Cognos -S/T (Willowtip Records)

I don’t know anything about Cognos as a band and they don’t tell us anything, which is fine, but they do give a clue as to their style of music, which they state is a fusion of extreme metal, new… Continue Reading →

Horns of Domination – Where Voices Leave No Echo (Sepulchral Voice)

A bit of grand black-death metal laced with mania & madness, tension & atmosphere, frenzy & melody sounds ok, and that’s what Germany’s Horns of Domination are offering as their first full album release following a demo in 2015. Winds… Continue Reading →

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