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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.

Pa Vesh En – Maniac Manifest (Iron Bonehead)

Dodgy things may or may not be happening in Belarus, but I’ve found this is a go-to country when it comes to metal music. Here’s another one in Pa Vesh En, a black metal project with the values of emptiness,… Continue Reading →

The Sun or The Moon – Cosmic (Tonzonen)

The clue is in the album title, the artwork and the band name. “Psychedelic space lounge music” is what they call it. Electronic at the core, one of the influences is Kraftwerk. I can live with that. So too do… Continue Reading →

If Nothing Is – S/T (Dark Essence Records)

If a band’s looking for a selling point, this is it “This is not elevator music”. That’s their words. They go on: “Trying to perform menial tasks while listening to this album will turn your brain into scrambled eggs”. This… Continue Reading →

Solar Mantra – Away (Argonauta)

Crushing, heavy stoner which “delivers the perfect soundtrack for a road trip in the sun” is what’s offered here from Solar Mantra. It remains to be seen what is sunny about this work, but the artwork suggests that we’re in… Continue Reading →

Countless Skies, Akkadian and Must Kill – Portland Arms, Cambridge 5/9/21

I know I’m not alone in welcoming the shift from enforced impersonal video streams of concerts to live performance. Frankly I wasn’t really bothered who it was I went to see first in the post-soulless era but it was good… Continue Reading →

TRNA – Istok (Candlelight)

Istok is a place “of great nothingness where you find peace”, while the album is the journey to get there. This is the Russian trio’s fourth album release. Dreamy “celestial blackgaze”, post black-metal …. whatever the description may be, it’s… Continue Reading →

Dumal – The Confessor (Iron Fist Productions)

The band name Dumal apparently is derived from Baudelaire’s “Les Fleurs du Mal” (The Flowers of Evil), which I failed to make any sense of while studying it many years ago. I realise most people won’t have this connection and… Continue Reading →

Utopia – Stalker (APF Records)

I couldn’t have imagined that I’d ever be writing about a touring guitarist for Russell Watson or Aled Jones but that’s what John Bailey is. This man has many strings to his bow, as it were, with an interest in… Continue Reading →

Leprous – Aphelion (InsideOut Music)

I first saw Leprous in 2010 at ProgPower and was impressed by their freshness and originality. In the intervening years, I’ve seen them live a few more times and bought their albums up to “The Congregation” (2015) which I particularly… Continue Reading →

Modern Rites – Monuments (Debemur Morti)

Modern Rites are an international band as is increasingly the way these days, comprising Berg from Swiss atmospheric black metal band Aara and Jonny of US experimental metal band Kuyashii. Dark and desolate landscapes are offered and delivered. “Vigilance Eternal”… Continue Reading →

Remah – Une Main (Avantgarde)

Coldwave, darkwave and black metal are a combination which I find appealing, and that’s what Remah is offering. “Une Main” (One Hand) is the first work to be released by this long-standing Franco-Belgian combo. Background moaning and shivering atmospheres lace… Continue Reading →

Golden Ashes – A Lightless Crown Shuns the Crown of Divinity (Improved Sequence)

Arguably, never has an artist had so many projects as Maurice de Jong. Perhaps the most well-known of them is Gnaw Their Tongues. “A Lightless Crown Shuns the Crown of Divinity” is a symphonic black metal work from this man… Continue Reading →

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