Your No. 1 Source For Extreme And Atmospheric Music And Film.

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.

Thyrant – Katabasis (Indie)

Lost, found, descending the dark and then relief, stability and composure – this is the conceptual theme for this second album by Spanish metal band Thyrant. The band don’t claim to represent any particular genre. My first thoughts when I… Continue Reading →

Fiasko – Mizantropolia (S/R)

In order to bleaken their sound, Fiasko have done away with samples and electronics and stuck to the basics of experimental sludge, black and post metal. It sounds kind of Polish and it is. Starting like a battle march, “Golem”… Continue Reading →

Beyond the Event Horizon – Leaving the 3rd Dimension (S/R)

Seven years after formation, Polish instrumental alternative rock band Beyond the Event Horizon are now releasing their second album with an ep “FAR” between the two in 2018. A clue about their influence lies in the closing track here “Love… Continue Reading →

Dawn of a Dark Age – La Tavola Osca (Antiq)

“Dedicated to the fully coherent concept of making music through sound, image, video and attitude”, the Antiq label has released an interesting album here. The principal artist is classical and jazz artist Vittorio Sabelli, who as Dawn of a Dark… Continue Reading →

Statiqbloom – Beneath the Whelm (Metropolis)

Statiqbloom are about hard beats, haunting, hallucinogenic, post-industrial electronics. With this information I prepared for my trip. The scene is set with the industrial sound of chaos. Dark thumping electro with whispering vocals signal “Alcestis”. This takes me back to… Continue Reading →

Mora Prokaza – By Chance (Season of Mist)

Bizarrely, avant-garde black metal meets New School Trap, or so the description goes. I had to look up Trap, and having done so I now understand it’s a form of hip hop. I didn’t know the band either, and it… Continue Reading →

Thecodontion – Supercontinent (I, Voidhanger)

I can’t tell you how much trouble I’ve had in writing this band’s name down. I keep defaulting to The Condition. By way of information, Thecodontion – I’m resorting to cutting and pasting now – come from Italy, and this… Continue Reading →

Caligula’s Horse – Rise Radiant (InsideOut)

I was hugely impressed by Caligula’s Horse last album “In Contact” (2017), and the way they stepped up to the plate and proved worthy of being the main headliners at ProgPower Europe in 2018. “Rise Radiant” is the Australian progressive… Continue Reading →

One More Word – Wheel of Suffering (Boersma)

From my favourite German city Hamburg come One More Word. I can tell you that they play modern metalcore and previously released a single and an EP in their four years of existence. You now know everything about them that… Continue Reading →

Carach Angren – Franckensteina Strataemontanus (Season of Mist)

It’s time for some theatre from those black metal horror show purveyors from the Netherlands, Carach Angren. Or at least that’s what I was hoping for. Having gone through wars and shipwrecks and all manner of grotesquery from them over… Continue Reading →

Sombre Héritage – Alpha Ursae Minoris (Sepulchral Productions)

I confess to being a massive fan of icy cold Québecois black metal, having first discovered it in the 00s through a band called Frozen Shadows, and worked my way through others including Forteresse and Cantique Lépreux. Now we have… Continue Reading →

Airbag – A Day at the Beach (Karisma Records)

This is the Norwegian prog trio’s fifth album. Lyrically, we’re told, “A Day at the Beach” is about a man “leaving his family behind into an unknown future. It’s the contrast between the desperate individual struggling to survive and people… Continue Reading →

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Ave Noctum — Powered by WordPress

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑