Author Andrew Doherty
It won’t have escaped anyone’s attention that the title of this album is topical. In fact Haken are not jumping on any current bandwagon here, not that that ever is their way, but it’s a kind of sequel to the… Continue Reading →
The description of this as art rock and synth pop may not be to everyone’s liking, and I’m not entirely sure it’s to mine, but like all music, it’s about the quality of production, the experience and the connection, so… Continue Reading →
A bit of everything here from Texan project Sarpa. It’s not often you hear a driving African drum beat fused with black metal. That was for openers. Black metal fury continues with “Triad of Might”. It’s expansive, epic and downright… Continue Reading →
Polish blackened death metal band Conquest Icon have been around since 2009, since when they have released two albums including this one, their first being in 2010, and three tracks on a split three years later. Looking at the history… Continue Reading →
Portuguese band Summon promise us “unrivalled barbarism, wickedness and ferocity” with this EP. This is the third work from the Portuguese death-black metal band, following another EP in 2017, and an album “Parazv Il Zillitv” in 2018. Deep echoing sounds,… Continue Reading →
Far from just being an anagram of a market town in Lancashire famous for gingerbread, Ormskrik from Norway promise a “fusion of Bay Area thrash, Norwegian black metal and Swedish death metal”. The whirlwind gets going, there is a piercing… Continue Reading →
“The project conjures layered soundscapes with DIY instruments in the fields of experimental music, noisescapes and dark ethereal ambient” is the way the label manager introduces this latest album from Finland’s Kenneth Kovasin, the creator of [ówt krì]. I simply… Continue Reading →
One for the specialist here: the lyrics of this EP from a very old Belgian black metal band Āter are written in a thousand-year old dialect. When I received this work, it came with a lucid explanation of the tracks,… Continue Reading →
This latest work by progsters Dreamwalkers Inc was recorded live at the Parktheater, Alphen aan den Rijn at the end of August 2019. I am fortunate to have been witness to Dreamwalkers Inc’s first live performance, an acoustic set in… Continue Reading →
This EP follows a 2016 demo from this Swedish band, who were formed in 2016. The conventional nature of the heavy rock-metal riff is broken up by the bizarre and manic vocals. The riff goes round and round without energy…. Continue Reading →
The Bloody Mallard are described as a heavy psych, prog and alt-rock project, recalling the likes of King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Baroness, Yob and Elder. This album starts with a monstrous 11-minute instrumental piece called “Haemoglobin”. I felt the psychedelic… Continue Reading →
If drone and the sounds of the wind, a dripping tap and a sombre piano are what floats your boat, you’re quids in with the opener of this second album from funereal doomster Noctu from Italy. But this accounts for… Continue Reading →