Author Andrew Doherty
There’s more than an element of Spock’s Beard about Pattern-Seeking Animals, with three band members in common. It was no surprise then that this album, the second from the Californian band, is lauded as progressive art rock. As for the… Continue Reading →
Tributes to other bands can be very interesting, and there is great potential for talented bands to interpret good songs and make them better. Anubis Gate is a talented band. I interviewed the band’s amiable multi-instrumentalist Kim Oleson a few… Continue Reading →
Word has it that grim epicness meets transcendental aural darkness. What this means is that this is a split from Vuur & Zijde from the Netherlands, and the German-US combo Impavada. So first we have Vuur & Zijde, I’d heard… Continue Reading →
The band name gives it away. Fuzz-laden heavy doom is what Blacklab purvey. This is the second release from the so-called Dark Witch Doom duo from Japan. Off we go into “Insanity”. The vibe is totally dark and heavy. It… Continue Reading →
…and Oceans have always been an interesting band, transforming their sound from symphonic black metal to a more electronic industrialised style. When I saw this, it occurred to me that I hadn’t heard of them for ages. There was an… Continue Reading →
After wondering how an ep could have 12 tracks, I then realised that this is in fact two eps. The experienced Swedish artist who is Bioplan (sounds like a brand of yoghurt to me but I’ll get over it), released… Continue Reading →
From Cumbria comes black metal and dark ambience. This is the band’s first EP, after the previous release of a demo and participation in a split called “Cumbrian Metal Part 1”. There is pedigree in the trio, with representation in… Continue Reading →
Old Smoke makes me think of Texas barbeques. Right country, wrong place. Progressive metal band Barishi are from New England. The band’s 2016 album “Blood from the Lion’s Mouth” was impressive and made my top 20 for the year on… Continue Reading →
The Black Dahlia Murder have been doing their thing since 2001. I’ve always liked their music but have somehow managed to miss them live, which is my doing not theirs because they’ve played in the UK umpteen times including UK… Continue Reading →
You don’t see “Black Metal Opera” very often but when you think about it, it’s not that far out. Black metal can be bombastic and symphonic. You only have to think of Carach Angren, Dimmu Borgir or Cradle of Filth…. Continue Reading →
ITIMA is the second album release from the one man occult black metal project Titaan. It is also a 46-minute monolith. All the things that you might expect with black metal are here: turbulence, violence, relentlessness, evil. Of course it… Continue Reading →
The title gives the game away: Seims is a math synth rock band, indeed Australia’s premier math synth rock band we’re told. Does anyone out there know of any others? I can’t say that I do. Well, “3” is their… Continue Reading →