Author Andrew Doherty
An interesting fact, well to me anyway, that I discovered about The Crotals is that instead of using a bass they use a baritone guitar. This fits quite nicely as the Swiss band’s music of preference, judging by this album,… Continue Reading →
The whole concept of this is unusual. This album is a tribute to three scientists – Halley, Hooke and Newton, hence the “Apples” presumably and their relevance of the discovery of gravity. It is explained further that these scientists operated… Continue Reading →
Two black metal bands from the forested region of the Netherlands have joined together for this split. “De Oord” refers to a region where two rivers meet, in this case the Rhine and the Waal. With references to rivers and… Continue Reading →
This is a fascinating work. “Toteninsel” or “Island of the Dead” is the name of a painting by the Swiss Symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin. This album is based on the imagery of that painting. Farsot, who in their time have… Continue Reading →
On the face of it, this looked very hippy trippy with references to ayahuasca-inspired music, Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead and Spiritualized. So I prepared for a spaced-out experience. I thought Mike Oldfield had taken over when I first started… Continue Reading →
There’s experimental and there’s experimental. I read that “Virgin Cuts”, the band’s fifth album, “leads the listener into a sonic loophole between noise-infested rock, droney landscapes, new age minimalism and dusty afro-tripping”. Sure enough, although each of these strange pieces… Continue Reading →
In spite of the name, Au-Dessus are from Lithuania. I had the pleasure of listening to their first album “End of Chapter” last year. That one was an atmospheric and intense work of post black metal. This work is a… Continue Reading →
Norwegian band Manes recently released “Slow Motion Death Sequence”, their fifth album. This is a band which has experienced various transformations and name changes since 1991, but whose music has always been unusual and on the edge. To find out… Continue Reading →
I can’t speak highly enough of Kingcrow’s two previous albums “In Crescendo” (2013) and “Eidos” (2015). Both are far-reaching immaculately structured collections of progressive metal songs. So naturally I was hoping for more of the same from “Persistence”, the seventh… Continue Reading →
Circles first came to me this year when I saw that they were coming all the way from Australia along with compatriots Caligula’s Horse to play at ProgPower Europe. “The Last One” is their second album release after “Infinitas” (2013)…. Continue Reading →
“Minus” is the fourth album release from Krakow. The album I know best is their second, Diin (2012), which is unremittingly grey and bleak. I prepared myself for another desolate journey. Sure enough the patient lumbering tones of developing post… Continue Reading →
On the face of it, this is just weird. Psychotropic Transcendental is a progressive band from Poland purveying “narcotic porn metal”. The band history seemingly saw them split up in 2008 after one album release and now re-appearing with another… Continue Reading →