Author Andrew Doherty
I enjoyed Cruachan’s 2014 “Blood for the Blood God” album so it was a pleasure to receive the Celtic folk metal band’s ninth album release “Nine Years of Blood”. Stormy conditions greet us. Straightaway we are taken into epic heathen… Continue Reading →
Serum Dreg sounds like an anagram to me. I can see murder and greed in there. The reality is that this debut from the US black metallers concentrates on the worship of sex, hedonism and ritualistic chaos. The fact that… Continue Reading →
This work of dark symphonic metal is Italian band Asphodelia’s first full album release. This surprised me as I heard the opening title track. Confident and powerful to the core, the build up is both symphonic and epic. There’s a… Continue Reading →
No-one could ever say that Greece isn’t good for black metal as well as history and holidays, amongst other things. Nigredo, as you will gather, fit this bill, and are now following up their 2015 EP “Facets of Death” with… Continue Reading →
Although paraded as a death metal band, Ghastly’s ghoulish sound has more than a hallmark of maggot-ridden black metal about it. It’s interesting to read of a recognised affinity with Darkthrone’s “Soulside Journey”, but also with the likes of Execration… Continue Reading →
I’ve doubtless gone on record as saying how much I liked Crematory’s “Revolution” album (2004) and how everything since has been a worthy offshoot of that, but I say it again as I now consider the merits of “Oblivion”, the… Continue Reading →
I’ve lived in Cambridge for almost 6 years now, and apart from reviewing one album by a locally-based band, to my discredit I have had no knowledge of or encounter with the local metal scene until now. I was aware… Continue Reading →
I just liked the whole weirdness, or perhaps I should call it creativity behind this album. Inhumankind is a duo from Barcelona, one a flutist, the other a double bass player. “Self-Extinction” takes us beyond the boundaries of experimentalism and… Continue Reading →
I understand that this album is a re-release on the basis that the original had limited exposure, as is the way when bands on a limited budget can only do so much. Now released through the Aesthetic Death label and… Continue Reading →
Norwegian band Befouled’s death metal style is said to be for fans of Dismember, Entombed, Bolt Thrower, Unleashed and At The Gates amongst others. What I experienced here was death metal at the thrashier end, with drums going thirteen to… Continue Reading →
With moons and skies and stars and cosmic whales featuring in the titles, there’s more than a suggestion of a celestial journey about this album. Vrath, the person at the centre of this symphonic ambient black metal project from France,… Continue Reading →
Calm tones turn to anguish and rage. This is Atra Vetosus from Australia. As the band played on majestically, it was if someone had set fire to the howling vocalist. Nature and paganism came to mind as I listened to… Continue Reading →