Author Andrew Doherty
I have it on good authority that Todesstoß’s previous album “Hirngemeer” was deeply dark and disturbing. This single track follow-up from musician, poet and painter Martin Lang promises something “more hallucinatory and mysterious”. We are transported to a gloomy and… Continue Reading →
Stand up and be counted. This grinding deathcore blast from Australia’s Aversions Crown comes with regulation brutality. Whispering tones linger behind the sheer violence and power of “Prismatic Abyss”. Pummelling and rapid fire-drums lead the murderous death growls but with… Continue Reading →
“A burning black sphere of sinuous torment” is the offer from Portugal’s The Ominous Circle. You may gather, correctly, that dark ambience is at the centre of this work. Chasmic voids and echoing deathly growls dominate “Heart Girt with a… Continue Reading →
This six track EP comprises three re-worked pieces from the 2015 album “Mut” and one from each of the Londoners’ first three albums. What’s noticeable about the first track “On Blinding Larks” is its lingering nature. It hangs in the… Continue Reading →
This US band’s sixth album promises “extreme metal and polarising tension”. The essential framework, at least to start, is harsh reflective post metal recalling wildernesses and epic scenes. Large chords abound but the ferocious winds and indeed growls die down… Continue Reading →
If instrumental albums suggest that there’s something missing, check this out. It has to be said of course that instrumental albums have no obstacles and the only vehicles for telling the story, if there is one, are the dynamism of… Continue Reading →
Black Anvil’s fourth album release promises similar ferocity to its three predecessors with added atmosphere and melody which New York bands in general aren’t really known for. Normally I’d expect gritty reality and broken teeth. “As Was” is not like… Continue Reading →
Living in Cambridge, I’d given up on the idea there were any decent local metal bands. It may have an international folk festival but it’s a metal desert. Of course there’s Fen, The Infernal Sea, Eastern Front, Black Polaris and… Continue Reading →
Paraded as a “novel blend of black metal, death metal and doom”, the publicity for this album draws in such names as Marduk, Immortal, Emperor, Candlemass and Angel Witch. It all sounds too much for me. Sure enough, the opening… Continue Reading →
Raspail is a very interesting project. Formed by former members of Novembre, Klimt 1918, Psychotic Despair and Room with a View, they describe “Dirge” pictorially and vividly: “the old rural landscape all around Rome, cherished by the Romantic poets, with… Continue Reading →
Before receiving this album, I couldn’t have told you how many albums Root have released. It just seems they have been around forever. “Kärgeräs – Return from Oblivion” is in fact the band’s tenth. I own one of them –… Continue Reading →
I’ve been following the progress of John Bassett for a while now, first through a couple of releases from his Hastings-based band King Bathmat, then there was a solo album and now a third album from Arcade Messiah. What is… Continue Reading →