Author Frank Allain
Talk about being wrong-footed. This record may have been released on the niche Swedish label Nordvis and it may feature a snow-drenched, misty landscape on its cover but in all honesty, that is where any similarities with the form of… Continue Reading →
Featuring members of the short-lived but much vaunted Alchemyst, Thuringian outfit Vivus Humare formed way back in 2007 but it is only now, nearly eight years later, that they present a full-length recording to the world courtesy of the ever-reliable… Continue Reading →
Dysanglium exploded onto my radar earlier this year with the release of their punishing ‘Leviaxxis’ demo which was distributed by World Terror Committee. The young Germans delivered three tracks of punishing blasphemic spite that demonstrated a knack for concise composition… Continue Reading →
I don’t think it would be exaggeration to state that this album has been much-anticipated in certain quarters. Storming onto the underground black metal scene in 2009 with their ferocious EP ‘With Burning Tongue’, the Germans swiftly followed this up… Continue Reading →
Sumptuous, billowing melodic doom here from this young Ukrainian outfit, ‘All Alone with the Thoughts’ is a surprisingly deft and mature debut. The album artwork, title and song titles may be a little bit floppy (‘Being Lonely’? Really?) but we… Continue Reading →
Let’s face it, a new Primordial album is always something of a special event these days – from the moment the band truly unfurled their songwriting wings on 1998’s ‘Journey’s End’ album, has there been another act in the extreme… Continue Reading →
It’s been a while – over six years – since Animus Mortis released their debut album ‘Atrabilis (Residues from Verb & Flesh)’ and much has changed within the black metal scene since then. Despite this, Animus Mortis’s music has always… Continue Reading →
Yeah, that’s one mouthful of a title (the fear of the number ‘666’ apparently) but we’ll get onto that later. More significantly, this release underlines the fact that the godfathers of depressive black metal are back and mean business –… Continue Reading →
Is there no end to this man’s creativity? Seriously? By ‘this man’, I refer of course to enigmatic Frenchman known as ‘Vindsval’ who across the best part of two decades, has released album after album of mesmerizing, haunting and forward-thinking… Continue Reading →
Now this got me excited I must say – ‘true’ heavy metal citing such legendary acts as Cirith Ungol, Uriah Heep and Warlord as influences, cloaked in the sort of obscure, dusty post-NWOBHM atmosphere that I personally find so intoxicating,… Continue Reading →
From the off, this album simply screams ‘now’ – a wistful, female-fronted power trio delivering arcane-tinged, esoteric hymns through the medium of ethereal vocals, quasi-tribal percussion and metal-tinged riffing from the (obligatory) big-bearded guitarist. Cloaked in an autumnal ambience and… Continue Reading →
When Duncan Patterson left Anathema in 1999 after the release of their highly-regarded ‘Alternative 4’ album, a fair few commentators speculated that this could spell serious trouble for the group. A founder member and principle songwriter (alongside guitarist Daniel Cavanagh),… Continue Reading →