Author Gizmo
This album, Valefor’s second full length, has been out a while, but as is the way with things it has only just made its way through the Ave Noctum gates. Being as it’s a one man Turkish depressive black metal… Continue Reading →
On the face of it Benedictum have a lot going for them: In guitarist and main songwriter Pete Wells they have a really muscular musician with an ear for the big riff and no urge to be over flashy with… Continue Reading →
Ah, another album where I can drag out the hoary old cliche “I’m old enough to remember when their debut came out… “. True, I do remember the Danes’ ‘Fear Of Tomorrow ‘ but frankly as I’ve heard nothing since,… Continue Reading →
Sometimes it seems that Wolves In The Throne Room can’t do right for doing wrong to the Kvlter Than Thou crowd and this release, as it dares to be recorded at the BBC at their Maida Vale studio probably won’t… Continue Reading →
The main dead men we are down amongst here are Dave ‘Bolt Thrower Benediction’ Ingram and Rogga ‘Paganizer, Ribspreader’, Johansson, ably abetted by fellow Paganizer and Ribspreader Dennis Blomberg and with studio drummer Erik R Bevenrud. And what might these… Continue Reading →
With the re-release of an album like Viva Emptiness it’s as well for me to state where I stand on the original. I owe Katatonia more than most bands as, without being overly dramatic ‘Discouraged Ones’ had a definite hand… Continue Reading →
Despite a career stretching back to around 1993, and recordings from only a couple of years later, this is the first time the name Handful Of Hate has crossed my horizons, let alone heard them. But with Code 666 backing… Continue Reading →
These days I’m not surprised when another funeral doom band I don’t know crosses my path. They secrete themselves in quiet corners and like ghosts they vanish when you search for them. Publicity shy often, deeply personal invariably, they can… Continue Reading →
It’s taken a while for Cursed 13 (previously Cursed 666) to get to debut album stage, but as their “PR” sheet mutters “You probably don’t give a rat’s ass about ancient shit.” Worth looking it up yourself though if for… Continue Reading →
I’m genuinely not sure if it’s a good or bad thing when my first reaction to the opening track here, ‘Downtown’ has me going “Firebird!” I mean nice company to be sure, but such an immediate and strong connection? It… Continue Reading →
More often than not I’ve been more than a little underwhelmed by the Norwegian black metal scene’s side projects and super-groups of the last decade. All they ever seemed to create was a compromised sound of the sum of their… Continue Reading →
Ah, horror movie samples. Always guaranteed to make me feel my age when I struggle to place them. But of the lovely rich tones reaching out here, I am certain one is The Devil Rides Out, and t’other may be… Continue Reading →