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Furiously paced melodic death metal is an oversubscribed club these days but when it’s done with such panache the door is always open. Influenced by a host of bands, which mostly ran out of steam a few years ago, these… Continue Reading →
I’m tempted to say here we are again. Five years on since the sonic explosion that was Trivmvirate and the new album Tetragrammaton has landed. Let’s just clear up a couple of issues straight away. Yes, this is the same… Continue Reading →
Back in the day, it was unlikely the flute would make it into the line-up of any decent heavy metal band. To most heavy metal fans it is the aural equivalent of chewing on a lemon. The flute, like its… Continue Reading →
Sardinia doesn’t immediately strike me as a natural hot-bed for black metal so much as a place my mother-in-law might go for a summer break. Maybe such preconceptions are enough to drive the kind of seething hatred clearly present on… Continue Reading →
Doom bands are too often failed by the singers. I include in that term all the obvious associated heavy-as-an-anvil-on-the-head sludge and stoner genres but let’s focus on doom specifically for a moment. Huge slabs of portentous music making hearts bust… Continue Reading →
As last album by these fantastically named slushers ended up in my review pile it was natural that I picked the new one out from the pile of discs sent over courtesy of Russian label Solitude Productions and their associated… Continue Reading →
Norwegian overlords, Aeturnus return with a killer album and a new line up. It’s a splendid mix of classic Scandinavian Death Metal with melodic touches and provides a crushingly heavy and dark work for those who still love the classical… Continue Reading →
I’ve heard some excellent EPs over recent months and here’s another one. Forlorn Chambers is a young band from Finland that superbly brings together several styles that sounds like the work of some very inspired individuals. Death metal vocals, black… Continue Reading →
Melodic death metal is often maligned these days but nevertheless always feels as if it could just be on the cusp of greatness. Like a surge of power metal exuberance meets death metal’s fearsome intensity and wizardry. What could possibly… Continue Reading →
Scary photos and talk of death must have frightened the original reviewer who was meant to be covering this one off, luckily I am made of sterner stuff and it is going to take more than a clan of sinister… Continue Reading →
A re-worked version of a 2009 demo, ‘Disciples of the Hex’ is the debut album by this Lancashire-based doom/death trio. The first thing that struck me when I headed to the band’s metal archives page was just how Celtic Frost-y… Continue Reading →
It’s interesting how far metal has come since the days of beer, long hair and jeans. I mean, most metal fans have had their guilty pleasures (I’ll resist the urge to list mine here) but in the old days your… Continue Reading →