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Author John Skibeat

Residing in Cambridge, my time awake is divided between scrambling through moshpits, scribbling on notepads, stuffing my face and hitting a ball from one end t'other. Seriously, I'm not all that complicated. Interests are sport, alcohol and cheese, musical likes include groove, stoner, hardcore and thrash and dislikes are pop, power metal and crunk.

Death Alley – Black Magick Boogieland (Tee Pee Records)

Well, dang, here’s an album with a full-blown strut-worthy, stomp-happy boogie backline. And yet Death Alley isn’t exactly a moniker that you’d associate with such a stone cold groove is it? It turns out that Black Magick Boogieland hasn’t exactly… Continue Reading →

Shakhtyor – Tunguska (Cyclone Empire)

With “demanding full-time jobs”, these Hamburgers’ often struggle to find time to write, practice and record. And yet here they are with their second album having thrashed out a finished product down at Tonmeisterei Studio with producer Roland Wiegener (Omega Massif,… Continue Reading →

Live Albums – Blues Pills v Zodiac (Nuclear Blast / Napalm Records)

This week sees blues rock aficionados Zodiac and Blues Pills both release an album of live material. The former have their Road Tapes, Vol. 1 for sale whilst Blues Pills have the simply-named Blues Pills Live for your delectation. If you… Continue Reading →

Oceanwake – Sunless (ViciSolum)

Oceanwake are Luvia, Finland’s finest and purport to play “arctic experimental metal”. Sunless, their follow-up to debut Kingdom, proves this to be an intriguing amalgamation of Katatonia’s black doom, Enslaved’s dark heart and ISIS’ brooding post-metal. From the off, there is an assault… Continue Reading →

Enslaved – In Times (Nuclear Blast)

When it comes to product, the genre-hopping beast that is Enslaved rarely fail to deliver on quality. Over the years, in spite of their evolution from Norwegian extreme metal to blackened progressive rock, they have produced album after album rammed… Continue Reading →

Izah – Sistere (Nordvis)

This Dutch sextet’s promo blurb describes their debut as a “72-minute long musical narration through darkness and light, hope and despair”. Within they pummel the listener with a combination of sludge-packed crush, barren post-hardcore and black metal affectations before soothing… Continue Reading →

Eldorado – Babylonia Haze (S/R)

There’s a vintage quality to much of the rock n’ roll music that Eldorado peddle. The Madrid quartet are bluesy enough to draw comparison to bands like Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake and Led Zep, but its their groove, moxy and hep… Continue Reading →

Ahamkara – The Embers Of The Stars (Nordvis / Bindrune)

Perhaps their moniker is a reference to Hindu philosophy or, less likely, the dragon-like creature in the massively multiplayer first-person shooting videogame Destiny. One thing is for certain, Ahamkara sure know how to get under your skin. They are Newcastle-Upon-Tyne… Continue Reading →

Periphery – Juggernaut: Alpha / Omega (Century Media)

In the beginning, there was Periphery and Periphery was good. They were loud, they were obnoxious and they were untamed. Yet here we stand, a mere 10 years later, gripping a twin album release, safe in the knowledge that it… Continue Reading →

Lotus Thief – Rervm (Svart Records)

The San Francisco-based duo, Bezalith and Otrebor, have taken a side-step here from their other band, Botanist, to write an album inspired by the 1st Century BC materialist text De Rerum Natura. It translates as The Nature Of Things and… Continue Reading →

Brant Bjork & The Low Desert Punk Band – Black Power Flower (Napalm)

When it comes to musical know-how, you can bet your bottom dollar that Brant Bjork (Ex-Kyuss, Vista Chino) has done it, been there, and bought the t-shirt. So if he decides he wants his music to get heavy then you… Continue Reading →

Sedna – S/T (Drown Within)

“No politics. No religions” screams their biography. Italians Sedna are obviously keen for you to focus on their musical output alone and they needn’t worry. At times abrasive and antagonistic, at others soul-sapping and desolate, their self-titled debut album is… Continue Reading →

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