Having been introduced to metal by my older brother (who was an 80s thrasher with a love for NWOBHM), I caught the metal bug by association from a very early age. My tastes have changed a lot over the years, beginning with Metallica and Iron Maiden and culminating in just about everything extreme and underground. My main loves are slimy/occult death metal, teeth-grinding/neck-rending thrash, frostbitten black metal, crushing doom and blasting grindcore – what’s not to love there? I’ve worked in the music industry as a music buyer for an online retailer for the best part of 10 years so have a wide range of knowledge of most genres of music, but metal has always been my bag. I’ve also been writing on and off about metal for many years now, reviewing for various zines including a stint with Ave Noctum’s previous incarnation as Metal Team UK. I’ve always loved to tout out the underground metal scene like some filth dealer in an Amsterdam back street (but without the STDs). In my spare time I like to add good shit to my ever growing and unstable CD collection, dabble in smelly vinyl and dust off my dubbed tapes from my trading days, hoping with clenched bum that they aren’t inexplicably chewed to buggery. I’m born and bred in Oxfordshire, have Danish ancestry, like shit jokes, play guitar fast, like my beer cold (unless I’m on ales, in which case – don’t mind) and can usually be found dressed in all black with an unreadable logo emblazoned across my chest.
Darkrise were an unknown quantity to me before pressing play on their new release, even though ‘Realeyes’ is in fact the fourth full length album from this Swiss five piece since they formed back in the late 90s. Hell, I’ll… Continue Reading →