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Author Nick Griffiths

Having grown up on a diet of ABBA, The Carpenters, Leo Sayer (Mum), Cream, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and The Beatles (Dad), it was a stormy night under canvas in the wilds of Wales where I first heard the Winston Churchill speech that proceeds ‘Aces High’ from Iron Maiden’s ‘Live After Death’ where life changed for the better. That’s not to say that this was THE pivotal moment of my life (the good lady indoors and two children may get slightly truculent if I were to suggest as much) but it’s certainly up there. Listening, wearing, watching and being into Metal is one of life’s great honours and whilst it may be far from conventional and not a broad representation of the society where we live, I think that’s the point. We are different, we like it loud, noisy, nasty and in your face. Hearing that first chord, feeling that first double kick drum, that initial growl, your first t-shirt (Anthrax Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.)) …moments of pure majesty that endure for a lifetime. Luckily, I get to ramble on here after doing so in Raw, Kerrang, Metal Hammer, NME, Rock Sound, and Terrorizer over the last 25 years. It’s still as much fun reviewing music today, as it was for my first ever published ramblings (Nuclear Assault ‘Live At Hammersmith Odeon’ - never has a 140 word review been so drastically sub edited) to the last one I did 5 minutes ago. Nice Fucking Life!

KEN mode – VOID (Artoffact Records)

Having had the pleasure of bathing in KEN mode’s particular oily ooze whilst reviewing their last full-length album (2022s ‘Null’) it proved almost impossible to fully grasp what the band were attempting. Re reading the slightly hysterical and hyperbolic praise… Continue Reading →

Great Falls – Objects Without Pain (Neurot Recordings)

Cards on the table, I have been immensely fortunate to have been gifted the opportunity this summer to have six weeks paid holiday and whilst not wanting this first paragraph to come across as a gloating puss filled, humblebrag conceitful… Continue Reading →

Tortured – Genetically Engineered Monstrosity (Comatose Music)

It’s been a while since I have put quill to parchment having been busy doing other things that are far less interesting and involve proper work, rather than flouncing about casting off prose and witty bon moots to remind myself… Continue Reading →

Pupil Slicer – Blossom (Prosthetic Records)

Sometimes, just sometimes, I can reflect on review for bands that I have been privileged enough to write for Ave Noctum and allow myself to luxuriate and say, ‘I told you so’. And so, it has come to pass, that… Continue Reading →

Herod – Iconoclast (Pelagic Records)

Sitting at my place of work for a change and rather than staring at the flora and fauna and phalanxes of ants and battalions of birds in my glorified shed at the bottom of my garden, I am in the… Continue Reading →

Jesus Piece – …So Unknown (Century Media)

It’s not often that you get caught off your guard and welcome the subsequent feeling. It’s not good in the sense of say getting caught off your guard by a lion whilst on safari in the Masai Mara Reserve in… Continue Reading →

healthyliving – Songs Of Abundance, Psalms of Grief (La Rubia Producciones)

Whilst attempting to tame technology to do my bidding and failing quite miserably, I finally manage to take a tour on the dusty backroads of the internet where you usually find all the good things. Not the rain slicked, hyper… Continue Reading →

Suicide Silence – Remember…You Must Die (Century Media)

It seems like a lifetime ago that I sat down to listen to Suicide Silence, and it happened to be at the behest of this esteemed closet of pain and boils that manifests itself as Ave Noctum, to sit in… Continue Reading →

71Tonman – Of End Times (Transcending Obscurity)

Even the name of 71Tonman’s hometown of Wrolclaw, Poland, seems like an apt, ne prescient slice of nominative determinism, being as the band’s raison d’etre is an ominous, slow and brutally dense wedge of sludge metal. Comprising just four tracks,… Continue Reading →

Venomous Concept – The Good Ship Lollipop (Graphite Records)

I’ve always hated the term supergroup, it sends icy tendrils into my bowels turning me into a chocolate poo machine, causing my intestines to spasm and rendering my jeans into a waterslide of excrement. I mean of course it doesn’t,… Continue Reading →

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