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Author Spenny

It is now a new decade, and the last time my Ave Noctum bio was updated, it was 2014. So much has changed since then, not least my time ravaged hulk having reached its half century. Vinyl has gone from being a thing of memory to a thing for the trendy and hip (but try going for a walk with that stereo in your pocket!), and tapes have gone from being a best forgotten “fragile”, in every sense of the word, memory, to the most kvlt of the kvlt and grimm offering! What has not changed, however, is my dedication to hard rock and heavy metal. Indeed, my formative years were saturated by the likes of Cream, Deep Purple, Queen, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Genesis, Yes, and their ilk, as well as healthy chunks of Motown on the turntable that was the pre-internet stereophonic centre for entertainment in my mother's 70's single parent household, and my first “concert of choice” (I exclude some I was taken to/performed in against my will) was Motörhead in 1984 in Manchester. However, after living through the heyday of thrash when the “Big Four” were young and hungry, I still revel in the new generations of musicians who rally against the written by committee and autotuned blandness of modern popular music. Every couple of years the popular press features articles about “the death of rock”, whilst lauding the latest autotuned flash in the pan act, and then does a volte face to promote a short lived NME bait guitar act, but the fact is that metal and hard rock lives, and indeed thrives, below the radar of popular consciousness, and I, like my fellow Ave Noctum scribes, revel in that world. So, keep reading, keep supporting the scene you love by buying the music, purchasing merch, and going to the shows, and here's to another decade of excellent music that sticks a stiffly raised middle finger in the direction of popular opinion.

Temple of Deimos – Heading to Saint Reaper (Argonauta Records)

Cards on the table time folks; despite being supposedly “knowledgeable of” and “in tune with” the current stoner sound, an impression apparently formed by those who have met me, but are not close to me, I’m no oracle of the… Continue Reading →

Eric Wagner – In The Lonely Light of Mourning (Cruz Del Sur Music)

It’s a Saturday night. I’ve just had a really good time with friends over for dinner, drinks, a good movie, and a good chat. The house is now silent, with mates away and my better half abed, and I am… Continue Reading →

Crowbar – Zero and Below (MNRK)

For no less than 32 years now Kirk Windstein has been leading Crowbar into battle, armed with a sonic arsenal of weaponised riffs that can crush concrete into dust. As such, when their impending twelfth album ‘Zero and Below’ arrived… Continue Reading →

Kryptograf – The Eldorado Spell (Apollon Music)

For many months now I’ve been slowly formulating the theory that the esteemed editor of the review site that you are currently perusing has been gaslighting me by sending nothing but wave after wave of Swedish rock and metal for… Continue Reading →

Volcanova – Cosmic Bullshit (The Sign Records)

Some eighteen months ago, should you care to peruse prior reviews on Ave Noctum, I was waxing lyrical on the undoubted virtues of Icelandic three piece Volcanova and their first album ‘Radical Waves’. Ah, eighteen months ago, the heady days… Continue Reading →

Earthless – Night Parade Of One Hundred Demons (Nuclear Blast)

Blimey! Has it really been four whole years since I last reviewed some new Earthless? A quick click or two (see Ave Noctum passim) confirms that this is sadly the case, specifically their rather excellent ‘Black Heaven’. Now, what the… Continue Reading →

Stranger In My Town – Vol. II (S/R)

Whilst stoner rock is a sub-genre of music that could have been created for the sake of instrumental albums, I mean, who wants all the hassle of like remembering lyrics man, such acts are very much in a minority. There… Continue Reading →

Magnum – The Monster Roars (Steamhammer/SPV)

The strap-line for the site you are kindly reading proclaims that it is your source for the “atmospheric and extreme”, and lurking amongst the pages are bands with sounds and aesthetics that seem to have been vomited from the depths… Continue Reading →

Kosmodome – Kosmodome (Karisma Records)

Charisma Records, as any chin stroker should know, was the legendary British home of Prog through the seventies before disappearing under the weight of assorted mergers and buy outs.  Whilst not in any way associated with the original label, there… Continue Reading →

The Spacelords – Unknown Species (Tonzonen Records)

It’s been four years since I last reviewed an album by Germanic psychedelic trio The Spacelords, the esteemed editor having given judgement on their 2020 release (see Ave Noctum passim), so it will be interesting to discover how they have… Continue Reading →

Apostle of Solitude – Until The Darkness Goes (Cruz del Sur)

It’s fair to say that for many reasons the last couple of years have been a real pisser with pretty much all but essential trade and businesses prevented from carrying on, and there only now being a slow return to… Continue Reading →

Monolord – Your Time To Shine (Relapse)

Well, well, well, whoda thunkit? Once again the esteemed editor of this online zine you are reading has decided that what I need is yet more music hailing from the land of Sweden, and you know what, he’s damn right!… Continue Reading →

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