Author Reverend Darkstanley
Mortichnia, or ‘death march’ is the chilling term given to the last steps of a creature before it meets its maker (unless, and let’s be honest about this, unless its maker is merely a random and unlikely series of chemical… Continue Reading →
Arkhe main man András Nagy has produced some decent black metal with his main band Sear Bliss. So it was intriguing to see how that might translate into another project which promised to be drawn up from a blank sheet…. Continue Reading →
Wyrd are probably best known for their very ethereal take on pagan black metal which was exemplified on earlier albums and very much excelled at. Heathen and Huldrafolk and the three albums that followed are pretty much bona fide classics… Continue Reading →
Let me start by being completely upfront. This is Moonsorrow’s best album for more than a decade. Perhaps even one of their best yet. It’s a melting pot of all that has gone before and if you’re not hooked in… Continue Reading →
The brand of occult black metal that Ill Omen excels at exists somewhere in the realms between Deathspell Omega dissonance, funeral doom and pure ritualistic noise. It’s the kind of album that’s probably going to click right into your listening… Continue Reading →
Next in line for the bands-who-should-be-bigger award this year is Phazm who, arguably, only have themselves to blame after an eight year hiatus that is the sort of thing that can only really be career limiting for a band still… Continue Reading →
It’s good to see that metal is finally moving away from what has become a bit of a well-worn cliché, the female operatic singer. Not that I’m not partial to the odd bit of Floor, Tarja or Liv, but come… Continue Reading →
Human Fortress launched their career with two well-aimed, iron-tipped, power metal ballistae — and the second of those, 2003’s Defenders of the Crown, could easily make my all-time top ten albums from that genre. The medieval-coated piece of genius was… Continue Reading →
Ovtrenoir might be “post” metal but their debut release Eroded is as heavy as a constipated elephant turd wrapped in chainmail. I’ve never quite worked out what all this ‘post’ nonsense is about anyway and it always sounds a bit… Continue Reading →
Dissvarth’s starry-eyed debut is the latest from Australia’s extreme metal creative force Dis Pater also known for Midnight Odyssey. In his other projects, Pater manages to blend his unique mix of black metal, funeral doom and keyboard-soaked ideas into boundless… Continue Reading →
Do not adjust your set. This is Noise tuning straight into your slaughterhouse with some darkly gothic drone that sounds like a depressed Danzig in one of his bleakest Samhain moments. Ritualistic (as the title might suggest), sparsely populated and with… Continue Reading →
After seriously enjoying some recent epic masterworks from Monolithe and other entities from the more ambitious end of the doom death and funeral doom fraternity, I was keen to get my decimated ear drums around this debut from Norway’s Abyssic…. Continue Reading →