Author Reverend Darkstanley
My Dying Bride have a lot to answer for if, as I suspect, the proliferation of doom death bands across various parts of Europe can be laid at their feet. But while with My Dying Bride you can hear the… Continue Reading →
If the last Acherontas album was ambitious in its scope, then this is on another level altogether. Amenti saw Acherontas spreading their leathery wings in ever more promising directions with some solid occult-laden black metal bathed in a backdrop of… Continue Reading →
It’s something of an understatement so say that this album has been highly anticipated – by me and a growing band of Melechesh acolytes. No band to my knowledge has quite managed to engineer the combination of eastern scales with… Continue Reading →
The stars seem to be drifting into alignment for Dødsfall at the moment. I say this not only because I’m still reeling from the impact of the excellent Skygge album Antiqua Ignis last month, which featured Dødsfall vocalist Adramelech. Okay… Continue Reading →
Ever get that sinking feeling? Paths would be very disappointed if you didn’t. Describing the sound as ‘deep atmospheric black metal’, the band’s mastermind has been perfecting his bleak, organic, Norse-inspired metal sound for a couple of years now and… Continue Reading →
For their first full-length, Polish black metallers Lęk bring forth a malevolently melodic blast with Swedish occult sensibilities. Just because these guys are from Poland shouldn’t take away from the fact that this is intense riffing which salutes the finest… Continue Reading →
Behemoth fan? Addicted to Vader? Then the chances are you’ve already dabbled with a bit of Hate. If you have I probably don’t even need to say at this point that they’re from Poland and, although this next fact is… Continue Reading →
I was toying with the idea of trying a few new metal pastures this year after a fairly ‘black’ year last year. But sometimes you just have to follow where those foetid winds take you and, three weeks into the… Continue Reading →
Had anyone feared that Freiburg’s Finsterforst might have opted for a radical departure from the winning formula of their last album Rastlos, rest easy. Not only is that atmospheric pagan metal sound still fully intact, this might as well be… Continue Reading →
After giving Spectral Lore’s album ‘III’ the top spot in my end of year rankings for 2014, I was, as you might expect, pretty bloody delighted to hear recently that they were planning to release a split at some point… Continue Reading →
Grafvitnir are a black metal band in the grim, frostbitten and occult-laced Swedish tradition and this second outing commences like a howling, spirit-infested hurricane. In fact, speed and searing melody are pretty much a constant throughout as the band adheres… Continue Reading →
Funeral doom is the ultimate slow-burn and, as a result, always has the same impending potential as that drifting iceberg lying in wait for the Titanic. It can be a long wait in cold dark waters but when the crunch… Continue Reading →