Author Reverend Darkstanley
Some albums thunder towards you like a line of fully-plated cavalry with armour and shining swords flashing in the blazing sun, while others prefer to sneak up on you from the shadows. Labyrinth Entrance – full marks for a great… Continue Reading →
Hard to believe that Monolithe is now on its seventh album, and still up to its old tricks – seventh album, seven tracks, each at seven minutes, there are seven musicians that worked on this album, the first letter of… Continue Reading →
Ocean of Grief’s debut EP Fortress of My Dark Self caused a bit of a stir in the doom metal underground with its grand and doleful lamentation that left many a doom death-monger in pit of euphoric dejection. Is this… Continue Reading →
Black metal has its innovators and then it has individuals like Jute Gyte’s Adam Kalmbach and Ayloss from Spectral Lore. Kalmbach is nothing short of prolific with 27 full-length albums since 2006, perhaps not that unusual in the black metal… Continue Reading →
It takes me about a minute to realise that Anvil’s first track Bitch in the Box isn’t about matricide or anything so eeeeeevil and metal. How things have changed. When I first picked up an Anvil record, Forged in Fire,… Continue Reading →
Ofdrykkja has come a long way since its first release, the beguiling (if that’s the right word for a self-confessed depressive suicidal black metal band) and harrowing A Life Worth Losing in 2014. Back then things were strictly lo-fi but… Continue Reading →
Gunning for longest album title of the year contender with a late entry comes The Clearing Path with, er, well, let’s just call it ‘Watershed’. (Ok, I realise that this is black metal and the consumption of an entire Thesaurus… Continue Reading →
What is even more shocking than Iceland’s recent rampant assault on the black metal scene (yes, we’re all still going on about it) is that it took so bloody long. I mean, sure Norway has the fjords and the mountains,… Continue Reading →
Over The Voids… contains all the ingredients of a classic Nordvis release. Treble overload for full early-90s second wave salute? Check. Chunky, battering vocals that sound like an angry Yeti finally succumbing to the frostbite of an endless winter storm?… Continue Reading →
There have always been two elements to Ixion’s sound – the funeral doom slog and the uplifting keyboard vibes to balance it all out. It worked nicely on Into the Void, which was more what most would consider to be… Continue Reading →
Caïnan Dawn’s last opus hit me like a lorry load of corpse paint. Rumbling, muscular black metal with a mission to drown you in wave upon wave of bass-heavy sound that requires nothing more of you than to stop, listen… Continue Reading →
It, quite rightly, takes a lot for a black metal album to impress these days. So when one lands from a Swedish band with five albums already under their belt, you can’t help but brace for a journeyman effort with… Continue Reading →