Tag Bethlehem
Landing at the tail end of last year ‘Ode to Acts of Murder, Dystopia and Suicide’ was an album that wrapped up 2017 with a more than healthy blast of negativity. One could be forgiven for having all but… Continue Reading →
What a delightful album title, fair warms the cockles and caresses the soul. Well at least someone looking to buy a loved one a present this festering season can’t be excused for making a mistake and it could be given… Continue Reading →
Starting out as a black/doom metal band in 1991 in Germany, 25 years on and many many more line-up changes later, bassist/guitarist Jürgen Bartsch is the only remaining founding member, with long time drummer Wolz retaking his 12 year post… Continue Reading →
Darkness has become very dark indeed these days. Rarely is that more so than in the work of Ævangelist mastermind Matron Thorn whose black metal has been providing a cutting edge for the scene for some time now – with… Continue Reading →
Mix black metal with punk and the French predilection for the bizarre and the grotesque, and you get an opener which sounds like Enslaved. Born largely of the eccentric Doctor Livingstone and Arkhon Infaustus, Sektemtum have released this album as… Continue Reading →
Dark, decedent and delicious are all words that come to me when listening to German band Valborg’s fifth album. Although they have been around for a while and released quite a bit this is my first encounter with them and… Continue Reading →
There’s a good chance you have already hungrily devoured Black Metal – Evolution Of The Cult, the authoritative tome and the most essential book on the genre in years, released at the tail end of 2013. If not you should… Continue Reading →
Yeah, that’s one mouthful of a title (the fear of the number ‘666’ apparently) but we’ll get onto that later. More significantly, this release underlines the fact that the godfathers of depressive black metal are back and mean business –… Continue Reading →
I once saw a review for some terrible computer game in which the writer observed that “On the way home, I briefly considered driving my car off a cliff so I wouldn’t have to play it any more”. I only… Continue Reading →
Darktrance is the project of sole member Deimos (also of Cold Resistance and Dargoth), a Ukrainian dark metal band which was created in 2007. ‘Pessimum’ is the projects third album, purveying a twisted brand of doomy dark metal that brims… Continue Reading →
This bands debut, “In Bloodline With The Snake”, from 2009 was a worthy if predictable addition to the German black metal scene with harsh frostbitten rawness creating the purist view of black metal. Some four years later and we are… Continue Reading →
These eclectic Germans came up in a random conversation in a pub a month ago, piquing my interest, so when this album arrived on my desk it felt as if fate were intervening. Porta Nigra are one of those rare… Continue Reading →