Tag Blut Aus Nord
…First review of 2016, and what better way to blast away the festering cobwebs of several weeks of enforced joy, than with 40 minutes of searing ambient/industrial black metal, courtesy of two mysterious blokes from France. ‘The Art To Disappear’… Continue Reading →
I think the biggest problem I have with this album from Greek black metal band Awe is that it kind of sounds exactly as I thought it might. Wrapped in some very nice artwork and split into three passages or… Continue Reading →
Now, before I get stuck into this – and get stuck in I most certainly will – I need to clarify my position. I am no enemy of the avant-garde and the surreal, the abstract and the inaccessible. I have… Continue Reading →
Wells Valley, sounds like it could be somewhere in Texas or maybe a leafy gated community in deepest, darkest most expensive Surrey. Nope the band who have adopted this particular moniker reside in Portugal and play what they describe as… Continue Reading →
When it comes to black metal, Poland are a country that really can’t go wrong; from the likes of Cultes Des Ghoules to Mgła, it seems they’re a nation that have perfected the art without paying too much homage to… Continue Reading →
Is there no end to this man’s creativity? Seriously? By ‘this man’, I refer of course to enigmatic Frenchman known as ‘Vindsval’ who across the best part of two decades, has released album after album of mesmerizing, haunting and forward-thinking… Continue Reading →
Splits are odd things. Some, with their highly reactive opposite sides really deserve the ‘Vs.’ tag while others may as well be the same band on both halves. Others still might as well have been released as two EPs, so… Continue Reading →
This lengthy band name, which at first seems to be longer than the two tracks on the album, is in fact a collaboration of two bands. Trepaneringsritualen are an exponent of themes involving occult realms, while Sutekh Hexen, a black… Continue Reading →
‘Mysterious duo ‘. Oft used words but in this case well used as aside from the record label sheet and webpage, I could find very fuck all about them. They are apparently Russian, this is their debut EP and it… Continue Reading →
Its records like this that make this whole album reviewing business feel worthwhile. Seemingly coming out of nowhere and promising big things, it is hugely refreshing to find that – for once – the label hyperbole regarding an album is… Continue Reading →
If only there was another way of describing the various forms of ‘post’ black metal without being as totally dismissive and casually offensive as that description implies. It’s a label that’s almost impossible to get excited about and suggests a… Continue Reading →
Temple of Baal have spent years limbering up with split releases and the occasional full-length. Years of picking up fans and a few decent reviews here and there. Probably sweat, almost certainly blood although, I suspect, not very many tears:… Continue Reading →