Archive for November 2023

The one outlier in the Repulsion / Genocide canon. Throughout the band’s history you can track the development of the sound from start to end. On the Final Demo however, things take a turn, perhaps in line with changing of the gaurd musically, in regards to the zeitgeist. Musically, things take a turn towards what can be compared to shit like Impetigo; that loose thrash sound with the heaviness of death metal. Scott is growling…

Doesn’t hold a candle to the Horrified sessions but its cool to hear some longer tracks from Repulsion. Both of these appear on the 1991 demo too, so this is hardly essential. My one complaint is that the bass drum is a little “soft”, fluffing through the mix like a giant pillow. Otherwise, this old school sound fucking rules.

Like having fallen into an alternative dimension and this is their version of Repulsion’s Horrified. This is so similar yet so different to the version that we all know and love. The production is different, and there’s a few different songs here that didn’t make it to Horrified era, such as the excellently titled “Crypt Of Terror” (if there’s not a zine named after that then there needs to be). But yeah this shit is…

Clearer and more precise than the earlier rehearsal demo, which a bit of a trainwreck despite its historical status. Here tracks are more fully formed, and we can see where the band are headed in regards to the formation of their sound. Well worth checking out.

Does it sound like complete and utter ass? Yes. Are the instruments a bass guitar, a cheese grater and a cardboard box? Sure as fuck sounds like it. Is it an important rehearsal demo in the history / development of extreme music? You can bet your life it is, so it is worth checking out for that alone. Hearing the proto-version of “Stench Of Burning Death” in the form of “Cracks Of Doom” is so…

What can I say that hasn’t already been said before? Horrified (or is that HorRIFFied am I right?) is a turning point in the direction of underground and / or extreme metal. It marks the point where thrash broke of distinctly into what would become grindcore. Dave Grave’s blastbeats are one of the earliest examples of such a style, at least being played so prevalently throughout all of the songs. And speaking of songs, their…

My guys, if you like compression, you will love Brutally Deceased! Take lightning fast death metal, give it melody and a few black metal riffs, run it through a HM2 and give it a huge, “modern” production and you’re basically right on the money. Brutal music with a lot going on for sure, but it’s kinda lost a bit behind the wall of noise. Don’t get me wrong when your ears adjust, it’s totally fine,…

You’ve just done a great big fucking chungus of a shit in the toilet bowl. The toilet itself looks like it’s about to fall apart, the porcelain is cracked and stained, and the water pooling at the bottom had a greenish-yellow tint even before your pulsating brownish horror took a dive into it. Your stomach gurgles a deep subhuman roar, and you realise in horror that it’s not your stomach rumbling after dropping such an…

Fucking drums on this fucking thing are faster than a fucking cheetah driving a fucking porsche across the outback, the sheer speed of it melting the fucking asphalt and tyres along with it. Any wildlife that wanders out into the road just gets fucking mowed down and reduced to a bloody smear on the burning road; guts and organs cooking up on the underside of the car. The cheetah likes this smell. On the stereo…

The first real miss from the mostly excellent Immortal. Blizzard Beasts suffers from a sub par production, with what should be an unstoppable barrage of drums being barely audible and buried beneath the hollow muck of the guitar. The riffs are on point however, in the usual frenetic Immortal style. Expect blurs of cold hell in the way of exquisite fretboard wankery (at the lower end of course), but the sound is just a little…

Feel like I’m about to come on here and throw down a J-Dawg style rant about the botched fucking digital release of this shit. Whichever asshat uploaded this to streaming services has ripped it straight from a tape or busted up vinyl copy by the sounds of it – it sounds like complete dogshit. I have the vinyl too and I’m fucking positive that it didn’t sound this bad. But hey, it’s been a minute……

Beautiful little EP / single, but one that is over fairly quickly. The takes of Cathedral Of Tears are great, as are the live tracks from early albums performed live in a slightly different style. Really solid, but stops short of being great because the release on its own is fairly pointless. Would have been better as a split or a longer, more substantial issue.

Yo dawg I heard you liked Voivod! So we sounded like Voivod! Haha! To be fair, its easy to compare anything with dissonant riffing and space / sci-fi themes to the legends that are Voivod. I could say Droid sound like Voivod (which I just have) as much as Vektor sounds like Voivod, but of course Vektor and Droid sound nothing alike. Hopefully you can see where I’m going with this? (Perhaps not, I’ve had…

Where Shadows Lie simply has to be one of my absolute favourite Jim Kirkwood works. Magnificant, triumphant, uplifitng, magical, spellbinding. These are all words that can accurately convey the musical message avialable to you by pressing play on a copy of this record. Combining Berlin School longform electronics with the Tolkien fantasy vibes in a way that only he can do so well, Kirkwood is absolutely on fire here. A highlight of the entire discography…

Patches of Jim Kirkwood’s discography are almost entirely in the Berlin School style of music. Granted this kind of progressive, unfolding electronic tapestry-weaving is present in most of his work – let alone other more modern DS creators – but Nightshade is an example where the style truly and almost completely overtakes his wondrous medieval soundscapes.

Suitably as nonsensical as the band’s promo photos, Rommel come across like a hair metal version of Venom. It’s all good, silly metal fun (which does not match the band name at all), with the charm that comes from old school metal demos that proliferated on the cassette format. Don’t go in expecting the world and you will no doubt have fun.

It would probably be pretty obvious to say that Defenders Of The Faith is up there with the best of the Priest albums. Everyone knows this. What I will say however is that this one is loaded to the gills with unforgettable songs. There are very few troughs, instead the whole thing is like one giant peak of incredible songwriting. Couple that with the band firing on all cylinders and the production being perfectly balanced,…

Beautiful artwork (always a good start). It took me a few listens to get into this. I enjoyed the core of the black metal sound, but found the other elements meandering, distracting even. I am glad however that I took the time to return to Unholy Servants multiple times over the last few months. The “White Rabbit” cover aside (here as “Black Goat”), this is a fantastic record. There is a lot of merit in…

Oddly dense yet also fairly hollow and empty, Spiritual Black Dimensions has the unfortunate displeasure of having no stand-out tracks on an album that is sandwiched between two albums considered greats of their respective eras. This is a slight shame because those trademark early Dimmu riffs are to-die for, as is the general performance. Production-wise, this attempts to be an Enthrone… part 2, but musically it is just not as strong.

Sad to say more of the same downtuned mush from Fluids, love ’em or hate ’em this split LP does nothing different. Pharmacist on the otherhand are dominating the grinding death metal (ie: Carcass Worship) world right now, and with good reason. The stuff here posesses a clarity that most bands in said style fail to capture, but Pharmacist push it to the next level.

Very atmospheric, bolstered by genuine tape degradation and hiss – two things that are avoided by the analogue medium community but worshipped by the black metal and dungeon synth scene (lol). Either way, this is a mysterious, spooky listen. Highly recommended for fans of the genre.

Nasty, dirty, disgusting, festering. Fuckin gore vocals on this are absurdly watery. The drums, despite low quality production, are nice and clear. Fucking subterranean guitar tone too, but with the right amount of crunch. Beautiful.

Ugh my brothers this shit fucking slaps. Ultra down-tuned, sewer dwelling “modern old school” death metal is the order of the day, with beyond stunning cover artwork to boot. Like a horde of mutants rising from the radioactive waste deep below your homes and cities, Supporation Morphogenesiaque shuffles and shambles right up to your front door, dripping flesh and slime, before eating off your entire face.

Cover art is sinister as fuck, and the brooding synth intro is promising but unfortunately this is (bad) demo quality stuff. Granted, (to my knowledge) it was made by (no doubt edgy) kids so I will cut them some slack. Generally though, not worth coming over to the dark side for.

People seem to shit on this project but I’ve enjoyed both the full lengths I’ve heard. Ceremony In Flames gives black metal a bit of groove, and Maniac’s vocals (shared here with Killjoy from Necrophagia) are always a fucking pleasure to listen to. If you think Maniac is a shit vocalist you need to get your fucking head checked. Production is thick and chunky yet dynamic and organic – which works well with cold black…

A million miles from Nightside. Like Dimmu Borgir on methamphetamines. Pompous yet also agile and pinpoint precise, with excellent guitar riffs and keyboard additions. Drumming is absurd, naturally. Production is brittle but soundstage is excellent and every little nuance can be heard and felt. Big budget black metal, for sure.

Don’t be fooled by the shitty tape cover. This is legendary tier death metal. It sounds older than time itself but so many bands owe Timeghoul a fucking ton of dues. The riffs are complex and engaging but the overall production is grim as fuck and really brutal (an overused term, but fuck it).

Not gonna lie to you, this is pretty good. I went into it with low expectations and ended up really enjoying this comeback record. Granted, the start is a little shaky (track one just doens’t have the “fuck yeah, Torsofuck is fucking back, fuckwads” feeling that you’d expect after such a huge gap, but the record soon finds its feet and away we go. The drum machine is a bit hollow-sounding, and some of the…

Cradle’s first (second?) demo – with a raw, warm sound. Keyboards by Ben Ryan playing a small part still. No Paul Allender yet either, just Paul Ryan (Gate Master!) on guitar. Much more in the death metal style than what would ever come from Cradle, with the last vestiges of that sound dying out on Principle Of Evil Made Flesh.

Very silly, but also very, very entertaining. If you like your black metal rude and well, with obvious Motorhead / dirty rock and roll influences, look no further. The cover of Gang Green’s “Alcohol” at the end is the icing on the cake. Brillaint EP.

One of the most perfect extreme metal records of all time. Why? Well 1.) the drums are not drowned out by all the other shit. 2.) this fucker mixes grindcore and black metal / war metal in the best possible way, on top of which subtle melodies also play on some tracks (“Horny And The Horned” being the best example). Besides, the super inoffensive cover art pissed a lot of religious folk off, which is…

There is a tangible undercurrent to Vothana’s work that at first I didn’t quite understand. I mean, that sounds pretty silly I guess because this is just very noisy, lo-fi black metal with a lot of melody hidden in it. But it is the way in which said melodies are composed. All the songs sound immediately like Vothana in their uniqueness away from other artists in the field, yet also rather somewhat all sound similar…

I have a love / hate relationship with Necromantia. I can only imagine it’s due to how they use a bass guitar (or two), which is far from usual. Sometimes it works, other times it’s just absolute carnage (and not in a good way). This early EP is fantastic however, with a fair and balanced production and a brilliant set of songs.

Interesting compositions, but none that actively capture my imagination. There is a lifelessness to proceedings, and due to the genre and deliberate style that may indeed be intentional, but Galgenfrist is a record where I’m counting the minutes going by and that is never a good thing.

I really love what Darkthrone have come back around to doing. This is some sort of very organic mix of black and doom metal, which works with a confident ease you could only attain no doubt after several decades in the game. It’s odd, because there’s not all that many people playing in this style, but it sounds like such an obvious blend of metal subgenres. Tracks like “Impeccable Caverns Of Satan” and “Stalagmite Necklace”…

I really love what Darkthrone have come back around to doing. This is some sort of very organic mix of black and doom metal, which works with a confident ease you could only attain no doubt after several decades in the game. It’s odd, because there’s not all that many people playing in this style, but it sounds like such an obvious blend of metal subgenres. Tracks like “Impeccable Caverns Of Satan” and “Stalagmite Necklace”…

Earlier Dead Infection is a turbid bowl of rancid mush – and I’m not talking about the lyrical content here. Surgical Disembowelment may be a tad onto the wrong side of “bad production”, where the audio infidelity instead starts to chew at the experience of listening, rather than contributing to it. The grinding of the guitar sounds like a tumble dryer filled with human remains sloshing around at half speed. Nevertheless, if you like dusty…

Walks a fine line between kitsch and being one of those mysterious pieces of work dripping with indecipherable artistic merit. Black Ships… is a great example of Tibet’s neofolk that has its song structures more or less falling off the bone.

Much more low key and uninvolved than Ancient Woods. Kinda sounds like background music from a DOS game like Daggerfall during its best moments, and like pointless ambient effects in its worst. Considering the total run time is just over 15 minutes, it is a shame that the level of quality here is but a fraction of what I expected to find. This is not a gem that’s worth unearthing.

Not as good as the split with DHIBAC but still a solid fucking goregrind album nonetheless. When I think of goregrind, I never see anyone talking about these guys, ever. It seems like they truly slipped through the cracks. Anyway, I guess they are atypical of the style. I guess this is closer to regular grindcore but with some pitchshifter vocals thrown in. Good shit either way.

Love the art so got myself a digital copy – vocals let this thing down, to be honest. They are halfway between a croak and a shout, giving off a frog gargling rocks effect, which I’m sure they were not going for. Underneath all of that however, there is a wall of fuzz punctuated with some nice dreamy synths. The tracks are fairly meandering – I just wish this hit a little tiny bit better….

Pardon me for being tride in offering the plain fact that this is just more or less H418ov21.C Part II. There are slight differences, for example Holocaust’s production skill has come along a little bit and it therefore isn’t as spare perhaps as it’s predecessor, but for the most part, if you like sparse, ambient electronics with a slightly spooky cyber feel, you’ll be right at home here.

What the ever-loving fuck is this? Hahaha To be fair, after the initial adjustment of coming from “war metal” Beherit, this thing starts off pretty good. It eventually devolves into a series of silly noises but when it hits (which is about half of the time to be honest) then this record comes at you like some sort of cult 90s PC game OST (think Doom 64 crossed with Syndicate Wars).

An atmospheric, excellent offering from the controversial Absurd. The instrumentals (which are short but very effective) set the pace for the rabid black metal attack to follow. As always with this era of Absurd, the vocals are the high point in my opinion. Really great, evil and terrifying vocals lead the way. The riffs are simple, based around more traditional folk melodies perhaps, but they do the trick. Only downside for me is the drumming…

Cut up and fed to the dog! The difference between Desecration and many other death metal bands riding on the cheeky / fun / silly / gross subject matter train is that Desecration are actually really fucking great, and Cemetery Sickness is no exception. Everything here is razor sharp and on-point; riffs, vocals and drums (man, the drums!) Speaking of the vocals, there’s a bit more of a range here than usual, which is always…

Shaky beginnings for everyone’s shrieking banshee led symphonic black metal band (yes, I categorised them as such, fucking deal with it). Expect instead of fragile, glittering hymns of erotic vampirism a hammer to the face in the bluntest fuzzy analogue way. If you love tape trading and early death metal demos then you’ll love this, otherwise you probably won’t find any value in this unless you are perhaps a crazed CoF superfan frothing at the…

This seems to get a lot of shit online, but I’ve got to say that the whole operation (lol) is very well made, IMO. I do understand the (perhaps ironic) constant nods to Burzum in the guitar deparment (not that Burzum is a NSBM band but that’s another story for another day), but hey, this shit fucking rules. What it does lose points for however is the fairly bland and mechanical drum programming. As a…

I love everything about this. The cover is perhaps a little bit on the nose, but I can live with that. The sound is warm, yet cacophonous and necro as fuck (or is that fukk?). These songs are no jokes, and epics like “A Pale Face Eclipsed by Shadows” and the oddly-titled closer “Feasting on the Dried Blood of Majesties” have cemented Vampirska as a project for me to explore further. Beautiful stuff.

Bold, magnificant, triumphant – these are just some of the words you could use to describe Judas Priest in this particular era of thier career. “Riding On The Wind” is all of these things, but coupled with a radio-friendly sensibility that no doubt effortlessly added to the band’s interstellar levels of success. My three year old son loves chanting along to the chorus of “Bloodstone” (he thinks the words are “let’s go!” but hey, that’s…

Probably up there with the rawest of the raw, this profilic project has some interesting gems. Unfortunately, Der alles vernichtende Blitz isn’t really one of them. It is a good lo-fi BM recording, but nothing really elevates it into the sphere of gods except for the final track, “V”, which sounds like it’s from a different session altogether. Honestly, if all the tracks were as good as this one, this one would be there with…

One of the best black metal releases that I have come across in recent weeks! Raw, lo-fi black metal is of course the order of the day, but there is this amazing touch of sorrowful melody laid over the top of the fuzzy, dusty instruments. I guess it is another guitar, but damn, the way it cuts through all the songs, it gives them a whole new meaning and life. Couple this with the raw…

Well then, this is all kinds of awful lmao – there is an underlying charm to proceedings but the shakiness is really hard to ignore, particularly when it comes to the percussion. The drums are all over the place and really distract you from the songs. I can get behind lo-fi production, bad guitar and bad vocals, but as soon as the drums can’t keep time you might as well just start over.

Nonsense of the highest order, which is why you are here, right? I haven’t heard Anal Massaker since their split with 2 Minuta Dreka so it’s really cool to come back to these guys. It’s just total noisecore fuckery, of course. Musical Arse Decomposition is new for me (lol) and here on the flip side is just more variations on the current theme, to be honest. All good with me though, carry on grinding! This…

VGF is an interesting project. Blurring the lines between black metal and noisecore, the side farts and rattles through some disgusting lo fi material. Speaking of lo fi, the Warhorness side isn’t exactly “mastered at half speed over at Abbey Road” quality, but it’s a damn sight clearer than VGF. Songs from Warhorness are in the dirty noisy grind style; short, sharp bursts with callbacks to 80s proto-black/death. Think Nunslaughter but even more perverted and…

I was in attendance for this momentous event; it was not one that I would have missed for the world, having travelled to France the year before for Godflesh’s reformation show (hideously cut short to half hour). Roadburn of course, pulled all their tricks (or is that cash?) out of the bag and thus began a series of performances of Godflesh albums at the 013 in Tilburg. I was not present for the others, but…

An interesting effort from the legendary Vangelis, with the trademark dreamy atmosphere. Here the tones are a lot lighter and airy, giving the whole record a nonchalant feel. I couldn’t resist the album at only £3 for the 12″ vinyl, but after owning this for about a decade I have only played it a handful of times. The end of side A and the side B track “Suffocation” are probably my favourite. Unfortunately, my copy…

As far as slam goes, then this should tick all of your boxes. Unreadable logo? Check. Late 2000s Visual Darkness album sleeve? Check. Absurd song titles? Check. We’re off to the races, guv’nor! I’ve got this fucker on vinyl and I gotta be honest it packs a hell of a punch. I’ve often had the complaint that the drums on this thing (whilst performed incredibly well) have a cardboard kind of sound to them, rather…

Whilst this is a collection of various different sessions, things are surprisingly coherent (that is until we get to Chapter Three perhaps). I’m happy to just sit and listen to Fenriz do his thing for a solid hour, I’ll be honest. The man is a talented songwriter, what can I say. Musically, Vinterskugge is a collection of black and proto-black metal with Fenriz’s own personal touch and interesting flourishes, especially on the drums, although the…

Enjoyable lo-fi black metal with dungeon synth “moments”. Through the inpenetrable fuzz of the production, little moments of clarity can be snatched if one is paying attention. There is an underlying melody to the dust-caked, mouldy proceedings. A perfect example of this would be the variations on the key melody in “Enthroning of the Immortal Majesty”. I really enjoyed this. The name is pretty funny too.

Primitive Force comes at you with quite a regimented and organised sound, which is refreshing for a genre that is usually wallowing in unhinged, boundless carnage. That is not to say, of course, that a fair share of carnage is not present on this record. The Josefsson’s batter you into the ground with their military-grade precision and fathomless brutality. It is perhaps not as unforgiving as some music in the war metal style, but where…

Disappointingly bland on both accounts, whether you are addressing the original “demos” / studio version or the Tagtgren-led second attempt. There is nothing “wrong” per se with any of the elements that come together to compose Secrets Of The Black Arts, its just everything comes together in such a way to leave you with the most uninspired and “safe” intepretation of the black metal sound. It is crazy to me that this came out in…

Would it be wrong of me to say that a stoner / doom metal album is derivative? Surely the whole genre itself now has “derivative” as a trope? Either way, Till Marijannah quickly falls into a comfortable pattern where the dizzying distortion of the guitars leads the way, followed by intense melodic vocals. If I had to compare this to anything, I would say that Marijannah was like a less-miserable Kroh; a fun listen no…

You can take one look at the staffing for this record and know immediately what kind of aural carnage you can expect. That being said, DHQ does have some sense of experimental maturity to it that I would not expect from something involving Seth Putnam. Anyway, if low, rumbling, post-apocalyptic sounds are your thing, then check out this improvised record.

One of the most perfect sonic cauldrons of sound ever created, Battles In The North is absolute and total blastbeat annihilation from start to finish. If your tolerance for such drumming doth not extend past the length of your average grindcore track length, then perhaps Battles In The North is not for you. Otherwise, carry on my blackened vessel of hatred, carry on! The one downside that I will bring to attention is the fact…

Sometimes the tag “atmospheric” can be used as an excuse to wander off into the wild green yonder, never to return. Such trips often leave some sort of musical credibiity behind in the woods too. Not Yellow Eyes, and not Sick With Bloom, which blends atmospheric density with the weight of a full-on black metal attack.

Wolfnacht is not a band that I had heard before this split, but after listening to this a whole bunch of times over the last few months I have to admit that their material is my favourite on this thing. Wolfnacht’s material here is majestic and grandiose, but also with that harsh bite that you want from good black metal. The vocals are rabid and fitting, and additional synth work over the top varies from…

A brutal, blunt thrash attack with hallmarks of the proto-death and black styles abound at the time. Couple that with some iconic art and you’ve got a tough record. The production is robust and the songs pack a hell of a punch. Sodom would go on to change fairly quickly into a different style of metal (whilst retaining their heavy punch), so Sign Of Evil is a special entry into their discography, as well as…

Easily one of the most boring pieces of music I’ve ever had the misfortune of hearing, and I take no pleasure in writing such words out for all to see. The trouble with Harakiri For The Sky, is that they are not a band which immediately strike you as bad. Like a deep, penetrating damp resulting in black mould, it takes a while to unfurl and destroy. It took me a while to realise that,…

Fucking more like it. Immortal’s debut is awesome but lacks in the sheer blinding speed that the group would become renowned for. Pure Holocaust is the true start of that trend, but without lacking in atmosphere or dreadful intent. Every song is fucking killer on this thing. Blast!

Did anybody order any blastbeats? Because Immortal are having a sale right now. LOL. Whilst the band have retained that intricate air of chaos across its different eras and lineups, the early Immortal records were a different beast altogether. Frenetic cold energy is here by the truckload; frozen riffs propelled by batshit drums and the croaky vocals that we all love. This is absolute carnage. I love it.

What the ever-loving fuck is this? I checked it out because the cover looked like a Radio Free Innsmouth YouTube thumbnail. Expecting some low quality NSBM, instead I stumble onto a… a… what is this exactly? I suppose it falls into the neofolk category, especially with the reworking of a Death In June song towards the end. I must comment Atlantean Blood for conjuring a wholly unique atmosphere with their record here but damn, this…

What a hidden gem! One that not only rewards those who go exploring “off the beaten track” as it were, but one that continously rewards its listeners upon repeat visits. On the face of it, Aspid are a typical thrash metal band, but you can peel back the layers on this thing and unravel some amazing technical feats. The drumming in particular is my favourite but this whole thing hangs in the balance of exquisite…

Brutal, blunt old-school proto black metal, in the style that blends so beautiful with elements of what would become death metal. In parts United Evil Forces channels the misanthropic atmosphere of stuff like early Sarcofago or Deathcrush-era Mayhem, but also has its own unique atmosphere and raw energy. All in all, this is 12 minutes of intense metal destruction.

Asides from the hissing sibilance of the hi hat cymbals eating away at my inner ears like some giant mastoid, Of Medieval Graveyard Frost is a fabulous second-wave black metal offering. Underneath the grime and hiss of the tape, the songs sound very solid and well assembled. They are led by a maniacally riffing tremolo attack mostly, slowing into more sinister riffs periodically to really hammer home the atmosphere. The drums, as in, the actual…

I took one look at that cover and there was no way in hell that I was not going to have a listen to this thing. Great riffs here, really cool melodic compositions, if not a bit rudimentary, lead the way ahead of snarling, howling raspy vocals. Unfortunately the drumming is very loose, but not to the point where it adds some sort of shambolic charm to proceedings. Sure, it is servicable, especially considering this…

Is it as good as the original? No, no it’s not. I am often a listener who is at odds with bands who choose to do this kind of re-recording (or total remixing) of older albums. I respect and honour their right to do so, but more often than not it is a pointless excercise. Nokturnal Mortum however, while they do not drop the ball, fail to really enrapture me with this modern re-recording of…

The debut from Nocturnal Mortum is a stunning, ice-cold black metal affair, with fantastic keyboard work layered over the frosted, often melodic riffs. The cover art itself is beautiful and a huge part of summoning the ethereal atmosphere that this record enthralls you in. A slightly more “off the path” gem of the 90s releases in this genre, for sure.

If you love lo-fi shit but also love a little melody in your black metal then look no further than the controversial / confusing Vothana. Falling very nearly close to becoming an overhyped darling of the limited vinyl collecting elite, Vothana is undeniably a project that is worth your time and attention. Khong… for example is a great archetype for their releases, being overly long yet chock full of not only excellent but really interesting…

Came for the logo, stayed for the lo-fi goodness. I’m a sucker for some raw, lo-fi black metal. Keys To The Astral Gates And Mystic Doors (what a name!) deliver in spades for this style, giving twenty minutes of this on their debut release. I don’t have any stand-out tracks to report per-se, as for the three times I’ve listened to it I’ve just enjoyed the whole thing in one go. For fans of: Revenant…

Unless I’m very much mistaken, this is a collection of older tracks from several early demos, EPs, splits etc. but re-recorded in the Totenlieder / Blutgericht style, with the same excellent production. However, it’s an idea I think which will perhaps only be appreciated by only the most die-hard Absurd fans. Whilst the folk-like simplicity (feel’s weird writing “folk” like that to indicate simple song structuring – just look at Peste Noire’s folk music) offering…

I’ve always found Absurd to be as awful musically as their personal beliefs but after randomly stumbling onto their “second wind” period I was forced to change my mind. Totenlieder, with its powerful riffs and rabid vocals (some of the best in the game), coupled with its folk-simplicity and morose melodic qualities, had me re-assessing my viewpoint on Absurd. Blutgericht is well, maybe not more of the same as what we got on Totenlieder, but…

For all the shit I threw at Arghoslent for being racist, over-hyped trash, I have to admit that Grand Belial’s Key is pretty fucking great in comparison. The motives, themes, and folks behind this are still low on my list of likeable people for obvious reasons, but Kosherat is a solid black metal album. The production is fairly warm and clear, which itself is refreshing for black metal, but if anything this just allows the…

Over the last few months, this debut record from Forgotten Tomb has cemented itself as one of my favourite records in the “DSBM” style. Possessing a crisp, clean production which is the exact opposite of what I look for in my black metal, Songs To Leave is part horrifying / scary and part achingly beautiful. Such is the fragile balance that music in this style is attempting to tread, I suppose. I was going to…

The Last Spire is the chunky but somewhat underwhelming final output from legendary UK doom metal band, Cathedral. The fact that I have avoided listening to this album for over a decade speaks volumes about my apprehension for finally addressing the final nail in the coffin for one of my all time favourite groups. The Last Spire then, is, a relief in some regards, because it is not a bad album. It mixes together a…

I think I am going to have to admit to myself that Peste Noire is not the band for me. As I work my way through the group’s discography, I’ve gone from absolutely astounded to bored to fucking tears. I have no idea what’s going on here, I guess there is some sort of artistic vision that I simply “do not get”, specifically in the mix of French folk and black metal. I’ve given Ballade…

This doesn’t sound like a live album at all. In fact, going in blind, all I could think of was that this was one of those “fake” live albums which are recorded in a studio. It seems I was half-correct, with the vocals being re-recorded at a later date. To be honest, they should have just scrapped the whole thing if it came to this, but whatever, live albums don’t exactly have a history of…

As nice as it is to explore the back catalog of Tony Martin, one of my favourite Sabbath singers, Scream really just misses the mark. The production is muddy, the songs are mostly mediocre at best, and beyond bad at worst (I’m looking at you, “The Kids Of Today”). It’s really cool that Geoff Nicholls is on this thing too, providing keyboards, and I believe some of the songs were built from Cozy Powell drum…

Thorns is the very recent full length album by once-Sabbath vocalist Tony Martin. With Sabbath, and I’m guilty of this myself, his output is often overlooked, which is a shame because albums like Headless Cross have gone on to be my favourites from Black Sabbath. Anyway, let’s talk about Thorns. Thorns has a stacked line-up, and a polished, modern sound. This gives Martin’s rock numbers a shot in the arm, essentially I guess this is…

Gurgling, disgusting, turbid old school death metal of the new-wave variety. Does that make it NWOOSDM? I don’t know, and I don’t fucking care. The production is awesome, the riffs are evil, the vokills are dank. Say no more shall I, read no more shall ye, presseth thy play button!

Gate Master knocks it out of the park once more with the follow up to In Pursuit Of Forbidden Knowledge. I love the black metal here, easily some of my favourite dissonant, barely audible stuff (haha). It sounds like I’m joking but this thing is absolutely dripping in atmopshere. The “dungeon synth” style pieces that punctuate the record also help serve to this function, before closer “My Journey To The Stars” goes off to oblivion….

For all its edgy rubbing up against of controversial subjects (“My Dreams Of 8” much?), Satanic Warmaster is mostly a solid and very well executed black metal project. Some albums are better than others, but Carelian Satanist Madness (sounds like another one of those triple-barrel Dimmu Borgir albums doesn’t it haha) is probably my personal favourite in regards to a distillation of Satanic Warmaster’s perfect sound. Ignore the cringe song titles, just turn off the…

The Garden Of Strangled Roots is a masterpiece of contemporary black metal. The tracks are harsh and cold, yet the whole record possesses a fragility that feels like it could break open at any second. It is hard to pick a favourite track however, due to the record’s length. Instead I just tend to listen to the whole thing in one sitting.

Brutal, dry production sets the stage for bludgeoning, unforgivable riffing and pummelling drums. With Scott Burns at the helm, and Suffocation at the strings and skins, would you expect anything else? Pierced From Within takes the template set by the earlier records and expands on them, heaping on more brutality, more dexterity, more variation in different sections. There is much less here in the way of “slams” but when they do hit they have that…

I’ve fallen through the screen and into some rainy noir TV show set in LA or New York (probably the latter, let’s be honest). Next minute, I’m on the set of a very bad lesbian porno, with cheap tights, suspenders and hairy bushes galore. The next, beamed onto some windy beach where some buff dudes are running out into the waves, boards in hand, desperate to catch some waves. I keep falling, song by song,…