For a long time Queensryche was a band in steady decline. Pretty much all the post Promised Land releases suffered in quality, with Dedicated To Chaos being especially lacklustre. Last year things came ahead with singer and defacto bandleader Geoff Tate being fired by the rest of the band. The remaining members recruited a new singer and they decided to soldier on under the Queensryche banner. Ghost Cult spoke with drummer Scott Rockenfield who didn’t mince words and who seems to be on a personal crusade to get the band back in the spotlights again… Continue Reading
These are confusing times for any Queensryche fan. Former QR singer Geoff Tate uses the name for his merry gang of hired guns and the remaining members recruited a new singer and decided to continue under, you guessed it, Queensryche. It’s a classical case of will the real QR please stand up… 
In 2009, something happened to this band when they added ‘of the Water Towers’ to their original moniker. While the two EPs that the band released under the name New Keepers in 2007 and 2008 (re-released in 2009 as the compilation Chronicles) demonstrated their stoner and doom roots, there was little there to mark them out as anything other than yet another band working within the genre. 
The reunion of three fifths of post-metallers Isis alone is something to raise intrigue and hunger but add Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno into the mix and that appetite takes on a more voracious stance. It also ignites wondering expectations as to which direction their sound and presence together as Palms would take, the heavier more rapaciously intrusive fascination of Isis or the experimental atmospheric devouring of Moreno’s day job. The self-titled debut reveals it is somewhere in between whilst exploring its own evocative and enthralling soundscapes. 
When the time comes for a band to make a new album, the same questions rears its head each time; innovate, or stay the same? For German goth rockers Lacrimas Profundere, the answer was the latter. 
German black metallers Imperium Dekadenz are back with their fourth full length release Meadows Of Nostalgia. The duo possess the unique ability to make traditional BM sound polished and modern without skipping down the path of ‘post-whateveritis’ that causes so many purists to groan and turn their backs. 
Sixth album Ultraviolet is the release that Kylesa has arguably been hinting at across previous releases in moments and individual tracks but left inside until now. Filtering a psychedelic and shoegaze like warmth and expression through their distinctive sonic mastery, the band has created an album which you sense will not sit easy with some but will at the same time enslave a new breath of fever fuelled recruits to the continuing artistry and imagination of the band. 
It’s perfectly acceptable to listen to Cuckoo Live Life Like Cuckoo from British collective Hey Colossus and find yourself wondering what in Sam Hell is going on. And I think that’s at least part of the point. This isn’t a band aiming to make some profound philosophical revelation. They’re just well, a little cuckoo. Even the title of the album suggests that we not take ourselves so seriously. But CLLLC is seriously good. 
Transplanted Brit Mat “Captain Kvohst” McNerney and his merry band of Finns, Hexvessel continue to carve out the releases with their Iron Marsh EP. This companion piece to 2012’s No Holier Temple actually stands quite well on its own. In fact, this EP is my first exposure to their psychedelic doom/folk and I couldn’t be happier to have stumbled upon them. The spirit of discovery needs a spark, right? 
“We have toured the U.K. three times this year. We are very pleased with the response we have received here.” Olav, guitarist/vocalist of Norway’s Doom Metal supergroup Sahg, is clearly a fan of venturing across to conquer Britain. Ghost Cult caught up with three of the band members backstage before tearing down Manchester’ NQ Live. 
