Hjartastjaki (Svart) is an almost cinematic experience, as Isafjord create bleak and desolate landscape pictures with their sombre atmospheric music. The duo of Solstafir vocalist Addi Tryggvason and multi-instrumentalist Ragnar Zolberg (Sign) wrote the album while holed up together in an old house, during the depths of an icy winter and using a broken piano to start many of their ideas.
At this stage in their career, Lamb of God can pretty much do what they want, when they want. And the Virginia natives have found a winning formula with their sound, which has been honed over nearly thirty years since they began life as Burn The Priest. Since the name change at the beginning of the millennium, Lamb of God have proven themselves as one of the premier contemporary metal bands, progressing from their earlier more death metal style, into the kings of modern groove metal, which has seen multiple Grammy nominations and some almighty tours including this year’s monster outing with Megadeth, Trivium and In Flames, which they are about to follow up with the likes of Killswitch Engage, Baroness, Spiritbox and Suicide Silence in support. (Read our reviews here and here).
In 2010 following the death of his father, Paradise Lost’s founding guitar player and principle songwriter Gregor Mackintosh formed Vallenfyre with Hamish Glencross (ex-My Dying Bride). The aim was to provide an outlet for his grief by recording the heavier black / death metal-influenced music he had been writing, with Gregor also on vocal duties, a role he had never performed in Paradise Lost. In 2018 after three albums Gregor announced the project had come to a close, but from the ashes rose Strigoi, formed with Vallenfyre bassist Chris Casket (Devilment, ex Extreme Noise Terror), which would continue in a similar vein with 2019’s debut album Abandon All Faith.
Escape Velocity (Nefarious Industries) is the debut album from Philidelphia, Pennsylvania-based instrumental duo Sarattma, and follows their debut Inner Spaces EP released in 2017. Featuring Mellowdeath and ex-Brian Jonestown Massacre drummer Sara Neidorf and Cleric guitarist Matt Hollenberg, their music is highly experimental with a distinct edge of tripped-out psychedelia, and is uniquely impressive! Continue reading