One of the most exciting bands of 2018 has been Black Mirrors. Their summer release Look Into The Black Mirrors released via Napalm Records. The band has been kind enough to share their top albums of 2018 with Ghost Cult and our readers. Continue reading
It’s the May Day bank holiday in London, which can only mean one thing; Deserfest! A weekend of avoiding the sun in the darkest and dingiest venues across Camden Town, listening to the darkest and dingiest stoner and doom music. Continue reading
After announcing that they had broken up for all the classic “differences within the band” reasons in 2016, Swedish Retro Rockers Graveyard are back together, armed with a new album, and sounding as raw and melodic as ever. Continue reading
London’s annual three-day festival to tune in, turn on and drop out: Desertfest is back this weekend. Ghost Cult will be on hand once again covering the fest which features headliners High On Fire, Graveyard, Warning, Eyehategod, Napalm Death, Weedeater, The Obsessed, Hawkwind, Church of Misery, Death Alley, Kind and more! We thought we would help all you heshers and hesherettes out with a fest preview of all the must-see bands, all the stage times, and other essential shit, which will give you all more time to find snacks, snake brews and find your missing rolling papers. They are in your hand, dude. Dig? Cool. Continue reading
Long-running metal and rock label Nuclear Blast Records have just released a teaser trailer for all of their upcoming releases on their label and their under label, SharpTone Records. Watch the trailer and hear snippets of new songs from Dimmu Borgir, Amorphis, Sink The Ship, Settle Your Scores, Graveyard, Anthrax, Overkill, and more.Continue reading
As we dash towards the holidays and the end of the year Ghost Cult is feeling good about this season of giving. So we are giving our fans a chance to get to know our partners, peers, and friends from bands in the world of music. They will chime in with some guest blogs, end of year lists, and whatever else is on their minds as we pull the plug on 2015. Today we have Bidi van Drongelen, Dutch booker and manager who has worked with the likes of The Devil’s Blood, Saint Vitus, Ghost, In Solitude and many more. Every year a multitude of his bands get booked at the excellent Roadburn festival, and we have asked him what he feels were the best releases of 2015.
1. Klone – Here Comes The Sun
Great songwriting, amazing vocals, and a crystal clear though heavy production blending prog and post metal.
2. Ghost – Meliora
Ghost has it all to become one of the leading melodic heavy rock bands in the world
3. Bliksem – Gruesome Masterpiece
If you like Metallica’s Master of Puppets of Death Angel’s ACT III….with the a raw female voice like Doro.
4. Royal Thunder – Crooked Doors
Great atmospheric rock album with the amazing voice of Mlny Parsonsz
5. Tribulation – Children of the Night
Melodies of occult rock like The Devil’s Blood drenched with a satanic black voice which reminds of Satyricon.
6. Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss
Refreshing approach of doom & drone. ART with capital A!
7. Paradise Lost – The Plague Within
8. Steak Number Eight – Kosmokoma
9. Melechesh – Enki
10. Enslaved – In Times
11. Clutch – Psychic Warfare
12. Thy Catafalque – Sgurr
13. Amorphis– Under The Red Cloud
14. RAM – Svbversvm
15. BRING ME THE HORIZON– That’s The Spirit
16. Mgła – Excercises In Futility
17. Baroness – Purple
18. Leprous – The Congregation
19. Graveyard – Innocence & Decadence
20. Hangman’s Chair – This Is Not Supposed To Be Positive
Over the course of a few albums (this one being the latest and fourth), Sweden’s Graveyard have both bypassed and embraced the “retro” tagline they have been lumped with from day one. Never proving nor looking to be a musically revolutionary band, they wear their influences firmly on their sleeves with their brand of familiar and instantaneous blues-rock. At the same time they are more than just a nostalgia act as Innocence And Decadence (Nuclear Blast) shows, they have some individuality of their own.
On the face of it this may prove straight- forward blues-rock which sticks to a recognisable formula (in a positive sense), but scratch deeper this proves a moodier and darker effort than in previous. Innocence And Decadence sees further exploration of their psychedelic and stoner influences alongside moments of pure melancholy next to some upbeat moments. Album opener ‘Magnetic Shunk’ begins with a slow, stoner crawl which proves the album’s only lapse before half way it picks up in to a more confident and catchy strut. The likes of ‘Exit 97’ and ‘Too Much Is Not Enough’ are slower numbers which encapsulate the bleaker side of blues, whilst ‘Hard-Headed’ begins with a brief, but destabilising fuzz of feedback which invokes some of their heavier peers.
All the while this sounds instantly recognisable as their own and is very catchy and immediate throughout. A significant improvement on the previous Lights Out (Nuclear Blast). It feels much more confident in exploring their further influences whilst not deviating too far from their sound, and most importantly it never falters in quality throughout (bar from the slight misstep at the off). As much as they are proud of their classic influences, the want to seek new styles sees them as so much more than a retro band.
7.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL
Retro rockers Graveyard have released an official trailer for their upcoming album, Innocence & Decadence via Nuclear Blast on September 25th. You can watch the trailer at this link or below:
Innocence & Decadence track listing:
1. Magnetic Shunk
2. The Apple And The Tree
3. Exit 97
4. Never Theirs To Sell
5. Can’t Walk Out
6. Too Much Is Not Enough
7. From A Hole In The Wall
8. Cause & Defect
9. Hard-Headed
10. Far Too Close
11. Stay For A Song
12. The Hatch (Limited edition digipack bonus track)
Hot off the heels of their acclaimed US tour with and Clutch and Mastodon, Graveyard has revealed their track listing for their upcoming album Innocence & Decadence, due out on September 25th via Nuclear Blast. Recorded in Stockholm, Sweden at Atlantis Studios with Janne Hansson (Abba, The Hives, Opeth) and Johan Lindström (Tonbruket) the album promises to build on the bands previous stoner rock and psychedelic style.
Graveyard released a statement about their new album:
“Got a new album coming your way in September called Innocence & Decadence. It’s gonna be an album filled to the rim with a little bit of this – and for all of those who might wonder or worry – there will be quite a lot of that on it as well. We’ve had a great time recording the album at the “gemytliga” Atlantis Studios in Stockholm together with Janne Hansson and Johan Lindström. And after kinda being away from our daily routine as a touring band and the thrill of a new album on its way ….. we wanna leave you with…
Good to be gone, great to be back and let there be September!“ Axel, Joakim, Jonathan & Truls aka Graveyard
Graveyard, by Evil Robb Photography
Innocence & Decadence – formats and track listing: (vinyl look digipak, digital download, black/clear/splatter/orange/green/bi-coloured vinyl as well as a T-Shirt/CD bundle)
Limited edition DIGI:
1. Magnetic Shunk
2. The Apple And The Tree
3. Exit 97
4. Never Theirs To Sell
5. Can’t Walk Out
6. Too Much Is Not Enough
7. From A Hole In The Wall
8. Cause & Defect
9. Hard-Headed
10. Far Too Close
11. Stay For A Song
12. The Hatch (bonus track)
VINYL:
Side A:
1. Magnetic Shunk
2. The Apple And The Tree
3. Exit 97
4. Never Theirs To Sell
5. Can’t Walk Out
6. Too Much Is Not Enough
Side B:
1. From A Hole In The Wall
2. Cause & Defect
3. Hard-Headed
4. Far Too Close
5. Stay For A Song
CD / DIGITAL / STREAMING:
1. Magnetic Shunk
2. The Apple And The Tree
3. Exit 97
4. Never Theirs To Sell
5. Can’t Walk Out
6. Too Much Is Not Enough
7. From A Hole In The Wall
8. Cause & Defect
9. Hard-Headed
10. Far Too Close
11. Stay For A Song
Swedish grandmasters of classic rock, GRAVEYARD, have revealed the tracklist of their fourth full-length album, Innocence & Decadence out on September 25, 2015 worldwide via Nuclear Blast.
Innocence & Decadence will be released in various formats (vinyl look digipak, digital download, black/clear/splatter/orange/green/bi-coloured vinyl as well as a T-Shirt/CD bundle)
Limited edition DIGI:
1. Magnetic Shunk
2. The Apple And The Tree
3. Exit 97
4. Never Theirs To Sell
5. Can’t Walk Out
6. Too Much Is Not Enough
7. From A Hole In The Wall
8. Cause & Defect
9. Hard-Headed
10. Far Too Close
11. Stay For A Song
12. The Hatch (bonus track)
VINYL:
Side A:
1. Magnetic Shunk
2. The Apple And The Tree
3. Exit 97
4. Never Theirs To Sell
5. Can’t Walk Out
6. Too Much Is Not Enough
Side B:
1. From A Hole In The Wall
2. Cause & Defect
3. Hard-Headed
4. Far Too Close
5. Stay For A Song
CD / DIGITAL / STREAMING:
1. Magnetic Shunk
2. The Apple And The Tree
3. Exit 97
4. Never Theirs To Sell
5. Can’t Walk Out
6. Too Much Is Not Enough
7. From A Hole In The Wall
8. Cause & Defect
9. Hard-Headed
10. Far Too Close
11. Stay For A Song
Although they’ve not released a record for seven years, Harrisonburg, Virginia’s Valkyrie haven’t been idle. Guitarist Pete Adams joined Baroness, while fellow Adams brother Jake began a career in teaching. And despite promises to the contrary when Ghost Cult talked to them a couple of years ago, the band have signed to Relapse Records to release their third album, Shadows.
With Sanford Parker (Pelican, Leviathan, YOB) on production duties and backed up by Alan Fary on Bass and Warren Hawkins on drums [the Adams share vocal duties], Shadows is a musical step up. With the exception of rollicking opener ‘Mountain Stomp’ the band have matured their sound and mostly ditched their simple but satisfying approach to song writing. Gone are the Iron Maiden-esque gallops, and in in their place is a complex melody of 80s doom [think St. Vitus/Trouble], classic NWOBHM sensibilities and progressive structures.
There’s still plenty of Thin Lizzy-styled twin leads – fans of Baroness will be find plenty of familiar fret wizardry to enjoy – and plenty of thunderous riffs filling every moment, but the songs are more complex and ambitious. The likes of ‘Temple’ and ‘Wintery Plains’ combine the slow and controlled build up with some stellar intricate musicianship and plenty of melody, and not the kinds of songs you could imagine the band being capable of on their self-titled debut (Twin Earth Records) or the excellent Man of Two Visions (Noble Origin).
It’s the musical muscle that makes Shadows so enjoyable, and the Adams’ guitar work takes centre stage throughout of the entire record. Only one track is less than six minutes long, but they all they devote more time to the altar of the solo than anything else. ‘Shadow of Reality’, ‘Golden Age’ and ‘Echoes (Of The Ways We Lived)’ all combine the meatiness of The Sword circa Age of Winters (Kemado/Toy’s Factory) with the 70s fuzz of classic Witchcraft or Graveyard.
Shadows is seven tracks of guitar acrobatics with real depth. Long-time fans might take a few listens to really acclimatise as the songs aren’t quite as instantaneous as previous albums. But they’ve pushed themselves and created something that is undoubtedly influenced by classic metal but not afraid to show off quite how good they are at that guitar thing. All killer, no filler.
9.0/10
DAN SWINHOE
