Don’t ever go to an Emo Punk show with a broken heart. This is not based on any empirical evidence, just advice from my own experience with this show. Maybe I went to my first long-term romantic post-break-up show 15 years ago, but it was Slapshot and Sam Black Church, so different vibes that night. But take my word for it, it’ll wreck you if you do. Continue reading
Ronnie James Dio. David Bowie. Dimebag Darrell. Lemmy. Jeff Hanneman. John Lennon. Kurt Cobain. Layne Staley. Trevor Strnad.
Countless others.
We all know where we were when we first heard they had died.
Nuclear Blast Records have had a storming year, and they continue their hot streak with the release of Hell Is Where The Heart Is by Oceans. The four piece whose members hail from Berlin and Vienna released their debut EP Into The Void in 2019 followed by Cover Me In Darkness, a second EP in the same year featuring their interpretations of tracks from the likes of Alice In Chains, Deftones and Radiohead, before dropping their debut LP The Sun And The Cold in 2020.
Long established as one of the greatest live acts on Earth, Amenra has also always had great, purposeful albums with heady concepts. Following their Mass titled albums I through VI, released over fourteen years, the band has rebirthed itself into a new final form. De Doorn begins their association with the mighty Relapse Records, continuously the arbiter of good taste for extreme music. From epic post-Metal, pastoral Folk motifs, moody post-Rock moments, to wicked eruptions of pain and grief stricken movements; Amenra’s music simultaneously feeds the brain and soul.
There are many ways unironically describe the last year or so of human life in a manner we can all appreciate. A lot of us use sarcasm and deflection as a means to cope, and it shows. We may become numb to our own reality based on a lot of loss and sadness, and the mass psychotic break the world seems to have suffered. If you are here reading these words, hopefully,you are looking for an escape from the mundane in some good music. Music is here for you, both as a hug to say “it’s gonna be OK,” but also to commiserate with someone who has been there through the muck, just like you. Danny Kiranos, a.k.a. Amigo The Devil has found a foothold in our musical diet, a needed figure to tell the unpleasant truths about that muck and mire we need to learn from, or just relate to. He asks us to look with him and at ourselves too. He does this to a bold effect on his new album, Born Against (Liar’s Club Records, Regime Music Group).
Anna Von Hausswolff is a singer-songwriter who has always embraced a progressive attitude to creativity. Never unafraid to straddle genres as diverse as metal, Krautrock, and dark pop, and always remaining elusively undefinable, she has made waves over the past decade with her four previous albums and numerous illustrious collaborations. As well as following her own unique musical path, Von Hausswolff (to name just a few of her achievements and endeavours): runs a record label, has guested with Wolves in the Throne Room and Swans, has supported Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and has hosted visual art exhibitions.Continue reading
Ghost Cult has teamed up with Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Doom and gloom dealers Deathwhite for the world premiere of their official music video ‘Funeral Ground’! The bleak and emotive track plays over the stylized clip of the band performing intercut with ominous moments that juxtapose the nature of life and death. The track comes from their forthcoming album Grave Image, due for release on January 31st via Season of Mist. Although the band prefers to be shrouded in anonymity (for now), heads who crave the bleakest of the bleak moods of Woods of Ypres, recent Paradise Lost albums, Katatonia, Type O Negative will love this video and this group. Check out the video and pre-order Grave Image now! Continue reading
One of the most anticipated albums of 2019, Silvertomb is made up of some pretty famous alumni of pretty legendary bands. Flying behind the sails of creativity from the talents of Kenny Hickey and Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative fame, the pair have played together since their were teens, and in other bands as well. But this time with help from some other stellar musicians, they have really coalesced sound of their influences, mainly classic Doom, Prog Rock, and Stoner Rock, into a signature style, to create the music that makes up their full-length debut album, Edge of Existence (Longbranch/SPV).Continue reading
Ghost Cult had the pleasure of chatting with vocalist/guitarist Erik Olson of Lord Dying recently for the podcast. He chatted about the bands’ new album, Mysterium Tremendum, releasing via their new record label eOne on April 26th. Erik talked about the loss of a loved one that drove the content of the album, new members in the bands, concept albums, and getting in touch with their psychedelic and progressive side. You can pre-order the album in all formats here, and check out our chat! Continue reading
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For those of a certain age, the news that twenty-five years have passed since the death of Kurt Donald Cobain will scarcely be believable. But it is 25 years and yes, you do now feel old. You probably still feel sad and melancholy. Time has a terrible way of playing tricks with your memory but the passing of Nirvana’s frontman still resonates as if it were yesterday. The past remains, undoubtedly, a foreign country but I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. I was in laundrette in Bristol, England doing a weekend load of washing (this is what students did then). I was listening to the BBC on my five-year-old Sony radio walkman- remember those?- when the terrible, heart-stopping news came through on that grey, terrible slate grey April day.