With a lengthy and excitable queue having already formed well before the 7 pm opening time, you can already tell heading to Birmingham on a typically drizzly September evening is going to be well worth the effort. After disappearing for a few words with Rivers of Nihil drummer Jared Klein, I arrive back into the previously empty venue to find it heaving with activity. The bar area is already packed, beer flows freely and merchandise is being handed over at an impressive rate.Continue reading
It’s the hottest day of the year. Stepping outside feels like walking into a furnace, and the pollen count is so high that even the bees are saying “yeah, that’s enough, thanks”. All because apparently, the sun has arbitrarily decided that in the space of twelve hours, everyone in the UK has to die by melting.Continue reading
When you think of thriving underground metal scenes, Italy may not be the first place that springs to mind; but it is one that is criminally overlooked and that in recent years has become a hotspot for creativity bubbling under the surface. One of the most important players in this scene is the ever-reliably great Avantgarde Music, who have championed and showcased plenty of great Italian acts (as well as from other locales) such as Selvans, Progenie Terrestre Pura and the subject of this review Enisum. Continue reading
All the way back in 2010, former members of Wolvhammer, The Gates Of Slumber, and Amiensus formed Chrome Waves, but a focus on other projects meant that the band sat firmly on the backburner for many years with just one EP and a few singles to their name. Nearly ten years later, after founding member and guitarist Jeff Wilson left Wolvhammer and Abigail Williams, Chrome Waves has been given new life and the mid-Western post-Black metal trio present us with A Grief Observed (Disorder)Continue reading
The most interesting bands are not the ones that come out of the box ready made to ingest. The best shift like a sea at storm, creating and destroying, adding and taking back what it wants. Downfall of Gaia too has continued to adapt and improve, pushing themselves and everything else outward with every release. After a few years absence, the band has returned again with their new album, once again aiming high as they can. Continue reading
It is without a second’s hesitation that Norwegian second-wave Black Metal deities Mayhem are regarded as one of the pinnacles of the style: as one of the seminal acts. Their full length debut De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (Deathlike Silence) is rightly acclaimed as one of the very best – if not the actual best, which is my personal opinion depending on whether I’ve listened to that or In The Nightside Eclipse (Candlelight) most recently – Black Metal albums, while earlier releases Deathcrush (Posercorpse) and Live In Leipzig (Obscure Plasma) have also attained legendary status for their wild, raw nihilistic fury.Continue reading
It’s easy to love Sigh. It’s also easy to find them really annoying. Starting off as a Japanese branch of Black Metal’s second wave, Sigh has since mutated in all sorts of bizarre and interesting ways, integrating everything from classical influences to jazz breakdowns to having a nude, blood-smeared woman shrieking out vocals over Venom covers. As one does. At best, it made them a glorious thing to hear. At worst, it just sounded like a formless din.Continue reading
I’m looking at Spirit Crusher (Prosthetic) the latest release from Sweden’s Dödsrit and I’m getting a feeling. Not super familiar with the band but judging by the font and the presence of umlauts we know extreme music is on the way, particularly of the Black Metal persuasion. And these song lengths certainly suggest experimentation and a non-commercial nature. Dödsrit is a one-man project isn’t it?
Those one man acts always have the most to say.Continue reading
While no person is an island, entire of themselves, the principle should not be applied to Deafheaven. For while there are glorious, rich, organic threads that tie and bind each of their albums to the others, and each collection is clearly derived from the same creative womb, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (ANTI-), the San Franciscan quintets’ fourth album, continues the premise that each occurrence is a happening in and of its own right, and that responses to one do not necessitate a similar response to another.Continue reading
Whether we like to dwell on it too much or not, hype is always going to be a sticking point with any band, and when you consider the enormous cult following a band like Wolves In The Throne Room have amassed over the years, the weight of expectation may have been almost too much to bear. Thankfully, Washington’s favourite black metal visionaries have never been lacking in ambition, and Thrice Woven (Artemisia) proves this as one of their most dense and captivating works yet.Continue reading