Morguiliath: Occult Sins, New Unholy DimensionOut 26th November on Osmose Productions Old gods under new lights, this is apparently the order of the day for this French black metal outfit. Morguiliath is the solo project of one...Rats. Their new album ‘Occult Sins, New Unholy Dimension ‘ sees Rats offer up a template of raw but … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Morguiliath, Prospectors, Dauþuz

Goatcraft: Sic Transit Gloria MundiOut 26th November on I,Voidhanger Records Within the milieu of metal instrumentation, the keyboard is often viewed as a means to an end, an affordable substitute for a rich array of instrumentation. For the vast majority of musicians, access to a real orchestra is well beyond budgetary means, and even for … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Goatcraft, Autokrator, Demonic Temple

How fitting that Eastern Europe proved to be one of the few holdouts for quality black metal just as the more world-renowned scenes began to decline at the turn of the century. In the last twenty plus years artists from Poland, Ukraine, Romania, and of course Russia were all releasing work that challenged the maturity … Continue reading Tales of stone and bark: Evilfeast and Ygg

Ezra Brooks/Serpent Rider: Visions of Esoteric Splendor (Split)Out 22nd October on No Remorse Records This split EP provides a welcome holdout for proudly traditional heavy metal, offering many rewards and lessons for the discerning listener. Ezra Brooks is a Canadian solo act, brainchild of one Shawn Vincent, which here deliveries plenty of infectious heavy metal, … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Ezra Brooks/Serpent Rider, Evil Damn, Pressor

The best of death metal is notoriously fleeting, with today’s canon still chiefly consisting of releases from a brief moment in time when the stars aligned in the early 1990s. Of the two artists discussed today, there has been much speculation as to their possible artistic direction had they endured. Would they have unseated their … Continue reading Candles in the wind: Eulogy and Molested

Conjureth: Majestic DissolveOut 25th October on Memento Mori Following two impressive but tantalisingly short EPs in ‘Foul Formations’ and ‘The Levitation Manifest’, both released in 2020, San Diego’s Conjureth emerge from the chrysalis fully formed on their debut album ‘Majestic Dissolve’. Both EPs offered new interpretations of old forms by marrying the percussive chromaticism of … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Conjureth, Sorgelig, Exsul

If the term “gatekeeping” once served a purpose it has certainly been all but lost in the aether by now. Where once it was a disparagement thrown at self-appointed policers of culture, today its common usage has become a canary in the coalmine for our decaying relationship with art. A term that has mutated culture … Continue reading On gatekeeping

Goatcraft continues to stubbornly defy a neatly marketable genre tag on these brand new tracks taken from their upcoming album 'Sic Transit Gloria Mundi'. This artist has been honing a sound between dark ambient and classical piano music for over a decade now. In placing the piano front and centre there is no finer demonstration … Continue reading Goatcraft ‘Sic Transit Gloria Mundi’ track premiere

Journey into Darkness: Infinite Universe Infinite DeathOut 10th September on Spirit Coffin Publishing Journey into Darkness’s third LP ‘Infinite Universe Infinite Death’ jettisons some of the baggage of symphonic metal's contested past, cutting the fat from a bloated style with class and poise. This homage to the vastness of space eschews the barren soundscapes of … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Journey into Darkness, Devour Every Star, Cosmic Burial

Vortex of End: Abhorrent FervorOut 24th Sept on Osmose Productions Progressive blackened death metal is a genre that promises much but delivers little. More often than not it manages to take the worst elements of all three antecedents and concoct them into conceptually overbaked nonsense music. The directionless and frustrating riffs for riffs sake of … Continue reading I like the beats and I like the yelling: Vortex of End, Morbid Messiah, Ctenizidae