Armchair rhetoric on extreme metal
Words by Belisario of El Negro Metal Some months ago, as I received the visit of some family friends who were walking the Way of Saint James, I found myself in the situation of having to attend a mass at my adopted hometown's cathedral, something which, by quirks of fate, I had still never done... Continue Reading →
Megalit al PutrefacศieiOut 20th January on Memento Mori Not far into this competent but generic rendition of slow, primal, backward looking death metal, I was struck by a particular guitar lead that sounded awfully familiar. I immediately looked Putred up and found that they were from Romania. Another Romanian outfit (just) made my top picks... Continue Reading →
It's episode one! Shelley, Jospeh, and Tyler are joined by Belisario of El Negro metal for a good chinwag on Swedish death metal, keeping things casual to kick things off. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieKm3SM3dxQ&list=PLZbgsAZ7MUZUzcha6e2zS2dufEj2pEsct
At the Altar of the Horned God: ElementsOut 13th December on I, Voidhanger Records Having already signalled their love of various goth formulas through their manipulation of ritualistic melodrama and black metal furniture to create a kind of hybrid style that was appealing in concept even if it fell short in execution, itโs unsurprising to... Continue Reading →
What can the profressionalisation of death metal in the early 90s tell us about the concept of the undergound in an era of hyper visibility? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N93wT6dkY_Y
A Touch of EternityOut 16th December on Loud Rage Music (originally released in 1997) Given the reserved, no thrills demeanour of my native North of England, itโs always puzzled me that a variant of overtly emotive, randy, flamboyant death metal bubbled up here in the early 1990s. The drab poise of the Peaceville bands certainly... Continue Reading →
The riddle of steel So that was Christmas. The auditing fury of December gives way to new projects launched, ideals dusted off, promised resolutions, and a renewed drive to make life better, cleaner, more focused, efficient, slicker, or otherwise optimised. If youโre a hustler psychopath that is. For normal folk it just means a fucking... Continue Reading →
Words by Jason Kiss Preface It is evident that the new Mefitis release, The Skorian // The Greyleer, has faltered in terms of gaining underground traction. Despite the promotional machinery of Earsplit Compound and the substantial backing of Profound Lore Records, the Spotify listenership remains very meager, reviews are scarce, and I cannot help but apprehend... Continue Reading →
Casual, non-exhaustive roundup of the releases we've been enjoying this year. 2024 has been a pretty good year for metal by all accounts, and the diversity of releases we volunteered for this episode is testament to that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtuoFZLlWX0
I went into shortlisting for this year expecting to barely scrape together twenty releases worth of calling out. Instead Iโve actually struggled to keep the list south of forty. 2024 has been a rare year where both the overground and underground seem to be in agreement on the uptick in quality (for entirely different reasons... Continue Reading →
Hate Meditations 