Black Beast: Endless Night on a Dead EarthOut 6th June on Trauma Records Applies a blackened sheen to the reckless energy of Massacra via fluid energy transferences and focused melodic intent. Atonal barrages abound, as does an onslaught of staccato punches as per the proto death metal template. But beneath the amoral violence are connecting... Continue Reading →

For this episode, we wind back the clock 25 years to 1998, a nadir for extreme metal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gibKDITmm24

The lads chat black metal 1993 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmTT44jWHDg

The lads chat death metal 1992. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA9V8c6JaEk

For a community obsessed with memory, metal has never been closer to collective amnesia. Much like England after the fall of Rome, we live in proximity to a sophisticated past we seem unable to fully grasp. The purpose of the historical evidence all around us, what it means and how it was constructed, lost to... Continue Reading →

The lads roast my albums of the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqAVcv6RVX0&list=PLZbgsAZ7MUZXNsl7GTs04M12xKJpZdo2y&index=1

As usual, the value of annually taking metal’s temperature has been quickly lost beneath sycophantic hyperbole spewed on whatever content Enslaved deigned to dribble on their fanbase this year. To be frank, seeds of underground renewal were sown back in 2020, but subsequent years have proved disappointing, 2022 being a particularly dry spell. There are... Continue Reading →

Le Morte: Midnight in the Garden of TragedyOut 31st October on Darkness Shall Rise Productions/Feudal Soil Records Clumsy absurdity. The miserable dirge of Le Morte is certainly a drab curveball. ‘Midnight in the Garden of Tragedy’  takes the corpse of Autopsy and smothers it in black lipstick and nail polish. Melodic content, obscene in its... Continue Reading →

Cruciamentum: Obsidian RefractionsOut 24th November on Profound Lore Records Fortune favours the patient. Next to many of their peers suffering from what can only be described as release incontinence, Cruciamentum’s slow eight year rise from the ashes following the collapse of the lineup behind ‘Charnel Passages’ has paid dividends. Stylistically one of death metal’s few... Continue Reading →

The lads chat metal adjacent music. Thanks to everyone who submitted albums, some really great suggestions, sorry we couldn't cover them all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tfj1yd6Mxzg&t=482s