Oerheks: LandschapsanachronismenOut 22nd February on Amor Fati Productions Obscure, peripheral, melancholy, yet oddly wistful, there’s no denying the rich emotional brew Belgium’s Oerheks whip up on their latest demo ‘Landschapsanachronismen’. A pleasingly symmetrical release consisting of two epic pieces of obscure black metal pulling at similar heartstrings as those attempted by much of the post... Continue Reading →

The lads chat Celtic Frost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atS759nYEgs

Summing up why we like the music we do is a unique challenge. We spend so much time at the coalface of specificity that stepping back and admiring the totality of our taste is akin to leaving Plato’s cave. We lack the language or even the psychology to fully perceive our surroundings, let alone articulate... Continue Reading →

https://youtu.be/PIIjh7HB_tM Why did England never witness an enduring black metal scene? Does this fit within a wider historical narrative of England as Europe's black sheep?

KoboldThe village in the frozen mountains The description for this release ends with the sentence “short dungeon-pop compositions in 16-bit style and magic melodies that will transport you straight when you was young and carefree” (typo retained for clarity). Never has a blurb for an album been more nakedly honest. Kobold resides in that corner... Continue Reading →

Sarpa: Mauta TalaOut 17th February, self-released The number of modern artists that take to the smorgasbord of history to serve as their creative muse is telling. Concocting uncanny blends harvested from different eras and regions piecemeal . Even more telling is how explicitly many of them are in admitting that this is precisely what they... Continue Reading →

The lads chat Immolation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKCb140_Ccs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw7cPOzg-sY&t=17s Twenty years on from the release of Arch Enemy's fourth album 'Anthems of Rebellion', we discuss one of the most heavy handed pieces of content curation in extreme metal history.

Sodality: Benediction, Part I Out 20th January on Norma Evangelium Diaboli From Polish black metal pedigree Cult des Ghoules comes an aching rumination on laboured riff incrementalism, populated with an almost abrasively single minded fixation on operatically occultist theatre. ‘Benediction, Part I’ is the second album from Sodality, which sees rich yet raw black metal... Continue Reading →

I’ll just come out and say, Emperor, Darkthrone, and Burzum were the three most significant artists to emerge from second wave black metal. The lineage of every artist within the genre – outside of Southern Europe – can ultimately be traced back to their work up to about 1994. Anything remotely symphonic owes a debt... Continue Reading →