Germany is something of an enigma in metal circles. An argument could be made for its being the capital of the metal world. Yet despite its status as a cultural hub for the metal community, outside of thrash/speed metal it has never led the world in a particular style or unique regional flavour in the... Continue Reading →

False Gods: No Symmetry…Only Delusion (2020) Dunno about false gods, but I’ll give you a false dilemma. One that crops in the stoner/sludge arena all the time. Bands think they either have to strip away all guitar and vocal melody in favour of…nothing tonally or rhythmically, to compensate; or they think they have to go the... Continue Reading →

It’s easy to play up the rivalries of by gone years as if they still hold significance. Norwegian bands hated Swedish death metal. Profanatica in the US hated Norwegian black metal. Impaled Nazarene in Finland hated Norwegian black metal. Norwegians hated Norwegian black metal. It’s all terribly groundskeeper Willie. Was it a coincidence that many of these haters’ best work... Continue Reading →

Leviathan: Formorkelse (2020) Black metal’s a funny thing at times. Like...it’s literally a funny thing. It makes people laugh. But if you take the humorous theatrics seriously, they can work in your favour. If you take humour with a sense of humour on the other hand, you may end up with farse. If you ignore... Continue Reading →

It’s an oft made distinction, but that doesn’t make it any clearer. The difference between underground metal, and extreme metal. I’m forever using the tag ‘extreme metal’ for the sake of convenience. But the term is open to abuse. From Sam Dunn documentaries and flashy marketing videos for latest Enslaved album at one end, to... Continue Reading →

Nubivagant: Roaring Eye (2020) From the polymath known as Omega (Acherontas, Blut Aus Nord…every other band in Europe) comes a new project by the name of Nubivagant. Apparently not one to stand on ceremony, debut LP ‘Roaring Eye’ has dropped suddenly into out lives and demands we have a butchers. Musically, we’re on very familiar... Continue Reading →

Given how much time we spend agonizing over the recorded output of metal artists, it might be worth asking: what exactly is an album? Cards on the table, this essay won’t answer that question. This chestnut dredges up some pretty weighty philosophical concepts around the ontology of music, as distinct from paintings, sculpture, film, theatre, and... Continue Reading →

The USA is a big place when you think about it. There's a lot of people there, a not insignificant chunk of which are making metal music. So it’s almost trivial to point out that some of the best and worst in 21st century black metal has travelled to us from across the pond. It’s certainly true... Continue Reading →

Conjureth: The Levitation Manifest (2020) San Diego’s Conjureth return with their second demo of 2020: ‘The Levitation Manifest’. As things stand these guys are two for two in terms of compact, crisp death metal, stylistically sitting pretty much bang in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. It operates somewhere between the chromatic chaos of Deicide’s... Continue Reading →

Take a mainstream summary of black metal, one attempting to introduce unaccustomed ears to the genre. Chances are it will focus on the obvious, namely its extremity (sonically, aesthetically, philosophically etc.). They might then look at some tokenistic contemporary spokespeople; usually artists that haven't had anything to do with black metal in decades, Enslaved, Ihsahn, and the pop band Ulver. This... Continue Reading →