Deathlike Dawn: Among the Graves of the ArchetypesOut 27th February on Putrid Cult Bucks the trend for riff based black metal by treating jagged dissonance as a starting point and not an end in itself. Disorientating chromatic runs, articulated through staccato chord punches and flourishes of dissonance are resolved into fluidity and consonance, defined by... Continue Reading →

Metal is notorious for the sheer volume of subgenres that seem to spring up every year. In this episode, we analyse how many of them are real, or whether they are simply different descriptors for the same phenomenon. https://youtu.be/UPC3rtQJm1I?si=mL3YMoBShkPBZTFQ

The debates on AI and streaming have very familiar contours for anyone that remembers file sharing. Tech drives a change in consumer behaviour and mechanisms of distribution. Governments are slow to legislate (if at all). Debates rage about the nature of theft, artistic ownership, freedom of access, and fan/artist relationships. The jury's out on whether... Continue Reading →

Ultimatum: Among Potential StatesRe-issue out 7th January on Loud Rage Music (originally released in 1996) The mid-1990s were a strange time for death metal. Depending on where you look, the genre was either undergoing a flowering renaissance, the codification of a rigid orthodoxy, or a deeply embarrassing capitulation to various styles emerging at the time,... Continue Reading →

The lads chat non-extreme metal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg56if5_CPQ

Pestilength: Solar ClorexOut 16th February on Debemur Morti Productions Enigmatic death/doom/black metallers Pestilength return for an album wide in scope yet compact in execution. The latter feature certainly deserves accolades, not least because they temper their ever expanding horizons with an awareness and dedication to their own identity. Their strength lies in transferring the older... Continue Reading →

Jason goes rogue! In this episode he conducts an impromptu survey of classical music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVjyuHlpb08

Dark Space -IIOut 16th February on Season of Mist Tobias Möckl's career is essential for understanding the mechanism by which black metal was recast as an aesthetic pursuit. A paragon of third wave black metal, through his flagship projects Paysage d’Hiver and Darkspace he has cranked out a body of work notable for lifting the... Continue Reading →

After a long silence, underground label La Caverna Records returns with a triple hit of demos from the early Colombian extreme metal scene. Liturgia: Sanctum Regnum/In PerpetuumOut 7th February on La Caverna Records (originally released between 1992 & 1994) Columbian death/doom emerges from the meeting point of barbaric purpose and funereal despondency. Basic atonal riff... Continue Reading →

Article by Jason, aka Lonegoat from the Necroclassical project Goatcraft and the host of the Necropolis podcast Disregard any claims you've heard; “industrial metal” is a lie. In fact, one should find their schadenfreude in those who support this meaningless subgenre because industrial music is completely incompatible with metal. The ontologies of the two genres are so severely... Continue Reading →