Having finally completed Midnight Tides, the fifth instalment in Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen, it feels like a good time to scrutinise the deranged culture surrounding this fantasy series. Erikson is most appropriately positioned as a competent writer of pop fiction. He can string together a well paced beach read. His stories take... Continue Reading →

Nous sommes d’HierOut 6th October on Debemur Morti Productions The more metal succumbs to anti-traditionalism, the more a rigid compositional discipline begins to look like an act of defiance. Many times metal has attempted to extract itself from the burden of melodic construction (I here mean melodic in the broadest possible sense, covering atonal and... Continue Reading →

BeowulfOut 8th September, self-released Whilst few would be thrilled at the idea of yet another metal prefix, the number and specificity of descriptors churning around the aether are useful insofar as they boast explanatory power, and I believe “barbaric metal” is one such. It should also be noted that barbaric metal as I’m proposing it... Continue Reading →

Tideless: Eye of WaterOut 15th September on Chaos Records For all my love of black metal, there's no denying the many negatives it brought to metal's evolution. One of which was creating an avenue for cross pollinating with shoegaze, a genre that exists in stark contrast to metal, being largely concerned with the manipulation of... Continue Reading →

Black Grail: Misticismo RegresivoOut 31st August on Virupi (originally released in 2015) Concocts an accord between the eccentric operatic croak metal of early Root with the aggressive surrealism of Sigh, midwifed by tastefully restrained dissonance, entropic riff shapes, and cacophonous violence. The album presents a unique murk distinctive of non-Nordic ritualistic black metal. This refocuses... Continue Reading →

Demoniac: Nube NegraOut 1st September on Edged Circle Productions Even the name “thrash” metal causes a problem. In its earliest phase, it was simply a stylistic divergence from heavy metal referred to as speed metal. Before commentators – not unreasonably – saw fit to delineate further this new trend (a Slayer from a Helloween for... Continue Reading →

Cvinger: Doctrines by the Figures of CrnobogOut 25th August on Nocturna Records Cvinger try to do a number of things almost immediately with this album. They want to maintain the liminal mysticism of classicist black metal via that oddly cloaked, veiled mix that makes the music feel once removed from our plain of reality. But... Continue Reading →

The lads chat Norwegian black metal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpPCZ1q4eEA

Ontological MysteriumOut 18th August on Season of Mist Philly content sifters descend with characteristically good timing for another trope dump of trending hashtags. A buffet of the hottest brands available on the metal market, duly homogenised and processed . With the release of ‘Ontological Mysterium’ – a title screaming pop philosophy non-speak – they at... Continue Reading →

Sleepwalker: SkopofoboexoskelettOut 4th August on Sentient Ruin Embourgeoisment continues apace. Another edict from the arthouse descends to mark extreme metal’s homework, finding its imagination wanting. Metalheads are once again told to get on board with a concoction of noise rock, jazz, and spiced up guitar leads lifted from blandist pseudo intellectual dad rockers in chief... Continue Reading →