Looking back on the pocket of explicit futurism couched in the landscape of early 1990s extreme metal always brings on a sense of melancholy. One not so much born of the oppressive textural offering of the music itself, but by the fact that a sincere and eminently promising attempt to expand metal’s timbral, percussive, and... Continue Reading →

InvgarrThe Hopeless Resistance of Emberdrin’s Army As if endeavouring to elevate the aesthetic standing of archetypically traditional dungeon synth, Italy’s Ingvarr attempt to bring greater depth and nuance to what is otherwise thematically well trodden ground for the genre. Dungeon synth prides itself on – and presents as absurd because of – it’s allowance for... Continue Reading →

Acausal Intrusion: Seeping EvocationOut 30th September on I, Voidhanger Records Acausal Intrusion throw a plethora of disorientation at the listener on this album, as if willing us to loosen our grip on the threads running through each piece only to eventually let go entirely. ‘Seeping Evocation’ is best viewed from a non-linear angle. Rather fittingly... Continue Reading →

Imprecation: In Nomine DiaboliOut 14th October on Dark Descent Records Listening to Imprecation is akin to having your ears syringed of wax after years of poor hearing. Surveying the contemporary death metal landscape offers scant gems. There are apparently many releases boasting worthy talking points. Or so it would seem until one listens to an... Continue Reading →

CNTMPT: Von Unreiner Willk​ü​rOut 3rd October on Into Endless Chaos Records ‘Von Unreiner Willk​ü​r’, the latest album from this German outfit, is ontologically a blackened grind album, but spiritually it has more in common with intensely melodic black metal in the style of early Gorgoroth or even Antaeus with a more insistent need to articulate... Continue Reading →

Thulsa Doom: A Fate Worse than DeathOut 30th September on Invictus Productions Italian newcomers Thulsa Doom stick their oar in on the contested picture of contemporary death metal for their debut album. Bolting a pre-1990 blackened thrash framework onto more complex and elongated riff philosophies of fully formed death metal, Thulsa Doom present a picture... Continue Reading →

Mistigo Varggoth DarkestraInsatiable Moon It’s amazing how far a light sprinkling of percussion will go. A distant, shuffling drum loop allows Mistigo Varggoth Darkestra to transform a set of directionless semi-improvised synth meanderings into a piece of minimalist ambient with real menace to introduce this old school DS album. That maybe slightly disingenuous. The loose,... Continue Reading →

Hail Conjurer: Earth PenetrationOut 23rd September on Signal Rex/Bestial Burst The latest album from Hail Conjurer offers an interestingly brief blend of entropic, repetitive black metal, loosely strung together via Black Sabbathian rhythms seemingly designed for informal and unstructured jams normally considered out of place in a setting such as this. Tonally the music is... Continue Reading →

Tales of the Mad MoonHospital Productions Lengthy compilation of older compositions offers an interesting degree of coherence in spite of the foregrounding of structurally disconnected sound tapestry. There is a clear Lustmordian influence at play here, as deep, swelling, tectonically slow waves of noise form the backdrop for the majority of these pieces, trading on... Continue Reading →

Hadopelagyal: Nereidean Seismic EndOut 19th September on Amor Fati / Ván The debut album from these German blackened noise metallers sees earthy textures re-morphed into an abrasive riff setting where conflict abounds. Basic ascending patterns are thwarted by an irresistible drive down to the subterranean via the philosophy of grind. Despite the clear death drive... Continue Reading →