It’s the early 2000s, and the mainstream face of metal has gone through one of the weirdest decades of its existence. The birth of groove metal, the rise of alt rock, the decline of apocalyptic self-assurance that characterised the 1980s; all took their toll on metal of all forms to varying degrees throughout the 90s.... Continue Reading →

Dawn of a Dark Age: La Tavola Osca (2020) ‘La Tavola Osca’ is the *checks notes* sixth studio album since 2014 from the Italian black metal solo project known Dawn of a Dark Age. Previous releases were a tribute to the six elements, each album consisting of six songs, and the first four albums being... Continue Reading →

More notes from the b-tier, this time from two artists that – aside from some early flukes that would endure the test of time – were entirely unremarkable when compared to the crop of acts from the early to mid-1990s. But what is remarkable about these two artists in particular is the lasting popularity they went on... Continue Reading →

Black Funeral: Scourge of Lamashtu (2020) Black Funeral continue their quest to shed their idiosyncratic, atmospheric tendencies for the sake of furthering melodicism within raw black metal with the release of their latest album ‘Scourge of Lamashtu’. There is an undeniable surrealist quality at the heart of this album, which finds expression through the keyboards... Continue Reading →

Sadistic Drive: Anthropophagy (2020) After the ambitious demo ‘Street Cannibal Gluttony’, Finnish surrealist gore revellers Sadistic Drive have added a little water to the dense wiring of their morbid death metal, left the thing to air out some, and returned with a relatively spacious full length by the name of ‘Anthropophagy’. I say this is... Continue Reading →

This might seem an odd pairing at first glance, but it could be pretty instructive when looking at the cross pollination of punk and metal throughout the 1980s. The Misfits’ lurch into hardcore punk from their patented doo-wop emulation would prove to be a formative moment for many extreme metal artists to come. Equally, Cro-Mags... Continue Reading →

A while ago I found myself watching this interview, in which Proscriptor McGovern describes some of the lyrical themes on Absu's self-titled album released back 2009: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bukOwH07_h4 Proscriptor is clearly passionate about the material, and this shows in the music of Absu. But this interview serves to illustrate out point pretty well. In it, he... Continue Reading →

Shed the Skin: The Forbidden Arts (2020) Shed the Skin blend an interesting mix of influences on their latest LP ‘The Forbidden Arts’, combining the ominous plodding tempos of Demigod with straightforward thrash and Swedish influences, and even some melodic doom metal along the way. But rather than flouting the scope of their mastery of... Continue Reading →

How do you redeem a legacy like Cradle of Filth’s? Do you concede that their approach to black metal was misguided from the start? Taking it as an agreed fact that post ‘Midian’ CoF was not just awful but pretty scarring for extreme metal, with UKBM’s standing at the centre of this whirlwind, what lessons... Continue Reading →

Sombre Heritage: Alpha Ursae Minoris (2020) Sombre Heritage’s debut LP ‘Alpha Usae Minoris’ ain’t fucking around. It’s a refreshing punch of diverse, energetic black metal that packs a lot into its relatively short runtime. The mix is not unlike post ‘Blizzard Beasts’ Immortal; thick strong drums, a meaty guitar tone, plenty of echo on the... Continue Reading →