I’m still having problems with this word ‘folk’ in a metal context. It prima facie means popular music, usually written by an unknown author, transmitted through word of mouth; it forms part of regional identities and traditions. In this strict definition it’s usually simple, catchy, something everyone can play and sing. Much folk is played... Continue Reading →

In pop culture theory, established wisdom has it that nostalgia runs in thirty year cycles. In the 1980s there was a wealth of film and music that referenced the 1950s. The carefree 1990s was a perfect echo of the 60s. The 2000s saw the return of drug fuelled classic rock, flairs, and nihilistic hippies. Although... Continue Reading →

Life is scary. Buy local. Another ten of the best from her majesty’s racket. OND Re-orientate your brain; it’s subversive metal from Leeds. Musically, OND bring me right back to the heyday of sci-fi metal in the late 1980s; Voivod, Watchtower, Coroner. They manage to combine the high-fidelity musicianship expected of progressive thrash, with punk... Continue Reading →

Condemner - Burning the Decadent (August 2018) This is hard hitting old school death metal that leans heavily on traditional speed metal for its cues, think early Slayer put through the blender of Sarcofago and Incantation. Although aesthetically this is death metal, Condemner’s riffcraft is actually heavily informed by primitive black metal such as Profanatica.... Continue Reading →

Death/doom is a tricky one to pin down. Is it just death metal played slow? Or is it a different subgenre entirely? There’s probably too many variations to define it with any certainty. Doom metal proper aside, the tag is often something that happens to other genres, creating doomy versions of themselves. This spans death... Continue Reading →

Back in that mid 1990s sweet spot – after the international explosion of black metal, but before liberal arts students had clocked its uniqueness – there is a wealth of solid albums for the traveller to discover. This is black metal that stayed true to the form first and foremost, but expanded on it in... Continue Reading →

Death metal, unlike its troubled cousin black metal, invariably benefits from sinking more tech into the recording process. This especially applies to the technical/progressive end of the spectrum. Those pesky drums are hard enough to capture at the best of times, let alone when they’re working their way through four different time signatures at once.... Continue Reading →

To compare both these artists to Type O Negative would be unfair. But that’s exactly what I’m going to do all the same. Pist.On often get named in the same sentence as Type O simply because they came from the same area, at the same time, and they went for a similar kind of gothed... Continue Reading →