Sweven: The Eternal Resonance (2020) The long awaited follow up to Morbus Chron’s revered 2015 offering of the same name, Robert Andersson returns with new project Sweven, and a new album: ‘The Eternal Resonance’. Much like the album itself, my feelings on this are a flaccid cocktail of meandering, unfocused, directionless non-events. In one sense... Continue Reading →

It’s been a tough decade for black metal. False profits have lurked round every corner. Reasonable metrics of quality have been dismissed as the elitist ramblings of arbitrary cultural gatekeepers, or worse, just plain backward looking. This has allowed shallow novelty or avant-garde free-for-alls to define not only what counts as new and innovative, but... Continue Reading →

Sorgelig: We, the Oblivious (2019) Greece’s Sorgelig dropped their second LP last year: ‘We, the Oblivious’. Rather than following in the wake of their country’s forbears they have looked north for their inspiration, and offered up what is essentially a more complex ‘Transylvanian Hunger’. Now, before you point out how you may have read that... Continue Reading →

I think I've mentioned this point before, so I don't want to over-egg it: technical death metal - a genre with much potential - was hijacked towards the late 1990s, and boy did it take a while to recover. Suffocation were a fantastically influential band, and rightly so, but with the rise of Nile and... Continue Reading →

Society is one sheet of bog roll away from total revolution, and the rest of us are cooped up inside, so it seems we are left with plenty of time to catch up on our listening. If things continue, there may be many more releases to come from the stranded musicians of the underground for... Continue Reading →

A cynical reading of the 21st century stoner boom would turn away from any intrinsic appeal the genre holds and look externally to explain the cause. One would be its links to classic rock, attracting listeners well beyond the metal community. Another would be the fact that compared to other subgenres, the basic components are... Continue Reading →

Burzum: Thulean Mysteries (2020) So with very little pomp and even less ceremony Burzum have landed another album in the year of our demise 2020. Compositionally, this is the least unified and longform we have seen this artist. ‘Thulean Mysteries’ is really a compilation of the dust that has been gathering on the Burzum name... Continue Reading →

Two canonised releases from death metal now. Despite the fact that neither of these artists never managed another full length release (can we just pretend that’s true with Massacre?....let’s pretend), I believe we should resist the temptation to call them one hit wonders. The reason being that the respective line-ups behind them were so knitted... Continue Reading →

Well....IT HAPPENED AGAAAAAAAIN!!!! Glaswegian venue The Classic Grand has taken the decision to cancel 'Darkness Guides Us' Festival over controversy surrounding some of the acts booked, and their links to far right ideology. In what I'm sure will be a measured and reasonable response from the internet, let's burn up a hot fire in our... Continue Reading →

Maiestas: Purgatorium (2019) Texan black metallers Maiestas released their first LP in 2019: ‘Purgatorium’. It’s black metal that is – for the most part – informed by old school heavy metal and thrash. Although at times it comes across as a rather schizophrenic release. On the one hand it's a primitive, dirty slab of classic... Continue Reading →