The other day I came across this musician’s take on what the purpose of music criticism is. The basic premise being that music criticism is an entirely distinct craft from the creation of music itself. Despite the requirement for intimate knowledge of what they are critiquing, talent for punchy writing, and regular engagement in their... Continue Reading →

It’s not hard to see why Greek extreme metal is currently undergoing a renaissance. Whether it be latter day Varathron or Medieval Demon, Katavasia, Caedes Cruenta, Synteleia, the rich melodicism and unabashed melodrama of this style has spread well beyond the borders of Greece itself, growing into a significant pillar of modern metal. The cross... Continue Reading →

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 →