The Wakedead Gathering: ParallaxiomOut 15th July on I, Voidhanger Records ‘Parallaxoim’ is a classic example of death metal repositioned as material for fleshing out a high concept narrative, something that tends to provoke more suspicion than delight if we're being completely honest. Metal has always been steeped in its thematic material, a biproduct of attempting... Continue Reading →

Midnight Odyssey: Echoes of a Celestial RuinOut 15th July on I, Voidhanger Records In one sense the career of Midnight Odyssey could be read as a noble attempt to salvage some semblance of meaning from the “post” black metal project. However innocent post black metal's origins may have been, it quickly became a destructive and... Continue Reading →

Detractors often dismiss Gorgoroth as an also-ran of Norwegian black metal. Serviceable but ultimately superfluous to the achievements of their contemporaries. This position is only entrenched – and justified – by the Gorgoroth entity as it became under the stewardship of Gaahl and King ov Hell at the turn of the century. A slew of... Continue Reading →

Pharmacist: Flourishing Extremities on Unspoiled Mental GroundsOut 1st July on Hells Headbangers As I if trying to remarry the rockist flirtations of Carcass circa ‘Necroticism’ through to ‘Heartwork’ with the brutalist sobriety of early goregrind, Japan’s Pharmacist strike a welcome balance of urgent proselytizing against playful groove driven riffing. Indeed, so strikingly reminiscent of Carcass... Continue Reading →

Even a genre as proud of its individualism as metal pivots on shared spaces, shared action, shared meaning, and shared purpose. Today we are encouraged to atomise our efforts, create individual digital platforms from which to craft our brand. Those meetings that do occur in the flesh are no longer a celebration of collective experience... Continue Reading →

Saor: OriginsOut 24th June on Season of Mist ‘Call of the Carnyx’ opens Saor’s latest album ‘Origins’, a track seemingly crafted as a whistle stop tour of the Saor’s aspirational Highland folk remit. A wash of sounds evocative of open plains, towering mountains, tranquil lakes, and dark forests greet the ear. All rendered through open,... Continue Reading →

This year’s Hellfest saw our nostalgia complex reach near fever pitch. In a symbolic act as perfect as it is chilling, the festival erected a towering statue of Lemmy, within which is enshrined a portion of his ashes. If once such blatant attempts by the past to annex the present were openly ridiculed – Dio’s... Continue Reading →

Serpent Ascending: Hyperborean FolkloreOut 17th June on I, Voidhanger Records Stalwart Finnish death metal evolutionist Jarno Nurmi revitalises his post Desecresy project Serpent Ascending for album number two. Where ‘Aṇaṅku’ was a twisting, multi-faceted but ultimately smothering work of nocturnal claustrophobia, ‘Hyperborean Folklore’ seeks to bring us into the light. From the very first riff... Continue Reading →

#49 - Sleepwalker Pt. II: Sleepwalker from A Transylvanian Funeral/Temple of Abraxas returns to talk about his next video game soundtrack, the one for Project Warlock II. We further discuss his music and ideology beyond mere formalities; to get to the gist of why he happens to be one of the best USBM artists. Shelley... Continue Reading →

One reading of Nocturnus’s ‘The Key’ would have us believe that it is nothing more than a signifier of death metal’s early inroads into progressive music, perhaps a little more noteworthy than other releases of the time for the foregrounded keyboards. An alternative reading paints it as a sloppy miasma of repackaged Slayer and Kreator... Continue Reading →