If Europe is the laboratory of death metal, where readymade specimens are taken in for testing, improvement, or unfortunate mutation, then the U.S. is definitely the engine room. Sure, both have had their successes and failures over the years, their consistent but unremarkable work horses, and their outriders who buck the trends. But album for... Continue Reading →

Thecodontion: Supercontinent (out 26th June 2020 on Voidhanger Records CD and Repose Records LP) Do you ever raise your eyebrows when reading an interview with a band talking about their latest release? When they reveal that it’s going to be an incredibly complex and specific high-concept album that apparently involved a postgrad degree’s worth of... Continue Reading →

I was thinking this would be a piece about why metal is so poorly treated in mainstream music journalism. Why, after all these years, after all that we've been through, does it still only get the most superficial of readings in the mainstream press? Particularly when other subcultures receive nuanced and detailed treatments from bigger... Continue Reading →

Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. Looking back over the decades we can see metal’s development carried out in waves rather than a simple timeline of clear, deterministic steps. One thing that always correlates however, is when the money is followed over artistic intent, quality is reduced to fluke. We see it in metal’s inception in the... Continue Reading →

Sorgelig: Sorgelig (2020) Greece’s Sorgelig return with a self-titled EP; a final offering dropped into our laps for us to explore before going into hibernation to escape the old Rona-19. This sees them further elaborate on their densely packed but fluid approach to no nonsense black metal, in the tradition of early Gorgoroth amongst others.... Continue Reading →

Of all the old school revivalist trends of the last decade, the return to pre-1990 blackened thrash metal has to be one of the most successful. Not only in pulling black metal back from the brink of disappearing completely up its own arsehole, but also by reiterating the true roots of black metal it brings... Continue Reading →

Despite boasting some of metal’s most ground-breaking albums over the years, the UK has never really had a handle on black metal. Why is that? The lush green countryside has never inspired the same awe and reverence as the rest of Europe? More twee than grim? Soul crushing urban life has dominated the extreme end... Continue Reading →

Zealotry: At the Nexus of All Stillborn Worlds (2018) Zealotry’s third LP ‘At the Nexus of All Stillborn Worlds’ is a many tentacled beast of elastic progressive death metal mastery. It’s an album that reaches for the very top of the shelf when it comes to high concept, otherworldly death metal, heavily referencing the rhythmic... Continue Reading →

It’s a question that remains at the very heart of punk ever since its inception. For every single offshoot of punk over the years, the looming spectre of uncertain longevity has all but killed off the promise of evolution. The germinal of every punk movement is primitive, reactionary, but also hamstrung from the start by a... Continue Reading →

HOR: Exitium (2019) HOR is new black metal outfit from Greece, which – based on the increasing number of newer Greek bands making headways overseas – is quickly reasserting itself as a black metal hotspot. ‘Exitium’ is their debut LP released in 2019. A streamlined and direct battering of four songs that stretch to just... Continue Reading →